Weekly Zeitgeist 454 (Best of 10/26/26-10/30/26)

0:00 Hello, the internet, and welcome to this episode of the Weekly Zeitgeist. These are some of our favorite segments from this week, all edited together into one nonstop infotainment laughstravaganza. So without further ado, here is the Weekly Zeitgeist. What is something from your search history that's revealing about who you are?

0:32 One, silent letters, Jack and Miles. You know silent letters. They're the things that are utterly cartoonish in any language. We have a ton of them. Like every language gets a little bit self-centered. You'll be speaking with someone who... It talks about Spanish. They're like, oh, this is the most difficult language. English is notorious for English speakers saying, actually.

0:58 English is the most difficult language to learn. And that's bullshit.

1:03 If I can curse on here. I was fascinated to learn that 60% of all words in modern English have silent letters. And we don't, we kind of understand why. Sometimes, why? But we all sort of tolerate silent letters. So I was looking at you guys' names, and I got to tell you, Jack, I don't want you to feel bad about this one, but Miles has all letters pronounced in his name, technically.

1:42 Right. So what, Jack would have to be like Jack- Miles?

1:45 Yeah.

1:45 It would have to be Jack- Yeah, you'd have to be Jack.

1:49 If you pronounce my name like the Billy Joel song, Moving Out, Working Too Hard can give you a Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack. Right. Fun Billy Joel reference.

2:00 You're welcome.

2:01 Timely, timely, timely.

2:02 Super relevant too, man. And the reason I was thinking about this, I recently did an exploration on silent letters for a different show, and I was astonished by... Not only how we as a, I guess, community of speakers have accepted all these strange artifacts and artifacts, excuse me, and legacy hires of language, but we teach it to kids.

2:33 And so for you guys as parents, I can only imagine you have your kids asking questions like, hey, dad, why is this spelled weird? This way. When it should obviously, it obviously sounds different. How do you guys handle that?

2:49 Well, my kid can't read, and that's my design because I don't want to have to do that. I don't want to explain anything.

2:55 I hit the road once those questions started popping up. They haven't seen me in a while.

3:00 But I know your kids are very inquisitive, Jack, so I'm sure you've definitely heard.

3:04 Oh, my God.

3:05 These kids and their damn questions. Man, these kids are fucking geniuses. They're asking questions.

3:11 I'm like, man, I didn't even fucking think that shit. Fucking smarter, you guys.

3:17 Yeah, my kids love asking questions.

3:20 And they.

3:21 It hasn't really.

3:23 Like, they've just kind of taken it for granted, which I'm glad for. But they are now learning Spanish. This is when it hit me, is when I learned Spanish in, like, middle and high school and was like.

3:36 Oh, this is... It could just be this. It could just be like the.

3:39 Spelling is implied by the pronunciation, you never, like, do they even take, I'd love to hear from like Spanish, like native Spanish speakers, like did you take spelling classes? Did you have spelling quizzes? Because like, my kids are like having to do these spelling tests all the time. They generally do well because they read a lot. But it's like you just have to have read the word a number of times. The idea that we pretend to apply rules to how words are spelled is absurd. It's just based on, like you said, legacy hires. It's just based on how someone did it once.

4:15 Neighborhood? Why is there a G in neighborhood?

4:19 You know what I mean?

4:20 And I'm honestly asking the entirety of this, I think, here. It's legacy IRS. Anyway, that's one search history, one more that might be helpful for everybody who is having too good of an afternoon. InQtel, I-N-Q-T-E-L. I don't know if we talked about this on air. They're the 100% nonprofit, not owned by the CIA company. Venture capital firm of the CIA.

4:55 Right.

4:56 Backing places like Palantir and stuff, too.

4:59 Yeah. We're having a taste of that. Oh.

5:02 Yeah.

5:03 Very.

5:04 Yeah.

5:04 They have a name? Like, I mean, In-Q-Tel seems like they should have come up with a different name.

5:11 It's such a dumb name, too. It's not very.

5:15 I mean, I don't know who was making the names at the time they came up with this grift, but.

5:20 Right.

5:21 I was recently looking into this thing called Colossal Biosciences, and their whole thing is resurrecting previously extinct animals.

5:33 Oh, yeah, yeah. Wasn't it the same people who did the dire wolf?

5:37 Yeah, well, they're definitely in that conversation. And they're trying, they're, you know, vaporware, big tech bro talk kind of people, right? They're hoarding technological limits on what can actually be resurrected. But lo and behold, these folks, when they weren't able, to make a woolly mammoth actual, they pivoted into genetically modifying dogs for the purposes of war. And they just got like $ 200 million from In-Q-Tel.

6:13 Wow. Cool. Fun. For fucking just monster soldier mutant dogs that we're.

6:21 Going to just deploy out there?

6:22 Yeah, yeah.

6:24 That's so dumb. It was always a thing that.

6:28 like bumped for me in the Jurassic park franchise and the alien movie franchise, whenever they're like, the company was like, but then we're going to use these fuckers as weapons. And it's like, but you don't even know how to like make them not turn on you and kill you. Like, what are you talking about?

6:46 Yeah.

6:46 But once you figure it out though, right. I know, right?

6:50 Like, what's that old trope or that old cliche? We're building the plane while we fly it.

6:57 Right, right, right. Exactly.

6:58 Exactly the kind of plane you want to be on.

7:01 That always seems so dumb to me, and yet here we are.

7:04 And yet here we are. So a question for the Zeitgang on that piece is, what is the most cartoonish dog you could imagine being weaponized?

7:16 Clifford. Clifford, the big red dog.

7:19 Damn.

7:19 Oh, yeah.

7:20 Well, he's got the size.

7:21 Riding in a battle on Clifford.

7:23 I'd be like, what the fuck is this? I thought we were going to have like fucking Dr. Manhattan or some shit. But we got this fucking guy. We got Clifford, but we.

7:32 Didn't feed him this morning. So, yeah. Yeah.

7:36 And it's just like Dr. Manhattan got his dong out on the battlefield. Oh, yeah.

7:41 Yeah.

7:43 Big red dong. What is something you think is underrated?

7:49 Raccoons.

7:50 Oh, what happened?

7:53 Nothing. I just have really gotten into raccoon content recently.

7:58 Is it real or is.

7:59 It AI, Mel?

8:00 It's real. I follow.

8:02 I follow this raccoon around the neighborhood.

8:06 I've been following.

8:07 And then like, you know, my algorithm is now just like raccoons and possums, just like a lot of raccoon and possum content was like raccoons and dogs and rehabilitating and people's gardens and just like a lot of raccoon content.

8:19 Yeah.

8:19 I feel like I see a lot of posts on Reddit where people see raccoons with mange and they think it's another animal.

8:25 Where they're like, holy shit, this demon is blah, blah, blah. You're like, no, no, no.

8:29 That's, unfortunately, that's it.

8:30 Mange is like, they don't have hair, right? Yeah. Raccoons are wild looking without hair.

8:35 Yeah, without hair, you would be like, what the fuck yeah it's he'd.

8:39 Be like so scary it'd.

8:40 Be like a little thing with mange yeah.

8:43 Yeah i just think they're so cute i had a friend who had a pet raccoon growing up so uh but i'm that was in.

8:50 Alabama so go on i was gonna say where what part of the south was.

8:54 That yeah so what.

8:56 Was the raccoon's name actually i don't really remember.

9:00 And it lived in the house, kind of chilled.

9:02 In the house?

9:03 No, it just lived out in the backyard. But that was like when dogs didn't live inside either.

9:08 Sure, sure, sure.

9:09 Like animals didn't live inside in the South when I grew up.

9:12 Did it get cold?

9:13 Did it get old?

9:15 No, sorry, cold, cold. Did the raccoon get cold?

9:18 No, like do it like if you let your dogs outside, you know, that's always like my soft California outlook. I'm like, yeah, it's outside and it's cold.

9:25 Of course they get cold.

9:27 Yeah.

9:27 Yeah. And then they really got a dog house.

9:29 Yeah, that's true. That's true.

9:30 I mean, it's not ideal.

9:31 Sure, sure, sure, sure. Now that I have so much empathy, I'm this I'm not the same guy who is watching the botched surgery documentaries in the arts. OK, now I have a big heart and I'm worried about the dogs outside.

9:42 Yeah.

9:43 I mean, I would, too.

9:44 Yeah. Miles, your mom was a raccoon person, wasn't she?

9:49 Opossum.

9:50 She's a card-carrying member of the American Opossum Supporters Club. She's all about outdoor animals. She has... a crew of possums, raccoons that come to her backyard that she feeds and they live in harmony together.

10:06 I love that. It's a safe place.

10:09 Mel, you too could have a gang of raccoons in your backyard. All you have to do is leave a pile of food for them in your backyard.

10:19 A big old bowl of cat food. And they come through and they eat it and they eat it with the cats, man. They hang out with the fucking cats.

10:25 Did your mom video it and like put that online? That's great content.

10:29 She says she's not about to exploit.

10:31 She says exploitation is the last thing on her mind is what word for word is what she said when I told her. So this could be some extra money for you, mom. She said, no, I'm not.

10:41 Exploiting them like you would.

10:43 And you feel, how do you feel about the fact that raccoons have little person hands? You're good with that?

10:48 Love that.

10:48 Love that.

10:49 They're like eating.

10:51 Because that can go either way. You know, some people are freaked out by that.

10:55 Yeah, I like it.

10:57 They could like throw a three seam fastball, you know?

10:59 Right.

10:59 Yeah.

11:00 But it doesn't, it doesn't freak me out that much.

11:03 Perfect. Tight spiral on a football. That would be the most terrifying. Just a fucking raccoon patting the ball. Tight spiral. You're like, Oh fuck. That's AI.

11:15 See the fucking break on that thing. It's a fantastic underrated, fantastic search history. Uh, but, Surely you can't have a fantastic overrated.

11:26 I don't know.

11:27 This is a small one. I think matcha is overrated. I don't get it. I don't like the taste of it.

11:33 I feel like it tastes like grass. I feel like they've made it really fancy. I don't naturally love avocado toast either, but I eat it and I like it. But I just like toast in general, so it's hard to mess up toast. So you put anything on toast?

11:48 Yeah, you're like, yeah, fine.

11:49 Avocados?

11:50 Yeah, great.

11:50 I mean, I like an avocado toast, but I think I like most toast.

11:54 Yeah, well, now matcha, like, the version that Americans drink now, there's so much other shit.

11:59 Like, you want a banana creme brulee matcha? I think it's that.

12:02 What the fuck is this?

12:03 I think it's, like, when I'm talking about, like, the TikTok version of what matcha is.

12:07 Where I'm, like, like, I don't. I don't. When they were like, I got to go get my match. I'm like.

12:13 I'm like, no, you need to get your milkshake because you're still a child. That's what it is.

12:16 You need your Yoplait, honey.

12:18 Well.

12:19 Okay.

12:19 No, no. Sorry.

12:20 I'm not one for kids.

12:21 Okay.

12:21 Sorry.

12:22 So I will just have you know, Arden.

12:23 Oh, he's touchy about it.

12:24 He's delicate.

12:25 He brought this up on our Monday morning episode.

12:28 Okay.

12:28 I understand.

12:29 He asked, is Yoplait a children's yogurt? I asked him straight up.

12:33 And I went.

12:34 And he went, there, you did it.

12:35 I fucking knew it.

12:36 Is that a bad thing?

12:39 No, it was just more because I was trying to get conclusive evidence I could take back to Her Majesty.

12:43 Like, Jack agrees with me. Arden agrees with me. Sophia agrees with me.

12:48 Blake Wexler agrees with me.

12:50 I do not think of it as a children's yogurt.

12:52 It's fine.

12:52 I think of it as, you know what it is?

12:54 It's just not.

12:54 It's not refined. I paused.

12:57 It's not a children's yogurt.

13:00 I think it's yogurt. I think it's everybody's yogurt.

13:03 I'm going to say on matcha, no other food.

13:07 Has the color doing more work.

13:09 That's right.

13:10 It's a fun color.

13:11 It's a great color.

13:12 It's a pretty color. It's a good green.

13:13 Yeah, it's a nice green color. Most of the job of having matcha is carrying the green cup.

13:21 Around with you.

13:21 You're right. And it's a performative drink.

13:24 Yes, it is. But in a good way because I think it's beautiful.

13:27 But it's also like.

13:28 It looks better than... You know what I mean? Because you do see people work the fuck out of their matcha too. And I'm like, are you drinking it?

13:34 It's doing a great impression of me drinking a matcha.

13:37 It's not you.

13:38 It's like.

13:38 It's like.

13:39 Swallow it first.

13:43 The mouthful of matcha.

13:44 There's obviously a straw. There's my matcha. I don't know.

13:50 Honestly, yeah.

13:52 I like an acai bowl, but that it's almost like having an ice cream sundae is fun.

13:55 Because it's like a dessert bowl.

13:58 Right.

13:58 It's like a soft serve. And you can add in like.

14:01 You think matcha is the new acai? That it's going the direction of the acai?

14:05 I think so.

14:06 I think it already is.

14:08 Are the supplies as sort of... Plentiful?

14:12 Yeah.

14:12 Are they bountiful? Because matcha, it's... It's not unlimited.

14:16 It's not an inexhaustible ratio.

14:18 I think maybe while we're getting served might not actually... You know what I mean?

14:21 I think so, but it's just like.

14:23 If any time it's like... Because there's so.

14:24 Many companies who are like, when I traveled to Japan, I fell.

14:27 In love with it.

14:29 I'm talking about like.

14:30 I'm talking about... You know, strip mall.

14:34 Yeah, what's Starbucks' matcha?

14:37 That's what I'm talking about. It's the performative.

14:39 Yeah.

14:40 It's the... Wait a minute.

14:42 Like, I bet if I had real matcha, which I never have, I bet I would like it.

14:46 It's funny because in Japan, like Japanese Starbucks... When I was there last time, like in April, the matcha thing, the offerings weren't like how they were here.

14:55 Yeah.

14:55 They have more like straight up, honest, like this is a weird child flavor drink where it'd be like gingerbread cake with strawberry icing. And it's like not even mentioning coffee.

15:06 I'm dying to go.

15:07 Like, we know you want something sweet.

15:08 By the way, they're right.

15:10 Yeah.

15:10 I want it. I want everything.

15:12 If it's like that, then great.

15:13 That's next on my list.

15:15 Yeah.

15:16 I will say.

15:16 Yeah. because I am a bit of a like caffeine, you know, I pay a lot of attention to caffeine content and like I've gone through phases where I'm like trying to cut back and I switched to matcha from coffee for like six months during the pandemic.

15:31 And?

15:32 And it is like a better.

15:34 It's a better caffeine.

15:35 Caffeine. I mean, look.

15:36 It's less crash.

15:38 I'll tell, I mean, look, caffeine has worked against me sometimes.

15:42 Yeah, yeah.

15:42 Caffeine has made me really, yeah, caffeine has been like, Jittery.

15:48 Jittery. Yeah.

15:49 And like, kind of like, like, I don't know. Things aren't going to work out.

15:54 You know what I mean?

15:55 Like, I had a good run.

15:57 I don't know.

15:58 Should I get my real estate license and move into my brother's basement?

16:01 I could be a therapist.

16:02 Yeah.

16:02 I guess I could be my brother's ward.

16:04 Yeah.

16:07 My brother's ward.

16:09 Yeah.

16:09 I could be my brother's ward.

16:11 Sure. Caffeine is edgy.

16:13 No, no, you're right. Like, how do you make your matcha?

16:17 So I was ordering it from Starbucks.

16:23 I was getting it delivered in a tiny little, I think it was authentically Japanese. It had Japanese writing on it. It was in a little white container. i would like scoop it out with a little matcha spoon a little coke spoon bamboo whisk yeah bamboo whisk and then i tried doing the bamboo whisk did not work and then i got like a hand thing that you just put in.

16:47 I was.

16:49 Like and uh then i would drink it.

16:51 And you put it in what water yes.

16:53 Water yeah hot yeah because otherwise it like clumps up and you don't do you put just water That's.

17:01 What I did.

17:02 And now you're thinking like an American who saw matcha for the first time and go.

17:06 And so what?

17:06 You just drink that with just water and you go, hmm, maybe I can put like strawberry.

17:10 I mean, that's what I'm thinking of.

17:12 How many scoops of ice cream?

17:14 I think it's like the TikTok girl performative.

17:17 Yeah, yeah, of course.

17:18 To my overrate, I think it's a like, You know what it is?

17:22 It's the Americanized version of Macho.

17:24 I think I'm realizing because I am mesmerized by these beautiful videos that people can make. Hats off to everybody who can make these cool videos where they are the lead character. And I'm like, wow, how did you know how to edit and make that? But I guess.

17:41 It's more the, wow. I was a late bloomer and a weird cat.

17:50 And how I'm thankful, though, that I didn't grow up knowing so clearly nationwide what I'm supposed to.

17:59 Like, okay, this is the right kind of bag. This is the right kind of.

18:02 Right.

18:02 That everyone's kind of elegantly looks the same.

18:06 Yeah, yeah.

18:07 And I'm like... Algorithms have.

18:09 Like, funneled people into these, like, three versions.

18:11 And they do a really good job.

18:12 And I'm like, wow, they know how to put an outfit together in their house.

18:16 But there's something so... And they do a really good job, and I'm impressed by it.

18:19 And I get sucked in. I like watching it. But there's something so... I can't believe even as an adult that didn't grow up, I'm like, I am a lemming for like, I guess I'm supposed to do that. And so I think for me, maybe that's what's overrated is my own capacity to be To be manipulated.

18:38 Yeah.

18:39 Sure, sure.

18:39 So this is what we're doing now? Yeah.

18:41 And then it works on me. And then it actually works.

18:44 Next time I see you, you've got like three watches. I've got like a whole holster.

18:48 Yeah, but you're like, I guess it's the summer. I've got to go get an anklet again.

18:52 And I did.

18:52 And you're like, but it's just how I'm easily manipulated. I guess that's what's overrated.

18:58 Yeah, yeah.

18:58 We talk about the death of the monoculture, but there is still a lot of monoculture out there. There's just different kinds. Now there's like 20 monocultures. But you can tell who... It's so funny. Even when I look at stuff just with vloggers, some people have this exact same kind of Japanese poster in the background. Because on Instagram, there were a couple accounts that were like, vintage Japanese posters.

19:21 And I'm looking at it, I'm like, this shit just says Fuji in Japanese. But they're like, It looks cool, but it's like become so ubiquitous.

19:30 I see in the background.

19:31 I'm like, I've seen this 50 times because everyone is like, well, if this is the Japanese vintage poster I buy, it's from this thing.

19:38 And it makes me and then I love design.

19:40 And, you know, I just love looking at different interiors.

19:44 I love art direction. I love hotel.

19:46 Design.

19:46 I just like seeing different designs.

19:48 And there's this one Italian couch that's so beautiful. Like, I'm susceptible. I'm like, oh, if I put that couch in my house, I could get it in a magazine. It's like it's super expensive. It's that beautiful couch.

19:59 You guys might have it.

20:00 I'm sorry.

20:01 It's like that. But it's like that one with the tufting.

20:03 It's like the Bosch.

20:05 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

20:06 And it's like it's got like a metal frame is really expensive. It's sort of vintage and it's great looking. But it's like every magazine cover has that. It's like if I have that couch, then it's OK. I almost like it's the coolest thing just to have like. 15 Barka loungers and be like, this.

20:23 Is my, but you know what it is because everyone kind of arrives at the same thing. Like, well, there are only three chairs that are worth having in my house because the same influencers are posting it. And then people, you look at me like, well, like anytime I go into a place and I'm like, whoa, this place is kind of cool because they're not doing the shit I've seen sort of shoved down your throat repetition on social media.

20:43 So I guess I'm calling out overrated my own susceptibility. I'm mad. I'm mad that I can be twisted.

20:50 It works.

20:51 You can manipulate me.

20:52 I don't like that. You are twisted.

20:54 Yeah.

20:55 Real world joker.

20:56 I'm a real world joker.

20:59 Let's take a quick break.

21:00 Let's do it.

21:01 And we will be right back. And we're back.

21:14 Florida is a goddamn mess. Like every state in the country. But just, God, I'm always hearing the worst shit about Florida. I just want to play this soundbite from a news story about a three-year-old boy that is so good at youth soccer at the three-year-old level that other parents called the cops on him.

21:39 I don't know what this is.

21:42 I aside from just white fragility at the highest order because this child is black.

21:47 You said he's three and he's good at something. I'm against him.

21:53 He's a freak. Let me just play this one.

21:55 This is just just hearing the newscasters talk about this out loud is fucking terrifying and so stupid. But this is what happened recently in Florida.

22:04 A wild story out of Florida.

22:05 Some people complained a three-year-old was too good for his youth soccer league.

22:10 Nevada Pierre was apparently escorted off the field during a game after the league.

22:16 Oh, cut it. Boom.

22:17 He's so cute. Cut back.

22:20 Oh, hit him with a step over. See?

22:23 So advanced that he plays with the five-year-olds. She says other parents are upset, claiming Pierre hogs the ball. The mom says none of the kids pass at that age and they're all just running around. And I'm telling you, that's true with Little League. That's true with soccer. It's usually like just a flock of kids running.

22:43 Yeah.

22:43 So this child. You know, if he was white, he'd.

22:47 Have a scholarship for the rest of his life to any soccer-related or non-soccer-related thing.

22:54 Arsenal, sign this kid up, bro. He's three, and he's smoking these fucking.

22:59 They were playing highlights while they were talking over there. This kid is fucking really good.

23:02 Like, it's pretty... It's insane how good this kid is. He's incredible. My child is three.

23:07 He is not doing this shit. He's more of an artist, to be fair to him. But this kid is so... Already has such coordination at his age. Like, This is like some shit I remember like when we were like 10 years old and people would accuse a kid of being like 14 or something. These parents are merely saying, I don't know what exactly.

23:27 There's something different about this kid also, by the way, compared to the rest of this. Dying into why the parents.

23:34 Their teammates seem to be mostly white. So again, they said he's ball hogging. Is that that's a reason to call the police? It's to be like, I'm sorry, this child is ball hogging and it's a threat to our safety. This is this is kind of bullshit. It's like so infuriating because now it's affecting this just a fucking three year old playing soccer.

23:56 A thing he loves.

23:57 Sorry. Sorry.

23:58 Sorry.

23:58 Your kids are fucking ass.

24:00 OK. And they can't fucking they can't dribble worth a fuck like this kid. But holy shit, man, this is youth soccer at that level. Like they were saying, it's I used to coach youth soccer. We call that bumblebee soccer. Where everybody just chases the fucking ball like a big fucking swarm of bees. No fucking there's no such thing as defending. It's like it's like a Ouija board, but with a ball in the middle of the fucking field.

24:21 This kid is actually just being like, give me the ball.

24:23 Fuck it.

24:23 I'm a score because this mother this other kid is laying on his back looking at the sky.

24:28 But to grow up Black in America and to, from three, become not aware of the fact that you're extremely gifted, but the fact that you're a problem.

24:39 Right.

24:40 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

24:40 That's your first interaction.

24:42 To put that on a three-year-old? That's his first... awareness before that i'm sure for him it's just what a fun time i'm fucking having yes you know how much perception do you have at three of things other than what you love to do and what you don't like to do you're a little kid to make him aware past that of what the fuck all of these adults are on about he doesn't deserve to have his childhood stripped that early from.

25:07 Him that's actually what the fuck What those parents did to him is far worse than what this kid is doing to the other three-year-olds by just merely being better. I don't have fucking nightmares. I remember playing youth sports, and there were kids that were fucking so good.

25:22 I'd be like, holy shit, man. Nicky's so fucking good. And that's what you do when you're at that age. You don't go, I'm fucking nobody, and I don't know who I'm going to be after this. This kid, unfortunately, his interaction is police showed up when you were playing a game.

25:38 That's so upsetting.

25:39 And be like, you can't play.

25:40 It's also really character building to not be good at something and to still do it. That's the whole point of team sports. If you don't understand that, your kids shouldn't be on that field. When I did ballet as a kid, which I did from like the tiniest stage, like three, five, whatever, I was never in the even top 75% ever. I was always so bad. And I kept going because I really liked doing ballet. And it was good to realize as a child, hey, you're not going to be good at everything.

26:14 I'm good at writing, right?

26:16 And I'm going to go to school and I'm going to be good at that. Then I'm going to go to ballet class, which I like just as much as writing. But I happen not to be good at that. And I serve a different role there than I do at school. Like it's completely good and natural for children to learn.

26:31 Oh, wow.

26:32 How cool that boy is good at the thing I'm not good at.

26:35 What am I good at?

26:36 Right.

26:36 It's not a negative.

26:37 What the fuck are we doing to these kids?

26:40 Especially the little black kid.

26:42 The level that sports are put on a pedestal or like in this country or in, you know, probably globally as well. And this is coming from someone who all my clothes have a Philadelphia sports logo on it. Like it's all I have is sports. But the level that it's put like it's untouchable. And you see it here where it's this is a game. This is not a sport.

27:02 This is a game children are playing. Like this is the same as if they were playing Legos. This is the same if they were like, this doesn't fucking matter. It doesn't matter at all. And then you see it like they use it as a way to detect trans people as well. But it's like, but what about our sports? Like, hey, listen, you can do whatever the fuck you're doing over there, but not in our sports. You know, it doesn't it truly does not fucking matter. If it's causing people to feel less than or in a child's situation, like you were saying it perfectly, it's like that's going to fuck that child's understanding of how the world works. Where in reality, this the way the world works is that this kid is fucking sick at something. Hey, maybe you can just

27:40 be good at something. This is also the greatest child I've ever seen in my life. And hey, you only have to play the kid once a fucking season. You know, what are you playing the kid every single game? It's like that is a schedule loss on your schedule.

27:54 You're going to lose to that kid. And then you play a bunch of other shitty white kids.

27:57 For the rest of the year. It is.

27:59 Yeah, it's fucking ridiculous. So the body.

28:02 Cam footage was just released, too. Oh, good.

28:06 There's fucking body cam footage? Investigator rape, you fucking losers. Because they're being like, it's not because he was too good. It's because his parents were causing a scene. These black people were causing a scene. It doesn't bode well regardless, because at the end of the day, the way he was playing was upsetting other parents.

28:24 And they're like... Because also this happens in youth soccer. Like if you're beating the shit out of a team, you're usually like, all right, bro, like we don't need to score. We don't need to put fucking 15 on them. So I've like, I remember when I used to coach like you 11 or you 10 kids.

28:35 Soccer, we would, cause that was a good coach.

28:38 Okay. We were beating the shit out of teams. I would have to bring my striker and be like, sorry, Nicole, you're playing goalie because I can't have you anywhere near the ball because you're about to fucking just run up the score. And that's just sort of like the decorum around it. But clearly, once it got to a point where the game was fully lost, I think it just became stressed. And they're saying like they're they're like he's pushing other players. And it's like that's still not a reason to call the police. That's let the referees have been given. Yeah, it's the kid's mother said she's. On the body cam video, she's saying they're literally kicking him out of this place because he's good at soccer. And

29:14 they're saying, like, no, it's because he was pushing somebody. At the end of the day, I have a feeling that this happens a lot in America. When a person of color makes a white person feel insignificant or threatened on some level, the response in this country is to call the police somehow as the mediator because that's just an inbuilt response of, like, state violence to handle this feeling of... insufficiency that I suddenly have in the presence of this person who is not white. What am I supposed to do? The mom also said she posted that her son, quote, could not understand why he was being taken away from the game. And what should have been a happy childhood moment became heartbreaking, distressing for him and

29:50 deeply painful. Just like I have no idea what the... It's like the stupidest shit.

29:56 But anyway, you can't explain that. Nor should you have to fuck that for life.

30:02 It also shows how like a lot of white people just don't know how to speak to people of color as well, where it's like if it was a really good white kid, wouldn't you? Like, I think these parents just I don't know them fucking personally, but you would just be like, hey, what's going on? Like, fucking take your kid like it's the opposite where they don't want to be confrontational with. And this is the best version of it. They don't want to be confrontational. Therefore, they're hiring the least qualified people demographic in the world to deal with this.

30:29 A cop.

30:30 Someone with a gun to talk about a three year old.

30:33 Yes.

30:34 Yes.

30:34 Three year old playing fucking soccer.

30:37 Get fucked. Well, speaking as the cop, why would you even walk up there? Also, why is there no coach? Bring the people like away from the kids.

30:46 Wouldn't the fucking first thing would be the coach? Yeah.

30:49 I think, yeah, I think once the cops get there, the kid is also the coach. I have to say that, too. The kid is a player and a coach. Yeah, he's that good.

31:00 And he's the ref.

31:01 So they really had to call the cops.

31:04 He's the Bill Russell of youth soccer. Yeah, he's the guy. This kid is unbelievable. Well, speaking of taking things from black people, Elvis Presley. Let's talk about him. So, you know, a lot of people know if you don't know, a lot of Elvis's career was was built on stealing from black artists and getting songwriting credits. for songs he never fucking wrote. And, you know, it's interesting because the rights holders of Elvis Presley's catalog, like the people who, like, for a financial stake, bought the rights to the Elvis songs, now they're suddenly pissed off about any kind of musical thievery going down. And this is because Anthropic has allegedly been using Elvis' songs to, quote, train their models without permission,

31:47 according to a new $ 41 million lawsuit filed by Authentic Brands Group. who own the likeness and the catalog of Elvis Presley. The Claude model has, quote, created infringing output of copyrighted material of virtually every song from.

32:04 Every catalog available on the internet.

32:06 The lawsuit claims that they asked Claude to create specific songs for a, quote, modern audience. And after doing so, Claude even admitted that, quote, these renders keep landing very close to the originals. Same structure, same hooks, reused with light rewording and full sets of verses, choruses, and bridges. So, This is just a very funny moment. I feel like AI has become like this really interesting double-edged sword where on one hand, they're like, we're going to fucking make all this fucking money. And then on the other, it's also made it easier for people to like vibe code full applications and things like that. Well, like, I don't know if you saw this, like the whole Adobe suite, someone just like vibe coded for free. So it's like,

32:43 why are you paying for Photoshop, dude? I just, I just built this with AI just off this, just off the straight, just not even with any real professional help, straight vibes. And also producer Catherine was sharing a story too with me about how like hackers are getting close to like cracking PlayStation games and just sort of this whole argument about like ownership and digital ownership and physical ownership.

33:04 that a lot of these tools are now sort of becoming weapons against like greedy capitalists.

33:08 So we're just like, what the fuck? Oh, you got to pay me a monthly fee for Photoshop.

33:12 And now someone's fucking offering that shit for free.

33:15 And now you're fucking going to, what about my Elvis money?

33:17 Although I don't think, I think there'll be okay. Cause nobody's listening to AI Elvis bullshit, but I.

33:23 Would love to add an adorable brick to this. Yes. Which is that my mom who is 75 and, you know, a Ukrainian immigrant who, started working in computers when them shits were giant and like green letters and just had, you know, the snake name on them. Like, she's an OG. She's now retired. And in addition to the stuff she's doing, she started using AI with her programming knowledge and her skills in software testing to build a thing that would allow her to compare health care plans.

33:59 Oh, my God.

34:00 And it's going to be something that like she can share with other people. Like my mom's a fucking G. She spends hours on this every day.

34:09 Here's my email. yeah yeah yeah how do I how do I get the beta for that.

34:13 As soon as it's done I will absolutely let you know we talked on the phone about it the other day.

34:18 That's so impressive and that's just born out of her being like she's like okay well I know how to use like I have I'm literate in this kind of thing so how.

34:26 Do I I mean she uses words I don't know anything about she's just like black box testing and regression and whatever I'm like I don't know anything but it sounds like you do and that's amazing hey mom that's really sweet that's cool The capitalism is starting to eat itself.

34:42 I mean, I'm right now like, let them fight.

34:46 Right, right, right, right.

34:47 Who is going to be the loser here? The authentic products corp against fucking ruin your life AI?

34:55 Please kill each other.

34:57 You both lose.

34:58 I don't know. What's the fucking point? Are you going to give any of that money to the people who actually wrote the songs that Elvis stole or no?

35:04 Oh, no.

35:04 Hopefully while they're fighting each other for this bullshit and exchanging their like fucking illicitly earned and illegally earned funds, hopefully people like my mom and all these other people will be using the technology to just take the money out from under them.

35:20 And then, I don't know. That's the hope. I mean, look, at the end of the day, people with good intentions can also use these tools for something that is worthwhile. But yeah, that's actually very heartwarming to hear that your mom was like, Was that just born out of her being like, I need help comparing healthcare plans and fuck it.

35:42 Let me just create a software to help do that. That's awesome.

35:47 Imagine being that smart. Can you just solve a problem for yourself? I can't.

35:51 Yeah, I mean, she's a retired person.

35:53 After I survived breast cancer, she's like volunteering at Cedars, but she doesn't like it because they only let her do office stuff and she finds like filing and she finds it boring. Then she tried to go and hold babies at the NICU. They're all full up on baby holders. She's like, well, what the fuck am I supposed to do with my time?

36:09 What the fuck?

36:10 And then she's like, well, do you need to find good?

36:12 You got these baby holders? Look at their hands.

36:14 They're calloused.

36:14 Wait, you can volunteer to. You could volunteer to hold a baby?

36:19 Yeah. That's tight.

36:22 Yeah.

36:22 We hired our own when our kids were in the NICU. I didn't want to hold them because they were.

36:26 Yeah, yeah.

36:27 Gross.

36:27 It freaked me out.

36:28 They were a little gross.

36:29 So we would have someone hold them with hands that I paid to have made.

36:33 So they seemed like my hands. The kids thought they were my hands.

36:36 They were essentially my hands.

36:37 Gross, dude.

36:38 But it was the holder.

36:39 They should call that shit the ick. They privatized baby holding. They call that shit the ick you, bro.

36:47 It's you.

36:51 No, thanks. I'm having somebody hold these babies.

36:53 First time I saw my newborn, I just have to be honest, like, wow, he gave me the ick.

37:02 Yuck. Yeah, I mean, babies, newborn babies are, they look different. I mean, Amy Miller and I, we would always send each other photos of like our friends who posted newborns because we're always like, damn, dude. Like, newborns, they're batting, like, 9 for 10 for not looking. Like, they look brand new, you know, and they look like they just literally emerged from the body. They're just raw dough at that point.

37:25 They're raw dough.

37:26 They're all misshapen and shit for a minute. Their heads are not right.

37:30 Oh, the head is wild, bro. When you got that fucking alien.

37:32 Their eyes are always fucked up.

37:35 They got acne.

37:36 You're like, how you already got acne? You just been here for three seconds.

37:40 Yeah.

37:41 Oh, my God. Wash your face. They have that huge tooth that they come out with, you know?

37:45 Yeah.

37:45 Yeah.

37:45 Like, wash your face, baby. You've been here for three seconds. Oh, my God.

37:49 Get it together.

37:49 Where's your skincare routine?

37:51 What are you using?

37:51 We're guests in this place, all right? Act like it.

37:54 Are they no Biore strips in the room?

37:56 Oh, my gosh.

37:58 You look nasty.

37:59 Yeah.

38:00 You have blackheads, like, on your back, and you're breaking out. I don't know. Like, get it together. Like, this is, like, really creepy. Get dressed. jesus oh my god what's all weird it doesn't even.

38:14 Okay amazon has rompers they could have overnighted okay this is just.

38:20 Quick fashion show quick fashion show this wasn't a surprise like you.

38:24 Knew you knew you were gonna be here yeah i'm sorry like i'm wearing clothes and what about you what's your excuse oh That's weird.

38:33 Hello.

38:34 Hello. Hello.

38:35 I'm talking to you.

38:36 Hello.

38:36 You're not even looking. So disrespectful.

38:39 Jesus, why can't you focus on me when I speak to you?

38:43 I'm sorry.

38:44 This baby's a fucking dickhead and I'm not having this anymore.

38:47 Get him out. Yeah, this is all wrong.

38:48 Stop grabbing my finger. Are you serious?

38:50 I don't know you like that.

38:52 You're fucking.

38:53 Oh, my God. Get a hand.

38:55 Open your eyes. Open your eyes.

38:57 Hey.

38:59 Sleep time's done.

38:59 Yeah.

39:01 People get so mad when you snap at them now. Yeah.

39:04 Now, everyone hates being snapped at. Bro, I remember being a kid at a restaurant and I snapped at a waiter and my dad fucking horse collared me out of there. And he was like, don't you ever snap at somebody who's working. Don't ever do that shit. And I was like, what? And he was like, do you know how disrespectful that is?

39:23 You use your voice to speak to a person. You don't even snap at animals. You snap at people who are out of it. I remember snapping so vividly that lesson because I thought I was doing something. Being like, excuse me. And I was like.

39:35 Garçon.

39:36 He's like, that means boy in French.

39:38 Never say that to a person.

39:41 Excuse me.

39:41 Un fil.

39:43 Right.

39:43 Isn't that a girl?

39:45 Je suis la jeune fille.

39:46 I remember that from Muzzy. That was in the Muzzy commercials in the late 80s. Yeah, I just remember that. I was never snapped.

39:53 Okay, Blake, don't ever. I had to become my dad on you suddenly.

39:56 I hate being snapped.

39:58 And I hate being tapped.

40:01 Never tapping.

40:03 I don't know.

40:04 We did it in my family.

40:04 So I don't know.

40:05 Tapping's. Really bad.

40:07 No, when I was this turned out to be the first panic attack I think I ever had was when my grandmother snapped at a waiter in a restaurant. I got even at like eight years old or nine years old. I didn't I couldn't articulate why that was bad, but I knew like instinctually in my soul how.

40:23 Horrible that was.

40:24 And I like didn't know what to do.

40:27 I'm having an eight year old heart attack because my grandmother is a sensitive, sweet little being like, no, was she from Philly?

40:36 No, she was, where was she from?

40:39 No, Florida.

40:41 No, she's from Brooklyn. Brooklyn, then Florida.

40:44 Yeah.

40:44 I was gonna guess, actually, because.

40:47 That is a certain contingent of Jewish grandparents will snap.

40:54 Not mine.

40:54 A little snap at a restaurant. So he's picturing either like old New York Jews or in Florida. No.

41:01 It was an old... Yeah.

41:03 Her mom was a Russian Jew. There we go.

41:07 Yeah.

41:08 Yeah.

41:08 So you nailed it. You completely nailed it. I think I know. I think I can picture this.

41:13 Florida by way of Brooklyn snapping at servers. Let me just pull up my roll of... Let me see.

41:19 What could this be?

41:20 Who could it possibly be?

41:23 That.

41:24 GIF of the blonde woman with the equations.

41:26 I'm like.

41:27 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

41:28 Just calculating. Just a straight line to the conclusion.

41:31 It's one plus one equals two.

41:34 Snapping. No, I ask because also too, Jack always talks about his Philly grandma and how like in fear of her she was. And I was like, I was like, man, built different, built, different my grandmother would never my grandmother was just the queen by my black grandma the queen of passive-aggressive under her breath mumbling about shit like that.

41:55 So sweet oh thank you so much because she doesn't know what she's doing oh my god yes just like she would be smiling she'd be like this must be her first day.

42:06 Just doing that all the time.

42:08 I'm like, grandma, what the fuck is wrong with you?

42:10 That's my mom, but without lowering her voice.

42:12 Yeah.

42:13 This must be your first day. Oh, Jesus Christ. You don't know what you're doing, do you? Fuck.

42:20 My mom's like, I don't like that coat on her.

42:22 What do you think?

42:22 That long white coat? I'm like, she's standing in front of us. My mom's like, we're speaking in Russian. I'm like, she was also.

42:30 Speaking in Russian. We're at a Russian restaurant.

42:34 Yeah. I'm like, why would you?

42:37 Hey, a bit of Slavic subtlety for you right there. You know what I mean? Just a little bit.

42:41 I'm like, she was FaceTiming in Russian, obviously in line because that is my people.

42:48 How do you miss that?

42:51 She's rude.

42:52 I just had this memory come back of my Philly Delco grandmother where I was like so young and I hit her with a, I don't love you anymore.

42:59 And she goes, I don't love you either. I don't love you either. Shut me out of here. Oh, wow.

43:07 I love you.

43:08 Wow, Blake, you don't love me.

43:10 Guess what?

43:10 I don't love you either.

43:12 Oh, wow.

43:12 I'm so sorry. This piece of shit kid doesn't love me. I'm really going to keep you up at night. This kid brings nothing to the table. Say that again. Wow, Blake, why don't you say that again?

43:23 Hey, you hear this?

43:24 You hear this? What do you say again?

43:26 No one gives a.

43:27 Shit, dickhead.

43:28 Yeah.

43:29 She's like, oh, pass me the tissues, Blakey. She like fake cries. She's like, nah, because I'm not a little bitch.

43:36 I don't love you either. Dabs her eyes.

43:39 She throws the entire carton at your face.

43:42 Dry as shit. No tears. We call that baby shampoo. Because there's no tears, you fucking weakling.

43:49 All right. Let's take another break. That's all over again. We're taking a break. Take a Blake break when we come back. The fortune cookie takeover from Silicon Valley.

44:09 And we're back.

44:10 Hi, we're back.

44:12 What a journey we just took during that break. Usually we're like.

44:15 And we'll be right back.

44:16 And we're back.

44:17 But this one did a little talking. I learned about ringworm. On this break, we do things a little different. Let's talk about dictionary.com. Yes.

44:27 This is the end of the year tradition on this podcast to look at what is being selected as the word of the year by the authorities at the dictionary's website. The dictionary has its own website, dictionary.com. And they just announced their word of the year, and it's maxing. Oh, just maxing as a thing. Just maxing.

44:51 Oh, so anything maxing.

44:52 It's weird because maxing is not a standalone word. It's always added to the end of other things. Whereas their second place one was data center, which is two words. So it's just like, you guys have a job that we go to you for, and it is for... You know, definitions of words and then word of the year. But I mean, I don't care. I'm not going to get precious here.

45:18 I feel like data center is dumb to put there because if someone said data center, you'd go, okay, I think I have an idea of what that is.

45:28 Sure.

45:28 Data is being processed. The data center. Whereas like if you just said unk. I already see so many white people who don't know because, unfortunately, another term that's used in AAV has broken containment to white people. And they're like, what is like University of North Carolina? And we're like, what?

45:50 I do.

45:50 I did have that.

45:51 Yeah.

45:51 I am guilty as charged.

45:53 Really?

45:53 You did? No. UNC?

45:57 I've spent my whole life seeing those three letters and thinking that. uh, North Carolina, you know?

46:03 Yeah.

46:04 I immediately went uncle.

46:05 Yeah.

46:06 Look, I mean, I love abbreviating.

46:09 I just abbreviated seasons.

46:12 So I was out.

46:13 And I was like, seize. And my friend was like, you can't do that.

46:16 Like little C's.

46:18 No, I've seen like so and I've like I've seen a lot of videos where like they're like white people trying to explain, like break it down.

46:23 And I'm like, this is unc. Yeah, this is stupid.

46:26 Yeah.

46:26 Or like some people get it so wrong and others are like, OK, so it actually means uncle. So like if you're like a like a guy and now you've like reached sort of like your middle aged era, then people say you're in your unc era because like your uncle now.

46:40 So that's like unc.

46:42 And I've also seen people be like, it actually comes from uncool.

46:46 Yeah, yeah.

46:47 So they like must have heard somebody say it out loud and just like been misunderstanding.

46:52 I think that's I think that's being online and not knowing black people. And you're having to deduce what you think it is because people are talking about washed middle aged dudes.

47:03 And I'm like, yes, I took a shower this morning.

47:05 Thank you.

47:07 Yeah.

47:08 Cool.

47:08 I was going to say of the options, Unk was the best because the so the other ones second place was data center and Next was affordability. I guess like that feels like the 90s. That would have been the word in the 90s. You know, that's also a word in the news. Yeah, I guess the meaning doesn't change.

47:30 has the meaning of affordability changed? I'm going to tell you, they took five cracks at this, and I don't think they succeeded on a single one.

47:38 This is fucking terrifying.

47:40 Okay, data center is two words. Maxing is a, like, you know, post, you know, thing that you add on to the end of another word.

47:49 Suffix.

47:50 Fuck. My English teacher was getting so mad. She's a big fan.

47:54 Affordability, which is pretty boring.

47:57 Odyssey.

47:58 Yeah.

47:58 Which is like, what are you talking about? That's like the oldest.

48:04 Story ever told.

48:07 I mean, I guess it makes sense. Because, I mean, word of the year is probably just sort of like because it's used so often.

48:13 It doesn't need to be a new word. That's why affordability kind of makes sense to me. Because it's like, yeah, this is a word that if you said three years ago that everybody would be using it, you'd be like, oh, that tells me where things are going.

48:29 Yeah, sure. Last year, it was slop.

48:31 Makes sense. Jerry Mander. This was Merriam-Webster's. Performative, which we already have a word for that. But again, they're talking about in the context of social media. Tariff.

48:41 Your friend who had a raccoon, a pet raccoon, that had a different term of slop. That, you know, that's just what you fed the piggies.

48:49 That's called good etting right there. Those are called piddles.

48:51 Yeah, that's good.

48:52 Good etting.

48:53 Yeah. So Unk is on the list. And I was going to say Unk is. Would be a fine pick. And then I went and read dictionary.com's definition.

49:04 And?

49:05 And it says, it just, it feels like it is a write-up that was clearly written by someone who was called Unk and was like doing the research to try and find the explanation.

49:19 Yeah.

49:21 What did the kids on the subway call me? Unc short for uncle.

49:26 Yeah.

49:27 Yeah. That's you got that. When paired with chopped as chopped and unk, translating to attractive and old.

49:36 Chopped and unk. Unattractive and old. All right.

49:39 But this is where it gets good. If someone is described as reaching unk status, that means they're officially deemed quote unquote old. But depending on the tone, it can be more affectionate than derogatory. It can also be a sign of respect to indicate a person is mature and wise.

49:57 Mm-hmm.

49:58 Okay.

49:59 Okay. That's definitely... I mean, it's true.

50:01 That's... Because that's... You would be like, all right, as a sign of respect in Black culture, it can be a reverential term.

50:11 But....

50:13 It also feels like someone letting themselves down easy.

50:15 I feel like.

50:15 Actually, it means they think I'm smart. Yeah. Yeah.

50:21 Actually, what they say, when someone says it to you, it actually means that they are unk, it turns out. Wait, what?

50:28 It's like, no, you're unk. No, it's about you. I don't know. I'm hearing a lot of stuff.

50:33 I think chopped should also be there because that's something I've heard so much more, too.

50:37 Yeah, chopped is fun.

50:39 But that's also one of those ones that I can't, like, I'm at that age now where some words are, like, I love a bit of slang, too. But some of them I'm like, chopped is.

50:50 I wish I could say it.

50:51 I don't want to say it, but I say it.

50:54 Say what?

50:55 Clutch.

50:57 Clutch.

50:57 That's still good. Clutch is still good.

50:59 Clutch ain't chopped, unk.

51:03 Clutch is good. And your plate is an adult's yogurt. Don't do this to me now. Shit is clutch. I said that shit this weekend. I was like, oh, that shit was clutch. Yeah, I love it. It's a good one. Wait, there is discussion that that could be... No, that's me.

51:21 I'm ahead of the.

51:22 I think I'm ahead of the curveball.

51:23 Like, I know, like, it's coming.

51:25 Yeah.

51:26 Oh, sure, sure, sure.

51:26 It's coming.

51:27 Sure, yeah.

51:28 It's coming for all our words.

51:29 Yeah, exactly.

51:30 Yeah.

51:33 Should we talk about Ebenezer Scrooge?

51:35 Yeah.

51:36 Are you guys.

51:36 Do you guys have plans yet? Have you figured out what you're going to do for the new Ebenezer film?

51:41 Oh, of course.

51:42 I will not see it.

51:43 It's only in theaters November 13th.

51:47 One day?

51:47 Which seems a little.

51:48 Early for me.

51:51 Oh, no, releases. Sorry, I said that wrong.

51:53 I put the emphasis in the wrong place. I was like, wow. It's only out? What a weird choice by that.

52:01 Yeah.

52:01 Scarcity model. Scarcity model.

52:04 Yeah, these release windows are really getting short.

52:08 No, only in theaters.

52:10 November 13th.

52:10 Okay, I haven't seen any of the billboards for this.

52:15 Okay, so.

52:16 I'm going to show you a picture because so first, the first way they announced this is they had Johnny Depp at Comic-Con and he was in his Ebenezer garb, you know, full makeup and he looked old as hell. And then now the posters are coming out, which is what you would expect. Those are coming out. I'm just going to put it in the chat. It feels like they aged him down. Like he's gotten younger.

52:47 Playing ebenezer let's see uh like doesn't he seem too young to be an ebenezer there yeah he's not you don't think so you think he's about i guess.

52:58 We're used to like the sideburns because of the shadow sure all i know is i think we need less.

53:04 Of these movies yes okay yep.

53:08 Like we need to just go we can't do.

53:10 Anymore oh but what if ebenezer was the good guy What if Ebenezer actually had some good points about, you know, not people not accepting handouts? OK, not expecting handouts from their government. They're really like on point with the moment.

53:32 Yeah, yeah.

53:34 At the time that affordability is one of the candidates for word of the year, they have decided to be like, what if Ebenezer was like kind of. bay definitely yeah was was cancel bay hmm yeah yeah so i mean it's not like he's not like in the in the posters he's not like 20s ham like hot hamburglar aged down but it just made me think that they definitely got the note at some point from johnny depp's team like Does he have to be so old and decrepit? Like, what if he was, I don't know, in his 50s?

54:11 What if he was just like... Yeah. What if you wanted to fuck Ebenezer Scrooge? I was so terrible, though.

54:16 Yeah. Yeah, I mean, like, does he have to look so old and, like, we didn't put any makeup on him?

54:23 Exactly. His face.

54:24 Since his, like, trials and stuff, he's, like, legitimately kind of just become Ebenezer in Pirates of the Caribbean. Because, like, whenever I see him not just out in, like, paparazzi stuff, He looks bad.

54:37 Yeah, he looks bad.

54:38 And I used to really want to fuck him a lot.

54:41 Yeah.

54:42 Didn't we all?

54:43 We've all been there.

54:43 Now he looks bad.

54:44 Captain Jack Sparrow?

54:45 Come on. I was more.

54:47 Of a crybaby gal.

54:50 Oh, yeah, yeah. I was more of a what's-eating-Gilbert-grape gal myself.

54:55 I mean, I'll take it.

54:57 I mean, like, right here.

54:58 He's just....

55:00 His teeth are real bad.

55:02 He's chopped up.

55:03 You know?

55:03 He is Chopped Onk.

55:04 Yeah, he's Chopped Onk. He's Chopped Onk. This is what I think. I think him knowing.

55:09 So him knowing he's Chopped Onk, his inner Chopped Onk is telling him Scrooge can't.

55:15 Look like shit.

55:16 Sure, sure, sure.

55:17 Yeah.

55:18 So that's my loose theory just based on... Like, I got a vibe off the live-action Moana posters that I was like, this is headed in.

55:27 A weird direction. And watch that over the weekend.

55:30 What vibe did you get?

55:31 Just the... I don't know.

55:32 It seemed.

55:33 It's so weird. Like The Rock was doing too much.

55:36 Also, I had this note the whole time I was watching this weekend with the Geist Childs. He likes the animated version. You watched live-action Moana? He saw the thing. He saw a picture. He goes, that's not Moana. And I go, I said, son, that's Moana, but it's an abomination. And he's like, I want to see it. And then like halfway through, he's like, I don't like this. Because it's like shot for shot, you know, a remake of the animated Moana version.

56:01 So it's just odd for him to see like... It looks like it takes place on a trapper keeper. Like some of the art looks like absolute shit. But like The Rock... See, that's a movie I would watch. That's the one I would watch.

56:12 The Rock is not.

56:13 The Rock's not killing it as Maui as much as his voice acting was in Moana.

56:17 So it's like... No, he's looking very robotic.

56:20 Like I saw the You're Welcome recreation and I was like, man... That looks like you can hear him counting in his head, like the dance steps.

56:30 Oh, no.

56:31 No.

56:32 It's okay.

56:33 Yeah, when he's doing, you're welcome. I watched the whole thing.

56:35 I was like, that was around the point where my kid was like, we don't got to do this anymore.

56:40 That's the highlight of the first. Like, that's one of the great songs in the history of Disney movies.

56:44 I know.

56:45 Like, it's the point at which people are like, and for that reason, I'm out on this Moana remake.

56:52 I've never seen Moana.

56:54 Oh, nothing.

56:55 Do you care for Disney musicals?

56:57 You know, musical isn't my... I wouldn't say that's my.

57:02 You're fine.

57:04 But I will... Mine neither.

57:05 If I weren't... I mean.

57:08 Listen, I loved Aladdin.

57:10 Sure.

57:10 Sure.

57:10 Sure. Sure. I think, I think Mon is worth watching. I think it's one of the, one of the good ones.

57:15 It's a good one.

57:15 Okay.

57:15 Listen, I'll give it a go.

57:16 Yeah. Yeah.

57:17 Yeah.

57:17 If, if you, if you, if you're going to watch it, I don't think it's like always like a, I've luckily I've been through parenting.

57:22 Stop what you're doing. You know what, Mel? Let's just, let's just end that right now.

57:26 Yeah.

57:26 Yeah.

57:26 Put it on right now.

57:27 This recording is over. And all of this, everything I'm saying, I'm talking, of course, about the live-action Moana.

57:33 Yes.

57:33 Because why would you watch, now that there's a version of real people doing it, why would you ever watch the cartoon one? That's just stupid. Yeah. Anyways, the reason that Ebenezer is on, like, they're doing a, like, marketing thing where they're partnering with a banking app. Right. And you ask Ebenezer for him to, you explain how much money you need. And you're like, so I need $ 100 because my kid is in a lot of trouble, man.

58:08 And this is fun because he is Ebenezer Scrooge. He always sends you one penny. Oh, wow.

58:15 I have $ 30, 000 in medical debt. Could you help me?

58:19 Here's a penny.

58:20 Right.

58:21 It's Ebenezer Scrooge on Venmo.

58:22 The executives who thought of this, like, jumped up and down.

58:26 Yeah.

58:26 Like, they were like, fuck, yeah.

58:29 Because they're also thinking of, like, they're.

58:32 Like, imagine, man, we're paying where they only hit, their chest can't reach each other, they just hit their bellies together.

58:38 We're just, and also, man, think about this, we're paying a penny a person, basically.

58:43 Like, that kind of, we're always 100 people for a buck.

58:45 Think about that. Think about that as a CPM.

58:47 It pays for itself, okay? Like, people are going to talk about it.

58:50 Like, it's, It is such a good way of underlining the thing I was saying earlier about, like, why this is poorly timed. Right.

58:59 It's just like it's a it's.

59:02 A, you know, screen grab generation machine for people being like, I'm fucked.

59:08 I need money.

59:09 Right.

59:10 We live in a world with like literal debtors prisons. And then having this character be like, you get one penny, sir.

59:18 Fuck off.

59:19 Why am I still working even?

59:22 Isn't it a good example about how there's no justice at all on Earth? The fact that even I'm in a role right now.

59:29 Yeah.

59:30 Anyways, it is like I do.

59:32 I'm getting both from like him being like slightly younger than he looked at first in the Comic-Con thing. And also the fact that like the early reports that like people are like, what if Ebenezer Scrooge was a good guy? I'm just getting the movie star having too much control thing where they're like fused with the character. And they're like, I don't know. What if John McClane was a superhero in this movie instead of like the very point of the diehard movies, which is that he's not, you know.

1:00:02 They'll try it all.

1:00:03 They'll try anything. They'll try anything. I mean, I don't think I'm, I'm really curious how I, I'm always like wondering if anyone still gives a shit about Johnny Depp. And it always just makes just enough money that they're like, they can't fucking quit this guy. But this one also like just, With the era we're in, I'm like, this ain't the movie we fucking need.

1:00:24 No, but it's also kind of crazy to me because like they're always saying like the studio, everyone's like Christmas movies because they don't like sell everywhere and all the markets and blah, blah. We don't want them. And then they do this every fucking year. And I'm like, well, you're doing something. We don't need this.

1:00:40 Yeah.

1:00:41 I mean, he killed the Harry Potter franchise, kind of. Like, they brought him in to the Harry Potter franchise. Yeah, I mean, well, I think, let's give J.K. Rowling her due as well.

1:00:57 I don't want to give all the credit to a man there, but yeah.

1:01:02 All right.

1:01:03 That's going to do it for this week's Weekly Zeitgeist. Please like and review the show. if you like the show. It means the world to Miles. He needs your validation, folks. I hope you're having a great weekend, and I will talk to you Monday.

1:01:20 Bye.