BONUS The Friday Show - The Floor Is Yours
Marc:I have so many bars of silver, Brendan.
Marc:My mom thinks that it's going to be it's going to skyrocket for some reason.
Marc:Like, I honestly don't know.
Guest:At least she hasn't put all her savings in Bitcoin and given you like some.
Guest:Thank God.
Marc:That's true.
Marc:That's true.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I don't have a. Oh, my God.
Marc:My mom having a bored ape.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Marc:That's going to happen, isn't it?
Guest:Hey, Chris.
Guest:BMAC.
Guest:We are not here.
Guest:No.
Guest:I mean, we are here, but we are not present.
Guest:Right.
Guest:We recorded this way back a week ago, and you listeners are hearing it now, and because of that, we can't do anything timely.
Guest:If the world has changed entirely since we were last down here, which it very well could have.
Guest:Yeah, who knows?
Guest:Considering how things move, we will not be talking about that.
Guest:Instead, we are going to talk about you.
Guest:You, the full Marin listeners who have sent in comments, particularly you Friday show listeners, because this stuff's all coming from you.
Guest:And I figured we would just do reactions and comments and questions, anything at all that's coming out of the comment section.
Guest:Empty the mailbag, as it were.
Guest:Yeah, we're going to empty the chamber here and get into your comments.
Guest:One thing I wanted to do first, though, Chris.
Guest:What's that?
Guest:Was something that I actually cut out of an earlier episode.
Guest:I don't want to say cut out.
Guest:We never recorded it.
Guest:We were running long and I didn't talk about something.
Guest:And I figure right now it's a good time to do it.
Guest:You were talking about travel and you went to Nashville.
Guest:And I had planned to have a conversation about...
Guest:in-flight entertainment oh yeah you know mark just brought this up on the episode last week that's right and i i thought it's worth it's worth mentioning that um you know they i i have rules i don't know about you but like i think there's like it's very specific you were talking about how you know there are these there's this new trend of doing nothing on a plane and there's in a lot of ways
Guest:I advocate for that over poor entertainment choices.
Guest:I think you can make bad entertainment choices on a plane.
Guest:Example.
Guest:OK, the best example is trying to watch something new and good, like something you haven't seen before.
Guest:That's an excellent like if you were if you were on a plane and that was going to be your first time to watch Oppenheimer, you made a bad choice.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And you could have made better choices that were more suiting to the environment.
Guest:And and so, like, I think I follow I would say I have five rules.
Guest:OK, the first rule is have a plan.
Guest:So like, don't just go on the plane and think like, Oh, there's everything at my fingertips willy nilly.
Guest:Like have a plan, know how long your flight is.
Guest:And then have a general plan of like, I'd like to watch a two hour movie.
Guest:And then I'm going to do like an hour's worth of work on my laptop or whatever.
Guest:And then I'm going to read a book for two hours or whatever.
Guest:Like have a, have a, an actual scheduled plan or else you're going to blow time fumbling around with that screen with the touch screen and everything.
Marc:I've seen my wife do it.
Marc:She'll bookmark a whole bunch of movies.
Marc:I'm like, it's a five-hour flight.
Marc:Just pick one.
Marc:And also, you're right.
Marc:Don't do a new movie that is potentially good.
Marc:Also, it's going to be censored if it's...
Guest:That's rule number two.
Guest:Oh, how about that?
Guest:The movie ideally is something you've already seen.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Because the best thing is if you know your content, you're not when the, when the flight announcement comes on, you're not going to be distracted.
Guest:You're not going to be pulled out of the thing.
Guest:When the person comes around with the food and you have to pause or there's some baby crying or whatever, like you don't have to worry about it if you've already seen it.
Guest:But if it's not something you've seen, I would say avoid anything with fear.
Guest:potential large edits right so really it rules out r-rated movies yes and uh you know i would say in general keep it family friendly just for the people around you like it's i think it's obnoxious to be like watching something with like terrible violence in it or something and a kid could be sitting you know three seats back from you and watching the whole thing and
Guest:You know, like you really can see a whole screen.
Guest:And so even if it's like edited, but there's like gnarly violence of like John Wick movie or something, maybe not great, you know?
Guest:Right, right.
Marc:So that's that's rule number two.
Marc:Well, I've got to say my wife recently was on a flight with me and she was watching No Hard Feelings, the Jennifer Lawrence movie.
Marc:And I've seen that movie in the theater.
Marc:And I know that there is a very naked fight.
Marc:Yeah, there's a naked fight scene.
Marc:And I'm waiting for that scene to come up on her little screen there.
Marc:And the scene is zoomed in on Jennifer Lawrence's face.
Marc:So you are just following her face.
Marc:And I'm looking over at my wife.
Marc:I'm like, how'd you like that fight?
Marc:She's like, yeah, it's fine.
Marc:They're like, can't wait to show you something when we get home.
Yeah.
Marc:I showed her the unedited version.
Marc:She was like, holy crap.
Marc:So yeah, be mindful that nudity will not be retained in your life.
Guest:Yeah, but it's a very American thing where they cut out nudity, but a person can get their head blown clean off.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And they leave that in.
Marc:All right.
Guest:Rule number three that I have is unless there's something you really want to see, like it's like a sporting event or an award show or whatever, avoid the live television.
Guest:You know, like...
Guest:Okay, I've seen it a million times.
Guest:You could be really involved in something, you'd be watching it, and the reception, because you're on a plane, cuts out, right?
Guest:You don't want that, you know, with TV.
Yeah.
Guest:It's also, you waste all this time with, you get the commercials and then the clunkiness of, I know there's the case on JetBlue, like they have a really bad, like a program grid.
Guest:So it's like, if you're watching something and it goes to commercial and then you want to go to the grid to find something else, like by the time you find something else, the timing of a commercial would be over.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I avoid the live TV unless, you know, you're watching a football game or a news event or, or, uh, you know, uh,
Guest:The BET Awards.
Guest:Okay, rule number four.
Guest:This is a controversial one, but I stand by it.
Guest:What you bring yourself is probably the best option.
Guest:So if you have podcasts that you've got loaded up on your player, if you have a book to read or a magazine or articles on your phone to read, if you have crossword puzzles or things that you do, like those pass the time way better.
Guest:than the you know search for movie search for tv you know what is on the entertainment screen here uh oh i just started watching this i'm an hour in and i don't like it or i'm you know i'm 20 minutes in i'm gonna switch to something else you know like bringing stuff yourself is always the best entertainment option it's not the only one you can like i said schedule it if you got a six hour flight you
Marc:watch a movie for two hours three hours but bring stuff yourself yeah i've um i also download shows off of like prime or netflix like stuff that you can watch you know in airplane mode so there you go exactly also done okay and then rule number five is ignore every other rule i said and just watch mad max fury road
Guest:Because that's what I basically wind up doing on every flight.
Guest:Every flight.
Guest:It's like a magnet.
Guest:It pulls me to it.
Guest:I turn the screen on.
Guest:I'm like, let me just see if Mad Max is on.
Guest:Oh, there it is.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Now I know what I'm doing for the next two hours.
Marc:That's great.
Marc:That's great.
Marc:Oh, man.
Marc:I was on a flight recently where the guy in front of me, and that's the thing, where you can kind of just, you know, peeping Tom, you know, and see what someone else is going to watch or is watching.
Marc:And the guy in front of me, it's the darndest thing.
Marc:He watched the trailer for Empire Strikes Back, like the trailer for it, as if he's never seen the damn thing.
Guest:Maybe he just wanted that like nostalgia hit.
Marc:Oh yeah, maybe.
Marc:But, but then he just went on to watch Austin Powers.
Guest:It was the weirdest thing.
Guest:I wanted, I wanted to be like, I just want to, I like the idea he's watching that trailer and he's like, this isn't with Dr. Evil.
Guest:I'm on the totally wrong movie.
Guest:Where's mini me?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, man.
Marc:You know, I actually have a 14 hour flight ahead of me in a couple of weeks.
Guest:Oh, right.
Guest:You're going to India.
Marc:Yeah, I'm going to India and I'm flying Air Emirates and Air Emirates has like a lot of choices.
Marc:Like you can peruse their library beforehand.
Marc:yeah yeah i'm like a bit nervous because like a i do want to sleep on this damn thing but i do not want to miss the in-flight and you know meals and entertainment so yeah yeah i'm really weighing uh you know what to do here but i'm also i just don't get incepted that should be your number one rule 14 hour flight that's always my rule that's always my rule not to get incepted
Marc:I have a little thing that I... A spinning top?
Marc:Yeah, a spinning top that I do the entire time.
Guest:You set an alarm every 20 minutes so that you wake up constantly.
Marc:But I'm at a point where I... Because I watch a whole lot of movies.
Marc:And I watch garbage movies as well as good movies.
Marc:So now I'm like, oh my God, am I going to...
Marc:am I not going to have anything to watch because I've seen everything already?
Marc:And you're right though.
Marc:I think I'm going to use your rule and just go with something you've already seen before and just like watch that.
Marc:Like hopefully there's like Tallahassee Knights or like something.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:You know, you get things you could drift in and out of.
Guest:You fall asleep a little bit.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That's, that's great.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Great, great rules.
Guest:Good.
Guest:I hope I hope that's helpful for people.
Guest:I also hope it's helpful for people to know what we're doing in the coming week here.
Guest:As I mentioned last week, we're kind of doing stuff ahead of time and you will not hear us like in real time until the end of August when Chris and I will be doing Django Unchained as our next Quentin Tarantino movie.
Guest:So if you're looking to watch ahead and get prepped for that, that'll be on our Friday show on August 30th.
Guest:We'll be doing Django Unchained.
Guest:Next week, if you want the schedule for WTF stuff, we've got Michael Rooker on Monday.
Guest:You know Michael Rooker from The Guardians of the Galaxy and from Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer.
Guest:And he's in the new Kevin Costner Western thing, which apparently somebody has seen.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:Maybe Ohio.
Guest:Have a sequel?
Guest:The part two is supposed to be coming out sometime.
Guest:I think Mark talks to him about that.
Guest:Is that a spoiler?
Guest:He is.
Guest:He's in the whole deal.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:All right.
Guest:Great.
Guest:Good for him.
Guest:But yeah, he's a fun, interesting guy.
Guest:You'll get that on Monday.
Guest:On Tuesday, we're going to go back to the Air America days and we've got some radio segments that most people have never heard.
Guest:A lot of people always asking if Mark will talk to Ben Folds, who I believe is...
Guest:often in Australia, so it's difficult to get him around.
Guest:He's always getting accepted, that guy.
Guest:It's a long flight.
Guest:But he was on Air America back in the day, and so we have an interview with Mark and Ben Folds, plus a bunch of segments with Mark and his mom.
Guest:Hey, awesome.
Guest:Nice.
Guest:Then on Thursday is Paul W. Downs, who is one of the creators of Hacks.
Guest:And he is on Hacks.
Guest:He is nominated for an Emmy this year for Best Supporting Actor for Hacks.
Guest:Oh, does he play the agent?
Guest:He's their manager on the show.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, that's great.
Guest:Awesome.
Guest:I love that guy.
Guest:So very cool.
Guest:You know, it's so funny.
Guest:He was pitched to us, like, right when the show started.
Guest:Like season one?
Guest:Season one.
Guest:And Mark had wanted to get Gene Smart on, who still has not done the show.
Guest:And I don't know that she ever will.
Guest:But, you know, that was one of our requests.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And they sent back, how about Paul W. Downs, who's one of the co-creators of it?
Guest:And we were like, OK, here's this new show that is about, you know, an aging comedy stars and making her comeback.
Guest:She has, you know, a female assistant writer.
Guest:And it's created by two women.
Guest:You want the guy.
Guest:person we're gonna have on is like the third creator of it who's the guy i was like i don't think that makes a lot of sense for us to do and so you know we've had uh jen statski on who's one of the other creators of it and we had uh hannah einbinder on and we basically we're like okay i think it's okay for paul downs to come on now that's great i think we're good
Marc:I hope this gets Jean on.
Marc:She is just a delight.
Guest:Yeah, Mark loves her.
Guest:He loves her like every time he sees her, like in anything.
Guest:And so we always make a pitch.
Guest:I just think it's one of those things she's like, sometimes people are just like, I don't do these things, you know?
Guest:And they kind of like have to be convinced, you know?
Marc:I mean, that fits in with her character, but hopefully she's different than her character just a little bit.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I think I mentioned to you, we won't be doing a Friday show with Chris and myself next week.
Guest:We will have another WTF Rarities, which are a bunch of odds and ends from old bonus content that never made it onto any other platform once we left Libsyn.
Guest:So you can look forward to that next week.
Guest:But right now, for the remaining time we have on this week's show,
Guest:We are going to go into your comments, your questions, your suggestions, sometimes just things you wanted to share with us.
Guest:Anything that you've been writing to us in the episode description there.
Guest:And if you want to send us new stuff, go right ahead.
Guest:Just click on the link in the episode description.
Guest:We'll start.
Guest:Populating the list anew because this was a whole bunch of stuff that you sent us.
Guest:We'll start with our friend Chuck from Madtown who has written in before and he wanted to mention that the Ed O'Neill episode was an all-timer for me.
Guest:It's actually one I'd point people to if they want to get into WTF because it's such a great example of what makes the show great.
Guest:The Josh Brolin episode is another one.
Guest:There's also a list of awkward episodes that are kind of painful to listen to.
Guest:But they're fascinating because they're so damn real.
Guest:Brendan, just wondering if there have been any episodes that made you cringe when editing them.
Guest:And the funny thing about this, Chuck, is that when I read that, I started to have an answer in my head.
Guest:And then I read your next sentence, and it was the answer I had in my head.
Guest:Oh, no kidding.
Guest:He said, I just listened to the Matt Graham episode from way back, and he made me want to throw my phone across the room many times.
Guest:I understand he's been through some tough times, but the way he self-mythologized and thought he was unlucky really grated at me.
Guest:Do you know whatever happened to that guy?
Guest:Is he still scrabbling?
Guest:And this is Matt Graham was a guest on episode...
Guest:two 51 uh one of the funny things about the matt graham episode was this was back on our old website we used to have a comments tab that you could you know add comments to the episode that we eventually torched from we nuked it from space because it was poison and especially when we'd have women on the show just the fucking putrid worst people on the internet would you know leave comments about them and uh
Guest:It was a real notable thing, especially like where everything moved toward like, you know, Gamergate and the, you know, kind of online incel troll culture.
Guest:Like we saw it early happening.
Guest:But anyway, the Matt Graham one, Matt Graham used to...
Guest:then afterwards say, you know, like sometimes we see people like when, and they put in their like personal promotional things, like appeared on WTF with Mark Maron and, you know, whatever other shows, you know?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Matt Graham would say the most commented on WTF episode.
Guest:Like that was his like little promotional tidbit.
Guest:And I don't know.
Guest:I don't know if that was true.
Guest:I'm guessing it was true because I would guess he really obsessed over it.
Guest:But like the comments were like,
Guest:Basically what Chuck just sent in, like, I wanted to fucking kill this guy.
Guest:No kidding.
Guest:Matt was a troubled dude.
Guest:And, you know, so I speak about this with, you know, a little bit of delicate nature.
Guest:You know, he had tremendously bad...
Guest:Mental issues induced by, you know, heavy drug use to the point where in, you know, content warning here, he tried to cut his own head off with a serrated bread knife.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So.
Guest:That's just bad planning.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, because you get a little ways through and unless it's hereditary, you're not going all the way.
Guest:Jesus Christ.
Guest:But yeah, it's like a double dose of like a harrowing story and then this story of like just...
Guest:frustrating that this guy can't get out of his own way.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Uh, and, uh, and it was, it was one of those things.
Guest:I believe he had Mark come back to talk to him more and they put it in the same episode.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Uh, because like I, you know, he just hadn't like clarified himself enough or something.
Guest:That's always a tell that isn't it?
Marc:It's always a tell for, uh, yes.
Marc:I'm by the way, I'm, I'm searching for it and downloading that episode as I'll listen to it in the coming weeks.
Guest:All right, so Chris, I'm going to do this next section of comments that all came in for you.
Guest:Me?
Guest:For you, yes.
Guest:No one wants to hear about me, but okay, sure.
Guest:Well, I will say that quite a lot of these are very nice.
Guest:This one from Ava.
Guest:I'm impressed with the way Chris is handling his background, and I was really touched by his care and very conscious choice to be a kind and considerate person.
Guest:So there you go.
Guest:A little nice little boost there.
Guest:Oh, that's nice to hear.
Guest:That's very... Thank you.
Guest:Also this, I want to say I appreciate Chris talking about his family life.
Guest:My mother has always been a little off kilter, but she's gone down the YouTube rabbit hole of conservative nut jobs since the pandemic.
Guest:Hearing Chris's response to his mom sending him videos made me feel less alone, and it was a good example of how to handle things with grace, which I...
Guest:very much agree with and i think uh you know congrats to both of you guys you this anonymous person and you chris for you know handling these things in your lives and and i i think it's very you know uh notable and commendable of you chris to to be public about that for this very reason you know it's it lets people know that like this isn't just like a thing they have to deal with
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:And look, if your parent also gifts you with bars of silver, like my mom does, I hope you take care of that silver.
Marc:I have so many bars of silver, Brendan.
Marc:My mom thinks that it's going to skyrocket for some reason.
Marc:I honestly don't know.
Guest:At least she hasn't put all her savings in Bitcoin and given you like some-
Marc:god that's true that's true yeah yeah i don't have a oh my god my mom having a board ape picture that sounds oh my god that's gonna happen isn't it oh shit unless it's a trump board ape i think you're safe guess what i'm pretty sure that's a thing oh no i just got the cold sweats
Guest:All right.
Guest:Well, maybe this person can help you out then.
Guest:This anonymous person, but, you know, they gave enough of identifying features of themselves, said, I've listened to WTF since about the second year.
Guest:I've heard a lot of vulnerability, which is powerful.
Guest:But Chris talking about his growing up family gets me.
Guest:The segment about travel and the daring that takes makes him a special kind of successful actor.
Guest:I am 71 and old enough to be his mom.
Guest:I also have a daughter named Chris.
Guest:So I hereby offer a mental sub for his mom's bullshit.
Guest:And this person signs off saying you are brave and kind, which I recognize and I see you.
Guest:So that's a very nice note for you.
Marc:That's very nice, and thank you.
Marc:And, you know, we haven't talked about it, and, you know, I won't go into it too much, but, like, the Beth Stelling episode from a couple weeks ago has a lot of, like, childhood trauma stuff.
Marc:And I feel like Mark...
Marc:Handled that and also was just so eloquent.
Marc:He's just such an eloquent speaker about childhood trauma and what he said about it.
Marc:And also, I listened to that episode right after watching Magnolia, which is all about childhood trauma.
Marc:So it was just beautiful how he sort of phrased everything.
Marc:If you haven't listened to that episode, I really recommend taking a listen because it is really...
Guest:powerful what mark was saying and uh and i thought beth you know gave as good as she got with that stuff like she she was not some uh you know person who hasn't processed this stuff and mark was like revealing it to her she's she's done the work she's fully invested in trying to figure this out for herself and i just think it's it's you
Guest:she's like kind of a very kindred comedy spirit for Mark to be like, Hey, I'm going to work through this stuff like live and in person on stage.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I think he ends that episode saying, yeah, I think you will see each other again or like be friends.
Marc:Like I do think they're like very similar.
Marc:Like they're so similar.
Marc:So yeah.
Yeah.
Guest:Here's another note for you, Chris.
Guest:The playlist from the Trey episode is awesome.
Guest:This person says, I work for Jam Bass and we cover the jam band scene and I shared the playlist with our team who also enjoyed it.
Guest:So you've made a big splash in the jam band world.
Guest:This person also says, randomly, I looked at Chris's other playlists on Spotify and noticed more than one has the song Funky Fanfare by Keith Mansfield.
Guest:For many years now, Phish has live streamed their concerts and they always play the song Funky Fanfare to indicate the band is about to take the stage.
Guest:An otherwise obscure song I wouldn't know if not for watching many, many Phish live streams over the years.
Guest:Oh.
Marc:A little coincidence there that you also happened to latch on to that.
Marc:Well, I know that song from Quentin Tarantino.
Marc:So yeah, if you watch Quentin Tarantino's movies, that song is played in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Guest:Well, it's the song from the old, um, uh, coming suit, coming attraction.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like I, I believe that's that it was used in that, like, uh, or it's, it's not coming attractions.
Guest:It's the, now our feature presentation thing.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And he now uses that at his theater, the new Beverly.
Guest:Oh, cool.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Which, which he, uh, you know, every movie has that at the beginning.
Guest:Now your feature presentation.
Guest:Um,
Guest:This is a very quick comment, and I want to address it.
Guest:Just lay this out on the table.
Guest:This was also about you, Chris, but I'm going to take this one on myself.
Guest:This person says, love Chris's story about the grocery store ban.
Guest:Was unclear, though.
Guest:Are we supposed to fuck with the people at the store on Chris's behalf?
Guest:I'm like, hang on.
Guest:I, I, I'm, I'm very perturbed by the fact that that was unclear.
Guest:Please don't ever fuck with anyone on our behalf ever.
Guest:Any dumb shit we ever say.
Guest:I find, I find it very funny that like, that's, that is a mode that some people listen to anything, right?
Guest:Like they listen to it.
Guest:It's like, Hmm, am I getting my marching orders?
Right.
Right.
Guest:Wait, am I supposed to be running over bears?
Guest:Okay, this is from Angel.
Guest:And Angel said, Chris, I wanted to say you did Nashville right, man.
Guest:As a local, I'm thoroughly impressed with your itinerary.
Guest:Many tourists had straight for Broadway, and that's all they do.
Guest:But you did it right.
Guest:You got a little taste of the honky-tonk scene, but spent most of your time elsewhere.
Guest:Your Bluebird Cafe experience sounds amazing.
Guest:I've actually never been, mainly because I avoid traffic in green hills as much as possible, but I know I need to go someday.
Guest:If you're ever given the chance, you must see a show at The Ryman.
Guest:That is my number one recommendation.
Guest:Awesome.
Guest:I'm going to jot that down and hopefully I'll be back because I loved it there.
Guest:That's great.
Guest:This also came in from Angel in a separate context, not about Nashville.
Guest:And it said, listening to your take on the we of sports fandom, everything you've said makes perfect sense.
Guest:I would add that sometimes the perceived ownership or camaraderie of a team comes from family ties.
Guest:If your mom or dad rooted for a team and you grew up rooting with them, that we runs deep.
Guest:Also, you guys mostly talk about pro sports, which I admit I've never been emotionally invested in.
Guest:But for college sports, the we is very strong.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Especially if you went to that school.
Guest:For example, I'm an Auburn Tigers fan and alum, and you always hear about the Auburn family.
Guest:That's your school and your heart on the line.
Guest:We succeed or we don't, but we're all invested.
Guest:And Angel also says that hearing us describe Yankees fans, it's very similar to University of Alabama fans.
Guest:Bullies, obnoxious, just the worst.
Guest:I'm biased, but I think we can all agree on that.
Guest:I'm sure I will take your word for it.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:Same.
Marc:I will say my my knowledge of Yankee fans is from Staten Island Yankee fans.
Marc:So I feel like I'm an authority on it.
Guest:You're getting the uncut.
Guest:This is like pure, like 100 percent nuclear grade Yankee fan.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, like it's pure, the purest of the garbage.
Marc:And yeah, so I know those Yankee fans.
Marc:I see you Yankee fans.
Marc:I do not want to be one of you Yankee fans.
Guest:Well, listen to this, dude.
Guest:This comes from Ryan, who I believe is the Ryan who we owe our Tarantino series to.
Guest:But man, Ryan, I don't know, dude.
Guest:Okay, I'm going to read what Ryan wrote.
Guest:Have you ever been so disgusted with the Mets that you cheered against them when they play a hated rival?
Guest:I am a 43-year-old lifelong Blue Jays fan.
Guest:And earlier this year, I found myself rooting for the Yankees, the fucking New York Yankees, the team of unconstrained evil when the two teams were playing.
Guest:It felt wrong, but it just happened.
Guest:And it's happened a few times since.
Guest:I feel like this is something I should take to a priest.
Guest:Do I need an exorcism?
Guest:But I figured I'd ask you first.
Marc:First of all, this sounds like someone who's admitting to having jerked off to his sister.
Marc:Like, what are you fucking doing right now?
Guest:I would say largely, Ryan, this is a you problem.
Guest:This is a thing.
Guest:thing that what you should know from this is something went terribly wrong with your blue jays fandom and you need to address that the rooting for the yankees is like um that's incidental like i i don't i don't even accept it on the premise you're not rooting for the yankees you're trying to hurt your your inner blue jays fans yeah you are you are you are at war with yourself you're self-harming
Guest:yes right you are at war with yourself and you are trying to do something mean to yourself so the the thing you know will hurt the most is rooting for the Yankees so I take I take the Yankees out of this completely because it would never happen do you know what the New York version of this is like me rooting like a Mets rivaled rooting for a rival like the Braves the fucking Yankees oh yeah I think
Guest:Like, I couldn't, I would never do this.
Guest:I wouldn't do it under pressure of gunpoint.
Guest:Like, no, no way.
Marc:I've, I've, I've rooted for the Yankees when they're playing the Braves.
Marc:I'm like, or the Phillies when, you know, I want them to beat them so that we can go up in the standings.
Guest:Up in the standings is one thing where you're fine if they beat the team they're up against, but you're not rooting for them.
Guest:No.
Guest:If you're watching a Yankees-Braves game, and it's important that the Yankees win so that the Mets rise in the standings, right?
Marc:Well, first of all, when that happens, I always wish that Bain was there.
Marc:And blows up the stadium.
The entire stadium.
Yeah.
Guest:Well, aside from Bane, the other thing is like if you if it's like, you know, game on the line, two outs, ninth inning, you know, Aaron Judge up at bases juiced and he strikes out.
Guest:I'm not upset.
Marc:Right.
Marc:You're happy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So like even though I want the Braves to lose and it will benefit my team, I am not upset at that outcome.
Guest:yeah that's true but also if he knocks in the winning run yeah okay fine i'm not gonna go celebrate for the yankee fans but totally fine yes yeah totally uh all right i i will uh i would like to just read these of a few people waxing our car here uh you know i don't feel like uh we we pay enough attention to this that
Guest:There are a lot of people that enjoy what we're doing and I want to say thank you to them saying thank you.
Guest:So this came in from a person that said four things.
Guest:I'll make it quick as a longtime public radio supporter.
Guest:I've always been quick to support podcasts.
Guest:I like as well.
Guest:The full Marin is the best subscription ever.
Guest:You folks do a really amazing job in quantity and quality and type of content.
Guest:two i enjoy the friday show but you've gotten away from my favorite friday content a deep dive into a specific topic with a guest mark does the retrospective thing so well but the deep dives in a single topic especially the series on race and wrestling and the siskel and ebert stuff with matt singer who i went and saw him on a panel recently because of you were extraordinary and i will say this uh before i read the next two bullet points you have uh the uh the real reason that we don't do that is it's it's
Guest:is the labor it's time consuming and it's it's a lot so brendan's pretty busy i don't know if you know when we can balance these things it it can work but it's not the easiest thing in the world so uh i wouldn't say we'll never do that it's just it's going to happen when it's a specific thing that works which is like with matt singer that that absolutely was right in our wheelhouse
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Back to this list.
Guest:Uh, Brendan's breakdown of the sequence of the extended cut of Amadeus was some of the best film criticism I've ever heard.
Guest:Well, that's a very good compliment for me coming from the Siskel and Ebert standpoint that I do.
Guest:Uh, and then the last part here on the break room live episode, it was neat to hear a mention of Leo Laporte.
Guest:I was manually downloading this week in tech episodes all the way back in 2005 before the term podcast came out.
Guest:Uh,
Guest:and I think I may have heard about WTF on a Laporte podcast.
Guest:That's probably true.
Guest:Uh, and that's very cool because the reason why I like that last point is that I know when this person says they think our subscription is the best ever, they've got a lot of history of it.
Guest:Like it's, it's a, uh, it's a long and storied tradition for this person to have.
Guest:Yes, exactly.
Guest:Um,
Guest:uh this one came in from rob uh it says guys i just want to tell you both that i really dig the friday show and look forward to it every week it has come into its own and stands on its own two feet thanks to the dynamic between you two guys and with interesting things to talk about love the tarantino series and would like to hear more of that extended dive into similar things like tv music maybe even books and definitely more movies and i do think chris you know we're gonna go through tarantino for uh three more months and i think
Guest:uh after that probably starting in november we'll do something like it where we have a kind of regular monthly check-in i just haven't decided what it should be yet do we do another movie do we do some kind of tv series something you know someone else's body of work i i think i've really enjoyed doing that and uh and and and there definitely can be a way to do it i just don't want it to be too similar to just like another tarantino thing gotcha okay cool
Guest:OK, let's get into some reactions to the Marvel list that we made.
Guest:I want to address this right off the top because it came in from a few people and I'll explain why.
Guest:And yes, it was an oversight.
Guest:But this this one said, how can you make a list of Marvel movies and not even mention the best ones of all?
Guest:Animated or not, the Spider-Verse movies are absolutely essential and the absolute best representations of comic books on screen.
Guest:And I will explain why I didn't do that.
Guest:The list that I was working off of was... It's very hard to find the full Marvel movies in chronological order because so many of the lists are just the MCU.
Guest:And I wanted to make sure it had everything in the order that they come.
Guest:And this page that I was looking at...
Guest:was it says, you know, all films based on Marvel comic publications, but then it separated them out into categories.
Guest:And I didn't realize that the one that we were reading from just said live action feature films.
Guest:I thought it just said feature films, but it says, so it says feature films.
Guest:And then right under it says live action feature films and shorts produced by Marvel Studios set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe series.
Guest:Blah, blah, blah.
Guest:So that removed the Spider-Verse movies, which are excellent.
Guest:And I think that I would probably put the first one into the Spider-Verse on the essentials list.
Guest:I would put both of them.
Guest:They're so fucking good.
Guest:I would not put the second one on because you have no idea if it's essential yet.
Guest:It's not finished, right?
Guest:It's literally a to-be-continued movie.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:So what if that third one sucks?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:No, that one's going to be great.
Guest:So you say.
Marc:I mean, yeah, true.
Marc:Oh, by the way, I feel like I know how that's going to end, by the way.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Yeah, but yeah.
Guest:You missed a spoiler.
Marc:I mean, I've read a screenplay.
Marc:I've seen, you know, I can read between tea leaves.
Marc:But also the X-Men 97, I would also put on the list of- But that's a TV show, right?
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's an animated television show.
Marc:So I guess, yeah, that doesn't count, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But I mean, all those Marvel TV shows would not count.
Marc:Like the, what is it?
Yeah.
Marc:What's her name?
Marc:The Scarlet Witch thing and the Falcon and Winter Soldier.
Marc:They would not make the list at all.
Marc:But yeah, I'd say both Spider-verses myself.
Marc:But yeah, I guess you're right.
Marc:You don't know how it's going to end.
Marc:So fair enough.
Guest:We got another note from Chuck in Madtown.
Guest:And it's a very long explanation of his comic book fandom and that.
Guest:And he makes the point, and I do kind of understand this, that he says, none of the Marvel movies are essential.
Guest:As much as I love these movies, there's a cap to how good they can be.
Guest:Superhero media is, at its core, corporate storytelling.
Guest:There's no incentive to ever end the stories because the characters were created to sell magazines and advertise sea monkeys and X-ray specs.
Guest:While there can certainly be meaningful and well-told stories, most of them are retconned or rebooted to sell a new saga to the next group of fans that come along.
Guest:That is kind of how comics are generated.
Guest:It's like soap operas, same thing.
Guest:This can be frustrating for people with a more mature taste in storytelling because it...
Guest:seems disposable.
Guest:And I think that's the attitude that Mark brings to it.
Guest:And I agree with all that.
Guest:And, you know, he, Chuck goes on to write about, you know, very well thought out ideas about comic books and the MCU and that.
Guest:But what I'll go back to is how we set up that list in the first place.
Guest:I'm not saying essential like essential to the world.
Guest:I'm saying that if you have a person who's not interested in this stuff, what are the fundamentals of the comic book movie genre that they could watch where you think, oh, that might actually satisfy them?
Guest:It's a list for general audiences, right?
Guest:Right.
Guest:That's where I go with the word essential.
Guest:I wouldn't read too much into it being essential to the world and movies.
Guest:It's just, are these things that can stand on their own as entertainment?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And look, I'm going to push back on the comic books not being art.
Marc:Because that...
Marc:comic books for me got me into reading, you know, like, and I think that's like the kind of the point of them.
Marc:It's like, Hey, look, here's a graphic novel and you're like this, you're going to love this book.
Marc:Uh, you know, and like, there are just some beautiful stories that I have read through comic books and they are just as much as art as, you know, slaughterhouse five or a breakfast of champions, you know, like they're,
Marc:as good as, you know, those things that I don't think we should, uh, we should hold them, uh, uh, you know, to a lesser standard.
Marc:I think they're, they're great.
Guest:Absolutely.
Guest:You know, I think also Chuck, I would say that you could apply what you're saying to all television, right?
Guest:Television or particularly television prior to pay cable and streaming services that you
Guest:Television for my whole life up until, you know, maybe about 10 years ago was bait to get you to watch commercials.
Guest:It just is.
Guest:And so it follows the same, you know, premise from a corporate perspective.
Guest:product perception that you're creating this thing just to keep people sticking around to sell a product or whatever and so you can't just apply a you know put a negative stigma on that when the sense is that's how the product gets created and within that product there's a lot of artful stuff in terms of and artful and tremendously entertaining stuff like some of our greatest memories of life come from things we watched on television so
Guest:uh i do think they have to kind of you know this is the endless endless uh conversation about art and commerce they always exist together but uh as someone who's not a comic fan i agree with what you're saying chris that like oh you you have to you know be able to keep the door open for these as uh things that are considered in their own right as entertainment and art yeah absolutely
Guest:OK, a couple other Marvel things.
Guest:Someone said, correct me if I'm wrong, but did you omit Captain Marvel and Black Widow from your Marvel discussion?
Guest:And I will correct that.
Guest:We did mention them.
Guest:We just did not put them on the essentials list.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, you know, they're along with a lot of other things.
Guest:Someone else said to follow up this Marvel Light episode with doing it with DC movies.
Guest:start in 1977 with Superman and Chris just made a face.
Guest:And I think that's part of the problem is like that essentials list.
Guest:I think it's pretty small.
Guest:I mean, granted you have all the Chris.
Guest:No, like here's the other thing I would say about doing a DC one, the Marvel ones.
Guest:Even the ones produced by Fox and Sony, they all fit into the same aesthetic as the MCU ones.
Guest:Like, when the Marvel Studios started making the movies in 2008, they were not, like, trying to make something a world different than the Sony Spider-Man movies and the Fox Fantastic Four movies.
Guest:They were in the same world still.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:To the point where now that...
Guest:you know, Disney owns both Marvel and the Fox stuff and they can put them all in the same movies like you're seeing with Deadpool.
Guest:It's very easy to connect these things, right?
Guest:They don't feel at right angles to each other.
Guest:You could not connect the Green Lantern with the Chris Nolan Batman movies.
Marc:You just couldn't.
Marc:The Flash tried it and it was not very good.
Marc:Yeah, right.
Marc:But does the Flash one do any of the Nolan things?
Marc:No, I think I think I think Nolan is is off limits, but they had his own thing.
Guest:Right.
Marc:And so ghost Chris Reeve in there.
Guest:Well, that's bad.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But but but that's but you're you're you're making my point for me.
Guest:It's like these these DC ones are so disparate and they don't they don't actually cohere despite them trying to claim that there's this DC extended universe or whatever.
Marc:It's not the same.
Marc:And I love DC Comics, guys.
Marc:I mean, I have a Superman tattoo.
Marc:I am like, I cannot wait for the James Gunn Superman and all of the new universe that he is creating.
Marc:But it's just, it's not good.
Marc:It's just not a good time.
Marc:I'm a cup of tea.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You're from England?
Guest:I'm a cup of tea.
Guest:uh this person says uh just a little disappointed that dolph lundgren's punisher didn't get any love on your list no other punisher movies are worth a mention but as a standalone r-rated marvel movie it's worth discussing against logan and deathpool here's the reason it was never released in theaters it's a direct to video movie i know it wasn't intended to be that uh but it was uh it didn't get a theatrical release and so it it was not on the list i was looking at but
Guest:I don't think I would have considered it because then we would have to consider a whole bunch of other things that never got a theatrical release.
Guest:We were only thinking the theatrical movies.
Marc:I'm averse to Punisher because like, I don't know, I see like cops with like Punisher stuff.
Marc:Yeah, there's a lot of kind of fascist cosplay going on with Punisher.
Marc:Just not a fan.
Guest:Although they've definitely, I don't read Punisher comics, but I know enough about them that they like, you know, the people who make the Punisher push back against that within the Punisher.
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:I've heard of that.
Guest:Guys, I have to disagree wholeheartedly with leaving Thor Ragnarok off the list.
Guest:It stands alone as a fun, hilarious viewing experience.
Guest:I think, you know...
Guest:this was the struggle with that one.
Guest:I agreed to an extent.
Guest:And then kind of Chris talked me out of it, that it's just like, it's, it is fun.
Guest:It's a great standalone experience.
Guest:You know, I, I have no, I would put Thor Ragnarok on if I was, I had nothing else to watch, but essential is the problem.
Guest:And it's like, uh, I, I am, you know, Chris said,
Guest:You mentioned also how you felt the following Thor one, Love and Thunder, took the wind out of the sails on this one.
Guest:And I have to agree a little bit.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And it is standalone.
Marc:So it's just not essential, honestly.
Marc:You can skip it and not miss a beat.
Guest:This one from Brett.
Guest:I just thought this was nice to know.
Guest:I'm an almost from the beginning WTF listener.
Guest:And over the years, the ads and Mark's ad reads have become part of the listening experience.
Guest:So even though I subscribe to the full Marin, I listen to the Monday and Thursday shows in the ad supported feed and have no plans to change.
Guest:That is really fantastic.
Guest:That warms my heart.
Marc:Yeah, send that to your advertisers.
Marc:Exactly.
Guest:I've noticed a pattern.
Guest:This is a separate comment from someone else unnamed.
Guest:I've noticed a pattern where the episode winds down.
Guest:The guests will give Mark a compliment.
Guest:He receives it with kindness and appreciation and then immediately thanks them for coming and ends the episode.
Guest:Have you also noticed this?
Guest:Is it a quirk of the interviewing or your editing?
Guest:It's definitely not my editing.
Guest:I don't even know that it's a quirk of the interviewing.
Guest:I think it's just that, you know, you're talking about people there and body language.
Guest:People know when something's wrapping up, right?
Guest:And I think the reason why you're noticing it as a pattern where the person gives the compliment there is because they want to get it in before Mark says, thanks for coming, right?
Guest:So they...
Guest:like everything in the vibe of that moment is like, we're ending.
Guest:This is going to be over.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And then he, you know, says something that gives them a little tee off to give him a compliment.
Guest:He receives it and then just, it ends.
Guest:I don't think it's really anything more than that.
Guest:And, uh, but, but it's, uh, it is noticeable.
Guest:I do think it's noticeable that, and that you have found it as a pattern.
Marc:It's probably you're picking up on just conversational cues.
Marc:And like, I do that with like friends and family.
Marc:It's like, you know, you just know when it's time to wrap up.
Marc:At least I do.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:And maybe this is a good one to end on because it could set up our Tarantino episode next week.
Guest:This is from Justin in Portland.
Guest:I was listening to the latest episode of the Blank Check podcast.
Guest:Great podcast that Chris and I are both fans of.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:and was surprised that the two hosts and guests all casually and unanimously agreed that Jackie Brown is the best Quentin Tarantino movie.
Guest:I love Jackie Brown, and I think it might be the most underrated QT film, though not my personal number one.
Guest:I wasn't so surprised they named it their favorite as much as the fact that they didn't think it was an unusual opinion that required any defending or explanation.
Guest:Thought you might find that interesting.
Guest:That is interesting.
Guest:Well, I guess it is and it isn't because if you go back to what we talked about, Chris, when we did Jackie Brown, I think that this is this is what I said in that episode, that there was an overcorrection because Jackie Brown was underrated for a long period of time.
Guest:Right.
Guest:This idea that and I was in the camp of it being underrated until I saw it getting overrated.
Guest:So I'm actually not surprised that there's this thought, especially among film heads, that like, oh, this movie, which did not get its due, is much better.
Guest:And I would say, and I think you would agree with this, Chris, that Inglourious Bastards, to me, fits that category better.
Marc:One hundred percent.
Marc:Like I have found that movie to be so refreshing and so like topical and like so like just so good, much better than I thought it was.
Marc:And yes, like I think people should do what we're doing, just rewatch all of them, because I think you're going to find a lot of gems that you sort of tossed away.
Guest:By the way, for you Blank Check listeners out there, I just kind of have to point this out, that the last time I was with you, Chris, at our movie trivia night at the Nighthawk Cinema, we ended the night tied with...
Guest:the team led by Marie Barty from blank check.
Guest:And at trivia, when you have to, when you get tied to make a, to create a winner, they have two people from each team come up and have a duel over the name of celebrity.
Guest:And you have to duel back and forth with,
Guest:name of a movie that that person was in if you listen to doug loves movies it's the last man stanton game and you go back and forth uh you know naming the movies until someone is stumped and i had to go up against marie and the person was jake gyllenhaal that's right and i won i won for our team and like the great moment of triumph was that my slammer was ambulance and
Guest:Fuck yeah, it was.
Guest:I stand for that movie, baby.
Guest:It's great.
Guest:She was stumped and they were like, okay, you need one more to win.
Guest:And I was like, ambulance.
Guest:Boom.
Guest:so uh apologies to marie who uh runs a great podcast as well we love blank check but uh next time if we are in a duel i will take no mercy uh just as i i did not in that moment uh and that'll do it for us right here this week uh thanks for uh being with us for the friday show as i mentioned next week we'll do a
Guest:special WTF rarities episode.
Guest:And then Chris and I will be back for Django Unchained on August 30th.
Guest:So fire that up if you want to watch it before we do.
Guest:And until then, I'm Brendan and that's Chris.
Guest:Peace.