The Commercial Break - TCB is Verifiable!
Episode Date: March 13, 2025Episode#712: Bryan & Krissy discuss getting verified on Insta. How does it feel seeing your friend's kids turn the same age you were when you met? Plus, the dentist office is turning into a sales show...room and the gang isn't about it. Then, Tool fans are suing Tool in The Sand and a fussy couple is suing an airline for putting a dead passenger in the seat next to them. TCB Bit: It's time for College Corner on WSHIT! Professor Hungebuckle gives her advice to Springer Breakers on how to have a good time and stay safe! Watch episode #712 on Youtube Text us or leave us a voicemail: +1 (212) 433-3TCB FOLLOW US: Instagram: @thecommercialbreak Youtube: youtube.com/thecommercialbreak TikTok: @tcbpodcast Website: www.tcbpodcast.com CREDITS: Hosts: Bryan Green & Krissy Hoadley Executive Producer: Bryan Green Producer: Astrid B. Green Voice Over: Rachel McGrath "TCB Bits" are all written, performed and produced by Bryan Green To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
And welcome back to WSHIT, Crabapple's number one radio station, helping you get ahead from
the moment you get out of bed.
It's 6.09 on the Bronson Pontiac Oldsmobile Studio clock.
It's a beautiful Saturday morning and that means it's time for College Corner here on
WSHIT, focusing on the youth of today and the leaders of tomorrow.
But first, a check of traffic and weather.
It's a balmy 13 degrees with cloudy skies and a small chance of rain later on this afternoon.
Traffic is still light throughout Crabapple as the city remains in partial lockdown after
Patsy's Rubber Palace works to contain yet another fire inside of the factory.
The EPA, however, says it's working to get one of two remaining employees out to the
factory as soon as possible. Crabapple's community college spring break starts this week, so we here
at WSHIT's College Corner asked Crabapple community professor Amanda Hunchbuckle for some tips on
keeping this annual rite of passage safe and fun for everyone. She gave us this tip when we caught up with her at the
hard sword of the lord church where she leads bible study every sunday morning. Ask him if he
wants to finish in your mouth. Ask him. Okay? A lot of men do not get to be fully empowered and have
that full wonderful feeling being asked. It's a question they want. Okay they don't want to ask,
they want to be asked.
Do you want to finish in my mouth?
Very simple question, very straightforward, great way to set the tone.
Let him know up front.
You are not here to play games.
You want to get down to business.
You want to be a rock star.
Okay, you want to go the next level up is finish in my mouth, please.
Okay, finish in my mouth, please.
It's polite, direct to the point. And also sets the tone that you're going to be on top.
Okay?
Or you're topping from the bottom.
Whatever your vibe is, whatever it is.
I personally like topping from the bottom.
Okay?
I like being in power, but I also like being dominated.
So I like to do, please finish my mouth.
Please finish hair.
Or, where do you want to finish?
Okay? Basic questions, beautiful ones.
The professor went on to add that reapplying sunscreen
every four hours, drinking plenty of water
throughout the day and always traveling in groups
are important tips to keep in mind.
Age old wisdom, all of it.
I cannot disagree with anything she has said today.
So have fun out there you little crab aplians.
You only got one life to live unless you
believe in reincarnation.
We'll be right back after this commercial break.
On this episode of the commercial break.
At 52 years old, with a dad bod and a micro penis
running around talking about how much they hate women,
and they've got like 50,000 followers.
And we have like 7,000 followers.
I'm like, how is this possible?
How is this possible?
How is it that that content is better than this content?
But I'm starting to understand, I think, a little bit why.
Part of it is because we're just putting clips of our show out there, and that may not always be...
We're not all that funny, so maybe that's why.
We're not all that good at what we do. Yeah, in plain terms, we're not all that good at what we do.
The next episode of The Commercial Break starts now.
Yeah, boy.
Oh, yeah, cats and kittens.
Welcome back to The Commercial Break.
I'm Brian Green.
This is my dear friend and a co-host of this show, Chris and Joy Holdley.
Best of you, Chris.
Best of you, Brian.
And best of you out there in the podcast universe.
How the hell are you?
Thanks for joining us.
We appreciate it.
I'm getting to this weird age.
I mean, I've been at this weird age for as long as I can remember. Maybe I was just born weird
Maybe the age doesn't matter. You're born this way. I was born this way
I need my nivage nivage
Nivage that thing that takes snot out of your brain.
I'm getting to this weird age where...
Here, let me explain.
I just looked at a Facebook post of a girl that I met when I was a teenager, when I was
like 15 or 16 years old, and we had a dalliance, like a moment, right?
Like you do when you're 15 or 16.
Sure.
Nothing of it.
It wasn't the love of my life. But it's just something I remember.
But we've been on Facebook, for instance,
I've been on Facebook.
And she has a daughter that she had at a relatively young age,
I would say like late teens, early 20s.
And now that daughter is like in her early 20s.
You know what I'm saying?
So that daughter's in her early 20s
and looks exactly like her mother
did when she was a teenager. So I'm at in her early 20s and looks exactly like her mother did
when she was a teenager.
So I'm at this weird age where I'm
looking at these Facebook posts, and I'm like, holy fuck,
am I getting old?
I mean, holy fuck, am I old?
I'm old.
We used to look like that.
That used to be us.
We used to look like that.
And now we're saggy and old and gray. And now they rule the world and we don't have anything to do with it anymore.
There's gonna be no more late nights at McDonald's making movies and smoking pot in the walk-in cooler.
It's never gonna happen again.
Speak for yourself.
Are you intending to go to McDonald's and smoke pot in the fucking cooler? Well, I thought we already decided that when we get older and we're at the village is we're
taking drugs again.
Yeah, but it's going to be totally different then our bodies are going to react different
or I mean, listen, I agree with you.
Yes.
When you get to a certain age, you should give no shit about it.
Head like like driving that train high on cocaine, Casey Jones, let's go.
What does it matter anymore?
It doesn't matter. It's like those old ladies at that Romanian, you know, Casey Jones, let's go! What does it matter anymore? It doesn't matter!
It's like those old ladies at that Romanian, you know, traveler party, right?
I'm gonna say it, the Gypsy party.
And they were all doing blow, huge plates of blow, and they were in their 80s!
I agree!
We should be like that.
But it's not going to be the same.
We're not going to be as fresh-faced, as young, as wild, as willing, as flexible.
And I mean physically flexible, like our ability to, you know, have sex without breaking a
hip.
Like all these things, they're back then, not now.
And that's a little weird.
But I know that we experience this at every age, right?
It's not just at this age where you experience it.
It happens to everybody.
The wheel keeps on turning. Youth is wasted on the young. just at this age where you experience it, it happens to everybody. It's the wheel
keeps on turning, youth is wasted on the young, all the old adages we can
put in there. But I looked at this specific picture and I thought to myself
that was us. That was us just a minute ago. Like where did we go? Where did we
go? We were all young and fun and somewhat good looking back then.
Now I'm just, I have a fear
that I'm not the George Clooney I thought I might be.
Like, you know, Clooney gets better looking with age.
What did he, he was on the ER.
Was he on ER?
Was it ER?
He was on ER.
I think he started it when he was on ER
when he was like 57 years old.
And now he's like 92.
And the guy just keeps getting better looking.
He's like Harrison Ford, George Clooney, Brad Pitt.
They're all aging very gracefully, I must say.
Tequila and money.
That'll do it.
Tequila and money.
But I don't drink and I don't have any money.
Maybe you should take it up.
So I just fear that I'm not going to be that Clooney I thought I was going to be.
Well, I'm holding out hope with all of this new, you know, AI medical stuff that's supposed to happen.
True, true.
You know, it'll just be some kind of huge breakthrough.
Listen, between-
And I'm editing jeans.
Yeah, between puffy pussy and Botox in your dick,
there's something there, there's some combination
of fountain of youth that is-
Brewing.
I think brewing right around the corner.
We're learning more, we're figuring it out. And while I'm not like, I'm not against plastic surgery or fillers
or Botox or any of that stuff. I've decided it's not for me personally right now in my
life. Like, I don't know, just there's some things that I've seen that makes me a little
bit nervous that these type of elective procedures, should they go wrong, and they will go wrong
with me, because that's not my luck in life, right?
I'm gonna end up having one eye
that's just shut like permanently, like a pirate.
Hey!
You can wear a fashionable patch.
I'm gonna have big lips and I'm gonna be like,
argh, I got puffy pussy of the eye.
I got puffin' pussy.
That'll probably be the new trend.
Yeah. He's gonna do Botox to get rid of some of the wrinkles in my head, and I'm gonna
end up with a camel toe. That's how it's gonna happen.
I was thinking about the camel toe thing earlier today.
Oh my God.
I'm like, I think, first of all, I think a camel toe is hilarious.
So I'm all about it. I'm gonna test it out.
Yeah. You're gonna test it out? Yeah, you're gonna test it out.
You're gonna go for it?
You're gonna go for some fillers in the badge?
No, no, I'm not going that far.
You're gonna get some tight pants and pull them hard?
Why not?
Hey, listen.
All I ask is that you do it for Instagram
so we can get a few more followers.
Maybe if we start showing your camel toe,
we'll get above 10,000.
Camel toe is camel, it is what it is.
It is what it is.
It is what it is.
Yeah, I think it's funny.
Listen, I mean, they're all different,
they're all beautiful,
and there's some camel toe out there, I don't know.
Free the toe.
I agree with you, free the toe.
Who cares?
Honestly, at the end of the day, who gives a shit?
It's a vagina, we all came from one.
It's not gonna kill ya.
And you know, listen, I think there are appropriate places
to have like sexualized camel toe,
if you know what I mean.
And then there, but you know, okay,
if you're walking around the mall
with jeans that are a little tight
and you're showing a little crack.
Yeah, why not?
Yeah, who cares?
Get that puffy pussy out.
Get that, argh.? Get that puffy pussy out. Yeah.
Get that, argh.
I like your puffy pussy.
What's wrong with your eye?
It's my puffy pussy fillers.
They migrated to my eye.
Yes.
What if I have camel toe of the eye?
She's got a little crack in the middle of my eye.
Arr.
It'll just be a camel to the other way.
Yeah, just be opposite.
The slit.
That's right.
The slit.
Yeah, I mean, listen, there's a fountain of youth brewing somewhere.
We got people out there that are spending, you know, millions of dollars trying to, that one guy.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, our friend Allison did a whole podcast episode about that guy and that movie.
Yeah.
There's a documentary that now has been made about the...
I've seen it.
I've almost watched it and then I'm like, eh.
No, I don't care.
No, I don't care.
I care about the science and the technology, but I don't care that much about one...
Watching him.
...egomaniac trying to...
Yeah. care that much about one egomaniac trying to defeat. But they say biologically that his body is the body of like a late 20 year old, right?
And he is in his mid 40s.
So he has managed to beat back some of time.
It's the dentist.
Do you need to take it?
Can we listen?
No, they call incessantly trying to confirm. I'm like, yes, I will be there.
They call me incessantly trying to sell me something.
Oh, they do? Your dentist tries to sell you a bunch of stuff?
Yeah, I mean, I get it. You're trying to make a business out of it. Dentists are like doctors
with used cars out front. Do you know what I'm saying? There's something to be sold
there. A doctor's always pushing some kind of, you know, the medical reps come,
speaking of medicine and trying to beat the clock.
You walk into a doctor's office, you tell them what's wrong.
They diagnose you and then they likely give you some kind of medication.
That medication could be the best fit for the job, or it could be the
medication that they just got pitched
that's supposedly doing new and wonderful things.
That's the way it works.
Everything's about money, it's all driven by revenue.
We know this, but what I have noticed
about dentist office specifically,
is that there are a lot of ancillary services
to be added on to a dental visit.
And some of the dentists we've been to are really good
at figuring out how to make it sound like you really need to get that done, when the truth is you probably do not.
Yes. And I've been to those dentists before and I have switched because, yeah, I don't like all that.
I love my dentist.
Me too. The one that I go to, they don't try to pitch me anything.
I love my dentist. I can't say that they don't try and pitch me anything,
but I can say that it's not a hard sell.
They're not, like if I say no, then it's dropped.
But they do, you know, and they text me
and you know, $1,000 off your, you know.
Whitening or whatever.
Yeah, your intense whitening services.
I can go to the fucking Kroger and get Crest White.
Yeah, exactly.
I know, I don't feel the white.
I use a whitening toothpaste. I think my teeth are pretty white. They are. I don't see how the whitening, yeah, exactly. I know, I don't feel the white. I use a whitening toothpaste.
I think my teeth are pretty white.
They are.
I don't smoke anymore,
so I don't get those yellow stains anymore.
So I think my teeth are pretty white
and I don't think I need a thousand dollar cleaning service,
but should I, I'll let you know.
Right.
But there's like, I'm gonna be careful about how I say this
because I really do like my dentist.
I'm a fan of the dental office.
I'm a fan of the people that work there.
I think they're kind.
But it just seems like there's a lot of suggested dental work
that needs to get done, but I'm not feeling like it.
Like, I don't feel it.
So do I really need to get it done?
Like there's something back there
and we better spend a thousand dollars preemptively
making sure that it's okay. Yeah.
But the preventative work doesn't always seem necessary.
So I just push it off and push it off and push it off.
But then again, I then I'll end up in a dental chair
that was seven months long.
And that's the other thing is that I'm also reading
and seeing a lot of Instagram reels.
Now I don't know if this is,
this seems to be one guy pushing this narrative, but there also seemed to be a lot of Instagram reels. Now, I don't know if this is, this seems to be one guy pushing this narrative,
but there also seem to be a lot of dentists
who are latching onto this narrative
that root canals are 100% ineffective.
Ineffective.
They cause nothing but like infections
and bacteria in your mouth.
And there's one dentist specifically,
he's got a lot of traction on Instagram,
who says, if you're being told you need a root canal, you are being told that you need to
have a lifelong infection in your tooth and forget about it.
But I have yet to see what the alternative to the root canal is.
Just let it rot out of your head, pull it.
I don't know.
I've never had one and I don't really, you know, had anybody close that's had one besides
you.
God bless.
I've had three of them. I've had three of them.
I've had three of them and none of them went to plan.
None of them, not one of them.
Now I get it, I'm Irish, I got those Irish, you know,
I don't know, potato eating teeth.
I'm not even sure what the thing is.
But the roots of my teeth are very long.
And I had the first dentist who did a root canal on me,
who was Dr. Feelgood.
He had a, and don't come calling to me because I think he's long
since been out of business. I don't even think he lives in the state anymore, but
he was my, I was a bartender. He sat at my bar. Dr. Feelgood is no longer in the
state. Yeah, I don't even think he's in the state anymore. I don't know, but just don't
ask me. I don't want anyone trying to follow up with me because, you know,
listen, this was the go-go 2000s and we were all just a little bit crazier back then and
everybody was hooked on pain pills.
Let's just admit it.
Okay.
Everybody.
He had in his office a, like a candy jar, but that candy jar had Demerol in it.
What?
Demerol.
And he would give it to you.
I know.
And then forget about the amount of pain medication that he would prescribe you for one tooth
procedure.
It was silly.
It was silly.
But that was the norm back then.
There were a lot of people prescribing a lot of pain medication.
That's true.
And listen, in that sense, the root canal wasn't that bad.
I mean, it wasn't that bad because I was so fucking doped up before, during, and after.
But he said to me, when I got my first root canal, it had to be done in three separate parts.
Because the first time he went into the mouth and he opened it up, he said, I don't have drills that are long enough to get to the bottom of your roots.
Good God.
He's like, I have to special order them. And I'm like, what? And he's like, so I'm gonna have to close you up, clean you out, close
you up, put a temporary filling in there.
And then you got to come back when I get these back in a week.
And he goes, here's the good news.
The good news is you will never lose a tooth on its own.
You like, you just won't lose a tooth on its own.
Those roots are so far up into your head.
He's like, but the bad news is you may go through this anytime you need a root canal.
And he was right.
Every time I get a root canal, those doctors, they got to,
they got to bring out the extra long, whatever they call it.
And it's not a drill.
It's like a poker.
Those extra long pokers to get up into the roots.
And so I've always had multi-part root canals.
They're always messy and they never stopped the pain a hundred
percent in it's, it's really obnoxious.
So I'm starting to kind of, you know, conspiracy thinking, this is and they never stop the pain 100%. And it's really obnoxious.
So I'm starting to kind of, you know, conspiracy thinking.
This is as far as Brian's conspiracy thinking goes.
The root canals are a grand conspiracy by,
I don't know, big filling.
By big fillers.
Big tooth drill.
Yeah, I was about to say the instruments that get in there.
Oh yeah, I don't know, God bless dentists, man.
God bless them.
That's a tough job.
No wonder a lot of them jump off a roof.
It's like, who wants to be in somebody's mouth all day long?
It's such a weird profession and it's so important.
And at the end of the day, you should kiss your dentist on the mouth after the cleaning, that you were,
that they were kind enough to go inside
your nasty ass mouth and clean it out.
And, you know, I talk to that,
that hygienist that I have, you know,
she likes to talk and even though my mouth is wide open,
I like, I enjoy hearing her talk,
but she told some stories about some nasty ass mouths.
I mean, there's some nasty ass mouths out there. What are you people doing? You got the breath of a thousand asses
That's all I got is the breath of a thousand asses. Do you remember that Chris Rock bit?
No, you've got the breath of a thousand asses
No, but it made me think about
My nephews I was with this weekend, you know, and they,
you know how kids don't want to brush their teeth.
Oh, man.
I mean, it's such a thing.
And finally, I said, look, I go, it's no joke.
Let me just look up the pictures right now of tooth rot in children.
And I gave them the, I mean, I showed it and they were like, ah!
You don't want that.
And they ran and brushed their teeth.
I have scared my children.
I'm like, it's no joke, it can happen.
One of my kids has already had two cavities filled.
Now they're tiny little cavities,
and we got them filled just, they weren't hurting him,
but just as a precautionary measure.
But after that, I scared the holy shit out of my kids,
and I don't care.
They brush those teeth in the morning and in the night,
and sometimes in between,
because they are literally worried about the repercussions
of getting a cavity and I don't care if I'm being a weird dad
by scaring them with the cavity monster.
But the cavity monster's coming for them.
Oh, I was scared.
My nephew's with the rot monster saying,
look, I mean, and then I was like,
then it's irreparable, you're gonna have to have surgery
to remove your teeth and then you'll have fake teeth. They're like, then it's irreparable. You're going to have to have surgery to remove your teeth,
and then you'll have fake teeth.
They were like, what?
Show them a picture of people who are getting veneers,
and what happens right before you get the veneers.
Have you ever seen?
That is disturbing.
Astrid has a picture of hers, because she has veneers.
And I refuse to look at that picture.
I'm like, I don't want my opinion of you to change forever.
I don't want us to be, you know, mid coitus.
And then I have to come into my head,
all those little nubbies, like I just don't want it.
It scares the shit out of me.
Yeah, they drill them down.
Yeah, that's why I won't give veneers.
I won't do it.
I like my teeth.
They're a little crooked on the bottom,
but I like them in general.
I think, you know.
That's okay, it gives character.
You know, my kids have started to notice that I have fangs and they're like little crooked on the bottom, but I like them in general. That's okay. It gives character.
You know, my kids have started to notice that I have fangs and they're like,
how do I get fanged? Have you noticed that I have fangs?
Now that you say it.
Yeah. I got pretty big fangs and they're really sharp too.
Maybe that's from that girl who bit me the first time we had sex, made me bleed.
Oh, that's right.
The vampire chick. Yeah, I know you're out there.
What's that?
You got bitten. That's a vampire chick. Yeah, I know you're out there. What's that?
You got bitten.
I did get bitten and it was bloody and it was, it was the, that hurt.
That hurt bad.
So anyway, girl I dated on Facebook is now has a daughter that looks like the girl I
dated on Facebook.
So there you go.
It's a weird time to be alive kids.
It's a weird time to be alive and, and we're happy that you're here for the ride.
I'd like to remind you that Kathleen Madigan was on Tuesday.
Kathleen was a doll face and we had a lot of great feedback about Kathleen.
A lot of people really are into Kathleen and she is just as fantastic as she
sounds, she is just as wonderful as she could be, like she was a really, really
nice person and very funny, go listen to that episode, it's Tuesday's TC as she could be. She was a really, really nice person and very funny.
Go listen to that episode.
It's Tuesday's TCB Infomercial and links to her tour tickets, links to her specials,
of which she's got a million of them.
She's got just so much material out there.
When I was doing the episode, when we have people on, if they're comics especially-
Oh, I love the intro.
Yeah, I love-
Yeah, I listen to it.
I like to cut the intro.
I went down such a rabbit hole with Kathleen.
I just wanted to cut a quick clip
and 58 minutes later, I'm still watching her special.
It was like this super cut
of a bunch of her specials put together,
like the best parts of her super specials,
or a super cut of her specials.
And I just could not get out of there.
I was like, oh my God, okay, let me specials, and I just could not get out of there.
I was like, oh my God, okay, let me listen to the next one.
Let me get the next bit.
Let me try this one.
Yeah, I'll wait for the payoff.
And then 58 minutes later, I was still watching and I'm like, I got to get out of here.
I got kids.
I don't have time for all this.
I got kids and a podcast that's, you know, in the bottom half of the top of the bottom
half of the charts.
And a Facebook page to check.
And a Facebook page to check. And a Facebook page to check.
It's the first time I've been on Facebook in a long time
and I'm telling you what, nothing's changed over there.
It's still a hot mess.
And I've done, I think, I don't have cold most of the idiots
but somehow the idiotic thinking just finds,
has a way of finding itself in front of my face.
It might be your Instagram, you know how they're connected.
Oh man, that, those two fuckers.
And okay, I'll tell you about Instagram verified.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, I don't know if you noticed
that commercial break is now verified.
For what reason, I don't know.
You did notice that?
I did. You did?
Oh, look at you.
Chrissy got on Instagram.
So proud of you, Chrissy.
All right, we'll take a break.
We'll be back.
Hey, it's Rachel, your new voice of God here on TCB.
And just like you, I'm wondering just how much longer this podcast can continue.
Let's all rejoice that another episode has made it to your ears, and I'll rejoice that
my check is in the mail.
Speaking of mail, get your free TCB sticker in the mail by going to tcbpodcast.com and
visiting the Contact Us page.
You can also find the entire Commercial Break Library, audio and video, just in case you
want to look at Chrissy, at TCBpodcast.com.
Want your voice to be on an episode of the show?
Leave us a message at 212-433-3TCB.
That's 212-433-3822.
Tell us how much you love us and we'll be sure to let the world know on a future episode.
Or you could make fun of us. That'd be fine too. We might not air that, but maybe.
Oh, and if you're shy, that's okay. Just send a text. We'll respond. Now I'm gonna
go check the mailbox for payment while you check out our sponsors. And then we'll return
to this episode of the Commercial Break.
Looking for the ultimate online casino experience? Step into the BetMGM Casino
app where every deal, spin, and goal brings Las Vegas excitement into the palm
of your hand. Take your seat at Premium Blackjack Pro where strategy meets top
tier gameplay. Drop in on the exciting Sugar Rush and Crazy Time slot games or
play the dazzling MGM Grand Emerald Nights, a slot experience that captures
the magic of MGM. With so many games, it's time to make your move.
Download the app and visit Bet MGM Ontario today to experience the next level of gaming.
Visit betmgm.com for terms and conditions.
19 plus to wager.
Ontario only.
Please gamble responsibly.
If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact
Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge.
Bet MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario.
I'm Joanne Robinson, host of the new podcast, The Women's Hoop Show.
Each episode, I'll be joined by a rotating group of women's basketball experts to talk
WNBA, college hoops, the new Unrivaled League, and the shifting landscape of the sport.
The game is growing, and so are we.
Listen to and follow The Women's Hoop Show and Odyssey Podcast, available now for free
on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.
All right, so the commercial break
is now verified on Instagram.
You know, Instagram like, I don't know,
maybe two years ago, three years ago
during the pandemic at some point,
them and Twitter, Twitter and Instagram
decided that they could,
since they weren't making any money directly off people, that they could get a few bucks off you
if they did this program called Verified, which basically means that you probably are the person
you say you are. It doesn't even mean that you really are. I mean, the amount of checking,
I don't know what the amount of checking is. I don't know that LexisNexis, or they connect to
someone, or they verify you through email or whatever they do.
I know you have to have like two-factor authentication, 2FA, but put on.
So I guess they're doing the best they can to figure out if you're the actual
person or company that you say you are.
And so we've been talking to various AI platforms about growing the social
media, which has been a pain point of ours for years.
And it turns out that if you don't put any effort into growing, then you're likely not
going to grow.
That's what it turns out.
Okay?
Yes.
I mean.
I see people literally dressed up like Pokemon at 52 years old With a dad bod and a micro penis running around
Talking about how much they hate women and they've got like 50,000 followers and we have like 7,000
How is this possible? How is this possible?
How is it that that content is better than this content? But I'm starting to understand
I think a little bit why part of it is because we're just putting clips
of our show out there, and that may not always be,
we're not all that funny.
So maybe that's why.
That's why.
We're not all that good at what we do.
In plain terms, we're not all that good at what we do,
and we're not really capturing people's attention,
and therefore Instagram doesn't really push us out there. We certainly have had a lot more traffic recently
than we ever have and a few of those reels have gone viral, but those reels are like
mainly about Venezuela. So it's like anytime we talk about Venezuela, we get a ton of new
followers and media and personalities and soccer players and professional baseball players and, you know, all kind of like superstars in the Venezuelan community like our stuff,
follow us, all that. And I love it too. I love it and there's nothing about it
that I wish I could change. Not a thing. I love having a Venezuelan audience. But
let's all be real about it. The Venezuelans are great. We also need some other people too, right?
We need some, because I don't know
that the Venezuelans are always listening to the show.
I think they like to follow us on Instagram
because we put out reels on occasion
that this gringo's talking about Venezuela
and he actually might know what he's talking about, right?
Or he doesn't know what he's talking about.
It depends on who you are.
It depends on which comments you read.
But okay, you get what I'm saying.
But I'm not always sure that they ended up being listeners
of the show because there are some really great
Venezuelan podcasts and we are not one of them.
And so, so I'm talking to the AI platforms and I'm like,
okay, tell me about how we can grow this Instagram.
And one of the things that keeps getting repeated is,
is that those who are verified tend to get more views
than those who aren't verified.
Yeah, that kind of makes sense.
Yeah, of course, because you're paying Instagram.
So you're juicing, you're asking them to juice your views,
essentially, by being verified.
They know who you are.
They can, I guess there's some kind of, let's just put it,
they put their thumb on the scale a little bit for those who are verified.
But now, over the years, as I've been watching this verified thing, like, let's take for
example, we had a reel that went viral about the New Year's Eve Venezuelan traditions.
Right.
Okay.
I remember that.
That reel went nuts.
On January 1st, Astrid cut, our video editor cut it up,
Astrid put it on Instagram.
Within hours, we had tens of thousands of views.
Within days, we had hundreds of thousands of views.
Tens of thousands of shares, comments, likes,
all this other stuff.
It went crazy in the Venezuelan community.
You'd be like, this is it.
This is it. This is our moment.
This is our moment.
We're going viral.
Then like Lady Gaga burps
and she gets 17 million views
in an hour.
We're happy about 10,000, got 10,000 views.
I'm like running through the house,
batten down the hatches.
I remember that.
TMZ is gonna be at our front door pretty soon.
It was crazy.
Do I look tan enough?
Yeah, am I tan? I gotta go to the tanning bed
how's my parathyroid look extra bumpy okay good quick take shots of my eye toe
Take shots of my eye toe. Ah, argh.
Get my toe side, argh.
Quick Astrid, put your camel toe out there.
Let's go, we gotta hop on this, go, go, go.
Quick Astrid, put your camel toe on.
Get your camel toe.
Get your camel toe out.
Get your camel toe pants on.
Yeah. I need five of your best camel toe out. Get your camel toe pants on. Yeah.
I need five of your best camel toe shots now stat.
It was just like, it was a couple days of madness because it really, it really was.
I had to turn off notifications because we were, I would get off Instagram and two minutes
later I would get back and it'd be like a hundred more likes, a hundred more comments.
It was nuts, you know, a hundred more followers.
So anyway, here, that's not even the point. The point is, is that when these people were coming through and I was like watching who was
liking the reel and who was commenting on the reel, anytime that I would see a verified check
mark, I'd be like, oh, this is someone fantastic.
We, I must go check out and see who they are. And you'd go, and it was, you know, likely someone with like a thousand followers, right?
Anybody can get verified and anybody is getting verified.
Well, right, no, I know, it pulled up the other day for me to like get verified.
And I was like, well, okay, maybe, you know, put my TCB account, but then it was like,
well, you had to do all these steps and then pay something,
and I was like, ah-ah.
Of course he goes, you had to do something.
I was like, I'll come back to that later.
And I haven't.
I haven't even finished this bottle of wine,
and they want me to do things?
Let me get through this second bottle of wine,
and then I'll make a decision.
Yes.
Yeah, you should get verified.
But anyway, so it doesn't really hold a lot of weight,
the verification, because we don't have all that many followers.
Well, then why should I get verified?
Because it can juice the engine.
And then because there could be people
that want to make an account with your pictures
and your stuff, and you've got to know who the real...
with your pictures and your stuff. And you gotta know who the real...
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Astrid goes, well,
We would be so lucky.
Yeah, we could be so lucky.
Go ahead, feel free.
Please, the CCB fan account.
Christian Ronaldo has 312 million,
I don't know what it is,
300 million plus, I think,
300 million plus followers on Instagram.
But when you search for Cristiano Ronaldo, the first account that will come up is like,
you know, Cristiano Ronaldo is like, you know, the name.
That guy has like 58 million followers and he is simply a Finsta.
That's it. It's just a fan account and he's got 58 million followers and he is simply a Finsta. That's it. It's just a fan
account and he's got 58 million followers. Now I don't believe that he
can monetize that account because I think the Instagram has some rules
around monetizing other people's likenesses and stuff like that. I think.
I don't know. Who knows? But I'll tell you right now, it's like for a while I
thought about calling the commercial break
Instagram account Christiano Ronaldo break,
because anything having to do with these super famous
human beings, they have gravity and they come along.
So there's so many different derivatives
and fake accounts and Finsta and all this.
So I made the decision to go ahead and get verified.
But it's such, I don't think it's a ripoff. I want to
say it's a lot of money. And then for just a few extra views, I'm not sure. But I guess
at some point you do have to go ahead and take the steps that people take when they're
in the public eye. And since we're definitely in the public eye, and by the public eye,
I mean, all three of you, both of you know who we
are.
You're one eye.
Yeah.
Maybe I should have waited until we actually got, because it's not that like when I, I
guess my point was, is like, when I go to a verified account, when I look at a verified
account, I'm always expecting that they're going to be some heavy hitter, some hundreds
of thousands, millions of followers,
you know, somebody that we should know that should be in the know.
And when I look at most verified accounts,
it's like people with 300 followers.
Yeah. And I guess they're thinking the same thing I am,
which is maybe this will do the trick.
Exactly.
Maybe this will do the trick.
Maybe this will be it. Maybe we'll get it down.
Arrgh! Maybe my puffy eye will... Maybe we'll get it now. Arrrr!
Maybe my puffy eye will blow.
Maybe I'll get puffy followers.
Maybe my follower count will get puffy.
Arrrr!
So, we're verified and that's all there is to it, Chrissy.
We're not going to get unverified unless we get unverified.
Actually, we tried to get verified on the commercial break.
We tried to do that multiple times over the years and for some reason, they didn't think
we were who we were. They thought we might have been a Finsta, and they declined to verify us.
And then finally, it happened.
We got it.
We did it.
Congratulations.
Did you have to show some kind of specific stuff?
No.
When you do... Well, listen, you don't have a lot of interaction on your account, so you
might have to go through an extra step or two.
I don't know, I really don't.
I don't know what the protocol is.
But when I went to go get my personal account verified,
so the chatty GPT or whatever AI we were using
was like, get verified, and then anybody associated
with the show, get verified.
Make sure those accounts are interacting with each other.
This is part of the social media game.
So I'm like, okay, I'll get verified.
And when I went through the process of getting verified,
I think because my Facebook is connected to it,
I'm sure that it ran checks,
like AI checks on the pictures that were there
and the pictures that are here.
Are they the same person?
Do they have the same eye measurements?
I don't know how all that works.
But the one thing that they did make me do is you must turn on 2FA on your account.
You must have 2FA on your account.
If you don't, you can't get verified.
In some cases, they will ask you for identification like a state ID or a passport.
But the commercial break,
all I had to do was just ask to be verified.
Yeah.
I'm assuming that because I just got verified,
so now I'm verified, I'm someone on the show,
I own the account, that all of that stuff
kind of came together and they said,
hey, yeah, yeah, so it's a process.
I'll look into it when I'm drinking wine again tonight.
Yeah, get into it.
And it's not cheap either, that's the thing,
is it's like 15 bucks a month.
15 bucks a month, I'm now paying Mark Zuckerberg, which it is
I hate it. I really do. I don't like the thought of giving that guy any more money
I'm done giving all of these oligarchs money. I'm done with it. I'm done giving all of these these boneheads money
I'm not buying a Tesla couldn't afford one if I wanted to I'm not giving mark any more money unless
I click on one of his ads because I want to go to that concert.
And who's the other billionaire that I'm not gonna...
And I'm not subscribing to the Washington Post anymore.
That's it. Those three things. I'm done. I'm done.
You need your stance.
I'd like to really take a stance and not use Amazon anymore, but let's be real about it.
They kind of got us by the balls there.
They do.
Yeah. Who's not going to use Amazon?
They really do.
Amazon is amazing. Party City is going on a business. Yeah, who's not going to use Amazon? Amazon is amazing.
Party City is going on a business.
Did you see that?
It's been dying a slow death actually.
Well, listen, there's now all kinds of layoffs going on
everywhere, including people at our own network, Odyssey.
Now radio has been shrinking since 2008.
It's just been shrinking.
It's saute day.
It's been shrinking.
It's, you know, we all,
we don't have to go through the, we don't have to like rake people over the coals, rake the radio
industry over the coals. It's just the dying industry. That's it. Because less and less people
are listening to actual on-air radio. It'll always be around, but it's not, it's not going to see the
nineties again. That's not going to happen the early 90s again. So even our
network Odyssey laid some people off but there are layoffs happening all over the
place and then you add in all of the craziness that's going on with Elon's
chainsaw or whatever's going on and we're likely gonna have a dramatic
economic downturn. I was thinking that too. Oh it's happening. It's already happening and that's why these
companies are laying people off is
because it's like 2008 all over again, but this time they can see it coming.
So they are not going to be caught flat footed.
They're preemptively cutting labor and you know, that's just the way, that's
what you do when you're in one of those boardrooms and you start getting nervous.
You don't know, just like everybody doesn't know what's going to happen
from one day to the next, they're not fortune tellers, but they can sense on the streets
that things are not going to be easy and no one's making it easier. It's just like destroying a very
healthy economy for what reason? I don't know. I mean, I know there are reasons, but I'm not here
to talk about all this. But here's my point. So, you know, all of these things that are, you know, kind of happening at one time, like
there's all of these layoffs and all this other shit going, what was my point?
What was I talking about?
I don't know.
You said, here's my point.
Here's my point.
I had a point.
I took a sip.
Yeah.
I was talking about Amazon and then all of a sudden I forgot what I was talking about.
You're not giving any more money to people.
Oh yeah. I'm not giving out any more money to people.
Which was leading in from being verified and $15 a month.
There you go, $15 a month.
Now I'm giving these oligarchs money.
I'm done giving all of these oligarchs money.
That's it.
That is my point.
My point is I am done giving the oligarchs money.
There you go. How's that? Except for Amazon and Facebook
and occasionally everybody else.
Every month.
They have us all wrapped by the balls.
I know, very integrated.
It's all integrated into our lives.
They have seeped their way into every inch of our lives
and we cannot unfuck this fuckery.
And that makes me upset to some degree,
but I certainly enjoy the perks of it.
So it's hard. It's a hard thing with the streaming services for me because I'm like, well, excuse me.
Can I just go back to one bill a month? Like whatever, which I guess Amazon once again is also coming in on that where you can subscribe through them.
And then Apple TV is the same way. Apple TV is doing the same thing. And now Disney Plus and HBO Max.
I'm like, because I like a little something
on each one of them.
Yeah. I don't want to give any of them up.
Yeah. I mean, I, I know this is like,
this is a totally ADHD segment, but let me share this.
As far as the streaming services are concerned,
I've said it before and I'm going to say it again.
I really think we broke something that wasn't broken.
If you think about it, Netflix is a channel.
It's a channel and there, yeah, there's lots of content on that channel and you
can pick and choose what you want to watch when you want to watch it, but it
is a television channel.
That's what it is.
And it is a big television channel and they have billions and billions of
dollars they throw at creating content.
Apple TV is a channel.
It is a television channel. You watch it on your television or on your phone maybe, but
it's a screen. And all of these cable providers, AT&T, Comcast, Charter, Charter. I see you
out there, Charter.
I used to work for Charter.
Pretending that you're an actual cable company.
I know.
Main Street.
I know. There used to be a time when you'd look at Charter
and you'd go, yeah, Charter, go Charter, right?
And they were all over the place and sponsoring the Braves.
And I'd be like, yeah, Charter.
And then I got Charter.
And now I realize why you don't hear about them anymore.
Anyway, Toxic Communications, all of those people,
they provided a service.
They essentially, they were the people
who carried those channels into your house.
And they still
do that but just via a different a different band on the wire which is
internet and so it's the exact same thing only now every one of these
channels has found a way to squeeze an immense amount of money out of us if we
would have all let the cable companies just negotiate all of these carriage
fees and all that other shit yeah maybe Netflix wouldn't have a hundred billion dollars a year to spend on content, but they
could have still created really great content. It still could have all been on
demand and we just would have had a little tiny little box sitting on our
television that would have allowed us to flip through and we would have paid one
bill, one bill. I am paying $300 a month for content, $300 a month for
content between the cable
that I still want.
Cable, internet, and streaming services.
That's it.
Oh, add the internet, forget about it.
I've got like 10 gig internet or whatever it is.
I'm paying like 150, I mean, because we need it.
There's so much shit going in and out
of this fucking room right here.
But you know, the truth is,
is that I'm paying $300, $400 for all of that
every single month.
I would have rather paid $250 every month.
Get all of it.
The gold package.
Get the gold package, have it all on demand and have a little box sitting
there and just flip through the channels.
And then when I want to watch, um, I don't know, Kath and Kim or, uh, the, uh,
w the crown or whatever it is, I just go to the Netflix channel like I would on,
like I do on DirecTV. On demand, The Crown, let me watch it. That's it. I can do that.
And then Netflix can put television commercials in there and I'll feel like it's okay that
they do so. But now I got to watch fucking television commercials anyway. On Amazon?
Oh, Amazon does it, yeah.
Come on, Bezos. Really? You're charging me all of this money.
You're getting me seven ways to Sunday on every single thing that I buy.
Like, here was the point.
Now I remember.
I got it!
I'm full circle.
Party City is going out of business.
And Astrid took the kids to Party City and they went to the going out of business sale.
They got like two more weeks left or a week left or whatever it is.
And she cleaned up. She bought like a thousand dollars worth of stuff, $780 worth of stuff
for like less than $200.
All this stuff that you can use at parties, birthdays, you know, and we just
put it in the corner and we use it when we want it.
Um, Party City was never the cheapest place in the world to buy stuff, but it
was nice to go walk in there and look at stuff.
It was.
Yeah.
That's the end of an era that's gone.
Absolutely.
I used to go to parties, my Grammy, remember the, when I told you about the
New Year's Eve parties down in the bar basement that my grandma had, we used to
walk us up to Party City and you know, anyway, my kids are asking, why, why is
it closing?
Why is it closing?
Why is it closing?
Why is it closing? Why is it closing?
And I literally had to explain to them that Amazon sells this stuff for 50%
cheaper and they get it to your front door the next day.
And there is, it's unlikely that most people are going to get in their car,
dress up, get in their car, go pay double, walk through a store, spend an
hour, fisting and f***ing around when they could lay on their car, go pay double, walk through a store, spend an hour fisting and futting around
when they could lay on their couch, press the button
and have it there the next day.
And this is happening all over the place.
Now with Party City, there might be other factors.
They might be owned by a hedge fund
or ran them into the ground.
I'm not sure what it is, but I can understand
that Party City must be hard to make a living doing that
when you sell streamers for $5 and you can buy them on Amazon for two and get them here tomorrow or tonight.
It's just a whole fucking clusterfuck. Amazon is so wonderful and the
convenience of it is so lovely and those people that work so hard to bring those
packages to your door so quickly. I just bought another random wire. That random
wire got here in the day and it's a random wire. You wouldn't be able to find
this anywhere else. It's a random wire. You wouldn't be able to find this anywhere else.
It's a random wire.
I got it in a day.
I swear I'm going to come in here one day and just organize this.
I know and the wire didn't work so it goes in the wire box and Astrid's going to get
upset at me and we're going to have to have a whole conversation about how there's thousands
of dollars of wires that I never used in that box and I'm going to say, yeah, but maybe
someday we'll need it and she'll go, yeah, maybe someday you will, but you will buy a
new one, the exact same wire again.
You will.
I know you.
And I'll say, yeah, okay, babe.
And, you know, more marital strife because of this commercial break.
Anyway, my point was I'm giving all my money to the oligarchs.
Amazon's coming in here and then they're killing local business.
I mean, not the party city was a local business, but you know, they're, they're, they're kill these other businesses. And, uh, yeah. Yeah.
Happy days. Happy days. Happy days are here again. I know, I know. Do you remember when Party City was here?
And everyone would cheer, cause you had a job.
I'm gonna miss Party City for the balloons for one thing.
And the costumes during Halloween.
That's true.
But there is a Halloween city.
Now there's that other store thing that pops up.
Whatever that is.
They take over like high school gymnasiums or whatever.
They do.
They take over empty party cities.
Empty party cities and PetSmart, that's what they do.
Old Coles and you know, they have a smart business model.
They know they're seasonal.
And so they go in and they look for people who are desperate to make
a couple bucks with that empty shit that they got sitting there.
And they just go in there for a couple months,
pay them cheap rent, get in, get out.
I guess they have a warehouse somewhere
where they keep all that stuff and that's it.
It's really quite amazing.
Logistically, of course it is.
Of course it is.
Where do you think they get their stuff from?
It's Amazon, yes.
Oh, Amazon.
I have a love hatehate relationship with you.
I really, really do.
I know.
And then on top of that, you got Brit Box and BBC.
So, you know, I got, I turn on that front.
I've seen some good stuff coming out on Brit Box.
I might have to look into it.
Although I'm just like digging my heels
and not subscribing to any more stuff.
But I've seen some good stuff,
it looks like, coming on Brit Box.
There is such good television coming out of Britbox.
They're having their moment.
I mean, like everybody else in the world,
that Prestige TV has also hit BBC and I don't know
what the other channels are, but the other channels,
the other channels out there.
But I do love some British television.
I love it dearly.
And it's almost like now, if after a certain time of night,
like 11 o'clock, I only want to hear a British accent or maybe an Australian accent. I love it dearly. And it's almost like now, if after a certain time of night,
like 11 o'clock, I only want to hear a British accent
or maybe an Australian accent.
That's it, that's all I want to hear.
It soothes me.
I'm like a little baby.
I'm like, oh, my British accent, I go to sleep.
I'm rewatching Kath and Kim.
Oh, you talked about that.
Oh my God, what a fucking hilarious show.
It's an Australian show?
What a hilarious show about a mother and a daughter,
Kath and Kim.
If you haven't seen the show and you're into,
like kind of like absurdist humor,
which of course you must be because you're listening
to the commercial break.
If you're still here.
Yeah, this is the absurd of the absurd.
This 15, 20 minute segment has been a perfect encapsulation
of what the commercial break has always been about.
Nothing, nothing. Brian being ADHD, that's it. segment has been a perfect encapsulation of what the commercial break has always been about. Nothing!
Nothing!
Brian being ADHD.
That's it.
All right, speaking of ADHD, we've got to take a break.
Speaking of oligarchs, we've got to take a break and we can pay some bills.
Well, let's listen to this Amazon commercial and we'll be right back.
Hey, it's Rachel, your new voice of God here on TCB.
And just like you, I'm wondering just how much longer this podcast can continue.
Let's all rejoice that another episode has made it to your ears, and I'll rejoice that
my check is in the mail.
Speaking of mail, get your free TCB sticker in the mail by going to TCBpodcast.com and visiting the
Contact Us page. You can also find the entire commercial break
library audio and video just in case you want to look at
Chrissy at TCBpodcast.com. Want your voice to be on an episode
of the show? Leave us a message at 212-433-3TCB. That's 212-433-3822. Tell us how much you love us and we'll be sure to let the world know
on a future episode. Or you could make fun of us. That'd be fine too. We might not air that, but
maybe. Oh, and if you're shy, that's okay. Just send a text. We'll respond. Now I'm going to go
check the mailbox for payment while you check out our sponsors. And then we'll return to this episode
of The Commercial Break.
And then we'll return to this episode of the commercial break.
Oh, I should turn off.
I have noticed and you can call me out on this listener. I want you to call me out on a few things.
First of all, we're going to start doing a segment on this show called Brian was wrong.
So when you hear me say something that is wrong, text in and we're going to keep a running list.
And then every couple of weeks, we're going to get it out of our system and
make fun of Brian about how long, how wrong Brian is and for how long he has
been wrong.
Uh, number one, number two, I am noticing that I often start, I start the
next segment with this, uh, uh, uh, uh, it's kind of like, uh, do you remember this?
Oh yeah.
It's kind of like the smoke alarm.
I'm like a smoke alarm.
Every time we come back from a break, I'm like, ah, ah, I asked
Chi chat GPT what's the thing that Brian says the most on the show.
Like what's the word he uses?
I want to know what my crutch word was.
And it was, uh, and like.
So those two words.
As there are a lot of peoples, I'm sure.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Of course I'm not, you know.
But I want to clean it up.
We're professional broadcasters now, Chrissy.
We have to clean this shit up.
We got to get better.
We got to get better.
Okay.
I'm noticing that there are a lot of Teslas on sale
on Facebook.
I just saw another one.
This is probably the fifth one that I've seen
in like, I don't know, two weeks.
People are selling their Teslas.
They wanna get rid of it.
$24,000, 2020 Tesla, less than 50,000 miles.
It's a pretty good deal.
It's a Tesla Model Y.
That's a pretty good deal.
$24,000 and a $4,000 tax credit. So essentially it's just 20 grand, right? That's like you
can't buy a lot of used cars for 20 grand. That's a lot. And I was
reading that people are putting like Toyota stickers on the back of their
Teslas. Or there's a sticker that you can buy now from a guy
that is creating them.
And it says, yes, I bought the Tesla, but I do not like Elon, right? I don't support Elon.
I've seen a similar one to that.
And so, yeah, it's never before has a brand and a person been so closely aligned,
since Walt Disney, I think, right?
Has a brand and a person been so closely aligned and the fate of the brand is
going with the fate of the
sentiment around that person.
It's all I'm going to say.
I mean, I don't know how you feel about Elon or whatever, but I think it's very interesting
that there is such blowback.
Listen.
I mean, I'm not surprised.
Well when Tesla came on the market, I got to be honest, I was with everybody else.
I'm like, finally, we're going to solve this problem.
We all did.
Everybody. And every liberal in California bought a Tesla.
And there were lines for them and waiting lists.
And we all, and I went and looked at them multiple times
and I almost pulled the trigger,
but I just felt like it was a very expensive car.
And it was also gonna be hard for the way
that my particular living situation is.
It was gonna be hard for me to find a place
to put the outlet.
But we have a Tesla charging station near our house,
and there's like 30 of those stations sitting in a parking lot.
Oh yeah, they're everywhere.
And they're always full.
And there's always someone waiting to go, I guess,
I guess you make a reservation.
There's always extra cars sitting there.
So there's a lot of them on the road here in Atlanta, especially.
Yeah, there are. Well, they had some kind of agreement too, I think, with Uber.
Where, because I, for a while there, I was getting in a lot of Uber, Teslas, and I'm talking to a
driver, and they said that there was some kind of deal. Yeah, I saw one. I went in one in Denver.
Yeah, Denver.
I did it in Denver too.
I was coming, I was going back to the airport.
It's about a 30, 40 minute ride.
I asked for an Uber X or whatever.
I was traveling for business.
So I was like Uber X or Uber Comfort or something.
I'm one of those things.
You know, one of the many things that Uber now offers.
I know there's like 10.
Yeah.
And so what showed up a brand new, spanking new, smelling like it just came off
the lot, Uber, Tesla.
And the guy said to me, he said, I just got this car
a couple of weeks ago.
I said, oh, that's great.
You got a Tesla.
And now you're driving for Uber.
It must pay well.
And he said, no, no, no, no.
I get this from the company.
Like he had some kind of deal where they were getting it through the company. And they could take it home at night. And they said, no, no, no, no, I get this from the company. Like he was some kind of deal where they were getting it
through the company and they could take it home at night
and they were paying a certain amount of the money
that they had.
So I don't know, but now that the sentiment is changing,
you know, Tesla feels like a different company.
It's like feels like a different company.
And that's the thing.
It feels like a different company.
It's not a different company,
but it feels like a different company to a lot of people.
And people are, there's a big backlash.
And I find it fascinating how the human brain works, that there's hard to
compartmentalize those two things. But I guess then again, you don't see the CEO
of Chevrolet, you know, running up and doing a salute that hasn't been used in 80 years. Well, I mean, advertising has known the psychology around that for years.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's true.
That's true.
And associate something with the brand.
What do you associate with the commercial break?
Laughter, love, laughter, friendship.
Friendship.
Drinking.
It's about friendship.
Drinking.
Drinking. Drinking. Drinking. Love, love, friendship.
Friendship.
Friendship.
Drinking.
It's about friendship.
Drinking.
Drugs.
General scallywagging.
Erg.
My puffy, pushy eyes out of control.
I can't get it to open.
Crabapple.
Crabapple, crabapple.
That's true. I'm going to make a whole series. I'm going to make a series called Crabapple. Crabapple. Crabapple. That's true. I'm going to make a whole series.
I'm going to make a series called Crabapple.
Oh, yeah.
The town of crab.
Oh, I just love making characters for Crabapple.
I really do.
It's really good.
And people have said, and I've said this before.
I'm not tuning my own home.
But people have said, I really like the fact
that the bits are back.
You know?
And there was one of our listeners
said, I actually went back and listened
to your first 15 or 20 episodes
And he said I think you guys this is a very kind compliment
He said I think you've been funny since the beginning and so congratulations to you, you know
It's not every episode is hilarious
We understand that but he said I think you guys have been funny from the beginning and then someone else commented
I went back and listened to the bits at the beginning of the show since you've been starting doing them again, and they're really hilarious.
Here's the thing about the bits.
They do take a lot of time, and you got to script them out, and I do all the voices and
all the production, and it's a little bit of a pain in the ass.
The noise things on the one you did recently with the-
Tina Tannen-Tweez.
Well, that one and the guy that was getting the injections or the energy drink.
Oh, TCB colloidal colada coolers.
I was cracking up.
At Triple C.
The sound effects you do.
The Y Brian 3000, the Woodpecker.
I loved it.
I loved it too.
I had so much fun.
And that's the point.
It brings me so much joy.
I love creating these characters.
I just have this vision in my head of what Crabapple is.
Yes.
And it's just a small town full of noodniks.
Like all the worst people that I see
over the course of a day,
I just imagine they all go to Crabapple at the end of theodniks. Like all the worst people that I see over the course of a day, I just imagine they all go to Crabapple
at the end of the night.
They're dimwitted, you know, they're po-dunky,
they're small town, they get excited
about the stupidest shit.
And WSHIT is their community radio station.
Of course, and Yuckles.
Yuckles.
That's the local comedy club.
Clown show and dating school?
Or no, clown school and dating? I'll have to bring Yuckles. Yuckles. That's the local comedy club. Clown show and dating school. Or no, clown school and dating.
Dating.
I'll have to bring yuckles back.
Uh-huh, for sure.
But here's what I really wanted to talk about.
Not Elon, not Tesla, not cry-bubble.
I wanted to talk about the couple.
Two things.
Number one, the couple who is now suing,
is it Emirates Airline, I think,
because Emirates put a dead body next to them
in first class. What?
Did you see that? No, no.
Yeah, they had to fly, like 12 hours next to a dead body.
What do you mean? And they were in first class.
Like strapped in in a seatbelt?
Yes, someone passed away on the plane.
They had a heart attack or a stroke or something.
Oh my God. An older woman.
Which is sad, of course. Yeah, yeah.
But she died of natural causes, and it was just an event that happens on a plane.
Probably happens, listen, there have been pilots
that have died, like co-pilots that have died,
and the other pilot has to fly the plane home,
you know, or make a landing.
But they were over the ocean,
and there was nothing they could do.
So the pilots made the decision,
which is the right decision to make,
that let's get to where we're going.
And maybe this person that has family that's waiting there or whatever,
they're going home, let's get to where we're going and then we'll deal with it
when we get there.
And this couple is very upset.
They have pictures and video of them sitting next to a sheet,
essentially a woman, and there's a sheet and she's buckled in and that's it.
Right?
Oh my God. And it's in first class, so there's a sheet and she's buckled in and that's it, right? Oh my God.
And it's in first class,
so there's a little bit of separation,
but there's still the dead body next to you.
I understand just how disconcerting this must have been,
but where in the fuck did they expect them
to put the dead body?
Well, I know, yeah.
Other people were saying, put her in the bathroom.
And I'm like, yeah, but then you take up a whole restroom
and you've seen those
plain restrooms at the end of a flight of especially an international flight. There's
a lot of people have to travel in and out of those bathrooms. There's only so many places
you can put them.
Yeah. And there's no like a seatbelt in the bathroom.
Right. Exactly.
That we banging around in there.
That's right. So you end up with a woman just flying everywhere.
Oh my God.
You gotta secure her.
I mean, you can't have her flying all over the place.
Yeah.
Right?
There's not many options.
And I understand you wanna sue
because you didn't have a nice flight,
but you're in first class.
Suing is the way.
On your way, yeah.
Come on, guys, really, honestly.
Think about the poor lady's family.
Yeah.
It's the right thing to do
to make sure that she gets at
least in one piece back to wherever it is she's going so
that the people that love her, you know, can do whatever they
need to do to get some closure and not have, you know, I don't
know if you bruise after you die or whatever, but not have, you
know, open wounds or something because you're flying around
the bathroom or flying around the floor, whatever. You can't put her in the overhead bin. We've
all seen that it's really hard to get big stuff into an overhead bin.
Definitely not the overhead bin. You can't put her in the overhead bin. Yeah. And you can't put her in the
crew's sleeping quarters. How do you get it? I think a sheet over it was the best that you could do.
They did the right thing. In my opinion, they did the right thing.
It probably happens all the time,
but rare enough that you'll probably never experience it,
but you are sitting in the open seat,
what are you gonna do?
I mean, you gotta do what you gotta do.
If it was me, I would have been gracious about it,
and I would have said,
well, can I get a free bottle of champagne?
Can I get some free booze?
Because if you give me, and I'm sure they did.
I'm sure they did.
I'm sure they did.
Those were in first class anyway.
Yeah, they didn't just go, oh, hey,
I'm going to put this dead body next to you.
I'm sure they offered some kind of credit to something.
Of course, yeah, of course.
It was an inconvenient, probably the whole flight
got something, right?
Because it's a stressful thing to go through.
But it does happen as part of life.
And what are you going to do?
It's not being such a dick. Don't sue anybody.
That's, that's the ridiculous.
That's ridiculous.
It's ridiculous.
It was a circumstance and you should have been gracious in the moment
because it wasn't about you.
It was about the lady and her family.
Leave it alone.
Number two thing that I'm upset about as far as lawsuits are concerned.
Some tool fans are suing tool. thing that I'm upset about as far as lawsuits are concerned, some Tool fans
are suing Tool. Like there's a class action lawsuit because Tool recently
played their Tool in the Sand at the Hard Rock Dominican Republic.
Oh, okay. They've got one of those. They got one of those. No, I mean they've got one of
those like Island Retreat things. Yeah, everybody does.
They do.
Everybody does.
Our crews.
I think I saw one candle box.
Candle box in the sand or something.
Candle box in the sand or something.
I mean, everybody does.
Yes.
It's a cruise or it's an island retreat.
It's big business.
And you can go to a place like the Hard Rock in the Dominican where they are literally set
up for it.
You go, you don't have to do anything as a band except for bring your gear and play a
show.
Yeah. They're going to play two nights, Friday and Saturday.
On those two nights, they are promising that the two unique sets of Tool, right?
So everybody goes to the first show and they play six or seven songs, whatever it is.
And because Tool songs are 86 minutes long, they play two songs, right?
Essentially.
Then on Saturday, Maynard asked the crowd, who was here last night?
Well, everybody was there last night because everybody's there for the entire weekend.
You don't have an opportunity just to go for one night.
And Tule does not play in, like, the most unique set because they repeat some of the
songs that they played from the night before, which upsets some fans to the point
where they start booing Tool.
They start booing them during their set
in the Dominican Republic on a beautiful beach.
So, I gotta say, at what point do you just say to yourself,
man, you're really fucking entitled here.
Like, I get it.
You're there for the weekend,
and you wanna see all of your favorite Tool songs,
and you don't wanna hear it twice.
I understand, but Tool is entitled to play
whatever it is they wanna play,
because they're the artists,
and if they feel like repeating a couple of songs,
it sucks for you,
but that's what they're choosing to do.
And who knows, production-wise,
they might have to do that
because they have the visuals for these songs or whatever
the case may be, it doesn't really matter.
You're seeing Tool twice.
Listen, if it was me and I was seeing whoever, I don't know,
Pearl Jam, let's say I was saying Pearl Jam.
Pearl Jam also is in this, we don't do set lists except for
15 minutes before, and we always try and change it up every
single show and blah blah blah. If I heard, you know, three of the songs on Friday and then three
of the same songs on Saturday, I wouldn't complain. I'd feel grateful to have been in
the room to hear any of it. And it just seems like a shitty reaction to playing a couple
of songs, repeating a couple of songs. Now that all said, I do have to say this about Tool.
They seem to really dislike their fans in general.
Maynard seems to be really like kind of a fussy character who doesn't
really care for the fans.
And I understand he, I get it.
He's, he's making the music for him, not for you.
But if that's the case, then don't go out there and play in the sand.
I mean, you're playing in the Dominican,
it's clearly a money, it's a money thing, right?
If there's any band in the world
that I don't think about when I'm on the beach, it's Tool.
I don't think about Tool when I'm drinking a fruity cocktail.
I really don't.
That's like the last thing that I would think about
would be any kind of Tool album.
It's not Beach music.
It's just not.
But it's big business to each their own.
It must be a fun time to get together with other Tool fans.
Yeah, exactly.
And be at the Beach in a beautiful resort.
Get together with other Tool fans.
Meet the one or two women that decided brave enough
to show up inside the crowd.
Exactly.
And, you know, have some fun for the weekend.
That must have been the most male skewing weekend
in hard rock history.
But apparently they have been doing this
for a couple of years.
This wasn't even the first time.
They've been doing it for a couple of years.
So Tool fans, stop being so entitled.
You don't have to sue the band
because they played a couple of songs over again,
night after night.
That's a ridiculous thing.
And Tool, if you really don't like the fans,
then don't put out any more music and don't play.
Do it in your basement, for yourselves, to yourselves.
Make your own mixtapes or whatever.
But stop treating the fans like they're a bunch of assholes
when they're paying money to see you.
They're flying down to the Dominican Republic.
The least you could do is be respectful of your fans.
That's the least you could do.
And listen, this has been going on time and more. Every rock and roll band at some point starts to argue with themselves and the
fans. They they're all the it's all the wall. Pinky and Floyd are arguing about the fans and
they're slowly building a wall between them. But I now I kind of understand why because your fans
want to sue you when all you do is play the music. That's it. That's crazy to me. That now they're going to do a class action lawsuit
simply because they played a couple extra songs over.
I don't see that happening. Going anywhere.
I don't see them winning a fucking penny. I really don't.
Because they said two unique sets of music. Yes, two unique sets of music.
That could mean the same songs in a different order. Just remember that.
Take that from a guy who was the front man for some of the world's most unknown music.
Yeah, I'm picturing Tool down at the beach.
It just doesn't sound right. Yeah. Like I'm imagining guys with big black boots on and like long sleeve, you know, black tulle
shirts and...
Maybe it was a bunch of like black jean cutoffs.
Yeah, I'm imagining a lot of guys in the pool with their t-shirts still on.
Do you know what I'm saying?
That's what I'm imagining.
Like jorts and a long sleeve t-shirt so it doesn't get wet.
I'm a tulle fan.
So there you go. I like some of it. I'm a Tool fan, so there you go.
I'm making fun of myself.
What's that?
So I like some of it.
I don't love every single thing that Tool's ever done,
but I am a Tool fan,
and I think their music is technically beautiful.
Yeah, but I get it.
It's kinda like Rush.
You know the band Rush?
Like I think you have to have a certain mindset
to be into Rush, and I never had that mindset.
Tool I think is the same way.
You gotta be into very technical music to get it.
But I was hooked from that video Sober,
remember the video for Sober
with the little like claymation character?
It was a very scary video, and I was convinced from moment one,
I was like, oh, this band, I like this band.
So I'd probably go down there
to the Dominican Republic and see Tool.
I've seen Tool a couple times.
I've seen Tool a couple times.
It's a weird show.
Maynard is always hiding in the corner
in some weird getup.
He's always behind the drums.
He doesn't really show his face.
It's not his thing.
He's not like, he's a performer, but not like, I don't know.
It's all weird. If you like tool, then you know, if you don't, why am I talking
about tool fucking cares? Don't sue tool. Stop it. Stop it.
Big babies.
All right. TCB podcast.com. That's where you go. More information about the show, all the audio, all the video, right there from one location
and your free TCB swag at the Contact Us button.
212-433-3TCB, 212-433-3822.
Questions, comments, concerns, content ideas, we take them all right there via text message
or voicemail.
You could be the next voice on the show at the commercial break on verified Instagram,
TCB podcast on TikTok and youtube.com
slash the commercial break for all the episodes
the same day they air here on the audio feed.
Okay, Chrissy, that's all I can do for today.
I think so.
I'll tell you that I love you.
And I love you.
Best to you. Best to you.
And best to you out there on the podcast universe.
Until next time, Chrissy and I will say,
we do say and we must say, goodbye! So dirty in the morning! Hey!