Wonderful! - Wonderful! Ep. 19: The French Fry Kid

Episode Date: January 24, 2018

Griffin's favorite salty foodstuff! Rachel's favorite book of correspondence! Griffin's favorite childhood band! Rachel's favorite episode of a long-running animated series! Music: "Money Won't Pay" by bo en and Augustus - https://open.spotify.com/album/7n6zRzTrGPIHt0kRvmWoya Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/1218011301/playlist/3UDSiHoRXTSqhPkHQ6DmIX?si=83hOHb9kQIGj9VdAVCiolQ 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. Feeling pretty stinkin' good about this one. Feeling pretty stinkin' good about this one. Feeling pretty stinking good. How about this episode of the podcast? You can't see, but I'm smiling. I can't see it through your pop filter, but I think, I think.

Am I smizing? I think you're smizing. I can see those eyes. And you're smizing in a way that makes me think you think it's going to stink good this episode. Folks, we're back at it. We're back on our freaking grind. We're out here doing our damn thing. And our son is better and I'm better.

Well, he has pink eye. My eyes are not pink. But anyway, that's a quick check in. That's why people listen, right? They just want to hear what ailments we have. This show is the news for our health. But sometimes we also talk about things that we're into. And I've got two freaking just stinking good ones.

And I'm sorry for continuing to use this word, because I think it's kind of a foul word, because it evokes nasty stuff. But I'm just very excited. We'll get started then. You want me to start? Yes. Well, okay. Can I hit you with my first thing?

Oh, you're so sassy and flirty right now. Feeling good as heck. Yeah. You know, my body's healthy. My bones are clear. I'm as heck. Yeah. You know, I'm not my body's healthy. My bones are, you know, clear. I'm feeling awesome. Okay. Feeling freaking good. Okay. Let's go. So, uh,

my first thing then. Oh, man. Here it comes. Okay. French fries. Y'all had to know this one was coming down the pipe because you know me what do they call me on the internet the french fry king or the french fry kid no i wish they would get together the internet that's the problem it's all of them okay is that it's really hard to get a nickname going on the internet because a lot of people take it and they take it in their own direction now we're talking about two sects and this is really how most war got started if you really go back to like the beginnings of things like the beginning of time

it's like i want to call this one this thing and somebody's like well i like this name and now today echoes echoes of the past scars so wait just to circle back so you're saying that the internet is divided on the french fry king or the french fry king no no it's me holy shit okay it's absolutely me but i'm also the french fry kid in a lot of people's eyes oh and these king people they see that as like diminutive they think they're infantilizing me and i get that but the kid people are like no it's a term endearment and now they're just pissed off at the king when did this start how old were you in 1994 okay yeah so i was seven years old and i ate all the french fries and honey kid would have been appropriate i'd say at that point yes but i was also sort of the chosen

one i mentioned that i ate all the french fries in Huntington. And that's not me being. I don't think you could have done that, babe. Well, it was sort of a Grinch-like. I've been to Huntington. There are a lot of French fries. Yeah, I'm saying it was Grinch-like. I had a plan like he had a plan. And I had a helper dog who went around and sniffed out the fries to help me find the one.

He was sort of on the ones in the houses because i didn't know who had those bags of crisps or idas oh my god i used to love those oh well let's get into french fries then there are very few times where i don't want to be eating french fries are you gonna give me the history of french fries no because that's boring i'm just gonna talk about why i like french fries good good good um these little guys are salty as heck and i am all over that um when our restaurant lets you substitute sides with your main course and french fries is the options i go i go how funny is that when they're like do you want a salad or french fries like it's like come on come on you know me let's be bad you get the kid here this is very basic everything i'm saying and i get that but i this episode it's

like i want to get in on tapping in on that primordial stuff because we've been doing the surface level stuff for a while that's good and that stuff's still very exciting but french fries these are in my bones um when i go to restaurants and i see like that they have like staple foods i always want to order those just to see what they can do with it. You know what I mean? What do you mean? When you say staple foods, what do you mean? The first time I went to Lucy's Fried Chicken, I was like, I will just eat the fried chicken because I need a baseline level. And to me, French fries are kind of that. Or if I go to a place and

I'm like, oh, and we have French fries, it's like, I'll be the judge of if you have French fries. Because guess what? You might have fucking steak fries and those are the ultimate sin not true i know you don't know a whole lot about the bible but in the cardinal sin is in reference to steak fries if you're a man that likes fries wouldn't you want more surface area of fries because that is what a steak fry is okay well then let's just make one the size of a city bus and then it'll definitely get cooked all the way through and won't be all weird and starchy in the middle. That's what I'm saying. You can't

it's not, it's a delicate food. What do you feel about like a waffle fry? Waffle fry can be fun. Because a waffle fry you can sort of treat like a little pizza and you can get a lot of ketchup in there. Which, by the way, I have here. I have a lot of notes on this. I have written here hello ketchup this is french fries best

friend so that's the thing that i wanted to share with everyone about ketchup good also another note that i have here sweet potato fries well all right let's not go wild though green beans aren't and never will be fries so cut that out you do a lot of writing for this show, I'm noticing. I wrote down, gotta have these dudes with a burger. Which I think I meant that backwards. If I'm eating a burger, I have to have these dudes. And then I also have written here, what's the best French fries? That's not so much a note.

I'm kind of on a Christmas Prince level of sort of journalistic integrity at this point. Ten exclamation point question marks. Taco Bell's going to start doing French fries. I don't know how I feel about that, but I still love fries. It's another note that I have written down. Okay. It's just about re-steak fries. It disappoints me deeply to learn that you're a fan.

I like a steak fry. I like a crinkle fry. There actually isn't a fry that I say no to. So in that way, I would say that I am the French fry kid. No, because you can't eat anything and then say, that's a French fry. And now I'm the French fry kid. There is no variety of French fry that I won't enjoy, which I think would make me more of an enthusiast than you. I'm saying we need to tighten up the definite i'm like about

to start crying by the way i don't know if you can see that in my eyes i need you to give me a second actually because it actually hurts me yeah i didn't think i always knew that the knife would get in my back about my french fry title and i knew somebody was going to come i didn't think it would come into my front while i was recording a podcast with my wife. Yeah, I was just saying I'm facing you, so it'd be really tricky. You're facing me and you bury the knife right in my guts. Mm-hmm. I think... You took my Burger King crowd right off my head. I think 2018.

Yes. I think there is room for a lady French fry kid. That's just what I'm saying. No, absolutely. If, you know, she loves French fries more than me. I'm all for it. Listen. Oh, ooh, I've got another argument. Okay. Griffin knows this about me for a long time. I didn't like ketchup. Yeah, and this is why I'm curious

why you want even a title because you might hate it. Here's the thing. It was sweet and sugary and I wasn't prepared for that with my savory fry. So I would eat the fry au natural, which I think suggests a level of enjoyment that perhaps you do not possess.

Interesting argument. This is like that episode of Pete and Pete where the inspector came around, the clothes inspector came around and challenged little Pete to a ribs eating competition. But at the end, he did eat them better. But you're supposed to get messy. And that's what you fail to realize. These guys need ketchup. It's not a purity thing.

There's no pride here. These guys need ketchup and they love it. They love to be dipped in ketchup. Let's talk about the best fries. Because I think a lot of fancy restaurants, they get it wrong. A lot of places putting a lot of stuff on fries these days you're working so hard right now poutine you're all right poutine you can stay everything else i don't know man it's just like they're not nachos you know nachos are kind of their own thing so you can't you know if you're putting

like shredded chicken and pico de gallo on your french fries it's like 2018 huh i really like this character you're doing thank you i'm working really hard on them the best french fry i do want to say like there's a part of my heart a dark dark part of my heart that will always covet mcdonald's fries and i know that it's shameful it's shameful because they make every bone in my body hurt like hell when i eat them because they're so salty that like my body sort of ejects all fluid from it but the best french fry there is a defunct fast food chain called gd ritzies and at one point they had 120 locations across this great nation of ours sort of styled after the screaming 50s. Yeah, this was not a thing where I lived.

No, because in, they were modeled after the 50s. They had hot dogs, burgers, fries, milkshakes, pretty much it. And so in the 80s or 90s, they did shut down, save for three bastions of glory. And one of them is in Huntington, West Virginia. Anyway, they sell shoestring fries, like little thin guys guys and they serve them in a big styrofoam cup. You can get a cup of dip and cheese to go with it. And then what I do, my jam, is I mix some ketchup

into that dip and cheese. Oh my god. And you mix that up and you go with the shoestring fries. I don't need the hatred right now. Oh, what's wrong, french fry kid? I thought you loved all french fries. I don't like to sully them with all your accoutrement. And this is the argument now. This is where the battle lines have been drawn.

You know what I like? What do you like? I like a Shake Shack fry. Shake Shack fry is very good. Very good. All right. We can't keep going with this. It's tearing our family literally apart.

No, it's true. Usually on Wonderful, I don't say, I understand that you like it, but I'm better at liking at liking it yeah you don't try to dethrone me well i'll try to do that with your next thing and then you tell me how it feels griffin i'm gonna have to ask you to keep it down this is gonna be difficult for you okay uh it is is the book Letters to a Young Poet. Love it. By Rilke. Yeah, this is great. Yeah.

I loved this. I think actually, when did you discover this? Like about what year? Oh, gosh. What did you say you first found that? 2006. Oh, I thought we discovered it the same year because I discovered it in 2005 and I loved it a lot. Yeah.

Do you want to tell me a little bit about uh rainer maria rilke uh well first off i can obviously say the name a lot more confidently um i let's see they're very like they country of origin let's just start there well i like to go more specific with my friends because we are uh prefers like a red wine uh like a um like chardonnay and uh let's see they liked the first avengers movie okay but not the second one so much it got a little convoluted and i agree with them a little bit on that one. Alright, Griffin, this is very cute, but seriously. Um, yeah. I do love it, but I don't know anything. Uh, German

man. Died in 1926. Okay, so he did misadventure. He misadventured by a little bit. A little bit. Alright. 51 when he died.

And I am actually, I'm not an expert on his poetry by any means, but that's kind of one of the things he's most known for. Letters to a Young Poet is actually not anything he published. It was published after his death by the correspondent of the letters. So these are actual, this is not just a cute name. These are literal letters to a young poet. Yeah, no, it's 10 letters. So these are actual, this is not just a cute name. These are literal letters to a young poet. Yeah, no, it's 10 letters.

Um, this guy, uh, Franz Kapus, so 19 year old cadet and, uh, Rilke was the son of an army officer and had studied at the academy's lower school that this student was at and they corresponded.

Uh, and the book is 10 letters between them um those must be some long freaking letters man they are pretty long i guess this is how they had to do it back in the day when letters would take like a hundred days to get anywhere it was like go ahead and send me like 30 days worth of messages like man can you even imagine? When you would never accidentally send a letter the way you used to accidentally send an email, you know, before you finished writing it. Yeah. It's just like.

It's like real thoughtful. Yeah. Or like you'd send like a flirty one accidentally to like your dad. No, that wouldn't happen. No, it wouldn't. Because it's letters. Letters. Yeah.

But you know, somebody accidentally, this happened once where somebody was like, my mind bottom is quite soft. Sorry, so sloppy. Lick, lick, mail. Oh, no. I put my dad's address. How could I do this? How did I get through the entire address? I hope this doesn't get published in a book.

This doesn't get published in a book. So the 19-year-old was trying to decide if he should pursue a literary career or continue with the military. Can I guess what the advice was? Well, so the actual excerpts I pulled are not like, and here's what you should do. And then he did like a little mash square. Yeah. And he like did the circles and then crossed out military officer and circled literary career. Yeah. No, the quotes I have, I actually found really motivating as a young artistic person, just generally.

And so I thought I would share a little bit. Yeah, please do. So give me some context. Is this something that is taught widely in literary arts? No. No, I don't think so. If I remember, I read it actually outside of school. Oh.

I had heard of it before, and it's one of those things that I used to see, and I'd be like, like oh i'm a young poet maybe yeah for sure and then make that you know emails to a young video game journalist well you know what made me think of it is last week your book the the several short sentences on writing yeah and we got a bunch of tweets from people saying they were checking it out which is cool it's a really cool book well this is this is something that was kind of motivating to me, you know, when I was thinking about writing. Yeah. Give me those excerpts.

Okay. So this is Rilke writing to the 19-year-old cadet. He says, you are so young, so before all beginning, and I want to beg you as much as I can, dear sir, to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign language. Do not now seek the answers which cannot be given to you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything, live the questions now. is to live everything live the questions now perhaps you will then gradually without noticing it live along some distant day into the answer there's something almost like like biblical text

about that like there's there's something almost like proverbs yeah his voice is very wise um no shit very measured and i i really that phrase, that live the questions now, kind of became a mantra for me for a little while. Because uncertainty is something that's really difficult for me. And when I'm in a time period in my life where I don't know how long the phase I'm in is going to last, it drives me crazy. And so this idea of just kind of understanding that you are having questions, and that is very much part of you developing into the person you're going to become. And to just kind of treat those questions, like he said, like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign language. I like a very foreign language.

Yeah, I know. Because it accepts the fact that there are some languages that are, like, a little bit harder to parse than others. Yeah, but the- I could not read an Icelandic book. Like, I could take a run at, like, a Spanish language book, and I would get, like, every third word, despite the fact that I took six years of Spanish in high school and college. But a book in Icelandic, I would just- I think I'd be lost.

Yeah, the uncertainty is, it can also be viewed as like mystery yeah I love this I do not know how I have not why are there not t-shirts with live the questions now like on it I'm serious like this seems so like marketable is kind of crass but like

the book is not especially accessible because it's translated one from German and it's the full text of the letter. And you really have to kind of dig to get those little morsels. So here's one more. Again, this is Rilke to the young man. Love your solitude and bear with sweet sounding lamentation,

the suffering that causes you for those who are near you, you are far, you say, and that shows that it's beginning to grow wide about you. And when what are near you, you are far, you say, and that shows it is beginning to grow wide about you. And when what is near you is far, then your distance is already among the stars and very large. Rejoice in your growth, in which you naturally can take no one with you, and be kind to those who remain behind. So this isn't- That one's a little rough, actually.

It's a little difficult to parse, but here's how I interpret it. It's kind of like when you're like a teenager and you have all of your high school friends and you go away to college and you come back and you can't exactly relate to them. And it's like a very kind of lonely feeling. And it's because you've kind of grown and become this different person. uh it suggests just a lot of development on your part which isn't a bad thing no but celebrating that you've gone well beyond them i think is kind of a weird well no see i don't think i don't think that's what he's saying he's saying that you know it is beginning to grow wide about you like Like your world is expanding and that's why things feel different and they feel for example, far from where you are. And this idea that you can naturally take no one with you,

but be kind to those who remain behind. It's just kind of like supporting your own feeling of growth and understanding that it's not a bad thing and it's not you know that the people that aren't with you now are necessarily different or less than it's just part of kind of becoming this person that you're going to become that is a really bitter pill to to swallow the idea of like um isolation through evolution or evolution again like i don't i i worry about sounding uh maybe maybe i'm particularly sensitive about this because i have kind of tried to live my entire post-collegiate life trying to avoid the narrative of like well i got the fuck out of my small town and left my humble trappings behind because i genuinely love huntington and think it is an amazing place to

to have grown up and lived and i don't i genuinely don't think of it that way in my mind but like the idea of it is kind of unrecognizable and um like i feel like a completely different person when i go back there now than i did when i was growing up there is i guess understandable but i'm, I'm very, I'm like, super sensitive about that. Well, that's because of all the like, experiences you've had that have made you like a more confident, knowledgeable person, which is a good thing. Yeah. You know, like, if you came back having not changed at all, years and years later, there'd be a suggestion that you aren't really doing anything to kind of expand your, your world. I guess it's a question of like, I don't think I'm,

it's a question of like, I don't think you should think you're better than, and I think that's the, what the last line in that quote is saying, like, you're not, you don't think you're better than them. You're just, your world has expanded in a, in a way. No. And I think that's important. Like, I think that's kind of the saving grace of that statement. I think there's this tendency when you leave your, your friends or your community behind to feel like, oh, well,

I must be better. And, and Rilke saying like, no, you're just kind of on your own journey and people can't come with you on that. Cause it's your thing. So,

yeah. So those are just two little excerpts that I really liked. That's lovely. I found it really, like in my 20s, like a really kind of useful book because there was a lot that was just kind of like, hey, this is kind of a scary, tumultuous time. Yeah. It's also really exciting. And to just kind of be patient with yourself and the experience. So I wanted to share that i can't

i can't believe you let me talk about french fry i can't believe you let me talk about hey you're on your own french fry journey you know and apparently not because apparently your fucking rocket ship long ago passed mine made a big fart noise as it passed by me, bumped into me, I went in a big black hole and died. That's a good point. I need to be kind to you on your fry journey, although it is... You're way, way more advanced. You're on some new french fry shit. Although it is inferior to my own.

Can I steal you away? Can you do that quieter please is it really popping there that's the thing that we do sometimes in the middle of the show listen this is like our first night recording this while henry is asleep in the next room while show. Listen, this is like our first night recording this while Henry is asleep in the next room while he's somewhat healthy and we are just really flying under the radar, folks.

We're secretly terrified. This next episode, wow, that's not how any of this works. Our first sponsor this week is Blue Apron. We love Blue Apron. What they do is they deliver fresh pre-portioned

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Wonderful listeners might enjoy... Oh, can we do Vacationland? We should. I read Vacationland last year. It's John Hodgman's newest book. And I'm reading it right now. And Rachel's reading it right now. And it's a lovely...

It is a lovely book. It is very funny in John Hodgman fashion. But it also deals with some subjects about like grown up and sort of familial tragedy and things like that, that really, really resonated with me. It's a really beautiful book that you can listen to John Hodgman read to you if you get the audio book. And Audible is offering our listeners a free 30-day trial membership. You can get a free audiobook with a 30-day trial by signing up. Go to audible.com slash wonderful or text wonderful to 500-500 to get started. Okay, this message is for hips.

It is from The Walrus. Excellent. You ready? I think I've been ready my entire life for whatever this message is going to be. Dear hips, we live in the same city now, and that's the most wonderful thing I can think of.

Thank you for the hair-petting lessons, the listening ears, all the fandoms we've shared, and the introduction to the McElroys. Pickles, and I love you very much, and I can't wait until the next time we go Pokemon hunting together. Love, the walrus. Hell yeah.

Did you notice how I said Pokemon? Yeah, as opposed to what? Instead of like... Pokemon? Pokemon. Quit trying to play it coy like you haven't caught them all, babe. Rachel is at the store every day buying packs of Pokemon trading card game cards. She is.

We didn't do our mortgage this week because of all the Pokemon cards you bought. We didn't do our mortgage this week. Yeah, we didn't do it. I think it happens. Yeah. Every week you do the mortgage. You sit down and you sit at the desk and you write down a number and you say, that's the mortgage. Do we have another Jumbotron?

We do. This message is. You poke freak. This message is- You poke freak. This message is for John. It is from April. Happy 30th. I'm so sorry that for the first couple months of our friendship, I couldn't remember your name and kept calling you Jamiroquai. I'm so glad you are able to look past that and still be my friend.

Even though we are separated by distance, you are still one of my nearest and dearest. Miss you so much. Long distance hugs. Love, April. I don't know that I would have the wherewithal to stick with someone who calls me Jamiroquai quite as often as that. Well, you know, if you got a velvety floppy hat. Were you wearing a big velvety floppy? You probably were.

This was all the rage, uh, you know, last year they made a big comeback. They're playing, uh, Coachella. I think that's not a joke.

Yeah, no, that's real. It's just a wonderful truth. That's my second thing this week. Jameer Kwai is doing Coachella. Hang in there. How cool would that be?

How fucking cool. Anyway, that's the end of the ad. Hey everyone, Freddie Wong, Matt Arnold and Will Campos here to tell you about Story Break, a Writer's Room podcast where every week we, the Hollywood geniuses behind Video Game High School, have one hour to turn a humble idea into an awesome

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You're crazy. They'd die in the second act. Oh, come on. And join us as we make fun of Matt as he struggles to name a single Beyoncé song. Well, yeah, put a finger on it. Sure, she wants to be Beyoncé. Put a finger on it. Beyoncé is the famous song.

Will we break the story? Or will the story break us? Find out by joining us in the writer's room every Thursday on MaximumFun.org or wherever you get your podcasts. Can I do my second thing? Yes. It's another big one. It's...

Ketchup. Ketchup. Anyway, when you put these weird guys on Friday... It's one of my favorite bands ever. It's They Might Be Giants. Oh, yay! They Might Be Giants is one of my favorite bands of all time. And it seems kind of silly that I haven't talked about them yet on this show where I talk about my favorite

things. It, like, so many of my musical preferences, especially when I was younger, I kind of inherited from Justin. Just because Justin had, like, super hip music tastes when we were kids uh what does he find in this stuff do you know i know that he was a subscriber to uh those like cd mailing services where you'd like check all the boxes off the things yeah like 10 for a penny or

something yeah but then like he racked up many many thousands of dollars in credit card debt so But then he racked up many, many thousands of dollars in credit card debt. So, oops. So he got a lot of music that way. And he was of the generation that was watching MTV and absorbing some stuff there. And just had cool friends who were doing that same thing. And so he was into soul coughing and Ben Fold bin folds five and i sort of absorbed it through osmosis but they might be giants is like really really really stuck with me cassette tape but

they might be giants uh i think i made a cassette tape of like his cassette tapes i don't know that he would be quite that like enthusiastic about me like ripping off all of his shit yeah we used to take this is horrible but at our church they had this wall like a pegboard where they would hang cassette tapes of um sermons that they recorded on cassette tapes so that you could go out and give them to people and spread the good news and i would take them home and we all did it we all did it listen we all did it and i would you know put they might be giants on it which is pretty punk rock, actually, if you think about it.

Anyway, if you want a primer on They Might Be Giants, if you've, in the unlikely event that you, you know, listen to podcasts and have never heard the band They Might Be Giants before, I'm going to put a link to a Spotify playlist that I made a while ago of some of my favorite They Might Be Giants songs. You can also watch the movie Gigantic. That is my next thing. It is, there's a documentary called Gigantic. That is my next thing. There's a documentary called Gigantic that was made actually a while ago now.

I forget what album they were. It was like Mink Car, which came out, Jesus, like a decade or so ago. I think I saw it when I was in college. I think it must have been around 2003, 2002. But I mean, here's the thing. They've been active for 36 years, which is fucking buck wild. They got started in 1982. And in the early years, the band is comprised of two Johns, John Flansburg, who's sort of this like super charismatic, hard rock and front man for the band and John Linnell, who's kind of more characterized as being like, I think, like the tortured genius of the band. And I don't think either of those categories are necessarily

firm or fair. I mean, they're both geniuses, and they both rock. I think they only seem that way in contrast to each other. Yeah, there's a really fascinating dichotomy between the two. And in the band's early years, it was just the two of them, Flansburg on guitar and linelle playing either like accordion or keys or saxophone with a drum machine backing them and then these days they play with a with a full band and when they made that conversion there was very much a like bob dylan goes electric level sort of controversy people like loved the drum machine they have a whole song about how they play with a drum machine um a band's name for a 1971 movie called They Might Be Giants, which is a quote from Don Quixote.

And they have been super prolific. They released 20 studio albums, 10 compilation, nine live albums, eight EPs, seven music videos, and 11 singles in the 36 years that they've been doing this. Also, and this is one of my favorite things about them, they offer a service called Dial-A-Song, and they started this in 1985. Is that still in existence? So, listen, in 1985, John Linnell broke his wrist while riding his bike,

and Flansburg apartment got robbed, or burgled, I guess. And so they went on hiatus and in the meantime they were recording music to cassette and then they just started putting that in an answering machine uh in in in their brooklyn loft or whatever uh that people could call they would advertise it in the village voice so you would call their answering machine it would go straight to answering machine and you could listen to them play a song uh and they did that for a long time until it got like too wild i remember getting on our uh cordless phone at home in huntington with justin and like

calling the number on speakerphone for no joke like hour hour and a half yeah just it's just one it's just one line there's no call waiting so only one person can be listening at time and that's that is like i could do a whole segment just about that concept the idea that there is there is a band that has this service that if you call it and you're listening to it you know you're the only person on earth that's listening to that thing right now that is such a fucking great like thing um they eventually started doing like an online service that obviously was more accessible to people and then i think that that went down, but this month they're supposed to be relaunching it in some way,

which I'm very, very excited about. So anyway, this, this, they may be giants writes music that is, it's very clever and it's very unique and it's very, it doesn't sound like any other,

I think band. It is not derivative of anything and it is also hard to be derivative of like i cannot think of too many bands who have like completely aped what they might be giants do because they write songs typically about subjects that should be kind of impossible to write a song about or at least very very difficult to write a song about, or at least very, very difficult to write a song about, ranging from, you know, writing like a fun kind of poppy rock song about going through an agonizing divorce, or writing a sort of folk power rock ballad about James K. Polk. Like, all of that stuff is kind of, to me, like, one of the most fascinating things about them is how they take these subjects and focus in on them with laser-like focus.

And these are subjects that are typically not written about. But it's not just novel. Like, it is novel. I think a lot of the songs that they write and the things that they choose to write about are novel. But they also rock like they are really really uh melodically like interesting songs and sometimes like genuinely hard rocking fucking great songs uh i i don't know i i have such a fondness for all their like old stuff because again like i listened to maybe four bands growing up and they were one of them and so all their early albums uh flood apollo 18

which by the way uh february 2nd they're playing at stubs and they're doing all of apollo 18 front to back that's the only fingertips on it yeah that album is so bonkers um but like all those old albums are so great but like their new stuff's great too they're doing a lot of kids music these days uh which we have been listening to some with henry uh there's an album videos too the videos are extremely good including the one they did with homestar runner which was like you could not fucking thread the griffin mcelroy needle more than you did with the they might be giants homestar runner videos back in the day uh but yeah they did no which was a kid's album and then here come the abcs here come the one two threes here come science which are all really

really great anyway i love this band so very, very much. And I, I think they're worth like listening to at some point in your life. Like they feel so essential, which is why I feel kind of silly talking about them in this thing. But I know that if there's like one or two people out there who have never really listened to them or they've kind of been on the periphery, like I think they haven't listened in like 15 years. A lot of people got real into them and then kind of been on the periphery like i think they haven't listened in like 15 years yeah a lot of

people got real into them and then kind of fell off yeah go to that spotify playlist and you don't even have to do that because i want to play three songs right now can i list them out real quick okay there's uh first off i want to talk about she's an angel uh i forget which album this is off of i think it's one of their earlier ones uh it's oh yeah it's off their self-titled album and this song's really interesting because it's ostensibly a love song but as is the case with sonia their songs like the actual subject matter is like super up for interpretation um it might be about somebody who like goes too far to preserve a good relationship that they have found themselves in or because they think they don't deserve a good relationship. It might be about a literal angel and somebody struggling with their own

faith or lack of faith in the presence of the unexplained. The lyrics are almost always not explicit enough for you to really nail it down. But the lyrics are just gorgeous, especially the chorus, which I think is what I'm going to play. It is so dense. It is a, what is it, a quatrain? Is that what it's called? Like a four-line verse. Yeah, I think so.

That has like 30 words per line in it. It is like so, so dense and so beautiful with this dreamy kind of accordion riff behind it. So this is She's an help. Sometimes I think I kinda like that, and other times I think I'm already there. I actually think I'm just gonna do two songs. I had to tell my head falls off, but just go listen to that one, because it's fucking great. I put that one on here because it, like, rocks, and I want people to know how much it rocks. And in fact, here's like five seconds of it.

rocks and in fact here's like five seconds of it anyway the last song is uh it's birdhouse in your soul and this is probably the song that you've heard if you've heard of They Might Be Giants. Like this is this was their biggest their biggest song. And this is like this was exactly what I'm talking about earlier. This is a song written from the perspective of a nightlight in the shape of a blue canary. I think I think that's what it is so, like, laser-focused on what if you wrote a song from the perspective of a nightlight who takes care of and nurtures somebody and then, like, kind of gets a little full of themselves because they are these protectors of their, you know, their gods or whatever. And it's, again, like, it's a very, very clever idea, but this isn't just, like, a novel kind of poetic idea. Like, it is one of, in my opinion, like i don't know a feeling a feeling of like security or hope or like again it's like abstract enough that like it's it's open for interpretation but

like make a little birdhouse in your soul is such a beautiful beautiful turn of phrase it's such a like a bouncy fun song um and and it feels kind of genuinely like joyful. And so it's fun to think like that this is like a way to live. Yeah. Anyway, here's Birdhouse in Your Soul. You've heard this song before. Anyway, here it is. In the outlet by the light switch Who watches over you? Make a little birdhouse in your soul Not to put too fine a point on it

Say I'm the only bee in your bonnet Make a little birdhouse in your soul That's it. That's like one of my favorite bands ever. I just wanted to talk about them. Yeah, no, I'm glad you brought that. That's actually a big band of mine, too. Yeah.

Do you think you love it more than me, maybe? Yeah. You know, I've always loved it more than you. No, I'm not going to come for you. You might have. You might have. I'm not going to. Did you ever listen to it while eating French fries?

What's your second thing? My second thing is Season 7, Episode 16 of The Simpsons, Lisa the Iconoclast. Which one is this? Lisa the Iconoclast. Which one is this? This is the one where she is researching Jebediah Springfield for a class project, and she finds out that he is, in fact, a murderous pirate named Hans Sprungfeld. And she goes to the Jebediah Museum.

Does this sound familiar to you? Not even a little bit. Oh, no. It's fine though you're gonna explain to me every beat of every part of this episode of the simpsons uh so it's it's the bicentennial celebration in springfield and all the kids in lisa's class are asked to write papers about jebediah springfield who's the founder of the town. And so she goes to the Jebediah Museum, which is actually run by a character made for this episode, and voiced by Donald Sutherland. All right. You have my curiosity, Donald. But the story, and I didn't realize this until I did some research, is based on a 1991 example of people doubting the death, the real cause of death for President Zachary Taylor. There was a college professor that theorized that Taylor was murdered by poison and convinced Taylor's closest living relative to order an exhumation.

So Taylor's remains showed that there was actually no evidence of poisoning. Oops. Sorry, Grandpa. It was a mistake. But anyway, so that's where they got the idea for this plot. Oh, I get it. You had to be sure. Put me back.

Had to be sure. Put me back. So in this episode, Lisa discovers that the Jebediah Springfield is actually this murderous pirate. She finds his confession in a fife in the museum and finds out Hans Sprungfeld had this silver tongue. So she says, let's go dig up Jebediah Springfeld, and he has the silver tongue, we know. Is this their Goonies episode? No, because it's just Lisa. Okay. Just a Lisa tour de force.

And then when she finds out it is, in fact, Hans Sprungfeld, she gets ready to tell the whole town, and then she sees how excited and patriotic they are and how much this has brought the town together. I have seen this episode before. And she doesn't want to reveal it okay um here's some of my favorite parts of this episode so this is the episode where they introduce the words and biggins and cromulent do you remember this yes um can you give some context on those? So they're watching this video, which of course has Phil Hartman as Troy McClure on Jebediah Springfield. And they're talking about the town motto, which is a noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.

And Edna Krabappel's there, who's Bart's teacher. And she says she's never heard the word embiggens until she moved to Springfield. And Miss Hoover, who's Lisa's teacher, replies, I don't know why. It's a perfectly cromulent word. And then later in the episode, Homer, as part of the Bicentennial celebration, is auditioning for Town Crier. And there's a panel of judges and Principal Skinner is one of them. And he says about Homer's performance, he's emb big in the role with his cromulent performance. So I just like this is just something the Simpsons used to do a lot in the 90s, which is they just they just lean into the nonsense a little bit.

Yeah. And create and do callback after callback after callback. Yeah. And create something that just feels very real. These words are actually, you can find them now in actual papers and on dictionary.com because people have kind of run with it. It's in dictionary.com. I don't think it makes that authentic.

There's also this great moment. I kind of obviously, it's not surprising to anyone anyone loved Lisa because Lisa was this overachiever, but also this like fierce proponent of like the truth and like getting to the bottom of things in this kind of very serious journalistic way, which I remember as a kid, like I took things very seriously. And situations like this, like I would have had the same reaction of like, I have to get to the bottom of this and the people have to know. So I really enjoyed it. But there's a scene where she is having a dream about Hans Sprungfeld, who as part of the show's narrative got in a fight with George Washington. And so she's having a dream about

George Washington having this fight with Jedediah Springfield. And she's about to give up on her pursuit of the truth because she's so discouraged. And in her dream, George Washington says, looks like I'm going to have to find another little girl to be president. What's your friend Jamie's number? And Lisa says, no, not Jamie. She'll pack the Supreme Court with boys. And then she says, oh, let me help you, George Washington. I still want to help you. And she says it out loud as Bart is walking by.

He says, I want to help you, George Washington. Even your dreams are square. There's just love. There's just love. Okay, is this your favorite episode of the simpsons i'm curious why you picked this one to talk about top five top five top five i think about it all the time um there's just these like cute little moments that just feel like so thoughtful like the museum curator gets really upset with lisa because she's trying to disgrace his name

and she she's ordered out of the museum and he says, you're banned from the historical society, you and your children and your children's children for three months. Yeah. So I, I mean, I could have done any number of the Simpsons episodes. Like I I'm like one of those people of my age group that was super into it

in the nineties. Oh, it's literally every other person that I know, I feel like. Yeah. But that episode is like, it's, I mean, Lisa featured episodes are usually pretty great. Oh, yeah. Because she is just so sincere and earnest, which is not something you see a lot in many of the characters. And, yeah, there's just all these like kind of nice, nice touches. They've created this rich fiction of their town and they get really minute in the detail here.

And I love it. How about some submissions from our friends at home? Okay. This one was sent in by Jesse. It's my new favorite thing. Thank you, Jesse. Something that I think is wonderful is jetpacking, especially on a cold day. By jetpacking, I mean cuddling with my husband in a way similar to spooning,

except that my six foot two inch husband is the little spoon and my five foot two inch self is the big spoon. So I am like a jetpack. That's awesome. What a great name for that. It's the best thing. Jesse, thank you for sharing that. It's going to sweep the world. It's going to take the world by storm. Katie said, my closest friends and I do these collaborative playlists every month, and I love them so much.

We each pick a song that stuck with us that month and write a little bit about our song choice. It's magic how all of our songs come together into something that sounds and feels cohesive. It's also such a nice way to hear what my friends are thinking about and discover new music. I always look forward to my first listen through at the end of each month. That sounds really nice. Yeah, that's a really great idea. Dan says, hi, Griffin and Rachel.

I think polyhedrons are wonderful. Now hear me out. Most people know about the platonic solids thanks to the D4, D6, D8, D12, and D20 dice. There are also the 13 Archimedean solids and the 92 johnson solids johnson solids by the way it would be a pre-reported poor name johnson solids johnson solids thumbs down geometric shapes are like the pokemon of math you can always find a new type or family if you go looking equilateralilateral, symmetrical, tubular. I'll say, just looking at Rachel's face when I'm talking about these maths,

I'm saying that she thinks it's definitely pretty. Oh, I'm sorry, what? Were you saying something? These are probably my favorite shapes. Even though the listeners can't see them, some people will find the names to be the most wonderful thing about them. I'm going to take a run at some of these bad boys. Like the small rhombocube octahedron, or the trigonal trapezohedron. They've actually provided pronunciations. These shapes are great, by the way, gang. I know you can't see them, but

I mean, the rhombic hexacontrahedron and the small dodecahemidodecahedron, they just had some fun with these math names. Anyway, these shapes are really cool, and I didn't know so much that there were shapes. There's many of them. Yeah, no, actually me neither. Many, many shapes. No. Some are pretty. Some are quite not.

But all of them are beautiful in God's eyes. Hmm. So. That's nice. Yeah, kind of a new direction I'm trying to go with the show. So thank you so much for listening. Thank you to Bowen and Augustus for these for a theme song, Money Won't Pay. You can find a link to that in the album description. I always say album description. This is not an album. It's one episode of

a podcast. Even if there are many episodes, it still wouldn't be an album. It would just be a podcast. That is correct. How about Maximum Fun, huh? Oh, hey, Maximum Fun. Thanks for hosting us. Give it up for Maximum Fun. Thanks for hosting us. Give it up for Maximum Fun. Feel free to go to MaximumFun.org and check out some of the great podcasts.

A new one that I think is being featured this week is Switchblade Sisters. Yeah. If you are interested in female filmmakers and their interest in genre films, this is a really great resource. I'm excited to check it out

because you don't hear a lot about female filmmakers these days. And so it would be great to hear who's out there doing the craft. There's a bunch of shows on there that you're just going to love. And if you want to hear more stuff from us or see the dumb video stuff

that I do with Justin and Travis at Polygum, it's all at McElroyShows.com. And I think that's it, huh? That is it. Well, here we are again, back at the end of the road. Looking down, thinking, boy, I'm sad to leave all my friends. Hey, Griffin. Uh-huh?

Can I jetpack on you on the way out of here? Sure you can. Blast off! I feel so safe. MaximumFun.org Comedy and culture. Artist owned. Listener supported. Hi there, I'm film critic April Wolf and host of the Maximum Fun podcast, Switchblade Sisters. Do you love genre films? Do you love female filmmakers? Do you love discussions on craft?

If your answer is yes, you'll love Switchblade Sisters. Every episode, I invite one female filmmaker on and we talk in depth about their fave genre film and how it influenced their own work. So we're talking horror, action,

sci-fi, fantasy, bizarro, and exploitation cinema. Mothers, lock up your sons because the Switchblade Sisters are coming for you.

Available at MaximumFun.org or wherever you find your podcasts.