The Toy Department – Episode 464

0:00I wanna grow up, baby if I did! Why so serious? All the toys, all the time! I am the game, and still you're trying to play me! You know the rules, this is an toy! But we bought it at the toy store. We did, but the way I'm using it makes it an adult thing. Oh, hey everybody! Sorry for the abrupt stop there, but it turns out Spotify has gotten mad at me for... Finger quotes illegally using someone else's music that I wasn't authorized to use. So I had to change the intro just to get us on Spotify. Working on something new, but for now here's the toy department. Alrighty, this Friday is toy department time. I'm Derek Maddeni, tonight Kowski. Got some stuff to talk about today.

1:01Kowski, how you doing? Good. I think people could probably hear the weight of that sentence that it was more than just the normal we have some stuff to talk about today. We always have some stuff to talk about. We do, but yes, it's... There is a weight in my voice because this is a conversation that's been in all my mind for a little bit, and maybe years too, but... One, I hope not to have, but the realities of our jobs and schedules are catching up to me, and I think to you as well a little bit right now. So we have made the decision to start winding this pod down, I guess would be the best way to say it. Yeah, a couple of things. I did just as you were talking briefly, consider doing a bit here where I was like, what? That's not the understanding I thought we came to. But... We're not going to be right. I decided against it.

2:01It definitely is something that's been on my mind, and I would like to thank you for using the word jobs in the plural there, and... you know, certainly, they're different responsibilities, but I think both of us are finding the... For better or worse, ridiculous or not, I think we both took the responsibilities of this podcast fairly seriously over the years, you know? Like, sure, at times we forgot a piece of homework, but we really tried to pay attention to it and lock in and have something to say about it, and... It takes a lot of time to watch all this crap, some of which isn't even good. So... Yeah, I mean, it's just... For me, it's like there are things in the homework that I just didn't do this week, not because I didn't want to or I forgot. I just didn't have the time. Yeah, and I think we're both experiencing a similar thing. And as we've always... or at least I like to mention, you know, this podcast has never gotten us anything. So...

3:02Other than the joy of each other's company, we've gained zero from this podcast. Yes, ten years of great conversations. Yeah, and hopefully, hopefully people have enjoyed it. And I know I certainly have, and we will continue to have conversations. Just we're not going to deal with all the recording and posting nonsense. And yes, and this is, by the way, not the last episode. Oh, also, an opportunity to use the word penultimate. This is the penultimate episode. Yeah, so you know how like a game of throw is like the penultimate episode, but it's always really the worst. It was the better one. So, this will be the same. Or not. No, I mean, maybe not because you do want to come back for the last one, right? I mean, geez. True. Let's try to oversell it. Yeah, we'll be one of the people that survives episode nine and is ready for episode ten. Exactly. Exactly. It's crawling out of a pile of bodies on the field of war. We're still here for one last episode.

4:04Yeah. Or we're like Jon Snow and we're dead in this one and was wrecked in the next. That's right. Our next podcast will be about our grandparents. Yeah. All right. So the obvious place to start this week I suppose will be the challenge. Yeah. Yeah. Stuff has happened, speaking of things to talk about. So much has happened. A very emotion episode last night, though. Yeah. Yes. And, and you know, I don't want to do the as a father thing, but like, as as much as I can imagine, some people watching that and being like, all right, this is a lot. And it's not really why I watched the challenge. It obviously hit me right in the heart. And like, all, you know, what do you say other than I hope everything's okay? Yeah. And, you know, I mean, Cory's been posting and stuff. It seems like everything's going on. Right. Yeah.

5:04Seems like nothing went horribly wrong anyway. And ultimately, like, I do think it is, it is nice on a level to see that that I think everyone in the house, I don't think anyone in the house failed to understand the moment. You know what I mean? I like it. I don't know if that's always been true that the whole house would understand that moment. And nobody would say something distasteful or like, you know, in an ITM talk about like, I don't know why we're paying any attention to this sort of thing. So yeah, I, you know, hard to review that in the way we usually review the challenge, but it was kind of a cool moment. I want to shout out easy here. Yeah. It's sort of tremendous, I'm not a great, honestly. Yeah. I can't imagine what it would be like for her in that position doing their, um, just a really nice each other again, really after this.

6:04Maybe ever. And it was just a really weird spot for her to be in. And yeah, you did feel kind of bad for her because, uh, you know, putting aside what happened last night, the rest of the nonsense is all Cory's fault. Right. I think it played that moment well. I think a great. Yeah. It's not about you. Keep it yourself together till he left. Right. I think that's right. I think she did the right thing. Um, yeah. I think she's mostly done the right thing throughout all of this. So correct. Uh, Game wise less so. Perhaps. Yeah. She's not really a great place, Game wise, but she's on the best team to be on. So that, that'll take you a long way. It will. I will carry you until they lose one. She is right up there. She is right up on the chopping block if they ever do lose. Yeah. Although, I guess they did lose. They did lose the last female day. So, you know, that was the last protection. And one and one before that.

7:05In fact, so. Deb Chop was the last thing standing between her and the elimination arena. So that's okay. Like that's, I, this is, I feel like. Cutthroat to game where your chances of getting down on the sand are pretty high at some point. Yeah. I mean, almost every game we've watched for the last five years has had an element that makes it almost necessary to get in the sand at least one time before you go, because there was that season. I think it was the season where CT, like just rolled on reputation and puzzles basically and ended up like on a the wrong team and winning the finals basically is I recall. Uh, I think people felt like that was too easy around. And now that route is rarely available. Sure. CT will still coast a minute on his reputation from the standpoint of no one wants an elimination against CT. But he's probably going to have to get in there to get to the end.

8:08Yeah. I agree with that. And it seems like his team's pretty ready to throw it in by the way. Well, yeah. I mean, I can't believe these people. I don't know what you're like, I'm indignant watching this on CT's behalf, especially when you see the actual. Like they're on his ass, basically calling him fat for hours. And then they're like six minutes behind in the end and they win because he's better at puzzles than anybody on the show. So like bite your tongues, you idiots. There's no chance that that look, there's just no chance over the long haul that his value won't outweigh his particular deficiency in terms of cardio right now. Yeah, mostly that I would just say, I think they're concerns about having him in a

9:08file. Of course, but he'll be in better shape. He'll be in better shape by the final. We all know this and like it won't be pretty. And yes, he will still be one of the slowest, if not the slowest runners on a long distance thing out there, but his will is incredible. He won't be that much slower as we just saw. Again, they were be raiding him over the course of multiple hours of running and they were barely behind. They were like a couple minutes back in the end. And he did you notice when they finished the puzzle, which by the way, he let them all dick around with for two minutes before he was like, how about I handle this? And then he finished it. The other teams weren't close. That I did notice. And look, I think the team noticed that as well. I think the team was, I agree with you that they didn't need to yell at him during the challenge so much. Yeah. But I think the team was fairly sober about, I think look, this guy's going to be an issue for us and stamina challenges, but he kills it, everything else.

10:13See I think I think bananas and Tori had that perspective. The rest of the team left off the second part, which to me is crazy. Like how you and they are all talking about how much they care about this game and they love the challenge and like he's a legend. But now is now. And it's like, yeah, well now he just won you the challenge. You like are criticizing him over. He's he's late period great knowledge now, right? Yes. He's good. He can paint corners, you know what I mean? Right. He's going to throw 88, you know, like that. And he and he and he and even even more to his credit, he presented that exact truth to them during the challenge. Like listen, this isn't worth it. I get it. I'm slow. The best shape I want to be in either, but like don't burn me out because I'll win this for you if we just get to the end. So calm the hell down. And none of them did. And then he did exactly what he said he was going to do.

11:13So yeah, I still he still has so much going for him. And you know, he's always in better shape in the ITMs than he is on the show, right? And I just like one of these years before it's too late, he's got to he's got to put the work in for two months ahead of time. He just has to. I just I want it so bad for him, for me, for everyone. I keep thinking it's going to happen that he's going to come into one of these just like, you know, fit his hell. Right, but then he ends up. He ends up the less likely it seems. Well, the cycle is off, right? Because the show ends and he like kind of got in shape over the show. And then you see him on Instagram looking spelt and you're like, oh, he's definitely going to be fit for the next one. But we don't realize like the next one is either already happened or like it, you know what I mean? It's like it's off the time is off. And it's somehow he seems to always be in his worst condition at the start of the challenge. So you know, recently. Yeah.

12:14There's also, you know, this is a total aside, but there's also a major about his love life online now that is like traders rabbit holes that I don't really want to go down. And you know what I mean? I did watch that season and my friends who are into housewives are all like fadre fans. So I'm like mildly intrigued by the whole thing, but no, I agree. But yeah, it does seem to be taking some toll on his some sort of, it's having some sort of impact on his day to day life. I would imagine I have to believe it is. Yeah, but I don't understand any of it. So I'm just going to open it aside for. No, man, but I mean, if you're big in the housewives world, that's a whole kind of fame, right? That's a whole pocket of fame, not unlike being a sports star or something, right? Maybe not, maybe not an NBA star, but like a baseball star, right? There's a whole pocket of people who like fawn over you and then also some of the world has no idea. Yeah. No, it's not. I'm sure it's not unlike being a football fan for five years ago. You know what I mean?

13:15Right. Sorry. Sorry, your piano ball. Yes, no, I knew what you meant. All right. I think if there's anybody else we should discuss over the last few weeks in Spade Nelson, who's really been kind of a central character. And now it's pretty much on his own, both on his own team and in the game at large. And I'm wondering where the future holds for him because he's definitely in that position of he's going to be going in the sand and any opportunity to send a guy in. And it doesn't really seem like there's anything you can do about it. You know what I mean? Well, ironically, it seems like his fate most truly lies in the hands of whoever the captain of the great team is. I mean, unless the great team finds a way to start winning. But like, you know, with all due respect to Nelson, and I do have a ton of respect for

14:15Nelson in certain areas anyway. Of course, Josh isn't going to give him the captaincy. Why would it be a crazy thing to do? Like, right. They just be done over like respectability or like showing respect to your elders or like being nice to the guy with one leg. I mean, with all due respect, he is here to win money. So yeah, he's stuck and blue team's not going to win. You don't think, right? Like, it's going to be a rare challenge that they're going to be able to win with that crew as it's going right now. Although, ironically, the rookies on that team, I think are great. But just like the team cohesion, the car of it all right now, it's not working. So he's going in every male challenge. So the question becomes who's going in against him. And if it's Leo, you know, depends on the thing. It really, it depends on the thing for whoever it is. Some things I might actually like his chances, but a lot of him, he's in trouble.

15:15Yeah, there aren't many combinations. I'd like his chances. Not that he's not a good player, but we're just getting to that point in the game where everybody's a good player. You know what I mean? So yeah, it just seems pretty stacked against him. But you know, I would have said it looked pretty stacked against him when Kieta rooked in there and faced him and he's still here. So that's very true. I'd certainly like, would love to see ironically, because he's in the similar position, like a car Maria were like going way back. I mean, with Sarah S run of just, you know, elimination after elimination, and you're still here, you know? Yeah, man, you love one of those. That's always, it's always one of the best that Derek did that once or twice. Yeah, you do love to see it. And and it's not like, like you said, I mean, his options, even if the orange team loses one, right? Like bananas, CT, Leo Chris.

16:16I mean, not a lot of, not a week's bus. Will you know, yeah. Well, and just on strength alone, he's in truck, like, he can't win the only person on that list. He has even a prayer, even Josh. I'm sorry, Justin, like, he has no physical prayer against those guys in a head to head thing, except maybe Leo. Yeah, it's just tough. It's really tough. Yeah, yeah, I just don't see it there for him. But you know what? It's been great to have him. Yeah, it's been great to have him on the episode. He's delivered some classic Nellies of just like, just like, explaining the most basic facts in the game in the most dramatic possible way in his interviews. You know, just his, his love for Corey is a beautiful thing to behold. The, his general spirit when it comes to like, what matters? I find incredibly charming.

17:19Yeah, look, can we, can we talk a little bit about Corey? First of all, I'm glad I felt like we were headed towards a Corey Nelson elimination. I'm glad we never see that. Oh, God, thank goodness. Yeah. But what did you think of his season both on and off the challenge area? Yeah, I mean off he needs to be embarrassed. He's got to get a hold of himself. He should be, but I think as it was pointed out, like, he never actually did anything. I thought much like Annelie, he crossed some lines and that's what we name in his partner. And it seems like the atonement has been made there properly. Does it? I can't tell what's worse. Is it knowing things are rocky in your relationship and like embarrassing your partner on national TV? Or is it you have a good relationship, but you embarrass your partner on national TV? Like, I'm not sure which of those I find to be the greater sin, but they're both pretty terrible.

18:21And like, I just, you embarrassed himself more than he embarrassed. Er, but maybe that's just my viewpoint of things. Yeah, you're probably right. I mean, at the end of the day, like, it's his behavior. But I just mean when I say that, all I mean is like, I don't know which is more of a fuck you. Like, things aren't good. So I'm going to go toy with the idea of cheating on TV or like, he had an emotional affair. Yeah, man. Yeah. And that, that like, is it worse if that if your relationship's good or if it's bad? Because if it's bad, it feels even more like lining something up on deck, which, yeah, whatever. Just don't do that stuff on TV, man. That's all. It's very easy. It was, you know, right. And if you're going to call in a layout for, you know, I'm going to call him out to exactly. All right. That's it. But I do give it a credit for both of them for at least, at least holding the line. You know what I mean against that patient, if even if they were both pretty clearly tempted and,

19:26yeah, I'll tell you what inappropriate. I mean, I will tell you what I would give more of the holding the line credit to the other parties in these situations. If I'm totally honest, because me thinks if either of the other parties had been more enthusiastic, we may have seen actual cheating on television. So putting that aside, the other parties were good people in both cases. Exactly. Exactly. That saved them in a way. So yeah, so putting that aside, I did think he had said himself up about as well as I can remember. I mean, he's been to a couple of finals, right, but like the, the captaincy here, I think maybe the game designers underestimated the difficulty of immutiny, right? right? Like I can't really envision you need to unanimous consent. And I can't envision any of these teams being able to put together enough to actually pull off a mutiny. So my instinct is he was safe into the final already. And to be like, that

20:27makes the rest of the season just like training camp, man. You know, I just think he really, and I do think he's in the argument. I can remember him since the last time he was in the final, right? For sure. And I, and although it is a little day class A to say it yourself, I don't think he's wrong that he belongs in the conversation for best to never win. I was, that was my next question for you. Was, did you think that's legit? Well, okay. So going back, it's hard for me to remember like who are the best to never win from like your days from the early days. But recently, I think about like Fessie, right? He hasn't won yet still. Is it has he? Yep. No, he's not. And, and Corey is just as good as Fessie to me. Like he's not quite the same hulking elimination terror, but he's a big, strong guy. And he's probably a little better at not screwing himself by doing something stupid as

21:28strangers that is to say. I would, if you asked me like my opinion, I think that Fessie is the better player, but I also would argue with it if you made the case for Nelson because Nelson's just done, or sorry, for Corey, right? Just because Corey's done so many challenges. Yeah. And he usually performs pretty well. And his dumb stuff to the earlier discussion is usually off the field, so to speak, right? Yeah. Like his challenge gameplay is not bad. He's not a genius, but his challenge gameplay is pretty solid. People trust him generally. Fessie, Fessie put himself, he like just so welcomed the target on his back before he had accomplished anything that I think he's made his roots so much harder. Anyway, they're close, right? And I don't know who else I would put up there on the men's side. Most of the guys who were that good of one. Yeah. Oh my God, I can't believe I got my name on the name.

22:33Um, our British guy. Kyle. Kyle, thank you. Yeah, but I think Corey is pretty comfortably ahead of Kyle in the in the rankings. Yeah. Kyle, and are we sure to Kyle not grab a win as a team? One of the, I don't know. That's part of the problem is I can't remember who's one what, but, but like, I mean, I think you could say at the very least there are players who have one that I would say, Corey's probably better than that. Obviously, that's true. Yeah. Obviously. Um, but I don't know. I mean, he is definitely a central name to what I would say was the golden age of, well, maybe a second golden age of the challenge, right? The golden age of the truly athletic challenge. He's been a major player. Uh, and Kyle has not one. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I mean, Kyle's probably closer to the Nelson level of that conversation for me, which I would say is tier two. Kyle is a three time finalist, I

23:38would say, and I don't think Nelson is that I'm not even sure Corey is that. I think Corey, well, yeah, I was almost counting this year. So no, he may not be. Um, Nelson, I don't know. No, no, he's a, well, it depends on the challenge USA count. Sure. Why not? Yeah. He was a, Corey was a finalist on battle the bloodlines, invasion of the champions, total man madness, double agents in the challenge. Yeah, man. Yeah. I was going to say he, like, he's really been here and he usually goes far. So Nelson does not. Um, but by the way, 11 and 5 all time and eliminations. That's pretty strong. Yeah. Yeah. Again, I, I really think his resume stands up to his, uh, his boasting to be frank. I'd be curious to see what other challenges that it's the same about this, to be honest. Yeah. But well, again, I mean, part of the story here is that most of the other names you start to come up with, either haven't been on much or have one, at least one challenge, right? Right. Um,

24:42you know, I think what's his face? Young Derek has sort of entered that conversation. Oh, yeah. I don't think he's one or did he steal a win in one of those? I can't remember. Maybe he did. I don't think I can tell you. Um, but he's, you know, he showed himself to be a much higher level competitor than we might have initially thought and he's been really right in there the last couple of seasons he's done. Um, but then there's like, you know, the josses of the world who were serious for a couple seasons and then disappeared or there's, you know, winners. Yeah. Young Derek was a two time finalist. I think there's some guys going back to, um, you know, that the group that got kicked off for, um, they all won that behavior. Kenny and Evan, like the Kenny and Evan, they all I'm not sure. I think they all win. I think they all had at least one win. Yeah. Um, yeah, a lot of people have been on the show. It's been a lot

25:48of people on the show. It is Kenny is a, yeah, Kenny's a three time champion in my back. Yeah, they won or like, yeah, a lot of those early ones were team challenges too. So, um, a lot of people got in under their belt. Like Brad has a win. Everyone twice. Yeah. Right. Like Brad would be in this conversation, but he got a win, right? Yeah. Brad doesn't win. And note that there's a lot of those dudes who were like, would be right here in this Corey conversation, but like somebody drag them to a, a victory at some point. Yeah. Shout out to Corey, man. Yeah. And talking and backing it up. And very much hopefully on again, right? I mean, we're not, we're not trying to close the book on Corey. Oh, I feel like he's 100% back for the next year. Yeah. Yeah. This is this is as much as his job as anything, I think. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. So yeah, it's just, it's just sad because I do think this is the best chance to win the long time. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll see. Um, you know, but

26:52fun, but fun is hard, man. Yeah. Um, anything from the, uh, rest of the season preview that you found out, not really. You know, probably, but I can't think of what it was right now. I, I, like I said, I maybe off the air, but I definitely said to you already today, there was a, I do feel like I saw people wearing shirt colors that weren't the shirt colors they're in right now. So I didn't wonder if there's going to be some team shifting at some point, some, uh, defecting, if you will, because they're, they're also, you know, I guess it's not totally a disaster right now, but they're definitely trending towards some, uh, deeply unbalanced numbers in terms of team composition. Yeah, and they're going to have to fix that or it's just going to be a boring game. Um, the one thing I would say is that Bangkok Thailand, oh, perfect place for an eating challenge. Oh, man. That's true. The eating challenge looked awesome. I, who was at CT who put the pig nose over his face in the clip?

27:58Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm, I'm, it does look like a classic old school all we're doing today is sitting at the table and shoving nasty stuff in your face challenge and I do enjoy that. Yeah. Yeah. There's going to be some fun ones. So, um, we haven't really seen any like, maybe the ball one, I guess was pretty physical, but we haven't seen a total super physical eliminations yet. This one looks set up to be one by the way. Um, yeah. So I wonder if that holds over till next time, but it didn't, it didn't look like anything we've seen before either. I was very intrigued by what was going to happen. Um, I, I'm trying to think. Yeah. There was the like balls in, in the mud was a physical challenge. Yeah. And, and they haven't been easy physically, right? Like heights over water, all that stuff was hard, but they're not like bangers. They're not, they're not, they're not. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, they're, they're only doing one or two

29:00of those seasonly late seats like so. Yeah. I do wonder about like how I wonder if there's any like, I mean, I don't think there's a challenge players union, but like, I wonder if there's any like, all right. Uh, you know, you can only put us through so many, you know, uh, confrontations that tend to result in concussions or broken bones. Right. Right. For people started to do it. Yeah. Yeah. Any final Sydney thoughts? Yeah. I like Sydney. Um, I actually kind, I, I mostly appreciate her stick, but I do think at the end it got a little too, it went a little too far in the like, I'm the bad guy direction towards the end of her time on this season. And I would, I would add to that that if you do go full heel, you're not getting sympathy over your injury. So like,

30:07you can't play both sides of that. You can't be like, I'm the best. No one can touch me. And then when you get hurt, like cry and this is just so unfair and I, you know, I deserve better. You have to, if you're going to be the troll, then at that point, you got to be like, well, I'll be back better next time. And I'm going to kick all these people's ass. Like you got to, you got to maintain the bit if you're going to do it. Yeah. Like that's the thing is like, she's not quite fully playing heel. And that's the problem with it. It's like, Amanda comes on and everyone knows what a man is and a man is about, you know, what he means, right? And it doesn't matter if she wins. If she loses, like, she's, she's going to talk her shit and then she won't be there anymore. And I think there are, our players would with genuine antipathy for her in the game, but they also understand she's doing a bit, you know what I mean? Yeah. And Sydney's just blurring the lines a little too much. I think she wants to be mean and say really mean and occasionally, it like super rude things about people.

31:08Yes. But also just be nice person with friends, you know what I mean? And it's like, right. It's, it's right. That's exactly what it says. That's what it is. She wants to have friends, but like, you can't be evil. Like you can't play the evil character and then also want friends in the, in the play. Right. Like when you're actually Seth Rollins or whatever and you get injured, I'm sure he gets sympathy backstage because everyone understands that he's just being in dick for cameras, you know what I mean? Yeah. And maybe, and maybe when you get back to LA or whatever, people will show you sympathy, but like you can't expect it on screen. Everything I've seen on podcast that is not in the case. Yeah, maybe not. But even that's kind of part of the show, right? The question to me is like, sure, if someone bumps into her in a party, it's not, maybe it's not on site, you know what I mean? But like, if you're going to be that guy in the game, you got to take the whole

32:08kitten caboodle that comes with it. Yeah, yeah. She needs to embrace her role because otherwise, she's a lovely addition to the game. And, and she's not wrong. I mean, she's exaggerating a little, but she's not wrong about being very good. You know, she's really a, a, like well-rounded, high-level competitor. And she plays it differently from a lot of other people. So, so yeah, so I want to see her compete, but she can stand to either be less of a dick or more of a dick. Right. I got to pick one. That's right. You got to know what I mean. Yes. You got to dick or get off the pot, basically. Yeah. Agreed. All right. Should we switch some gears here a little bit? All right. Let's do it. You want to talk about Yellow Mirror? I think this will be a pretty fast discussion. Yeah. I have at least one sentence to say. They were Simpsons episodes. And the Simpsons is a good TV show. Yeah. This for me was a little bit, I think the Simpsons, if CT's in his great,

33:17great, great Maddox phase. This feels a little bit more like a late period arson vanger or Willie Mays, if you will. Okay. But I don't want to say that because I don't watch the Simpsons. And like, it's a simple cartoon for children, mostly young people. And I don't know, was this supposed to be like we were people who like actual black mirror. I'm not sure this is for us. I think it's definitely for us. Part of what they're doing it. I also think that Simpsons was... No, I don't you think this is more for people who've heard of black mirror and aren't that into the idea? Yeah. I think it's more like Simpsons are like Harvard level, writer people who are making jokes for adults in the vehicle of a kid show. Okay. But how many adult adults do you know watching the Simpsons?

34:20I think that's... I even know a lot. Now I know a little. It's kind of what I'm saying. Yeah, but Derek, the adults you knew when they were watching the Simpsons were in their 20s and 30s, right? Maybe like adults though. Okay, but late 20s, early 30s. And I think we've probably grown out of it. Like, I'm not sure it was ever as sophisticated as it would seem in memory because it was sophisticated to much younger brains. If somewhat adult brains, nevertheless, much younger ones. And yeah, I don't know. I guess then maybe it's just I don't have the energy to hate on a couple of 26 minutes of mediocre television, but like yeah, no, but I'm not hating on it. I mean, I guess I'm hating on it. But I'm just surprised how mediocre it was. It was mediocre. And nothing there was nothing insightful or clever about the parody. Yeah. And the jokes just used to come right at tat. Like it was the only thing that could approach 30 rock level of of joke getting off, you know what I mean? And the hit rate was high and everything just seemed slower and the hit rate was lower. I guess, but I, well,

35:25it was maybe a little slower, but I also feel like, you know, so much of the Simpsons humor is like this vicious circle of self referencing silliness that I feel so disconnected from that maybe that's why they didn't hit, you know? Yeah, it might be part of that. And look, I will freely admit it would be an incredible challenge to come up with new Simpsons things after literally 30 years of chose. Yeah, well, and I would add to that that it just like new Simpsons things that I would find especially funny. It isn't even higher bar to be honest. Look, I think the South Park guys have embraced that. I guess have you watched South Park recently? I watched some of the last season, but I can tell you that there are a lot of people buzzing about the last season, which hasn't happened since forever. That's true. They do have the advantage of being able to take like direct shots at current events and, and you know, political people that the Simpsons just would never wait into really. Yeah, by the way, do you hear the redabbing in South America for this season?

36:28South Park? Yeah. That's good. Look, I'm all for South Park doing it subversive stuff, but I don't really watch or enjoy that much either. So I would be a hypocrite to use it as a hammer to bang the Simpsons. Yeah, fair, fair, fair enough. But look, I think it's true with family guy or Bob's voters or any of these. Maybe. Maybe. There's only so many stories to tell. Yeah, I think that's true. One of the things that's great or had, you know, historically about the Simpsons anyway, though, is that like it's you can graft anything on to the Simpsons. It's a family of four and a half and like, there are people of these ages, but past that, you can graft any store you want onto it. And I think, you know, that's part of why it's lasted so long. And yes, I suppose I wish they had done a better job here, but I guess I wasn't shocked. Yeah, no, look, I'm not saying I was expecting that it would be amazing. But I was still somehow

37:28disappointed. Take it back. Yeah. If that's fair to say, um, what do you think of Diori Emma and the Yukon dog on Apple? I could only watch two of them. He's so disassistful. I can't, I can't imagine why anyone would want to watch him talk or root for him. He just, you know, I don't know the guy. I can't call him a despicable human being, but he's a despicable presence as far as I'm concerned. And like, even to hear his most devoted former players talk about it, none of them can quite, they're brainwashed. So none of them can quite get to the point of being like, yeah, he's a scumbag, and he didn't have to do any of that. But that's definitely the case. I'm sorry. You do, we have learned this in the world. You don't have to be an absolute scumbag to be a good head coach. You don't have to torture people to lead them full stop. And any suggestion otherwise is absurd.

38:31And if he wants to keep doing it and people want to keep going there and playing basketball, that's all fine. I can't tell people what to do. But I can tell you it is not necessary to do it that way. Yeah, I think there's a certain kind of player, Tarrasi, Paige come to mind that I think we're ready and even wanted to be coached that way. Okay, but this is my point. Did you hear Tarrasi talk about it on the Simmons pod? I did not. Okay. You can hear it in her voice, even when she is ostensibly defending Geno Oriema. She says things like, yeah, man, I mean, you know, it was terrible, right? Like she, like she's, she even today, Diana Tarrasi, arguably the greatest women's basketball player ever, goaded in every possible sense of the word can say anything she wants about anybody at this point. And she can't quite bring herself to full throw to the be like, yeah, he tortured us and it wasn't okay. But you can hear her when she's like, it was just the

39:36fire we had to go through that like she's still not okay with some of it, you know, and that is one of the players who wanted it and who'd like to, to quote, be coached that way. You can be coached hard without being abused. And these old school coaches just had it wrong. And the ones who are still refusing to admit it pissed me off. I look, I get what you're going for on that, but is this not all just, isn't this all just mama mentality, right? This was Kobe not a practitioner of the same sorts of things that that I love that stuff. Kobe is a, yes, a rear chrome Kobe. I have no, but I, but it's different to do it to your side. You're me. Obviously, I think we're noted. Yeah, our flag has been planted on the Kobe issue. But yeah, and I'm not, and I'm not even a Kobe hater like I respect Kobe. He was, he was great. And he did want to work that way. But again, the proof is in the pudding. He had his best success as a leader when he chilled out a little bit. And it's fine if you want to practice that way and work that way.

40:39In fact, it's great if you have that kind of internal motivation. And if that's how you have to drive yourself by, you know, imagining a snake chasing you, then go for it. But to impose that upon other people is a not as effective as other methods and be to impose it on children is actually like bordering on criminal to me. And so like fine in the 60s, everybody thought this was the only way to get it done. But we have plenty of proof that that's not the case now. So well, he's not the only one going about it that way. I know. No, this is not a genome problem. You're on his players in Kim Mulkey, for example. You know what I mean? Again, he is not the, he is not, he didn't create this issue nor is he anywhere near the sole practitioner. He's put a drop in the ocean. It's just like this entire premise. It's all part of the patriarchy. And then then we're going to get into the non-tour department part of it that like we just don't

41:40need to do. Before we move here in that direction, I think there's another sort of thing beyond his, you know, behavior with his team. And that would be like the whole past summit of it all. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's all part of the same thing to me. Like this take no prisoners, the only way to win is to like scorch the earth. The whole thing is BS. Yeah, and look, you didn't watch all the way till the end. No, but he does the same thing to Don Staley. Right, you did it this year. You know what I mean? Yeah, he sucks. The guy sucks. Full stop. And like, and by the way, the documentary wasn't anything special. It was just a hegeography for the Yukon dynasty. And everybody knows how good they were. I don't need this in my life. Nobody needed this. That's my take. When you say that, I disagree because you look, you're a true fan of

42:41women's basketball, I would say. And you know a lot about it. But I think there are a lot of people that are very new to the sport and don't know what's going. Don't know this. Okay. Well, I mean, I would love to see you now. At the other day, he's talking about Maya Moore going, she's no Caitlin Clark. Oh my God. And hard to me goes, okay, what are you like? You're dummy. But then I just realized like this person probably never saw my never saw Maya Moore. Well, okay. Yeah. Right. Well, that's one of those things. Well, yes. Correct. Maya Moore literally isn't Caitlin Clark, but she was a better women's basketball player than Caitlin Clark. Yes. And more far more. Far far far more accomplished. One of the most accomplished ever. And also like one of the craziest, you know, on-off court stories of all time. Truly. But I guess here's what I'm saying. Read a book. Read. Look, that's the guy who's trying to move. I mean, look, this thing is it's a hegeography. It's a hegeography for a douchebag. It's six or eight hours long.

43:43You could read a book in that time. And probably learn more facts about what actually happened. Honestly, go on YouTube and watch Rebecca Lobo and Maya Moore and you know, all these people watch Diana Tarasi. I was glad to see Jennifer. Jennifer is a huge love. Dude, these these Caitlin Clark obsessives haven't even watched Diana Tarasi. You know, like there's a wealth of things to watch. And you could watch the actual games instead of a hegeography to that guy. Yeah. Phena. Sorry. He pisses. Read right off. This is he is patriarchy. Our purist is a good show. Yeah. It is a good show. She is. She. Okay. I'm doing it again. I can't remember the woman's name. Despite the fact that Liz Maryweather, I think, is there anything? No, no. Her name I remember well. The Liz Maryweather, the creator of this show, was also a writer for New Girl.

44:50No, I'm talking about the very famous actress who stars in the show. Amy Rossum. I can't place her at all. Like I know she's famous and has been in things. But maybe it's just the performance. Maybe it's that I haven't seen as many of the things that he's been in. Shameless is what she's right. And I didn't watch. I did not watch shameless. But like, you know, I saw Mystic River. I guess she was a kid in that one. I don't know. I... She... Whatever it is, her performance in this is nuts and very good. Yeah. Yeah. No. She's, she's over the good actress. And honestly, let's surprise Shameless is a blind spot for you. Yeah. My dad always wanted me to watch Shameless. And I just never quite got around to it. It's in the like... It's good. It is very, you know, it's Chicago centric. You know what I mean? Right. No, I mean, I know that.

45:52Apparently she had an uncredited role in Mr. Robot as well. Yeah. I mean, a lot of it is I haven't seen a ton of the things that she's in. But I've definitely seen some of it. And for whatever reason, like this is just... She's blown my mind, man. And it's really... Yeah. She had a credit in role in Mr. Robot because she's very dissaid in his mouth. Ah, yeah, there you go. It's... It's a really dark show. I mean, it is really dark. And also the other woman who plays the... I mean, I guess we have to spoil it slightly, who plays the killer. But yeah, you find that out in the first episode, I think. Yeah. Yeah. She's also excellent and bizarre. And I don't feel like I've seen her before, even if I have. It's Scoot McNairi or Jake Lacey are probably the biggest names in the show, which is kind of weird for a big Hulu event show. And it's just really good. It's just really

46:52good television. Yeah. But those are guys you go get, you know, whenever you want to, like, has a good character actors in your show. Oh, absolutely. And Scoot McNairi, I don't know if he even has a type anymore. He's so good at this. But Jake Lacey is the guy you get for that role. So, and like, when you go... When you look at some of the guest stars, this season, like, it's also a lot of quality character actors coming through. Yep. So, yeah, yeah, look, I, you know, this is... The show is getting raves and it deserves it. Yeah. It's the easiest way to put it, you know. It's well written. It's subversive in plenty of ways. Yeah. And yeah, it's it's compelling. Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, it's a compelling like the cop versus robber story, you know what I mean? It's like any of the great, like, it's not exactly a mystery per se because you're seeing both sides, but it's that particular type of like

47:56the criminal side and the cop side and the ways they bleed together and crossover and it's really something to watch. Yeah, yeah. Strong recommend for me. Agreed. All right, we had a toy department derby since the last time we talked. Yeah, hold on, wait, before we, but are we out of shows that we actually both watch? I think we're out of shows. Okay, I do, I do want to just say since you're not going to watch it and it almost came out of your mouth when you were introducing furious just a second ago, the movie Mother Mary that we assigned for homework. And I didn't watch whenever that was. And I think that's okay because I don't think you would have loved it. And I don't know that I loved it even. And I'm not sure what we would say about it beyond the couple of minutes. I think I have to say about it right now, which is this was a movie that I was somewhat baffled and not entirely in a good way by for its entirety

49:04from start to finish. Absolutely never totally caught a hold of what was going on. It has basically two performers in Michaela Cole and Anne Hathaway. It is at times surreal, at times bizarre, at times like almost scary, although I'm notoriously easily scared. And at times like weirdly deeply emotional and quiet. That said, if you're the kind of person that wants to see a highly dramatic and surrealist interpretation of female friendship, this is for you because the very day I watched this film, my friend who fits that description asked me for a recommendation. And I was like, you know, I didn't love it, but I feel like maybe this movie was great for the right person. And it was in fact great for the right person. So like, if that's, I mean, it's legitimately

50:09Anne Hathaway and Michaela Cole are the, you know, used to be friends who work together in this specific way. And for whatever reason, without spoiling too much, they are brought back together for this one project. And it should then it just goes completely insane. But it's a deep, mystic, surrealist exploration of female friendship. And if that sounds good to you, I think it's executed at a very high level. Both of them are impossible to look away from and like wildly dynamic performers. So, you know, weird stuff. It is, it is weird stuff from what it sounds like. But I am, I'm a bit curious, you know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, look, there's no way you could watch him other Mary and walk away being like, I promise, no one is going to be like, that whatever, like it's either going to be like, what the F that was terrible or what on earth is going on

51:13there? Or I did not understand that. Like you're going to have a reaction. I like it. I like it. All right. Well, that movie does start noted Arsenal fan Anne Hathaway. So I'm sure she's got takes. I don't know. Just a second Bill Simmons pod reference on our penultimate episode, which is probably appropriate. But in the way that Bill Simmons talked himself into the Jalen Brown trade over the course of the summer, it only took me like a gosh, not even a week to talk myself into the positive takeaways from pretty convincing defeat against your soccer team. So, you know, come at me, bro. I'm ready. I honestly, that's my first take as I think there are positives to be had. Like I think you finally may have the right manager. If you're, yeah. And also I'm impatient enough to keep him. Well, right. Well, I hopefully some of this ownership drama will

52:17distract them from firing another manager, at least for a little while. Also, it's harder to fire someone who's that well respected. Part of the issue has been none of the other. I'm a dread. I gotta say. Yeah. Yeah. But but for Chelsea, I think it is none of their other managers have been respectable managers that they fired for the for the war. They fired to pretty respectable goods. Tuckle, but Tuckle they did, but to move. Conte. No, no, but but I'm talking about this ownership, this ownership, this ownership, the the characteristic of this ownership has been hiring people who are not fit for the job and then firing them very quickly. Um, so do you know how many managers you've had since the last time you beat Arsenal? I, yeah, I heard the stat. It's like six or eight maybe. Yeah, I believe, I believe he's the seventh. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Listen, the history is what it is. But I, the more I think about it, the more I think you should be worried after what you saw, because

53:20the only thing that kept that game from being a total 50, 50 proposition was the vastly superior defensive midfield and defensive arsenal. And our best defensive midfielder wasn't playing. And uh, we're we're starting to smooth things out on the back end as well. So make make no mistake. I think you'd be heard from, um, you know, this this week, uh, with that with the weekend that game, you know, I look at I realized fan bases are not defined by their online members and I wouldn't want Arsenal's to be either. But online Chelsea fans are insane. Yeah, there was just some bonkers insanity book before after during no, yeah, you heard from me. I was not, I was not looking for a win in that game. But, but I do think that I received all of my other Chelsea friends are

54:21were really, I was being told that we were going to be defeated. Oh, yeah, I mean, I had hope that we would be heard from more offensively, uh, and maybe earn a draw. But I, yeah, no, here's the thing. Without Kaisato, it's just a, it's, it's too much to make up for against that team. Well, but, you know, and this is the thing, you know, um, you know, that I think where Chelsea fans got to look inward and you've conceded at least two with every match, you know, and I mean, well, okay, including yesterday. Yeah, but yesterday they had the backup goalie and a B team for the concession of those goals. So it's, you know, well, clearly there are defensive problems for Chelsea and relative to Arsenal, they're massive defensive problems. Right. But, but, it's not sustainable until you fix that, you know what I mean? And maybe you will. Well, I mean, I think the things to keep in mind here are a, the back three has yet to be fully settled. And,

55:25and I think part of that is guys coming back from injury. Part of that is the manager figuring out who's best in which piece of that. Um, but also we have been dominated in possession, broadly speaking. And a huge portion of that is the guy who takes the ball back in the midfield hasn't played yet. Other than like a 15 minute cameo where he had to leave again with the same injury. So like, I, I, I think while the defense has to be short up, people are underestimating the amount of work that the simple presence of Moiseis, Kaseyato does for that defense. Um, so, you know, clearly Chelsea is a team driven by its attack right now. And I'm comfortable with that because the attack is excellent. Uh, but if there's any hope of actually challenging for the league title, like I think this looks like a top four team right now. I agree. There's any chance of actually

56:26challenging for the league title. It will require a significant just, I won't even say defensive improvement. It will require allowing significantly fewer goals as time goes on. Whether that's Emmy Martinez settling in the back three performing better Moiseis, Kaseyato doing more of the heavy whatever it is, they can't allow this many goals. Like you said, it's not sustainable for a true competitor. Yeah. We're like, we've seen bars to go this route a few times. Um, and it's just tough. It's just tough to win trophies that way. You can be good, but it's tough to win trophies. Yeah, but, but I will say, you know, the eight team basically, one six one and a half against leads. So, I, I don't worry too much about the goals they get. Like that to me was not a reflection of anything, but the manager tried to get squirrely with a weird B team lineup to start. And at half time,

57:26I was wondering if we had the juice to make it up with the eight team in the second half and the answer was emphatically yes. I mean, you know, you said something to me while we were watching the match better. I'll frustrating Arsenal is to play against. Yes. Um, and I think it's by design. You know, and of course, I think even some of the also part of why somebody neutrals hate us. You know, it's also why some of it. I also believe a lot of the sort of shit house arena and sneaky stuff is by design. You know, like it's a, it's a team that is using physicality and defensive presence and like one or two brilliant offensive plays to, to dominate everybody. And I hate it. And, and you know, I mean, look through the, uh, the glorious vanger years. Yeah. And generally, down the history of this team, like that's been most of my life as an Arsenal fan, the criticism bar is that it's been that they are soft. It was soft under belly. Right. You can intimidate them. You can get at them. And now the opposite is true. It was TRL and re dancing through people and,

58:30uh, yeah. Yeah. And out of the office, it is true. Like people want to make it like it's a problem where it's taking them a game or something. No, well, I, I'll tell you what people want to make it is like whoever's good, we hate them. So it doesn't matter how you're good. Like look at every, I mean, if there's anything that's true in sports, it's like if you're good, not only do we hate you, but we hate the way you do it. Yeah. Yeah. Cruiser. Cruiser. It's lonely at the top, folks. Well, we'll continue to rule football as long as people are ruined football as long as people will let us. Yeah. Well, I, there's a whole army of gooners that agree with you. So congratulations. Yeah. Yeah. Look, I don't, you know, it's a long season. I take there only a few teams in the mix, but yours is one of them. And we'll see how it goes. And they can't even win. Yeah. I'm, uh, I'm going to feel more hopeful going into our second matchup. I'm almost sure of it. I would imagine, yeah, I would imagine you would, unless, you know, injury crisis. Don't do that.

59:35Don't do that now. We don't need to even do it. I hear nothing. I mean, you have a few one man injury crisis. That's the, you know what I mean? That's the thing I would be worried about. Yeah. I mean, honestly, as strange as this may sound, the worst one man injury crisis is the one that's happening right now. Green. Everybody else has some cover from a depth perspective, but there's just no one else like Kaisato to get in there. There's nobody who plays the position. Yeah. Yeah. As evidenced by two red backs at the end of the game. Right. Um, exactly. I get to get out of here. All right. We're not doing any homework this week. Oh, yeah. Just the challenge. And we're not coming back next week. Uh, the plan, this is as our penultimate episode, the plan for our final episode is to let the challenge play out, regroup some time in a month or two and deliver a final episode with a little what we've been watching. So, uh, you know,

1:00:35for those of you that have a direct line, just text us something you saw that was good. And for those of you who don't, uh, I'm on threads. Yeah. Or I'm also on threads, by the way. Uh, or if you, um, I don't know, anything you want to say about anything we talked about over the last 12 years. Yeah. Uh, that's right. Now your chance. That's right. Yeah. Speak now or forever, hold your peace. All right, man. Okay. Bye. This team's in the Edmmer refrigerator. The doors close. The lights out. Butter's getting hard. The eggs are cooling and the jello is jiggleous. How long everybody and do me a favor. Have yourself a tremendous evening.