The Flop House - FH Mini 154 - Dan Explains Jem

Episode Date: July 18, 2026

Proving that Stuart's not the only one who can do a lore deep dive, Dan takes us on a tour of one of his more oddball obsessions, the 1985 cartoon series Jem, and it's one of our longest minis ever. Truly, truly, truly outrageous! Subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, “Flop Secrets! It’s the best way to keep up on all things Flop House! Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinflop

Hey everyone, welcome to the flop house. I'm Dan McCoy. I'm Stuart Wellington. And over here on the other side of the country, it's your old pal, Elliot Kalin. East versus West forever. What? Or East Plus West? Okay.

There's an East West Flop House rivalry, but it's between the hosts of the show. It's not between us and another podcast, yeah. Okay. Okay. Well, I'll have to adjust my whole. latitude about things. Yeah. Change your whole latitude.

Drink whatever beer goes with that. Corona. No, no, no. It would be longitude. Well, I mean, also latitude. Is that find your beach? I loved how, I loved how Dan so quickly undercut his correction of that. Yeah, I'm like, well, you know, you live southerly of us as well as.

It is a different latitude. Westrally. And only one of them rhymes with attitude. Mm-hmm. Ongitude. This guy's got a bad enjitude. This is the flop house, the show with a lot of baditude, and I'm going to level with you beautiful listeners out there,

and all listeners, not just the beautiful ones. Wow. Oh, man. You're all beautiful. Dan is not really... Warmed up is how I would describe Dan. I would say Dan is insecure in his statement. today. He feels the need to qualify them.

Unlike regular Dan. Well, perhaps... Who always stands his ground. Perhaps the revelation. Yeah, that's why I don't run into his house unannounced. Don't do it. Perhaps the revelation I was about to spring will explain a lot of the attitude, not the bad attitude, but the attitude of this episode, which is that...

Oh, that you've been huffing glue right before the recording? Number one, thanks to, you know, various adjustments we made for summer. trips. We haven't taped a show in a while. And we are only doing the one tonight. And it is late at night. It's been a while. It's been on a late night record. So things are a little silly right off the bat and rusty. Silly and Rusty. Silly and Rusty, the flop house. The old flop house gang, silly and rusty. The old vaudeville team of silly and rusty. I'm liable to slip on anything. And I'm a rusty. nail. You know how this act goes.

Dangerous stuff. I mean, it's educational, too. It tells you a lot about lockjaw. Yeah. They were called the tetanus too. So this is the flop house. And of course, on the flop house. So we've established that. We've established this is the flop house. I think we can move on. On the flop house, we talk about

fan movies. We watch one. We talk about it. But what's this? We talk the shit out of it, usually. Another twist. This is a lot. The Flop House many are off-week episodes where things get a little more free form, and I'm in charge. So that first part you can ignore. Yeah. Throw it in the trash. No, that was just for new listeners.

You might be like, oh, maybe this episode isn't the one. Yeah, let's give them a trial by fire right off the bat, yeah. But for the real sickos, here we go. I'm going to share my screen. Oh, you're Gormack McCarthy's out there. This is going to be twisted. I made a little, what do you call it, a visual aid for this one. That'll be great for the listeners at home.

Wait, I'm the final person to do a PowerPoint for one of these things. A low dump. I think I once made a memorial video to show to you guys during one of these. And the audience just got to hear it, right? Yeah. My favorite is when we're like, yeah, so I made this thing that is only, for us, but we'll probably share it in some way for the listeners. We never do.

No. It never happens. We're just not that good. We've only been doing this for 18, 19 years. Almost 19, yeah. Our listeners are like hunting the dark web for this life power that we made. Yeah, we made it. Oh, ho-hum, another red room.

Get out of here. I'm looking for the flop house jokes. Yeah, I was looking for this thing Dan made and I ended up on D. Snyder's Strangeland. So I appreciate you guys. Nope, fear.com.com. Okay. Let me just click through all the fucking ads. The more I think about it,

that is the funniest thing about fear.com is that the name of the website is fear.com spelled out. Okay. So fun. Lay in window. I finally figured out how to do this part of things. So that's good. Well, Dan has merged with the internet.

He's like a regular virtuosity owner. And now I got to share it with you. Sharing is not turned on. I'm going to send it. request to you Elliot. Allow this request. This is the kind of stuff we could have dealt with before the recording. I'm glad we didn't.

It adds a certain Geneseequa to the show. A certain shaggy quality. Yeah, did he approve the request? Yeah, Shaggy's like... He's like one me, yeah. Yeah, exactly, yeah. Jointies, that's what the other shaggy is like, yeah.

That's the Baja man, Dan. Oh, yeah. Come on. Sorry, oh, you're right. Maybe we're going to turn off the podcast. Dan, Dan, I thought you were in charge. today. He says,

Shorty, you're my angel. He says it wasn't me. My darling angel. But this main thing is saying it wasn't me. That's his thing. Yeah.

Closer than my peeps. You ready? Can I share it now? Yeah. Am I allowed to share? Yeah, I allowed it. Let me share. Let the man share already.

Okay. What if you said, let me share? And then I said yes. And you started saying, If I could turn back time. And I said, Dan, not that kind of share. You have the fucking Watu's asking.

Let's get the watcher to see what alternate world that happens. Are you saying this? I know we're seeing it here. I am seeing it. It's a PowerPoint presentation on a subject that you've talked about before on this podcast. Well, I've talked about a live show. Someone say you have an unsafe, maybe an unholy obsession with it. Yeah, yeah.

Somebody, he snaps on one-wish willow and it's Jim and the Holograms all day long. Yeah, the title of it is, Jim and the Holograms, a deep dive into one of Dan's odd obsessions. Subtitle, A.K. Revenge for Eldon Ring and Warhammer is a dish best served gym. Yeah, yeah, okay. So here we go. We're going to talk about...

Jim's on you. I'm excited. Dan, let me... Before we start, I just want to ask one question. If the U of, say, 20 years ago, 25 years ago, could see yourself now, do you think he would guess

that you were strangely obsessed with Jim and the holograms? Well, that's a good question, Elliot. I did watch it. When I was a kid, I, you know, confirming my status as an odd lad, I preferred it to such things as G.I. Joe and the Transformers. I don't know if that's the word.

You had your own things, but you were less interested in violence, more interested in the high-stakes world of popular music. I wanted the soap opera stylings in the record industry of Jim. Of course, unfortunately. I was more into the record industry stylings of, The band Jabberjaw was in. It was called The Neptunes. Thank you.

Oh, I get it because they play music and their tunes. Yeah, that's it. Because they're all Nepo babies who play tunes. That makes a lot of sense. So, Dan, the only problem is that because you don't watch G.I. Joe, you don't know that knowing is half the battle. Oh, I do. I am familiar with that part of it.

Oh, okay, okay. I'm well familiar with that. And the funny thing about Jim is every once in a while, they would throw in one of those at the end of Jim as well. They would like have a little PSA announcement, but very rarely. It was like, Jim doesn't really care about these issues. Jim just needs to fill a little time.

The script came in like... Yeah, because the G.I. Joe guys were really passionate about these issues. Yeah, yeah. I'm not going to fight Cobra unless I can do my little thing at the end about graffiti. We have a pitch for a TV show where a bunch of American Special Forces, borderline mercenaries tell kids about fire safety and not talking to strangers. We don't want to put that on TV unless they're shooting lasers at ninjas. Do you remember that one?

If we must. We're like shipwreck was going through like a weird like psycho, psychedelic journey thing. Do you remember that episode? No, I don't remember that. I'm enjoying all the side talk. Dr. Mindbender was fun. I got to tell you that I had a hard time cutting down this gym mini. So we should probably dive into it.

Wow. Let's get started. Again, you're in charge. Here we go. So Jim and the holograms. I mean, actually, the actual title of the show is just Jim. But Jim and the holograms is, of course, the band. I mean, that's a revelation to me. I didn't realize that, yeah.

Sorry, and gem. I'm probably saying it too with too much of an eye sound. It does sound like you're saying Jim and the holograms. Yeah, Jim and the holograms. But so. Named after the precious stone of the same name, right? Yeah, holograms. Anyway.

So, the star of the show... That pitch was right over the plate and Dan knocked it out of the park. That's just solid fundamentals. The protagonist, of course, Jerica Benton. Now, Jerica... Now, I was going to say,

Jam in the holograms, of course, a 1980s syndicated cartoon. Starring Jerica Benton. As the series begins, Jerica's fathers just died. Oh, no. Leaving her half of... Starlight Records and also Starlight House, which is where she grew up.

It houses homeless orphaned girls from across the country. So she grew up there even though her dad owned a record label. Well, I think it was just there. I mean, it was less than orphanage and more just they just kept adopting kids. Creepy. All right. Yeah. I mean, it could be great.

It could be out of the kindness of his heart. But, you know, you know what? For a while, I thought it was creepy. I just watched an episode actually where we get a lot of backstory. They find Jam's dad's diaries and we learn a lot about the past and part of it is that Jericho's dead mother

was an orphan herself who grew up in the system and thus she wants to adopt a lot of these kids. So you're saying the end of Hamilton is ripping off Jim in the holograms? Yes, 100%. Now, Jerica, You might be surprised to learn. You might be shocked to find.

Also, the titular gem. She's leading a Hannah Montana. All questions will be answered, Stuart. She's leading a Hannah Montana style double life as a mild mannered record executive and a rock star. And only her bandmates know her true identity. That feels like a complete of interest. A huge company. It's not enough that she has already inheriting this record company.

just through her parentage, she also has to make herself the star act on the record label. It was like when that producer of Jeopardy's like, hey guys, we finally found somebody to replace Alex Trebek, me! That was bonkers. The fact that he appeared in any episodes of that show

were bonkers. That's bonkers. But on the other hand, sometimes it works. That's what I'm with Andy Cohen and Bravo. He's like, I'm in charge of the network. Now I get my own talk show. And you know what? It works great.

People love it. Was that also true of what's his face? George W. Bush's... George Jessel. You're thinking of. George Jensen. BP, whatever his face. Shootie, shooting McGavin. What? Dick Cheney?

Dick Cheney was put on a... He was heading a committee to find a vice presidential candidate and they chose himself. Oh, yeah. I thought he was a record executive. Yeah, Dick Cheney inherited half of Casablanca records. Oh, yeah. Now, we will learn that her being a rock star

is an act of charity in and of itself, but that's coming up. Because she's gifting the world with her beautiful music. Now, you might wonder why this double life, Hannah Montana, for instance, just wants to be a regular teen. Why does

Jim need to do this? I don't know. I don't know. Not really explained. But we do know why she started a band, and that is because that has to do with the villain of the show, Eric Raymond. What an evil sounding name, Eric.

Jericho's dad, left him 50% of Starlight Records as the show begins and he's determined to run it only in evil ways and he refuses to get... He's got a little bit of Steve Gutenberg energy there. Yeah, yeah, and his...

Now, what is an evil way of running a record company? I mean, other than the way record companies are usually run, which is fairly evil, yeah. Well, Jim doesn't like the attitude. He wants to hire black musicians and then force them to put his name on as a co-songwriter.

I hate to break it to you, Jim and the holograms. Eric didn't get there for... Yeah, Jim doesn't like the attitude of the misfits, the band that Eric brings in. And they're kind of a punk band in a way. I mean, they're definitely a punk band. You got a little Glenn Danzig singing his Elvis songs. Well, not that. I mean, they're style.

I mean, the Elvis songs are not the most punk thing that the misfits continue to be. Yeah, yeah. And then you got, you got Jerry only. Yeah, those guys who all became like weirdo maga guys later in life. They're terrible. They're all Tri-State area guys. It was, it was, it was, it was, it was, the surprising thing about the misfits is that those guys were interested in punk music and horror movies. Not that they were interested in bodybuilding the Seattle Seahawks or the Jets or, or, or MAGA stuff.

Like, it's not really surprising. Now, uh, the, the cartoon misfits are, uh, sort of, uh, punk coded, although their music does not sound that different from, uh, the hologram. Did the band the misfits ever try to sue the gem show? Good question. Don't know. Don't know. Cool. But to, to complete your.

Your obsession. Your other question, I will answer. And the evilness of Eric, part of it is he refuses to give the money that she needs to keep up Starlight House where all those poor orphan girls live. Oh, I see. He wants total control of the company, so he makes a bet on the upcoming Battle of the Bands. One of his bands versus one of Jericho's and the winner gets total control of the company and a mansion, which will, of course, later be in. handy when Starlight House is burned down by one of his goons. Oh, no.

Wow. What is his band? Well, it's, of course, the villainous misfits. Great. Oh. They look so much cooler. Guys, every, you know, an animal print is in, especially when you have like a weird tasseled belt on top of it. Mm-hmm.

Now, the misfits got a great look. They've got a winning punk attitude, even though they do try and, as I will get into later, commit a lot of crimes. But so, yeah, they're unrelated to the band fronted by Glenn Danzig that you mentioned previously. But they do repeatedly try to murder Jim and the holograms over the course of the show. Frequently, you know, their schemes have plausible

deniability that it could have been an accident, but they do stuff like throw them overboard on a cruise. Oh, okay. That's okay. That's above and beyond being just a... rival band. They smash a building they're in with a wrecking ball at one point. Okay.

That seems, again, too much. Pretty dramatic. I will introduce you to the misfits. This isn't a Rube Goldberg thing. They're just literally just A to B. No, I don't think Rube Goldberg ever tried to kill anyone by smashing a wrecking ball into a building. Not that we know.

He smashed a wrecking ball into a building and that building fell over and then like a hundred years later something bad happened. But it was all to, it was all to, it was all to, tie his shoes. That's the thing. It's a for a good cloth. Yeah. So I have some information

according to a news source called Reddit about the misfits the misfits thing. Apparently, the creator of Gem and the holograms didn't know about the band the misfits

until after the show had been running for a while. Wow. And the members of the misfits did not hear about the show until it was pretty much almost over. And at the time,

apparently, according to this, the misfits had broken up and nobody was using that name. for their band, so they didn't see any point in legal action. It's kind of a magical story in its way. Yeah. Yeah.

Everyone ended up happy. No one had to get sued. But let me introduce you to the misfits person by person. We've got pizzazz. Okay. She's the lead singer. She's brash and scheming. She comes from a wealthy family.

I think it's a sign of how much better the misfits are that you did not introduce us to the individual holograms. Well, we're going to get to the hologram. So I'm backing into it. We got Roxy the guitarist. Okay. She's cool. There's not a lot to.

I mean, that kind of hair is super in. No, no, no. She's got an attitude. No, she, what I just want to say is, with her combination of hair and face paint, she looks the most like the main character from Liquid Sky to me right now. That's true. Huge influence on Gem and the Hollocranes. They all have, like, definitely like an Adam ant energy.

Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Because they're tiny. Like an ant. And there's like a thousand of them. They all live in a hill together. Yeah, yeah.

We've got Stormer. She plays keyboard. She's the Nazi of the group. No, no. Quite the opposite. Quite the opposite. She is the closest thing the misfits have to a nice one. To a Jew?

Because I would say the opposite of a Nazi. We know what that is. She is the nice misfit. In one episode, she and Jericho's sister Kimber leave their respective bands and join together, put out an album together. And apparently, in a later... Like a real Milo,

notice. In a later Jim comic series, Stormer and Kimber, are a couple. Oh, there go. Shippers. Now, Dan, is this the way that they spell the word pizzazz

or is this the way that you spelled it? This is the way the show sells pizzazz. It does look like pizza ass. That's exactly what I was getting at, yeah. I mean, two great things. Like the way one of the members of the New Jersey base misfits might describe somebody as being a nice pizza ass.

And lastly, And the misfits. Now I just want to see the Sopranos, but it's cast with the misfits. In the misfits. Hey, Glenn. Glenn, can you believe this guy? What are you going to do about it, Glenn? They're moving on on territory.

There's one more member. We've got Jeddah. She joined in season two. She plays saxophone. She's the British one. She's a terrible British accent. At one point, she and her cockney parents try to grift pizzazz from her family money.

Now, of course, They are the rivals to Jim's band, the holograms. Okay. Who do look almost exactly the same. Very similar. Big 80s hair. Everyone looks like their combination, like, Nagel painting and like a trapper keeper.

Pastels. Yeah, very, it's like if Lisa Frank had a band. Yeah. But if Lisa Frank's band was also Duran Duran. Yeah. Oh, man. They are assembled from several. Starlight Girls.

We've got Kimber. That's Jim's sister. She's the keyboardist and songwriter. Is she winking or did she lose an eye like Oden? She's winking in this picture. She lost an eye when that wrecking ball hit the building. Did Kimber inherit any of the record company

or just Jim? Just Jericho. Because if I'd be Kimber, I'd be pretty pissed if I didn't get a piece of that. Yeah. So, you know, it is a... Definitely showing preference to the biological daughter over the adopted daughter. Yeah, I don't like that. I don't like that at all.

But Kimber does not seem to bear ill will. She is very sweet, kind of naive, kind of prone to, you know, feeling overlooked like a younger daughter. Now, the other holograms aren't given a lot of personalities other than being multicultural. So I'm going to point out that they're multicultural. And that is most of their characteristics. This isn't a fault of Dan. This is a fault of the show. Yeah, although, I mean, it is,

I'm glad that the show at least made a token effort. Yes, yes, of course. We've got... It would be so funny if you were like, they're ethnically diverse. The show, it's, you know, the show is trying hard. Anyway, first there's Lepra O'Con. She's the Irish one.

Then, of course, you have Zulu Princess. And we'd be like, Dan, these are terrible. Paddyosa, honestly. Well, the first one comes close to that. We've got Aja, who is Asian, on guitar. Oh, hell yeah. I love that album. I love Steely Dan's Aja.

Steely Dane's great. Steeley, baby. I think I'm almost at the age when I start listening to Steely Dan. I think I'm almost there. It happened to me, man. I was like, ooh, those smooth sounds are now very appealing to me. I'm going through a big heart phase right now, and I'm enjoying it a lot, so I don't know if I'm ready for Steely Dan. You might walk down.

a dangerous road called a Pink Floyd territory. I've blocked that road myself. It's almost like a yellow brick road. That's a door I have approached and then turned away from, but I know it's there. Hey, we wish you were here, you know. Have a cigar. So, I will say, like you. The wall.

No. Oh, man. Yeah, you're keeping it up in the air. A second this thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, let's volleyball this bit. I'm comfortably numbed to Elliot's charms at this point. Wait, that's not a...

Hold on a second. Now, Aja actually, I will say, has some technical abilities, and I love the voice acting on Aja. She always sounds kind of sleepy, which, of course, appeals to me. Would you consider that a stereotype that the Asian character has the technical abilities?

A little bit, yeah. But we'll move on to Shana, who is black. She started on the drums, but moved to bass after she briefly left the band to be replaced on the drums by Raya, the Latina member. And there's also a band called The Stingers who are introduced in season three. They antagonize both the holograms of the misfits. I like that guy's energy right now. I mean, it looks a little bit like Sebastian Bach and like, two of the simply irresistible dancers,

but with different hair. No, they look like... No, they look like the women from the, from the Moni-Money video, the Billy Idol Moni video. They look like a thruple who are trying to come on to you. Certainly in that pose, yeah. Yeah, entry, I mean, interesting stuff, but this is getting long.

I'm amazed to see the guys holding a martini glass. Like, that's not the kind of stuff you can usually do in kids cartoons, yeah. Like in the 80s, man. It's all Latsky kids watching people, cartoons where people... shoot each other or bands try and kill each other, you know. Yeah. So I'm going to put the stingers behind us.

I don't really... That's where they go. And... Nobody has a... No bees have stingers on their face. Come on. I'm going to get into a few. There's some NBC's or non-band characters.

Mm-hmm. We're going to highlight a few of these. Now, what I like is... Just to highlight for the listener, Dan called them NBC's non-bank characters, and he has the NBC peacock on the slide. That's just a little visual. gag for the three of us. Yeah. Yeah. I try to make it special

for you guys, you know. Yeah, you do. You do make a special. We got Rio. That's Jericho's boyfriend. He's on the sand, yeah. He's also attracted to Jim and flirts with her, but Jericho won't tell him that Jim is her alter ego because as established,

she's a messy bitch who likes drama. We've got Vivian Montgomery, better known as video. Cool. Who does the holograms music videos. One Starlight girl that always sticks out to me is Ashley Larson. And she mostly, she's like featured in a lot of episodes. She mostly sticks out to me because she reminds me of Tina Yothers from Family Ties.

Okay. Okay. She's got a, whichever of the new mutants is a girl, Rusty or Skids, she reminds me of. It's definitely, wait, I could be wrong. Yeah. I can't think two characters who need better names. Marvel get on that. Here's one that I think you guys are going to like.

Tech Rat. Yeah. Eric's evil tech advisor who sounds exactly like StarScream from Transformers because he was voiced by Charlie Abler. He played Starscreen. Oh, what a great voice. And his haircut

has gone all the way around and is evil again. Yeah. No, it's true. He definitely has the modern young Nazi insults. It's very, very alt-bright, kind of longish on top and close cut on the sides. For Warhammer 40,000 enthusiasts, that would be the haircut of a Ravenguard Space Marine. And, of course, the most important.

Stuart, someday I hope you have the confidence to change your name legally to Ravenguard Space Marine. I want to see that driver's license. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm clearly a son of Korax, the primark of the Ravens. guard. Now, we got to get to the most important non-band character of all of course, synergy.

Oh, man, Archie jumped on Archie at the keyboard and fucked it up. Right, well, I did the big reveal. Oh, man, it's synergy. Archie was so, so shocked. He jumped up in it. Jumped right on there.

Okay. Good cat. Good cat. Good cat. Did, it's good podcasting. Objectively a bad cat. No, it's good podcasting, though. It's going to be into it. We've got Sanergy. What's that?

That is the... Sanergy is the holographic computer that Jericho's father invented before he died. Oh, man. Because on top of being a half owner, well, an owner, full owner, a record company, he was a tech super genius. Of course, yeah. Oh, like Peter Parker. Yeah, and a serial orphan adoptor.

In that Peter Parker also had a record company? Yeah. And I've kind of glossed over it until now. But in addition to being a music industry soap opera, of course, Jim is a science fiction adventure show. And the key to it is that synergy here gives Jerica the power to become Jim through Jim's starburst earrings, which she activates by touching and saying Showtime Synergy. and in addition to using Synergy for her music career Jericho often uses her holograms to distract

and save her from the misfits or other threats. Now, yes, Elliot, you have a question? I just want to say visually, no, visually synergy has given me big kind of aerobics meets Xanadu energy. And I love it. I love it, yeah. This is exactly what I was going to say, yes, yes. Synergy is, looks like a sci-fi aerobics instructor.

Yes. Mostly she lives inside the computer, but she can project herself fully out, and it's a great design. And also, Synergy is in large part based on Jericho's deceased mother who died in a plane crash when Jericho was young. Wow. Perpetred by the misfits, I'd imagine.

Probably. The computer designs, the characters, the character designs, I'm sorry, not the computer designs. Oh, this computer looks cool. It's kind of like a Rolitzer, Oregon, H.R. Geiger-esque. kind of a kind of electronic device. I will say the character designs and the fashions. It looks like the pinball machine centaur,

where you have a man motorcycle hybrid that's being ridden by a lady. What I'll say, the designs, top notch. I think they do a great job doing designs. And if you were to do a show about 80 stereotypes and you tried to outdo these designs, I do not think you could do possible. No, I'm going to say, like, Elliot,

you put your finger on something, you know, I'm one of the hosts of the flop house. And so sometimes my enjoyment of something is, it's hard to distinguish what percentage of it is ironic or not. Hard to say even for myself. Like my enjoyment of this show, like some of it is like it is silly. Wacky stuff happens. There are nutty line readings from these over the, the top 80s cartoon voice actors.

But there's stuff in it that I genuinely know that I actually love, and part of it is the way that the show looks. It is... Yeah, I think it reminds me a lot, both the way you appreciate it and some of the style elements of another deep lore dive that I made you guys go through that Dan has not mentioned yet, and that, of course, is Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

Yeah. Which is like if, like, Nagel designed... WWF wrestlers. Well, yeah, this is, I mean, of course this is done by animation studios in Asia that are drawing on, in addition

to like, you know, I'm sort of American, like, 80s styles. I don't think they would have been doing these designs, right? What was the production coming by? They might not have been doing these designs. I don't know. But this the show definitely draws

on certain anime style. dialings before like sort of pure anime came to these shores. But anyway, before we get on to the second part of the mini, before we take a little break and then do part two, I just need to address, of course, one of the most important elements of the show,

and that is the songs. Every episode of Jim has at least two original songs in it, lasting from about 30 seconds to a minute, accompanied by a music video that has clearly been animated, by a better studio with a slightly bigger budget than the rest of the episode. And I will say that despite the misfits interrupting the theme song to insist that their songs are better,

their songs are about the same in quality and sound. The biggest difference is that jam songs tend to be about uplifting topics and misfits songs tend to be about being mean. And to show this, we've got some hologram song titles including believing yourself, getting down to business. Aztec and Chapman.

I was also joined as a second Chapman, yeah. I'm taking a train. We're making it happen. Yeah, come on in, the water's fine. Open a book. And also come on in. There's two different songs, yeah. Yeah.

Everybody wears a mask. It sounds like a fucking Zizi talk song. Everybody wears a mask is one of the wistful haunting songs. That's basically a Billy Joel song. I mean, that's the stranger, yeah. Getting down to business, glitter and gold.

Yeah. Getting down to business, also a Zizi tough song. But misfits song titles are more along the lines of making misfit, making mischief, bad influence, out of my way. Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. We're up, you're down. And I'm going to hunt you down. So, and not as it feel also a zizi dubs song.

And designing women. Oh, wow. Yeah, they didn't do their research when they were looking up the titles for some of these things. I mean, didn't do their research. I think they probably just heard other songs and were like, yeah, we could use that. One last song-related thing before we're going to share a little bit of yourself. Going to the break. I love the idea of a song called Atta My Way.

There's already a song called My Way. I want one called Out of My Way. Of course, the theme song. It's like a response to the, like a response disc track. The theme song to Jim. The famous one we all remember. Jim, I'm going to live forever. I'll be a hologram.

Jim. Jim is truly outrageous. Truly, truly, truly outrageous. Now, that song, that theme, of course, is a banger. However, Jim and the holograms, no one should terrorize the neighborhood. The problem is for half of the episodes starting in season two, the theme that we all recall, is actually switched for a different one. All of us.

Well, you remember the gem is truly outrageous. I mean, kind of. I kind of remember it more as a reference than anything else. That song is, I would say, a genuinely great theme song. It is Switch for a different one in season two for about half the episodes. I hear the jam is calling,

toss salad and holograms. This one, the refrain of this other song is... Jimmy that smile again. Jimmy that smile is... Me and my friends are gym girls. Jim. Jim is my name. Exciting adventure, fashion and fame.

Once you're a jam girl, you're never the same. Come on, come on, and be a gem girl. Jim, Jim is my name. And now, the song is way worse, but it is in our household. Our theory is this was done to make Jim sort of more aspirational for young girls. So they could sell more toys to make them, quote, Jam girls, but we don't have any evidence to back this up. This is just our theory.

It sounds like you're going to have to go all the way to the president on this one to find out what happened. Well, speaking of the president, we will... Maybe wait, wait, presidents. Yeah. Speaking of the office of the president, we may be hearing a little bit about that in the second half of this episode. Second half? This is, yeah. I kept saying we're about to get to the break, Elliot.

And I thought it was one of those breaks where it's... like sometimes they'd do on like everybody loves Raymond where you'd come back for like a minute of television afterwards, you know. All right, we're over 70 episodes into our show. Let's learn everything. So let's do a quick progress tech. Have we learned about quantum physics? Yes, episode 59. We haven't learned about the history of gossip yet, have we? Yes, we have. Same episode, actually. Have we talked to Tom Scott about his love of roller coasters? Episode 64. So how close are we to learning everything? Bad news. We still haven't learned everything yet. Oh, we're ruined!

No, no, no, it's good news as well. There is still a lot to learn. I'm Dr. Ella Hubber. I'm regular Tom Lum. I'm Caroline Roper, and on Let's Learn Everything, we learn about science and a bit of everything else, too. And although we haven't learned everything yet, I've got a pretty good feeling about this next episode. Join us every other Thursday on Maximum Fun. If you want to know what's going on in the world of movies, you should be be listening to Maximum Film so we can tell you all about it. Okay, but what if you already know what's going on in the world of movies? What if you're kind of obsessed with movies? Like, maybe you have a problem?

Well, then you should definitely be listening to Maximum Film, because we too have that problem, and it's important you know you're not alone. We're talking Indies you'll want to seek out. Blockbusters and blockbusting wannabes. Classics we can't get enough of. I'm comedian and writer Kevin Avery. I'm film critic Alonzo Duraldi. I'm festival programmer and producer Drea Clark.

Together, we're Maximum Film, smart about movies in Hollywood, so you don't have to be. But if you already are, that's also great. And hey, we see you. New episodes every week on maximum fun.org. We're sponsored in part this podcast, The Flop House, by factor. Factor. Sometimes, you know, you're tired. You don't know what to eat. You just grab the nearest thing to you, no matter how bad it is for you. Maybe it's one of your own children. You shouldn't eat that.

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Z-O-C-D-O-C dot com slash flop. We've also got a Jumbotron, and this week's message is from behind-the-camera travel agency. Travel planning has become so overwhelming that planning a fun trip can feel like another chore. Specializing in both family vacations and company meetings. Behind-the-camera travel is a modern travel agency that will help you plan your perfect vacation or your corporate conference at no cost to you. We plan so you can enjoy your picture-perfect memories.

So book your travel now at behind-the-camera travel.com. The Flop House will be performing live. Yes, you heard me live. In person, in person for you, one stipulation. If you're in Louisville, Kentucky on September 18th of this year. Luckily, I will be there. You will be there, Dan. You'll be one of the performers.

I sure hope you're going to be there. Otherwise, I'm going to have to use stand-in, Dan, which is just my hand with a beard drawn on it. Man decoy right there. Oh, man, I would give money. Can I go there? And then I was going to say wear a fake mustache, but I have one as part of that beard that you were mentioning.

So I guess I would have to shave it off and sit in the audience in disguise to watch you do me. No, no, no, no, no. You should put an additional mustache on top of your current mustache. Yeah. Yeah. So that's exactly what you should do. But don't do that.

Don't tell us about it. Instead, save it as a prank. Okay. Listeners, maybe it'll happen. We are going to be at the Whirling Tiger in Louisville, Kentucky, on Friday, September 18th at, uh, let's see, what times the show start the show? starts at 8 p.m. Doors at 7 p.m.

If you're interested, and I think you should be, go to Flophousepodcast.com slash events, and you will find the link to tickets. Again, that is Friday, September 18th in Louisville, Kentucky. And it's interesting they were talking about music and singers and the music business in this episode. Because Howell Doughty's going to be our special guest. Yeah, because Howell Dottie, aka Alex Smith, will be our special guest. And we're going to be talking about the movie Glitter, starring Mariah Carey.

So come see us with special guest, Howell Dottie. Friday, September 18th at the World's Tiger in Louisville Kentucky. Does he use a computer to morph? You think Alex is a computer? No, does Alex use a computer to morph from Alex to Howloddy? Oh, probably. There's no way to find out.

He probably uses a computer to morph. Yeah, if he does a be morp. He used a computer for most of his work, is my guess. Everybody's morph in these days. So go to Flophousepodcast.com slash events for tickets to see us live in Louisville, Kentucky. We haven't done a live show in a while. I'm really excited about it.

We're hoping to do more in the future. but for now, this is your only chance that we've got on the books. So again, that's September 18th in Louisville. Other than that, I've got my regular old stuff to plug. Joke farming is on store shelves and also available as an audiobook. That's my book about joke writing.

Barbarian Behind Bars has just finished its run as a comic book, and it's going to be a collected edition at some point. And Harley Quinn continues to come out monthly, written by me from DC Comics. How long have you been on Harley Quinn now? For a while. It'll be about two years.

pretty soon. Wow, that's quite a run. This is my longest run on a book. We got a real Chris Claremont over here. To be honest, I'm like, two years. Wow, that's amazing. And they look at him like, he's like, he wrote an X-Men for 17 years?

Wow. No wonder every other story was just about mind control and bondage domination. Yeah. Hey, write what you know. Mm-hmm. So, returning to Gem.

Now, before we turn to Jim, do you think if the Cryptkeeper had a comic book video podcast. He'd call him Chris Scaremont. Yes, of course he would. Okay, Dan, continue. Then he would probably do maybe like a little laugh. Just a little chuckle. Just a knowing chuckle.

Nothing too outrageous. Yeah, no, no, no. He's a restrained still. Yeah. So, and I'm going to be honest here, guys. I, uh, this, the back half is the fat half of the mini. This mini was way long. and I was like, what am I doing?

Yeah, I mean, it is Jim and the holograms. I can't put all of this in here. So I cut one of these, so you're welcome. Anyway, the point is... Oh, thanks. To save for another mini in the future. I'm going to summarize the first couple of acts of a pair of episodes of Jim. Okay.

And then at the second commercial break, where the cliffhanger is, I'm going to pause my summary. I'd like you both to postulate how... this episode might end, how it might resolve, before I give you the actual ending to the episode. And so the first of the two episodes, I'm going to give you a synopsis of, this is from season two, this episode 23.

It is titled Journey Through Time. Hmm. Now, in this episode, Jam and the Holograms are set to headline the World History of Music Concert. And the misfits are mad because they want the gig. Now, Eric says that Tech Rat is working on something that just might make that possible. Jim rehearses the first of our songs for the episode. Rock and roll is forever.

And the music video... It's caveman themed, right? Because it's the history of music from the beginning. Don't skip ahead, Elliot. Rock and roll is forever. And the music video for that is them getting zapped into stairs, typical outfits from various cultures across the world.

At Misfits HQ, Tech Rat has, of course, invented a time machine. Of course. It's so funny that this kind of thing happens all the time in cartoons. We invented a time machine. Let's use it to become the headliners

at a concert. Even if you weren't going to use it for good things, there's so many more profitable bad things you can use this for. They don't have the scheming intelligence of a BIF from back to the future. Well, that's always the question about synergy, too. It's like, oh, okay, Starlight House.

You could fund it with patenting Synergy. I mean, in this flashback episode, the dad's like, this technology is too dangerous. It has to remain a secret. He was right about AI. Yeah. Should have remained a not thing. Yeah.

But TechRat sends Jim and the holograms back in time where they're conveniently standard, and they're conveniently standarding right next to Synergy at this point. So Jim still has her hologram powers in the past. Okay. I want to thank Christ. Who they meet. Now, in the present, Constanza Mozart. It's so funny.

They go back in time and they're at the crucifixion. And he's like, help me. And they're like, no. We can't. We can't change the past. We'll sing the song rocking into heaven. They know not what they do. No, in the present.

Constanza Mozart appears by the misfits and tech rat because he explains that his time machine has one flaw it requires an exchange in body mass so sending Jim and the holograms back in time means they need to receive someone from the past now I don't know why the exchange is like five people or whatever it is. Yeah that's not a mass level.

Is she a giant? Yeah. But in the past, Synergy confirms they've been sent to Vienna, 1781. She gives them appropriate holographic clothes to disguise themselves. They meet Wolfgang Mozart. Do they meet a salieri? Don't get ahead of it.

Because this Wolfgang Mozart in this episode is a wholesale riff-off of the Tom Holtz-Ombedias Mozart. Of course. You think they're going to invent a new personification for Mozart for an episode of Jim and the holograms? He is doing the high pitch, like, laugh all the time. Oh, yeah. It is crazy how much this is like kids love Amadeus. I mean, I did actually. Kids do love Amadeus.

Anyway, all the holograms are horny for Mozart. Sure, of course. He is depressed because of his rival Solieri. That's how they pronounce it here. Solieri. Because he's like a funk musician? He'd be so pissed. It would be.

He would be. He'd be so fucking mad. Now, Solieri is trying to keep Mozart from playing for the emperor that night. I love the idea that they're like, this, this, this Mozart is too close to Tom Hulse's performance. We've got to make it seem like we don't

know, we've never seen Amadeus. Let's call this character Solieri. He's a totally different character. T.M. TM. They're trying to keep Mozart, he's trying to keep Mozart from playing for the emperor that night with armed guards. Uh-huh. The band distracts those guards

by allowing themselves to get kidnapped with a holographic decoy Mozart. while the real one goes to entertain the emperor. Meanwhile, the band escapes and they go to the concert themselves, but a lightning storm creates interference for synergy, causing the holograms' period costumes to flicker, and they're chased from the theater as witches.

That makes sense, actually. Now, of course, back in the present... Wait, I was going to say, witches is just such a classic go-to thing for the past. There's a Superman comic where he and Batman go back in time to the Revolutionary era and meet Ben Franklin and they're about to be burned as witches. And it's like, what do you do? Nobody was burning witches in the 1770s. Like, what are you doing? Come on.

And I feel like Superman would be fine, right? He would be fine. Actually, he was probably laughing and laughing as Batman tried to blow out the flames. There's a part in it where they say, oh, no, they go, why are you dressed like that? And he goes, we're traveling players. I have an S on my chest for Shakespeare. Oh, man, comics are pretty awesome. Yeah.

Yeah, but this episode, by the way, highlights one of the things I really enjoy about the show, which is it presents like it is going to be a show about a concert. A girl rock band and a soap opera about the entertainment industry. And then there's time machines and such. I mean, because it's educational. It's just like the original Doctor Who. It's meant to be educational.

So you learn about Mozart and Solieri. In the present, Eric and the misfits are getting annoyed by Constanza, and they insist that TECRAT sent her back, which unwittingly that rescues the gym crew by sending them to London during the Blitz. Oh, that's not a place you want to be. Yeah.

A ballroom blitz, I hope. Well, they, speaking of ballrooms, they see a poster for the Ben Tiller Orchestra because I guess Glenn Miller's name was in the public domain. like Mozart's. And neither was Ben Stillers, yeah. But they befriend the horns...

I mean, Glenn Miller probably was not in the public domain by that point. Well, there's an interesting twist on that later on. Oh, and that he meets to Glenn Miller later? Yeah. They befriend the horn section to the band. And that they then meet Steve Miller. Yeah. Some people call me a space cowboy?

Yeah. But I have an A.k.a. an alias, if you will, and that's gangster of love. But on the other hand, on the other hand, some know me by another. Some would say equally adventurous nom de plume, Maurice. Ooh. They all go. Abercadabra.

Then he reaches out and grabs them. It's very rude. They just met. But they let you do that when you're rich. That's something that our horrible president said a long time ago. Uh-huh. The holograms Befriend the horn section

To Ben Tiller's band In the Ben Tiller Orchestra, yeah And they convince Tiller to let them sit in with the band That evening And they sing a patriotic swing inflected number Another song, another music video called We're Making It Happen But that concert is interrupted by falling bombs

Clipanger, commercial Guys, what do you think? How do you think this is going to resolve? They're all going to die. They're all going to die. Wow. I think they single-handedly throw back the Hun. Do you think, I mean, Hitler is bombing from a Zeppelin or something.

Yes. They're able to, with the power of music, they just pop the Zeppelin and it crashes. Uh-huh, yeah. And he goes, wish I weren't here. That's the sequel to Spank the Monkey song, Pop the Zeppelin. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Do they go to another time period?

Does that save them at the last minute? Yeah, well, you're showing your, of course, TV writing. I'm a professional television writer, yeah. Yeah, you know. Leaving Ben Tiller to die in the fiery holocaust of the bombing. Okay, well, clearly you guys are on tinter hooks, so I'll just let you know how this revolves. Back from commercial, rubble falls all around them,

but the holograms are saved by, yes, yet another time, jump. Tech Rat tries to figure out the time machine in the present, and more and more people are being pulled from the past, and the misfits are disgusted by the appearance of a group of hippies. I mean, to be honest, they would be. If these were the, I mean, if these were punks, then they would be disgusted by groups. No, they're so annoyed that hippies are here now.

Pazazazze insults Tech Rat for not being able to fix his own time machine, which is fair. And in retaliation, he sends the misfits back in time, and pulls more hippies into the future. Oh, no. Just what they didn't need. The holograms are at Woodstock where they meet. Tell me, are these hippies, is this like a fun, like cool version of a hippie?

Or is it like the kind of hippie you'd see in a cartoon in the 70s where it's like filthy, no shoes, their clothes are ragged? It's the Manson family. I think it's closer to the latter. They like, they seem affable enough, but also like you don't want to hang out with these guys. Sure, sure, yeah. In the past They turned out to be the Manson family They're so much more intense than the Misfits

The holograms are at Woodstock now And they meet Johnny Belgrix Which is this world Jimmy Hendricks And he's a right-handed guitar player And he douses a fire on his guitar Yep And he is mad because his manager

When he plays O Canada on it Yeah yeah He is Yeah, I'm like, all beneath the watchtower. Technically a cover of a Bob Dylan song, but you know that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's mad. He says, excuse me while I kiss the ground.

Bizarro. Yes. He says, are you inexperienced? Acoustic, ladyland. Anyway. Purple clarity. Domesticated doggy lady. By the way, should I send back this purple claritin I got?

I think it might be tampered with. The Misfits, he's mad because his manager wants him to play with these crazy chicks called The Misfits. And that raises a lot of questions about when these two bands arrived relative to one another. But I guess there's a time machine. I'm not going to think about it. It's time travel, Dan. It's not linear.

Yeah, yeah. I've watched primer and looper and all that shit. Yeah. All of the urs. Meanwhile, Synergy is trapped in a semi-truck that's trashy. Wait, what? Say that again? How does surgery get this truck?

I don't know. I don't know whether she like zapped into the semi-truck or someone stole her. She's driving away, apparently. She's running out of power. The holograms of the misfits can front-run one another on stage. Jim creates a hologram of Eric to, to forbid the misfits from playing with Beldrix because they're exclusively assigned to him.

Interesting, okay. Belricks goes on stage. You think she could just do that more often to get their way. Beldrix plays the Star-Spangled banner as Synergy Descends from the ceiling. Can't copyright that. Public domain, assholes. Synergy descends from the ceiling,

shooting laser lights, pizzazz messes with the... Wait, but I thought Synergy was in a truck, Dan. Yeah, well, I guess the idea is some roadies found Synergy and they're like, this is exactly the sort of Zaz that Woodstock needs. This is what Johnny Beldrich's

needs for his act, man. So Synergy also traveled through time with them? Yes, it's whole time. I don't know why. Like, the first time was like they were standing next to each other. I don't know why later on. I guess because she was unstuck in time, so the time machine's like Oh, I see. This got to go

too. And Synergy was what's selling a bunch of what, brown acid? was the bad one. Yeah, I think it was the brown acid. Yeah. I mean, all of it's pretty bad for you. Oh, no. I thought that's an experimentation.

Unless you want to open the doors of perception. Thank you. But I feel like if I open the doors to prefer perception, I'm just going to walk through and start listening to Pink Floyd Steely Dan, and I don't know if I'm ready for that. Yeah, yeah. That third time could be closed for a little bit longer.

You don't want to invite perception into your house because then... No, no. Or it can come and go whenever it pleases, yeah. You mean perception, the vampire stripper? Sounds sexy. What are we doing? You bet, Dan? There's nothing sexier.

Yeah. Sounds sexy, says Dan of obvious monthly magazine. So, pizzazz. Pizzas messes with the ropes that are hoisting synergy down to the stage. Yeah. Causing synergy almost to fall. It seems like a strange way to bring synergy onto the stage. You think you just wheeler on.

Well, no, it's dramatic. You know, from the heavens. These lights come down. Yeah, that's true. Before she crashes, Tech Rat has finally figured it out, sending everyone back to the past, both bands come home.

The misfits, having returned home, attack Eric thinking that he blew their chances at playing Woodstock and being part of history. And they said... They would have hated being part of Woodstock, right? I mean, I guess it's... I mean, it's the legend, you know.

They, in retaliation, send him back in time where he's threatened by a dinosaur, which also brings... Threatened? Which also brings... Yeah, the dinosaur pulls a gun on it. Yeah. Yeah, somebody going to ambulance for you. And that brings a dino to the present. Cool.

Where it smashes the time machine, which I guess zaps Eric back. Okay. And then... As opposed to leaving him there forever, which is what would really happen. So that was like tech rats, life's work, right? Yeah. Well, I mean, he whipped it up in like a week. Yeah, he didn't write anything down.

so it can never be made again. No, never again. I know you guys are all worried about the world history of music concert. I feel like I'm more worried about it than the makers of the show are. Jam and the holograms go there. They play their new song rocking down through time, which has been inspired by all of the musical figures they met on their adventure. Then it was Mozart.

Then it was a kind of off-brand Glenn Miller. That's the weird thing. I was about to say, this song. name checks Glenn Miller just says Glenn Miller so I guess they could use his name in like the real context but not for their faux character

that they said they sent over the character sketch and Glenn Miller didn't approve because the ghost of Glenn Miller was like it makes me look bad my guess is that they wrote the song and recorded it and then and then found out oh you're not allowed to use his name

oh well we'll just call him Stem Giller or whatever his name is you know Anyway, that's the end of that episode. I got one more of these. One more episode? Oh, boy. No, we can get through this. But this one's fun.

No, no, no, no. We can get through. This one you're going to enjoy. This one's called the Presidential Dilemma. It's from season two, episode 17, and starts with secret agents showing up at Starlight Mansion. This should have been our Boko this year. Just Jim in the Hollywoodman's episode.

So secret agents show up at Starlight House? Yeah. To do what? They've got a personal invitation from the president. To someone else's house? No, he wants jamming the holograms. Oh, I see. They're delivering it.

Yeah, they're delivering an invitation. He wants jamming the holograms to play for them at the Kennedy Center next week. Oh, the Trumping Kennedy Center. Not anymore. They took it off. They say they took it off. They put a curtain in front of it. I'll celebrate whatever small things we have.

Jam goes to the theater early to check it out, but the new security system there, which seems to be just a bunch of little satellite dishes, messes with Synergy's signal. Uh-oh. So Jerica has to make a hasty excuse for Jim's sudden disappearance. Now, I'm hearing a lot about Synergy Signal getting messed with in these episodes, but you have to admit, this is Wi-Fi technology in the 80s.

Oh, it's pretty impressive. It's pretty impressive, yeah. It also seems to like span like several miles at the point. And and potentially errors where there is no electricity. I mean, it's, this is fantastic technology. Yeah. Yeah. So to solve this issue of synergy not operating at the Kennedy Center,

Jim asked Kimber to take synergy apart and ship her to Washington so the signal can get through. Meanwhile, the misfits. I feel like we know that thing fits on a truck. I don't know why you have to take it apart. ship it, just sticking on a truck. True. Meanwhile, the misfits are watching. Because they're just going to put the parts on a truck also.

You take it apart, you put them in garbage bags, you toss them in the Miami bed like Dexter. No. The misfits. It's a computer that kills other computers. The misfits are watching. That's basically IG88. It's called dot comster.

It's a computer that kills other computers, yeah. IG 88, but IGT takes flush bounties also. Yeah, he doesn't give a shit. Just kill droids, yeah. Okay. I don't know about him. The misfits. Oh, let me tell you about him.

Anyway, he's a bounty hunter, droid. The misfits are watching a news report. What makes him different from Forlom? Well, he's a different person. Well, one, they're different names and they look different. But IG88 is a rebelled, I believe, against his programmer and killed his program, whereas Forlom, I think, was a protocol droid reprogrammed by Zuckus. By Zuckus, yeah.

And the two of Beds, yeah. Yeah, they're two dudes. And Zuckus is the one with, like, fly-eye. Yeah, fly eyes and kind of tubes coming out of his face. And he's the one who isn't Bosque. Bosch is a Trandoshan. He's a lizard man. And again, no, that's Dengar.

And remember, Bosque is not Bosch who your dad loves. I read the Bosch novels. Yeah, well, you're at the steeply age. Yeah, he's a steely dad. And I've read some Basque novels where he's solving crimes. Yeah, yeah, that's tales from most-sized-lacanty. Yeah. Um, we did used to have a lift the flat book about Bosque on a mission.

So I have read a Bosque book, but not a Bosch book. Dan, should I read some Bosch novels? What are your feelings on sort of modern, uh, hardboiled detective fiction? Uh, you know what? It's not what I gravitate towards. Yeah, well, you can skip it. Okay. Anyway.

I'll just go back to reading Wallace Sean plays, which is what I'm currently in the middle of. Back in the world of jam. The misfits are watching a news report. about a DC thief dubbed the Washington Marauder. Sick. Marauder implies more than thievery, yeah. This is followed by an announcement about Jam playing the Kennedy Center, which inspires the misfits to try and set up their own concert in Washington without Eric's help.

Yeah. In pursuit of this, of course, the misfits burst onto the floor of Congress, demanding equal time with Jim, and sing the strangely ominous song, Star-Spangled fantasy. Oh, okay. They are thrown out of the Capitol building. So you're saying January 6th was the second time that someone had stormed for the Capitol building. Now, the band, the holograms, that is, check into their hotel with Synergy and the misfits.

The Watergate. Who are somehow nearby disguised as housekeeping staff. So Synergy, so Synergy got there. That was not a complication. Well, it will become a complication. Oh, okay. Okay. They're checking into the hotel with Synergy.

Watergate. The Misfits are nearby. They are disguised as housekeeping staff. They already knew that they needed to do this. They're all in made uniforms. I just want to, should I admit that that is a Venn diagram, a fetish Vend diagram that I'm, that I find a little appealing at the moment, which is punk made? No, I can see it.

I can see it 100%. They overhear Kimber say that there is no show without this equipment. Oh. So, of course, they immediately plot to steal. feel synergy and they call Eric who promises. That should be like number one fucking action item for the

misfits every time, right? Destroy their supercomputer that gives them their powers. It makes them super rock stars? Yeah, I think so. Now I ask you the favorite. I thought they were trying to do this without Eric, but they go run into daddy as soon as they have a question. I really don't know why earlier on

they're like, there's, the show makes a point of like Eric being like, I'm not going to help you with this. And then later on, he's like, sure, I'm on board. It's kind of weird. But now this next. Next scene. Because I imagine they wrote the scene where the misfits go to Congress and they're like,

Eric would never stand for that. It's not in his character. He's a lawful evil, not chaotic evil. Thank you. Exactly. Yeah. Now I ask you, don't interrupt this next paragraph until I give you the word. I'll try my best.

Okay. This one is pretty great. Now, we cut to Kimber. She's watching a news report with the Washington Marauder. he's wearing a hamburger-style mask and a tricorner hat and he threatens to steal the country's greatest national treasure and in reaction to this, Kimber says, this is too weird and gets up from the couch and walks away

and I have never been more seen as a viewer of the episode. It's like she like sees outside her life. It's just like, what? Anyway, it's the greatest moment in the episode. I love it. That's pretty good. So it's like a tea party guy? Yeah.

And he's wearing, you said a hamburger mask, like a domino mask? Like a domino mask? But it's mostly, officially they're known as hamburger masks. Yeah. In today's parliance. A lot of people think that's named after the hamburger. But actually, it was called a hamburger mask long before the hamburger. Because it came from hamburger Germany.

Exactly. But the law stated you had to wear a mask around your eyes. Yeah, you didn't wear one of those masks. Yeah. Yeah. Now, just as they're finishing reassembling synergy, Jim gets a call to have dinner with the president. And at the White House, they discover.

Well, this is, you know what? He doesn't appear to be a caricature of any particular president. He, uh. Kiefer Sutherland from 24? He's got a little bit of like. He wasn't the president in 24, was he? No, no. He was just, uh, he was a, he was a national.

security agent of some kind something like that. Dennis Hayesbert was the president. I believe Dennis Hayesbert. There was who became the president. Yeah. Yeah, Cherry Jones was also a president. Terry Jones was president, but he was born in England. He can't be president in the United States.

He would be a hilarious president. So anyway, at the White House, they discovered they've been pranks. The president did not invite them to dinner. He is currently busy in a meeting about the Washington Maraud. her. On their way home... Because the president does deal with local crime. It's a lot. Yeah. On their way home, Jim wonders, who would

want to prank us? And Kimber says, I can think of four people. Their first initial is M. Which I liked. Oh, yeah. That's good. At the hotel, someone pulls the plug on Synergy and the holograms arrive to see men stealing her. They follow her. They follow the truck with Synergy.

See, you just put her on a truck. Where is she being taken? The Pentagon. Oh. What is the Pentagon what with synergy? I mean, that's the question that you don't even have to bother asking. We know the answer to that. They all want to be rock stars.

Turns out the FBI got tipped off about some mysterious equipment and they need to examine it. Synergy is being taken apart as Jim sings the song, Time is running out. And we see... Yeah, well, maybe don't sing. Go rescue your computer friend. Yeah. Uh, what? Dan is, you'll notice, is perplexed by his own notes.

Oh, okay, sorry. Yeah, the holograms are trying to like, sort of like run past the Secret Service to save Synergy. Sure. As, as Jim's singing time is running out. And we see her using what remains of Synergy's holographic powers before she gets set down to try and scare the Secret Service with attacking bald eagles. Buffalo and British red coats Oh yeah

Now why did they just use the holograms To make them look like the president They could just walk in and take that stuff Good point Wow that would have been a smarter play But no matter what The hologram No I think Buffaloes

The Tenergy works better The distractions are too late Synergy gets shut down And agents surround the band Oh no But they're rescued from jail and probable extradition to Guantanamo

by the president who happened to be nearby. He wants to know more about this synergy. But Jim refuses to tell. She relents on the testing and takes the band to where synergy is being examined. But the Washington Marauder cuts the lights. And when they come back on... There is a lot going on in this episode.

When they come back on the president... Now, I thought the one where they were going back in time meeting different people from musical history was a complicated one. But this is much more complicated. No, this is an amazing. Albert Altman's gem in the holograms. When the lights come back on,

the president is gone. The marauder has kidnapped him and he's racing away with Jericho, cleans the back of his van. Cliffhanger. Guys, how on earth? This is going to resolve. Shit.

Okay. So I think Eric Raymond steals is the marauder. And he dies of a broken heart. Wow. I mean, non-joke answer, I think Jim is going to save the president,

and so they're all okay, and they get energy back. joke answer, the Soviets, nuke Washington, knowing that the president is out of commission, and America has to live under the, heavy boots of the communist Cossack plague.

Yeah, let's find out. Before we get back into it, I want to apologize to the listener. I'm doing a lot of... For how long this is going? Well, no, because I'm doing a lot of reading off of my notes in this one. And already not necessarily the top of my core competencies, but also I have recently started having Envisaline because I have bite problems.

And so I find that I'm having a lot more talking issues than normal. So I apologize. Yeah, yeah. That should be an issue. It's not like you're a professional podcaster. What? Uh-oh. Back from commercial.

They were like, now, this Invisaline will give you trouble. Will you just say something if you're a professional podcaster? But before I do that, let me just numb your mouth so I can put the Invisaline in. Back from commercial. The Marauder explains that he just wants to add the president to his collection, his collection of national treasures. It's a private museum that makes the Smithsonian look like a garage sale, he says. And sure enough, this is hidden underground in a James Bond villain-style base that made me wonder, like, who is funding this man?

How can he do this? He's probably a tech billionaire or whatever. But anyway, the... The most altruistic thing, rationality for me to do would be to steal all this stuff. Yeah, exactly. The band simultaneously are racing to put synergy back together. Now, you mean, by the band, you mean Jim and the holograms, not the band, the band. No, not the band.

No, not the last waltz, the band. Okay. The holograms, while Jericho is off on this, they're trying to put synergy back together, so she will have her hologram powers. The Marauders plan. Secret Service has really fallen down on the job. No, no. A rock band needs to take over the protection of the president.

Now, the marauder is that he wants to put the president in a cage made up to look like the Oval Office. Okay. I mean, in some ways, the Oval Office is a cage, you know? Yeah. Oh, boy, don't I know. Don't I know what does that mean? I don't know. I've never been the president.

I don't know why I've said it that way. Not yet, Dan. Don't limit yourself. Yeah, I think there's a chance. Yeah. This is to waste more time. My younger son told me he'd like me to run for president in the next election. I'm like, yeah, okay.

Sure. I will. So I'm just going to help you. I'm going to run for president in, what, 2028? Sure, I'm on the, put me on the ballot. In England, they've got a robot man running for office right now. Yeah, Benhead. I mean, he's not running for president. He's running for a seat in Parliament. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, certainly a better choice than Farage, so sure.

For sure. For sure. I mean, he seems like he has that kind of personality that'll work well on a group setting. I read that one of his big promises is to move the hand dryer in the men's room of this one pub to a more convenient-looking, location. Sounds good. Noticeably improve people's lives. That's my motto. Anyway, so the marauder wants to put the president

in the oval office cage. When Jericho tries to intervene, she is restrained by goons and she grabs a heavy cup to attack them. And the marauder goes, stop, don't touch that. It's Paul Revere's chalice.

It's priceless. Okay. And while he is distracted, the president grabs Lincoln's cane to use as a weapon. Now, Elliot. All right, interesting.

Did Lincoln famously have a cane? I would say that Lincoln did not famously have a cane, no. No, okay. That is not something that I am familiar with, the idea of him having a famous cane. Misled as to provenance

of this cane. It leads me to wonder if that really is Paul Revere's chalice. This is not the cup of a car, A cup of a carpenter, yeah. A couple of a humble silverman. Now, the Secret Service burst in to try and pull the holograms away from Synergy. Of course.

But they reactivate her just in time so that Jim is able to use her hologram powers to manifest. She's able to manifest George Washington, Abe Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt to shame the marauder. Three quarters of Mount Rushmore right there. Thomas Jefferson was too busy to appear in the show. We know what he was doing. These three, this league of hollow presidents charged the burglar, and he locks himself inside the oval office cage for protection. Now, I will say this.

If you're going to get three presidents to help you in a fight like this, these are good guys to do it. I mean, George Washington battle-hardened. I'm sure we'll cover young Washington at some point. It's supposed to be ridiculous. Abraham Lincoln, again. Got a lot of reach. Got a lot of reach, but also like, you know, when he was young,

He was an amateur wrestler, as everybody was in the frontier back then. And Teddy Roosevelt, as we know, amateur boxer, you know, sportsman Hunter. These are three guys who know in the... And he can morph into a bear, right? He can morph into... I mean, George Washington can morph into a bald eagle. Teddy Roosevelt can morph into a bear. And Abraham, of course, can morph into kind of a sad horse.

Then when they combine, of course. Oh, yeah, yeah. They become an eagle horse bear. And all of it can do is roll around going, kill me, kill me. I've seen the substance. So on their drive back from their adventure. Because all presidents get the power to transform into an animal of their choice. On their drive back, the president asks how any of what he just saw was possible.

It's a good question. And Jam reveals her secret to him. At the press conference about his rescue, it looks for a moment like he's going to spill the beans. But, of course, it's a fake out. Unlike our current commander-in-chief, this president is trustworthy. Four more years. And at the Kennedy Center at the concert, Jim and the Hologrands sing freedom about all the great American freedoms we thought were enshrined forever back when this cartoon was made. Yeah.

And finally, we're reaching the end. Backstage. The president offers Jericho the president. How is this show? Is this episode of 50 minutes long? What is going on? Honestly, this thing was so packed. I was like, when I was watching it, I'm like, oh, like 10 minutes from the end, I'm like, oh, this has got to be a two-parter.

And then it just packed in the incident. I spent, not to brag, I spent a lot of my time in edit rooms trying to get episodes down to size. They must have been, they must have been squeezing whatever they could out of this thing to get it to get it down to. It is amazing. Like, as someone who, you know, has been trying to write scripts and, like, struggling with, like, how do all these shows I love pack so much story into such a small, like, you know, Jim? I got to give it.

It's laurels. It's great at this stuff. I will say this, Dan, here's part of the secret. When you're watching TV show, what's the missing element you don't have when you're on a script? Performance. Yeah. You can get a lot across with performance.

And that means you can cut dialogue. It means you can save time. That's a little tip from one who knows. Wink. The more you know That was a different one, right? Oh. It's a different thing.

Wait. And now you know? And knowing it's half the bow. Knowing's half the bow. No one time. I mean, they're all things that exist. They're all things. That's the beauty of it.

They're all things. Everything everywhere all at once. Okay. Well, final paragraph of this episode synopsis backstage. This is the longest mini. The president. And it's about Jim and the holograph. The president offers Jerica.

We did an episode with Alonzo Doralee about queer representation and film, and it is not as long as our gem and the hologram tour to force. In some ways, isn't this also a pride episode? Dan's pride and his knowledge about Gem and the holograms. Continue, please. Backstage, the president offers Jerica the Presidential Medal of Honor. And Jerica says... Highest civilian award, yeah.

Jerica says... Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest one, I guess, yeah. If anyone deserves a medal, it's synergy. What? And the president, to his credit, does not go, she's a computer, you idiot? He just promises that the next time that she visits Washington, Synergy will be treated with the utmost respect,

which causes synergy to manifest as a projection outside the computer. And she says, that's the best news I've heard all week. And the three of them share a good laugh. Wait. And that's the end of the episode. I can only imagine that they were so spent from having to come up with this story that they did not have any energy left for an actually funny last line. I don't know.

It was pretty funny when I was watching it. That's the best news I've heard all week. You would think the president would have a heart attack instantly when a woman jumped out of a computer. So I hope, guys, that, number one, I hope that now you understand a little bit more about Jeremy the hologram. Oh, yeah. Anything I understand less, I feel like.

Yeah. It's really news you can use for sure, yeah. You understand my strange affection for this show and why if I come home late at night, this is the thing that I'm like, I'm going to put an episode of GM on. You know what, Dan, I do understand that more. You've talked about Gem and the holograms a number of times in our private life. And I've always been like, is it time to talk about putting Dan in a home? Yeah, I was going to say, yeah.

But now I kind of get it. Now I kind of get it, yeah. At least I've gotten that far. Hey, this is a show that is part of a network. If they don't kick us out for this one, yeah. Network is called Maximum Fun. If you go to Maximum Fun.org, you can check out the other great shows on this network. And you know what?

This show is only possible because we have the support of people who have gone to maximum fun.org and become members and. keep supporting us. So thank you to all of those. And I want to say thank you to our producer, Alex Smith. He goes by the name Howell Doughty. And he'll be joining us. He'll be joining us. In September in Louisville, Kentucky. Go to Blophousepodcast.com slash events. If I seemed a little slow on the talking there for a second, I was trying to pull up. in the past I recently plugged the Discord

because there's a great community of people over on the Discord if you want to maybe abandon some of the social media sites that have gotten unpleasant of late but you still like hanging out with Flop House folks the Discord might be a good option for you

and that is last name withheld.com if you want to check that. that out. You can be a Discord member. I want to mention because I rarely do that we have a newsletter called FlopSecrets. If you go to Flophousepodcast.com, you can sign up for the newsletter. You can get stuff like the news of, say, a Louisville, Kentucky show as well as, you know, a little extra writing from me, Dan McCoy of the Flop House every other week. Yeah. But, you know, that's enough plug-in, especially for a really long episode. I've been Dan McCoy.

I'm still Stuart Wellington after all these years. I'm Elliot Kalen, or perhaps you know me better as, Gem. Wink! What? Wow. Maximum Fun. A worker-owned network. Of artists-owned shows.

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