Quick Question with Soren and Daniel - Breakfast Potato - The Movie

Episode Date: September 8, 2022

In this episode the guys tackle the movie Home Fries, and then pretty quickly get derailed. And as always big thanks to our sponsors.  Go to EthosLife.com/QQ to get your FREE life insurance quote today. Thanks Raycon!  For a limited time, go to buyraycon.com/qq for up to 15% off your entire Raycon order.

I've got a quick, quick question for you, alright? I wanna hear your thoughts, wanna know what's on your mind I've got a quick, quick question for you, alright? The answer's not important, I'm just glad that we could talk tonight So what's your favourite? Who did you get? What do I be? What's it up to? Where did all that go? Do we know? Oh, forget it.

Soren, maybe Daniel O'Brien. Two best friends and comedy writers. If there's an answer, they're gonna find it. I think you'll have a great time here. I think you'll have a great time here. So, hello again and welcome to another episode of Quick Question with Soren and Daniel, a podcast where two best friends and comedy writers ask each other questions and give each other answers. I'm one half of that podcast, senior writer for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, author of How to Fight Presidents and late to the game, huge fan of Better Call

Saul, Daniel O'Brien, joined as always by my co-host, Mr. Soren Bui. Soren, say anything. Daniel O'Brien, joined as always by my co-host, Mr. Soren Bui. Soren, say anything. Hey, say anything. God damn it. You know, for some reason that always happens. If somebody gives you like carte blanche, the first thing you do is just try to repeat what they said.

Really, it's like it was just too much freedom. Was that not a song? No, I just made it up. Oh, okay. Yeah, say anything is a movie. And then I started thinking that there's was that not a song no i just made it up oh okay yeah say anything is a movie and then i started thinking that there's got to be a song associated with say anything i don't have time to say anything is a band uh and when you started singing i thought for sure that's a lyric to a song that i didn't know that's what i wanted okay but that's not what happened no no i mean that's why i backtracked immediately on it because i was like that's what I wanted. Okay. But that's not what happened. No, no. I mean,

that's why I backtracked immediately on it because I was like, that's not anything. But yeah, it was like, there's a movie say anything. And I was like, Oh, there's gotta be a song that's, that's exclusively a say anything song.

And then I was like, I don't know it. What if I just sang, say anything? It was the wrong road from the beginning. I'm Soren Bui. I'm a writer for American Dad. I am going to be an Emmys attender.

And that's about all you need to know about me. Thanks to Raycon for supporting Quick Question. With Raycons, you can get the same quality audio as other premium audio brands, but at half the price. Go to buyraycon.com slash QQ to get 15% off your first order. Thanks to Ethos for supporting Quick Question. With Ethos, you could get life insurance in 10 minutes for as little as $10 a month. Get a free personalized quote at ethoslife.com slash QQ. Okay.

I want to get right into our damn show. So I got a quick question for you it's another pop culture episode have you ever seen the movie Home Fries it's a late 90s rom-com with Luke Wilson and Drew Barrymore no okay

oh Sweet Home Alabama that's what I'm they're different movies I'm assuming now I sent you a trailer did you watch that trailer yeah I watched it let's play. Did you watch that trailer? Yeah, I watched it. Okay. Let's play just the audio of that trailer right now for our listeners. Welcome to Burger Medic.

Can I take your order, please? When's your baby due? Less than a month. And they're still letting you work? I work at the drive-thru. I'm that way. Customers can't see my stomach through the window. Where's the fog?

He's around. Somewhere. At the C fog? He's around. Somewhere. At the Cumberland County Burgermatic. That'll be $6.40, please. It's all about first impressions. That's all it is. First impressions, and you can do that. Looking for love.

Nice headphones. Can be a strange adventure. Why don't you get a job there? You'll do fine. With these headphones, you ever hear interference? Yeah, man! Come on, this ain't Radio Shack. Put the pickles on before you put on the onions. Three pickles, not four. This ain't Pickle Burger.

I mean, how do you make a Whopper? Now you just... Man, that's Burger King! And it's getting stranger all the time. Roy! I did not know that he was married until after I conceived. I'm sorry. It's a gift for your baby. That's non-toxic, I think.

Thank you. I know how I look to everybody, but I'm gonna be a really good mother. I know, Sally. Warner Brothers presents... Dorian? Yes, ma'am. Have you ever heard of Lamaze? Drew Barrymore, Luke Wilson...

This must be the husband. I'm just the partner. ...in a romantic comedy... Do I get paid extra for this? ...where something is always cooking. How do I look? Sally, I love you. Okay.

Hold on, Sally. Just hold on. Sir, are you the father to me? I'm the Lamar's partner. But I'd like to be the father to be. You all come back now. Okay, Sorin. Yeah.

You've seen lots of movies, and you're a writer, which gives you an advantage over most people in this and all games. But here's the game. Having watched just that trailer and having an understanding of story structure and how movies work, what do you think the plot of this movie is? Okay. Luke Wilson is in love with the woman that he gets fast food from every single day. She works the window at fast food drive-thru, and it's a fake fast food restaurant.

He falls in love with her, and in order to court her, he gets a job working there, and then finds out a lot more information about her Like that. She's got a child on the way that she doesn't know. She's estranged from the dad and he's working this job to try and get closer to her. And spoiler it's working. He's bad at the job, but he's really charming to her. Okay. And by the end she gives birth.

And as they're, as she's like rolling down the, the hospital hallways, they're saying on a gurney, on a gurney. She's not just, she's pregnant. They ask him,

are you the father? And he's like, I would like to be. And so he makes his, he makes his feelings known to her in maybe not the most convenient moment for her, but I assume that that ends nicely and that they end up together forever. Now there is something weird that I noticed in the trailer, which is he gives her a helicopter at one point. He's like, this is a toy for the baby. Not a great toy for a baby, but she also

has a helicopter helmet on later, which believes me to believe that he's got another job as a helicopter pilot. Excellent deduction. Okay. The movie, I will say that the trailer gives away a lot of this movie. You see them meeting, you see Luke Wilson, and it's not clear from the trailer if it's his buddy or his brother, Jake bucey it's his brother jake bucey says get a job get a job at the burger place get to know her first impressions are everything go meet this girl uh and you see them uh in lamaze class together getting closer and you see him dramatically running along with her in the hospital as she is giving birth to this baby along with her in the hospital as she is giving birth to this baby those are the three three major beats in this piece that have like a beginning middle and end to them so you mostly know the romantic comedy stuff uh i'm going to just read you a little bit of the opening of the wikipedia

summary for this movie home fries the film opens at Matic, where Henry Lever orders a milkshake at the drive-thru. At the window, he tells the attendant, Sally Jackson, that's Drew Barrymore, that his wife knows about their affair. She asks him if he has also told his wife about her pregnancy. On his way home, he encounters a ferocious wind. It turns out to be a Cobra attack helicopter, which runs him off the road. In a panic, he flees through the woods and drops his heart medication.

At the outdoor chapel, sure, he sits on a bench as the helicopter hovers in front of him. The pilot, Angus, shoots at the ground near him, despite the protest of his co-pilot and brother, Dorian. The shots scare him enough to cause a fatal heart attack. Wait, wait. Dorian. The shots scare him enough to cause a fatal heart attack. Throughout the attack, Dorian and Angus hear the chatter of Sally and her co-workers. Likewise, they hear the helicopter pilots on headsets. The next day, the police inform Beatrice that Henry, her husband, has died. She appears shocked and crestfallen when Dorian and Angus arrive. It quickly becomes clear that she encouraged her sons to scare him to death. She is also furious about his affair and wants revenge on his mistress.

Angus and Dorian are worried that the people they heard on the radio might have overheard enough to connect them to his death. They quickly deduce that Burgermatic is the only location close enough to have been on the same frequency. Angus goes Dorian into getting a job there to ensure that no one is wise to their crime. Wait, what? Yup. frequency angus goes dorian into getting a job there to ensure that no one is wise to their crime wait what yep so he kills the father of this baby luke wilson and uh jake bucey using uh cobra attack helicopter yeah scare their own stepfather to death because he was having an affair with Drew Barrymore

and got her pregnant. They don't know about the pregnancy yet. They just know that the father was having an affair and the mother, Catherine O'Hara encouraged them to scare him to death, which they did successfully. And then, uh, they felt nothing. So now they're like, all right, we need to, we need to pick up some loose ends. We need to see who overheard us that night. So Luke Wilson get a job at this burger place to find out who knows what he gets. The job does end up falling in love with Drew Barrymore. You're right about that. Realizes she was the mistress. He doesn't seem to care about that. And he just wants to continue

loving her in the meantime, he is still part of this, like fully homicidal family. Yeah. Like, like the, the, the murder is never discovered because it looks just like a heart attack in the woods. And Catherine O'Hara is like, well, this was great. We should also find out who that mistress was and kill her. jake bucey is like that's a good plan so at one point in the movie they um find who they think the mistress is and poison her with carbon monoxide poisoning oh like like try to kill her and they're unsuccessful because in the middle of killing her luke wilson is, Jake Busey, you idiot. This isn't the mistress. This is just someone he worked with.

He's like, oh, my bad. Oh, well. But they were still like fully on board with killing this other woman to satisfy their insane mother. This is I'm reading it now. This is amazing. When Angus discovers Sally's identity, Beatrice visits her under the pretense of making amends dorian is terrified of what angus might do out of misplaced loyalty to their crazy mother sure enough he arrives at sally's house in an attack helicopter cobra attack helicopter

third act of the movie is jake bucey tears in his eyes, chasing his brother, mom, and Drew Barrymore. Pregnant Drew Barrymore. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Pregnant Drew Barrymore. They're in a truck. He is in the Cobra attack helicopter chasing them.

And he's the whole time just like, Luke Wilson, get out of the car so I can shoot this mistress in broad daylight. This mistress who is pregnant, who was also like, I didn't know he was married when we had the affair and I was also pretty unhappy about it. Please don't shoot me with your helicopter. Oh, good Lord. So as a writer, I would think that if I was going to write a story in which two people plan to do a murder and then like want to keep it low profile so that they can then tie up all the loose ends afterwards to see who actually knows about it. I wouldn't try and do it in an attack helicopter. No, certainly not.

That's not my first move either. Chase them around town in an attack helicopter and try and shoot them. And then at the end be like, okay, let's find out who town and attack helicopter and try and shoot them and then at the end be like okay let's find out who heard the attack helicopter there are a couple of loose ends in this movie um jake bucey has this standoff with the truck and luke wilson refuses to get out of the truck katherine o'hara does get out of the truck giving giving Jake the option to kill Drew Barrymore and Luke Wilson. Because she's the Catherine O'Hara is, I suppose, the main villain in this movie. And it's like you can kill your brother as a friendly fire casualty of killing Drew Barrymore.

That's what I want you to do. So Jake Busey goes back and forth, like points his gun at Luke Wilson and Drew Barrymore, and then points his gun at the, the, his mother and then back and forth and does that. And he's crying and he doesn't know what to do. And he eventually just flies off. He just flies away in his Cobra attack helicopter. We don't get any more resolution beyond him just realizing I've been, I've been, uh, fucked up because I've been raised by this pretty clearly crazy mom and, uh, seeking her approval has ruined my life. I'm going to fly away now. And then he just does. And Catherine O'Hara, um, doesn't

go to jail or anything. Once the threat of death from Jake Busey's Cobra attack helicopter is off the table, we pivot fully into the baby's coming. And then we rushed to the hospital and the baby is born. And we wrap up that story where Luke Wilson and Drew Barrymore decide they're going to be together and he's going to raise this baby as his weird son slash brother. What is the, so what is the scene in the trailer of Luke Wilson running through a field of hay bales and tripping and falling? I'm so glad you asked. That's my favorite fucking scene in the movie.

It doesn't have anything to do with anything. Drew Barrymore lives adjacent to this field of hay and he is running to go see her because he thinks his brother is on the way to kill her and he trips and then gets up and keeps running and that he just like legitimately eats shit running to this house i'm looking at the cast right now after you said katherine o'hara i was like it's crazy to have a movie where you're not going to highlight the fact that Catherine O'Hara is in your movie. Yes. Even at that time.

I mean, she's a bona fide star then. And also, I'm realizing Shelley Duvall is in this movie. Yeah, she's Drew Barrymore's father, this guy Red, is a weird drunk who at one point shows up at the Burgermatic when Drew Barrymore's impossibly young brother, like I think it's an eight-year-old brother, is having a birthday party at the Burgermatic. Red shows up drunk with a shotgun, screaming and holding everyone hostage. And then Luke Wilson disarms and subdues him with karate. And then no one is mad at Red for the rest of the movie.

Shelley Duvall springs him from jail, takes him back. And Drew Barrymore is like, you know, when he's sober, he's great when he's drunk. Yeah. Sometimes he brings a shotgun to the burger Matic and, and ruins his son's birthday party,

but you know, it's family. This movie is wild. It's so wild. I, I think in a different universe, it's a, it's a Coen Brothers movie and it's perfect, but it's missing a few elements to get there. The only reason that I found this movie is because, as mentioned, I'm finally watching Better Call Saul, which is great, and it has me consuming a

lot of supplemental material about the show and the Breaking Bad universe and Vince Gilligan. And there was some throwaway line in an interview I read with him where it's mentioned that he wrote Home Fries. He wrote this movie and it was, he wrote it when he was in school at NYU and a lot of important people thought it was the most impressive new screenplay they'd ever read. So it got made. And it's this weird movie that I think if Vince Gilligan tried to make Home Fries now it would probably be closer to a Vinceilligan property that we understand but at the time you get like this weird pretty funny pretty dark movie uh that is i think mishandled because no one trusts vince gilligan yet so they try to spin it into this strange romantic comedy which it sort of is uh but it

doesn't quite work and one other small thing is is no one at any point in the movie mentions home fries. It's perfect. If you've been listening to this podcast regularly, you know that Dan and I are running heads. Not like a head that's running. That's like a weird political cartoon type of situation. No, we're like a, we're just runners. We enjoy running and running, I'll say, is boring. The only way to stave off that boredom is with some sort of external stimulation. Something, I need something coming in my ears, folks. That's why I like my Raycon

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how do we, how do we market this? And they're like, let's just, let's make it into something. Um, a woman will want to see in her mid forties who lives in Iowa and wants like her husband to go with her on a date night too.

Like, let's just make it that. Yeah. And that's not what it was at all. That trailer's incredible then. The trailer is the most misleading movie trailer I think I've ever seen. It really makes me want to go back in time. If I was still at Cracked right now, then I would for sure write an article, the five most misleading movie trailers that would essentially be this one. And then like four bullshit ones that I sort of fudged to get in there because this one is a perfect, it's a very straightforward trailer for a very straightforward 90s romantic comedy.

It's like Luke Wilson is a dumb hunk. Drew Barrymore is pregnant. Can they work it out? They do. That's the movie. And then you get there and five minutes in, there's a Cobra attack helicopter scaring a man to death. There was a movie released a long time ago. I think, let's see, like early 2000s called Annapolis.

Do you remember that movie? No. Is that Cowboys? No. Annapolis. Annapolis is a movie about guys in the Navy. And it like very much is the trailer. Maybe it's worth watching the trailer.

The movie, the trailer is all about a war. Like there's a war happening. And if you go and watch the actual movie, it's not about a war at all. It's guys in the Navy, but it's all about this guy's boxing career in the Navy. They're just like, I don't know how we're going to sell this. Let's just turn it into a war.

They're in the Navy. Let's just turn it into a war movie. Let's see what the trailer looks like. Oh, James Franco. Is James Franco's character's name Jake Hard? I don't know. Hold on. I want to watch this trailer real

quick. Okay. 50,000 young men and women applied to this academy. Only 1,207 of you were deemed worthy enough to pass through these gates. Most of you will not make it. As if you become officers, this is where they're going to put your mistakes.

Do you understand me? Sir, yes, sir! At Annapolis, the toughest military academy in the nation. Come on, you butterball, move it! If you want to become a leader, you have to get past one man. Attention on deck. Midshipman Lieutenant Cole. All of you here came straight from high school.

Before I got here, I served three years in the Marines. I know exactly what it takes to really become an officer. And I will accept nothing less from you. And for first-year recruit Jake Hewer, Wakey, wakey! becoming an officer was the only thing that mattered. I'm trying to figure out why a congressman would give a nomination to someone like you. You didn't want to give it to me at first.

I had to go back a couple times. How many? 34 straight days. Hi, I'm going to the Naval Academy. You are? Maybe I'll give you a tour. I would love that. Get your hands up!

Get that rifle up! Come on! Come on! You look surprised, Cleve Heward. Ma'am, yes ma'am. Drop it, give me 20. Alright, ma'am. Now, you're four seconds over.

It's four seconds. Where others see only a rebel. You got a problem with the way this company's being run? You wanna hit me, Hewitt? One officer sees something of himself. Why are you here, Hewitt? To serve my country, sir. And he'll stop at nothing to bring out the best in him.

Why are you so tough on him? No! Because I believe in him. And I can make him a leader. Touchstone Pictures presents The place where heroes are made and legends are born. Somebody get a medic!

James Franco Tyrese Gibson Jordana Brewster Annapolis You ain't good enough i'm not quitting so yeah annapolis is a movie that if you just were to watch the trailer it has like the feeling of top gun if top gun was exclusively like guys who are joining the navy yeah um it's there's a lot of them doing in boot camp there's like this full metal jacket type of stuff of, there's a lot of them doing in bootcamp. There's like this full metal jacket type of stuff of like,

there's one dude who's just clearly not making it. Uh, then you get a lot of this B roll of big tank, like big fleet ships and stuff like that. And these guys just like train their asses off to be in the Navy. And it has this kind of jarhead feel of them going to war. That's not what the movie is. It's a movie about boxing. It's just James Franco ascending the ranks of Navy boxing. Excellent. This can go on your list.

Yeah. When we go back to Cracked. When we go back, yeah. This is a tangent, but how does a movie that came out in 2006. How does this trailer sound like it's from 1992? Yeah, it really does. It sounds like- That's nuts. It sounds like 9-11 never happened, if that makes sense. Yeah. There's a comment on this video that says, first of all, this movie was not about boxing. It was about a young man attempting to grow as a person and leader. Somebody's immediately defensive.

No one else has said anything in the comments. I know what you're all thinking. If I was someone, I mean, I am someone who in real life, I'm watching this trailer for the first time, and I was like, this looks like a movie about training to get into the Navy. And then someone was like, first of all, it's not about boxing. I was like, no, yeah, no, man, I didn't. I didn't say it was.

I'm just scrolling through here. There is one brief clip of some actual boxing. Then it's a bunch of pushups in the rain and shit like that. Some jets and fighter jets. Oh, I think I want to go watch this movie. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know how that happens where they're just the, the studio or whatever.. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know how that happens, where they're just, the studio or whatever is just like,

I don't know. I don't believe in this thing. Let's just turn it into something else. I really don't understand the logic behind it, because especially with Home Fries, if you're going to trick some amount of people to see a movie, and then they're going to be really unhappy. Or you could market the movie accurately and get exclusively people who want to see a movie

where you're following a family of murderers and no one's mad about it. It seems like the better option to me to get like all right we got you know 40 of our theaters filled with an audience that is super on board with this movie versus whatever other percentage of our theater is filled with people who were sold a false bill of goods and will negatively review this movie and not recommend it to anyone yeah i i guess the hope would be that your movie's good enough that when somebody comes to see it it wasn't what they expected they're like i know what i actually really liked it yeah i that must be your only hope and i don't think that's something you could get away with anymore i think that that's like back in the day when people actually went to

theaters to go see a movie they they're stuck i mean they're stuck in that theater to watch it but so many people don't do that anymore that the minute it's not what you said it was they just like all right well i've got 400 other choices yeah to go to that's true there wasn't really an internet to to warn other people so yeah you can you can storm out of that movie and be like i thought this was a romantic comedy and it opens with a guy having a heart attack and the producers are like yeah we fucking got you i wonder if in 2006 you could have banked on making a movie that would only make its money back in as an in-flight movie market it completely crazily like to do trailers that are in every single genre direction and when people then watch it and that in the plane, that's, they're stuck. Like they can't go anywhere else. So they're like, Oh, I guess, I guess I was

entertained by it. Uh, that was actually not too bad. Introducing the Miller optics, two KW handheld laser welder. It's so simple to use. Even a rookie weld weld like an expert, allowing you to boost your shop's productivity up to five to 10 times more than with traditional arc welding processes. Expand your workforce so you can start doing more and making more. Get the Optics Laser Advantage now and start changing the welding game. I would love if one airline had the stones to only have a movie library that is like airplane movies, like movies that you like. It's not like, oh good, the new Doctor Strange is on this airplane.

It's like, no, it's, oh fuck, it's Annapolis and Home Fries and Hope Floats. Shit, I guess I finally have to watch Mr. Holland's Opus. All right, I'll do it and sliding doors it's like yeah there's like very specific plane movies so i i made the mistake of on a plane usually i think those movies are like exactly the right pace for a plane i think they do it really whoever is in charge of like that algorithm they're like they know exactly the type of movie that the empty calorie shit that you want to watch on a play to just pass the time because every once in a while one slips through where you're like this was way too heavy of an experience for a plane ride when i'm

sitting next to a stranger and i watched the hours in which nicole kim and plays virginia wolf and i don't know if you're familiar with how virginia wolf uh her life ended uh she's, correct me if I'm wrong, still alive, thriving. She writes for The New Yorker? That's right. Yeah. She's a little problematic at this point. No, she filled the pockets of her dress. Yeah, dress with pockets, ladies.

She filled the pockets of her dress with stones and then walked into the sea. Jesus. It's brutal. It's like, it's such a brutal, brutal, but like a writerly way to die. If that makes sense.

Yeah. It's full of metaphorical value. So she did this. That is, that's so funny that you said writerly way to die. It's so, it's so smug. Yes. It's, it's so overwritten yes it's it's so overwritten i love

it that even as she's like like clearly sad and depressed and walking into the ocean she's also thinking like they're gonna fucking talk about this so long there's a poetry to it i think i'm the first one to do it and so yeah in the, you see her do it and it's really, it's hard to watch. And it's also very sad because it, it starts to make you wonder about all of the great artists, the people who are brilliant and kind of like, I just, let me just take a step back. When you would like think of somebody who's brilliant, particularly writers or narrative writers, thought is like no they've we love their stories because they've figured out a way to solve the world like they see something

that we don't and they're privy to some um other senses that we just don't have in which they are touched by this world and every single one of them is like they're they see something that we don't quite see about the world the veil has been lifted and they're like, oh yeah, no, I should die instead of live here. And so like, I started thinking about Jack Hemingway and all these people. Jack Hemingway. I mean, I call him Ernest. That's me. I call him Jack Hemingway, Jack Kerouac. Hemingway certainly comes to mind as someone who's like, I, I want to be a writer. It's all I want to do. And I want to be the best writer. And my one tip for being a writer is write a sentence that's true. And if you do that for every sentence, then you will have a good book. And then now that I've figured out this

thing, I'm going to shoot myself in the fucking head with a shotgun. That's brutal. Elliot Smith, like these people who are even at modern day poets where you're like, these people get it. They are touched by the world in a different way. And immediately modern day poets where you're like, these people get it. They are touched by the world in a different way. Immediately after it happens, they're like, and now I should be gone. I don't want to live here, it turns out. I've seen some things and I don't want to live here. It's just so depressing to think about in that

moment that I just started crying on this plane. There's all these people around me who at the time are watching whatever else came out the same time as the hours like in 2002 and like laughing at whatever movie they're watching and looking over and seeing this 20 year old kid just crying and think are you are you okay at one point uh flight attendant all these people who are, why is that guy weeping over a minority report? Stick with it to the end.

It gets good. He's fine. Don't worry. And at one point, a flight attendant came over and was like, can I get you anything? Do you want water or do you want me to snack? And I was like, no. Leave me alone. Everybody just stopped looking at me.

Everyone who understands the world hates it and leaves. Yeah. If you're hearing this ad, congratulations. That's good news because it means that you're alive. So you still got some time to get your life insurance in order with Ethos. With Ethos, you could get life insurance in 10 minutes for as little as $10 a month. Unlike other companies' long, confusing, and outdated application processes, Ethos has a 100% online application, and it takes only minutes to fill out, so you can get back to, that's right, living.

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Never. Oh, it's a very common thing. Oh, it is? Yeah, it has something to do with the altitude and the cabin pressure and the oxygen that is available. Really? You get dehydrated and you get mood disturbances. And just pulling it up right now. Yeah, dehydration is associated with a flurry of symptoms, including mood disturbances and fatigue, both of which can make a person more likely to feel sad or become tearful. God, that's an even harder thing to do with movies. Why would you show anyone a movie at all on a plane?

do with movies that like why would show anyone a movie at all on a plane i think i i looked into that years ago when i i got emotional and weepy over some surprising plane movie i i wish i had a specific to make it funnier and more true but it yeah it could have been something as dumb as re-watching Troy and being like, he really loved his brother. I really love that Patrick list. Ain't enough to die. Oh, man. And then immediately getting off

the plane and being like, hey, what the fuck is wrong with me? Why did I cry at that movie? And then Google's like, nothing's wrong with you. Airplanes make people weep. Interesting. I'm now realizing that one of my favorite times to read Blood Meridian, which is a funny thing to say. There are times when I like reading it, times when I don't. But generally when I travel, I really enjoy reading Blood Meridian. I don't know why, but it makes now perfect sense that on a plane I have like it more profoundly affects me when I'm in the air flying, reading dehydrated, I guess. Yeah. And reading, blood reading because like it's so visceral and dark and I just wallow in that when I'm in a plane.

Absolutely not a book that I would pick up a second time, I don't think. Yeah, I don't think a lot of people would. I think it's but it's I don't know. There's something like he's me coming back to it. I think it's, it's so he's so good at describing hell essentially that I can't get over it. And like he, the way that he talks about stars in the sky, it's never just like stars are fucking sitting there. It's like these celestial bodies reeling on their, on their courses. reeling on their on their courses and you're like ah i love this i love how up your own ass you are this is exactly what i want from a book toward distant reckonings like yeah i can't get enough that's a writer i never want to meet under any circumstances because i don't want to shatter the illusion that i have of him that's a really fun answer to who's the person alive or dead that you want to have dinner with because he's absolutely the person you never want to talk to.

No, 100% no. It would just bring down the whole dinner. I would be amazed if he was a very charming, funny guy. Yeah. I think it would also destroy me if I sat down with him and wanted to talk about No Country for Old Men. And he was like, I just think it's funny how they talk down there. These stupid cowboys.

You ever listen to them with their funny accents just tickled me so i had them all kill each other put them in a jar and shook it watch them fight it's pretty pretty cool huh i had actually tommy lee jones in the movie has that story about the baby in a garbage disposal i know it's pretty pivotal but at the time i just got in a garbage disposal and i thought this thing's pretty neat i think other people might be interested in these and i bet with my wife i was like you know what i bet can fit down there and she's like no way it's too small i was like ah i bet it could fit there i'm realizing i think it was a trash compactor it doesn't really matter it's horrifying in any regard that's still him by the way uh yeah i that makes perfect sense that makes so much sense it

also makes sense for my children too it's like they could be doing great on a flight and by the end guaranteed there's gonna be a meltdown no matter what and i think that's true like every kid on a plane there's by the end you're just like like, no, there's something wrong. There's there's something wrong with the air. I can't explain it. I if I were planes and I'm famously not, I would package that as part of the experience that I'm selling, especially for when I think of like slightly younger me

in my twenties where it was hard to get me to to to cry. I cry much easier now, but it was hard to get me to to cry i cry much easier now but it was hard for a while to get me to cry and to like provoke something that like a strong emotional experience i would bake that into the ticket for flights where it's like also this would be a pretty good time like if you're due for a good weep we we offer that too you know it does doesn't come extra we've got a variety of movies that could elicit some kind of response. We've got movies about fathers and sons. We've got movies about death. We've got cancer movies. Put it on, get a good weep out. Everyone knows the rules on the plane. You're allowed to weep. And then when you land, you'll feel refreshed and recharged.

I'm not being hyperbolic when I say that is a great idea I want that I mean you look at the way that Virgin has been like hey we're the party airline yeah huh like why can't you have the opposite of that why can't you have the deeply sobering very like soul-touching airline where it's like listen you're gonna get in touch with some shit on this flight. Yeah. It's not going to be fun, but by the end, you're going to feel good about it. Do we serve alcohol on this flight? Yes, we do. But you have to earn it. You have to get there.

You have to go through a change and then we'll be like, see, and we'll hand you a wine. We'll hand you a thick port. We're all going into this flight in our chrysalises we're going to come out butterflies everybody it's not going to be easy but we're going to get there now everybody please turn on hot chicks god i i think back to like when everyone had to watch the same movie on a plane it was all they were not always just like fun comedies. I mean, I remember them being like some political thrillers and stuff like that. I can't imagine they didn't do a couple that also had,

there were tear jerkers and everyone's just watching the same movie at the same time. It is. I'm realizing now I'm describing a flying movie theater. Yeah. That is something that no one will experience ever again. And we'll, we'll,

we'll seem completely bonkers to our younger listeners. But that was especially we didn't fly almost ever as kids. And so when we did, it was a huge experience like, Oh, this is this is the flight I'm taking this decade, we're going to Texas. And you just get to the airport and see whatever they've decided to show you that time. There's no choice. And he's like, oh boy, man, what if it's Jurassic Park? What if it's this? What if it's that?

All right, today we're watching A Few Good Men and that's it. And you're going to like it, 10-year-olds. That's your option. Your option is A Few Good Men or you sit quietly while other people watch A Few Good Men. Do you like peanuts? Tough shit. You're getting peanuts and you're watching a few good men. I hope children in the plane likes the Pelican brief.

I'm going to tell you right now, no Pelicans in it. I'm sorry. Yeah. I mean, I remember just being on planes and like getting really pumped about what movie it could possibly be, them announcing it and just the devastation of you being like, I'm not going to get that. I guess I'll listen to one of these 12 stations that they've got. Flip the ashtray open and shut over and over again.

Soren, I have a quick answer for you. Yeah, please. Should I ask a question first? No. Okay. You might remember a while ago off microphone, I pitched an idea to you for this podcast where I was going to ask you why real estate agents are so hot? Yes.

Okay. And really what I was focused on was why hotness seemed to be baked into their industry. Because unlike... Introducing the Miller Optics 2KW Handheld Laser Welder. It's so simple to use, even a rookie can weld like an expert, allowing you to boost your shop's productivity up to five to ten times more than with traditional

arc welding processes. Expand your workforce so you can start doing more and making more. Get the Optics Laser Advantage now and start changing the welding game most other industries uh they have billboards that feature their faces on them and and and like business cards with professionally shot like model photos of these very attractive real estate agents i don't i don't know why i didn't it didn't make sense estate agents. I don't know why. I didn't, it didn't make sense to me. Like I don't look for, you don't do that with like lawyers.

You don't see a billboard for a lawyer that is like, look at this hot lawyer. Don't you want them representing you? It's like, here's the information for the lawyer. You know, most of the time it's, cause I'm not going to be doing anything with the realtor they're just the middle person between me and the person who is selling a house like I don't understand why every state I've lived in has had unique billboards for real estate people and they're all to a person hot or at the, uh, the very least photographed very professionally in nice clothes

that fit well designed to, to be an attractive person. Like, Hey, this is, you want to buy a house. And also here's this other perk. You get to talk to a hot person the whole time. I, I didn't understand it. It was very confusing to me. I wanted to investigate it with you on the show uh and then i toured a house with my uh smoking hot real estate agent yeah who i won't name on this podcast and uh she was so hot in this house that was wrong for me that i didn't want for a number of reasons but there was a part of my brain that was like i think she'd be really impressed if i bought this house right now and then i thought oh that's why i get it now it's to trick dummies like me into buying houses they don't want to impress a real estate agent there's gonna to get a commission on it. Yeah.

I was just super close at the time to just think like, well, the price is high. The location is not what we discussed. The kitchen's too small. But I don't know. You picked it. You seem to like it. So I don't know. Should you be happy here?

Should we get it? Yeah. What would you do with this space? That's so bleak there's so when you had said that i was like there there are other jobs where that happens maybe i can backtrack and like disassemble this from the other end and figure out why so there are jobs like pharma sales like pharma reps or um medical device sales where they specifically target for those jobs.

Like they recruit women who were previously cheerleaders in college or just very, very attractive women, specifically women for those jobs. And that was never someone at a dog park out in LA. This woman just saying, yeah, who is one of the most beautiful people I've ever seen in my entire goddamn life. And we both had dogs named Jackson. So we bonded over that and we saw each other at the dog park every morning. And, uh, she was, uh, she sold medical supplies somewhere. And, uh And every once in a while, she would talk about how it works.

She got like a $30,000 bonus. And I just remember thinking, man, the shoe hasn't dropped for this industry yet. We're going to find out some weird shit about this, but there's no way this is all above board. Yeah. So they have now said that, I mean, they have like workaround reasons

as to why they do it they want somebody with a lot of pep and energy but that's bullshit like they specifically recruit and hire ex-cheerleaders and cheer captains for these jobs because they want like smoking hot girls for it i don't and i didn't totally get it but i have a friend uh that whole reason i thought this we have a friend Heather, who's a very attractive woman, a beautiful redhead. And like, she's done this job forever and she's so good at it. And she's,

she like makes a lot of money doing it. And it's because I think in addition to them, like giving out swag to these doctors and things like that, where they get stress balls and all that t-shirts and stuff, which everybody is susceptible to. I don't care if you're a doctor or not. There's also just something about having these women and their chonky heels clonking down your hallway and them coming to flirt with you for a little while. Right. Just walking in like, hi, my name's Jesenia. I like football. I'm the hottest person you've ever seen.

Hi, I'm a doctor. I've been in med school in the dark quietly for seven straight years. school in the dark quietly for seven straight years. I'll buy six MRI machines from you. If it makes you happy, I will buy. Whatever keeps you coming back every single week, I will do that. And it speaks to the sexism of the profession too, that there aren't as many women doctors as there are men doctors that they specifically recruit these women. But I think it's also like it's to appeal to a generation that's past at this point. It's these guys who are 50 and 60 who are just like, oh, the young hot cheerleaders

are coming today. And it's so in the same way, it's very deeply bleak to me that these people who are responsible for saving your life are like, man, I'll give somebody Oxycontin if that's what you want. Right. Deeply sad that the doctor comes home and is like, honey, how was your day?

It was great. I spent $14 million of the hospital's money on x-ray machines. She put her hand on my shoulder and called me hun. It was amazing. This is why I became a doctor. I got us a bunch of iron lungs. I don't even know where we're going to keep them. I don't think people use those anymore.

We don't do that anymore. But it was in the same way where I was like, yeah, it's got to be, there's got to be some play where like that somehow their attractiveness is, is preying on people's insecurities. And I didn't realize how it was, but yeah, you're absolutely right. It's gotta be that you go there with your real estate agent, your real estate agent is like, huh? Couldn't you see someone cooking something up right here? And you're like, yeah, yeah. Like in the morning, like if we like, if you lived here with me, man, the amount of, it's so shameful, the amount of like personal soft brag details that I would bring into conversation when I'm touring this house with her. Like, oh, the kitchen's kind of small.

I like to cook. I cook every night. And like cooking is really important to me. So I want a big kitchen. I'm just like trying to let her know that I cook and pointing out other rooms. I'm like, oh, this would be good because I play bass and it would be good, like a little spot for my music. Do you like music? It's so rough, man. It sucks. It sucks real bad. Just touring a house being like, what are these? Are these

ceilings pretty sturdy enough? Could I hang a punching bag here? Do you think? You know, I can go to the gym. Money is no object. I can go to the gym, but it would be nice to get my reps in at home just to have the option. Just like free weights? Is there like a room where I can put some free weights? And now that you're mentioning it,

I'm just thinking about... Hey, sorry. I noticed this house doesn't have... Como se dice? An Emmy shelf. Como se dice? Oh, I also speak a little Spanish. As you're saying it, I'm realizing all the ones in Los Angeles...

First of all, Los Angeles gives you a skewed perspective because every single person, with the exception, I will say, of lawyers. Lawyers put their pictures on bus benches and on billboards and stuff. They're not attractive. They're not attractive. Sweet James is all over LA. and maybe you kind of want like a greasy looking better call Saul guy. I don't know how that totally works either, but all of the real estate ones, there are so many that are full body pictures, which I'm now realizing is that's exactly why that's the case. There's one.

I think of, I see every day by this whole foods and, uh, it's the woman. She's like life size in the picture and you get to see everything. And I'm realizing, Oh, that's totally intentional. I hate that. Anyway, so how's the house?

It's good. I mean, it's not exactly what I wanted. Deeply underwater. Yeah, yeah. She said she was going to stop by and see how I was settling in. I don't know. She's not responding to my emails now. So playing hard to get, I guess.

After she got her $10,000 from escrow. From the easiest mark she's ever met. Man, that's such a bummer. Man, that's such a bummer. So our real estate agent, we have a group of friends that all, they like work in finance and in real estate throughout Los Angeles. Like we just happened to tap into this friend group, a bunch of guys that went to Harvard Westlake, which is like, if you don't know Los Angeles, it's one of the most prestigious high schools out here. Lake, which is like, if you don't know Los Angeles, it's one of the most prestigious high schools out here. And then, you know, they went off to college and then they all came back to LA and they all work these jobs that are deeply convenient for me that I'm like friends with them. Like my loan is through one of them. One of them is one of the top real estate agents

in LA. He is not that he is like this dude who he's very kind, very cordial, but he is not that he is like this dude who he's very kind very cordial but he is not putting his face on marvista posters outside of a whole foods and i'm now like really thankful that he's my real estate agent because he made it really easy on us when we like didn't like a place and we'd like be very candid about that it was just like yeah no i whatever it's fine because yeah it is it's uh it is very tough um telling my real estate person that i don't like something because uh there's like the the implicit thing that i'm saying you got this wrong this is not what i'm looking for right and and i don't like giving that experience to anyone. She's sent me a bunch of houses at this point where the kitchen is the most wrong

thing. And I feel bad saying over and over again, I was like, no, you're still wrong. Still bad. Just as like a societal thing, I think we need to get over the idea that I worked really hard on something like that means anything. So like that, that's the same thing where like, there's somebody who's trying to do the same thing over and over for you, but they're getting it wrong at every turn. And you're like, yeah, this doesn't actually mean anything that you've done all this work. Cause you didn't do it right. Yeah. It's heartbreaking with an email that's with the subject line of like, I thought you'd like this one. It's like, oh.

No. I don't. Well, you were wrong. And I'm not going to feel bad about you being wrong. They must know. I mean, they're just showing you everything that comes out hoping that something sticks when they throw it at the wall. Because that happened with our real estate agent too, where we were like,

this is the neighborhood we want. And he's like, okay, well I have something that's not there, but it's like 40 miles away, not too far stone throw away. And it's outside your price range by about a million dollars. Like what?

No, that's not it. Yeah. No. Well, I'm sorry that that relationship hasn't somehow blossomed more, Dan. No, it's all right. I think if I... So I bought the one house from her. I think if I just...

If I got a couple more. Yeah. Just so she'd know that I'm serious. You mean business. Yeah. Yeah. I can see that happening. All right. That's all the time we have for this week.

The show is Quick Question, but you knew that already. We are recorded, edited, and produced by the irreplaceable Gabe Harder. Our theme song is by the incredible Merex. Their digital album is available at merex.bandcamp.com. You can find me on Twitter at D-O-B-I soren underscore ltd or the show at qq underscore soren and dan email us at qq with soren and daniel at gmail.com we also have a patreon that you can find by doing some very simple googling and i think that's it oh our, our, our business. I don't,

I didn't tell you this, our business, uh, daddy, our CFO, he's coming to the East coast and he didn't tell me if I see him again, I'm going to, I'm going to fucking kill him.

Don't even talk to him when you come out here. No, absolutely not. That's great. He didn't. So he didn't even bring it. How did you find out? I found out a mutual friend.

I'm going to hang out with a mutual friend of ours. And I was like, Oh, you should invite bacon to dinner. And she said, he's going to be in New York. That motherfucker. Yeah.

I'm going to like fully shoot him in the head. Please, please. Then we never have to do this podcast again all right bye wait The answer's not important, I'm just glad that we could talk tonight So what's your favourite? Who did you get? When will I be remembered?

Was it out there? Where did all the good weeks end? Oh forget it Saw a movie, Daniel O'Brien Two best friends and comedy writers If there's an answer they're gonna find it I think you'll have a great time here I think you'll have a great time here