In this year-end episode I speak about watching the movies, Leave the World Behind and Old Dads.  I also speak about watching Stavros Halkias’ latest stand-up comedy special: Fat Rascal.  Lastly, I wrap things up for the year with the final Goats doing GOAT $hit installment of 2023.

 

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Stavros Halkias – Fat Rascal: https://www.netflix.com/title/81690511  

 

Leave the World Behind: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12747748/

 

Old Dads: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18394190/

 

I Built 100 Wells In Africa: https://youtu.be/mwKJfNYwvm8?si=kPVfccQZvZJdAVf9

 

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Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] What's up, folks? What's going on? Welcome to the Spun Today podcast. The only podcast that is anchored in writing, but unlimited in scope. I'm your host, Tony Ortiz, and I appreciate you listening. In this year end episode, I speak about watching the movies Leave the World Behind and Old Dads.

And Old Dads. I also speak about watching Stavros Halkias latest comedy special, Fat Rascal. Shoutout to Stavi Baby. Lastly, I wrap things up for the year with the final goats doing goat shit installment of 2023 stick around for all that good stuff and more.

But before we get into this year end episode,

I wanted to tell you about a quick way that you can help support this podcast.

Your support means a lot, especially with the motivation and inspiration that provides for me to continue putting out this content. Here's one quick way that you can help support the Swan [00:01:00] Sunday podcast. And then we'll jump right into the episode,

leave the world behind.

It's a movie that came out in select theaters and it's a Netflix movie that was available as of December 8th, 2023. Here is the official synopsis. A family's getaway to a luxurious rental home takes an ominous turn when a cyber attack knocks out their devices and two strangers appear at their door.

And as we like to do here on the Spun Today podcast, I'd like to shout out first and foremost, the writers.

Leave the World Behind was written by Ruman Alam and Sam Esmail. Shout out to them.

Also of note is that the movie is based on a novel written by Ruman Alam. And I'd also like to mention that Sam Esmail is the writer, creator, director of Mr. Robot, which is that series. Starring Rami Malek, which [00:02:00] I've covered here on the podcast in the past. If you're interested in that, feel free to look at the Spun Today archives for all that good stuff.

Now let's get into my little recap and review of this movie.

Where as usual, I'll share a couple of my favorite lines and overall just let you guys know what I thought of it. First off and foremost,

I'd like to start out by saying, Y'all Are a bunch of fucking HATERS I've only heard negative Just shitting all over this movie And for the record, I enjoyed it. I liked it It was a good watch. I thought it was a good movie I didn't think it was a piece of shit or like, you know It was So so worth watching, whatever, not a waste of time I thought it was a good movie, I enjoyed it First and foremost So I'm going to put that out there, but what's funny to me is that this movie also of [00:03:00] note, it was produced by Barack Obama and his production company

and the deal that he has, I guess, with just producing content for like Netflix and Spotify, et cetera. And most of the critique that

I've heard, on the negative side of things, again, only the negative side of things, and also not just from. My friends on the right, for example, but just random or not random, but just like different people from different walks of life and just folks, you know, personal friends and people that I found online that watched the movie just all had the same negative type of reaction towards the movie saying it's a complete waste of time.

I just wasted, you know, two hours of my life, etc, etc. And as I'm watching, I'm . This movie has to end horribly for that, all those, all, all that negativity to make sense to me, in my opinion,

because I liked it all [00:04:00] throughout and the ending was just even more fitting. I was , what the fuck? What's the everybody's beef with this movie? But anyway,

one of the biggest critiques of it is that since this is produced by Barack Obama, there's some sort of hidden meaning and it's like left wing propaganda.

I heard some folks stating shout out to Vinny, I believe from the PBD pod stating that this is called a predictive programming, which is when

at least my layman understanding of it, when media or movies or music or books or, you know, different types of art kind of try to prime society for something that is to come.

That's called the predictive programming and this movie, especially because of the fact that it's

being produced by Barack Obama and his production company, got even more of those labels attached to it and that like conspiracy lore, in my opinion.

Does [00:05:00] anyone know for sure? Of course not. One way or the other. I just don't think that that's the case and I'll tell you guys why in a bit.

But essentially the movie, what it's about is.

This family lives in the city, in New York City, decides to go out to a house in Long Island. Seems like the Hamptons or Montauk or something like that. A fancy, you know, big mansion with a pool. And the parents, played by Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke, who did a great job. And their two children,

played by Farrah McKenzie and Charlie Evans.

Now they decide impromptu to go out to this little family vacation getaway. And while they're there

at this Airbnb mansion that they rented, the internet goes out, the phones are down. There's a bad connection, signals going in and out and the TV's not working.

And then in the middle of the night,

Mahershala Ali and his daughter,

Myhala, I believe that's how [00:06:00] you say her name, which by the way was an actress that was in an episode of Black Mirror, the latest season, which I completely forgot to recap and review, which I thought was a great season So that'll be coming soon 2024

But she was the main actress of Locke Henry, which was my favorite episode of Black Mirror Well, I don't know my favorite, but definitely one of my favorites of that last season. But more on that when, when I recap that. But they show up in the middle of the night and they knock on the door. Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke open up, you know, mind you, they're in the middle of nowhere, Long Island in this mansion that they just rented.

And two people show up. Dressed to the nines. Maha Shali is in a tuxedo. His daughter. My, my that was probably more wrong than I said it the first time, [00:07:00] but she has a, you know, beautiful nightgown on and they pretty much tell them, listen GH Scott, I'm George. I'm the person that you emailed with.

And this is my house. You know, we, we rented it to you guys because we were going to stay in our, our house in the city. Cause I'm part of the Philharmonic or

some Ritzy Rich thing he mentioned and Julie Roberts and Ethan Hawke are kind of like taking it back what? We,, what are you doing here? We rented this place and they explained that there was like a blackout, the city's all dark and you know, their apartment is a penthouse in the 40 something floor.

So they decided just to drive back there and they were hoping they could stay in the basement. So they're in quite a predicament, you know. Nobody's phone is working. The, they eventually ask him for ID. To prove that it's his house. He left it in his jacket supposedly at the theater. So he doesn't have ID on him.[00:08:00]

Ethan Hawke is more on the side of believing him. Julie Roberts is super skeptical. And there's a liquor cabinet that's locked. That was supposedly not part of the rental. So there was no keys for it for it. And Mahershala Ali kind of used that as the proof that it's his house. And offered them a 50 percent refund.

And he went to that liquor cabinet. And they're being super nice, you know, because they understand it's a really awkward situation. And why should they believe him? And he goes to the liquor cabinet, you know, he's, he's looking for the keys, doesn't know exactly which key it is. But eventually finds it and opens it, unlocks it and gives them money.

And I just thought of a, a story telling device that I just realized. They say you're not supposed to show a gun, for example, unless you use it later on in the story. Unless you shoot it. But I guess you could argue that it was used. [00:09:00] It wasn't shot, but it was used. Because in this scene when he's opening up the liquor cabinet, He opens a drawer that has money there.

He takes out the envelope of money, but the camera pans to a gun that's there as well. So it's kind of like, you know, ratcheting up the tension of the story.

And that gun is never used or shot except for when Mahash Ali is has a confrontation with a neighbor. Kevin Bacon when they go to his house To he's a doomsday prepper. So they figured he would have supplies that would help

and Charlie Evans this character, which is Ethan Hawks kid

Got bit by a tick or something that and and got pretty sick so they went over there to see if he had antibiotics or something like that and Being a doomsday prepper, you know, he comes to his porch Respectfully but kind of not with a Shotgun And eventually they, you know, they make a trade for some meds, which does make the kid better.

But I guess in that [00:10:00] moment Mahash Ali does pull out the gun kind of to protect himself against

Kevin Bacon's character having the shotgun.

So technically it didn't break that storytelling device. They showed the gun and they used it. They just didn't shoot it, I guess. But okay, going back. So there's this awkward. Thing going on where, you know, is this really his house? Is it not his house? They seem to know where everything is. He had the keys, but he doesn't have ID.

He shows up in the middle of the night. You know, nobody's phones are working. Like, what the fuck is going on? TV's not working. Radio, , nothing.

So they ultimately agreed to let him let them stay. But stay in the basement. And then the daughter, she's kind of upset because she's , wait, this is our fucking house and the worst thing in the basement of our own house.

She kind of has that more confrontational attitude that Julia Roberts is reciprocating. And they're kind of like, you can see that there there's tension between them and they're gonna butt heads from jump. [00:11:00] Ethan Hawke's character is more laid back, more trusting. Mahershala Ali is more disarming and more understanding of the situation.

And also lets on that he knows something of what's going on.

He works in finance, deals with billionaire, really rich clients. Kind of lets on in speaking to his daughter and confidence that one of his clients told him something about what's going on, but he doesn't want to raise suspicions or scare anyone. And he's not a hundred percent sure either. He's just kind of reading the financial tea leaves, if you will.

Now, another, I guess, conspiracy layer to this whole thing being this whole production being a predictive programming or whatever, is that the kids had a NASA shirt, t shirt on, and the other kid had an Obey t shirt on,

and the Obey t shirt what it's supposed to symbolize, it's a, you know, a counterculture skateboarder brand, and what it's [00:12:00] supposed to symbolize, Within the, you know, conspiracy lore is, you know, speaking truth to power and

not obeying the narrative or something along those lines. And then the NASA thing is supposed to be some sort of conspiracy thing, but I couldn't find anything on that. I don't understand the significance behind that and why, you know, it's considered an issue by some that it was in the movie.

Also, that kind of fueled the whole conspiracy theory thing is, That apparently Obama said a statement where he stated that

he gave a lot of notes to Sam Esmail and Rumaan

Alam, who again, wrote the novel that this movie is based on. Sam Esmail wrote the screenplay for it, adapting it to the screen. But Obama provided

notes on how to make the movie more realistic. So because of that. [00:13:00] You know, folks are saying, you know, he's trying to tell us something, you know, they're priming us for something that's going to happen. And ultimately what does wind up happening, spoiler alert,

is that there was a concerted attack on America, specifically our electrical grid.

And everything from communication to hospitals, electricity itself, is all tied to this, you know

What we know to be this crumbling infrastructure of an electrical grid that we have that's super outdated and that politicians always run on stating that

we need to fix it because if not, if we don't

make serious strides in terms of

fixing it and enhancing it, it could be catastrophic.

But in the movie, some hackers apparently were able to bring it down. And America began to be bombed and it was a concerted effort by America's enemies.[00:14:00]

Now, to that point, and also to the point of the t shirts that I was speaking about earlier,

I buy the fact that it's a realistic, I don't know about hackers and stuff that. Maybe it is, but a realistic thing, because it's something that we've heard for, for years and years, probably decades that The infrastructure, the crumbling infrastructure of the electrical grid is a problem that needs to be dealt with.

So I feel like something fucking up in that realm or whether being bombed or hacked or just deterioration over time or what have you is going to have detrimental effects to American society.

That doesn't seem far fetched, that doesn't seem like a conspiracy, that doesn't seem like I guess the angle from the conspiracy perspective is that They're letting us know that this, you know, is looming this, this threat or something like that, or it is happening to them. But it's definitely within the realm of possibility, right?

Like, I don't hear that and say , Oh my God, that's, that's nuts. That would never [00:15:00] happen.

It's actually the exact opposite. It seems very plausible. Now to the part about the t shirts and, you know, left leaning tendencies being sprinkled throughout the movie to that, I say, of course. It's produced by Arguably, probably not even arguably, but the most influential Powerful Democrat in America, which is Barack Obama Sorry, Joe and He's behind producing this movie

If Dwayne the Rock Johnson was producing this movie, I'd expect to see Wrestling t shirts and and shit throughout the movie You know what? I mean? It's like No shit is going to be left leaning and,

and to have a bias in that direction, because it's being produced by someone that has that bias and is from that direction.

Also, and this is just my speculation, if

it also seems plausible to me that someone Barack Obama, who's [00:16:00] in, you know, obviously the highest of the public eye,

former president of the United States now is going into this space of

media, whether through Spotify deal and podcasts and producing movies and books.

To me, it makes sense that part of the reasoning for that is to

do what he can from his former being now being a former president, doing what he can to influence. A big way to influence is through culture.

A big way to, an effective way, seems to influence

culture and sentiment is through the mediums that society consumes. That we as consumers take in, whether it's movies, whether it's books, whether it's podcasts, whether it's music.

So if he,

which I don't know any reason to think otherwise, but if he, [00:17:00] Has this concern about the, the grid, the electrical grid, as we've heard many politicians in the past, you know, speak to probably been Obama. I just can't remember any from memory right now,

but if he does have those concerns and he's in this space, you know, mental space or what have you of

wanting to do something about it or what he can do about it,

And with the tools that he now has at his disposal, again, movies, media, books, podcasts,

it makes sense for him to push that type of narrative. You know what I mean?

It's a, it just seems , so like, duh, to me that I don't understand, , what's the kind of gotcha type of feedback that I'm hearing around this movie., Oh, look what he's trying to do.

It's , yeah, if I was a president, I was trying to get legislation passed to fix the infrastructure, infrastructure and the electrical grid. [00:18:00] And it didn't pan out the way I wanted it to. And now I'm doing movies. Yeah. I'm going to make movies about that shit too. To see if this works. You know what I mean?

Like if that's my thing that I want to get done, but I digress

now for my friends on the right and other folks that, you know, not necessarily from the right, but just I think that this is a big conspiracy or whatever.

Something that is very interesting that I would think is a better argument to those points is the fact that Mark Zuckerberg, for example,

in Hawaii recently came out that he

is building a hundred million dollar doomsday bunker under the ground in Hawaii in this area where supposedly, allegedly, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos and others have also purchased land.

That, that definitely caused the, a raising of the eyebrows, , wait, are they trying to fucking tell us something? Is something coming?

And also, , what is the purpose of it? If [00:19:00] that is the case, right? Let's, let's, let's

say this predictive programming is a thing and just , you know, secret societies of folks running the world and stuff that., is the purpose to prime the public in hopes that they're less freaked out if. The grid failed and everything went to shit. , wouldn't we still equally freak the fuck out at the same levels?

Whether we have seen this movie or we're primed with this information or not. You know what I mean? , is there something about it that makes us just psychologically, more accepting of the fact, , I don't know, that's beyond my comprehension, but. Yeah, I thought that was definitely interesting.

The fact that folks are building these doomsday bunkers, especially to that scale Now a critique that I definitely do agree with is the score of the movie

They laid it on very thick [00:20:00] and I thought that was a failure of the movie like they made it very I felt like I was watching a Freddy Krueger or Chucky movie from the 80s in terms of the score just this ominous Something's gonna happen suspenseful music and throughout the whole shit it felt like from beginning to end.

It was just this Scary fucking ominous thing that was laid on so thick that it took away from I feel the, it took me more out of it than into it, if that makes sense. Normally the score will help enhance the mood that you as an audience member should be feeling, but this I felt was trying to do that so much so that it took me out of it a bit.

So that's my critique of that.

Now one more big spoiler alert. So again, fast forward or skip this. If you haven't seen the movie yet, but

I'll say this before I share a couple of lines of dialogue that I appreciated from the film.

Throughout the whole movie, the daughter, played by Farrah McKenzie,

is [00:21:00] obsessed with the show Friends. She was streaming it on her tablet, and she was up to the final episode of the final season. And that's when, you know, the internet dropped and she couldn't stream it, basically. Anyway, so she annoying her brother and pretty much everybody with wanting to find out what happens with Ross and Rachel.

And, you know, there's a lot more serious shit going on, obviously. So everybody kind of just pushes her concerns of how a 90s sitcom ends to the side. But towards the end, she winds up. Going up to the, you know, disappearing for a while. She, she was , went in the woods and the mom is looking for her as well as

Maha Ali's daughter, whose name I'm not gonna try to pronounce again. They kinda mend their relationship in this moment that, you know, they're looking for the daughter and something happens with them in the woods. They wind mending their, their relationship, but then they see this house at a [00:22:00] distance, which they had, foreshadowed before. It's a big white house with the red door and they know the daughter

took a bike from the garage and they were following these bike tracks to figure out where the heck it is that she went.

And Kevin Bacon's character earlier when he had the confrontation with Ethan Hawke and Mahershala Ali

mentioned that this house and how that neighbor supposedly had. Some doomsday prepper, bunker set up in this house. Cause Kevin Bacon was a construction worker and architect. And so he knew everybody's house, the ins and outs of everybody's house.

But ultimately they pan to the daughter being in that house. Apparently the, the owners of the house weren't there. And they probably got stuck in the city, which at this point it's being bombed and bombarded.

And she finds this door that she follows. To a huge [00:23:00] basement underground bunker that has crops and hydroponic lighting and exercise equipment. And aisles and aisles and aisles of canned foods and huge jugs of water. And it's just a doomsday preppers wet dream, right? Space to sleep and bunk beds and the whole nine, a huge TV and a wall full of wall to wall.

DVDs is a computer that somehow has some sort of access to not like full internet computer, but it's getting a feed that is stating what's going on. And it confirms there at the end of the movie that, you know, the country is under attack. And there's large amounts of radiation and a whole bunch of shit.

And then it just ends with the girl pulling out a DVD from the wall, which was Friends. And then, going to the final episode and [00:24:00] pressing play. Then the Friends theme song begins to play and the movie ends that way. Which I thought was so fitting. You know, cause you know the mom, and

Mahershala Ali's daughter found the tracks and know where she went so they were like headed towards the house And you know that Ethan Hawke and the the brother who somehow instantly started feeling fine with the the medication that They got from Kevin Bacon And Mahershala Ali were knew about the place and we're ultimately gonna wind up there as well

It's all those loose ends got tied out and it was just a very Fitting and, in my opinion, satisfying ending.

But yeah, spoiler alert on that.

Let me tell you guys about a couple dope lines of dialogue.

So Mahershala Ali is breaking down a few things that he knows about what's going on and what he works in and finance and who his clients are and stuff that. And, you know, he's going on and on.

But then ends it with, you know, I don't want to freak anybody out, I'm not, I'm not, you know, [00:25:00] sure. This, that and the other. I don't know any more than that, blah, blah, blah. And Julia Roberts character just flips out on him and she's like, really? You seemed pretty fucking certain a while ago with your haunting soliloquy.

I just love that line. That line. Haunting soliloquy.

Another great line I thought was the next two actually from

Mahershala Ali's character, I believe. Which is the quiet is so noisy, or that may have been Julie Roberts, but I think it was him. The quiet is so noisy. And then this last one, which is definitely from him, where he stated, Nothing frightens me more than a person unwilling to learn, even at their own expense.

And then

lastly, a line that Kevin Bacon said,

which was that we made a lot of enemies around the world. And in his opinion, it looks like a few of them teamed up,

which, you know, what that made me think of that made me [00:26:00] think of the BRICS alliance that we were recently hearing, hearing about, because they were having their, which I thought was a new alliance or something that. And it's not the BRICS alliance for those who may not know is BRICS is an acronym that stands for an association of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

And it's an intergovernmental organization. Comprised of those countries that was formed in 2010

and in 2010, that's just when South Africa late joined the enemy and it became bricks before that was brick B R I C

it's a group of emerging economies, but we were recently hearing of them and it was because they had their 15th annual state government summit or something that. But anyway, that line of dialogue from Kevin Bacon of, of, you know, a few of our enemies, quote unquote, teaming up. Just made me think of that for some reason.

And yeah, I'll just say this in closing, which is that I don't think, obviously don't know for sure, but I don't think that there's this, like, [00:27:00] secret cabal of humans running the world and, you know, pulling all the strings and having specific ideas of where they want the world to be and go and where it's been, etc.

But I do believe that the world is ran by incentives, and depending on how those incentives are aligned,

you can get people to make certain decisions and, and

do certain actions, etc.

And the way society is set up, we have groups of people, whether it be small groups or corporations or countries, which is a large group, or individuals.

That absolutely are driven by the motives and motivations that the incentives in their respective fields or interests, how they line up.

And for the most part, folks are just living their lives,

want the same or similar things, you know, [00:28:00] health, happiness for themselves and their families

to create a better life than a previous generation. And also guided in part by. The incentive structures in your life,

you might be incentivized by let's think about it at a very micro level. You might be incentivized

financially, which drives you to work extra super hard to try to get that promotion at work. You might be

incentivized by a bad or negative diagnosis. That a doctor gives you, and that lets you know you need to do something about your health, and that incentivizes you to become uber healthy.

You might be incentivized by laziness, and you just want to watch TV and eat potato chips. You might be let's think of a large group. A corporation is incentivized by their bottom line. They want to increase their bottom line at all costs. They have a mandate to do so, and a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders.

So they're incentivized in that [00:29:00] direction, depending on The industry that they're in that takes different shapes and forms So on and so forth. So I think it's more a function of that than it is a function of you know, this secret society's running shit

But yeah, that's just me

And I digress That is my little recap and review of leave the world behind

Definitely worth checking out And you can do so

By checking it out on netflix

old dads It's a movie that debuted on Netflix on October 20th, 2023. Here is the official synopsis. Three best friends become fathers later in life and find themselves battling preschool principals, millennial CEOs, and anything created after 1987.

As we like to do here on the Sponsor Day Podcast, let's shout out the writers first and foremost. Old Dads was written by Bill Burr and Ben Tischler.

[00:30:00] Shout out to those guys.

Of note is that the movie was directed by Bill Burr as well.

And it starred the three best friends, Bill Burr, Bobby Cannavale, and Bukim Woodbine.

Also of note is that it was produced by All Things Comedy, which is Bill Burr's production company, co founded by Bill Burr and Al Madrigal.

And tying it to the what we were speaking about earlier

with the biases of the producer or producers of a movie coming out through the movie.

This being produced by All Things Comedy and Bill Burr writing it and directing it highlights that point perfectly in my opinion.

Because if you're familiar with Bill Burr's stand up comedy or his podcast and his personality in general, you see a lot of it in this film. And that's obviously his point of view, his movie, [00:31:00] he wrote it, he directed it, he produced it, of course you're going to get that, you know what I mean? , that should not come as a surprise.

But I was really happy with this movie, I thought it was a masterclass in just social commentary and all that's wrong with. Social virtue signaling and what we prioritize to speak about and be quote unquote angry about or, you know, signal to other folks, Hey, this is what I'm angry about now. To get social brownie points or whatever the fuck it is, I thought this movie was a masterclass in that.

It was funny, it was engaging,

certain frustrations that I as a father deal with, I saw a bit of myself in, you know, some of the characters in the movie., there's a scene in the beginning where Bobby Cannavale's kid, which is just that. They're at a party, a birthday party, and there's a bunch of kids around and parents and you know, everybody just doing their own thing, barbecue in the backyard.

[00:32:00] And one of the kids, which is Bobby Cannavale's kid, is just running around, hitting people with sticks, throwing shit, just being that asshole kid at the party.

And then he has his mom, Bobby Cannavale's wife.

Which is the type of mom that, you know, thinks that their kid can do no wrong, you know? Meanwhile, this, , five year old, six year old, whatever he is, is, , literally grabbing a branch from a tree and smacking people across the face with it, across the head with it, and , just screaming at the top of his lungs and just, , acting the fuck out.

But the mom is, you know, thinks he can't do any wrong and is making excuses for him. Oh, he's just expressing himself. What's wrong with expressing yourself? It's not

He's not allowed to express himself. Is he supposed to suppress his feelings, et cetera, et cetera. And it's , all right, lady, relax. , I get it. But at the same time, check your kid. , that's not normal behavior.

And yet there's a scene where the kid winds up hurting Bill Burr's kid, pushing him or something. He scrapes his knee. And then Bill Burr, you know, doesn't want to baby his kid. [00:33:00] You know, he's like, you know, rub some dirt in it. You'll be okay.

And then sees that Bobby Cannavale can't even stand up to his own wife. Although he agrees with Bill Burr that his kid is just , wigging the fuck out. And what Bill Burr does is, he waits until nobody's looking, the kid is passing by and he just trips the kid.

I thought that was definitely hilarious and something I wanted to do.

In that scene also there's a cameo by Rick Glassman which lives across the street. and it's a hilarious exchange between him and Bill Burr. And

he tells him, oh, you know, he shouldn't rub dirt in it. He should put some Neosporin in it or something like that. And Bill Burr's like, yeah, who the fuck are you ? What you a doctor or something? He was , no, it's just, you know, common sense. You, you want to keep a, a cut clean and and dry or whatever.

And in true Bill Burr fashion, just lets his anger out on him type of thing and tells him to fuck off and mind his business.

And that was a dope thing also about the movie is that there was a bunch of cameos with a bunch [00:34:00] of comics, which I to see. I love that in the Machine movie and in these bigger productions that these comics are coming out with.

Rick Glassman is in it. As I mentioned, they showed a mural that's in LA of Brody Stevens. R. I. P. to Brody.

Paul Verzi is in it. It's a couple scenes in Strip Club, which were funny. Natasha Leggero is in it.

She plays, , one of these, , uber progressive moms in the PTA. Rory Scoville is in it, another comic. It's really funny, really good.

And basically, in the movie, Bill Burr and his friends, you know, they have this company that they started. They're making good money but they made the decision to sell it.

And they wind up selling it to this new agey type of

tech startup ish type of company. Meanwhile, it's a, the company that they built is a company that makes throwback jerseys or something that

and some other apparel.

[00:35:00] And it shows really well this cultural stylistic difference between this new agey corporate BS

or not BS rather, but mentality versus. A more old school, blue collar ish type of approach to running a business.

But there is a lot of new agey corporate BS buzzwords and stuff that. When this CEO millennial kid is speaking to Bill Burr and Bobby Cannavale

and Bokeem Woodbine's character.

Pretty much telling them that if they don't get with the, you know, new program and Stuff like that, that they, they would be let go because they sold the company, but they stayed on as founders

and Bill Burr with his charming anger just tells them, are you threatening me? And then the new agey corporate CEO guy just tells them, no, it's just transparent leadership. And he has a bunch of like these flowery buzzword terms[00:36:00]

to relabel what he's really saying.

There's just a bunch of funny exchanges with him throughout the movie as well.

Another hilarious scene is the dude that played Big Head in Silicon Valley. He's Natasha Leggero's husband and they're in this PTA meeting type of thing and it's them two and Bill Burr and Bobby Cannavale because their kids all go to the same school and a couple other people and

he interrupts Bill Burr because he's saying that he is

using too much of his white privilege or something like that and making decisions or offering opinions that come from a white privileged point of view and that he feels triggered by it. Meanwhile, the guy's white and Bill Burr's , wait a second, aren't you white? And he looks at Bobby Cannavale and he's , ain't that a white guy?

It's just moments that. That's fucking hilarious. And then Big Ed's character goes. It says something to the [00:37:00] effect of, excuse me, I did my 23andMe and I am 1, 000th of a percent

Native American or some shit like that. And that percentage of me is triggered by you offering to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It was just a funny, really funny exchange. Which ties back again to the me saying that this is a masterclass social commentary. , all that type of, , virtue signaling, you know, being

angry about shit that doesn't really matter., acting you're mad about shit that you're not really mad about, but you think it's, , the cool thing to be upset about and to highlight, to signal about.

And yeah, it was just a a funny,

entertaining watch, again,

written and produced and directed by a comic who makes it funny for a living. You know what I mean? So, it, it, I love seeing that. And I definitely want to see more of it.

Shout out once again to Bill Burr.

And all things comedy. Oh, and also the lovely Nia who made an appearance. She had a cameo as a I don't think [00:38:00] it's a cameo technically. She was the nurse that delivered Bill Burr's Bill Burr's baby. For Nia, for those of you who don't know is Bill Burr's wife in real life.

And that was pretty cool to see as well. Old Dads. Definitely, definitely, definitely worth a watch. I highly recommend it. It is available now on Netflix.

Stavros Halkis Fat Rascal

is a very funny stand up comedy special

currently available on Netflix that came out in November or maybe December of 2023. I think December actually. It's his second stand up special, if I'm not mistaken. I actually have to go back and watch the first one because I haven't, but I'll circle back to that in a second. The official synopsis on Netflix is that comedian Stavros Halkis cheerfully skewers tech culture, air travel, sex, breakups, and himself in this raunchy and righteously acerbic [00:39:00] stand up special.

Full disclosure on Stavros.

I was a Stavros hater.

And I'll admit it was just me being a hypocritical piece of shit because I hadn't seen any of his anything before. I just saw that he was, , he started popping up in my feed and I saw him, , making rounds on podcasts that I normally listen to.

And he just, , rubbed me the wrong way. I don't, and I don't know why. Again, completely piece of shit take

and thought from me, especially literally not even,, seeing any of his content. I It was just a, an initial knee jerk reaction

and I was just like, I'm not going to listen to this episode or I'm not going to watch this clip with this guy that is going around.

But then enough podcasts, episodes and enough clips came up and I was like, let me see, let me see. But you know who this guy is at least, instead of just negatively judging him for absolutely no reason. [00:40:00] And he's fucking hilarious. He has one of the most

contagious laughs as well. Which is great just when somebody has a contagious laugh that their laugh makes you laugh.

And I listen to and watch Stabby's World all the time which is his podcast now. And have since gone back to watch episodes of other podcasts that he was on that I watch or listen to.

And just think he's great. So Stavi, apologies in advance for

having that completely unprovoked,

just negative reaction towards you for what it's worth.

And you know what's dope about Stavi's world, the podcast, he has callers call in and leave voicemails with questions and just advice that they want from him. And. It's both hilarious

because people call in with things I heard on the other day that was a clip of one [00:41:00] where a guy is married to a girl who has three kids from an ex and that ex stayed cool with that girl's mom and is now banging and dating the mom. So it's

fucked up scenarios that

and not just things that. Also

people calling for relationship advice and. Life advice and stuff that. And

they're funny and he has funny takes, but he also gives excellent

like life coach level advice to these folks, which is an interesting juxtaposition

that I appreciate.

But yeah, a couple of my favorite bits from this special, again, fat rascal available on Netflix was One where he says that he's Greek, so he's, as if you couldn't tell from his name, Stavros Halkias. Where he says that Greeks are more Arab than white,

but that folks consider them white because just whites in general wanted to pad their white resume with, you know, [00:42:00] democracy and philosophy. They're , nah, fuck you Arabs. We're keeping that. We're only owning those guys. We claim them. There's just a funny premise, a funny bit.

It has a really good long airline bit, which was really good. And I loved probably my favorite bit of the whole special was his take on Neuralink and Elon Musk in general, but mainly Neuralink, which I've spoken about in the past. Here on the podcast, but if you don't know, Neuralink is one of Elon's endeavors, one of his companies where the goal is to have chips, computer chips implanted in your brain.

And the idea is to start with paraplegics or people that are paralyzed and use that technology to bridge the communication gap that's happening between your brain and your spine and Your limbs that's not allowing you to walk anymore and people that are [00:43:00] blind that aren't able to see anymore and through this type of technology being able to repair those types of physiological issues But also down the line the thought of neural link is that it's kind of like having the internet in your head So you can Google shit in your mind type of thing Very black mirror ish But it's literally a real company that exists that is endeavoring to do this and has shown

and had test subjects in pigs and monkeys and they actually featured it, I believe, almost certain I featured it as a video of the week in my, my free newsletter, which you all can subscribe to absolutely for free at sponsored. com forward slash subscribe,

where I put out cool curated content like that. Interesting stuff. But yeah, they show videos of how this technology works and eventually how it will be adopted to humans, so on and so forth. But Stavros take, which is a very unique, very interesting and [00:44:00] very plausible take, is that he was , No tech company is going to create some shit Neuralink and, and I'm paraphrasing by the way.

Hopefully I don't butcher this, but he says that no tech company is going to create something Neuralink and just give everybody the ability to know everything that exists in the world by, you know, Google searching shit, in your head and making people super smart and, you know, bettering humanity.

He was , what a tech company would do and what they're more likely to do is just to put Get in your brain and start putting your own memories behind the paywall and say, Hey, you want to remember that hug from your dad? Deposit 99 cents here. Or do you want to

remember that time that that girl, Sarah jacked you off in the back of the school bus when you guys were going on that class trip? Sorry, you can't access that memory because you're currently not enrolled in our platinum level memory program. He was like, [00:45:00] please enter your debit card.

Or you get ads in the middle of you thinking back on something and trying to remember something with your mom and It's saying this memory is brought to you by Burger King

Fucking hilarious, man, and it's so true, right? You could think of corporate greed mixed in with

that type of technology and ability in the hands of the wrong person I could definitely see it going in that direction

And it was just hilarious

But yeah, I said, something I still need to do is go back and watch Stavi's first special, which is also available now and free on YouTube. I think it was from last year, but this one, I definitely highly recommend Stavros Halkis's Fat Rascal available now on Netflix.

Goats doing goat shit. This is a segment where I like to highlight goats within their respective lanes, exceeding expectations and going above and beyond. This episode's inductee into the Spun Today Goats Doing Goat Shit segment is none other [00:46:00] than Mr. Beast. Shout out to Mr. Beast. Mr. Beast, for those of you who don't know, is the most popular YouTuber of all time.

He does these really elaborate YouTube videos and not stunts, but Let me give you an example of The type of content that, that a type of content that he puts out, which is, for example, giving someone building a house in the middle of nowhere, a small little

house and challenging someone to stay in the house. They can't leave the house for 30 days and if they do they get, I don't know, 500, 000 or something that. Can't see family, no internet, no anything. They'll have food and water and that's pretty much it. Then they'll have, you know, he'll do things there's a big circle in a field somewhere.

Everybody's in the circle. Last person to leave the circle [00:47:00] wins, you know, X amount of dollars. You know, people are in a very cold frozen room. Last one to leave wins X amount of dollars, stuff like that. He also has a philanthropy arm to his channel, a completely separate channel dedicated to doing good.

He recently had a video that I featured as a video of the week in my newsletter, Spuntrade. com forward slash subscribe if you're interested,

where he paid for the cataract surgery for a hundred or a thousand people or something that that literally couldn't see for years and years and years and years because they couldn't afford this cataract surgery. Didn't have insurance to cover it.

And through his philanthropy channel, did this their videos, they get millions and millions and millions of views generates funds for him to continue doing this type of thing.

Now, the video specifically that I wanted to feature Mr. Beast [00:48:00] for

is one that I will link to in the episode notes

titled, I built 100 wells in Africa.

So he literally went to Africa, him and his team. And coordinated and showed the building of 100 of water wells in Africa.

Now, these are small, very, very impoverished, poor villages that live in conditions where they have to either walk miles to try to get some water, whether clean or not, usually not. Multiple times a day for drinking and cleaning and showering and that type of thing. There's no running water in these, these areas, these villages

and many of the children especially grow up just with having diarrhea, getting typhoid disease and dying young and it's just a part of their, their lives. You know, we as humans get used to anything as they say, right?

But what he did in building these natural freshwater wells. Which the process [00:49:00] essentially is this huge and they break it down in the video more eloquently than I can but these huge trucks that dig deep deep into the earth

past all the rock and soil and pollutants into Fresh water reservoir

and that allows them to add a spigot to the top and provide fresh drinking water To all these areas and it's unlimited fresh drinking water That can produce approximately 3, 600 gallons a day 3, 600 gallons per day per spigot and can pump for 30 years plus Completely free

Aside from obviously the cost of doing this which is what mr. Beeson is for philanthropic channel covered what they paid for to do

That setup also provided a pressurized water source, which will allow folks to have running water and pressure to be able to wash clothes and stuff that and no longer have to go to the Rio [00:50:00] to wash clothes and bang, bang the clothes up against a rock.

So on and so forth.

He also in one village provided the clean water for a clean water well for a hospital that was there.

It's obviously very important to have clean water in a hospital, but they were also dealing with, you know, unsanitary conditions and dirty water or having to go through hell to try to get clean, clean water.

And a bunch of avoidable, unnecessary obstacles. There was another village where they had to cross this very shaky, rickety bridge where people constantly you know, you know, A handful of people die every year just from trying to cross a river. On this rickety bridge, he got that bridge rebuilt to a bridge that is poised to last 100 years.

In another village where he built one of these 100 water wells, he provided [00:51:00] the school with all new furniture, all new computers, a soccer ball to every single student. In another village where he built one of these water wells,

he provided a bicycle to every single student.

In another school, he provided projectors and bookshelves filled with new books in their classrooms. And all those, , ancillary things are all just little cherries on top. The big takeaway, obviously, is the fresh water that we all take for granted that these folks living in these villages never had access to.

Now, he did get flak from And this part is just frustrating to me because

I just don't get this part of human nature. If it's you wanting the credit or you being upset that someone helped more than you could have, instead of just be happy that the goal of obtaining fresh water was met. But there were certain NGOs or aka non governmental [00:52:00] organizations against Mr. Beast doing this through his philanthropic arm of his company

stating things like, you know, there are organizations that exist that do this type of work. He came out of nowhere

and did this and now he's getting all the credit. These things have to be built sustainably.

He's doing it just for clicks and likes so on and so forth. Yeah. To that I'll say. One,

100 percent as stated by Mr. Beast himself in the video, 100 percent of the money raised from the video is going back into building more wells

and two for the other major concern of sustainability.

These water pumps were built

and spigots to be able to run for 30 years. That's three decades. If that's not sustainable, I don't know what is.[00:53:00]

Now, if any of those things turn out not to be the case,

then you have somewhat of a case against Mr. Beast or, you know, his methods to doing this. But even if those things weren't the case, let's say he was doing this just for clicks, just for money to drive around in Ferraris or some shit.

He still provided 100 water wells to 100 villages throughout Africa to people that otherwise did not have access to that water. Your motivations for doing that, I don't give a flying fuck about. The goal was met of providing water to people that need water to live, to survive. You know what I mean? Your personal motivations for doing so is secondary to me.

The fact that he apparently has the motivations of this altruistic goal of just providing the water and a hundred percent of the funds raised from it are going to go back into the same thing. And just cutting through all the bureaucracy and bullshit is admirable to me. And the fact that they were [00:54:00] built sustainably to last 30 years.

That's like above and beyond in my eyes. Just the goal of meeting the fact that these villages have sustainable water now or just water in general. Let's say it lasted six months, a year. You made everyone's life better for that period of time. Let alone the projected amount of time that and generations that this will affect if in fact it does last for 30 years.

So folks stop hating on folks doing good, trying to do the right thing, just because it wasn't the way that you would go about doing it. And shout out to Mr. Beast and team

for quite honestly, having the balls to try to do good and try to do better in spite of

the blowback received for this video and others it.

And that folks is the.

Mr. Beast's installment of Goat's Doing Goat Shit.

And that, folks, was episode 250 of the Spun Today podcast. [00:55:00] It's been a heck of a year. Another one in the books, the final episode of the year. I hope you guys are enjoying your holidays or about to enjoy your holidays. And wishing each and every one of you a happy and prosperous new year.

Let's continue to grow and build and love in 2024 and do less of the hating and tearing down.

And I say that as much

to myself as I mean that for others as well. Until next time, until next year, peace.