TCOE!#88 OC & Double D on Parenting and Entertainment

Double D stops by the studio to talk about all things Parenting and Entertainment! In this polarizing and very honest episode about parents and kids! Thanks for listening!!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the core of
Entertainment hosted by me, The OC.
And today is a Monday and I am joined by 1 Double D.
What's good, buddy? What's up then?
All right, all right, so we are back in the studio again.
And before we get started, do mea favor, check me out on
Instagram and YouTube at OC Entertainment 01 OC
Entertainment on Twitter, OC Entertainment one on Tiktok,

(00:23):
doing some things there that don't really align with the pods
and videos. Other stuff that kind of aligns
the pod, but not really the podcast itself.
The real talent is here in frontof the microphone.
And today I am joined by 1 double D.
You can find this episode on Apple.
You can find it on Spotify and audio only podcast and today
going to be a bit of a deeper episode.

(00:45):
We were talking off air about how massive the world is and how
massively altered things are as far as what you grew up with,
what I grew up with, how we keepthe kids safe, keep the kids
grounded, the influences, how everything is just so
compartmentalized and change now, right?

(01:05):
So you look at this from your lens and from my lens, is there
any type of similarity that you could bring to the table?
Because people listen to this. People listen to this podcast
all over the world, which is pretty wild.
And we don't know what they're doing.
They could be at home, they could be going through their own
struggles, you know what I mean?But entertainment always brings
everybody together and it alwaysteaches people.

(01:27):
But it also helps us learn. It helps us change.
It helps us alter some stuff. And you said something really
wise before we started recording, which was you want to
be the best version of yourself for your children, right?
You want to allow them to be like, hey, this is what I went
through. I want you to be aware of this.

(01:48):
I want you to be cautious of this.
I want you to be focus on this. You know what I mean?
And we were talking about how itcan't be a coincidence that a
lot of things that are availableto kids nowadays, some of the
entertainment that they watch, some of the music that they
listen to, isn't their music. No.

(02:10):
It's music that you grew up with.
I grew up with this is entertainment at its finest of
like, wow, that's really what the kids are are interested in,
right? Right.
That's a large part of it. I mean, even the movies, like
there, there are a lot of movies.
We were talking about the fact that we're watching a lot of
just old movies in the house right now that we grew up

(02:32):
watching ourselves, be it we watched Angels in the outfield
the other day, we watched Ricky of the year, like it's baseball
season time. So we're being mindful of those
types of movies, but at the sametime, there's so much more that
goes into who those characters were back then.
And as I'm thinking about what had to be, the writers had to

(02:53):
write deep characters to keep you absorbed.
We had deeper attention spans back then.
So we wanted to sit there and know more about everything that
was going on with that characteron screen and all their buddies.
Then tell me the story. Now tell me this quick story of
that person. Then tell me this quick story of
that person and this quick storyof that person and this quick
story of that person, this quickstory of that person.
Like it's a very different atmosphere for how our attention

(03:16):
was. I don't even know if I want to
say control or contorted, but like it, it's not this thing
that that was different now. Yeah, it's very.
Different, You know, I think that when you look at where
we've kind of come from as far as what molded you, what molded

(03:36):
me, obviously the influences were different.
You know what I mean? We were also at a time when
you'd go out and play in the woods, when the woods we're
safe. Exactly.
You don't have to worry about clowns or creeps in the woods.
Exactly. You know what I mean?
And I think that there's got to be some type of, there's got to
be some type of through line there where you want your kids

(03:59):
to be, you know, on the back of going to see like movies that
might be too intense for them orgoing to see shows that might be
too intense for them. But then there's other ones that
like, there's a valuable lesson here.
There's a valuable lesson here. And it can't be a coincidence
that from this day and age, the attention span is very, very

(04:19):
shy. It's very shy, apprehensive.
They don't really know the dexterity of like communication
on that level. Let me ask you this.
When you show that your kids some of those old school movies
like in the 90s and the 2000s, do they retain stuff?
Do they sit there and watch it or are they really OK?
They're engaged by my my 12 yearold.
He gravitates those like if we start it, he doesn't get to

(04:41):
finish it. That's the next thing next day.
Like that's what he wants to watch is he wants to continue
watching that movie versus we'vehad time to where I've seen the
same Ninja Turtle ever sold or this and that on the TV.
I'm like, yo, like, let's find something different to watch.
These are things to wear now. And he's starting to explore
more of these movies from back in that day.
Like he's looking more at that movie catalog, not even

(05:05):
necessarily the Disney movie catalog, but more of that 90's,
the movies that we grew up on that set morals for us.
So then it makes me question like, OK, do they?
Even if they may seem like on the surface they don't hear what
we're saying, at least somewherein their subliminal programming
for themselves, they know there was value to these movies we

(05:27):
watched. Them or they're gravitating to
some type of message. You gravitated it perfect with
the Ninja Turtles. The Ninja Turtles are
fascinating. Yeah, love it.
They're fascinating. Look at the brothers for
example. You got RAF, the hot head, the
angry one, the one that's just, you know, he's just.
Always ready to go. You got Michelangelo, who is

(05:50):
just quintessentially always want to have a good time, always
energy everywhere, just copious amounts of like enthusiasm for
everything. And he had Donatello the smart
1. You know what kind of a the
social like, like analyzing, interpreting everything,
bringing everything to the fold.And then he had Leo, the leader,

(06:10):
trying to hold everyone together, right?
You know what I mean? Well, not even you've also got
always a quick master splendor into that equation.
Well, yeah, he's he's the dad. Exactly.
But he's also the the more high ground for all of them to come
together or the amalgamation of all of them.
You know, because you got the leadership from Leo, you've got

(06:32):
the intelligence and the wisdom of Donnie.
You've got the the rage, but thetenacity of wrath.
And then you've got the joy copious side of of Michelangelo,
their father. Splinter displays all of that at
times and shows them that even though I'm different for I'm
never thinking about this out, even though I'm different from
you, I still convey all these things, all of these pieces of

(06:55):
you I've instilled into you to different levels.
Leo's not serious 100% of the time.
He has goofy moments, just like Mikey has some great ideas every
now and then. So maybe that's bringing that up
as a Ninja Turtles is a big thing.
There's some value that he had my son gains from watching

(07:16):
those. But I think there's a difference
in, you know, seeing the baseball smashed through the
window and honey has shrunk the kids and the kids not saying
anything. And oh, we should have told our
parents. We didn't tell our parents.
Next thing we know, oh snap, that we're 2mm tall.
There's there's a different Ninja Turtles have to be

(07:38):
responsible. So do these kids.
Right, right. There, there's good potential
from both of those, but I think I personally would rather my
kids see it from the same lessons that I have.
Not that they have to be on the same pathway, but it gives them
guidance at least it gives them a path that I know I can kind of

(08:02):
walk with them. And there may be some steps that
we don't know, but I'd rather take those down that path then
versus some of the things I've seen out there cartoon animation
wise on the note. Turn it off now.
Really not even just because some of it's just so wonky and I
and crazy out there. And I'm like, I get it.
The fact that an adult created this to entertain a child makes

(08:25):
my brain question what's going on in that adult's head.
So really. Yeah.
Did you ever think about that, like looking back, like looking
back at like some of the movies that you and I grew up watching?
Like take the fucking premise ofAll Dogs Go to Heaven.
Oh yes, absolutely. How fucked up is that?
Crazy, crazy fucking movie, Oliver.

(08:46):
Oliver and company. Company, Yeah, crazy fucking
movies like that. Absolutely Disney movies, but I
don't even know if I have a but to that.
No, you're right. You're vernacular that is an
adult trying to entertain a kid,right?
That's the truth in that, in that wild.
And here's the thing, dude, I, Iam not I agree with you.
I agree with you because here's the thing, like when my kids

(09:07):
were growing up, there are certain things that they were
allowed to watch and certain things that they weren't allowed
to watch. But I was a little bit more
lenient on like what is the context and the material of the,
of the actual show or the sourceof entertainment, right?
Because early days, you had the shows back in the 90s that
pushed the envelope. You know, people don't remember

(09:27):
Simpsons was on the Tracey Ullman show.
They started on the Tracey Ullman show.
And then The Simpsons became theshow that every parent in
America was like, your kids are not allowed to watch this.
The dad strangles the kid. They're drinking beer.
They make depressed all day long, yeah.
Yeah, it's just there's the context of like racial

(09:49):
insensitivities with a Boo and and what are the what is Homer's
Carl and Homer's friends, almosttwo friends.
But it's just the context in which they display things,
whether that's parenting, race, sex, political agendas,
workplace, you know, And The Simpsons was always the one that

(10:12):
was like, don't show the kids that.
And then there was Seinfeld. Don't show the kids that.
That's too and too intense, right?
And then as you skate through the 90s, you get South Park, OK?
Which literally pushes the boundaries and it's one of the
only shows that is OK to do thatfor some standard.

(10:34):
I mean, I don't see any other out there like that that well,
they they. They they crush it and they go
after everybody. Exactly.
I mean like after everybody, man, That's that's right.
Do your kids you let your kids watch that or no?
I would not mind my kids watching South Park really, to
be honest, because it's entertainment, purely
entertainment. And it's so it, it's such a big

(10:57):
swing of that pendulum. Like you can't mistake that like
these little cardboard cut out paper mache characters moving
around like don't like they may say dumb, quirky things.
OK, you may repeat those things.And I can tell you not to do
that. You're not going to try and
repeat any of the behaviors thatyou see them do.
And for me, a lot of times and the parent that I am, I, I hear

(11:20):
what the kids are saying, but I watch the action because I know
the kids watch the actions that we do as adults.
They hear what we say, they copywhat we do all the time.
So I live this thing of where like we're going to look at art,
we're going to see it in a different, admire it in
different ways. We're going to be cool with
that. But we're also going to make
sure that we know when enough isenough.

(11:42):
We know when to draw the line. We know the difference between
reality and and and and whateverand whatever else you wanted to
be outside, well, it's. I think there's an element of
groundedness too. We were talking off air about
how it is that, you know, you deal with the perspective of the
world that you're living in. It's kind of a reflection of

(12:04):
like the entertainment, like growing up, you know, like
certain music was like so reflective of the times, you
know, like the 1970s with credence.
You know, it's all anti war kindof stuff.
You know what I mean? Fortunate son is literally about
I'm going to get drafted becauseI'm not fortunate.
I'm not, I'm not a politician son.

(12:24):
I'm nothing. Right.
What does the saying go? The the entertainment is
downstream of culture, like in that that it's purely that is a
fact of nature for humanity. And it's the same thing in your
household. I feel like what your culture
and your household you promote and you allow and you give heir
to. What else are the kids in the

(12:47):
household going to know except for what you permit?
Children. Can't.
Yes, children can do things, butthe adults are the one that set
the table for them. And I think a lot of times we
forget that, and especially in this day and age, there's so
much opportunity for other things to set the tables for our
kids that we have to stand up and be willing.

(13:08):
Dude, I'm willing to flip the whole damn table sometimes.
Like this isn't the table my kids supposed to be sitting at.
Get it? Out of here, Let's go.
We're going to make a whole new table from.
Scratch Well, and to your point,we were talking earlier about
how like every father figure, every man carries like a mantle,
you know, you carry a mantle of like a reflection of like, OK, I
want to do this differently. I want to try to do this

(13:29):
differently. I wish I could try to do that
differently, you know what I mean?
Because there's lessons there. There's lessons there to be
learned. And sometimes when it comes to
like understanding of like whereit's appropriate, where it's not
because it's almost like for back in the day, I remember like
you can't watch this certain movie, you can't watch this

(13:50):
certain TV show. And nowadays you kind of see the
reflection because it's so vast.It's so vast, you know what I
mean? And it's so accessible for any
of the kids on the younger side to know what's out there, what's
in the real world. So here I am saying like shot in
the dark, hey, you can't watch dot dot dot dot dot.

(14:15):
And then I explained why. And then they're sitting there
like you, you know, I already know what that is, right?
And I'm like, well, how would you know what that is?
You know what I'm saying? And so then you find this weird
line of like, OK, do I allow them to kind of go that far, but
or do I not like a big show right now that we always talk
about is invincible. So Invincible, as a comic book

(14:38):
fan, I remember when those comics came out through the
early 2000s. I love those books so much.
Very dense, very world building.It's like One Piece but for
superheroes. There it goes.
But watching the show, it is highly, highly hyper violent.
And that begs the question, where does that?

(15:01):
Where does that line fall? You know what I mean?
Because the younger generation, you know, they know what
invincible is. Right?
Right. And I know for your kids, it's a
hard no. For you, it's a hard no.
No. Yeah.
Where you're just like, you can't see.
And that's not. And it just, there's too much
into it, like. Can you explain that a little
bit? Yeah, just please, I want to
hear this. Yeah, no, the the violence of

(15:22):
it, just it grows heavy because you get it.
Not heavy, I would say, but justthere's a lot to it.
I love the idea of the coming ofage and hey, I'm going to do the
right thing with my superpowers.But then like, I could think of
the first battle between Mark and and and his dad and like
what? That's how I've never seen a

(15:44):
superhero do that. I'm intrigued by that interest
in it. But to have for a child to think
that their father is going to beat them within inches of their
life in any stance at all, for me, that in the psyche of a
child is just not OK. And even though it's a cartoon,
because they sure they're going to see it as a cartoon, that

(16:06):
doesn't change the the dialogue or what they're the bells that
are rung from that, so to speak.It's intense.
I agree. It is very, very intense because
that that is tough. Because I think that what we
were talking about with like Alien, more than the couple of
the scenes to where you see the Alien proboscis come out and

(16:29):
punch in a couple of heads, That's all you see a little bit
of brain splatter there. No you don't see his his dad
literally an eye bulging, have his mouth ripped off, all these
different things or even crazierthe end of the season 3 here,
season 2 here and seeing him in.Conquest going through you got
it. OK.

(16:49):
Yeah, him. In conquest go at battle like
that one beach scene alone is like Oh my God.
I've seen a ton of beach scenes in horror movies.
Godzilla versus King Kong new empire they freeze the entire
beach scene. Cool.
I've seen that Geo storm. The entire beachfront freezes
over. I've never seen a any movie
where somebody is just obliterated, obliterated the

(17:12):
entire beach, and not instantaneously to the effects
of what you think a superhero would do.
We're going to give it a millisecond delay.
They're already actually at the inner city here.
Oh, now all you people are done.That type of chaos.
Well, it's tough and it's tough.And that that whole to that
point, I'll tell you this much. Let me ask you this.
So with the same context, obviously we grew up in a
different time. Yeah.

(17:33):
Do you think if Invincible was out when you and I were in days
of yore, what do you think? Do you think it would have been?
You think your mom would have allowed you to watch it?
No, I don't think so. I think it would have been more
when she would have probably like, no, she would be like, no,
you can't watch this. Like it would have been a.
Hard no. No debate, no conversation.
You're not watching it. Because of like.

(17:55):
The context. Yeah, just because of the hyper
violence that that would be it there.
That alone would be enough. Because then I think back to
like trying to think of what could have been something back
in the day that I would have watched, maybe like Aeon Flux
back on MTV or something like that.
Even though that wasn't anythinghyperviolent, the riskiness of

(18:18):
it, my mother did not like. So like, it's one of those like,
but they never show anything other than like, you know, she's
got her skimpy outfit, but it's a, if you watch that cartoon
nowadays, you're like, this is what passes cartoons back in the
day, right? Like this little page turning
thing. But OK, like I get it.
I think it's weird though. I think it's going to be the
current time. Yeah, yeah.

(18:39):
And I think that you and I are smart enough to understand that
the moment with Conquest and Mark in Invincible, the moment
he became something more than just a hulking villain, was when
he whispered to him, was when heliterally when he when he had
them there. And he literally said like I'm
I'm lonely. That scene alone, right?

(19:02):
Goosebumps. That is awful.
And that is like, that just gives even more of a disturbing
context of like, I'm a victim ofmy own undoing.
I everyone else is scared of me.And think about what we were
talking about earlier with our upbringing, how we came about
through everything, not wanting to cross that line.
Yeah. Not wanting to become that

(19:23):
monster, that beast, but almost being given no other choice but
to push and being pushed into that contour where you know,
well, I'm just going to go aheadand.
Show you exactly. And then I'm going to continue
to do what I'm good at and what everybody expects me to.
Yeah, it's wild. Like it's a wild.
It's a wild constant context to look at where the line, because

(19:46):
I think the nature of this episode is kind of like
parenthood in a way. You know what I mean?
It's like parenthood on another level of like you, you kind of
cherry pick the way you went through like, OK, I'm going to
take that. I'm going to leave this, I'm
going to leave this, I'm going to take that.
But understanding that there is also a line there, for example,
for my father, he was never, he was a cinemaphile cinephile.
He loved everything. I mean everything from action to

(20:09):
drama to comedy. The only thing that he was never
really about was horror films, which.
I always found was fascinating because I never had a advisor
when I was growing up, which wasprobably to my detriment.
I never had and the detriment ofmy children.
They're all in real life. They're they're working kids,
they're good kids, but they had no, they had no, it's not that

(20:33):
I'm going to make allow them to watch whatever they want.
It's that my philosophy was always pretty simple, which was,
hey, cursing is okay, but you need to come up with five other
ways to say that how you feel, right?
So obviously you don't, Yeah, obviously you don't want a 5
year old drop in hardcore language or what have you.
But as a reflection of what I went through, my father was

(20:57):
never a horror movie guy. So he was never a Freddie,
Jason, Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He was never really into that
kind of stuff, you know? But I remember early days for
me, like I remember like there'sa few movies like Hard, Hard,
like Nope, no, you're not going to watch that.
And the one that comes to mind is Showgirls.

(21:17):
You ever see that? No.
Showgirls. Never saw.
It is an aggressively sensuous lot of nudity, lot of real
intense stuff for sure. You know what I mean?
Showgirls was one that was like,even for some adults seeing it,
it was like it rattled the cagesjust cause of the context of
what was being shown, you know what I mean?

(21:39):
And that was one that was like, no, And I'm like, what are you
talking about, man? I'm like, I'm old enough to
watch like literally like Alien.I'm old enough to watch, you
know, like I've seen all the horror movies and stuff.
This is like Nope. Movies like that, they come to
your mind. I spit on your grave.
Yes. That's the type of movies where
I'm like, I love the heroism aspect of it, but holy fuck.

(22:01):
Absolutely not. Absolutely.
Not exactly. Never would I let my kids watch
like, yeah, I don't even want them finding that movie.
If I find out friends watch thatmovie, like you know, that's not
a movie you guys need to be watching at all, because there
there are some things like that that just great artistic piece.
I get it like and I it's a revenge flick.
It's. A straight on revenge flick.

(22:22):
Flick, but damn. Right.
And that's what I'm saying like,and I'm sorry for all the
listeners out there, for everybody out there, anyone out
there who's watched the movie Showgirls, you know exactly what
I'm talking about. You just close your eyes and
imagine what that film is. I've.
Never seen it so I don't even know that aspect.
Yeah, yeah, just just just paraphrase.

(22:42):
I apologize to the your misses. If yes, like that's that's it's
just a very egregious film, right.
It's just an egregious. We're gonna have to go home and
watch it. No.
OK. Never, never.
You can watch it, but this is the last time you'll come over
here. That's oh.
Shit, what? He introduced me to last.
Day off. Yeah, I'll fall on that sword
for you. Like it's not his fault.

(23:03):
It's my fault, but no, and I to your point, like it's sometimes
it is like the artistic side of things where it's like, I get
it, I understand it, but at the same time you can look at like
the context of like a showgirl'sI spit on your grave, The hills
have eyes, right, Texas ChainsawMassacre.
One that just recently came out,I think that's sounds like it

(23:25):
may be kind of like that showgirl lessons a Nora or
something like that, yeah. Something like that, but.
Excuse me if I'm getting it wrong, but yeah, it is just won
Oscars. OK?
Yeah, OK. That's when I heard where people
were like, have you seen it? Like beginning of the movie is
just like flat out. I was like, oh, it's Rod.
Yeah, I was like, oh, I do not know that.
I saw the artistic piece of it through previews.
Basically like uncut gems in theprostitute world, wow in the

(23:49):
escort in the escort world. There it is.
That's essentially what it is. But I think that that in itself
is like that's where the line kind of needs to be drawn,
right. I think it's just the more
grounded reality of like this kind of stuff, you know, is
like, it's there, it's realistic.
It's it's tangible, it's tangible, you know what I mean?
Like it's a grounded. Thing that's where I think

(24:11):
that's where I draw the line, this tangibility is this
something that if a person went down the darkest, roughest of
avenues that could happen. OK, like, let's maybe not show
that. Is this something that like, oh,
we're going to have, you know, this horror person Jason, just
no matter how fast you move, he's just always right there

(24:34):
walking behind you. Yeah, OK.
We know that's not gonna. Right, right.
But I think that there's something there.
I think that there's something there to that.
And I think to the more intense Ave. it's like the tangible part
of like Invincible. It's a cartoon, but it's also
the substance of a father and son, which is, I mean, even for
most adults like it is, it's a tough watch.

(24:55):
It's it's, it's a tough watch. You know what I mean?
And especially, I mean, if we think about it like there's a
lot of overlay to where imagine taking a young person who, you
know, they've seen Superman, Batman, Flash, they've seen all
of these characters. And I think about them in the
color schemes that these characters wear.

(25:16):
And then think about the color schemes that the Invincible cast
characters wear. Very, very similar markups
there. Who's to say that some kid
doesn't get confused by by something in that way and think
of OK Flash, Ezra Flash? What is his name in Invincible?

(25:37):
Scarlet feature or something like that?
No, no, not scarlet feature. I'm thinking of the oh, damn it.
What is the asshole's name? Rex Rex.
Yeah, Rex. He's red, yellow, same thing as
flash. Who's to say that some kids like
he doesn't misalign those and belike, oh, red and yellow.
I could be an asshole like Rex versus red and yellow.

(25:58):
I could choose to do the right things like Flash right, And
that's like that's a deep far stretching that, but at the
same. No, they get it.
They get it. Come on, You're telling me that
when you were a kid, like you didn't see like Transformers or
Thundercats or he man, right? And you want to go outside and
play it. Exactly.
That's a part of imagination forkids and you don't want,
especially in this day and age to where imagination has gotten

(26:21):
a lot of people in a lot of weird places, you can imagine to
be whatever you want, like. Exactly, and it gets to be a
little tedious. And that's why I draw my line
with cartoons, because imagination and you can be
whatever you want. Cartoons do that.
Yeah. Yeah.
That SpongeBob imagination. You know, we're going to, we're

(26:41):
going to limit that a little bit.
We're going to be really real. You don't.
You're not a fan of SpongeBob? I'm not against SpongeBob at
all. Like I love SpongeBob girl.
He came out when I was a kid so I grew up and saw a lot of that.
But. Did you ever?
I hate to sidestep you here, butwe'll get back to that.
Did you ever meet the parents that didn't let their kids watch
SpongeBob? Maybe.

(27:04):
And I felt like those kids were odd.
I felt like those parents were real.
I don't. Maybe pretentious.
And here's the thing, I I know every parent under the sun,
every whatever parent, whether you're raised by a mom, dad,
whoever guardian, let's call it whoever, whoever your guardian

(27:25):
is, there's rules. And one of the rules that I
never understood. Maybe if someone out there is
listening, you can explain this to your old boy OC help a
brother out here. OK, because I, I never
understood why parents did not let their kids watch SpongeBob.
I never understood it because there's a lot of stuff in

(27:49):
SpongeBob that is just dumb, OK,And it's just dumb.
It's just dumb humor. But at the same time, like, Oh
no, I don't let the kids watch that.
And I'm like, why? And they're like, because it's
stupid. It's dumb.
It just dumbs them down. There's nothing tangible,
there's nothing gratifying, there's nothing beneficial,

(28:10):
there's nothing that they can watch and and absorb and take
away from that. Let's ask those parents they
watch written and simply or Rocco's mother life or real
monsters. Real monsters.
Yeah, let's ask those parents that because those are those
similar type of shows like what are we?
What are we ready to simpy is wild.

(28:30):
If you think about that show, and it used to be that show was
bonkers or that or Cat dog back in the day, like there was no
point to any of those half cat half dog chased around burritos
with a blue mouse best friend. What in the world?
You're flashing people back now.But we and then we're going to

(28:52):
be like I just those cartoons, even though they were pointless,
I get them. I look at that like SpongeBob
like. I got into a massive argument.
I'm not going to say his name onhere because he's a dear friend
of mine, but he's another father, is in a blended family
just like me. And he was so adamant about his

(29:13):
kids not watching SpongeBob. He was so adamant about it.
And then one day I just finally broke down and I was like, hey,
make me your brother, educate me.
Can you just please explain to me why you allow your children
to watch every Disney Princess movie under the sun?

(29:34):
You allow them to play Call of Duty, you allow them to play any
video game from Mortal Kombat toSuper Mario, but for some odd
reason they cannot watch SpongeBob.
Can you just please explain thisto me?
Where is the damage in this? What is causing more damage?
And it's kind of the same argument that I had said before.

(29:57):
And then he's like, well, how about this?
Why don't you give me a reason? Why don't you give me 5 reasons
why they should? And I'm like, OK, number 1, he
loves his job. He's content with being a fry
cook. So it teaches you the value of
enjoying what you want to do. He's a loyal friend to Patrick,
even though he. Patrick shits all over him
constantly. But he continuously tries to win

(30:17):
over his annoy, noisy, mean neighbor Squidward, which
teaches people, no matter what you do, to never change your
moral compass. All right?
And it teaches you that his. It's OK to have a best friend
that's from far away. That's people that are different
from you to not judge because Sandy is a squirrel from the
land and she's all right. So right there, there's, what,

(30:38):
3-3 or four? Three or four?
Yeah. OK.
And then so the number one thingto take away from it is what he
takes care of his cat, Gary, Gary the snail.
All right, So what does that teach you?
It teaches you the responsibility, right?
And The thing is, the thing that's a bummer about it is that
everybody, and I'm not throwing shade or judging any parent in
any way, shape or form, and we're all different.

(30:59):
We all have our own experiences.Maybe we don't want that.
If you are a victim of a very abusive household growing up,
obviously you're going to draw the line on real intense shows
that may deal with heavy themes.OK, I'm just saying for me, this
is my personal opinion, that that was something that always
struck A chord with me because Inever understood it.

(31:21):
I never understood why it is that you allow your kids to play
full blown Call of Duty and they're not even 10 years old.
That I always have a struggle with two parents there.
Really. Yeah.
So I'm not alone there. No, I, I hate it because I'm a,
I'm a gamer myself. I cannot tell you the struggle I
have with trying to play a videogame rated M for adult and

(31:43):
talking like an adult. And then I'm going to face a
chat band because I said motherfucker or call somebody an
asshole. Like I'm sorry, I thought you
had to be a certain age to buy this game, not to mention like a
certain age to even be able to pay for your subscription online
for these games too. Like who the hell are you to
tell me I can't talk like an adult because it offends your

(32:03):
sensitive ears? Go kick rocks.
And you're playing a hardcore. You're playing a game where
you're literally shooting peoplein the face and I you're mad at
me for saying shit balls? Yeah, I'm not a fan.
Not a fan. I mean, that's another question
too. That's the age-old question is
like, OK, well, how old is too old?
How young is too young, you know, And I think that as

(32:25):
parents, you kind of need to figure that one out because it's
so available now, right? It's so available.
You know what I mean? To your point, like video games,
video games back in the day for me, was it a weird time?
There's a weird time for video games because 1 you played
together. Yep.
Okay, you had to go to your buddies house if there was
somebody in the neighborhood that was lucky enough to get a

(32:46):
Super Nintendo or an N64 or a Sega Dreamcast.
What a heavy limit to it as well.
Yeah, everybody was there and itwas only for a set amount of
time until they said parents like alright, everybody time go
home, go outside. Yeah, go outside.
Literally. Now we've corrected in our
house, thankfully. This is where I say you say the
whole bad parents good. Dude.

(33:07):
My kids are spoiled. They each have.
They each have. My daughter has a custom built
PC in her room and her own set of her desk.
My son used to have his Xbox in his room and they monitor like
they were set up. I've removed all of that now.
We had to curve that because we've realized again how that
openness and that freedom creates chaos.

(33:28):
Like it's been one of those things where we've had to start
adding conscious parameters for our kids to be aware of, like
essentially teaching them how tobe kids, kicking them out of the
house over spring break. Technology was not a thing.
They didn't play video games, dude.
They were on their bikes. They were on the trampoline.
We've got a ton of backyard games.
They were doing things outside and literally was a day I walked

(33:51):
in and saw my daughter. She was laying on the couch,
like scrolling through the TV and told the missile, you know
what? I would rather have this grumpy
teenager trying to find something to watch on TV then
like a kid locked in the room ontheir cell phone doing who knows
what. Yeah, so we're going to let this
be. This is kind of, this is what I
knew was growing up as a teenager was like, I think I

(34:12):
turned out all right. That's fucked up because it's so
true in the weird way, because my, my, I always say like the
play dates or they go out on thebike or whatever.
You know, my early introduction to that was my father would look
at you dead in the face and go get out of the house.
Literally what? I'm just.
I'm minding my own business. It's like it just I locked the
door. I had to do I kicked the kids

(34:33):
out over spring break. I kicked them out of the
beginning of spring break. My daughter didn't want to go
outside doing them. I was like, she's got a
skateboard. We have a park right across the
street. Get outside.
But I don't want to. Oh, did I ask?
Get outside. Thank you.
I'll see you in a little while. Went outside and was gone far
longer than I expected. Came back, had lunch and went
outside again. Like, oh, you see that?

(34:54):
It's not going to kill you. But it literally took us
removing. Because you want to have a
balance, though, you want to have a healthy balance.
You know what I mean? And I think that that was what
was different because we were talking about like the wool over
the eyes or the shade when we were growing up, you know, And I
brought up showgirls was like just a hard no, hard no, hard

(35:15):
no. But I wasn't so fixated on that
because I could be like, OK, I'll take no for an answer.
Fuck it, I'll just move on. Exactly.
And then for me, the idea of like, I'm actually terrified to
argue with my father. So at that point, it's like,
yeah, what he says goes. So obviously I'm not going to

(35:36):
push back on that. You know what I mean?
It's the guy that would lock youout of the house.
You're like, I'm thirsty. We'll drink from the hose.
Right, exactly. But you're just.
Rolling around for six hours with a roll of caps and a
lighter looking for shit to burn.
You'll be OK. You'll be OK.
I think that there's a healthy balance there because for me, my
parents weren't sold right away on all things entertainment

(35:56):
Growing up, my father, he like he had like VHS tapes of like
old Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Paul Mooney, Bill Cosby.
So like he was like the library was vast.
So all the entertainment was there.
But I think as much as I have a career out of entertainment now,
man, I podcast. I, I do all the comic book
stuff, do the cons talk to amazing people like you.

(36:17):
Here's the thing, I never let that growing up kind of define
me. It was always something that was
there. It's kind of like a you like an
emotional tool, you know what I mean?
To understand certain themes andthings.
Yeah. But it helped you understand
certain things that maybe your parents couldn't teach you,
Right. But when you understand that
there has to be kind of a balance there between too much

(36:38):
and not enough. And I think you were kind of
talking about that where you're like, this is great, they have
this set up, but my God, we got to change something.
Yep. You know, again, and and I use
the word hobby intentionally because if you think, think
about an Archer, somebody that starts archery as a hobby, like
they're going to pick up little things about that for themselves
that their parents going to teach them that an instructor

(36:59):
can teach them. And if they decide to ultimately
keep down a deeper path and really dig that and make that
hobby a lifestyle, they may losework, whatever job they have,
they may just become an Archer as their profession now.
If they were a a desk jockey before, now they're an Archer.
Like you're going to have what you put your energy into is
where you're going to get your return.

(37:19):
Did your son ever? What was the moment?
Let me ask you this, This might be too personal.
If if so, it's OK. You don't have to say, but what
was the moment that you like, had to like cut it?
Because I remember for me, I remember the moment that I
actually had to put my foot down.
I remember I had to put my foot down.
I think it was early days beforeCOVID.
We always equate COVID to be like the, the teetering point,

(37:40):
you know, because once COVID hits like, oh, play as many
video games as you want. Exactly.
So the, the tipping point with me was I remember we, we had
this small place. I came home from work and I walk
inside the two youngest ones, one's on the phone, one's on the
handheld. Like, I think I think it was

(38:02):
like ADS or something, right. My son had like a suitcase that
had like a screen in it, which held the Xbox in it.
Yeah. You remember those?
OK. Yeah.
So he was playing that in the corner.
Both girls are on the couch. One has, one has the Game Boy,
one has the other the DS or one's on the phone.
Then I go down the hallway and my stepdaughter's on her console

(38:25):
and then I go through and my wife, beautiful wife, love her
to death. Don't do us part.
She's on her phone. Everybody's on something.
And I'm just like, what the hellis this?
You know, like, and so then I'm like, all right, I guess this is
this is the day and age, right? You know what I mean?
It is. Though.
And then it's and then I just kind of like walk through, try
to talk to everybody, walk through, try to talk to

(38:46):
everybody. No, no conversations.
Everyone's just glued to this fucking thing.
And then the best part about it is that continued for a while.
And I'm like, how do I get out of this rut?
Like, they're all just so like, right in, you know?
But it's a thing. It literally it like it absorbs
them. We we saw a different character

(39:06):
in our daughter when we took that.
We took her cell phone for him for a little while there.
And I think it was probably all the spring break.
I don't think she had it. It went dead in my office.
She didn't have it all the spring break, and it literally
went from this mean mugging don't want to talk to anybody to
oh La La La La la, outside jumping on the trampoline with
her brother, playing games outside with her brother just
starting to notice. Things notice the world around.

(39:29):
Exactly. I was like, and you don't think
you've missed anything? And then the second she got
ready to go back to school on Monday, gave her her cell phone
just before we walk out of the house, homework, sitting on the
floor, walks out of the house, house slides versus school
sneakers. I'm like, what are you doing?
All because I placed that devicein your hand and you immediately
just don't gone. Like I just so yeah, that that

(39:53):
for us was the turning point with her.
And then for my son, it it's been an ongoing thing.
It's like we'll give it back to him for a moment, then something
comes up. We're like, dude, I got to take
it again. Literally this the past week
flat out told missus like they're just I'm going to forget
about it before they get any of their tech back from me.
I've got Xboxes laptops. I've got let's see the switch

(40:18):
the VR set her laptop all their any electronic device that they
have right now his flying drone every electronic device if it if
it takes a battery and needs electronics and has zeros and
ones in the binary of it to function, they don't have.
So it's like they're going to the big house, like get up
against the wall, just pat them down and get.

(40:40):
Everything what you got, Come on, empty it out right now.
Every time there's a routine when they come going from
school, they know my daughter's cell phone goes on the island,
laptops go on the table unless you've got school work.
And if you're doing school work,you're sitting right there to do
it. Because I need you to understand
that having this technology is aprivilege.
It's not a right. It's not something that you're

(41:00):
going to abuse. It's not something that you're
just going to La La, la, la, la and be dependent on to save you.
Because I think that's what a lot of a lot of a lot of society
is, is they look at these littledevices in their hands of the
saving grace and being old school.
If I may, I'm not a violent person.
I'm a pacifist and older versionof me though you think a
recording device is going to save you if you cross me.

(41:22):
Trust me, you and that may get stumped out and I don't want I'm
not that person at all anymore, but I don't want my children to
be in this thing to where they think all their answers are in
that device. If they have that, Oh my gosh,
I've lost my identity. I've lost my ability to to
function in the mood. That is a certain extension of
you. And I think that's a smart idea

(41:42):
to have because you know, everybody talks about like, oh,
we're worried about AIAI, this AI that when the reality is it's
like that literally has your face on, it has your face on, it
has your fingerprint. It literally has, it's an
extension of you. It's an extension of you now,
early days. I grew up without the Internet.
I know you grew up without the Internet too.

(42:03):
We definitely grew up in a time where it was like, I'm actually
kind of content with this, you know what I mean?
And fortunate enough, you know, Acacia, the younger one, she is
to the degree where she's like a90s kid, you know, like she'll,

(42:23):
she'll come home, she'll rock upand go out and skateboard, go
out and bike and stuff like thatand just like enjoy it, you know
what I mean? She really digs just enjoying
her her time to herself and understanding the balance of
like massively this is available.

(42:43):
That's like a piece of this world, obviously, but I'm not
going to be solely dependent on it.
You know what? I.
Mean of the world versus the whole world.
Right, right. You know you're a good kid.
Don't trip on a girl. You're a good.
Kid, there you go, there you go.And it's the same thing with
with mine too. Like it's a thing to where we're
trying to get them to understandthat their value is not dictated

(43:06):
by this digital device. Their country and their
well-being is not dictated by it's simply a tool.
And I think that's where a largepart of society has gone wrong
as we've forgotten these devicesare tools not in the end all be
all for so much So to even thinkof the hustle and bustle trying
to get the newest phone all the time like.
Right, right. I'm gracious my kids aren't of

(43:29):
that notion. Well, they have to have the
newest cell phone when it comes out because for one, yes, we're
capable to providing that, but we're not going to.
There's no reason if it function, if it does the purpose
it's supposed to, why do we needthe new thing?
Because we're trying to keep up with the Joneses.
That's not the game we play in our household, in our lifestyle.
And that's something that I'm conscious to with them and in

(43:53):
the messages I instill in them. But at the same time, you have
to pick and choose what you can,because then you don't want your
kids to feel ostracized from allthe norms of society.
You don't want them to feel likethey can't do XY and Z and this
and that We. It's a balancing act.
It is, yeah. You can't just have the kid be
like you're hanging out playing jacks on the.

(44:13):
Side right And like my dad, thisis a video game.
You're like, kick the kid. Kick the kid, you know, just
like, you know what? Let's kick the shit out of this
kid. Because then you get kicked on
and bullied. And so we don't want that.
But at the same time, you know, we, we've been going through it
in our household here with, withsome, some deeper things.
And, and one of the things is just to touch the surface of it.

(44:35):
I've flat, I've let some of the schools, the school system know
like you are not the parent. You have an entirely different
role than what you believe it is.
But I'm going to remind you, I'mthe parent.
Let me inform you of what your role is going to be here.
And it's in a stat that's for the well-being of my child, not
for. I don't.

(44:56):
Care how it makes you look. I don't care how you feel about
it. What I care about is the
well-being of my child. That's my only priority and if
you do anything to infringe uponthat, then you become a concern
of mine. And so that I look at on the
same thing of entertainment is. If you do anything to infringe

(45:21):
upon that, then it becomes an issue.
Exactly. Exactly.
Especially in our household, because the missus is an artist,
we we listen to a wide myriad ofmusic.
And so we keep almost in an opendoor to some things.
But then there's some to where we aren't even, we don't even
look down that alley. We don't cross the street.

(45:42):
Like as you know, Muvasa says, we don't go there, son.
It's that easy for some things. And then you have to try and
remind your kids like, yeah, I want you to be normal and I want
you to be out there with your friends and I want you to feel
like you have a social life and to be happy.
But that dark place, we don't know there, son.
Right. No, there's something.
There's definitely some type of gravity behind that because that

(46:04):
pole is the natural thing. I mean, there's always that pull
of like, you know, that you're not supposed to hang out with
those kids. You're not supposed to.
For back in the day it was the arcade, or back in the day you
couldn't go to the arcade because that's where all the
tough boys hung out right at. Certain parts you're going to.
Go to right, right. I mean, that was the thing.
And then like you try to explainthat to the kids nowadays.
Like let me explain to you. There's this place where you go

(46:26):
and play video games. Right, my mom literally back in
the time. Oh, I can choose your friends.
I believe she could. She could.
Back in the day, I had no way toget ahold of my friends.
My mom paid the house phone bill.
She drove me everywhere I neededto go if I needed to go.
Your mom. Was like that.
That was awesome. No, I say that and I think like
if I need to take my bike somewhere, like I biked places,

(46:46):
but like if she had to take me places, she took me places.
And if she said no, there was noI couldn't.
Call. There was no debate.
There was no debate. Never not a again.
My I love my mother. My mother is not a violent
woman. By now I mean my mom is.
I think my mom's like 5354 something like that.

(47:07):
I'm 6 foot 200 lbs solid until this day.
Even still like I respect my mother.
There's no debate with my motherwhen she said something with
respect to the fact that she knows I'm my own independent
man. Right.
I still respect her in that sameway.
Kids these days, I don't think have that same respect.
So do you think that comes from the point of like, it's just so
accessible, like the tool becomes abused, like it kind of

(47:29):
just becomes more in line with, I don't think that there's
really a wool pulled over the eyes anymore.
Maybe like there's there's not that.
I think that for me, the biggestred flag was with my son where
he just has these groups of friends, but they're all online,
you know what I mean? He just has, that's his whole
thing. You know, for a while there it

(47:50):
was like, and I'm very fortunatebecause our children are very
much like, we enjoy hanging out with mom and dad.
We're in a blended family, so it's a very large family.
There's extended sides on both ends, you know what I mean?
And then also The thing is trying to understand that being
in a blended family, being a part of a bigger family,

(48:10):
understanding that like they don't not they do not not want
to be around us, which is reallynice.
Great, they like that. But understanding like where is
this kids friends at, man? This where are where are the
boys at? You know, I think back to when I
was everybody in the neighborhood knew.
You people. From Crosstown knew you people
from like, you just had this group, this, this clique, right?

(48:33):
Your crew, as we used to call it, you know, and or the team or
the gang, you're, you're just, you're whatever your click is.
The the association would be oh,where's XYZ and company?
You always have that as when we were kids coming up.
But now it for me, the biggest eye opener was he had every
single thing that I had just online.

(48:54):
That's it, just online. And not only was it online, but
it was a fascinating thing to belike, OK, OK, I kind of get it
now. They're doing the exact same
thing that I did when I was a kid.
It's just virtual online, you know what I mean?
And I think that for all intensepurposes, you know, when it gets

(49:14):
to that point where you guys gotto where it was like, we need to
change. Something needs to change.
We need to alter some stuff, we need to adjust some things.
It's definitely different for each house, for sure.
I think that it's different for each house.
I think for me the biggest pointwas, hey, it's time to grow up.
I think so dude. That was the hard conversation.
Whereas like. You don't just get to play video

(49:35):
games. It's.
Time to grow up, you know, and like here in the here in I think
he was fucking with me. But here in the phrase like,
what do you want to do? Do you, what do you want to do
or do you want to work? What do you want to do?
You know, and he's like, I thinkI I wouldn't mind being a
professional gamer. And I'm like, yeah, I would have
been sold more down the river ifyou said you wanted to be a

(49:57):
professional lion tamer, bro, but that neither of those are
happening right now. Here's what's going to happen.
You're going to find a job. You got 30 days to find a job.
Right. That was the conversation that
was had. And at that point it was like,
okay, well, OK, just don't arguewith it.
I'm not saying that you can't exist in that world with your
boys and your friends and everything that is there, that

(50:20):
is a that is to your vernacular,that is a tool, that is
something that you have, that issomething that you have every
right to want to enjoy. But there's a whole other side
of it. This isn't exactly all of
reality. And I think that a lot of this
younger generation of what's been lost on a lot of them is
understanding that so much is soaccessible.

(50:41):
And they see like Jake Paul, Logan Paul are two of the
biggest ones that my daughters grew up watching where it's like
they can make a living doing this.
They can just make a living. This is what they do.
And. Everybody thinks they can
replicate that. It's like those are anomalies.
That's a very unique thing. That's an incredibly unique

(51:01):
thing. Roman Atwood was a huge one back
in the day. Remember Roman Atwood?
He was the prank one. He always would pull pranks.
He would, like fill his house with like, yeah, he would like
fill his house with like balls from McDonald's or whatever,
make a massive ball pit or something like that.
Yeah, they kind of did. AG rated version of Jackass.
You know what? I think I remember, bro.
I think I do remember. That if I smile more, the whole

(51:23):
logo, smile more and everything,it was just is this massive
thing that my kids just loved. And to be perfectly honest with
you as a parent, to your point, you want to kind of bend a
little bit. You kind of want to be OK.
What are you guys into then, right?
What music you listening to? What are you, you know what?
You're tired of hearing me harp on you.
What are you into exactly? And I'll be perfectly honest

(51:44):
with you. One of the ones that I am 110%
on board with with my son, he loved Rocka.
Rocka. Have you seen those guys on
YouTube? So the Rocka Rocka boys are
Danny and I think Phillip Filippo.
They're these two brothers from Australia and they made a
killing on YouTube just by doinghyper violent, hyper action

(52:11):
oriented editing, right. OK, so when we're done
recording, I'm going to show you.
I'm going to show you a few clips because he loved these
guys. And for, I want to say maybe two
to three years, I'd come home and he'd be on his phone and
he'd have his headphones and he'd just be laughing, like
cackling like a hyena. I'm like, what the fuck is this

(52:32):
kid watching? Right?
And then I was like, I don't want to be pushy.
I want to be pushy. This is your world.
I'm just, I'm, I'm coming into your world safe.
I'm. Going to let you stay in your
world. I'm like, what are you watching?
What are you laughing at? And he's like, these two
brothers, they're so funny. And I was like, what do they do?
And he's like, do you like superheroes?

(52:53):
And I'm like, you know me prettywell.
Obviously he. Goes exactly and.
He's like, watch this and he showed me a few of their videos
and obviously this is an extremebecause these two brothers, this
is their thing. They get cars, they smash them,

(53:14):
they get, they put up fake wallsin their house, they throw each
other through walls. It's very animated, it's very
effect heavy. So for years these brothers did
this with their little group of friends, all the while
understanding that there is an end game for those two.
And now they are full blown directors in Hollywood.

(53:37):
They did the very, very critically acclaimed Talk to Me
Where The Hand. Yeah.
Oh yeah, we just watched that the other day.
Those the directors of that camefrom YouTube, the brothers from
Raka. Raka, that's a fucking good
movie. Honestly, their new one is Bring
Her Back, so it's another movie that they're doing.
OK. So there is a weird line there.

(54:01):
OK. Because that is an element of my
son's world that I had, no, I had no business in.
I was just curious as to like, what are you?
What are you into then? Because you know, you go through
those weird dry spells where like they always have their
headphones in. You don't know what they're
listening to. You don't know what they're
into. It's like, and I don't want to

(54:21):
be judgy. They can either be spiraling,
yeah, or spiraling down, or evenspiraling in play sometimes.
Yeah. And I was like, what do you,
what is this? What are these guys?
And I'll be honest with you, I'ma fucking fan.
I mean. I'm a fucking fan, dude.
Those videos are almost a decadeold and I still go back and
watch the guys from Rocka, Rockaand I'm going to show you some
of the videos and you'll be like, that is insane.

(54:43):
But you're Jordan Peele. Yes.
What you doing, Pew? From comedy on Comedy Central,
just get to sketch comedy in little blurbs and this and that
to everyone I know he's got a new another one getting ready to
come out here soon to him, him, yes, like, are you kidding me?
That type of but there, there's room for it and that that's why

(55:06):
I don't knock it. Like there's room for things and
people to have me with somethingelse.
It just hit me. There is, oh, the Survivor show.
Have you seen White Lotus? Yes, Yeah.
So they do. The writer for White Lotus
literally was on the original Survivor.
Use members from that show to help cast and use real life

(55:29):
scenarios from that. I'm like, OK, sometimes art can
go ahead and it can imitate life.
There's some parts of it though that just.
Yeah. Sam Rockwell's character.
Yeah. Yeah.
Sam Rockwell and Walton Goggins,Wally Gogs and Rockwell, those
are like, that's the duel of a lifetime, personally.
But yes. And like, I think that doorway

(55:51):
is like, an interesting thing. Do you ever feel like you ever
had a point like that with your kids where it was like, I'll
try, I'm going to try because you know, like it was always
seemed like when I was growing up, like with my father and my
mother, I was always interested in like what they were into,
right? It very seldomly went the other
way. It very seldomly like when we

(56:12):
ate dinner, we ate what mom and dad wanted to eat.
I don't. Know the pendulum is swung the
other way now I'm like, yeah, it's way heavy that way for some
reason. And kids almost expect that type
of entitlement now in life. They expect to be able to choose
what's on their plate. They expect to be able to.
Oh, well, I didn't want this. So why are you cooking?
Excuse you. Like what?

(56:33):
And I'm. I'm a realist.
I say something from radical honesty.
My kids come and say something. Radical candor.
I just call radical honesty because I'm honest as hell all
the time. They say things like, did you
buy this? What job did you work to put the
food on the table? Like, I'm sorry, when's the last
time you paid a bill in this house?
Yeah, thank you. Go sit down somewhere.

(56:54):
I can't wait till your kids get a little bit older and then you
start giving them. Do you ever get?
Have you given the the chore list yet?
Oh yeah, they have a chore list.Yeah.
Yep. Oh God.
Oh, I can't. I've got a 12 and a 14 year old.
They are missing a 12 year old boy on top of that too.
Yeah homie, nobody misses the toilet like you do.
So yeah, that is on your chore list, huh?
Like they just. They wait for the phrase.

(57:17):
What is it? Oh oh man, I said this to one of
my youngest ones a couple years ago.
Just like this is your responsibility.
Now you need to do this. You need to do that.
Just this is it. Point blank, end of story.
Take care of this. And the point blank stare of
like, what are you responsible for?
Like, huh? Everything else you ever did?

(57:40):
You ever have like, a kid say something that you think is a
joke, but they're being serious and I'm just like, wait, what
did you just say? Like having them slow it down
for you? Like what are you responsible
for? Yeah, we did just have it.
We just had something like that to where I called one of the
kids out for it and did it myself.
And I was like, look, that's notthe point here.

(58:01):
That's all right. That I'm the adult.
Do as I've said. And I try not to do that.
I do my very best. But then there's there's a.
Line there I get you. There's some moments, Oh, it's
about moving fast. That's what it is like, right,
Right. We're constantly telling my son
to slow down. We're constantly telling Dylan
slow down, slow down, slow down,slow down because he wants to do
everything so fast. And then I actually had a an

(58:24):
episode probably for the last two months to where my left foot
for the sake of I don't know what could not stop getting
injured from my big toe just stepping on a piece of glass and
then jamming my big toe again and then slamming my heel.
I just, I was hobbled on my leftfoot for a minute and I just
kept trying to move fast, just like slow down.

(58:45):
Quote kind of sound a little familiar right now?
Maybe it's like, yeah, but I gotmore skill than him.
I've been doing this a little bit longer.
She's like, yeah. But he doesn't know that.
You're right. He only sees me in those
moments. And he sees me.
He doesn't know about all the other skills times I all the
other times I've had to practicethese skills are moving fast
like this, like. Yeah.

(59:06):
Well, like the existence there is different too, because
they're only their their only perception is so far.
And I think that that Harkins back to like, well, it's not so
much like the entertainment thatwe want to like be cautious of
because nowadays, like it's justso accessible.
It's so accessible. Like you name a film, you can
find it. You name a show, they can find
it. You literally have everything at

(59:28):
the drop of a hat, you know whatI mean?
And it also comes with like a vague amount of responsibility
because to wrap up with everything that we've been
talking about, it's like you want to be, you want to be
tolerable, you want to be accepting, you want to be firm,
you want to be understood. And most importantly, when it

(59:49):
comes to understanding, like there needs to be a healthy
relationship and healthy balance, you know what I mean?
And sometimes like through entertainment and stuff like
that, like music was a big one for us too.
My kids loved music. All the kids, they just enjoyed
all of it. Elements of music That was just
something that like just spoke to them, you know what I mean?

(01:00:12):
And understanding like. You can see the pain, you can
see the difference because that's that's movies and TV
shows, that's all artwork, comicbooks, it's all art, artistic
integrity. But something with music is so
powerful, you know what I mean? It's just like it hits you so
hard, you know what I mean? And I think that wanting to

(01:00:34):
understand that, but also wanting them to be their own
individuals is a big part of it too, you know what I mean?
And then you see, like the reflection, I'm a part of it,
you know what I mean? I know for me, growing up, my
parents were always like, oh, you shouldn't listen to that.
That's bad, You know? I'm like, well, why is it bad?
You know, why is it bad? You know what I mean?
It's someone's artistic take, you know what I mean?

(01:00:55):
It's obviously you're not there.You're not right behind Ozzy
when he's biting the head. Off of a bat, you know what?
I mean, you're just enjoying this hardcore guitar riff that
they're doing, you know what I mean?
We speaking up. We've just been rewatching that
whole Ozzy Osbourne series used to be back on MTV recently.
And like, we're realizing, like,man, that people forgot to just
let him be a person after that. And he even talks about it

(01:01:18):
himself, just as how everybody always talks about it.
And of course, you know, in his his accent, he's like, I suppose
people leave me the bloody fuck alone.
Like it happened. Like I've got so much more to my
life I've done since. It's wild to think about, isn't
it? Like, that's a crazy time you
want to talk about, like being in the spotlight and everything
you do is underneath. Like, good Lord, man, you know,

(01:01:40):
it's just, it's a crazy time. It's just a crazy time to think
about like, glad the kids are older, man.
Can you imagine bringing a youngbundle of joy into the world at
this point, at this day and age?It's crazy.
It's. Crazy.
Do you have anything that like you hope for your kids when it

(01:02:00):
comes to like the reflection of like entertainment in the world
and the way everything is today?I mean it.
I wouldn't even say hope, just just to, to, you know, enjoy it.
Be entertained by what you are. Don't let what you beauty is in
the eye of the beholder. That's something that my

(01:02:22):
forever, you know, my, my, my parents instilled in me and that
I'm going to see things differently than anybody else
around me is going to see thingsdifferently.
Even if we're standing on each other's shoulders or, you know,
eye to eye with each other, we're always going to have a
different perspective. So see the art that you that you
see all art, but you know, spendthe time staring at the art that

(01:02:43):
you enjoy. That's.
Profound, man, that's good stuff.
I think that's what you and I did.
I mean, obviously everyone takeslike a different pathway to get
where they are currently at, youknow what I mean?
And there's something really unique about that.
And there's something really special about seeing where
you've come from and wanting thebest for the people around you.

(01:03:04):
And then I mean, I think it's kind of remarkable in a way
because you have like the reflections of like, God damn,
this was heavy or boy, that was not something that I had
anticipated or what the hell, you know what I mean?
Because at the same time, there comes a point where, you know,
obviously they're going to leavethe nest, right?

(01:03:26):
And then you start your next chapter and there's that, that
sometimes with the other coin, that's just as hard.
It's. Just as hard.
It's like, OK, well what is my role now?
Right. I've been tearing or I've been
this role. I've been, you've been a
protector. Yeah.
Been a protector. Food maker.
Yeah, Driver, all these things for you.
Everything under the sun and nowyou, oh, man, the tethers,

(01:03:48):
you're like, you're slowly letting the tether out, you know
what I mean? And then you're like, wow, OK,
maybe I need to just redefine who I am.
And that's a tough one. That's a tough one for a lot of
people. I've seen that where it's like
my wife is kind of going throughsomething similar where she's,
you know, she's kind of going through a little bit of a empty
nest syndrome. Yeah, You know, where it's like

(01:04:10):
for over 20 years we've had, youknow, it's just the continuous
thing, you know, and now all of a sudden we turn the page and
there's nothing there. Right.
I mean, it's my missus again. We're believe the family too, if
I've never mentioned, but like we've got an 18 year old like
he's, you know, he's on his way to his next chapter in life.

(01:04:32):
And there's that reality of OK, cool, like phenomenal job was
done in raising the young man. And then now we continue on like
to almost what lessons, what values do we take from that now
to convey on to these next ones,but not to try and mold them in
that same shape or the same way.But the realizations of some of

(01:04:53):
the good reflections we had, some of the reflections that
maybe we wanted to see or turn adifferent corner on.
How do we now apply that contexthere?
But then also, what does that look like coming through us with
the lessons that we know now in life on top of the reality we
all face and everything else that's mixed in there on top of

(01:05:13):
technology's not going away. We know that if anything, it's
going to be here more. Exactly.
So how do we better prepare? How do we give them the tools to
be able to stop themselves from abusing it?
To be able to say, hey, I know I'm entertained by this random
thing I'm scrolling, but I also know I should be going to bed
because I have to get up the next amount of time like that.

(01:05:34):
Adults still struggle with that.So that right there is something
that as rough as I have to be for my own curtailment to that
and the reality of, hey, I know I have hard cut offs.
You expect my kid to have those same hard cut offs, maybe not
when they're an adult, but when I have the ability to kind of
say we're going to, I'm going tohelp you establishment.

(01:05:55):
It's a tough line. I don't think that there's like
any like how to manual either, you know, I mean, I think the
how to manual is kind of it's a different line to walk.
Because menu is living. Well, yeah, I mean, and like you
said, you hope in a in a big sense of the word, it's like I
remember something very similar happening to to me, right?

(01:06:17):
I remember a very similar situation.
So I can kind of recalibrate it,you know what I mean?
And I think that that to me is like where a lot of
entertainment can be very beneficial.
Yeah. Whether it's yeah, whether it's
like for you, how like the GreenLanterns, Hal Jordan, Jon
Stewart, it's complete worth, Yep, complete.

(01:06:39):
We're being worthy being the person that can hold this
weight, hold this mantle, be holders.
Exactly. Responsibility hold this type of
responsibility. Can you be a responsible person?
And I think that the unique partabout it is seeing that
opportunities for that I think is the hardest part for me.
Person that was always the hardest part is seeing

(01:07:01):
opportunities to teach that because there's always that
weird phrase of like when peopleI don't know if you're a
religious man or not, but the way or for anyone out there
who's religious, it's always a question that's pondered, which
is like when you pray for courage to say, do you think

(01:07:23):
that that you're magically goingto have courage or do you think
is there an opportunity for you to be courageous?
Right, the opportunity and that's what it is.
A lot of people they, they don'tlook at at it from an
opportunity standpoint. That for me is a real quick on
that conveyance of it that I'm in health and fitness have been
for 12 years. Like that's what flipped the

(01:07:45):
paradigm for me and my health and fitness.
And the success that I've had inthat is I look for the
opportunity to help people get better.
I don't look for the opportunityto sign my next big contractor
to have my next client. I look for the opportunity for
the next person I can help get better.
And if you're doing that, you'reusually setting yourself up more

(01:08:05):
to contribute and give to the tribe.
Then what is it? Giving and taking.
And then again, that's in the same way of of conveyance with
the kids. We have a family friend, we're
going to be sending our kids to do some work with her over the
summer. So you go, they're going to work
on the farm. Like it's not even an option.
It's not a punishment. It's a thing to where I want you
to be able to have a little bit more value to you, an

(01:08:28):
opportunity to see some challenges, to be uncomfortable,
and to know that you're going tobe all right.
You're going to get 3 square bills a day.
You're going to have a nice softbed to lay in, but you're also
going to have the opportunity toget up and get the work done.
And you will get up and get the work done.
I think if you can seek out goodopportunity, you'll find real
power and good things along those ways.

(01:08:49):
Yeah. Of course, because other than
that, what are you doing if you don't have like opportunity, you
know what I mean? Wait until the next thing that
rolls you're over. Yeah.
And at that point, if you didn't, like we were talking
about four, like you can literally do everything from
your home. You can do everything from your
home. The tool becomes almost like an
abusive tool at that point because it takes everything away
that would encourage you to moveto do the next thing.

(01:09:13):
And then we wonder why people are so upset about everything
and, and, and, and what's the word?
Oh God, totally. They're so tedious about
everything. They're so frustrated with
everything. It's well when everything is so
perfect and everything is so tangible and everything is so
easy, you start looking for things to bug you.
Which goes back to what we were doing, talking about, no, I

(01:09:35):
don't want to call certain generations and people weak, but
there's no better word. And I don't mean it in the sense
of weak as in being sorry, I mean it may be in the sense of
weak as being brittle. Yeah, that's a great vernacular.
It's a very because it's so simple.
We could sit in the studio spaceright now for the next 300 days

(01:09:55):
and be fine. Right now I have to move an
inch. Everything could be brought to
us, everything could be done. And there's something, it's like
there's something unique and really astonishing.
You try to explain that to someone that grew up in like the
20s or like the 30s, you know, obviously.
What and? Exactly, exactly.

(01:10:17):
But at the same time, it's like you also do lose something
there. You lose something there.
I feel like you lose everything of what it means to to, of every
bit of humanity. The Yes, like human, the human
experience. Yeah, If you're not struggling
and overcoming, like, what are you doing?
Challenges and things are going to come every day.

(01:10:37):
Either we're adapting to what we're facing every single time
we wake up and step out into theworld, or we're dead.
That literally is it. Every single day we step out as
a different adaptation because it's never exactly the same.
No, absolutely not. Like some people are walking
zombies, you know? Or they just don't know.
They just don't know well the amount of zombies.

(01:10:59):
Yeah, it's. Wild, isn't it?
It's crazy. Here's the thing.
So we're going to wrap this up. I know we've been going long on
this. This has been a good
conversation. Thank you for being here by the.
Way always, man. But I'm going to tell a real
quick story. So I have a crew.
I have a crew. I had a crew that I worked with
for I want to say a couple of years, a couple of year crew and

(01:11:23):
a little younger, a little on the younger side, about maybe
22, you know, 21 in that window there.
And sure enough, as people do sometimes you're interested in
people. You want to maybe go hang out,
maybe go to the bar, go to the movies, go play some sports,
maybe just catch a lift, right? And then so one of these

(01:11:43):
individuals, it just, it just cracks me up because I'm older,
I'm older than this crew, this crew.
So sure enough, guy interested in the girl, girl might be
interested in him. Shot in the dark.
I was like, what do I do? What should I do?

(01:12:04):
I'm like, well, I mean, don't doit at work.
That's all I can say. You know, when you're away from
here, I don't give a fuck what you guys do.
But here at work, be professional.
So he apparently from what had happened was he just asked this
this girl out, but he asked her to her face.

(01:12:24):
OK, You would have thought that this guy would have just drowned
a puppy in front of her because she ran up to me and was like,
hey, so and so just asked me outon a date and I was like, cool,
are you going to go? And it smelled like bacon.

(01:12:45):
You could see like the gears andthe the the pan was getting so
hot. She was like, I don't know what
to do. And I was like, do what exactly?
And to her words were well, thathe just like asked me to my face

(01:13:05):
And I was like, what would you have preferred?
What would you have preferred? And then to her exact vernacular
was well, normally when that happens, they just either DM me
or text me and I was like, OK, hold on.
I'm I brain literally skipped a beat.
It's like literally the left side of the brain looked at the

(01:13:26):
right side of the brain. It's dark in here, but.
And I was communicating words. I was like.
Wait a minute, wait a minute. So you're uncomfortable with
that? And I don't want to be rude.
I mean, but this is like the first peek behind the curtain of
like this other generation and how they deal with stuff, right?
And my understanding was like, that makes you uncomfortable.
And she's like, well, yeah, that's never happened to me

(01:13:48):
before. And I was like, OK, so is it the
apprehension? Are you nervous?
Like what? What's the problem here?
I'm genuinely like trying to, I'm generally like trying to
start a fire with nothing, you know what I mean?
And then for like 5 minutes she just kept, she would tell me
like I don't understand what I'msupposed to do here.

(01:14:09):
I fundamentally am not equipped to like have this type of
conversation. This is not what I'm used to.
It makes me uncomfortable and she's visibly getting.
Upset and right off the bat. I immediately I went after the
shift was done like a beeline togo home and I told my wife my
can I bounce something off you that happened today?

(01:14:29):
Can I, can you tell me if I'm like, if I am like losing my
mind a little bit because I think that I might be she's
like, what happened? And I literally told her exactly
what I just told you. And then she's like, what the
fuck? And I was like, I know, right,
Isn't that odd? Isn't that weird?
And then she's like, well, maybeit's, it's got to be a
generational thing, right? And I was like, I think.
It's a, It's I. Have no other vernacular way to

(01:14:52):
describe this. Other than that, like I don't
so. But that's the thing though, it
is generation because a woman would give more attention to
people DM, ING them on social media and being in their inbox
than a person who genuinely would bring them flowers and put

(01:15:16):
them in front of them. And I'm maybe I'm crazy, but
I've seen it over and over againand you can't tell me it doesn't
exist. Because when I was in a dating
world and, and dating women thatwere not even crazily younger
than me, but sometimes a little bit younger than me at times.
And they cared more about how their social media presence was

(01:15:39):
and how the image of us looked online than us actually going
out and enjoying ourselves. Like the thing like it always
had to be the polls to Oh well, let's make sure we take this
photo. Oh well, you really didn't care
because you didn't take a photo of us and post it.
What the fuck? What the fuck do you mean?
What? Like because I was actually
enjoying my life and living the moment versus having to
encapsulate the moment to then try and force feed down

(01:16:01):
everybody's throat to try and get them to like me?
I'm not a man that cares to be liked, right?
It's like I'm I'm, but I'm not also not, I'm not a bad guy,
right? Right.
You don't need to be liked, but you would enjoy it.
Exactly, I'll take it exactly. We'll take that.
We'll take yeah. And that's The thing is like, I
feel like a lot of people just want everybody to like every

(01:16:22):
little bit of who they are. They want them to think they
are. Who they want them to think they
are, that's it. They're who they want them to
think they are. Because if they were just being
themselves, man, it may just be me, but people realize they
really don't have the effort or the energy for some of it
sometimes. Like.
OK. Well, you go ahead and do that
over there. I'm going to just do me over
here and everybody's happy. Well, yeah, you.

(01:16:45):
Take some of that solace advice,you know, I mean that advice of
like, it's pretty simple. Let me tell you a secret.
Nobody thinks about you as much as you think about you.
Nobody likes you as much as you like you, and no one cares about
you as much as you care about you.
But these younger generations don't know that.
They don't believe that it is crazy.
They think, Oh, my existence is only justified by whatever the

(01:17:08):
last funny meme I posted or whatever, whoever I went on
vacation last or whatever this and that.
I'm like, I just, I'm one to where I'm like, no, that's not
not ever going to be the lifestyle I live nor one I want
to allow my children to promote to think that Oh well, here it's

(01:17:29):
only OK if society says to an extent.
Yeah, obviously you don't want to be like a hate monger.
You don't want to be looked at like a like that one like you
don't want to. OK, if you're willing to stand
on the hilltop, you might as well.
Die this if that's the hill hill.
You want to stand on? You better be damn sure you want
to die on it then. But what did you do to climb
that hilltop? That's the concern.

(01:17:50):
Yeah, you don't want to be like that person to do that, but you
also want to have like, if that's what you want to do, then
just go do it, man. And too many people just think
they can take the fast way up there.
Oh, I can just take this and just catapult by something today
and I'll get off top. Or I'll just jump out of this
plane and I'll land on top of that hill.
No, those few that got lucky, they got lucky.

(01:18:12):
There's not enough space for everybody to be lucky up on top.
No, and that why should that be a bad lesson to learn?
There's no bad lesson. There's there's one thing.
And if anybody takes anything away from this amazing podcast
today with me and Double D, I'lltell you the wolf on top of the
hill is not as hungry as the wolf climbing the hill.

(01:18:32):
And so that's okay. Yep.
That's okay to work for something.
And it's okay too, to be that wolf that just goes from hill to
hill sometimes that sometimes. Might not be for me.
Right. Exactly.
It may not be. And there are some people you
try Hill, maybe that's not my hill.
Yeah, let me go on to that next one.
Or you may find your hilltop, get there and realize like, hey,

(01:18:54):
actually that hilltop looks a little bit better over there.
Let me go ahead and make that journey.
You won't get to leap across thevalley, but you.
Still got to take the hard work.To get there, you got to walk
down through the valley and backup that next mountain.
Yeah, I'm telling you, man. And it's even tougher when,
like, because you and I were both married and especially with
that, the hill that was my wife.Ohh, yeah, I'm gonna plant the
flag on that hill. Ohh, Exactly.

(01:19:15):
You know what I mean? Exactly that flag is planted.
And that's the thing to be is when you finally find that place
where right, this is where I'm gonna make home.
Right there, that's it. Amen dude.
Right there. Amen dude.
It's. Been a good show.
It's been a really good show. Deep, deep.
The entertainment is the backbone, but reality is the
substance. But it's just like we said, you

(01:19:35):
know, entertainment is downstream culture.
And then it's a given. And then the conversations that
we have, the dialogues that we have, I know, are the ways that
we carry ourselves in our home and in the ways that our
children see us carry ourselves.But then it goes into the music
that we watch, the art that we observe, the movies, the shows,
all those things speak to a, a different, larger, yeah, a, a

(01:19:58):
different picture of. That it's like a larger
reflection. Exactly.
Yeah, man. Exactly.
That's tough, dude. It's a tough time.
It's a tough time, but you have your ups and downs as you go,
right? And the most important part of
it is that you have people around you that are willing to
be there with you through it. Tribe and culture, that that's
it. That's.
Solid. I appreciate Double D Thanks for

(01:20:20):
being there, brother. I appreciate it, man.
Hey everybody, thank you so muchfor listening.
Today's episode of the Core of Entertainment with me, OC and
Double D talking about culture, talking about parenthood,
parenting, the reflection of society, entertainment as a
mirror to our culture, and understanding how it's always
shifting, always changing. Do me a favor, click that

(01:20:40):
subscribe button, punch that notification bell, leave a
comment down below. This was a long tear deep
episode. If there's anything that we
touched on that you agree with, disagree with, let us know down
below and we're going to have Double D back.
He is one of the cornerstones ofwhat makes this podcast great.
One of the original OG members of the Corps of Entertainment.
He will be back, do not worry. But until then, check out some

(01:21:05):
of the other episodes we've done.
We've done some DC ones. We've done top 10 questions with
Double D and he will be back, rest assured.
But for everybody else out there, thank you so much for
listening. Thank you so much for telling a
friend. Thank you so much for tuning in.
It's how we get new listeners. I truly, truly appreciate every
single one of you. You are what make.
This podcast possible you are the difference between being

(01:21:28):
able to do this and us just talking to ourselves.
So a lot of messages, a lot of heavy, heavy words today.
Hope everyone out there enjoyed it.
And for everybody out there, my name is OC Thank you so much for
listening to the Core of Entertainment, and I will talk
to you all next week.