The Daily Zeitgeist - God Trends Their Soul 2/23: Oscars, Netflix, Pizza Hut, LotR

Episode Date: February 24, 2023

In this edition God Trends Their Soul, Jack and writer JM McNab discuss the Oscars crisis team, the AV Club's favorite Netflix shows of all time, Pizza Hut overtaking Domino's?!!?, and the incipient glut of MORE LotR movies!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me for I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me for I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In California during the summer of 1975, within the span of 17 days and less than 90 miles, two women did something no other woman had done before, try to assassinate

the President of the United States. One was the protege of Charles Manson, 26-year-old Lynette Fromm, nicknamed Squeaky. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover The story of one strange and violent summer, this season on the new podcast, Rip Current. Hear episodes of Rip Current early and completely ad-free and receive exclusive bonus content by subscribing to iHeart True Crime Plus only on Apple Podcasts. Hi, I am Lacey Lamar. And I'm also Lacey Lamar. Just kidding. I'm Amber Reffin. What? Okay, everybody, we have exciting news to share. We're back with season two of the Amber and Lacey, Lacey and Amber show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network.

This season, we make new friends, deep dive into my steamy DMs, answer your listener questions, and more. The more is punch each other. Listen to the Amber and Lacey Lacey and Amber show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just listen, okay? Or Lacey gets it. Do it. Just listen, okay? Or Lacey gets into it. Hello, the internet, and welcome to this episode of God Trends Their Soul. That is courtesy of Johnny Davis, dropping a bunch of rest-based trending show titles. Although, to be honest, I have a song in my soul, a song in my heart, and it is Happy Birthday, Pauly from Rocky IV.

Because we were talking about Rocky IV before we started because Super Producer Brian needed to calm me down, so he started talking about pet topics of mine. And he referred to Rocky IV as the one with the robot, which is true

technically, but it also suggests that Rocky fights a robot. Anyways, I'm thrilled to be joined by one of the writers on this show, Mr. J.M. McNabb. Hey, thanks for having me. Hey, that just got me thinking, when are the Creed movies going to bring the robot back? That's the question. So they're on creed 3 if it follows the the path you know creed 4 will be like ending a war and it will involve a robot i guess like rocky is the poly equivalent in the creed universe right he's like kind of the i don't know he fulfills a lot i'm just trying to think of who would be turning the robot into a fuck bot you know because that that is an important part of the story that when we go back you everyone's like that movie's so ridiculous like rocky ends

the cold war by beating ivan drago and like convinces everybody that America rules because he's wearing America shorts. And what they forget is that they give Pauly a robot for his birthday, and the next scene he has brainwashed it into being a sex robot. It is heavily implied he is fucking. I think it's more of just like a a companion a romantic companion okay do they do they you know i don't know i mean there's no like fixtures on it but it's it's very uh oh paulie you're you're my king daddy give it to me um i don't know if that's a direct quote. Anyways, these are the things that are trending on this Thursday. The Oscars will have a crisis team, JM.

This is just impressive for the blandness and vagueness of the language that is used by the person who's announcing this the academy ceo bill kramer which sounds made up yeah also sounds made up like they seem to be just trying to create a story that will evaporate as it is like going through my mind as i'm trying to read it to you it just like stops existing ceo bill kramer is now claiming the os Oscars will have a crisis team at the show, which is, quote, something we've never had before. According to Kramer, they've run many scenarios. What the fuck does that mean? We've run many scenarios. So it is our hope that we will be prepared for anything that we may not anticipate right now, but that we're planning for just in case it does happen this sounds like a book report on a like when i would have a book report in school and i didn't read the book and someone asked me about it and therefore and so forth the so it's like they they're worried that there will be another slap and so they had to create something to make it seem like they were doing something to prepare for it.

But what could this possibly mean? Like at the crisis team, reading this interview, it wasn't even apparent to me if he meant a security detail or a team of publicists. Sure. It's completely unclear. Yeah. And then what are the running many scenarios referring to yeah is it like are you talking about like a bomb threat are you talking about if a guy slaps another guy like it's so weird there was never the possibility of a crisis before last year like i don't understand

any of this do you you pointed out when you were writing this up like do they run every different combination of movie star and presenter to slap one another? Because that seems like... That does sound fun. It does sound fun, and it's also you respond to each different combination

in completely different ways, right? Yeah. If Natalie Portman runs up on stage and slaps Benicio Del Toro, that's fine. I think like nobody's, nobody's mad about that. Yeah.

What if Julie Andrews slaps the rock? Like maybe you do nothing. I don't know. Hell yeah. Hell yeah, sister. Um, I feel like that's what he'd say.

Yeah. So weird. It does seem to be like, they're just trying to maybe create this atmosphere of like anything can happen. Like they're trying to turn it into their advantage. also had like that promo with jimmy kimmel where they're like he's an unslappable host and say okay i'm already sick of these jokes and we're still a month away from the show all right just continuing with this language because it's truly like it seems like a thing like a series of words that was generated by an algorithm to put you to sleep because like all right here so he continues on because of last year we've opened our minds to words that was generated by an algorithm to put you to sleep.

So he continues on. Because of last year, we've opened our minds to the many things that can happen at the Oscars, but these crisis plans, the crisis communication teams and structures we have in place allow us to say this is the group that we have to gather very quickly. What the fuck does that mean? This is how we all come together this is the spokesperson this will be the statement and obviously depending on the specifics of the crisis and let's hope something doesn't happen and we never have to use these but we already have frameworks in place that we can modify oh word all they have to be is like yeah we hired like a mall security guard in case someone gets slapped

again and that's i feel like they probably hired like some former massad agents like i like that just the way that hollywood operates like there are probably there's probably a sniper team in the building that is ready to overreact to any situation or they could just be like oh you know going forward if someone attacks someone else we're gonna ask them to leave you know like they don't have to be like well we we have a crisis team and the crisis team in charge is uh going to select the emergency committee who will be uh in charge of nominating the head crisis team. I'm just hoping that I am insulated by multiple layers of bureaucracy from any important decisions that are made.

What he is saying over and over again. Let's see, what else is trending? I mean, mainly that with the hotness of of the takes there um so av club put out their best netflix shows of all time ranked and it's uh they like sad cartoons it would appear um bojack horseman is the number one of all time according to them um which feels like a very like that's critics critics love that shit i don't i didn't dislike it i thought it was very good but yeah i don't know i i would definitely put i think you should leave over that put a number of shows over that i don't know what were your shots i i like bojack yeah i wasn't like uh i

know some people absolutely love it. But I think, I mean, it has like that kind of emotional depth that kind of surprises you. That I think is why people love it so much. I mean, Stranger Things is number two. Yeah. Which I was out after the first season, but it seems like people still like it. I only watched the first season. Miles stuck with it. Miles has that portion of pop culture covered for us. Yeah. No, I like it, but I think there

were peaks and valleys. I think the last season was strong. But yeah, I mean, in terms of popularity, it would be number one, I guess. That's their main thing. I was happy to see Russian Doll is up there because I'm a big fan of that show. Never seen it. These are the ones that stand out to me as like, oh, that's higher than I expected. Higher or lower. Russian Doll, higher than I expected. Number four. Yeah.

American Vandal at number eight. Did you ever watch that? Because I remember talking about that on the show a long time ago. Yeah. I liked the first season and I couldn't really get through the second season. But to put American Bandle above

I Think You Should Leave is, I think, malpractice. But that's just me. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt at number 21 feels low. Black Mirror at 20 feels like... I definitely agree. That show fell off. But when that first hit, 20 feels like, I definitely agree, that show fell off.

But when that first hit, it was like, wow, this is, you know, it was really prestige. The most prestige of prestige TV shows. Yeah. But also, and it was, yeah, House of Cards is higher than Black Mirror. It's at 19. And that show, I never really liked that show but also it just ended and like they kept going despite kevin spacey being fired and it just right completely spiraled out of control yeah i i didn't really i don't think of too many people

thinking of that as like a great work of television beginning to end but no it was it was bad to begin with in my opinion but yeah and kimmy schmidt yeah that's way too high for that show in my opinion uh yeah you put it lower in the numbers or lower in in your esteem uh i lower in my steam i'm i'm not a huge fan of that show. Kimmy Schmidt. Kimmy Schmidt. Yeah. And, and, oh yeah.

And the thing that struck me when I first looked at it is the, the last ranks in, in these 50 was Cobra Kai, which people love. Yeah. I think it's a good show. Definitely like started very strong. I think, I think that's true of a lot of things.

I would say a lot of these start very strong and they're not giving any extra points for just staying strong the whole time it feels like feels like there may be just ranking it by the heights that it reached um because i think you're right that makes sense but bridgerton it being pretty low when that first season hit that hit, that was a real cultural event. I know people loved it. I thought it was fine. And now it, like, in retrospect, is everyone just like, yeah, that wasn't shit. Yeah.

Seems like it a little bit. Because it is at number, what do we got here? 38. And the Babysitteritters club is at 34. So yeah, the witcher is ahead of Bridgerton. Yeah. So,

and sweet tooth, which is a surprising one. Cause I never hear anyone talk about that. That was a show that's based on a comic by a Toronto guy actually. And, uh, and I was interested in it cause I read the comic, but I've never heard anyone talk about that in real life.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Multiple hauntings of various locations sprinkled throughout the list. Yeah. All right. Let's take a quick break. We'll be back to talk about other shit that is trending.

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i know anybody who has eaten pizza hut in the last 35 years. I didn't believe that they existed, people who still eat Pizza Hut. I'm pretty sure the last time I ate Pizza Hut, I was given a collectible toy for the movie Casper. That's how long it's been. So there must just be a whole different generational thing happening for Pizza Hut. I guess I should say,

I haven't ordered pizza from pizza hut or had like a piece of pizza i have had personal pan pizzas in various airports or truck stops on the jersey turnpike um but nothing in the traditional pizza delivery uh context i think it could be like the nostalgia thing too right that's a they were doubling down on nostalgia they were introducing like the big new yorker yeah exactly and like the the logo is more like it used to be they need to okay so pizza hut i'm gonna stop making fun of you if you will start opening old like pizza hut shaped pizza huts like pizza palas and like bring back the cups bring back the uh pizza buffets and like do that for us i will forgive you i'll even maybe order your pizza once or twice but But I can't, I don't know.

This just doesn't track with me, a 42-year-old man's impression of the world. I'm the target demo, right? I think this war between Domino's and Pizza Hut has been brewing ever since the home video release of Ninja Turtles. Because speaking of being old men, i don't know if you remember this but when the ninja turtles video came out dominoes paid for product placement in the movie but somehow pizza hut paid to have uh like an ad put before the movie starts like a commercial for pizza hut so there's this conflicting messaging troubling yeah Yeah. So I, yeah, I feel like I've been caught between the, these two pizza chains ever since that,

that happened. Who did, who did you side with? Cause that, that's like, you're not my real dad. Pizza hut, like type thing,

you know? Yeah. I, I stuck with dominoes. I do like, it's not my favorite pizza, but also my kids had dominoes and, uh,

and it's their favorite now. So they always want dominoes yeah that's my kids favorite pizza too and like of all the pizzas like there's good pizza in Los Angeles I swear and yeah they they don't believe me they're like no I would much rather have dominoes and this is by the way the thing that got me started on a uh on a run where because super producer brian was like nobody likes dominoes dominoes is bad pizza and i uh like a spark started like firing off behind one of my eyes and i just started glitching out and then he had to be like rocky four uh jaws the police full gas study um but uh yeah i just i don't know i think domino's is a superior product but i again i have only the foggiest of recollections of what pizza hut pizza tastes like i think it i think it's the nostalgia i think it's the image of pizza hut that

like people who are our age have from commercials. When I think of Pizza Hut, I think of a happy family that wasn't my unhappy family sitting in a nice restaurant having a pizza that looked perfect. Yeah. The family in the booth over that you feel like, man, they look happy. Yeah. The last time that I was at a Pizza hut kale was merely a garnish that was what kale was primarily used for was pizza hut pizza buffet garnishes and it also like it felt like pizza hut was always on the vanguard of some new pizza technology like they're putting cheese in the crust like what are what what are these wizards concocting over at Pizza Hut HQ? Cheese in the cheese.

It's fucking crazy, man. Just forms a black hole and destroys the earth. Yeah. So anyways, I think the real secret is that Domino's and Papa John's both raised their prices because, I don't know, kids don't like to work anymore or everybody raised their prices and they did not get away with it. So that's one of the good piece of news is all the other things are oil companies being like, yeah, so we raised our prices by 60% and wouldn't you know it, we broke our records for profit and um this is the one instance where the there isn't a monopoly like domino's has not acquired pizza hut or vice versa and therefore we still

have competition between the pizza chains and so really doesn't like just domino's raise their prices and pizza didn't and now people want pizza god wouldn't it be awful if like disney bought the concept of pizza and it was just all owns yeah it's gonna happen eventually yeah they're doubling down after uh so they're like you know what people want clearly in the in the year 2023 more lord of the rings um after after they spent like a lot of money on that Prime show, like a billion dollars, I think, was the rumor. And it doesn't exist, as far as I know, that show. I don't know anybody who watched it and is like,

what I'm excited about is the Lord of the Rings show on Amazon. But anyways, they just announced that they're doing more movies for lord of the rings like unrelated to the amazon prime show like warner brothers is like we're we're bringing it back baby well yeah because i think the amazon deal which was so ludicrous that price they paid was just for the tv rights because i think the film rights there was some complicated legal thing where no one was even totally sure who owned the rights and they were up for sale at one point so that was like yeah totally different from like the tv thing which is nuts uh yeah i i don't know i think that that show which i did i watched like half of it um yeah that's about the record as far as i'm as far as i understand the record for the most of that show anyone watched was half of it

yeah and it wasn't even bad it was just like i don't know it was hard to watch it was hard to get through yeah it was just kind of a slog like i don't understand why they didn't just get the idea that lord of the rings and the Hobbit and all that is a quest. It's like a guy has to go put a thing somewhere or get a thing and goes on a journey. And this was just, it was more like Game of Thrones or something. And it's plotting where it was a bunch of different characters spread throughout. Intrigue. intrigue between that and the hobbit movie it's like it does just seem like it was just kind of one series of books that people liked and you know attempts to turn that into more

tv and movie content hasn't really worked so far so it is kind of surprising to hear warner brothers yeah it feels like the elastic on this one stretched out guys thank you i hate to see hollywood billionaires make a mistake and not have all their money but you know that being said it could be great they could bring in the robot from rocky 4 thank you and that is what we were talking about please happy birthday gandalf i don't know. I'm not a big Lord of the Rings person. Those are some of the things that are trending on this February 23rd.

We are back tomorrow with the whole last episode of the show. Until then, be kind to each other. Be kind to yourselves. J.M., where can people find you? Oh, at J.M. McNabb again on Twitter. Cool. Also, get the vaccine if you haven't done that already. Also, don't do nothing about white supremacy. And we will talk to y'all tomorrow.

Bye. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me for I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me for I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Captain's Log, Stardate 2024. We're floating somewhere in the cosmos, but we've lost our map. Yeah, because you refused to ask for directions. It's Space Gem, there are no roads. Good point. So, where are we headed? Into the unknown, of course.

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Okay, everybody, we have exciting news to share. We're back with season two of the Amber and Lacey, Lacey and Amber show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network. This season, we make new friends, deep dive into my steamy DMs, answer your listener questions, and more. The more is punch each other. Listen to the Amber and Lacey Lacey and Amber show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Just listen, okay? Or Lacey gets it. Do it.