Wonderful! - Wonderful! 258: A Body Pillow of Benoit Blanc

Episode Date: January 4, 2023

Griffin's favorite on-the-go eats! Rachel's favorite cuddly toys!Music: “Money Won’t Pay” by bo en and Augustus – https://open.spotify.com/album/7n6zRzTrGPIHt0kRvmWoyaRAICES: https://www.raicestexas.org/ MaxFunDrive ends on March 29, 2024! Support our show now by becoming a member at maximumfun.org/join.

Hi, this is Rachel McElroy. Hello, this is Griffin McElroy. And this is wonderful. New year, new us. New me. New you. New them, new Genix. Yeah, I've been getting a lot of new Genix advertisements. What is that?

It's the SNL sketch where it's like pills, and I guess it's got stuff in it. Well, you showed it to me, right? This is the one with Willem Dafoe. With Willem Dafoe and like Sparks shoot out of his wiener. That's probably why you're getting the ads is you showed this to me. 2023, new me, new you. New Gen X, I guess.

And I'm excited for what this year means to Wonderful the Podcast. This probably doesn't happen to you because it's such a part of your day-to-day now, but getting ready to do this, that is record this episode, I thought it's weird that we do this. That we do this show? Yeah, it feels weird. Oh, okay. Interesting. Speak on that. You know, we took a week off.

Yes. And then I was preparing to make another podcast for the first time in a little while right and i thought this is weird that we do this show yeah oh i think it's nice i think it's just strange to put these microphones in front of us and and to think that other people want to hear it now my love you cannot um give me this i want to be here for you as you unburden these sort of complicated feelings. I didn't think about what this would do to you. You do understand that you have sort of thrown me into a sort of existential tizzy. I know.

I know. I should have known. I should have known that I can't do this. Listen, when you get off the horse for a little bit, sometimes the horse runs a good 200, 300 yards away from you. And you're chasing that horse. And you're like, why am I chasing this horse? Does this horse even like me? Do I need this horse?

Do I need this horse? Would I be happier without this horse? The answer is no. I would not be. This podcast, listen, and you know how it always goes. By the end of this one, you're going to be busting up. That's true. You're going to be holding your guts in.

That's true. You're going to be busting up, loving it. Yeah. be holding your guts in this true busting up loving it um but it's you know just it's time it's 2023 it's doubt has a place in this world but not in this room because there's no doubt about the fact that i love you welcome to the tragic kingdom there's no doubt here. Oh. You see what I did? Yeah, I got that. Yeah.

That's kind of a play on Magic Kingdom, isn't it? Never, literally never thought about that until this moment. Me neither. Do you have any small wonders? I'm going to say the humble play date. The humble, the unspoken, well, I guess it is spoken. You do have to arrange. Arranging a play date is actually a tremendous amount of work and coordination. Yeah. There's a really good way to do it, and that is like the appropriate amount of flattery to the other parent.

Yes. Because then everybody feels good. Everybody's like, we're all on the same page here. Our child wants to do this. We have good children. This will be a great experience. Yes. And we did that over the weekend going into Henry's return to school

and it was really neat. Real fun. It just felt like, okay, good. Our child has friends. Yes. These seem to be good kids. They do.

We're going places here in this humble town of DC. Yep. Making our way up the ladder. Yeah. Now we just need to have some, you know, influential politician friends, you know, get Henry buddied up with, I don't know. What is your agenda exactly? What would you do then?

President. Oh, okay. Me. President me. What is your small wonder? My small wonder? You know, ooh, Glass Onion. A Knives Out adventure.

What a fun flick, man. What a great little, what a great movie. I loved the first Knives Out, and I was like, I don't know how you sort of top that without it being sort of repetitive. But this movie does it by having a pretty just constantly over the top like tone that I thought would eventually get sort of tiring, but it doesn't. And they make like a pretty compelling mystery and everyone in it is absolutely exceptional. It's a really great way to do a sequel because when I think back on the first one i remember it being kind of quiet you know like i don't know when i think back on it

it had like a real wes anderson energy of like yeah of a lot of subtlety and this one you know i was like i don't know if i if i'm in the right headspace for like a mystery and then also a mystery that is kind of quiet yeah this one this one ain't quiet this one's bold yeah and you know the first knives out also was about like rich people behaving badly yeah uh and you know introduced benoit blanc uh daniel craig who is just so good so good i i literally i've seen this sentiment repeated i think more than any other when talking about Knives Out and Glass Onion, which is like, I would watch a million Benoit Blanc movies. Yes, me too. Very excited for the Natasha Lyonne. I can't remember the name of it, but the one that Rian Johnson is doing.

Is it Ryan? I should really learn that. I feel like we're going to be talking about this person for a long time. I should eventually lock down how the name is pronounced. But yeah, just a lot of fun. I had so much fun watching this movie. I didn't want it to end. But very, very satisfying conclusion.

A lot of fun. I will also say, also on Netflix, The Circle has begun to spin its web. New episodes tonight. You know what else we should mention? What should we mention? It's the holiday movie we watched.

Do you remember what it was called? The holiday movie we watched? Do you remember what it was called? The holiday movie we watched? Spirited? No. No, the one that Sydney and Justin recommended.

Do you, do you believe, what was it called? I believe in Santa Claus? Yeah, something like that. Something like that. That is on Netflix.

Holy shit. Okay. I don't know. This could be, this, I almost don't want to. I almost want to bring it. Here's. Okay. I don't know. I almost don't want to. I almost want to bring it. Here's the thing.

Can you still find those movies after December has ended? Yes. Okay. Yes. Okay. Because we watched it and then immediately started recommending it to our friends, even though the Christmas holiday had passed. And I don't know if people are still in that headspace,

but oh man, is it fun. Holy shit. It's a movie, bad, one of them, about a man who meets a woman who's like a journalist, of course, because it's a low-budget holiday movie. Yeah, right, they're always journalists. And she's writing about, I don't know. It seems like she has one of those imaginary editors

that's like, write about whatever the fuck, Stephanie. Just get out there and write literally about- So we need the clicks. There's a whole scene where the- We need your deadlines now because we need 10 clicks. Where her boss is like standing in front of a room full of people and is like,

we gotta get more clicks. Anyway, she's dating this guy. They meet in July. It's great. And then once December rolls around, Like standing in front of a room full of people and it's like, we got to get more clicks. Anyway, she stayed in the sky. They meet in July. It's great. And then once December rolls around, she learns that he is a Christmas nut. Just spends every single day of December doing some wild Christmassy shit. Yeah. And she's like trying to be a good sport about it because I guess she likes him.

Yes. She has a child too. And there's like this element of like, oh, my child would love this Christmas energy. At the midway point of the film. This is not, I don't think it's a spoiler.

It's the name of the fucking movie. He comes out and in a dinner with her and some friends, he reveals that he unironically, unambiguously believes in santa claus and then gets into what i can only describe just based on my background as an extensive researched apologetics sort of spiel about santa claus that also has i would say some specious and maybe even horrifically offensive comparisons to real world religions yeah uh yeah there's this suggestion of like there's a lot of people out there that feel like outsiders you know and that's not great for them so what do you think it feels like to be me and

not believe in santa claus like or to believe in santa claus rather and it's it's it's fucking wild at one point he says like I'm not talking about Jesus's Christmas I'm talking about Santa's Christmas and it's like what point is this because it seems like a hallmark we are gonna spend this whole fucking episode talking it seems like a hallmark you know focus on the family style like there's a little something yeah we were kind of waiting right for the like whole like he's the reason for the season element for the season yeah instead my man is like i'm not talking about the christ child i'm talking exclusively about secular ass santa claus and then and then he's like do you like Christmas lights? Do you like hot cocoa? Well, then you believe in Santa.

And everyone's like, uh-huh. I don't think that's how that works. Yeah. You know, I watched Christmas Prince. That was kind of Netflix's other like. This is so far removed from Christmas Prince. This is like, this is beyond this is like uh and and the deeper you go on it too like we of course became fascinated with it and

found out not only did the lead actor who believes in santa claus like write this film uh but he cast his real life wife as the romantic lead. Yeah. And these two on screen together. Confounding chemistry, I would say. It's maybe eight different times in the movie, one of them pulls out mistletoe and just kind of shakes it. And the other one's like, oh,

and then their bodies start to move close together. And then the scene quickly transitions away. Like no joke almost every fight that they have is then punctuated with a oh how about a little bit of a little bit it seems like they have a sort of almost like 50 shade style sexual contract we're like we need mistletoe to get things started in here it didn't make a lot of sense though because i was watching this and i was like, who would cast these two people together

in this kind of role? And then I realized like, oh, the man wrote it himself. Yeah. That makes more sense. Does he believe the movie? I'm not going to say anything else, but watch this fucking flick.

Yeah. It is, it is, it's, I can't describe it. It goes to places in its sort of apologetics defense of Santa Claus that I genuinely cannot believe it plumbed the depths of. It's a really fun watch, too. You know, there are a lot of bad films where I think like, okay, I get that it's like kind of funny and how bad it is, but it drags and I don't want to spend my time doing this. This one moves quick. This one moves at a clip.

Yeah. Through some pretty choppy waters, I would say. It navigates it deftly in a magic ship that can fly through the air thanks to Christmas magic. Hey, can I go first? My thing's going to be small and I was worried about that at first. But now that we've gone for 12 minutes talking about I believe in Santa Claus, I'm hoping I can pad it out a little bit. Is that okay? Yeah.

I don't think we know who was supposed to go first. No, it's a new year, new you, right? New year, new me. We went on our first sort of family road trip since Gus was born. Yeah, we drove to Huntington, West Virginia. It was our first time back in your hometown for Christmas since 2019. Yes. It was a big deal.

We had to adjust our timetable a little bit because there was this big winter storm that was supposed to hit the entire east coast of the country. Yeah, as many of you, I'm sure, know. Yeah, of course. listening to this uh and so we were gonna leave friday but then we're like ah we gotta go day early we went on thursday still hit like a bonkers snowstorm going through the the the allegheny region uh but you know the boys did great they were amazing we did we made it the seven hour drive in like two chunks, which is fucking wild considering one of our kids is, you know, 21 months old. Yeah. Henry has a very strong bladder for a young child.

And Gus still. He's in a diaper still, which is great. And still enamored with Blippi. Loves that fool. Makes feelings myself, but he got us through this ride and I do appreciate that. I want to talk about road snacks. And I thought we had talked about road snacks before, but I think it's just because

like episode 60 something, you talked about Chex Mix, which is like the proto road snack. Yes, yes. It's not really anything I consume unless I am on a road or a sky or at my brother's house. This is really a fun thing to discover with a romantic partner.

Yes. Because I feel like everybody has like a go-to selection. Yes. And it's like, I don't know, there's always some surprises in there, I think. I think so too. If I were to try to classify this, I would say that road snacks are packaged delights on sale at a gas station. Yes, yes.

That you normally don't, you wouldn't go to a gas station to, you know, go grocery shopping. At least I would not. I can't speak for everyone. There's certainly some people for whom a convenience store is just that. And perhaps the only store available to them. Available to them. And so you see these little bags of yum yums and you're like, well, I don't usually dip into that. And perhaps the only store available to them. And perhaps the only store available to them. And so you see these little bags of yum-yums and you're like, well, I don't usually dip into that. What better time than now?

I'm just going to be driving. What other activity can I do while driving that's not, I know, chewing and swallowing and tasting? That's sort of what I'm talking about. Because, you know, you can make a ham sandwich at home, bring it on the road with you. Is that a road snack? I don't think so. Yeah. By the legal definition, maybe.

No, it's got to be something that you can return to over and over again. Yes. And kind of mindlessly eat. Or I also like to take a random shot in the dark sometimes. You know, I'll see some, I'll see some, you know, wasabi blue diamond almonds. And I'll be like, yeah, let's try those. And I'll try them. I'll be like, I do not like that.

But you've got to try it. You know what I mean? Obviously there's like the mini hostess cakes of various stripes. Are you going to talk about your road snacks? Yeah, I'm sort of touching on them, right? Like about your road snacks yeah i'm sort of touching on them right like combos and bugles for me are sort of yeah you pulled some bugles into our car and i was like this is strange to me but then i really enjoyed them well gusty also has dietary

restrictions so that kind of like we're yeah he's probably grown out of it but we're being extra cautious and bugles are a pretty safe food, surprisingly. Unless you fill them up with Easy Cheese, which I have talked about on this show before. It's a delightful treat, but does also negate the kind of dietary offset that we were looking for in this particular drive. Obviously, you know, your Ritz Bits, Corn Nuts. I have a particular fondness for Lance brand sandwich crackers. Lance.

Oh, the little square ones? Yeah, they can be round sometimes, but it's a package of six sandwich crackers. Yeah, I noticed you bought those and nobody ate them. I ate them. Oh, did you? I don't recall you eating them. Sure, they're great. Six sandwich crackers is like the perfect for me that's now we're getting into like

mre tactical territory of it's an hour and a half until lunchtime i'm very hungry yeah if i have some of these cream cheese and chives uh lance brand sandwich crackers some of these uh toasted cheese and peanut butter sandwich crackers i'll be good to go that'll bridge the gap for me that's strategic and delicious did we talk about plain snacks i just i feel like this is very familiar maybe it's because of the chex mix maybe it's good i may have talked about mike and ike's as as plain snacks yeah um anyway continue i'm sorry i could talk about this all day it does bring up a sadness in my heart for buckies yeah oh my gosh i think about buckies all the time and i get so jealous you know i was driving around dc uh right before christmas and

somebody had a giant inflatable bucky in front of their house. I love that. And I had the strong urge to pull over and knock on their door. And just ask them if they have. Tell me, tell me how you got this. Tell me your connection to this animal. I want to, I want to be, know you and be you.

Again, we've talked about Bucky's on the show before. Yeah. I think you did dedicate an entire segment to Bucky's. Yeah. Incredible selection of road snacks. Yeah. Unparalleled selection of road snacks.

Yeah. Like their own branded. Yeah. Unparalleled selection of road snacks. Yeah, like their own branded, yeah. What is it? What is the little white log? There's like, it's like called like- Oh, it's like Divinity. Divinity log. Yeah, you can get that in other places too, actually.

Oh, you can? Okay, interesting. Anyway, I am sad that we do not live near Buc-ee's. That was, we didn't do much road tripping in Texas because there weren't a ton of places for us to road trip to. And we had very young kids. But man, I would always, always delight in that. They did just open one, I think like outside of like Marietta, Georgia. I think there might be one near Nashville too. So it's spreading, right? Maybe one day,

the influence will reach us. Can I ask you road snacks as a kid? Are they similar to you now? Yeah, that's what I wanted to talk about. It's like I don't know what it is that I find so exciting about eating these foods I wouldn't normally eat while driving. But I do think it stems back to the fact that we went on a lot of road trips as a kid that were pretty long looking back on them now, like to the from Huntington, West Virginia to the Carolinas or to Florida. That's like a two day trip. Wow. And play Game Boy and, you know, eat, you know, Melba toast or whatever sort of like wild shit we just grabbed from the gas station.

My mom packed a lot of, you know, some Snyder's chips in little sandwich bags. We didn't often sort of go nuts for that. I remember I would always get Yoo-Hoo. That was like a road drink for me because it's like not something we ever had around the house. Yeah. So I do remember buying a lot of Yoohoos on the road and pizzeria combos. Do you think it's interesting? I mean, I guess it's the volume you're eating. I feel like most of these that we're talking about are salty. Yes. Which is also my preference. And I think it's just because I know I'm going to eat a lot of it and it's more difficult

to eat a lot of sweet things. Kind of, I guess. I mean, you know me, I could wreck a whole bag of Sour Patch Kids. Yeah, but are you going to eat that on the road all at once? When I'm seven. Probably not when I'm

35. How old am I? 35? am i 35 or 36 you're gonna be 36 in april okay right yeah that sounds right to me um um i love road snacks i don't have much else to say about it it's it's exciting to have a category of food can i tell you something too that i've been thinking a lot about because i really do love checks mix And I've been thinking about the different things that I like about it. And I think one of the things I like about it is that it's loud to eat. Sure. Like, especially when you're on a plane. Like, when you are able to just recognize, like, I'm not going to have a chit chat.

No. You know? Like, I'm here to just eat and zone out. And this loud food makes that easier. And that's why having a bag of just Melba toast was kind of great for that. Cause it's like, guys, I'm trying to fill out my Pokedex today on this drive.

I have 10 hours to do so. So you can't talk to me right now. You can't talk to each other really. The Melba toast is so loud. So, so, so loud. That's it. Can I steal you away? Yes.

So, so, so loud. That's it. Can I steal you away? Yes. My fellow graduates, for 500 episodes, my podcast, The JV Club with Janet Varney, has gathered story after story of all the scandalous things we've done throughout our childhoods. Wait, what's happening? Stories like how Jameela Jamil survived a horrific house party and she was on crutches. This is great. Or how Hal Lublin learned a Shakespearean monologue in his pajamas.

This is not the speech we approve. Without your love and life tragedies, there would be no podcast. In fact, I have an exclusive look at how Maggie Lawson's mom confronted her after a sneaky basement meetup with her crush. Spill the tea, JV. Security! Listen to the JV Club with Janet Varney Thursdays on Maximum Fun! Class of...

Forever! Hey, I'm Ben. And I'm Adam. We host a show called Greatest Trek on Maximum Fun that covers all the new Star Trek shows. Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, Picard, Prodigy, Discovery, and any other new Star Trek show Paramount throws at us. Come find out why we're the most important Star Trek podcast on the internet with our funny, informative recaps of all the new Star Trek shows that Paramount keeps churning out.

Subscribe to Greatest Trek. It's a new Star Trek podcast from the makers of The Greatest Generation. Okay. Okay. Are you ready? Yes. My thing this week. Yes.

Stuffies. Stuffies. Yeah. Rachel. Yeah. Yeah. week yes stuffies stuffies rachel yeah yeah i um i was thinking about this largely because our our son henry it was interesting there was a period of time when he moved away from the stuffy and he got very into the action figure yes he went through like a superhero phase and he wanted like all of

the like you know whatever 12 inch like iron Man, Batman, Superman, all those guys. Holy shit. I lifted up my wheel well the other day, by the way, in the back of the of our car. Oh, yeah. Because I was like trying to figure out if we could hide some presents in there for the drive. I opened it up and the fucking extreme Batbot was in there like he was. Oh, my God. This is a this is a three foot tall i forgot about him

robot that we put in there i guess for the move and yeah i forgot about for we just get rid of him i kind of i don't know henry hasn't noticed he hasn't and he doesn't really get into batman anymore he doesn't i would feel guilty i feel like he would be okay with us moving on from that. Yeah. Yeah, so all of that to say he's kind of made a return to the stuffy. Sure. And while this does take up a lot of space, and I don't love that. Yes.

I get it, man. I think this is a particular, this is like a chicken and egg thing of like, is it that he's into stuffies or is it that he is very into youtuber merch and they make a lot of fucking stuffies don't they yeah that actually may be true although for christmas he did ask for a giant bear he did ask for a big big teddy bear we got him a pretty big size teddy bear nothing nothing outrageous we had a. About how big is a big teddy bear? Yeah. We were doing all of our holiday shopping kind of in one go. And we were looking at these bears. And we were trying to figure out how we were going to transport these bears.

And I said, you know, Griffin, I think Henry would think a medium-sized bear was large. You were right. You were right. Because they're like these six-foot bears. And I was like, we probably don't need to go that big. No. And also I've seen too many videos of those like people like getting inside of those and jumping up and down and dancing. Oh no, no.

That's too scary. Your YouTube is very different than mine. That's putting it lightly, babe. Do you think so? Do you think maybe there might be some fundamental differences in our YouTube histories? Probably a little bit. So anyway, so I started thinking about the stuffy. Right. Because I recognize there's probably a time when stuffies didn't exist, which seems crazy to me.

Is this a regional sort of difference? We say stuffies. I feel like I picked that up from Henry. Here's the thing. I wanted to say stuffed animal, but then I wanted to make sure people didn't realize I was, or didn't think I was talking about taxidermy okay i think that most people would not assume that i would typically say stuffed animal okay even though even though a lot of them are not are not animals henry's very

big into uh some some rainbow friends roblox game rainbow friends you got some stuffies and alphabet lore which freaking lanky box has done about a thousand trillion videos on. We really only know about these in the context of Lanky Box. So I actually don't know if this is a phenomenon outside of. Also got those Lanky Box X SpongeBob exclusive. Yeah, which he has not invested in as much as I think I'd like him to. Oh, no. Really?

You think so? Yeah, he plays with that shit all the time. Okay, good. Because that was an investment for us. Yes, it sure was. So the stuffed toy. The first stuffed toy was a felt elephant originally sold as a pin cushion created by the German Steiff Company in 1880. This seems impossible to know for sure. The first person that like made a thing that looked like an animal and then put soft stuff in it. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, and I like that it was a pin cushion because I could see that. You know how like kids develop an attachment to things that are kind of surprising? Like, oh, great. This cardboard box is now like the thing that we can't get rid of. Like, I like that it was a pin cushion. But you're right. thing that we can't get rid of. Like, I like that it was a pin cushion. But you're right. Like,

I'm sure dolls and toys have been adapted in a kind of stuffed way for a long time. My mom had a pin cushion that was just a big, looked like a big tomato. Yeah, of course. Everybody had those. And I remember playing with it, which is bonkers. What would you play? I just sort of like pick it up and bounce it up and down and take pins out of it and put pins back in it in different ways trying to make different designs with the pins going around that's wild those are sharp yeah yeah yeah anyway youngest child youngest child that got away with murder you know uh this knife company by the way is still in existence they still sell bears um and they they sell like like theme bears too you can get like a like a king george bear right

now great um but do you know speaking of bears do you know like about the teddy bear yeah and like the connection to theodore roosevelt the thing i didn't realize is the like real origin of that so there was a headline in 1902 in the washington post that said president called after the beast had been lassoed but he refused to make an unsportsmanlike shot so it wasn't it was less that he didn't want to end the life of this little bear and more that it wasn't sporting that someone had trapped the bear and then wanted him to gangland execute him. That's,

that seems less sort of. There was a 235 pound black bear that had been tied to a tree. And apparently the president was, uh, said, quote, I've hunted game all over America and I'm proud to be a hunter, pound black bear that had been tied to a tree and apparently the president was uh said quote i've hunted game all over america and i'm proud to be a hunter but i couldn't be proud of myself if i shot an old tired worn out bear that was tied to a tree yeah dog this all of a sudden seems less like a sweet like he was aiming down the sides of his rifle at it just a young little baby bear and was like what am i doing and more like the optics of

me shooting this old bound bear are pretty bad actually here's the thing that that is interesting so that the next step was a cartoonist for the washington star picked up this story and used it as a metaphor for Roosevelt's indecision over a Mississippi boundary dispute. It's what? This political cartoonist was like, man, he can't, you know, can't commit to killing this bear. Can't commit to a decision on Mississippi. God almighty. And so what happened next? And so what happened next, a Brooklyn candy store owner apparently called for permission, specifically wrote Roosevelt to say, can I make a small bear cub and call it Teddy's Bear?

And Roosevelt said, sure. That's cool that people had that level of access to the American president. That's really cool to me. Can you imagine writing that letter today? Hey, Joe, I've got this new cereal I've been working on, but think about calling them biden flakes can you give me a thumbs up or thumbs down if i don't hear i'll assume thumbs up i was gonna sample your last state of the union for this lo-fi album i've been working on is that cool with you i'll wait to hear back so yeah so then it just like blew up by 1908 the bear had become such a popular toy that a michigan minister warned that replacing dolls with toy bears would destroy the maternal instincts

and little girls awesome uh at what point will religious leaders figure out to just sort of like take a flyer on toys? Right? You don't need to. This is one that you guys have never, ever. In the case of Pikachu v. Organized Religion, I do think Pikachu did come out on top of that one. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know a lot about organized religion, but these religious leaders,

do they get like a folder full of threats every day and they feel the need to comment on them? Well, you want to know my theory? Okay, go ahead. I think the church was bought by big Digimon. And so when they got out there and they were like, Pokemon, this is devil

worship it's because they were getting that sweet digimon money i got like a digimon lobbyist that was like hey guys very let's get together canny digimon lobbyist i'm just saying oh was that it that's it i didn't know how deep this lore was going to go. I'm just saying. I definitely sat through at least one sermon about Pokemon. Wow. Not about Pokemon, but glanced at, took some shots across the bow of Pokemon. Do you remember after that sermon what happened with your family? Because I feel like everyone would look at you like, well, Griffin. No, I think that my family, whenever things would sort of go off the rails like that,

we would debrief in a very like, was he serious up there? Like, anyway, that's we can't start unpacking that particular can of worms. I will just say that I wanted to make sure, too, we talk about just kind of the like the comfort that comes from the Steph toy. Sure. At first, it didn't seem like Henry was going to pick a favorite. But then one emerged. Yeah.

And he has this little dog we got from Ikea that he sleeps with every night and has carried across the country and is, is, is his go-to. Yeah. Um, and usually also will have a side, a side piece that rotates in and out, which I love. Yeah. Yeah. You get to see this, I think up close, maybe a little more than I do. Yeah. Um, but there's just been a lot of research done that shows the value of stuffed animals in, There's just been a lot of research done that shows the value of stuffed animals in the lives of children and adults. It's just kind of helping them, you know, kind of comfort themselves. Also, there's like behavioral value in kids of kind of learning to rely on something outside of the parent. Oh, that's great. Which I didn't really think of.

Yeah. Of just kind of, you know, in order to soothe and comfort, you know, let's find another item that we can get that from that is not a parent. Yeah. Of just kind of, you know, in order to soothe and comfort, you know, let's find another item that we can get that from that is not a parent. Yeah. I never really had a go-to. I don't know if you did. Hell yeah. Yeah. I had two teddy bears, one of which was like big and I had, I think like from birth.

Yeah. Named Humphrey uh and he was he was he was pretty I mean he was pretty good-sized bear he had a hard plastic nose and he had like a winter cap that said Humphrey on it oh that's great and then I rocked with him for a long time and then I had a much smaller almost clone of Humphrey uh that I had when I was like in elementary school who I called Mog, which was a Final Fantasy reference. I didn't rock with them, I think, past elementary school. Yeah, that's what I'm speaking of is that I had a variety of stuffed animals.

I always really liked them. It was very exciting to me to receive one. But to bring something into my bed i mean you're you're the only thing that's stuck around really i had i had some stuffed toys i remember i had like a uh some stuffed like pokemon but that wasn't like like sleeping with them for comfort it It was like I did honestly what Henry does with his stuffed toys, which is just like play with them like toys. Yeah. But yeah, I mean Humphrey and Mog were sort of my two go-tos.

Rest in peace. I have no idea. No idea where they ended up. Now I'm sad. I'm sorry. It's okay. That's stuffed animals. I imagine we have a lot of

listeners who are still carrying around a stuffed animal from their from their childhood we have a lot of listeners who probably sleep with stuffed animals too yeah i think it's i think it's sweet i like i admire that like commitment the loyalty uh and also the ability to hold on to something for that long dead ass i sleep with a body pillow every night because I need to have something propped up between my elbows and knees and it's literally four appendages away from being a stuffed animal.

It's like I sleep with a stuffed featureless banana man. Yeah, I mean, you put a face on that and it's a different story. Put a face on that. Put a, you know, some sort of video game character on there. You don't have to do this, Griffin. you don't have to turn yourself into a one-dimensional person i know that it doesn't have to be a video game character okay yeah maybe it's maybe it's benoit blanc maybe it is a body

that would be fucking awesome uh so you know do your do your fucking thing who cares man who cares go for it do your thing this 2023 2023 do your thing thanks to bowen and augustus for the use of our theme song money won't pay you can find a link to that in the episode description thank you to uh maximum fun i guess for having us on not i guess definitely thank you maximum fun for having us on the network go to maximum fun.org check out all the great shows that are there uh we listened to some stop podcasting yourself yeah we did long drive that was a lot of fun yeah uh and we got merch over at mackroymerch.com i don't have a list of it pulled up or anything like that but uh thank you to everybody that uh donated and received that wonderful special episode that we created to benefit Austin Batcave.

I checked in with Amanda this morning. We raised about $1,500 for Austin Batcave. That's fucking rad. Which is great because the suggested donation is a dollar. So that says a lot to me. That's huge. Thank you. And everybody who came out to watch Candle Nights.

We raised a lot of money for Harmony House, and that was so dope also. Yeah. That's it, though. We're going to be back next week with more great content. Laughs. Thrills. Oh, thrills. Surprises.

Okay. Scares. Scary. We haven't done scary yet. No, we haven't. I wouldn't know. I don't even want to advertise that we would do that.'t. I wouldn't know how to do that. It probably will be sort of straight over the page.

But keep it real and keep it tight. Okay. Bye. Hey! Hey! Hey!