Last Looks: Rollerball (w/ Moshe Kasher)
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Was Pink the actual star of Rollerball? I have a very bad idea, but it's a good thing. And, of course, street luge, bullshit or not. All this and more on today's How Did This Get Made? Last Looks. Hit the theme! Boom!

Oh, last look.

Jonathan! Jonathan! Jonathan! Hello all you hockey players turned street losers turned rollerballers. I'm your host Paul Scheer and welcome to How Did This Get Made? Last Week.

where you, the listener, get to voice your issues on Rollerball. Later in the show, Jason and I will chat with Moshe Kasher. You know him as a How Did This Get Made all-star. Great guest on the show. And he has a brand new book called Subculture Vulture. It is a great read. I'm in the middle of it right now. And if you read his first book, you will know that Moshe delivers. He is brilliant. Can't wait to

to finish the book. Well, I don't want to finish the book because it's so good, but I also can't wait to see where it goes. You get what I'm saying. Anyway, get Moshe's book right now. Plus...

We are going to share a deleted scene from our rollerball show. And as always, I will reveal next week's movie. But first things first, a big shout out to Lone Wolf Collab for that great opening theme. If you've got a theme for the show, whatever it is, send it to us at howdidthisgetmade at earwolf.com. You know the caveats. Funny, short, clever.

I mean, is funny and clever the same thing? I don't know. I'm going to say no. By the way, if you wanted to make a theme song for plugs, you could do that. And one of the plugs might be, hey, everybody, you know, I told you that if you bought my book, you've pre-ordered my book, you get something special. Well, here's the deal. I am going to write a lot of

lot of fucking postcards. That's right. If you have bought my book, you can go to my website, you can sign up, show your receipt, and I will personally write you a postcard of thanks. I know it's so difficult right now to part with your money and because you are parting with it for my book, I want to make sure you get something special. So I will do that. And if you don't feel like giving your address, that's fine because I'm also opening up a special part of my website. It's called Paul's

secret scrapbook that you will have access to and no one else will. So why am I doing this? Because I really do appreciate you all pre-ordering my book. The response so far has been amazing. And honestly, and I said it before and I'll say it again, pre-orders seem to mean everything in publishing. So that's why you pick up the book now. It's going to really, really help. And by the way, if you want to come see us live, how did this get made? That is

Tomorrow, we're going to be in San Francisco at the Masonic doing Samurai Cop. We're also going to be in Europe. And if you have any friends in Belfast, tell them about the show. Go to hdtgm.com to find out more. By the way, Jason and I, we perform in a group called Dinosaurs, an improv group with great people like...

The great Seth Morris and Rob Riggle. Nicole Byer sits in a bunch. Lisa Gilroy, Mary Holland, Owen Burke, Chad Carter. The list goes on and on. Phil Augusta Jackson. So many great people. Carl Tartt.

And we love performing. We would love to have you come see our show at Largo. I'm talking about February 23rd. It's a Friday. That's our next show. We're there every month. Come check out Dinosaur if you are in LA. And let's get into it because Rollerball has a lot that we have to cover. And as a matter of fact, last week we asked everybody in the Discord what would be a better tagline for Rollerball. And Anapocalypse writes...

I got one. Two teams, one track, no rules. Well, actually, there are a lot of rules, but they're all in Russian. All right. An apocalypse. I like that. That's a good one. Let's use that to bring us into something I like to call corrections and omissions. Hit the theme. Corrections and omissions. We ain't rocket scientists.

A swing and a miss. Now somebody's pissed. We took a crack, but it weren't a fact. Now the fans are gonna yell at us. Corrections and omissions.

That's right, people. It is now your chance to set us straight. Fact check us if you will. And I am going to fact check Damien Gentry as being the author of that amazing Corrections and Omissions song. That's how you do it, Damien. Thank you for that. Let's get into street lugeing. Elaine Smith writes, okay, the street luge scene is complete bullshit. Boom. Why is it bullshit, Elaine? Well, she says, for the singular idea that the route taken from Christmas Tree Point to

in Twin Peaks to the finish line, supposedly at Rincon Hill near the Bay Bridge, would be downhill all the way. Okay, and your point? Well, San Francisco is comprised of many hilly neighborhoods going down and up. So in essence, the momentum created going downhill would be lost when the losers inevitably hit an uphill street. Okay, so I guess what you're saying is,

You would never... So even... Well, can't you just get... I think you could. I mean, that's the reason. The whole reason is that. I don't know. I need more street luge talk. And Andy from Rhode Island...

He's got some. Well, he says, look, I was at the show at the Vets Theater and Providence has a great tie in related to the opening street luge race because the original two ESPN games took place in Rhode Island and they did a street luge in Providence.

not far from the Vets Theater. Whoa, Andy, that is amazing. He goes on to say that he was there. He has an X Games poster that his dad got him in his bedroom, not now, but when he was a kid, and he wishes that he raised his hand in the balcony. Well, I love that we picked a movie that really had a connection to everything that's great about Providence. Kirk Wagner, by the way, that sounded like an insult. It was not. It

It was just an offhanded comment. Anyway, Kirk Wagner writes, you guys asked why rollerball players always had to show the ball instead of hiding it to trick the other team. Well, in the 1975 original film, they mentioned that there's a rule where they always had to show the ball at all times. I don't think that was specified in the 2002 remake. Just one example of how the rules in the 1975 movie were so much clearer, even though they were hardly ever spoken. Well, look,

We all now know Rollerball 75, James Caan is the way to go. Before we end this segment, let's go to the phones and hear from Adam Korn.

in New Hampshire. Hey, Paul. Thank you so much for the rollerball episode. My friend Sean and I went and saw that movie in college because it was big with the WWE hype machine because it had Paul Heyman and Shane McMahon made a cameo. And I'm so glad you guys referenced the night vision segment because it was so baffling in the moment. I remember there was actually a sign saying,

at the theater telling people that that was not a glitch. It was not a technical issue with the projector or anything like that. The movie assuring people that the movie was supposed to look like that and so it wasn't anything wrong with the print or anything like that. Just an absolutely god-awful movie. Love the episode. Love the show. Thanks so much.

Have a good day. That is amazing. This often happens when people get upset about things that happen in film. I can't remember the last time this kind of happened. Like, artistic choices have to be explained at the box office. I love this. That's amazing. And I think that this is like moments where people come out and want their money back. Like,

It's such a funny thing. It's like, nope, this wasn't up to my expectations. I want my money back. If anyone has a picture of that, let me know. Although it seems more like an Instagrammable moment. I don't know if back then people were taking pictures of just weird things unless you could share them right away. I mean, this is what we are up to now. I don't think we'd ever take pictures of just random signs or food before mobile phones. Anyway, Andrew, New Jersey, what do you got?

Hey, Paul, this is Andrew from New Jersey, and I just had a quick-ish omission, which is that the director of Rollerball, John McTiernan, did direct Die Hard, yes, but because of him defending Rollerball and getting Chuck Robin wiretapped and then lying about it,

He went to jail, but then while in jail, he had to declare bankruptcy and wanted to... And the bank wanted to liquidate all of his assets because they thought he was lying about the bankruptcy because that just seems to be a theme with him. And after it was all settled and he got out of prison, the liquidation was seen to go through. And then also his royalty payments were taken over by the bank. So because he lied about this awful, terrible movie that he made...

and fought to get it out there, he no longer gets money for Die Hard. I just thought that was a pretty fitting punishment. You make a terrible action movie, you no longer get the benefit from your good action movie. Also, one of his defenses to the bank was trying to say that he was going to make a Top Gun-like movie with John Travolta, which never materialized. Thanks, Paul.

What? I did not realize that. Holy shit. Could you imagine the amount of money that is? That truly is wild.

Well, I mean, that's what you get. Back to the Discord. That was really rough of me, right? That's what you get. I'm doing a lot of asides today. DrGuts1003 writes, John McTiernan may know how to shoot an action scene, but he seemingly knows nothing about how to shoot athletic competitions. I mean, how do you show that many rollerball games and never once show what the scoring is during those games? Yeah, it really was bizarre. I didn't even think there was scoring, to be honest. It just looked like a roller derby. I bet you he didn't even understand what it was.

Johnny Unusual writes, the Heather Graham show you mentioned was called Emily's Reasons Why Not. And it was actually canceled after one episode, not during the commercial break. You might be thinking of Turn On, a show from the creator of Laugh-In. It was pulled in Cleveland during the commercial due to complaints.

It never even aired in Western affiliates after that. Well, I was not thinking of turn on. I need to understand what that even was. What were the complaints? Let's find that online. You know, I didn't mean it was literally pulled after the first commercial, but it was the ratings are so low that after the first commercial break, they knew they had to cancel the show. But.

I will also remind you, in that episode, I specifically said, do not look this up. Do not fact check me. It's funnier what I said than for you to tell me the truth of it. So, Johnny Unusual, even if you're right, you didn't listen to my demand. So, you are out of the running this week for being the winner.

of uh corrections and omissions and the winner of last looks you're out of both uh me and nerd girl uh this is from breakfast prince writes me and nerd girl both found this video where pink talks about her time on set apparently she initially had a much bigger role before it got cut down to only clips on a tv

You know, all week long we've been talking about the Puffy Trial. We are going to give you guys a little brief update on that. But first, as they mentioned before, some news on Pink, right? You know, a lot of people who caught our show MTV Icon Janet Jackson just the other night considered one of the more impressive performances to be Pink and her recreation of the chair dance. So you see it from Janet's Miss You Much. Now, it's even more impressive when you consider that Pink was actually playing hurt that night. Turns out she had pulled a muscle a couple days earlier while working on the new movie Rollerball.

Now, that film is a remake or actually an update of a 70s action movie about a violent, extreme, futuristic sport. And backstage at Icon, we caught up with Pink, and she told us more about Rollerball. Check it out. And it's coming out August 15th with LL Cool J and Chris Klein, who I have a crush on. And...

The movie is kind of crazy. I had to sing the Three Penny Opera, which is a little different from what I do. So it's going to be awesome. Wait, she was rollerblading? I mean, unless she was just like rocking so hard. I mean, I've seen a pink show. She's very athletic in it. And I love that she had a crush on our man, Chris Klein. Wow. So many great corrections and omissions this week. I mean,

Now we just have pink and rollerball in our head. Plus, we're learning so much about John McTiernan. There are so many great things. We learned about street luges and everything. But to me, the thing that really just kind of knocked me on my butt was what Andrew from New Jersey said. So Andrew...

For revealing that John McTiernan has none of his diehard royalty money, you are this week's winner. That's right, and you get this amazing song from Tyler Mann. Fuck. You win.

That's right. Thank you, Tyler Mann, for that song. And thank you to our good friend from New Jersey. Remember, if you want to submit an alt movie tagline or chime in with your own thoughts about the latest episode, hit up the Discord at discord.gg slash hdtgm or call us at 619-Paul-Ask. Coming up, Jason and I are going to be joined by Moshe Kasher to talk about his new memoir,

subculture vulture, plus a whole lot more. Plus, as always, I'm going to reveal next week's movie and play an exclusive bonus scene from our rollerball show. I'll be right back.

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People, I'm sure you noticed that every Monday we re-release old How Did This Get Made episodes back on our feed. This week's Matinee Monday was Monkey Shines. June wants those Monkey Shines to get paid, remember that. And next week's will be The Boy Next Door with guests Heather Ann Campbell and Ben Simon. So keep on checking out these replays of classic episodes every Monday. And now, let's welcome Jason to the show to have a little Just Chat.

Rob from Long Island, play us in. Jason

We got a special guest on the show today. I'm very excited. I'm thrilled. An all-star, a pal. Yes, I'm excited. Please welcome Moshe Kasher. Moshe, how are you? I'm great. Hi, boys. So good to see both of you, actually. What a hunk. I gotta say, I love your... The wallpaper behind you is...

beautiful. You and your wife, Natasha, the way that you do your podcast, the way it looks like everyone's in these cramped recording studios and you guys look like you are broadcasting from the hippest Hollywood Hills kind of apartment. I don't smoke cigarettes, but it also feels like there could be a room, like a thing in that room where there's just like a ton of cigarettes in a special decanter, which I felt like it was something that my grandparents had. Like

It was like a cigarette decanter. You pull up a little gold thing in the middle and they all pop out. Oh, that sounds good. But it's, you know what? We're trying to take care of our health. So it's just a hundred jewels. So smart. So good for you. Good for you. Occasionally June will smoke a cigarette and I was very happy this year to see

Uh, we decorate our house very, uh, very, we go all out during Christmas. And, um, I got June this, um, Santa Claus and he's in, uh, and he's in a little barrel and he's in, he's shirtless. And, um, when you pull on his legs, um, he's,

It looks like his dick is coming out, but it's a cigarette. And you just kind of take it out with your mouth. And it's fun for the whole family until my kids found it and then insisted on showing it to all their friends. So not only were they showing like a dick Santa, but then they were also showing cigarettes. And they were like, this proves that everybody's...

Santa has a dick. I'm sure of it. No, no, no, no. This isn't sexual. This is just to encourage smoking in our family. Yeah, yeah. We just, yeah. We hit it. We really did it twice. Really hit both things badly. Well, we have the same thing at our house, but it's much more modern. It's not an antique. It's Tim Allen in the Santa Claus. He's the Santa. So it's actually Tim Allen. And then when you, yeah. And he said. Yeah.

That's the best of the three. We are trying to compete with Bitch Sesh. So do you want to throw any shade at Tim Allen here on the podcast? Oh, right. What did he do? Did he do something recently? No. Casey... Actually, it's not Bitch Sesh anymore. They changed the name to called Garbage World. They're on their own Patreon. They're doing their own thing. But Casey...

in the privacy of the podcast, Patreon, went off on Tim Allen and her experience working one day on the Santa Claus and it went viral. Like she didn't expect it to go viral. It went, like she, and I think the reason why it went viral is because she called him a little bitch.

She said he's a little bitch. And and yeah, it really like it got out there in such a way that was that made me laugh. I don't know. You know, look, you know, is there anybody that you'd like to call a little bitch or any other names right now? Any any any any grudge list? Yeah. I mean, I don't want to be too controversial.

I also don't want to step on you. You're here to talk about your book. I don't want to step on your book. Is it one chapter after another on grudges? Yeah, well, it's mostly about Tim Allen. I mean, to be honest with you, it's mostly about Tim Allen. And I know why he acts that way. And I think Casey wasn't being very sensitive to that. Like, the guy just wants more power. That's all. I mean, he's just trying to get a little more power. No, man.

Oh, my gosh. You know, Moshe, you have a brand new book coming out. I do. Like Jason just said. Subculture Vulture. It's a memoir and six scenes. It comes out January 30th, a day before my birthday. I got the box of the real thing today. I just opened up this box. Holy moly. And there it is. Ooh, that looks great. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Moshe, who did the art for that cover? Oh, that's a great question. The man's name is Chris Allen. And?

And Greg Molica. And I mean, they just killed it so hard. It looks like a little, like a, like a scene. Great. It's very, this looks like a graphic. It looks like a graphic novel or a cool book that I would pick up at a, at a secret headquarters. I got to say, I got emotional opening up this box. Cause like when I was a little kid, I never had aspirations to be a comedian. That was not part of what I thought was happening for me, but I always said I wanted to be a writer. I didn't even know what that meant. And I opened that box. I just got emotional. Like you write one book,

and you've written a book and I feel like you write too like I've become the writer that the little boy thought that I would be and I'm I I'm really proud of it and I'm really proud of this particular book I did want to talk about that this is your second book and you know I feel like you see a lot of uh comedians and uh performers write a book right and and it's very rare that

that you get a second book, you know, and your first book I thought was so just beautiful, personal. And it was, you know, talk to me about the process of coming, like, how did you find your way into this one? Because they're both, they're both memoirs to a certain extent, you know, they're focusing on different parts of your life. Yeah. Well, this one is, I wanted to do kind of a

This one's more of a concept memoir, I guess. It's like it's one part history, one part. It's obviously a comedy, but it's one part history and one part memoir. And I kind of go through each of these six worlds that have created the person that I am, which are like AA and the 12 steps. I got out of rehab for the last time when I was 15 and got sober and was like by far the youngest person in any AA meeting I ever stepped into for 10 years.

and raves. I started going to raves in the early 90s. I started throwing raves and DJing and selling ecstasy as a sober person. Burning Man, I went for the first time in 1996 because I heard there was a rave in the desert and I just like jumped in the car and I think last year was my 24th time at Burning Man and I worked there for like 15 years

And sign language interpreting and deafness, my parents, my uncles, my cousins, my half-brothers and sisters are all deaf. And I was a sign language interpreter for 15 years. And Hasidic Judaism, my father, when my mom left him, became like a born-again Hasidic Jew. And I was raised six weeks a year in the summer, basically cosplaying as an extra on Fiddler on the Roof, pretending to know what I was doing in a Hasidic world. And then stand-up, which is like the reason that I'm able to write a book or two in the first place.

So anyway, the reason I wrote it like that, I wanted to do something different. I wanted something that was like kind of scary to me. And this was like, cause it is history and I do have to like answer that bell, but mostly like my first book ends in,

Like the day that I walk away from my friends, you know, there's this image of me walking one way down the street and my friends all walking up the road to Barclays, this bar in Oakland that would serve us underage kids and me walking alone into my new life. And like over the years, I had a lot of people always asking me like, well, what happened next? What happened next? And so I decided to write this book about what happened next. And the answer was like, everything.

Like so much happened next. My whole life happened next. Yeah. What's amazing is all the stuff that you just mentioned that is part of that second book is enough itself for four books. Right. Like everything you just talked about, the fact that it's not that that's not even in the first book is wild, you know? And, and do you feel, I'm curious, do you feel like now as you are thinking about things and thinking about a

a way to talk about things or talk about stories or yourself or whatever. Are you no longer thinking in terms of this will be worked out on stage in standup? This is, are you now thinking of things more as I will now sit and write this? Are these chapters rather than, you know, chunks, you know? You know, yeah, I, I have reverse engineered a lot of the first book onto into standup, but there's something about the,

writing books for me that like feels like I can tap into this. I think part of it is because of the

age of stand-up that I started in like I didn't start in this hyper sincere age of stand-up that a lot of younger comics are in now you know with like Roth Daniel and and then that and these like hyper confessional super personal my thing I was raised in you know I started in 2001 it was like funny over everything all that matters is comedy kill kill kill kill kill and so

for me the books were always uh this portal into the more sincere me the more kind of thoughtful and and slow version of me and um and so i can go in places emotional places in this in that i never really go on stage i'm not a particularly emotional stand-up um i'd love to find a way to get some more of that going on on stage but i i kind of also like do you feel like while you know like

as you are excavating the more revelatory or emotionally revelatory elements of your life, do you find that seeping into your standup or is it kind of church and state? These are separate things purposefully, you know, like you get to do, you know, just out of curiosity. Yeah, no, I think I started like thinking much more like what you're saying, Jason, like that, what this exists over here. I want to be,

thought of as serious over here and silly over here. I never cared. I like being ridiculous on stage. I never thought comedy needs to have this emotional element. But as you get older, I guess the idea of something being corny or cheesy on stage starts to matter a lot less. And I do think that as I'm getting older, things are starting to seep a little bit more. Yeah. Yeah. That's great.

That's really interesting. I don't know. You're interesting to me because I think that you are somebody who is incredibly funny. So I don't think it's going to be like, oh my gosh, I'm shocked that he went there. But it's fun that your audience and that people are willing to go in these places with you. Because as you are talking about the Talmud or something like that, you're going into this thing where it's like, oh, here's a funny story about a time I picked up a hitchhiker. And I love that you are able to

to explore all those things that I like about you as a human being in something that is like a mass market. I think I'll, I'll jump on that too, because I feel like what is evident in your standup or your writing, or especially the stuff you do on stage that isn't necessarily standup. Your other shows is, I feel like Moshe, you are primarily a curious person. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, and your curiosity, I feel like as we get older, people get less and less curious.

They get more and more calcified in the discoveries they've already made. They like these things. They're creatures of habit. We settle into and calcify in our personhood. And you are somebody that to me over the period of time I've known you

Are always curious, are always asking and questioning and are like you're a curious mind. And I feel like that is evident in everything you do for work. I, I, I, I'm, I feel really grateful that you, I feel like I'm, we're in a scene in Avatar that you see me. But I, I really, I,

I really do feel that way. Like, I love people. And I think that's why, like, on stage, what I love to do is crowd work the most because I really genuinely love the, like, discovery of who's sitting in an audience, you know? I love... And I think that that's because of the way that I was raised. Like, I was raised in a world where I was an outsider in kind of every universe I felt like

painfully outside. Like I was not deaf, but I was raised in a deaf world. I was a white kid raised in Oakland public schools. I was a kid that didn't know how to read Hebrew, but I was going to literally the most religious Jewish neighborhoods in the world. I mean, people in my neighborhood in Brooklyn, the kids spoke Yiddish as a first language. They had Eastern European accents and they were third generation American. Like that. I just felt this like a cute. Oh, there's a good story from the book. I'll tell you. Um,

But I'll get back to my curiosity. This is true. When I would go to Seagate, this was the neighborhood in Brooklyn. I say, if you don't know how to get to Seagate, you basically take the F train to the last possible stop. You get off, walk past Coney Island, pass the projects, pass the people of color through a gate, through a time portal to pre-Nazi Europe, and then you will arrive in Seagate. I didn't know Hebrew.

I don't know the Hebrew alphabet and they're speaking Yiddish. And I just like I could the dodgeball games in that neighborhood used to be the ultra Orthodox kids versus the actually really religious kids. Like the ultra Orthodox kids were like the secular, like weird, edgy kids. And then we would play against the like long side locked like Yiddish speakers. So it's getting towards Yiddish.

um, my bar mitzvah and I'm drowning. I mean, I'm drowning in this world. I'm only a Jew six weeks a year. The rest of the year, I'm literally a secular public school kid listening to gangster rap in Oakland. And then I fly to the old country and go like, just pretend that I know what I'm doing. And a local rabbi saw that I was struggling. And he, um, he,

He said to my dad, he's like, give him to me on Wednesdays or Thursday, whatever day it was, and I'll take him and I'll teach him how to read Hebrew in preparation for his bar mitzvah. And this was like early 90s, late 80s. So you could ask for some alone time with a child and they'd be handed over. No questions asked. Right.

So I start going to his house Wednesday afternoons and I'm struggling. Like I can't get it. I just can't get it. And he goes, don't worry, man. He goes, he goes, he goes, Smully, Smully. And he pulls his oldest son in and he's like, Smully, say the English alphabet. And Smully's like,

probably 14 years old. He goes, oh no. He goes, A, B, C, G. And then the rabbi like slaps me on the back. He's like, see, he is stupid in English. You are stupid in Hebrew. Everybody's stupid.

So, wow. Anyway, this is the universe I was raised in. And I think that like, that's why that kind of painful aloneness is why when a kid at my school said, Hey, what are you doing, man? He saw me shoplift a pack of cigarettes. And he goes, Hey, speaking of cigarettes coming out of Santa's cock, he goes, come to the back of the school.

And smoke cigarettes with us back there. And when I found those kids at the back of the school, behind the portable, I was just like secret power unlocked, right? Like people have secrets for me that can give me my superpower. And then that very quickly fell apart into like full chaos. And my journey at that point became like, well, how do I go forward?

Sort of stomp through the world and find out what secrets there are out there that will make me feel that kind of feeling again So that curiosity like started when I was super young like I went to a rave by myself I never even I didn't know anything about rays, but I thought maybe there was some secret in there for me I went to Burning Man just having heard a rumor of something crazy and I decided to go I Went got on stage, you know never having thought I would be a stand-up It's like all of these things

dragged me from world to world and and once in a while I would see a world where I felt like you know when you walk in you have an experience where you turn around you go oh my god the whole world has changed in in an instant like I'm I'm in a different universe uh and that's what I found uh through being curious so yeah it's all about people yeah

I love this. All about experiential learning. Yeah. You know, what you're talking about is exposure and experience as a way to grow, learn, discover. That's incredible. There are some football feelings you can only get with BetMGM Sportsbook. That's right. Not just the highs, the ohs, or the no, no, no's. It's the feeling that comes with being taken care of every down of the football season.

The feeling that comes with getting MGM rewards benefits or earning bonus bets. So, whether you're drawing up a same-game parlay in your playbook or betting the over on your favorite team...

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Now, there's also an audio book in this. You can get it any which way you want this book. You can get a hardcover. You can get an e-book. You can get an audio book. Now, I have been trudging through

Not trudging. Happily enjoying the 48-hour audio version of Barbara Streisand's book. 48 hours is a long time to get through. And I'm enjoying the hell out of it. But I take breaks. Sometimes a week or two break and I come back to Barbara. Now, she clearly is improvising. And I typed it in on my engine and search engine.

And it came back that, yeah, like it's a totally, her audio book is totally different. Cause she just kind of starts like meandering and you could tell, cause she'll be like, yeah, my dentist. Huh? And where did he, I believe it was on. Very extreme. She really like, wow. And you know, and then here's the thing about pretty good. Here's the thing about, um, about her. Um,

is that she's disrespectful to the form. And if I had to say it in more crystal clear terms, she's a little bitch. Like, I just want... I would say that. Oh, wow. There it is. That's what we needed. There we go, garbage time. We are competing with...

But when you did your audio book, is there anything special in it? Anything that we can be on the lookout for? We were talking about this off mic. The Burning Man chapter, I was writing this sort of love letter to 25 years spent at Burning Man. And having watched it go, in 1996 when I went for the first time, it was fantastic.

fucking wild. I mean, it was insane and it was dangerous. It was literally very dangerous. Before the gates opened in 96, someone had died. He got his head cut basically off playing a game of chicken on a motorcycle. And

Oh, my God. And there were drive-by shooting ranges and they were setting buildings on fire right on the raw playa. Jesus. People were fucking in the dirt and it was scary and dangerous. And I went there thinking, oh, there's a rave in the desert and got there and go, I don't know what this is, but this is not a rave. This is something...

something different, subversive, meaningful, but terrifying. And, um, and a big part of the, my history of Burning Man is, is, you know, the big story that people say about Burning Man, which is that it's like in this slow creep towards irrelevance and jumping the shark. And in some ways I think that's true. And in some ways I think that's really overstated, but, um, but then I, you know, this year, uh, I, we had the big crazy mud, mud,

like apocalypse, you know, like, and it was, it was so crazy. I had everybody. Suddenly there was all these stories about everybody getting stuck at Burning Man. Yeah. Chris Rock had to walk miles in the mud. Yeah. He like, like got in a van or apocalyptic reporting, but right. It's Chris Rock and like the real apocalypse that we've always envisioned is Chris Rock and Diplo trudging through the desert to get to a private plane to a DJ gig in DC. Yeah.

But, you know, and when we were when we were in that, I was getting texts and tweets. And then I remember reading the headline on CNN. But Joe Biden has been briefed on the situation at Burning Man. I go, OK, I'm in a fake news story. I'm inside of a fake news story because inside the event, people were.

having the fucking time of their lives and because oh cool i can say it like this a comment i know that people think burning man's lame and people love to hate it i get that and i get why actually but uh you know there was this like i would say like god level of schadenfreude happening when when the mud came everybody's just like oh finally they're suffering and this woman in my comments said um uh

I love to see the suffering of rich people cosplaying as poor people, which I thought was a funny slam, a good roast, but wrong. Because Burning Man people are not rich people cosplaying as poor people. They are weak people cosplaying as survivalists. And so...

There was nothing that was more justifying and just like bringing them happiness than a minor weather event where they could put to the task all of these things they thought they've learned over the years at Burning Man. People were in revelry. Like they were celebrating on a level that was orgasmic and ecstatic because what was cool about it

Was that Burning Man, a lot like all of these things, because each one of these worlds is like, you know, it's a history, too. I literally started at the beginning. And each one of these worlds, like, started one place and then, like, everything kind of became this other thing. Comedy, too, you know? Now it's like TikTok and crowd work clips. And it used to be like you're in between acts on vaudeville. A talking horse would come out. You would just tell jokes while they clean the horse shit, right? Like...

So Burning Man has changed in this way that is for the worse a lot. But all of a sudden, there was an act of God that came in and turned –

Burning Man from this digital thing to an analog thing all of a sudden out of the heavens. And all of a sudden, I felt like I was in 1996 again. All of a sudden, there were no cars and there were no lasers and it was just whatever kind of thing you could experience in the mud. So I wrote about

that, I thought, oh, this really like this finishes the the thought experiment that I've been having about Burning Man and about myself aging there and what it means to me. And I went to my editor and I said, I, you know, I think people want to know this. And it was too late to put it in the in the written book. But we recorded it for the audio book. So that segment is in the audio book. Oh, that's amazing. That's so interesting to me. The idea of both like the I don't know if this is the right word, but like the gentrification of Burning Man, which

It is a gentrification. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like it's gone from like what you're describing, like, you know, kind of grungy in the desert, you know, rave adjacent. Well, all cool things become corporatized. Even that thing which is the most uncorporatized, right? I mean, I remember even going to Bumbershoot and Bumbershoot the first couple times I went, which had been going on for a long time, it was so much different than the last time I went. You know, it's like once all of a sudden you have a tent paid for by Pepsi, you know,

Or Comedy Central. You're like, oh, shit's changing. Like money's coming in in a different way.

The quote I heard about Burning Man specifically, which sums it up, is Burning Man went from a place where weird people came to feel normal to a place where normal people go to feel weird. That's great. That's great. And I wonder if part of that is sped up by its adjacency to Silicon Valley and everything that's happening in Northern California. Is it just like if Burning Man had been located in Vermont all this time, would this be happening?

I actually talk about that specific shift because a lot of times what people think happened to Burning Man is that Silicon Valley invaded it, turned it into a place for a corporate retreat center where Trust Falls at Tony Robbins Center turned into threesomes with Russian sex workers on Coke on an art car as a corporate retreat. That's what happened. They infiltrated and ruined Burning Man.

but the real story is more complicated than that, which is that Burning Man, it's not that tech ruined Burning Man. It's that tech ruined itself. I was always from the very beginning. And, and,

And it used to be, I'm sure you guys remember, like being an internet person in the 90s, you were a member of a subculture. It was weird. It was. Yes. You were like a freak. You had a shaved head and you were like, you look like Angelina Jolie and hackers like that's who you were. You were. And then what happened was they took over the world and they became the most powerful entity in the world. More powerful than governments. They turned into billionaires and trillionaires and they were still there. So I mean, I hope they don't got lamer because of tech. Take over entertainment. Yeah.

No, they were never. They would never. Oh, God.

That's not something they're even interested in doing. But like, yeah, no, but I think that's a good analogy. Like you see like the techification of the entertainment industry. It's not that they've arrived. It's that they've swallowed the culture whole. And so Burning Man always had tech people. It's the tech people themselves became lamer. And as a result, it turned into this kind of more corporate entity. I'm learning a lot.

All right, so the book Subculture Vulture is out right now. You can buy it right now. You can go to a bookstore. You can get it on an e-book. You can get the audio book. Whatever you want to do. You can get it as a CD. It's expensive to get it as a CD, but you can get it. You know, I have a really crazy idea. Because my thing is that I'm so into...

Like, you know, Burning Man was such a like counterculture, like they call it culture jamming. And they used to do these wild street pranks and stuff. And like I'm really a student of that school. And I know that the Internet has like taken some of that on, like doing these like pranks. And I know you guys have like really rabid fans. Here's a crazy idea of like a prank that your people could do. I just think this could be so weird. What if everybody just like as a prank, like as a weird prank –

who's listening were to go buy the book on Amazon. Or anywhere. Not Amazon. Anywhere. I would like it to be Amazon. I love Amazon. Amazon guy, but like, yeah. But that's the joke. And that's kind of the prank is that you're going to Amazon and you're getting it. Right. It's...

It's kind of like a gotcha to big tech. We could kind of do that as a community. It's not about my book. I don't care about book sales, obviously. I'm not here to chill books. I just think as a prank, as a subversive prank. And you know what, Paul? It could be kind of cool if they didn't just buy my book. Oh, wait a second. But while they were there. Yeah. This is crazy. I don't know. This might be too much.

This might be too much of a prank. I don't know if you're... But what if they were to pre-order your book in the same transaction? Now that's a prank!

That's impractical jokers. Now we're doing it. Now we've pranked. We're walking the prank. We're doing it. Oh, God. Yeah, Abbas, you scurvy dog. Go get that book as a weird prank. I love it. It's like a flash mob. Buy some books. I'll tell you this much. We both have books coming out. There is something that was really disheartening during this...

award season or you know all these movies are coming out I watched You Hurt My Feelings I watched American Fiction and I watched oh my gosh what's the third one The Holdovers and all of them are about like miserable people trying to get their books out or not miserable people it's just like a

It really does paint a sad picture. I'll say Anatomy of a Fall. Anatomy of a Fall is the other one about struggling writers. Yes, that's the other one. That's my movie of the year. My movie of the year. I loved it. Incredible movie. Apparently, she made another film, the director, that's even better. And I have to find it. It's one of her first movies. And it's about a journalist following a

a politician on a campaign trail and it's done that same kind of doc style, which is supposed to be very good. Incredible. Anyway, here's what I'll say as a good prank. I'm going to, I'm going to do a good, I'm going to participate in the prank, even though I don't have a book coming out just for people who are currently listening at home on a speaker. I'm going to say, Alexa,

Buy culture. Wait, no, it's what is it? Is it culture? All this subculture. Alexa, buy subculture vulture. Hardcover. Oh, Alexa, buy subculture vulture hardcover.

Oh my gosh. We nailed these guys, man. We pranked them hard. Classic prank. And when you're done buying the hardcover, go get that audiobook because it's going to have that extra chapter in it.

It's a pleasure. I'm so excited that you're here. We got to get you back on the show show, but we need to get you on here to make sure we talked about your book, Subculture Vulture, a memoir and six scenes out right now. Buy it and be part of the world's best prank. Moshe, it's been a pleasure to have you. We will talk to you soon. My pleasure. Thank you for having me, guys.

Thank you, Moshe. His book is Subculture Vulture. We're going to have a deleted scene in just a second from a Rollerball episode. But I want to make sure that you pre-order or get Subculture Vulture wherever books are sold. And you can pre-order mine at the same time. I know, I'm sneaking in a plug for myself. I'm terrible. Anyway, now is finally time.

to announce our next movie. Next week, we are going to go from roller balls to Jamie Dornan's balls. That's right. Next week, we'll be watching How Did This Get Made's first entry into the Fifty Shades trilogy. That's right. Back in 2015.

There's a little film called Fifty Shades of Grey starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan, and we are going to break it down next week. Do we even need to know what the plot is? Yeah, you may want to, right? Literature student Anastasia Steele's life changes forever when she meets a handsome yet tormented billionaire.

Christian Grey. And the rest is movie history. Rotten Tomatoes gives this film a 25% score on the Tomatometer. Richard Roper of the Chicago Sun-Times writes, basically, they made a lousy mid-2000s era Katherine Heigl romance with a handful of explicit scenes spliced throughout the familiar cliches. I love Richard Roper, but I think he's overthinking it in this review. I don't see Katherine Heigl romance in here at all. But the rest...

works. Listen to the trailer for Fifty Shades of Grey. You can currently stream Fifty Shades of Grey for free on Macs. You can rent it on Apple.

Amazon, YouTube, or Google Play. But remember, go to your local public library because you can also get it from there. Now, we are almost at the end of this episode, but before we go, check out this bonus scene from our rollerball show where we talk about the cast of the movie doing a promotional tie-in with some WWF pro wrestlers.

So before we get to our final moments, I wanted to show you something because this movie was heavily publicized. I don't have any clips from it, but it was a part of a road rules challenge where actually one of the road rules people got in the movie Rollerball. Was it CT? I do actually have who it was. It's okay. I'm just kidding. It's the only name I know because he was in a Kroll show sketch. I remember that guy.

But I wanted to show you this. Beth, can you show the lunchroom scene? Okay, because one of the things, this is a WWF. One of the things this movie had was a tie-in to the WWF. And I want to show you this scene with the cast and professional wrestlers. It's amazing.

Yeah, yeah. I want to know why I wasn't invited to the premiere rollerball in these two suckers' world.

Don't you know who I am? I'm Booker T. Five times, five times, WCW champion. The same man who kicked Triple H's ass on Raw single-handedly. You know what, I wanna know why I didn't get a part in this movie. I wanna know why I am not the lead man in this damn movie. - Lead man? - Yeah, that's right.

You're not the leading man in the movie because there was no scene in the movie where somebody gets their ass kicked in a grocery store. Yeah. You did get your ass kicked. You did get your ass kicked in a grocery store. Lettuce. Apples flying all over your head. You're pathetic. You're pathetic. Just say that. I'll tell you what. What? I want you. And I want you to lace them up. I'm going to find an apartment. Why put that lamp there? Let me show your punk ass.

I love that he's mad that he was not invited to the premiere.

of Rollerball and then also mad that he wasn't in the movie. He has double complaints. But then after the movie came out, there was another thing where he came in and was like, thank you for not putting me in the movie Rollerball. That was my bad. I did not enjoy it. And I'm not fooling. The clip that we could not find is LL Cool J on Conan O'Brien where he goes, yeah, that movie sucked, but I got to promote it. That's why I was on your show.

Amazing. I did love that they're all smoking cigars, but just like sitting around, like pantomiming, they have big cigars, like they're on the Joe Rogan podcast.

Oh my gosh. I love pro wrestling tie-ins. And you know what? I also love coming to an end. And that's what's happening right now. Please rate and review the show. It helps. If you listen on Apple Podcasts, make sure you are following us everywhere on social media at HDTGM. Thank you to our producers, Scott Sonny and Molly Reynolds, our movie-picking producer, Avril Halle, our associate producer, Jess Cisneros, and our engineers, Casey Holford and Rich Garcia. We will see you next week for 50 Shades of Grey. I just can't be in love.

There are some football feelings you can only get with BetMGM Sportsbook. That's right. Not just the highs, the ohs, or the no, no, no's. It's the feeling that comes with being taken care of every down of the football season. The feeling that comes with getting MGM rewards benefits or earning bonus bets. So, whether you're drawing up a same-game parlay in your playbook or betting the over on your favorite team. Hey!

The BetMGM app is the best place to bet on football. You only get that feeling at BetMGM, the sportsbook born in Vegas, now live across the DMV. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. See BetMGM.com for terms. 21 plus only, DC only, subject to eligibility requirements. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.