Judge John Hodgman - Moral High Ground vs. Moral Pit

Episode Date: January 24, 2018

Judge John Hodgman and Bailiff Jesse Thorn are in chambers this week! They talk about diet sodas, fruity teas, shower maintenance while staying with in-laws, and bedsheet changing. Plus a listener let...ter about ATMs!  

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the Judge John Hodgman podcast. Me, I'm bailiff Jesse Thorne. This week, we're in the judges chambers clearing the docket. And here I am alongside the king of the robes, Judge John Hodgman. Jesse, it's nice to see you. I hope you had a good Groundhog Day or are looking forward to same depending on when this comes out. In the course of my day that I repeat over and over and over every year. Yeah, I'm having or will have or did have my annual Groundhog Day brunch, which is a
Starting point is 00:00:34 five-day brunch where everyone has to reenact the same conversations and wear the same clothes. It's kind of torture. Judge Hodgman, what is worse in your opinion? People telling you that actually Groundhog Day is a really deep movie about philosophy or people telling you that actually Die Hard is a Christmas movie? That people are telling me that Die Hard is a Christmas movie because it's obvious on its face and needs no further explanation. And also I think Groundhog Day is a great movie. It's a great Chris Elliott movie. That's how I think of it because I'm cool. think groundhog day is a great movie it's a great chris elliott movie that's how i think of it because i'm cool yeah chris elliott's so great
Starting point is 00:01:09 i love and admire chris elliott remember when he was on the david letterman show as marlon brando and then he did something called the banana dance banana dance i do remember and what's weird is that i had missed a lot of that chris stuff the first time around. And that somehow it was on some retrospective that I saw the And I thought there's no way this could possibly hold up. My only reference points for Chris Elliott were Cabin Boy, which I saw at the drive-in in Daly City, and Get a Life, which I guess came on after In Living Color or something. And I liked both of those things as a kid, but I didn't have any reference for his Letterman work. And then years and years and years ago, I was on this comedy message board called A Special Thing. And a very kind person on the message board said, I've got a bootleg VHS.
Starting point is 00:02:15 I'll make you a copy and send it to you. Best of Chris Elliott on David Letterman. And these talk show bits, 15 years later, held up as solid as a rock. I have no idea who Morton Downey Jr. is to this day. But Chris Elliott's parody of him was so brilliantly hilarious. And that banana dance. Talk to Jason Zinneman, the New York Times comedy writer and author of an excellent biography of David Letterman about the banana dance for a solid 10 minutes that was completely unusable on air for my NPR show Bullseye. But you enjoyed it.
Starting point is 00:03:00 Yeah, I did. Yeah. I got a lot out of it. Well, everyone should go look up the banana dance. And next time I'm in Maine, if I can get Jonathan, the fresh banana man, to come down to one of my shows, I'll ask him to do an impression of it. Yeah, I think that would be a lot of fun. Well, let's get the docket clear. Here's something from Laurel about her boyfriend's decoration choices. She says, my boyfriend and I are both in our 20s,
Starting point is 00:03:26 and I frequently stay at his apartment. He's a mechanic and recently hung up a tool manufacturer's girly poster in his bedroom. There's no nudity, but it is a pinup. I think it's tacky. I've asked him as a favor to me to take the poster down. He says he can do what he wants in his own place. Of course he can, but it's a very minor gesture to someone he says he loves.
Starting point is 00:03:51 I love the suspicion in her voice. Well played. He's currently in a graduate MFA program and has his paintings hung in the rest of the apartment. It's not like he's hurting for wall decor. That's not what's going on here at all. It's not like I got to cover up that space and all I got is this girly poster from down the garage. I went into a house in Maine over the summer
Starting point is 00:04:17 because, you know, we're always on the lookout for a yard sale or a tag sale or whatever kind of sale they're calling it. And this was a very old house in a remote part of the peninsula where we travel. And the whole house was being emptied out. I don't know who died in this house, but their son, who himself was in his 60s, was just sitting in the kitchen selling everything out of it i got one blue gingham tie that i gave to john roderick that i because i thought he would enjoy an old man's tie coming
Starting point is 00:04:54 out of a haunted house but there i mean the house had clearly not been entered by strangers for decades and i remember walking through this house and thinking about the many dark winters that were endured there, this mom and her adult son. And I knew that he lived there too, because I went upstairs to the second floor. There were like nine different kinds of wallpaper were on every wall because they just got peeled away and peeled away. And I went into this now empty bedroom and on the wall next to where there had once been a bureau, but it wasn't there anymore, but you could still see the faded outline of it in the nine different kinds of wallpaper. There was a car garage tool parts, girly calendar still hanging there from the year 2015 and i realized someone had lived in this room as recently as a year ago at this time and that was the most terrifying
Starting point is 00:05:54 thing to me of all second only the fact that they're still making these grosso girly calendars for guys who work in garages well i, I guess they need distraction as much as anybody, but I guess what I'm saying to Laurel's boyfriend is don't be that guy. And by that guy, don't be the guy who's getting an MFA in fine art painting while also bragging about his working class hero cred by putting up a gross pinup in his bedroom against his girlfriend's wishes. It's tasteless. It's tacky. And it's a little aggro. We get a dude. You're a mechanic. You fix cars. That's amazing. It's amazing that you do that. But you don't need to prove it all the time by making your girlfriend mad. Keep the pinups where they belong in the shop. There is a television producer of our mutual
Starting point is 00:06:43 acquaintance who told me a story once. She was pitching a show to a network which shall remain nameless, but let's just say it nominally concerns itself with matters historical. And she said she finished her pitch and the executive at the table told her directly, our core demographic is men who don't want to talk to their wives. And while on the one hand, I can understand the natural inclination to create for men in heterosexual relationships and in families to create a space of their own, which in some cases is actively hostile to the other members of their family, particularly women in their family. I understand that impulse to some extent. I think it may have some naturalness to it. It's not necessarily necessary, but I see why man caves exist in the world, right? Sure.
Starting point is 00:07:46 I can understand why people have a tool bench in the garage where they go when they're fuming and they don't want to communicate their feelings or whatever. In many heteronormative relationships, dudes sort of cede the decorating power to their female partners. Right. Usually because they have not developed taste of their own. Yeah. And the proof of that is that when those dudes do get enough space and money to curate a man cave for themselves, they look dumb. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think that these spaces, you know, these are the spaces where you put up
Starting point is 00:08:31 that calendar. And I don't even think it's about titillation because those calendars aren't, frankly, all that titillating as much as it is about trying to create an alienating space to women. Marking a territory. And as I said, like, I'm not even 100% opposed to that. I understand circumstances where you might want to have your own space. And I would apply that to people of all genders. Well, and to be fair, this apartment is Laurel's BF's apartment. It is not her place.
Starting point is 00:09:08 They're not officially sharing it. So she's not wrong when she says that he can do whatever he wants. However, I would hasten to add to that that if that space is your bedroom, as might be the case for a 14-year-old boy, then don't plan on having any adult romance in there. You cannot both try and establish this is for guys only space and try to have women in there to kiss you. Yeah, Jesse's absolutely right. And by the way, we're both total beta males too. We don't need to be aggro like that in our lives.
Starting point is 00:09:44 But I'm also confused by this cultural work that's going on where this guy is getting an MFA in painting who's also a mechanic, has to display his mechanic's cred in his bedroom, even to the point of alienating his girlfriend. I feel like that's too much work that you're doing, dude. Be confident in who you are. Take that thing down. Put it where it belongs, as I say. But what's he supposed to do when his bros come over to hang out in his bedroom?
Starting point is 00:10:11 Yeah, if he wants to have a bedroom bro hang, he can bring that thing back out again, I guess. Maybe he could put it like behind a Murphy bed. Yeah. But I think if Laurel's boyfriend looks deep into his heart, he will agree. And Laurel will come to terms with the fact that this poster is basically telling her to get away, get out of this house, get away from this dude. And if that's the message he really wants to send, go for it. But if he wants he does want to send that message, put it away. Here's something from Lance. I seek an injunction against my wife. She's formally
Starting point is 00:10:46 requested I not bring diet cola into the house because of its health risks. But all of the online documentation of those risks is largely speculative. I've cited multiple authoritative, well-referenced articles that support my position. She claims they're paid for by the cola companies and can't be trusted. Furthermore, my wife does regularly eat sweets and, worst of all, smokes one to three cigarettes every day. What? I wish to freely drink diet cola without rebuke and that my wife find more responsibly sourced materials
Starting point is 00:11:21 such as medical journals about health and nutrition. All right, let's be clear. Even Diet Moxie, the champagne of diet colas, is full of chemtrails, probably, that is probably terrible for you. It's going to control your brain. And I am personally going through a heavy detox on diet, uh, Cokes and other sodas, because there are definitely times when I'm drinking too much of that stuff. And I go into a DC fog.
Starting point is 00:11:52 I don't know what's causing it. Perhaps it's placebo effect. Who knows? But it doesn't feel to me on an intuitive level that the chemicals that are in these sodas can be great for you. Is it DC fog? Is that that movie that starred mr t that's right that was the sequel to dc cab starring mr t uh so anyway yeah i i think
Starting point is 00:12:15 that it is probably your wife is probably correct that this stuff is junk absolutely But you are also correct that we don't have a proven method that has been scientifically demonstrated by which this junk is poisoning you. Guess what we do know scientifically for sure? Cigarettes are going to kill you, wife of Lance. And the moment you smoke them, whatever you get out of it, that's for you. I hope you're smoking that kind with the native Americans on the front. Cause those are the ones that are actually good for you,
Starting point is 00:12:53 right? I only smoke cloves and only at new order concerts. Sure. That's fine. That's just fitting in. That's, that's doing as the Romans do. You can fool yourselves in a lot of ways to convince yourself to smoke cigarettes. I know,
Starting point is 00:13:09 I did it for a while, but you know what the science is as much as I do. And when you smoke one to three cigarettes a day, guess what? You sacrifice your right to sanctimony about this stuff. You cannot take the moral high ground when it comes to self-selected health vices if you're smoking cigarettes because you are already in the moral pit. So I suggest you stop smoking even those one to three cigarettes a day, wife of Lance. And then and only then can you bar diet sodas from your home. Now I want to diet Moxie. Let's take a quick break so that the judge can have his diet medicinal drink or whatever that is.
Starting point is 00:13:52 Nerve food. Moxie nerve food. More items on the docket coming up in just a minute on the Judge John Hodgman podcast. Hello, I'm your Judge John Hodgman. The Judge John Hodgman podcast is brought to you every week by you, our members, of course. Thank you so much for your support of this podcast and all of your favorite podcasts at MaximumFun.org. And they are all your favorites. If you want to join the many member supporters of this podcast and this network, boy, oh, boy, that would be fantastic.
Starting point is 00:14:27 Just go to MaximumFun.org slash join. The Judge John Hodgman podcast is also brought to you this week by our pals over at Made In. Jesse, you've heard of Tom Colicchio, the famous chef, right? Yeah, from the restaurant Kraft. And did you know that most of the dishes at that very same restaurant are made with made-in pots and pans? Really? What's an example? The braised short ribs, they're made-in, made-in.
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Starting point is 00:16:23 Yep. That's the sound of you learning a new language with Babbel. We're talking about quick 10-minute lessons crafted by over 200 language experts that can help you start speaking a new language in as little as one, two, three weeks. Let's hear that sound. Babbel's tips and tools are approachable, accessible, rooted in real-life situations, and delivered with conversation-based teaching. So you're ready to practice what you've learned in the real world, and you get to hear this sound. It's not just like a game that pretends to teach you a language.
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Starting point is 00:17:34 We're clearing the docket this week. We've got something here from Dylan. He says, oh, Jesse, before we go on, I just want to say, I hope you had a good Groundhog Day or are looking forward to same, depending on when this is released. I'm having my annual Groundhog Day brunch. It's a five-day brunch where everyone has to reenact the same conversations and wear the same clothing over five days. It's a kind of torture.
Starting point is 00:17:55 But Brett always brings pimento cheese, so that's nice. Bing. Go ahead. Dylan says, my girlfriend Heather and I both love to drink tea. Heather has a close friend who's given her many gifts of fruit-infused teas over the years. We don't enjoy this type of tea, but out of politeness, Heather graciously accepts the gifts. This has only encouraged more fruity tea giving. I would like the judge to order Heather to disclose her dislike of fruity teas to her friend
Starting point is 00:18:21 so that the tower of deceit grows no further. dislike of fruity teas to her friend so that the tower of deceit grows no further. If the judge were to rule in Heather's favor, she requests the judge order me to shut my trap and go buy some of the good stuff we both enjoy. Now, if I were going to make a dad joke and do some word play around a legal term pertaining to this case, I would say that this is the poison of the fruity tea as opposed to the fruit of the poison tree. Get it? Wow. Yeah. Wow. That's my response. Wow. That's where I'm going. That's where I'm gone. All I've got is wow. Cow. Cow. You've cut. All right. Moving on. I had a situation when I, speaking of diet sodas, when I was a young teenager,
Starting point is 00:19:12 at some point I said in front of my mom's father and mother, my pop and my nan, I like Fresca. Fresca, of course, is the grapefruit-flavored, arguably, soda that only comes in a diet formula. There is no full sugar Fresca. It's only aspartame all the way. Yeah, if you want the sugar, you're going to have to go squirt. Yeah, that's right.
Starting point is 00:19:40 And by the way, that's a different brand of soda, not something you need to do. Squirt's pretty good, too. Yeah, squirt is a nice soda. My friend Peter Fraunfelder always had squirt at his house. I was very jealous. Yeah, you don't see it very often on the East Coast. In fact, I think my son and I depleted the Brooklyn Navy Yard sub shop of its three-year supply. They're not getting any more.
Starting point is 00:20:03 I think we ran through their cash. Anyway, I mentioned this in front of my grandfather and grandmother on my mom's side. And then my friend Damon graph and I, uh, in, uh, the summer after our freshman year of high school decided to go visit them on
Starting point is 00:20:21 the Jersey shore in ocean city. And we took the Amtrak train to Philadelphia. And then we took a bus from Philadelphia to Ocean City. And we were 13 or 14 years old. And Amtrak and buses in Philadelphia were not pretty fancy at that time. It was crazy when I think about what our parents let us do. But we did it. We got there safely.
Starting point is 00:20:42 And my grandfather was beaming when he welcomed me because he remembered that I liked Fresca, which I had forgotten I had even said. And he opened the refrigerator. Jesse, I'm not sure which Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg video it is. That's about Fresca. When they're in the house party and they open a refrigerator and it is full of 40 ounce beers. I think I'm going to say the gin and juice video. That's what I'm making up in my head. We'll probably get letters, but you know what I'm talking about.
Starting point is 00:21:13 Now, imagine instead of that being a cool early 90s rap house party. It's your grandfather and grandmother's second floor summer rental in a row house in Ocean City, New Jersey. And imagine that instead of being full of bottles and bottles and bottles of malt liquor, it's just bottles and bottles and bottles and more two liter bottles of Fresca taking up almost the entire refrigerator. That's what I remember. More Fresca than I could ever drink in my life. And what did I say to him? I said, pop up. I do not want your fruity tea. Shame on you. And make him cry. No, I didn't do that. I said, thank you for the fresca pop up. Dylan, Heather's being nice. There's no point in telling this friend you don't want this fruit tea.
Starting point is 00:22:08 It's going to hurt her feelings. Marie Kondo would tell you, accept the gift and the spirit in which it is given, and then give that gift away or leave it on the free pile in your apartment building if you have such a thing, or give it to someone else. There's no point. You gain nothing from telling this person that you don't like the gift that she's been giving you all these years. And besides, she's probably listening to this and she's probably figured it out.
Starting point is 00:22:36 So sorry, Dylan and Heather's friend. Keep that fruity tea to yourself. Get them good tea that they like. Here's something from Michael. Whenever we wash the bed sheets in our house, my wife insists we put the sheets back on together. I argue it's a one-person job. She says it goes much quicker if I help her. Well, do well. There you go. I've offered to do it myself. She says I don't do it correctly. I think having two people change the sheets is a waste of our
Starting point is 00:23:02 valuable time. I seek an order that the putting on of bed sheets is strictly a one-person job, and she should either trust me enough to do the job or leave me in peace. Here's what I say, Michael. Why don't you go move in with Laurel's boyfriend and look at a girly poster all night long? Maybe you don't deserve to cohabitate with your wife. Help her make the bed, dude. Don't be a creep. Don't think you've got a your wife. Help her make the bed, dude. Don't be a creep. Don't think you've got a better system.
Starting point is 00:23:28 And here's another thing, dudes. Take a note. If you are cohabitating with someone you love, and they say, will you help me make this bed? Help them make the bed. If you say, I'll do it myself, and they say, you don't do it right, don't be like,
Starting point is 00:23:50 I have a whole system that I've thought up in my mind about the best way to do this. Therefore, I do it right because I thought of it. No, take a note. Listen to what the other person has to say. Say, well, how do you think I'm not doing it right? And then maybe that person's crazy. You can come to my court and tell me their crazy theories about making the bed. Maybe I'll side with you then. But I bet you they're not crazy.
Starting point is 00:24:10 I bet they know more than you do about making a bed. And maybe it's time to learn something. And maybe it's time to pitch in. 100% completely wrong, Michael. Sorry. I've been going a little bit easier on the dudes lately because I feel like they're getting a hard time. This time I'm not going easy. Michael, you're wrong, Michael. Sorry. I've been going a little bit easier on the dudes lately because I feel like they're getting a hard time. This time I'm not going easy. Michael, you're wrong, dude.
Starting point is 00:24:29 Get better. Let's take a quick break. When we come back, more docket clearing and a follow-up letter about ATMs, otherwise known as automated teller machines. Machine. ATMs, automated teller machine machines. ATM machines. Machine. ATMs. Automated teller machine machines. ATM machines. Hello, teachers and faculty. This is Janet Varney.
Starting point is 00:24:55 I'm here to remind you that listening to my podcast, The JV Club with Janet Varney, is part of the curriculum for the school year. Learning about the teenage years of such guests as Alison Brie, Vicki Peterson, John Hodgman, and so many more is a valuable and enriching experience, one you have no choice but to embrace, because, yes, listening is mandatory.
Starting point is 00:25:19 The JV Club with Janet Varney is available every Thursday on Maximum Fun or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you. And remember, no running in the halls. If you need a laugh and you're on the go, try S-T-O-P-P-O-D-C-A-S-T-I-H. Were you trying to put the name of the podcast there? Yeah, I'm trying to spell it, but it's tricky. Let me give it a try.
Starting point is 00:25:44 Okay. podcast there yeah i'm trying to spell it but it's tricky let me give it a try okay if you need a laugh and you're on the go call s-t-o-p-p-b-a-d-i it'll never fit no it will let me try if you need a laugh and you're on the go try s-t-o-p-p-b-d-c-o-o ah we are so close stop podcasting yourself a podcast from maximumumFun.org. If you need a laugh, then you're on the go. It's the Judge John Hodgman podcast. We're clearing out the docket. I'm bailiff Jesse Thorne.
Starting point is 00:26:22 Jesse, I hope you had a good Groundhog Day or are looking forward to same, depending on when this is released. I'm having my annual Groundhog Day brunch. It's kind of torture. But this time I saved a guy from choking and I learned not to be selfish. And I learned that I have to help my wife make the bed. So I'm a better human than it was worth it. God, I wish Chris Elliott was here right now. Make this whole thing so much more fun.
Starting point is 00:26:42 I would I'd take Stephen Tobolowsky too. Yeah, I'll take Stephen any day of the week. Boy, that guy's a great storyteller. And you know what I bet he knows? Making a bed with two people is faster than making a bed with one person. Yeah. I've gone out of breath making a bed by myself. I'm just putting the sheets on.
Starting point is 00:26:59 So have I. Come on. All that leaning around. There's so much leaning over. Yeah, you can just pull it taut much leaning over. Yeah, you can just pull it taut with a partner. Yeah, you'd have fun. Make eye contact. You're right there near a bed. Maybe
Starting point is 00:27:11 something will happen. Yeah, you could take a nap. You guys could take a little platonic nap together. That would be gorgeous. Okay, here's something from Mike. My mother-in-law demands anybody using the shower in her en suite bathroom must squeegee all surfaces and towel off remaining moisture in an effort to keep it clean. The only other shower in
Starting point is 00:27:32 the house has been non-functional for many months. I think it's not only inappropriate to make people use the private bathroom in her bedroom, it's rude to demand they clean and dry the shower after every use. If it's not cleaned appropriately, she'll make it known to everybody in the house, usually in a passive-aggressive way from a separate room. Please issue an injunction that the guest shower be repaired so it may be used by guests or that guests may not be forced to clean the host's facilities. Remember this guy's name, Mike? Yeah. The guy didn't want to help make the bed. Guests may not be forced to clean the host's facilities. Remember this guy's name, Mike?
Starting point is 00:28:06 Yeah. The guy who didn't want to help make the bed, he was also named Mike? Yeah. Yeah. Huh. Think it's the same creep? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:28:19 Mike, I'm confused. There are two scenarios. One is you're visiting your mother-in-law of an afternoon, and you say, hey, I feel like taking a shower right now. You go up, and she says, you have to use my shower, but please clean it up. And you go up in that shower, and you're like, oh, stop bossing me around, mom-in-law. I'm going to call a podcast. And then you come back down and you leave and you go back home. That seems unlikely. Why are you taking so many showers at your mom-in-law's house? Unless you're staying there. Either you're living
Starting point is 00:28:56 with her or you're visiting overnight, in which case you're a guest in her home. And they have one shower because that other one is broken. And she wants to keep it clean. It's already gross enough that you're taking a shower in your mother-in-law's house. It's worse that you're taking a shower in her shower. What's even worse, though, is complaining about it. You know what you would do if you were a good person? Hire a plumber or whatever it takes to get that other one fixed as a gift
Starting point is 00:29:28 to the woman who is the mother of the person you love. Stop being a complainer. Jesse Thorne, remember that pop-up in Nan-Nan that I was talking about? They lived in a row home in Philadelphia. I do. Yeah, they had the summer rental, second floor of this house in Ocean City. But then they normally
Starting point is 00:29:50 lived in this row home in Philadelphia. It was probably dated back, in fact, all the bathroom fixtures probably dated back to the 20s or 30s. It was beautiful tile and beautiful tiled showers and bathtubs and anything.
Starting point is 00:30:05 There was a guest bathroom there that I would take baths in when I was a little kid. And then one time that was broken and I had to use the shower in their master bedroom, my pop-up and Nan-Nan's master bedroom. And I think I had only ever been in that room once and i did not like showering in that sanctum that was their private world i did not feel clean at all and that's all i could think about i'm thinking about mike being in his mother-in-law's shower but i this time sympathized with the mother-in-law
Starting point is 00:30:42 mike rubbing his body all over that shower. I was like, I'm too busy to squeegee it down. Get better, Mike. Come on. Terrifying. There are some showers that you shouldn't be in. And you should make the effort to not be in them. But if you're in them and someone asks you to clean up after yourself, do it.
Starting point is 00:31:05 Do you disagree with my assessment there, Jesse Thorne? No, I'm mostly remembering fondly a trip I took last year to Copenhagen, Denmark, which is – if you've heard it's a wonderful city, one of the best in the world, you've heard correctly. I'd love to go sometime. It is such an awesome place. I had such a fantastic time. I'd love to the stove. It is normal in Denmark, especially in older apartments, for the entire bathroom to be tiled in the manner of a locker room or something. And the shower is not distinct from the rest of the bathroom, including the toilet and so forth. And so you just close the door and turn on the shower.
Starting point is 00:32:06 And then you squeegee things down afterwards. And I have to be frank, I enjoy- Just a drain in the floor. Yeah, just a drain in the floor and a shower on the ceiling. And I had a grand old time taking a shower in there. You could go anywhere. You could do a funny walk across the room. Yeah, but be careful and don't slip and fall. That's a good point.
Starting point is 00:32:25 Although I hear they got pretty good liability insurance on those rental room situations. I don't recommend getting injured in Copenhagen, but they have socialized medicine there. That's right. That's what you pay your taxes for. So you can dance around nude in your shower slick bathroom, fall down and hit your head, and then recuperate over a 900-week vacation. Here's something from Katie. She writes in about the swift justice dispute at the end of Marco Justice, which you may remember was about ATM machines or automated teller machine machines. Machines.
Starting point is 00:33:02 Right. Oh, so this is the one where someone was asking, do you count your money after you get the money out of the ATM? And I was like, duh, always. And you were like, duh, never. Yeah. I work in the data processing department at a small bank. Every step of a transaction, whether it's made at the Teller window,
Starting point is 00:33:19 mailed in, automated, or processed by the ATM, is double and triple checked by multiple people, departments, and machines to ensure that at the end of the day, every single penny is accounted for. With that said, ATMs malfunction. We balance ours every day, and occasionally it will be out of balance, which means someone got the wrong amount of money, and if they didn't report it to us, then we can't correct the mistake.
Starting point is 00:33:43 While the bank tries to be as thorough and accurate as possible, every process has room for error. So please count your money at the ATM. I will also say we received numerous tweets to this effect, including one person who had once gotten the wrong amount of money at an ATM. He got too much money. And so ever since the time he got too much money, he has double checked the amount of money he got from an ATM every single time. Did he report it? Did he go and give the money back? I don't know. I'm just trying to picture how sad his life is. I was just thinking, what a good boy. What a good, good boy. And I didn't realize until just now, but now that I
Starting point is 00:34:23 think about it, the reason that I've been counting my money at the ATM all these years is that I'm hoping there's going to be a discrepancy so I get to make a report. That would be so much fun. Maybe I could fill out a form. We know, John, that you just want to be right. I want everyone to be right. I want to work hard so that everyone is right all the time. If only ATMs had grammar we could correct. Whoa.
Starting point is 00:34:48 Now, me and you, we have some difference in opinion on some things. But me, I'm just working hard to make sure everybody right. And that means sometimes I got to point out Mike is wrong, whether he's Mike or Michael. You're wrong. By the way, I'm not backing down from my previous position, which is that you needn't count your money at the ATM. I will give credit to anyone who goes through their entire receipt when they buy groceries at the grocery store to double check all of those prices. There actually is evidence that there is a systemic bias toward overpricing in pricing errors that, you know, in grocery store UPC checkout systems that could actually on balance cost you money. I do not believe that my bank is making errors that are net in their favor because the number of weird systemic things that like at the grocery store, what has
Starting point is 00:35:45 to happen is people don't bother putting in the discounts when they display a discount once in a while. They don't bother typing them into the system or something. That makes sense to me. Someone building a machine that favors the bank over the consumer in counting $20 bills or whatever, there's no evidence that that exists. So I think while there is some chance that I may be shorted $20 one day or get an extra $20 another day, it will all come out in the wash and it will save me the trouble of standing there counting $20 bills while someone stares daggers at the back of my head because they also want to get money out of the ATM. All right. America, did you hear that?
Starting point is 00:36:30 And all around the world? Listen to this fancy boy. He started out his sentence by saying needn't. So who's right? Who's wrong? Only me can decide. Me. No, you're right. It's not that I'm paranoid that the bank is trying to cheat me can decide. Me. No, you're right.
Starting point is 00:36:46 It's not that I'm paranoid that the bank is trying to cheat me or whatever. It's just the machine. The machine makes mistakes. Plus, I like counting my money. It makes me feel like I'm in a video. as quickly as possible that may have come from my early years of ATM usage coming in a neighborhood that maybe not quite, I wouldn't necessarily characterize as dangerous overall, but certainly dangerous for people holding money in their hands. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:37:18 I feel that. You want to dispense and dash. You want to get out of there. All right. Because you're a mark. When you're standing at the ATM, you're a mark. Hey, here's what I have to say. Somebody could be on the roll up.
Starting point is 00:37:30 It's your money. It's your money. You decide. That's it for another episode of Judge John Hodgman. Our show is produced by the one and only Ms. Jennifer Marmer. Thanks, Jennifer. Follow us on Twitter. I am at Jesse Thorne.
Starting point is 00:37:44 And John is at Hodgman. We're also on Instagram at Judge John Hodgman, where there is a lot of evidence being posted. And I, by the way, just because I gave you my Twitter handle at Jesse Thorne doesn't mean you should now take the opportunity to tweet at me a constant stream of tweets over the next two years of times you got more or less money at the ATM. I just want to make that clear. I'd enjoy seeing it. I encourage it. That window was open before and it's closed now.
Starting point is 00:38:18 Hashtag your tweets JJHO so that we can follow them on Twitter. I always enjoy hearing what people are talking about, about the latest Judge John Hodgman. I love to participate in that conversation. You know, I live right over there on Twitter. So, yeah, I'd like to see what you're talking about, too. You can check out the Maximum Fund subreddit to chat about the episode at MaximumFund.Reddit.com. And perhaps most importantly, if you have a dispute for Judge John Hodgman, it is easy and fun to submit it to us. Go to MaximumFun.org slash JJHO. Make Jennifer's life better.
Starting point is 00:38:53 She wants your great cases. She basically lives on cases. The way a vampire bat lives on cows. Literally living on them and sucking their blood. Yeah. Maximumfun.org slash JJHO. Or if you hate web forms, just email Hodgman at Maximumfun.org. We'll see you
Starting point is 00:39:13 next time on the Judge John Hodgman Podcast. Maximumfun.org Comedy and culture. Artist owned. Listener supported.

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