Newcomers: Scorsese, with Nicole Byer and Lauren Lapkus - Memes, Parodies, and More (w/ Paul Scheer)

Episode Date: October 6, 2020

After finishing both Peter Jackson trilogies, Lauren and Nicole are ready to decompress, have a laugh, and perhaps even learn a thing or two in this episode of Newcomers all about the memes, parodies, and other bits and bobs that have cropped up over the years surrounding the Lord of the Rings franchise.Joined by actor, comedian and podcaster Paul Scheer (The League, Black Monday, How Did This Get Made?), the three will navigate all sorts of hilarity, ranging from comparisons between Gandalf and Betty White, to oddly relevant and topical jabs at peoples' responses to COVID-19. Later, Paul will introduce Lauren and Nicole to the deepest of deep cuts: rare footage of another well-known pointy-eared hero of pop culture singing a ballad for our dear Biblo, er... Diplo, er... Bilbo Baggins!Like the show? Rate Newcomers 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts and let us know what LOTR media you'd like the series to cover.Sources for this episode:Amazon's Lord of the Rings production articleBetty White and the BalrogNormal People vs. People with COVID-19Let Boromir borrow itSome form of SelfishDenethor and the TomatoA Simple Walk Into MordorVeggietales - Lord of the Beans"Frodo, Don't Wear the Ring""The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins"Advertise on Newcomers via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a HeadGum Original. It's another episode of Newcomers. I'm Nicole Byers. I'm Lauren Lapkus, and we are watching all of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies for the first time. This is our eighth episode of the new season. And, you know, we've put in a lot of hours with these films. We've all aged. We've seen it all. And now it's time to unwind a bit, just have some fun.

And maybe we'll learn some new tidbits along the way with some popular memes, parodies, and other creations that have come about over the years because of this iconic franchise. Oh, and other creations that have come about over the years because of this iconic franchise. Oh, and you know the memes. The memes are coming in lots. Lots of memes. And I'm just so excited to see memes and understand them or have many questions about them. Yeah, I do think we've received a good amount on Twitter of things that I sometimes look at and have no clue what it means, even though,

look, and by the way, somebody tweeted at me like, if you're not going to pay attention to the film, I'm like, we are paying attention. This is the best of our ability. I can't, I don't know how to tell you. I have paid as much attention as I can possibly pay. And if you, if it's not enough for you, I don't tell you what that was sent to by somebody who had listened to just the second episode. And I was like, Hey, wait till you get to The Hobbit. I liked that one. There are surprises around every corner here. But here's the thing about the person who tweeted that, because I also saw it. I didn't know that Star Wars was in the past.

And it's the first thing that you see. So, like, I don't know what to tell you. I watched it. I read the scroll out loud. And I don't know what to tell you. I watched it. I've read, I read the scroll out loud and I didn't know until the end. So, that's what you're dealing with.

Yeah. We do our best, but we cannot take in all of the facts, okay? Yes. Now, now that we've finished with both of the

Peter Jackson trilogies, let's try to debrief a little bit about these six pillars of the franchise. So, just what we've experienced so far, we've watched all three Lord of the Rings movies and all three Hobbit movies.

Yes. With varying levels of success for our brains, I think. Yes. And a pillar that's like a thing that stands out, the thing that stands out the most for me is the eagles could be useful. And the eagles just swoop in at the end for whatever reason i don't know they're like the switzerland of the giant animals um there's elephants in the in the second trilogy and i don't understand why there's no elephants in the hobbit those eagles could have honestly

saved the day like a thousand times i think so they just don't i'm my favorite thing so far has been all of the dwarves, and I feel extremely connected to their characters. And I also like Bilbo. Those are my favorite things that I've discovered. I like the hobbits, but I think my absolute favorite thing is from the Hobbit franchise, and that is Radagastian, Rastafarian, whatever that man's name is, who is like a full-blown Looney Tune with his crazy hair crazy hair and he lifts up his hat and there's like birds under there.

Like, who is he? I want more of that. He was fun. I think I liked a lot of the like weirder stuff. Yeah, I liked a lot of the stuff made for children. Yeah. Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Now, if you're listening to this and you hate spoilers, we're definitely going to have spoilers in this episode because we're now kind of looking at things that are making fun of the movies that we've already watched. Yeah. And we're experts now. So we know facts. We are highly informed. And we are so excited for our guest today. It's Paul Scheer. He co-hosts the film discussion podcast, How Did This Get Made and Unspooled, and you've seen him in The League and Fresh Off the Boat, and he now stars on Showtime's Black Monday. Welcome, Paul. How are you? I am so excited to be here. I love the show, and I cannot wait to talk about Lord of the Rings, which, I have to to admit is not totally my bag, right? Like, like I like it. I

like it a lot, but I will tell you, I did not see all of the new trilogy in the theater. No, no, no. I was like too much for me. I get it. And I found that to be great cleaning up the house, um, great cleaning up the house background TV for me because it's so long. The new ones, The Hobbit is aggressively long. I've read the books. I love the books. And I

did love the first versions of the movie. I have mixed opinions on the extended cuts. But The Hobbit in general, that three, big thumbs down for this guy. Yeah, that seems to be the general consensus on The Hobbit films. Yeah. People hated those.

Yeah. I have a question, Paul. I've asked a bunch of our guests. Who gave you The Lord of the Rings books? Who? Okay, so I grew up in a time where culturally literate was really me just reading movie novelizations. So I was only reading like Total Recall, the book, you know, you know, or Ferris Bueller, the book.

I literally still have all those books. They're they're amazing to look at. Like they pay an author, sometimes a good author to just basically take a script. I remember reading Beverly Hills Cop to the book, which I have. And there's like a deleted scene in there. I remember reading Beverly Hills Cop to the book, which I have, and there's like a deleted scene in there. I was like, oh, that must have been it. I was so excited to have a deleted scene. And also as like a pervy little kid,

like Axel Foley goes to like a strip club. That's like kind of the thing that he does in the first two films. And I was like, ooh, I get to read about nudity. That was so exciting to me. There's no sex. It was just that they were in a strip club and that felt scandalous to me. So I didn't read Lord of the Rings the way that probably most people read it, where they were I was in New York, uh, when the Lord of the Rings films were getting buzzed about like, oh, they're making Lord of the Rings. And I was like, oh, wow. I never read Lord of the Rings. I should read them now. So I read them as an adult and before they were out. And I just wanted to kind of, uh, dive into that world. And I absolutely loved it. Um, I didn't ever read the Hobbit until after I read the oh actually no that's a lie I read The Hobbit first because it's like a kids book

and then I went off and read the three and it was great I love the books the books are really wonderfully done now will you be reading the books on this podcast too? I think reading is going to come into play at some point but I'm not looking forward to that I was really nervous when you guys called me to do the podcast i was like oh boy am i gonna have to watch one of these movies again like like as somebody who watches on a minimum two movies a week to look to stare down the barrel at a three-hour movie i was like this is i mean this has been the problem we've

been facing is just like when you have the homework to watch the movie it's like oh my god i have to set aside two nights honestly because that's what i do i break it up you have to it's so much better build your own intermission i'm a big believer in it i'm a big believer of building your own intermission into it how is it for you with going through um with for unspooled you guys did the top 100 yeah what is the list who makes the list the afi top 100. Yeah. What is the list? Who makes the list? The AFI top 100 list, which is like, surprisingly, I went into many of those films going like, oh God, I gotta watch this.

And then you leave and you go, that was absolutely amazing. I feel better for knowing that that's out in the world than I feel, you know, so there's something really light about it. And then there are the ones that are just like i'm slogging through it i'm like oh god what was one that surprised you um there is this film there's been actually a bunch of great uh movies on that list that i didn't know about uh there was

one a silent film by wf murnau who uh who did like Shadow of the Vampire. Oh, he's already did Nosferatu, which then became Shadow of the Vampire, that John Malkovich movie. And it was called Sunrise. And it's beautiful. It's like this beautiful love story, but also incredibly weird and crazy. And I don't like silent films that much. Like I can if I'm in the right environment, but at home on my couch, it is going to knock me out. It is a sleeping pill beyond belief. Um, and, and I feel bad, but it's like, it's, if I'm in a theater, I can do it. But that movie just blew me away in what they were able to do. And there's this other movie and I'm just blanking on the name of it right now, but it's like a movie about soldiers coming home from the war with PTSD. And it was

way ahead of its time. No one's ever heard of it. It has a guy with, um, he was, he has amputated, uh, limbs and he's actually a real soldier who had this happen to him. And it's one of these films that like Steven Spielberg is like,

that's my favorite film of all time. Um, but it's, it's not available anywhere. You like occasionally AMC will play it and that's how you can kind of find it. Oh, wow.

Yeah. Like, I don't know why I'm not remembering that name, but that's what it is. What's a movie you've hated? Oh, God, there's so many on that list. There are so many. And you also have to watch for how did this get made? Like you have to watch bad movies, but that is a pleasure. It's a joy. It's a joy because, you know, talking about it on how did this get made it's like oh i can sit back and relax and be like what can i talk about here make fun of have like we just did uh deadly mile high club which is about like a flight instructor who falls in love with their student and then tries to kill everybody in his life it's like fatal attraction in the sky

i just watched fatal attraction last night for the first time i just watched it like a week ago really yeah is it good It's really good. I know. And I was like, I had this moment of, which I'm thinking is what you're experiencing with going through

this list of great movies. Like there's this feeling of like relaxation that washes over you when something's just good and you're like, yes. Oh, it's just going to be

a good, interesting story with great acting. Like, awesome. Yeah. It's like, oh, you're like, oh, this is a, yeah. There's something so nice. Like, oh, that's why

people love this movie yeah i think for me i've seen so many fucking after afi vietnam movies so many vietnam movies and um and like i i'm just gonna go out on a limb and say and i'm sure many people will disagree with me i'm not the biggest fan of john way. I did not like The Searchers. I don't think it was like that great. Like I, I like a Western. I don't know if I love John Wayne. And I will also go and say one thing that was really hard on the AFI list, and I'm not trying to sound like woke or like whatever, but it's the same point of view, which is white male dudes. It's like, that is it. There's one black director there are no female directors it's primarily just white casts and so there is this blurring of the lines where it's like okay

everything seems about the same and so whenever something is a little bit different it really like it pops you out of your seat because it's like oh i'm just yeah used to seeing this i just i feel like that list was basically created in the 70s. Like everybody who made films in the seventies are like, yeah, this is our list. And it's like, and, and so there's something a little flat about it in the general sense. And there are great movies in there, but yeah, that was like the thing that was like, that was what was tiresome about the list is just not no variety of a hundred movies be like, yeah, okay, here's another Holocaust film. I got got it i saw it i saw it you know it's like yeah so that's a hard thing about a list like that because i in my dream world it would be like

this is like a full scope of what film is in the last you know however many years like there would be something so nice i mean i'm sure people have made lists like that yeah we're trying to do that with our second season right now where we're trying to create the ultimate list. And when we feel like we have the ultimate list, we're going to blast it off into outer space. People who've listened to our show have figured out how we can, like, beam it into space. Wait, literally? Yeah, literally. Oh, I thought that was like a euphemism.

Yeah, we're like, blast it out for everybody. Like, no, we're taking it to the moon. We are literally blasting it out into outer space. So we have to ask the question, will the aliens like this movie? But we cut down the AFI list to 40 films out of 100. So we knocked off 60. So we have 60 slots to fill. Oh, that's fine.

And so now we're just going to go through and find different types of films. And this season has been so much fun. Like, our first miniseries has been all about like back to school, coming of age movies. And that has been awesome. Like I'm like, I feel invigorated by like just seeing different things, talking to different people.

It's always been really, really, really fun. That is fun. I have a movie that you should watch. It is neither good nor worth it, but it's called Flight 666. And I don't know if I've laughed harder than some of the choices these actors made.

I would watch it again. It was so funny. It wasn't meant to be, though. Well, have you guys seen Money Plane? Because Money Plane. No. Okay. Money Plane is Joey Lawrence.

You know, whoa. Yeah. Money Plane is Joey Lawrence. You know, whoa. His brother made a film that looks like from the thought of it to the completion was about two and a half weeks. That's a Tyler Perry schedule. Yeah, very quick. Grammar hires like a bank robber to rob the money plane, which is a plane in the sky, which is a no holds barred casino. Oh, yeah. Where they have money on the plane, but everything's done digitally. I don't understand it exactly, but it is one of the weirdest. I mean, it's all on a plane that it's so sad. It's a sad, sad and fun. And like those, but those movies bring me so much joy. Denise Richards is in it. Kelsey Grammer.

She's like my favorite real housewife right now. All-star cast. Yeah. It's an all-star cast. They all have one line each. Denise Richards literally peeks her head through a window at one point and like, okay, she's in the movie. We got her. Oh my God. Everyone's like, I can be there. Just give me a hard out. Are you watching Housewives of Beverly Hills? Oh, I love.

Oh my God. I love it. I love it. Oh my God. The stuff with Denise this season is so amazing. I just am obsessed. Denise Richards, that she, I mean, she's not coming back now, right? That's the whole thing.

Well, I also heard Teddy's not coming back. I mean, there's a whole shakeup happening, which is probably for the best. But Nicole, I don't know if you've ever watched any Real Housewives. I watched the first season of VOC and I was like, I can't believe these people act like this. And then I started watching Atlanta. I was like, these people are worse behaved. Atlanta to me is so fun. I mean, I always reference this thing of Atlanta. Like, I just love like the adventures that they are forced to go on. Like, there was one thing in Atlanta where they went to a portrait artist where he would take a picture of you with your devil side and your angel side. So there would be, like, a picture of you just being nice and sweet and then above your shoulder, like, you being, like, saucy and nasty.

And I was like, yes. That kind of, like, I don't know about those things. I'm like, yes, that like that kind of like, like, I don't know about those things. I'm like more of that. Like, same way like Beverly Hills. It's like they're going off to get things steamed or going. And like, I don't even know this is a thing. Go yoga. Like, great.

Bring me in. Yes. And honestly, like Denise with this season, Nicole, this season was really exciting because Denise supposedly had sex with Brandy, who was a previous housewife. And no one believed, no one knew who to believe, but pretty much they all believed Brandy. And by the way, her husband, insane, right? Her husband works in this way. He's working for some company where it's vitamins that make you bulletproof.

Wait, what? He's like, here's an electromagnet you put under your pillow and you will have no problems anymore. Like, it's truly like just things you're like, okay. It is bonkers. Like, legit bonkers. Everyone has fully lost their minds. Everyone is out of control. I can't handle it.

Speaking of fun things, what parts of the Lord of the Rings did you find fun? what parts of the Lord of the Rings did you find fun? You know, I think what you both said that I love and respond to in this series is kind of what Harry Potter has too, which is like the crazy characters, the birds under the head, the big, you know, like when Gandalf is on the tower, and again, I don't know names,

and I do love this trilogy, but I can't quote it all to you. But I love like when he jumps on the back of that big giant Hawk, I love the way the orcs are building their things. I love them going down barrels in the river. Like, you know, like the height differences are great. Like it's visually a fun movie. And I think, unfortunately the Hobbit suffered from the studio going, you took a 90 minute movie and you made it into nine hours. And I feel like, why would they have done that? But to me, if I had to pick Game of Thrones or this,

I think I would pick this over Game of Thrones because I think the world building, at least, I'm going to take the Peter Jackson version of it and I would even say that it extends to The Hobbit because the world building is still good but the story of Lord of the Rings I think a lot of people try to imitate and do but it really is it's one of the best versions of like a large

scale war and lands and people and fleshed out things I'm sure people right now are so mad at me that I'm I'm honestly thrilled to hear this because I don't want to watch Game of Thrones and Gabrus and I watched the first and last episodes for Raised by TV and just made up what happened in the middle and people didn't love that either but people are gonna get mad at you yeah people have nothing to do but get mad over podcasts but it's fun with this because I feel like okay if you're saying that this kind of does a lot of the same stuff, I'm like, now I have seen all of this.

So there's something really satisfying about that where we just know. And I'm just so glad to finally be able to say I know what this is. Wait, how many seasons of Game of Thrones are there? Like eight or something. There was a bunch. That's wild. I've only watched one episode. I mean, they get progressively worse.

Oh, they do. Oh, yeah. one episode. I mean, they get progressively worse. Oh, they do. Oh yeah. I mean, there's the funniest meme online is this like picture of a horse and they divided it up into cross sections. So I guess, uh, you know, uh, if, if there are eight seasons, I'm trying to think of like how many seasons are they, they cut up the horse into eight seasons and Oh, six. Oh, sorry. Eight seasons. So they cut up the horse. Uh, yeah, they cut it up into eight pieces and then the first you know first piece beautifully drawn horse like everything and the second piece like pretty good and third and then it's like oh the horse is looking a little bit weird and then like the four five and six like the horse is like the butt is just like

like it's like it's like a child and it's like and it is a perfect distillation of like where it went the actors are great and everything is fine but i don't know like lord of the rings and harry potter really the the books and the movies i think really did it the right way it pays off it ends really well i think the hobbit is what it is the hobbit is a kid's book that they tried to make into lord of the rings which lord of the rings is simply not that it's like lord of the rings is this epic tale. And they tried to do that. I think it would have been so much. I want like Topher Grace cut. Yes, the Star Wars. Star Wars down to like, you know, the first three movies into like one film or something like that. Or cut everything out of Phantom Menace that was bad.

And it was like a 15 minute movie. But I do think that someone should do that for The Hobbit. And just put it all together. And you would be like, whoa, like Peter Jackson's be like, hey, by the way, I did make a mistake. Here's the 90 minute version of The Hobbit. Enjoy. Yes. I'm sure someone will do it now.

Yeah. People have talked about a lot about the cartoon version, which is like 90 minutes, I think, and how they love it. And maybe that's going to be that. I love that one. We just have to accept that as being the short version oh you love that one oh when i was a kid that was a big hit in our family because we had i had uh we i'm an only child it was a big hit for me but it was like i love the drawings of it it was so kind

of like psychedelic it was in that time where i grew up right on that cusp of when things went from like animators who like we smoke lsd and we fucking live in a dragon world to like smurfs and shirt tails so like i just i had like a small crossover there and that hobbit felt like scary as shit like that the secret of nim watership down all those things like scared and scarred me but in a good way like it made me excited wait what is secret of nim why do i know that secret of nim is kind of like is that about a rat yeah it's about a rat it's like don bluth who did like oliver and company or yeah yeah yeah uh you know it's in space ace that video game and stuff but it's

really i mean again it's really cool my five-year-old memory of it is saying it's awesome but uh yeah but it's another like kind of, dark movie about a bunch of rats like living. It's like Watership Down, I think. But again, I'm sure everyone's screaming at me right now because I'm just being real, real not nerdy about it. And I do. I appreciate so much nerdy stuff. I don't know why some of the stuff doesn't register with me. I grew up much more in the Star Wars world. Like that was like my Star Trek, all that sort of stuff.

Oh, can I say one thing, too, that I really love love you said what are fun things about the lord of the rings i think they perfected the documentary of behind the scenes of a movie they really gave you access like on the dvds those docs are awesome like the the original trilogy they are giant films and i feel like they show you stuff that oh people are so much more protective over now. Like I feel like people don't sign the releases as much as they used to. Like I was, I'm obsessed with like that kind of like behind the scenes documentary. There's one on Pirates of the Caribbean, but like you hired this person, they're making it and you're going to see this moment. And it's like, people like, we don't know what the movie is.

Like, they literally are like, we're shooting in a week. We don't have anything. We don't have a script. And so you get to see those moments. That's amazing. And here, you do the same thing. Like, the docs on The Lord of the Rings are phenomenal.

Not since, the only good doc I've seen recently in that same vein was the run about Rian Johnson on Last Jedi. It was awesome. Really, really great awesome i'm curious about this because we brought up a bunch of times how peter jackson says he like improvised his way through making these movies yeah which i just imagine would be challenging for everyone else involved um but maybe there's some really good behind the scenes of people talking about what

that was like no they're because you know what they are doing that they're getting them and i think this is always the biggest thing is like you're getting them in the moment. Like for me, one of the best DVD commentary tracks of all time is from Justin to Kelly because they recorded it right before the movie came out. So like, oh, wow, people are going to love this. Oh, I love you. Like they're so positive. They're like and they are treating it like this thing was a fucking giant hit. And like we did it. We made grease like and it's. Oh, no. I have to watch that. Oh, it's like their commentary track. That's funny. It's it's great. And I think, again, you're getting these people in the moment and you're also seeing them at their wits end. Like they are in New Zealand. They are working like 90 days.

Like, you know, they're working like day after day. They're like they're gluing shit to their feet every day they're asleep in a chair they're miserable you get like the surly nature of it and then you watch like Viggo Mortensen like practicing sword play at like a local gymnasium and his son's like with them and it's like what's going on there and he's here's Viggo just walking in a town square with a giant ass fucking saber you know it's like so you're getting like like, these weird moments of just, like, here's this crew in New Zealand where they're psyched to have them,

but they don't even know what this is. That's so funny. Interesting. I feel like that would, like, make me anxious to be like, okay, so I'm shooting this, like, huge-scale fantasy thing that is revered and people love, and now there's a camera following me

as I go to a gym to learn how to sword fight well don't you feel like you get like surly i mean we've all worked on like we all are human beings right and we have like good days bad days good moments bad moments and and i and i think when you're on set you're in a vulnerable position but then to have a camera like just snaking you and just like watching you in a moment then knowing like, oh, fuck, like you have to be on doubly. Like it's like I have to be on as an actor and then I have to be on as a person who's going to be on a reality show. And that sucks. Like it's like, yeah, because I can be a dick every now and then.

And and and every it's all forgiven in the moment because you're like, oh, highs and lows of a for a for you shoot. But yeah, it's the dickish thing you've ever done? Let's all tell a story. Okay, so I screamed at all these PAs and threw coffee at them. But it was because I was having a hard day. I try to get it. I get one person fired on the first day I work

just because I need to prove myself right away. Oh, man. No, I've seen some... I've seen so many, many like pieces of bad behavior like it's crazy like and the people the only rule i always say is like when people are being mean it's like just don't yell at the person making the least amount of money like i'd rather you like yell at yell at the big people don't yell at the people who are like don't yell at a pa i've seen people yell at a pa and it's like get the fuck out of here like know, like take that shit to somebody who can go home to their million dollar mansion.

Not somebody who's like, like I share with four other dudes and my kitchen's actually a bedroom. But if I don't go there from 10 a.m. to two, it's fine. Right. I just want to write. People are so shitty. It's crazy to witness people being like just nasty. And I've had people do it to me as a fellow actor. I worked with someone one time where they were like so mean to me.

And I was just like a guest. And they were like really like condescending and harsh. And it was just like awful. Like I was like, okay, I have to just ignore you now and try to do this. Yeah. like I was like okay I have to just ignore you now and try to do this yeah I once had an actor that I respected uh look at my dressing room and go oh she got the bigger room how interesting and I was like um I didn't choose this this is not my fault you can't be mad at me and then she was like pretty nasty for the rest of the shoot wow wow that's not cool i once uh saw somebody somebody go like this you can't really see it so i would describe it like sitting down in a chair

in between takes and just extend his arm like almost like uh like tony stark as iron man there's like funk and and put it in like a cup kind of shape. And it was like Diet Coke. And just like waited there for someone to place it in his like Kung Fu ready hand. Like to put it. I was like, that is one of the most fucked up things. It's burned in my brain. It's literally burned in my brain.

I can't unsee it. That's crazy. Okay. Well, should we jump into our Shirewire, which is our news segment here? Now, we have some news from the set of the Amazon Lord of the Rings series. It's very big and expensive. That's shocking.

The series will be set before the events of the Lord of the Rings take place in a time period called the Second Age. And thanks to the coronavirus earlier earlier this year, over 800 cast and crew members were sent home from filming. Now they're back at it shooting in West Auckland, New Zealand. It is lucky that they were shooting in New Zealand where it's like there's no cases. Yeah. The price tag for production of five seasons.

By the way, it's five seasons already, is reportedly $1 billion. That's too much money for TV. That's too much. But five seasons. I mean, here's the thing. The other part of this is, would you want to do this show? As an actor, would you want to be on the show? Because you have two things going against you. One, you have to live up to expectations two you also are not being it's not being done by peter jackson and it's going to be compared to game of thrones which everyone loves it's like there's so many variables against you for it to fail like no one's rooting for this no one's rooting for this uh one of the stars oh boy moy furf clark reportsiffrf, I'm really sorry

if you hear this. Morfith? But it's spelled M-O-R-F-Y-D-D so that's why we don't know what's going on. I also was looking at the phonetic pronunciation and still couldn't do it. Morfith. I would never guess that that was a T-H with the two D's. I wonder. Well, if Morfith

listens, you can truly send me a voice memo on how to pronounce your name and I'll practice it. Yes. So he said, or they said, one guy's job

consists of just seeing how dust reacts to footsteps and breath. Oh boy, oh boy. That's very funny. Wait, I don't get it. So it's somebody who's part of,

I assume, art department who gets to present to the director. Here's what a footstep looks like in this dust. Wow. And here's what a footstep looks like in this dust. And if you blow on this, you can see what this dust does.

And that's like, that's their job. Because I guess there's going to be a lot of dust. It's going to be a dusty load of the rigs. Oh, my gosh. I mean, I think the one thing, Paul, that would make me want to work on this a lot is that it's shooting in new zealand where there's no coronavirus and they get work for five years yeah would you want to work for five years in new zealand no no i don't think i would but i do like the idea of five years of being like safe feeling where you can go around it might not be for five

years they might do they might shoot it the way they shot the trilogies, which was like a year. That's true. Why would they wait if they know they're going to do five? Maybe your character would die after the first season. That would be great. They can come back. Yeah. All right.

Well, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back with some memes and parodies right after this short break. If you're wondering what a NordVPN is, I'll tell you. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, a service that protects your internet connection and online privacy. A VPN creates an encrypted tunnel for your data, protect your online identity by hiding your IP address, and allow you to use public Wi-Fi hotspots safely.

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N-O-R-D-V-P-N dot com slash newcomers. It's risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee. Link is in the episode description. So, okay, we're back. We're going to look at some memes and parodies. Let's do it. I cannot wait for this. Now, this is right up my alley because I love a good parody. I know that Lord of the Rings has been parodied so many times by so many smart people. I think the first Lord of the Rings parody was based out of the Harvard Lampoon. I think it's called Board of the Rings. So the Harvard Lampoon's first book, and maybe I'm sacrilege, but it's like these nerdy guys got together and were going to write our funny version of Lord of the Rings. So like the Harvard Lampoon's like first book, and maybe I'm sacrilege,

but it's like these nerdy guys got together and like, we're going to write our funny version of Lord of the Rings. And it also speaks to who the fans are in this. Like one of my friends, who's like one of the nerdiest, smartest comedy people I know, has named his kids after characters in Lord of the Rings.

Like he is obsessed. I really want to know what names are. Which names did they pick? Arwen. Oh, that one's pretty. It's a beautiful name. Yeah, it's a beautiful name. Not Boromir? Legolas. Yeah, not Boromir or Gandalf?

If I have a son, I'm naming him Gandalf. Well, I think so many kids, people name their kids like, what is it, the Emilia Clarke's character in Lord of the Rings. I mean, Game of Thrones, right? Is it Daenerys? Or like, yeah. Is it Daenerys or like, yeah. Oh, Daenerys.

Yeah. Huh. You don't want to be like a six-year-old, like, my name's Daenerys. Like, from that show? It's like naming your kid like Webster. You're like, I'm Webster. Like, oh, wait.

Like, no, there's only one. That's so funny. I wonder if there has to be somebody out there named Webster after Webster. Maybe. That's so funny i wonder if there has to be somebody out there named webster after webster maybe that's so funny that's fine i'm doogie my parents love that show um i'm zach morris uh so the first meme is a picture of betty white in her youth it's created by Kuka Rot. And it says. Kuka Kraut. Interesting fact.

Betty White used to be Betty Gray until she fought the Balrog and was reborn. Oh, wow. Okay. This is deep nerdy stuff. But I will say, isn't it Gandalf the Gray? So it should be Betty the Gray. Whoa. Am I a be Betty the gray. Whoa. Am I a fucking nerd?

You should post this meme with your edits on it. Like red marks, like arrow. Okay. Let's get it right. That's cute. I mean, I like,

I mean, I do feel like it says a lot that we fully get that one. Yeah. Enough to correct it. But by the way, like, like, all right, come down this journey with me of going all right i love lord of the rings that's cool that he went from white to gray betty white okay now googling a picture of betty white like i need this is an

old picture of betty white like like this is the amount of legwork you had to do to get this like slightly mediocre joke out is pretty. I probably would have done. Did you know Barry White used to be Barry the Gray? I would go with that in a heartbeat. By the way, this person is also missing the biggest part, which is like he should put a picture of her with gray hair. Yes. I mean, he basically is posting a picture of her with dark hair which even confuses me i i get upset when people post memes they don't think it through like i was really mad

at shannon sharp for this stupid meme that he posted about the clippers after they lost in the playoffs so sad i'm still upset about it but it was a get out of the playoffs it was like a parody of the get out poster and it was like, this movie got five rotten tomatoes. And I'm like, that's not even a metric of what the website you're parodying. It's like, just commit to the bit. Just do the

whole thing. Anyway, that's my I'm going to probably have trouble with some of these memes. My punch up to this is that instead of any of this, i would just put a picture of betty white when she was young and just put betty the gray and not explain it and if you understand you understand i think that's a good punch up thank you what i would do is take a picture of uh of uh gandalf and then like Photoshop in Betty White's face.

So she would be in the full costume because right here, what I want, what I want it to be is like Betty White used to be Betty the Gray until she fought Balrog and was reborn, which means that Betty White also had the journey of Gandalf, which I don't agree with. So you have to change it to something that is betty white specific like betty white fought you know whatever and now she became betty the gray i would just just put her in the movie and then all of a sudden i think that's that you know because i think you're right yeah she needs to be in a wizard hat for this yeah a hundred percent would it be betty fought the rest of the golden girls because they're all dead yeah i, I mean, I was kind of trying to figure out what the Balrog would be in our world

and I don't know. Alf? She fought Alf and was reborn. Yeah. I would watch that. Betty White and Alf together. Let's do it. Sounds great.

Yo, Betty! Let's see the next one. Okay, so this is a meme. I'm going to describe it for everyone out there, okay? It says, normal people when they're sick and it's Frodo in bed. It's all white and it's like glowing light on him.

And then people with COVID-19 and it's Bilbo who's when he's 111 holding something. And it says after, oh, it's a ticket, I guess. And he says, after all, why not? Why shouldn't I travel? Got it. Okay. ticket i guess and he says after all why not why shouldn't i travel got it okay so this is a this is kind of this is kind of saying and i think it's a this is actually pretty you know not controversial but pretty uh pointed remark about when people are sick with the flu they take care of themselves but when people know that covid's out there they're being a lot more risky. And I do feel like, you know, look, this is a socially conscious tweet.

But I was surprised that they would, like politics or, you know, not politics, but I guess this is, I'm surprised at the timeliness of this. Yeah, this one's really fresh. Yeah, fresh off the press. And actually, it seems like it was posted six months ago by user AcroMan um a acro man zero one but so like

he got this person got in right at the beginning of all this and they're like i have the perfect meme for this it's a lord of the rings i'm taking a very specific line which it's based on bilbo's line after all why not why shouldn't i keep it and i'm gonna change it to after all, why not? Why shouldn't I travel and just really roast these people with COVID? Yeah. I mean, it's so wild. This was made six months ago and we're still in this. Only getting worse. Yeah.

That part's the hard part. I think every day when I realize this is still happening, I have to like really just process it over and over again. I truly thought I'd be a couple of weeks and be like, all right, we made it through. Yeah. Right. Sometimes it falls on the list in my mind of like the third or fourth most important thing. And that is, oh, this thing can kill me. But yet it is not number one. Right. Like I'm like, I have two other things in front of this that I'm so upset about and worried about. Yes. every day.

Yeah, but my bottom is still pretty much a number one. And I can't leave my house and all of this stuff. Yes. I mean, now that the fires have dissipated a bit, I'm at least able to go outside for a walk. And I did that yesterday and I was like, now I'm happy. And I was like, the bar is so low. So low. It's really crazy. So low.

I agree. Like I went outside after the fires dissipated a little bit and I was like, oh, right. Back to normal pollution. Right. It was like the air was moderately harmful. And I was like, great. What happened with this is like I was looking so much at like the air quality index and I saw how bad it was. And now I'm looking at the air quality index.

I'm like, oh, but this is normal. Wow, it's pretty bad. Like, it's like I was thinking, I was like, oh, it's going to drop down to like 70s or 60s. No, no, it's like pretty much in the upper 90s, 100s. Yeah, it's still pretty hot. It's always bad for us and we just accept it. So wait, Paul, do you want to read this one? Yes.

Okay, so this is posted by Mashie2, and this is about a month ago. And the title is Just Let Boromor Borrow It. And so, all right, it's three slides. The first one is, if you would lend me the ring. And then Frodo says no. He goes, why not? My name is Boromor, not Steelamor, you overgrown poodle. Okay.

That one, it doesn't do anything for me. And my criticism of this is that my assumption is maybe that it was made by either a child or an old person. Like there's no in between. Old people rocking out the memes? Yeah. I think this was a dad who just discovered Reddit and was like, I could do one. Dad jokes. This is a great dad joke.

Like, yeah, borrow more versus steal more. I mean, this is so stupid. But you know what? My favorite one of the bunch. Because this is what memes should be. Like, this is the level that we should be at. Like, so far, I'm like, you accomplished the dumbest thing. I get it.

It's simple. I'm not confused with the other ones. The other ones are a little bit like they're trying to make a point so hard, but you don't have enough line space to all make it work here. There's enough lines. Like I get it. It all, it all tells me a story. I don't love it, but I get it.

Well, the next one is pretty, I would say, divisive, kind of. So this is Mouth Smasher. This was a month ago. The quote above it is, Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life. Which, you know, I get that. But it's a picture of Gandalf. I think he's Gandalf the Grey here.

And it says, What can you see? And then there's a picture of Gandalf. I think he's Gandalf the Grey here. And it says, what can you see? And then there's a picture of the ring. And it says there are markings. And on the ring, it says, I refuse to wear a mask. And then Frodo says, it's some form of selfish. Now, I like, again, going back to the itch that this scratches for me, selfish, elfish, I'm in. I'm into this terrible dad joke but i don't necessarily understand this besides that wordplay like like what is

i mean i get it but like why would the ring be saying that yeah why does the ring refuse to wear a mask and then i guess like i feel like if i'm what i'm guessing happened is the person was like selfish everyone keeps saying it's so selfish not wear a mask that sounds like elvish yes and then they were like let's work backwards from there but what is the is the inscription on the ring in elvish let's say yes okay yeah i don't think you i don't think we we can read it. Yeah. Like, I don't remember being able to read anything on it. But it's weird.

It's like, now you've seen it recently. I have not. Do the markings change in the ring? Is it like an LED light board? Does it go around differently? I don't think it's like a magic eight ball. It lights up when you're looking or you're susceptible to its vibes yeah see i would do a thing because this ring makes you disappear right when you put it on so i would make when you put it on you get a mask so like make sure you always

wear your ring out in public and you're and you're always wearing the mask so you're protected the same way that photo was protected when he was invisible. But it also makes you go crazy. So that's a tricky conflict. Yeah, I'm going to say this meme for me doesn't do it. I think it's a bit of a stretch. I want it to be sillier. I feel like where these coronavirus, Lord of the Rings crossover,

I'm like, I'm looking to unwind with a meme, you know, not think about the news. Well, also it doesn't, this literally doesn't make sense to the plot of Lord of the Rings, nor does it like make sense in the world. There's, Lauren, you are exactly right. There's one thing that is selfish, elfish.

That's the, everything was backwards created from that. All right, let's see this next one now I'm a little confused but there is apparently a reference point for this okay so it's the title of this reddit thread first of all it's from bagelgooseb2 and it says did he really have to bite

it like that okay so there's a guy smiling and then it says watching orcs literally cannibalize each other and then the guy is kind of like slack jaw like huh and it's watching orcs literally cannibalize each other and then the guy is kind of like slack jaw like huh and it's watching Denethor eat that one tomato and then we I think we have to click this yeah and I'm watching

it I don't remember this part of the movie I love this now I mean it's unfortunate that you would need to click link. So I mean, the link has to explain the meme. Like you don't want to have like annotation with your meme to like make it make sense.

But if you're a hardcore fan, you would definitely get it. You would know. You would know. The way that man eats that tomato is disgusting. That was truly sick. This meme's funny. And I don't mind that there were steps. No, I like it. Yeah. I like that. Best one. That was truly sick. This meme's funny and I don't mind that there were steps. No, I like it.

I like that we did work. Best one. Best one so far. That one's really good. Okay. Love that. All right, so now it's time

for some watch-along content. Yes, this is a simple walk into Mordor, episode one, synopsis. Two super nerds do in six days

what took Frodo and sam three movies to complete they will walk the 120 mile or plus mile journey across new zealand uh from the filming location of hobbiton to uh maltima oh no to the filming location of mount doom mount nagu babloop and this is only the first of five episodes. If you want to follow along on YouTube, the video is called A Simple Walk Into Mordor, Episode 1, posted by Rooster Teeth. Oh, and they're very funny. Yes, and we're going to start it in

3, 2, 1. Hi, I'm Keri Shawcross. And I'm Chris Demers. And we're two diehard Lord of the Rings fans. We've seen all the movies a dozen times, read and re-read the books, watched the movies a few more times, and then read the books again. In Lord of the Rings, Frodo and Sam walk all the way from the Shire to the heart of Mordor, Mount Doom. This journey took them about six months of walking to complete, or in layman terms, three books. Because, you know, one does not simply walk into Mordor.

How far is that, though? Since you can't exactly does not simply walk into Mordor. How far is that, though? Since you can't exactly plug the Shire of Mordor into Google Maps, we looked at the distance between the filming locations in New Zealand used by Peter Jackson. And as it turns out, Frodo and Sam actually took the long route to Mordor. The set of Hobbiton is here. They shot Rivendell all the way down here. Here's the Mines of Moria. And the mountain used for Mount Doom is here.

Right next to Hobbiton. Really. It turns out, the total distance from the set of Hobbiton to Mount Nerohoi, the mountain used for Mount Doom is here. Right next to Hobbiton. Really? It turns out the total distance from the set of Hobbiton to Mount Nerohoe, the mountain used as Mount Doom, is only about 120 miles. 120 miles? You know, it seems like one could simply walk to Mordor, right? So after realizing this, we naturally hopped on a plane and flew to New Zealand for a week. It was a long trip, but we had good in-flight entertainment. We loaded up backpacks with camera, survival, and Hobbit gear and headed to Matamata, the home of the Hobbiton film set.

This is Nick, our New Zealand travel partner, who will walk with us and document the journey. We have six days to do what took Frodo and Sam three films to complete. We will take our official Lord of the Rings Ring of Power replica 120 miles to Mount Doom and destroy it. Easy, right? I mean, how hard could it be? It's just a simple walk into Mordor. And so we found ourselves in the beautiful set of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, ready to begin our nearly 200-kilometer, 120-mile journey.

You ready? Yep. Well, 120-mile journey. You ready? Yep. Well, let's do it. He's us, guys. Sorry. Sorry. Unfortunately, we were with a guided tour of the set, so it was a little awkward while we were leaving.

And then we had to wait for the tour to finish before we could actually start walking, so we kind of just hung out for a bit. I kind of really want to see what they are like at the end of 120 miles. I know, I know. They put hobbit feet over their shoes.

They're wearing capes and backpacks full of shit. Now they look really nerdy and ready for the thing but I feel like by the time they get

to the end it's going to be like haggard. But why do they start off with a tour? Maybe they had to to be able to go there? I bet you because you can't go to those sets without being supervised. I see.

Let's just go that way. Yeah, let's just go this way. In order to reach Mount Doom in time for a return flight, we're going to have to average about 20 to 25 miles per day. We started with a shortcut by cutting across some farmland. Oh look at the baby lambs. All lambs are baby lambs. Awwww.

That's cute. And that's lunch for tonight. You don't eat lunch at night. That's dinner for tonight. There is so much crap. That's a little known fact about Middle Earth. It's 50% sh... Yeah, we got a lot of poop ahead of us. Oh, no!

I snapped my walking stick! God damn it! Well, that was quick. I quit! I'm out! No, you can't drink out of that. Why not? I wouldn't recommend it. You'll probably get sick.

That's probably cow water, huh? Yeah. I mean, a lot of this is them terrorizing animals. I know. Get away from them. Is this electric? Yes. Oh, God. God damn it, Chris. If you electrocute me because you're using a plastic toy, I'm going to strangle you. All right.

I can get it myself. Oh, here it's... No. We've scared the cows enough. We've got... I hate this. I know. They're pissing me off.

I'm so angry at this. Right? I don't like that they're terrorizing these poor cows. We're just living a life. And it's also like it's a flawed experiment. It's like you're just walking from set to set. If there was a part... I know why I'm

getting caught up in the we did it in six days. But you didn't just traverse the same amount of space that they did. That's stupid. I mean, it's fine. Watching these two guys hike, I guess.

I want to see them go to sleep and shit. It's like watching somebody's home videos. It is. There's not enough going on. I'm like, let's just get to the point where they get tired of walking. Didn't need six videos of this.

Give me one. This is like the Hobbit of videos. YouTube hiking videos. It's like they made it into a seven-minute video that should be two minutes. Yeah. All I keep on thinking is they wrecked their vacation. They get like one week off a year and they did this. That's so dumb when you're walking so much

and one day you're just going to run for no reason towards animals? And we're going to make it up tomorrow. So tomorrow's going to be. I like this New Zealander person. He's very handsome. We've got. Over a hundred miles left. And even more.

Only walk 20 miles. Boop. But send the lava. And not my knee. You know, I won't join the journey. Are they done? To me, it doesn't look like it was hard at all because they're wearing, like, full-on hobbit costumes the entire time.

Ugh! Ugh! He just popped a blister with a safety pin that's the end all right that's five more videos to go wow i yeah i'd be out after that first one i i mean i think they should do it the way that uh it's filmed like walk past where you're supposed to go and then loop back to where yeah just do what they did in them in the in the movie okay I want to jump into this next one because it's VeggieTales Lord of the Beans oh perfect I love VeggieTales did you ever watch it in school I had to that's the only place I ever saw it it's super religious right VeggieTales I know you ever watch it in school? I had to, that's the only place I ever saw it. In school? It's super religious, right?

VeggieTales? Yeah, it's religious. I know. We watched it in Spanish class though. Maybe there was some Spanish episode. I don't know, but Lord of the Beans

is the 27th episode in the VeggieTales series and it teaches the lesson of how to use your gifts. What restraint 27 episodes in before they hit their parody? It stars Junior Asparagus as Toto Baggy Pants,

who receives a special gift of a bean that could give him anything. We're starting this video at the 5.30 mark, so if you want to follow along on YouTube, the video is called Lord of the Beans Veggie Tales T3E1, posted by Karakatons. This is interesting.

The fun fact here is really fascinating to me, that due to a strong resemblance of its source material, the episode's not available to purchase domestically in Australia or New Zealand. But I don't understand. So Australia and New Zealand refuse parody? Right. Of course it's going to look like the thing. That's the idea. Yeah, it would be like, oh, we don't air Naked Gun or Airplaneplane in the United States because it too closely resembles the movies that we make for Sirius. So this scene will supposedly provide some catharsis for us after all the impossible names of people and places we are forced to pronounce and try to remember. And if you want to follow along, it starts at the 2206 mark. We're going to start it in three, two, one. So these elders must be as old as the

trees. No, they are the trees. Hail elders of the raspberry forest. May your fruit never fall. I already love this. Yeah. I mean, it is identical to the film.

Welcome, Randolph, son of Gandalf. Randolph. The flame of Remorfia Olylith. Thank you for your welcome, Lord Falaminion Terroglyph, son of Fairbill Olythemon. Randolph son of Mandol did you come here to admire my jewelry no Lord phallominion teragliff son of matter of a beam that brings us here a beam that I believe may be you mean Randolph son of Mandol I think this is very funny I sold this is very funny. I like this. Sold.

This is great. One of them is the Keebler elf. Ew. Ew. Paul, was this on AFI's list? This is absolutely perfect. I've never loved a thing more. Okay. Oh, that kind of raspberry.

I said no matter what happens, don't laugh or smile. Didn't I say that? Well, you didn't mention they were gonna talk like that so how long will they keep us here the last fellow i knew who made fun of their language was up here for 12 years then they let him go no he was blown off in a windstorm never seen again that felt so much like the movies that i don't even know what to tell you right now. I liked it, I guess, because I was looking at, like, cartoon vegetables and they were silly. Yeah, I like the voices. Yeah.

Okay, wait, this is exciting. This next one, Frodo, Don't Wear the Ring by Flight of the Conchords, because Brett McKenzie appeared in the first and third movies, which we like we barely recognized him because he looked so different

and in in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and his silent role in the first film as Figwit achieved some minor internet fame

which led to Jackson giving him a line in the third film and in April 2011 he was cast as the elf Linder for the upcoming The Hobbit

his father Peter McKenzie played the role of Elendil in The Lord of the Rings. Oh. So if you want to follow along on YouTube, the video's called Flight of the Conchords, proto Don't Wear the Ring, and it's posted by Middle of Middle Earth.

And we're going to start it in three, two, one. Okay, guys, come on. Look a bit more... Afraid, okay? Don't be scared of the... Sand- The dirt on your feet, Brett. It's down properly.

Okay, so you're scared. You're huddling together. Ringwraith is coming. Get your ring out. Many spies have many eyes. One reach to find them, one reach to find them, one reach to rule them all. One reach to find them, one reach to find them, one reach to rule them all. Yeah! You know, Frodo, you've got to rule them. Frodo, rule them with grip.

Come on, rule them with your weakness. Lord Sauron has many spies, beasts and birds. If you want him, come and claim him. Do they Gandalf? I'm not a conjurer of cheap tricks. I can't carry the ring. I can carry you, Mr Frodo. You have my sword and my bow and my axe.

Lord, all you need is And my ass. Lord, I'll name each for my name. Mordor. We'll never make it. There's thousands of them and only nine of us. Oh, we made it. Hooray. We made it. Yo, Frodo, what you doing wearing the ring?

All powerful jewelry, is that your new thing? I know it's hard when you're little more than 3.4, your little ass so close to the floor Tryna meet the fellows at the gate tomorrow The fellowship, yeah the fellowship But don't rap about bitches and hoes I'll rap about witches and trolls Cause I'm passing on the word to the Elva King

Who is the new wall Proto, what you doing wearing the ring? Oh, powerful jewelry, is that your new thing? I know it's hard when you're little more than 3.4 Your little ass so close to the floor Tryna meet the fellows at the gate tomorrow The fellowship, yeah the fellowship But don't rap about bitches and hoes I'll rap about witches and trolls Cause I'm passing on the word to the Elva King Who is the new wall Wow.

That was fun. That's truly like if you, I thought it was great, but if you have one line in the movie and then you make a whole song about that movie, it's a bold move. Yeah. Yeah. They're also so great.

I mean, I feel like that, like I'm missing stuff like that. I feel like there were more like movies, like songs about movies. Weird Al Yankovic, I feel like did it. I feel like did it. I feel like people were doing this back in the day more. And, and I, and I appreciated it.

It was a, yeah, I'm, I'm all on board with that. That was my favorite video so far. Next to the VeggieTales. I mean, the VeggieTales one really did it for me.

And then I guess that one, Flight of the Conchords is a close second. Yeah. I mean, look, the VeggieTales one was basically Lord of the Rings, just with vegetables. So, that one, Flight of the Conchords, is a close second. Yeah. I mean, look, the VeggieTale one was basically Lord of the Rings just with vegetables. So, I mean, so on that level, parody was not, it wasn't even parody. It was simply just vegetables.

It was a clip from the movie redrawn with vegetables. Can I talk to you before, I won't reveal what this is yet. This is one of my favorite things. I own this thing that we're going to be talking about. So it's amazing. And speaking of songs and movies being inspired by songs, the same way that Neil Diamond watched E.T. and came home and wrote Turn On Your Heartlight. Like that's what we're walking into now. I forgot about that.

That's like the funniest thing. He was so moved by the film E.T. He was like, fuck, I got this. Turn on your heart light. I mean, when you think of it, it's even so, I mean, it's dumber. But like when you, I love it. All right. You can set this up because I cannot wait for this.

Okay. You want to read this one, Nicole? Sure. The Ballad of Biblo Baggins is a song composed by Charles Randolph Green, and it's performed by Leonard Nimoy, telling the story of Bobo Baggins and his adventures in J.R.R. Tolkien's novel The Hobbit. Recording was featured on the two sides of Leonard Nimoy, the second of Nimoy's albums.

When the single was originally released, Nimoy lip-synced to the recording during a guest appearance on the 1967 episode of Malibu U, a short-lived variety television series. The segment survives as a music video and shows Nimoy and a group of color-coordinated young women all

wearing plastic pointed ears singing and dancing a strange waddling dance on a beach. By the way, this is confusing to most people because they're all wearing pointy ears. Now, Leonard Nimoy known for also being a character that wears pointy ears. But I would imagine that it's confusing. He is doing an ode to a character.

He is not. Well, anyway. Yeah. Okay. So if you want to follow along on YouTube, the video is called Nimoy Sings Bilbo Baggins, posted by SunFun2210. Okay, I'm excited to see this. The music is so perfect. We're going to start in three, two, one, go.

In the middle of the earth, in the land of the air. Yeah, confusing. In the middle of the earth, in the land of the fair, Yeah, confusing. There's a brave little hobbit whom we all admire. With his long wooden pipe, fuzzy woolly toes, he lives in a hobbit hole and everybody knows him. Bilbo, Bilbo Baggins, he's only three feet tall. Bilbo, Bilbo Baggins, the bravest little hobbit of them all. Wow. Hmm.

Hmm. Hmm. This is wild. The bravest little hobbit of them all Well, he fought with the goblins He battled a troll He riddled with Gollum A magic ring he stole He was chased by wolves Lost in the forest

Escaped in a barrel from the elf king's halls Bilbo, Bilbo, Bilbo Baggins, the bravest little hobbit of them all. This is rather catchy. It is. I'm like, I guess I could drive around to this. Now he's back in his home in the

land of the Shire That brave little hobbit home we all admire Just a-sittin' on a treasure of silver and gold A-puffin' on his pipe in his hobbit hole Bilbo, Bilbo, Bilbo Baggins Bilbo, Bilbo, Bilbo, Bilbo, Bilbo Bilbo, Bilbo Baggins The bravest little hobbit of them all Bilbo, Bilbo, Bilbo Baggins Wow. What did you think of that? I like it. I thought it was very fun and it was very

gidget, you know, kind of vibes. Is this, was he a singer? Well, he released an album, which I pulled up here. I'll explain what it looks like. It's a picture of Leonard Nimoy. It's two pictures of him. And one is Spock, and he's facing profile. And the other is Leonard Nimoy, and he's facing profile. And they're looking at each other.

And the album is called Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy. And there are all these amazing songs. This is what I own. sides of Leonard Nimoy and there are all these amazing songs this is what I own um and he I guess in 1968 riding high on the Spock wave uh he just was like I want to get this out you know we make fun of like Jared Leto and you know whatever 30 seconds to Mars Leonard Nimoy was doing it all before you know he was like let's do this yeah that's so fun it is confusing though because it did look like his star trek character singing about biblo i know well like he wore pointy ears in the video i think it was pretty grainy but like to make the choice to wear the ears but you're singing about someone else i don't

know it's funny i will also say that that album which is really interesting if you're a star trek person one side are all songs as spock oh and one side is all songs as Spock. Oh. And one side is all songs as Leonard Nimoy. So maybe he was seeing that from Spock's perspective. Another pointy, weird person. He's like, that's my family. But yeah, that's a really bizarre thing. There's seven Spock-specific songs on that album.

That's a real treat. I like it. That's really fun. Yeah, go look it up and you will. It's I'll tell you something. It's perfect. I probably won't. But it's nice to know that it's out there. It's there. It's there. Speaking of things that are out there, we've come to the end. Paul, do you have anything you want to plug? I don't. I mean, I feel like we talked about it. I have some podcasts. I've been doing some fun stuff on Twitch as I'm exploring whatever that is, since we can't

perform in the real world anymore. But yeah, no, I, you know, you can follow me. You can listen to podcasts. And I just love being here. And I love talking about Lord of the Rings with you both. Well, I'm going to plug something for you. We mentioned it earlier. Black Monday.

I started watching it. It's so funny. Oh, thank you so much. It's a real treat. It's set in the watching it. It's so funny. Oh, thank you so much. It is so funny. It's a real treat. It's set in the 80s. It's like a period piece comedy. I thoroughly am enjoying it.

I am so happy that you are. Don Cheadle is awesome. And he has been so much fun. And Regina Hall is like one of the funniest people I've ever met. So she's hilarious. Andrew Rannell's great. And Yasser Lester and Horatio Sands. It's such a fun cast. It's co-created by the guy who created Happy Endings. And yeah,

I feel like we're on Showtime. So no one has Showtime. So they're they they don't know it exists. So I feel like people are like, oh, wait a second. I stumbled on this and it makes it really hard to find it. Well now it's on Hulu. Oh, there you go. That's how I found it. It's on Hulu. Finally, we need to get on that Hulu. Oh, that's great. Yeah, that's important. And you learned how to roller skate or roller blade. I did. I learned how to roller skate and roller blade. I had lost so much weight because my character in the second season moves.

And I had to be shirtless. And there's nothing more for me where I needed to be. I was like, if I'm going to have my shirt off, I have to. I can't be this middle. I have to figure out one side or the other gotta, if I'm gonna have my shirt off, I have to, I can't be this middle. I have to figure out one side of the other. And so, I did a lot of work

and I learned how to roller skate and I learned how to roller blade. And I, I want to go join you, Nicole, on your roller skating one time. I want to.

Oh my God, you would probably be racing circles. You had like lessons and everything, didn't you? We'll see. We'll see.

My instructor, Appaloosa, is amazing. She's great. She's awesome. What a Appaloosa, is amazing. She's great. She's awesome. What a fun name. She's awesome. She's great.

Oh, I guess her name is Apple. Her full name is Appaloosa, I believe. Yes. Oh, okay. She's great. Wait, are you getting roller skating lessons from Gwyneth Paltrow's daughter, Apple? I'm funny. I'm very funny.

This should be a meme. These memes. Make these memes. Make these memes. This has been so good. And I can't wait to see what you explore next. Oh my God. Thank you. I am nervous for what's next.

But Nicole, we're still in the middle of this. So do you have anything you want to plug while we're here? I'm going to plug talking to your friends about voting, talking to your friends about voting talking to your parents about voting um since i've watched that documentary i've learned that me posting is just serving people what they've already seen right so to talk to people who aren't seeing uh what what we see talk to them talk to cousins talk to people yeah and i and I'm going to just use this opportunity to plug your Patreon and mine. And I'm going to say voting is also really important.

And I did feel really frustrated watching that documentary and thinking like, because even though I get comments from Trump supporters, but like they don't, they're not going to be, their minds not going to be changed by my post. So it's not like I'm giving them. There was a study this week that said that most voters

who are voting for trump or biden don't know anybody else like they're not in the like the social circles are not connecting which is actually kind of uh upsetting because i feel like we're so ingrained in what we like it's almost blind faith right now it's like the way i go and treat like uh tom cruise or denzel washington movie it's like the way I go and treat like a Tom Cruise or Denzel Washington movie. It's like, I'll, I'll, I'll see it. Like, I'm just going, like, you don't even need to tell me anything about it. And I think we do need to be careful about what we are voting in. But I also want to just bang the drum of saying locally, look locally, because there's so much shit happening locally, like from judges and bills and bills are worded to fuck you up and there's money taken out and

it's like it's public school is so important and and we have a kid that goes to public schools like so if you don't want to get involved in the big stuff just go there and get involved in the little stuff because that stuff will literally affect you yeah because you have a kid charter schools are a real interesting thing that i've recently started looking into because my sister works in the school and she was explaining to me that like the choice to choose leaves out what it's a it's a very it's very deep it's interesting like right now I mean zoom is leaving kids out I mean I've been so worried about that oh you need to have wi-fi you need to have a computer you need to have headphones like you know it's a class and shell yeah it's upsettingly classes and uh and yes we've

made a bunch of great strides in la especially with like food and and all these ipads and bullshit but it's it will have very big long-term effects and it's yeah it's it's penalizing it's really penalizing people it's it's terrible yeah it's really overwhelming well on that sorry on that note it's important it's the facts of our time yeah it's a wild time to be alive like i said some days covet is three on the list you know well we have a little lightweight end with our battle of the five star segment um you want to read this one? Sure. So this is a segment where we read your five star reviews.

This is Lord of the Stars by a bunch of letters and no vowels. I've never seen Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. And after listening to each episode of Newcomers, I still don't know much about them. I know enough to be conversational. And that works for me. that's such an honest review by the way it's an endorsement do we need to be more than conversational about any of these topics if you are more than conversational you are weird like i mean like people are gonna label you as someone like oh boy i once brought out a lord of the rings board game that rich summer board game expert gave to me it was a super fun game and i never fucking lived down

oh paul's got that nerdy lord of the rings game like it's a it's a fun game it happens to be the characters are lord i'm not like up in that but i got ridiculed i didn't bring that game out ever again. Oh my God. That's so funny. Well, it's been such a joy to learn from the fans with these memes and videos and send ups. And next week, we'll be back to dive

a little further into the minds of the creators, perhaps even the OG creator himself. So we'll see you then. Goodbye. We're going to bring him back from the dead. I don't know what I mean

by that that was a Hiddem Original