Tomorrow - 238: Ted talk

Episode Date: October 17, 2021

On this week's show Josh and Ryan bash both Teds Lasso and Sarandos. They also hate on Amazon. But then they gush about Metroid: Dread, prestige anthology series, and A.I. gamification communism so, tone-wise, it evens out. We'll do our best to prevent podcast supply chain issues. Thanks for tuning in, Tony! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey and welcome to tomorrow, I'm your host, Josh Wittipolsky. Today on the podcast, we discuss the Conners, Ports, and Anthologies. I don't always want to minute. Let's get ready. Well, we're back. We're back. And we're better than ever. I say that all the time, but I don't have anything else to say. I think we are. My Switch is now OLED. You actually got the OLED Switch for work purposes, but yes. Yeah, sure, of course.

I mean, as we all have gotten it for, I actually have considered, I've considered and continued to consider buying it, but I definitely have no reason to buy it. I mean, it's just a switch with a slightly larger screen and a little screen. There's nothing special about it. I mean, I will say the screen is nice.

Like nobody's gonna ever walk away from the screen saying, oh, it's worse than the other one. No, it's much better. But it's extremely painful to do a system transfer and start and just even get your switch content on it. It's extremely painful. I'm about to write a piece that's just like, I'm bummed out. I'm bummed out.

I mean, actually, that's great because I literally yesterday almost went on a rant in Slack about how fucking slow the switch is at doing things like opening the store and scrolling through games to buy. It's like, it is like so bad feeling. It is like using, it just feels like a device that is absolutely pushed beyond its limits of, and its limits are apparently like loading some squares

with like game logos in them. It, you know, like I have like very fast fios here, and it takes forever to pull down a page of like just the teaser titles from games that I might want to purchase. It's clear is no update all button for your games or software. You have to individually check for updates every time. That means if you haven't played a game in two weeks and you put a game card in and there's an update, you have to then wait for it to update for you can play it also.

I know. In addition, I was on here earlier trying to read download all of my software which you have to do individually titled by title. You have to transfer over Animal Crossing and several other games through individual processes, the saves. And then the rest are in Cloud saves but you have to read download it before you play the game. You have to go through every single game and update individually. And then there are games that have been delisted from the stores.

The only way to get them is through a special menu. It is absolutely a horrible experience. I cannot believe it is the most popular game console in 2021. And they've done nothing to improve any of this. I believe it is the most popular game console in 2021. And they've done nothing to improve any of this. Yeah, I just think I have to go through my game list, like literally with both switches and scroll through and see if anything was missing on site

so that I made sure I didn't lose any of my games. That's, I mean, it's always been bad at the internet. In a way, it's very much like how Apple is. I mean, Apple's gotten somewhat better at the internet. But, there's still kind of bad at it in comparison to like a Google. It doesn't come to the country. And, yeah, and you can tell. It's like, it's like how long were we sinking stuff using iTunes?

I mean, remember, it's kind of hard to believe, but there was a point where like on Windows they still do. Oh, I don't want to even get out of here. You use all the old iTunes app on Windows to put a file on your phone. No, no, I don't want to think about that. I mean, I'm not saying their file system is good, but Nintendo to me is like, it's very Apple-like. They're kind of this weird blind spot for how the internet operates. I actually booted up Laura had an old like 3DS and we wanted to play a Pokemon game on it. I think Detective Pikachu was the game we wanted to play. Because we watched the movie, Zelda and I watched the movie, and then we're like, oh, there's a game. And yeah, it was like crazy.

Like, I'm like, how does this work? Like, I mean, of course, I know it's really old technology now and the internet was in a different state, but like using it felt so, I was like, whoa, like what are these weird ideas they had? If like, you are online and then you are not online. Like it literally is like, it connects for certain things and then it disconnects and then you have to like, it connects for certain things and then it disconnects

and then you have to like tell it to connect again to do other things. I mean, even the idea of like blocks versus just telling me how much storage has left on my device is like, yeah, why would you do that? Why would you do that? If I had to learn a currency, why not teach me the one that it is?

Yeah, it's a universal currency when you think about it. I mean, that probably is, that's like my brother was in my Range Rover when I first got it and he's like, why is that on the gear shift, it's an old, it's like a 95, it's an old Range Rover. And the gear shift has reverse drive, whatever, on both sides of the gear shift. And I was like, I was like, oh, it's because they make this car in both left hand and right hand drive.

And this is one part they don't have to make in two different versions. They can just, it's on both sides. You know, like, which is efficient, you know, like a block is a block, no matter what language you speak or what type of currency you use. And any rate. So yeah, so Nintendo is very bad at the internet and but getting to the on the OLED model, the switch OLED thing, I would love to buy a new switch. I'll be honest

with you. I'm dying to spend money on something I do not need. It's a real problem for me. But but if they hit just been like, okay, it's like got an OLED need. It's a real problem for me. But, but if they had just been like, okay, it's like got an OLED screen, it's a little bit bigger and all of the menus work faster. Like all of the apps, not like the games play better. I don't even care. You don't even need to put anything in 4K. But it's sort of insane.

It is kind of insane. They absolutely could have put a better processor in it for zero dollars. I mean, they definitely could have, what is the CPU they're using? It's like from 2015. It's just, and it's not like a custom Nintendo, right? It's not like a custom Nintendo CPU.

I mean, it's like an off the shelf and video. So they could have absolutely been like, we're gonna put a better processor in it. We're not gonna upgrade the resolution. We're not gonna upgrade the graphics, which things are just gonna play more consistently at this 30 frames per second and more consistent, your menus will work better and your, you know, everything will feel smoother and whatever. It's like just upgrade it like an Android. Or do it the way that they did it before,

which was like secretly in the night, they made it the battery life better and a couple other little tweaks on the inside. And then when people found out they were like, well, if you really want to know, you could look at the serial number and go get it, but we're just clawing in an Nintendo Switch. And you could have just secretly made it slightly faster and not made a marketing thing out of it.

And then later when you have a 4K model or something you really want to push, call it the new Nintendo Switch and push those features. But for the people who really love their Switch or use it a lot, or real like people who are really engaged with the brand, it would be nice if I could buy anything from your store without waiting 45 minutes to get it.

Yeah, I just wish. Yeah, anyhow, so I was very tempted to, I'm very tempted to get a new switch. but the truth is when I think about it, I actually kind of bums me out because it's like, you know, I want it to be actually better, and it's not really. Do you know what I mean? I mean, is it's it's I Don't think when this team deck comes out. I don't understand the argument for the switch outside of first party stuff There's well, I mean you can yeah, I mean Nintendo games. I mean well Emulator switch games on this team Jack. I may run fine Yeah, can you is that true? Yeah, but like okay, but but but to be clear

Not illegal if you buy the game not illegal. No, I get it But you know it Zelda and I've been doing lately is we're playing Let's go Pikachu and it turns out you can just like have another person join you to like play with you as a trainer while you're walking around doing that stuff and it's super fun. Yeah, and it's only possible because you can like literally break off the Controllers from the switch. Yeah. And you know what I mean? And like, that's like, that is a thing that I thought for sure I wouldn't care about at all. And it turns out is actually an unbelievable, uh, is like an unbelievable innovation. It's kind of like, it's kind of like,

I hate to, I feel like I always talk about this, but, um, it's, is sort of like, uh,'s sort of like the Wii U where I'm like, why would I have this controller with this gigantic screen on it? And then I played zombie U and I'm like, oh my god, this is truly. Nintendo's first party experiences are always really magical and the Switch has some amazing games.

I mean, I'm obsessed with Metroid Dread. I almost beat it, is it good? I'm obsessed with it. I really, really, the with Metroid Dread. I almost beat it, net. Is it good to assess with that? I really, I really, I really, I really, I really love it so much. No, I feel like you like everything. I feel like you always say everything. I love, come on. I love it.

I have it like the Metroid game. What's the last game you did? And I really hated. You're very, you're very, I'm not saying you're not critical, but. I'm enthusiastic. I mean, you are pretty critical. You're very critical.

Yeah, but you're also very enthusiastic. I guess, I guess if I don't like something, I don't assume that it's bad. I assume that it's not for me. Like most of the time if I really hate something, I'm like, okay, it doesn't seem like a bad product. I just don't really wanna play like Gears of War right now or Call of Duty.

The people who like it seem to like it. Occasionally, I'll see something that's a really bad product. Like it's bad for me. But you're not like, you're not exactly, you're not saying you don't like it. No, you're not, you're not dizzy now. No, because I, if it's not for me, I mean, I guess I just have an understanding that a lot of like,

very sorry to say this, I don't want to cause a bit of controversy from the gamer gators, but like straight white guys Generally like cis guys generally, this is racism, but you generally get everything catered to you So when you don't like it, you're like that. Don't don't do me and don't do me in with these straight white guys You don't know what I you don't know what I'm in there. But I'm used to seeing stuff and being like, I don't wanna watch. I don't wanna watch Ted Lasso. I don't.

I don't, I don't. I don't need him. And that's okay. I don't wanna watch Ted, neither one of us wants to watch Ted Lasso. We're gonna hear about this. You know, people are Ted Lasso psychos. I don't care, I don't give a shit.

I watch one episode of Ted Lasso. And you know how it made me feel? Like I a shit. I watch one episode of Ted Lasso. And you know how it made me feel? Like I didn't want to watch a second episode of Ted Lasso. I was like, this is not for me. It's for somebody that person is not. The snippets I get from social media are like, well, you won't believe Jamie's emotional journey on the show.

He started out very defiant. And now he's inspired. And I'm like, I really am good. I don't need to know about soccer. I'm really fine. I'm sorry. Yeah, I don't know. The whole, listen, I don't want to turn this into a Ted Lasso

Ted talk, but the whole vibe of the show just did not, just did not do it for me. I don't know. I'm sure there are, I know you, listen, I know you're out there. Tony, you love Ted Lasso. You legally changed your name to Tony Lasso. And I'm happy for you, it's just not for me. It's good, I'm glad you have your thing.

You know, people are always like, oh, I love, you know, I'm trying to think of a show that everybody's always like, I love this show that I hated. Big bang theory. No, you liked Big Bang Theory, shit. No, I didn't, okay, I did not like Big Bang Theory. I did ironically watch a lot of Big Bang theory. No, you liked Big Bang Theory, shit. No, I didn't, okay, I did not like Big Bang Theory. I did ironically watch a lot of Big Bang Theory. Like for reasons I don't, I'll never fully understand.

I was like, I'm gonna watch this. I think it was like, I kinda wanted to know, you know, it was like, it's sort of like the thing with manifest, which I've discussed. Yeah, I've recently discussed. You had to know the mind of a Stanifest. No, I think it was a little bit like a joke and then I was like, I'm now, no, no, I'm watching it.

But like I also watched a lot of the Conners, which is like, it's truly like a work of art when it comes to like bad television. I mean, it's hard to explain, but it's like, the Conners is, okay, first off, the Conners, if you don't know, is Rosanne, but then Rosanne got canceled and fired for being like a huge racist.

And they're like, we'll just do the show like Rosanne died. It's just called Rosanne. It's started Rosanne bar, okay? She is like the center of the show. They're like, okay, Roseanne's dead. And now we're just gonna do the show. John Goodman is back. Everybody came back.

Nobody was like, no, it's fucked this Roseanne. We were with Roseanne. We stand with Roseanne. Not a single person involved in the show did that. Just, I think that says something, by the way. Like, I do. Not a single person was like, I did that just I think that says something by the way like I do Not a single person was like I refuse to do the show without Roseanne. They're like all right. They were like all right well Nice, so we we're gonna rehearse now

They're like Roseanne we fired Roseanne. They're like, ooh, okay, well Just I just got changed the scene that we're rehearsing? Or is she, is she gonna, what are we gonna do? Somebody can read for her, you know, anyhow, but I just remembered, I just remembered the game that last game that I hated and I just have to get it in here really quickly. Let's talk about the Connor. I gotta talk about the Conners, it's very important. Cyberpunk, I hated Cyberpunk.

Nah, Cyberpunk's great. One of the greatest games of all time. Unquestionable, unquestionable. Unquestionable. All right, the Connors, the Connors. Yeah, anyhow, so then they come back and they're like, Rosanne's dead. And the Connors is a show that's made by people

by Hollywood people who are like, we really want to make, we want to comment on state of like, low-income Americans, hardworking blue collar, low-income everyday Americans who are dealing with a world that's slipped through their fingers. It's like the forgotten man. Like the show is like kind of for the forgotten man that Trump referenced in his state of the union.

You know, John Goodman is this like,, you know, he's a construction worker, all his employees are illegal immigrants that he's paying under the table. And so, the green lighting process was very condescending and very patronizing to an entire, to the majority of America. And any rate, so, so anyhow, yeah, but they tackle the show what's great about the Conners is that it's second season

was like at the start of the pandemic, or it's third season, or one of the seasons, they like tackle issues. So it became like, they wanna do like an Archie bunker type of thing, you know, where they're like talking about the issues, you know like races and black lives matter is a, there's an episode about that, there's an of thing, you know, where they're like talking about the issues. You know, like races and black lives matter is a, there's an episode about that. There's an episode where, you know, it's, I don't want to spoil it, but Becky gets, gets knocked up by an illegal immigrant who works for her dad and he has to, get, he gets deported

and then she has like an anchor baby or whatever. You know, it's like they really, they, it's like a, a grab bag of anything that is talked about on Fox. They have like an episode. Yeah, like I'm eagerly anticipating the critical race, period. There's a trans, there's a trans character that they have an episode about that.

I mean, it's unbelievable. It's like just, you know, there's an episode about how Dan doesn't want to wear a mask as John Gobern's character. He doesn't want to mask up, you know. I mean, it's just, it's actually, the more I talk about it, I'm like, I should be watching this. Why am I, did I not continue to watch the Conner?

Because it's just so fucking, it's so fucking stupid, you know, it's like so heavy-handed, dumb, illogical, like, the people who think they can talk about things that are going on with real people that have no actual experience or awareness of it. Anyhow, it's a great show. So I started, why are we even talking about the Conners? I can't remember why I go on.

Because we talked about the Big Bang Theory. Oh, yeah, I don't, the Big Bang Theory was like, that's, I mean, Big Bang, like, the Conners makes Big Bang Theory look like Seinfeld. Yeah, it looks air you die. You're like, wow, this is actually pretty good. These guys are all pretty good at acting. You know, okay, wait, but why are we talking about any of this? What were we talking about?

The Switch Oleg. And how I like Metroid Dread. Oh, Metroid Dread, right? Because some people and some things aren't for some people. Metroid Dread, I feel, is for anyone who likes video games. If you like the idea of a video game, you will enjoy Metroid Dread. I do. I like, okay, so I've been playing, as you know, as you know, I've been playing through

the Castlevania catalogs via emulators, both large and small. And how much is Metroid gonna, I was never, what's weird is I was never a Metroid player. Okay. And so, it's very similar. You might have little things that you're like, oh, this is my little Picadillo, but take all the castes of Vania stuff and then just

do sci-fi, like alien inspired. And then, you know, there's different lore. I mean, the lore is a little tighter, actually. But it's, it's, it's that. It's very similar. I mean, there's a reason that the genre is, is, is Metroid Vanias. I don't know. I feel like I get like sucked into this, I keep getting sucked into like, you know,

it's like there's a new Switch game, and for some reason it seems really appealing to me. Like I was watching somebody I follow on Twitter was sharing screen grabs of No More Heroes 3. And I was like, wow, this looks insane. Like I gotta play this, what is this? And, you know, I got that and I played it for like a couple of hours, and I'm like, I don't know, what is this? And, and, you know, I got that and I played it for like a couple of hours and I'm like, I don't know.

Is this for me? I don't know. It's like, there's so much going on. The third one was okay, but it's the first couple games that I was like, oh, this is such a great idea. Oh my God, I love this. But then by the time I played the third one, I was like, I got it.

Yeah, at any rate, but I bought it and I'm like, okay. And I bought esports, which I actually did love, but then I kind of stopped playing. I've kind of stopped playing everything. I'm like, okay, and I bought esports, which I actually did love, but then I kind of stopped playing. I've kind of stopped playing everything. I'm like, nothing holds my interest these days. Maybe it's, I don't know, maybe it's the war state of the world, but no games. The only thing that really can hold my interest

for hours on end is any, literally any old Castlevania game. Like, I don't know why. Then you're gonna love Metroid. I mean, you really are. Well, that's my, that's my thank you, but maybe I'll wait till it goes on sale. Yeah, definitely wait for it to go on sale. If you're gonna love Metroid I mean you really are well that's my that's my thinking but maybe I'll wait till goes on yeah definitely wait for it to go on sale if you're not like in does it they ever but do they ever put games on sale I feel like you will you'll get black bread adios are on holidays

yeah I don't know can I wait that long I got to get a new game well I mean my my actual hobby is just getting new games that's's right. I don't like playing games. I like acquiring new versions. Owning them. New games. Owning games. No, actually, it's funny. I have 70 conversations with a friend of mine the other day and we were talking about how he buys physical games and because he just thinks it's crazy to spend money on, you know, not have a physical copy, you could potentially resell. And it started to make me feel kind of guilty, like, stupid for not doing that.

Yeah. You know? Anyhow, I'm just sorry. Okay, so let's get back on topic. What the fuck was the topic? We were talking about the new switch and how I'm not gonna buy it because it doesn't actually improve anything.

Now, I mean, this green is bigger and pretty. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. All right, well at any rate, so that's the news. That's Ryan's review of the new switch, which as we know, we can't trust Ryan's opinion about anything because he likes everything.

Except for Cyberpunk. I'm just particularly bullying you. Except for Cyberpunk for some reason. Guy doesn't recognize genius when he sees it. All right, but what else is going on? So, shepelle last week we talked about shepelle's commentary, which I, so I didn't realize, but like, it's the majority of his stand up routine is just about trans people. Yeah. Like, he's like really fixated on him. He was intent on doing, he rehearsed a bunch of content that was worse and better,

and then this was what he landed on. He was gonna do an hour about trans people. Yeah, it's like, I don't know, just for a second, let's step back, and I don't know, maybe there's just something going on with Dave that he needs to address on a personal level. Like, I'm not sure it's about like what he needs to say in his comedy routine.

Now, of course, as you know, I'm a big supporter of free speech. You know, you always hear me talking about, right? Man, I love free speech. I'm always telling people, you know, if I meet somebody and they're like, what do you, oh, what do you do? I'm like, well, first and foremost, I support free speech. That's before anything else. I don't keep a copy of that.

So, you've got a lot of the constitution in my pocket. I keep a copy of just the first amendment. Yeah, I mean, Laura made an observation. She's like, it's not like, she's like, it's, you know, I can handle like the joke, I mean, the quote unquote, joke sort of, it's like, I can handle him, you know, what he's saying. It's like, obviously, it mean the quote unquote jokes, whatever it's like I can handle him, you know what he's saying. It's like, obviously it's offensive and stupid, but you know, the comedian say offensive

stupid things all the time, but it's like, it almost seems like there's something wrong with Dave Chappelle. Like there's something like that he needs to like, no, it's not comedy that he needs to do. It's maybe like therapy that he needs to do. And I can see that. I was surprised by how much of it was really focused on this one topic, which suggests something, I don't know what,

I don't know what it suggests, it's just a weird thing to fixate on. Just an odd place to fixate if you're Dave Chappelle, in my opinion, but, you know, I'm that Dave Chappelle, so who am I to say? But, you know, what's interesting is the controversy, I thought this would be the kind of thing that would, because I do believe that there's some element to this

that Dave Chappelle has manufactured in that. He wanted this to have, he wanted, you know, this is it, and I said, I think I said, when we talked about it last time, that this is a, it's much a marketing ploy as it is anything else, or maybe even more it is anything else, or maybe even more so than anything else, that he likes and wants the attention in the controversy,

because that's good for the bottom line at the end of the day. But it is not, I wouldn't say that the conversation about it has necessarily wound down, and if anything, it's kind of wound up, and it's very interesting to see people's individual reactions to it. I'll tell you what is really, really,

and I'll say this, like, I understand that like if you think it's funny. Like I'm not surprised that people think Dave Chappelle's jokes are funny, right? think it's funny. Like I'm not surprised that people think Dave Chappelle's jokes are funny, right? Like he's funny and he's good at telling jokes and it is true that a lot of comedy is like often, can often feel like very shocking or hurtful when you hear some of the things that are in the comedy.

It's not surprising. This is not like the first time, I mean, go back and watch like Eddie Murphy's that shit that he did about like the gay community. I mean, go back and watch Eddie Murphy's the shit that he did about like the gay community. I mean, it's really offensive. Like, you know, it was a different time, of course, where you could say different things. You know, I'm sure there's a German stand-up comic who did a fucking amazing routine about Jews, you know? No, I do think I do think comedy as an art form gets where it gets in any country without a bedrock of juice.

I mean, you gotta have, I'm just saying like, you know, it's kind of like, you know, it's kind of, but I mean, the truth is like, maybe Dave Chappelle did 62 minutes or however many minutes he's been on the trans topic. Maybe he did 62 minutes about how greedy Jews were. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know if, I don't know if people would have taken

a different way of writing or worse. It was like it's actually punching up because they're so rich. Right, right. And like I don't know if people would have been like, this is great. Or I feel like maybe it's possible that a lot more people would have been like, wait a second.

Then it's like, then the, then it's most interestingly, the CEO of Netflix. Oh God, Ted Sarandas. Ted Sarandas, who I believe I once had breakfast with him and Reed Hastings when I took over, when I became editor in chief of Engage that they invited me to breakfast. And what did they serve? I think Ted was there.

At the time, we went to Michael's, which is a fancy business person breakfast place in the city that I'd never been to because I was like a scumbag from Pittsburgh And didn't know what was going on But I think Ted was there, but at that point I think Ted was like that they had a corporate communications I think he was like that was his job before that and anyway This is a long to obviously is over well over a decade ago, but um But Ted he put out a statement to the company and he's like, you know, we welcome all these different voices and we understand Some people may feel offended and and he's like, you know, we welcome all these different voices and we understand some people may feel offended

and comedy is often, you know, I love this fucking thing. By the way, we are all supposed to believe in this idea that comedians are fucking the play-doh of our day. And like, we don't have any better discourse than what the comedians can share with us. That like, the Chicagoans. The Chicagoans. The Chicagoans.

The Chicagoans. Yeah, if you don't feel that Louis CK is simply the greatest philosophical voice of a generation, then you're missing the point, man. Like comedians are fucking guys who tell, largely guys who tell jokes, okay? And like sometimes they're really poignant storytellers or have really interesting ideas,

but they're not, they're not fucking, this is not the Algonquin round table. You know, it's like, it's like, these are, they're fucking comedians, they're making jokes about. They're like, they're pretending. They're like, they're pretending. They're transcendent voices in every art form

who you would love to hear deep thoughts on and who you respect. It doesn't mean that everyone in any given art form needs like the like amazing, complete impunity to all criticism. Like just because there's a novelist I think is great, doesn't mean that we necessarily need to get like, you know, everybody who's ever written a novel like, oh, the woman who wrote Twilight, like I definitely need to hear what she thinks

about trans people like, no, I don't. I think I'm good. I do. I do. It's like, it's like, you know, Bono, Bono, it's like Bono being like the most important voice about the troubles in Ireland. It's like, I don't think he is. I think he's written a couple of songs about it or whatever,

but like, anyhow, the point is, so people are like, oh yeah, these are modern day philosophers. What's really depressing to me is when you look at the responses on, and it's perfectly indicative of what we were talking about last week. And I don't want to spend all this whole episode talking about their stuff. We have other stuff.

Because frankly, I'm tired of talking about Dave Chappelle, but like, we're giving him what he wants. But, but, and I say this as a person who has loved Dave Chappelle's comedy. Like, I like when he's really funny. And I think he's capable of being really funny and smart and interesting and thought-provoking. I don't think this material is any of those things.

I think it's mean-spirited and hateful and misplaced. And the people he's playing to Roxanne Gay wrote a really good editorial for The New York Times. And it's like, she basically is like, he sounds like a boomer, like a, he sounds like an old man making jokes about, he's like scandalized by like, people being gay, you know? Like, I mean, this like on the level of like,

these kind of like old school, I mean, it's basically like, you know, kind of like the Eddie Murphy, like gay stuff or whatever. I mean, there's a million comics you can point to. But anyhow, the point is, what's really depressing to me is the people online on Twitter who are like, if somebody's like, I'm really offended by this or I thought

this was really hurtful or this was harmful or whatever, they're like, you know, it's like the Elon Musk people, they're like jumping to his defense and it's like, it just shows how much you can hear in some of their responses, the true like, the venom in the responses.

Like I saw people who were sharing screenshots of the audience. There's a couple of people in the audience who are, I don't know, they're like not laughing at his trans jokes and they're sharing people, we're sharing images of these people and making fun of them. And it's like, that's the thing that goes, that's where that's why this sucks,

because it empowers those people to be absolutely pieces of shit in the real world, to real people. And like, and it is, you could just see it all over the internet now, and it certainly will be reflected, and is already reflected in real world behavior from people. So, it just gives people a license, and it gives them, it also gives people the ability to say like, it lets them get into the weeds and muddy the issue. So

they can say like, I don't have a problem with trans people. I have a problem with people who tell people what to say. And then they get to talk as much shit as they quote unquote want because they don't really have a problem with trans people. Right. We, we, we're engaged now in a conversation about, I mean, Iraq's endpoints this out as well, that as soon as you say that you're like, as soon as you're critical of it, you know, his answer is like, oh, well, you're these people on the internet and you're like, it's all this misplaced criticism and you can't take a joke. And so your criticism is invalidated immediately

and automatically by the material. This is like Groundhog Day, by the way. Like I did all this with gay rights and then eventually people like for the most part, like if you open any Reddit thread about gay people, the almost every response that is visible is very supportive and understanding and has nuanced takes on the issues for the most part.

Not everyone, please don't send me reddit threads. But in the most part, in the most popular subreddits, you see that you go to YouTube channel, someone comes out for the most part overwhelmingly a thumbs up. And that's a weird shift to have seen take place in your life. But then when you see trans people who literally are part of our community and adjacent part of our community, like, I mean, as a non-binary person, definitely identify as part of that umbrella. It's a big, it's a big tent of LGBTQIA people

who came together post-AIDS as a community to like move this whole thing forward. And to see that you just start from square one, this, like you're completely uninformed. And it feels like starting over. And then when you go to inform somebody, their first response is not like, oh, interesting, thank you for telling me.

I was wrong. Or thank you for clarifying. I would love to have a larger polite conversation about this. Everyone's first response is like, I'm not a big hit. That's my opinion, and it's valid. And then they quickly have to defend their opinion before you can get out the words like You know unbelievable unprecedented murder rate, you know

Well, I mean, it's like yeah, it's like there's this whole I mean Yeah, I the whole narrative of Of like that that there's somehow I mean his he's I I mean, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she And you know, this is not like my issue. This is not my personal issue. I'm not like, I gotta talk about this all the time. I'm just like looking around at reality and looking around at the people I know and looking around at like really smart people talking about real problems in the world and going, okay, I do think it's pretty weird

that that's how you see it. That like what you see is these people are attacked. And by the way, I've been, I mean, I have published, we published stuff. I remember we published in the first week of the outline, we published a story about a person who detransitioned and it was a really, and we did a ton of work on it. We derided a ton of research.

They had, we had it edited by a train. You know, we had a trans editor go over it and, you know, call out where we were making, you know, dumb errors or anything that seemed, you know, we had a trans editor go over it and call out where we were making dumb errors or anything to see them. You know, we really like put time and effort into like, we want to tell this story because it was a really fascinating story about a person who, and this is an experience that happens where they, you know, they were like, wait,

this is not what's right for me, you know, and like I've made this like this is, and now listen, there have been multiple girls on, on now let's see, there have been multiple girls on, on, on, there have been multiple girls on drag race this season who were talking with other trans and non-binary people about how like I lived as a trans woman to see and it didn't work for me and like it was a pretty open discussion, but because we're all aware of the issues involved,

we all understand that nobody is medically transitioning without a really thorough process and the amount of people who detransition once they get to that point is like, yeah. But less than 0.5% of people will ever, of trans people. And yeah, no, yeah, and it's, and it's, and it's, and it's, it is, it is a real thing now. Right, and what, listen, and, you know, the story was a way, I mean, it was an interesting way to talk about a very, very thorny topic. Yeah, thorny topic, not just interesting, but important. I thought, like, you know, we all were like, this is important and this is told really

well, and it's this person's story. They're really used to person, you know, the character in the story who is speaking about their personal experience. And what they talk about in the story, which is what we would happen after we wrote it, was like, there's a whole part of that of the trans community that inmate, and it's honestly not a bad point to say, when you publish stories like this, it delegitimizes, you know, trans, the trans experience for a lot of people. And also other people who are way more removed from it, pick up on it and say, you know, the trans experience for a lot of people. And also other people who are way more removed from it,

pick up on it and say, you see, well, if you can go back on it, then it's not really real or it doesn't really count or whatever. And it's like very valid, very valid feedback and very valid like stuff to think about. But when people, but like you think about gay men who take like drugs and have unprotected sex and they stay up all night, they've destroyed their lives or whatever, that is a plague in the gay community. It's like drugs and sex addiction are real issues,

but that's not most people. And so when those stories get highlighted, obviously it's frustrating because you're like, that's a stereotype. And I think there is something to like, what Dave Chappelle talks about, like people coming for him and coming for other people on the internet, is this like what can feel like a very outsized reaction to something that you perceive as

not significant. And I think what is impossible for, which is very hard, not impossible, but very hard for people to see, and which Dave Chappelle either will fully ignores or doesn't see, to see and which Dave Chappelle either will fully ignores or doesn't see is that when you are already in a place that is so vulnerable, like that your literal existence is questioned by people that you're like whether or not you should be the person you are is questioned by people that it magnifies every one of those situations. And it means that every time there's what to use, what to Dave Shapell or to me or to you might feel like a little story or a little notion or a little idea or just a joke or just a thought or whatever, that's stuff that's like 100x magnified in the world of people who are living through an experience

that is like, I'm literally questioned every day and threatened every day because of who I am as a person. And so I do think there is like, yes, is there an outsized reaction often about when it's a controversial take on trans identity or on the political needs of protection for trans people. Yeah, but also, we're not living in the experience of the, I'm not living in the experience of like being living, like, you know, probably scared a lot of the time that you're going to

be actually like physically hurt, you know, because of like the person that you are. So I think like, I kind of understand it. Like I try to put myself in like the mindset of like, okay, I think some of this feedback's unwarranted or just outright fucking rude, but also it's not the same for me as it is for them. And I think there's like something to the, trying to be empathetic even if you disagree.

I mean, I think the problem with Dave Chappelle's shit is like, I don't hear empathy there. I don't hear, I hear like anger. Well, here's, you know, and like. There's the ultimate problem. You're talking about this for the perspective of someone who would take a correction or would, when presented with more information

would listen to it or someone who would say, you know, let's have a translator or do a pass on this because I don't know what I'm talking about here and a lot of this is new. I didn't personally add it for the record, but yeah, but yeah, I mean, yes. And that's the perspective that you're coming from. Like if you went to a new town

and you saw a burned out building and you're like, what's up with this? And someone was like, actually don't talk about that that was an orphanage. You'd be like, oh wow, thank you. You wouldn't be like, well, it's my right to ask, geez. Like he's coming at it from the perspective of someone who is extremely rich, a million resources,

and the biggest, most powerful media company besides Disney, and tech company, behind him. Who could educate him, could present him with basically anything he wants to know. He could speak to as many trans people as possible. It's like Caitlin Jenner. There's no excuse for you to act like, why are you acting brand now?

Why are you acting brand now? You could, it's like you're like, yeah, Caitlin Jenner is like, yeah, it's like, I don't agree with like these, you know, cancel culture or whatever. It's like, yeah, you don't, because you are on a level that is not like your member of the trans community.

You're a fucking millionaire celebrity. And so that puts you on a whole different place, mentally, physically, emotionally, philosophically, politically, like you can't. You get to say, I'd like to know about this topic that I'm clearly fascinated by. I want to do an hour of standup about it.

Why don't I speak to just one more trans person than the one person I know who then committed suicide and I can't speak to? Why don't I talk to do an hour of standup about it. Why don't I speak to just one more trans person than the one person I know who then committed suicide and I can't speak to? Why don't I talk to, like, just a couple trans people, the way that if I, if I as a white comedian was gonna do an hour about the black community, I would think, I would think to myself, let me ask black people what they would,

how they would perceive what I'm saying, and if it is helpful or if it's clearly inaccurate, but the problem that I ultimately have is not just Dave Chappelle being ignorant because like, I can't make, I can't fix one person. My ultimate problem is that Netflix does not understand that when you hold Dave Chappelle up and you let, you make people then say, Chappelle, what Chappelle did is offensive and inaccurate and I don't want to support this company, you make it look to the people at say, should held what should held it as offensive and inaccurate and I don't wanna support this company. You make it look to the people at home, like we're yelling at them for being ignorant,

which would be wrong. You shouldn't go to somebody who doesn't know anything about trans people and then yell at them for that. You should say, hi, it's come to my attention, you don't know anything about this community. As a member or as an ally of this community,

let me tell you some stuff about it. And I think most people in a friendly conversation would finish the conversation and like listen to what you're saying. They set up this dynamic where trans people are yelling at someone for being ignorant. And of course, that brings really upsetting to lots of people who are ignorant about trans issues and they don't want to be called bigots or bad people for it. And that's understandable too. But Dave Chappelle is not one of the regular unwashed masses

who has no access to this information. Dave Chappelle is like the king of comedy currently, you know? Also, also not for nothing, but like, is this really like the most important and interesting thing you can do a fucking comedy routine on right now? Like I just like, I don't know. I mean, I know look at the world a lot of you.

It's a problem is that some people like transition to genders. That's the problem that someone wears a dress instead of pants or the opposite. That's the problem. I don't. I just feel like it's like just a lot of it's like the real pandemic is spra's.

I mean, I yeah, I just, I just, I just feels, yes, like, that's fine. Like no one, I mean, no one really, you don't really need, this is not that big of a, I mean, it's funny because it's like, you know, he talks about like the bathroom laws and kind of like, is like, they're so stupid. You know? But it's like, don't you understand that your comedy is as stupid as that? Like, you making this into a thing is as stupid as the bathroom law, shit, where it's like, you're trying to create something out of actually that is actually for you is actually really nothing. You know, I get it.

Whatever. Listen, it's, you know, he. Whatever, listen, he's got to get money. He's got to get paid. And anyway, I swore we weren't gonna talk about it for very long and we did talk about it for somewhat long. But, you know, it's just interesting. I'm surprised to see that the conversation has continued and, you know, maybe that's good. Maybe that's good. I don't know. I can't tell.

I could talk about this for an hour. Let's move on. No, I know. I know I could too, but it's just, oh, oh, we didn't say, oh, the one thing I wanted to get to, we were talking, we were about to get to this and so how went off of it, which is this, with Ted Sarandos, which is the reason we brought him up, is he had a second memo that he put out or whatever,

and he's like, basically it was like, well, it's okay for Shepel to say this, like really transphobic, kind of hateful stuff, because people watch violent video games and watch violent movies, and crime, hasn't, you know, violent crime has actually been falling. And it's like, these two things are not the fucking same at all. Just closure is a documentary that you spent a year doing a victory lap on, asking for

awards for, shoving in our faces. You used it as a reason to get involved in queer events like Pride. And you clearly didn't watch it because that entire idea would be deconstructed for you in probably the first 20 minutes. So clearly you don't watch your own product when it comes to being about trans people and that looks really bad. That looks worse for you than the Dave Chappelle. It's like, I don't understand this particular argument.

You're going to use, you're going to be like, I feel like he's trying to do this thing where people who agree that Video violent video games aren't like the root cause of violence in the world which is like Yes, that's correct, but anti-Semitic violence by the president was a direct no and lying to anti-Semitic violence was a direct and lying to anti-Semitic violence. And violence, right. And violent video games don't necessarily make a person go, hey, you know, I think I'm gonna pick up a gun and do some shooting.

Like, that's true. That's true. People who shoot schools up are not doing it because they like, because they played doom, right? They may have played doom, but those two things are not necessarily related in the way that I think a lot of people would like to easily relate them.

But like, that logic just has nothing to do with what we're talking about here, which is you're giving a platform to what is effectively hate speech, what is effectively, and you're not, it's like you're just, you're basically saying like, we don't care because it probably won't make somebody like kill a trans person.

They won't claim responsibility in their manifesto when they shoot up like a trans medical center. They won't say games just held in it. So we've got to weigh it. Is the argument then that like, kind of whatever goes is that now are we at the place where we're like you know what I want to actually like I want to I'm gonna make a video good you know Netflix is getting a video game So I want to make a video game where you're like a guy who just beats up trans people or you're just a hard core as we know

It's a hard core. Yeah, yeah, it's clux cl clan sleeve owning racist. Yeah, you play as a cop and you just do a bunch of race, you just do a bunch of racist shootings, and that's the whole game. And like Netflix is, you'll, you'll, guys, they'll host it, right? Because it doesn't reflect real world. It's not like we're actually, you're actually going and doing it after you play the game.

It's like, I don't understand the logic at all. Like it doesn't, it breaks down for me on the most basic level. Like Dave Chappelle's words and ideas are not the same thing as call of duty. They're not in the same space. We're talking about the content of these pieces of whatever you want to call them pieces of art. The delivery and the meaning and the messenger couldn't be further apart. And also, to your point about Trump, it's like there is absolutely a correlation between people in power, speaking in a hateful and hurtful way about groups, about large groups of people and the way that certain members of our community react to those words and react to those ideas.

Like, it's the ideas that are the problem, right? And like, no one saying Dave Chappelle can't tell jokes, but I think it's like Netflix has to take some kind of better responsibility for the jokes he tells. And I don't mean like, cancel Dave Chappelle, you know, like, but at least say, Hey, you know what? I don't agree with what Dave said. And I think what he said is reprehensible.

And, uh, you know, if I were making this decision in a vacuum, I would not have put it on Netflix because that would be my personal opinion. But we try to represent, you know, diverse voices. And this is one that try to represent diverse voices. And this is one that happens to be represented now. I just like, whatever you're saying is like, if you're excused as well, he probably won't lead anybody to beat up

or kill a trans person. Like that's your defense of this. It's like, what is that? I don't even understand it, anyhow. All right, let's cleanse our mental palette here. Tony, you've had enough of this. We've all had enough of it, okay? Can we?

We need to de-stress. Oh, my next topic was not de-stressing. Oh, no, you're not going to de-stress. No, what is your next topic? The, we have a piece on the site about a guy on TikTok who has made it his personal mission to be a vigilante hero during COVID, quote unquote, by finding people who post on TikTok that they're not going to get vaccinated,

usually medical professionals, and then alerting their employer and like trying to make them sort of trend and make the video infamous. So he finds these videos of nurses who are like, guess who's not getting vaccinated and then hunts them down and like has his fans hound them and he calls their place to them.

Employment, he gets them fired. Like, it's pretty much the cancel culture like formula, but if it worked for celebrities and the people that people seem to worry about cancel culture being related to, but instead of that, on regular people. And it's a weird murky line, right? Because you're like, these are people doing something

obviously wrong, but these are wildly dangerous methods, especially if you get it wrong. And yeah, I think, yeah, like... TikTok's not the most nuanced platform for the discussion. Well, first off, I just think we should pause at, you know, he's doing it on TikTok, I think is a good place to kind of pause and say, well, right there, is this the forum for this,

for whatever it is that he's doing that also? And also, is this really about doing the right thing or the 27 to 50 million followers he's collected or whatever or is it about going viral and getting a spawn con deal or whatever? He's almost 600,000 followers. I want to be accurate. I mean, listen, I think I don't know. I haven't seen enough of this to really form an opinion, but what I will say is I'm sure there are people who are awful enough that they totally deserve to be taken down a peg say is I'm sure there are people who are awful enough that they totally deserve to be taken down a peg.

Like I have no doubt there are people who are publicly awful. Like I think if you're on TikTok and you're being publicly awful to other people or to the people around you, it shouldn't be surprising if somebody is publicly awful to you. Like that to me is sort of expected. Like if I go on a social network and I say something horrible in a very public forum,

I would expect to get horrible things said back to me. Yes. You know? I do think, you know, I am a highly skeptical of all of the vigilantism, particularly the kind that takes place on the internet. Obviously, any is bad. But like, you know, there's a lot of,

there's a lot of like ideas about internet vigilantes, you know, taking down the bad guys. And I'm always reminded of and I think of the Boston bombing suspects who were, you know, identified by the brilliant minds of Reddit. And they ended up identifying people who had nothing to do with the Boston bombings who got like seriously harassed

and had their lives basically ruined because of it. One of the guys that he outed as, know anti-vaxxers, whatever whatever, the business that he worked at found out that he was an anti-vaxxer and said I'm sorry this against our policy, you can no longer work here. He's fired, you got what you wanted. They have been relentlessly harassed and reported to the FBI, the IRS, the small business association. And I think if you get somebody fired that's probably... And it's like the guy who owns the company is like, the IRS, the Small Business Association. And I think if you get somebody fired, that's probably.

And it's like the guy who owns the company is like, I fired, what do you want? I have nothing to appease. I mean, and then this guy goes, says, oh, I made a TikTok saying don't do that. I mean, I think there's, look, we're in a very, we're in a very heated moment in the world for lots of different reasons.

I think that the COVID stuff, I mean, the divide between people who will get a vaccine and people who won't is extreme and pronounced. And we are, you know, for pretty good reason, like people who don't get vaccinated aren't just innocuous bystanders and otherwise, you know, they're not just like, hey, everybody's doing their own thing and personal freedom and whatever else. I think we're, you know, they're putting other people at risk. They're endangering other people's safety and they tend to be doing it in a way that

is seems like very, what's the word I'm looking for? Milicious. So it seems like sometimes it's very malicious now. I mean, it's let me take all the emotional reach I have about my day to day life and the people who frustrate me in it. And I'm just gonna get it all out on this person who I never have to see again.

And I understand the impulse, but like, where it dulls, you can't do that. Yeah, and so I think that like I understand the vitriol that someone may be feeling about the anti-vaxxers, because I feel it too, and I'm just so angry all the time about the fact that there's just a whole group of people that have- Absolutely, more on that have made, you know, this pandemic have doubled the length of it possibly and killed a lot more people. They're complicating your child's childhood

and traumatizing like an entire need of people. You know, and they're the same, they're like the people who are, I mean, they're kind of like this unbelievable combination of people who are like, I, they're kind of like this unbelievable combination of people who are like, I don't wanna have to be, I don't wanna have to be told what to do, and I'm not gonna, you know,

the vaccine is dangerous and blah, blah, blah. And also, like, I'm mad because you're asking my child to wear a mask, and it's like, well, we wouldn't ask your child to wear a mask if you got a fucking vaccine, you dumb shit. Like, like, you're the reason they have to wear the mask. They are, they are always the same people. Yeah. They're like, the vaccine has 5G and how dare you force my child into a mask. It's like, well, we're trying

to keep your kid from getting COVID and trying to stop your kid from giving other people COVID. And coincidentally, all the public health measures are either inaccurate or inconvenient for me, and I'm not gonna do any of that. Yeah, and it's like, we're doing the best we can because people like you won't fucking do what is good for everybody else. So we're just all trying to make sure

that your dumb family doesn't fucking ruin it for everybody. And they're like, you know, how dare you? I'm an American or whatever dumb shit they say. So I get it, like believe me, all those people completely suck at this. No, fuck them. But it's like, I don't know how much I personally would want to go after any one of them. Like, I'm not, that's not for me. That doesn't, you know, on the other hand, if you know somebody's putting other people in danger.

Like, if I knew, you know, if I went to the fucking urgent care here and they have a vaccine mandate for other employees and I overheard one of the people there who works there telling somebody else, oh yeah, I lied about my vaccine and I didn't get it. You can be sure as shit, I'd be like, this person just told this other person, they didn't get the vaccine, and they shouldn't be

fucking working here, because that could be really bad for other people there, and I think it would be in the greater good to say, let's not have a person who's lying about their vaccination status be hanging out at the urgent care or whatever. But I think that's an extreme case. I don't know that I'd create a TikTok for it, though I understand the impulse. I understand the impulse to harass and shame and ruin the

lives of people who are literally put their value, their own personal, weird, nonsense, fake, made up, freedom needs over the needs of every person around them. I mean, I definitely, you know, I definitely can understand the rage one might feel at people who have, who have, who make completely nonsensical arguments about made up shit and then expect everybody else to like join their fucked up world view. So yeah, I don't know. But so it's like on the one hand kudos to this guy on the other hand, like I think he should cut it out but I'm torn because there's a lot of dumbasses and And a lot of them are doing really rude bad hurtful things to other people so You're right. This was not an upbeat topic and I'm very I'm very unhappy here about this next topic better be better. Oh no

Well, it's not very upbeat. Amazon is Oh no. Well, it's not very upbeat. Amazon is internal documents have shown that it is doing the most monopolistic behavior that anyone could have imagined. And we all knew they were doing, but now we have proof. There are copying products that become popular on Amazon and creating an Amazon basics version of it, then boosting that and it's certain, their search results to choke out those smaller stores until Amazon has like absorbed that product or industry. And they're repeatedly doing this as a pattern. So they're not just running the store. Well, the free market,

cause the free market Ryan, okay? You know, you know, this is how innovation happens, okay? Somebody innovates and then a large company that does not innovate steals the idea and puts the other company out of business and then they have an innovative product so that's what's the problem that's Capitalism and that's why we are in the great country in the world. They offer for pennies on the dollar. It's manufactured overseas and it cannot be brought to America because because Sleepy Joe's hold up the supply chains

uh, because sleepy Joe's holding up the supply chains. Um, and no, look, this is, to me, what's so crazy about this thing is like, I don't need to see internal documents to know that Amazon is doing this. Literally ask any company that has been ripped off. I've seen companies that I follow, companies that I know whose products I've purchased that will, you know, write or publish like long posts or videos about this, about how like this is happening to them What's crazy to me is that I'm glad that we've got some evidence that some internal evidence to back up I mean, it's good for queer stuff. What seems to be a reality

but You know, it's like I think I Hope somebody does something about it. It like here's the problem. I mean, it's funny I think, I hope somebody does something about it. It's like, here's the problem. I mean, it's funny because we're talking about, you know, there's a lot of talk this week in the last couple of weeks about supply chain issues and there's apparently diaper shortages

and you know, there's no good, I mean, I will say, you know, you go to like a target lately, there's a lot of stuff not on the shelves. I mean, people, you can't get, PlayStation is currently taking reservations for a lottery for the chance to purchase a piece of it and for Christmas. But I will say, but I will say, I will say,

it is like, wow, the Pokemon section is cleaned out. It's like, I get that we're dealing with supply chain issues and there's real things like, you know, diapers. It's a real, that's a good that we need. It's no joke, like people need it, you know, diapers, that's a real, that's a good that like, we need is no joke. Like people need it, you know? And, but like with Pokemon cards or like, you know, play stations or whatever, I'm kind of like, things are pretty good if our supply chain issues are,

I can't get a PlayStation for Christmas. Like honestly, we're in pretty good shape if one you can buy a PlayStation, you want one and you're trying to get one and you can't get it. Like, that's not, I understand on a macro level, I get it, like I know all my finance heads, all my economy heads are screaming at their smart speaker right now about how, you know,

this is, that's just a symptom of a larger problem in blah, blah, blah. You know, and by the way, it's all COVID, just to be clear. This is not like a problem created by some magical on we can't understand how it happened. Joe Biden is in the White House, that sudden like, this wasn't happening. Democrats got, Democrats got control and they were like,

let's refuse to let the ships into our business. No diapers. All the good, I want that shit right on the floor. They were like, they were like, the phone rings in the Oval Office. They're like, Mr. President, we have the diaper boat is here. And they're trying to get into the port to unload the diapers. So Americans can have diapers. And he's like, tell him to turn around.

Tell him to turn back. We don't want, and we don't need their diapers. That's exactly what's happening. The PlayStation boat shows up. They're like, Mr. President, the boat is here with all the PlayStation fives and Nvidia, G-Force 3900s. What do you want us to do? Tell them to go back to where they came from. Or whatever, I assume that's what's happening. You said those aren't socialists enough for us. Not with our evil plan.

I won't let, he's like, I'm not letting any Nvidia GPUs into this country till everybody can have an Nvidia GPU. A graphics card in every pot. That's my mom. He's like, it's, it's, it's, it marks the Marxist dream will only be realized once everyone has a PlayStation 5. Anyhow, I like this evil Joe Biden character. I actually, I gotta say I'm very excited about this evil Joe Biden character that has been

created on this podcast and I plan to get a lot of mileage out of it both on this podcast and in my personal life, namely and largely to my wife and I think she'll really. Yeah, you're just biting your time until you can pull this one out again. There it goes. There it is everyone. And there it is. And that's how you know, and that's how you know Ryan is a professional comedian. And you hear that kind of, when you hear that kind of sharp pointed comedy, you know,

he's up there with the greats, like my man, Louis CK. Dave Chappelle. Bill Cosby. Arkelli, not a comedian, but you know what I'm saying. Yeah, that writer from Girls Who Was the Rapist. All those guys. The writer from Girls, Lena Dunham.

Anyhow, but the Lena Dunham of Input. You tell him to turn that boat around. I like that he's off the bat. Not until every unemployed person who were sending a welfare check to you also has a PlayStation 5. I'm not wearing hockey pads because they're not like any how. Any how. Okay, so, so wait, what the fuck was I talking about? No! No! No! Anyhow. Anyhow. Okay, so, so, wait, what the fuck was I talking about?

Oh, right, supply chain, no, wait, but there was something else. What were we talking about? My brain is not functioning today. Before that we were talking about Amazon. Oh yeah, Amazon, they're great. Anyhow, oh yes, that's what I was gonna say, diapers. So, so everybody's like, wow, diapers you can't get them. And then I was like, let me see if this is true.

And I went on Amazon. And Amazon's got tons of diapers. Amazon will sell you diapers. I can buy diapers and have them deliver here tomorrow. Now, I don't need them. My diaper party's not till this weekend, but if I needed them tomorrow, tomorrow's technically Friday, I guess. So maybe I should do an order.

But I gotta dip up this weekend. All I'm saying is I'm gonna have those diapers, they're gonna be delivered by Amazon. But apparently what's happening is Amazon is like, hey, we'll pay a premium for your diapers. And Jeff Bezos's purse has praise own boat, which can slip through Joe Biden's net, okay? Into directly into the Amazon warehouse. I mean, there is some, there actually is some truth to this,

which is that companies like Amazon are monopolizing, they've monopolized the diaper market to a point where they can control, they're like, we have diapers, what do you mean, you know, oh, your local bodega doesn't have diapers? Well, that's good to hear because we've got them and they're, you know, they're gonna cost a little bit more, but we can get in.

And we would love if you just, if you created a lot, you know, some you created a lot, you know, some people, especially poorer people, don't generally have the disposable income for stuff on Amazon. But if you could create a login and then give us your payment information,

and then you're on the site, you know, we got some deals. You'd be surprised the values, and that's good for us. By the way, anyhow, but now you have to wait multiple days for your diapers. So, right, right.

Yeah, I mean, listen, I mean, so there are, but Amazon is, I mean, again, you know, there are, I will, I will say there are things about, there are things about Amazon that are totally, we can, I said it, I said it because it's a useful thing to have. I mean, there's something really good about. I think there's something really good about some of the things that Amazon does, and I love a lot of their services, not a lot of them, some of them, but I think an unchecked Amazon is ultimately not in the greater good, right?

Yeah. An unchecked Amazon is just like an unchecked Walmart. Anyone with unlimited societal and monetary and political power probably isn't gonna end great. And if you give it to a corporation whose expressed goal is to extract as much money as possible and then send a very strange man to space with it. Yeah, I just think it's like, it's like, listen,

I am, I am, I do think there's like, it's like, listen, I am, I am, I, I do think there's something to the argument that, I mean, you must admit, there is something to the argument that we have a concentration of an enormous amount of wealth in the hands of very few people who have no awareness or understanding and can do nothing about the suffering and the pain and the hard situations of so many others. And it does seem like a lot of what we're feeling now, that a lot of this like post, not even post pandemic, but pandemic related stresses on our economy,

on our workforce, on the pay disparity, on women in the workplace, on racial disparities, on all this stuff, that these are not just the way like reality is, and it's just like, this is, we all must experience this reality that just is coming at us, that no one has any control over, it is very possible that the concentration of such enormous wealth

and power among such a small amount of people is breaks the kind of fabric of how this world should function for most people. And eventually, it's going to get a lot worse than this. Eventually, something's got to give. You know, and like, And I do think trying to find a way to reframe how capitalism functions, and we're not gonna get rid of capitalism. Remember? Probably, but at least let's just say, I'll be, maybe there's a version of life

that exists beyond capitalism that we can't imagine yet, that someone will solve. Someone will create a matter generator that's completely solar powered and we haven't burned the sun out or whatever. And it just is like, okay, stuff now, anybody can have whatever stuff they want. So it's all from a side AI gamification communism.

Yeah, or whatever, but I'm just saying, if there was a matter generator on every corner, okay? Like where the taco truck's used to be that I think Trump was upset about or whatever remember that remember He was like you know, is this what you want a taco truck on every corner? Everybody was like yeah actually yeah, that is exactly what everybody in America wants. I even racist He built a taco restaurant or something wasn't he wasn't he making his restaurant?

Taco he ate a taco. He ate a taco once. I think is anyhow, but the point is Maybe there will be, you know, a matter generator in every corner and like everybody can just have whatever they need and it's okay, we can, I, but I'm not, I don't know that I'll ever, I may never live to see that, but there's gotta be a tweak of capitalism that we can do, a little augmentation, a little attenuation

of the way it functions so that we can distribute, I'm not saying all the wealth, okay? But maybe a little bit more and maybe just not even talk about the straight distribution of wealth, but more like the evening out and the settling down of what undistributed wealth creates. Just with all of our technological advancements and scientific advancements and study and organization that we've done over hundreds of years, more people should have homes than have.

You know what I mean? Like we have empty houses, people should be in them. This isn't like rocket science. I mean, I am just, and it's just like all I'm saying is, all I'm saying is, I think we've got to solve this, and we've got it, somebody's really got to do it. Like, there's got to be a way to even this out a bit,

because this way we're headed, where we're headed is not tenable. And by the way, Like, like, there's gotta be a way to even this out a bit because this way we're headed, where we're headed is not tenable. And by the way, all of the racist, you know, whatever, I don't know who they are with these white, Trump people, there as much a victim of this completely lopsided insanity of the way we've arranged society as anybody else's, much a victim of this completely lopsided insanity

of the way we've arranged society as anybody else's. It's just that they have, they believe that they are the, they believe that they are the beneficiary's of the arrangement. They think it's a zero sum game and that the people, whoever they are, the people below them are suffering and it's good. You know, it's like you've got,

like you build a robot, an AI driven robot to take out your enemies, you know? And it's like, you're like, ha ha, this robot is taking out all my enemies because I've programmed it to hate those people and to shoot them on the side of your head. And I'll get that ahead of time. Yeah, whatever.

Eventually, it's like, you know the robots gonna be like, wait a second. This guy is also a problem. Yeah. It's gonna turn on you. It's like, they think that, but also they've never been the beneficiaries of the system. Like, poor white people,

or middle class white people, maybe there was a period where some middle class white people were the beneficiaries of them. Yeah, they got attacked kind of one year. You know, no, no, no, no, but an earlier version of America for sure there was like this kind of effort to really try to build up a class.

Oh, yeah, yeah. This middle class in America, and of course it was largely focused on white people because that was, people in power only recognized white people as existing. You know, the only type of person they could recognize as it being in existence. But that's just, we're just gone away from that completely.

There's not even an attempt, not even one that's completely slanted towards one group of people. It's just like there's the top and there's everything else which is the bottom. And if you manage to eat out something in the middle, it was like sort of an accident or you got, you're just, you know, you got close to the target. It's precarious. It's definitely precarious.

Like for sure, like I'm not on the bottom. Like I'll just say as affordable. I have a career in media and in technology and like I've done fairly well and you know, I've done, I've started startups and whatever, you know what I'm saying? But I know I feel at any moment what I have is tenuous. Oh, to your total, my parents are firmly middle class

and that could end today. Yeah, and I could be, I could be fucking on the street in a matter of days. But so anyhow, it's just like this fucking disparity, listen, I'm not trying to, I'm not preaching like, you know, you don't wanna be a socialist, that's fine. We're so far from socialism. We're so far from like socialism.

I mean, it's just anti-competitive, like legislation, monopolistic behavior. Like these are American ideals is breaking down monopolies so that we can better have competition in the marketplace because that's what you guys love. You'll love competition, you'll love capitalism, that's what everybody seems to want. And so we came up with rules saying if someone's broke the game,

so no one else can play, that's not competition anymore. So we have legislation and systems in place, and none of them are working. None of them are working. We're living in a reality where like, you know, US Steel didn't get broken up. And there's like a monopoly on steel. And it was used to break into every other industry

and become like a one corporation, slowly, a one corporation. And also, at a surprisingly quick rate, did one company become 45% of American retail or whatever. But it should worry everyone, but there are people to whom they've decided they're not gonna worry about it because it will make them different

than the people they don't like who are also worried about it, which is like lefties. Yeah, anyhow, so it's just like... They want to own the lips. Yeah, I'm pretty sure now in the lips, but meanwhile, what do you own? Huh? That's a little something. Let's get out of here.

I can't agree with that. Guys, are there anything we're going to talk about that's upbeat? Nice. We have nice things. Hmm. All right, fine. You got it. No, fine.

Tony didn't expect anything better from Austin. No. Why would he? I don't know. All right, let's do nice things. Tony didn't expect anything better from Austin. No. Why would he? I don't know. All right, let's do nice things. Thanks, thanks. Okay. Is everybody go first?

Yeah, I'll go first. You know, my nice thing is, when Joe Biden tells me to turn that boat around, oh, Mr. President, they're here with food. They have enough food to feed everybody in America for the next 10 years. Tell them to get that boat out of my port. Mr. Tell them to go back to whatever tropical island

that food came from. I don't know. I don't actually, I don't know. I don't have, I don't, what is my nice thing? What is my nice thing? What am I liking? Oh shit, I'll tell you my nice thing. This is gonna be very quick.

You know, in it, in a, in a, I'm a, I'm kinda like so bored of content. I'm so over content these days. I'm so sick of TV shows. But I started watching Fargo, the series, which I don't know if you've ever watched it. Fargo, oh yeah. But it is, I'm'm I just finished the second season

It is just great great fucking TV. I mean it is just great I don't know how they managed to like make this you know, it's definitely like it's definitely not It's not like Very important I would say in the sense of sense of like, I think that's part of the... I think it's part of the appeal. Like, I think they also don't take it so seriously to the people who've created this show.

In the sense that like, it's not like a show that's, it's not like, you know, I'm trying to think of like, people talking about the superannos, you know, making these big statements about America or, you know, mad men, is this really important statement or the wire or whatever. It's not like that. It's like these these stories just completely outrageous, but so engrossing and so like beautifully acted and smartly written and fun and funny and surprising and just like beautifully shot and funny and surprising and just like beautifully shot, expertly directed, like perfect television, in my opinion. And I had never watched it.

I kind of avoided it because I was not a big fan of the movie. And I was like, yeah, I don't think this for me. And I knew that like the show was kind of, it's not, you know, each season is it's kind of self-contained thing, it's its own story and thought. So set in, yeah, it's an anthology sort of set and familiar sort of the, you, sort of set in familiar, sort of the, you know, the Fargo area, basically.

But just like, just super good. I mean, I haven't watched all of it yet, but I would just say if you're desperate for something to watch, if you love great, like, I mean, this is like in like, game of thrones, sopranos, breaking bad kind of territory in terms of like quality, you know, this is like in like, game of thrones, sopranos, breaking bad, kind of territory in terms of like quality. You know, it's like the best the TV has to offer, in my opinion. And I highly recommend it. I will say one thing, it's very violent.

I mean, it's a show that like, I think in many ways is kind of making fun of violence. It's so over the top sometimes that you're like, this is just absurd. So if you're like, if you don't have a stomach for that, you may not enjoy it. It's a very, I also feel like it's a very dude kind of show, like I feel like it's like, it definitely has, it's not like just about guys, but it definitely feels like, you know, it's a show, I would not be shocked to find out the writer's room is very dude's rock. Yeah, it's kind of a, it's kind of like a dude.

I said to Laura last night when we were watching it. It's kind of like a dude soap opera in a lot of ways. Like it's like it has it deals with lots of themes of like dude dumb. And I don't mean like bros, but I mean like what it is to be a man guy. To be a guy in the world. Anyhow, that's Bitfargo, that's my nice thing. Go check it out. If you're a desperate saying to watch,

and you don't wanna fucking, if you already watched all the good stuff, and you haven't gotten to Fargo, I highly recommend it. I will very quickly say, my husband made me watch the season of American Horror Story, which I really didn't wanna watch, because every year, speaking of anthologies.

Yes, every year it starts off with one episode that I'm like, all right, that was pretty good. I mean, overwritten, but pretty good. And then by the end, it's just a completely off-the-rails disaster mess, and I'm so mad that I wasted time on it. Happened again this year. Even though this year they did a double feature where each thing was only six episodes,

so that they could, or five episodes maybe even, so that they could force themselves to not do that this time, and they still did it. And I was so mad. And then we watched Midnight Mass after that, which is that- Oh yeah, interesting, is it bad? Mike Flanagan came either.

It, I, Night and Day, I'll say both of them are about similar themes, the first part of American Horror Story and Midnight Mass. I don't want to give anything away if people don't know. But it is very similar themes. It is like watching, it's like reading an essay from the worst student in class, and then the best student in class.

It is night and day. If the filmmaking, the writing, the acting, the special effects, I am so creeped out. I'm having such a good time with this Midnight Mass. It's very Catholic, which for me is usually a disqualifier. I'm having such a good time with this Midnight Mass, it's very Catholic, which for me is usually a disqualifier. I love it, so good. So I would recommend definitely not watching

American Horror Story, but if you did, definitely watch Midnight Mass, excellent television. I loved it. Really, you think they pair, is it? Yes, but don't sign up for Netflix for it. If you already have a Netflix account, watch it while your Netflix account runs out, because you canceled it,

because you're a good person who hates Steve Chappelle. I don't think we're in danger of advertising for Netflix. Yeah, I mean, we're getting people signed up accidentally or something. All right, is that it? Should we get out of here? All right, good stuff. Bye. Well, that is our show for this week. We'll be back next week with more tomorrow. And as always I wish you and your family the very best though I've just been told that your

family has arrived at the port. An evil Joe Biden has turned them away. you