BudPod with Phil Wang & Pierre Novellie - Episode 105 - Regrets, I've Had A Poo
Episode Date: March 10, 2021The boys chat regret, royals, Nazis, tipping, Japan, bad papers, comic books, Thinking Fast And Slow, the Jetsons, Marvel and army surplus cosplayers Get bonus BudPod on Patreon! Hosted on Acast. See ...acast.com/privacy for more information.
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It's 105. Is 105 something? I think it's still just in the kind of American infantry regiment category.
105, trying to thrive.
Try to thrive. That's good advice.
Try to thrive. I was recently on a rhyme-based online panel show, Pierre, called Sounds Like.
Oh, yeah.
panel show, Pierre, called Sounds Like.
It's devised and hosted by
some
young legends of the British
battle rap scene.
Right, yes.
I've had my Rhyme hat
on for a while. Do check it out.
It's on the episode I'm on now on
YouTube. I'll put it
on my Twitter as well. The show's called
Sounds Like.
Yeah, I had to do
a live battle rap.
Like a
gentle version.
A gentle version?
Well, just like
we were given a rhyme scheme
and we had
to pass it between each other
and you had to just keep responding in the rhyme scheme,
but you'd only just heard the rhyme scheme.
And these are multi-syllabic rhymes,
so I don't know.
So the rhyme scheme you're given is Call of Duty.
Right.
So the rhyme you have to come up with,
it doesn't just end with
T or Uti. It rhymes
with R or
Ui. Yeah.
Like a hall of booty
or something like that. Right, okay.
And a ball of fruity.
Yeah.
A fruity ball. A fruity ball,
yeah.
But it's fun to check it out out it's a good show they've got
do you consider yourself a natural
battle rapper
well in one of the rounds
they were quite impressed
with what I did
and in one of the rounds I embarrassed
myself how bad I was.
So I guess on balance, I'm fine.
That's a good balance, yeah.
And also it's good for entertainment.
Like that's, if you had a guest on a show like that,
that's the, that's what you'd want.
Exactly, exactly, exactly.
If I just got on there and just tore everyone apart
and I was just really serious about it.
Yeah, you'd looked up stuff about their family.
Really harsh stuff.
Do you think...
I was just thinking about this
because battle rap is poetry, isn't it?
I would say so.
Yeah, so...
So, here's a theory.
Anything done sufficiently quickly is cool and aggressive.
Even if, in its slow or written-down form,
it is seen as incredibly old-fashioned and lame
by the kind of people who would like it if it was fast and aggressive.
Yes.
I was thinking this, actually, about chess.
Because, you know, I'm playing a lot of online chess at the moment. Yeah. Yes. I was thinking this actually about chess,
because you know I'm playing a lot of online chess at the moment.
Yeah.
And I was like, how would you impress someone cool with chess?
And it just has to be the really fast version of chess,
where people are like, da-da-da-da-da-da.
That's the only way you can impress anyone.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's the only way that you can visualize your skill without them knowing enough about chess to know that you're exactly exactly but yeah so quick
poetry is cool and aggressive and street quick quick uh portraiture quick portraiture like the
caricature artists yeah or just like a really quick like street mural on a wall yeah cool yeah yeah yeah whereas when you when you see how like how
those really intricate murals are made they're like whole teams of people with cranes and it
takes days yeah exactly whereas i'm talking one of those like videos you'll see on twitter or
tiktok or whatever where it's like a guy setting up the camera on the floor at a low angle and he just kind of goes like with a spray can and you're like whoa what that doesn't
look like anything and then he adds like one line and you go it's Tupac and it's always Tupac it's
always Tupac I think there's a I think in in America there's some kind of law federal law
unless you're unless you're Unless you're within Brooklyn,
then it has to be Biggie Smalls.
Yeah.
But otherwise it's Tupac, yeah.
Caricatures, yeah, that's quick enough to be sort of cool.
Battle rap is poetry.
Cooking?
Yeah, cooking.
Just really quickly
Because like baking is not cool
No because you have to wait
Or making a roast is not cool
No because you have to wait
Flipping a pancake is cool
That's right
Flipping a pancake is cool
Stir fry is cool
Yeah anything with flames
Flames leaping up
That's good
What else is Other slow lame things Yeah, anything with flames. Flames leaping up. That's good.
What else is... I'm trying to think.
Other slow, lame things.
Going on a lovely country walk.
Right.
But if you run a country walk that's not cool though.
But sprinting through the countryside
like doing a running
thing. That's cooler, though.
It is cooler.
You look like you're in a Nike ad or something.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sex is the one, actually.
Sex is the only one which is less cool the quicker you do it.
Yeah, slow is like Barry White, isn't it?
Exactly.
Whereas if you're like, done slow it's like barry white isn't it exactly whereas if you're like done people make fun of you or even if you last a normal amount of time but you do it like
like a horrible rabbit
people will go what the fuck
where's the where's the uh sexy bar Barry White attitude here?
Where's the confidence?
Where's the confidence?
That's the important thing.
It's the only one way.
It reveals a lack of confidence to do it quicker rather than slow.
Yeah, it implies that you're not sure if you'll reach the destination you want to.
Oh, hey.
Did you watch the television event of the week?
I actually didn't.
Oh.
I actually didn't.
I even got confused because I didn't realize it was on like a day early in America, right?
Yes. It was early in America, right? Yes.
It was shown in America.
The Harry and Meghan interview, the interview of a
British prince was on
in America first.
Yeah. But then, because it was
on in America a day early, all the articles
and write-ups were
done. So I was like, oh, I presumed it had been done
in the UK. And then everyone on Twitter was like,
oh, it's coming. And I was like, it's quite interesting it's like it's rare that uh news gets
a teaser you know i mean yeah it was yeah i mean i i read all the
you know i kept up to date though phil had twitter open uh looked at the lash then the
backlash then the backlash lash then the back back backlash Well here's where you and I
are
opposite at the moment
I actually made sure not to look
at Twitter because it would make me angry and I actually
watched the real thing. So I watched
the full two hours and
didn't look at a single comment on Twitter
This is like Children of Men
He's the only man on earth with an untainted
take He's got only man on Earth with an untainted take.
He's got the purest takes.
We are like
some ancient
myth
where each of us gets the
half of the picture.
And only
together we are the smartest being in the world.
But apart, we only have half
of the picture each.
That's right, yeah.
We have to kind of connect two bits of a kind of gem on a necklace.
But you know what?
Well, I thought it's funny that it was on an ITV,
the Harry and Meghan interview was on an ITV a day after it was on in America.
Yeah.
Presumably just because the Queen couldn't figure out a VPN.
She's like, how do you
click the flag thing
and pick
America?
Pick this one? That's Puerto Rico.
Oh, this
one? That's Chile.
I hate all these. This one is faster oh i hate all these this one is faster but it wants seven dollars
through paper
yeah so itv went you know what we'll put it on for you
turn on channel three channel three 9 p.m number three no that is itv no it's the same thing
number yeah yeah that's not that no it's the same thing number yeah
that's not a different channel
we're telling you the number on the knob
no it's not on Netflix you don't have to put it on Netflix
it's a
Netflix isn't a channel
no Netflix isn't a channel
this is just your regular TV
but it's channel 3 alright
you're ok thank you
that's alright mum
alright that's all right mom all right
that's a good idea just having to formulate a response to if an old person asks you if netflix
is a website you're like well i mean kind of yeah in the sense that everything is i suppose it has
a website i don't know if you'd say it's in essence a website. Can you imagine what would happen if the BBC
had shown it?
Yeah.
The bias...
British
Bias Company.
The British Bias Company?
Harry should have turned to the
camera and looked down the lens and said,
you won't see this on the BBC.
Of course! It's the classic, you want to see this on the BBC.
It's the purest example.
Apart from pornography, perhaps.
Well, depends how
artistic it is, how artistically
it has been integrated into the drama.
Or how decadent your imagination is.
But it was good
watching, for the most part.
What are your hot takes Phil?
they're fresh and preserved and no other human hand has touched them
my hot takes are that
our preview
assessment was pretty
much right
it's two hours of
imagine the cage
that is made of gold
it is all basically two hours of that Imagine the cage that is made of gold.
It is basically two hours of that.
I was a royal, but also I had a job.
It was the worst of every possible world.
And, you know, Megan highlighted a couple of more serious issues some uh mental turmoil that she went through
and and something racist one of the royals said um who they will not name but is obviously just
prince philip oh they've said it wasn't um the top two well is prince philip considered the top two
the queen and the and the duke the Duke of Edinburgh are the top two yeah
so it wasn't oh wait so they've said
this is a thing
they've come out and said okay but not those two
it's so
like
schoolyard the whole
thing is so schoolyard the whole
fucking
I didn't make Kate cry
she made me cry and I didn't make Kate cry she made me cry
and I won't tell you
who said it
okay was it Prince Philip
no it wasn't him
was it the Queen
no she's cool we're cool
but it was one of the others
and I'm not going to tell you who it is
it was one two hour long equivalent
of typing onto Facebook
you just can't
trust some people sometimes and oprah commenting under underneath oh babes what's what's happened
and then replying i don't want to talk about it that's it's two hours of that someone yeah it's
two hours of oprah repeatedly saying uk hun also like in terms of in terms of someone saying but how black will the child be i mean that could
be any one of them that could be any member of the royal family saying that that could be one of the
that could be prince george that could be a seven-year-old yeah given the context they live
in that could genuinely be the youngest member asking a blunt, sort of racially tense, awkward
rude question
about a new child.
Or it could
be Prince Andrew, who at this point
has nothing to lose.
He could say whatever he wanted,
and no one would remember. Or if they did
remember, they'd forget the pedo stuff.
Or at this point, it's a drop in the ocean.
The fact that like the daily mail like like obviously the press hounded and bullied megan markle and were racist that's that's beyond doubt those are the two things the british press
does bully people and be racist and if they can bully someone and be racist at the same time so
much the better yeah oh that's saves a lot of time for them a lot of money a lot of ink um but the idea that the
daily mouse headline today is like the worst royal crisis in 85 years you think is that what it says
yeah and you just think right so the prince andrew best friend is a pedophile with a pedo island that he visited thing.
Visiting him after he's been in jail
for being a pedo.
That's fine.
All the Diana Charles stuff in the 90s,
that's fine.
But this lady getting rid
of a royal who was never going to be
the king anyway.
And the lady saying,
I had a bad time, and I'm American, and I'm mixed race.
That's the worst thing in the world.
Yeah.
Those three things are the worst thing in the world
in the eyes of the Daily Mail,
which makes nothing but sense given its brand,
but you have to admire their commitment to being absolutely insane.
The royals or the papers?
Both. Mainly the Daily Mail.
Yeah.
No paper has a commitment to being
insane as profoundly as the
Daily Mail.
Every day they show up.
Well, they've
painted themselves into a corner. That's their
market.
That's the people they serve
people who are if not themselves crazy certainly like to entertain the insane sides of their
personalities yeah it's like rage porn for them i guess um yeah and obviously but it's wildly
successful because all my friends who complain the most about the Daily Mail and its awful coverage are always on its website.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, the amount of times I've seen, well, back when I was heavily on social media, the amount of times when people would just post a link to Daily Mail story going,
This is disgusting.
What a wreck the daily mail is i'm just sat there thinking well
good on you sort of widening their reach ever so slightly well done you've really shown them
they're giving them all that free circulation given that they're a business model that you
know as well as i do is only about publicity and clicks like that's how it makes its money
there's nothing there's no other way it makes its money. There's nothing, there's no other
way it makes its money anymore.
Yeah. You're essentially
saying, this is the Daily
Mail's GoFundMe.
You should add a couple of pounds
by clicking.
But yeah, I mean, even people
who hate the Daily Mail and stuff, but I mean,
they'll go on it to browse it, I mean. That's how addictively they've designed the website, especially the sidebar of shame. Oh yeah, I mean, even people who hate the Daily Mail and stuff, but I mean, they'll go on it to browse it, I mean.
That's how addictively they've designed the website,
especially the sidebar of shame.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, the sidebar of shame is similar to the Twitter infinity scroll.
I think someone at Twitter, like, we always forget these things were invented,
and the infinite scroll was invented, I think,
or was it a guy at Facebook invented it?
But the infinite scroll, which, you know fault i fall victim to all the time where it never ends so you just keep going and
going and going and going there should be i would love it if some some some really meddling country
like switzerland or luxembourg is going to pass a law at some point saying okay okay guys there's
infinite scroll is illegal now You can't have it.
And I'm going to move there because it's really bad for you.
You just see the story
and the times as you open it
over a lovely breakfast
and you look over your half-moon glasses
and you say,
Luxembourg has banned Infinite Scroll.
All right.
And you just quietly wrap up the paper and you pack away your stuff and you put on a beige trench coat and whistle for a taxi.
I carefully put my breakfast in my pockets.
Pay me to Luxembourg.
Luxembourg City, please city please no no one way
just to be really clear
with anyone
watching
it's so bad for you but yeah I mean I know people who are like
committed intellectual
progressives
who are just like infinitely scrolling
past pictures of
women in bikinis that i've never
heard of who've had a fight with another woman in a bikini who i've never heard of
these are important fights yeah do you know that thing where like sometimes you read a book
like lord of the rings or you come to maybe a television series like game of thrones or
something like long running and you accidentally watch an episode from like season 15 yeah and you're just like i i can't this is exhausting
because so much is being implied that i'm supposed to know and i can tell i'm missing
most of this yeah or when tolkien and lord of the rings is like ah, Benethor, the son of Grand Leol who fought
thousands of years ago, and it just goes on
and on, that's the feeling I get
when I look at someone
over their shoulder as they scroll down the sidebar of shame
because it's just like
you'll never guess what Tizzy said to Marbella
tonight, like last night
at the fuck shack
fuck shack? I haven't even heard of the people
involved, I don't know if it's a location or a film, fuck shack the fuck shack. And I was like, what? Fuck shack? I haven't even heard of the people involved.
I don't know if it's a location or a film.
Huh?
Fuck shack?
Fuck shack?
There's a fuck shack now?
That's you saying that out loud over the person's shoulder.
What?
There's a fuck shack now?
And they're like,
who are you?
Yeah.
Like the amount of, of,
of,
like I've,
I've had to learn to survive about
Married at First Sight and then Married at First Sight
Australia.
Yeah, I was confused. I thought there only was one
and it was in Australia.
No, it turns out there's more than one and now I know that
and now I have an opinion on some of the
Australian people.
Which I don't need to have. They'll never come up again.
Well, they will come up again when it's celebrity
Married at First Sight
but all the celebrities are just people who were on
a previous series
of Married at First Sight
and gained some level of notoriety
yeah an infinitely recursive loop
yeah
and the host of Married at First Sight Season 5
is the winner of the first one
in this kind of like...
In the same way that the one main character
who survives from every horror movie
has to be tortured by the serial killer again.
Like they've got...
In like Saw 7,
they've got people from Saw 2.
That's right, that's right, that's right.
Every... Whenever they do that
with someone that's hosting or on a show again
in Season 5 and they're on in Season 1
like a reality show
it should show them waking up in the Big Brother house
having been kidnapped and just
screaming
as they look around at the
colourful walls.
They said it was over!
They promised I was free!
As they slam their fists on the plywood.
In a way you are free, but now you have to do it to other people!
As host!
Yeah, exactly. do it to other people as host yeah exactly yeah I just
you're not supposed to know
or remember this many people
it's not good for you
well what is it the Dunbar number
Dunbar number 150
150 we're only
we're only designed
to know 150 people.
Yeah.
And now, every day, we are sort of asked to expand that to thousands, thousands of people.
Just like most people could probably name, if they really sat down, 150 celebrities who they've never met.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So what does that do to your Dunbar number?
Because it's like, well, I don't remember half my primary school class, but I do remember Brad Pitt, so...
Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it?
I remember who he is, because he's Brad Pitt.
And we were in Fight Club together, my brain thinks.
Yeah, gosh.
Do you think Brad Pitt takes up one of your Dunbar numbers?
Or is it someone...
Does it have to be someone you feel you have some relationship with?
So someone you reply to on Twitter, someone you message, you know?
Do you think...
Does it require sound interaction?
Yeah, do you think he takes up a dunbar number or do you think he's in the memory area of the brain reserved for
like gods and mammals yeah exactly like i remember brad pitt and in the way that maybe
uh stone age ancestors who had the dunbar number correct would remember kal, the god of rain.
Yeah, I've always seen a real Kaluki vibe
in Brad Pitt.
I think, yeah, god of rain. His crinkly face
in the clouds.
He certainly makes the ladies wet.
And the men, by pissing out of envy?
Does that work?
Well, that's how it works for me you know what they say
see a handsome man
piss
yeah
handsome man pissing
pants
that's almost a multi-selective
see
yeah I'm trying to think how you could
see a handsome fella
you could change that to make the rhyme work
see a handsome fella
my glands will
swell-a
see a handsome fella your trousers will be yellow
yeah
but ideally you'd rhyme it with a handsome
as well
oh okay see a handsome fella make your pants go yellow Yeah, but ideally you'd rhyme it with you're handsome as well.
Oh, okay.
You've learned a lot from... See a handsome fella make your pants go yellow.
You've learned a lot from Battle Rap.
That's it.
See a handsome fella make your pants go yellow.
Oh, man, I've been served.
Yeah.
Enjoy your meal, Pierre.
You've just been served.
What have I been served when I get served?
Myself, I suppose.
Yeah, what does one get served?
You've been served.
Yeah, because that sounds good.
I'm like, oh, great, thank you.
Thank you, I've been waiting.
Do I leave a tip?
Is it customary in this country to tip?
Don't forget to tip your battle rapper.
Yeah, I'm there looking up the Lonely Planet guy to battle rapping.
Tipping, tipping, tipping.
lonely planet guy to battle rapping tipping tipping
tipping
it's like a little prospectus with a kind of blurry
shot of a mid-motion hand-throwing
rapping guy
on the front
do you do that when you
go on holiday that's the first thing I look up
is whether or not tipping
is a thing oh really yeah
and sometimes they'll be like tipping is
not commonplace in
malta and it probably is in malta but whatever and i'll go yes the best one is japan i know we
talk about japan so much but in japan they will chase you down the street with two yen if you've
ever paid really they won't accept a tip.
That must be, yeah,
that must be one of the most on-brand things that you do.
Me?
Yeah. Look up restaurant etiquette.
No, no, no.
Like looking up the thing and go, yes!
Oh, yeah.
You're like,
you're like a squirrel-like obsession with avoiding tolls, in a way.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, you think I'm a miser?
It's not miserly because you spend money on stuff, so you can't be a miser.
You do buy things.
You're not in a shack with nothing nice.
You do buy things.
You're not in a shack with nothing nice.
But you have that... Something to do with tolls or avoidable expenses.
Right. I've never noticed this about myself.
I think so. I think any expense like a...
Are people saying this behind my back?
Oh, there he goes, Phil, avoiding another toll.
Oh, there he goes. The toll avoider, we call him.
No, I just mean like... I think there's two sides of the same coin there's a side of the coin where you go
yes i don't have to tip because technically you don't have to tip in countries where it's normal
but you accept that it would be rude not to right yeah yeah yeah and and and would um
and would um financially yeah um well but uh my words are failing me inconvenience kind of yeah fuck over fuck over sure someone yeah yeah and you understand it's been built
into the local economy and blah blah blah the presumption of a tip so like you're not against
tipping because you're doing it when you are seeing it as the rules ask you to yeah but when
the rules don't ask you to that's a
big bonus and the other side of that coin is how much you hate avoidable fines or losses of money
oh yeah that's a big one i mean when especially when i'd like when i first moved to london i
remember um i got fined like the one day i didn't take my young person's rail card out
was the one day I got inspected on it.
And I had to pay a fine of...
Because I'm using it on my Easter card, you know.
I tie it to my young person's rail card,
which people don't know you can do.
You save a third on your TFL travel.
A third!
And they don't advertise this.
You've got to do it, guys.
If you've got a young person's rail card and you live in Londonondon tie it to your oyster card i'm pretty sure it's better
value for money than contactless anyway anyway um i didn't bring it out my young person's rail
card and i got fined for using a young person's rail card tied oyster and it was like 75 pounds
or 65 pounds or something yeah yeah and i was like oh and so for the next two weeks i was like
yeah yeah and i was like oh and so for the next two weeks i was like i have to save 75 pounds somewhere no yeah and see this is the thing this is what i'm saying and so i would like look i would
like hope to catch myself wanting to buy something that was 75 pounds and then i would be able to go
no i can't have that so i've denied myself that and i've made up for the fine which was a glitch i i think i see those things as a glitch
so i find sort of like a glitch in my life that i have to fix so if i got fined i've got to fix
the mistake and so next time i next time i purchase so that amount comes up i'm not allowed
it you do this kind of weird mini lent yeah in your own mind my my theory is that i've played too many video games in my life
and um so my first instinct when i make a mistake or do something wrong is i want to
reset i want to reload a save point because i can't do that yet, Mr. Bezos get on it, but for now I can't.
And so I have to try and negate the mistake some other way.
I have to cancel it out.
I'm getting better with this.
I've managed to view it as that is the cost of me not doing it again.
Right, so the cost of the lesson yeah so it's like yeah that's
a good way so it's like i was always gonna fuck up this thing it's just that now i've done it i
need to be like okay i've paid to never do that again does it make you a fatalist though to believe
that you were always going to make the mistake because that's what drives me mad is that i could
have done something a little different and i wouldn't have made the mistake no i i accept that there was a statistical chance
that the mistake would that that okay so there's a statistical chance that the mistake could be
made right every day yeah you forget your l card exactly but now that i've done it and had a bad
thing from it that statistical chance is is vastly reduced it just reduced yes yeah yeah that
is a good way of looking at it and i think i look at it more that way now yeah yeah you're
absolutely right i've paid to lower the dice roll yeah yeah i think about that like my back injury
you know when i pulled my back quite badly yeah yeah and i think if only i had i had lifted that weight
correctly but then i think well if i hadn't hurt myself you know i've been so careful ever since
if i hadn't hurt myself would i just done it at a different time or would i have done it at a point
of my my life where my body would be less capable of recovering yeah you know and yeah you have to
look at it that way but for a long time i didn't see things that way oh man it's hard oh you can't live you can't live in
regret towers oh man i'm i'm i am the superintendent of regret towers i never leave i lock up every
night when everyone else goes you you've got a big um ring of keys keys yeah when there's a noise in the night I have a big torchlight
and I go who's there
that's me in regret challenge
quiet out there I'm thinking
about my regrets
you live in like a penthouse
at the top you're the super
yeah yeah yeah yeah the only superintendent who like a penthouse at the top. You're the super. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, the only superintendent who has the penthouse.
Yeah, yeah.
You're the super, but it's because you bought the building when it was cheap.
Ah, sure.
A lot more people interested in moving into Regret Towers these days. I remember when this area was a slum.
Yeah, Regret Towers is hard to it's hard to leave it's like hotel california
it's hard to leave california hotel california oh hotel california you can check in
anytime you like yeah that's that's right but yeah i think that those two things are the same
side of the coin there's something about like little points or money points or that's right but yeah i think that those two things are the same side of the coin there's
something about like little points or money points or that's minus seven you know yeah
that's plus seven yeah i'm really bad for it i yeah i'm really envious of people who like
lose a bit of money and they go oh well
i think it always it also always depends on how much money they had to start with
of course yeah what's really impressive and someone that doesn't like
what's not impressive it's like kind of terrifying but
I guess you shouldn't be able to shrug off a certain amount of loss if you don't have that
much more than the amount you're losing right right? But then some people can still do that. They're just immune
to the feeling. Yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah.
Well, you'll never
be a gambling addict.
That's true. I mean, we
play the occasional poker together and I
can't...
Yeah, I'm very... If I lose enough money
I just go, well, I can't play
poker for a while now.
Until my manna recharges. Yeah, yeah, well, I can't play poker for a while now. Until my mana recharges.
Yeah, man, gambling addiction is a brutal thing.
I don't get it myself.
I could never do it, but I understand addiction.
Well, I'm addicted to chess right now.
I'm definitely addicted to chess.
I play chess a lot at the moment.
Yes, gambling addictions are harder to comprehend
because from the outside they look like someone
feeding money into a negative equation
but it's all about the thrill
and the love of
the game and the odds
and maybe this could work
and the self harm of it all
yeah
the glorious juicy damage, Phil.
Well, I'm currently reading,
and I've been reading it for a while,
and it's why...
Part of the reason why we were talking about
regression to the mean recently,
but Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow.
Oh, yes.
I'm reading it slow.
But it's... And it's all about it's and it's all about biases and it's all about um human biases and how our human brains are always ignoring statistics and we just go for what
we feel what we think in our individual case and we extrapolate individual cases to embody a general
but we never use a general to inform the particular so if you meet
one person say who is um we meet one person who is from luxembourg and they're really rude to us
we it's very easy for us to go people from luxembourg are rude but if we read a statistic
that said people from luxembourg are very rude and then
we met a friendly luxembourgian one of the few friendly luxembourgians we'd go oh that statistic
is wrong luxembourgians are actually very nice but it's incorrect yeah you should always follow
the statistics but as our minds are not you know we're not attuned to following statistics we follow
our own experiences and the stories we make.
On the presumption that the statistics are correct, of course.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Yeah, that's a heavy assumption, of course.
Yeah.
Yeah, I've got that book and I've read sort of bits of it
and I cannot think of any other book
where every chapter is a life-changing revelation
that I almost immediately forget.
Yeah, you just kind of have to stick with it it's one of those books where i'm reading other books while i'm reading it
yeah i i remember quite long reading it and at the end of every chapter i'd be like what i and
then there'd be like some stuff would be quite complicated and there's a nice little summary
at the end of every chapter and i would go go, my God, the scope of this.
Well, if you could just master this,
and then I could feel it draining from my mind,
like liquid just coming out of a sieve, just blah, blah, blah.
And as I was saying, well, now that I know this,
I eat a potato apple pie, blah, blah, blah, well, now that I know this, I eat a potato apple pie.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
I could feel myself going stupid again.
Just turning back from man to mud.
Yeah, just turning back into this gorilla going,
having just elevated myself to the status of a sort of god.
I guess that's when you realize what makes these people geniuseses yeah and an economist like daniel kahneman a genius it's like you read one of those chapters
you go oh yeah i get that i guess i'm very clever and then the next day you've forgotten it and you
realize oh he has this entire book in his head all the time he always knows this yeah yeah exactly
he doesn't need any help from anyone to know this like that book i was
discussing but the one about how there's a chapter that says time isn't real oh yeah i need to read
this one that's by the italian guy yeah yeah yeah the guy who's the co-wrote or co-made tenant
tenant tenant oh yeah uh in some way i can. He was like the advisor or he inspired it or what's his face rang him up and said,
I like your book, Science Man.
What did you say?
We turned it into a talking picture.
Quantum, the movie.
Yeah.
And the idea that there's just this sort of cheerful sort of middle-aged Italian guy just kind of,
boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, just going around.
He has a little sandwich.
And in his head, he's just the knowledge that time isn't real
and that time-space is granular.
Yeah.
And then he's just like, oh, I think'll have a um a latte like he could just exist
it's a similar i have a similar perplexed feeling to someone like that as i do and
maybe i've said this before of seeing like a crazy street preacher like obviously insane
but who has the shirt buttoned up and presumably got
up that morning and brushed their teeth and made themselves breakfast and went
like did all that and then just got on the street and went he's coming to kill us all
do you think um do you think uh well well in the morning while they're brushing their teeth, they're doing like vocal like,
Satan! No, that's too high.
Satan! Oh, there we go.
Me, me, me, me, me, me, me.
And the wife is like straightening his tie.
Have a good day at work, honey.
Oh, I always do.
Give him one for me.
Oh, I always do.
Give him one for me.
And she looks like the wife from... Oh, the fucking Jetsons.
Oh, yeah.
You know?
Judy Jetson?
Judy, yeah, his wife.
Judy?
No, no, Jane.
Jane, his wife.
Jane, his wife.
Yeah, Jane, his wife.
His wife.
That's a funny rhythm. Jane, his wife. Jane, his wife. Yeah, Jane, his wife. His wife. That's a funny rhythm.
Jane, his wife.
Verging on panic.
Jane, his wife.
Don't say anything.
What an amazing cartoon to have three sexist jokes in the intro.
Oh, when she pulls the cash out of his wallet
yeah and this guy's like like i something quite addictive about 1950s to 1970s media is just the
idea of like obviously there's sexism and then there's racism in some of them as well but the relentless certainty that every man is is just miserable and hates
every element of his life is sort of astonishing in its consistency you think
isn't there one show where the guy's like uh he's just fine and they're like no
he hates his wife his children are awful maybe maybe it's because maybe it's something about
comedy having to be some sort of inversion of society and so so in comedy in funny situation
the guy is the powerless one and the wife holds all of power yeah i mean it's interesting looking
back isn't it all these shows where it's like even the jetsons or the flintstones or any of those where it's like a guy with a job who's like
yes mr spacely no mr spacely and having to like get kicked around and he's not paid enough and
it's from an era when an entire house with no mortgage was two years salary.
Right.
It was like the easiest it's ever been in history to be a
landowner. Oh yeah, the quality
of life was
unbelievable. The guy who managed
your local McDonald's, his
wife and kids didn't have to have jobs.
Yeah, and all of a
sudden it comes about, clocking in for another day at the office that's right
well i'll be here dear um i don't need to work remember because you make so much
yeah bye you make so much money that i'll be here perfecting our home we own
we need to come back and complain about how hard everything is.
Yes, for you to come back to a fully made, elaborate dinner.
In a beautiful, huge house.
That you own.
Must be worth millions now.
Yes, that you've bought in an area that's going to be heavily urbanised
over the next few decades in a kind of gentrifying way.
Your boss is coming
over for dinner why i only have this huge open plan kitchen to make that dinner in
what's the dinner why it's the most expensive meats in the world
and i and take seven hours to cook them and i have all that time. Yeah, they're just complaining. Speaking of, have you watched WandaVision?
No, everyone's been creaming their jeans about it.
Yeah.
The sprinkles I've received through my feeding tube on Twitter look very delicious.
It's good.
It's so interesting.
It's two characters from the Marvel Cin. It's so interesting. It's basically, it's two characters
from the Marvel Cinematic Universe
and they're,
without spoiling anything,
they're in an old American style sitcom.
Yeah.
It's Vision and Scarlet Witch.
Is that right?
Wanda.
Was she Wanda?
Maximoff, I think the name of the character is.
Like, not very interesting character in the movies.
I never cared about them.
I found them quite boring.
But this show is pretty good.
Is she Scarlet Witch or is she her own thing?
Oh, I don't know.
I don't know.
There's too many.
I've given up.
Yeah, there's too many.
Is it Pokemon?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But the Marvel achievement is extraordinary
in the amount of detail
and the diversity of characters.
They've somehow managed to get the world to follow.
The world.
It's unbelievable, their achievement.
I mean, and WandaVision is such a weird show.
The concept is so out there and so bizarre.
Yeah.
It's unbelievable that, well that well one the tv show that
would ever be made two that'll be made on the disney plus and would be made with characters
that have been in billion dollar grossing uh mainstream films well that's it it's so big
marvel they've done so well they can just fuck around.
That's the overspill.
DC haven't even got the first film correct.
They haven't even got their Avengers correct.
They're still going,
maybe Batman
and Superman have the same mum.
What?
Meanwhile, Marvel are bending
the form and people are letting them because they've they've
smashed the rest so well already but it's just it's it's overspill when something is so successful
the overspill is still like 0.001 but when it's such a big whale that little bit of blubber
what do you mean so like or the overspill of fans who would follow something like wonder one division fans budget
revenue you name it yeah yeah they can literally look at it and go okay a quintillionth of of the
people who like this could enjoy this and it would still make double what it costs to make
sure done you know yeah the margins must be nuts absolutely nuts yeah yeah the only the only thing that stops
something like harry potter being the same is the fact that lots of the character names or words
are different in different languages but even then you're probably still like
i i i bet you there's something weird like like in the vietnamese parliament someone's referenced
quidditch in a metaphor like that kind of level of insane penetration of like object fiction that is objectively for
children yeah i love i love reading some things about how it's like comic books are sort of
they have all these actually very mature themes and that
and they can do now but there's a there's a thread of like comic book
almost academia that tries to find these original significances and meanings in the in the first
in the beginnings of these superheroes like when superman was just created when batman was just
created you know superman was you know when batman was just created you know
superman was you know he was created by jewish immigrants to america it's about immigrants it's
about an literal alien being in america but finding themselves to be powerful and they
celebrated on the one hand but also also also rejected by society on the other and i just kind
of go i think it's just a guy who's really strong.
I think it's just a guy who...
I think they came up with a guy who's really strong
and we've loaded it with meaning afterwards.
And that's fine too.
There's no need for us to be all Adam Curtis
about the start of comic book culture.
But then we get into the territory of like,
when does it matter if the
author knew what they were doing or exactly yes yes yes yes but i i get a bit more sick of the
i mean obviously comic books or graphic novels can be you know amazing and fancy and you know
alan moore and and all the rest of it but like yeah there is a certain there's a certain type of convention attendee that um
is sort of like feels the need to write some rambling blog about how whatever minor marvel
character they love their arc is like shakespeare worthy and always like great literature and the same and you think come on man
come on man he shoots lasers out of his hands
come on
yeah I mean yeah
it's just a different thing
and that's fine
yeah I mean there's lots of cool stuff like the themes
within the X-Men are cool as well
about being ostracized from society.
But also whether or not you're like Magneto or Professor X, right?
Resistance or trying to work with...
I see, I see, I see.
Interesting, yes.
And then obviously, canonically, Magneto's a concentration camp survivor.
That's right, that's right.
That's a great one.
The first of the newer X-Men.
The one, what was it, first class?
When he's in the bar.
Yeah.
The Alpine pub.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
When, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's great.
That's really good.
I think that's the best X-Men film.
Magneto, Nazi hunter.
Yeah, that's good stuff That's really good. I think that's the best X-Men film. Magneto, Nazi Hunter.
Yeah, that's good stuff.
That's good stuff.
I know this isn't how we say
woke to say, Pierre,
but I feel bad for the Nazis sometimes
because
like
it's the only
person in a historical movie where you can have them on screen just
like literally mutilated mutilated and people in in your audience will go yeah yeah
get them and it's like a close-up of eli roth machine gun gunning Hitler's face into a pulp. And people don't even look away. They're like,
yeah, yeah!
Pour it in my eyes.
I'm not trying to express
any solidarity with the
Nazi cause here, but
if you're a quiet
Nazi, or if you're
one of these alt-right guys watching these films, you must
feel a bit like... you must feel
a bit uncomfortable.
I love the idea of a neo-Nazi
leaving a screening
of Inglourious Bastards and going
oof!
Gives you the shivers!
Yeah, I didn't like that.
I mean, the first scene was great, but
that so sad ending was
a bit... I wasn't expecting that.
Yeah, dabbing their eyes with their armband.
Oh, God.
Really sad about it.
Do you think neo-Nazis hate the fact
that Magneto survived a concentration camp?
Like, they hate that he's sort of implied to be Jewish?
Or do you think that that fits with their
insane conspiracy theories? They're like, yes,
that's what we think.
We're kind of on board with this metaphorically.
We just agree
on what direction.
I don't quite understand.
Well, they think Jewish people are like secretly
superpower villains who run the world,
right? So they're not against
that conceptually.
Okay, okay.
They just want to win.
And presumably they'd be happy with his villification
in the X-Men universe.
That's true, yeah.
That's an uncomfortable thought.
Put him in the plastic jail, yeah, get him!
The funny thing is,
the average Nazi accent
Probably isn't that anymore
No it's like a sort of
Yeah put him in the plastic jail
Get him in the jail boys
That's right
Make his handcuffs out of wood I don't know
Or it's just like a guy from
I mean let's face it
Luton
Yeah yeah yeah
Probably Luton. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Probably Luton.
Yeah, probably, yeah, exactly.
Whereas, like, yeah, that's true. The continental
fascists now all have kind of,
well, they've got
their own logos, and they talk in more
abstract terms, don't they? They've sort of a bit
swish now, the
continental fascists.
Well, I mean, Europe always does that, don that don't they make things a bit more fancy yeah well i mean um you've actually seen a nazi in the wild
yes yes yes yes yeah i'm pretty yeah as illustrated by lumps the illustrator who's great on instagram
yeah check them out the tube nazi the tube nazi the illustrator, who's great on Instagram. Check him out. The Tube Nazi.
The Tube Nazi, that's right.
And I probably
asked you this before.
He had a swastika just on his head.
Can you not get arrested for that?
I don't...
I guess in Germany.
Yeah, in Germany he would. It's not illegal to just
have one.
But I mean...
Prince Harry had one.
Prince Harry had one on his fucking
sleeve
back when he was, you know...
How old was he when he was at that party?
I'd love it if he...
He wore it to the interview with Oprah.
Yeah, we just think the royal family is a bit racist actually
they just
wouldn't let us dress however we wanted
I felt very
repressed
it would be amazing
to have a chat how do you become a neo-nazi really now
you know it's not a fucking internet i guess it starts with one you start with one grievance
about something very particular to your life and you end up down a rabbit hole that
eventually you build this chain of influences and events and causes that
links your own personal difficulties to this greater conspiracy.
To some extent, I think that loads of these people, the anti-vaxxers, the neo-Nazis, the
lockdown conspiracists, all of these people, they just want to be able to walk around with a head full of secrets.
You mean they enjoy believing that it's all a conspiracy?
I think they enjoy it.
Obviously, they are actually motivated by racism or whatever.
It's not that they aren't sincere,
but I think a lot of the appeal is them going like,
I know the things.
And if you knew the thing about me, then I'd be in trouble but i'm not i'm like undercover i mean it's like it's the
equivalent of what we say about the far leftists who don't want to win it isn't about winning it
isn't about changing things it's about it's about feeling you know something other people don't and having a club yeah I'm in a big fight
and
yeah LARPing
it's like LARPing
like when you see all those
American fascists wearing like tactical
gear they've bought from an army surplus
yeah and they're always
just the most splendidly
fat men
splendidly fat men.
Splendidly.
Yeah.
Yeah, those vests are in army surplus because they didn't fit any of the actual soldiers.
Or when you see this, like, bulletproof vest
that's, like, a third the size of this fat guy's chest
and it's like, you're really hoping they aim for the vest, right?
Yeah, you're protecting one ventricle at this point.
One segment of your hyper-enlarged liver
is safe from an imaginary bullet from a police force
that is more similar to you
than it is to any other segment of the population.
Yeah. Is it nice having so little american news from about america at the moment it's it's like america has it's like america's
deleted its social media i mean it literally has it literally has did you see um donald trump is
suing
or making a legal demand
that the Republican Party
stop using his name
and face
to raise money
for itself
really
yes
he's
like he's saying like
you don't have any rights
to my image
you can't do that
because he's a brat
that's hilarious
isn't that amazing
he's already like
slapping their little hands
away from his pockets
that's so I don't yeah because some hilarious. Isn't that amazing? He's already slapping their little hands away from his pockets.
That's so... I don't... Yeah, because some of the Republicans
who sort of
were flirting with
denouncing him are now sort of back on...
Are they back on the wagon?
They're pretty back on the wagon.
The only ones who
aren't are the ones who want to run themselves.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
This is something I'm not sure of.
If he wins another term, that is his second term done, right?
You only allow two terms, even if they're split apart?
Yes.
All right, okay.
Yes, the last person to do two terms but split, I think, was Grover Cleveland.
Grover?
Grover, yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
He loved groves.
Grove in about town.
That's right.
But has there ever been a group more,
I'm going to say it, Phil,
cucked than the Republicans by Donald Trump?
It's embarrassing.
He burst in through the doors,
took everything from them, personally insulted
them and all of their wives,
and in some cases
their dead fathers, made
them still support him for four years,
exploded and left.
And left. And they're still like,
come back, daddy. Please.
Please. It's funny for
a party,
a party so heavily identified,
a party who so heavily identified themselves as being the party of freedom,
liberalism,
as in bigger liberalism,
as in being in charge of your own destiny,
to be completely beholden to the whims of one man.
And the party that's supposed to be like, we tough okay and we don't need any it's all about self-reliance
tough decisions you know and and and and strong values phil if anyone messes with
me then who and then all you need in america to succeed is the grace of god
a strong spirit and rights rights to the Donald Trump trademark.
And then, yeah, Donald Trump just shows up and says to Ted Cruz, your wife's ugly and your dad killed JFK.
He literally said, he literally said.
You got an ugly wife and your dad killed jfk and you're a fucking loser and then he's just like
do you want me to suck your dick now or
what does he say in private i'm obsessed with what these people say in private they must
know ted cruz went to princeton or harvard or one of them he's not dumb academically
unless he was a legacy maybe
he just got in because he might have been like a george w bush harvard person that's true actually
yeah where they just went um yeah guy guy who should be like running a karaoke bar we're going
to teleport you into harvard almost to see what happens yeah there's a wing. Yale, he's Yale. So you can, yeah.
The dad wing.
We're putting you in the dad wing.
You know, like Harvard and Yale and Princeton.
You're literally under your father's wing.
Yeah, you know that the dad wing of Harvard
or Princeton or wherever
is where all the best parties happen
because those guys have nothing to lose. lose um okay guys that is enough bud pod for this week we hope you
have a good week freedom is coming bye everybody bye stay safe