Should You Keep It Platonic?

Clip: [00:00] Don't be fooled by Uncle Pete. He might look cute. Apparently ate a man in Korea. Did he say what it tasted like? Wasanya. I bet that guy hates Mondays The thing about that girl in there that you gotta remember is she has a dead cool tattoo. Dave: [00:15] This is the Extra, Extra Hot Great Podcast, episode 367 for the August 9th, 2025 weekend. I am Deadpool Tattoo David T. Cole, and I'm here with WASPy alcoholic Sarah D. Bunting. Sarah: [00:35] It's five o'clock in Ibiza. Dave: [00:37] And Champagne Chef Tar Ariano. Tara: [00:39] It's actually a dry Spanish cider. Welcome to Extra, Extra Hot, Great for another weekend. Thank you so much for your support. Thank you for being here. Thank you for helping us pay for Apple TV Plus again so that we can talk about season two of Platonic. In this show, we'll. Seth Rogan, and Sylvia Roseburn were extremely close friends in college, so much that Sylvia's eventual husband Charlie, Luke McFarlane sometimes found it hard to find space in their relationship for himself. When Sylvia and Will fell out over Sylvia's frank expression of dislike for Will's first wife Audrey, they spent several years estranged, but Will and Audrey's marriage didn't last, allowing Sylvia to rekindle their friendship, and the two picked up like no time had passed. A couple of goofs who egg on each other's chaos. At the end of the first season, Will met Jenna, Rachel Rosenblum, a restaurant chain CEO. They got engaged, and in season two, it's time for Sylvia to plan their wedding festivities, starting with their engagement party in the season premiere. Seems like Will's finally settling into middle age, but one should never underestimate his or Sylvia's talents for ruining their own lives. The show is co-created by Nicholas Stoller, recently seen as Himself in season one of the studio and Francesca Del Banco, a husband and wife team who previously collaborated on the five-year engagement. The first two episodes of the season dropped August 6th on Apple TV We got access to the whole season and may talk about events from any episode, although we will be careful about spoilers beyond the first two. Let's do the chun check-in. Sarah, should our listeners watch Platonic? Sarah: [02:29] Yeah, I like it a lot. Dave: [02:31] I also enjoyed the Platonic, and season two seems to be more of the same, although the dynamics have changed. But let's see what happens. Tara: [02:39] The dynamics have changed for sure, but it's a yes for me as well. I really love this show, and I kind of forgot about it though, because There was such a long time between seasons. It premiered in the spring of 2023. But, Dave, after you liked the studio, I thought you might like this one too. Dave: [02:55] Mhm. Tara: [02:55] Talk about how right I was and why. Dave: [02:58] Grade me, tell me I'm good. Sarah: [03:01] Evergreen request. Dave: [03:03] This was a good suggestion. If you enjoyed like neighbors, you'll enjoy the calmer version of Neighbors, which is platonic. And you know, props to them, it is still platonic. They're not playing the When will it all change? card, at least not until the point I've watched, and hopefully never. Sarah: [03:20] Exactly. Dave: [03:21] Doesn't seem like that kind of show that would do that to us It's funny and light. I mean, light is a bad word with comedy. I think sometimes you get the wrong impression. It's airy. It's an airy show, and I enjoy And they're allowing the characters to play off each other in a real feeling way while still being in service of comedy. It feels, I don't want to say true to real life, but it feels universe true. You know, one of the like these people are goofing off each other. They're very involved in each other's lives. It's quite funny, but it all feels right. It's a little heightened, but it still feels true to itself. Tara: [04:00] Yeah, thank you for bringing up neighbors because the two leads plus Stoller all worked on that as well. Neighbors and Neighbors too. Dave: [04:06] And Bern and Rogan are great together. Tara: [04:09] They are so good. Sarah: [04:09] Yeah, agree. Dave: [04:10] They proved their chemistry before, and it's just more the same here. Tara: [04:13] Yeah, the reason I thought you would like it is the relationship-y parts of shows like Friends and How I Met Your Brother tend to bug you. But for the title down, the show is explicitly not that. It's about friendship. So, Sarah, you have said in the past it can be challenging to watch Seth Rogan because he reminds you so much of your brother. But here he is very much being the opposite of romantic. Did that help? Dave: [04:34] I never thought about it, but your brother is very Seth Rogan-y. Sarah: [04:38] Yeah, but like m more sort of self-aware and less of a like chaotic Force, at least in the character Seth Rogen tends to play. What I liked about this is that it has like cringey elements, but it doesn't go full cringe. Comedy. So heightened is exactly the right word. That, like, is the chaos element a little bit bigger than it would be in life? Yes. But there's never that sense that, like, I can't Watch this, even though I have to watch this for my job, that I'm like, like slung back in my desk chair, like, oh God, I just can't. Like, this is so uncomfortable. This is more like recognizable. Social discomfort that doesn't get into that sort of non-credible. Why does anyone know these people? People at all, much less why do they know each other and want to hang out, unless the only reason is that nobody else can stand them? Like, it's a recognizable level of like. Tara: [05:38] Uh-huh. Sarah: [05:42] But that sort of exhausted sigh that you sometimes feel about family and close friends, that you're just like, this is who they are. And you believe that they know each other for a long time. You believe the catalyst that drove them apart. You believe what brought them back together. It's a believable relationship, and they're cast perfectly, not just because they're both talented, but first of all, and you pointed this out in your review, which we will link in the show notes That cracked that they have good friend chemistry, but there's no chemistry sort of like supra that between them. So you're really not worried, like Dave said, that they're gonna. Midway through, be like, oh, and then there's going to be Frenching, and it's a whole different show. Tara: [06:23] Yeah. Sarah: [06:26] And also, that they invert somewhat the Expectation that the guy wearing the Hawaiian shirt with the maybe ironic mullet is going to be the chaos agent. Like sometimes he is, but just as often, she's the one just derping up whatever situation. Dave: [06:43] Is your experience only with the second season so far, Sarah? Sarah: [06:47] Yes. Dave: [06:47] Speaking of who is the chaos agent in the show, there's one episode Season one, where Sylvia ruins a painting at her new job, like of the CEO, the portrait. Sarah: [06:56] Oh, yeah. Tara: [06:57] Ah Mhm. Dave: [07:00] Yeah, okay. So she ruins it. She gets punctured right in his face, and she has to repair it. And by the end of the episode, he has a cock for his nose. And that's what's up there. Sarah: [07:09] Yeah. Dave: [07:11] And that's what I mean when I say it's like the relationship is believable, but the setting is heightened. Sarah: [07:11] Yeah. Dave: [07:17] Like that whole scenario where they go on this journey to find this. Storied, sort of semi-legendary artist in town who can do all this. And he's such a artiste that he decides that the CEO must have a cocknose. And that's what ends up back on the wall the next day. It's a little 30 rocky, but not so much that all the characters no longer seem grounded. And that episode, I feel like, is the most heightened. In that nature. But as far as like the chaos element goes and who can bring it, it definitely was an all-star exemplar. Sarah: [07:51] Well, I think Thirty Rock also was skilled at understanding internally, like within itself, how Heightened or how surreal things were going to get, and then just like being informed by its own understanding of how bizarro this world was going to be. And I would say the same thing about Platonic, that it's very sure footed in terms of how wild is this going to be? How unbelievable are we willing to get? And what is underpinning all of it that makes people want to keep Spending time with these characters, so well. Dave: [08:26] And the other thing I think they're smart about is they often shunt all that elastic reality heightened characteristics to the supporting characters. The partners at the bar he has in the first season, the CEO of the place he ends up working in season two. Tara: [08:40] Yeah. Dave: [08:44] He meets at the end of season one. And they have a fight. You got your meat, you got your potatoes, and then everybody else sort of like jazzes it up a bit Big and Crosby. Tara: [08:52] Yeah, agreed. I mean, I think if this show were appreciated properly, we would be talking more, though, about how good Rogan and Byrne are as a comedy duo. Good separately, of course, but they're so good. Like their powers multiply together in a way that, like, I want them to continue working together for the rest of my life, like Steve Martin and Martin Short style. Yeah. Exactly. Sarah: [09:17] It does feel like a partnership that is extremely lived in, going back much further than the actual calendar says it does. Tara: [09:20] Mhm. Mm-hmm. Sarah: [09:24] So good job, Show. Tara: [09:25] The season two premiere establishes that Will is getting hesitant about the wedding because he has a crush on the girl who works in his favorite sandwich place. I mean, relatable, but of course, it's just a side effect. I mean, because of the sandwiches, not the girl. It's just a side effect of his fiancé Jenna being very annoying. And I think this is a common experience people have with their friends' partners. Obviously, no one here, even though Dave inflicts. Me on Sarah several times a week. How did you feel the show did portraying this dynamic, Sarah? Sarah: [09:57] Um, like that's just life. That's life as an adult is sort of mixing and matching these partnerships and the time that you're spending and the emotional investment that you're making. In each one, and then sort of all of them together. And it's not played as like, what a hassle. It's not played as like, you know, but this is part of what makes us human. And, you know, birds and rainbows. Like, it just is. And is funny and can bring out the worst in people in funny ways, but also the best. Tara: [10:30] Yeah, it's a very LA show and but they style Jenna to be very San Diego, like with the sort of Lily Pulitzer styles and like the whole country club setting and all of her weird family and the toast that she wants him to do in the premiere where she He doesn't want to. Sylvia's like, is it racist? No, homophobic. Islamophobic? He's like, yes, it's Islamophobic. No, it's just corny. And then it super is. Sarah: [10:55] Mm-hmm. Tara: [10:56] They her character like she can't be on the far side of Unbearable if we're gonna believe Will ever wanted to propose to her in the first place and also for the sting that happens at the end of the second episode to really land. Sarah: [10:56] Oh. Tara: [11:10] Because they have a moment that is, I was shocked. I think I might have been like, oh, when it happens. Dave: [11:15] So Sylvia and her have a moment. Tara: [11:17] Yeah, Sylvia and Jenna have a moment. Sarah: [11:19] That's sort of what I was talking about before, that like you sort of are like her? Like, yeah, that moment is like, ooh, but it's like you said, like, they can't make her too, too boring, too henpecky, too blah, whatever. They can't make her too anything. Tara: [11:35] Before that, yeah. Sarah: [11:36] or it doesn't, or it's not believable. Tara: [11:38] Right. Sarah: [11:39] But then they carefully sort of seed these little things that once you get to a certain point with the character, you're like, oh Like slowly, the temperature is being turned up on the frogan in this in this pot. Tara: [11:52] Yeah. Yes. Yeah. But on the way there, we get the line where Sylvia is like, I just want her to be the kind of friend where we talk about getting drinks, but we never do. It was like, oh boy, that is precise. That is the kind of person in your life. Sarah: [12:05] So precise, it sure is. Tara: [12:07] I get that. Charlie also has Sylvia's husband has a tough line to walk, as the stable, good guy who is. Fine with Will and Sylvia's friendship so that the viewer can be fine with it, but is also sort of like the normal person in the world commenting on it being weird sometimes. But rolling with their kinds of nonsense, like some and sometimes being a little jealous about it. But again, not in a sexual way, just like, oh, I'm jealous of their friendship, truly. And great writing gets you there. We should also shout out Luke McFarlane's great performance in Sexy Arms, I feel. Dave: [12:40] In what? Tara: [12:41] And his sexy arms. Dave: [12:42] Sexy arms, okay. Tara: [12:43] Yeah. Dave: [12:43] All right. Tara: [12:44] He gets a bigger storyline starting around the middle of this season that I won't spoil, but it's really fun. And it's Really, a joy to see him dig into it because I think he is also an underused actor. He's done about a million Hallmark movies. As well as the Billy Eichner movie Bros, which he was great in. And so all of this com keeps coming back to I want more people to know about this show and watch this show because I think it's like o off people's radars. Sarah: [13:10] Yeah, agree. I thought it was something else completely, starring someone else completely, that I was like, oh, is this that Thing with Jason Bateman. Why does Tara like this? And then I don't know what I was thinking of. It's not that. Tara is right. We've just told you how. Clip: [13:31] I know, she does have a dead pull tattoo. I keep telling myself it's from before when the movie's. Came out, but it's not. It's from probably around when the second movie came out. It's really bad. Thank you. Dave: [13:49] It is time for everybody's favorite segment with their favorite theme, whether you know it or not. It is time for Ask E H G. All right, before we get to your questions for us, it is time to pass judgment on last week's Ask, Ask, ESG question and real wheel, real wheel spinning. Sarah will be our judge this week. Sarah: [14:27] I will. And the question comes from Milsnack, who asked What is the best second episode of a TV series? We had a lot of answers for this. Many of them were wonderful, but I really had to work to narrow it down. I decided as finalist to stick to the shows that I had actually seen. Melissa 1776 said, For me, the best second episode must stand out more than the pilot. And in my opinion, the second episode of Arrested Development, Top Banana, Taste the Frozen Banana. I'm not big on quoting TV shows, but There Is Always Money in the Banana Stand is something I say consistently, including often at work. To remind others that there is always money somewhere. In addition to this all-time line, this is also the episode that demonstrates how this show could take a joke and literally explode it into another joke. Damon Silver's wife, Jen, who was echoed by Hellcat 13, said Breaking Bads, cats in the bag. Lots of character development. Skylar confronts Jesse. Walt starts to feel the difference between his normal self and what will become Heisenberg, etc. Agree, like a leap forward from the pilot, in my opinion. Evil Dolphin picked Band of Brothers. Day of Days is my pick, Dolphin says. The series goes from a mat first episode and shows you what it's going to be, and having just rewatched that. Excellent prospect. Before I get to our winner, Tara, did you have one of these? Tara: [15:50] I did. It's AP Bio Season 1, Episode 2, Teacher Jail. And if you don't believe me, ask the Cannon because it sailed in. Sarah: [16:00] I do believe you, and I think that showed up on the Discord as well. And our winner is Prof Reader. The second episode of Call the Midwife, I don't think it has an episode title, is fantastic. It's the one I always recommend that people new to the series watch. This episode has the arrival of Miranda Hart as chummy, her arc from being unsure, slash not fitting in, slash trying her best. to managing a difficult birth on her own with no help. It brings me to tears without fail, and I have probably watched this episode six or more times. The minute she got to managing a difficult birth, I was like, oh, and then I teared up a little bit. So, of course, this had to be our winner, Prof Reader. Please contact David T. Cole directly on Discord for your stickers. Dave: [16:48] Yes, thank you. And we do have new stickers. I don't know if I mentioned it last week. We have that's bullshit stickers and we are domer stickers. Sarah: [16:54] Mhm. Dave: [16:55] We are all domer stickers. Sarah: [16:57] We are. Dave: [16:57] All right, let's get to your Ask ESG questions for us this week. First one comes from Damon. What would be the worst addition to the Tommy Westphal universe? Tara. Tara: [17:06] Okay, here are things that I looked up and then were already in there. Dave: [17:10] Yeah. Tara: [17:11] Urkel, the newsroom. Dave: [17:12] Yep. Sarah: [17:12] Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Tara: [17:15] What we do in the shadows, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and the other two all are already in the Tommy Westvault universe. Dave: [17:17] Okay. Sarah: [17:17] Mm-hmm. Dave: [17:20] Wow. Tara: [17:25] So almost by default. Sarah: [17:25] Yeah. Tara: [17:27] I know this much is true, aka this things I believe. Not in the Tommy Westphal universe, so let's keep that depressathon out of it, in my opinion. Dave: [17:36] Wow. Mhm. Tara: [17:38] Sarah. Sarah: [17:39] The bear for many of the same reasons. But yeah, I also went through a long process of like, surely this isn't, oh, come on. So yeah, the bear. You think it's so serious now? Wait till NBC Eighty's Primetime gets involved. Dave. Dave: [17:54] Well, I approach this a little differently, I guess, because I was sure there is probably a Tommy Westphal universe show that references Tommy Westphal, which means we're creating a recursive snow globey mess. Tara: [18:07] Yeah, news radio. Dave: [18:09] Okay, so there we go. That can be our vector, in which case we're now you're in an infinity mirror situation where there's a snow globe and a snow globe. With a snow globe within news radio, within a snow globe within St. Elsewhere within news radio, it just goes on forever. So it's like basically the TV black hole. Tara: [18:26] M Everyone on Dawson's Creek Might act a little more normal if they knew how they were coming across to the rest of us. Dave: [18:26] Maybe there's a singularity at some point where you get turned into spaghetti, but maybe it just goes on forever. Excite Mike. What shows would be improved if a character on that show watched the show they were actually on? Sarah. Sarah: [18:39] You could really say this about any police procedural, but I don't think it would be the worst idea to have a Law and Order SVU character who performs the Randy in Scream function. Where they're like, Well, it can't be this guy because he's too busy stacking crates to even stop to talk to us for two minutes. It's also not this guy because we've only been investigating for checks, watch, twelve minutes. What about this other guy they showed in the criminal intent style cold open intro they're now doing? Or that they're pointing out to one P P Brass who questioned Benson's methods or attitude that she is portrayed by an executive producer and activist? Like, just lampshade the shit at this point. Just my opinion. Dave. Dave: [19:19] Fresh off the King of the Hill revival, I'm going to say Dale Gribble's paranoid fantasies about always being watched are Fantastically proven true when he realized that he is on a TV show and part of the TV show. Sarah: [19:28] Mm-hmm. Dave: [19:32] Very Elon Musk. We're all in a simulation-esque. So I feel like that would really reinforce the character. Sarah: [19:37] Love that. Dave: [19:38] Tar. Tara: [19:45] I mean, not acting, but you know, speaking. It's a lot. Sarah: [19:49] Yeah, it is. Dave: [19:50] Mill snack, which one of Dave's stickers would you make scratch and sniff and what would be the smell? I think the new that's bullshit sticker, which would not smell like bullshit, which makes it bullshit. Tara: [20:00] Mah clever. Dave: [20:02] Yes, it's very clever. Sarah: [20:03] Maps are not a good idea. Tara: [20:04] Well, with all due respect to Mad Max on his way to the gynecologist, I'm going to say the cake, and it smells like cake. Dave: [20:11] Ironically, Dusty, that sticker, Sarah. Sarah: [20:15] I thought someone might take the cake, so I went with the gidget what the fuck sticker, and it's gonna smell like old school coppertone SPF4. Tara: [20:23] Mm-hmm. Dave: [20:24] Yep. Tara: [20:25] Yeah, the beach. Mm-hmm. Dave: [20:26] To pickles, granola, yes or no? Tara: [20:30] Yes, Dave. Dave: [20:31] Yes in theory, no in calorie practice. Tara: [20:33] I wasn't gonna say that part, but yes, sadly. Dave: [20:36] It's like you take two pieces of granola and it's 10,000 calories. Tara: [20:40] Why is it so fatty? Dave: [20:40] How? It's nuts and oats. Tara: [20:42] I don't get it. Dave: [20:43] Why are you doing this to me? Sarah: [20:45] That's why, so you can get a lot of nutrition in your backpack. Also, used to be yes for me. Now, no, because so much more of it gets trapped at the gum line than it used to. When I started eating it, so yeah, pasola. Dave: [21:00] Is it because your gums are different, or you've forgotten how to eat? Sarah: [21:04] Yes Oh, my God. Dave: [21:05] Okay. I had a piece of popcorn hull or whatever you call that stuck inside of my gum. It was like an iceberg, 90% in the gum and 10% sticking out because it just got. Sarah: [21:15] Yep, mm-hmm. Dave: [21:16] Fucking jammed in there. I spent three hours trying to get that fucker out. And when it finally came out, it's like taking the biggest fucking dump you've ever taken in your life. Sarah: [21:26] It really Truly, having tomato seeds now will lay down flat in one of my back molars and then just like it's like an adhesive in there. Dave: [21:27] It felt so good coming out. Tara: [21:27] Jeez, oh my God. Dave: [21:35] Oh no. Mhm. Sarah: [21:39] Seven toothpicks later, I actually like brought it into the kitchen as a warning to the other tomatoes in the harem. It's like, look, might not be today, might not be tomorrow, but I'm going to fucking get you. Dave: [21:51] All right, yep. Tara: [21:52] Those the tooth flossers, the disposable ones, like the little plastic things Are terrible for the environment. I know that. And seem to be the number one thing people throw out their car windows because they are trash on the road all the time. Sarah: [22:04] I know. Tara: [22:05] But they really do work. I mean, between the floss part and then the pick part, like that's a very well-engineered item. Dave: [22:13] It's good for your uh bathroom wolverine cosplay. Get a few of those. Snick snick. All right. More food questions. This one from Anne with an E. Pickle pizza. Question mark. Sarah, pickle pizza. Have you heard of pickle pizza before? Sarah: [22:28] I have heard of it. I don't not get it. I think the sticking point probably is that it's Hot. Like, if this were on a like a pickle on a sandwich with cheese and tomato and other things is like, that's normal. That's standard operating procedure for me. It's that, like, everything is cooked and Hot aspect that I think might trouble people, and if you think that a piece of hot cheese pizza by itself Is gonna scorch that little triangle at the top of your mouth. Wait until you get a hot pickle into the conversation. Hashtag that's what she said. But I would try it. I wouldn't order it for myself, I don't think. But if someone else at the table had it and was like, It's delicious. I would give it a shot, Tara. Tara: [23:10] I usually don't like pickles on a burger because I feel like I never bite them the right way. And there's always like half in the burger and half. They're just like, they're smiley. Not smiley. Dave: [23:22] She never learned to bite pickles. Tara: [23:24] They're too slimy and they're too like the consistency is too different from everything else in it. Dave: [23:29] Slimy, what kind of fucking pickles are you eating? Tara: [23:32] Can I answer? Dave: [23:33] Well, I just want to know, like, maybe your problem is you're eating old pickles. Tara: [23:37] I just don't care for them, as you know, on a burger. However, a finely diced dill pickle on a cheeseburger pizza, I'm with it. Dave. Dave: [23:47] I mean, this pickle thing's tearing us apart. You know how I love pickles. Tara: [23:50] I do know. It's why I rarely talk about it. Dave: [23:53] I'm so happy with the ascent of the pickle as the flavor you add to things of the year. Tara: [23:59] Yes. Dave: [23:59] I mean, I'm it's going to end soon. I'm going to be sad If they fucking ever get rid of air, light and crispy, goldfish, spicy deal pickle flavor, I'm going to be sad. Tara: [24:08] Yeah, they're more pickley than a pickle. Dave: [24:10] Yep. Tara: [24:10] I don't know how they did it. They're like super concentrated pickle flavor. Dave: [24:13] Yep. Sarah: [24:14] The food scientists in central New Jersey bring you another delicious miracle. Tara: [24:18] I think I can eat about four of them and then my tongue wants to fall off. Dave: [24:22] Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're great. Tara: [24:22] So I'm happy for Dave, but you know, just for you. Dave: [24:25] I think I would definitely try it. And I've seen places locally that sell it. But the problem is, there's one pizza place near us that's so good and so much better than any other pizza place around. that I feel like I need to wait for them to do it because otherwise you're like settling for the shitty crust or whatever the other places fall down on. But I think if they did have it, speaking to Sarah's point, I think the trick is to order it and then put it in the fridge and then eat it cold. I think it would be way better cold than it would be hot. Sarah: [24:52] I think that's excellent, excellent strat. Dave: [24:56] Great. Deanna has our next food question. No, it's just for me. Has Dave tried Sauerkraut yet? There was a sauerkraut discussion, I think, in the hot dog toppings. Frufra. Tara: [25:09] Mm-hmm. Yeah. Dave: [25:10] And I said, Well, that sounds all right. Maybe I'll try that. I tried it. It was fine. Not my favorite. Don't think I would bother going for it again. When it comes to pickled vegetables, the pickled onion is my favor Well, you know, it's cabbage. It doesn't have much flavor to start with. So you're basically just eating crunchy vinegar strips. Sarah: [25:26] Is it like a rated R like with caraway seeds in it? Dave: [25:26] So. Sarah: [25:30] Because that's the real shit. Dave: [25:31] Yeah, I didn't see any seeds in it, so maybe I just had shitty sauerkraut. Sarah: [25:35] It's like rye bread and pickles had a kid. Dave: [25:38] Yeah, I like those two things you just described. If I could put that in my mouth, I'd be very happy. Sarah: [25:43] Yeah. Tara: [25:43] Yeah, that's your shit. Dave: [25:43] So maybe I just got bad sourced. Well, somebody recommend me one I can go by somewhere and I'll try it again. Tara: [25:45] Mm-hmm. It's probably not hard to make. Dave: [25:50] I'm not making sourced. Tara: [25:51] Okay, I don't know. Oh, I'm sorry. The guy who's making his own pineapple drink from scratch in our back room right now. I didn't realize you were above making sauerkraut. Sorry. Sarah: [26:01] I thought you were gonna say in our bathroom, I was like, guys, you got bigger problems than fucking mice in the ceiling. That's all of us. Dave: [26:09] When I make my own beverages, I like to make a tub's worth at a time. Tara: [26:13] Uh-huh. Dave: [26:13] Work smarter, not harder. Sarah: [26:15] Oh, my God. Tara: [26:15] Well, since I brought it up, do you want to tell the listener what you're making? Dave: [26:18] Yeah, I forgot the name of it. It's Tapiche or something like that. I have no idea how I even pronounce it, but it's a fermented Mexican street drink, and you take the rinds off a pineapple and you throw it in a pot with one of those ziggurats of brown sugar. You put that in with some cinnamon and some cloves, and then you pour that mixture over the pineapple, and you just let it sit in a hot room for three days, and it ferments and gets bubbly, and you drink it. Tara: [26:46] Tepache de Piña. Dave: [26:48] Yeah, it's delicious. Sarah: [26:49] Buena Suerte And yeah, the the for the Memorial Podcast, Extra Hot Dead. Dave: [26:51] Yeah, so we'll see. So, either I'm gonna drink it and love it, and it'll be super fresh, or I'm gonna drink it and it will kill me. Tara: [27:02] Or you're going to have a sip and then corrode our pipes forever. Dave: [27:02] Yep. Yeah. Dr. Calhoun, have you ever had any dreams or nightmares about podcasting I have. I usually just have stress dreams that I forgot to pull a bunch of things, you know, just like put the wrong date on or something like that. Normal going to school and your underwear stuff, but I also had a dream that we got a big celebrity guest, and they couldn't tell you who that guest is. I just knew they were a big deal just by the way everybody's reacting in the dream, and millions of people. We're trying to get to the episode, but I just kept on, like multiple times in a row, just putting up a version of that episode that was just our Theme and then it ended, and people were getting more and more angry at me throughout the day. And I'm like, I'm trying. Sarah: [27:48] Oh no. Dave: [27:48] It says, here is an hour and a half. And then I upload it, and it's only a minute and a half. I don't know what's happening. I never got it up. And like, our podcast. absolutely tanked and like we had to like, you know, go into the witness protection program for podcasters or whatever. Tara: [28:03] Based on what I know about what Dave knows about current celebrities, I'm going to guess this was Dua Lip Or possibly Shabuzi, because when his name came up in Hitmakers last week, Dave's the face on Dave is like, nope, absolutely no idea. Have never heard those syllables together before. Dave: [28:17] No, I mean, I don't know the way my brain works in dreams exactly, but I wouldn't have put them as people I know who are celebrities and big. Tara: [28:22] Mhm. Right. Dave: [28:27] I still don't know who Shibuzi is. Tara: [28:29] Uh-huh. Dave: [28:29] I know Dua Lipa is a singer, but also has a podcast interview kind of thing or something like that. Tara: [28:33] Maybe. Probably. Dave: [28:35] That's as much as I know. I couldn't tell you any of her songs or what she looked like or anything like that. Tara: [28:39] Mm-hmm. Dave: [28:40] So, I think, like, I'd have to go back and, like, who would be the celebrity that would generate that much excitement that I actually know of? I swear to God, the name I would probably pull is like, oh, it's probably like Justin Timberlake. I'm like, So I don't know that story. Tara: [28:54] And then he emails you, this is going to ruin the tour. Sarah: [28:55] When are we? Tara: [28:58] What tour? The world tour. Dave doesn't know that story, everybody. Nope. Dave: [29:02] I don't know what you mean. All right. So stress dreams about podcasting, Sarah. Sarah: [29:07] No. Sometimes my co hosts are in my dreams, but it's not it's just 'cause I like know them. Tara: [29:08] Wow. Dave: [29:13] Let the pickle pizza get cold. Sarah: [29:17] It's not about podcasting. I don't know. Tara? Tara: [29:21] Yeah, I'm like Dave. I probably have A podcast stress dream about as often as I have a school stress dream still at age 87. But so, probably once a month, I'll dream a taping is starting that I haven't prepared for. A taping is starting and I forgot to make the dock. I booked a guess who blew us off. This is not what happened with Pam. Or I missed a taping and everyone else did it without me, and now they're mad at me. Dave: [29:48] If you weren't around to organize this podcast, we wouldn't be around to tape it without you. Sarah: [29:53] Yeah, no. Dave: [29:53] So I think you can short circuit that particular stressor. Sarah: [29:56] Slash, we apologize for causing your unconscious to torture you in this manner. Tara: [30:02] Who me, the one who is currently scheduling a podcast that's dropping the week of Christmas? What are you talking about? Dave: [30:09] Kara has our next one. Are there any sliding doors, very dangerous events that you're glad to have escaped? Tara. Tara: [30:16] I live a very boring life, so no, but there were you can tell me. Dave: [30:20] I can think of one, but go ahead. One time when we were vacationing with Pam in Hawaii, Tara decided to have a nice literally ocean float And was getting carried out to sea until the lifeguard came and blew the whistle and got you your Yeah, you were way out there too and we're like like whistling and stuff and you're like oh what me Yeah, yeah. Tara: [30:26] Uh-huh. I forgot about that. Sarah: [30:35] I forgot about that. Tara: [30:37] We've told this story before. I forgot about that. Sarah: [30:39] Oh, God. Tara: [30:39] That's funny. I didn't. I wasn't even on like a floaty or like a surfboard or a boogie board or anything. It was just floating on my back. That was a good time. Dave: [30:51] Mm-hmm. Tara: [30:51] Anyway, what I remembered other than that was the times. when my parents lived in Karachi, when something would happen in the region or somewhere they had to go for work a lot, like Kabul or Uganda And after whatever the world event had happened, my dad would text my sister and me and be like, we're not there. It's fine. And so they probably have lots of stories like this. Every time they went to Kabul, they wouldn't tell us until they got back. So, um, you know. My parents' lies as definitely not spies were very interesting during this period of their lives. Dave: [31:23] Have you ever asked them if the school that they were attached with or them personally had ransom insurance? Tara: [31:30] I haven't asked them, but I'm sure it does. Dave: [31:32] Okay. Tara: [31:33] You know they had a guard with a machine gun like on their property, right? Dave: [31:37] I didn't know he had a machine gun. Tara: [31:39] He yeah, I saw it. Dave: [31:40] I thought he just had stern looks. Tara: [31:42] Yeah, no, Mr. Dave: [31:42] Wow. Tara: [31:43] I met Mr. Colick. He waved at me over the machine gun. Dave: [31:46] Did he let you hold it? Do you let you shoot a few rounds in the air? Tara: [31:49] I think if he ever shot anything, it probably would have been peacocks that one of their neighbors had that my dad fucking hated, but anyway. Dave: [31:53] Yeah. Wow. Tara: [31:56] So, yeah, the stuff about from King of the Hill about the living on the Aramco base, it was not that western-y, but it was on a continuum. Other than my time, I almost floated out into the middle of the ocean. Nothing for me, but a lot of memories about my parents. Dave: [32:11] Mm-hmm. Tara: [32:11] Sarah. Sarah: [32:12] 9-11. I mean, it was three blocks away. Dave: [32:14] All right, Jesus. Tara: [32:14] Yeah. Sarah: [32:16] Tower two was the first one to fall, and that was the one with the radio, the aerial on it. And that fell sort of into a hole that had been created by one of the planes. So it looked like the whole building was coming down in our direction And that was, I think, really the only time that I was like, well, that's it. I really thought I would see 30, but nope. And just like turned and walked away. and got run into by like a dozen people as a result, and was basically carried into the Bank of New York and stuffed into one section of a revolving door with like eighteen other people. It was it was a day. But, yeah, that uh like there was no reason to believe on the ground that anyone in that direction was gonna survive. That and I did. There are less bring down the roomy ones. Like there was one car wreck where it was like 17 cars. It was behind us, but then in front of my brother and his family's car going to the same event. And just realizing, like, We really dodged a bullet safety-wise, but also we'll be in Virginia in three hours. And I don't think Dave Jr. and Samantha are ever going to get there, like just shut down the whole highway. So, yeah. Slightly more fun one and a question mark. Dave: [33:37] Yeah, but do you ever like just pause for a moment and like I mean we're all witness to history, but to be that close to like the pivotable moment of the 20th century or rather 21st century, you know, beginning of it, like Yeah. Sarah: [33:49] Yeah, in a part of town I would never be in. in a at a time when I was not living in New York at all. I lived in Toronto with you guys. And it took me like usually it would take me seven and a half, eight hours to get back from New York. And the next day it took. a lot longer than that. And I spent an hour, like, with my hands on the hood of my old Honda Accord while they ran a dog all through. Like, I I think the think the party's over, guys, but sure. Have a look. Dave: [34:20] So mine is also in Hawaii. But on Maui, not the big island, one of the times that I was by myself with my camera, I'd like to explore, and I went to this place I read about that was an old train maintenance Station or something like that that had long been abandoned. It had been used a little while just for like a tourist train, but I think that had stopped as well. So I went into this building And it was really great. It was in an excellent state of decay, which I really enjoy. And I was walking around, and you know, there's just like plywood all over the floor and stuff like that. And I was walking on the plywood, and I felt it, I felt it give. Until I realized the plywood was over a giant hole in the concrete floor and it dropped 20 feet, and right under me was just like jagged machinery bits. and pieces of broken pallets, like a tiger trap almost. I think if I stayed there for about three or four more seconds, it probably would have given and like Who would even know I was there, or would have to wait until the next group of high school kids came there to get drunk or whatever before they would have found my corpse? So, uh, the Yep. Tara: [35:23] Yeah, I had no idea where you were. I was back in the hotel room having a migraine. Dave: [35:28] So I put those photos up on Blue Sky. So if you go to my account, cold. fyi, you can see what I almost fell into, and it was pretty gnarly. Tara: [35:36] There's also the times that you would like drive or go for walks under the Westside Highway and come upon people who Yeah. Dave: [35:43] Well, I would go to the Westside Highway under Riverside Park and go into the subway system. Tara: [35:49] That's what I was talking about. Dave: [35:50] Yes. Tara: [35:50] Yes. Dave: [35:50] And meet the the mole people. Tara: [35:52] The folks. Dave: [35:55] Yeah. At first you would meet their clothing, and then eventually, if you went further on, you may meet them, but there was always signs that you were now inhabiting somebody's lair. Tara: [35:57] Sure. Dave: [36:05] So Yeah. Sarah: [36:05] You're like, who has a dog down here and just lets it poop? All right. Dave: [36:11] All right, last question for us from V H F O R S What non present day show character should be hit by a contemporaneous conveyance? Sarah Horatio Hornblower is back. Sarah: [36:23] You know, not many people know this, but Benjamin Franklin was well on his way to inventing the funicular in the Sleepy Hollow alternate timeline Then a prototype, quote, tragically, unquote, smushed struggle witch Katrina Crane against a tree, and a traumatized Franklin gave up on the project. This was the easiest answer of the week, by the way, Dave. Dave: [36:49] He's back in London convening with the Admiralty. When he crosses the street, a 74-gun two-deck frigate barrels down the street, killing him instantly. Well, I didn't get any play. I thought that was going to be funnier than it was. Tara: [37:05] Henry VIII from Wolves Hall should get hit by a cyber truck, and I'm not sure which of them would survive the encounter. Sarah: [37:12] Can't believe it took this long for a Cybertruck to show up. Dave: [37:17] All right, here is your Ask Ask EASG question for you to answer on their Discord. Comes from Dixon Chance. A show of your choosing is going to add a Batman-esque visual sound effect balloon, biff, kapow, that sort of thing, that will appear on screen to accompany one of its signature noises. What is the show? What is the noise? And you must spell it like one would see rendered on screen. So put your answer in the ask, ask EHG channel on Discord, and we'll be back next week. To declare a winner Yeah, that's what I was watching. Clip: [37:51] Al, welcome back to the stage. Sasha Vellour and Shay Koule, bring back my girls. Hey, Extra Hot Grape. I'm submitting Sasha Velour's lip sync In episode fourteen of season nine of RuPaul's Drag Race for the Tiny Lip Sync Cannon. Who is expected to win Season Nine of Drag Race? Shea Coulet. Sasha was always in the top, never in the bottom, and often didn't win. That meant she never had to lip sync for her life. Over and over, we've seen a frontrunner have a vulnerable moment in a season so she can have a triumphant lip sync. Sasha was a cerebral queen who wasn't a huge contender for the top spot. Ladies, this is your last chance to impress me and save yourself from elimination. The time has come. We're going to live sync for the crowd. Shea Koole stands on the left in black pleather with a powder blue pussycat wig, and on the right, Sasha, normally bald. has long, wavy red tresses, and carries a single rose. Shay gives a very good lip sync similar to what she's been doing all season. Unfortunately she fades into the background as Sasha pulls out a fully realized number. Sasha's eye makeup gives her stares and intensity as she mangles the rose in her hand. She casts it aside. Next, she pulls off one of her long gloves that explodes red rose petals in time with the song. The crowd erupts. She emotes, she pulls off the other glove, more rose petals eventually putting on a crazed expression, pulling off her wig to have ever more rose petals fall all over herself and the stage. Ending in her signature bald luck nailing the song emotionally. Ladies, I have made my decision. Sasha Velour Shantae Uste. This lip sync changed the standard for lip syncs and drag race for the better and for the worse for many years as contestants tried to chase the surprise and ingenuities of Sasha Velour's So Emotional. There have been so many gimmicks and outfit reveals after this, but her lip sync changed Drag Race and deserves to go into the tiny lip sync canon. Tara: [40:25] I'll go first. Thank you, Sean. Sean is so right. We're going to put the clip for the lip sync in the show notes because you know Obviously, it's a very visual moment, but Sean is right that the crowd is going absolutely batshit. For All of this. The timing of the pedal reveals is perfect every time. And then when they get to the wig, it's just like pandemonium. And everyone truly has been chasing that ever since. Like every reveal of that sort, of like a thing bursting out of something, usually a wig, is drafting in Sasha Valley's wake. And the very next season, in season 10, Asia O'Hara tried to do something with live butterflies, and we'll put that in the show notes too, because the butterflies were less alive than one might have hoped for that to have really landed Yeah was was a rough one Yeah, perhaps. Sarah: [41:16] Oh no Well, tidy no neck contender. Someone do it. Tara: [41:27] But yeah, Sasha had a very distinct and specific interpretation of the song that was entirely her. And when you see it, it's it really is undeniable. So Yeah, this is a great one, in my opinion. Sarah. Sarah: [41:41] I'm glad that we got some context in terms of where this falls as like a crossroads in lip sync History, that's really helpful. If you do, listener, go and check out the lip sync to refresh yourself on YouTube. The comments are also quite instructive for context that they're like A lot of people are like, I was in the room and it was absolute fucking bedlam to an extent that, like, you think you have an idea watching it, and you don't. It was like just a jet engine wall of sound Response. I think it was really well shot by the show, showing enough reactions, but mostly focusing on the queens Sasha Velour's build with that was perfect. Like, even though you're pretty sure you know that a cascade of petals is going to come out from under the wig, it's perfectly built. In any other lip sync, like Shay's butt, that should be the star of any show that's happening, and yet And yet. And their hug and emotion at the end is really amazing. You really get a sense of how much is left on the floor and how like aerobic this show is for drag performers. So it was interesting to revisit this and to get that context. So thank you, Sean. Tara: [43:05] I'll also say Shea is great as well, and Shea ended up going on to win an all-star season later. well earned, but you can tell in the moment Shay knows she's lost. She's just will like, well, that's the ball game. Sarah: [43:19] Yeah, I mean, what else can you do? Game recognize game, for sure. Tara: [43:21] Yeah, absolutely, Dave. Sarah: [43:23] Dave. Dave: [43:25] I was watching the person that obviously was going to lose to see what they were going to do if they were going to try to gin something up in the moment, but they just sort of kept through their routine. Sarah: [43:38] That never came. And I sort of respected that. That it was like, you know what? Even that won't work. So I'm not going to be desperate. I'm just going to do my drag and get out because that's, you know, you can't fight history. Dave: [43:47] Yeah. Is the lip sync part of drag tradition? Like if you go to a drag competition, is the lip sync like an integral part of it? Or is it a RuPaul sort of Creation. Tara: [44:00] It's not always a head to head thing, but if you go to see a drag performer, they're going to do a lip sync. Dave: [44:06] Okay. I'm going to be totally honest with you. The lip sync part of RuPaul's Drag Race always seems like the most boring part of it to me. I don't really care because it's just somebody lip syncing. I just like. Tara: [44:16] It depends. It just may be that you haven't watched good ones. Dave: [44:19] Maybe. Tara: [44:19] Like good they really stand apart. Dave: [44:20] I mean, I've seen at least a dozen episodes of this, at least. Tara: [44:23] Yeah. Dave: [44:24] So, I don't know. Sarah: [44:24] They don't always shoot it well, too. That's why I mentioned that sometimes it's like it just feels very static and like you're getting no sense of what the judges are seeing. Tara: [44:26] That's true. Sarah: [44:33] That was not true this time, I felt. Dave: [44:34] Yeah, I can appreciate that, but also like their lip syncing also wasn't great. Like they didn't seem to actually be in sync a lot of the times. And I understand that the point of this presentation is that is the theatrics of it more than the actual lip syncing. And That was impress. I don't want to say impressive, but that was a step up from what we were getting before. Like, I understand that part of it. But I'm going to be honest with you, I just find the lip sync stuff really boring and I don't get excited about it. And I thought, like. The flowers were a neat touch, but for me, it doesn't really, doesn't really do it for me. So I'm probably going to vote on the no side of this, but it doesn't matter. So let's make this official. Tara Ariano, what say you? Tara: [45:16] I say yay. Dave: [45:17] Sarity bunting. Sarah: [45:18] Mm-hmm, Shante, you stay. Dave: [45:20] All right, so by two to one, that means Sasha Belure's Lip Sync from RuPaul's Drag Race. You are hereby inducted into the extra hot great lip sync cannon. Clip: [45:34] Americans love a winner. Yup. And will not tolerate a loser. Nope. Dave: [45:40] All right, I have our first not quite winner of the week. It is Adam Sandler, whom Conan O'Brien credits. With making Saturday Night Live fun again for the people that worked there at the time. It's weird to think that Conan ReBrien was the guy that was getting really. Depressed and anxious about working at Saturday Night Live. It seems like he would be the one that sort of could be cool and collected. But apparently, it's such a grind there that even Conan O'Brien was feeling it when he was there for like three or four years, whatever he was there for. And then Adam Sandler comes along being all Adam Sandler-y. I don't know how much of it is that Adam Sandler is a positive person versus Adam Sandler at that time. was so oblivious to the true nature of what was going on that he carried everybody in his like exuberance, you know, from just Yeah. Sarah: [46:26] Seems like it's probably that more could be both, though. Dave: [46:29] Yeah. I mean, the article says, like, Conor Bryan, like, just says, Sandler came in, he was just like, ah, fuck it. I want to do. Opera man, it makes no sense, but it makes me laugh, and they do it. Tara: [46:39] Mhm. Dave: [46:39] And it was that sort of attitude. It was just sort of like, I'm not worried about how this is going to affect my future chances. Tara: [46:41] Yeah. Dave: [46:45] I just know what I want to do, and this might be the only opportunity I get. So fuck it, let's go for it. That I think is perhaps the tone that separates Sandler from everybody else who's working at the time, because it seems like such a publisher perish scenario, which you got to get your sked in, or maybe next week you don't come back. Tara: [47:05] Right. I think people who come in as stand-ups have a different Attitude to all of that because there's, you know, they might have in the back of their mind, like, well, I can just go back to working by myself again because I was already successful enough to Get on Saturday Night Live. So he was already doing stand-up and he was also very young. Like he was in his young, young. He might have been like only 20 actually. So that probably helped him not get too, too stressed. Dave: [47:29] And my not quite loser of the week is Hulu, which is getting engulfed by Disney Plus in two years no, next year. 2026, this year is 2025, as I remind myself. Tara: [47:41] Yeah. Yep. Dave: [47:44] I read the article And it, there's so many parts of this article. I feel like I'm like, isn't that the way it is now? Aren't we already doing this? Isn't there already a combined It's but more combinedy than ever before, Sarah. Sarah: [47:52] And f first yeah, there is, but yeah. Dave: [47:59] That's what we look to next year. Sarah: [48:00] And then but then accept less combinee than in some ways. Dave: [48:03] Yes. Yes. Sarah: [48:05] And if they're like, well, then just combine them through your cable provider. Dave: [48:05] Exactly. Sarah: [48:09] And I'm like, well, not everyone. Has that. This angry old giraffe still does, but you don't get that much of a rebate. Or it's like with ads only for 99 a month. Like, well, why don't you stick that in your dupa? Dave: [48:22] Yeah. Sarah: [48:23] Because nobody wants that. Dave: [48:24] It's like Hulu's gonna be part of Disney Plus, except it's still gonna be Hulu. And it's like, the headline I want to see is Hulu no longer, Hulu domain sold to one of those places That you just go to their website, and there's four links that have something to do with Hulu hoops and shit like that. Sarah: [48:28] Wait, no. Dave: [48:40] That's what I want to see. I just want to see Hulu gone, everything's under Yeah, just like that's the solution. Sarah: [48:41] Yep, guys. Dave: [48:46] It's not just we're now a sub-brand. And like Tara was saying, are we going to have FX on Hulu on Disney Plus now as a thing to look forward to? Sarah: [48:55] Yeah. Yeah. Okay. On a slightly more positive note, my not quite winner is the production company A24. They are paying for therapy. For the team that made the yogurt shop murders. That's a recent and well-regarded true crime documentary release. This should be, I think, industry standard For the genre, and honestly, for like authors and long-form journalists as well. Like, do you need to talk to someone that's, we don't mean like a chat bot? Do you need to go and talk through some trauma? I think it's a good idea. Not quite loser Jesse Smollett, who is trying to start a comeback/slash pull focus from another true crime documentary that's coming out on Netflix, I think, next week as we're recording this. Smollett has joined next season's cast of Special Forces colon world's toughest test. Like, why is that still on? It has almost killed people. But coming back to not quite winners, could be us because Teresa and Gia Judice are going to be on it next season with Jesse Smollett and Brittany Cartwright. So maybe finally. The Darwinism will do what it's supposed to do, allegedly. Dave: [50:04] Yeah. I think you got it backwards. That is the goal of the show they're working towards, not trying to prevent. Sarah: [50:09] Okay. Dave: [50:10] Yeah. Sarah: [50:11] Okay. Dave: [50:11] Who will be the first? Sarah: [50:12] Yep. Still no kills. All right. Tara. Tara: [50:15] My not quite winner is TJ Hooker, an 80s cop drama starring William Shatner and Heather Locklear. And as I discovered when I was reading a story about this, Sarah. James Darren from The Last Gasps of Melrose Place, also a cast member on that show, so make a note for Again with Again With Purposes. Sarah: [50:30] Mm-hmm. Tara: [50:33] TJ Hooker is the latest property to get an ironic revival. This one is going to be a la 21 Jump Street Movies, and it's coming from the creators of The Grinder. I approve of this. I liked it in the 21 Jump Street movie. I liked the Save by the Belle revival. I think all of these attempts should be as different from the original as they can possibly be. So this is a step in that direction. Dave: [50:57] I guess good news for the 14 people that remember TJ Hooker beyond just being a punchline. Tara: [51:03] I don't think it matters if anyone remembers it. No one knows that the Fall Guy movie was based on The Fall Guy Show. Dave: [51:09] Well, that's true. Tara: [51:10] Like. Dave: [51:11] Because it mostly wasn't. Tara: [51:12] Because it mostly wasn't, but so, yeah. Dave: [51:14] Yeah. Besides the truck and the cam the stupid cameo at the end. Tara: [51:19] Yeah. Dave: [51:19] Yeah. What is going to be William Shatner's zoom in cameo appearance? Tara: [51:24] I mean, he definitely will be involved. This came up in a crack meeting yesterday, and my editor was like, Will William Shatner be there? Like, of course. Dave: [51:32] He won't be there. Sarah: [51:32] Can you keep him away? Tara: [51:32] Polishing his wig right now. Sarah: [51:34] No, no. Tara: [51:34] No, but he'll be like involved in some way. Dave: [51:36] He'll be zooming in from his stables in Kingston or wherever the hell he lives now. Sarah: [51:37] Yeah. Tara: [51:39] Yes. He'll do a do a face time from his truck. Dave: [51:42] That dude's like 93 or something now, right? Tara: [51:44] He's old. Dave: [51:45] Yeah. Tara: [51:45] I'm sure they're hoping to do it now, so he'll still be alive to do it. Dave: [51:47] Kind of filmed quick. Tara: [51:49] They'll just have him record his parts, War of the Worlds. Dave: [51:51] That's right. Sarah: [51:51] I think he's actually 94 now, one of my birthday mates, but he is in 1931. Dave: [51:54] Yeah. Well, if you want to get that Shatner cameo, I just suggest you get a quick. Sarah: [52:01] Yeah, maybe yeah, maybe just do a whole bunch of them and bank them green screen, and then you could just drop them in. Dave: [52:05] That's right. Tara: [52:05] Yeah. Dave: [52:07] Stanley style. And loser tar. Tara: [52:10] My not quite loser of the week is, and just like that, ending with season three Next week is the series finale. And when the announcement happened last Friday, after we had finished recording, officially Michael Patrick King, the creator, and Sarah Jessica Parker, said they didn't want to Announce it earlier because they didn't want people to be sad or blah blah blah. It's like, well, I don't I question how much this is your decision, perhaps. But then again, when it was renewed after season two, the press release said it was the most popular. HBO Max Original. And I can't imagine fewer people are watching it now, although the Aiden storyline in season three was tough. So it is certainly possible that they shed viewers because of that. But I'm going to point our listeners who haven't already checked it out to Sarah Jexika Parker's Instagram story from last week about it. It is a lot. She wrote a little poem, and it's the most carry thing she has ever done. Dave: [53:04] Oh here I sit, broken hearted. Tara: [53:10] Almost. It's remarkable. So find a link to that in the show notes. Sarah: [53:14] I am a shoe creaking. Dave: [53:16] Creaking. Clip: [53:28] The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC. Sarah: [53:35] Hello, Grandpa. Before we sock it to you in today's extra credit, just Quick recap of what you missed in the previous hour plus. We talked about Apple TV sitcom platonic. We named great second episodes of great TV shows. We talked about the Tommy Westphal universe and who we want to keep out of it. We talked about Pickle Pizza, not quite winners and losers, and more. It is all in that main show, and if you bump that pledge up, Justice Go, she will get the whole thing. It's new every week. We would love to have you. So, if you can, up that commitment, but we are glad you are here no matter what. because it is the anniversary of Richard Nixon resigning the Presidency as you're listening to this today, so what better time to return to his very brief but utterly on brand and awkward appearance on seminal sixties and seventies sketch show Rowan and Martin's Laugh In. Here's Tricky to rock the mic in their second season premiere, Clip Two Wrong syllable, Dick. Clip: [54:34] MBC, beautiful downtown Burbank. Oh, hello, Governor Rockefeller. Oh no. I don't think we could get Mr. Nixon to stand still for a socket to me. Socket to me? Sarah: [54:56] Nixon's opponent in the 1968 presidential race, Hubert Humphrey, apparently declined a similar opportunity to do laugh-in. I'm not sure how much This even moved the needle that year, but the fact that this prototypically awkward dad gritted his teeth and did it should tell you how this show dominated the culture during its six-year run. In case you are not familiar with the show, Actually, you probably are. You just don't realize it. Long snippets of the Dan Rowan and Dick Martin hosted Ratings Giants DNA are in Saturday Night Live, and you can't do that on television. The clip we just heard is at the end of a long socket-to-me collage, and the result of saying that phrase does seem to be physical violence or getting water thrown at you. Which, along with the so-called joke wall with cast members popping in and out of windows and doors to give punchlines, is extremely you can't do that on television. Tara: [55:50] Empty hand. Dave: [55:51] Yeah, and here's the thing. Sarah: [55:52] Yeah. Laugh in dominated ratings for several years and launched the careers of Goldie Hahn, Richard Dawson, and Lily Tomlin, among many others, and featured segments like Cocktail party, that's the one where the entire cast is fruguing and then pausing to do bits. Proto-music videos starring the show's musical guests. Laugh In looks at the news, which is a direct weekend update progenitor with a themed topic each episode, and interstitials showing a new bile cast member Dancing with winky slogans body painted on her, which was a scandalo at the time. Ongoing bits involving Tiny Tim. It was a different time. People calling the NBC switchboard to complain about the show. Obviously, not really, but if they were, it was probably about the tiny tin bits Celebrity guests helping with intros, etc. , and so on. A lot of these segments were extremely familiar to me because this was must-watch shit for Dave Sr. and Barb. And they persisted in my parents' speech and continue in hours to this day. Veri interest thing but stupid is something that I say to a pet at least once a day. That's the truth. Was something my mother did all the time. To this day, when Aaron Judge is approaching the batter's box, my father will still mutter, Here come to Judge, although that is by far the cringiest segment. And although Nixon's grimly determined attempt to reach the Utes and Alan Seuss's Paul Lind-esque sports beat anchorman are both very not great. Also, a lot of this did seem. If not, that it aged well, that it there was enough of it in later and present T V that you could sort of let it go or say it was good. Had either of you ever watched a full episode of Ronan Martin's Laugh In before? Tara: [57:44] Never. Dave: [57:45] I've never watched it. It's weird that I have watched two episodes of the failed follow-up turn on, but I've never actually watched an episode of Laughin' until now. And it kind of scrambled my brain in a bad way, to be honest with you. The pacing was so weird and like slightly off. You know, it's like listening to A 33 record at like 30. It's like, I understand the rhythms, but it's still a little bit off. It was a very odd experience. Sarah: [58:15] Yeah, that's actually a pretty good note because one of the things that you realize is A lot of the descendants of this kind of like live-to-tape sketch show, like, really perfected the pacing, and there's definitely something to be said for Frenetic: like, whether it's working or not, we're cutting in 12 seconds. But also, there's like shower curtains that I'm almost positive are still for sale at my local dollar store in the background. Everything looks really cheap. Dave: [58:42] Yeah. Sarah: [58:42] It's just very sexist. It's a lot. Dave: [58:45] It's very sexist. All the women are either dumb or or ugly. Yeah. Sarah: [58:51] Yep, or free, quote unquote, which is like a just a running running thing. Dave: [58:51] Yeah. Or having their dresses ripped off and soaked with water from stage left. That happens a lot to the twiggy looking one. Sarah: [59:01] Yeah. There's a lot here that, like the things that we just said, does not age Well, what struck you guys in particular as aging either really badly or just like was almost illegible to a 2025 viewer, Tara? Tara: [59:17] I think the thing here I would have the hardest time explaining to a teenager is what Tiny Tim was and why this joke. Sarah: [59:25] Yeah. Tara: [59:26] Happened and why it kept going for like several minutes and across several acts of the show. Sarah: [59:28] Yeah. Yeah. Tara: [59:32] But I also could see I mean, one re one descendant that you didn't mention is Monty Python's Flying Circus that would also do like links between sketches that were just a non-sequitur, like a few second shot of this or that or an animation or whatever. The difference is all these others other than Saturn Live, which is unconscionably long still, is that a Monty Python episode is 30 minutes. There's no reason this needed to be as long as it was. I don't care how much of a rating Hit it was 50 minutes of this is it's too much. And I can imagine it was a different experience, obviously, at the time when there was nothing else on, or this was the thing you looked forward, looked forward to because. There wasn't anything else like it on TV. But I also, having just finished the Lauren biography, Lauren Michaels book, because he worked on the show, I could see all of the things here that like bugged him. which come up in the book and what he wanted to do differently on Saturday Night Live. And one of those was like, the style of a variety show at this time when he was working on it is like It's almost, it's a blank slate. They keep talking about the cyclorama walls. If you're doing a sketch, it has like the barest suggestion of what the set is, like the row of desks. For the musical number. And when he did SNL, it was really important to him: like that he wanted the set to look real. He wanted the sets for everything to look as real as they could, even if that meant making them look bad and stuff. And here it's just like, this is, it's like doing sketch comedy in a hollowed out, downy fabric softener bottle. Like it could be, it's just so plastic and ephemeral. and he wanted to do something different and for whatever we can say about L SNL it it is it's different than this Yeah. Sarah: [1:01:13] He did take lessons from it, for sure. Dave? Dave: [1:01:16] I mean, with all these things, there's it's that a like a tipping point in TV history when it comes to variety shows and comedy shows? Like it is such. You know, one foot in each of those worlds. All the shitty parts of the Brady Bunch Hour and Sunny and Cher, and even like a little further back into like Texaco Variety Hour stuff. And then it has another foot in a more frenetic future with Monty Python and Saturday Night Live and everything that'll come out of that school of comedy Those two things together at the time, I totally appreciate how that would be new and exciting. Looking back on it today, it feels like Oh, they were only halfway there. That one foot in the past really feels off to me watching it now. And when you add that, okay, it's the 60s and we're still pretty sexist with everything, but also we are being very progressive with some of our topics like gun control. There is an occasional Chiron at the bottom of the screen, literally, like somebody's holding in front of the camera, I think. It says, George Wallace, your sheets are ready. It's like, oh, damn, I you can do that today. Sarah: [1:02:26] Yeah. Tara: [1:02:28] Mmm. Sarah: [1:02:28] Yeah, their commitment to bagging on George Wallace might not translate, but I've read enough history of this period that I'm like, fucking drag him, guys. Dave: [1:02:38] Yeah, so it just feels unfinished. Sarah: [1:02:42] That the counterculture was becoming the culture to it, like far enough into that transition that someone was able to convince Dick Nixon to go on it, even though he must have been like he must have had hives and been sweating the entire time. But then, edge, like, this was really edgy stuff. Like, the it that it's so pleased with itself about the you know, look that up in your funkin' Wagnalls. Like, I think you have to understand like how difficult it was to get that kind of stuff over and past the censors at that time, and you had to have some sort of like rat packy looking Straight man bro like Dan Rowan standing there in his floppy bow tie, smoking a cigarette, and literally ever seen I know. Tara: [1:03:26] Fucking up a line in the sketch where there's supposed to be like the parents that want to get higher college students to go protest for them, where it's like, This is Hen, this is what's his name from Princeton, and later he says Harvard. Just keep going, it doesn't matter because it doesn't. Sarah: [1:03:42] No, it really doesn't. Yeah, there's entire skits premised on horrific lookism The women don't really get anything good to do unless they are hags, according to standards of the time. Everyone in these tiny Tim bits. Sorry, tried to find another way to say that. Couldn't do it and ruined donut holes for everyone. Looks like Manson girls in these cheap wigs. It's really sort of sad that then Governor Reagan is still a reference that we are gonna know here in the modern era. Clip four. Clip: [1:04:16] Dateline, California, a committee to recall Governor Ronald Reagan today announced that they have so far received seven hundred eighty thousand names on their petition. Meanwhile, in Sacramento, Governor Reagan started a crackdown on California state income tax evaders. So far, he has 780,000 names on his list. Sarah: [1:04:42] Like Dave said, it's not quite there. Like that's a little labored, but also because you know everything that came after it and was inspired by it, it is sort of worthwhile. But it does seem like on this podcast we return often to the idea of the monoculture past and the loss of it. I think this is definitely a Like not bellwether, but this is an exemplar. But if the monoculture has a Roshmore or a Cooper sound, is laugh in as a cultural force in that Hall of Fame, Tara? Tara: [1:05:13] I think it's more interesting as a footnote to other stuff that would be. This was a rung on the ladder To stuff that had more impact and more edge for whatever I might say about decimal. And I've said a lot Like, this was a lot of references to stuff that I mean, the George Wallace, Your Sheets Are Ready was maybe the hardest joke in it, I think. But I think it j it didn't feel like it had a point of view And I think that's that's crucial in the better sort of satiric comedy that would come after. What do you think, Dave? Dave: [1:05:44] Honestly, I laughed at one skit here in 2025, and there is this little scenario they go back to three or four times during the hour of a strong man hitting a giant gong. And one of the times he hits the gong and like this other guy just leaps into his arms, and that's it. I was like, I don't know what that means or what it is, but this made me laugh because it was so stupid. Beyond that, the best thing was the opening clip that Sarah played with the NPC network identification movie. Tara: [1:06:12] I did love that. Sarah: [1:06:13] Mhm. It was beautiful. Tara: [1:06:15] I laughed at she got two buck teeth. Sarah: [1:06:16] Very designy. Tara: [1:06:17] Doesn't matter how much they cost. Sarah: [1:06:21] I I snorted at that. I laughed at Ann Bancroft as an undergraduate, which I was like, oh. Dave: [1:06:29] So I think my point is, I think this carries about as much cultural significance for its time as Saturday Night Live does now, which is, you know, it's there. the people that like it like it. But yeah, Ikrio Tara, that feels like more of a milestone on a continuum that has bigger winners down the line. Sarah: [1:06:50] Yeah, I think it's Like it reflects a larger shift in the culture towards like just more sort of like outre, dark, openly stonery stuff. You know, at the movies you have very famously, because it's the subject of several books and a documentary, like the sort of battle between the dying studio system and their corny musicals starring dudes who couldn't even sing. And like Bonnie and Clyde. It's interesting, I think, on that basis, but maybe it has a exhibit at the T V Hall of Fame, but maybe isn't like in it per se. Dave: [1:07:28] And that is it for this episode of Extra, Extra Hot Grate. We broke out the champagne for season two of Platonic before answering your burning ask EHG questions like: What's the worst addition to the Westfall universe and who's getting hit by a horse guard? Sean submitted a lip sig tiny cannon for his life. We celebrated those who were quite best and worst of the week. And wrap it all up with a look at Nixon on Laughing. Next up is Alien Earth on Extra Hot Great Prime. Remember I am David T. Clip: [1:08:01] We're listening. Bye. Dave: [1:08:06] Cole and on behalf of Tara Ariano. Tara: [1:08:07] So what you're saying is this is a champagne problem? Dave: [1:08:10] And Sarah D. Bunting. Sarah: [1:08:13] You bet you're sweet, Bippy. Dave: [1:08:14] Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time right here on Extra, Extra. Clip: [1:08:30] Very interesting. But it stinks. This is Extra Great Minis. Today's topic is RuPaul's 90s race. Today's extra credit topic comes to us from At Teeser, who notes Drag Race did a 90200 challenge in the most recent episode. What other 90s teen show should be a challenge on the show? Hashtag name of challenge and describe it. Dave, why don't you get it over with? I'm pretty happy with my answer, actually. Oh, good. Just squeaking in on the 90s is Roswell Ah, when the sun goes down and all the alien kids kick it at their exclusive nightclub, The Black Hole, you need to create a look that's out of this world and ready for anything. Hashtag AreaFilthy One. That's amazing. Kim. Boy, I have to follow that one. Mine is not great, but in mine, it's based on, of course, Felicity. And sorry, yours is probably better, Sarah, so you can say it. And the queens would all have to find a way to style giant sweaters and baggy jeans and tube tops. and handkerchief halter tops and somehow make them look fabulous. And it's hashtag dear Sally. Hey, Hara. Well, Sarah should go next if she also does listening. I love we did do something slightly different. Mine was also Felicity, as you've probably guessed. Mine is hashtag flip your wig and the runway Will oblige the queens to go from a long wig look to a short or bobbed wig look. All right. Mine is a natural team challenge. It's right there in the name Freaks and Geeks. Obviously, this would be a scene in which You know, the two the queens would divide into teams. Obviously, half would be freaks, half would be geeks. Could have opposing, competing lip syncs, heavy metal versus comedy pop. Ayla, Weird Al, or possibly Dr. Demento. And it would be hashtag teens and queens.