Wonderful! - Wonderful! 111: Tiger's Gotta Scratch

Episode Date: December 4, 2019

Griffin's favorite mighty voice! Rachel's favorite contraception! Griffin's favorite tacky holiday decor! Rachel's favorite two days! Music: "Money Won't Pay" by bo en and Augustus - https://open.spotify.com/album/7n6zRzTrGPIHt0kRvmWoya MaxFunDrive ends on March 29, 2024! Support our show now by becoming a member at maximumfun.org/join.

Hi, this is Rachel McElroy. Hey, this is Griffin. And this is Wonderful. Feeling punk rock this episode. How about you? I could tell you just threw the lid of your water bottle on the ground. Yeah, I threw it down to the ground. You know, I felt like in that moment, it was kind of the system. And I said, I'd rather not today.

And so I put it down. I guess I'm just not feeling up to putting up to any guff from anyone or any entity this evening as I record this show with you i am starting to wonder if there is a waxing or a waning moon or if there is something in our third house or you know you and i i think are experiencing a similar um fog a fog if you will and you know we are the same astrological sign. Mercury's in retrograde. There's drops of Jupiter in her hair. And that always gets me down, always gets me low.

Yeah, who knows? Who knows? Sometimes, you know, you're on the downswing, but it can only go up from here. Boy, it's been a long day. boy it's been a long day it's been a long day of uh of uh three-year-old check-in doctor appointments with the with shots and everything full-blown ballistic meltdowns and just uh just a cavalcade a cavalcade you know i like to get that first in the morning appointment but i waited too long to book it and so we had to do the like.40 appointment, which turned into me getting to work at almost noon. Yeah, but we filled our child with the good poison

that's gonna keep him so safe. True. And yeah, it was worth it, I guess. But do you have any small wonders? I do. I wanted to give a tip of the hat to the new Mike Birbiglia special. Oh, yes.

We watched it last night. The new one. It's literally called The New One. It's on Netflix. And it made me laugh and cry. Yeah, it's real talk, real talk stuff, baby stuff, mostly. And it reawakened some memories from that first year of childhood i think the ideal viewer um feels very close to an infant in their life um because there's a lot of discussion of uh of infants and being around them and how they impact your life. Yeah. And it's a very funny, very funny take. Funny, but actually funny. Not funny and like a kid say the darndest things funny.

Yeah, not like a... Real adult jokes with cussing and everything. Not like a home improvement, let's say. You watch it. You're on thin ice. I'm gonna say Trader Joe's broccoli and kale slaw. Boy, it takes me there. Every time we have it oh it's good

it's a little chopped salad and uh no scrambled eggs required uh it's got like a sweet dressing on it with little dried blueberries and some uh yeah what are those little guys those papitas what do you call them anyway they're good as hell. Little crunchums. Love it. Love this salad. I think it might be a pine nut. Might be some sort of pine nut. No one's quite sure. Trader Joe himself doesn't know. I'll say Trader Joe's in general. I want to get there. I mean, you've done Trader Joe's on this

show, I feel like, before. I just want to eat those little chocolate cat cookies all day and night. Yeah, should I be buying those more than I do? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And I know buying those more than I do? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And I know now we're going to have an argument about it.

Now we're going to have a big fight about it, I guess. I thought you were going to say your small wonder was that our anniversary is coming up. No. You were so excited about it. I wasn't going to say that. Because it's- I'll talk about it next week if it goes well. Oh. You know?

But I don't want to like... I don't want to hype it up too much. You do that to movies all the time and it would make the movie bad. I don't want to do that with our anniversary. Oh, we saw some good movies too. Hell yeah, we did. In fact, I'm going to start my first wonder. My first wonder is the mighty voice of Idina Menzel.

My first wonder, it's a big wonder, and it's Idina Menzel's impossibly powerful throat sounds that she can make with her voice. It is really incredible. It's a very, it's a wild voice, and it's wild how much stuff she has done with it how many like big roles uh of like women vocalists in who are characters in movies and plays that is her i forgot she was in rent right she was maureen in the original cast of rent this was in 1996 and that's really where she made like

her first big break if you don't know, she's Elsa, Princess Elsa. She's from Frozen. She does the Frozen. She does the Frozen. She is Elsa. But she's done a lot of other stuff, too, including Maureen in Rent. She opened up with the show in 1996 and made a huge splash, got a Tony nomination for her performances in that one, and was only in it for a year.

I think a lot of the OG cast that really defined the show were only in it for, well in that one. And, uh, it was only in it for a year. I think a lot of the like OG cast that kind of like really defined the show were only in it for, uh, well to varying degrees, but like it was a short run, but that's always the cast that I think of mostly because also they got a lot of them back in the movie, uh,

of rent, which was so, so, uh, but Adina Mitzel was in it and she did a great job. So that was 96. She started putting out uh solo albums after that uh just doing a ton of stuff and then she blew up again in 2003 you

know what she was in next i don't wicked she was elphaba in wicked and in 2003 like i feel like 2003 to 2005 all my theater friends because this was back in the day like i was still doing theater they were like obsessed with wicked and i feel like the cool thing then and probably is still now to some extent uh is if all of your theater friends like a show you don't like it because of how yeah commercial yeah i feel like yeah everybody i don't know i wanted to be on some hipster bullshit like oh yeah i guess wicked is good but So what was your theatrical go-to then? I didn't have, I think for me, it was mostly my punk rock music

and, you know, David Mamet, smart shit, you know, for smarties. Edward Albee. But then I went and saw, I went and saw Wicked and like an off-Broadway or a touring production in Cleveland or Columbus. One of those sea cities.

I loved it. I had a good time with it. You know, we both of those sea cities. I loved it. I had a good time with it. You know, we both saw it, except when I saw it, it was a bootleg DVD that was purchased off eBay. Your dad should be in jail. Your dad should go to federal prison for how many bootleg theatrical.

My dad, they should share a cell. They should share a cell together. Don't ask Griffin's dad or my dad to unzip their coat because inside you'll see just a rack of DVDs. I'm going to play very short clips because I don't want the Disney company to sue us. I mostly want to highlight just sort of individual notes because she has a great voice.

It's very versatile. She can do a more sort of like coquettish just soft gentle voice and then can also just like fucking come at you with a with a fist of a note just a just a big swinging haymaker of a note uh there's a note at the end of defying Gravity, which is sort of the big anthem from Wicked that she hits that just completely floors me in a wild way. I'm going to play just a short bit of that now. She just got a great voice. But these like soaring notes that she just fucking blasts like it is violent in a way she just sends them packing and that's the power i'm talking about the power of

her voice like it is a very tangible thing and i can only think of a few singers that are like this uh where there are notes that she sings and there are songs that she sings that like actually give me chills uh just with the delivery of those songs uh 20 i think 13 or 2014 is when frozen came out obviously let it go was the biggest song ever uh it won it won an oscar it won a grammy and it was nominated for a golden globe uh so you know i think she has the probably one of the most famous singing voices on the planet just for Let It Go Alone. That's also when we got the Adele Dazeem era. Choppy Waters, they squashed the beef though.

I didn't realize in the following Oscars they presented together and she referred to him as Glom-ga-zingo. That's fun. They have fun with it, see? That is fun. So Frozen 2, Rachel and I just saw in theaters. I thought the music was even better like i think so too uh and i missed some of the movie because of uh we went with henry and there were some

interruptions let's say that uh made me miss some key plot points but the songs were so good uh and again i'm only going to play about four seconds of into the unknown now because there's a note she hits that's just like what do you know do you know what portamento is you did some band yeah but i don't know that uh it's like uh when notes glide together it is like the quality of the glide between notes she hits that uh a lot like in her singing voice but when she does into the unknown like it's all over that song and especially in the chorus which is essentially like you know three long notes uh where she goes into the like that that glide up into it is like it sounds like she's just launching that shit at you like from a trebuchet like Like it is so good.

I don't have anything airy to add about Idina Menzel's like incredible voice, but I think it's very unique. I love a good singer. Like I talk about that on this show all the time, but this is a different metric I feel like. It feels more than most people singing. It feels like she has a superpower.

Yeah. You know, like a lot of people are talented singers and you hear them and you think, oh, that's somebody who has really honed their craft. She seems like maybe she was born with this gift that also could overturn a car. Yeah. It's like the opera singer singing loud enough to shatter a glass thing but instead of that it just makes me go like kind of like whoa literally whoa that was weird that's interesting uh i apologize for even singing two notes of into the unknown just now i can't do it it's way out of my register let me work on on it though. I'm going to classes, you know,

polishing the instrument. We should mention a while back I had a conversation with Griffin where I asked him if he thought if somebody

that was less talented could go to enough vocal classes that they would become a superstar. Idina Menzel. Yeah, because I thought

is this really something that you can you know gladwell through and become an expert and griffin indicated that he thought it some people just were born with exceptional talent and other people would have to you know never get there well i mean i i'm i am not trying to go fucking i'm not trying to have make an einrand stand here on on our podcast together so some people have super great pipes and maybe like i'm thinking about the throat meat specific like i was born with a certain kind of throat meat yeah that gives because it gives you a certain quality right like uh i we are talking so far out of our houses right now but like uh if she if she's like a what like an alto uh then can you

be a soprano also like if i have a deep baritone voice like then i don't know that i could train myself up to a tenor voice i feel like you're talking about a certain physiological element i guess what i'm asking is if i start taking vocal lessons could i be really really good yeah baby of course you could you have a beautiful voice already it's mellifluous i'm just terrified i think that i would do it for a long time and i would never get anywhere well i mean that's why you go on american idol you go on the voice and you find out if you've made it okay that's why people go on those shows and you find out if you've made it okay that's why people go on those shows is to find out whether the investment of time that they put in their entire lives i'm

thinking about taking voice lessons let me see if i have to yes exactly go that's a good point go on now to get a baseline and then it'll be so inspiring when like you know six or seven years later you come back on and they're like i remember this punk go ahead and give us give us that that stink voice and blast them with some menzel shit hey what's your first thing my first thing is birth control hey yes all right i'm not gonna get real detailed here i just i like uh i like that it exists yeah it's great stuff i feel like it gave people a lot of freedom um in their lives and it gave a lot of recognition to the idea of sex for pleasure and i think it deserves to be a wonderful thing are you talking about pills in particular you're talking about just sort of contraception contraception oh yeah Yeah. Because everything I mean, like any drug or any, you know,

like medical method, there are side effects and pitfalls. And so I'm not going to say like, this is the one guys like if you're going to protect yourself, this is right. Like, I'm not here to do that. Yeah. This is something that I started taking in college. And I thought it was the most magical, wonderful thing ever. Uh, because at the time, not only did it help protect me from becoming pregnant, but it also cleared up my skin. Yeah. Isn't that amazing?

It is wild. But that's not like a super uncommon thing, right? There's like hormonal reasons why it does the shit it does. Levels you right out, you know? Yeah. Um, yeah, but I... it does the shit it does levels you right out you know yeah um yeah but i see you need a nice indica birth control pill to just bring give you a nice head high and really i can't start my day that would be really incredible if there were dispensaries just edibles that also

didn't they kept you from getting pregnant yeah that'd be cool pregnant yeah that'd be cool god i sound like total fucking old cops so um i wanted to start with a condom okay um because condoms have been around since 3000 bc that makes sense that dudes would be like me first do mine first condoms made from such materials as fish bladders linen sheaths and animal intestines were around in 3000 bc okay that's uh hey oh sorry sorry sorry that's fucking gross i know i know i like thinking though like let's say somebody's sitting there and they're they're cutting apart you know a creature and they're looking and they're pulling out the stuff they don't want to eat and then they think hey hey, wait a minute. Do you think it started with, I can put that on my dick and then it'll catch all the stuff and so I won't get them pregnant?

Or do you think it started with like, I'm going to put my dick in that. And then like the hundredth time they did it, they were like, hey, I actually have a good idea for, or somebody caught them and they're like, hey, what you're doing right now is awful. And they're like, oh, FFAL? I'm a scientist. Yes.

Excuse me. How dare you? I'm having sex with this sheep's stomach for science. Thank you. So you didn't see condoms made out of rubber until 1838. condoms made out of rubber until 1838. Before that, you could see like linen sheets and

animals and yeah, it was... Let me know the effectiveness rate of your linen sheet condom because I bet it's... Well, so in 1500, they identified the first spermicides and would soak the linen sheets in the spermicide and let it

dry. Oh, even worse. Good, it's getting worse. And then put that stiff, you know. Cordwood-like material, wrap it around your member. Yeah. And then have sex, I guess. Here is something I didn't know about until I was doing research.

Were you familiar with the Comstock Act? God, that sounds familiar, but it might just be because it sounds like a Bioshock thing. In 1873, this act was passed in the United States, and it prohibited advertisements, information, and distribution of birth control, and allowing the Postal Service to confiscate birth control sold through the mail. What? Right? That's bad. Isn't it? That doesn't seem like it should be anything. and allowing the postal service to confiscate birth control sold through the mail. Right? That's bad.

Isn't it? That doesn't seem like it should be anything. Terrible and crazy? Yes. I didn't do a lot of research on kind of how this movement started, but obviously it was kind of a huge setback for the advancement there for a little while. What? That the post office could be like, nope. Yeah, I think that's probably.

Also that you couldn't even advertise or distribute information. Yeah. How do you get it? How did you get it? I guess you got to know a guy. It's terrible. Yeah, it's not great. So 1916 is where you saw the first birth control clinic in the United States.

This was Margaret Sanger. Not a great lady yeah her reasons behind birth control were not ideal she was on some eugenics shit yes yes not ideal i think we can all agree yes uh she though uh did kind of blaze a trail um because she was challenging um you know the opposition against this and so she went to jail a few times. And then finally in 1938, in a case involving her, a judge lifted the federal ban on birth control.

In 19, sorry? 1938. That's not that long ago, it feels like. Well, you want to know something even crazier? What's that? So it wasn't until 1972 that the Supreme Court legalized birth control for all citizens of the country. Was it a state-by-state thing at that point? Yeah, so it was kind of a weird thing. This is what I didn't realize.

In 1965, the Supreme Court gave married couples the right to use birth control. Oh, fuck off. Ruling that it was protected in the Constitution as the right to use birth control oh fuck off ruling that it was protected in the constitution as a right to privacy but only for marrieds yeah that doesn't make any sense millions of unmarried women in 26 states were still denied birth control that sucks so i'm guessing that was probably the only way they could get it through right was that like this idea that we don't want to encourage you to have sex but i guess if you're married then you should you should be able to so maybe we can say it's all right for you not to get pregnant i don't know it's a really strange wouldn't it want to be terrible sorry government from 1965

wouldn't you want it to be the other way around where the people who know you think so right isn't that kind of like your whole fucking setup in your brain? It's still this idea that maybe if we pretend that people don't want to have sex, they won't have sex. And so if we make it seem like it's remotely okay, then it's us saying it's okay. And we don't want to be the people to say it's okay. It's wild. say it's okay it's wild if they had allowed advertisements back when it was this you know spermicide soaked cardboard material that you wrapped around your penis i think that this whole movement would have died on the vine but instead they had to make it this exotic thing

also we haven't we haven't really talked about stis but obviously this is yeah dude yeah condoms in particular like a huge uh windfall for avoiding. Yes, absolutely. One more thing I'll say about Margaret Sanger. In 1950, while she was in her 80s, she underwrote the research necessary to create the first human birth control pill. Okay. And so in 1960, that was when the first pill was approved by the FDA as contraception. So it's another kind of huge, huge step for the movement. And that's, you know, kind of where I come into the picture.

1963, Detective Rachel McElroy. I leaped is what I did. Yeah. Ultimately. Sure. A little bit outside of your own timeline, but I'll allow it. Well, my guide, it it well my guide it was within my guides timeline oh and your guide was val val she was kind of a spicy broad yeah uh but

she was she was born in the 50s so i was able to leap because there was a lightning strike and then i was able to leap and hurt hey do you have a spec script somewhere sitting around for quantum leap the new class you know i just think they should bring it back and i think they should put some women in some roles yeah spice it up modernize it it's a long overdue the world's ready uh that's i mean that's all there's all sorts of touch points obviously different evolutions of the types of birth control uh i i have always been very grateful for it i think it's an incredible thing i think it has so many benefits beyond just preventing people from pregnancy uh that i i think it's very important and um i wanted to talk about it

yeah it's a good it's a good thing to talk about uh because it's a good thing in general and the fact that there's any sort of contention about that at all in any sector is hey hey prudes people are gonna people gonna do it people are gonna have. Can't stop them. Can't stop me. I bone every night. I am such a... I'm doing it every night. I'm getting it so wild up in here. You can't tell me to put that tiger back in the cave. No.

Or the cage. Or the... I keep the cage in the cave. Uh-huh. This is a secret tiger, but when I let... Tell him, babe, when I let it out, when the tiger come out. Kitty likes to scratch. Kitty likes to scratch.

Better hide them steaks. I'm going to smash in the window to the steaks shop every night, all night long. Tell them. Yeah. That's the noise I like to make. You know, they know. can i steal you away yes can i read this first personal message yes it is for ryan it is from Alex. Hey, honey. By the time you hear this, we will be married. My wife.

Oh, you really needed to take a running start at that one. You want to try again? I don't want people to get upset. My wife. You said it the exact way that you just said it. I've never been so heartbroken do you wanna no okay well this is a change of pace 32 year old i'll have finished my okay let me just hey you know what let me just start over hey honey by the time you hear this we will be married my wife i'll have finished my

masters and who knows what other crazy things we'll have gotten up to. Remember that the most wonderful thing in my life is you. I love you. I like you. And I can't wait to listen to this with you. Signed, your pickle sweet potato muffin pancake. I just had an extremely powerful thought and I need everybody to do it in their brains. Okay.

And I may need to, we may need to take a little break after just what I'm about to say, because I'm not going to be able to say or think of anything else. Okay. But what do you think it would sound like if Idina Menzel sang her Borat impression to my wife? Oh. It would be strong. It would be a strong song.

I feel like the word wife would last for three minutes. Yeah. She would slide up into it and then like blast it in like octaves unknown. I see. I've got into the unknown stuck in my head now. So I'm thinking of wife just hitting my wife, but good and loud and powerful and strong but still fucking funny i have a personal message here this one's for michael and it's from kirsten who says my darling michael you inspire me every day and i am so proud of you keep working hard to be the best therapist

ever i'm so happy that we are now engaged and can now actively work on our plans for a bright future full of cuddles academic achievements and eventual global domination i love you so much mon chevalier chevalier chevalier chevalier really i don't know that's what the that's what the singer i think there was a singer named chevalier yeah i think so there was a singer. Named Chevalier? Yeah, I think so. There's a Marx Brothers reference to it. Every time we do the Jumbotrons, we are absolutely the Clampets. We interrupt the podcast you're listening to to tell you about another podcast. That's right. We got this with Mark and Hal.

That's correct, Mark. This is Hal. We do the hard work for you, settling all of the meaningless arguments you have with your friends. So tune in every week on the Maximum Fun Network for We Got This with Mark and Hal.

And all your questions will be asked and answered. You're welcome. All right, that's enough of that. We got this. Do you want to know my second thing? Yes. Holiday inflatables big holiday inflate this is going to be our most contentious subject to date are you going to tell our dark

secret that we bought a holiday inflatable that's the one that's not especially dark secret it feels like it to me rachel doesn't love these guys i think and i And I do now. I like, okay, let me paint a picture of a tasteful Christmas in my head. I like a white light. Yeah. I like maybe some pine needles. I like a red ribbon. Okay. I like a classy Christmas.

I do too. I do too. And I feel like a big inflatable minion is not that. Well, okay, sure. A big inflatable nude penis would be bad too a big inflatable murder scene would be bad to have in your front yard i agree rachel um but you think our seven foot tall mickey is tasteful more tasteful than the things just listed including a minion by an enormous factor yes i would would say so. I have experienced a number of personal changes over the last few years that have made me

sort of more enthusiastic about the holiday inflatable zeitgeist. And the biggest thing is that decorating the outside of a house sucks shit. And it's not decorating inside. We did tree decoration, you know, Black Friday. We got that shit out. We were enthusiastic about the tree decor. Yeah, Griffin basically did it by himself in like 15 minutes. Interior decor, all about it, all about it, all about it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Climbing on a ladder to strap lights onto some shit. No, no, that part is bad, actually. That part's really, really rough. Trying to wrap those horrible net lights around like a box hedge is a fucking nightmare. It sucks so bad also and this is the thing that they they haven't really figured out a solution for is that you'll get all those things out of the box and then you have to put them back in the box when the season has ended and it is

impossible i want compostable christmas lights that i can just leave on there until little birds come and turn it into nests or whatever compost is uh holiday inflatable no problem you run an extension cord you flip a switch and there it is whoop there it is i'm also on you there but for the grace of god go you because i'm about to get into like those like laser snowflake projectors that just go on your no lights required it's fucking light baby i've tried to sneak this in when we went and bought our inflatable he was like hey look at that henry'd probably like that and i was like but it's on the outside of our house he'd never see it that's true that was sneaky that's true uh it's just it's so the appeal of the inflatable is so

seductive to me and i will also say there is a pringles effect where we have the one no no no no no well no no no no no when you look at our front yard and it's just got the one inflatable that looks ridiculous you see don't you think that looks silly just having what kind of house would have no other decorations and just one inflatable the person who lives in that house is dangerous it's just because we don't have any lights on our house. That's what it is. Yes, that's what I'm saying. We have no lights and just one inflatable.

Who's in that house and what are they fucking planning? That does explain why every person I know that has bought one inflatable somehow now also has five or more. Yes. But I know, I know, no, I'm not on board. Well, we'll do one a year. We'll get one new one a year. And I think that's what we'll, we got it because we wanted a fun afternoon activity

with Henry. We knew he'd be really into it. They had a Snoopy at his school that he was a big fan of. We just walked by and boop it every morning. He was a big fan. And now we have a big seven and a half foot tall Mickey friend in the front yard and just having this ever present guardian, this illuminated sentry at our front door

is very, it makes you feel safe. It makes you feel warm. Also helps get the child out the door every morning because he sees a huge Mickey in the front yard. All of a sudden, he doesn't want to be in the house arguing about which shoes he wants to wear. Now he wants to be out there with the rat and partying with him. doing about which shoes he wants to wear now he wants to be out there with the rat and partying with him uh another great thing that i really love is the comedic element of one what it looks

like when you turn it off when you turn it off when you turn our mickey off he just very gently passes away into the bushes he very he falls backwards perfectly every time and then just kind of dies yeah and it's very gentle and very peaceful and um kind of sweet but then when the night time comes and i turn it back on again he springs up like he is a teenager who was masturbating in his room and i walked in on him he's dad knock that's really good to me and i think it's funny and i like it a lot and i want to have a whole secret garden of inflatables with some of my favorite pikachu will be there hank hill hank hill inflatable oh that's fun hank inflatable, but he's like lying down on his belly with his like chin resting on his hands. Just kind of like sitting there.

And he's also 30 feet long. Well, you do your Hank Hill. I love it so much. Bobby. Oh, God. It's so good. I love it. Damn it, Bobby.

That wasn't bad. You're really good at it. I'm dialing it in. Anyway, I love these guys. No one can change my mind. What's your second thing? My second thing is what everybody's working for. The weekend?

It is the weekend. Oh, God. Okay. I didn't think that that was it. Not the band. I think about that a lot, about what it took to get that weekend. A lot of unionization and fighting from labor movements, from what I understand. I think, I mean, a lot of people want a two-day work week.

And I don't think that's reasonable. Who's saying that? A lot of people want a three-day work week, and I don't think so. Oh, okay. Five feels right to me. Okay. Hey, listen to me. Hey, this is Griffin. Four feels right to me.

Whoa. Now who's your favorite member of the podcast? I'm also a staunch supporter of the $15 minimum wage. In fact, I think it should be much, much higher than that. Gosh. Rachel's not always on that boat, are you? Are you going to announce dollar candidacy for president anyway i was waiting for first kamala to go a bunch of people to drop out once once the thin beta is beto out beto's out

right oh he's been out beto i needed beto and kamala together they were enough to topple me but now it's castro's out castro's out it's just gonna be me and bloomberg fucking duking it out at the top can i tell you about the history of weekends yes uh 1870s industrial revolution people are working 10 to 16 hour days seven days a week and when i say people i mean men women and children yeah rough times not great uh here is something i didn't't realize. So getting Sunday off for worship was relatively easy. A lot of employers were like, all right, Sundays, you can have Sundays. Saturday was a struggle, particularly for the Jewish people. Yeah, that's why. I was just about to say, that's Sabbath.

There was kind of a huge immigration, as you might remember, of Jewish people. And they wanted the Sabbath off on Saturday. Um, and I was reading this article from, uh, it was like a marketplace news story and they were like, Hey, if the Sabbath had been on Wednesday, we might not have a weekend because a big motivator, a big motivator was, you know, Jewish people didn't want to work on saturday yeah sure uh and then obviously a lot of labor organizers um this was literal police gunning down protesters men was being hanged it was a very violent rough struggle it was a nightmare yes they were on some fucking legit peaky blinder shit it's not great um people started the five-day work week kind of in fits and starts around the United States.

In 1908, the first five-day work week was instituted by a New England cotton mill. And this was specifically so Jewish workers would not have to work on the Sabbath. In 1926, Henry Ford began shutting down his automotive factories for all of Saturday and Sunday. And this is interesting. I didn't think about this at the time because it sounds a little altruistic, like, oh, how nice that he was taking care of his workers. But then they made the suggestion. This enabled the road trip,

like the weekend road trip. Dude's trying to sell cars. How are people gonna go out on these long drives in their cars if they don't have two days off? If they work every waking hour of the week, yeah. That's interesting. I wouldn't have even thought of that. Okay, so in their cars, they don't have two days off. If they work every waking hour of the week, yeah. That's interesting. I wouldn't have even thought of that.

Okay, so in 1929, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America Union was the first union to demand and receive a five-day work week. And then there was kind of a slow build. And then finally in 1940, a provision of a Fair Labor Standards Act mandated a maximum 40-hour work week, and the two-day weekend was adopted nationwide. The Fair Labor Standards Act is kind of incredible

because not only does it bring the weekend, it creates a right to minimum wage and time and a half overtime pay and prohibits employment of minors in oppressive child labor. That's one act? that's one act that's one act that's a huge act there's a lot of stuff in there it's wild to me that there are people alive still today who were there when an act got obviously this is not the only thing passed in the you know the lifetime of people living today that was huge but like that's so much shit that defines like everything now like the tempo at which we live out our weeks was determined by this act that's wild yeah yeah i i know a lot of people end up working more than 40 hours you know and they end up working on the

weekend but people worked real hard to get us the right to a weekend. And that's important, I think. I think that's all I want to say about that. Folks, these are the two good days. You know them. You know Saturday. You know Sunday. And I like them both for very specific reasons, I think. I mean, Saturday is obviously fun because you're getting started, right?

Yeah. Maybe you got to sleep in a little bit. You got to wear your pajamas a little longer and you're excited about your saturday night activities sunday's kind of the day where you get your stuff done you do you do your laundry maybe you make sure you have your groceries you think about your week you get ready for it yeah i had a i had a different relationship with it i feel like when uh you know we were going to church every morning. Yeah, that's true. Because we did Sunday school and proper service every Sunday. And when you sort of have half your day spoken for on a weekend, it feels like the other half you're like,

well, I may as well finish reading that book that I need to read for school or I may as well clean my room now. Yeah. I like making a big meal on Sunday that you know, that you can have going into your week. Yeah. You know, that's a nice one. And then if you do do something fun, it feels like a little bonus. Like, hey, I got a fun thing on a Sunday.

Yeah. And then forget it when you have a long weekend. And you're like, what day is it? And you're like, what day even is it? And then you go back to work and you're like, whatay no wait no it's tuesday what yeah yeah and you're like oh i need a vacation you say stuff like i need a vacation for my vacation yeah you say shit like that yeah love it uh any big christmas plans Christmas plans.

Coffee maker broke again. Also, you're kind of mentioning the flip side of it, but on Fridays, right? Oh, Fridays though, holy shit. Everybody's like, it's almost the weekend. Thursday too, like you're already sliding down, like you're getting momentum on Thursday. You're like sliding down the hill and you're like, here we go, here we go, here we go. And you're like at work, you're like, you're already sliding down. Like, you're getting momentum on Thursday. You're, like, sliding down the hill. And you're like, here we go, here we go, here we go.

And you're, like, at work. And you're like, what's that? It's Friday. Coming tomorrow. How long do you think people had to have weekends before they were like, oh, I gotta go back to work? You know, like, you know how, like, they probably fought super hard to get the weekend. And then probably after a few months, they were just like, oh, only two days. What?

You know? I doubt that's true. I think that's probably a horrible thing to say no i think five days i think they were like we got it we got it five days is right because it gives you monday where you're like oh monday and tuesday we're like oh it's only tuesday and then wednesday we were like hump day and then thursday like what's that, it's only Tuesday. And then Wednesday, we were like, hump day. And then Thursday, you're like, what's that smell? It's Friday. We're on the corner. And then Friday, you're like, here we go. Any big Christmas plans? That's all the things that you need to say to your coworkers at the office.

This act figured that out for you. Have I ruined our podcast? You did a little bit. Hey, can I tell you what our friends at home are talking about? Please. Danielle says, got a Dutch oven for half price at TJ Maxx. This is everything. This is big mood for me.

It's a big, big mood, Danielle. Danielle adds, this little Dutch boy can handle anything you throw at him. Stovetop, boiling, frying, baking. Don't worry about it. He's a true wunderkind. He can do it all. Love him so much. We need a Dutch oven though. We do. I always see those things, especially like when they make them in a

bright color and I think that looks nice. Looks very, very good. Levi says, my wonderful thing is winter candles with scents like candy cane, gingerbread, and hot cocoa. It triggers a memory of the holiday season and more recently of when i met my wife see you got it in there it was bad that one caught me by surprise i like didn't know that i was in it until i was like halfway through my but anyway yeah

rachel got a christmas tree candle that is really doing it for me yes i man you got to get on that especially if you purchase an artificial tree like we do. It is good to get that real slash also artificial. Don't mark on our artificial tree. I mean, it's practical. It's a cost savings. Yeah. And they didn't have to cut down a tree to do it.

So there's another tree out there alive. And our tree was made out of recycled soda can holders and water bottles so we're the heroes if you think about it and guns they melted them down to make our tree and i think that's pretty cool i don't know i guess that's just me um but thank you to bowen and augustus for the use for our theme song money won't pay you'll find a link to that in the episode description. And hey, thanks to MaximumFun.org. What's that? Tippy tap, tap, tap, click, click, click. That's a good looking website. Yeah, it's even more good looking now than it used to be. Yeah. Yeah. You don't have to neg their old website, but it looks good.

They both look good. This one looks very, very good. New website, same stuff that you love love to talk about share with your friends very social very viral uh thank you maximumfund.org and uh we got other stuff at mackleroy.family bunch of bunch of merch fanny packs back in stock i know people want that fanny pack yeah holiday present yeah right the holidays are coming up and you got let's say you got a co-worker who likes pogs but doesn't have anywhere to keep them. Or likes a McElroy product. And that's what you guys talk about instead of Mondays on Monday. Yeah.

You know, and you could get them something. You still talk about Monday. Like you talk about both things, but you got to say, oh, Monday. You got to say something. It's in the act. Can I ask you, since you work with your family and you all work remotely on Mondays, are you guys like, do you like just fulfill that requirement? If we don't, we get yelled at by the boss.

All right. We're going to set aside seven minutes on this Skype call to just talk about Mondays. Got to talk about Toby's sweater and how he pretty much wears it every Monday. Yeah, there isn't even a Toby. But Travis dresses up like Dilbert because he loves Dilbert and thinks it's so funny

and loves Scott out of Spy. Working on it, money on it. MaximumFun.org Comedy and culture. Artist owned. Listener supported.