What was your favorite sitcom growing up Cosby show are you serious? Uh-huh why it was a family like our family I didn't understand that it was revolutionary as a kid because of I mean You know there's a lot of lore with the Cosby show because I'm you know portrayed a black family in this way It was a very important show, but I didn't feel the weight of any of that as a little kid I just thought Bill Cosby was funny and the girls were pretty and I could relate to the Theo character I was younger than him and I thought Rudy was cute and funny and delightful and just seemed like a very familiar thing to me What was going on with that show and my parents laughed out a lot and so we would all watch it when it came on We'd all laugh real hard. It was wholesome. So I didn't feeling of the nervousness about my parents are gonna You know become concerned or make a consternated face when there's a joke.
I don't understand. It's just good clean fun I love it. I always look forward to it. What about you?
Do you remember the TGI F stuff that came on at night? The four or five comedies sitcoms in a row ABC, right? I don't know. I know what I remember is full house What else was there was full house there was a boy boy meets world was that one of them?
Maybe for a while home improvement that was part of it. I don't know was perfect strangers part of that I don't know I don't know with Larry and cousin palki They were married and not married they were living together Yeah, Charles in charge was you know a little before all that. Yeah, that's just not a thing anymore Is it it doesn't feel like it to me to me? There are three eras of sitcoms in my life There's the era that you and I are talking about with the really heavy laugh track Which is a kid didn't bother me at all eventually I reached a certain age and I thought that's stupid Don't tell me when to laugh or how hard to laugh also How do they all know to stop laughing at the exact same moment right what is with that?
But it was real wholesome now you look back and realize that every single actor was hopped up on cocaine for pretty much every single I mean it wrote that early phase of sitcoms in my life kind of wrote reality back onto my family It was very informative to me as a kid and then the next era of sitcom was a little bit aware It was a little more grown up that was Seinfeld which I did not watch it was friends, which I did not watch It was like there was a show with John Lithgow. You didn't watch friends? No, I mean I was most it completely But I couldn't point to a single episode of what you're doing to him you get nothing from friends I can tell you the name of all the actors and the main characters Yeah, yeah, and I can tell you kind of the arc a little bit but no I don't have it Why is it so I can tell you the name of the coffee shop they hung out with that and I've never watched it And central perk that's it yeah Yeah, yeah the central perk yeah for me the 90s are kind of a black hole for sitcoms Maybe it's just a phase of life or something. I didn't resonate with the sitcoms very much Yeah, I didn't get Seinfeld and then the next era the final era of sitcoms for me is the 2000s and that's a rest of development The office the office British and American.
Oh 30 rock Community and Parks and Rec those are the finals the holy septoology of the final era was again. Say it again Okay, rest of development which was on Fox only very briefly Okay, and then you had British office BBC and then four NBC shows that came right in a row You had the American office 30 rock with Tina Fey and Czechs Donigue Who is that a bald and Alec Baldwin and then you had Parks and Recreation which was in the style of the office and then finally Dan Harmon's community I haven't watched all those where I'm still working through the office. It's a big deal, too. It's funny.
Is it still work on you? Yeah, it still works. I think the fact that there's not a laugh track and you're just left to your own like was that funny? Was it not they let you sit with the awkwardness?
That's a thing real quick What would you think about if we started incorporating a laugh track to the questions? Would you cool that? No? No, I wouldn't I would hate it because it's paid.
It's fundamentally patronizing. Let me see. Let's just try it out I was good man is patronizing. I say it's not funny.
It happened. What do you mean nothing funny? Haha joke first and then do it and see if it makes you joke funnier. All right here.
We go. Let me try Matt Whitman I'm not the joke. No, it has to be an actual joke here push the thing after I tell you a joke. Okay What elephants use for tampons sheep Here's my question was that funny because it's funny or wasn't funny because of the laugh track Can I tell you one okay?
What does a snail say on a turtles back? I don't know The laugh track made it less funny it did it I don't I think it did that's interesting It makes sense with the office not to have a laugh track because of the style the way it shot You know, it's a renegade documentary style It would destroy the whole feeling of the thing which is this is how these people really are this is unscripted Which made it very funny and made the social awkwardness humor funny But then 30 rock also skipped the laugh track, but it was shot more like a typical sitcom But it wasn't it didn't look like it was on a set it looked like it was actually shot at 30 rock of other plays I assume they just dedicated a floor at 30 rock to 30 rock when they were filming I mean this way it looks it doesn't look like a set you see everything from all the angles I don't know what that one's about. I haven't watched 30 rock. I haven't watched parks and rec But I know these were critical for launching a lot of careers and memes.
Oh, yeah So many of the jokes that you just automatically fire off are from those shows What are the sitcoms of today like is there something that has that community? I think the reason it was so powerful back in the day is everybody was gonna watch the show and you knew what was going on Like as a culture, but that's not a thing now. No, we're so split not bifurcated. It's Whatever's after try or I don't know yeah And I'm concerned about that because it did feel like there was a bit more of a mono culture when we were kids But then there were secondary cultures as well and you everybody was in bonus cultures, but also Everybody was in the mono culture.
What's a bonus culture all the other subcultures? So for example growing up complete the following sentence all right stop collaborate and listen Ices back with a brand new edition How did you know that because I play it with my kids when we write up to their friends houses? Where did you learn it? I learned it at price will junior high in the seventh grade at the salad bar There's a salad bar on the cafeteria and some kid was like you ever put ice ice baby What I was like knows what is that yeah, is that a gang thing?
I don't know any of the signs and so I learned about it. What's your favorite line in that song? I got something that I like I'm gonna play that light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle You know what candle rhymes with a vandal it does it rhymes with a vandal yeah, you know who the vandals are who oh they sack from oh really? Yeah, I don't know why that actually how that relates to anything.
It's just a ludicrous rhyme. Oh man come on You gotta play I say spade before my wife's not working. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah Oh, yeah Can we do this this whole song yeah, I think I can can you do the whole song I don't I probably not All right stop collaborate and listen I suspect my brand new edition something hold me tightly What like a harpoon daily and nightly will it ever stop yo?
I don't know turn off the lights and I'll go to the extreme I work a candle like a candle like a stage and watch a chomp like a candle got it's Oh, yeah, yeah boys in this mushroom deadly when I play a don't melody anything less than the best of the felony I'll leave it you bet I can't wait you better hit bullseye the kid don't play if there was a problem. Yo, I'll solve it check out Oh, well my DJ revolves it I speak how do we know because it's great? I'm sweating because of how embarrassed I am what I'm talking about did it's amazing So my kids are precious and I love them very much and we go to great links to make sure that they are morally protected I am sweating I'm listening, but I'm actually sweating really sorry continue get a great links to make sure they're morally protected But I'll do things I'll be like hey We're about to pull up and get your friend roll the windows down like daddy I do the thing I am sweet and I'm like alright, which part you want to play I don't know let's just go for it Hmm like a ninja cut like a razor blade We do not we did so we always like turn that down okay, and then we will like after I make Moses cry in the basket Check out the hook moment. You J revolves it.
Do your hips are really loose right now. I love it. Okay, so I love it Okay, so I know it's awesome. You know what that who that was from Queen, right?
And I don't know the zicky start us to say the Bowie is it really yeah queen and David Bowie put together that hook under pressure Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah, so you're talking about common culture the fact that you and I you grew up on the other side of the Entry I grew up here in the deep south. Yeah, so would you say you grew up in Nebraska or would you say you grew up in Colorado? I was born in Nebraska, but I have almost no memory of it mom and dad were in college And then dad went to seminary and I remember a little bit about seminary in Kansas City And then after that my memories start to come online your dad's seminary in Kansas City Yes, I did not go to seminary at age 18 months.
I wasn't ready. I just my literacy levels were too low I didn't have enough of the foundational knowledge. I think that's important Dude, it's important that I can turn that song on and you and I well first of all I think we still got it We do not we clearly do not but your hips did not lie those were fantastic I know thank you and also you knew that reference I did yeah, I did I think that's important. Why we have that common culture I don't know it unifies us.
It's it's a thing you and I can if we didn't know each other back in the day We could wrap it each other. Yeah, man. You ever rap. Hey, dude.
We should just wrap. Yeah on this flight The track away from the Jack was Jack right? I don't know. I think it's really important Which is probably why authors and musicians have been super important since the dawn of time But now we don't have these shared things I think everything is so split which is why I want to tell you about the comparison between a random episode of Seinfeld and Seinfeld wait Seinfeld how do you say Seinfeld?
I mean I don't know I haven't watched it I've got a lot of it you said Seinfeld clearly I don't watch the show and I didn't watch the show I apologize Seinfeld here. We are talking about how these are markers of in culture and I'm not say Steinfield I said I'm sorry whatever. It's fine. So the most watched sitcoms of 2023 versus a random episode of Seinfeld So I'll show you the graph first.
Okay, so these are all the episodes what you want me to do right now I just want you to just think about this. What do you want me to do like with my eyes right now? I want you to look at this graph. Oh look at this graph.
Thank you. You were really Disappointing me. All right. We got a graph.
All right. So this is all the Seinfeld episodes here This is the viewership. So we're gonna just randomly pick episode 70. Let's get credit to the author here who do we have Can we credit this?
This is some random person. I don't know if it's really you dignified that username by reading it properly Okay, this is a username the real Alan Ritman. Oh, I don't I don't think it's probably I don't think that's I don't think sadly He's passed. Yeah, anyway, this is a random Seinfeld episode episode 70 called the lip reader first aired October 28, 1993 All right, the viewership of this thing was over 30 million people saw that episode live.
Yes. Okay, hold on a minute before you drop the hammer 30 million Okay, so I think that if anything that number actually doesn't hit as hard as it should because of the falsity of internet numbers Internet numbers give you a weird distorted sense of things I think you and I have talked about this if not we've definitely conceptualized it Have we discussed the currency exchange of different internet clicks likes downloads views you and I have not discussed it But I have had this conversation with other people. What would you say is the lowest currency view in all of social media? It's a real that's a TikTok swipe or something along those lines I agree like a Instagram real or a YouTube short or a TikTok They just call them a TikTok.
I think and so I would say that was the lowest in terms of video if we're only talking about video sure What would you say is the highest highest value view? I would say currently it's probably a Netflix episode or a YouTube video launch Yeah, YouTube long-form watch I agree. I think a stream or a YouTube Traditional horizontal long-form watch that's more than 10 minutes interesting that you state horizontal So I think about vertical video versus horizontal video a lot I think horizontal video means I'm going to sit down at a screen some device that is used for viewing and considering something over an extended length of Time yes, I'm going to use horizontal because I have two eyes that are oriented in my head horizontally Uh-huh, and I'm going to take it in yes So I do think it's important to stipulate this or 16 by 9 is shaped like a book Oh, is that what that is well that think about it? Why your book shape that way because that's our eyes span 16 by 9 is shaped like the world if you eliminate your peripherals You see in 16 by 9 or just a little bit more some kind of Panavision So 16 by 9 is an orientation of I am observing and I'm learning Nine by 16 is the orientation of I want to crop out everything But what I'm already interested in I don't want context and also it's the perfect shape to just look at a head or a body I'm going to turn my head to the side Just look at this thing and get the information real quick and then I'm gonna turn back to what I'm really doing I don't need that's what I don't need context.
I don't need context. Yeah, just give me the thing I already know a lot 16 by 9 is curious orientation nine by 16 is Distracted adult brain orientation, so I'm right with you They mean different things and you've never published a short on YouTube correct? No, there's a lot of people that have stolen my stuff and turned it into shorts on YouTube But no, I've never intentionally published a short back in the day I did have a couple of reels or snapchat stories. I used to do that a lot a lot Yeah, I did and once it became a thing.
It was no longer ephemeral The reason I did it when it was ephemeral is like hey, what's up? This is what I mean by ephemeral this content ephemeral means It's a thing that is here for a short period of time and then it will dissolve or vanish away and this ephemeral media I almost felt like it was different in social media. It was obviously part of social media, but ephemeral media It was there for 24 hours. I'm gonna post this on my story on snapchat or Instagram and then 24 hours from now That's gone you can no longer see it I did that for a long time and I think I was pretty dog on successful a snapchat according to the numbers that I was seeing on my side Yes, yeah, it took a toll on your daily life I watched it you traded something for that I did and then it was if I go it's weird if I go back and figure out where this Wasn't time it was with the rise of Instagram reels.
Mm-hmm. That's when I stopped I've never thought about that. Why did I do that? Oh, you mean why did you do it when you were doing or why did you stop?
Why did I stop when I stopped it became clear to me that at one point it was fun and then it became a game And it's like oh, this is a thing you can win now and you can get more than other people and you can compete and then once it became That I'm like no longer interest. Yeah, I didn't ever see that from you what I saw is that when you started doing the daily reel It made you more present it exaggerated your already eyes up very observant approach to life that is interesting I know why it's interesting all I have to do is frame it in a camera this way and other people who have eyes to see We'll see you beauty and these mundane things yours is very very good at it The longer you did it this is gonna feel like a critique bring it don't necessarily mean it that I mean stop for reasons Yeah, the longer you did it the more that completely flipped pulls and it started to make it so you were not seeing life in front of you You were seeing things to put on the real and I was really happy when you quit. Oh cool It's pretty instantly became more fun to spend a day with when you quit interesting. Yeah, it's good It's like I wasn't performing So there was something there was an element of it that became it felt like oh I need to post something today And so I'm gonna go find something if there's not something there and so yeah, I made the people around you I can only speak for myself.
I need to reframe that it made me Feel way less important than the people who had not made the time to travel or invest time in the friendship with you They don't know you they don't like you they didn't like you they didn't drive here They didn't take this day of their life to be with you. Yeah, I kind of hated the reals and I was real glad when they went away They were cool at first, but they just it changed your brain and then it was amazing It took from the time you stopped to the next time we hung out your brain it recovered. You're completely different That's right and back to pre-reals mindset. That's awesome.
That sounds like a success story Thank you for receiving that so gracious I receive it and I receive that it was negative feedback about a past version of myself that I feel like I made it out of Thus making it a compliment. Yeah, thanks Because you solved it so the compliment is there no no it just became it was very clear that it was it was not a good thing For me. I don't know. It's just an interesting thing.
I bring this up. You know, I can tell right where we are in the outline of our conversation here We're a few indentations into the question of the currency of different views because you brought up the assigned felt episode random Seinfeld episode 1993 got 30 million views And the reason I took us down this road before you give me the big payoff number compared to whatever the numbers are now Is because I think all of our brains as citizens of the internet had a not very robust Thought process about what is an impressive number and what is not? So let me ask you this would you rather have if you just really wanted to get a message out that was vitally important To like help people avoid a calamity or something and you had access to only one of two options destined Samlin you're trying to save the world from the immediate or something that's coming in but you need people to understand it It's not just a warning you need to exert your influence for the good of others Would you rather have 100,000 podcast downloads and listens or? 1 million tick-tock views podcast downloads and listens not close Why because I think you're engaging on a much deeper level you get past the lizard brain Oh, that was interesting.
That's kind of what you get on the reels or the tick-tock stuff But when you're doing this what people I if people are sitting here with us That's awesome. Thank you third chair for being there I feel like we're learning something and I'm able to ask you questions and you're able to give me critical feedback You're able to tell me that I've done something wrong and vice versa Yeah, and I feel like there's iron sharpening iron here I think that's a possibility with a podcast episode and also you can flesh things out and get to a much deeper understanding of a topic So the meteor is this place. We know it because of this reason it's going to hit at this time Earth's orientation should be in this rotation at this point in this, you know, you can just really go into great detail Yes, so here's what you need to do and why Yeah, I totally agree and I think I take a hundred thousand podcast downloads over five million tick-tock swipes I don't know. I mean the level of connectedness is so different between the two and as we enter the age of post-reality Those tick-tock views are gonna they're diminishing in value all the time.
Oh interesting Cheap waterfall app. Have you seen the new style the new genre of video that is animal gets into somewhere? It shouldn't be and family is shocked animal gets into somewhere. It should be no I haven't seen that so with AI using Sora It's incredibly easy to just enter a prompt like giant elk leaps through window while family is having dinner and family panics These videos are all over the internet man is sleeping on hammock grizzly bear comes up and tries to climb into hammock man panics Everyone's making this kind of garbage.
Where are you watching this? I can't keep Twitter on your phone I certainly do not I put Twitter on my phone for two and a half hours every week I curated a list of people who talk about the Denver Broncos and when I watch the Denver Broncos I install Twitter on my phone and then I sit there and I read the in-game commentary from people I like that's good about the Broncos and when the game is over I hold down my Twitter and I select uninstall and it goes away I'm proud of you. Thanks, man. I know it sounds silly, but that takes self-discipline.
It does I think it's neat Twitter's good for real-time news. It's great for that Or x whatever we're gonna call it, but I think it's important that you're actually deleting it a lot of times You could just be like oh that was fun and not do anything, but you actually delete it. I'm proud of you It has to go. My brain is different.
I can't be who I want to be with Twitter on my phone. It's me or Twitter I can't have both. Mmm. I appreciate you saying that but it really has come to I don't want my Twitter-addled brain It teaches me that nothing connects with anything and it's terrible so Whatever the case I'm seeing it on Twitter Camilla is showing it to me.
I don't know what feed it's coming up for her But she's like these videos they keep serving these videos of a baby interacting with an animal a baby shouldn't interact with and they're all the same baby Look, here's a baby interacting with a husky and they're howling each other at each other, but it's fake Here's the same baby. Look, it's the same baby. Yeah, that's the same baby Now the baby is interacting with a bull moose. Well, that baby shouldn't be with the bull moose And even though I know it's fake she says I still There's a baby and a bull moose that that can't be I need to look at that My point is that view is garbage 30 million views of an AI generated lizard brain video of a Contextless baby in the woods just sitting in a clearing and a bull moose walks up and you wonder what's gonna happen Is not worth the same thing as 30 million people gathering around their televisions They don't have the ability to time shift it They have to show up to watch it when it is broadcast and watching the thing together So they don't miss out on the conversations they can have on monday at work about whatever happened My dad had me listen to everyone's won hill suggesting audio book to me I like to listen to him because I like knowing what that's going on dad's head There's that old song read the book show father's read and you know that song my oh my yes that I don't know that was one of the words just the way you sing it.
Yeah, like That does have you gotta be something you gotta be you gotta be wiser. Yeah That common experience. Yes, but one of the lines is read the book your father's read and So I tried to do that he had me read a book or listen to a book called lux one hypersonic My dad listens to a lot of series books and this was an interesting one It was written by an author up in Nashville And the guy was a retired aerospace engineer. He was a professor I mean super published PhD kind of guy anyway This guy there was a really smart kid in this and he's the protagonist And it's the author's look at the near future That's what he's doing and his kid makes an AI version of a woman called lemme And lemme is just a social media influencer that he created And he put lemme in all these interesting situations like the kid that you're describing Okay, and what was interesting is in the book now that you're saying this I realized I thought this book was so far in the future That it was like oh, that's interesting But now this book is almost in the past because people would not fall for that AI generated social media influence girl lemme You know given hairstyle techniques or whatever and he was just making money off the revenue But now people don't care about that kind of stuff anymore, which is why I think smarter every day the way I do it I didn't plan on this but I think just having a real real real real conversation You know, that's twice as real as just a real one a real real conversation Oh, now I get it.
Okay, because there are conversations that are constructed to look real But aren't real. Yeah, I think it's important to do what we're doing right now This is what's going to connect with people. I hope yeah, and I could say this can't be faked For me this can't be faked me sitting with you there is no replacement and I cannot imagine a technological replacement for this Every time I say AI is never gonna be able to do it. It seems to be eventually able to do it Maybe I mean right now if I listen to an AI generated conversation I'm like, but that's still too stupid.
That's not a real dynamic. Those aren't too mind is playing off of each other. That is a socially unaware robot Clumsily hamfistedly imitating what it imagines conversation to look like without any of the understanding of the nuance The beautiful thing about art and I'd say maybe even well art and conversation Is that right over there three feet from me right now is an entire universe That I can only access by asking you questions and listening to what you say and watching what you do with your body An entire universe. I mean it gets it's not quite infinite because our minds aren't infinite But there's a there's a whole set of perceptions of the physical world and I'm kind of getting into play-doh and Aristotle stuff here But you each individual person is are you saying I'm a whole universe kind of yeah you are Did you really play the stupid that didn't make it funny?
Sorry, go ahead Sorry, I saw you over there like that your body language actually doesn't seem right for what I'm saying. Oh, you're queuing up Okay, okay, I see what I'm with you though. Yeah, it's it's the Turing test is what you're talking about. Okay sure You're saying we're still the point where AI is not passing a Turing test, but we are close Yep, but it's more than that because the mind of AI will never Fundamentally be the same thing as the life of the mind of an individual can we do this?
I'm gonna have to cut this conversation right here because I have a whole other conversation about what you're just talking about okay I want to get to I want to go back to comedy So I'm still on comedy though. My point is this my point is this the currency of views Is not the same as the currency of views here This is a very long way and a fun way of getting that fell But what do you see anytime somebody's like they built a stadium in 1951 in New York City and it cost four million dollars? Right. What's the very next thing in parentheses in today's money that would be 57 billion dollars or whatever So here's my question before you make this comparison You are one of the foremost experts on views and the internet and the mind of the internet consumer I've ever met As I say there needs to be a qualifier.
Yes, that's what would be your conversion rate So if you were to write in parentheses 30 million views in 1993 in parentheses, which is the equivalent of x million views in the 2020s What what would you put on it? What's your oh? I think I think 30 million views on this Seinfeld episode in 1993 Well the population that's a tenth of the people in the country then but they all watched it live Which is nuts. How does that scale for you double the value triple the value?
It may be 10x It might be 10x yeah, it might be 10x because So there are two things there was the did you see that thing? But then there was the we were all there for that. Yeah, right. Yes There are very few things now that we have out of sync time viewing capabilities.
What's that? There's a word for that asynchronous asynchronous. Thank you So then we have asynchronous viewing capabilities. We may have the experience but it might be on a different You know when my wife and I get in bed at night I go take a shower or whatever.
She's taking a few minutes just to catch up on everything's going on She's like hey, did you see this thing that happened? She can say that I know well, let me show it to you right now That's an interesting thing that wasn't available back in the day. You had to be there for the 10 o'clock news And or was it 10 o'clock? That's when it was when it was when it was 10 o'clock.
Mm It's just an interesting thing. It's an interesting thing that you had to be there at this that the right time in order to get so 30 million Sign filled views not adjusted for inflation not what I mean this thing this comparison you're about to give me Oh, yeah is 30 million raw views in 1993. So now what's the comparison? So I'm gonna compare it to something in 2023 Okay, which is a little while back a little while back If you take every single hit sitcom at the time like the big like the biggest things are those now back then There was young Sheldon the neighborhood so helped me Todd ghosts Bob Love abichole.
I don't know the most popular network sitcoms highest views of 2023 compared to a randomly selected episode of sign Bell in 1993. So this is all lowbrow slop all those not sophisticated comedy You're talking about you're talking about all of those up it will equal about the same As as sign filled not adjusted for inflation correct. Yeah, and are they counting streams on their platforms as well? Oh, yeah, but they are of course they are but they are so you can't even put the event appointment television modifier on it Yeah, that being said the population of the us in 2023 was almost 100 million more it's 340 million So you got 340 million in 2023 257 million in 1993 So if you look at that as a percentage about 12 percent of the us population watch that random sign felt episode Episode 70 yeah back in 1993 But about nine and a half percent watched all of those sitcoms combined any of those sitcoms.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, what do you do with that? Well, why do you think that is I think they're not good Have you watched any of them?
No, I've watched any of those I've seen ads I've walked in the room when someone was watching young Sheldon Look, I'm just okay with irritating you or anyone who likes young Sheldon or anything That's derivative from the big bang theory right? That's spinoff Yeah Yeah, the number of times that I have laughed at something that happened in two and a half men or the big bang theory It rounds most closely to zero never that this such isn't made for me I don't know I don't understand why these shows have worked out then I want to say a bunch of condescending things about it But what I have seen from those shows when I've watched them and even people I like have been like this is the funniest thing watch this clip Is such a reduced level of sophistication compared with those six sitcoms that I mentioned to you from what I would consider to be the golden age of comedy That being the age when everybody still watched on tv A degree of non-puritanical offensiveness had become acceptable All ideologies got ruthlessly made fun of in that age So you were gonna get punched and people you think are wrong are gonna get punched in the same episode every single time We're all going to laugh at each other and at ourselves all together But we also hadn't jumped the public ethical shark into kind of just public ranch yet I think all those sitcoms for me are a little much for broadcast on tv the ones I said I like I think they all push it just a little bit more than make sense. Oh, yeah But since then It's just gone to a whole other level so you had kind of loosening in which direction I think there was a time when comedy was almost illegal So like there was a time when you were like you can't say that you know and it's yeah, it was bad It was horrible. It was not fun.
Okay, so let's go beyond sitcoms What is the last great comedy you saw in a theater that you could laugh with other people about because they saw it too? A comedy I saw in the theater. Let me reframe the question. What's the last comedy you saw in a theater?
Man, I don't know the answer to that question dig deep Okay I remember like 20 years ago seeing things like I don't think I saw Bruce almighty as a cute show Um, what was the one where Jim Carrey had multiple personalities? Me myself and Irene. I think that one that blew my mind that was crazy. That was nuts.
I don't remember it very well I'm not even sure I gave the right answer there. I'm not sure I know that movie that might be it Did you see dodgeball in theaters? No, but you know what the ocho is well? We watched dodgeball as a family the other day I have a list of things that I think the kids should watch same here.
Yeah, I'm cultural tutoring them Yeah, that's a great way of saying it because I want them to have access to the deep magic The stuff that was formatted for us. We watched crocodile Dundee as a family the other day The including the scene in the bar where he tries to figure out if that's a dude or a lady. Yes that scene Yeah, that made my kids very uncomfortable. Well when that happened Um, and there was commentary from the people at the bar that's happening Tara looked at me and she's like whoa, this was made in the 80s.
They're like yeah, I was Yeah, that's not getting made today And so I think it's important to go back and teach our kids the deep magic like this stuff And so what do you mean when you say deep magic and why do you think they need to know it? Uh I don't know. I don't want them shaped by the current culture as much as My grandfather when I was writing around he had an old gray Cadillac He was so proud of that thing he had a track player in the Cadillac and we listened to johnny horton's greatest hits on repeat You know those like the back of your hand. I do and I have no Do you know what they took with them when they went down to the battle in New Orleans to just get a bite to eat?
What were they eating on there? A little bacon a little beans. Okay, you've got it. Yeah, you have that on lockdown.
Yeah, and so it was it was fascinating So let me let me find also, you know what the battle of new Orleans is because of that song Absolutely movies the kids need to watch it's right up right now Who fought in the battle of new Orleans? I'm not asking you I'm asking the third chair Okay, now destined sandlin who fought in the battle of new Orleans the bloody British and who fought against them We basically injured interjaxons. Oh, so you've been over the commanding general. Yeah, I think my favorite But how many people know what war was it in?
Do you know that uh the battle 1812? Yeah right after the war ended Yeah, so what's crazy about that is you know more about the battle of new Orleans in 1841 We took a little trip a long will kernel Jackson down to my mrs. Sip We took a little bacon and we took a little beans and we fought the bloody British at the town New Orleans Then what happened? Uh we fired our guns in the British ship.
Oh, they kept coming Yeah, what now as many as there was a while ago, okay fired once more and they began to run it down in Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico Where did the British retreat to after they were defeated the briars and the brambles? Yeah But they retreated to the Gulf of Mexico. Oh, yeah Yeah, dude the point is you listen to this eight track that was shared culture from a generation before you and as a result You know things about that detail in history. Yeah, but again no disrespect to anybody who doesn't know but normal people don't know that Oh, but you know it because of an eight track.
I just realized I get to cross off crocodile Dundee from my list I just did it your list has check marks on it. That's really nice. It doesn't yeah So these are the ones we've checked off. Okay, let's hear it.
Oh gosh. I'm so proud of this Moni Python and search for the holy grail. Okay. That's a winner.
Did they quote it? Oh, yeah It was great surefire way to annoy everyone dead poet society. Oh captain my captain who wrote that poem? Uh, I don't know it wasn't long fellow or what women there we go.
Okay, there's my uncle Bill and Ted's excellent adventure Surprisingly excellent that really holds up. It's good. It's good. It's actually good.
Is it okay? I think cana Reeves is the actor of our generation. I love him. He's great.
He's great. I just saw him in a thing with Seth Rogan Mm-hmm where he plays a defrock to angel. He's an angel in charge of keeping people from looking at their cell phones and texting while driving Really? Uh-huh.
That's his job. Yeah, he plays the whole role of the angel like Keanu Reeves. I like tacos It's just fantastic. What's the name of the movie?
I don't remember Good fortune. Okay. I wanna watch it. It was pretty sweet.
Um, let's see this can be true The never-ending story and that for what it's worth watching is the answer to my question for you What is the last funny comedy that I saw in a theater that I enjoyed? Good fortune really with Seth Rogan and I think I don't know that I should just go through this look keep going just real I'm just gonna reel them off. Let's see sandlot karate kid great great great princess bride Well, obviously great Napoleon dynamite funny forest gump now the comedy but great that's kind of a comedy dumb and dumber Do you show do dumb and dumber? I still remember I tell the boys I still tear I was like tonight tonight I'm gonna watch dumb and dumber because I mean I have a couple of movies that I've been dangling out there I'm like you're not old enough to watch this.
Mm-hmm And then I was like I think tonight's tonight because we don't want him to like go to college not know it anything I want to know like all the people at college recording dumb and dumber you're gonna feel left out Just go man scene where he's fighting the guy and he punches and he pulled out his heart And he puts it in a little bag and like and then he does the splits and he goes down and he he's sitting the guy in the front Dude my boys lost their minds. They had no idea what to do. They looked at me like Is this okay? This is the funniest thing I've ever seen and I was like I forgot like slapstick comedy Oh crap my kids really like the Adam Sandler comedies.
Oh, yeah, yeah, we got in the Happy Gilmore Billy Madison. Go ahead and say it. Go ahead and say that Adam you got an ale from Adam Sandler I know what's up. Oh, yeah, my daughter invited Adam Sandler to her graduation party Then he just sent a nice little postcard.
That's so cool That's a really nice so cool picture of him holding the guitar on the front of the postcard and nice little hey on the back Thanks, man. Cool guy primer. That's the time travel. Maybe don't worry about that step brothers is a bit much That you did step brothers with your kids.
I tell it for the boys. I was like hey, I think tonight's nice I'm just thinking of all the times that you have been visibly apprehensive about a joke you see me formulating around your boys And you showed them step brothers. They loved it. I am not your problem.
Okay. I'm not the threat here. Not your libre. That's a funny weird movie You know not to leave yeah, yeah, yeah, they think I do not know things about the gospel, but I do The Matrix of course Truman show here's a nice show.
I like that. I like Ed Harris the guy who plays Christoph in that I just like that one's Christoph. He's the director the guy. Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah Oh, yeah, it's pretty on the nose Christoph. He's like the god heaven. Let's see what they're doing there. Oh, I see I see okay dodgeball Of course, probably I'm gonna give you one that this is probably not a patch is a hula hand gets murdered by a neon sign That's luck at the Irish all right, so okay.
What is the one that you don't see this one coming? Okay, have you showed your kids army of darkness not yet, but I will dude that risk one's funny. Yeah shop smart shop s smart My kids know who he is and made the connection when I teased them with army of darkness because he's got bit parts and all the Sam Raimi spider-man movies that told me with wire ones. Oh, really?
He's always a threshold guardian He's always a character who won't let Peter Parker into something like the ticket taker really yeah, same too How do he always that one role is a threshold guardian? Uh-huh? What does that mean one of the iris of tillian archetypes? Super old storytelling well think about the black knight in mighty python and holy grail Yeah, you can't pass here It's it's it's usually a bad guy who is in the story not so much because they are a complex character But because they represent a test and a leveling up that has to occur for the hero to take the next steps This is for another episode, but that's gonna be so fun.
Okay. Let's keep going okay That those are the ones I have checked off. I have a lot of other stuff here that's not checked off Um, yeah, but those are those are the good ones. So do you have anything I need to put on here?
Yeah, I do I don't have the list with me though of stuff that we've been watching with them Do you mind if I grab my phone for a second? We just watched the two Edgar Wright comedies that he did with Nick Frost and Simon Pegg Have you seen hot fuzz or Sean of the dead? No, I haven't I'm trying to avoid doing the cliche thing right now that you everybody does when somebody says they haven't seen a movie That I think the other person should have seen okay hot fuzz You clearly just communicated to me that you haven't seen the film Yeah, but my social impulse is to be like You haven't seen hot fuzz which again would be redundant since you clearly just indicated to me that you have not seen it So let me try to do this with dignity I recommend watching hot fuzz okay and Sean of the dead Sean those are two of the funniest movies I've ever seen and they were Right on the edge of too much for my kids, but they did it okay We watched the movie called unfrosted which is fairly recent It's a like kind of slapstick wet humor show about the serial wars like the invention of pop tarts of cherry sign felt what it's pretty funny They did all right the invention of pop tarts. I think that's what it's about.
I mean, it's all fake It's like the weird owl. Did you watch weird the weird owl story with Daniel redcliffe Harry Potter plays weirdo? No, it did not That's funny. Okay, that's funny show.
I recommend that your family can handle it Okay, that's delightful. I'm not gonna ruin anything. That's just funny and then we saw the new naked gun Okay, we got a family one Don't remember a state night camilla and I got date nights great. Have you seen that?
Oh, that's a that's a movie Oh, I highly recommend date night. That's from the same era that to me represents the last little bit of in theater comedies that were really funny date night Get smart Horrible bosses. Well, I need any clarification because I have the sacred list here and you're just like saying names of movies I need to know if you could work no, no, no, you don't understand you're going up against like Napoleon dynamite date night belongs on that list Okay, bill and Ted's excellent adventure. You're saying hot fuzz is up there with that level hot fuzz is better than any of the movies You've said on your list snap hot fuzz is Among the greatest comedies in the history of comedy.
There's unfrosted going the list unfrosted is cute So no it's cute. It's not going to list take out the good office out. It's not on the list It'll be nice. You can watch out with the whole family though.
That's an important part of it. Dude. You don't understand Okay, I have a short amount of time with my children before they exit the house Yes, this is true. So I have to prioritize what I expose them to and then that's not the future is that on the list Dude, you're you were so right.
I'm so sorry. That was not on the list. I feel like a fool It's now on the list back to the future. Thank you your repentance is accepted Now there's a funny movie.
How about mystery men? It's not on the list. Have you watched it? No, I remember thinking mystery men It's awfully funny.
What's it going on the list? Well now you made the list to this whole thing? It's a whole thing I have to calculate so much including what you guys find back to the future's on the list crocodile Dundee see I didn't do I feel like I should be crocodile Dundee to did you do old school old school naked gun with Leslie Nielsen and OJ Simpson? No, I think it might be a little much.
No, I mean you're into stuff like that like the Cosby show and I don't know just like people who his lives didn't work out. I mean OJ Simpson book Cosby. Okay. Yeah, I see what you're doing.
I accept Alright, so the point is I think comedy is changing. There was a period of time where we had this common thing that happened throughout our culture on these sitcoms Yeah, it's not really a thing anymore. So film we're gonna go back to film and I think that's gonna be our saving grace for common stuff Okay, so question for you. I can tell you're trying to land the plane, but I I want to ask you a couple things What has replaced it?
What is the shared comedy of today? That's the problem, man You can't think of anything that you could just crack a joke with anybody and they'd be like, oh, yeah That's the thing I get the joke. That's a real safe bet. I've got stuff I can crack jokes about with you But there's my son in Alabama is not gonna go to a teenage boy in Colorado right now Am I saying that right Colorado?
Colorado? Colorado My son is not gonna go to a random teenager in Colorado and they're not gonna have a shared experience about a specific thing Do you think they would both know to laugh about the Coldplay kiss cam incident from a while back? I mean, I don't know that they would laugh about her to me. That is one of the highest profile Whoa jokes that kind of everybody's in on to make fun of it in stadiums.
So social media moments That's all I can think of I think social media moments gross. Maybe presidential gaps gross I agree. I don't think it's any substitute and then you might think well, what's the best comedy the last 10 years? Let's stand up specials with community and our got seen Nate Well, and Nate you could show to anybody yeah But Dave Chappelle has scored hit after hit bill burr, but you can't watch that with a kid My point is this the comedy that has been the most groundbreaking of late the kind of critique society and makes a point You can't watch it unless you're willing to accept a certain level of really profound Offensiveness the kids aren't gonna watch it and if they are they shouldn't be they're not ready to sort through that So that eliminates one chunk of comedy that could unify us then the next chunk is something that's algorithmically catered Our algorithms are bubbles.
Our feeds are bubbles. I'm not getting the same jokes You are it doesn't work to jump between feeds and crack those jokes occasionally something transcends it But it feels cheap and icky and like manufactured culture. It doesn't feel actual I think there really was something about sitcoms Funny movies and theaters maybe even comic strips Calvin and Hobbes to far side. Yeah, Calvin and Hobbes was those were epic.
We're talking about I've given my kids those books So I'll go up and my daughter will be reading Calvin and Hobbes the big volume like the treasure real The small the you know, they're different different sets or whatever different books And she's got the small ones that she's sitting there for the far side gal. You know what they called galleries. I think you're right Yeah, my kids go through all those those fantastic. What about bluey Bluey I did not see that coming the Australian cartoons.
So here's my bluey observation Sometimes we have trouble with the internet for whatever reason on our little streaming service bluey always works So something else locks up our joke is start up bluey It'll fix the whole thing and then we watch bluey and I thought it was like a teletubbies Barney kind of thing where it was just a nightmare Like a dystopian nightmare that would be brain rot trash except they turned it on the little song starts playing Which is very similar to our theme song by the way, huh? The bluey song is very similar to the in DQ themes and our branding is all very bluey. It is very blue Yeah, the song starts going and I'm watching the animation and I'm like wait wait don't turn this off you kids This is really cute And then they they did like a make believe thing where the kids put on a show for their dad in the master bedroom Yeah, and I was like this is wonderful. It's funny and it's good And I don't have any kids of bluey age, but I was very impressed that is my nice comment about bluey what I've seen I think it's really good.
It's fantastic. Okay, so I'm not crazy here. Yeah, it's no not all So my kids were like dad you want to watch some bluey. I'm like yes always listen to their theme song It's very so I hear like that Dad yeah bluey is very similar to the in DQ theme song.
Yeah, it's a little better. Yeah, that's close That one. Yeah, it's interesting. So I wonder when they wrote this arse holder.
I don't know I have no idea. I think it might be bluey theme song year. I was trying to figure out 2021 get free money from them Yeah, yeah, we should we should get a lawyer. Yeah.
Yeah, so our Bluey song is pretty pretty interesting. I recorded the session of when we made the original thing I was on the phone. Yeah, dr. Schuster been been was there that these two fantastic artists when they were recording it I remember how we got to where we got to is pretty interesting.
It just kind of like happened I might not have been on the phone for that. How did you get to where you got to so we went through Mario Like we went through Mario and we found it some beats on Mario and then we went beyond Mario and we found Well, that's interesting do that and I was like can y'all just jam for a bit and then they jam Okay, can you take that from your jam and that from your jam and just like lay them on top of each other? Yeah, you called me when it was starting to pop I wasn't there for any of that on the phone, but I had to send you out with the Mario idea Because we wanted something to jingle in and out of ads And I was like what about something like da da da da da da but just you know, just a little different Just riff on it a little bit and if you listen close to some of our ad or transition jingles You can hear the slightest homage the slightest echoes of something that seems sort of like it could be from a Mario universe You gotta be careful Nintendo will sue your pants off. Yeah, go listen to it good luck with that It doesn't sound like it's nothing like it.
No, we we named it enough and also hey Nintendo for suing people over ripping things off I think the scott joplin family from the age of vaudeville who you ripped off for your entire Mario themes would like a word Nintendo Oh, like all of the real all of the Mario stuff is super ragtimey super scotlin in for now you think about uh Mario too I mean it's it's so plinky fun time ragtime. So no, let's just make a pact with Nintendo bluey and us How much nobody sues anybody? We'll just all get along. They do not want that smoke There's a little more laughing to you