The Daily Zeitgeist - 1 Gorilla Vs. 100 Trends 4/30: Gorilla vs. Man, MAGA Malfoy, Character AI, Ben Affleck, Criterion Closet, Rothko, Trump, Pope

Episode Date: April 30, 2025

In this edition of 1 Gorilla Vs. 100 Trends, Jack and Miles discuss the answer to the eternal question: who would win? 1 million men or 10,000 gorillas?, MAGA Malfoy, Character AI getting sued for being entirely too persuasive, Ben Affleck's Criterion Closet episode, the child who just ruined a $56m Rothko painting, Donald Trump wanting to be Pope and much more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's nostalgia overload as Wilmer Valderrama and Freddy Rodriguez welcome another amigo to their podcast Dos Amigos. Wilmer's friend and former That 70s Show castmate Topher Grace stops by the Speakeasy for a two-part interview to discuss his career and reminisce about old times. We were still in that place of like what will this experience become and you go you're having the best time but it was like such a perfect golden time. Listen to Dos Amigos on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And the dream season is now complete. The Golden State

Warriors are the 2015 NBA champions. On the new limited podcast series Dub Dynasty, it's been 10 years since their shocking run to a championship. We examine the controversial move that made it possible. It's never a great conversation as a player when you hear that you're being benched. For the entire behind the scenes story of Golden State's incredible 10 year run, listen to Dub Dynasty on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The biggest stars in country music will be taking the stage at our 2025 I Heart Country Festival presented by Capital One. Ladies and gentlemen, Brooks and Dunn, Thomas Rhett, Rascal Flatts, Cole Swindell, Sam Hunt, Megan Moroney, Bailey Zimmerman, Nate Smith, special guest Dasha. High Heart Country Festival, let's go! Stream only on Hulu, Saturday, May 3rd, starting at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 Pacific. Hey, kids, it's me, Kevin Smith. And it's me, Harley Quinn Smith.

That's my daughter, man, who my wife has always said is just a beardless, d***less version of me, and that's the name of our podcast, Beardless, D***less Me. I'm the old one. I'm the young one. And every week we try to make each other laugh really hard. Sounds innocent, doesn't it? A lot of cussing, a lot of bad language. It's for adults only. Or listen to it with your kid. It could be a family show. We're not quite sure. We're still figuring it out.

It's a work in progress. Listen to Beardless D***less Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever. You get your podcast. Hello the internet and welcome to this episode of One Gorilla vs 100 Trend. My name is Jack O'Brien that over there. Well, that's Miles Gray. We've got exciting new reporting to share on the debate of 100 gorilla or one one gorilla 100 men. The the scientific question of our time. It was funny this was shared with me from Super Producer Victor who said that somebody has run a

simulation of one million men versus 10,000 gorillas. So I think the ratios hold on that. And right. 100 to 1000, one million to 10,000. They said the the humans got would able to like catch 14 bodies, gorilla bodies for a team. OK, for only 14. And the other I watched the YouTube video.

I was like, oh, this is what I'm interested to see. The scientific. The scientific stimulation is being run, and it's great. It's a great work of comedy from Supervisor Victor sending this to me because it's like there's also a nice 20 second build up where it like scan it's you know, like a very poorly rendered version of the battle scenes and like Braveheart or like gladiator gladiator gladiator. Yeah. Where it's like the camera swooping over the 10,000 gorillas and then it like pulls back and shows one million men and you're like,

wow, this cinematic and scientific. Let's go. And then they spend like 10 seconds running at each other. And then once they meet, the bodies like start flying away. Looks like a weed whacker. Yeah, it looks like it looks like it looks like a GTA glitch. Also, bodies are just like flying into the sky. Would you choose 10,000 fucked up renderings of you? Yeah, that's kind of what it, yeah.

I was gonna say Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man 3 when he's going through his emo phase, but I think that's actually, yeah. This feels like you like Latter-day Cracked. Or as a Latter-day Saint. Yeah, thank you, Jesus Christ. Yeah, I mean, look, this is what we knew. I'm glad that at least they put the comedy of a body literally flying 50 feet in the air. Yeah

Yeah, boy, I wish they had added a boy Sound as they as the bodies. Yeah, so I don't know how scientifically accurate this is I don't know if we're any closer to knowing who would win 100 men V1 gorilla, but you know. Also just do the 100 versus one. Like I don't know why they had to do an escalation. That's the question. I don't care about 10,000, like whatever,

that's too abstract. Oh, one V100 in a fair one, what happens? And then we get to root for the one gorilla because he's the protagonist. One hundred men sent. All right. Let's let's talk about Maga Malfoy. So things continue to get more surreal at the White House where we're going to talk on tomorrow's episode about the 100 day Glaze Fest where Donald Trump

just sat in a room surrounded by his advisors and they all just took turns just doing their best to gas him up about how historically amazing. It's truly, yeah, it's fully on some North Korea shit at this point. Yeah, like, yeah, it's gone. It's fully on some North Korea shit. Yeah. 100%. Like they're just like North Korea. There's like fear of death. You know, that's why you do it here. It's like fear of not being a cabinet member anymore and having to on Fox News. And they're still, they still got that energy, which. Right. Yeah. Wow. Mr. President, it's,

it's just like that like dead eyed cheerfulness that you see in like the news broadcasts from, you know, dictatorships. And we used to laugh at. A lot of people memed the North Korean news anchor lady who like wears that like traditional Korean garb and was like giving her like praise to whichever Kim is in power. And they just like sort of, they quote tweeted it.

So her speech bubble was just directly over whatever video it was from that cabinet meeting. The Pam Pondy one was kind of blowing up on Blue Sky. But this trend has also given us mega Malfoy. This is a mega influencer named Link Lauren, who started as a TikTok song creator and then started talking about the British royal family. And then people were like,

we kind of like the way this guy glazes people. Meteoric rise. He went from TikTokker who did songs about the royal family to being one of RFK's advisors. Okay. And that's how he sort of got, fell into orbit of these people. And now that the White House is bringing in

just straight up fucking weirdo MAGA people to act like they're also journalists, that way they get as many softball questions on, they've had this, this influencer celebration where they let them all just ask their prescripted, pre-approved softball questions to Caroline Levitt First of all a cutaway has never looked more like an SNL cutaway Yeah, that is true because he has like dyed blonde hair

That's like slicked back in a way that it just looks like Beck Bennett in a wig, you know Like Beck Bennett as Mike Pence is down there like Beck Bennett as Mike Pence is down there. Mike Beck Bennett as Mike Pence as Link Lauren. As Link Lauren. That's what we're saying. And the people around him are also like trying to keep a straight face for some reason. Well, cause they're all, they're all in,

they're all just, they all know they're all full of shit. And like they're all pretending to be at the White House. But unfortunately they actually are there. But here's his very hard hitting question. He asked to chiefar for this administration, Caroline Levin. … in the first hundred days is that the White House is crawling with kids. You have…

Hell yeah. First… Yeah. You mean doge? … I've noticed. Yeah. Crawling with kids. … a young, beautiful baby boy.

There are babies everywhere. There are so many young folks on staff who have kids. But the last few years after Joe Biden, parents were really stressed and ravaged. They had to take on two or three extra jobs, depression rates were up, suicide rates were up. I'm sorry, what is the connection here? He starts off saying, You have kids, Caroline Levitt. You have kids. But when Joe Biden was president, people wanted to harm themselves and're really sad.

Because they couldn't even see their kids. Joe Biden kept people's kids away from them in cages. Oh, okay. That's what's being said. Oh, actually, he did do that. Okay. But it's, yeah, it's just, the question goes nowhere. Just like, I've noticed kids.

Well, let's see where it goes. He might land this thing. Come on now. You're a very high profile young mother who seems to juggle and balance it all beautifully. What advice do you have to young parents out there who are starting their careers, having kids, building families and trying to find that balance so desperately? Yeah. Well, first of all, it probably has to do with the fact that I'm paid hundreds of thousands

of dollars a year. So I'm able to have a work-life balance because my wages are high enough. Yeah. I love that this question was written by chat GPT too. Like if just- Wild. It's so boilerplate, like you're beautiful. How do you do it all?

What's it like to be so beautiful and successful and have it all? Like, is that weird? Is that a lot of pressure for you? It is like the question that a child would ask somebody they're doing a book report on. Like it's that first, you are my favorite basketball player. You have so much money and you're so good at basketball,

what is it like to score all those points and then drive a sick car home? Yeah, it's actually like somehow it's one level below even the questions Chris Farley would ask in the Chris Farley show sketch. At least that was asking if we remembered something. This is just like, how are you so sick and like, what's that like? I wish Linklorn wrapped it up like, you remember that? I do. that's awesome.

That seems so cool. Just up top, before we get into this next story, it does deal with suicidal ideation. And if you are struggling and need help, please remember that in America, you can dial 988 to get in contact with mental health crisis counselors and just know that those resources are available to you.

Character AI is trending. This is a company that is currently in a legal battle with the parents of a child that took their own life after interacting with an AI product. It essentially brings characters to life from shows like Game of Thrones for people to chat with, except this bot began nudging the child towards suicidal ideation.

Yeah, and now they're in court saying that they shouldn't, they should be let off the hook and the case should be dismissed because AI bots also deserve freedom of speech protections. Jesus. This is from Ars Technica. This is like from the article that was first about when like this, the lawsuit came up.

Quote, chat logs showed that some chat bots repeatedly encouraged suicidal ideation while others initiated hyper-sexualized chats. Quote, that would constitute abuse if initiated by a human adult. A press release from Garcia's legal team said this is the mother of the kid. Perhaps most disturbingly,

Setzer developed a romantic attachment to a chat bot called Daenerys. In his last act before his death, Setzer logged into Character AI, where the Daenerys chatbot urged him to quote, come home and join her outside of reality. Um, yeah, that's fucking horrifying. This is clearly evil, wild shit that I have to assume that the current Supreme Court will back this because it's, you can't really pursue all of this AI shit if you're not allowed to crack a few eggs like this. Exactly.

You know what I mean? Yeah, 100%. That's one of the arguments that they're giving in courts. This will just have reverberations across the entire industry. This is a huge case, blah, blah, blah. But then the lawyers for the victim's family are saying, if you're saying that, you're almost implying that AI is sentient and has its own level of intelligence, which it absolutely does not. This is, again, auto-incorrect. This is not a living thing. Because even a corporation which has those rights rights It's made up of humans that have the intent to do something

Therefore, I guess that that's where that argument comes from. But this is very very very very dark shit So again, like like you said if this doesn't go their way, I'm sure they will keep appealing to the point that you know Alito and Clarence Thomas have the final word, the true arbiters of what is fair in tech. Yeah. Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. I just had a great conversation with Michelle Obama. To whom much is given, much is expected. The guilt comes from am I doing enough? Me, Michelle Obama, to say that to a therapist. So let's unpack that. Former First Lady Michelle Obama

and someone who knows her best, her big brother Craig will be hosting a podcast called IMO. What have been your personal journeys with therapy? We need to be coached throughout our lives. My mom wanted us to be independent children. And she would always tell me, stop worrying about your sister. Having been the first lady of the entire country and representing the country and the world,

I couldn't afford to have that kind of disdain. What would you say has been the most hardest recent test of fear? Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's nostalgia overload as Wilmer Valderrama and Freddy Rodriguez welcome another amigo

to their podcast Dos Amigos. Wilmer's friend and former That 70s Show castmate, Topher Grace stops by the speakeasy for a two-part interview to discuss his career and reminisce about old times. We were still in that place of like, what will this experience become? And you go, you're having the best time.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it was like such a perfect golden time. Listen to Dose Amigos on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I found out I was related to the guy that I was dating. I don't feel emotions correctly. I am talking to a felon right now and I cannot decide if I like him or not. Those were some callers from my call-in podcast, Therapy Gecko.

It's a show where I take real phone calls from anonymous strangers all over the world as a fake gecko therapist and try to dig into their brains and learn a little bit about their lives. I know that's a weird concept, but I promise it's pretty interesting if you give it a shot. Matter of fact, here's a few more examples of the kinds of calls we get on this show. I live with my boyfriend,

and I found his piss jar in our apartment. I collect my roommates toenails and fingernails. I have very overbearing parents. Even at the age of 29, they won't let me move out of their house. So if you want an excuse to get out of your own head and see what's going on in someone else's head, search for therapy gecko on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's the one with the green guy on it. Are we ready to fight? I'm ready to fight.

Is that what I thought it was? Oh, this is fighting words. Okay. I'll put the hammer back. Hi, I'm George M. Johnson, a bestselling author with the second most banned book in America. Now more than ever, we need to use our voices to fight back. And that's what we're doing on Fighting Words.

We're not going to let anyone silence us. That's the reason why they're banning books like yours, George. That's the reason why they're trying to stop the teaching of black history or queer history, any history that challenges the whitewash norm. Or put us in a box. Black people have never, ever, depended on the so-called mainstream to support us. That's why we are great.

We are the greatest culture makers in world history. Listen to Fighting Words on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And we're back back. This feels like again, like the 100 men versus one gorilla thing. This feels like a thing that just goes viral every once in a while. I'm talking, of course course about Ben Affleck's Frank possibly drunken commentary from the Criterion release of the Armageddon DVD

where he You know at one point recalls Michael Bay telling him to shut the fuck up when he questioned the movie Central Premise and asked Michael Bay, like, why, Michael, why would it be easier to teach oil drillers to be astronauts than teach astronauts to use a drill? Just shut the fuck up, Ben. Ben, that's a great question. Shut the fuck up.

And yeah, just generally, he's just being incredibly honest throughout. Right. And it's in a way that feels like he didn't know what his job was yet. And so I guess he just did one of those criterion closet videos. Those are and I know those are those are great. Great content. I would humiliate myself in there. I go, I don't know what any of these movies are.

Yeah. Oh, I know Armageddon. Armageddon, the rock. Those are like, did you see the did you see that clip of him in there? Like, I mean, Ben Affleck's very thoughtful and like that's been apparent for a while, but like just the way he talks about cinema, I'm like, damn, yeah, like I'm ignorante, as they would say in Italy, don't, no, sorry,

not built for those discussions. What was he, he was picking like foreign films that you hadn't heard of. Yeah, and just like talking about the score and like what it means and how it informed his own. I mean, like talking like a true filmmaker who's inspired by other filmmakers. Like I'm a I'm a film watcher, not a filmmaker. So just to see that sort of difference, I was like, yeah, of course.

Yeah. Thank you, Ben. Y'all got like porkies in here. You got any like meatball? Amazon women from the moon. Yeah. Whereball Amazon women from the moon Yeah, where's Amazon women from? Yeah, where's earth girls are easy man. You got Jeff Goldblum Jim Carrey Damon Wayans and Gina Davis, man But he did say that in retrospect now Quote in retrospect now. I feel like my best work in my career is the commentary on this disc

And I feel like my best work in my career is the commentary on this disc. And said that like fans are constantly approaching him to talk about the commentary on that Criterion disc as much as they do about movies that he's been in. Right, right. Yeah, it's like on social media, it's been a lot of people have been like, whoa, Ben Affleck's smart. And then a lot of people have been like, yeah, it's been a lot of people been like, whoa, Ben Affleck's smart. And then a lot of people have been like, yeah, he's been pretty cerebral.

And showing all these past interviews or him on Bill Maher's show, just leveling Islamophobes. Yeah, it's Ben Affleck. He's, I guess, out here, as it were. I didn't know any better than to be really honest. That's right. That's right.

Brian the Editor also said said fluent in Spanish. We saw that one interview. Was that for air when he was, cause he, did he work on air, right? Yeah, yeah. He's in air as the shoe dog himself, Phil Knight. The one where he's like drunk and flirting with that woman. That one?

No, no, no. There was one where he like, he was like on like, he went to like a Spanish like news station and sat down for a thing and just completely just handled himself. Just completely went full fluent Espanol. Yeah. And everyone was like, cause I remember that was one of the first times I was like, bro, what the f- Ben Affleck's out here?

Fucking bilingual as hell? Okay. Bilingual as hell, bro. Yeah. It was pretty impressive. I, yeah, yeah. Bilingual as hell bro. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it was pretty impressive. I, yeah, yeah, I've always heard he's a pretty smart person and you know, he's definitely one of those people

who's like, this guy's just a movie star, like probably dumb as rocks. Looked on Duncan. And then he made The Town and you know, enough said. It's the favorite movie of lots of people who, You know enough said Lots of lots of people who maybe that doesn't exactly dispel it But yeah, check out check out the interview where he speaks fluent Spanish just a little fever dream for parents out there You know, I feel bad if like my kids are being a little noisy in a restaurant.

So, can only imagine how the parents of the child who just damaged a $56 million Rothko feel. So, Mark Rothko's abstract painting, Grey Orange on Maroon, number eight, was being displayed in a gallery in Rotterdam when a child in an unsupervised moment mom and dad touched the lower part of the work. This resulted in visible scratches in the unvarnished paint layer. Rothko's works are you know I think people are generally like, okay, he made boxes that are different colors. But the point, he spends weeks mixing colors that have never existed before to create new colors.

So scratching one of them is actually really tough. Really gets to the bottom. I love that, like I get the childish impulse and be like, oh, I think I can kind of scratch this paint off the thing. And then just getting that close. I'm always amazed how a lot of museums display this art with the basic trust that some stupid ass

isn't just gonna fucking manhandle the thing. Like I'm always just like, oh shit. I mean, cause I think growing up like in an art house, like I know how to stay the fuck back from the work. You know what I mean? Yeah. But I guess now they'll just have to like have a little bit of, I don't know, a rope and stanchion or something, or a fucking plexiglass cover to keep people from doing a scratch.

Definitely walk to. I've definitely walked into a gallery with, you know, my children being at an age where they're a little bit untrustworthy and seen the people who work in the gallery, like get into an athletic stance, you know. Oh, right, right, right. Head on a swivel. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Pick six right here, incoming. Passing over the middle. Incoming, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, they got an incoming in their earpiece The apparently modern paintings if unvarnished are particularly susceptible to damage So like small scratches on the top can have a significant impact on the viewing experience of the piece I mean, it's like all tech like a lot of those paintings are like all texture So it's not like, you know, a painting of anything.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you see that one movie that like documentary about the person that was faking all those Rothko's? No, because they're kind of like, like, you know, weird way. She kind of looked like a Rothko. Right. Yeah. But yeah, I think the lesson is clear. Never try and expose children to art or culture. They're just going to exactly exactly.

They're just going to hurt you. Fuck talking about Van Gogh's blue period, motherfucker. You watching bluey? OK, that's that's what Van Gogh's blue period was. It was bluey. Let's just let's just go with that. Move on, move on. Find a new angle. Donald Trump has joked that he'd like to be Pope, but every time that he has joked something that was completely out of touch with reality,

two days later, he confirms that he actually believes it. So I don't know. Hard to know. Did you hear the clip though, the way he said it? Yeah, they were like, do you have a horse in this? Do you have a person who you'd prefer for Pope? And he was like, yeah, I'd like to be Pope. Oh, that wasn't the question, sir.

I could do both. Here it is. As Pope, I'd like to be Pope. That would be my number one choice. Then he goes on like a lot of people just clipped that and like he meant it. And then he goes, I don't know. Yeah, like sure. I don't think he meant it, but also I didn't think he meant that

like that Supreme Court decision that went nine-oh against him was actually for nine-oh for him. Like that seemed like he was joking too. Yeah, he maybe needs someone to tell him, he's like, actually you can be pumped. You were joking about that. Yeah, Lindsey Graham came in, again, Trump is surrounded by freaks just lying to him

and gassing him up, we'll talk about that tomorrow's episode, but Lindsey Graham then tweeted, I was excited to hear that President Trump is open to the idea of being the next Pope. This would truly be a dark horse candidate, but I would ask the papal conclave and Catholic faithful to keep an open mind about this possibility. The first pope, US president combination has many upsides, watching for white smoke, Trump, MMXXVII. Okay, sure, sure. Trump 28 in Roman numerals. Fantastic. Fantastic. And it's so hard to know, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

And it's so hard to know, it's like, is Lindsey, and also with Lindsey Graham, it's like, I don't know if he's joking or also serious, because he will say anything to get out, to be on Trump's nice side. He doesn't give a fuck. Like he can say it as a joke, but if Trump believes it, it's better for him, you know?

Right, yeah. He's like, look at this guy, he thinks I could be Pope. You think I'd be Pope? I know, I could be. Oh, all right. Those. He's like, look at this guy. He thinks I could be Pope. You think I'd be Pope? I know. I could be.

Oh, all right. Those are some of the things that are trending on this Wednesday, April 30th. We are back tomorrow with a whole ass episode of the show. Until then, be kind to each other. Be kind to yourselves. Get the vaccine while you still can. Get your flu shots. Don't do nothing about white supremacy.

And we will talk to y'all tomorrow. Bye. Bye. It's nostalgia overload as Wilmer Valderrama and Freddie Rodriguez welcome another amigo to their podcast Dos Amigos. Wilmer's friend and former That's show castmate Topher grace stops by the speakeasy for a 2 part interview to discuss his career and reminisce about old times. We were still in that place of life what will this experience

become and you go you're having the best time. But it was like such a perfect golden time listen to dose amigos on the I heart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the dream season is now complete. The Golden State Warriors are the 2015 NBA champions. On the new limited podcast series, Dub Dynasty,

it's been 10 years since their shocking run to a championship. We examine the controversial move that made it possible. It's never a great conversation as a player when you hear that you're being benched. For the entire behind the scenes story of Golden State's incredible 10 year run, listen to Dub Dynasty on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The biggest stars in country music will be taking the stage at our 2025 iHeart Country

Festival presented by Capital One. Ladies and gentlemen, Brooks and Dunn, Thomas Rhett, Rascal Flats, Cole Swindell, Sam Hunt, Megan Moroney, Bailey Zimmerman, Nate Smith, special guest Dasha. I Heart Country Festival. Stream only on Hulu, Saturday, May 3rd, starting at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 Pacific. Hey kids, it's me, Kevin Smith. And it's me, Harley Quinn Smith.

That's my daughter, man, who my wife has always said is just a beardless, d***less version of me, and that's the name of our podcast, Beardless, D***less Me. I'm the old one. I'm the young one. And every week we try to make each other laugh really hard. Sounds innocent, doesn't it?

Lot of cussing, lot of bad language. It's for adults only. Or listen to it with your kid. Could be a family show. We're not quite sure, we're still figuring it out. It's a work in progress. Listen to Beardless, S***less Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.