The Ringer-Verse - 'Invincible' Return, the 'Barbie' Snub, and the Kids Cartoon Royal Rumble | The Midnight Boys

Episode Date: January 25, 2024

The boys are back to give you the latest and greatest in the world of fandom. They talk about the streaming landscape and how the return of 'Invincible' may be a symptom of the Streaming Wars (09:13). Then Charles and the gang weigh in on the 'Barbie' Oscar snub and what that means for franchise stories (34:01). Later they battle it out over their favorite children's cartoons with the Kids Cartoon Royal Rumble (52:25). Hosts: Charles Holmes, Van Lathan, Jomi Adeniran, and Steve Ahlman Senior Producer: Steve Ahlman Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal Social: Jomi Adeniran Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Did Don Draper really buy the world of Coke? Did Tony Soprano really die? Or just order more onion rings? The finales of our favorite shows can make us argue, make us cry, and make us crazy. From Spotify and the Ringer, I'm Andy Greenwald, and this is Stick the Landing, a new podcast where we'll be telling the story of modern TV backwards, one fade out at a time. Find Stick the Landing on Wednesdays on the prestige TV feed, on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulceries, cognitive colitis symptoms, every choice matters.

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Then you'd want a cargo liner. Or a road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips. Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those weather tech seat protectors. So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. You don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. Welcome to the ring of the weather. This is of course the ringer's nexus podcast feed for all things fandom.

We are Jomey, Explaner, a dinner on your questions. We are. Steve, the architect, almond, the builder and tinker of things.

We are. Old man, Van, he of the receding resurgent hairline. We are Coke, baby, Chuck, the 24-carric clothes.

And together, we are known as of our midnight boys. Follow some socials. It's the Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Joe Me's job.

Jomi. What's up? Update us. What's going on over in the Twitterverse? Twitter sphere. Oh, man, it's great. We got a retreat from Star Wars

on Monday. It was pretty cool. You know, Star Wars Park with us? I'm saying. And, hey, we got some cool video coming out for y'all.

Right after this, we're going to film it right after this recording. So, I mean, y'all are going to see it later. But Midnight Boys, we find out, you're going to get some good cracking for you. He's putting the commitments on wax.

I'm saying, I'm just, yeah. It's like, people are going to hear it. Was Jomey being a little nut-huggerish? A little dick-riding, right? What are you talking about? It was cool.

Shout out to us. A little bit of a dick-rime. We love Star Wars, but come on, man. You asked me what happened on socials. I was like, I haven't like you been here before. We don't. It's not the first time, but I'm just like, hey. We don't get excited about a retweet for Star Wars.

I do because what it does. You see what they retweeted. It was the bad, it was the bad. The moment, the moment that, that Jomey did that, me and Charles looked at each other. Like, made straight eye contact. Hold on. Like, that doesn't feel right.

It was the, I'll tell you what it was. It was the bad batch trailer. I tweeted. I was like. So it was just promo. It was just promo. But it's cool, man. It's good for me.

Oh, man. It's good for me. We can't do it like that. You absolutely can. Look. Look, look, see, because y'all are not in this space. Y'all just do social media for fun. You see what I'm saying?

This pays my bills. You understand what I'm saying? I take all the wins I can get out here in these streets. It's hard. So what is a reason? treat from Star Wars mean for you? I mean, it means that they look at the content and rock the content and Star Wars being a huge, like way more than us, fan base.

That means we can expand the Ring ofverse, the Midnight Boys, to other horizons. People who ordinarily might not have known we exist are like, oh, what's the ring of this point into your bank account? Zero. All right, let's keep it moving, man. But one, you know what I'm saying? Like, you got to start with the retweet and then tomorrow. is something else.

You know what I'm saying? Okay. Building blocks. Exactly. To Dick Rodden. Programming. This Monday, Budmash gave you their look at the Prince of Persia. Do you guys remember the Prince of Persia controversy from the movie?

Remember that? Yeah, that Jake Gyllenhaal played him. Yeah. Oh, shit. Jakey did do that shit. Yeah, he is. Jake Gyllenhaal to play the Prince of Persia. That was at the height of the race-swapping controversies that were going on.

it was a bunch of them. It was Jake Gyllen Hall as the Prince of Persia. Then later on, it was Scarlett Johansson, Ghost in the Shell. We should do a show about the best race swat supergars. Yo, February Black History Month, best race swap character draft? It's best race swapped character draft. We should do it.

Of people who've already been swapped. Or who we would like to see swaps. No, already swapped. Already swapped. We should do two. We should do already swapped. And then we should pitch already swapped. best race swapped superheroes.

Make somebody something else. Hell yeah. Let's do it. I'm with it. Fuck it. This Friday, the House of Arr will give you their deep dive into Percy Jackson. Next Monday, Mint Edition returns to give you some of the best comics you should be reading right now. Oh, I'm excited about that. What do you guys have on the dais for that? Should we keep it a surprise?

No, no, no. Let's not keep it a surprise so we can get people a chance to read stuff. We got the Hickman run of Ultimate Spider-Man. Oh, all right. Jesus It's a good run. What are you talking about? Tell the people what you.

No, Charles immediately disappointed. No, man, I'm blocking. What happened? They're not rocking with the Hickman run, apparently. A lot of people are just my baby got, I got notes.

Of course you do. Ultimate Spider-Man. It's been one one comic. One issue. One issue. Yeah, and y'all motherfuckers need to relax. People think that like this is the return of like dark night.

It's a good, okay, it's a good start. We enjoyed it a lot. I recommend the people read it. It's a nice quick read. If you can't get excited for Jonathan Hickman being on something, Chuck, what can you get excited for? Oh, I like Jonathan Hickman. Shout out House of X powers of 10. You just don't like the hype.

You just don't like the- No, I don't like the hype. And I do think it is a little weird that like a motherfucker is like, yo, I'm cooking. I'm about to give you all this middle-aged Spider-Man. I'm like, all right, all right, word. And then I'm like, they're trying to explain that shit. And I'm like, all right, so, you know, spoiler alert.

they like, oh yeah, Iron Man came from the future and he came back to give him a bug and then the bug bit him. And I'm just like, man, we ain't doing like our fucking live love, love fucking Peter Parker at 40 become a Spider-Man. Like, yeah. You pray love.

If you want to hear what Men Edition thinks about the Cullet. Tune it on Monday. That's right. On today's show, we talk about the latest on the return of Invincible. And then we take on

the kids' kids' Cartoon Royal Rumble. This, of course, celebratory because this Saturday, January 27th, the actual Royal Rumble goes down. Yeah. I'll tell you guys, I've been boning up on past Rumbles,

and I saw maybe the funniest clip I've ever seen before. Can you describe it? What year was this? I think it was the Rumble in 2007 or 2008. Okay. I know you guys have heard of this before. This was attitude era? Yes.

Nah, this is after that. After? This is the ruthless aggression era. Okay. I'm pretty sure. Okay, so it's the final two in the Rumble. And I think it's Batista and John Sina. Okay.

Great match. And they both go over the top rope and they land simultaneously. Of course, when you land simultaneously at the Rumble, it is a tie. It's a co-winners. that was not supposed the way it was supposed to happen apparently it wasn't supposed to happen that they were supposed to land at the same time

so Vince McMahon came out of the back pissed right threw his jacket down whole nine because the rest inside they don't know who to declare the winner of the rumble it's really a fuck-up like when you watch the clip

they go over they land at the same time and then Vince tries to jump in the ring slot in the ring to like lay down a lock and he tears both of his quads. Yo! What?

So look, all the wrestling fans that are listening to this are like, you guys, the fact that I was out of wrestling for a long time. So I'm literally watching every rumble ever that I missed. Because I watched them up to a point. I'm watching all the rumbles I missed. When did you break off? Like, what was the...

Probably like 99, 2000. 2001 I might have seen. So 20 years. Yeah. So I'm watching all the rumbulls. the rumbles that I miss, right? Getting back into wrestling. And yesterday I called my man, Cass. Shout out to Cass and everybody over at Ring of Wrestling.

Shout out, shout out to Rosenberg. Shout out to Kyle. Shout out to Shoemaker. Shout out to everybody. I really love listening to your content and it's really helping me get back into wrestling. And I call Cass. I'm like, yo, is this real? Did this really happen? And he's like, bro, it's 100% real. He jumped in there to try to lay down the law. And then he exploded. it's quads. And so then McMahon is sitting on the ring. He's sitting

inside the ring still yelling. Yelling. But just like sat down? Because he can't, yeah. And they're like, I put it on Twitter yesterday. I'm like, you guys, I can't stop watching this. And everybody's like,

man, it's real. They rolled him out to Raw in a wheelchair for months after that. He tore both quads. I tore both quads. I watched it so many times this thing. I'm sorry. Oh, you guys. You got a stretch.

You got a stretch, guys. Gotta stay limbo. It's tough, man. Let's get into it. Now, the return of Invincible and the streaming content wars, the Midnight Boys, you guys,

we were perplexed and aghast. I wasn't, but the rest of the midnight boys. No, you were. Once you realize it was only four episodes when I realized it was only four episodes, maybe so it's crazy. But the announcement of Invincible's return

in mid-March, it's now, there's a legitimate discussion about, like, was it too long to wait for another season of television. Like, how do we feel about the release day for these final four episodes?

Man, it's tough. This would be, what, three years since the first one, first premiered? It's, it's, animation takes a long time. I don't want to minimize that. It does take a while to get,

especially that the level of quality content of Invincible is giving us. But, man, three years for 16 episodes, that's, that's tough, man. I don't know. I don't know what else to say. That's tough. It's a momentum killer.

I'm like, come on. Like, four episodes, I'm supposed to get, by the time I get re-excited about Invincible coming back, that shit will be over. And then we're waiting for like another two, maybe three years. They have said that, like, they are making sure that there's not as long of a wait for the seasons.

But there is a level of them like, so we're going to do like four weeks of Invincible. And that it's like, all right, cool. Well, that's it. Come back for season three. Yes, the timing sucks and the production pipeline that we're kind of used to when it comes to animated shows is not exactly what we'd like it to be. But it's weird because you pair it with streamers themselves having their own sort of drop model. We have the binge model at Netflix.

We have this weird like three episode drop for Amazon for their high profile shows and then weekly afterwards. Sometimes it's a full season, sometimes it's a half season. Sometimes it's all different things. it's very inconsistent. And sometimes we feel like it might be indicative of the actual production process that goes in with it because it was a long gestating second season that we're like, hey, we really want to make sure that this second season looks good. This studio wants to make sure that they're up to par with all these things.

And it's not to say that they're slacking over there or like they're cobbling it together very frantically. But it's more of the fact that like it really does kill the momentum when we wait for this long for a second season and then nearly half a year for the second half. And it's not the best idea. So I guess this is my thing with it. Number one, what I wonder about is whether or not Invincible, which is a show that we all love. Right.

If Invincible is like even an important enough show to care too much about this, you know? I don't think it is. And so, and then two things. I wonder that to even like waste the. emotion to get mad. I understand people being disappointed. And the second thing is this. Just with the production schedule of all of this stuff, you have to look at a couple of

things. Number one, this kind of shows to me the priority that Amazon and some of the other producers put on the show because it's probably not the cash cow to where it would be a drop everything for the people involved,

right? Stephen Yun during the time that all of this has happened has become an extremely hot and in-demand act and because of that, there were probably a bunch of different projects. I'm not sure it probably wasn't that labor intensive for him. He's just got to voice it, right? But there's probably a bunch of things in between here

that he had to go do. It just seems to me that this says more about where they think the show is than our anticipation of it. Like, they probably don't look at this show as something that is just ridiculously important to have on their platform. I'd be interested to know,

how many people watch Invincible What Invincible does for Amazon I mean they would never do this with the boys right The boys the fan base is So rabid for what's gonna happen next That they're actually getting that show out More regularly than almost any other superhero Content that's coming on TV the boys

With spin-offs As equal quality I'll say Some would say better Like if you go So look so look I mean I'm the big I'm the biggest fan of the boys universe and everything that they're doing over there.

I'm saying the first season of Jim V is amazing. Yeah. It's not better than the best of the boys, but it's up there. It's very close, right? So I don't know, man. It's like, it's a month and a half away.

The fact that it's only four episodes, it's like whatever, if they fucking take too long to come back, they'll kill their show. So let me ask you this. So we were debating in the ringer versus group chat. So we're on opposite polls,

Van. I think that streaming... Whoa. All right. Jesus. I have to be able to... Oh, do you? Oh, do you now? Anyway, finishing my... We both on a poll?

Oh, anyway. Both of us? Shit. Okay, go ahead. All right. I mean, if there are any women who would like to throw some change, my way, you know, I can do it with a step.

You know what I'm saying? Take Charles shopping. is what he's saying. Yeah, you know, but we were debating, Van, about I feel as if the streaming economy kind of killed the superhero five years early. Like, Disney, how much Disney Plus is kind of messed up the Marvel brand, all of these shows having to be rushed out when they're not ready, just giving us superhero content every single week.

Like, I do think it's, I do think that superhero, the stuff we are getting, whether there was Star Wars, MCU, whatever. It went from being an event where it's like two to three times a year. Almost everybody goes to the movie theater. We're sitting down. Either you love it or hate it, but you're like, okay, I have to talk about it.

And now it's become a thing where it's like, this shit is just like everything else. And sometimes it's a lot worse. And I think it has pushed the general person out. I think it's a kind of twofold. Well, it kind of made a perfect storm because when you talk about like the eve of the Disney Plus

streaming era for the ramping up of Marvel post end game you have all of these streaming these streamers like trying to make their own

like flagship content to attract our attention then you have COVID on top of this where they'll just like steamroll and make sure that we have the most biggest backlog

the most content that you possibly have and then it's compounded four years now on it seems to be like kind of just like all right well why can't we hold all these lines? Why can't we just carry all of this stuff that we're

trying to make happen? And it's clearly a bad investment, or at least it's not getting the return on investment that anybody thought that it would be. And now it's like kind of a bit in a rut. I agree. I would even say, I would extend this far as the superheroes. I feel like we're going to talk about the pandemic. The way we talk for streamers, the way we talk about Ronald Reagan for just America and how we go back. Like it just ruined it. pandemic. Well, think about it. Think about how before 2020, yeah, like Disney Plus, Netflix

and Max and Prime, for the most part. Then it was like, oh, you get Peacock. Now you get this. And now... Paramount Plus. Like, all the Apple TV, like all that stuff. And now we're looking around. It's like there's so much of those streamers and they're not producing quality content. And that bubble's already starting to burst. Right. And so

like streaming as a whole is on its way. like we're talking like is paramount going to make WB oh because Max has got to make cuts Paramount Plus can barely support itself like the whole thing is come employing on itself and for Invincible specifically if you want to keep

a platform alive shows like that got to come out semi regularly at least these fans can get excited and be ready to watch something and so for this thing to only come out what four episodes in November and then four episodes of March and then who knows for the future it's kind of like right can't do that

There's no doubt about the fact that the streamers are good for content. There's just so many shows that you're watching right now that you would not be watching if not for the streamers. These shows aren't going on network. And even if they do go on network, they're going to get buried. You're not going to be able to find them. I would say this.

Marvel particularly recognized early on that they were going to have to have some TV presents. They wanted to be able to carry their stories on, but they didn't want to necessarily have to do it in movies all the time. So you saw that, right? We saw this before. Agents to Shield came out. Then they announced the humans as a movie and then put it on television.

Marvel was going to do television in some sort of way. The question was, were they going to be able to do television with the budget constraints of network TV? Or were they going to go premium? The streamers are the perfect place to do superhero content if you do it well, right? It's the perfect place. You can get massive budgets that were inflated by the streaming wars. and then you can do characters that are more niche, right? I want everyone to think about what you wouldn't be getting

if there weren't streamers. If there was no Netflix, blue-out samurai just is not going to come out. Mando's not coming. Yeah, Mando's not coming. This stuff is not coming out. So we're talking about the same thing, but we're also talking about kind of two different things

because what you're talking about, the consolidation of the streamers is already always going to happen. It's a bubble. It's going to happen, right? They're going to consolidate because, people, now that the world is open again, they just don't have as much time to choose between a bunch of different streamers that they only got based upon a couple of different IPs. So if you want to watch Star Trek, you have to get Paramount.

Well, that means that they have to make the best Star Trek stuff every single month, or that's not going to be valuable to you, right? If you want to watch Marvel, then you have to have Disney Plus, which means they cannot miss. in order for you to justify paying even a little bit extra for the content that you're getting from them, they have to produce high-quality MCU stuff. That's why Netflix wins because they have the most diverse stuff on there. Follow the House of Usher, Blue Eye Samurai,

you can come back and you can get fucking squid games, you can get Bridgeton. They have the most cachet of stuff. So it's definitely good for content. The streamers shows they're being made that would have never been made, stories are being told that would have never been told if not for the streamers needing the content. The question is

two, how much content do we need? Do we need? Right? So ask yourself when you're excited about the fucking Firestar Limited Series. All right. Just ask yourself if we need it. Ask yourself when they want to do Rino

six episode. Limits do we need that? That's number one. That's them at some point telling you that every story is a good story. And then secondly, how many streaming services do you need? Like, why do you really want it? Like, do you really want it because there is varied, amazing, high-quality stuff? Or are you being resold your childhood by some of these places?

Like, you want to relive MTV and the Jersey Shore and all of that stuff? For a lot of people right now that have all of these different things, I just don't think it's worth it to them. But I don't think that the streamers have necessarily been bad for superhero content. It's not bad. I think they just sped up a process that was already happening where it's like, I think, you know, the execs at Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, like, yo, people can't get enough of the MCU. People can't get enough of Star Wars. They're going to want it every single week in their homes.

And I think they're learning, oh, no, there was an upper limit to how much the general populace wants Marvel in their life. They might not want Marvel in their life every week of the year. Right. But it's also like compounded by an ecosystem that's constantly shoving like what is supposed to be the best and most exciting and flashiest thing at us to keep us in our seats and with our attention. And that was easier during COVID and that was able to incubate over that time to be like, all right, well, we're not going. We're like, this isn't going away. And now that we're four years after this, it's. It's not really holding on to that.

It's a macro thing. The same way we're talking about the streamers and the television shows are the same way these corporations are going. Again, 2020 was cooking. We're like, ah, this is great, making all this bread. You pull back four years and everybody's making cuts. Everybody's like, how we got to raise prices because it's not happening the same way it was going on back then. And so it's to Steve's point. I don't know if they learned our limits as much as they learned.

They learned theirs. Oh, they absolutely did. Yes, definitely. So, 100%, they absolutely overspent. I think they learned their limits. The Marvel fatigue that people are talking about, the superhero fatigue that people are talking about,

it's an overarching thing. It's a wide thing. It's a big, big tub of stuff. But it's also very specific. People aren't as tired of superhero fare as they are fatigued of bad superhero stuff. Right. Of lukewarm

superhero stuff. The cast of the boys right now, that show is re-invigorating and launching careers. Yeah. It is. It's one of the appointment television viewing shows in this genre and exploding outside of the genre, right? People are digging it.

Now, there are good shows that have struggled to find a footing like peacemaker and stuff like that. But I think the need for all of this content and the intersection of commerce and art, particularly surrounding the streaming model, was something that the streamers learned. Disney and Lucasfilm learned that if there's a push-pull between story, right, and sellable toys and characters and branding, then the Star Wars lore is going to suffer. They learn that with Mando.

Marvel learned that the way that they do things is inherently structured, inherently structured to produce less content. Marvel is about, to a degree, Marvel is about less. Because the way that they structured their business, one motherfucker, like, literally has to produce and semi-direct

every movie. Right. And that's the way they came up. Like one guy has essentially produce every, he has the highest usage rate of any film executive in the history of everything.

And he simply cannot fucking do that. You can't do that with two, three movies a year. You can't do that with three movies a year, four TV shows. Right. Spend out. Like, you can't.

You just can't. Maybe for Taylor Sheridan, but not. Well, not even him, really. Right. Because when you look at, And I love all of that stuff. Right.

But like he's pumping it out. But that stuff is starting to... It's watered down a little bit. Yeah, it's starting to water down a little bit. That's just hard. So what I'm saying is Marvel learned, and I don't know how they didn't know this, but they learned what their limitations were.

Yes. More than even learning what our limitations were, I guarantee you right now, if they were feeding us hit after hit, unmissable story after unmissable story, after unmissable story, great new character after great new character,

we'd still be on the tick. Well, that's the thing. Like, they seemingly had that record until end game, until post-end game. So it's what you would behave accordingly. It's what Charles is saying, and on the other side of it, because did streaming,

particularly for the MCU, did streaming ruin the NCU? Yeah, it did. But only because they couldn't, in my opinion, only because they couldn't output the quality that they needed to output at the level that streaming demanded. Not necessarily because they gave us too much content

and we didn't want it anymore, right? Like, not necessarily because of that, it's because they gave us too much content that we didn't want anymore. Right. You know what I'm saying? It's like, no, thank you. It's interesting.

Well, I guess this, before we move on to the Royal Rumble, what's the fix? Because they'll never go back to how they were before. No. it'll never go back to two movies a year and they can't do it. It's too like... Well, they are doing that

kind of now. Nah. Well, they were forced to. No, when X-Men come back, you better believe they... Man, they flood in the zone. Bro, when X-Men come back six episodes, Jubilee. Jubilee definitely got six episodes.

Can you imagine if they try to turn Jubilee into Barbie? They like... Tell me, by the way, by the way, you know what? And here's the thing. If they come up to us right now, right now, six episode Jubilee, bro, I'm sitting down for that. You're a liar, bro.

Please stop the cat. Please stop the cat. That's not. By the way, Jubilee gets hated on. Jubilee is a good character. Jubilee sucks. Bro, I'm sitting down. I'm watching six-episode Jubilee situation.

Not Kitty Pride. We ride. We're Shadow Cat. Shadow Cat would be dope, too. The Shadow Cat. Seriously. These are questions that they're going to have to ask because the X-Men lore is so deep. It's almost like they would have to stop all of Marvel and just make the X-Men universe again.

Because you can make an entire MCU's worth of content just on the X-Men alone. No. We can't do all that. We don't have to do all that, man. But you could. You easily could. Just give me the X-Men movies, bro. I don't need to see Cyclops out doing it as.

own thing. Whoa, we need a Cyclops solo movie. Relax. I don't care that much. I don't care that much. I don't got to be honest with you. I don't care that much about these guys individually like that. Like, put them all together on the team.

Cops, we get a hos. That's why you don't like him. You're a hater. First of all, timeout. My goat is Spider-Man. He'd be on the streets. You feel me? Spider-Man?

Spider-Man not being the streets? Spider-Man got a hell of a... I mean... How many of them are still living? Scott. Oh, wow. Wow. Cyclopsies, Cyclops and shoddies are out here doing business.

But then also, They're also super powerful. I guess Spider-Man's are, too. So who's the Cyclops got? Cylock, Emma Frost. Gene Gray. Gene Gray. Who else?

Madeline Pryor? That's kind of don't count, bro. What are you talking about? She's the goblin queen. She's the goblin. She's the what? She's the what? The goblin.

The evil queen? The eagle queen? The golden queen? That's why she's with her. She's the goblin queen. So Spider-Man. got Black Cat MJ

Gwen Stacy Gwen Stacy Liz Allen Liz Allen Not come on bro Betty Bryant Does Spider Man

ever have Get down with Silver Sable Probably Oh he got He got with Hawkeye Shorty Mockingbird

Mm-hmm Dang yeah Um He y'all side Cyclops' his roster Is way better than Spider Man's Stop

But then Gene got a good roster Gene got Wolvey Wolfie Scott. There's some women that have good rosters, too. Storm.

Oh, Storm guys got the ball. Star Wolverine Wolverine. Black Panther Wolverine, Bishop. Forge. Forge. Forge. Wait, Storm dated Bishop? Yeah, but Storm and Bishop were together for a little while.

Hold on. Let me make sure about that. I thought he was with Ford. She hopes a good roster too, Daredevil. Oh, Sheehog's roster is insane. Shehawks is deep. Daredevil's got a roster. Oh, Daredevil's got a roster.

Oh, wait. All right. Who has a better roster? Daredevil cyclops. Daredevil No She's great in Emma Frost

You could make up people that Daredevil's been with and I'd believe you That's how Wait wait wait wait That's how I'll hear Daredevil Let me tell you how black I am I put Storm and Bishop

together and it never happened Oh Wow Man was reading fan fiction But I don't know why I put them together So they just fucked over So they I think Oh yeah

I remember because he was trying, he was trying to. They flirted with the idea in the 90s, nothing ever came of it. I thought they'd make a cool power couple. He was, he was trying to get with her, but she wasn't fucking with him. He had the Jerry curl. Storm ain't fucking, yeah, no. Storm ain't fucking that.

Also, he was. Mohawk Storm, you're not, no. He was like all broken and damaged. You come from a war-torn future. I'm not dealing with your PTSD. Wait, so are you saying Storm, you know, where she's at in her life, she's not trying to build up a black man anymore. Not at all.

I feel that. She's a queen. She's a queen. Come on. Black Panther was the perfect situation for her. And Black Panther messed it up. He did mess it up. You don't like Black Panther and Storm together?

I think that's a downgrade for Storm if we're being. Like, Tachala don't really get hosed like that. Damn. Wow. He don't. What are you talking about? Like, Tichala is the king? Name Tchala's roster.

I don't know. Storm, right? Exactly. Exactly. That was the main one. Was it? I mean, seeing Ian, some storm like the key? I don't think nothing never happened,

but they flirted, right? Sue Storm and Techalla? Sue Storm and Techala? They didn't flirt a little bit? I don't know. That would, do y'all think Mr. Fantastic is like, Maga?

Here are the, here is, like, Namor shot, shoots his shot once in a many times? So here are the top eight Black Panther love interests. Okay. Nikia. Storm. Yeah. Monica Lynn.

Okay. Nicky Adams Man, you name a some nobodies You're naming nobodies bro Nicky Adams Nikki Adams Nicky Adams Nicky meets the Wakanda Prince

as he is studying in the U.S. After getting a job at the U.S. State Department She goes on a day He was a milk merchant in college? Yeah, Nicky's child's relationship is important because it helps address the issue of racial discrimination

What? What? No, we got out of book club We got to read this year, bro. Okay, hold on. Lisa Hendrix. This is another white woman. Lisa Hendricks and the Earth 2149 version of Chichala pair up during the Marvel zombie storyline.

They not only have a son named Tachana, but they rule over Wakanda together. Lisa and Tachala's relationship is defined by more melancholy than happiness since they live in a zombie infested world. So let me make sure that this person is white, because if you're telling me that this little... She's running around They got a little half panther Out there A little half panther right there Nah

She's definitely white A light skin Panther Is crazy She's definitely white Nah bro She's definitely white They got black

Panther on Demon Time hold on Let's see Malika Her hopes Tichala Open his heart again Janine

Salvage Savich I don't know who this is Yeah he named a bunch of Who I told I told you all black

And number one, hold on, hold on, number one, number one, we forgot about Monica Rambo. Oh, okay. If we're going to be real, if we're going to be real, this is how racist comics are. You know, there's not a lot of black women in comics. So Monica Rambo, if you are a black character, you know, you've dated Monica Rambo.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah, so Monica Rambo got a crazy roster. Her roster is crazy. So this Janine Savage, a she white. So Black Panther, three white women. That's what the fuck I'm talking? Jomi, Jomi, shaking his head over there. He's like,

Relax. Relax. I've, no. Are you African? No, it's not. It's not the same. It's not the same. We joke, but like the, like, the OG, or not the OG, but the poster war right now for this is a war machine.

War machine and Captain Marvel. Yeah. Machine Captain Marvel. This episode is brought to by Nass Energy. Introducing new Nass Energy Grand Prix Guava for those that want to be fueled up and fired up with a hundred-pound-hour tropical tasting power. Ignite your taste, start your engine. shift your flavor to high gear with new Nass Energy Grand Prix Guava. Hit the street, grab a can and get after it.

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Get 20% off your first purchase at Viori.com slash Simmons and discover the verse subtility of Viori clothing. Exclusions apply, visit the website for full terms and conditions. This episode is brought to by Paramount Plus. Beth and Ripp are back in a new series, Dutton Ranch. Kelly Riley and Colehouser returned, and this time they're taking on Texas. As Beth and Rip build a future together, peace will have to wait as they face corruption, danger, and a ruthless rival ranch willing to protect its secrets at all costs. Legacy is a beautiful thing, but only if it survives. Dutton Ranch starring

Colehauser Kelly Riley Annette Benning and Ed Harris now streaming on Paramount Plus. All right, Charles, before we get into the Royal Rumble,

get your, your Oscars takeoff. Yo, Steve, why me? Why me? Your people are going. Nots, bro.

Hillary Clinton is out there. You know what I'm saying? Acting like, it's a travesty. There's fucking genocide's going over here. And motherfuckers want to to talk about. Oh, Margo Robbie and Greta Gerwig didn't get enough Oscars. The best picture

non wasn't enough. Adapted screenplay, not enough. Guys, there are people making history. Women, women of color, indigenous women make a history at the Oscars. And I got to hear about this white feminism nonsense. Are we serious? Come on. Come on. Here's a thing. Here's a thing. Y'all motherfuckers when we was doing the midnight meter for Barbie was looking at me crazy and I was like, yo, guys, I think history ain't going to look on this shit finally because, you know, I think white people have a tendency to lose their goddamn minds. And that shit is happening. That is true.

That is true. Am I, guys, am I being a hater? You're not being a hater, but I did think of something else. You're not being a hater because Hillary Clinton weighed in and it was like, all right, man. you know what I'm saying? Come on, man. But this is what I will say. When I thought about this a little deeper, this is all I will say.

Number one, I know a lot of women, even Kalika, was like, it is kind of fucked up that the movie seems to be getting, it seems like Ryan Gosling and some of the other men involved in the movie or seem to be getting as much or more recognition than Margot Robbie and Critic Curway. I don't think it's just white women but I think there are a lot of women who feel like that particularly with the aim and the goal of the movie.

It would be like as if what's your man who plays the CIA agent? Martin Freeman. Martin Freeman? Yeah, Martin Freeman. It would be as if Martin Freeman was nominated for Black Panther. Just think about the carnage. You know?

Because of the aim of Black Panther. I'll say this though. I think when I thought about it, because you raised the point, and I hope people understand like how historic, and what it means for Lily Gladstone's nomination for Killers of the Flower Moon. It's very important.

But I think what I thought about is that, you know, in the Barbie movie, Ken actually steals the movie. Right? Yes. So it's actually, his part is actually written in a way that he's better in the film. It's a better part. Like, it's a more, and that to me. me is interesting. It's interesting that

Barbie is a movie that affirms something, but it's also a reaction to something. And the reaction to what it is intoxicated us. Like Ken's toxic maleness, his riding on a fake horse, his watching of the godfather, his Mojo-Jozzo Kasa housing, all of that

stuff to us was more compelling. And that is interesting. to me. When I thought about it, it's interesting to me that like the funniness, either the funniness of excoriating masculinity or holding it up to some light and disinfecting, disaffecting it,

or just indulging into it kind of became the prevailing narrative for a lot of people coming out of the movie, other than the movie's question about what it means to be a woman,

femininity, and female empowerment. It's almost as if people made the decision that it's more fun to make fun of men than it is to empower women. And I'm not saying that they try to do that. It happened almost on accident and that like

myself included and that like kind of says a lot about us right? And our society a little bit. I also think it just says like maybe we should not be getting our politics from mass entertainment toy commercials. Like it's if we're being real, because like

Like, we got to, you guys got to stop being babies and let the jingling keys like fucking fuck your whole head up. Like, y'all telling me that past lives, poor things, you know, shout out Randolph from her best supporting actress nom for holdovers. Like, there are so many women that were celebrated this year in like high art. And I think it's okay for us as a society to be like, yo, Barbie's win is that that shit made a billion dollars. Margot Robbie is like the biggest, if not the biggest.

star in the planet. Greta Gerwig is going to be able to film whatever she fucking wants. That's the goddamn win. Like, the Oscars is for rewarding art. And I'm not saying that Barbie isn't art. I'm just saying that, like, hey, there are a lot of women who made a lot of great art this year that's talking about the things in a way deeper context

and a more nuanced context than the children's movie. And I don't know. Maybe we should support that. I get it. I think, and you didn't like, Barbie that much. I liked Barbie, but it's also a children's movie. What are we doing? It's interesting, because you're right. Especially poor things, a lot of that stuff. Like, all kinds of things with women.

A lot of the more compelling performances are you from women. This is why I think the power of Barbie was. I think the power of Barbie was it was so accessible. Like Barbie is like, it does something. To who? To women.

to people. I mean, what type of... What fuck you mean? What type of women? All women. It's a Barbie doll. All right.

If I'm gonna be on my real radical shit, go for it. I do think, like, when I watch Byrd, I was like, I do think the danger of this is is that, like, yes,

I do think it is very, very important because the reality is we do not get enough blockbusters made by women, starring women for women. I want that.

But because we don't get enough, when we see Barbie, Barbie has to be everything. Barbie has to work for kids, it has to work for adults. You have to get your feminism in there. You need to teach them all these lessons. All of that is great. But at the end of day, Margot Robbie is one of the most beautiful women on the planet.

She fits into what the world, the Eurocentric beauty standards that are thrust upon us, right? So does nobody see it, I don't know, being a little weird, that the billion-dollar movie starring one of the most beautiful blonde-haired blue-eyed women on the face of the planet, is taking up oxygen from women of color. You know what I'm saying? Like, past lives is an amazing movie. Like, at a certain point, why does the billion dollar movie

have to be the most nominated movie? Well, it does, okay. So- Do you think Jody Foster in Nyad did a better job than Greta Gerwig? Like, that's what, like, that's my point. Who, it's once again, like, it's at a certain point, like, this is, this is the Oscars.

You know what I mean? So I understand what you're saying, the theme of what you're saying, I get it, right? I do think, though, that it is maybe a little short-sighted to reduce Barbie to that criticism in terms of Margot Robbie. Margot Robbie is Barbie in the movie, but the movie goes through an absolutely ridiculous, to include everyone into the story of Barbie and for there to be Barbies of all shapes and sizes, things like that. And the reason why I think Barbie in and of itself is important

is because of the ubiquity of the character, the ubiquity of Barbie, right? It's a symbol, right? It would be like asking yourself, what does Superman mean right now? Like when we talk about Superman, what does Superman represent right now? And how do you take a character that's so intrinsic ingrained into Americana and really into the world and then, like, give it a contemporary spin where people feel included?

And what does it mean to want people to feel included to something that maybe wasn't, idea, wasn't engineered for them, wasn't thought of for them at first? And Barbie is a white lady's doll. But then over time, she starts to represent all kinds of stuff, right? Starts represent women in the workplace. There's black Barbies. And every time there is a different sector of people, a different type of woman feels like they're a part of whatever it is that Barbie is asserting. So I think everyone took ownership of the movie.

Not everyone. I know black ladies don't give a fuck about that shit. But I know white ladies don't give a fuck about that shit. But everyone took ownership of the movie. Everyone took ownership of it. I'm not saying that only white women connected to Barbie. I'm like a lot of people connected. That's what I think is the power of that.

But I don't want what happened to Black Panther to happen to Barbie. and it's happening all over again, which is, you know, we get excited, Black Panther. We see our cell, black people see themselves on the screen. And a couple years later, if we ask ourselves, how many more Black Panthers have we gotten? How many more Ryan Couglas have we gotten?

How many movies made by and for black people on that level have we gotten? None because the way Hollywood is set up to work is like, yo, Margo, Robbie Greta, they'll be able to make their movies. Are we going to get more Blockbusters? starring women, we're putting money in women's pockets? Probably not because the women that are being celebrated at the Oscars right now are getting overshadowed by the behemoth that is, you know, the Mattel movie.

Well, okay, a couple of things about Black Panther. You know, Black Panther is an interesting case study in this. Because let's be honest about Black Panther. Black Panther is not Black. The iteration of Black Panther that we got was Black. Black Panther is invented by a couple of white guys, right? We've talked about this before. The reality is this.

The most important thing in the world, there's one thing in the world that's more important than anything else, and that's story. Story is the most important thing in the world, in my opinion. By far the most important thing. Everything is a story of something.

Everything is. Politics is the story that they're telling you about the way government works. Science is the story that they're telling you about how your natural world works. History is the story

that they're telling you about how you got here. religion is the story that they're telling you about why you matter. Everything is story. The most powerful thing that human beings do to each other is convey story to one another. And the question becomes, how do you take story and empower it and make it something more than just entertainment, make it something that matters to people? And the only way to do that is to put those people in your story. Like, that's the only way to do it, right?

When we talk about history and the way that they're changing history in America, and how they're taking black people out of it, the reason why that matters so much is they're attempting to write the story of America. They're attempting to tell that story without black people being involved in that story. They're saying, hey, slavery didn't happen this way. This didn't happen this way.

Your pain doesn't matter. They're attempting to whitewash and take us out of it. If you take us out of our story, if you take us out of this, like the power of it is going. What's wrong, Jum? Oh, it's probably you. but if you take people out of that then it's going to change

the way they feel participatory whatever it's talking about all Black Panther is is somebody going hey there's me that's all it is it's that simple all Black Panther is is somebody going hey there's me the question to me all Barbie is is somebody looking at the screen and go oh there I am

and when they see that they go oh shit I'm here. I'm real. I exist. All Blue Beetle is is, hey, there's me. All Shangxi is,

look, it's me. Like, when I was a kid, do the right thing, did that for me. I'm like, oh shit. I watched the toy with Richard Pryor, right? And they filmed it in Baton Rouge.

And I'm looking at the state capital. I'm like, oh, shit. I exist. Like, people know that I'm here, right? Like, there's me. There's a power in that affirmation. Right. And so what I'm saying is, like, coming away from Black Panther,

the question to me isn't really whether or not black people are going to take over Hollywood, right? Or whether or not they're going to be another Black Panther or more Black movies. Because we talked about it on Higher Learning, they put out a bunch of black shows and a bunch of black stuff, and you motherfuckers ain't watching. I'm just going to be for real. All right. I remember that day on Twitter, man. They put out a bunch of stuff and y'all didn't watch it, bro. They canceled a bunch of stuff.

like I'm looking at right now the color purple did you go see color purple Charles right so let's say so wait so wait so wait

so wait so wait they put a lot they put out a bunch of stuff y'all niggas they watch it so it's not really about that it's not about defending yourself whoa whoa but if we're being real

if we're being real they put out a lot of white shit that motherfuckers don't don't watch but but my but my follow up to that is see white shit ain't held to the same standard. Black people got to go

out and support everything that's black. You know, you got a lot of shows on HBO motherfuckers ain't watching, but people are like, but it's art so that's important. And black and black entertainment, entertainment for women, Asian entertainment is not like, we don't get that shot. Okay, we're doing a midnight man episode

right now because we got to get to a real rumble, but I will say this. Can we have a black succession is my question? Well, I'm asking you is what I'm saying is this. If it's a cultural question, then let it stay cultural. If it's an artistic question, let's talk about art. Like, I had somebody on Twitter. They said, I saw a tweet, and they

said, they were talking about Succession or whatever, and they said, I should have to think. God bless this person. And they go, man, Succession copied Empire. It ain't nothing but Empire. Empire is and I was like, hey man, I love you.

Sister, don't you fucking ever. Okay? I love you, sister. Why don't you letting this queen talk? Get her shit off. I appreciate the fact that she feels that way. She's not to say,

can we have a black secession? Yeah, but let me ask you a question. I'm not even talking about the art of succession. I'm like, when I say a black succession, can we have a show that is able to exist multiple shows because as a society, we're like, this art is important even if it is not the biggest thing.

And it's like, generally speaking, maybe we get one or two of those black shows every couple of years, but what do the execs say? The execs are like, well, y'all didn't support the black shit, y'all didn't support the women's shit? Like, look at how many Marvel,

bad Marvel movies do we get starring white men that don't make any shit and nobody cares until they start popping. Thor? Fair point. This is what I said. The last thing here is, the last thing I'll say it is, is when you're talking about demographics, there's differing levels of what's, quote, unquote, not successful. So, succession being not successful,

for the audience. For the audience, not the whole. Yeah. For the audience that would be supporting succession, it's just a way larger trough of people than what it would mean for a black should not be successful because the pot of interested parties is smaller. So succession's not successful.

It's probably going, because it's for a white mainstream audience is a lot bigger than I don't know any of the shows. Rap shits not successful. Rap shits not successful is boarding on a couple

hundred thousand people watching it, sometimes 80 to 100. By the way, this is not me dissing rap shit. I'm just saying, we would have to be intentional about supporting rap shit from a cultural standpoint if we wanted rap shit to be viable

if the show did not catch on and go mainstream. So all I'm saying is this. It's okay to care about being seen and being represented. It's okay to care about that. It's okay to care about when a movie that had a specific impetus to put you out there doesn't get recognized. But it's also okay to just ask very simple questions. It is a stacked Oscar year.

Yeah. Stacked. Like a stacked Oscar year. And Barbie also has a stacked Oscar year. It's competing in best picture. Greta Gerwood got a screenplay nomination. America Ferreira got best supported. I said something about the Nyad thing.

Nyad is an abomination, and I can't understand what happened with the Nyad thing. I really don't get it. But I really don't get the Nyad thing. I watch Nyad. You know what Nyad is like? And Ferrari was like this too. Both Nyad and Ferrari to me,

or like Vinnie Chase is Pablo Escobar. You know what I mean? I've seen Ferrari and yeah. That's true. Those movies are like movies inside of other shows. Yes, it's the fake movie that you watch. The fake movie that you're watching, it's like movies inside of other shows

when people are talking about that it's like laughably bad, like laughably whack. Like it's laughably whack. Penelope Cruz was all right, but like, oh, man. Yeah, like Ferrari was not it. To me, like Ferrari, like those movies so, but it's a stacked Oscar year, like stacked. All right, we've talked enough. That was a Midnight Men.

It was a Midnight Men episode. I like that. I like that. Midnight Men episode. Now it's time to get back to the Midnight Boys, Charles. In honor of the Royal Rumble happening this weekend, we were inspired to make our own Royal Rumble. The Midnight Boys are to, our. going to be giving you their own kids cartoon battle royale here is how it will go down the royal

rumble will consist of three rounds solo duo and teams during each round order will be chosen randomly each midnight boy in that order will bring forth their pick into the ring they will then debate who they think will win and then finally we will leave it up to you the listener now let me be clear going to walk us through this this royal rumble we are talking about kids cartoon who can win in combat. Not who's more popular, but who has the combative strength to reign Supreme. Is that

correct? I don't, I didn't think we were doing that. I judge this on who will make the best wrestler. Yes, that's combat. Who would make the best I'm going on who got the, who the most powerful character is. Isn't that, but isn't that, that's combat that's, who's the? I just have to say, we could do it however you want to do it and we should keep all of this in because this is

very funny. We should do this how, we can do however I want to do it, but the reality is, normally when we do stuff like this, we don't really compare who would win in a fight. Because if that's the case, then my Blue Marvel team from back in the day, you should have won because I kicked this shit out of all of you guys. We usually don't do that, but this is the Royal Rumble.

They're battling. But the power of the character is what will throw you out. The power, the cultural power? The cultural power? No. Oh, wow. All right. We're doing cultural power? So what you're saying is, like, I don't mean to take these characters off the the deck, but you're saying in this

Royal Rumble, like Space Ghost would beat Mickey Mouse. That's fucking nuts. That is the point. Does Mickey Mouse have a way like this? I'm willing to do that. Mickey Mouse would drop his mouth dick on Space Ghost

Space Ghost can't come A lot of words there. Space Ghost can't come close to being as powerful. By the way, we're talking about Steamboat Boat Willie Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse ain't been in the gym. That rat is fucking fat. Hey, shit.

Space Ghost is Molly walking. I'm going along with you guys. And by the way, this means if I bring, because, see, the thing is, my age means that I can bring up niggers that are super powerful that y'all won't know who they are. Fine.

Go in your bed. It's fine. Oh, you're probably like Paul Bunyan? Paul Bunyan. I'm talking about other niggas. I'm talking about like speed of the wolf. Speed of the cheetah. Y'all don't know these people. Thunder cats. Nope, no, y'all don't know who I'm talking.

See, the fact that I just said, eyes of the wolf and y'all don't know who that is. Dire man, strength of the bear. No. The fact that I just said that and y'all don't know what that is, you're putting words together. It's people right now. Screaming.

Just you know who I'm talking about. Screaming at the strength of the bear. Like when that, like, the speed of the cougar. People, people know who I'm talking about right now and y'all don't know who I'm talking about. Speed of the, speed of the Puma. Are we talking about Brave Star? Sheriff motherfucking Brave Star.

And y'all don't even. even know who Sheriff Bravestar is. Nope. It's a Native American sheriff that has the strength of all the animals. Y'all don't even know who that is. No.

You pick him, man. That's all you, man. No, see? But see, yo. How can we fucking... You think these dudes? Wait, wait, wait, wait. That's his fucking...

Hey, man, they'll make fun of his fucking horse, dog. This horse looks like Rick Flair. What are you talking about? So you diss the horse and you almost Rick Flair tune? God. Dude, what's the opposite

to play the drums? Like, what would be... what's a white person? Play the guitar, Steve. That's crazy. But see how y'all hate on Sheriff Bratstar. It's my point. Okay, let's go.

We'll do it, but we'll do it in the real combat way. But, but here's the thing. It's hard, though, because we don't know about Sheriff Bratford. So you bring him to the table. I don't know his combat. I'm unfamiliar with your game. This is why y'all are not actually even qualified to be in this driving.

because especially if we do it that way because if we do it that way now we got to do it this right now you know I mean niggas I could bring up that y'all don't fucking know them that's gonna be like crazy O-P first round Hong Kong Fooey I'm like dog

I tell them I that's really really crazy with it and y'all don't you y'all never watched them no at what point and let me go spin back them things from the 1970s that's what I'm saying we should just do it based on the cultural part but let's do it that way because this is fun.

Let's do it. All right. Let's go. All right. We're doing solo round, dual round, and then team round. Right. All right. Steve, can you, and basically the rules are,

whoever goes first cannot go first again. Do the randomizer. All right, great. Van, I need you to pick a number one through four. Okay. In the solo category, it was a, man. All right, this was a tie between thinking about who's going to come to the ring.

and who's going to actually cut a good promo and beat everybody else. Okay. I am taking from the animated series, Batman. All right. Come on. All right.

All right. See. Okay. That's cool. All right. Like, you know, man.

Not like, come on, bro. Wait. Kids cartoons. We trying to have fun and muffums. It's fine.

It's overall picked that. It's fine. No. No. That's cool. But this is the way y'all fucked and fucking made the shit. So you see.

You're saying that Batman, you're putting Batman in the ring first in the Royal Rumble. Yes. Yeah. Batman from the Batman animated series. Yes. Okay. Yes. That's dope.

I love Batman an animated series. I feel like Batman is a staple choice. It's a staple character. Who else thinks that Batman is a great choice at number one for Steve? I think in terms of Steve's normal drafting ability, taking Batman first off the board, is a jump in quality, frankly. I thought you would pick. Unprecedented, you might say. I legitimately thought you'd take like a care bear or some shit.

So this is, this means a lot, really. Okay. You're trying this time. Right. All right. So I actually understand the spirit of the Royal Rumble. Okay. Got it.

A mafia ain't going to handle this motherfucker because he has a mullet. Yeah. And he's going to save nature. This was obviously the first pick. Oh, here we go. He's a hero. Captain Planet, bro. I cannot believe.

Okay, great. What? Captain Planet, that's a great... Captain Planet gets busy, bro. He does. Yeah, absolutely. What's Captain Planet's weakness again? Like, does he have a weakness?

It's like pollution, right? No, because he fights pollution. But, like, if you put pollution on him, doesn't he go, like, doesn't he bitch out? It's pollution itself. Yeah, pollution itself. It's literally, it's pollution itself. So, if we're doing this,

if we're doing this in 2024, Captain Planet is fucking cooked, right? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. He breathed air, so he breathed this out. Like Captain Planet. Batman's hitting you with a carbon footprint. Yeah. To the face.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Batman would fuck up Batman animated series. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Batman is a great polluter about it. Oh, yeah. That's a nigga got so much. By the way, he's driving the Batmobile into the ring. Yeah, think about the Tumblr.

Captain Planet. I love Captain Planet. I mean, shout up to Don Sheel. He takes the bat plane to the venue and then takes the, The Batmobile to the thing How much gas is he really spending it? You guys, might be over. I cannot believe that I'm getting this character at three.

I'm really scared about who you're going to pick because... I am picking motherfucking he-man. What the fuck? Okay. I am picking He-Man. That's good. He-Man's whole move is throwing niggas over the top row. He-Man got that big ass sword.

Right? And he never uses the sword. All he does, people come in He-Man. I remember. I used to come home. Sometimes I'd come home early and either He-Man would come on, go off, and Santa Barbara would come on, or Santa Barbara would come on when He-Man was going off. It would either come on before or after it.

I could remember. I just remember I would hate seeing Santa Barbara come on because it was the stories. I was trying to watch He-Man as a kid. I'm still scarred by it. But I would watch him. I had He-Man. I had Castle Grey Skull. I had Thundercat.

A Lost Thundercat, Catfish Town. 85? Maybe we went to Catfish Town, downtown Baton Rouge. I lost my Thundercat. I looked at my dad. I was like, can we go back and look for Thundercat? I was like, Thundercat, gone, boy. He was like, Daddy, Ty,

we're not going back over here. Can I get another one? No, you can't get another one. You will learn to value things. And I'll never saw Thundercat again. Controversial. Controversial statement. He man basically fucking John Cena with more hair and a cat.

You know what I'm saying? Now, hold on. John Cena. He's our Royals. But, like, He-Man is like, you know. Come on, no. So I looked at the gym a little. I looked up He-Man's weakness.

And he says, Extreme Power becomes a liability as pushing himself too much might force him to lose his superhero nature. The possibility of reverting back to his human form. So... Sometimes he over-exerts. Yes, he over-exerts himself.

He cares too much. Does this also, does this also sexually? Well, that's a different Royal Rumble. Uh-huh. He-man. You guys, I just got to be honest with you guys. I don't want to be a dick about it because we'll talk about this,

but he man is definitely fucking over. Batman's done. I don't think so. Wait, we're just doing, whoa, whoa, whoa, we're not doing, because, to be fair, we're not doing just Batman. This is Batman the animated series.

Right. Right. And he and a Captain Planar are fucking beaten. You know what I'm saying? Batman can do shit. I mean, remember this is no prep time because it's a raw role. You don't know who's coming out.

You don't know who's coming out. So, man comes out, he man sore to the side of the face, fuck you know. I don't know. All right, okay, we'll see. We'll see. John me, who you're going. I'm actually going with probably like one of the most powerful

characters in all of anime, just in general, really. Rocking with OG, one of the crates. Bugs Bunny. Oh. See, this is an inspired choice. This is a great choice. I didn't really because I'm curious the thing.

Bugs Bunny, yeah. I really know we were dipping into this. Because let me tell you what Jomey could have done. Right. Since you guys ruined the world. I could have sworn that you were going to pick something else. Jomey could have just gone, I'm picking Superman from Super Friends. And there's no way nobody can get him out of the room. You know what I'm saying?

Like there's no way anyone can get him out of the rain. He could just go, I'm picking Superman for Super. That's not what he did. He picked a character with intense cultural power. Wiley, Bugs Bunny is the Sean Michaels. He's the Sean Michaels. Right. of this.

This is a tough first round. Very tough. Like, Bugs Bunny is an inspired choice. Remember that when he was, like, fighting with the boxer? And he, like, he had, like, the little... Right? Exactly. Outsmarted him.

Right? You always see, like, he got the tune for us, right? He, like, opened a door, go through it. You open the door, hit you in the face, you know what I'm saying? He'll come out and drag. He'll distract you? Exactly, right? How you're supposed to get that man out the ring?

I'll be honest. Everybody went for cartoon staples except for Steve. How was that? Because your shit was kind of... You could have picked Batman from how many different animated things. I thought we were just celebrating our love for, like, you know, the Saturday morning cartoon. That's what I'm talking about. You got to understand.

I'm going to talk about it. And Steve was just like Batman. Like, you know, again, again, like, frankly, Steve before might have went some like a little off the... That's what I wanted from Steve. Like, what was you like Mighty Mouse? I would have been like, oh, Steve's into Mighty Mouse. Oh, yeah. Mighty Mouse is great.

That would have been great. That would be for me. fucking good, but you fucked it up. Right. It's a Dick Tracy. I thought you were. You look like old. I got duo.

Let's do, uh, let's doos to recap solo. We have Batman from the animated series, Captain Planet He-Man, Bugs Bunny. All right. All right. Who's going first, second, third, fourth for duo? Jomi's going first. Jomey's going first. Okay.

Okay. Hmm. Oh, easy. My duo, um, again, reaching way back in the hot tub time machine for this one. Tom and Jerry. God. Damn it. My boy, that's mine.

That's good. Son of a bitch. Yeah. Come on. Come on. That was literally what I was going to do. Yeah. That's good.

I mean, that's, I mean, if there's duo's up there, you got to take them. Gotta, got to, got to have it. Yeah. I was tripping. I was looking at my list. I was like, oh, that's total list. Got to go there. Gotta go with Tom and Jerry, man.

Oh, one of the greats, or both of the greats, really. Tom can be a little silly, but Jerry always holds it down. You know what I mean? So I feel like I got a great guy shot. I know y'all got to pick y'alls, but I'm rocking with Tom and Jerry on this one. But Tom and Jerry is a good pick because it's also like they sow their own chaos in the ring, and you can't really keep track of them both. The reason I don't actually think it's like on paper it's a good choice,

but when we're talking about teamwork of a duo, they don't get along. They don't get along. You know what I'm saying? So they're going to knock each other out of the ring. See, now if it was just the two of them, I understand, but when it's time to band together, when they got to lock in, those are two people. you don't want to go against. You know what I'm saying?

When they got locking together, they're tight. You feel me? Now when it's like Tom versus Jerry, it's off the table. But Tom and Jerry, that's in a separate duo. You can't really discount. All right.

Well, I'm going now. And Tom and Jerry would have been a great choice for me, but I actually think I have a better choice. Two guys that recently came back and updated their story. Oh, yeah. And had a news story, which was hysterical. Yes.

And she also talked about how much they've been working together, how long they've been together, and what they do together. They are Chip and fucking damn. Pretty good. Pretty good. That's a rescue reginal. That's teamwork. That's teamwork.

That's teamwork. They're not ruthless like Tom and Jaredo. That's teamwork. They're not as violent. That's true. No. But that's teamwork. The fucking rescue regents.

I'm talking about right now. Now, Chip and Dale is who I'm going with. I remember the year was 1991, and I went to Disneyland for the first time. Nigger wanted to see Mickey Mouse, didn't see him. I don't know what was going on. Mickey wasn't just every time I go there now, Mickey jump his crazy ass in my face. I'm like, look, I'm trying to get the Star Trolls. It's fuck out of my face.

But now, I don't, I don't, but you know who we saw? We saw Chip and Dale. And at first, I was tripping, right? Because I was like, man, I came here to see Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck. But then after a while, I started fucking with Chip and Dale. You know why? Because they wanted to be there. They wanted to fuck with me.

It's a picture right now. It's a picture of me like with Chip and Dale, not disappointed at all because I learned that day that you have to go to the places where you're celebrated and not tolerated. Chip and Dale made me feel seen as a kid. I'm fucking with him. I'm putting them in the Royal Role right now. Chippendale. I love that Chippendale. Man, all right, if we're going classic cartoons, you know,

you know, you nigga be smoking on them stuntee blunts, you know, a nice setiva blend, you know, sending out emails every day. You know what I'm saying? I'll be living that life in L.A. And you know two motherfuckers who also be living that life, they call Shaggy, the motherfucking Scooby-Doo. Okay, I don't know about this. That's good.

Because the mystery team can technically count as a team, and I don't know if that's, like, isolated a duo. Shaggy and Scoobart. the duo. I get it. They get spin-offs. They are their own shit. Also, here's the thing.

You give Scooby a Shaggy, a Scooby snack. They are fucking everywhere over at the end. At the end, here's the thing. With both Tom, Tom and Jerry, Chippendale, you know if there's one thing Scoob and Shag are going to do by the end of the episode. Yeah. If they lose in, we're just going to get a sheriff, you know, with a police force at the end. You'd be like, all right, we round all y'all motherfuckers off.

Yeah, because they're the police. No, they're not. They're just the snitches that call the police. 12. Hey, here's the thing. That's copaganda, man. First of all, what the fuck you're going around solving crimes for? That's none of your business.

You got bad chicks in your crew and you got scroby-snitch. Why are you going around solving crime? I'm just bad chis too. What are you doing? I'm here running my real estate scheme. Trying to scare kids away from my haunted house. You focus on the wrong country. Your business.

I would have gotten away from you if it wasn't of meddling kids. The older I get, the more I fuck with them, niggas. Why are you in my business? Yeah. I've been running this amusement park,

scaring people for a long time. It got shit to do with you. Like, get out of my fucking business. You drove up to me. You know, you know who's Scooby and Shaggy are? Who? You know the news cameras that go to New York

and film the people jumping over the turnstiles. Yes, yes. That's who they are. Big bomb. That's who they are. What that got to do is, I guess technically is wrong, but it's really not. But what that got to do is?

Why are you snitching? So let me ask this. I've never asked the Midnight Boys, all right? So, you know, you have your choice. Both of them love you dearly. Velma or Daphne. Who's your queen? Velma, easy.

Let me tell you something. Growing up, it was probably Daphne, but there has not been a motherfucker that's had a better 10 years than Velma. For real. Velma. Halloween. She puts a generational numbers every year. Like, Velma, there is not,

there's not been a motherfucker that's had a better 10 years than Velma. I'm not joking, like, Velma. And I know you're right. Steve, obviously, you was a Velma motherfucker. Yes. Right, that's not even, that's not even controversial. Not controversial, not new news. Does Velma, like, I feel like she really, really loves, like,

a good Jamaican Haitian man. Like she just keeps them on. Talk about Velma from the cartoon? Yeah. Velma's gay as shit. Velma from the cartoon? Velma don't like no Haitian man, nothing. What?

Like, bro, no, no way. Velma is dating Ellen DeGeneres. Like, is that controversial? Velma is obviously coding gay. Like, like... It's not contradictory. You're talking about Velma want to be with a Haitian? No, Velma not fucking around like that.

Like, when Velma... When Velma finds her glasses, she finds her way directly to Palm Springs. Like, she, like, she, like, Velma is, am I wrong? No, you're down wrong? Velma is LGPT-RAT. What is the greatest moment in front of you? Wait, I'm not the only person. This is, obviously, this is no information.

Yes, yes. We're not surprised by the information. It's the way you're delivering the information. Oh, because you're just nice. No, Velma won't, no, nothing to do with no guys. If anything, Velma's trying to figure out,

what's the league's, the lead niggas name, Frank? Fred. Frank? She's trying to figure out how to get him out the picture. Like, you know what I'm saying? I'm looking for my glasses.

Nah, you're trying to put some arsenic in that nigga water or something like that. You want to blow up. Right. That's a good, true crime. A good true crime, a good true crime documentary

is that Velma is actually doing all of it. of this. Oh. The entire time. Velma's behind it because of her unrequited love for Daphne. And then Fred

ends up one day just fucking getting knocked off. Wow. Velma season two coming out. I'm about to say, you should have wrote Velma, man. It would have been better

on what we got. Oh, well, oh, the Velma show. What was the Velma show about it? Don't worry about it. Oh, that was like Mindy Kaling. Yeah.

People hated that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right, my duo. Your duo, yeah.

Christ. All right, a newer entry, but, like, I don't think they're going to get the job done here at the Royal Rumber. Jake the dog and Finn the Human from Adventure Time. Okay, see now, see David. I've never even seen this. That's the thing. Because they, of course, I love Finn and Jake. Me and Keith, when we were at the Ring of First Live show, we're dressed up as Finn and Jake.

That's my boy. Yes. We like this. I love Adventure Time. Tom and Jerry being in the ass, bro. I'm sorry. I don't know. What is that Venture time about?

Adventure, oh, man. Adventure time's great. Come on, grab your friends. We'll go to very distant land. Take the dog and fin the human. It's fun will never run. It's adventure time. I actually don't feel like Adventure Time even qualifies for what we're doing.

Because we're doing classic characters. Adventure Time's great. And Adventure Time, this shit dropped in 2010. I was 30 when this shit. Fit and Jake get busy. Don't worry about it. Get busy. You would love adventure time.

You would. I'm sure. You actually would. I'll tell you what. Yes. It's great. It's great. It's great.

I've never seen it before. Genuinely great. Honestly, I will. This is my hot take. Finn and Jake don't got anything on Mordecai of Rigby. You know what? They don't fight though.

No, you know, if you got to understand though. Mortykeye rugby, man. Like, they'll be, hey man, we were fin to go get some donuts.

Then eight minutes later, they're fighting the god of space and time. Exactly. And they come out with the dub. I should have picked them. It took Finn and Jake. And then for some reason, they still don't lose their jobs. It took Finn and Jake, like, how many, how many, see, eight, C, or eight years.

They were on a spiritual journey, okay? Yeah, but they, like, they ended up fighting Glob at the end versus that. Mordycona Rigby do that. They do that stuff every day. That's light work. Can I be real, real quick? I love, like, bonding like this with y'all, but that right there was the biggest, like, we just do not get enough host conversation on the Midnight Boys.

What was? Talking about adventure timing. Right of the show. I bet it's a whole group. I'm about to Google this right now. Adventure Time honeys. Oh, don't you worry. There are some adventure time.

Princess Bubblegum. Yeah. Shout out Comic-Con. Like, they are out. I live in your old. If you're listening, hit my line. Expeditiously. Because we always say that.

I got to tell you out something. We always say that like, oh, man, if you're too into this stuff, you're not. That's an old way of looking at it. Because now all I see is, I'm going to keep telling you, we talked about this before, is girls on the internet talking about they love anime. And is they anime?

Van, you're doing this again. They look like, that's what they say. They say that they love anime. And so I say that it's more, I bet you it's a whole bunch of girls right now out there. A lot of ladies that if you're like, oh, I love Adventure Time, and guys too. And they're going to be like, they love it and they want to watch Adventure Time,

which you get high, watch Adventure Time, and do whatever crazy shit to show, show look crazy to me. I'm trying to look at the shit. He's got a, is this a talking piece of honey? What? Adventure Time? What's this?

Got to find honey for my homie. What is he looking at? Oh, got to find a honey for my homie. Oh, that's a song. That's something that Jake says. Oh. Yeah. Got to find a.

Well, good. All right, cool. Good for, good for it. I'm fucking with it. I don't think that is good. You got to lock him, man. Lock you, Lock into Adventure Time.

All right. Teams. All right. So it's back to me then. What's a duo? What's a duo? list again? The duo's Chippendale, Finn and Jake, Tom and Jerry,

Shaggy and Scoot. It's a good list. So it's back to me now. Back to you, yeah. I'm getting one of the strongest teams that you've ever seen in Saturday morning cartoons. Lock in. The Powerpuff girls. Oh, man, all right. You're trying to blow it on

purpose. You're trying to blow it on purpose. Oh, man. You're trying to blow it on purpose. What are you talking about? The PowerPurth girls. Hey, shout out to... Look, this is what I'll say about the Powerpuff girls, right? Stop. They had, Mojo, Jojo was in prison. That boy was locked up.

It wasn't that to nobody. They went into the prison and beat him. Like, you know what I'm saying? They do be on demon time. Do we have a, do we have a pandering drop? That was a pandering drop. That was a pandering choice, I think. The Power Buff girls rule. I'm not trying to hate on them.

I'm not hating on the Power Buff girls. Like, it's, it's, Ian used to watch him. I'm not trying to hate on them. I'm not trying to hate on them. I just don't know if they have a place in this draft. How do you know... You're acting like I can't unironically enjoy the Powerpuff guy. I'm not saying you can't...

I'm not saying... First of all, listen. I'm not saying you can't unironically love the PowerPuff girls. What I'm saying is that are the Power Puff Girls classic cartoon stuff? Yes. Yes, they are. Okay. So here's thing, guys.

If we're being... If we're... If the PowerPo... I'm going to look them up right now. If they dropped after I was in high school, it's not... It's not... It's not... It's not classic.

Let's see. When they drop. The Powerpuff girls are definitely classic. They got to be class. They are. It's like late 90s, I think. Early 20s. I can't believe you are gatekeeping

the Powerpuff girls right now. I like them. Can I be vulnerable right now? 2001. 2001? Oh, man. Oh, no, no. 1999.

Yeah, come on. Yeah, come on. It's nine years old. Actually, actually 98. 98, they dropped. Yeah, so I was a kid kid. Can I be vulnerable with you guys for a second? Yes.

Like, it's just us right now. Nobody else is listed. It's just the four of us right now. It's actually true. I feel a kinship to blossom. Red is my favorite color. Right. And I had like fun, like I was talking to my friends.

And they're like, Jomey, you're not blossom. You're more of a bubbles and I almost lost it. You are bubbles. You are a bubbles. See, but you have to understand. You understand my identity is so tied to me being a blossom. You are not a blossom. No, here's the thing.

You are very sweet. You are very sweet and adorable, but when your blood pressure gets up, you are so racial. When the Lakers lose, oh, man. You got mad. You got mad last podcast when it was time to talk about Brock Purdy.

Nothing gets you more upset up than Brock Purdy. What is this thing with you doing? So it's not, it's not, see, Brock Purdy is not the problem. It's the discourse. It's the discourse. You know what I'm saying? Isn't that always what it is?

I mean, because we don't have to lie about the stuff. He gets to be like, oh, he's cool. people like, nah, man, he's Lamar, Josh Allen, Brock Purdy. This is the price you pay when you work in socials because you're online like this. You got to live and breathe this shit. Like, let's relax. You know what I'm saying? That's really it.

He played a, they won. He didn't play a great game. But they want to talk about him like he's one of the top five quarterbacks in league. He's not. He's in the top half. He's probably like 10, you know, 12. You know, but let's relax. But no, my identity was so tied to being blocked him this whole time.

Like, coming to the terms of me being a bubbles, like really like, I had to go back and be like, man, like, who am I? Wait, really quick, because Van don't know what we're talking about. Van is Eutonium, your bubbles, Steve is Blossom, I'm probably Buttercup. That's probably true. So it's four of them? No, there's three of them. There's three.

He got a dad who, like, made them. Oh, did you create a-you-tonium? Eutonium? What is he, is he like fucking the man or something? The professor. He's a professor. He created these three little girls. Sugar-spicing and everything nice.

There was a secret ingredient. Chemical X. And then that made them have special powers? Yes. And then they fight. Who did they fight? Oh, Mojo Jojo. Jojo.

Oh. Him. Him. Yes. The rowdy rough boys. The rowdy rough boys. You know, you guys, like, I know people who watch this is, I'm not as into cartoons that are not of my era, but I'm also not as into cartoons, period, as other people are.

This is such a lie, man. But it's a thing, though. I watch cartoons when they're really good. But like cartoons are purely a generational thing and there's never been a bigger divide in you and us than when we do drafts like this because when you talk about like sheriff star So who?

What was it? Braveheart? Brave Star. We're like, what is that? Number one. Wait, did you watch SpongeBob? Not really. Wow.

I didn't either. I didn't either. I didn't. Wait, what, Steve? I didn't. I didn't. I didn't get cable until I was like, 12 or 13

and by then I just wanted to watch Cartoon Network and I didn't want to watch Nickelodeon I didn't know you was fucking hardship I didn't know he was B-Rabbit out here I said I didn't get cable till I was whatever bro that wasn't that wasn't like a that wasn't like a hardship flex it was more of like

I wanted to just watch Cartoon Network I didn't want to watch Nickelodeon when it came around vomiting on my sweater all right so it's my turn you know I'm very surprised Steve did this is like the number one choice for me. Yeah, come on.

Fire truck, buggy, I don't give a fuck. Like, put them all in there. Transformers, baby. Transformers. Number one over there. They fucking anybody else. I think the power of girls got this. The problem.

Against you. I'm like, what are you? Are you so? Do we really come off the ball first, bro? That's how you fuck the draft. It's like, StarScream himself putting the hands on. Come on,

come on, man. Come on, man. Well, StarScream cannot be a part of his. Yes, he can. I mean, you said, there are you just, there are the Transformers? No, no, no, no, no.

Yes, yes. Because we're saying the team. You can't do the old robots, you can't have the Autobots and the Decepticons. No, you can't. Yes, I can't. I can't. They'll fight each other.

They won't do it. Any transformer. Oh, so your team has a fucking gigantic weakness. First of all, the whole fucking arena is, blown apart. Because nobody fits the end of the goddamn

ring. They want to go like fly in and drive in its show. You guys have to say like what's going to happen

if you draft the Autobotch you might be cool. If you draft the septicons, you're definitely going to win. But now, like everybody else

is going to be in there and all of a sudden fucking StarScream is going to see Prime and then these niggas going to yeah, yeah, that's the thing.

You just fought everybody. Like these shets and trucks are going to be playing the sky. There's no They're going to fight. They kill high ride. Like they're going to fight.

Yeah. Like they, they, the powerful girl is just going to sit and watch. Really, really, to me as well as you, the whole world world is over. Like, no thing is destroyed. A nuclear bomb is going to be. The ship is flying over the goddamn shit.

Like, waiting, like, bombing. Yeah, they might just like, the whole arena, they're like an airstrike just, just fucking good. But everybody's like, what the fuck happened? Okay, cool. Was my turn now? Yes.

I'm dead. So I'm actually going to go with a team that actually knows how to work together. All right. Right. Okay. I'm going with Chattara. Take her. Hell.

Wilda kid and Wileycat. Led by Liono. Thundercats. Thundercats. Have you seen the... Yo, I don't know if it'll come in time, but then. We got to get the fucking sword, bro. Why don't we have that, man?

We need the sword. Do they have those? Hell yeah. Not only do they have them. They have them like the toy versions. Then they have a legit. That does the thing where there was like the emblem and it will fucking change. And it'll change, yeah.

Oh, man. Because like the guy from, the guy from in sync has one of the coolest ones I've ever seen before. Joey Faton. Joey Faton has a Thundercats, but it's like a real sword. No, I want the real sword and I want it to change. Knowing that Joey Fatone has a Thundercat sword is so funny. He's locked in, man. Honestly, we didn't get much content.

I would do a Thundercats episode, bro. I would too. We need to. Have we seen the new Thundercats? There's new Thundercats? Yeah, there's new Thundercats. They made them really cute. And it's like, that's cool.

Like, it's for a different generation. But my Thundercats, that motherfuckers was on the Roids. You know what I'm saying? They were Tristan. No, I'm sure. You said? That nigga didn't put up. It's like, Roy's.

It's like, bro. That is confirmed. They said he scored four points. They're like, nah, I don't test this guy, bro. Still shut. Got to test him. Sword of omens. Sword of omens, man.

Yeah. That's fired. Why don't you have one, Venn? You know I just ordered? What you? I just ordered the, uh, shout out to undisputed belts out there in Ontario. I just ordered the big gold championship WCW belt. I put Bowesman's pictures on the side of it.

And I put. Bozeman's pictures on the size of belt. That's awesome. That's awesome. Number one voice, Van. Number one voice of wrestling. I can't wait until I get it, bro. Oh, man.

Pull that on the live show. That shit was fine. Well, let me ask this, because of the Royal Rumble, where do you think our team would stack up against other Ringer podcast

in a Royal Rumble? Like, we're going, we going like to the fucking, like, we duking it out. Oh, I mean, against other people at the Ringer?

Yeah. Oh, we definitely win. I think we got the teamwork down, bro. We're locking down group chat. For sure. We definitely win. I just passed by group chat over there.

We're kicking the niggas in the ass. I fuck with them I fuck with Waz I kick Waws in this fucking ankle Rob is the best Love me some Rob You know but we gotta do We gotta do

I'm saying Wait I love my coworkers As much as anything What about you I kick Sean Fennacy Amanda Dobbins Chris Ryan Big Pick You think we got him

Dobbins might be a little tough She's scrappy She's scrappy She's from Atlanta bro bro She's from Atlanta She's talking about going To Lenox Mall

A place where you It's a real rumble in that bitch every time you go to you know what I'm saying she might be a little scrappy Sean might be too I feel like Sean had an ever last house of pay house of paying phase where he was like super Irish like buzz cut ball head so he might it might be tough to get him over the top road I was a real wrestler so Hurricane Holmes you know what I'm saying they didn't really come on I mean they're scrappy but I feel like we'll win so now we have to

start eliminating some people no Jomey Jomey got his pick okay so it I mean I got to go with my my heart right here. Gotta take them. I don't know if they'll beat the Transformers. They're sure as hell gonna beat the Powerful Girls. It's going to with Team Avatar.

My last, my last pick. Get them off of that. I don't think that's a real team, bro. Yeah, man. How is it not every day actually? They're beating the Power of the Power of Girls are beating up. I don't think of all.

I thought we was doing classic cartoons. Y'all, y'all not really doing it right. What are you talking? Tom and Jerry. We talk about Bundercats. We're talking about fucking. Yeah, you can't. The Teenage New Ninja Turtles

The Turtles are on the fucking board, Brutron is on the board, I would have respect the Turtles. Voltron's actually pretty good. Voltron actually would like act on the crazy. Voltron could make the Transformers like really work for. I don't want to do this with y'all no more. I want to do this with old niggas.

This is an old nigger concept. I went with my heart. Because, y'all, because, I mean, think about the people that's not in this draft, bro. Coltron didn't get picked. Teenage Mutiardinian Ninja Turtles didn't get picked. Care Bears, Garfield. Again.

Again, y'all also had picks. All my picks are classic. All my picks are classic. All my picks are classic. All my picks is classic. Like the blueprint, nigga. I'm 28. I'm actually not 20.

I'm 27th. 28 July. Yeah. All my piece is classic. You didn't have Boomerang? Here's the thing. Like Steve, I didn't get cable until I was 12. So by that time, I'm off boomerang, bro.

We're watching. What was you watching on TV before this? like the Christian channel? TBN? PBS. PBS kid. Contact. Do you know that song?

Nope. You don't know contact? Nah. You don't know the show 1, 2, 3, contact. See, again, that's your PBS. My PBS. We was doing Fetcherah

Fruffman. Cyberchase. I remember Cyberchase. Arthur. Arthur. Arthur. Arthur, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Oh, I should have picked Arthur and DW and Duo. That's not. DW would fuck. DW would fuck. Did that would pick. Y'all didn't have contact? No. What is Contact? Three, two, one

Contact. It was a show. It was like, okay, so 321 Contact is an American Science Educational Television Show produced by a children television workshop. It aired on PBS from 1980 to 1988. This is just teaching you about like sound and time and science? It's about science. It was a you know what? I'll tell y'all something. We had Zoom. Do you have Zoom?

Can be honest with y'all? Man. Do you know what the millennials? You know how the millennials are smarter than you guys? Like, I'm a millennial. What do you, what are you talking about? You're not really one of us, nigga. I was born in 1990. What are you talking about? What's the cutoff?

The cutoff is like literally 1996 year I was born. It's not, y'all not with us. I don't claim y'all. Like, y'all, we had really educational stuff. Okay. And it was, and we were outside talking, doing all kinds of stuff. Rubber sticks together. Three, two, one contact, trying to make a fire.

Right. All of that, the voyage of me, me, me. all of that stuff. The voyage of the what? The voyage of the meaning. We've talked about it. We've learned about whales. Oh, yeah.

We learn about Mayan civilization. Y'all, bro, y'all to Google everything. It's not true. I don't know, man. If we're looking at the state of the world, the millennials really ain't. They kind of fucking up, man.

We're fucking, how are we fucking up? All right, man. We were raised on Bill Nye. What are you talking about? Oh, Bill Nye, a science guy. Bill Nye was that. That's y'all guy. That's y'all guy.

I mean, that's kind of my guy. too. When did you first learn of Bill Nye? Like, Bill Nye, that was like, wait, Bill Nye, I was in like middle school, right? Middle school or high school? Bill Nye used to, was it? What did Bill Nye first start dropping this shit?

93. Oh, Bill Nye, yeah, I was in eighth grade. But Bill Nye took over for another guy that y'all not going to remember Mr. Wizard. I don't know. This is the old. You don't remember Mr. Wizard? You got over the sad, bro.

Y'all don't remember Mr. Wizard? No. Come on, man. Y'all don't remember Mr. Wizard. No. This guy was born in 1917. Shut up. Oh, man.

Donner, Don't know. That was black and white. Come on, be real. No, be real. This man is black and white playing with balloons and goo-r-r-r-r-r-tall. What are you talking about? Bill Nye. Mr. Wizard came, and he was, Bill Nye was after Mr. Wizard.

No. Wait, well, say that again. Mr. Wizard came and then Bill and I was after? What did you mean by that? Shut up. Mr. Wizard's world, it came from 1983 to 1989. It was on Nickelodeon. He was born in 1917.

What are we doing then? So what? Bro, the greatest scientists were born around that time. Like, before this. Stop. No shut. Yeah, okay. What other Jim Crow era?

Oh, let me ask you question. TV Crowen errors. So let me tell you. See, also. when they talk about Mr. Wizard, it says, see also, Bill Nye the Science Guy, and Beekman's World. I remember Beekman's World, too. Okay.

But Bill Nye, the science guy is Mr. I bet you if I ask you, if we had Bill Nye on this show right now, anybody out there who knows Bill Nye, reach out to Bill Nye. We want to have him on the Mid-M-A-Bin-A. Oh, my gosh, I would lose my mind. Anybody who knows Bill Nye, I bet you, Bill Nye would say that Mr. Wizard was a huge, huge, huge influence. Sure. But still not.

That's great. I'm not going to lie. That's deaf. Van, you got a hairline that definitely was like you watched Mr. Whitton. See,

now you don't let that slide. How am I like, what, bro, the fuck my hair is stinning. Fuck it. Like, what the fuck you want me to say about it?

Me personally, I want to let that, I take that level of disrespect. It is. It's a little disrespectful. Wait, it is? I mean, but here's a deal.

It's a fucking reality. I'm going to go to Turkey and bring my hair line back. I don't give a fuck. I'll tell you one thing that don't change the fact. That Mr. Wigger, Mr. Wizard was that nigger. I'll tell you what, me.

Mr. Wigger. Like, that would be a great show. Mr. Wigger is crazy. Mr. Wigger would be a great show. The science of, like, Chet Hanks? Chez Hanks. Mr. Hanks?

Mr. Wigger? Mr. Wigar Science show? Mr. Wigar Science. Chet should do that. Chet should come out. It should be like, Mr. Wigger, and he should do how you do Patoa, how you do.

And that should be the whole show, which is like, that's like something he should do. You get waves? Yeah. Nah, man. All like 60 strokes, all eight angles. That's crazy. So, I mean, the one of the short of it is.

I don't have kinship to the Teenish Mutage Mutured Chirtles like you guys do. The only Voltron show I watched was the one that came out on that. Voltron Legend Defender, 2017, not hot on these streets. You know what I'm saying? And some of my cuts might be a little deeper than you guys are willing to go. So I had to go with what felt right for me. All right. All right.

So, guys. the Royal Rumble has finished we need you to vote online and what we're doing we're not doing who had the best teams right no we're doing it's solo duo teams so you're voting for the characters

that you want to win in each round now follow up question are all of these people once we have those three winners then we got to put them all against each other and then they all duke it out and then we're gonna go we're gonna do a whole thing

because Jomi always talking about this social shit now fucking do something that we actually like. So we're going to go, we're going to take these brackets and we're going to make this into the Midnight Bulls Royal Rumble until we come down with a one winner. So I have to ask,

can we predict who we think will win in each category? I think I'm down for that. I've been told based on science and other shows that if you put Batman in a poll, he will win. Okay. I think Bugs Bunny got solo.

I think Bugs Bunny's probably going to win solo. I think H-Man, I think my pick of He-Man is very, very inspired. Then duo, who do you think's winning in duo? I think Tom and Jerry is winning in duo. Tom and Jerry might win duo. Then who's winning team? I got to go to Transformers. I'm going Thundercast, bro.

I think the Thundercast against the Thundercast. You picked all the Transformers, which is your mistake. Yeah, yeah. You start with all the Transformers. You blew up. Upmasters Square Garden. It's kids in there. So I still won.

Like it's kids in there. But at what cost? It's kids in there. It's a crater. It's kids in there. New York is a crater now. In the Royal Rumble, Bugs Bunny,

Tom and Jerry, do you think if they team up, they could beat the Transformers? Probably. In their world, they would definitely fuck over to the Transformers. Bugs, bro, bugs is kind of the Batman of his world.

Bugs is a Thanos-level threat. I don't think so anymore. Anymore. Anymore? That's a wrap. Follows on social, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok,

say Jomey's job. This Monday, Budmash gave you, should I say, their look at Prince of Prussia. This Friday, go check that out. Go check out.

Butmash, giving you their look at Prince of Prussia. This Friday, the House of R will give you their deep dive into Percy Jackson. Next Monday,

Min Edition, returns to give you some of the best comics you should be reading right now. Real quick, how many issues you guys are going to

covering that. We're going to talk about three issues. We're going to talk about the first from Jonathan Hickman's Ultimate Spider-Man. We're going to talk about the newest Wolverine, the Wolverine 41, I believe, and then we're going to talk about Marvel Voices 1. So if you guys are locked in, continue to lock in. And if you're not, make sure we get locked in by Monday, because we're going to be talking all the top of spoilers stuff about it. So, boom. Our producer is Steve, the architect Almond. Jomi, the explainer adir on is on socials. Hashtag strokes, Jomi.

60 strokes, Jomi. Hashtag 60 strokes Jomey. That's all I got. 60 strokes. That's it. Just the 60. 60 strokes, eight angles for your hair, for the waves. And Steve.

You only got 60 strokes for these shoddies out here, Jome? I only 60. 60 strokes. Might be a lot. Can you imagine counting the stroke? You know that thing they click? The clicker where you can't? Do you imagine the girls are just a lot?

Click, click, click, click. Sixie. I'm thinking about it now. This might be a doable number, you know, you're trying to. 60? Yeah, you can do 60. 60? Sixty, six.

Six. Sixes, six is good. Sixies, six is good. Sixies. Sixth and we got to stop, man. You could, I mean, you could, that's the thing. You could vary, you're making some circles and all of that shit. So, like, 60 strokes.

You can make 60 strokes for, like, 120 if you really, like, put your mind to it. You know what I'm saying? Okay. I'm just my, okay, Joey. Economical. Economical. Exactly. There you go, Joe.

You know, it's not the quantity, it's the quality of the strokes. Additional production from Arjuna Roebuck. Oh, shit. Chuck, take us out. The Royal Rumble is over. We had a lot of fun. Bugs Bunny might be LeBron, but Mickey puts his niggas on. All right, hot take time.

Oh, shit. If we want to be real, yeah. Mickey Mouse put his niggas on. Wow. Bugs, they could barely get Wiley Coyote, that movie, Acme,

they can't even get that shit, you know, that's not, that's not untrue. You know what I'm saying? He don't like, Bug's Bunny, like,

Bugs Bunny, like, Bugs Bunny don't move the needle. He doesn't really move the needle like that no more. That's not untrue. Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse homies is doing way better than bugs is home. And here's a thing.

Dynasty, he's built it. So there's Mickey, there's Donald and shit. He got Captain America in that bitch. He got Luke Skywalker in that bitch. He's building a franchise. But it's different braid, you feel me? It's like comparing the race to the Dodgers. Dodgers go ahead.

All right, we're going to spend 700Ms right here, 350Ms right here. We're going to buy Star Wars. We're going to buy Disney. You know what I'm saying? Or we're going to buy Marvel. That's a light work. And when I think about it, bro,

Mickey put his dudes in a video game. Greatest video game, Kingdom Hearts Mickey Mickey put his guys on The movie Oh, I will say this Shout out to Daffy Ducks Quack Busters

Which is a great movie Oh yeah Like Daffy Duffy Ducks quackbusters She's fantastic So who are Who are Bugs Bunny's guys

It would be Daffy Duck Daffy Porky Porky Tazmanian devil Elmer Fudd Tass

Elmer Fudd None of them popping Martian Martian They're not. That space sham, that LeBron's space jam. I don't think about it, it was a time when the Looney Tunes overtook Disney, though. Yeah.

It was. In the 90s, they kind of over. I blame Zazloff. Zazloff doesn't know how to take care of that franchise. This is a whole different podcast, bro. I'm serious. Everybody sits up. Everybody sits up in their chair and it's going to.

No, I really don't know. We can talk about a bunch of. This is a whole different podcast because the question is, who is all my, my, Knee jerk, the Disney characters got it. Knee jerk, right? Yeah. Because they got Donald. Donald is like almost a one seed, right?

Mm-hmm. They got Donald. Donald got Huey-Dooey and Louis. Uncle Scrooge. Uncle Scrooos. Donald got his own multiverse. Same thing with Goofy. Goofy got his shit.

The goofy movie? We got the goofy movie and all. They got their own multiverse as well. We want to go to Disney. Nobody want to go to what's, what's bugs this park? They got six flags. Six Flags. I've been, I'm from New Jersey.

Jersey. Six Flags is a fucking war zone, bro. Two arms are. It's a war zone. It's a war zone. Six Flags is a magical duty. You'll go out to Six Flags, you're going there regular and when you leave you'll be put on the set.

It's like, I mean, six flags. I promise. Like, you'll leave that bitch. No, that's a Virgo Bus ad. It was pretty great. Yeah. You'll be a Southsider when you leave that motherfucker away. But I will say that there was a moment, because think about

There was a moment, though, South Pole stuff. Everybody was wearing these characters on. Yeah. It was space jam. All of that, there was a moment where the Looney Tunes kind of took over. Yeah. And I don't know if it's, I think it's gone probably now. But there was a moment when the Looney Tunes kind of took over.

I'm interested in this conversation.