FH Mini 84 - The Peach Boys Smile

[0:00] Hey, everyone, and welcome to the Flophouse.

[0:07] I'm Dan McCoy.

[0:08] I'm Stuart Wellington.

[0:10] And I'm Elliot Kalin, and we've got two really exciting brief announcements to make before

[0:14] we get into this mini.

[0:15] Stu, do you want to go first or should I go first?

[0:17] You can go first.

[0:18] Why?

[0:19] Why do you ask me?

[0:20] What?

[0:21] Now I'm all nervous.

[0:22] Because I because I trust you.

[0:23] And also, I play mind games with you.

[0:25] It's that I weaponize throw you off balance.

[0:27] I do seem to remember us working out the order of things before the show.

[0:32] And then you threw it off immediately by asking.

[0:34] Merely the distribution.

[0:35] Not the order.

[0:36] Merely the distribution.

[0:37] Elliot knows that I love erotic mind games.

[0:38] And so he thought, maybe I should just take the erotic element out and just do a straight

[0:42] mind game.

[0:43] Turns out, don't like that.

[0:44] No, he only likes it when it's a web of seduction and betrayal, not just betrayal.

[0:49] And the web he's okay with.

[0:51] For more about sexy webs, turn to our previous mini about the 10 sexiest gremlins.

[0:55] But first, I have a brief mention.

[0:57] Later in the episode, I'll give you more information.

[0:59] But I wanted to remind our listeners that Flop TV, our six episode, once a month live

[1:04] streaming series, is coming to you.

[1:06] You can get tickets at theflophouse.simpletics.com.

[1:09] But I'll tell you more about that series of live streaming shows later in the episode.

[1:13] And Stu?

[1:15] Can you believe it, guys?

[1:17] Next week is our 400th regular Flophouse episode.

[1:21] Whoa!

[1:22] Whoa!

[1:23] Whoa!

[1:25] Bonkers!

[1:26] I mean, and we didn't even do the movie Bonkers, which I'm sure exists.

[1:31] Dan, that's, what, that's, what, 388 more episodes than Fawlty Towers?

[1:36] Can you believe it?

[1:37] That's true.

[1:38] We're that much better than Fawlty Towers.

[1:40] Take that, John Glees.

[1:41] He'll probably take it with a really, you know, like, really contemporary sense of relevance.

[1:47] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1:48] And what comedy should be.

[1:50] He wanted to respond like a crotchety old man.

[1:52] Yeah.

[1:53] 400 episodes.

[1:54] That's a big milestone.

[1:55] It'd be a bigger milestone if, like many other shows, we were weekly or we didn't have movie

[2:00] minutes or minis that mess up the numbers.

[2:03] Technically it is going to be like our 550th episode, really.

[2:06] Yeah, something like that.

[2:07] But for our regular full-length episodes where we talk about a full movie, 400 next week.

[2:12] Oh my goodness.

[2:13] And Stuart, what special movie treat do we have for the listeners this time?

[2:17] Elliot and Dan gave me this big ass list of movies and I'm like, no, there's only one

[2:22] movie on this list that I think fulfills all the criteria of what our 400th episode

[2:26] should be.

[2:27] I said episode.

[2:28] Who knows what I'm doing there?

[2:29] It's some kind of a bit.

[2:30] Because it's a show.

[2:31] It's an episode of a show.

[2:32] Thank you.

[2:33] Thank you.

[2:34] Inhibited by the ghost of Sean Connery or inhabited even.

[2:37] Yeah.

[2:38] A little bit of both.

[2:39] No, he came in and he messed up with my mouth.

[2:42] We are going to be, we're going to watch and talk about Troll 2, the best worst movie.

[2:48] But we're not actually talking about the documentary best worst movie that's based on the movie

[2:51] Troll 2.

[2:52] We're talking about Troll 2.

[2:53] Based on the movie Troll 2.

[2:55] It's not based on the movie Troll 2.

[2:56] It's not an adaptation of the story.

[2:57] But Troll 2.

[2:58] So Stuart, had you seen, well, I mean, we'll talk about this in the next episode, but had

[2:59] you seen this movie before or no?

[3:00] I had, but it was a very long time ago.

[3:01] It was at like, it was at one of those bad movie nights of yesteryear.

[3:02] Oh yeah.

[3:03] Friends would cluster around a table eating snacks out of bowls provided by somebody's

[3:04] mom.

[3:05] Yeah.

[3:06] And we would enjoy the hell out of them.

[3:07] Yeah.

[3:09] Yeah.

[3:11] Yeah.

[3:14] a table eating snacks out of bowls provided by somebody's mom.

[3:19] Yeah.

[3:20] And we would enjoy the hell out of something that we found at a video store.

[3:23] Fermented liquid.

[3:24] Oh, I guess not if you're hanging out with someone and someone's mom.

[3:29] Well no Stuart wasn't grown up.

[3:30] My mom still brings me bowls and drinking vessels full of fermented liquid.

[3:35] Stuart was, this is when Stuart was 27 but he was hanging out with 14 year olds, yeah,

[3:39] with 12 kids, yeah.

[3:40] And it just going to mom's houses.

[3:43] I provide him beer, that's the reason.

[3:45] Actually now I have an image of Stuart as a college student dating a mom and hanging

[3:49] out with the mom's kids watching bad movies and it's got something kind of heartwarming

[3:52] about that.

[3:53] I got offered that a lot when I worked at the hobby store, by the way.

[3:57] I believe it.

[3:58] I believe it.

[3:59] Well that's what we're talking about next week.

[4:00] Troll 2.

[4:01] I can't wait.

[4:02] It's super fun.

[4:03] That'll be our 400th episode.

[4:04] 400 episodes guys.

[4:05] I'll save my congratulations for next week.

[4:07] Until then I'll say, get back to work lazy bones.

[4:10] Okay.

[4:11] Don't rest on your laurels or your hardies.

[4:14] My cue, which is, um, uh, regular listeners know that the so-called main episodes, the

[4:20] ones where we watch bad movie and then we talk about them and then the minis, the ones

[4:23] called on main, a phrase that we invented when we're horny in an episode, that is one

[4:29] of the main episodes, as you all know.

[4:32] Yeah.

[4:33] Um, and then on the off weeks, that's every other week we do, um, a mini episode often

[4:39] about as long as one of the main episodes, a little, a little shorter episode.

[4:44] Yeah.

[4:45] We can't do whatever.

[4:46] Yeah.

[4:47] We keep it pretty loose.

[4:48] Oh boy.

[4:49] Dewey.

[4:50] Uh, just like an audio sloppy Joe doesn't get any looser.

[4:55] We're in a very hot room.

[4:56] So who knows where this episode is going to go?

[4:59] Yeah.

[5:00] I'm very close to, uh, removing my shirt and exposing you all to my aging body.

[5:07] Meanwhile, I'm in a room that is air conditioned.

[5:10] So I'm willing to go as long as it takes guys to keep this episode rolling.

[5:15] Um, so look, it's no secret that the world has been a difficult place to be in and we

[5:22] got no other place to go.

[5:24] It's the world.

[5:25] We can't, we can't go somewhere else without, uh, opting out entirely, which is not necessarily

[5:31] a good, you were just telling me the other day how much you're, you think it's getting

[5:34] harder and harder for a straight white male comedy writer.

[5:37] Let's swerve away from that and say that I, you're Dan, you're right.

[5:41] It's just like King Gizzard and the lizard wizard said, there is no planet B. It's just,

[5:45] it's just this one.

[5:46] And so, uh, it is harder to do things.

[5:48] I mean, it's, I look at the world around me and I'm like, whatever happened to predictability,

[5:52] milkman, the paper boy, evening TV, everywhere you look anyway, you had everything you needed

[6:00] milk to drink a paper to read and a TV to watch.

[6:04] Yep.

[6:05] Um, no, Dan, so you take this as an endorsement of Nikki Haley's recent tweet about how things

[6:09] were much better when we were younger.

[6:11] Again?

[6:12] No, it's not.

[6:13] I wish, I wish that I wish that Nikki Haley was exactly right.

[6:15] So she'd be like, remember when things were easier when you were younger and you went

[6:18] home and the Disney afternoon was two hours of programming that you could just sit and

[6:21] watch and then saved by the bell reruns would start on two different channels.

[6:25] Many of the reasons the world is more difficult are because of things that Nikki Haley would

[6:30] approve of.

[6:31] But we're not going to get, that's true.

[6:32] We're not going to get into politics.

[6:33] Let's not get political, Dan.

[6:34] Come on.

[6:35] We don't need to get political.

[6:36] It's just been a difficult time for a lot of people.

[6:38] Uh, you know, we had a, we had a pandemic, et cetera.

[6:41] A pant-emic?

[6:42] Uh-huh.

[6:43] What?

[6:44] No, keep going.

[6:45] What is that?

[6:46] It sounded like you said pant-emic, like, like with a T, like it was an epidemic of

[6:50] pants.

[6:51] Yeah.

[6:52] Well, I mean, I guess there is kind of an epidemic of pants going on.

[6:55] Like I'm wearing them.

[6:57] A lot of people are wearing them, but you know, they're everywhere.

[6:59] They're all over the place.

[7:00] You see some skirts and dresses and quilts and of course shorts.

[7:03] Some of them are like skinny, some of them are blousey, some of them are high rise.

[7:10] It's just like in that.

[7:11] Some of them are on top of boots with the fur.

[7:15] That's a pretty good form of jeans that are shaped, particularly around the bottom.

[7:19] Yeah.

[7:20] Yeah.

[7:21] Uh, my point is I thought, let's, let's talk about some nice stuff.

[7:23] Let's talk about some nice stuff.

[7:26] And uh, you know, with the 400th episode.

[7:27] And why we can't have it.

[7:29] Why we can't have nice things.

[7:30] Yeah.

[7:31] Let's, uh, with the 400th episode coming up, um, let us discuss some things that we do.

[7:38] I'm going to lead us into discussion of things that we, the Flophouse do, uh, the individual

[7:44] members for ourselves, things we enjoy.

[7:47] Uh, it seemed like a nice topic.

[7:49] Also I get to know your topic, you know, 400 episodes and it's the time to do it, meet

[7:56] the floppers.

[7:57] Yeah.

[7:58] And also this has a secondary purpose, which is, um, I have many fine qualities as a person,

[8:03] but I also have many negative qualities and one of them is I'm not that good at asking

[8:08] people personal questions about themselves.

[8:10] I was brought up in the Midwest where I think this was looked upon as prying rather than

[8:16] showing an interest in other humans, which is how, uh, you know, most adults that I've

[8:21] encountered have taken it.

[8:23] And so that's, I come off to many people, uh, until I know them.

[8:27] And even afterwards you come up like a cold, aloof, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes.

[8:36] Thank you for providing multiple handsome, snuggly ball.

[8:41] Okay.

[8:42] Thanks for looking up.

[8:43] So this is also a chance for me to, to test my question asking, uh, uh, skills and I'll

[8:51] share, share my own stuff too, but let's, you know, let's start off not with me.

[8:55] Let's start off with, uh, let's turn the tour and who boasts of he, he was boasting of all

[9:01] of the self care he does on our text chain in, in, uh, what is it in the opposition to

[9:09] Elliot who is very busy with a lot of family life and doesn't maybe, yeah, I'm hoping to

[9:14] inspire Elliot a little here.

[9:15] Uh, I appreciate it.

[9:16] Yeah.

[9:17] Since I feel like we do, we are in a sort of the change up type situation, Stuart, where

[9:22] your, your life is a life of freewheeling hedonism and mine is a life of responsibility

[9:25] and we just find, we got to find a fountain to pee in.

[9:27] We got to find a fountain.

[9:28] He is a, he is a small business owner.

[9:31] It doesn't sound like a small business owner, but his business is also a place of freewheeling

[9:35] hedonism.

[9:36] He does run the bar that, let me read New York magazine as a, as the most sex partyist

[9:42] libation zone in New York.

[9:45] Stuart stories to me are, are mostly about things he's had to unclog though.

[9:50] I do hear a lot of stories from him about cleaning things out of bathrooms of various

[9:54] sizes.

[9:55] I had a plumbing issue, euphemism not intended.

[9:58] Yeah.

[10:00] See, things I do, well, self care.

[10:04] I mean, well, honestly, you know, some of that's just between me and my only fans

[10:08] creator, but I guess that's not entirely just for me because I do exchange money

[10:13] for services only for fans and, and, and I don't know the occasional loving comment.

[10:19] Did I, I don't know if I ever told this story on air, but my number one favorite

[10:28] interaction I ever saw on like an only fan site, a creator had posted a, like a

[10:33] sexy pic and there was a single comment under that pic and it was from user J R R

[10:39] Tolkien and the comment read wank time.

[10:44] And I spit out my drink onto my phone.

[10:47] Thank God.

[10:49] You know, like most humans usually wank once a day, maybe twice, but hobbits

[10:54] wank up to five times a day.

[10:55] They have no wanks.

[10:57] I feel like we've gotten into a weird area almost immediately, but I do want to

[11:00] say like, this is always the feeling that J.R.R.

[11:02] Tolkien masturbation area that we expect us to get into.

[11:05] Yeah.

[11:06] I mean, this is always the feeling that I see whenever, like a site that has a porn

[11:11] on it also has a comment section for the porn where it's like, people are like

[11:15] posting time codes and whatever.

[11:17] And it's just like Minecraft tips.

[11:19] It's like, I don't, I don't need the exact moment that you achieved orgasm.

[11:25] I don't need to time codes for, I, I think that it's a, it's an expression of extra

[11:31] appreciation for whatever happened to that.

[11:33] Dan, you're saying you've never, it's like using a digital highlighter.

[11:36] Yeah.

[11:37] You've never listened to a song and been like this drum solo.

[11:41] It's amazing.

[11:41] Hold on.

[11:42] You got to hear this and handed the headphones to say Zach Braff in the

[11:45] waiting room of, I don't know, a doctor's office or something.

[11:48] I feel like his life.

[11:50] Yeah.

[11:50] I feel like I'm a pretty sex positive person.

[11:53] I don't need comments.

[11:55] I will say, I will say the, the, uh, the, I was, I was recently reading a survey of

[12:01] comments left on left on porn videos that where they were, they were kind of

[12:05] classifying it into the different kinds.

[12:07] And you have those and you have the comments where it's like making fun of

[12:11] the video that they just watched, which I feel is funny because it's like what

[12:15] we do, but for pornography, what we do, but for pornography and the amateur level

[12:19] of that, but then there's also, you get very real, you get very real comments

[12:23] from people that are like about how sad they are.

[12:25] And it's like, it's like, I'm going on a date for my first time guys.

[12:28] Wish me luck.

[12:29] And like 10 people are like, good luck, bro.

[12:31] I can't fill us in.

[12:33] Well, that's, that's one of the, that's one of the amazing things about the

[12:35] internet these days is, I mean, you see this, I guess a lot on Reddit where it's

[12:38] like someone is finally someone has a place to get, like, I know there's a lot

[12:42] of negative feedback on the internet mostly, but you can find places where

[12:45] people can get like, exactly.

[12:47] Yeah.

[12:47] You can get, uh, like positive feedback and support from people about things that

[12:51] are hard to get support about in regular life.

[12:53] There was a, uh, there was, this is, there's another thing I was reading

[12:55] about a while back where this guy had a sex fantasy involving a woman dressed

[12:59] as a clown and he wanted to make it happen.

[13:01] And he got so much positive support from people online on Reddit.

[13:05] And they were like, yeah, you're doing it.

[13:07] This is great.

[13:07] They were all very, they were all really happy for him.

[13:09] So you can't go to your parents and ask for that.

[13:13] Probably.

[13:14] Yeah.

[13:14] And in theory now, so, uh, to get back to my actual self care, I, as like Dan said,

[13:21] I do a lot of things for self care.

[13:22] I have structured my life around taking care of myself.

[13:25] It's something that I have a tendency not to do.

[13:27] So I'm trying to put an effort into things just for me.

[13:31] Um, I, I, I think, I think Dan at least can, uh, identify with this and Elliot as

[13:37] well, that I occasionally fall into caretaker mode where I try and put other

[13:40] people's, uh, needs and wants before my own, um, better than when you fall into

[13:44] soul taker mode where you have to walk the earth, reaping the souls of the newly dead.

[13:49] Exactly.

[13:49] Although that's pretty cool.

[13:51] Can I go around with my infant son, die, grow?

[13:54] You have to, yeah.

[13:55] Oh, that's part of this, the requirements.

[13:58] Yeah.

[13:58] So, uh, so one of the big things I do is I, I work out quite a bit.

[14:03] I go to the gym four days a week and on off days, I usually do at least some

[14:07] kind of cardio and resistance training at home.

[14:11] Uh, I know that like working out is for the betterment of my health, but like.

[14:15] Really I'm lifting weights so I can have like an hour and a half by myself

[14:20] listening to music and have nobody able to like interrupt that time.

[14:25] That's interesting, but I can't visualize it.

[14:27] Is there any way I could possibly see videos of you lifting heavy things?

[14:32] I mean, honestly, my Tik TOK and Instagram is primarily those things.

[14:36] Uh, yeah.

[14:37] What, I mean, what, here's, here's the question and answer period.

[14:41] What, what do you think it is about weightlifting in particular that caught

[14:45] your fancy when maybe other exercise?

[14:48] I mean, I think a big part of it is like this being able to watch

[14:51] like slow incremental progress.

[14:53] Like, uh, like I, growing up, I had some weight issues and it led to some body

[15:00] issues that were caused by my parents.

[15:02] Thank you.

[15:02] And, uh, as I, so I'm, I'm not a big fan of weighing myself.

[15:09] I find that like chasing that kind of number to be really, um, bad for me

[15:13] mentally, but like having a number, like, like the weight that I'm lifting and

[15:19] seeing the amount that I'm able to lift go up steadily, you know, each month.

[15:23] And especially at the beginning, when you start weightlifting, you see

[15:25] those numbers jump really rapidly.

[15:27] And then it's, it's also like, I'm a sucker for routine of that kind of thing.

[15:31] So like being able to go to the gym and know this is what I'm going to do.

[15:37] I have my rest times.

[15:38] I get to listen to my music.

[15:40] I like, I count down.

[15:42] I, you know, and, and just having this, like the habit of it, I find

[15:46] really, uh, peaceful, like calming.

[15:49] Um, see, this is where you learned that I, I like, I was like thinking of

[15:54] questions, uh, through the entire thing.

[15:56] And, and I, and I'm sure I had thinking about, thinking about my, uh, my

[16:04] no, but, uh, have you done any, have you done any like weight training?

[16:08] Uh, there was a period when I worked for Columbia university in a

[16:15] administrative position, like, uh, you know, just, you know, doing, uh,

[16:20] filing and such that I had a discount for the gym there and I would do weights.

[16:27] Uh, every other day and running every other day.

[16:30] I don't think I ever, I like to me, well, I guess that was the question

[16:34] that I was trying to remember to me, like, I was always worried so much

[16:39] about form, always worrying about like what I was like, whether I was doing

[16:43] what was right, like what, like it, I did not see gains as you would say.

[16:49] And do you think that's just because I wasn't working with someone?

[16:52] I know that you have someone who advises you about like what to do.

[16:55] Yeah.

[16:55] I mean, I, I definitely recommend if you're interested in getting into

[16:58] weight training to get a trainer.

[17:00] And for me, that's also a big part of it is having somebody to keep me

[17:02] accountable and also to get excited for my progress.

[17:06] Uh, like when I, when I like beat a personal record and he's there, like

[17:11] the look on his face is so, it's so rewarding.

[17:14] Um, but yeah, I mean, I think part of it is.

[17:18] Uh, you want to, you want to work with a trainer so you can get your form right.

[17:21] And also to get some kind of a plan that you, uh, so that you're, you're making

[17:27] sure that you hit all your different muscle groups and you're also giving

[17:30] your muscle groups time to rest so that you're not just overworking the same

[17:33] one over and over, because I know you probably went in there and you're like

[17:36] biceps, biceps, biceps, you know what I mean?

[17:38] I want to, I'm working on these mirror muscles.

[17:40] Yeah.

[17:40] Well, I want to be Popeye.

[17:41] Well, those are forearms mostly, but those are forearms.

[17:44] Yeah.

[17:45] And you started with the, you started with the anchor tattoo and you were like,

[17:48] and I'll get the forearms to fit with these huge tattoos that I put on.

[17:52] Every tattoo artist, when he has to do one of those, he's like, ugh, another

[17:55] one, another pop.

[17:57] I want to be, yeah, their dating profile.

[18:02] Just looking for my olive oil.

[18:03] They say a little pipe out of the corner of your mouth.

[18:07] And Dan, when you got the chin implant implants to be more like Popeye, that was

[18:10] when you're going too far.

[18:11] And I had to remember when I came to your house and I had to stop you from poking

[18:14] one of your eyes out to make you more like Popeye.

[18:16] I was like, Dan, Dan, I was deep into character by that point.

[18:19] I was just muttering half, uh, half audible things to myself.

[18:24] I'll never, I'll never forget we were sitting at dinner one.

[18:28] I think we just did the two worst pop.

[18:31] Oh, it's me.

[18:32] Pop.

[18:33] Like it sounds more like Bluto.

[18:35] Hello, love.

[18:36] It's me.

[18:36] Popeye.

[18:37] Uh, it is me.

[18:38] How you'll say a Popeye.

[18:40] Oh, yes, yes.

[18:41] Uh, we, we, uh, Lauren, you can just reach out to us here.

[18:46] Put us on your terrible show.

[18:47] When you do more Popeye sketches, Lauren, Michael's like, how do I get

[18:52] someone who could do a Popeye?

[18:53] He's always in the news.

[18:54] There's nothing more topical.

[18:58] No, it's not going to cut it.

[18:59] Sorry.

[19:00] I thought we had someone who could do a Betty boop, but they, it turns out they

[19:03] had that disease where their head's really big and, uh, it turned out they

[19:08] had sexy baby Asia, which is the, which is the disease that makes you a sexy

[19:11] baby or sexy baby Stesia, uh, Dan and the worst of it.

[19:15] Thank you.

[19:15] The worst of it, Dan was when I walked, when we had dinner and you ordered the

[19:18] spinach and you were stuffing it into a pipe, trying to eat it that way.

[19:21] And you ended up choking on it and I had to give you the Heimlich.

[19:23] Yeah.

[19:24] And you said, if only I could get myself the Heimlich with these huge forearms.

[19:28] Too hard to do.

[19:29] Uh, I say something, well, we're going to move on soon, but, uh, say

[19:33] something nice about your trainer.

[19:34] Why do you like your, your trainer in particular?

[19:36] Oh, uh, well, like me, he's a Pisces.

[19:39] Okay.

[19:39] The other day, the other day, Stuart, my wife asked me, does Stuart, is he

[19:49] really believing in horoscope stuff?

[19:51] Does he really believe in astrology?

[19:52] And I'm like, I think it started as a bit, but now he does.

[19:57] Uh, let's see.

[19:58] Um,

[20:00] Oh, uh, he, I don't know.

[20:02] Like, I feel like we, we get along, we, uh, he's, he's like 25.

[20:07] So I can see like his youthful enthusiasm wears off on me.

[20:12] And also it's fun to like, it's fun to spend time and work with somebody who's

[20:17] at a different place in their life and a place that I'd been in some ways.

[20:21] And like, he's helping me, uh, become more of an athlete.

[20:24] And I, I feel like I'm helping him become more of a grownup.

[20:28] I'm like, no, you, you don't have to go to the cheapest restaurant all the time.

[20:31] You can maybe take your date to a nice restaurant.

[20:34] Maybe don't go to Panda Express.

[20:35] Maybe go to Panda.

[20:36] Take your time.

[20:39] Panda relaxed.

[20:42] Panda.

[20:42] What do you got to do with it?

[20:43] They have high protein meals at nice restaurants too.

[20:47] Uh, well, thank you, sir.

[20:49] Uh, Elliot, I asked you for Elliot as I pronounce it.

[20:52] Yeah.

[20:53] But that's okay.

[20:53] Okay.

[20:54] Well, maybe I was thinking of Hally.

[20:55] It your celebrity couple name.

[20:57] If that was, that was a, there was one time when Hallie and I were, uh, we're

[21:01] pitching a TV show and I wanted the title to be Hally it and people were like, we

[21:04] don't know what this means and I'm like, well, nobody knew what a Seinfeld was

[21:08] either, you know, or a Becker, but they still, you know, quite sure what a Becker

[21:14] is and, uh, blank checked it like several bits about what a Becker is, but it's

[21:19] amazing.

[21:20] If Ted Danson was playing that part.

[21:22] Yeah.

[21:22] That's for the whole first season.

[21:24] They were like, wait, it's a different guy.

[21:27] They both wear doctors coats.

[21:29] Here's what I know about Becker, a show that was on a network and I think went

[21:33] for at least six seasons, if not more, uh, It's, it's got Ted Danson on it.

[21:39] It's got the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,

[21:44] the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,

[21:49] it's got Ted Danson.

[21:50] He's he's a titular Becker, he's Becker.

[21:52] He's a doctor.

[21:54] Yeah.

[21:54] Dr.

[21:55] Becker.

[21:55] And I think guys, this will blow your mind.

[21:57] I think he's a little cranky.

[22:01] And that's, that's Becker for ya.

[22:04] Cool.

[22:04] Okay.

[22:04] When's it going to have, it's like research.

[22:06] Is it, are we part of the new Becker Jones?

[22:08] Well, like how Fraser got up where the second, uh, Brooklyn based movie

[22:15] podcast to bring it up with one more.

[22:18] And it's a trend called the New York times style section.

[22:20] Yeah.

[22:20] Do an article about Becker is back.

[22:23] Becker's back, baby.

[22:25] Buffo B.O.

[22:26] Becker's back.

[22:26] He never left.

[22:27] Says Ted Danson, who has been staying at our house,

[22:33] who is whose condition has rapidly deteriorated.

[22:36] I mean, he just talks about Becker all the time.

[22:39] He thinks he's Becker now all the time.

[22:41] Our life has turned upside down.

[22:43] Says Mary Steenburgen through tears.

[22:46] I married Ted, not Becker.

[22:49] The quote for the headline inquirer.

[22:56] Anyway,

[22:58] quote, parentheses, clutching, clutching the Academy award that many people forget.

[23:02] She won as a young woman cried.

[23:05] She went for, um, it was for, uh, uh, Melvin and Howard.

[23:09] I think it was the movie about, uh, Howard Hughes and Melvin the monster.

[23:13] And she won it for best, uh, stunts and effects, right?

[23:18] Yeah.

[23:18] It was the issue.

[23:18] What an animated and it can be a word for the animated short.

[23:21] Yeah.

[23:22] For a toot whistle, plunk, boom, or whatever that Disney, what about music?

[23:27] Let's leave the early works of Jonathan did me behind us for just a moment.

[23:31] Back when you had more time to do stuff.

[23:34] Uh, what, what, what was a thing that you enjoyed to do just for yourself?

[23:38] Uh, let me see if I can think that far back.

[23:40] Uh, let me check my old calendars.

[23:43] Hold on.

[23:47] Actually, I'll tell you something that I've just started doing again recently.

[23:50] So things that I've, I always like to take long walks.

[23:52] I love to take long walks.

[23:53] I love to walk around at my neighborhood in LA is not conducive to long walks

[23:57] because eventually I hit a freeway and my schedule is not conducive to long walks.

[24:01] Luckily, the, uh, and PTP has decided that the writers, the writers field of

[24:05] America should spend weeks walking in circles in front of their buildings.

[24:09] So, uh, I've been doing that.

[24:10] But recently I went back to an old love of mine that will sound very boring,

[24:14] which is when I was a kid, I really loved those logic puzzles where you get at like

[24:19] five clues and you have to figure out like which person wore what color tie on

[24:25] what day of the week or something like that.

[24:27] And you have to do it through partly through deduction and partly through

[24:30] working the grid that you mark off, uh, where the answers are.

[24:33] And so now I've decided in the morning and sometimes at night, I'm going to

[24:37] decompress or recompress by doing one of those.

[24:40] And it's been a really nice way to, um, give myself a few minutes of just like a

[24:45] few minutes that are not work and are not parenting and cannot in any way be.

[24:51] Turns towards a practical purpose.

[24:52] Like the thing I love doing more than anything else is reading.

[24:55] Cause I'm a big nerd, but I often find now that when I'm reading something, what

[24:59] I'm reading will either be research for something I'm working on or will be in

[25:02] some way, it's hard not to read something and be like, oh, is there something I can

[25:06] do with this?

[25:06] How can that, how can this inspire me in my own work?

[25:09] And with these logic puzzles, it's like, there is no way this can be connected to

[25:12] my work at all, which is really nice.

[25:15] Um, and so that's something I've been doing for myself, purely for joy.

[25:18] You have to solve a logic mystery in the course of your writing.

[25:21] Oh, you're right.

[25:22] You're right.

[25:23] You know what?

[25:23] Forget it.

[25:24] It's work now.

[25:24] Yeah, I don't do it.

[25:25] It's just more work.

[25:26] Thank you.

[25:26] I appreciate that.

[25:27] Elliot, what if you get an email and it's, it's Ryan Johnson.

[25:30] He's like, Hey, I need help.

[25:31] Come up with a logic puzzle for knives out three.

[25:34] And you're like, I'm not no scab.

[25:36] You can't get around the, I mean, now I would say, no, you can't do that.

[25:40] I would say, wait until the strike is over, Ryan, then I'll help you because I

[25:43] feel like glass onion could have used a little bit more of a mystery considering

[25:46] it was exactly what everyone thought it was going to be.

[25:49] And then the hero said, this is dumb out loud.

[25:51] And when the hero is saying that the mystery of the movie is dumb, maybe

[25:54] there's a, maybe the movie is not quite as strong as it could be.

[25:57] You're on that side of that argument.

[25:59] Hmm.

[26:00] I mean, the movie's just not for you, Elliot.

[26:02] It's very, I enjoyed it.

[26:04] I, while I was watching it and I enjoyed it.

[26:06] And then after it was over, I was like, Oh, so there was no mystery in that.

[26:09] There was a painting of Brad Pitt from fight club, but with Edward Norton's

[26:13] face, I also, I also felt like, um, it was, it was terrible that Norton's

[26:19] character was killing people, but I don't know why the Mona Lisa had to suffer for

[26:23] that.

[26:23] I'm not sure what point the movie was making about, about that, uh, we should

[26:28] destroy art to get back at rich people.

[26:30] Something we've gotten off topic back onto our normal topic of movies, but I'm

[26:34] curious to know, Elliot, are you, where do you stand on the oceans 12 divide?

[26:39] Because I feel like there's a similar sense of none of this mattered.

[26:43] Is that the one where they, I haven't seen, is that the one where Julia

[26:46] Roberts pretends to be Julia Roberts?

[26:48] Yes.

[26:49] That doesn't bother me as well.

[26:50] That's not the, that's not what I'm talking about.

[26:52] I don't want to ruin it for you.

[26:53] If you haven't seen it, but I'm, I don't worry.

[26:55] I'm not planning to see it anytime soon.

[26:57] Okay.

[26:57] Well, can I read for you then?

[26:59] Yeah, sure.

[27:00] It's one of these things where spoiler alert for everyone listening, like

[27:03] for oceans 12, the, the heist that is thwarted towards the end is, is

[27:10] immaterial because as a series of, uh, flashbacks show us, they actually just

[27:16] stole the thing they're battling, like stealing, uh, with like the world's

[27:20] greatest thief, like they stole it way earlier on the train, but that feels

[27:26] like a twist to me that doesn't feel like an undoing.

[27:28] The same way that, that like, if that feels like, um, uh, uh, like a later

[27:34] version of like the movie gambit, where the first 10 or 15, no, but Channing

[27:39] Tatum wants them to so badly where this is a movie with, with, uh, with

[27:44] Shirley MacLaine and Michael Caine.

[27:46] Uh, they had to be in the movie together cause their names rhyme.

[27:48] And they, uh, yeah, where the first like 10 or 15 minutes is them

[27:53] pulling off a heist perfectly.

[27:54] And then Michael Caine says, and that's how we're going to do it.

[27:57] And the rest of the movie is them screwing up every single step

[28:00] of the plan as they go along.

[28:03] So this, it just feels like a reverse version of that, where that, like

[28:05] that kind of a twist, you know, I don't mind that I do.

[28:08] I mind what I, what I mind is in the, is in, what is it now?

[28:11] You see me too, where they're doing all that unnecessary stuff to keep

[28:14] them from finding that microchip.

[28:15] Where it's like, if you just don't keep throwing it to each other,

[28:18] they're never going to find it.

[28:19] Like, why are you making it easier for them to catch you?

[28:22] Well, on a similar, are you the Marx brothers?

[28:24] I guess I'm Marx brothers do that stuff.

[28:26] I'm spoiling every compulsion today.

[28:30] I'm, I'm halfway through Stephen King's book, Billy Summers, and

[28:33] maybe this gets explained later on.

[28:35] But the whole setup of the book is like, okay, you're, we're going to put

[28:39] you in this town to assassinate this guy.

[28:41] Now we're going to like, we're going to embed you really early.

[28:45] So like everyone thinks of you as this writer, this mild mannered writer.

[28:50] And, uh, you know, you'll just be part of the community when this happens.

[28:54] And I'm just like, this is the worst way to do an assassination.

[28:58] Roll into a town, shoot someone, roll out, like it does not make any sense.

[29:02] Stephen King.

[29:02] I know you're working hard to make it make sense.

[29:05] And I still enjoy reading it, but this is nonsense.

[29:09] Uh, no, it's interesting to me because I'm on the other side of ocean.

[29:11] Like I enjoy watching the movie because it's a lark with a bunch of stars in the

[29:15] same way that I think you enjoy glass onion, because it's a lark with a bunch

[29:19] of stars, but I find it deflating to be like, oh, all that stuff I was watching.

[29:24] Didn't mean anything.

[29:24] Whereas at least in glass on you.

[29:25] And I think he's making a point when he does that, at least he's trying to maybe.

[29:30] Yeah.

[29:31] Uh, anyway, uh, we wasted a lot of time on irrelevant stuff.

[29:36] So I'll ask you just one follow up.

[29:37] I mean, Dan, while you were talking about rolling into town, rolling out, it did

[29:40] make me think of Jack Reacher.

[29:41] And then I started thinking of a character named Jack creature.

[29:44] Who's the animal version of Jack Reacher.

[29:46] Have they done that yet?

[29:48] No, but.

[29:49] Animaniacs would be fucking silly for that shit.

[29:51] Oh, they would love it.

[29:52] Animaniacs get on this or the late mad magazine.

[29:55] Um, where is mad magazine?

[29:59] They were supposed to be here.

[30:00] hour ago. You could do any number of things that don't relate directly to your work. What

[30:08] do you think it is that drew you to this in particular? To the logic puzzles thing? Yeah,

[30:11] yeah. I mean, when I was a kid, someone gave me a book of these damn puzzles, and I enjoyed doing

[30:15] it. So I was like, hey, here's something I used to like doing. And I was in a bookstore with my

[30:20] older son. And we saw we were getting something for I think we're getting a present for my wife

[30:26] and for her for Mother's Day, I think. And we saw those. And my son was like, you should get one.

[30:31] Like he was very adamant that I should get one. And so I did. You know, even then I was I'm

[30:36] looking for the permission of a nine year old to for things that I can do to enjoy myself. But

[30:41] you know, I think I would have everybody needs somebody in their life that indulges them in

[30:45] their habits. Yes. Now, now my older son also just loves spending money on things. If you can buy.

[30:50] He never he doesn't ask for souvenirs when we go traveling. But if he can spend money on anything

[30:54] else, he will just like to throw money into the Grand Canyon. He's like, he's like, he's like,

[31:02] instead of a souvenir, I'll just throw twenty five of your dollars into the Grand Canyon.

[31:05] And I'm like, I mean, I guess if it still brings you enjoyment. But and meanwhile, my younger son

[31:10] likes things. It's not the act of spending money. He just likes things and he doesn't

[31:14] care what the price is. So, for instance, when we saw there was an a an elephant bird egg that

[31:19] was on sale for twenty six thousand dollars. This is an extinct type of giant flightless bird.

[31:24] One of the eggs is still around. He has been badgering me for weeks now to buy him this egg.

[31:29] And we do not have twenty six thousand dollars to spend on an old egg. I keep telling him that and

[31:33] he keeps saying, but it's not that much. And it's a good egg. And so, guys, how do I how do I make

[31:39] the money to do this? I got to get money. Go fund me of some kind. Yeah, that's what we'll do. Yeah.

[31:45] Yeah, I just wanted to say that before, like I would hazard a guess, Elliot, that you and I were

[31:49] two were both two different flavors of childhood know it all. And the idea of being smart was very

[31:56] important to us. So I would guess that logic puzzles like give you that feeling of like I'm a

[32:02] genius. Oh, Bugs Meaney, you know, I'm not saying this early now. I can't have children. And that's

[32:11] why you're going to jail now, Bugs Meaney. I just know that for myself when I was a kid,

[32:16] that was the appeal for sure. Maybe I think I mean, I'd never I've never been a counter to

[32:22] Stewart and maybe Stewart's current self. And maybe it's because I have to take a page from

[32:27] Stewart's book. That book of called is is is called Two Boy Says Do You To You? It's all

[32:34] about how you should be your best self, according to Stewart. The I should take I've never been

[32:39] comfortable in my own physical body or liked my own physical body. I feel like it's my enemy that

[32:43] I've had to fight every step of the way. And logic puzzles are entirely a nonphysical, entirely

[32:48] mental thing. But I need to take a page from Stewart and get back in touch with this old

[32:52] husk and shell of mine that my soul is imprisoned in. And maybe I'll find a way that I enjoy it

[32:58] more. Yeah, I think you should. Well, you know what? That's a good segue. Kind of. Let me talk

[33:05] a little bit about when I'll bring to the table for this first half of the mini.

[33:09] Because so far, it's been a minimal day. Just talking about spoiling Stephen King.

[33:18] Stewart's like, let me talk about my feelings about myself and how I've helped that. And I'm

[33:21] like, hey, let me talk about the few minutes I can find myself. And you're like, well,

[33:25] Ocean's 12 has a little bit of a disappointing twist in it. The fourth time I watched Now You

[33:30] See Me 2. Which is eight Now You See Me's if you do the math. Four times two. Well, it's not quite

[33:37] as good a transition now because we've been saying a bunch of garbage in between. But I also, you

[33:44] know, never had the greatest relationship with my body. I was like Stewart. I was a chubby kid.

[33:52] Unlike Stewart, I am returning to my natural form as I grow older after a period during

[33:59] which I look at myself in old photos. I'm like, wow, I was quite slender and I thought I was fat.

[34:05] So there must have been just some dysmorphia going on from when I was young. I'm actually,

[34:10] you know, now much more comfortable where I'm at, even though I don't know for myself.

[34:17] You've been doing yoga, right? A little bit. Well, that's what I'm

[34:19] about to bring up. Yoga. An exercise that is not

[34:24] going to burn a ton of calories, say, because it's not cardio or what, but it is something that I.

[34:30] Or Cardi B. Not cardio or Cardi B. But I have been enjoying it. Or Cardi A. I

[34:37] just recently got into doing it. Yeah, all the times I've tried it in the past were either in

[34:44] college. It was not. It was something I was taking as a physical course because we had to

[34:50] take a certain number of those. And then I would just sort of try and do it at home to videos,

[34:55] which was never that much fun. But there's a place around the corner now from where we moved.

[35:03] Videos of yoga, not like videos of Terminator 2 or something.

[35:06] Yeah, I was trying to do yoga to Terminator 2. And I'm like, how does he go through those bars

[35:12] like that? I can't do that. I can't do it.

[35:15] Doing yoga to videos of Jackie Chan GIFs.

[35:20] And Dan's like, I can't tell if Jackie Chan is in these GIFs or not.

[35:25] No, there's a place around the corner for a flat fee. You can get unlimited classes for a month.

[35:34] I have been, I would say I'm a couple months into doing yoga three times a week for one hour

[35:40] during those days. And I find that it has made me feel better physically.

[35:48] Obviously, they're like, there's specific reasons I chose yoga in that I have a lot of joint issues

[35:54] and because you mean your marijuana addiction? Yeah, and unexpected. Well, I mean, that goes

[36:03] great with yoga. No, I like I was doing issues. I had some other physical ailments that actually

[36:16] have mysteriously like gotten a lot better since I've been doing it. So I'm like, oh,

[36:19] this is good for me. Yeah. But also, the thing that made me almost immediately

[36:26] be interested in it and enjoy it in a way that I've never enjoyed

[36:31] exercise before is I felt like it was elevating my mood specifically, which is the thing that

[36:37] people talk about with exercise, but I've never felt as directly. And I think there's something

[36:42] about the way it like works the whole body, you know, like slowly and methodically and has a lot

[36:50] in common with meditation that has allowed me to regulate my emotions more effectively,

[36:56] which has always been one of my big issues. Like I rarely like stay mad at anyone,

[37:04] but I can get mad quickly and that's not a good way to. So it's like like patients and stuff like

[37:11] that. Yeah, I would say so. Yeah, that's great. Yeah. So that's what I'm bringing

[37:19] in lieu of questions. Let's talk about a few people that sponsor our show. And by people,

[37:25] I mean corporations, because I'm Mitt Romney, a reference that gets older and harder for people

[37:33] to remember as time goes on. Hey, remember, this is a thing called the 2012 election.

[37:38] This is the curse, Elliot, I think of like having worked on The Daily Show, because like

[37:43] when those things were big, we would hammer them over and over hard for so long. And then

[37:49] they become like, you know, like key references for us, whereas other people like what?

[37:56] Anyway, I mean, like I still remember Mitt Romney's famous joke, famous joke, favorite joke,

[38:02] also famous to me about how there's no place like Chrome for the Holland days.

[38:07] Yeah, because we saw so much footage of him telling that joke at campaign stops.

[38:13] And he would always tell it, he would always tell it like, wait,

[38:15] wait, you get a load of this. Hold on a second. You're going to love this.

[38:18] Like, hey, put on a stinker face. Yeah, puts his finger to his to his lips like.

[38:25] But speaking of sponsors, if you want to laugh at our references, even if you don't understand

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[38:41] just the right amount of good. Hey, I was just talking about emotional regulation.

[38:47] Look, I mean, obviously, you know, you never want any sort of thing that you're taking to become a

[38:54] crush. But I found that a little microdose gummy also helps even out my temperament in a way that

[39:02] has been helpful to my life and has allowed me to sort of think through my relationships with

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[41:13] Yep.

[41:15] Alec, was there one other thing you wanted to say?

[41:17] There was one other thing. As I mentioned at the top of the show,

[41:19] we are doing a series of online live streaming shows that we're calling

[41:24] Flop TV. That's right. It's kind of like if the Flophouse had our own TV show. So we're

[41:29] doing six one hour-ish episodes that are going to be once a month. It's mostly the first Saturday

[41:37] of every month except for September to avoid Labor Day. And each of these episodes, we'll

[41:40] be tackling some of the most requested and most talked about bad movies in history,

[41:45] in the history of bad movies that is. And they're all movies we have not done before.

[41:48] These are all new movies to us, but movies we have mentioned many times,

[41:52] maybe without having seen them. Which movies are they? In August,

[41:55] we're talking Beastmaster 2 through the portal of time. That's our first one.

[41:58] In September, it's Cool World. In October, it's... I know, Stuart. Stuart.

[42:04] Don't orgasm too much. Wait for the episode. In October, it's an all-American meat double

[42:09] feature of Hamburger the Motion Picture and Hot Dog the Movie. The two movies that needed

[42:14] subtitles so people would know they were not food at the movie theater. In November,

[42:17] it's Over the Top, maybe the greatest sports movie ever made about arm wrestling. In December,

[42:22] it's Ballistic, X vs. Sever, the movie that finally brought America's favorite IP characters,

[42:27] X and Sever, to the big screen for the first time. And in January...

[42:32] Damn it. In January, it's Nuki. We're doing Nuki in January. A movie I've seen way too many times

[42:38] considering it's the second worst movie I've ever seen. Dan and Stu, have you ever seen Nuki before?

[42:43] No. What a way to celebrate the changing of the year.

[42:47] I feel like I've seen Nuki because, and I say this without any ire, this is a thing that happens

[42:53] when you work with someone in a comedy show for over a decade, but I've seen your presentation

[42:59] on Nuki at least nine times. Oh, for sure. The presentation where the central message is,

[43:05] do not watch Nuki. Yeah, we're going to be watching it for January.

[43:09] Every year, you have this, you go into New Year's with a little bit of hope that maybe

[43:14] the next year is going to be better than the suffering and trauma that you just have gone

[43:18] through in the past year, you know, often overlooking all the good things that happened.

[43:23] But then you realize a few days later, you're going to be watching and talking about Nuki.

[43:29] Yeah, so don't let us waste our time alone. Come and join us. Waste your time with us.

[43:34] Tickets are available for each individual show, depending on when you see it, but

[43:38] there's also a discounted season pass. You can get a season pass to the entire slate of six shows

[43:43] at a discount that makes it like you're getting an extra show. It's like six shows for the price

[43:47] of five. So go to theflophouse.simpletics.com. Again, that's theflophouse.simpletics.com to

[43:54] buy your tickets now to these shows. They've been selling like hotcakes since we first announced

[43:57] them. I can't wait to put these shows out. I'm really excited about it. It is a streamlined,

[44:03] I think less patience pushing for the audience, a version of these shows. It's going to be really

[44:09] fun. And I think Dan and Stu and I are excited to bring a new level of energy and excitement to

[44:14] these classic bad movies. Guys, is there anything you want to say about Flop TV other than the fact

[44:19] that tickets are at theflophouse.simpletics.com before we go back to the show? Yeah, so if nobody

[44:25] buys tickets, do we not have to watch Nuki? No, you still have to watch. Actually, you know what?

[44:30] If nobody buys tickets, I can say this because people have already bought a lot of tickets.

[44:33] If nobody buys tickets, you don't have to watch Nuki. Oh, wow. I thought you were going to say

[44:36] I have to watch it twice. But they already bought the tickets, so he has to watch Nuki anyway.

[44:46] What is up, people of the world? Do you have an argument that you keep having with your friends

[44:51] and you just can't seem to settle it? And you're sitting there arguing about whether it's Star

[44:56] Trek or Star Wars, or you can't decide what is the best nut or can't agree on what is the best

[45:02] cheese? Stop doing that. Listen to We Got This with Mark and Hal only on MaxFun. Your topics,

[45:08] asked and answered objectively, definitively for all time. So don't worry, everybody. We got this.

[45:16] They can be anywhere at your office, in your car, and they are wrong. My mom says that the

[45:22] Greyhouse didn't exist, but she's wrong. He just doesn't run. Someone in your life is wrong about

[45:28] something, something small, something weird, something vitally important. Only one person

[45:34] has the courage to tell them just how wrong they are. You know what you did was wrong,

[45:40] but your daughter is a liar who eats garbage. They call me Judge John Hodgman. Listen to me

[45:47] on the Judge John Hodgman podcast. If someone in your life is doing you wrong, don't just take it.

[45:52] Take it to court. Submit your case at MaximumFun.org slash JJHO.

[46:01] Now let's get back to the meat of the show. We were just spending time on what, the lettuce?

[46:07] Yeah, that was the lettuce of the show. Yeah, and a little bit of onions.

[46:14] Eat your veggies. They're vegetables. Yeah, speaking of which, I mean, I could talk about,

[46:19] I'm going to reverse the order back around, and I'll kick this one off,

[46:25] and I could talk about laboriously assembling meals, which is a thing that I enjoy.

[46:31] Don't do it. Toilet.com slash flop. It's called cooking, and I do it,

[46:37] but I think I'll talk about instead drawing, and I think that I guess to analyze myself,

[46:45] the through line that I have with the things that I enjoy, and I see it with you guys' stuff,

[46:52] too, is that it is kind of a way to be creating something, to be doing something

[47:00] active while shutting your brain down, and drawing, you know, like you're shutting your

[47:07] brain down, but you're accessing an entirely kind of different part of it, and it was a thing that I

[47:12] did a lot as a kid. It was probably my first and most obvious talent, and then, of course,

[47:21] I tacked away from that because why do the easy thing? You know, why stick with the thing that

[47:27] you're most clearly good at, and so I went into performing and writing instead. Which you suck at.

[47:35] Yeah, yeah, that's the part of it that builds character.

[47:42] You're a lot like Harrison Bergeron. Yeah, I wanted to weigh myself down.

[47:49] No, but it's a thing that I didn't do a lot of for a few years,

[47:57] or almost like a decade probably as an adult. First, I just got too far into, you know, like

[48:04] once I was writing professionally, I'm like, you know, I'm gonna, like my energy is over here now,

[48:10] and then there was a time that I think I was maybe a little down. I didn't want to do anything,

[48:17] but then I got back into it during the pandemic in a way that was a lot more

[48:24] intentional. I would draw pretty much every day, and I also took a couple of Zoom classes

[48:33] as a way of kind of, during the pandemic, it was like, well, you know, we have this time now.

[48:38] Some of us, at least two of them, like we're working from home. I know a lot of people didn't

[48:42] have that luxury, but we can't go and do things. So I took some figure drawing classes and was

[48:52] doing it regularly and really started loving it again, and I, you know, largely self-taught,

[49:01] you know, other than these classes. Like, you know, I had art in high school and college,

[49:08] but I'm not like an art student. You didn't go to art school. He didn't have a beret.

[49:14] No goatee. But it's been interesting to see. When you smoked, you put the cigarettes between

[49:19] two fingers like an American. He didn't hold it like a Nazi or a Frenchman between two curled

[49:25] fingers. Yeah. Or with a big cigarette holder. You didn't have a monocle. You weren't the penguin,

[49:35] basically. You weren't wearing a black turtleneck. Yeah. When you liked something,

[49:41] you applauded, you clapped your hands, you didn't snap your fingers.

[49:44] Because we are broadcasters, and it's more interesting to sort of draw a moral from

[49:52] these things, I think that if I were to analyze why I got a lot better, I think, at drawing

[49:58] when I was older, I think that it was because I was able to draw a lot better than I am now.

[50:05] And I think it's because I was able to draw a lot better than I was able to when I was younger.

[50:00] older, was that it's interesting to see how different creative fields influence one another.

[50:07] Because in writing, I had to be taught, especially at the Daily Show, 98% of your work will and

[50:16] can and will be thrown away at any time.

[50:19] You can't get too attached to anything.

[50:22] And it was kind of a nice attitude to bring into drawing where I was not as hung up on

[50:31] the goal.

[50:32] I think you have to get better at something, you have to get to enjoy the process too or

[50:37] else you're always going to be speeding towards the goal.

[50:40] You're always going to be taking shortcuts or not learning or pushing yourself.

[50:45] So you have to learn to enjoy doing the thing.

[50:48] Okay, yeah, I can see that.

[50:50] Yeah, I think that's true.

[50:52] Elliot, back around to you.

[50:56] So I remember, when I first met you, Dan, it was in college and one of the ways...

[51:03] Wait, what song should we put over the montage that we're fading into of you guys meeting?

[51:09] Probably Fuck the Pain Away by Peaches.

[51:12] Not all along the watchtower because then you'll think that we're flashing back to a

[51:15] time in Vietnam.

[51:19] This isn't that episode of Euphoria where they do a flashback that must be the 90s,

[51:23] but the whole thing is shot and scored like it's a fucking 70s.

[51:26] It's crazy.

[51:27] Okay, so I'm just going to pick To the Moon and Back by Savage Garden.

[51:30] Okay, great.

[51:31] That's the song that's playing.

[51:32] Perfect.

[51:33] Yeah.

[51:34] So when we first met, you were doing a comic strip for the school paper, the college newspaper

[51:42] and the Earlham Word.

[51:44] It was called.

[51:45] Earlham Word.

[51:46] Yeah, Earlham Word.

[51:47] I have a collection of that comic strip.

[51:48] It's true.

[51:49] Consensus, right?

[51:50] Yeah.

[51:51] Yeah.

[51:52] It was good stuff.

[51:53] And so do you have an intention of doing more strip work or do you just like doing like

[52:00] one-off illustrations?

[52:02] Because I've seen a lot of your stuff, but I haven't seen you do many strips since then.

[52:07] That's true.

[52:08] I used to do a lot of comic strips.

[52:09] You do a lot of one-panel comics now.

[52:11] Yeah.

[52:12] I used to not like one-panel comics just as my like personal, you know, I don't know.

[52:19] Like they never were as funny to me as something that was developing a character.

[52:22] So I won't ask Gary Larson to be a guest.

[52:25] I mean, you know, Farsight, probably one of the best case scenarios, like I like the Farsight

[52:31] a lot, but it was not my thing compared to strips.

[52:35] But now I just want to do single gags and like not worry about, I don't know, I just

[52:41] don't want to worry about developing a story and like I do that with, on the other side

[52:45] with writing.

[52:46] Like I'm not as interested in it when I'm illustrating.

[52:49] It also means that you don't have to draw the same character multiple times and have

[52:53] continuity.

[52:54] Yeah.

[52:55] Have them look weird.

[52:56] Figure out what they look like from different angles.

[52:57] Oh, speaking of which, I, you know, I might as well plug myself.

[53:00] If you want to see my...

[53:01] Whoa, whoa.

[53:02] Dan, you can do that whenever you want in your private life, but on camera?

[53:03] No, I'm into it.

[53:04] I'll stick it out.

[53:05] I'm curious.

[53:06] Yeah.

[53:07] Everyone's curious.

[53:08] Now, I have an Instagram called Dan McCoy Draws, if you want to look at anything.

[53:18] I don't really make my personal Instagram totally open to everyone because, you know,

[53:26] you got to have some privacy, but this one's open.

[53:29] So if you want to see Dan McCoy's drawings, you can go to Dan McCoy Draws.

[53:33] Now it's just going to make people want to be in that personal Instagram even more.

[53:36] Yeah.

[53:37] Now they made it so forbidden.

[53:38] The one where you plug yourself.

[53:39] Elliot, Elliot, what else do you do to bring yourself joy?

[53:46] I'm going to say, Dan, it's going to be like I'm stealing a page out of your book, your

[53:50] sketchbook that is, because I've also started drawing again.

[53:55] Drawing was also something that came to me very easily when I was younger.

[53:58] I won the art award in front of my graduating class in high school.

[54:02] And then I kind of you drew you drew that painting of the of the different Joker eras

[54:08] all sitting around playing cards.

[54:10] Yeah, exactly.

[54:11] It was it was they're all playing cards together in our faces there.

[54:14] And James Gandolfini.

[54:15] Wait.

[54:16] So for some reason, Joker or is it it's it's wild.

[54:21] Yes.

[54:22] So Scarface there.

[54:23] James Gandolfini.

[54:24] Martin Scorsese is sitting at Columbo's there because he set aside his hatred of crime for

[54:29] one night.

[54:31] In the background.

[54:32] Yeah.

[54:33] And of course, and James Madison and the so I so I really wanted to specialize on art

[54:39] that would hang up in delis, diners and pizzerias.

[54:42] And so that's why I did a series where it was Elvis Presley, Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn

[54:50] Monroe and James Dean looking at pictures of James Gandolfini and Don Corleone playing

[54:58] cards.

[54:59] So the no, I but then once I focused on writing similar to Dan, I thought I started focusing

[55:04] on writing and drawing fell by the wayside.

[55:06] It was something that I was good at it, but I was never going to be great at it.

[55:11] And so I was like, why am I bothering with this?

[55:13] There are always people, but I'll never be El Greco.

[55:14] There'll always be artists better than me.

[55:16] And now I'm picking it up without a feeling of competition, without a feeling of this

[55:20] is going to be part of my career in any way.

[55:22] And my wife got me a I told her once we went to like a fancy stationery store and they

[55:28] had these great, very expensive sketchbooks.

[55:30] And I was like, I wish I could get one of these, but I feel like I'd be too held back

[55:35] by the pressure that the pictures that I was drawing would have to be good enough to justify

[55:39] being in a sketchbook like that, especially since eventually I'll just fill it up.

[55:43] Like it's not it's not going to last me forever.

[55:45] And for as part of my birthday present last year, she got me a very nice sketchbook and

[55:50] like these kind of Japanese pencils that are really great.

[55:53] Cool.

[55:54] And so I've just been kind of drawing stuff in that.

[55:56] I do a lot of drawing pictures from photographs.

[55:59] I'll draw pictures of animals.

[56:00] I'll draw pictures of like old Hollywood people.

[56:02] I've been working on trying doing doing multiples of this one image of Groucho Marx that I want

[56:07] to get really good at.

[56:09] And that has been a good way to like you're saying, to do creative work that is not for

[56:13] a professional purpose or for a goal, but it's just in enjoying the process of it.

[56:17] But I need to carve out more time to do that because I'll often save it till the end of

[56:22] the day.

[56:23] And then I'm too tired.

[56:24] And the idea of looking at a thing and then trying to replicate it is exhausting.

[56:28] But sometimes you can just lose yourself in drawing a lot of scales when you're copying

[56:32] a picture of a monitor, monitor lizard and and it's super fun.

[56:36] Very hypnotic.

[56:37] I don't want to push you beyond your comfort levels, but I haven't seen any of these drawings.

[56:42] So if there's ever anyone that you particularly like, I would love to see it.

[56:45] But you don't have to.

[56:46] I'll talk to you.

[56:47] Well, they're all fucking monitor lizard.

[56:50] They're all on my Instagram feed.

[56:52] Elliott draws.

[56:54] Oh, what?

[56:55] Oh, wow.

[56:56] No, I see.

[56:57] I'll send you some pictures of those, but they're not not for fully public consumption

[57:02] because then I'll feel pressure for them to be good.

[57:04] You know?

[57:05] No, I know.

[57:06] I honestly, once I started my Instagram feed, I felt like a minor, minor lessening of my

[57:11] joy.

[57:12] But I also I don't know.

[57:13] I like having a place that I can sort of put all this stuff.

[57:18] On speaking of wives giving art gifts, I want to plug a great gift that I got for my

[57:28] birthday from Audrey, where there's this book that is a bunch of colorful smudges, basically

[57:35] colorful watercolor smudges that you are then encouraged to doodle on top of, you know,

[57:42] whatever Rorschach like you see in the thing.

[57:44] You add some lines.

[57:46] And it's I found that, you know, it's not the same level of full creativity, maybe that

[57:53] you get out of drawing your own thing, but it has led to a lot more like whimsical drawings

[57:59] with a lot of movement and motion that I think is cool.

[58:03] So do I ever get you that Ivan Brunetti cartooning book?

[58:10] It's like based on the course he taught.

[58:12] I have it.

[58:13] I don't know whether you got it for me or whether I I've done at least some of the lessons

[58:18] in it.

[58:19] And I thought that was a lot of fun.

[58:21] So I'm not going to talk about drawing, although that was something that I used to do.

[58:26] But it's not something that is now.

[58:28] It's just something that you used to do.

[58:30] Yeah.

[58:31] I'm surprised he didn't say singing.

[58:32] I mean, this is singing.

[58:33] Everybody has something.

[58:34] Yeah.

[58:35] Yeah.

[58:36] Professional thing.

[58:37] And also I do that not just for my enjoyment, but for the irritation of others, which I

[58:42] guess is a source of enjoyment for me.

[58:44] Yeah.

[58:45] Going back to the Daily Show again, I remember fondly standing in line behind Elliot as he

[58:50] would sing about every dish that was in front of him.

[58:53] Oh, wow.

[58:54] Yeah.

[58:55] And the yeah, everybody else is just like tapping their toes and closing their eyes

[59:00] to lose themselves in the music.

[59:01] Oh, work would stop for until I was done.

[59:03] And people would just cheer.

[59:04] Elliot's singing again, they'd say.

[59:05] They'd yell down the hall.

[59:06] Wait.

[59:07] Get into the lunchroom.

[59:08] Elliot's singing.

[59:09] Uh huh.

[59:10] It's about broccoli this time.

[59:12] Oh, yeah.

[59:13] And he runs to a phone.

[59:14] So they called the local radio station.

[59:15] I know they're going to call their cousin, Marvin Berry, and tell them about that.

[59:19] Go.

[59:20] You know, that would be ridiculous.

[59:23] It's your cousin, Marvin Berry.

[59:24] You know, that's new sound you're looking for.

[59:26] The one you want to use to torture people at Guantanamo Bay.

[59:28] Well, listen to this.

[59:30] And I'm just going like broccoli, broccoli.

[59:32] What am I going to have?

[59:35] Sorry.

[59:36] Sure.

[59:37] What are you what?

[59:38] What's your thing?

[59:39] Oh, yeah.

[59:40] No.

[59:41] I mean, I think the thing is, is that I think I think a through line for all of us is that

[59:45] working in a that we're lucky enough to have a have like a career in a creative field.

[59:54] But it also part of the downside is that it leads us all to kind of see every.

[1:00:00] of work we do as a potential like avenue for business or a job.

[1:00:06] And I have to work really hard to not do that.

[1:00:10] So I I do a lot of model painting

[1:00:13] and I do some like role playing game stuff.

[1:00:17] And while I've done role playing game stuff on, you know,

[1:00:21] on on our bonus content and it's great and you should check it out.

[1:00:25] The it's important to me to also have a space for doing those things.

[1:00:30] Where it's there's no performance to it.

[1:00:33] I mean, there's performance, but there's no like I'm not doing this

[1:00:35] for anyone else other than me and the people that I'm playing a game with.

[1:00:39] It's important to me to have that outlet.

[1:00:40] That you need you need something that's creative where you're not thinking,

[1:00:43] can I make money off of this?

[1:00:45] Yeah, is this something that that I can that eventually will lead to a payday

[1:00:48] or professional bump or something like that?

[1:00:50] And it's it's nice to have a place like that where I can

[1:00:54] with like role playing stuff that I can experiment and I can

[1:00:58] I don't have to worry about,

[1:01:00] you know, being able to present a finished product to anyone.

[1:01:03] And when it comes to like model painting, it's something model

[1:01:05] painting is actually kind of interesting for me is that like

[1:01:08] it's really helpful for me to have like put myself under strict goals.

[1:01:13] Like I paint Warhammer models that you use to play in war games.

[1:01:18] And I don't have a lot of time to play games anymore.

[1:01:20] But now what do I now I schedule games as an excuse to give me a deadline.

[1:01:26] So I like push myself to get stuff done.

[1:01:29] And then when I actually get that stuff done, it feels really great.

[1:01:33] And it that sense of accomplishment is really cool.

[1:01:36] And then I I kind of move on to the next thing.

[1:01:38] I don't like I don't like sit around forever, like looking at the thing

[1:01:42] I painted.

[1:01:43] It's just like feeling like I accomplished something,

[1:01:46] even if it's in some ways trivial.

[1:01:49] It still feels good.

[1:01:50] And it gives me that like the whatever the is it serotonin?

[1:01:53] What is it? The dopamine boost?

[1:01:55] Whatever the thing is that makes you feel like I did something good.

[1:01:58] Ketamine.

[1:01:59] Yeah, it's the Ketamine special case.

[1:02:01] Naturally occurring ketamine. Yeah.

[1:02:04] Well, this has been really sweet.

[1:02:06] You know what?

[1:02:07] I'm glad we did this, in part because I don't get to talk to you enough as friend.

[1:02:12] Yeah, that's true.

[1:02:14] I am always talking about this over here.

[1:02:17] Well, this is this is the other lesson is when you when you also

[1:02:20] we're lucky enough to do something professionally with our best friends.

[1:02:23] But it also means that you have to make time for the friendship

[1:02:27] to not just be the professional thing.

[1:02:28] And we're not always the best at that.

[1:02:30] We can be guilty of of making those things blur too much,

[1:02:34] especially since, guys, I've got a new business venture for us.

[1:02:38] It's called Flophouse Rent a Friend.

[1:02:40] That's right.

[1:02:41] So it's a long term rental where a Flophouse fan can rent one of us

[1:02:45] for years of friendship.

[1:02:46] And you get depending on the package, depending on how big the package is.

[1:02:50] Sure. So this is

[1:02:53] this is sort of like a Truman Show cameo kind of.

[1:02:56] Yeah, exactly.

[1:02:57] But we're aware of it.

[1:02:58] Yeah. OK.

[1:03:00] All right. Well, that's not aware of it.

[1:03:02] That seems like that seems pretty messed up.

[1:03:05] Does anybody else know about this?

[1:03:06] It seems everybody in the world.

[1:03:08] It's the highest rated television show in the world.

[1:03:10] But Truman didn't know about it.

[1:03:12] Yeah. Truman did not know his whole life.

[1:03:14] Or did they grow him rapidly?

[1:03:16] Do they have technology to make this?

[1:03:18] He started as a child.

[1:03:19] He was essentially a slave owned by Ed Harris and put on display

[1:03:22] for the rest of the world.

[1:03:23] Yes, he did not have control over.

[1:03:24] He didn't know about it.

[1:03:25] But he didn't know about it.

[1:03:27] Yeah. OK, guys, I think I'll watch the movie.

[1:03:29] I just now realized that he's one.

[1:03:32] He's 100 percent named Truman because that rhymes with human.

[1:03:35] I'm both mad at the movie for it.

[1:03:38] And I'm mad at myself for not realizing it earlier.

[1:03:41] I didn't notice it either.

[1:03:42] I didn't notice it either.

[1:03:43] But wow, that's amazing.

[1:03:44] Isn't this like the human show?

[1:03:47] Oh, my God.

[1:03:49] Anyway, ponder that while having your microdose gummies.

[1:03:54] This show is edited and produced by Alex Smith,

[1:03:58] who is doing it currently with one eye due to a surgery he had to do.

[1:04:04] I I'm just saying this to say feel better, Alex.

[1:04:08] I hope it was OK.

[1:04:09] Yeah. And so the audience on Twitter, I guess it's fine.

[1:04:12] So that the audience.

[1:04:13] Yeah, I mean, I talked to him the other day.

[1:04:14] He seems like he's recovering.

[1:04:16] I want the audience doesn't sound as horrifying as initially it sounded.

[1:04:19] What a hard worker he is.

[1:04:20] He's doing this.

[1:04:21] And also what bad bosses we are that we're making.

[1:04:23] Like this. Yeah.

[1:04:25] He told us he could.

[1:04:27] Yeah, but sometimes people need permission to take.

[1:04:29] Yeah, that's true. Yeah.

[1:04:31] But Alex, you got it.

[1:04:32] But Alex, get this ready in time.

[1:04:34] Alex, if you need time off, tell me.

[1:04:37] And he'll say no.

[1:04:38] Thank you so much for listening.

[1:04:41] Thank you to Maximum Fun.

[1:04:43] Go over to MaximumFun.org for other great shows on this podcast network.

[1:04:47] But for this episode of The Flophouse, I've been Dan McCoy.

[1:04:50] I'm always Stuart Wellington.

[1:04:53] And I'll be Elliot Kalin until I can find something better to be.

[1:04:57] Hi. MaximumFun.org.

[1:05:05] Comedy and culture.

[1:05:07] Artist owned. Audience supported.

FH Mini 84 - The Peach Boys Smile

Transcript

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