Latest / The Favorites Sports Betting Podcast / Betting, Predictions & The Simpsons

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Betting, Predictions & The Simpsons · The Favorites Sports Betting Podcast

0:08
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Favorites, the podcast part of the Volume
0:12
Speaker 1: Podcast Network. I am Chad Millman of the Action Network Today.
0:17
Speaker 1: I'm joined as always by my cost my companion, my
0:20
Speaker 1: compadre might BFF professional better Signmon Hunter els Imon.
0:26
Speaker 2: Chad, what a show we have today, brother dude.
0:29
Speaker 1: We got very special guests for a very special show.
0:36
Speaker 1: We like to figure out on this show what is
0:41
Speaker 1: going to happen in the future. I don't think any
0:48
Speaker 1: medium has been better at predicting what is going to
0:54
Speaker 1: happen in the future than The Simpsons, which now only
1:01
Speaker 1: is that the longest running scripted primetime show in American
1:04
Speaker 1: television history, it has been epically successful in predicting the
1:12
Speaker 1: most outrageous things, from voting scandals, which one of our
1:18
Speaker 1: guests predicted many many years ago, to Olympic curling gold,
1:26
Speaker 1: whether it's sports, whether it's politics, whether it's polluted waters
1:31
Speaker 1: and three eyed fishes. The Simpsons have been predicting it
1:36
Speaker 1: for years, so I wanted to dig in on how
1:41
Speaker 1: they do it. Here to discuss it. Two fellas happen
1:47
Speaker 1: to be brothers. Both have worked on The Simpsons, one
1:52
Speaker 1: still does. They are industry veterans, Canadian Royalty, one of
1:58
Speaker 1: them has He's directed one of the best documentaries on
2:03
Speaker 1: Canadian sense of humor in history. It's a pretty long list,
2:08
Speaker 1: but they are fantastic looking duo. Rob Cone is a
2:12
Speaker 1: close buddy. He's been writing and directing his way through
2:15
Speaker 1: Hollywood for years on some of the biggest and best
2:18
Speaker 1: shows you've all watched, including The Simpsons, Wonder Years, Big Bang,
2:21
Speaker 1: my personal favorite, Somebody Somewhere, which made every top ten
2:25
Speaker 1: list of the best shows last year. He also won
2:28
Speaker 1: an Emmy for his work on The Ben Stiller Show.
2:33
Speaker 1: If you're a Simpson super fan, he was the screenwriter
2:36
Speaker 1: of one of the shows most beloved episode, Flaming Mo's
2:41
Speaker 1: season three. His brother, Joel has been with The Simpsons
2:44
Speaker 1: for almost thirty years. He's an executive producer of the show.
2:48
Speaker 1: He's written nearly forty episodes, some of which we are
2:51
Speaker 1: going to talk about today because they presaged some of
2:54
Speaker 1: the most outrageous moments literally in history, including a very
2:59
Speaker 1: special ar tree House of Horrors episode that are still
3:03
Speaker 1: relevant today. Like me, Joel is an author, which is
3:07
Speaker 1: the hardest thing to do, much harder than a long
3:11
Speaker 1: successful career in Hollywood. His delightful book How to Lose
3:14
Speaker 1: a Marathon is available wherever books are sold. The Boys,
3:20
Speaker 1: the Coen Brothers have a new animated show. It's Hilarious
3:24
Speaker 1: Super Team Canada, produced with Will Arnette. He also does
3:27
Speaker 1: a podcast. People may have heard of it. It's available
3:30
Speaker 1: on CraveTV and on YouTube. Fellas, it's been a long preamble,
3:36
Speaker 1: I apologize, but you've been around forever and there's a
3:38
Speaker 1: lot of stuff you've been doing, so welcome to the show.
3:42
Speaker 3: Rob When the Way to the World has got you
3:46
Speaker 3: down and you want to end your life, bills to pay,
3:51
Speaker 3: a dead end job, and problems with the wife, but
3:55
Speaker 3: don't throw in the tower, because there's a place right
3:58
Speaker 3: down the block where you can drink your misery away.
4:05
Speaker 4: That flame.
4:11
Speaker 3: When the.
4:14
Speaker 5: Conform you by happiness, it is just a flaming go away.
4:21
Speaker 5: Happiness is just a flaming move away.
4:27
Speaker 4: Say hello, Hello, Chad, this is the sound of my
4:30
Speaker 4: impressed voice.
4:31
Speaker 1: Thank you, Joel, can you be equally impressed?
4:35
Speaker 6: It would be hard to match that level of enthusiasm,
4:37
Speaker 6: but hello as well.
4:39
Speaker 1: All right, I got to ask, first off, Joel, you've
4:43
Speaker 1: been there forever at this point, why does this keep happening?
4:48
Speaker 1: How do you guys continue to predict the future.
4:52
Speaker 6: We're getting into it right now.
4:54
Speaker 1: Let's just do it.
4:54
Speaker 6: Let's just want to hear it. Let me tell everyone
4:58
Speaker 6: the sad truth, and then I will try to salvage
5:01
Speaker 6: it with a little bit of hope at the end.
5:02
Speaker 6: How about that. So most of the time when people
5:05
Speaker 6: say Simpsons predicted it, what has happened is the Simpsons
5:09
Speaker 6: are a bunch of hacks and we have merely reported
5:12
Speaker 6: on something that has already happened. But the world travels
5:15
Speaker 6: in cycles. So one of the things that people talk
5:18
Speaker 6: about recently or semi recently is Simpsons predicted COVID. And
5:22
Speaker 6: they show this clip that was aired after SARS. If
5:26
Speaker 6: you guys remember Stars, one of our great viruses, and
5:29
Speaker 6: we did a joke on the show where like the
5:31
Speaker 6: news caster Kent Brockman is saying this Asian flu blah
5:34
Speaker 6: blah blah blah blah. So people show that clip and
5:37
Speaker 6: they're like, Simpsons predicted COVID. In fact, we are like
5:40
Speaker 6: probably three years after the fact of SARS and just
5:42
Speaker 6: doing it a sort of a joke or a take
5:45
Speaker 6: on SARS. So a lot of times it's just that
5:47
Speaker 6: cycle of life that looks like there's a prediction. Add
5:51
Speaker 6: to that now the ability of everybody in the world
5:54
Speaker 6: to use AI and crappy animation and people are creating
5:59
Speaker 6: memes and little video clips that look like a prediction after,
6:03
Speaker 6: of course the fact that it happened. The third thing
6:05
Speaker 6: I'll throw on the bummer pile is like, for example,
6:08
Speaker 6: there was these horrific fires in Los Angeles. There's all
6:11
Speaker 6: these things. Simpsons predicted the fire. Well, we have eight
6:14
Speaker 6: hundred episodes. Shockingly, we have had one with a fire
6:17
Speaker 6: in it, so you can find a clip of a
6:19
Speaker 6: fire and then say Simpsons brick at the fire. So
6:21
Speaker 6: those are the bumbers. The good news is the Dave
6:25
Speaker 6: I started the day after this aired. But one of
6:28
Speaker 6: our writers, Dan Graney, who Rob knows certainly, was writing
6:31
Speaker 6: an episode and he had to think of it was
6:33
Speaker 6: in the future. I forget the name of the episode,
6:36
Speaker 6: but it's in the future when Lisa becomes president and
6:38
Speaker 6: replaces the former president and had to name who the
6:40
Speaker 6: president was. Dan's first idea was President Depp because he thought, oh,
6:44
Speaker 6: Johnny Depp. Then he thought, no, no, that's too viable. It
6:47
Speaker 6: has to be the most ridiculous, idiotic name you could
6:50
Speaker 6: ever put in there, So he chose President Trump, which
6:53
Speaker 6: that was in two thousand that aired, So that was
6:56
Speaker 6: a clear prediction. And as you've mentioned with all the
6:59
Speaker 6: last thing, I say, with eight hundred episodes, we occasionally
7:02
Speaker 6: do stuff that then does prove prescient, like we've predicted
7:06
Speaker 6: Olympic curling success and World Cup scores and Super Bowl teams,
7:10
Speaker 6: et cetera. So long winded answer to say, often it's
7:15
Speaker 6: either super laziness and a little bit of luck.
7:18
Speaker 1: Well, look, I know Simon is a he's a Halloween
7:23
Speaker 1: special lover. And Joel, that's one of your many specialties.
7:31
Speaker 1: The sports angle on this and I know someone wants
7:33
Speaker 1: to ask about it because it's also contains one of
7:35
Speaker 1: the greatest and most relevant prescient predictions that has happened
7:40
Speaker 1: in The Simpsons. But the sports angle is fascinating to
7:43
Speaker 1: me because everyone in that room is clearly a sports fan,
7:48
Speaker 1: and you guys have predicted so many things. You know,
7:53
Speaker 1: as I used to run USP in the magazine and
7:55
Speaker 1: in twenty thirteen, I think you guys did FIFA corruption
7:59
Speaker 1: and you had a French version of ESP in the
8:02
Speaker 1: magazine that had the cover of you know, French of
8:07
Speaker 1: a FIFA corruption and a year later that's happening, right,
8:11
Speaker 1: And so where does the sports fandom come in to
8:15
Speaker 1: all this?
8:17
Speaker 6: Tons and tons of sports fans. I wouldn'tay everybody's a
8:19
Speaker 6: sports fan, but it's a lot of guys with nothing better,
8:23
Speaker 6: didn't look at their phones all day. So there are
8:24
Speaker 6: a lot of sports fans. And then of course sports,
8:28
Speaker 6: just like anything else in society, trickles in for predictions.
8:32
Speaker 6: But like FIFA corruption, I probably could have told you
8:35
Speaker 6: in nineteen eighty three that there was FIFA corruption, right,
8:38
Speaker 6: so that we did a story about it is not
8:40
Speaker 6: so shocking. So Anya, we just do a lot of
8:42
Speaker 6: sports episodes. I just had an episode on a couple
8:44
Speaker 6: weeks ago that sort of mirrored the Otani betting scandal.
8:48
Speaker 6: I don't know if you guys heard about that. It
8:49
Speaker 6: wasn't covered very much in the media, but so we
8:53
Speaker 6: had a Macedonian baseball player who gets corrupted and starts
8:56
Speaker 6: betting on sports as well. So that was on a
8:58
Speaker 6: few weeks ago. You know, So lots and lots of
9:01
Speaker 6: sports fans. I guess is a half answer to the
9:03
Speaker 6: full question, Senate, would you like to yeah.
9:07
Speaker 4: Rob it?
9:10
Speaker 2: Rob In my mind you grew up in the greatest
9:13
Speaker 2: generation of comedy and friend, not talking to Marria, I'm
9:16
Speaker 2: talking Canadian comedy. You had Jim Carrey nor McDonald and
9:20
Speaker 2: even before that. You know, it's a bunch of legends
9:23
Speaker 2: where you know more in short, to me, one of
9:27
Speaker 2: the greatest comedic minds ever. What made that little pocket
9:31
Speaker 2: of Canadians so fucking funny? It's like crazy, like even
9:36
Speaker 2: all these years later, like I go back and I
9:38
Speaker 2: watch old norm it's so hard for comedy to hold
9:41
Speaker 2: up thirty years later. And that's how you know these
9:44
Speaker 2: people are away out of their time, like you're a
9:46
Speaker 2: part of it, Like you are part of this group
9:48
Speaker 2: of people that put themselves out there in a unique way.
9:52
Speaker 2: What do you think makes Canada produce these heavyweight comedy styles.
9:58
Speaker 4: Well, you're giving me if there's more than a one
10:00
Speaker 4: hundred percent, you're giving me more than that credit or
10:03
Speaker 4: something that I really didn't do, because I agree with you.
10:07
Speaker 4: You know, every country mostly has their own unique sense
10:12
Speaker 4: of humor. And obviously if you're in the United States
10:15
Speaker 4: or Britain or Canada, it's more mainstream just because of
10:18
Speaker 4: the way they make TV shows. But I do agree
10:21
Speaker 4: with you. It's Canada, you know, for its relatively small population,
10:25
Speaker 4: has generated these hitters in comedy forever. And there's a
10:30
Speaker 4: million theories, but I think it's really because we're stuck
10:36
Speaker 4: between England and the United States, and we are watching
10:39
Speaker 4: the US and observing them, and we're sort of watching
10:42
Speaker 4: Britain and we know we're kind of British, kind of American,
10:46
Speaker 4: but we're also naval gazers to a degree, and that
10:51
Speaker 4: internalized thought process creates this weird mish mash that is
10:56
Speaker 4: this observational comedy. And there's no real theory, but I
11:01
Speaker 4: will say I agree with you. I mean, to me,
11:04
Speaker 4: SCTV is the greatest sketch show and sketch group of
11:06
Speaker 4: all time, and Python is a very very tight tie
11:10
Speaker 4: with them, and then everything else is a big drop off.
11:14
Speaker 4: They're good, but they're never going to be that level.
11:16
Speaker 4: And I think so much of it is just being
11:19
Speaker 4: insane because you have terrible weather and you're stuck inside
11:22
Speaker 4: and you're envious of your neighbors and you just kind
11:26
Speaker 4: of get this distorted, passive, aggressive style of comedy. So
11:33
Speaker 4: I think that's why Canada has created that. And then
11:36
Speaker 4: you have people like Jim Carrey, who is obviously brilliant,
11:39
Speaker 4: or Martin Shorter, any of the STTV people that when
11:41
Speaker 4: they go to the States, they're viewed as these exotic,
11:44
Speaker 4: weird aliens that happen to live on the land mask
11:47
Speaker 4: that's connected to you. But their view on things is
11:52
Speaker 4: so different and they're great mimics. And I think that's
11:55
Speaker 4: what's led to the Canadian style of comedy.
11:59
Speaker 2: And I love the old theory of the cold and
12:01
Speaker 2: the harsh weather, just like in England. When you come
12:04
Speaker 2: over here, it makes you need to laugh about life.
12:06
Speaker 2: And that's why, you know, I always joke I go
12:08
Speaker 2: back and visit family just about how even a local
12:11
Speaker 2: guy at the pub could be the funniest person you've
12:13
Speaker 2: ever met in your entire life when I go back
12:15
Speaker 2: to England. And I've had that with Canadians, Like I've
12:17
Speaker 2: had a lot of friends who've come down here and
12:19
Speaker 2: I feel like, what you're talking about, they just don't know.
12:21
Speaker 2: They're just so different, especially to Americans, even though you
12:24
Speaker 2: know they are not even that far away. And yeah,
12:27
Speaker 2: I love you know, Mike Myers talks about it. Where
12:30
Speaker 2: you know Canadians they'll be talking and be like oh,
12:32
Speaker 2: and he died the other day, so sad, and it's
12:35
Speaker 2: just like really funny, but they don't know they're being funny.
12:37
Speaker 2: There's you know, throw these type of things in and yeah,
12:40
Speaker 2: for someone like you, I just thought it was interesting
12:42
Speaker 2: where you really grew up in the perfect.
12:45
Speaker 4: Era of that type of comedy.
12:47
Speaker 2: And yeah, obviously you don't't take any credit for it,
12:49
Speaker 2: so I won't keep pushing it on.
12:50
Speaker 4: You, I think. I mean, the last thing I'll say
12:53
Speaker 4: in that is, I really think bad weather has something
12:56
Speaker 4: to do with it, because you have written. You think
12:58
Speaker 4: about the United States, you have New Boston, you rarely
13:02
Speaker 4: hear of like a hot, brilliant edgy comic from Tempe.
13:05
Speaker 4: You know, like, it's not it's just I think being
13:08
Speaker 4: stuck inside and in sort of crappy weather and observing
13:13
Speaker 4: and having a lot of time with your own thoughts
13:15
Speaker 4: and then watching TV creates that that flow out of you.
13:22
Speaker 4: And you know, I think if you think about Monty
13:25
Speaker 4: Python just as an example there, it's crappy weather. They
13:29
Speaker 4: had no money, they had no support. They were these
13:32
Speaker 4: guys that were very well educated and people thought they
13:34
Speaker 4: were weird, so they just banded together and using amazing
13:38
Speaker 4: brain power created Monty Python, which is incredible. So I
13:42
Speaker 4: think that, to me is sort of the perfect soup
13:46
Speaker 4: for how you get to places like that.
13:48
Speaker 1: I feel like you were just throwing shade at Arizona Zone.
13:52
Speaker 1: David Spade.
13:54
Speaker 4: I love Spade, but name your second favorite Arizona comic check.
13:59
Speaker 4: You can't do it, Okay, Next topic.
14:01
Speaker 6: Garry Shanling. That's pretty good.
14:05
Speaker 1: He moved there though he doesn't count.
14:08
Speaker 4: Are you guys sponsored by the State of Arizona? Tours
14:10
Speaker 4: on board?
14:11
Speaker 6: Exactly? Comedy clubs in Arizona?
14:13
Speaker 4: Kiss that goodbye, Joe.
14:17
Speaker 1: You both of you, I know, are huge sports fans.
14:22
Speaker 1: Give me a sense from your own experience how sports
14:26
Speaker 1: and forms even the slightest way, what you're doing day
14:30
Speaker 1: to day with the Simpsons, or just your enjoyment of
14:35
Speaker 1: the industry that you're in.
14:39
Speaker 6: Well, I am a very i'd say deep sports fan.
14:44
Speaker 6: Of course, during football season, I think I do five
14:46
Speaker 6: fantasy teams and pick Rob and I have been in
14:48
Speaker 6: a Pickham league for a long time together.
14:50
Speaker 4: You're Canadian.
14:50
Speaker 2: Who's your team local?
14:52
Speaker 6: Well, when we were growing up in Calgary, we used
14:55
Speaker 6: to get channels from Washington State, so Seahawks fan, but
15:01
Speaker 6: as you know, once you get into fantasy football, you've
15:03
Speaker 6: corrupted yourself horribly and you can't be a fan to
15:05
Speaker 6: anybody anymore. So my my favorite fan is my wallet.
15:08
Speaker 6: My favorite team is my wallet, and just trying to win,
15:10
Speaker 6: which I never do, but I love it. And then
15:13
Speaker 6: right now, like I'm deep in the hockey playoffs, we're
15:16
Speaker 6: in a bit of a moral quandary right now because
15:19
Speaker 6: we were from Calgary, which despises the city of Edmonton.
15:22
Speaker 6: But Edmonton is the last Canadian team and they're playing Florida,
15:25
Speaker 6: which is maybe the worst American place further to be
15:28
Speaker 6: a hockey team, So we're kind of being forced to
15:31
Speaker 6: cheer for the Oilers. But I am as a patriot.
15:35
Speaker 6: And then at work, everyone's betting on sports all the time.
15:38
Speaker 6: Another thing I'll just throw in the pile. I wrote
15:39
Speaker 6: a book with Dan Patrick, your old colleague from ESPN
15:42
Speaker 6: about football that I really enjoyed. So I'm I'm deep
15:46
Speaker 6: in sports as much as I can be outside of work,
15:49
Speaker 6: and love it in every capacity.
15:51
Speaker 4: I to that, Oh sorry, I'll add to that that.
15:56
Speaker 4: You know, I started Gracie Films as a company that
15:58
Speaker 4: produces the Simpson So I started there a long time ago,
16:01
Speaker 4: and even as a naive pearl clutching Canadian lad, I
16:06
Speaker 4: was stunned at the level of sports gambling and just
16:09
Speaker 4: gambling that happens at that company, like numbers that are shocking,
16:14
Speaker 4: but people that were very into it and still do it,
16:20
Speaker 4: and bookies and the whole thing. And even they have
16:24
Speaker 4: a thing called the Grazy Pool which has been going
16:26
Speaker 4: on for twenty plus years. Joel and I have participated
16:29
Speaker 4: in it, but that's the least serious level of sports
16:32
Speaker 4: gambling they do, and that is a serious pool to
16:34
Speaker 4: get in. So if you're easily scared, I would avoid
16:39
Speaker 4: grazy films when it comes to gambling. But if you
16:42
Speaker 4: love sports, it's a great place to be. And the
16:44
Speaker 4: Simpson's great because there's so many sports fans.
16:46
Speaker 6: But just to throw one last thing, Sorry, Chad, I
16:48
Speaker 6: see you and you're either about to throw up or
16:51
Speaker 6: to talk either way either or welcome. But I was
16:54
Speaker 6: gonna say, like it's writers rooms are like eight to
16:58
Speaker 6: ten people stuck in a room all day for anywhere
17:01
Speaker 6: from eight to sometimes fifteen hours. I mean, it's inevitable
17:04
Speaker 6: that you if it's a lot of people that are
17:07
Speaker 6: into sports, there's going to be a lot of bets
17:09
Speaker 6: coming out of that environment.
17:11
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, gambling and comedy though, goes hand
17:13
Speaker 2: in hand chat like most especially in my line of work.
17:16
Speaker 2: A lot of comedians who I've met in my life,
17:19
Speaker 2: especially when I was living in Vegas, was all because
17:21
Speaker 2: of sports betting, and they'll be in the books and
17:25
Speaker 2: they'll be like, hey, you got to come meet this guy,
17:26
Speaker 2: and you go over there, and again that's how I
17:28
Speaker 2: met Norm McDonald. This guy was a notorious Gambley who
17:32
Speaker 2: lived in the book.
17:33
Speaker 6: And you know, that's.
17:34
Speaker 2: Someone that I, you know, ran into and I knew
17:37
Speaker 2: right away. People told me, do not tell him you're
17:39
Speaker 2: a fan or that you enjoy his work. It will
17:42
Speaker 2: be a much better experience and from him. I've done
17:44
Speaker 2: that with every comedian I've ever met with that and
17:47
Speaker 2: they all love betting. I think it's the rush day chase,
17:50
Speaker 2: the same thing that kind of get on stage.
17:51
Speaker 6: And what you know I.
17:52
Speaker 2: Would love to know about the Simpsons writers is when
17:56
Speaker 2: they're predicting these Super Bowls, is there something behind it?
17:59
Speaker 3: Right?
17:59
Speaker 2: Are they trying to speak into existence with their own
18:01
Speaker 2: bets or is that just once again just by luck.
18:05
Speaker 6: You know, I think at some point we can all
18:07
Speaker 6: tell who the favorites are in a season, so you
18:09
Speaker 6: can make it somewhat of a prediction of You know,
18:12
Speaker 6: if I said, narrow it down to five teams that
18:14
Speaker 6: could be in the super Bowl, you'd probably be right
18:16
Speaker 6: on three or two of them. So it's mostly luck.
18:19
Speaker 6: What gets freaky Sometimes we've actually got the score right
18:23
Speaker 6: things like that. So that is just that is pure luck.
18:26
Speaker 6: But Simon as a professional better. I say, bet on
18:28
Speaker 6: everything you see on The Simpsons, because they're all going
18:30
Speaker 6: to come true. You got nothing, yep.
18:34
Speaker 1: I want to know how we get into the Gracie
18:37
Speaker 1: Films pool. It feels like exactly the kind of pool
18:40
Speaker 1: we'd want to be in, Simon.
18:46
Speaker 4: It's a substantial I'm happy to ask. It's a substantial investment.
18:51
Speaker 4: At the beginning of the season you are playing against
18:55
Speaker 4: it's all with the spread, and there are some people
18:59
Speaker 4: in the pool use extra resources and outside sources for
19:04
Speaker 4: their information. But the great thing about it is that
19:10
Speaker 4: if you win a week or you win the whole pot,
19:12
Speaker 4: somebody will deliver fresh cash to your location. And when
19:16
Speaker 4: I say fresh cash, it is unused bills that are
19:19
Speaker 4: perfectly crisp in an envelope to your location of choice,
19:23
Speaker 4: and that thrill is it's got nice payouts. But if
19:27
Speaker 4: you happen to win, you will have somebody pull up
19:30
Speaker 4: in a Manila envelope with a Manilla envelope of cash
19:33
Speaker 4: that looks incredible, and that that's the moment you want
19:36
Speaker 4: to savor.
19:38
Speaker 2: Let's say Chad knows my favorite competitions in America attacks
19:41
Speaker 2: free competition.
19:42
Speaker 4: So yes, exactly right now, do.
19:45
Speaker 6: You guys remember the gold Sheet, Simon? Is that still around?
19:48
Speaker 6: The gold Sheet?
19:49
Speaker 1: It's not around anymore. We actually tried to buy it
19:53
Speaker 1: when I was at ESPN, and it's sort of it's
19:58
Speaker 1: just not really a thing anymore. It's just not it's
20:01
Speaker 1: not necessary right now given the way the world is.
20:04
Speaker 1: But why do you say?
20:05
Speaker 6: A guy that Rob and I both have worked with,
20:07
Speaker 6: and a wonderful guy and an incredible Simpsons writer and
20:10
Speaker 6: legendary and really great guy. He was a avid reader
20:15
Speaker 6: of the gold Sheet and Avid Better. I won't reveal
20:18
Speaker 6: his name, but he one time bet I'm going to say,
20:21
Speaker 6: forty thousand dollars on a presidential election and lost. But anyhow,
20:26
Speaker 6: he's the real He was a real deep reader of
20:29
Speaker 6: the gold Cheat I remember even like preseason football, him
20:31
Speaker 6: telling me like, that's where you make all your money
20:33
Speaker 6: is in preseason football. And I never believed that then
20:37
Speaker 6: and still don't believe it now. But he was a
20:39
Speaker 6: He would have the gold cheat in front of him
20:41
Speaker 6: all the time.
20:42
Speaker 4: Well, I will just add to the depravity of the
20:44
Speaker 4: Simpsons and gambling where I won't say a name, but
20:48
Speaker 4: there was a person there who made a lot of
20:50
Speaker 4: money and basically placed two bets on the color of
20:53
Speaker 4: the gatorade that would be splashed on a coach and
20:57
Speaker 4: bet against themselves on the color that They were covering
21:01
Speaker 4: every possible color of gatorade and were rooting basically against
21:05
Speaker 4: themselves hoping for this color, knowing that they couldn't win
21:09
Speaker 4: because they spread the money out too much on the gatorade.
21:12
Speaker 4: But there's definitely enthusiasm for cash free earnings at that show.
21:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, my favorite gatorade story is Jared Lorenzen, who you
21:25
Speaker 1: guys might remember was a three hundred pound quarterback at Kentucky. Yes,
21:30
Speaker 1: and he made it to the NFL. He was a
21:32
Speaker 1: backup for the Giants when they made it to the
21:35
Speaker 1: Super Bowl and against the Patriots, And I feel like
21:39
Speaker 1: it was the second Super Bowl, and before the game,
21:43
Speaker 1: which happened to be in Arizona, he was on the
21:46
Speaker 1: field and he texted all of his friends back in
21:51
Speaker 1: Kentucky the color of the gatorade on both sidelines. So
21:57
Speaker 1: he wasn't telling them which team he thought was gonna
22:00
Speaker 1: win or giving them anything other than if you think
22:03
Speaker 1: the Patriots are gonna win, this is the color of
22:05
Speaker 1: the gatorade. If you think the Giants are gonna win,
22:07
Speaker 1: this is the color of the gatorade. And it's gotten
22:10
Speaker 1: to the point where that and the national anthem, like,
22:14
Speaker 1: how have you guys not done a national anthem controversy
22:19
Speaker 1: with a famous singer and the betting on that as
22:23
Speaker 1: an episode.
22:25
Speaker 6: You may have predicted it. The part I took of
22:27
Speaker 6: that whole story. That's sad is that there's only one
22:29
Speaker 6: color of gatorade on each sideline, Like teams could afford
22:32
Speaker 6: a variety, a smorgas board of different gatorades. We don't
22:36
Speaker 6: know which one's gonna be dumped. But it's sad to
22:38
Speaker 6: think that they just commit to yellow or blue or
22:41
Speaker 6: orange or whatever.
22:43
Speaker 4: I have a touchdown.
22:46
Speaker 2: I do have a Simpson question that you know this
22:49
Speaker 2: is just something you would know because it's something you
22:52
Speaker 2: have to be inside if this is true or not.
22:54
Speaker 2: I'm obviously grew up south Park fan, Simpsons fan, never
22:59
Speaker 2: liked Family Guy. The South Park episode with the manatees
23:02
Speaker 2: pushing the balls to make a family gapisode. Is it
23:04
Speaker 2: true you guys sent them a bottle of was it
23:07
Speaker 2: champagne or wine?
23:09
Speaker 6: I don't believe that's true. Oh, I mean we love
23:13
Speaker 6: that episode. They have another episode which maybe is the
23:16
Speaker 6: same one where they did Simpsons did it? So Simpsons
23:19
Speaker 6: did it? Yeah, yeah, which we have a really good
23:21
Speaker 6: relationship with south Park and shockingly to send many people
23:24
Speaker 6: pretty much with Family Guy now as well.
23:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, because to me, like like Bill Hayter, a guy
23:29
Speaker 2: who does work for south Park, he felt like he
23:32
Speaker 2: was like a Simpsons guy, and that you can really
23:35
Speaker 2: see his style. You can tell he just grew up
23:38
Speaker 2: on Simpsons and he's taken a lot of that to
23:40
Speaker 2: South Park. I just to me, that was one of
23:42
Speaker 2: their best hires ever. Where it's it's like that's a
23:44
Speaker 2: match made and heaven where again the influence of Simpsons
23:47
Speaker 2: and it's on comedy the same thing with SNL. It's
23:51
Speaker 2: it changed everything and there's little pieces of all this comedy,
23:54
Speaker 2: in all this new comedy. So yeah, I just had
23:56
Speaker 2: to ask that question because that's like, as a south
23:58
Speaker 2: Park man, I always wondered, Okay, the south Park and
24:00
Speaker 2: Simpsons is actually cool. So I love to hear that
24:02
Speaker 2: you guys are actually you guys like you to.
24:04
Speaker 6: We love those guys. And Bill Hayter's been a voice
24:06
Speaker 6: on the show a bunch of times and is amazing incredible.
24:08
Speaker 1: Is there a South Park Simpson's Family Guy pool that
24:17
Speaker 1: exists and so maybe we can start one?
24:20
Speaker 6: Well, forgive me, Rob, I'm talking more than I should,
24:22
Speaker 6: but we do this thing at the Simpsons, which is
24:25
Speaker 6: equally sad. But we do a fantasy football league for
24:28
Speaker 6: summer box office, so we auction off movies. You can.
24:31
Speaker 6: We have one hundred dollars fictional money, and you bid
24:34
Speaker 6: on the movies that we divide into lots, and big
24:36
Speaker 6: movies get split into thirds or quarters or half, depending
24:40
Speaker 6: on how big we think they are. But that idea
24:42
Speaker 6: is internal to the Simpsons, has been going on for
24:44
Speaker 6: twenty years. But then I've heard that Family Guy and
24:47
Speaker 6: maybe South Park have taken on that idea and have
24:50
Speaker 6: done it themselves.
24:51
Speaker 1: Internally, I feel like, you guys are much bigger gamblers
24:56
Speaker 1: than I had any sense of it before, And now
25:00
Speaker 1: I understand. Like when I'm hanging out with Rob and
25:05
Speaker 1: it's the middle of the football season and I'm staying
25:09
Speaker 1: at his house and I land at you know, seven
25:14
Speaker 1: o'clock and it's ten o'clock East Coast time, and I'm
25:17
Speaker 1: at his house and I'm having dinner and I'm falling asleep,
25:20
Speaker 1: but he keeps asking me questions about who I like
25:22
Speaker 1: for the weekend. It's all starting to make sense now.
25:27
Speaker 6: Well.
25:27
Speaker 4: I also when when Rad Chad shows up and stays
25:32
Speaker 4: at his Hollywood mansion, We're so excited that you're here,
25:37
Speaker 4: but also you know everything, So whether it's the fantasy
25:41
Speaker 4: pool that win or just some insane situation like what's
25:45
Speaker 4: happening with Aaron Rodgers, now like it's you are honestly
25:49
Speaker 4: the only person that I feel can make sense of
25:52
Speaker 4: a lot of ridiculous situations. So like Dak Prescott, you go,
25:58
Speaker 4: why aren't the Cowboys drafting X Y? Do they really like?
26:01
Speaker 6: Dak?
26:01
Speaker 4: Like You're the only guy I can go to to
26:04
Speaker 4: get the answers. But at the same time, there's all
26:06
Speaker 4: this weekly drama where you go, you wonder like the
26:09
Speaker 4: Bengals a few years ago when they were hot, It's like,
26:12
Speaker 4: do you think they can keep the heat on and
26:14
Speaker 4: get to the super Bowl and win it? Because it's
26:17
Speaker 4: so out of the blue that you're talking about the
26:18
Speaker 4: Bengals and the super Bowl. So you are the guy
26:22
Speaker 4: that I go to for everything. And sometimes it's connected
26:25
Speaker 4: to the fantasy League that Joel and Iron, and sometimes it.
26:29
Speaker 1: Isn't Simon's here that I am the guy.
26:32
Speaker 4: He's the guy I was gonna ask Bob.
26:35
Speaker 2: Is Chad the best house guf guest ever? Is it
26:37
Speaker 2: like he eats barely anything, maybe uses the bathroom twice.
26:41
Speaker 2: Bets made him perfect every morning after he weeks up.
26:44
Speaker 2: He's just easy going?
26:46
Speaker 4: Is We love it when Chad is here? Our son
26:50
Speaker 4: loves Chad. They we have photo documentation of them partying
26:54
Speaker 4: for years and years and years. But when Rad Chad
26:57
Speaker 4: is in town, we are very, very very excited.
27:01
Speaker 2: Now Chad only takes three beers and he's in bed
27:03
Speaker 2: by nine pm.
27:04
Speaker 6: It's it's good, so true.
27:06
Speaker 4: We love it.
27:07
Speaker 1: Do you guys? Do you guys? Have you guys thought
27:09
Speaker 1: about Super Bowl futures already? Is there a Gracie films
27:16
Speaker 1: pool that takes advantage of Super Bowl futures. Joel, do
27:20
Speaker 1: you have a position that you've taken that you would
27:22
Speaker 1: like to share.
27:24
Speaker 6: I hate the season long bats. I need the quick hits,
27:27
Speaker 6: like I hate thinking like, oh, will the Giants win
27:30
Speaker 6: more or less than nine games a year? So no,
27:33
Speaker 6: I don't. There's no future discussion. I'm sure again, like
27:36
Speaker 6: I said, we could all talk about which teams we
27:37
Speaker 6: think will be back this year, but I've I have
27:40
Speaker 6: no official financial position, all right.
27:43
Speaker 4: Also, the Simpsons, and like every writer's room that I've
27:47
Speaker 4: ever been, they're certainly a handful of rabbit gamblers, one
27:51
Speaker 4: or two that have a big problem. But you're sitting
27:54
Speaker 4: in a room forever and you've got phones now before
27:57
Speaker 4: you didn't have phones, and people are then naturally check
28:01
Speaker 4: out scores or they're going to do online gambling, and
28:03
Speaker 4: so that just leads to filling in the gaps between
28:06
Speaker 4: pitching on a story where you start talking about gambling
28:09
Speaker 4: and football season especially. But I just think it's only increased.
28:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, and everyone's got a runner now, right, even if
28:16
Speaker 2: you're in a state that doesn't have it. You know
28:18
Speaker 2: a guy in the state that does that can do
28:19
Speaker 2: something for you? And I was gonna say, if you're
28:22
Speaker 2: gonna make one futures bet Joe, are you in.
28:24
Speaker 6: La for work? Yeah? Yep, dude.
28:26
Speaker 2: Throw throw a little either on the rams of the
28:28
Speaker 2: forty nine ers, get get involved in California a little
28:30
Speaker 2: bit and.
28:31
Speaker 6: Do a band. I don't have the patience. I need it.
28:32
Speaker 6: I need it Bath. I was gonna say you better
28:35
Speaker 6: and forget it better and forget it. People bet like
28:38
Speaker 6: on stuff like what time the show runner will let
28:41
Speaker 6: us leave. We'll bet on if someone has to go
28:43
Speaker 6: out of the room and prepare like ten jokes for
28:45
Speaker 6: one spot in the script, we will bet on which
28:47
Speaker 6: of the ten. We bet the other day on a
28:49
Speaker 6: guy we work with this loves to get tattoos, And
28:52
Speaker 6: someone came in and presented five tattoos, only one of
28:54
Speaker 6: which was real, and we bet on which tattoo was
28:56
Speaker 6: the real one. The answer he got it on his wrist.
28:59
Speaker 6: It says no les because he lost his rolelex, so
29:02
Speaker 6: it says no Lex on.
29:03
Speaker 1: His When you were doing the he did a Treehouse
29:10
Speaker 1: of Horrors episode where Homer went to vote. It was
29:16
Speaker 1: Barack Obama John McCain. This presage a lot of freaking chaos.
29:22
Speaker 1: Explain what happened in the episode and obviously how it
29:27
Speaker 1: predicted more and more chaos in the voting world.
29:35
Speaker 6: Well, I hate to keep going back. I think it's
29:38
Speaker 6: just like you see these trends that are obvious, right
29:40
Speaker 6: where like obviously you know jerrymandering of voting districts and stuff,
29:44
Speaker 6: and you can just tell there's going to be voting
29:45
Speaker 6: chaos in our future, and you know, people restricting people's
29:49
Speaker 6: rights to votes and all that stuff. So all that
29:50
Speaker 6: stuff was bubbling, I believe with that one and with
29:54
Speaker 6: many other times, like it takes nine months to make
29:57
Speaker 6: an episode of The Simpsons, so a lot of times
29:59
Speaker 6: we don't do really topical stuff. But I think in
30:02
Speaker 6: that case we literally held it or prepared like multiple
30:06
Speaker 6: versions and then just slotted in the most likely one
30:09
Speaker 6: at the last minute of who was going to be
30:11
Speaker 6: on the ballot. We've done that a few times where
30:13
Speaker 6: we just because we can't risk it to the very
30:15
Speaker 6: last minute. So I mean, again, I guess I'm answering
30:19
Speaker 6: my first question. It was just that idea that all
30:21
Speaker 6: that stuff was in the water already, that idea of
30:24
Speaker 6: what will happen to elections in voting chaos, we probably
30:26
Speaker 6: got a little bit lucky. But then just even if
30:28
Speaker 6: you're talking about sipping names on the ballot, I think
30:30
Speaker 6: that was just literally waiting till the Friday before it
30:33
Speaker 6: aired on the Sunday.
30:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then since then, of course, there have been
30:40
Speaker 1: nearly billion dollars in payments.
30:43
Speaker 6: For the.
30:47
Speaker 1: Libel of voting machine irregularities. Some nice job nailed that one.
30:55
Speaker 6: And I've made like half of that billion, so it's
30:57
Speaker 6: worked out pretty well for me.
30:58
Speaker 1: But I also feel like when you're doing these things,
31:01
Speaker 1: it's almost like you're sitting in the room and when
31:05
Speaker 1: you're not betting on tattoos and jokes and you know
31:08
Speaker 1: your NFL pools, you're sitting there and you're thinking. And
31:12
Speaker 1: this feels very much in line with how comedy writers
31:16
Speaker 1: would think. What is the worst thing, the darkest thing,
31:22
Speaker 1: the most outrageous thing that can happen, and let's write
31:25
Speaker 1: that into existence? Is that ever the framework for the
31:29
Speaker 1: starting or a starting point for an episode or a conversation?
31:34
Speaker 6: Yeah, Rob, you want to answer that, you've guessed, Well.
31:37
Speaker 4: I'll let Jole answer the specific Simpsons things, but I'll
31:40
Speaker 4: give you two very fast examples that I witnessed Back
31:44
Speaker 4: in the wild times of the late nineties and early
31:47
Speaker 4: two thousands, there were two different well known television shows
31:51
Speaker 4: that they would make very serious bets, one of which
31:54
Speaker 4: was could a PA eat five cans? The large cans
31:58
Speaker 4: of Heinz Binzel you know story. So it's like when
32:02
Speaker 4: you go to the market, there's the Hines big beans,
32:04
Speaker 4: and then there's the super Family size. So they started
32:07
Speaker 4: throwing cash on the table if the PA could eat
32:10
Speaker 4: these cans of beans. So cutting to the chase, the
32:14
Speaker 4: PA did it. They weren't doing any work. It took hours,
32:17
Speaker 4: and the PA was choking down and people kept throwing
32:19
Speaker 4: more money on it, and I think on the table
32:21
Speaker 4: was like twenty five thousand dollars in cash, which is
32:23
Speaker 4: why they had that their pocket is crazy. So now
32:25
Speaker 4: the PA, he wanted to win because he was gonna
32:28
Speaker 4: get a big cut. And then somebody, after the PAD
32:32
Speaker 4: got the last spoonful of beans down, said I'm going
32:34
Speaker 4: to double the pot if he doesn't crap his pants
32:37
Speaker 4: in the next hour, and the PA literally ran outside
32:41
Speaker 4: and ran towards a hill near Warner Brothers Studios where
32:44
Speaker 4: this was happening. He had to go to the bathroom
32:46
Speaker 4: so badly. He wasn't even thinking where's the bathroom. He
32:50
Speaker 4: just ran straight towards a hill and ed machine gun
32:53
Speaker 4: diarrhea all over this hill. But then the next argument
32:57
Speaker 4: was does that count because he was off property? Like
33:01
Speaker 4: there was such depravity going on with this, it was
33:03
Speaker 4: like does it count? Somebody has to go up the
33:05
Speaker 4: hill to make sure it's his diarrhea. So there's levels
33:09
Speaker 4: and levels of insanity. And then the other.
33:11
Speaker 6: Story is a beautiful tree grows on that hill, thanks
33:14
Speaker 6: for that dirhea that we all.
33:15
Speaker 4: Have a mighty diarrhea oak. Yeah, And so then the
33:21
Speaker 4: the last one in one sentence is there was a
33:23
Speaker 4: room that I was in where the showrunner had a
33:27
Speaker 4: problem with some powdered medication that he enjoyed inhaling, and
33:33
Speaker 4: people made bets on which part of his body would
33:35
Speaker 4: fall off first, and it was a lot of money,
33:38
Speaker 4: and the winner was his septum. So they go dark
33:42
Speaker 4: and make a lot of money.
33:43
Speaker 1: Yes, I was actually saying, like first for an episode
33:50
Speaker 1: for ideas.
33:51
Speaker 4: Oh, I'm so sorry, just edit those oats.
34:00
Speaker 6: It to you, you know, if you can get to
34:03
Speaker 6: a funny, dark place, like yeah, we all sometimes think
34:07
Speaker 6: of where do you end up? But then we gotta
34:08
Speaker 6: have to kind of get there in a funny dark way.
34:10
Speaker 6: So yeah, sometimes thinking of a bleak, you know, apocalyptic nightmare.
34:16
Speaker 6: If as long as we can get there in an interesting,
34:17
Speaker 6: funny way, We've done that many many times.
34:20
Speaker 1: Well, that is like a very similar simon you were
34:24
Speaker 1: saying it before, Like there is a mindset and a
34:30
Speaker 1: sort of character trait where gamblers and comedy writers live
34:35
Speaker 1: in a very dark space. Like the bigger the risk,
34:39
Speaker 1: the less your expectation is that you will succeed, the
34:43
Speaker 1: more you are planning that the other side of this
34:47
Speaker 1: is going to be miserable, and you're willing to live
34:50
Speaker 1: in that misery. Comedy writing is as big a risk
34:54
Speaker 1: as betting. Like Rob, you go down from Canada, You're
34:58
Speaker 1: not thinking, I'm going to end up having this beautiful
35:01
Speaker 1: life here thing and I just want to be funny.
35:05
Speaker 4: I've never thought I could be funny. But yes, I
35:08
Speaker 4: think it's a risk because you're you are deciding when
35:12
Speaker 4: to speak, and if you speak, you hope what you
35:15
Speaker 4: say is received well and is funny, and otherwise you
35:18
Speaker 4: shut down. But then you in your head, you're like
35:21
Speaker 4: you can't be quite too long because I'm gonna get fired,
35:22
Speaker 4: so I need to speak again, and then you just
35:24
Speaker 4: the cycle continues, and yeah, it has its own challenges.
35:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think Rob's nail It two where you don't
35:33
Speaker 2: even know what's funny until you actually say it, or
35:36
Speaker 2: and like give other people's reactions to it, right, Because
35:38
Speaker 2: that's that's the challenging part with comedy. It's it's all subjective.
35:42
Speaker 2: And yes, as someone that does love dark comedy, you know,
35:46
Speaker 2: I'll laugh at really easy, lame jokes all the time,
35:49
Speaker 2: Like even jokes that miss are some of my favorite jokes.
35:51
Speaker 2: So it's like, you know, it is all random, and
35:54
Speaker 2: you know, I view it as you know, we were
35:57
Speaker 2: talking a little about here with the Simpsons. It's like
36:00
Speaker 2: I would love what's the highest rate you guys ever got?
36:02
Speaker 6: Do you ever get?
36:02
Speaker 4: Like was it?
36:03
Speaker 3: Why?
36:03
Speaker 2: Fourteen? Like what's what's the limit you can push it?
36:06
Speaker 2: Now that we have presidents cursing on national television, Like
36:09
Speaker 2: is there a limit?
36:10
Speaker 6: Now there's a I don't even know what ratings are anymore,
36:15
Speaker 6: like like ratings are anymore. But you know, we're sort
36:18
Speaker 6: of bound a little bit by the constraints of the
36:20
Speaker 6: show that it's established over forty years or thirty years,
36:23
Speaker 6: but we've you know, we've stretched as society's appetite for
36:28
Speaker 6: all that stuff is stretched. But like we had an
36:31
Speaker 6: episode once where March said BFD like big fucking deal
36:34
Speaker 6: and Fox bleeped the F like just the letter F
36:37
Speaker 6: was offensive in that in that context. So and then
36:41
Speaker 6: we're doing an episode now with like a we've been
36:44
Speaker 6: told we can't show Homer's butt anymore, and like, you know,
36:47
Speaker 6: stuff like that. So like the world is changing and
36:49
Speaker 6: we're just kind of dodging, and you know, it's always
36:52
Speaker 6: lawyers trying to protect themselves. But I don't know what
36:55
Speaker 6: the ratings are anymore, and no one seems to care.
36:57
Speaker 2: Also, right right, my last time this question, it's it's
37:01
Speaker 2: a stupid conspiracy plot for the pig. What is it
37:05
Speaker 2: deal with that fucking pig? Is there something deep behind
37:07
Speaker 2: it or is it just spider pig walking on the ceiling.
37:11
Speaker 6: That is one of the things that I think has
37:12
Speaker 6: shocked everybody so much that it talk about a pig
37:16
Speaker 6: with some of someone's digestive problems. There's a perfect play
37:18
Speaker 6: into that. But yeah, in the movie, they just put
37:20
Speaker 6: the pig and then like that spider pig joke. I
37:24
Speaker 6: think if you when you heard that pitch, it sounds
37:27
Speaker 6: like that's a pretty easy lame joke, but that has
37:29
Speaker 6: like registered and resonated so strong that everybody spider pig
37:33
Speaker 6: and people love spider pig. And in the writer's room
37:35
Speaker 6: there's a spider pig hanging from the ceiling, and like
37:38
Speaker 6: that's just one of those things where you just didn't
37:39
Speaker 6: know how big it would be and it seemed like
37:41
Speaker 6: a pretty easy half joke to start with. But whatever
37:44
Speaker 6: reason people love that and the deal with it is
37:47
Speaker 6: just we don't know. And but God bless it.
37:51
Speaker 1: You know, this makes total sense now, simon the way
37:53
Speaker 1: you just described it. I feel like being in a
37:56
Speaker 1: writer's room, Rob and Joel. It's a little bit like
38:02
Speaker 1: you're chasing you know, you lose a bet? All right,
38:05
Speaker 1: How quickly can I get the next jer joke out
38:09
Speaker 1: there to see if I can get the win versus?
38:14
Speaker 6: All right?
38:14
Speaker 1: Do I hold back? Do I want to keep my
38:16
Speaker 1: powder dry? Do I need to build my bank roll?
38:20
Speaker 1: Like when you're in the room, Joe, you start, is
38:23
Speaker 1: there that anxiety that sweat, that energy that you feel
38:28
Speaker 1: that is very similar oh yeah.
38:30
Speaker 6: Like what Rob said was you could have been talking
38:33
Speaker 6: about me. Like I didn't speak for the first six months,
38:35
Speaker 6: and then I was told if I don't start talking,
38:37
Speaker 6: I'm going to be fired because you're so nervous. And
38:39
Speaker 6: then at some point you have to pitch, which is
38:41
Speaker 6: just really exposing yourself pretty raw, and it's a laugh
38:45
Speaker 6: or it's not a laugh. But then you quickly just
38:47
Speaker 6: realize that everybody next to you is doing the same
38:49
Speaker 6: thing over and over and over again. So you know,
38:51
Speaker 6: we're all sort of gambling where the stakes are pretty
38:54
Speaker 6: low unless you get on a really really bad streak
38:57
Speaker 6: where you don't have anything in for maybe a year,
38:59
Speaker 6: and then you get fired. But yeah, you've got to
39:02
Speaker 6: just keep throwing stuff out there. But I was very
39:04
Speaker 6: intimidated at the beginning.
39:05
Speaker 2: My favorite Larry David's story in SNL is that he
39:08
Speaker 2: kept getting the shit taking off the board, and every
39:10
Speaker 2: day he'd go and they'd take it off. He goes
39:12
Speaker 2: another great day at the office, perfect, just perfect. I
39:16
Speaker 2: love that story. Just he lived for failure and that's
39:19
Speaker 2: why you know he's one of the greatest comedic minds
39:20
Speaker 2: ever lived.
39:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's all like the same with gambling.
39:25
Speaker 4: Like you said, it's especially if you're on a live
39:27
Speaker 4: action show that has an audience. To me, the highest
39:31
Speaker 4: pressure is when you're shooting in front of the audience
39:33
Speaker 4: on a Friday night and you're on the floor in
39:35
Speaker 4: a joke tanks. You have seconds to rush over to
39:38
Speaker 4: the showrunner and pitch a fix while the showrunner and
39:42
Speaker 4: the cast and the crew are there and the audience.
39:45
Speaker 4: And the worst thing is if you're pitch tanks because
39:49
Speaker 4: especially if it gets to the actors and it sucks,
39:52
Speaker 4: it's like you cannot find a corner small enough to
39:54
Speaker 4: hide in, but you got to go back and stick
39:57
Speaker 4: your face in the wood chipper again the next time
39:59
Speaker 4: it happens. So it's really that's part of the fun
40:03
Speaker 4: of it. But at the same time, it's like, this
40:05
Speaker 4: is my opening. I've got to make it, and it's
40:09
Speaker 4: better to try than to be silent.
40:12
Speaker 1: Well do you remember, for both of you the first
40:15
Speaker 1: time sitting in this kind of environment when you had
40:20
Speaker 1: a pitch or a joke and it worked and you
40:25
Speaker 1: felt that rush like, Okay, I've got one on the board.
40:28
Speaker 6: Joe, you first, like I said, I really went the
40:32
Speaker 6: first few months without talking and then I was told
40:34
Speaker 6: I have to start pitching, So I can't even tell
40:36
Speaker 6: you the first joke I got on the show. We
40:38
Speaker 6: used to do this thing where we'd send people off.
40:41
Speaker 6: Everyone get stuck on, like, we can't find a joke here,
40:44
Speaker 6: so you idiot, go write ten or thirty and come
40:47
Speaker 6: back and pitch them to us and hopefully one will fit.
40:49
Speaker 6: So I was that guy. And the setup was that
40:52
Speaker 6: Marge was mad at Homer and he said, what do
40:57
Speaker 6: I do to fix this? And someone said take her
40:59
Speaker 6: to dinner or maybe a show. And then my joke was,
41:02
Speaker 6: what about Benny Hannah? Where dinner is the show? And
41:05
Speaker 6: that was the joke that got on the show, and
41:07
Speaker 6: that broke my broke the eye.
41:09
Speaker 1: So that was thirty years later.
41:11
Speaker 6: You're still with that joke. Shockingly, I'm still here.
41:14
Speaker 4: I know legacy joke.
41:16
Speaker 6: I know what about you.
41:19
Speaker 4: I would say as far as being on staff of
41:20
Speaker 4: a show, it was probably the Ben Stiller show. We
41:25
Speaker 4: wanted to We were on the Fox network and they
41:27
Speaker 4: absolutely hated our guts and we hated them. So we
41:30
Speaker 4: were doing sort of a parody of a shitty Fox show,
41:33
Speaker 4: and I wanted to be introduced by the crappiest mascot ever.
41:36
Speaker 4: So it was somebody in a ratty Fox costume and
41:41
Speaker 4: Ben was like, well, what do we call this guy?
41:43
Speaker 4: And the worst joke ever, I said, what if we
41:45
Speaker 4: call him Foxy? The Fox Network Fox? And then I
41:48
Speaker 4: realized that the words came out of my mouth that
41:50
Speaker 4: is the hackiest pitch of all time. And Ben just
41:53
Speaker 4: fell over laughing, and in my mind I was like,
41:56
Speaker 4: why are you laughing? That's terrible, But then I just
41:59
Speaker 4: shut my mouth and let him enjoy it and sort
42:03
Speaker 4: of had one moment of comfort where it felt like, Okay,
42:07
Speaker 4: that one was a winner for whatever reason.
42:11
Speaker 1: Rob, I want you to tell people and this is
42:15
Speaker 1: my last sort of inside Simpson's prediction because this one
42:21
Speaker 1: is so outrageous. It can't just be Joel like this
42:25
Speaker 1: had already happened. So it was in the ether and
42:28
Speaker 1: we just played off it. There's no way possible. Rob,
42:31
Speaker 1: you are the inspiration for the artwork for Milhouse. Explain
42:39
Speaker 1: what happened and how that came to be, because Milhouse
42:43
Speaker 1: has one of the greatest predictions in Simpson's history.
42:49
Speaker 4: Well, I cannot claim any credit for this, but the
42:54
Speaker 4: quick version of the story was back when the show started,
42:58
Speaker 4: they wanted to use an animation company to save money,
43:02
Speaker 4: and so they were waiting for the designs. The designs
43:06
Speaker 4: came back horribly and they needed to restart them, but
43:11
Speaker 4: they wanted to send references so they could copy the
43:14
Speaker 4: exact look they did want. So one of the amazing
43:18
Speaker 4: writers on the show called me in one day and
43:20
Speaker 4: he said, I want to show you something. He showed
43:22
Speaker 4: me a drawing of Millhouse and he goes, this is you.
43:25
Speaker 4: And because of the way that I look, and I
43:28
Speaker 4: would wear shorts and a T shirt all the time,
43:29
Speaker 4: and how Gian knows, he explained that they had been
43:33
Speaker 4: taking photos of real people and sending those to Korea
43:37
Speaker 4: so that they couldn't screw up the artwork. That they
43:39
Speaker 4: just would mimic the photos and make that character. So
43:44
Speaker 4: I was delighted that that happened. I get zero money
43:47
Speaker 4: from it. But they just took images of actual people
43:51
Speaker 4: and they were doing it to save the animation process
43:55
Speaker 4: because they were so far behind. And then as a
43:57
Speaker 4: tag to that, if you look at the early Simpsons
44:00
Speaker 4: episodes of the artwork on the fridge that is supposed
44:02
Speaker 4: to be of the kids is the horrible animation that
44:05
Speaker 4: the Koreans are sending back because it looks like a
44:08
Speaker 4: terrible kids drawing.
44:10
Speaker 1: All right, So in twenty ten, Milhouse predicts who's going
44:16
Speaker 1: to win the Nobel Prize, and what I can only
44:18
Speaker 1: imagine was a very high stakes pool at school for
44:25
Speaker 1: Milhouse and Homer. He predicted I can't even say the
44:31
Speaker 1: guy's name, Banked Holmstrom from MIT as the winner of
44:40
Speaker 1: the two thousand prize of the twenty ten Nobel Prize.
44:45
Speaker 1: He also had in his pool Ben Faringa as a
44:52
Speaker 1: possible winner in twenty ten. In twenty sixteen, Joel, both
44:58
Speaker 1: of them won the no Bel Prize for their respective fields.
45:04
Speaker 1: Explain yourself.
45:07
Speaker 6: You'll see a gun approach from off screen as I
45:09
Speaker 6: start talking again. This is that they're aside from gamblers,
45:15
Speaker 6: the other thing the Simpsons is famous for is a
45:17
Speaker 6: lot of nerds and super smart people. And my guess is,
45:21
Speaker 6: because I can't recall any of this, that these people
45:24
Speaker 6: literally researched who are the leading candidates, just like I'm
45:28
Speaker 6: sure Simon would, and like the odds and looked forward
45:32
Speaker 6: on who's I don't know what the prizes were for
45:34
Speaker 6: chemistry or literature or whatever, but I'm sure, they researched
45:37
Speaker 6: these guys and who are the leading candidates or working
45:40
Speaker 6: on developments, and took a swing. And again the names
45:44
Speaker 6: are so obscure to morons like me that it sounds
45:46
Speaker 6: funny when it's on TV regardless. And then I didn't
45:49
Speaker 6: until this moment even though that they'd actually won. So
45:52
Speaker 6: I have got some bets to collect myself. You deny,
45:56
Speaker 6: There's a lot of a lot of stuff happens here,
45:58
Speaker 6: and I just you can't keep trying of everything, you know.
46:01
Speaker 1: That's like Simon when we were betting on the Pope
46:04
Speaker 1: and we came so close because we had it like
46:06
Speaker 1: all figured out that it was going to be someone
46:09
Speaker 1: who wasn't of the top five candidates, who sort of
46:14
Speaker 1: had the right profile, and instead of the guy from Chicago,
46:19
Speaker 1: we went with the guy from France and we were
46:23
Speaker 1: right there.
46:23
Speaker 4: We could have written a Simpsons episode. Yeah, how could
46:26
Speaker 4: you not pick the guy from Chicago?
46:28
Speaker 1: I know, I felt terrible about it after it happened,
46:31
Speaker 1: and we've discussed it aggressively.
46:34
Speaker 6: Okay.
46:35
Speaker 2: Our claim to fame is though we did Luckily the
46:37
Speaker 2: guy we had on didn't mention his name, so we
46:39
Speaker 2: weren't a total loss, but it was just it was
46:42
Speaker 2: right there for me and Chat we totally missed on it.
46:44
Speaker 1: I got very locked in on the guy from France.
46:47
Speaker 1: I got locked in. I felt like a I just did.
46:49
Speaker 1: I never thought it would be an American, but I
46:51
Speaker 1: thought everything the American had was the right profile. And
46:58
Speaker 1: it wasn't going to be one of the guys who
47:00
Speaker 1: went in, because it's never the person that everybody thinks
47:04
Speaker 1: has the shortest odds as they go into the conclave.
47:08
Speaker 1: So to me, it had to be someone who was
47:12
Speaker 1: in Europe, had experience working in communities where immigration and
47:17
Speaker 1: immigrants were a big factor, who could help expand the church,
47:24
Speaker 1: and this guy in France because immigration in France was
47:28
Speaker 1: a lot of it was Africans moving to France, and
47:30
Speaker 1: so he had connections to the African community. Like Robbi
47:34
Speaker 1: went deep and I just didn't see the dude with
47:38
Speaker 1: the background in Peru getting into that spot.
47:42
Speaker 6: You know, a lot of the cardinals were making calls
47:44
Speaker 6: from inside the Vatican tipping off better. It's like you
47:46
Speaker 6: guys on the outside, so it's kind of think, next,
47:49
Speaker 6: here's the color of the smoke.
47:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't I didn't get any of those calls
47:53
Speaker 1: Joel amazingly so yeah, Joe Cone, Rob Cone, Super Team Canada.
48:00
Speaker 1: Everybody go watch it on YouTube. Everybody watch it on Crave.
48:04
Speaker 1: You guys crushed. Thanks for coming on The Favorites today.
48:09
Speaker 1: Simon and I will return with our next episode of
48:11
Speaker 1: The Favorites Tuesday on the Action Network YouTube page. Downloads
48:14
Speaker 1: some Spotify Apple Pods wherever you get your pods, Rate, review,
48:17
Speaker 1: subscribe and leave us fot stars. Say whatever you want
48:18
Speaker 1: feedback as a gift until next time.
48:21
Speaker 4: I Love you.
48:29
Speaker 1: Action Network reminds you please gamble responsibly.
48:33
Speaker 6: If you or someone you care about has a gambling problem,
48:36
Speaker 6: help is available twenty four to seven at one eight
48:39
Speaker 6: hundred gambler