The Ringer-Verse - Wakandans at Thanksgiving? It’s Time for a Midnight Mailbag! | The Midnight Boys

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

The Boys are back and they’re asking the Midnight Riders for their most burning questions about the nerd-verse! From Yoda to Jomi-cookie-gate, they’re here to give you all the answers. (0:00) Intro (9:04) Midnight Mailbag (1:39:09) Outro Hosts: Van Lathan, Charles Holmes, Jomi Adeniran, and Steve Ahlman Producers: Aleya Zenieris and Devon Baroldi Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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This is of course the Ringer's nexus podcast feed for all things fandom. Boy, I'm on a high this morning. I bet you are. Stop lying. I bet you are. I can't wait to you guys find out why I'm on a high this morning.

Woo! Steve to Art Tech, all of the bill and tinker of things. Join me the explainer at dinner on. You got questions. He's got answers. Oh man, Van. He of the receding resurgent,

hairline, Coke, baby Chuck. Together we are known as the Midnight Boys. Also on socials. Insta Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Jumme. You guys really got to make sure to follow us on the TikTok. They're trying to sell us on the views. We were making this fire content, and they're like, actually, no, we're not showing this to nobody. So make sure y'all follow so we can get the members up.

It's this weird thing that the algorithm does. Every time you have, like, some, like, real success, they want to hug you. They kind of smack you down a bit. They don't like, hey, yeah, yeah, keep making a content. Like, we can't let three black men. Are you selling something? No. I think it was, uh,

I think it was the wicked talk. I think we got a little bit too real. They don't like it. I think there were a lot of people out there that saw that we were having fun. But then there were some people out there that were saying, you know what? They're spitting.

They get into the heart of it. Yeah. So maybe, you know, follow so we can get back to doing what we do. Don't let Cointel Pro of TikTok shut us down. Facts. Follow.

We're on YouTube. Like, comment, subscribe, share. you can watch every Midnight Boys and House of Our episode on YouTube.com backslash at Ring Reverse and also on Spotify. Check out House of Ours. Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 1 Deep Dives, a lot.

How strange are things going? People watching it. People are watching it. Yeah, they're watching it. People are watching it. People are enjoying it. I have notes, but ultimately, eh, there are worse ways to spend nine hours.

It's hard to watch that when the digital. deception is on Netflix. Oh, the new 50. I can't believe he filmed all that. It's hard to watch Stranger Things when there are stranger things. I'll say also, I do have

like an allergy to like watch a TV shows where like you got grown men playing kids. Like it's just there's just I see the kids on screen down. Like, dog, you look fucking 30. You don't miss the time in Dawson's Creek when teenagers were 35 years old?

No, that was different. Yeah, but yeah. Do you know why it's different? It's different when we're younger than them. If you're younger than someone and they're older playing a teenager, you're kind of like whatever. But if you're older than someone and they're like 25 playing a teenager, you go, I know what a 25 year old looks like, I was 25.

He's like, that ain't no 14 year old. That's not what it is. But when you're 14 or 15 and you're looking at them and they're like, you know, it doesn't really register with you. Yeah. You know, it's different. It's different. On Friday, Budmash is covering Metroid Prime 4

And Marvel Cosmic Invasion? Yes. It's a beat-em-up. You remember the Teenish Mutuals Turtles game? Which one? X-Men arcade game. Oh, yeah. It's like that.

But it's for your house? Yeah, it's for your house. Bring it on with you. So they have the beat-em-up games that are like for the consoles now? The side-scorlers, yeah, man. It's a side-scroller, it's a side-scroller beat-em-up. Yeah, but here's the thing I don't like about the side-scroller. It's like, like, when I'm playing a side-scrollers, like,

side scroller, I want the joystick arcade. I'm putting the token in. You don't need, you can buy the attachment. Remember your house? You want to play Marvel versus CopCon? And you were like, no, but here's the thing. To me, it's still different. It don't got the same. It don't feel the same as like the arcade shit. It's what you do.

You buy a fresh one, then you dump some soda on it. You just like leave it outside for a couple of days. Then you bring it in. It'll have that nice. Put a couple of quarters on there. Yeah, that you're missing. Remember streets of rage? Yeah. All right. Next Wednesday, Midnight Boys gives you their Christmas movies draft.

There's a lot of talk out there about the white girl movies draft. A lot. And this is the first draft we've ever done where the talk is not about necessarily who won the draft as much as it's about movies that weren't drafted. Yeah. It's immediately what you missed. I think it was if I'm looking back, people also have to understand it's the categories. Like, did I want to get clueless?

Yeah. Shit, where am I going to put it? People were saying clueless And people were saying A lot of people saying Titanic Titanic. All right, Titanic was on the bubble for me But I feel like

Is Titanic a white girl? Contagic made it billion dollars It's for everybody That's an old girl movie, yeah Yeah My black ass family was watching Titanic My grandparents love Titanic We had the double VHS at the crib

Yeah, this is what people are saying That's what they said Because I agree with you guys they said that everybody saw Titanic, but what made Titanic a billion-dollar highest-grossing movie of all time was that the white girls kept going back over and over and over. And I would argue it was all women going back over and over and over. Black ladies too?

Yeah. Black ladies love Titanic. I think the sisters love Titanic. My sisters love Titanic. I think they do. You know, Titanic is an interesting movie. We've talked about this under the Rwatch. was for my problems with the movie.

I don't fuck with it like that. I like the movie. You don't fuck with Titanic? I like the movie. But Rose is just, she's not my type of gal, you know? I mean, Rose is, Rose is doing a lot. I don't like that. He was too old.

When I would get to the scene where he was free to her naked, I was like, is a, yes, a 12-year-old meal. That was perfect for me. I was 17 in theater seeing it. But here's the deal. This is why I'll say. There are so many things that Rose did that bother me in Titanic. nothing more than what happens

at the end of the movie. Throwing the rock into the ocean. Okay, this has been litigated. I don't give a fuck. It, you, this is, this is the height of white girlness. You see that big ass boat. Right.

All of these people. Right. Devoting all of these resources. Looking for that particular jewel. Looking for that one thing. That thing that you inadvertently stole. Ha ha. Guess what?

shoplifting, kind of didn't steal it, maybe stole it, not sure, maybe it was given to her. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. But, and then what do you do? Nobody should have it. You drop it into the, it's not like Jack gave it to her. If Jack gave it to her, I would get it. If Jack gave it to her, I would be like, hey.

If I can't have it, none of y'all can't have it. It's a sweet memory between her and Jack. But the fucking bad guy gave it to her. Billy Zane. So at least let Cal, at least let his badness. put a generation of people through college or something like that. Why you do that?

I wouldn't have... My only thing is... She flew planes at the end. I'm not going to do Doorgate. The only thing that pisses me off about the door shit is I'm like, she know he was a broke nigga. So she was just like, if you had a little bit more money,

I think she would... We had a little dalliance on the Titanic. That's it. She dropped two very valuable things to the ocean. One was Jack and one was the heart of the ocean. And I can't get with either one of them, man. Some piece, Bill Paxton, because I got to feel, I would feel some type of way if I spent all that money to bring everybody out to the Atlantic to look for this thing.

Listen to that long-ass story. And she was just like, yeah, I got it on me the whole time. Actually, I'm going to chuck it into the water. Yeah. That's a little tough. A liar. There's, like, I can let a lot of stuff slide, but you're not going to waste my brain like that. That's nuts.

On today's show, we are doing a midnight mail bag. We're taking your questions. Yep. Your questions. and we're putting the midnight sauce on them. Put a little question, put some sauce on it. I don't know. I don't like the midnight sauce sounds like.

Jomi's the chef. Talking about it. Jomi, what's you putting in the midnight sauce? What's the midnight sauce? Is it a marinade? Is it a marinade? Did you give that girl in the cookies? Did you put some...

Somebody said Jomi ordered milk with his cookies. I was like, that's nuts. I can't believe. You guys are funny. We'll do a spoiler warning because we're going to spoil everything. We don't care about what you guys have been through the stuff that you're watching. We're going to spoil it.

We're going to talk about it. So run the spoiler warning. We're getting ready to talk about the movies. You're listening to a reaction podcast. The spoilers are coming. This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and making a mess. You don't need WeatherTech floor liners in the summer,

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This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorite. you've already read twice. Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. This episode is brought to by Whole Foods Market. Spring is here, so celebrate it with fresh,

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So we have our first question from Jack and it's about, ironically, falling in love. Dev, can you play the sound bite? It's Jacob. It's definitely Jacob. Jacob? All right, nigga. All right. Sorry, Jacob. My bad, Jacob.

You can just take that again, I feel like. All right, our first question is about falling in love from Jacob. Can you play the clip in the back? Hey, what's up, Midnight Boys? This is Jacob. I'm from New York, a huge fan of you guys, been listening since 2022.

I've got a quick question for you guys. So, as a huge comic book nerd, I know some of the movies that have inspired me to become a comic book fan, like Tobin McGuire's original Spider-Man, Keaton's 89 Batman. What is each of your favorite Marvel, DC, or comic book-based movie

that got you into the comic book genre? Thanks, guys. Love you guys. Have a good one. Okay. Want to go first? I'll go first. That got me into the genre is tough. Movie. I know that got me into the...

I don't know if there was a movie that got me into a genre, but, you know, it's a silly answer, but Superman 4, Quest for Peace. That's a special place in your heart. Like, special place in my heart. Like, you see the movie Superman versus Nuclear Man, kill Superman. Now. That's one that, like, I would run it over and over and over and over. again and then I get

my brain forms a little bit better and I watch the Superman the movie, the original one and I go oh, this is actually a masterpiece of a film and this one's just kind of camp. Yeah. Yeah. Tough. I mean, I think I said this before but it's definitely the first fantastic four movie. I write for that movie. That's my jam. My mom took me to see that. It explains so much. Locked me in since day one.

It's good. Was that your birth of the? of loving the milk, Jessica Alba. Jessica Alba's not milk. Jessica Alba is definitely a Spanish. Jay with Jessica Alba's not milk? No. What?

What we talked about before? There's a horchata. Oh, Horchata. I forgot. Come on, man. Get the little horchata. It's almost Christmas time. You know what I mean?

The coquito. Jessica Alba. I love a good horchato. I like horchata. But, you know, shout out to all of my people in Miami. The Coquito. It's almost a Puerto Rico. The Puerto Rico season that's coming up.

Coquito. Also, shout out all my Dominicans in Korea Town. y'all really help me down. Shout out all our Latinos out there that didn't do that one thing. My barber, he was out of town. I had to look up some guy. He was Dominican, Korea town. Shit, he charged me $50.

Like, I don't speak much English. I was like, bro, I'm really nervous. He's like, I got you, I got you. He helped you up you up. He helped you up you. He said, I got you. He did a little bit too much of the black spray, though. I'm like.

He's trying to get you like Jalen Brown. Mark is cream. Mark is cream. It had to be Spider-Man 1, really. That was like a magical, magical moment for me as a kid. But as far as actually, like, reading comic books, it was kind of like the DC animated fair that really got me into being like,

oh, this is what, like, comic book stories are doing. Like, because there's a big difference that I've found between, like, again, all of them are great, but, like, the Hollywood fair like the Spider-Man's of the world and the marvels that we love. and the animated DC fair that I loved, like, Justice League Doom, a couple of like the Batman Harley Quinn stuff, Mask of the Fantasem, things like that.

This is where I was like, okay, wow, these are like some stories that are really out there that I've gotten to love. Underrated, underrated piece of comic cultural stuff is the DC animated universe. It was always good stuff. So good. Similar to Steve, I feel like the DC animated stuff,

even like Justice League Unlimited Batman Beyond is actually what kind of helped get my foot in the door. But if it was movies, saw Spider-Man, the first Spider-Man X-Men first. And I think even as a kid, this is how I could tell I was a hater. I was like, they're making changes from the comics. Like I remember liking the first Spider-Man, but being a little bit like, he has web shooters. Fuck this. That doesn't look like my Green Goblin. And I think it was Batman.

It was Nolan's Batman Begins was the first time I felt like. oh, this is giving me 100% of the feeling of reading a comic book. Nolan's Batman begins changed my perception of the comic book movie. Really? Because it was such elevated prestige take on it that I was like, whoa. Obviously Batman has a very dramatic story. And the heroism of Batman is asking several different societal questions. Like how much one man can do no matter how well-resourable.

is the limit that you're willing to go, doing something inside the system versus outside of the system. All of that stuff is in the comic books. Your connection to family, like found family versus family that you're born with, all that stuff, right? But Batman begins set these... I remember sitting down watching a movie,

and I was like, huh, they're taking this really seriously. When the cast list came out, it was Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman. you know, Christian Bell, Tom Wilkerson, all of these guys are in this movie, and you're like, wow, like, what is Liam Neeson? Like, what is this going to be like? And when you saw it, I feel like it raised,

even though that movie wasn't as crazy well-received as those other movies would go on, particularly in the box office, it raised the stakes of what the comic book movie could be, and then the Dark Night blew those stakes out of the water. And I think it's also weird to think about now, but all the other Batman movies I've seen or all the other superhero movies I see,

it's radical that the beginning of Batman begins is literally like, oh, we're taking him to the League of Shadows. We're going to show you how he became Batman. Because, like, Michael Keaton's Batman, once you kind of get to him, he's like, he's not really a ninja, and he's already kind of good at his job. And Batman begins like, no, we're going to show you

how he gets the Batmobile. We are going to show you how he, like, does all of this stuff. And I think we take that for granted. And I think Iron Man did that really well also, where it's like, we are going to show you someone becoming, the hero instead of them kind of just being born into it. The audience changed too because the depth of the lore with the League of Shadows and even with Tony Stark, that's answering a question of not why is somebody Batman.

A lot of other movies ask why is someone Batman? Why are you Spider-Man? Those movies answer to the question of how. And a lot of times in those superhero movies, you would think that audiences did not have time for how. They didn't have the patience for how. But when you watch Batman begins, you go, oh, this

makes sense in terms of Batman's skill set. Why Batman can do the things that he can do? Why does he have the batterangs? Why does he have the batarangs? His entire mentality, why he didn't work? And, you know, that stuff is always very deep in the comic lore. But

in the movies a lot of times, I feel like directors and producers and writers don't feel like they could do it, but then Batman Begins did it. And, you know, that gives way to the second one. That's what happens after Batman and Robin. You kind of got to get back to basics. Let's lock back in. You know what I'm saying?

What they take, like, eight years off of Batman? I don't think we've got, like, a longer, like, we haven't seen Batman. Batman again was 2005. It was 197. And I don't even think when Nolan got Batman begins. I don't remember, because that was when I was becoming, like, a movie fan. I don't know if people thought that that was going to be, like, a home run. It wasn't really a home run.

I think people were like, oh, Nolan's doing a fucking Batman. movie, sure. If we're being, can be honest, like, not in no revisions history, it was kind of like, cool. Like, it's a good Batman. We was rocking with it. It wasn't a too dark night. We were like, oh, no. Wasn't nobody supposed to direct Troy instead of Batman begins?

Wolfgang Pearson then went and Detroit. No, maybe he was, but Wolfgang Peterson was supposed to do Batman versus Superman. Yeah. Oh, the one that was teased in I Am Legend? He was supposed to do that movie, but then he decided to do Troy. So maybe Nolan was decided. And then they were like, you can. do Batman. I was like, sure I'll do Batman, and here we are.

All right. Next up, we have a question from Keith centering Yoda. Let's get into that question. Midnight boys. This is Keith from Denver. Hey, here is what I'd love to hear you guys discuss. I think it's time from Sir Scott Holden Yoda in such high regard. He's taking some massive L's and he led the, he led the Jedi's from the Golden Age to demise, major L from she

hid out during the rebellion. Losing Rail would never. And that's before we even get to the whole group of the situation. Anyway, man, that's my fate. Love to give you out thoughts. No, I like it. I mean, do we lay it all

on Yoda's feet? I don't think we do, right? It's the council. So, okay, let me give you where I agree and where I disagree. It always gets to me just how powerful Papatine is because Yoda's sitting right in front of him. Can't censor it. Yota feel everything.

Yoda feels like Yoda sitting right in front of him, can't feel it, just like Palpatine, like once in a generational force power. So what you could argue is this. Yoda a thousand years old, that's facts. Right. Right. You could argue that the Jedi went to shit under his watch.

You could argue that it was Yoda as the leader of the Jedi to let the whole Jedi fall apart. And it's not just with Palpatine. When Quigong Jin was criticizing the Jedi, saying that the Jedi had become too political an institution, and that they weren't following the will of the living force, he was criticizing the fact that the Jedi had lost their way, in a larger, grander way as far as what they're supposed to be doing, that criticism honestly would have to be a criticism of Yoda they essentially became the political guards for the Senate that would have to be like the entire Jedi council

which Yoda was the grandmaster that kind of would have to be a criticism of him so would you would you say that even like a lesser a better leader than Yoda could have snuffed out somebody like Palpatine or was Palpatine to beat everybody anyway I think his point is that nobody could have done it so we can't really like blame Yoda for that because there was a whole lot of Jedi a master's there. But I kind of feel like,

it's kind of like, maybe I'm reaching, let me know if I'm reaching. It's kind of like Bill Belichick and the Patriots. There was a time. He was the man, you know.

But then you get, oh, you get a little wash, man, the game's past you by, but leave the football before the football leaves you. That's the,

I mean, we're not there. We're not a North Carolina yet. Oh, we're not even, we're not even, you know, the real question is,

who was Yota's, Tom Brady. Who is the one that was holding it down? Probably Quigone. When they got ex-stop the situation,

it was kind of over. It could also be Count Duku. It could be Count Duku is good. Count Duku turning to the dark side is a huge deal.

Right. A huge deal. Maybe it's Duku. Maybe it's... Maybe Duku is stuffed out Calvin. Honestly, my take like besides

Middokorians, I think everything that happens with Yoda in the prequels is everything that became wrong with Star Wars. Because I think if you just watch Empire Strikes Back, I like the version of Yoda that is this like sage, Merlin type that Luke is coming to and being like, how does this like little mini puppet, how is he this powerful and this wise? And I think when the prequels, you have to suspend your disbelief and be like, oh, not only is Yoda a bureaucrat now, but he's an idiot. And I'm like that... Well, I don't think that's fair, but I think two things to be true at once.

Like, I think him being able to teach Luke in Empire Strikes Back, like, it's still like, when you striven down to the bones, again, like, Bill Belichick is still like a football mind. There are other issues, again, the stuff outside of football, maybe. But that's a guy like, you could probably still tap into one-on-one if you were like, hey, man, I want to be a great defensive coach, how'd I do that? I'm sure Bobelichick is one of the top three guys you can have. on this planet, right?

Now, if you want them to go, like, lead your team and, like, build a roster, eh, you're probably asking a lot. But I always thought, to me, the Yoda in the prequels is not wise. And I'm just like... Well, hold on. Let me zag for a second.

Okay. Because I talked about how great Quigon was and how fantastic Quigon was. But remember, it was Quigon's idea to train Skywalker. Yeah. And make Skywalker a Jedi. Then he made Obi-Wan promise

that he would train Skywalker. Who was the one saying that they shouldn't do that? Yoda. Yoda was the one saying, leave him. Don't do it. And Kenobi went, listen, I'm gonna train him no matter what.

Like, I told Quigon that I was gonna train him before he passed away. I'm gonna train him with y'all or without y'all. And at that point, Yoda's like, man, I'm not trying to lose my point guard, right? Yeah. I got this down the mid-level

exception. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not He on a rookie deal, but he's Who builds it? He's hooping. And all I'm saying, if you look at the prequels and we look at the culture of the Jedi, I'm like, oh shit, there's something rot in here. Like, the whole galaxy hates y'all. They think you're cops. They're like, y'all are supposed to be religious samurai protecting the weak, you know,

defending the young. And y'all out here being the fucking feds. It's just, that's, that's, I put that on old man. With all of the exceptions that they made for Anakin just to train him and make him a Jedi. Do you think that, like, the fact that they were so stringent about him not being with Padmae might have been the actual thing that, like, if they had just said that...

Well, no, you can't do that. I know, but of all of the exceptions that they made for him. They misread the prophecy. Actually, they didn't misread it at all. Actually, kind of worked out again. Nailed it. They did. They did. But, but, you that, here's the thing.

Skywalker had come... When you look at Palpatine's rise, right? Palpatine and Skywalker are kind of like, Palpatine feels the force kills his whole family. Kills his whole family. Murdered dad, kill everybody, kills his old family. Really kills attachment

so that he could be one with the dark side. Then, then kills Plague's, right? Like the night that Plague is, like they're rehearsing the speech, he kills Plagas so he could be one with the dark side. He understands attachment. So when Skywalker comes along and is so attached, has so much trauma,

he's dealing with the one guy who knows how to make use of those attachments to corrupt him. Easy bucket. It was a perfect scenario. And it wouldn't have mattered what you did with fucking Anakin. He was crazy. No, no. Like, no, I disagree.

I think Yon could have been a progressive leader and been like, the Jedi deserve ass. Can y'all get married? Nah. But y'all, y'all could go to the strip clubs. y'all could get you all little signs on the sign concubines but like keep it beat like the samurai back in the day got to have a little joint on his leg but you know what the only problem what y'all saying is this that would have been fly yeah i'm not saying it wouldn't have been fly like a little twilight on the side come on however that still wouldn't have changed the fact that he was having dreams about her dying so him having dreams about her dying it wasn't really the secret marriage it was the fact that he kept having dreams over and over and over Also, the secret marriage that everybody knew about, everybody was like, at that point, just say yes. You're not hiding for nobody.

Yota could say, hey, y'all could get married. He still would have been up sweating, shirtless at night. Because she died. Like, thinking about her dying and what these was in. Then Papatine's like, I know a way you can save her. And the nigger like, what about I got to do? We all fucked, order 66. So it was a lot to go around.

Yoda does have a checkered last 75 years. Yeah, that's tough. It ruined the whole legacy if we being real. Nah, you can't do that. I don't know that it did. I can't say that it did. It's tough, but... I can't say that it did.

All right, we got another question from Moe about the worst betrayals in fandom. Let's hear that question. Hey, midnight, boys, Poup. This is Moe from Texas. For this year's Ringover's Versus Verses Awards, I want to nominate a new award called the Jomey Baking Cookies Award

for Best Betrayal. In honor of Jomey Betraying his friend and baking cookies with this girl and watching a movie with her and let's be honest, who knows what else. Some examples of this award would be Lando betraying Han and prior striped back. Obadiah Stain betraying Tony Stark and Peter Pedigrew

betraying the Marauders. Let me know if y'all's thoughts and sorry, Jomi. Yeah, I'm sorry. While we're on the prequels, I don't know if this is a betrayal. We brought this up a lot. Obi-Wan stepping off the ship with the...

This is nuts. None. That's nuts. So he did, first of all, one thing Obi-Wan going to do is stun on y'all. That's the one thing

in Lou, that's one. Two, he's played in his face at that point. You can't walk off the ship like that. You can't. He's played in his face. That's insane. That was on some, like,

that's the stuff that, like, you, it's not, it's kind of, it's, it's really subtext. When you watch a movie over and over again,

you can kind of, you can kind of see, like, the vision of what that was. Because they don't really, like, say it like, oh, man, you were out there with my girl

like that. was spending a lot of time with Padmae going to the crib. Hey, man, how you doing? What's going on? I can see why etiquette will feel that way. I also, I've seen the Clone Wars. I've seen how Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan being here.

Yeah. And I'll tell you about the nigga at the top of the stairs. I told that one, right? No. I never told you the story about the niggas standing naked at the top of the stairs. No, I would remember that story. I feel like I remember that. What is this?

So I'm almost sure. I told it at some point on the podcast. You guys can rerun when I told it last or whatever. So there was a girl that we knew. She was a very sweet girl. Okay. And she's our home girl. And she had dated maybe like in our extended group, just to be honest with you,

in our extended group, there's the core group of our friends. And then there's the extended group of our friends, which would be like, let's say that we have our core Midnight Boys group. But then in our extended group, we got Kai. Kai, and then we got Jomi's brother. We got Kerm. And we got Kerm. And then we got Yombe.

We have an extended group as well. Right. Right. So this lady, who is a nice, sweet lady, had dated a couple of different ones of us. Right. Happens. That's fine. Yeah.

Yeah. It was a lot. Okay. It was. Was it more than three? Yes. More than... It was...

It was... one of my homeboys, then two of his cousins, one of his brothers, and then another one of my home boys. So, okay. Oh, you can't. You know,

I was not judging until it was like, once they're related. Yeah. Related is a lot. Okay, so this is what I would say. Okay, so this is what, this is, this is, this is, this is the group. Or is it's it's some Louisiana shit. I'm not, I can't say that it is.

So this is, this is what it was. So let's say, is all four, it's five guys in my crew. Right. Okay. So then she dated two of the guys actually in the crew. Right, right. She dated.

Then she dated that guy's, the first guy she dated, she dated, his cousin. Right. Okay. Then the cousin of the guy that she dated, she then went to a long relationship with another guy in the crew who is. his cousin. Okay. Okay. This is over the span of how long? It's a couple of years, whatever. Okay. And then

another guy that's in the crew, a different guy that's in that crew, she dated his big brother. Okay. Oh, boy. All right. But here's the thing, though. The first one of us that dated her, she's sweet, she was super nice, all of that. She was a woman that was

very free and in charge of her shit. She did what she want to do. He was a little bit younger. I would say he was maybe 17 she was maybe like 19 or something like that I already know where this is going

so so it's very funny so he's dating a girl that's like kind of older right she's older she got her own apartment and the apartment and stuff is where everybody would go chill and hang out and stuff like that so

but while he was dating her she also had another guy that she saw this guy was older than her and way older than us So he might have been at the time If I'm 18 He might have been like 25 Or something like that

So he kind of a man Like you like He was kind of a man He was kind of like that guy or whatever He's kind of a man So You know he's dating there He's going over to the house

And stuff like that I had to see her one time And this other guy Didn't like it Because he was sleep there sometimes And one day My home boy He was like 17

He walks in the house And when he walks in the house Basically doing the Obi-Wan Pose is that guy standing at the top of the stairs. Totally naked. Just looking at him. Like, what's up? Just his dick hanging in the way?

Like, totally naked. That's foul. Totally naked. Y'all think I'd be making shit like that up. What did you guys do? I'll call Gino right now. What did he do? That part I don't quite remember.

I mean, you have to remember. I know that he left, right? Were you present for this? No, no, no, no, no. Okay. I know that he left. I know that he got out of there. Of course.

Right. Because it's like, whatever. But the dude is standing up at the top of the thing, this dick out, whatever. Basically, like, either it was like, she ain't here or she was up there. And you're not coming up. And you're not coming upstairs. And every time I see that Obi-Wan thing. That's all you can see.

Every time I see it, that's all that I see. So my follow-up question here, this happened a lot. My crew, sometimes I've been this person. Well, your boy tell you the story Like, you try not to laugh Like, you try to be like, damn, that's rough But what was he supposed to do? They weren't in a relationship.

Yeah, yeah. And like, it wasn't, what was he supposed to do? Like, what was? Yeah, that's a funny story, but my heart, at 17, I'll be like, dang. It was funny as hell. Because he was 17 and we 18. And the way the nigga tell the story,

be like, shit, I walk in that bitch, niggas, a grown-ass man standing up there. Fucking, like, look like, whatever he sat up there the top of the stairs, doing the whole thing. And so it's just, I think about that every time I think about that Obi-1 scene. And, you know, for a lot of people that hear all of the different dating around,

it was just an interesting dynamic because, like, during that time, she had the apartment, and we would always go to the apartment. So really, we always wanted there to be one guy who was kind of talking to her. Right. Because she had the apartment. Because we had a place to chill. So it was kind of like everybody, but she was beautiful. brilliant and just self-assured and self-aware.

So she didn't care. But when you started to like, because you know, you're being toxic, when you started to put it all together and put all the stuff together, it was like, yeah, she really enjoyed college. All right, man. Shout to her. What's wrong with that? I'm telling you right now.

That's true. I'm telling you right now. I'm telling you right now. Man, she said the coldest thing one time. Like, this was funny because she also was elevated, like, past our mentality and mindset. Okay. And so we would play all these toxic young male games And then she would fuck our heads up with just basic logic

And I remember one time Like two of my homeboys were talking And they were like we were talking about a friend of ours that had It was rumored that he had had an experience with another guy And we were like, oh man Yeah, he's he's probably gay And she was like, that doesn't mean he's gay And then we went

He had an experience with a another guy. She goes, what if he didn't like it? And then you... And y'all's money. Whoa. Whoa. And you were shook by this. And she was like, whatever happened, whatever happened,

tried it. Not for him. Does that still make him? I was like, yo, man, deal the cards, man. I don't know. Like, deal the cards. Is your home girl still sick? Oh, I don't remember. I don't remember. She moved to Texas. She was such a nice girl.

I really... was so smart. I used to talk to her all the time. I never all right. We got another question. We did not literally answer that question at all. No, I really. All right. Broke has a question about dinner. Should we answer the question real quick? Best betrayals? Best betrayals? Those are some

betrayals in there. Some things are right, yeah. I can't believe I just went on that tangent. Yeah, that was a whole... Best betrayals. Okay, so... Let's not do Cap and Iron Man is easy. Cypher and the Matrix? Right. Cap and Iron Man is easy. Cipher and the Matrix is very. really good.

Cypher in the Basis is great. Paul in Dune Part 2. I'll take your daughter's hand. Oh, that's a crazy one. I miss the betrayal. That's a crazy betrayal. Is it a betrayal?

Because he looked at her and said, I'm a love before. I guess he did because. No, he didn't even brief her. He's like, hey, I'm going to be going in here. Anything I say is politics. That's the one. Yeah.

I could not believe that when that happened. That's one of my greatest. You literally knew this story, so you knew what was going to. I have forgotten. I swear. It definitely didn't think it was going to go down like that. I had forgotten.

I was legitimately I have forgotten. I was legitimately shocked when it happened. I can't remember. It's like this lawyer. He stops his feet. All right. Brooks question next.

Hi, Midnight boys. My name is Brooks Fitzwater. I love you all so much. You all brought me through my PhD. I hope you all are receiving lots of lovely voice memos and that people are nothing neat because you all deserve everything. Nice.

wonderful. And also Jomi is crushing it on the social. Just have to shout out or shout out Jomey. So my question is actually a prompt for you all. You are having a holiday meal and you can invite

one group from an IP, any IP that the ringerverse would cover. They will be cooking. You have to take that into consideration. If you don't like what they're going to cook, don't invite them. And then also, you You have to deal with whatever drama ensues.

So keep that in mind because you have to threaten eyes with these people. So who are you picking to bring to your holiday meal? Bye. This is easy. I'm taking the Wakandans. The Wakandans, yeah, that's easy for you. That's easy for you. That's easy for you.

Wait, but if I'm going to be real. It's open everybody, man. If I'm going to be real, Jomey, you would want the Wakandans over for the holidays. I'm not sure if they would want you. Oh, that's true. You know what I'm saying? They was a little isolationist. You know what I mean?

They were not fucking with the Nigerians like that. It's cool now, man. We all want Africa, you know what I'm saying? We locked that. Yeah, but what happens when they all stunting with the, they all come with the vibrator? That's cool. Can I have a little bit of that?

And they're like, that's not for you. You know what I'm not for you? The Wakanda's let slavery happen, man. We don't talk enough about that, man. You can go to the Thanksgiving. You can be like, hey, man, I love the turkey. It was delicious, man. Let's have a lot.

Let's just talk that. Let's talk about it. The Wakandas, man. The Wakandas couldn't pick up a knife or sword. They couldn't. Can I be, can I be honest? It's not just that they let slavery happen. I think somebody else city was built.

They was just like, hey, yo, colonized. You don't want some slaves? We can't do them like that. Come on, man. You're telling me that the Big Panther was built by slaves, bro. Think about it. And this is the killmonger problem. This is the killmonger problem

They put Kilmonger in there Being mean to women And they better be glad that they did Because if not I'm fully on his side He had to choke that old woman He had to choke the lady He had to do that stuff

He had to like shoot the girl He had to do all of that stuff He was making too much sense If not It's like how y'all got Supersonic Jets In the 1900s First of all thing about

Okay forget about slavery Right To forget about that which is something I never say. Like, forget, like, forget about slavery. Just forget about that. The Wakandans have advanced medical tech that they have that is proprietary

that nobody else has. So, man, you mean to tell me that they can't do nothing for diabetes? The Wakandans can't help figure out. Did anybody see eyes of Wakanda? I was about to say. They had cell phones in the time of ancient Rome. Not only cell phones, they had like manned jets.

Yes. In like ancient China, bro. Like, come on, man. I'm telling you that Wakanda was built on the blood of your ancestors, our ancestors. They wasn't fucking with us. They were selling us in slavery. Calm, my, cowwomen.

But even if the Wakandas wanted to do something just as like a show of good faith, like fix Sean Livingston's knee. Like, you know what I'm saying? Even if they wanted to do something, it's like, think about people that have really got hurt that we that were never the same, just even that, but they didn't even do that. They did nothing. They did nothing.

We're catching hell. The Wakandans did nothing. My follow-up really quick, though, now that they opened up the nation, do you ever think, like, you know, Tachala might be at a Lakers game now? Like, he might be like, oh, Wembe, you could come back to Wakanda.

We could do the whole, like, thing, or no, there's still a little bit, like, we're better than you. I'm not sure. I don't know how the relationship would go. Like, they're not going to show up in a rap video, be like, Oh, well, we pop it now.

I'm pretty sure there's a comic run where Black Panther, like, fought the KKK. I'm pretty sure that happened, right? I guess that is all good, but they got to start. Because we didn't know about the Wakandians before Civil War. Right, so think about it.

Well, they knew about the Wakandans, but they thought they were like a sheep herding nation. Yeah. You know, he starts like the end of Black Panther. He's like building a center in Oakland for the people, you know what I'm saying? That's how the outreach starts. You build one center, build a couple center,

on the Detroit. You know what's the Saturday doing? One in Jacksonville. You know what I'm saying? One in one of Montgomery. You know what I'm saying? I'm with it. I'm with it.

But what I really want is I'm with it. Build the STEM Academy, right? Shuri out there teaching everybody and stuff like that. Right. I get it. I love it. But I also want to see real work being done by the richest nation in the entire world, man. You want reparations from Wakanda to the people?

I want reparations from. from Wakanda. Wakanda owes. Wakanda didn't do nothing. Wakanda forever pay our bills. Can they start with a Thanksgiving dinner, though? Yeah, that's interesting. I mean, I guess it would be the Thanksgiving dinner,

but like, then, you know, that's not... Are you going to bring up old shit at the Thanksgiving dinner? Oh, I'm bringing it up. I'm going to bring it up. I'm going to bring it up at the same time, what they're going to make. Like, it's like, we have to eat with them. The Wakandans, they don't have any cultural exchange with us. They can't make no sweet potato pie.

Ain't going to be no mac and cheese from the Wakandas. They're not eating none of that. You could bring the Maca Cheat. Maybe. She said they're going to cook. That's right. I'm surprised y'all didn't go with my first pick. I'm going with the X-Man.

We have an international. You know, you got Gambit, growing down, making some nice gumbo. You got a storm up in there. Is Magneto not about it? Because Amito show up. Oh, no, Magneto, he's a crazy uncle. He comes. He's a crazy uncle.

You got to have him. Because they're going to have a couple drinks. And then him and Professor X don't start arguing. Now everybody, everybody gets hands. Manito will get drunk, be like, you know what? Roeb, come over. Gene Gray sucking Logan's dick in the bathroom. Cyclops walking mad as hell.

Right, right. That's a great Thanksgiving. What if Logan like, all right, Charles, you want to talk stuff? Let's go to Nendron right now. Let's run it. Now you're in the box. You're looking around like, hey. First of all, I wouldn't, I would be on the cousin walk.

You know, like, you know, Iceman, Piro. We smoking a little weed. Roebis is out there. We're like, yeah, we're getting the munchies. Hold on. X-Man would be a good holiday. It would be a great. Because here's a thing, too, like, they're not.

all black but they're culturally right so i feel like we can have a nice time you know it'll be the worst one spider man that middle from the first spider man but that's one of the nastiest scenes in comic book movie history that nigga took his that's a real that's a real villain and then looked at lit just lit it at fucking ummate that's what he decided to blow up her house right there

That's nasty word My pick would have been Before I knew that they were going to cook Would have been the turtles But that's like for the Thanksgiving That you phone in and you just start ordering I'm not letting the turtle Cook me a meal

They're not They fingers got years It's a great hang though They live in the sewer Nah Dude the turtles stink Huh They can't smell great

Yeah It's gotta smell crazy Because have you ever Have you guys ever smelled like a turtle Like you go like I haven't sniffed a turtle I can't say They can't smell great

I mean they live in the sewer And they're literally animals I'm not sure they're not They're not literally animals Don't do that to the turtles That's rude as fuck They'll come to my house They can shower though

So you're gonna make them shower I mean they're turtles They like water You are freak This is racist All right let's go to He got a question about starting five What's up fellas

Gavin from Saskatoon In Canada I had a question for you boys If you could have any Five players From one franchise Take on it any of the other franchises

in a five-on-five basketball game which franchise you think would come up on top thanks boys it's a terrible question my franchise I'm guessing he means like yeah are the rims 10 feet because if the rims are still 10 feet I'm taking the Navi from Avatar

oh shit yeah that's like where we got five wimbies on the quarter of a lot of the blue wimby's over there I'm there yeah but they're very they're very skitted you know what I mean but again when you when you five feet taller when you five feet taller everybody else you know what I'm saying

I guess the Hulk, can the Hulk dribble? You know what I'm saying? Can a Hulk shoot? The Hulk is just a lob threat. You know what I'm saying? That's all the Hulk is. That's it. X-Men could probably be formidable.

Hope got crazy, crazy vertical. Crazy vert, yeah, but I'm saying, like, you didn't want a pump? Be gone. So that's a dom. Spider-Man can get good handles in there. It doesn't matter how your size if you got handles. Right, but then I'm, again, like, I don't know, the Navi were like 12, 13 feet. Yeah, but he's at speed.

Honestly, I'm thinking about it. The Jedi? low key because they got the force you can't do that you can't use that what are you talking about if we play it in a basketball game no powers no powers you can't use the force you can't use it well I guess

no way so you're going to be a little off you can't just do a little I guess you gotta be able to use powers though because the Hulk using powers yeah of course Spider-Man using power I guess but like what's not going to happen is you just going to like use the force

to take the ball for me every time down the floor come on man let's get in there Let's use our hands. I'm just going to, I'm wondering about what's going to happen when Skywalker's team starts losing. And he starts crying like a bitch. Like crying like a bitch. You don't steal the ball for me. Is he the Luca?

Would he be a little? Just like yelling at the reps and shit. Just mad. Yeah. Luca Skymong. Luca Skywalker. Yeah. Luca Skywalker.

Luca, that's basically who he is. He's got that old white boy ace. Lucas Skywalker. Wait, who did lose Lebron? Oh, LeBron. LeBron Canobey. LeBron is the most Obi-Wan of anyone ever. That's Obi-Wan.

Who's Austin Reeves? Ossoca. Ossoca? Osce. Ossares. Ossares. Osceau's Austin Reeves. That's the fucking three.

Wait, who wouldn't the starting 5B if it was Jedi, though? You got to go, Anakin. We did this. We did this on the mid-ed-ditch. He's a long-neck dude. The long-neck dude. Oh, Yario Poof. Yeah, Yario Poof.

He's the long neck, dude. He's got a long neck. He's got a long neck. I think it might be on the council or not. Yeah, he's like 10 feet tall. He's got a long neck. That's the center. But you got to have Obi-Wan.

You got to have Obi-Wan and Anakin in the same five just to, you know, because Obi-Wan's going to keep him like, as soon as Annes starts getting hot, the rest and like, hey, bro, chill, chill, chill, we got it. We need two more. Would you put, who would you be a point guard? Probably, Ray. Interesting. Ray?

Okay. WNBA. Right. Well, I mean, it's the JNBA. She out there. She out there, probably Ray. Ray is a good distributor. Very talented.

Right. Force lives inside of her. Now, I mean, Kylo. Nah, Kyle. You can't have Kylo. Kylo would be on the court. That's like, yo, Anakin, man. That's the, Brooks.

Yeah. He's too much of a fan, yeah. There's a random question. How powerful is Kylo? Like, do you think of Kylo, like, travel back to the prequel era, people would be like, you don't really got it like that. I think he's powerful.

He's just very unskilled and undisciplined. Therefore, he's a lot weaker than you'd imagine. Get rid of Kylo. I think so, yeah. I think it's, but it's different eras, right? Because, I mean, he was trained. I think, I think, I think Kyle O'Rin is stronger in the force than Obi-Wan Canoians.

Probably. He wants trained better. No, I mean, if you're talking about the experience, but he's a Skywalker. Kyle Ren almost got wrecked by fucking Finn, who doesn't even have the force. That's a weird thing. Because at the beginning of the movie, we're doing so much Star Wars. beginning of the movie, he literally stops a blasher bolt. That was cool.

Yeah, which was amazed. That was cool. Like literally stopped. Yeah, could, Obi-Wan can't do that. Obi-Wan not. Obi-Wan is not strong in the force like that. Yeah. Like, he's strong in the force, strong enough to be a Jedi and all that stuff.

But compared to those other guys, that's not kind of. I feel like, I feel like, I feel like, I feel like, he got him on fundamentals. I just feel like- He got Anakin. He got him. Yeah, that's what I mean. It was a different time. I feel like with the training that, like, Obi-Wan would have gotten. Like, you take him to the prequel era.

Like, maybe. it's a different, different conversation. But, like, what, he, I don't say he flamed out of Jedi Academy. That's not fair to Kylo because of the whole, like, you know, like, Uncle John Killing. You know what I'm saying? But if he got, like, proper training, it'd be a different conversation. But I will say, Obi-Wan, when we were like, oh, Obi-Wan beat Anakin. I'm like, Anakin was plain injured.

Hold on. Just let you know. He was trained by Luke, and then he was, I'm pretty sure, trained by Snoke. By Snoke, yes. Yeah. So he was getting, he's pretty trained up. Yeah. I don't know.

But next question. Question. Casting what ifs from Cooper? So, Midnight Boys. My name's Cooper, and my question is, what is one of the casting choices that almost happened that you would have been most excited for? My answer would be Josh Rowland for Batman before I went to Ben Affleck. Curious what you guys think. Love the show. Thanks a lot. Josh Broan would have made, thank you for the question.

Amazing question. Josh Brom would have made a bad bad. man. You think so? I love Josh Brolin. I think Josh Brolin is actually when I see him in a movie, he's like when I'm like fuck, Josh Brole's in this movie. This is going to be great. I think he would be a terrible Bruce Wayne. I can kind of see that argument. I think what's the thing for me though is like

I love I don't say I love Josh Brolin because he's got a sketchy past. But I just saw Wake Up Dead Man this weekend. He's incredible. He's so good. He's so good. Wake up Dead Man is so good. The guy can act. Who, Brolin? Yeah. I love Brolin.

But he's, Brolin gives me very like jar head or very like militaristic, very just like, yes. And I think he needs like, Bruce needs a little bit more of a swabness to him. I think he can do that.

I think he easily do that. I can see. Okay, I can see that. Mine is, would have loved if they actually listen to Michael Jackson and let him be Professor X in the X men. That would have been,

it would have been something very special. More Mike to run a school, huh? Oh, right. Stop. Oh, Stop, van. Why? Why?

Why? That was too easy. That for you, I expect better. I apologize. That was the lineup. Yeah, you don't. Come on, man. Yeah, you're better than that.

But you could, you'll be. No, that would be so funny. Him in the little, like, yellow wheelchair just, like, scooting around. Y'all get the feeling that Mike was just calling people up. Mike wanted to play Peter Pan and Hook. Do you get the feeling that Mike? Is there a point of this from Mike, Michael Jackson? to where he was just getting on the phone

and just calling people. Just calling people being like, hey, hey, hey, I think I should be Indiana Jones. I was like, I bet you every single call that he made back in the day to do stuff like that,

people gave it a serious thought. Well, because they gave it a serious thought. Can you imagine being an exec at that time and somebody be like, hey, yo, Michael Jackson wants to talk to you? And I'm like, what? He's like, he's on the phone right now. I'd be like, for what?

He's like, you want to be Professor X. I would pick up the phone and be like, hear him out. I want to get. I want to talk to Mike. What's your take? What's your take on you being Professor X? That would be interesting.

Like, can you imagine if Michael Jackson was just like, yeah, I really love the Marauders and I really love Generation X? I'm a really big fan of that. I'm ready to go bald right now. A bald Michael Jackson actually. I'd be like, well, we got to think about it. Have him a screen test or something. The one that I always think about, and people have talked about it, the one that I always think about is Tom Cruise's iron. I was, that was my answer.

That was my answer. I think if Tom Cruise was Ironman, the MCU never would have gotten off the ground. There's a chance. Because what Robert Downey Jr. actually provided besides, like, he was Iron Man in the character, is that because he was so dinged, I think it allowed, like, as just his place in Hollywood, it allowed the MCU to be bigger than the actors. I'm not saying that was good for Hollywood long term, but to build a cinematic universe, I think like Robert Downey Jr.

And Iron Man rising together was a better gamble than if Tom Cruise was Iron Man, we would always be like Tom Cruise is bigger than Iron Man. Yeah, that makes sense. And Tom Cruise just did Iron Man. Yeah, it would be Tom Cruise doing Iron Man. As best we would have the Iron Man universe a la Mission Impossible, maybe.

And then there's the thing of when they were filming the first Iron Man, it was kind of like they describe it as like a student film. Like they were like writing lines on the day and shooting that stuff like in the moment. Like it's very, and we know how Tom Cruise got to really won

for the, for the frilly, freely on the set, man, you got to be locked in. You got to, like, have that thing.

There's a magic to the first Iron Man. And is he good at ad-libbing? Like, Downey, to me, he's like good at being community ad-libbing. That's literally, they wrote the MCU,

like they made the MCU the Downey style after Iron Man. But that's the thing. Do I think Tom Cruise could be a good Iron Man? Of course. I do think he would. It's a completely different movie

at a completely different trajectory. I don't think the MCU would have worked as well But I've been interested to see the movie My biggest pitch for like If all this IP shit Is dying or whatever I think they should start doing shit like this I think they should be like honestly we remake an Iron Man

And we're doing it with Tom Cruise Yeah is he 70 fuck it Luke Skywalker We're doing the same exact Star Wars But we just giving you a movie Who's to say that a Dr. Doom played by Robert Donnie Jr. in Doom's day doesn't kill an Iron Man played by Tom Cruise

in 30 seconds either do it or don't. They do it, though. We'll see. We'll see. I'm all four. If it was me, I'd have been casted

another Luke Skywalker and all y'all motherfuckers what I had to deal with. Dude, that guy that was the body double for Mark Hamel in that episode of the Mandalorian when he was trained in Grogu

looks just like Mark Hamill. Actually, my question is why couldn't Luke Skywalker just be like the James Bond of Star Wars? We're just like, we're going to show you all the shit that he got up to

and it's like, it's a different actor, boom, It's a great idea. It's the big idea. Because people are too emotional, that's why. Like, the same reason why I'm not going to go back into the whole thing. That's Jed, I think.

But the same, just recast this. We're forcing story down people's throats that people don't want. But, you know what they do want? They want Luke Skywalker right after Jeddah. They want that. Give it to them. To me, I also think if they re-exam, cast the Luke, I don't think

he has to act, the actor has to look like Mark Campbell. I think it's okay to do like a Daniel Craig thing where it's just like Well, we don't know this version of Skywalker as well. But they've never learned the lesson from Solo where it's like it's not the fact that you didn't have Harrison Ford play solo that that movie didn't work.

I think there's a difference between the two characters and I won't let's just I say. So we got three movies of Solo as Solo. Luke has an arc. So the Luke that we get in New Hope, and then to Empire,

and then we don't get as much of, we get different versions of Luke Skywalker. Then by the time you get Luke Skywalker and Jedi, you have a Luke that's contending with his power, that's got a little darkness in him. You could actually, would that version of Luke Skywalker, bring another actor in who can embody that.

It's harder to do with Han Solo because we had so much tape on Solo being solo that we're looking at the way he smiles. We're looking at the way he talks. We're looking at facial expressions. We're looking at Han wouldn't say that we have a lot of Han as Han, and we don't have as much of Skywalker as the Skywalker that we will be seeing after Jedi.

You're trying to have him with Mary, Mara Jade. Yeah, yeah. All of that, like that, that version of Skywalker, we have way less with that shit. My question is, why does everything need to be canon? Why couldn't they just say

hey, we're introducing Mara Jade? Like, we're doing our own version of, like, the Legends version of the movie. You can make a Legend version, but it's confusing to people. Like, when these Star Wars things come out, they are they're already making the Legends version. So much of this shit that's in the... Yeah, it may as well

be... Yeah, it's already come Legends. Yeah, it's true. true. Thrawn? Thrawn's from legends. Right, but I'm saying, but all that stuff is legend to the story though. It is now. That's what I'm saying, but if I say I'm making a Star Wars movie, you assume canon. You don't assume it's not canon.

But so much of Star Wars, for all the history though, wasn't built on canon. It was just like, there's these books over here and there's these comics over here. And I'm just like, it's okay for you guys to make a movie where you're just like, don't worry about the canon. We're making a good Luke or dark. But that's never been the ethos of Star Wars ever.

Like there have been keepers of tombs of things. that you can and cannot use in certain times. And that's the problem. I don't disagree, but like when Disney bought it, they, you know, took all the bugs and said, thank you, all your work, Timothy Zon, appreciate you, get the hell out of here. Ultimately, he can't write some new shit, though.

He did. Right, but I'm just saying, like, in terms of, like, how the books are canning to the universe. But it's difficult. It's the same, it's kind of the same conversation we have with, like, the two badmands. You could do it, but you would just, like, expect a lot.

You would have to tell people like, hey, man, these two different things. That's a lot of work. No, my trying to do all that. Ultimately, that's what it looks like. It's why we can't have nice things. All right. Dick riding Hall of Fame.

Jaden. Great question. My name is Jaden. Big fan of y'all. Keep doing a good work. Is that really a question? I may guess so. More of a suggestion, if I may.

I think a Dick riding Hall of Fame or top dick riding moments in fandom. Again, keep doing what you're doing. I appreciate y'all. All right, who the top dick riders in fandom? Ebony Ma. Ebony Ma is a fucking dick rider. The worst.

Stillguard? The worst. Stillguard. Stillguard, not a dick rider. What are you kidding me? Oh, well, he got it. Come on, man. He bounced on it.

That's religion. It's different. Yeah, still. That's religion. What is religion if not formalized dick riding? What is religion if not formalized dick riding? Oh, you're going to hell. That was it fucking.

He was like, oh, I don't know. This is my body. Is this my honest? I'm just joking. Tom Holland, Spidey. I don't call people. Oh, no, no. Spotter, Iron Man?

I was playing with Steve. That's not nice. That's not nice. Peace and love to everybody. I don't mean that. Steve going to live in paradise forever. All right. So you don't say that about your friends.

Yeah, he's a dick rider. Spidey's a dick rider. Like, here's the thing. Miles Morales would never let no, like, no grown man telling him, take away his suit. Fuck you. Who are you? He put the hands

So we got three good ones right now So Stilgar Tom Holland, Spider-Man Ebony Maugh Ebony Maugh's a crazy dude This could be all about Can you guys a question Falcon?

Nah, this is boy Come on, man That's his dog, bro. No, stop. No, come on, man, don't do them like that. Don't do it. Come on, why? Why?

Why? Why? No, because here's the thing. You waiting for the way. white man to give you the shield. That's my shield, niggas. Like,

you, you're putting on his guy. He was like five seconds before. You were like, no, no, no, no. No, no. I'm not Captain America. Come on. Charles took him too far.

I'm Captain X. Calabah, man. Captain X is funny. Now, you can't call Falcon one because Falcon is now Captain America. Yeah, you can't. No. But who else?

So that's, we got three. I'm trying to. Who else? Who is? Who is Star Wars? We've been on our Star Wars kick is the biggest dick writer of Star Wars. I mean, you know, you got to call somebody Master. That's a pretty big dick, right.

I mean, Kylo was bouncing on a frantician. Yeah, Kyle was. Also, bouncing on your granddaddies. It's nasty work. Yeah, he was, but is it Dick Rodd with his family, though? You got to be able to look up to your family. Yeah, but that's like, that's like emotional cosplaying. You can't, you can't look up to your fascist granddad.

You can't be like, because here's a thing. He reformed, and you still like, It's like Carlo didn't hear the end of the story. Yeah. Yeah. It's like somebody told him to story. You'd think that when he was training with Luke all that time, he'd have told him the last thing that he did with his grandpa.

He went trying to hear all that. No. Luke was probably so annoyed with Kyle O'Ran. He probably didn't sense the darkness. He was probably sick of his bullshit. It's like this fucking kid. Like, I come in this room every time you fucking destroy in this room because you're getting in fights with people like that.

So those really are the three, to be honest with you. There are others that I can think about if we think about... Are there any in Game of Thrones? Oh, there's got to be. Oh, what should you call it? What should we call it in Searcy? Oh. Her brother.

Oh, they were literally bouncing on it. Yeah. I mean, they were just quite literally in love. Yeah. It's one of the greatest love stories. Jamie and Searcy is one of the greatest love stories. Don't let, don't let that stop you from your true love. Don't let family.

Don't let family get them. Tell us you what your thoughts on E-Sess. Jamie. This is why I'll say it's not for me, but I commend those crazy kids for not letting something like the fact

that they have the same mother and father stop them from falling in love. But they shared the same womb. They shared the same womb. I would say like Tyrian, late Tyrion to DeNaris. That was great. That was from character.

I mean, well, really, John Snow, too, to DeNus. Everybody, by the end of the series was like, go with Daeneris, my queen. I don't want it. I love the end of the game of throw so much because DeNaris would be up in them war rooms not saying shit and all the guys would.

And all the guys would. She's tripping. And he's like, who was old boy for Stannis? What's his name? Oh, Bradthia? No.

No. No. That's the, the Navy guy. Yeah, who couldn't read. Yeah. I can't believe I'm forgetting his day. That's the homie. And the little daughter taught him.

Oh, Shereen. Oh, my God. Camel Thrones is crazy, bro. Ripped to her. Oh, wait, wait, wait. Little finger, too, what you can call it? Little finger had it bad, bro. Oh, my God.

For Stanza? Oh, for cat, that's right. No, you know you like Dick Rodden. It's like you like the mama and there you go to the daughter. Like, that's terrible. That's nasty work. Oh, my God. All right.

We have Midnight Boys origins from Isaiah. Hey, Midnight Boys, this is Isaiah, long-time listener, Pugh, Pugh, to the best podcast in the world. I've always wondered. And maybe y'all've explained it before, and I just missed it. What is the origin of the Midnight Boys? You know, who met up with who, who knew who, who, who linked up with who, who hated who. How did y'all first get together?

And what was your first impressions of each other? I love y'all's content. You are always the highlight of my day. keep doing what y'all doing, and I'll see y'all soon. So the first show Van and I did together was on the Prestige TV channel before it was what was it before Prestige TV? I think it was prestigious TV. No, no, no, no.

It was called TV pantry. Pantheon or something. It was not called TV pantry. It was called TV pantry. And we talked about Wanda Vision, I think. We talked about WandaVision. And then the Ringerverse was born. You were supposed to have a show.

Matt was supposed to have a show. Joe wasn't there, I wasn't there and I think we did a bunch of hosts and I think from my recollection I just kept coming back week after week and that you were our producer. Yeah, I was the producer I remember the first like formalized thing where we're like

we're going to have Charles on for like the run of Falcon and Winterstager and that was like the start and then I don't think it ever changed. And then you were there from the start because you were doing social so you were just sitting in on the Zoom. Some of that was Bill like it, we were, it was, it was Mallory and then we were going to like rotate hosts.

And then it was like no rotating host. We need to find a permanent host for you to be with. That's when T-D was in charge. Yeah. And I think, did T-D come up with the name the Midnight Boys? Nah. Wait, who came up with the Midnight Boys? So the Midnight Boys, and this is, this is why I'll say this.

This is very important. I'm glad we're talking about this. The actual name that Midnight Boys is, Honestly, Steve, and let me tell you why. Was that mean? So, but let me tell you why. I said it. Oh.

I said, remember, I said, we're the midnight boys. Poo-poo, I said it. Steve, though, clipped it. So what, so all of this stuff, all of this stuff was totally organic. We were doing, the way Jomi came in is we were doing Loki. And we couldn't figure out the time travel. and Jomey came in with the time travel. And we started calling him Jomey Explanerner.

I said something to Mallorine. But I said, we the Midnight Boys. Poo-Pew! And then Steve took the Midnight Boys and the sound effect. And then I put the little Poo-Pew Sound Effect in. I put the little Poo-Pew on the sound effect. And then that stuck. That was it.

So almost everything that happened was like natural and like collaborative and authentic. Super organic. And I also feel like how you guys slowly started becoming more of the show is like we would have the show and then we would like

stay on and argue about it or like before the show we would be arguing. Yeah, because we started the show on Zoom and there was this interesting thing that would happen because it would just be on the Zoom call at me as the producer would see it

like Jomi and I are in the background that our cameras aren't on and it's Chuck and Van talking. And then occasionally like there would be like a silence of like what happened there? And then like Jomey would just like turn his mic

on and just say something. And then there's this like interesting back and forth where like he was like, three of you guys were talking. And then like I might have said something. And then that just like, those doors slowly just started to open organically. The moment Jomi explained the, the, uh, the Loki thing, I wanted Jome on every show. Because it just was, it was like a, it was such a funny moment. Me and you were like me.

Because remember me and you were having fun. Remember we get the Turkish delights and all that stuff. And then you were having fun. The moment, the moment Jomey popped. I was like, okay, we should have this part of it. Because to me, these shows are great when they're like, when they're dynamic, when they're different things happening, when you can cast them in different ways and have all of this stuff. And then I'll tell you what made, so this was on a different show.

Steve was already a part of it. But the thing that really, really stuck with me with Steve is when Steve got mad about the LARPing. Oh, right. The Hawkeye? Yeah. It's not so much that I was mad. It was like the one thing we were like, hey, you was mad. You might be mad.

No lie. You was mad. You guys don't remember we did Hawkeye. Episode two. And episode two, well, Hawkeye's like 20, 22 or 23. It's 22. I think it's 20, it's either 21 or 22. Yeah, we did Hawkeye.

And the larping episode happened. There's an episode of Harcite with an larpe. And I don't know very much about Larval. And so I'll start. Like, you're funny. Hey, after the pot, wait,

after the pot, he was like, guys, mics are off. Steve was like, are you sure? Are you sure you want that in? He's like,

it feels like we're punching down. I'm like, what? The fuck are you talking about? I was like, I don't know, I just don't want to feel like I'm offending anybody. He's like,

it feels like you're punching down. I'm like, nah, man, bring Steve back. I'm like, I'm like, I look at that's why I'm going to. Was this pre-ar post?

Because I think finally solidified when we did the first black superhero draft where I was just like, oh, this is like, because that was the day, I think that's when we did the Jordy LaForge show. That might have been, Jordan LaForge might have been before that.

Before that. Where we were like, oh, yeah, it's a four. It might be before that. If we did three, then it was definitely like 22. Yeah, it was definitely 22. Well, no, no, Hawkeye came out either. Was it, well, Hawkeye had to have come out Christmas 22 because it was Christmas.

It was Christmas, yeah. So it had to be. But we didn't do it the first year. I think we did it. the second. Hock guy was 21. Oh, no, then that was first. That was first.

Hawkeye was first, and then we did the black superhero draft. Yeah, because it's also crazy that people know us probably, mostly from the incarnation when we're all in the studio doing video because we did so much it. We wanted for so many years.

That was so long. Dogg. I was so much when you were to go to New York. Yeah. It really was a different era. We did like... And then I would come, because I would come to L.A.,

and then we would all go over to Vance House and we'd be like eating at wings and shit. and the shows would just be better when we were all in person. I'm like, bro. Yeah. I might have to come fucking. Well, the two legitimately, to me, the LARPing, when I think of legitimately funny moments on the show,

the larping thing is a legitimately moment which didn't even happen on the show. And then that black superheroes draft, man. Because it was, we did a pause. Because he said, Jordan LaForge, and then it's crickets. Steve goes, he's played with a plume. Put that in.

Like, this TV show meant a lot to me as a kid growing up. And I think this is probably one of the coolest, uh, characters. When you, when you talk about Star Trek, uh, I grew up watching the next generation. And I don't think there was a character to me that was any cooler than the chief

engineer of the USS Enterprise, Jordy LaForge. Ooh. Pretty good back. Played by, by LeVar Burton. Uh, He was so smart.

He was weird around girls, which who can't relate. And he would often have great adventures with data in the holodeck playing Sherlock Holmes. He was like one of my favorite characters of all time. Van, why are you looking at Steve like that? Jomi's looking really skeptical at me. Yeah, it's like, yeah, that's, I'm like, a lot of you, Steve. That's the top. What's the talk about?

That's the top. Let me be clear. Let me be clear. I love Lovar Byrne. That's my guy, right? Reading Rainbow. You know what I'm saying? Like, he's a trust of my heart forever.

That's your second pick, my guy? That's your second pick. That's your second pick. Listen, I've freed up some board space. You can play with the rest. That's tough. That's tough. I mean, like, look.

Hey, he made a lot to me. No, no, no, and I understand. You mean, my thing is, if anybody votes for Steve during this portion of the podcast, and like, that is kind of racist. I'm not going to lie. Like, I'm not going to hold you. Like, Steve should have zero on the board.

Steve, that's that's that's that's that's not Steve I'm like I love shout out to Jordan George Leforge Steve He put that in the show I don't give a fuck bro He put that in the show He's played with a little Bile of Arborne

Jorny LaForge and he was like Charles goes Charles is such a good friend Charles goes It's a good pig I don't know I don't know

But really all of those moments made the crew. That's what made the crew, man. Oh, my goodness. Memory Lane. All right, let's do some rapid-fire ones. Let's do Matrix sequels from Giovanni. Yo, happy Thanksgiving, Midnight, boys. It is Giovanni.

And I have to ask, as a lover of the Matrix 1, 2, and 3, why do people always say in pop culture, podcast, and everything, that the Matrix 2 and 3 are terrible. I mean, the Godfather 2, a lot of sequels aren't as good as the first, but I still fuck with the Matrix 2 and 3. I need to know the opinion of, you know, dudes who probably saw it in theaters,

so thank you. I say this as someone who likes some of the Matrix sequels, putting Matrix 3 loaded, and the Godfather 2 is a comparison. That's funny. It's crazy work. That's funny, that's wild. You can have the conversation

what's better than Godfather or Godfather. too, but I'm like, the Matrix 2 versus you're shooting for 35. There's an answer to this question, like an actual answer. The answer to the question is that there are very few, like the Godfather and the Godfather two, it expands the story, right? But it stays true to

the tone, the themes, and the overall rhythm of the first one, right? The Matrix, the Matrix Reloaded is a completely different, it's a complete tonal shift from the first movie. When you think about the first movie, the first movie of the Matrix doesn't give you in any way more than you can handle.

In any way. It says, hey, you're enslaved, you live in a fake world. Everything else, the movie actually kind of thematically lets you do what you're supposed to do in the Matrix world, which is make your own choice. The movie's asking you a choice about whether or not Neo should stay in the Matrix

or be in the real world. The minute that Seifer takes that bite of steak, you're in there going, shit, I would do that. And you see them eating it. But the movie doesn't beat you over the head with it. The most direct the film gets is when the Oracle is talking.

Because the Oracle is talking in parables and you're not sure it was. But it tells the story in moments, and it's lean. It is lean. That is a lean movie. It's a sexy script in how boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Boom, boom, boom, boom. If you're a screenwriter or whatever, you should actually read the script for the first Matrix, to your point, like, not only do they not make movies like this, you were a lot, like, I remember when the first Matrix came out, and when my parents came back to the movie theater, it was almost like they were changed. It was like they were talking about the philosophy and the themes

and what's real and what's not. And Morpheus gives you some exposition, right? They do a dump. I'm not saying they don't. It's the best exposition dump in history. But they do a dump, and then they go, let's get right to fight. Yeah.

Let's keep you engaged. Now, by the time you get to reload it, it's a council. It's like, they have expanded the lore of the movie to a degree to where when I first sat down and I was looking at it,

I'm like, this is different. It does not feel like the same movie. They definitely went bigger, which is why I think, think those two sequels were very jarring for a lot of people that go into the movie. I think it's two things. I think first, the first Matrix is a movie that not only changes movie history, but it is a movie that's not about the Matrix. It's where the other Matrix movies are building the lore, where when I saw Reloaded, I'm like, oh, the Matrix changed

cinematic history and so did Reloaded, but it's changing cinematic history in a way of like, we think of the highway chase and we think of like all of the stunts and like how expansive and big they are versus the birth matrix so much CGI is so much shit that's going on it just feels but when you think about like oh when Neo does the like

does the matrix he does the move I'm like oh not only does that work as like we've never seen this in film before but it's in conversation with kung fu movies it's in conversation with sci-fi it's in conversation with all these things by the time you get to the third Matrix movie I'm like this is about It's also thematically true.

Like, he is doing something literally. And then Trinity, when Trinity approaches Neo after he does that, she goes, how'd you do that? Yes. Yeah. It's like, what do you mean? It's like, you move like they move. Like, the whole time we're learning that Neo is the anomaly. Like, we're seeing it demonstrated and then the characters litigated quickly and then they move on to something else.

Yeah. The best scene in any of the three movies that doesn't involve. fighting is the scene between Neo and the architect, but it also, to me, underscores the issue with the sequels. Yep. That when Neo is talking to the architect, he is giving such a brilliant and breathtaking treatise on the entire world. It is legitimately a man talking to a computer program, a human being talking to the

thing that enslaved them. And it's a budding of heads between like them for existence. It's the juxtapositioning existence right there. Human being, feeling, thinking, computer, logic, numbers. And they are having that conversation and they are in traction because of their nature. But you can't understand it. Yeah. Like you can't.

He's talking so. And it makes sense. for the character, he's talked, nobody... I love the scene, but you can't understand it. It's so amazing to me because, like, I'm deeply in the bag for the Wachowski's, even for their bad movies, because there isn't a single movie that they do that does not have a massive idea behind it. And those Matrix sequels, for all of the things that Warner Brothers wanted to give

them for an infinite amount of money and for an infinite amount of sequels that they wanted to do, they got carte blanche to do what they wanted. And as much of a failure of like a storytelling, like it's clunky and it's like off, all of those ideas still ring true. When we like pick that movie apart and really like examine what that movie's trying to do, it's one of my like going down memory lane, when you watched Revelations for the first time, you hated it. And you were like, you were talking about it. I was a little down on it. No, you gave it a two out of ten. You were like insanely down on it.

And this was still early in my, like, career of, like, getting to know you and work with you. And the first time that you called me out of the blue was, like, maybe, like, two or three weeks after that pod happened. And you're like, so talk to me about, like, what revelations happened. Because I don't think I got it. Because he's like, but you didn't get it. And then you wanted to dive in more to want to understand it. And by the time that you came out of it, it's the running joke of, like, his score keeps going up and up because all of these ideas that the Muchowski's are nailing makes sense. Well, can I ask this?

Does Matrix Reloaded almost break? And I put Phantom Menace in this. Break fandom a little bit. Because I think before that, for Star Wars, the way the force becomes a religion to us is because so much of it is not explained. It's a feeling. It could be whatever you want.

Same thing with the first Matrix. There's so much that's left up to interpretation. Whatever we're thinking up is going to be way cooler than whatever the Wachowski's can put on screen. And now with IP, we want. want to, what we were saying about Batman begins. We want to know not just why they became the heroes. We want to know the, like, how does the Matrix work?

How does the force work? How do these things work? So I'll say this. The, in revolutions, when Neo is fighting Smith, grab somebody that's seen the movie and ask why Neo is fighting Smith. Just ask them if they know why the fights happen. Like, ask them if they know what, like, after all of that stuff, like, Smith is like, ask them if they know what that fight means. Like, why the machines need Neo to fight Smith?

Like, why, like, it is like, ask, ask somebody if they get it. They don't really get it. And it's not their fault. Like, I fucking put research into it. Yeah. But the movie itself kind of got in its own head a little bit. But if you go with it, I'm fucking with it. And it's where I slightly push back about it about like,

the Matrix breaking fandom as a series because I actually think it's probably the better thing for fandom because these are what these movies... No, hold on. These are what these movies actually were. I'm not taking this from you. Hell not. These are what these movies actually...

Don't let him lie to you. Oh, don't worry. This is disgusting. What I'm here right now. No, no, don't worry. I'm never going to stop you from liking Avatar. And I'm never going to stop you from... And you shouldn't stop me from liking the Matrix. But what these movies used to be were these big, heady things

that people didn't really get or understand. They thought they were just visual eye candy. And the people that really liked them, the people that really liked them wanted to look into them. They wanted to make these things that either, whether or not they were actually text, subtext, or fiction that people just made up, that's what actually makes these fandoms like communal.

Would you take the avatar sequels over the Matrix sequels? We're not talking about the first film. Matrix sequels, 1000. It's, though, this is, you make me choose between my children now. It's not our decision. It's an easy decision. We already got the first films. Are you taking...

I'll probably take the Matrix sequels. Matrix, easy. Easy. I'm disappointed in every... I think I'm taking the Matrix sequels, but it's closer than I would like that. Yeah, it's really... It's really one for me.

Last thing I'll say about the Matrix sequels. Think about the Burley Brawl from The Matrix Reloaded, Neo versus Aldous Smith. That was like such a big deal. I loved it when I first saw it. Even when I first saw it, I'm like, every time Neo and Smith faced off before that, it was so monumental.

Not just Neo and Smith. Whenever you saw Smith get busy. You're like, oh, fuck. Like, you knew somebody was in fucking trouble. Like, think about the first time Morpheus is fighting Smith and they're in the bathroom. Oh, and he's beating the shit out of him. And you feel so bad for Morpheus.

And now that whole burly brawl, it was to show how Smith had become a virus and was in fact, but it was kind of just a stunt. Mm-hmm. Yeah. All right. We have one more question. I think this is going to be a good one to end on. Noah, what is fandom anymore? Let's roll that. What's up guys? Big fan. My name is Noah. I'm up in Chicago.

And, all right, so the idea of what falls under fandom has been very intriguing to me over the years. I'm wondering with the new screen movie coming out next year, you know, there's so many of them. This is number seven. I feel like that probably counts as fandom, but I'm not sure where you all lie on interest slash enjoyment of Scream as a franchise. So I wanted to know, are you all going to be talking about Scream?

Do you all fuck with Scream? You know? Yeah, just love to your thoughts. Big fan. Scream as like the movie screen? Yeah. Yeah. I think fandom is not relegated to one specific genre.

It's fandom, all kinds of fandom of everything. I think there is a real distinction between a horror movie fandom and a horror movie lore and the type of sci-fi fantasy superhero lore that we're into. I'm not saying that there's one is better than the other one, but like a lot, the horror fans are, I can never be that deep into a horror thing. I don't get, I've seen one screen movie. I've seen the first. Not because they're bad.

I really like the first scream. I just don't, to your point, they're both fandoms, but there are friends I have that are like, no, no, no. When a new horror movie comes out, I don't care if it's good, bad, or indifferent, I'm going to go see it in the same way that I felt about Marvel for a long time, where it's like, I don't give a fuck if this is a bad Marvel movie. I need to see the next one.

But I also, I think what's interesting about, like, what is fandom is I feel like for when the Midnight Boys popped up and everything that was happening with the MCU, for the first time fandom to me became crossover culture where it was like no everybody is into this and now the new version of fandom is we're going back into the niches where it's like people who fuck with Star Wars just kind of fuck with Star Wars now.

When Force Awakens was popping, everybody was going to go see these fucking movies, you know? And now it's like how many people are watching Asoka? And that's nothing against Asoka. It's just it's niche again. It's different. I think part of that is like, you know, streaming. right, has kind of like curtailed our interest to like, you do, you, you watch this one thing,

you watch this one thing. And sometimes you have like a Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon, but like a change of things that like might pop off. But for the most part, it's really niche. And so you have to like kind of, it's not, it's, it's not the monoculture it once was. And so there's a lot of stuff popping off. But at the end of the day, like there's only so much, you know, you can, you can really cover it and they only really watch. A little girl, a dude one time he's dating this girl. This is what I think about the way I think about some of this stuff and the way we cover it.

And she would bake cookies. And it was cool because she would... Jomey did not know her. She would bake cookies for all of us and stuff like that, right? I remember she was really adventurous with the cookie baking and stuff like that. And one time he goes, hey, you know what? She got it all, bro. She got it all.

And look, we sit down, we eat cookies. We're chilling. We're good. It's good. Like, for some reason, the fact that she was such a good cookie baker, just put him over the edge or whatever. Like he was in love with this girl? He was already in love with her. But she just loved to bake cookies and she always had.

When you see her, he was like, it was like almost Pavlovian. You'd be like, there's some cookies somewhere. Then they got married and he got tired of cookies. And when I'm, now he didn't get tired of her. They're very much in love. Like, he didn't get tired of her. He didn't get tired of her. Okay, okay.

They stayed love. but the cookies that he was getting, he was getting them so much that he was like, like, I'm eating a lot of cookies that's affecting my midsection. Like, when you were dating someone and she was baking the cookies,

you get them every now and again, they tasted great and all of that stuff. I'm wondering now if we're married to this stuff now. I'm wondering now if what happened before we came along when everybody was into this stuff everyone was still dating Marvel even all the way through I don't think a lot of people married Marvel

until even after endgame right we were still in love and if we had a man it was the honeymoon phase even if we were still in that right now it's been a while it's been a while and fandom

is durable and it's going strong and it's existing, but I think it's existing in a different space. I think we don't want the cookies anymore. We want nice meals that we can all enjoy together.

And when we first started this podcast, we thought that we would stay in that honeymoon phase in that phase of eating the sweets from our partner indefinitely in the perpetuity. And no one saw that it was just

too much sugar and it has been and the cookies kind of been blamed but so like it's not just an MCU thing I think it's an MCU thing

it's a Star Wars thing absolutely thing it's been across the I can make an argument right now that Taylor Sheridan's over exposed that with that would

look these shows are you like his style so you like Landman so you like Lioness so you like all the other stuff that you like Tulsa King can make an argument that all of the other stuff

of this stuff that undergirds these streamers so you can put stuff out there. I say this all the time, but they were literally going to make a Sopranos extended universe. They were going to start doing the Soprano over. I don't even think it's just IP. I think people are starting to feel this way about like Oscar movies. And obviously like a lot of these Oscar movies aren't IP. But I think like when I start going during like, you know, seeing like sentimental value or whatever, I'm like, oh, these are good movies.

But there is a level of like almost we've gotten almost too good. at the Oscar movie The Oscar, like, this is important And like, when somebody goes to a festival, they're just like, this is going to change your life and you go to the movie, you're just like, oh, no, that was good. Yeah, but is that also like a bit of a like, like a cultural, like talking point that we just prop up

we're like, this is the movie. Well, everything is fandom now. We will all, like, even like art now, even 824 movies. 824 movies is a distributor. People make it. But like when you go over and merch. You're like, oh, I kind of know what I'm, there's almost too much now.

And it's like everything because it's become so niche and it's become like rabid, there is a point now where I was like, oh, originality is hard. That's why I think with something like sinners comes out, it gives you that feeling of like, oh, this doesn't feel like the same cookies we're getting. I think there's an answer there that also has to do with our brains. So we've always going to see the Spielberg movie, going to see the Scorsese movie, going to see all of that stuff. We've always done that. We've always used creators and creatives as a seal of freshness for the stuff that we're into. You're not buying the next rap album. Me and Vince Staples was talking about that.

Shout out Vince Staples. Shout out of Corey. But if you watch that, you're not going to buy the next rap album that comes out. You're going to buy the next Vince Staples that comes out, the next Tupac that comes out. You're buying a whole record. You're buying into the whole world. You're buying into that. That's what you're doing.

But our brains have also changed. insofar as where we take less chances than we do on stuff. We take less chances now because our algorithm feeds us what we want to see. So our algorithm feeds us what we want to see. So we're used to seeing things that right away get us excited about it or things that we like and enjoy. Your algorithm feeds you what you want to see. So when you step out of your algorithm and you see A24,

I'm supposed to like this movie. I'm supposed to like it because it's 824. I'm supposed to like the movie because it's Marvel. I'm supposed to like this stuff. That is what all of these different people are banking on. It's not about the creative as much as it's about the branding. And what people are actually trying to do is get enough movies in, whether it's neon or some of these other shops that are out there trying to compete with A24,

get enough movies in to where their logo will make you feel like the A24 logo feels. We went to see Avatar. We were on the Disney lot. I was walking up there talking to Voss, and I'm like, every time I'm on the Disney lot and I see the fucking Water Tower, I get a little fucked up.

It's Disney. Yeah. Because I went to the wrong entrance. When I went to the Pixar entrance, and I saw Pixar, I was like, oh, it still did something to you. You're like, this is, wow, this is where they make all that stuff. You see the Mickey hat and you see the everything,

and you're like, oh, there still is that lizard brain part of me where it's like so much of myself is wrapped up in Disney. Then I give them that chance. But I think to your point, when Disney, someone like Disney owns Marvel and Star Wars and this and that, you're like, I don't know if I want all my Star Wars to feel like Disney. I don't know if I want all my Marvel characters to feel like Disney. It used to be like, oh, my Marvel shit felt like Marvel shit. And now it's all, and that's consolidation.

That's capitalism. I get it. We're getting down the rabbit hole. But I do think that's what we're also responding to where it's like, people forget the beginning of the MCU was different. It was not owned by I remember when Star Wars and Marvel were not DC properties. I mean Disney properties.

And it felt different. But that was when Paramount was making those movies with the Iron Man. Universal made one too. Yeah, but that was, the Hulk. If you go back and watch those movies, they feel different.

They, yeah, there's a little bit. And here's the thing. I think when Disney bought both of those, I think it raised kind of the floor where it was like, you're never going to get a really, really, terrible, terrible superhero or Star Wars movie anymore. Like terrible, unwatchable.

But it's harder to transcend it because it's like to transcend, you've got to be a little bit more. You got to take some chances. You got to do something. And once again, it's like when I go out and this was the whole one battle after another thing, we've talked about it everywhere, all of that stuff. But that was just somebody else's version of a Marvel movie. It's like a known commons.

from a fandom group. A fandom group. A fandom group. The film bros, who I've come to love in our truth. That's not true. The film bros. It's their deal. But what has created the film bros?

Twitter. Letterbox, social media. That has created that. That has given them their thing. Star Wars and all of this stuff, all of these fandoms going on for a long time. Back in the day, all of that stuff. But you know what the difference is, again,

last thing I'll say, is like if it was 1997, right and you are a Star Wars person you have to really be a Star Wars person you have to get your ass on the motherfucking plane you had to go to celebration right you had to go

not to Walmart and buy a bunch of Star Wars stuff right because they didn't have it there they might have had a couple of things you have to find it right you have to go buy books you have to do all that stuff now you're a film bro

because you say that you want because you like like some stuff on Twitter because you have an account. And that, the ease of entry into all of this stuff has exploded the ranks of people that are sectioned off in the way that these different fandoms are sectioned off. And it's starting to eat at the creativity a little bit. You know, you want to get it as our responses and criticism of the stuff a little bit. The physical nature, like, I remember the first, vividly I remember the first time my mom walked me in

to a comic book store. and I could feel that I didn't belong yet because she's a black woman and there's all these nerdy white guys and I remember I would just like keep going back and the end I remember the moment where it's like the comic book guy was just like actually I think you should read this

yeah they'll give you something to read and you're just like oh it was the first one I'm like oh I'm welcome into the world now you walk in and they go van I got something for you yeah I know you're gonna like this and and my mom oh like you walk in the joker's palace Sagan Lane Baton Rouge they go van I got something for you But I know you're going to like this.

And they see the passion and they're just like, oh, let me bring you closer to the community. Now that's so easy. You can read a comic book online where it's like, oh, it's not that curated thing of like, oh, now if I want to talk to somebody about this comic, I got to go back to the comic store and be like, fuck. And I'm not hating on. I'm saying everything is fandom. When I'm looking at NBA Twitter, NBA Twitter, NBA is a thing, right? But not just NBA Twitter.

I'll see sites. It's Shay Muse. It's Luca Muse. It's Wendy Mews. All of these, all of these. Like fan accounts? These little fiefdoms that are dedicated to like one player and get super fucking pissed off if you come at their guy.

Bill Simmons has a fucking, Bill Simmons has a podcast. That's about his podcast. Listen. You know what I'm saying? Content is straight up. I still fuck with him. If anybody ever makes a Midnight Boys podcast,

that's about them. I like those guys. A podcast about the podcast? I think... You like the Bill Simmons Reddit? I think... I'm sorry, bro. I think that shit is sustained.

Because, you know, the way I look at it? It's not always very flattering, and sometimes, you know, they can be dicks about it, but... They hate you over there. I'm sure they do. But, like, what I'm saying is, like, they, they can be...

They can be assholes about it, but I can be an asshole about it. Right. Like, I'm not any... I'm on TV or on... on whatever saying shit. And you don't have to like it all. I fuck with you anyway.

I get it. I actually think it's interesting that me from sitting down at TMZ and doing that and all of that stuff like that or being here and talking about all of these things that people put their all into, that they've lived their whole lives to make this one movie. And then I'm sitting behind a mic giving all of these half-baked-ass opinions on it and stuff like that. that, yeah, I'm not better than it and I'm not over it. I'm not, it's not too much. You got to get a little bit, and when I get on the rewatchables, I'm going to say something black. When I get on bill shit, I'm a say something black.

I love you. You're race baiting. I'm a race baiter. Van the master race baiter. Van the master race bait. It's a part of my thing. But everybody is entitled to their opinion and I enjoy it. I actually love engaging with it, too.

I do. I like it. People get so it's like, people get so wound up about it. I'm like, oh shit. Not Van again. Now we got to hear about the Negroes. Yeah. Actual headline. Lucky. You do.

All right. That's a wrap. What a good pod. This week on the Ring of Verse feed, check out the Horace of Our's Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 1, Deep Dive on Friday. But Match is covering Metro Prime 4 and Marvel Cosmic invasion. I got to look at that. What's Marvel Cosmic Invasion on? I appreciate it's on everything.

PlayStation PC. Next Wednesday, Midnight Boys give you their Christmas movies draft. Oh my God. What's the first off the board in a Christmas movie? I know. I know. I already know. I already know. Is it home alone? I don't think that's not home alone. It's not home alone. See, these drafts, when we do these drafts like this,

people tell me I got to update my shit. Why? Because you're going to pick five black and white No, no, no, no, actually, this is what I like, because you get the classics. You're, like, you get us, like, past really the 90s. Like, you pick his shit from the 80s, the 70s, you know, you picking Disney Channel original movies. Yep. Steve.

Whatever, whatever, Steve. Yeah. And I'm just trying to win. Our producers are Alea Zanaris, Devin, join me a dinner on social. Hashtaguerreukh, Wakanda, Thanksgiving. Why does that seem delightful for somebody? An additional production from Arjuna Ram Gapawa. Check us out.

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