Wonderful! - Wonderful! Ep. 42: Professor Groovyshoes

Episode Date: July 11, 2018

Griffin's favorite party games! Rachel's favorite beverage review system! Griffin's favorite jazz standard! Rachel's favorite surprise delivery! 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. Hello, it's Griffin McElroy. And this is Wonderful. Salutations! Hello. Hello, weary traveler. Kick off your boots by mine fire and warm up yine cold socks as we spin you a yarn of...

Those chilly July evenings. Oh, brr. I can see the frost on your bones, if you know what I mean. And so this is wonderful. this is a podcast where we talk about stuff that we really like and i'll tell you what i really like is that freaking sleek slick new microphone that rachel's using oh my god it looks like a like a i don't know like a fancy modern like vibrator do you know what i mean? It does. It kind of looks like now you're checking it out and you're

just giving me a confirmation like yes or no. I mean, not like any I'm familiar with. Getting ribbled. But anyway, this is wonderful and we get ribbled sometimes. What do you want to do first? I mean, small wonders. Sure. You got one? I mean, small wonders. Sure.

You got one? I do, actually. I wanted, for those of our listeners that are not on social media, you may have missed that last week's Jumbotron about Henry and Elena. Yeah. Where there was a proposal, and I thought for sure. We talked a bunch of yay, I think, a lot of shit. It didn't actually happen or had happened previously because the request was for March. It actually happened.

It did happen. And they posted a video of it for our pleasure. That's not on them. That's on us. Because we just assumed that they had made other plans. Yeah, exactly. This was the plan. And it was so delightful to see that video.

I know that you shared that special moment with us. Griffin, I think when you proposed to me, you bought the ring like a literal what day before you proposed to me? Yeah, but you were watching me like a fucking hawk for any sort of proposal-like behavior. Well, because you took one of my rings. Oh, I was not slick about it. To get the size. It seemed like my dude Henry was, you know, doing some top secret. Yeah, just the fact that he held on to that for so long.

Some good shit. Yeah, that's great. But yeah, that was really great. You have anything else? No, that was my big one. I want to mention cinnamon roll Oreos that we got. Damn, y'all. I am becoming a, I just like, I've gotten really into it.

There's a guy named Greg Miller who does a bunch of video game stuff and kind of launched his own video game channel with some other folks called Kind of Funny Games. And he, I don't know if he still does it, but he did a long running Oreo review series called Oreo Oration, which I watched now and then. But now it's like. When did it start? A few years ago. Justin was on an episode, I believe. Oh, really? They had a special, or they had a special, he had a special, like, Justin McElroy segment.

But now I get it, because there's so many different Oreos, and they're all pretty good. I feel like just recently, it's just, like, blown up. It's blown up. I also wanted to say there's, so there was this old game series. I mentioned to Rachel I might do a segment on this, but I don't think you would be locked into it at all. But there's an old game series i mentioned to rachel i might do a segment on this but i don't think you would be locked into it at all but there's an old game series called quest for glory there was like this old adventure game series that was really cool um because it kind of blended like adventure games i wanted to talk about it because i thought for sure you had played you know monkey island or something like that but then i said monkey island and you looked at me like an island made out of monkeys or is it um but it it blended like

dnd stuff with like these old point and click adventure games and like a really really cool way um and i've been replaying that whole series what was really cool and really ahead of its time it came out in the 80s and was sam and max and sam and max was an adventure game okay i did play that one yes i when you said adventure game it took me a long time to wrap my head around what that meant. Yeah, it's basically like a genre kind of defined by having like a list of actions like look at or talk to. Yeah. And then you have like weird item combinations. Like what Quest for Glory did that was really cool is you could play like a thief or a fighter or a magic user.

And instead of like having to figure out these weird nonsensical answers to to things, you actually had to kind of play D&D with it. Like, okay, well, I'll pick the lock and I'll oil the hinges so they don't make any noise. What was really cool is you could take your save file when you finished one game and then a few years later

when a new one came out, you could import your character and let them go through the whole series, which is way ahead of its time. But the new game from those developers has been in the works for over a decade called Hero U. And that just came out today.

And that's really fun. I've been playing it here and there. I like it. And it's got me playing the old games, too. It is a PC game, yes. And it was kickstarted. And I think it was originally supposed to come out in, like, 2013. So a little behind.

But, yeah, I've been liking that. And I've been playing the old Quest for Glory games, too, because I can beat those in, like, 15 minutes. I thought about that might be my speedrun, my entry into speedrunning. Oh, yeah, there you go. That might be it. I actually start this week, according to Wonderful.FYI, the most valuable website on the internet. I want to start out talking about a thing I love very much and have enjoyed for quite some time, and also just recently enjoyed after not enjoying it for a long time a couple days ago. That is the Jackbox Party Packs.

Oh, have we not talked about that? We have never talked about the Jackbox Party Packs before. So Jackbox Party Packs are collections of social sort of local multiplayer games. Are you, so I don't know how common this was, but I am very familiar with the original PC, you don't know jack game. Oh, for sure. Yeah, no. And so for me, when these came out, it was like, Oh, yeah. So that company that made those has a really interesting history. They were called

Jellyvision. And in the mid 90s, they sort of spun up this, they were just sort of a general software company, then they spun up Jellyvision games, which made the you don't know jack series, a general software company then they spun up jelly vision games which made the you don't know jack series which if you've never played it was a very sort of um twisted skewed version of trivia games and they had they released approximately a billion of these so there was like a movies one we had that one there was a tv one uh there was a sports one uh and then like a lot of general like you don't know jack stuff there was one about like internet and computers stuff and all of them were like trivia games they had a host uh several hosts throughout the series the most famous of which being uh cookie cookie masterson um and they were

just like kind of funny like trivia games uh that you could play with your friends like sharing a keyboard so each of you would like get a letter that was your buzzer uh and you had to like type in a name but if you didn't type in a name it would like assign you a silly name like uh all that stuff was really great and they made these games for for a long time and they put out a lot of different versions of it uh and at its heyday in that period uh jellyvision games had like 75 employees and they were just like cranking these games out then they wanted to try putting them on consoles like the original playstation uh and this was like i guess early early thousands late 90s they wanted to put these games and they fucking tanked they bombed really really hard and now all of a sudden this like

successful company uh got cut down from 75 employees to just six employees they went through the fucking ringer and uh sort of took a step back to work on some other stuff for a while. They did some sort of online. I think I might be confusing Jellyvision and Jellyvision Games here, but the company started to focus on sort of online interactive stuff that wasn't really gaming. It was like helping creating these sort of human interactive experiences using sort of interactive elements on websites. This was, again, early thousands, so this was sort of cutting-edge stuff. And they tried to reboot You Don't Know Jack in 2011.

We actually have that. It's up on my shelf somewhere for, like, modern consoles in 2011. And it did all right. They did, like, a Facebook game. But then they changed the name of their company from Jellyvision Games to Jackbox Games in 2011. And it did all right. They did like a Facebook game. But then they changed the name of their company from Jellyvision Games to Jackbox Games in 2013. And around that time is when they started to experiment with this new idea.

And that idea was, what if you could use your smartphone not as the thing that you actually are playing the game on, but as a controller for an experience that you could look at on a TV through a game console or a PC or whatever using your smartphone or tablet as a controller. So they did that and they messed around with that.

They put out a couple games before. In 2014, they dropped Fibbage. Fibbage was the OG first big Jackbox Games game. And it was kind of like Balderdash. You can still play it and there's a bunch of different versions of it out there, but it's kind of like Balderdash where there's a prompt with a blank like the

I can't fucking come up with a fake prompt right now. Oh, well, it'll just be like there was one about what Tito Jackson tweeted. At Whataburger, what hashtag did he use? And then all the players enter in a fake

answer and then all the fake answers and one real answer pops up and you have to pick the one that you think is right you get points if you get it right and you get points for everybody that you fool with your lie so that was fibbage and it fucking exploded it did so well especially on like twitch and streaming sites like it was it was performing extremely well everybody was into it so later that year in 2014 they were trying to figure out like a way to capitalize on this hot idea they had it's using smartphones as controllers and what they came up with was so like canny and also like a really good deal for people who play games they packaged a sort of remastered expanded fibbage with four other games including a revival of you don't know jack in uh the jackbox party pack that came out in late 2014 the same year that fibbage

was released they knew they had a fucking hit on their hands and like got busy getting it getting it uh in this new new form uh that first pack had a bunch of very cool games that used the phone controller in different ways as like buzzers for you don't know jack as a canvas for drawing and drawful which is just like you would get a prompt like that would be really weird like rubber band shoes and you have to try and draw them and then people guess what it is and then you have to vote on it's kind of like fibbage we have to vote on the one that you think is right uh they did also include a game where up to a hundred players could join and play uh simultaneously called l is right uh they did also include a game where up to a hundred players

could join and play uh simultaneously called lice water and they did that because they looked at how well fibbage did on twitch and they were like oh shit what if we did a game that people watching on twitch could also join in like it was so fucking smart and you're watching this company go from like a decade ago you guys fell completely apart to now you're making these like brilliant shark-like moves in the the choppy waters of video what you do for those that aren't familiar what you do is you open up your like internet browser in your phone and you go to what is it jackbox.tv that's right and then and then you enter in a room code and that's how you get everybody in the same place in the same game.

Yeah, and it's so accessible. So we played this a couple nights ago. We had some friends over, and we were like, let's play a Jackbox game. And one of our friends was like, oh, I don't know what you're talking about. I never played it. And there was no tutorial we needed to give her, no onboarding. We just said, okay, pull out your phone, go go to this website and then enter in a funny name and then we were playing fibbage three i think they've done a lot of fibbages at this point um like the value of these packs are so undeniable and i say packs

because they have put out a lot of them they dropped one a year since 2014 and another one is expected towards the end of this year um i got that off the internet but i'm out of the gaming industry at this point so i could be talking completely out of my ass um but there have been so many good games in these packs that we've played so much like um uh i really like faking it is a game i feel like i've talked about maybe before where everybody has i think it's up to five players and of those five players four people will get a prompt that will sort of prompt them to do some sort of physical thing. So it could say, like, on the count of three, hold out the number of fingers of how many times you've pooped your pants. And one of the players, the fifth player, will not get a prompt.

They'll just know that you're going to have to stick out a number of fingers. And then on the count of three, everybody sticks out their fingers. And you have to guess based on, like, who's got the weird outlier. Or who, like, stuck out some fingers and then pulled them in and then put the count of three everybody sticks out their fingers and you have to guess based on like who's got the weird outlier uh or who like stuck out some fingers and then pulled them in and then put out more fingers who's the faker who like didn't get the prompt actually it's really great there's a ton of really really good games and um yeah i just love i love playing games with our friends but i like i think like a lot of people am very self-conscious about like explaining rules to people like i'm really especially if it's a game i'm really excited about we've had betrayal at house on the hill

in our closet for a long time because i'm so scared to get two people to come to our house and sit down with us and i say like okay so here's how this works one of you's got to play this character like i don't that does not sound appealing to me. So like a game that you can just say, Hey, get your, get your fucking phone out. Let's draw some funny pictures. It's so accessible and so fun for like anybody.

Yeah. Now that it's on switch, you can take it, you know, anywhere with you. And I think all the packs are on switch too. So yeah. Jackbox.

It's also like really cool to watch this company. That was sort of a staple of my gaming youth recover like a phoenix from the ashes. Also, I guess, full disclosure, we know some of those guys. They do Hello from the Magic Tavern. Some of the Jackbox games people do Hello from the Magic Tavern, which Travis has been on. And I've met them before, but I don't owe them fucking anything. So this is not even biased or anything. And they didn't pay us.

So, like, shut it down, Reddit. We're not shut it down news source yeah we're not a fucking news source or i feel like maybe i'm gun shy and i think for reasons you could understand hey what's your second or your first thing no you know what give me your second thing first um how would you know it was my second you're right why don't you just lie to me baby you remember that show lie to me oh it was so good what was it about the guy was on it who and they did like he was like a i guess a detective or a doctor and he lied all the fucking time and people liked it a lot his name was was John Lye. John Lye to me. And really hot, just hot doctor, lawyer, detective.

What's your first thing? Okay, so I want to remind everybody of the week that I did SpaghettiOs because my two topics this week are kind of bougie. And so I just want you to know that I'm still Jenny from the block. Okay. Still like SpaghettiOs. All right. But my first thing this week. Foie gras.

No. That's good. It shouldn't be. Is wine ratings. Wine ratings? Yes. This is your wonderful thing? Yeah, the fact that you can see the score for a bottle of wine before you purchase it.

Okay, that's fair. Now I get it. Yeah. So it's kind of like looking at Amazon reviews before you buy something. But when you're in a store, it's very difficult to do something like that in a short amount of time. Just making sure we don't have like a wine based sponsor. This toothbrush is an underwear.

We're good. Your other thing's not toothbrushes or underwear, is it? It's not. Okay. Um, yeah. So I've, I obviously like, Your other thing's not toothbrushes or underwear, is it? It's not. Okay. Yeah, so I obviously, like, I would say the majority of people have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to buying wine. It's everybody.

Even the sommeliers, even, like, they don't fucking. So when I go to the store, it's really helpful to see these, like, little point values. Well, this brings up so many good questions in my mind. What is the, you're at a store, what's the minimum number purchase that you would even fucking think about buying? Like what's- The minimum score. The minimum score that you would even think about buying.

And then I have a follow up. Well, so I was deciding this the other day because I decided to really put effort into it. And so I decided when I was at the store that I wouldn't do anything below a 90. Damn, sideways? Well, here's the thing, though. I have some history on wine ratings. Okay.

So I actually thought of this partially because of the new hit, My Brother, My Brother and Me segment. Celebrity wine, why not? Yeah. I don't know if we can call that one a hit yet. I like it. And so I did a little research on the history of wine ratings. It was invented by the American critic Robert Parker in 1978. Just one guy came up with it?

Yeah. Not like a board of folks? In 1975, he began writing a wine guidebook. And then... I'm sorry. That's fucking bonkers to me. I know. This dude was like, this is in 83. And people were like, what the fuck are you talking about?

In 78, he published a direct mail newsletter called the Baltimore Washington Wine Advocate, which later became the Wine Advocate. The first issue was sent free to consumers from mailing lists Parker had purchased from several major wine retailers. The Wine Spectator tasters review wines on this scale. So 95 to 100 is a great wine.

Has there ever been a 100? I hope there hasn't been. I don't know. 90 to 94 is a wine of superior character and style. Oh, listen to you. That's the only thing you like. 85 to 89 is a wine with special qualities. Rat piss. No way crossing these lips. 80 to 84 is a solid, well-made wine. Fuck no. I'm going to barf.

There's nothing lower, right? 75 to 79 is a drinkable wine. Potable. That may have minor flaws. There's a Lego in mine. That's weird. 50 to 74 is not recommended. Yeah, I would say.

So here's the thing about the scoring. Anything below 50? No, because here's the thing about the scoring. Anything below 50? No, because here's the thing about the scoring. So I did a little more research and here is the scale that is used. You automatically get 50 points if it's a wine.

This is the worst rating system I've ever heard in my life. Did you see the Ant-Man and the Wasp? I did. I hated it. It's the worst movie I've ever seen. I give it a 50. A 50, huh? I mean, it was a movie. They made a movie. You can't deny that. 50 points

for being wine. Did they review a Coca-Cola and give it a zero? And they're like, oops, we fucked up. What's the use case? Well, so here's the thing. From 2009 to 2013, the average rating was about 88, with very few wines below 81, and only slightly more over 94. That's, I'm sorry, a bad scale. You're telling me you didn't drink one? I don't drink that much wine and

i've drank wine that i thought was fucking dirty terrible shit and i would give lower than an 80 well and there's not a lot of so there's not a lot of scores um a lot of wines are never reviewed or tasted by reviewers now i get it uh if they were scored and did poorly, their marketers obviously aren't going to be like 63 by Wine Spectator. So when I was doing the research on this, I thought it was interesting. So this is from Inc.com. There are all these different outlets. There's Wine Spectator. There's Wine Advocate.

There's Wine Enthusiast. This Inc.com article said that Wine Enthusiast is the easiest grader. Wine Spectator is harder. And Wine enthusiast is the easiest grader, wine spectator is harder, and wine advocate is the hardest grader. That sounds like they're advocating for the wine men, doesn't it? Yeah. So the scoring, so you get 50 points for just being a wine. Yeah. You get five points based on color and appearance, 15 points on aroma and bouquet.

Is that flavor? Is it a bouquet flavor? Is that just how it is? With the nose. It's what you get with the nose. That's 15 fucking points? You get 50 for being wine, five for being either a white or... No, if it's perfect,

is what I'm saying. Right. So if it's perfect, you get the full 15. I don't care about the stink of the wine, I guess. Oh, Griffin, have you ever opened a bottle of wine

and it smells like nail polish remover? Yeah, I guess that's true. 20 is for flavor and finish. Yeah. And then 10 is just overall quality. That's bullshit, too. There's so many problems with this fucking scale. It tastes amazing.

It looks great. It smells awesome. It is wine. And the color is so cool. That's a 90. Well, you want to give it that extra 10 i mean yeah i guess it's got a cool label uh the bottle seems real sturdy i could really conk somebody with this bad boy that's our 100 there is obviously a lot of problems with the scoring do you mean the fact that you get half the score just for being fucking wine could this was scored do they use this on other things?

Like, what do you think of this rug? I give it a 36, which is great because it's never going to earn those 50 wine points. It's not wine. It simply isn't wine, Gerald. I find it really useful. When I go to the store and I see that a wine is 88 and then the wine next to it is 92, well, I'm going to pick the one that's 92. Yes, for sure. I prefer, I mean, for me, best case scenario is no joke.

Some website picks the wine for me and sends it. That's ideal for me. Some sort of wine delivery service. That's sort of my dream scenario where I don't have to pretend like I know what I'm talking about. Well, you know that that is a literal thing that has, in fact, advertised on McElroy Podcast. Yes, yes.

I'm just, that's real talk. That's like the best wine experience I've had because I don't have to go to a- I like going to the store. I like going to the store and kind of perusing. I'm just so out of my depth. And then seeing, oh, sometimes you'll see the score, and it'll be from like a few years before what's on the shelf.

So it'll say like, this wine is 92 in 2015, but you're looking at a 2017, and you're like, ugh, I can't count on that. So you throw it on the ground for lying. What I do like at the store is when the employees of whatever the place is will put little notes on it. Like, I ate this with some tilapia and I nutted. It was great.

Like, I see that and I think, what? That's a good, that's a ringing endorsement from the wine store. That's how a little picture of the guy, like making his face, his nut face. Yeah, sure. No, I do like that. You you know i just appreciate the help it's like it's like you know like a friendly neighbor saying hey you know what i like this you should try that

yeah it's you know it's maybe it's 16 and that's a little more than you thought about spending but spend in confidence what would you pair with just to tie it all back together, SpaghettiOs? Oh, SpaghettiOs. I mean. Probably a robust red, right? Like a Cabernet Sauvignon, probably. Maybe something even spicy a little bit. I like to spice up my SpaghettiOs.

I put a little bit of crushed red pepper in there. Not a whole lot, but a little bit of that and some garlic powder and then some Tabasco. Interesting. And a spicy, and then I get a robust red in there, like a little bit of that and some garlic powder and then some Tabasco. Interesting. And a spicy, and then I get a Robusto Red in there, like a Cabernet Sauvignon. Do you want to steal me away? I would like you to provide the music. Could I burp all of it, do you think? Please don't.

I could. Please don't. I have no doubt that you could. What do you think please don't i could please don't i have no doubt what do you what do you bet me okay well i guess that's good is that what you wanted yes like mediocre art just sort of like half measure please who are our sponsors i'm so disheartened right now that i've been stymied in this way oh i'm sorry, Griffin. I should support your art.

Please burp. Please burp for the next two minutes. Please do a series of burps. So our first sponsor, before we get into it, we should mention, we just recorded about a good eight minutes for another sponsor that we won't mention the name of. But in it, we sort of, I sort of created this fictional universe in my head where I was taking, you know, disco classes from a professor named Professor Groovy Shoes. And I'm telling you this because... I wanted to organically try and work it in.

No, no, no, no. I know. We'll still do that. Okay. It'll still flow like fucking butter, baby. It's going to be so smooth and soft. Okay. But I mentioned that because

we can't include it like right we can't include like a free promo for an advertiser just because i looked at the schedule wrong so what i want is to see if we can get our way back into professor groovy shoes couldn't we have done this without the explanation no i think it's better if we sort of outline what we're doing. This message is a jumbotron. Yes. It is for Blue-Haired Rob. Hello. It is from Jessica. Hey.

Happy birthday. Or if this isn't near your birthday, happy whatever day. You are such an incredible good, good boy, and thanks for singing me hamilton learning about nail art and always making me smile you are amazing i can't say enough how funny clever and kind you are also your butt is good oh did you just add that no i am so lucky bowling brought us together bowling brings so many people together i was just thinking about bowling today. We should do that sometime. We should.

It would bring us together, finally. This next message is for Keith. It is from Leah. To my sweet bean. It's been the absolute best adventuring with you. You make me laugh, make me feel so loved, and make me a better person. Thanks for dating me. My wonderful goof.

Hopefully now I've matched your gift giving skills. Having Griffin and Rachel tell you how much I love you. Spoiler alert. It's a lot. Love your cute girlfriend, Leah. Oh, and you know,

what I like about that the most is that Leah gets in there at the end. It's like, I'm pretty cute too so handle it maximum fun's new sci-fi comedy podcast bubble is coming to san diego comic-con on july 21st at 1 p.m bubble cast members travis mcelroy cristela alonzo eliza skinner allison becker mike mitchell jordan mor Morris, and Danielle Radford will be signing autographs. Tickets are required, but free. Then at 5 p.m., the cast will participate in a panel moderated by Jesse Thorne held at the San Diego Central Library.

For more information, visit MaximumFun.org slash SDCC. Can I talk about my second thing? Yes. My second thing is a song. The song, three-word title. One word, though, just repeat it three times. It is Mercy, Mercy, Mercy by the Cannonball Adderley Quintet. This song is fucking great.

If you've ever heard it before, I'm just going to play some of it right now. so So I heard this song on the radio for the first time a few years ago, and I just fell really in love with it. It is so fucking smooth and so good, and the electric piano and the horns playing in unison, as the song builds up to that peak, it hits that peak like eight times in that song, the da, na, na, na,

na, na, na. And on that top note, they like split and do this crazy explosion every time. Like, it's fucking great. And then it comes down soft for that little,

little electric piano. That kind of flirty, that flirty one. People love it when you sort of describe jazz music. I found that people really like when you're like, and then it comes at you like, and then the piano that was the chips ahoy song i was doing just then as every band instructor ever i don't know you never took band but i feel like every band director has that talent it'd be like like of, I want you to come in like,

beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. And then I want you to come in with a, whop, whop, whop, whop. Whiplash would have been a way better movie if it was J.K. Simmons, just like, no, no, no, you're doing a good job, but it's more like,

cha, cha, cha, cha, cha, cha, cha, cha, cha, cha, cha, cha. Can you, oh, that's good enough. He's so nice in this version. I know, that's what I like. The best thing, the thing i like the most about the song is the audience participation the audience is fucking great uh towards the

beginning of the song especially like as he's setting up what the song is about uh the audience is just like cheering back at him almost talking to him from the stage uh and then they're clapping along with the beat sometimes on the eighth note just like jamming along to this song that i think was this was the first time that they had played it this is the first time it appeared on on an album so i don't know that they had heard him play it before and that they were still like grooving to it so hard and then like three minutes in or something there's an applause break for no reason there's not like a dope solo or anything like that there's just they just start clapping in the middle of the song because of how fucking good it is pause break for no reason. There's not like a dope solo or anything like that. There's just, they just start clapping in the middle of the song because of how fucking good it is.

Every time I hear that, like, it makes me smile a lot. And the message of the song is also great. Like his intro, uh, explains that sometimes life throws adversity at you that you're not prepared for. And he says, here's, here's some advice I got from my pianist joe zawinul uh it sounds like what you're supposed to say when you face that adversity mercy mercy mercy and then he plays this new jazz standard it is the fucking wildest called shot i've ever heard in my life because the implication of what he says is here is a song that feels like what you're supposed to say when things don't go your way which is mercy mercy mercy it's almost like synesthetic like wait what what did you say

the song sounds like mercy okay yeah it does that's very that's true i guess um so this song it went on to be this surprise hit for a cannonball utterly, it charted at number 11 on the billboard charts and was covered by a lot of other artists, uh, became like a jazz and blues standard. A lot of the people who covered it added lyrics to it. Um, and the rest of the album that, uh, mercy, mercy, mercy is on is also really great. It's it's off the album, mercy, mercy, mercy, life at the club. Uh, and the club, according to the liner notes, uh and the club according to the liner notes uh the club was club delisa in chicago uh that's where it says this is where we recorded this that was a lie uh they actually recorded this whole album at capitals hollywood studios

uh where they invited in this audience and set up an open bar and just recorded it there the reason that they say it was at Club DeLisa, which was later changed its name to just The Club, like it says on the album cover, was because Cannonball Adderley was old friends with the owner of the club and just wanted to drive up business for him. That's a fucking great story. It's a wild con to pull on the people who are buying your album,

lying about where it was actually recorded just so you can get some foot traffic at your friend's bar. So like, that's an awesome anecdote. I love how Cannonball Adderley kind of came up with his brother Nat Adderley. He plays the cornet and Cannonball plays the alto saxophone. What's the difference between a trumpet and a cornet? I mean, you're the one in band, so I don't know why you think I would know that if you do not. I thought they were the same thing. I think they're different. Do you want to Google it?

I can Google it. I do. I want to learn something. Have you not been... Did you know the story about Ant and Cannonball Adderley lying about... The difference between a trumpet and a cornet is very minor. They both play the same notes, and they sound virtually the same. In appearance, the trumpet looks a bit longer and is more slender than a cornet.

The real difference has to do with the way the tubing of the instrument flares. Oh. Okay. Was that interesting? You know, so, Griffin, you don't know this. I'm an old jazz hound so I knew all about Cannonball but I didn't know about the Coronet

so Cannonball as we all know went into space yes he was the first one to play jazz in space and he went to the planet mars went to the planet mars and played jazz on the mars with uh his friend lance attersney interesting yeah that was right he used to be adderley and addersney it was like a yeah and

they played together they loved it um i love that he played the horn with his brother god in heaven we got so far off the track um he actually so sadly he actually died very young he died at uh age 46 of a stroke um but like, during his time on Earth, he played with like all the big names in jazz. And I found this fucking great story on the New York Times is the last thing I have on Cannonball Adderley. I've gotten away from the scope of the thing, which was just this one specific song, which is really good. Go listen to it, add it to whatever playlist you you frequent. But this story from his New York Times obit actually blew me away. So when he was younger, he was actually a band teacher living in Florida. And he moved to New York City to try to

get into a conservancy there to, you know, master his craft. And while he was living in New York, he ended up playing this like crazy fateful show at a famous jazz club there called Cafe Bohemia. So this is a quote from his obituary in the New York Times explaining this like wild story. On the night that he went to Cafe Bohemia, Oscar Pettiford's saxophonist Jerome Richardson was late getting to work, and Mr. Adderley was grudgingly granted his request to sit in until Mr. Richardson arrived. But Mr. Pettiford was not one to suffer amateurs lightly, and in an obvious effort to send Mr. Adderley off the bandstand in embarrassment, he led the band into

I'll Remember April at a furious tempo. But Mr. Adderley sailed through a long solo on alto saxophone with such facility that he literally became a star overnight. The next day, he was the talk of the New York jazz world. Within a week, he had been signed to an exclusive recording contract by MRC Records, and in less than a month after his casual arrival here, he had recorded his first album with a band that included Jerome Richardson on tenor saxophone. He literally had a fucking whiplash done to him. That last scene in Whiplash where he's like, let's see if you can fucking keep up with this kid.

Oh, that's pretty good. Like this dude, Oscar Pettiford, tried to do this to him. He was like, I don't want some fucking new guy coming onto my band and embarrassing. So he played this really, really fast jazz song, I'll Remember April, and tried to just embarrass the guy off the

fucking stage, but actually Cannonball Adderley destroyed up there and became a sensation and within a week had a recording contract he literally did a whiplash that's fucking amazing that's a great story um so yeah cannonball utterly had a cool life made a very very uh very good song mercy mercy mercy can you tell me your second thing? My second thing is subscri... I love subscriptals. My favorite thing about them is how they go...

It's just jazz, baby. Yeah, baby. I love it. Subscription boxes. Okay. It's not really as cool as... I know... I think maybe let's do the first one. So I love subscription boxes. Sure. And here's why. Yes. They are like little presents that you buy for yourself and you don't know what they are. Yeah, I like that. And that's apparently a very millennial thing.

It's an extremely millennial thing is to, well, let's call it what it is, gambling. We're all just sort of rolling the hard six all the time with our, you know, shirts and shoes. I was reading this Fast Company article where this guy, Marshall Cohen, who is the chief industry analyst at NPD, a consumer market research group, and he said, millennial consumers in particular love the idea of self-indulgence and subscription companies really understand this. All right. Okay.

It's a pretty myopic view of what millennials, they love indulging themselves with the $4 they have. love indulging themselves with the four dollars they have well i i have a little pity on like market analysts and marketing people because they have to think about their demographics and they have to make these sweeping generalizations to sell what they're going to sell uh so as of march 2018 more than 2 000 subscription boxes existed in the u.., subscription box websites have grown over 3,000% in the last three years, up from 722,000 in 2013 to 21.4 million. Is that how much money they made? No, it's how many hits, like site visits. Oh, okay.

In 2018 in Denver, there was a subscription summit for the $40 billion subscription industry with over 600 attendees 2017 was in austin oh hey all right do you think at like dinner for those things they just put like a bunch of like cardboard boxes out on a table and it's like take your pick two chips from a variety of chip i was gonna say you just open one up and it's like, oh, Salisbury steak. Okay. Vegan. I was thinking more like you got like exactly one sample of every meal item. Yeah, that would work too. There are about 5.7 million subscription box shoppers in the US today. uh and so here's here's the um the large majority of these uh subscription people that are uh

purchasing these boxes have college degrees liberal politics female uh with children ages three to five huh you're telling me you like this yeah i know i think i mean it's a convenience thing obviously sure it's not easy for me to get to the, it's a convenience thing, obviously. Sure. It's not easy for me to get to the store. It's also not easy for me to access new things anymore. You know, like when you, when your full time is occupied between work and a family, you're not like talking to your cool friend about like the hot new beauty product.

That's number one for me like that's that really is why i yeah i don't do like a ton of these but the ones i do like i do because i have no i really don't have another way to get like uh they're not a sponsor this week but stitch fix like i use all the time because i don't have time to fucking go to the store and try out new stuff really i mean i do but like once every four months or so well and it's like it's like the wine scoring thing like you kind of want somebody else to think about it for you what the fuck i'm doing yeah with my bod uh so the biggest kind of most popular one started in 2010 and that was birch box do you remember i used to get that yeah

it's where i found some of the smells so good that box yeah it's where I found some of the stuff that I like to use today. But it's just kind of like things that you wouldn't be able to access otherwise. Like I don't go into a store that sells all these products. Yeah. So it's like nice to have somebody make those choices for me. Sure. There is a website called My Subscription Addiction. And Liz Cadman rates all these boxes and like apparently gets requests

constantly from new box services to like list them up there on the uh on the website but it's uh it's kind of fascinating like how huge it's become and how it just kind of started with like beauty products and then became like cooking and clothes and pets and lifestyle and it's it's out of control what is a box that doesn't exist that you would be very into getting money is no object pickles that i want to give you a minute to really think about it because you said pickles real fast and it can't be imagine getting a bunch of just sorry babe different pickles every month? A bunch of pickles in a box that

comes to your door that sits outside in the 100 degree heat and I didn't hear them knock on the door so that one's done. Babe, they're sealed up in jars. They're fine. I'm going to search pickle of the month. Do you mean it? I would like pickles. Pickle subscription.

Oh baby. Are there pickle boxes? There's six. There's mouth, pickles every month, pickle of the month club, pickled veggie of the month club, lemon bird pickle of the month club, bunkie pickles,

and mouth cravings every month box. Okay, I think that one's done. So there's four. All right, all right. Let me try again. Let me try again. Oh, what if there were some kind of meal kit that would deliver pre-proportioned ingredients?

This has been our most advertising, unpaid advertising filled fucking, like nobody's ever going to advertise with us again after this musical instrument of the month that one would be expensive but i'd be very into that one it'd be like what'd you get this time uh melodica like instruments from all over the world yeah that'd be fucking great that's a really good one what about you griffin what do you want i want that one yeah i don't think they have that one all right get at me well i mean it's financially impossible but that might be why but not necessarily if it's like a little one kazoo

is an instrument yeah i would be really pissed off if i paid like 60 a month for a fucking musical instrument and it was oh it was like a kazoo and then the next one i got was like an alto kazoo and the next one is like a harmonica, which I'm sorry, folks. It's like 12 kazoos all taped together. What if it's like one month? It's like a harmonica made out of wood. And then the next month it's a harmonica made out of brick. Oh, which one can the wolf play?

So this is wonderful. This is the show that we did and we can't undo it hopefully we'll continue to do what do you mean hopefully well you know maybe people didn't like this episode is it because we tried to sell them things without any benefit to us whatsoever are we tastemakers i don't think so that seems like a lot of responsibility so here's a submission from grace who says uh pepsi cola go get it huh that's weird and daryl says ford trucks they got the f-150 is so fast and good go buy one of those they're cheap grace says recently i have been getting to work about 20 minutes early to take a short power

nap with my windows down in my car. I even keep a little pillow in the car. It feels so refreshing and gets me in a great place to face the day ahead. Where do you live, Grace? What part of the country? Because, Texas, I do not think you could attempt this maneuver. I'm glad

you rolled the windows down for sure. But like, if you did this shit in Texas, it would be. I like the idea of people parking next to her and then very like quietly closing their door and being like, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Yes, I mean, I do love a nap. Not even locking their car because they don't want to disturb her.

I love a nap. I love a during the workday nap. I always really resonated with that episode of The Office where it's Kelly's birthday and they tell her she can either nap for an hour or watch TV for an hour and she picks the nap and I'm like, yeah, that's right. Well, you've never, or at least not lately, have you had anyone to tell you no? That's true. Last time this was applicable is when I fell asleep in the back room at TCBY when I was the only employee there, and so I may have missed a few customarinos. Abby says, I'm thankful for free samples at Costco. I love Costco. Get there. Buy all the things. Consume. Consume. Consume. I rarely ever go, but when I do, I make sure to plan it over lunch. Nothing makes me happier than having a free little snack every 15 feet. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Yep. Jerky.

Fruit leather. I always feel a little, like, debased, though, when there's a line of people in front of the sample. I love it, though. I love that shame. Georgia says, one thing I find wonderful is my dad's birthday scavenger hunt. My dad started a tradition in my family

that as soon as the birthday celebrator wakes up on their special day, the next hour or so is spent searching the house for clues he's written and hidden around the house that ultimately lead to a birthday prize. I love that. Can I tell you about a game I made up when I was a kid? Yes.

I called it Detective H&S and it was like hide and seek, but it was with clues. So your friend would hide somewhere and leave clues around the house so you could find them. I'm just trying to turn the thermostat way up. Can't hide forever, Mike. It's hot as hell, Mike.

Oh, I got a nice tall glass of lemonade. Smells good, doesn't it, Mike, the lemonade? Smells pretty good right about now. Yeah, I got up to about 130 in here. So, you sure, Mike? Uh-oh. Anyway, it's been the highlight of birthdays in my family for over a decade. And it's especially wonderful because even if it isn't your birthday, you still get to run around your house in pajamas, help solve the riddles, and, of course, have birthday cake for breakfast at the end.

That's a win-win-win. Yeah, I want to do that for Henry when he's older. Yeah, or we could do it for him this coming birthday when he wouldn't be old enough to appreciate it, but we definitely would. But wait, we'd have to get somebody to come into our house and hide all the clues. I'm sure there's a subscription service for that. Jim Carrey? He played the Riddler in the Batman movie?

He'd come to your house and make clues for you? Make clues all over. Okay. And he's so good at it, you would not, it would be like four months after Henry's birthday, and, you know, I'd be washing my hands, and I'd see something unadditional. He'd fall out of a closet.

Yeah. Say, smoke in! Yeah. Fuck, that's good. So that's the show. Thank you so much for listening. 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.

And MaxFun, I mean, what is there to say? A lot, actually, because they're a big network and they got a lot of good stuff. They're a wonderful network with wonderful creators. Yeah, shows like The Greatest Generation. And Minority Corner. And Stop Podcasting Yourself. And Friendly Fire. yeah shows like the greatest generation and minority corner and stop podcasting yourself and friendly fire and switchblade sisters and bubble and so many more at maximum fun.org and if you want to hear more stuff we do it's at mackroy shows.com i'm going to mention it here i don't think i've ever talked about it on this show but we made a graphic novel adaptation of

the adventure zone our first arc here there Gerblins, and I'm only mentioning it now because it comes out next week. So if you haven't pre-ordered it, you can at theadventurezonecomic.com and take a look at it, and I hope everybody likes it. But yeah, so go look at that, and I think that's it.

And what else is there? Where should people send the things that they love? Oh, you can send those to wonderfulpodcasts at gmail.com, and we'll find them there. And talk about them on the show. Try and keep them tight, like two sentences or so, and maybe we'll pick you. And we don't really have any sort of metric for what makes a good one of those,

but we just kind of feel it out. Okay, I think that's it. Thanks for listening to the episode, and I guess Pizza Hut, Nike shoes. Oh, I think that's it. Thanks for listening to the episode, and I guess Pizza Hut, Nike Shoes. Oh, good, good, good. Pizza Hut, Nike Shoes, Nabisco, Lids, the store at the mall.

Yeah. They're a big one. Uh-huh. Crash Bandicoot. Reebok Adidas and Heinz

Heinz that's it bye Money won't pay. Money won't pay. Money won't pay. Money won't pay. MaximumFun.org Comedy and culture. Artist owned. Listener supported. Hi, this is Jay Keith Van Straten, host of Go Fact Yourself here on the Maximum Fun Network.

On Go Fact Yourself, we take the smartest people we know and make them look dumb. Paul, by the way, how much do you know about chicken husbandry? You gotta give him that grain. All right. Gotta give him that grain. And then smart again. What future Hall of Fame pitcher for the Cleveland Indians became the first active player to enlist?

Bob Feller. Oh, okay. We've got me, co-host Helen Hong, plus celebrity guests and actual surprise experts. In the coming weeks, you can hear guests like Maria Bamford, Tom Bergeron, Paul F. Tompkins, Janet Varney, and Grant Imahara. And if you're in the New York area, come check us out live. We're doing two shows there on July 21st and July 22nd.

Go to GoFactorPod.com for tickets and more. We'll see you in New York or on the first and third Friday of every month here on the Maximum Fun Network.