BONUS The Friday Show - Those Aren't Pillows!
Guest:If you had an alien come greet you and was like, I'm here.
Guest:What are you doing this weekend?
Guest:I keep hearing this word, Thanksgiving.
Guest:What is that?
Guest:The best way you can explain to someone who has no idea what Thanksgiving is is show them this movie.
Yeah.
Marc:Chris, Brendan, it's the most wonderful time of the year.
Marc:What time is that?
Marc:When I get to put my out of office on and have a nice long weekend.
Guest:Oh, that's very nice.
Guest:Do you do that now?
Guest:Like next week is fully like Thanksgiving week for you or do you have to wait till Wednesday?
Marc:No, I took the whole week off.
Marc:See, that's the thing.
Marc:Thanksgiving is a cheat, man.
Marc:For us nine to five suckers, it's like...
Marc:a perfect way to get a five day like, you know, vacation.
Guest:Are you taking them as actual days or you're just going to kind of like do like a like a slow work slowdown on those three days or you're fully taking off?
Marc:I took them off.
Marc:So here's the thing.
Marc:You take three days off.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.
Marc:You get Thursday and Friday off if you have if you're so lucky.
Marc:And guess what?
Marc:You also have Saturday and Sunday.
Marc:So you get this nice long week.
Marc:So it is like my favorite time of the year.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And you don't you don't have to burn a full vacation week.
Guest:exactly man it is the perfect crime i'm sure you've accumulated some comp days here and there so there's like you know take care of this and that and yeah you're you're you're golden yeah it's the best so yeah i'm happy how are you doing you happy a little bit i'm a little sad because of the news today the news that george santos is not running for re-election
Guest:but why so sad why yeah i can't imagine why was that guy what happened what what happened oh no is he okay if you've been listening to the friday show i think i've dropped a few times that i love george santos i mean i think he's a terrible person i think he's awful but i i i like that his awfulness is so permanently on display and and he's like
Guest:just this unabashed liar.
Guest:He lies all the time.
Guest:Everything is a lie.
Guest:It's just fascinating to me.
Guest:And I always like people who are just that blatantly bad to be around, especially in bad institutions so that you can always like draw a circle around them and be like, you see, it sucks here.
Guest:Look at that guy.
Guest:But he's not going to run again.
Guest:I guess he was the last one to figure that out.
Guest:Everyone else in the world knew this guy was dead to rights.
Marc:I like to think that he was sitting there in his office being like, you know, I don't think I can win a re-election.
Marc:And like his chief of staff being like, oh, you think so, doctor?
Yeah.
Guest:I just like everybody around him was just shoveling money into their pockets until the day he had that realization.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:You think you shouldn't run?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I mean, like putting pearls down their shirt and stuff.
Marc:Just unbelievable.
Marc:Oh, and by the way.
Guest:long island people you did this like you elected this idiot to congress like this is on you it's one of the one of the great examples of like what can happen when you're just literally not paying attention because i you know you and i both know lots of people from long island i have family in that district i know a lot of people there yeah
Guest:And they were just like, who am I voting for?
Guest:What's going on?
Guest:What's happening?
Marc:Pay attention to the down ballot, guys.
Marc:It is important.
Marc:Let this be just enshrined.
Marc:This is what happens when you don't pay attention.
Marc:My God.
Guest:Well, yeah, a lot of bad things happen when you don't pay attention, but that's definitely one of them.
Yes.
Guest:Well, George Santos, we hardly knew Yeet.
Guest:No, that's not true.
Guest:We knew a lot about him.
Marc:We're learning more every day.
Marc:His OnlyFans is going to be amazing.
Guest:Yeah, now he's very familiar with it, apparently, according to this ethics report.
Guest:Unbelievable.
Marc:Yeah, anything else going on with you?
Marc:Oh, man, just really enjoying your episodes this week.
Marc:Fisher Stevens.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Old Hugo.
Marc:Yes, old Hugo.
Marc:I loved him telling the story about him always wanting to be on the show and his friend being like, oh, yeah, I just got done being on Mark's show.
Marc:Yeah, I've done it twice.
Guest:Griffin Dunn saying he's been back on to totally lying to him.
Marc:I just love that it's like a running gag with his friends.
Marc:I love that Mark didn't pick up on that.
Marc:He's like, hey, man, that guy's full of shit.
Marc:I don't know what to do.
Marc:Yeah, he's been on twice.
Marc:But yeah, just really fantastic stuff in that.
Marc:That's funny.
Guest:That was literally just a question in the Ask Mark Anything episode that someone was like, do you ever run into people and you don't know if you had them on or not?
Guest:And he literally had that with Fisher Stevens.
Guest:When he was talking to J. Smith Cameron, he was like, did I have Fisher on?
Marc:Yep.
Marc:Yep, exactly.
Marc:Matt Fisher had really fun stories, especially about, he brought up the landmark forum, which is kind of personal for me.
Marc:Wait, how?
Marc:How's it personal for you?
Marc:Well, my wife did the forum, the landmark forum.
Marc:And like, she tried to get me into it.
Marc:Like at what age?
Marc:How long ago was this?
Marc:Last year!
Marc:Oh no!
Yes!
Marc:And like, I'm like being a good sport.
Marc:I'm being a supportive husband.
Marc:So I'm like, uh-huh.
Marc:So you're going to three days and you're going to be in a room and you can't leave?
Marc:Like, I don't know.
Marc:That sounds kind of shitty.
Marc:And so that's like the fourth day.
Marc:She's like, well, you should come.
Marc:And like, they're doing their shtick with me.
Marc:And man, I can smell some bullshit.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:You're like the last possible guy that should be allowed to do this.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Like, you cannot get this past me, guys, all right?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But, like, here's the other thing.
Marc:I wanted to be, like, supportive of my wife and not just shoot this down and just, like, be like, this thing is a cult.
Marc:How are you not seeing it's a cult?
Marc:So I was just like...
Marc:You know, like trying to weigh out like, well, maybe like I need to do this to show that I am like with her, you know, a part of it.
Marc:And like, so what are you doing?
Marc:You're calling people who you don't actually want to talk to because this cult is making you like, you know –
Marc:dig up memories and like, you know, interact with them and then also try to get them involved in this.
Marc:And it's just like, this is a pyramid scheme.
Marc:That's what it always seems.
Guest:I mean, I don't know enough about it to have the full details.
Guest:It just always seemed to me like a, like a MLM thing, like a total pyramid scheme.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So like, and like, I know, like I know where this is going.
Marc:It's like, okay, I'm going to tell my story because I'm a sharer and they're going to want me to talk to my dad and make peace, you know, with him.
Marc:And like, look,
Marc:I'm at peace with my dad.
Marc:I just don't want to talk to him anymore.
Marc:Yeah, it's peaceful.
Marc:Yes, that is so peaceful.
Marc:You have no idea how much more peaceful.
Marc:There's a whole word for this.
Marc:It's called a detente.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:I am so happy right now in my life because that guy is not in my life.
Marc:So I'm just like, I don't, why would I want this whole thing?
Marc:So luckily my wife got out of the landmark thing after she was like, yeah, you know, they keep asking me to get people to sign up.
Marc:I'm like, wow, that's weird, huh?
Marc:How about that?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Amazing that they're asking to do that.
Guest:Never would have thought it.
Marc:So, yeah.
Marc:Thank God.
Marc:Because there was a point where I was like, listen, it's either this landmark thing or me in my head.
Marc:And luckily, I did not have to get to that point.
Marc:That is very lucky.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Because, like, I have no patience for that bullshit.
Marc:I just have none.
Guest:No.
Guest:And after all you've done so far, you know, going to work at the food co-op and everything.
Guest:Seriously.
Guest:You've done your time.
Guest:Which, by the way, you told me this week, you said that you were asked to participate in your work's talent show.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And so your talent is telling that story?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean...
Marc:I don't have any other talents, I don't think.
Marc:I think I can tell a funny story.
Marc:That's a talent, right?
Marc:It's an embarrassing story.
Marc:So, yeah, I just told that story for the talent show.
Guest:All right, yeah.
Guest:Hey, your talent is you have very interesting ways to get kicked out of places forever.
Marc:Yes, yes, exactly.
Marc:I might have another one of those stories for you later on.
Guest:Another embarrassing story.
Guest:See, you are very talented.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:See, I got, I have a certain set of skills, Brendan.
Guest:You're like, you're like, you're like taken, but for total scumbags.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:That's the elevator pitch.
Guest:Uh,
Guest:Well, listen, if you have another story, what I would like to do, similar to what we did the last time, is tease this out.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:In particular, because we are going to record right now two episodes.
Guest:Yes, it's Thanksgiving next week, so we are going to put a show in the can so that you, listeners, have a nice, brand new, fresh episode on Black Friday, a brand new one that we're going to record.
Guest:And so, Chris, keep that in the chamber.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:We will open next week's show up with your brand new embarrassing story that is all your talent on display.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:I do want to get into right here some listener reaction from our Scorsese talk.
Guest:in the past couple of weeks.
Guest:This is from Chuck, and he said, Have you ever seen The Age of Innocence?
Guest:I was shocked at how elegant and beautiful it was.
Guest:I thought it was a huge departure for Marty until I read the Ebert review, where he mentioned that polite society isn't too far removed from the mafia, with all its rules and misplaced ideas of honor.
Guest:If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.
Guest:Well, Chuck...
Guest:Here's a secret shame of mine.
Guest:I don't know, maybe yours too, Chris.
Guest:I have not seen The Age of Innocence.
Guest:Same, same.
Guest:Yeah, we gotta remedy this.
Marc:Yeah, for sure.
Guest:We should watch it over the holiday or something.
Guest:Yeah, hopefully it's streaming somewhere.
Guest:Yeah, and I was thinking about it.
Guest:I think that might be the only Scorsese that I haven't seen with the exception of his very first movie, Who's That Knocking on My Door?
Guest:I've never seen that.
Guest:But I think I've seen all the rest.
Marc:yeah when i when you guys were going through them i'm like yep i did it seen it seen it but yeah yeah not those two so yeah to be a completist i should i should definitely do that and and i'm following his his daughter on tiktok now and she is amazing there's some great i saw there was something she did with him where he had to pick movies and yeah you know like it's some tiktok game like a round robin it
Marc:It was awesome.
Guest:Yeah, round robin thing or tournament.
Guest:And he picked, he wound up at 2001, not surprisingly.
Guest:I thought that was cool.
Guest:I was surprised at how far Birdman got.
Guest:Oh, I know.
Guest:Like Birdman was beating like some heavy hitters.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:The good, the bad, and the ugly and stuff.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:But then I just saw today, he said that he never would have done that if he knew it was going to go public.
Marc:Oh, no.
Guest:He tricked him, he said.
Guest:Yeah, he was like, I thought that was a private thing.
Guest:I didn't realize it was for everyone.
Marc:Oh, come on.
Marc:But it's so fun.
Marc:Like, doesn't he get it?
Marc:This is fucking great content.
Marc:Yeah, I want him to keep doing it.
Marc:Yes, do more round robins, baby.
Marc:Like, I just want tournaments for my filmmakers.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:I also liked that like there were ones where he clearly had seen both of them and had to consider like it was frozen and inside out.
Guest:And he like stared at it for a couple of seconds.
Guest:And I knew he'd pick inside out, but he's thought about it.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Marc:Yeah, there was some internal struggle there.
Guest:then again there was one moment where it was i forget what the one that he picked but the one that he didn't pick was twilight oh right and and i saw some people being like oh he had to think about that twilight i'm like the dude couldn't fucking read it it was so tiny like like i guarantee that's what it was like he was like okay there's a one movie i know what's that one oh twilight oh no i can't think that one yeah
Marc:It didn't make it from the eyeballs to the old noggin yet.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:Totally.
Marc:Yeah, he's 80.
Marc:Give him a break.
Guest:Give him a little time to process everything.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:I'm sure he's popping in the Twilight DVD right now.
Guest:Speaking of Twilight, there was still some listener reaction to our Halloween shows that we did in particular that we were talking about Mischief Night.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, egging houses and whatnot.
Marc:Okay.
Guest:And I said, like, I think it's largely like an urban myth.
Guest:Not that it exists, obviously, but that, you know, oh, this is a thing that happens every Halloween.
Guest:You got to watch it.
Guest:Like, it just...
Guest:I never encountered it on any kind of mass scale.
Guest:And this person wrote in to say this.
Guest:I grew up in Queens Village, New York.
Guest:That is not far from where I grew up.
Guest:I grew up in Kew Gardens, Queens, which is right near Queens Village.
Guest:So this person says, I grew up in Queens Village, New York during the 80s.
Guest:Same here.
Guest:And can attest that throwing eggs and covering people with shaving cream is not an urban legend.
Guest:Okay, so this got my attention here.
Guest:but hang on a second they go on to write in my neighborhood it was called bombing several of the hooligan boys i went to catholic school with looked forward to it annually i never participated because it sounded stupid but was a victim once or twice they wouldn't attack houses they would bomb each other they would waste eggs and become slimy messes for all reasons i still don't comprehend
Guest:I haven't seen any evidence of this occurring anymore.
Guest:So hopefully the new generations have evolved beyond the stupidity of mine.
Guest:Well, but also you're proving my point.
Guest:This is not like teepeeing houses and people.
Guest:This is like, you knew some real goons.
Guest:Who are these?
Guest:The goons?
Right.
Guest:these were total goons.
Guest:And they like, I mean, look, I can, I definitely remember going trick or treating and you'd see like a random egg on the sidewalk or something, you know, like a kid threw an egg at another kid.
Guest:And that's the aftermath of it and nothing else.
Guest:I guarantee you, if I saw this,
Guest:A kid fully covered head to toe in shaving cream and eggs and other gooey substances.
Guest:That kid would be the laughingstock of the school.
Marc:There is no way that person would live that down.
Marc:It's either that or he's like playing.
Marc:He's dressed up as the end of Ghostbusters.
Yeah.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Why am I drippings with goo?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:But so, yes, I don't know necessarily if this happened in other places.
Guest:Maybe people can write in and tell us.
Guest:But this gives me even more confidence that there is not some widespread attacking of houses on Halloween night.
Guest:The legend of, you know, toilet paper strewn trees and, you know, you walk outside your door and there's bags of crap on the floor, whatever it is.
Guest:I just don't think it happened.
Marc:I could be wrong.
Marc:I think you're wrong.
Marc:I remember my grocery store when I was a kid would lock up their shaving cream during Halloween week.
Marc:And then also the hairspray.
Marc:You could take off the hairspray sprayer and put it onto a shaving cream thing.
Marc:I'm pretty sure my brother did this.
Marc:I should ask him.
Marc:I'm going to ask him.
Guest:I just, you know, all of this stuff sounds so, like, experimental and actually probably kind of good-hearted and fun.
Guest:It also sounds like a John Hughes movie, you know?
Guest:Yeah, like, introduce me to the person who got, like, permanent property damage because of the, like, hooligans on Halloween night.
Marc:Oh, man, as an adult, I would be so pissed if that happened.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Guest:Well, the dream that it happens is like in Curb Your Enthusiasm at that time.
Guest:Did you ever see that one?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:Where these teenage girls come to the door and they're just teenage girls.
Guest:They're wearing no costume.
Guest:They're just there, regular cells.
Guest:And they're like, trick or treat.
Guest:And he's like, what are you?
Guest:And they're like, we're teenagers.
Guest:And he refuses to give them any candy, closes the door on their faces.
Guest:They're like, oh, fuck you or whatever.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:The next day he goes outside and it's like a forest of toilet paper, like all on his, all the whole lawn and everything.
Guest:Just white.
Guest:It's like, like a snowscape.
Guest:It looks like white Christmas, but just with toilet paper everywhere and the trees on the lawn.
Guest:And he turned, he looks at all this.
Guest:He's shocked.
Guest:He turns around to go back in the house and on the doors, it's spray painted bald asshole.
Yeah.
Marc:Oh my God, this is a real nightmare for me.
Marc:I'm never going to ever refuse anyone.
Marc:Yeah, all of those things could happen to you.
Marc:The ingredients are there.
Marc:No one's put them all together, but they could if they wanted to.
Guest:Anyone listening to this, please don't do this to Chris's house.
Guest:Well, I thought it would be cool, though, because we did the Halloween version of this where we like refreshed Halloween, the idea of like maybe, you know, introducing some things that could get into the culture.
Guest:And I thought, well, you know, we got Thanksgiving coming up.
Guest:Now, Thanksgiving is kind of like a very personal holiday.
Guest:And in fact, you know, quite a lot of people...
Guest:you know, have mixed feelings about Thanksgiving.
Guest:In fact, we've devoted pretty much, I think it's been every Thanksgiving episode because the show always airs on a Thursday.
Guest:So we've always had a Thanksgiving episode.
Guest:And I'm pretty sure on every single one, Mark has done what he calls his Thanksgiving pep talk.
Guest:And it's like, he is speaking directly to people who like himself, uh,
Guest:feel weird about going home for the holiday, you know, have anxiety about it, have issues, you know, being at home with family.
Guest:And, you know, it's always kind of like, you got this.
Guest:Here's how, you know, take a walk if you need to, you know, don't hide your feelings with food, all this stuff.
Guest:And that's great.
Guest:That's, I'm, you know, obviously I'm glad we do that.
Guest:What I would say though, there are some people like myself who very much enjoy Thanksgiving.
Guest:I really do.
Guest:I love the fall, as I've spoken about here.
Guest:I love Halloween for that reason, because it falls smack dab in the middle of the fall.
Guest:But I love the environment that you're in usually on Thanksgivings.
Guest:My birthday is usually around Thanksgiving, sometimes falls on Thanksgiving.
Guest:So I have a lot of happy memories from it.
Guest:I do always enjoy going to see my family.
Guest:We have a good time.
Guest:We usually keep it pretty small, too.
Guest:It's just very immediate family.
Guest:So I like all of that.
Guest:What I have noticed recently, as opposed to Halloween and definitely as opposed to Christmas, the Christmas season, we don't have a ton of movies that we watch.
Guest:We have one movie that we watch regularly on Thanksgiving.
Guest:And I will get to that in a minute.
Guest:But I started thinking about what are some other movies.
Guest:I am going to start introducing these into my household today.
Guest:And see if we can kind of make them work almost like on a regular or a rotation level.
Guest:Like these are good Thanksgiving ones.
Guest:So I have five good movies.
Guest:And you tell me what you think.
Guest:The first one is, and here's the interesting thing.
Guest:I don't really think any of these are about Thanksgiving.
Guest:There are very few.
Guest:There's like the one Home for the Holidays, the Holly Hunter movie.
Guest:That's a Thanksgiving movie.
Guest:Yeah, sure.
Guest:You know, specifically around Thanksgiving.
Guest:There are some.
Guest:And then there are ones where like they have a hint of Thanksgiving in them, but generally it's just the kind of like overall tone of them I think works.
Guest:And the first one I think that's like very tone keeping with a fall holiday and around Thanksgiving, there is a Thanksgiving meal in it at one point.
Guest:What is it?
Guest:It's the fantastic Mr. Fox.
Guest:Oh, man, that was on my list as well, my guy.
Guest:Oh, no kidding.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yeah, that's great.
Guest:That's that that I see.
Guest:And now I don't feel weird about it.
Guest:I was like, is this a Thanksgiving movie?
Guest:But like it it's just like it's in my head swirling around as like it meshed with Thanksgiving.
Marc:yeah yeah it is a a perfect movie and b it's about people coming together and for a for a cause like you know for a meal whatever it is like that this movie is it also it's perfect for kids it's yes you can watch with the whole family yes and it is it is fantastic great choice
Guest:Okay, all right, good.
Guest:Next on my list is a great one to come right after Halloween.
Guest:This is why I like this one, because it's a sequel, and the first movie is definitely not Thanksgiving-ish.
Guest:There's no kind of Thanksgiving feel to it.
Guest:It's definitely a Halloween movie.
Guest:So you watch the first one at Halloween, and then you have the second one for Thanksgiving, Adam's Family Values.
Marc:Oh, see, people love this movie, by the way.
Guest:This is like a huge one.
Guest:It's one of the rare sequels better than the original to me.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:Okay, yeah.
Marc:I get it.
Marc:People, and you know, Wednesday is like having a thing right now.
Marc:So I get it.
Marc:But yeah, that movie, I have only seen it like twice.
Marc:But I will definitely try to check it out this Thanksgiving.
Guest:Yeah, big Thanksgiving central point where the kids go away to camp.
Guest:They do like a kind of Thanksgiving pageant that goes horribly wrong because they're morbid, bloody-minded people.
Guest:So that's my second one.
Guest:Third one.
Guest:This really, I don't, I don't think it has, maybe I'm wrong.
Guest:Maybe there is specifically Thanksgiving in it.
Guest:Maybe that's why it's in my head, but I don't think so.
Guest:I just think it's just a family that's around, but boy, does it feel like it takes place like right at the end of November.
Guest:What's that?
Guest:Knives out.
Guest:Exactly.
Marc:So I had both knives out on my list.
Marc:Knives out and the glass onion?
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:I think they both came out around Thanksgiving.
Guest:Definitely The Glass Onion did last year because I remember everybody was watching it when they were like home for the holidays on Netflix.
Guest:But, you know, that one...
Guest:I get why it would feel that way because it came out last year right at Thanksgiving.
Guest:It feels like a Thanksgiving movie.
Guest:That first Knives Out, like, I don't know, maybe it's just because that manor house is like in the woods.
Guest:There's fallen leaves everywhere.
Guest:It's a family.
Guest:They're sitting around like a fireplace all the time.
Guest:Chris Evans has that sweater on that all the girls love.
Guest:But I love it.
Guest:I wear that thing.
Guest:That looks comfy, cozy.
Yeah.
Guest:You know, I get it.
Guest:It's a murder mystery.
Guest:It doesn't have a theme of Thanksgiving.
Guest:They're not nice people at all.
Marc:Neither is your family or most of your family.
Marc:That's right.
Guest:Yeah, they're kind of shitty family to each other, right?
Guest:That's right.
Guest:So, yeah, I just for some reason this feels like it also feels like you can sit around even if you've seen it with your family before and everybody knows the outcome.
Guest:It feels like a fun rewatchable movie for for like families to sit around and take in.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, absolutely.
Marc:Also, it's about the family getting together and stuff.
Marc:And the Glass Onion one is just as good as a Thanksgiving movie because what do you do on Thanksgiving?
Marc:You go home to your childhood home probably.
Marc:And what do you do before Thanksgiving?
Marc:Well, you go to the bar and you see people you haven't seen in forever anymore.
Guest:Oh, right.
Guest:There's that whole subplot of like, that's how they all met.
Guest:They all used to hang out at this bar.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:And that's what Glass Onion is all about.
Marc:And that's like a Friendsgiving and that it's a perfect Thanksgiving movie, in my opinion.
Guest:And that's great.
Guest:That's I would never have thought of that one other than just for when it was released.
Guest:But you're totally right.
Guest:One more I have here that this this is probably this is kind of like a personal one that it's Thanksgiving in my mind.
Guest:And, you know, I'm not sure the movie has much of a legacy.
Guest:People probably don't remember it that well.
Guest:But man, it's a good movie.
Guest:It really holds up.
Guest:It's got a great central performance, a bunch of good performances in it.
Guest:And it happened to be filmed recently.
Guest:very close to the town that I was living in, in upstate New York at the time.
Guest:And this is the Paul Newman movie, Nobody's Fool, which does take place around Thanksgiving.
Guest:His son, who's estranged from him, comes home to stay with him, along with his grandson.
Guest:And it's based on a Richard Russo novel.
Guest:And, you know, basically...
Guest:a very mid 1990s slice of life, you know, comedy drama.
Guest:You could, you could call this, uh, Jessica Tandy is in it.
Guest:Philip Seymour Hoffman and very early performance of his, uh, there's a lot of, uh,
Guest:crisp weather outside.
Guest:They're all wearing like, you know, kind of bundled up clothing.
Guest:It's one of the great later Paul Newman performances too.
Guest:You know, he's, you know, he's not hiding his age, but he's still charming as fuck.
Guest:And like, you know, Melanie Griffith is in love with him in the movie.
Marc:That's who it was.
Guest:Yeah, it makes sense that she is in love with him because he's Paul Newman.
Guest:It's not just some random old codger in the town.
Guest:And yeah, Bruce Willis is in it.
Guest:It's a good one.
Guest:It's a really underrated one.
Guest:People, like I said, I think have forgotten it.
Guest:I feel like it works as a Thanksgiving movie.
Marc:So when you brought that up, my first thought was, wait a second, who is naked in that movie?
Yeah.
Marc:And I think Melanie, yeah.
Marc:And that is a very, isn't that a good nude scene?
Guest:I'm pretty sure.
Guest:It's barely one, but it's one of those ones that's meant to stick with you, especially you, the man whose dad used to cut nude scenes out of films.
Guest:He must have missed this one.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Because I think she flashes him, right?
Marc:So it's like a surprise.
Guest:So you sitting there watching it probably took you by surprise.
Guest:You're like, whoa, what just happened there?
Marc:Whoa, this is awesome.
Marc:Clap, clap.
Marc:Yeah, that's a good one.
Marc:I should watch that again.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Well, I have one more on my list here, but do you have any others?
Marc:Yes, I have one or one-ish, I'm going to say, because I think this movie is great for the whole family.
Marc:And I sincerely mean this.
Marc:okay it's great with a crowd it's great for your uptight aunts and uncles uh with who are shaking their heads and uh you know just like you know not you know don't understand what why are we watching this it's great for kids because they're gonna see something they've never seen before it will not disappoint and that is the jackass movies
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:I mean, especially like this last one where they're like old.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I like that idea.
Marc:I think that's perfect for Thanksgiving because you will laugh your ass off, okay?
Marc:Those jackass movies are fantastic.
Marc:So that's on my list.
Guest:Yeah, that's great.
Guest:You can also, the great thing about them is aside from them aging, that they're entirely interchangeable.
Guest:Like you could, you, you could like just throw them up in the air and see where they fall down and pick one, you know?
Marc:And each year you can do a different one.
Marc:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:All right.
Guest:Excellent.
Guest:So that was the only one left you had?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:You, you, you swallowed up all the other ones, but what's last on your list?
Yeah.
Guest:Well, it's the big one.
Guest:It's the one that I said is really the only Thanksgiving movie my family has as a regular watch.
Guest:It's probably one that a lot of people have as a regular watch, but there's a reason for that.
Guest:It is the best one.
Guest:It is Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
Guest:The absolute best of the best.
Guest:Yeah, and it's not only the best because it's one of the great American comedies, and it's got two central performances by two absolutely iconic American comedians, like people that, especially our age, we know everything of these two guys.
Guest:We've loved them our whole lives, you know?
Guest:But still...
Guest:it's really the only movie that we've mentioned that is fully about Thanksgiving.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:The whole thing here.
Guest:It's like, if you had an alien come greet you,
Guest:And was like, I'm here.
Guest:What are you doing this weekend?
Guest:I keep hearing this word, Thanksgiving.
Guest:What is that?
Guest:The best way you can explain to someone who has no idea what Thanksgiving is, is show them this movie.
Guest:That's the point.
Guest:The point of Thanksgiving is this.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it's still hilariously funny.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's got two things in it that are among the best sight gags that I've ever seen in a movie.
Guest:One is definitely the best sight gag I've ever seen in a movie.
Guest:The secondary one, which is still great...
Guest:uh but i'm sure there's other movies where you could say that have topped it but it's where uh they're driving and they're they're on the highway the wrong way and uh the uh the two tractor trailers are coming at them and it cuts in between the trap the tractor trailers and their car and they're screaming and the tractor trailer and for like two frames it cuts back to them and they are skeletons yes
Guest:Like, that's one of the funnier things I've ever seen in my life.
Guest:But it is topped.
Guest:I swear to you, I never laughed at something visual so hard as this, and I continue to laugh at it in my life anytime I ever think about it.
Guest:In fact, it's so funny as a visual thing, I will absolutely not do it justice trying to explain it.
Guest:So I'm just hoping...
Guest:Hoping beyond all hope that anyone listening to this right now has seen the movie so that you can just know when I say this, you can picture it in your head.
Guest:Because I cannot describe it in a way that does it justice.
Guest:If you have never seen the movie and you want to know what I'm talking about, there are lots of GIFs.
Guest:In fact, I will put a GIF of this in the episode description.
Guest:So you can go ahead and click on that link and see what I'm talking about.
Guest:And it is a moment where... So at the beginning of the movie, Steve Martin is trying to get to a cab so that he can get to the airport.
Guest:And he does a foot race with Kevin Bacon to try to capture the cab.
Guest:He falls down because there is... As he's racing toward the cab, he falls down.
Guest:And it's because he's tripped over a large...
Guest:A chest, essentially, like a chest that you would put clothes and your wares in that someone is carrying around.
Guest:And he trips over this chest.
Guest:He loses the cab to Kevin Bacon and he sees another guy and he offers the guy an enormous amount of money to give up his cab.
Guest:And the guy does.
Guest:The guy actually soaks him for more money.
Guest:And while this negotiation is going on, that chest that was on the sidewalk gets put into the trunk.
Guest:You see a person getting into the cab.
Guest:And then Steve Martin goes to get in himself.
Guest:But the door is now closed.
Guest:He looks in and he sees John Candy...
Guest:With our first shot of him in the movie looking through the window as Steve Martin yells at him, that's my cab!
Guest:And John Candy makes like a shocked look on his face and drives away.
Guest:So Steve Martin somehow makes it to the airport.
Guest:All the flights are delayed now, so he didn't even have to get there at the time that he was supposed to get there.
Guest:And he's sitting waiting at the gate and he looks across from him and he sees a guy across from him reading a book and
Guest:he's looking at him.
Guest:He's just got a familiar, like a, he started to get a little quizzical look on his face.
Guest:Like, why do I know this guy sitting across from me?
Guest:And the guy pulls his book down and it's John Candy.
Guest:He's sitting there just like, you know, relaxing, reading a book, waiting in the gate of the airport.
Guest:And it cuts back to Steve Martin and he's like squints his eyes, tries to see who this is.
Guest:And then it cuts back to John Candy sitting where he's sitting.
Guest:But now he is wearing the clothes.
Guest:that he was wearing in the cab and there is a cab door in front of him like he's in the airport this is what steve martin is his perspective he is seeing this mise-en-scene of a guy looking through a cab door with a shocked look on his face look
Guest:And then it cuts back to Steve Martin's face and you see his like his brow unfurrow, like the resignation.
Guest:Oh, I know who this guy is.
Guest:This is that asshole who stole my cab.
Guest:I have never, like the first time I saw this movie, I must've been, I don't know, 11, 12, somewhere around that range.
Guest:I had never laughed as hard in my life as seeing that shot.
Guest:It was like as good as anything you'd ever see in like classic movies.
Guest:physical comedy, visual comedy, Marx Brothers, anything like that.
Guest:It was this scene in planes, trains, and automobiles.
Guest:But I also feel like I'm giving the movie short shrift by just talking about what a funny movie it is.
Guest:It is also tremendously touching.
Guest:I have a very hard time not choking up at the scene where John Candy tells him, my wife likes me.
Guest:I like me.
Guest:What you see is what you get.
Guest:It is.
Guest:And, you know, knowing that we no longer have John Candy in this world, we haven't for nearly 30 years.
Guest:You know, it's it's even more touching.
Guest:And, you know, the the knowing what you then know about the end of the movie, where it's going to wind up.
Guest:how all the kind of clues play back onto themselves.
Guest:And it ends with a true gesture of, of Thanksgiving friendship, something that this Steve Martin character has had to build to the whole time, have a kind of slow ego death to get him to that point.
Guest:Uh, I, I, I think it's not, like I said, it's not only a great movie for Thanksgiving.
Guest:It's one of our great movies period.
Marc:Yeah, absolutely.
Marc:I wholeheartedly agree.
Marc:This is my go-to holiday movie to watch.
Marc:It has an enormous spot in my heart.
Marc:And it's where I honestly feel very seen.
Marc:And let me explain that.
Marc:So my Thanksgiving's growing up, we're fine.
Marc:They're lovely.
Marc:My dad and I would ride to Brooklyn to get my grandparents and have them over for dinner.
Marc:We had like, you know...
Marc:Turkey, all the fixings, all the stuff that Steve Martin dreams about on the train as he's about to go home to see his family, finally.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:When my parents got divorced, all that went away.
Marc:It was replaced with arguments, confusion, sadness, you know, from everyone.
Marc:You know, we would have to pick which parent to go to, my brother and I, and it would always lead to a fight or some passive-aggressive, like, shitty comment from one of them.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:When my dad got remarried, his second wife threw me out of my childhood house because, you know, for reasons.
Marc:Like, I'm pretty sure it's because I brought a Pakistani girl home.
Marc:But, you know, she wanted me out of there anyway.
Marc:Meanwhile, you know, I was there because, like, my dad, like, used all of my college fund to pay for the divorce.
Marc:So, like, I really was just trying to, you know, working at Old Navy and...
Marc:And going to college, just trying to, you know, figure it out.
Marc:But she convinced him to take my car and told me to get lost.
Marc:So I couch surfed for a bit.
Marc:And, you know, I couch surfed at my friend's house.
Marc:So my mom's, like, little apartment.
Marc:But it wasn't always, like, an option.
Marc:But I ended up, like, sleeping, like...
Marc:In the subway, on the subway cars, like for like a week in the summer.
Marc:It was not my proudest moment, but it was summertime, it was hot.
Marc:So the subway cars were air conditioned.
Marc:So I would just take the subway back and forth and try to get like a couple of hours of sleep.
Marc:And then go to college and work at Old Navy at night at the mall and then take the bus to the end of the line and then do it all over again.
Marc:I did this for like literally two weeks, dude.
Marc:So they finally gave me back my car.
Marc:I found a place to live, and I took my car and just a carload of belongings, and I literally never looked back to Staten Island or my dad's house.
Marc:So I watch planes, trains, and automobiles, and I see a bit of myself in John Candy.
Marc:I can be annoying.
Marc:I'm definitely not for everyone, right?
Marc:But this guy who was down on his luck
Marc:annoying to be around, full of quarks, found someone to connect with.
Marc:It was inspirational for me, honestly, and it still is.
Marc:They, you know, that maybe someday, one day, someone could like do the same for me, right?
Marc:Like take you in as part of the family, you know, like I once had when I was a kid.
Marc:So yeah, I connect with that movie in that way, a very emotional way.
Marc:Like I am like...
Marc:I tear up just thinking about that movie sometimes.
Marc:So, yeah.
Marc:This is also a movie I watched on my second or third date with my wife.
Marc:Like, she had never seen this before.
Marc:And it was, like, around Thanksgiving.
Marc:And I was like, well, we have to watch this.
Marc:And I don't know if you've ever had these experiences with your wife, but, like,
Marc:when you put on a movie that you know is a banger uh it was like perfect like you're kind of like oh god i hope she like laughs at the right moments yeah you know so like it was a little bit of nervous energy for me but uh but yeah she loved it she cried and like it was it was uh it was a good time so yeah it was it's it's definitely like a litmus test for me uh sure thing
Marc:And yeah, like since then, you know, I've been building my family back up.
Marc:I've, you know, as an adult, you know, you kind of choose your family.
Marc:So, you know, I've been just choosing the people I want around and the people I don't want around.
Marc:So yeah, that's my, that's how Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is for me.
Marc:It is more emotional than funny, even though it is unbelievably funny.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Well, and, you know, it's funny that you talk about, you know, seeing yourself in the John Candy character and then also watching it with Aaron and the first time you saw it, you know, wanting to know her reaction and that.
Guest:I can remember the first time I watched it with Dawn, who had seen it already.
Guest:It wasn't her first time watching it.
Guest:She'd watched it, you know, throughout her life.
Guest:But the first time we watched it...
Guest:It got to that point where John Candy is sitting in the car outside the hotel when it's snowing.
Guest:And, you know, he's had a total blow up with Steve Martin because the car caught on fire.
Guest:And he finds out that John Candy had taken his wallet back.
Guest:but yeah but with good intentions it wasn't he thought he was doing him a favor and he put it in the glove box but so now it went on fire and uh and so he's just done with this guy totally done he's gonna get a room john candy has no money he tries to sell the guy his casio watch which doesn't doesn't work he does that great move where he shits it on his arm yes oh yeah that's great and
Guest:And but so he has to sit outside in the snow in the burnt car and try to get some sleep.
Guest:And, you know, talks to his wife while he's out there and, you know, in his imagination.
Guest:And Steve Martin comes to the window of this motel and he sees him sitting out there and sees him in the light of the parking lot and the snow falling on him.
Guest:And he goes, what did I do to get hooked up with this guy?
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:And then he just kind of takes a breath, sucks it up.
Guest:And he walks to the door and he goes, hey, it's cold.
Guest:You better come in.
Guest:You'll freeze to death.
Guest:And then they come in and they like get drunk with little like airport bottles of alcohol.
Guest:And we were watching it.
Guest:And my wife goes, that's you.
Guest:And I was like, what are you talking about?
Guest:Like getting drunk with airport liquor?
Guest:She's like, no, you do this all the time.
Guest:And I was like, we really didn't know what she was talking about.
Guest:And she was basically like, there are so many people that I've seen you with like total utter patience with like a complete, like, you know, surrendering of spirit.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:and allowing them their space to exist as they are.
Guest:And, you know, they just might be people who don't receive that toleration or acceptance from other people.
Guest:And, you know, I had never really seen it that way until she brought it to my attention that, like, I always thought it was just like, that's how you're supposed to be, right?
Guest:You know, you let people in, you give them...
Guest:you know, your, your, your time and attention and you, you know, kind of help them along in their own way, even if there's negative traits to them.
Guest:Like I, I just, it was just part of like my way of seeing the world and how you interact with people.
Guest:And I had never, until she brought it up to me, realized like, yeah, it's like, sometimes it's a, it's a drag and you have to like kind of gird yourself to,
Guest:like, to do it, but you do it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, you know, every time I do watch the movie since then, I pay attention to the Steve Martin character just knowing that, like, yeah, it's not necessarily a bad thing if you're fed up with this or if you have moments of intolerance.
Guest:Right.
Guest:It's just about getting...
Guest:past that getting to the point where you can say, you know what?
Guest:Why don't you come over for dinner?
Guest:It's fine.
Guest:You know, like, uh, whatever annoying thing that might be, we can paper over that and we can sit and have food together, especially if it will help take away some sadness in your life, you know?
Guest:And, uh, and so like, that's the thing.
Guest:It's like this movie is, uh,
Guest:it's two things.
Guest:Like it's, it's a way to kind of process loss or, uh, feeling like an outsider or feeling like you might not have all the advantages in the world.
Guest:And yet you still got to kind of like make it through.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And at the same time, it's a, it's a, it's holding a mirror up to people with privilege and good fortune and saying like, you can help through this.
Guest:You know, it's like the, the shitty things you're going through, the,
Guest:there are other people that are going to match that all the time.
Guest:And like, life won't always be shitty for you.
Guest:So maybe like help lift them up too.
Guest:And, and I, you know, that's a beautiful thing at any time of the year, but especially at the holiday season.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It also, you get the added bonus of it also just being very funny.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:It's a triple threat for sure.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And by the way, just knowing you and when Dawn said that, like, I knew exactly what she was talking about.
Marc:You have that quality.
Marc:And like, yeah, maybe it's begrudging, you know, like, like you have to gird yourself for.
Marc:But yeah, you are extremely nice and extremely patient and
Marc:with people that most people would not be patient with.
Marc:So yes, I do just want to say thank you so much for putting up with me, your John Candy stand-in, but also just thank you so much for letting me be on your show and just having these conversations each week.
Marc:It's been really, really fantastic.
Marc:And also just having you as a friend as well has been amazing.
Guest:Oh, thanks, buddy.
Guest:Right back at you.
Guest:It's it's I mean, it's funny that we're talking about this from the perspective of planes, trains and automobiles.
Guest:And you're like the candy and I'm like the Steve Martin.
Guest:But like, actually, like most of the time, it's it's much more like Henry Hill and Tommy.
Guest:Like we're like.
Guest:i wouldn't say that we're that much different uh there's a lot more of you and me like you know shooting guns out the side of a tractor trailer uh then uh then then you know us trying to get a hotel room with no money um
Guest:But that being said about about travel like that, I know that you tend to travel a lot now on Thanksgiving.
Guest:Is that like something that you do?
Guest:You you pick out this time of year, like specifically because you take the time off?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I've been I've been lucky enough to to, you know, have a nine to five job where, you know, it's an office job.
Marc:So I don't I don't you know, we don't work on Thanksgiving.
Marc:I, you know.
Marc:Definitely know people don't always have that luxury.
Marc:But yeah, been traveling ever since I was kind of an adult doing this.
Marc:By the way, when I was a kid, my Thanksgiving consisted of football.
Marc:I was consumed with football every Thanksgiving.
Marc:And it was always kind of shitty football.
Marc:It was always the Lions and the Cowboys, but still.
Marc:Right, right.
Marc:It had to be those two teams.
Guest:So it didn't matter if they were good or bad that year or if they were playing a good or bad team.
Guest:You just got those two teams.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And it's kind of nuts that like since the CTE stuff showed up, you know, and we like, you know, we just kind of knew about it and how these guys are actually like kind of killing themselves or, you know, like the sport is killing them.
Marc:I cooled so much on football that they don't even register it anymore.
Marc:Like I couldn't tell you.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's, it's like, it's like, uh, like I can't even imagine like, like I,
Marc:It's not like, oh, I'm off of, you know, alcohol.
Marc:It's just like, it's not a thing I think about anymore.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:I think you explained it once.
Marc:It's like a magic trick.
Marc:Like, like I, you know, like we were hypnotized and then all of a sudden they, you know, they said the magic word and it's like over, you know?
Guest:Snap their fingers.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:No more.
Marc:football for me yeah sure yeah it's it's wild but yeah football used to consume me uh but yeah i i now love to travel uh so i've been lucky enough to go to like on thanksgiving uh paris egypt thailand vietnam cambodia and even china on thanksgiving uh and actually were these all you by yourself or did you ever travel with anybody china was the only one i went by myself everyone every all those other ones i went with uh you know someone
Guest:Okay, because I do remember you being in China by yourself, and it was like one of the most bizarre, like the entirety of your trip.
Marc:I do have a WTF podcast moment in China.
Marc:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Marc:What is that?
Marc:So I went to China as a reward for running the 2012 New York City Marathon.
Marc:Like self-reward.
Marc:Yes, a self-reward.
Marc:The joke was on me, though, because the marathon was canceled due to Hurricane Sandy.
Marc:Oh, right.
Marc:That was the Hurricane Sandy Marathon.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So yeah, they canceled the hurricane, excuse me, they canceled the marathon, which they canceled the hurricane.
Marc:But yeah, they canceled it.
Marc:But I went anyway, of course, right?
Marc:So, oh, and by the way, I left for China after my fourth date with Aaron.
Marc:So in the timeline of things,
Marc:She had just introduced me to the Park Slope Co-op right before I left for China.
Marc:So I had yet to be banned for life from that establishment.
Marc:So anyway, I went to China by myself.
Marc:I didn't know Chinese.
Marc:I still don't know Chinese.
Marc:I just wanted to go and see the Great Wall, eat some Peking duck for Thanksgiving, which has a story that I will get to in next week's episode.
Marc:Oh, okay.
Marc:Very good.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So I found this hostel that was bringing vans of people to this decrepit part of the Great Wall of China.
Marc:It wasn't officially open to tourists anymore.
Marc:It was just this abandoned part of, I'd say, 20 or so miles of the Great Wall that's just falling down.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But, you know, again, wasn't open, but the hostel was taking people.
Marc:So you could walk for about six towers of this, you know, part of the wall.
Marc:So I found this fascinating.
Marc:And so I went.
Marc:So, you know, I got on this little van and with a bunch of strangers and we get to this abandoned part of the of the wall.
Marc:And it's so goddamn quiet, dude.
Marc:It's like a quiet I've only heard once before.
Marc:Then that was when after I jumped out of a plane and to go skydiving and like you pull the parachute because I did that by myself.
Marc:It's just...
Marc:Really, really quiet.
Marc:Like a quiet, you don't normally hear.
Marc:But that's what I was hearing in China, like basically all by myself.
Marc:It was so fucking remote, dude.
Marc:So the walls falling apart around us.
Marc:There are stones missing all over the place.
Marc:There's snow covering some parts of the wall.
Marc:uh, the walkway.
Marc:So you had to like be careful where you walked and stuff.
Marc:It was really fucking wild.
Marc:Uh, but I sat in one of these like abandoned towers, uh, looking out at like this vastness of the great wall.
Marc:And I see some graffiti on the, on the tower walls.
Marc:And, uh, and I look at my bag and I have a WTF podcast, a bumper sticker.
Marc:Uh, do you remember these?
Guest:I do.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:They, they were the ones with, uh, with the three cats and Mark's face on them.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So they, there, there's this, uh, there's this, but you don't, you don't still do these, I'm guessing anymore.
Marc:Like why, why would you?
Guest:The bumper stickers?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:No, I don't think we've done them in a long time.
Marc:No.
Marc:Yeah.
Um,
Marc:Yeah, I loved that.
Marc:But yeah, so it was the three cat's heads and Mark's head.
Marc:And below the heads, it says wtfpod.com and doing the big work.
Marc:And it's there that I actually vandalized the Great Wall of China with your show's bumper sticker.
Marc:So right against the window with a beautiful view of the mountains and trees and the rest of the decaying wall is your actual podcast podcast.
Marc:So, yeah, so that's that's that is now hopefully still there.
Marc:I wish I could go back there and figure it out.
Guest:And someone in China, please tell us what is the WTF sticker still on the Great Wall?
Marc:I do have this picture of it.
Marc:I'll I'll send it to you.
Marc:Maybe you can.
Guest:Well, yes, for a period of time, it was the banner on the WTF Twitter account.
Marc:Oh, no kidding.
Guest:The header banner.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:So, yes, it's a beautiful picture you took.
Guest:You got great contrast with the sky and the clouds and everything.
Guest:So, yeah, maybe maybe you could repost this on Instagram or something.
Guest:We'll link to it on your on the in the episode description.
Guest:Well, yes, I'm very glad that your travels took you to places where you could, you know, not only preach the gospel of WTF, but create new traditions for yourself.
Guest:Traveling all over the world is a great thing to do.
Guest:But I will say there is one Thanksgiving tradition that I know was near and dear to your heart when you were younger.
Guest:It was definitely near and dear to mine.
Guest:And it just happened to be something that happened every Thanksgiving.
Guest:And this was the WWF Survivor Series.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:They would hold it on Thanksgiving night for about the first four years of it.
Guest:Then they moved it to Thanksgiving Eve.
Guest:So you would see it the Wednesday night.
Guest:But man, this wound up being a thing that just was synonymous with Thanksgiving for me.
Guest:I built Thanksgiving around this happening.
Guest:Oh, that's funny.
Guest:In fact, we have so much to say about the Survivor Series that I think that's what next week's episode will be.
Guest:So if you're into the Friday show because you like us talking about old wrestling, that's the treat for you.
Guest:Next Friday, we will have a full breakdown of our favorite memories of Survivor Series, the Thanksgiving tradition.
Guest:of WWF wrestling from back in the late 80s, early 90s.
Guest:I've got enough to say about it that we could definitely fill up a good chunk of that episode.
Guest:For sure.
Guest:I will say I'm very hopeful that there will soon be a new wrestling tradition around Thanksgiving, and that is because starting next Wednesday, Thanksgiving Eve, AEW is going to start something called the Continental Classic, which
Guest:which is a 12-person round-robin tournament made up of two leagues, so essentially six per, which means round-robin style means everybody's got to have five matches, right?
Guest:So that's 30 matches.
Whew.
Guest:Over the course of, I guess they're saying five weeks, it's going to run until the end of December.
Guest:So 30 matches over the course of five weeks, and then maybe two more finals, because they're saying there's going to be a finals.
Guest:So two more there.
Guest:And then the two winners of each league will meet at the pay-per-view that we're going to at the end of the year, December 30th on Long Island.
Guest:So I am so excited about this, mostly because...
Guest:This was something that was kind of the promise of AEW when it was founded.
Guest:Oh, how so?
Guest:They were like, we are going to, at some point, do a G1 style tournament.
Guest:The G1 tournament is a yearly round robin done in Japan with New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Guest:And, you know, there was always this talk about bringing it to America, but it's complicated because it's a lot of matches on a lot of dates.
Guest:You basically have to have a fan base that's into following it like a sport because you're going to have to have like spreadsheets for this stuff, right?
Guest:Like, you know, this guy's fighting this week and, you know, it's 30 matches with 12 different people participating in it.
Guest:So it's going to be complicated, but that's part of the joy of it.
Guest:Like, I've already seen people sending around like, oh, this is, you know, here's how you can fill in your tournament brackets.
Marc:Oh, cool.
Guest:You know, it's like you can feel it getting like a little bit of like a March Madness style to it, right?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, but it's not single elimination like March Madness, which is great.
Guest:You know, we were talking about it like, oh, you know, you could have a guy lose his first match, but then he goes on and wins five more.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You know, and it winds up going to the finals.
Guest:So, you know, this is a very interesting, exciting thing.
Guest:They're going to start it next Wednesday, November 22nd.
Guest:And yeah, I'm excited to check it out.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And by the way, dear, dear listener, Brendan and I have been talking about this very much.
Marc:Like we we we've been thinking about who should be in it and the possible outcomes.
Marc:It is it is fascinating.
Marc:I cannot wait.
Marc:And I've never experienced this because I've never seen a G1.
Marc:I don't know what a G1 is.
Guest:I've never seen it either.
Guest:That's kind of the thing.
Guest:I've never been able to follow New Japan Pro Wrestling live.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like I'm not, you know, most people haven't.
Guest:I think if you buy like a subscription to their thing, you maybe you can.
Guest:But I don't get to follow it live.
Guest:I follow it in the aftermath.
Guest:So you see one or two matches here or there.
Guest:I've never had the chance to actually follow this week to week and how they present it will be important and who will be in it will be important.
Guest:We know Brian Danielson, despite the fact that he just had surgery on his eye, not the inner eye, like the eye socket.
Guest:which was broken.
Guest:So he had facial surgery and he's still going to do this, which means he will have at least five matches, possibly seven over the next five weeks.
Guest:I think this is because he has always said he wanted to do the G1, but he's not going to be able to probably ever, if he's true to what he's saying, that this next year will be his last year as a full-time wrestler.
Guest:And so I guess the idea was, well, just bring the G1 to him.
Guest:That's great.
Guest:And he's going to be in it.
Guest:I'm excited to find out who are the other participants in it.
Guest:We might find out some of that during Full Gear this week, which is on Saturday, their AEW big pay-per-view.
Guest:Looks like a lot of fun.
Guest:They did a lot of setup to that this week.
Guest:And it's probably a good time for us to talk about the best thing we saw in wrestling this week, because it might have to do with the lead up to this pay-per-view.
Guest:What do you got, Chris?
Marc:Man, there was a lot of stuff like this last dynamite was fucking great.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But I got to go back to Rampage.
Marc:And I'm going to say Rampage does not get like the love.
Marc:It's sneaky.
Marc:It's sneaky.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Because like it's sometimes taped.
Marc:So like, you know, people on the Internet know the results or whatever.
Guest:10 o'clock Friday night.
Marc:You know, it's a weird time.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:But man, there was a match on there.
Marc:FTR versus Commander and Vakingo.
Marc:Am I saying his name right?
Marc:Yeah, you got it.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:That shit was bonkers.
Marc:It was awesome.
Marc:The best thing you'll see.
Marc:Please just watch it.
Marc:There's some stuff there.
Marc:These guys do this double 450 splash.
Guest:At the same time.
Guest:Oh.
Marc:And it was timed perfectly.
Guest:Yeah, you'd win a gold medal in the Olympics for that.
Marc:Yes, exactly.
Marc:You would see this in the Olympics and be like, yes, that deserves the gold medal.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It was the best goddamn thing I've seen, man.
Marc:It was awesome.
Marc:I'm going to go back and rewatch it because it was so good.
Guest:It's definitely rewatchable.
Guest:There's just so much fun stuff in it.
Guest:Obviously, I could pick that as my best thing.
Guest:I could pick a lot of matches because there was a Young Bucks match with the other Luchas.
Guest:Well, it was also Commander, who is in this FTR match as well, but Penta, who has great chemistry with the Young Bucks, and that match ruled.
Guest:I could have picked the Andrade-Daniel Garcia match, also a great match.
Guest:But instead, I want to focus on one particular performer because they had this street fight on Dynamite, which was ridiculous.
Guest:Now, those things, sometimes I'm hot or cold on them.
Guest:I don't like the guys doing these massively dangerous things.
Guest:And that match had some dangerous stuff to it, but it looked like everybody knew how to protect themselves.
Guest:They did the best they could to protect themselves on the high-risk stuff.
Guest:It was spectacular.
Guest:There were, you know, guys going through tables by being, you know, suplexed out of the ring and, you know, crazy flips and dives and throws and all that.
Guest:But the guy who stood out to me in this whole match is the old stalwart, Chris Jericho.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Who is...
Guest:there's a reason why he's got a career that's spanning four decades and that he is very knowledgeable about what makes wrestling work.
Guest:And all those stunts and all those great moves and all these spectacular feats of death defiance are necessary.
Guest:They're good.
Guest:They get people hyped up.
Guest:They get them watching week to week.
Mm-hmm.
Guest:but i remember all that stuff happened and the things i'm going to remember the most of this match is like chris jericho brawling out in the like concourse of the arena where where he uh you know finds a garbage can throws the garbage can but then make sure to pick up the lid which has a cutout in it and put it over the opponent's head he makes sure to you know hit a guy with a bag of popcorn and
Guest:Do you remember Steve Austin?
Guest:He did a podcast once about like one of his big matches.
Guest:I think it was the time where he comes in and helps Mick Foley win the world title.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so on Steve Austin's podcast, he was like watching that and narrating along to what happened.
Guest:And like, oh, here's what happened here.
Guest:Here's what happened there.
Guest:And he makes a point that like after he hits the rock with a chair and puts Mick Foley on top and Mick Foley wins the match, he gets out of the ring and Vince is screaming at him.
Guest:Right.
Guest:With anger.
Guest:And he takes his hat off and throws it at Vince.
Guest:And Steve Austin in the present, you know, on the podcast watching that, it's like, oh, yeah.
Guest:So there, you know, if you have a hat, if you have anything, you got to use it.
Guest:So just use it, use what's ever around.
Guest:So there I had my hat on, I threw it right at Vince, you know, and there was some other time I was watching something with, you know, Steve Austin was doing that going through the match and like, he's brawling in the crowd and he's like, Oh, you see that right there?
Guest:That guy had a, had a soda.
Guest:So anytime you buy somebody with a, walk by somebody with a soda, just grab that, grab a drink from it, get yourself a little hydration and then pow, use that soda on the, on your opponent.
Um,
Guest:That is what Chris Jericho is doing in this match to a T. Everything that's at his disposal, he is using because he knows he can look tough.
Guest:He can take these moves.
Guest:He can do these moves.
Guest:But you have to inject a little humor, a little ridiculousness.
Guest:And there's this moment where the guy he's fighting, Takeshita...
Guest:goes to the concession stand or like the booth where they're selling hot dogs or popcorn or whatnot.
Guest:And there are coolers behind them where the drinks are.
Guest:And he climbs to the top of this thing.
Guest:Like he parkoured up there.
Guest:I don't know how he got up there.
Guest:He's just all of a sudden he's on top of this thing.
Guest:There's a giant man too.
Guest:He's like over six feet and he's at the top and the camera is on the ground shooting up to him.
Guest:So you just see him and he's getting ready.
Guest:You think he's going to jump down onto Chris Jericho.
Guest:He jumps.
Guest:And as the camera follows him down in the shot.
Guest:What a reveal.
Guest:A blast of fire extinguisher smoke flies into the frame and engulfs this guy.
Guest:It made me laugh out loud watching this on TV like I was watching a comedy show.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Perfectly directed.
Marc:Like, that's the thing.
Marc:This is a live performance and they directed it so perfectly.
Marc:Like, I laughed my ass off at that moment.
Yeah.
Guest:And yeah, I mean, also, you know, a brief amount of time I was able to speak to Chris Jericho on the show here.
Guest:Like, I know this is in his head all the time.
Guest:He's always thinking, like, what are the kind of things we could do that'll be memorable on that level?
Guest:And yes, we saw great matches.
Guest:There are people who are truly phenomenal athletes.
Guest:And yet I'm going to remember that.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:fire extinguisher spot forever yes yes that's what that's a memorable moment it just is like i don't know what it is but in my brain that is what makes it well there are many other moments just like that from our past particularly around survivor series some of these matches when i went back and watched them
Guest:They are not great matches.
Guest:I want to make that very clear when we talk about it next week.
Guest:These are not five-star matches.
Guest:This is not FTR versus the Luchadors.
Guest:These are like lumbering giants in there, and yet...
Guest:Some of these things are so imprinted on my brain because of those very, very memorable moments.
Guest:And we will talk about those next week.
Guest:If you have anything you want to send to us, the link is right there for you in the episode description.
Guest:Just scroll down to that wherever you're listening.
Guest:Click on it.
Guest:Send us some comments, your reactions to anything we're talking about or anything you want to hear us talk about in the future.
Guest:And until next week when we have our Survivor Series blowout on Black Friday, I'm Brendan and that's Chris.
Guest:Peace!