49: Celebrity Outreach Program

This week kicks off with John analyzing Merlin’s various mouth noises, self-styled music cues, and personal sound effects. Both hosts get songs stuck in their heads. John lays a trap for Merlin, and Merlin shares an important new dream with the Ancient Bird. At length, your hosts get a little meta, with follow-up on things Merlin still hasn’t watched. Many mini topics are considered, discussed, and/or discarded, but what John wants—what’s most important to him—is that Merlin just pick one damned topic already. This week’s main topic is ***Follow-Up***. John has strong feelings about properly crediting the provenance of this segment, and, honestly, he really asks for so little in life. This leads to a discussion of how one’s ideas often develop a life of their own. Credit is also reassigned for things your hosts didn’t _actually_ invent. General-purpose strategies for the proper deployment of bits is discussed. Things wrap up with a meditation on Aimee Mann, the layers of performance, plus an important adjustment to Merlin’s ongoing directive for eventually introducing John to famous people. _Recorded on Tuesday, March 21, 2017. Many thanks to Jim Metzendorf for editing this episode!_