Episode 294 - Shoresy & Letterkenny w/ Josh Simmons

Josh Simmons joins Brad to talk about Canadian comedies Shoresy & Letterkenny.

Episode Transcript

(00:22):
From Geppetto Studios in New Freedom,Pennsylvania. Welcome to the Cosmic Geppetto podcast,
your home for inclusive, positive geekculture where we talk about movies,
comics, music, books, andwhatever else we feel like. Please welcome
your host. He unbuttons the sleeves, takes a drag off a cigarette,

(00:43):
takes a shot. Henny's those BradMendenhall. Hey kids, it is episode
two ninety four the Cosmic Podcast.My good friend Josh Simmons joins the show

(01:03):
to talk about the Letter Kenny Universeat TV shows. I've known Josh for
years and this was the perfect chanceto bring him on. He knows his
stuff, joining the Cosmic Chippetto podcastfor the first time. Josh Simmons,

(01:33):
Josh, how you doing. I'mdoing good. It's a Saturday morning.
It is a good day. Sotoday we're going to talk about I guess
you could call it the Letter KennyExtended Universe, the Letter Kenny versus the
SHORESI Verse. I have been afan of the show for a while and
people aren't familiar with the Letter Kennyhas been on God since since twenty fourteen.

(01:59):
Yeah, it's been a while.Uh, Canadian show about a small
town in Canada, such a weirdshow, and then it had its spin
off that they just had the secondseason of Shuresey where Jared Kiso, the
star of Letter Kenny is Wayne whoalways voiced the character of Shorsey. But

(02:23):
they would always show him from behindand he would always have like a really
high pitched voice. And then allof a sudden they decided to give Shorzy,
a belligerent, obnoxious hockey player,his own show. Yeah, and
then they show his face and thevoice becomes a little less comical and really

(02:45):
all his The point is Shorsey wasjust to talk a lot of crap to
the other players, completely not adeep character. He's a goon, yeah,
and wasn't even presenters like a goodhockey player. He was just a
guy that would sit on the bench. You would see him from behind it
and he would say terrible things tothe other players. And if you saw
him on the ice, he hadthe dark visor on so you couldn't see

(03:06):
his face and he was just beatingon the other players. He's a good
yeah, and then they give himhis own show, he becomes a little
less comical. They give him alittle depth. Shorsy just finished its second
season. It was just six episodes. They also announced that coming out I
think Christmas Day on Hulu. Itcomes out on Crave, which is a
Canadian save Christmas Day day after forHulu. Yeah. Yeah, He's going

(03:30):
to be the final season of LetterKenny number fourteen. So first off,
what you're wearing a Shorsy shirt aswe speak? You often have you often
when we hang out you have yourLetter Kenny shirt? What draws you to
this show? So funny enough,I actually wasn't a huge fan of Letter

(03:51):
Kenny the first time I watched it. I think it was around season five.
I started watching season one right aroundone one five or six came out,
and it was it was funny,but I didn't quite get the humor.
Canadian wit is a little different thanBrittwit. It's drier. And it

(04:11):
took me a few episodes, almostto the end of season one, and
finally one of the jokes just clicked, and I think it was it was
a Wayne joke with probably dairy.It was something silly and it finally clicked
and I just ended up really reallyliking it, and a few hours later

(04:32):
I was done with all the seasonsthat have been out At that point in
time, I couldn't stop watching youburn through episodes. It's they're only a
half hour long at most. Yeah, most are somewhere between eighteen and twenty
five minutes. They're short. They'reshort, they're not complicated plots. It's
for me. There's two things.It's very smart dumb humor. There's a

(04:59):
lot of fart jo there's a lotof guys beating each other up and being
macho. There's a lot of guyschasing girls. And there's a lot of
dick jokes, advanced jackass. It'sthe next level. But then the show
can be so smart and so indepth, where you have you know,

(05:24):
squirrely Dan talking very eloquently and intelligentlywhile using pro wrestling as his basis for
his particular thesis that he's talking about. So very smart and also there's something
I really like. I'm gonna goback to the Pulitzer Prize winning author Richard

(05:45):
Russo as an example, a greatwriter who always writes about small towns,
and there's a very specific vibe tosmall town writing that I like. Because
the dynamics are very cool, wherecharacters who don't like each other. Are
also very good friends because you haveto be when you're in a small town.

(06:09):
So Wayne and the conceit has theplot point is lessened over the years
where it's not as brought up asmuch. He is the toughest guy in
Leonard Kenny. So especially for thefirst season, it was like every episode
or two he would be getting intoa fight with somebody who wanted to be
the toughest guy in Letter Kenny,and then we get into a fight,

(06:29):
and then they would sort of likehave a beer together or invite to the
softest birthday party or one of theseother plot points. So even though they
were beating the tar out of eachother, and they were very good,
very good fight scenes, Like thechoreography of the fight scenes were very good.
They there was no hard feelings oranything. They were just like,
oh, we beat each other up. Now, let's shake hands and go

(06:49):
on to the next thing. Yeahfor most of them, right, for
Joint Boy and Tyson, yes,but like rat Face and Jive and Pete
and those other ones. Now wasthat was hands on site in a few
later seasons, yeah, you know, yeah, but still didn't there weren't
blood Fuse you didn't worry about somebodyshowing up a few episodes later to like

(07:11):
stab yeah, drawing a knife ornothing like that. No, it was
just still don't like you. Wecan still throw hands, you know.
And they even say in the showbad Gas travels fast in a small town,
so when you run your mouth,someone's gonna hear it. And that's
literally a plot point of one ofthe episodes is somebody says something to Wayne
and he's like, no, it'snot true. And by the end of
the episode, somebody shows up sayingI heard you were talking about me.

(07:33):
He's like, bad gas. Youknow, here comes the sleeve, unbuttoned,
quick drag on a cigarette, swipeof puffers, and fists start flying.
Jered Kiso, who is not justthe star of the show, He
is the creative force producer yeah,for both shows, and he does a

(07:57):
great job because he's very believable inthe role. He's a big, broad
dude, but he he looks countrystrong. He doesn't, you know.
He's not a workout guy. We'vegotten very used to in pop culture the
Chris Hemsworth Chris Evans workout where youknow, they get rich jacked, Old

(08:18):
Jane, you got the veins.Now he's got the country boy strength.
Funny enough, he's actually not thattall. He's only five. Yeah,
he looks taller because he's in theboots. Obviously he's in the boots.
And also I think they just filmhim to be the biggest, toughest guy,
so pretty big. Yeah, no, he's you know, but he

(08:39):
towers a lot. He's got avery good standing figure, right. Wayne
is an interesting character because he's definitelypresented as a romantic figure, the relationships
he has and when the show starts, he was cheated on by his girlfriend
and him going through the heartbreak andthat's why he becomes the toughest guy in
Letter Kenny for a second time theycome back, he comes back with a

(09:03):
vengeance. They make fun of himfor his heartbreak and obviously we know how
that turns out for that person.But then they did it again where he
was engaged to the French Canadian girl. Ah, yes, she cheated on
him and then he you know,there was a whole episode of him dealing
with his heartbreak where he was justsitting in a cabin in the middle of

(09:26):
Canada watching some like mash esque showthat was like a Canadian special that he
just what did his sister say?It's his like comfort show or something silly.
It's amazing. He's stoic, he'snot emotional, So the very the
few times where he's like shown emotion, it goes a long way. There's

(09:48):
something to it. And it's sucha such a difference to see him portraying
Wayne, and then you watch anepisode of Shorsy and it is polar opposites
of the spectrum in terms of howhe operates. He gets into the character
and it's amazing a lot of Igive a lot of credit because Shresey isn't

(10:09):
the smartest. He's not presented asthe toughest. No, he's actually presented
as the dumbest and one of theweakest. Well even there was one episode
in the second season where they kepttalking about who was the ugliest guy on
the team, and they's like,well, Shorsey, you're the ugliest,
and it's like, okay, it'syou know, and who knows what conversation
happened behind the scenes. But withWayne, you know, sometimes you feel

(10:35):
like is a guy writing himself intoa story the way he wants to be
seen, Where he was the toughest, he was the best looking, he
was often the smartest. He wasthe leader of the group. Is something
that probably every in I mean theshow's ten years old or getting eighty,
yeah, somewhere around there, andI think he's been doing the even before

(10:56):
the show started. He was sortof doing the character in Skin. Yeah.
They did letter Kenny stories, LetterKenny Problems. Yeah, Letter Kenny
Problems. That's it. That's whatit was originally called. That's that's like
all their social media is called.Yeah. He'd been doing it for several
years before it got picked up,just little three four minute skits for the
most part, and all the sameactors. They've all they've always been together,

(11:18):
right, so you know, sortof the thing that a guy in
the twentieth probably would do is like, well, I'm gonna write myself as
the badass. He pulls it off. Yeah, it's a lot better than
you know, Michael J. Fox, you know, writing himself as the
bad ass and or you know,anybody else. Yeah, he's like,
if you're gonna do that, youbetter look like a big broad dude who

(11:41):
can take a punch. And theydo show him taking some punches, obviously
cinematic makeup. It's not he's notactually getting hit. But it's a believable
fight, right, It's not likehe's just coming out of nowhere throwing haymakers
or Superman punches. No, he'sHe unbuttons the sleeves, takes a drag
off the cigarette, takes a shot, and he throws. What I like

(12:20):
about the fights in different ways,both in Letter Kenny and Suresey. The
fights make sense because they're big,brawny country boys walking up and punching each
other. Now, I know there'sthe one character in Letter Kenny who is
like an MMA fighter and he willthrow an elbow or a kick. But

(12:45):
that actually makes sense because I justhad a conversation with a friend about how
and it was really prevalent. Iwant to say in the eighties and nineties
where Jackie Chan would fight a groupof New York street toughs and all of
a sudden they all know karates,Like what New York gang do? They
do a lot of spin kicks,flying kick That's why I was like Indiana

(13:07):
Jones. Where Indiana Jones fights AwayHarrison Forward fight, he would throw a
big haymaker because he's not going toyou know, yeah, somebody's standing across
from him doing a bunch of flippykicky stuff. He's just gonna pull the
gun and good pot. Right,that's that. And then in Shorsey they
have some pretty good ice hockey fightsand oh yeah they especially in season one

(13:28):
wasn't there was the fights, butthen season two there was. I mean,
there's the entire episode dedicated to thegyms, just not setting the tone
and sures he's getting frustrated. He'slike, you're literally here to beat people
up. Do your job. Asa and as a Philadelphia fan, I

(13:52):
followed the Flyers and then they hada minor league team, the Phantoms that
still they don't play in Philly anymore, but they're still around. And the
Goo is such a beloved character inhockey, and it's the guy who when
I followed the Phantoms when I wasright out of college, there was a
character Frank the Animal by A Lois. He was the worst player on the

(14:16):
ice. He could barely hold itwas. The joke was he could barely
hold himself up on skates and ifthey sent him in he would just go
flying out. It was like heshouldn't have even brought a stick with him
because it just got in his way. He would just go out and just
start punching members of the other team, gloves off, helmet off, just
starts swinging. Yeah. Yeah.And the gym's is three guys named Jim,

(14:39):
and they don't want to be calledanything other than Jim and Jim one
not Jim a not by last name. It's Jim yep, Jim yep,
Jim doing good, shorty, howare you? The third one is always
a little more well spoken than thefirst two. And the whole thing is
they were tough natives, which isredundant, which is redundant, and they

(15:00):
would just be there to beat upguys. And it was and it's something
that short that the Letter Kenny universedoes well. Minor characters that don't do
a lot, say a lot,but they have enough of like a little
bit of an impact because they're theyyou know, the gyms are fun even
though they don't do anything. Yeah, they're very good. And you look
at the hockey players from Letter Kennythat they expose you to, and it's

(15:22):
the the five guys whose names arecurrently escaping me. And I know better
than that. I will punish myselffor that later. The five guys that
are with Riley and Jonesy, They'reforgettable. They're they They're just chirp in
the locker room. And that's reallyall you see those guys do. It's
Riley, it's Jonesy, and it'sShorsy. Those are the three you really

(15:45):
see interact on the ice. Thenyou get to Chorzy at every one of
the main guys on the team isa side character. That's good. You've
got Ted Hitchcock, You've got Dolo, You've got Goodie, big fan of
Goodie. I just like Goodie.I don't know why. You got Suresy,
you got jj got all these differentcharacters, and the side characters are

(16:11):
all interesting to me in comparison.Don't get me wrong. Riley and jones
Are are fun. Riley and jonesAre are fun, but they're really dumb
sometimes the way they're portrayed, whichis exactly as they are. That's fine.
It's a little over the top dumbsometimes. Well, it was tough
because Riley and Jonesy on Letter KennedyThe Two I Guess featured hockey players.

(16:36):
On that they were presented as katWayne's sister's boyfriends. She had two boyfriends
O Katie that's her Men's And thewhole thing is they, Joseph, were
supposed to be dumb, and theywould chirp at Wayne and then always at
the end of whatever exchange, theycame out looking stupid. First episode is

(16:59):
the greeting sample of that. HeJonesy takes his shirt off but leaves his
sunglasses on, and they immediately gointo a thirty second to a minute long
tear about how dummy is leaving hissun classes on. Yeah, they're just
dumb. Eventually they become a littlemore likable, but they never becomes smarter.

(17:19):
No, they're They're definitely more likablein the later seasons. Same thing
you could say with the kids too. There much more tolerable later in the
seasons. But yeah, the hockeyplayers are dumb. Yeah, there's no
other way to say it. Whichyou know. I remember I was friends

(17:41):
with a woman who had done someuh she had done some work with a
professional hockey like marketing or something,and I was like, oh house,
that was like, hockey players areso sweet and they're so dumb. She's
like, and it's probably a thingwith athletics, especially when you're getting to
a pro or semi pro level,where that's what you do. I remember

(18:07):
when was it uh the swimmer lockedyRyan locked and he got into a trouble
because of his dumb behavior while hewas away at the Olympics, and then
he came off really dumb, andwhen he was interviewed about it's like,
what do you expect He's he wastaken out of school to swim more.

(18:30):
How smart do you think he's goingto be. He's not writing, you
like, the best crime thriller inthe world. He's not doing these things.
But he's a nice guy, right, yeah, exactly, And that's
the way these guys are, andit's it's perfectly okay. Well, they
had that wonderful scene towards the endof the first season where the owner of

(18:52):
the team was talking to the reporterthat Shorsy's been chasing him Laura More and
talking about why they liked hockey players. The charm of them is like,
listen, they're dumb, they arecrass, but they blame themselves when they

(19:12):
lose and they give credit to theteam when they win. And it sort
of was a neat thing. It'slike, why you follow these characters?
Why you like Chorsy? They don'thate to lose. That's the big theme
of the first season. Yep,right, So yeah, it's so now
the second season came out, they'veannounced there's going to be a third season.

(19:37):
I was a little surprised the seasonwent in different directions than I thought
it was going to, especially thatlast episode. So I'm curious. You
know, we mess back and forth. I know you really like the second
season. What was your overall likereviewer feelings about it? Giving it a
grade solid AA very much an improvementon season one. I like that there

(19:59):
was a time skip, not abig one, but a time skip between
season one and season two in thatthey ended up winning that championship. Shoresy
says, we're never gonna lose again, and they never lost again all the
way through to the start of thesecond season, where they're on a twenty
game out of twenty four game heaterthey haven't lost yet. But that's where
the cracks start forming. The guysare getting you know, they're getting cocky.

(20:23):
They're getting cocky. I have toquote Shoresy here. They're hammering too
much ass. They ain't got enoughleg. In the third you know,
there's a lot of stuff going on, and it shows a lot of growth
of the individual characters, not justSchorsy, because by the fifth and sixth
episode he's holding them accountable. They'restill winning, but he expects better out
of the team. He's the captain. That's what he's supposed to do.

(20:45):
I think this season took different turnsthan I was expecting, but I liked
it. It was a very goodseason. Each character had a little bit
of a side character and main character. Everybody was good. And then you
get to the last couple episodes withthe accountability piece, and you see JJ's
an idiot, JJ, Frankie,JJ is an idiot. He's a big

(21:10):
dumb levable of. There's an entireplot point about him being a big dumb
lovable of in this season. Andthen the last episode he gets that aha
moment. He gets his girlfriend,he gets what he wants good, he
gets nothing particularly neither just Dolo,but they finally come to accept their accountability.

(21:30):
Uh, Hitchcock gets his girl exactlyas he's portraying. And then there's
sure Zy and then there's Laura More. I was so shocked spoiler alert because
the entire season, Shoresy's like,basically, you guys are having the success

(21:51):
that athletes have romantically when they're andthey also present. There's like the town
where they play in the No Show, which is a minor minor minor lead
the senior a whale shit hockey.Yeah, it's it's a sort of professional
sports that Josh and I could tryout for tomorrow. We wouldn't get in,

(22:11):
but we could try out, likepeople off the streets can try out
for these teams. There's I meanthey've recruited the gyms from jail guards.
Yeah. They weren't even technically playing, they just knew how to play.
And I love that sort of bathless. We live about twenty minutes south of
the York Revolution and Independent League Baseballleague that wasn't good. An independent League

(22:37):
Baseball They have open tryout. Joshand I could try out this summer for
Again, we wouldn't get in,but it's telling that people can walk in
through the door and you know,but they still take it very seriously.
And it's also and they make thebig deal about how all the women in
this town are beautiful. They're impossiblyhot amount of girls in Sudbury, Yeah,

(23:02):
which is is not untrue according tothe show's lore and not untrue according
to whom they have portraying them,and they're not all They're all very attractive
in every aspect of the word.And that's one of the funny points of
the show is especially in season two, Dolo and Goodie, who are two
of the main hockey players, justcan't stop pulling in all these attractive females

(23:30):
and it's hilarious because they all livein the same apartment and just gorgeous women.
And you can tell. There isthe thing I've noticed with some shows,
you can tell what the creator orcasting director or whoever whoever is casting,
you can tell what they're into becausethere is a very specific look.

(23:53):
With both Letter Kenny and Suresy aboutthey're all tall, leggy, thin with
long straight hair. Yeah, thegirl next door from the farm, right,
all very very pretty, They're leggy, and you do get that in
Letter Kenny, especially of That's thegirl next door on the farm, especially

(24:18):
with Katie Bonnie McMurray. Yeah,there's not a lot of diversity in the
look. It's I mean racially thereis, yes, because you have natives
African, but skin color is diverse, but look is very similar, not
quite. Victorious Secret Runway Models Instagrammodels. That's what yes of them were

(24:40):
referred to as. And yeah,they fit, they fit the change.
That's exactly what they're there for.It's not unexpected. They're also hockey players.
They are athletic guys. It's notit's exactly what you'd expect hockey players
to be going after. It's notsurprise, right, And that's JJ's thing,
JJ Frankie JJ is he is thatbig, dumb, lovable oath that

(25:03):
has no concept of not cheating onyour significant other. And that's the running
joke for season one and season twois he's every time you turn around,
he's got this another knockout bombshell nextto him and they're like, JJ,
what are you doing? And he'sa big teddy he's he's a big teddy
bear guy. Because they make ajoke about how he's a bear, a

(25:29):
bear in the gay community. Yeah, what they refer to him as they
do these swimsuit calendars. Effectively,it's mostly just them and their their hockey
pants just standing there, their theirbronze or tans and everything. And his
sales of the calendar were more thanfifty percent just because of him. And
he's not the guy that you wouldof the cast of the guys, and

(25:53):
he's not the one you would thinkof would be the ladies man. He's
that right now. It's grow popularin almost every sport, bald headed giant
beard. But in the show hebarely speaks, and when he does speak,
he's only speaking in French. AndI don't even know if the actor
knows English. He only he literallyonly speaks French in Letter Kenny and in

(26:18):
Chorsey. Funny enough, in LetterKenny, him and Chorsy get into a
fight because Chorsy hits him with astick in the knees when he's not expecting
it. Going back to that,Shorsy is probably one of the dirtiest players
in the no show. I liketo see him a lot. I was

(26:56):
real, but would you great?I'll give it a plus. I think
a lot of it is setting upfor the third There was some set up
for the third season, and Iwas also, I g it was a
couple of things. I was reallysurprised that so Shresy's saying is like,
you know, basically, stop gettinglaid so much. And then in the

(27:18):
last episode he sleeps with Laura Lumeror Laura more More. Laura Lumer is
a lunatic person on one and sohe sleeps with her, goes against his
own advice, and there's no report. I thought, it's like, oh,
that's what's gonna happen. Because hedid what he was telling everyone not

(27:41):
to do. He's gonna come outdead in the third period and he's gonna
cost them the game, and thenthe next season will be a redemption arc
for him. Not at all.Now, he was holding the team accountable,
but at the same time, hewas holding himself accountable and he tried
not to. It was a verybig plot point like episode four or beginning
of five where he approaches her andhe's just trying to shoot the game.

(28:06):
He's doing what he always does,and she goes okay, and it finally
worked and he was like, no, I'm not going. He literally you
could see the gears stop and startsmoking. He goes, oh crap,
he has to go. Nope.He just turns around and walks away,
which for his character arc amazing progress. But there was no You're right,

(28:27):
there was no accountability for him inthat right. Yeah. I mean I
really thought it was two things couldahappen where he blew his chance and then
the next season would be him like, no, give me another chance.
It wasn't you is because whatever,And you know, that's a pretty tried
and true plot to go through.Or he sleeps with her and he blows

(28:48):
it and then he has to sortof win back the trust of the team
and you know, uh, butno, they won and it wasn't even
that tense the final game where theywere they were beating the Americans, which
was sort of a fun, funplot line where the Americans hate to lose
to the Canadians and the Canadians hateto lose to the Americans. Yeah,

(29:11):
it didn't matter if In one way, it didn't matter if who won because
they were still going to win andlike they were so far, but it
was a different ste being the bestteam this year, the best team ever.
Great plot line, and I lovethe idea of the Americans wanted to
be spoilers. So they show upearly, they're jogging through town. They're
like sitting in the by the rankjust for hours ahead of time, just

(29:34):
to like take in the vibe ofthe Yeah, that's when they're in Subbury.
And then the last game they're inMichigan and it's the exact same thing.
They want to call all the playersout and introduce them, and everybody's
like, I don't know about this. So they get out there and it's
them projecting the calendar up on thewall, the cheesecake calendar, and Shorzy

(29:55):
goes, I told you guys,this was gonna come back and bite us,
and sure enough it. But thenthere's a funny point because of all
the Americans making jokes at their expense, they ended up selling all the calendars
they needed to sell. So butyou're right, there was no accountability for
Shorsey. On the same side,though, was Shorzy doing anything wrong that
he needed to be held accountable for. It felt like they were leaning to

(30:21):
it. It was like, oh, okay, I get he finally sleeps
with her. He has been hehas had no luck with the ladies the
entire run of the show up tothis point a point for Shuresy before Elano
Kennedy, Shorsey did fine. ButShorsey, you know, he was interested
in one woman and that's it.Yeah, and she kept him at arm's

(30:41):
length the whole time, and thatwas that. But it was It's still
very good dynamic though, and honestly, they play off each other very well.
Uh, I like, yeah,I think she Laura is the only
she looks a little different and istreated a little different and actually different than
the other women on the show.There's a little bit of if there was

(31:03):
a criticism I could have with theshow as there's a bit of sameness to
the female characters. It is whatit is. It is what it is.
It's what happens when. All theepisodes of Shorsy have been written by
Jared keisso now he wrote ninety percentof Letter Kenny, but they have had
a couple other uh, including boyI'm gonna make sure they get the name

(31:26):
right because she was on the podcast. They actually had a woman writer for
one of the Letter Kenny episodes.Was it the Woman Special? No,
it was the Christmas Party? Ohokay, also pretty good and she was

(31:48):
a wonderful guest and I wish Iand I actually looked up her name ahead
of time, and I forgot itbecause my memory is for shit. That's
what happens when we get older.Yeah, the Halloween Spession was written by
Lynn cam I don't know if it'sa male in or a female Lynn.
I'm gonna cut this out, SonyaBennett Sonya Bett, who's wonderful. She

(32:12):
wrote the Christmas special and that wasa good episode for Tennis or Bonnie McMurray,
Like McMurray, Katie Gail. Itwas a very women's centric episode.
Was very good. Yeah, itwas a really good episode. And it's
the thing again, Jerry Kisa couldonly do so much and he writes,

(32:37):
he writes Wayne really well, hewrites squirrely, Dan, Darry he he
you know, writes Chorzy very well, and when he has dedicated, but
he you know, he can onlydo so much. Yeah. So the
owner and her two sisters sort ofsound alike. Yeah, they're fairly.

(33:00):
There is a difference between meg Zigand Nat, but not so much in
the first season. Second season,yes, they fleshed that out just a
little bit. I was actually lookingforward to a little bit more of that
because they showed her like sort ofswooning over a player on the other team.
It's like, oh, the Americanteam. Yeah. I was like,

(33:21):
oh, this could be something.It's like no, she conquest done.
Yeah, and then there's nothing toit. And also all the women
sort of have the same seduction methodon the show. Was like, well
they're just gonna show. They're justgonna like take their top off and show
themselves in their underwear and then walkaway. It's like, yeah, that's
the only move they got apparently.Hey, if it works, it works,

(33:42):
I have no argument. But yeah, the female care and listen.
It's tough because it's definitely a it'sa show about guys playing hockey. It's
tough if they're not a romantic interestor a ball, you know, and
listen. They could have easily castthe ball to be a man. So
yep, and it was nice theycast. In the lore of the show,

(34:06):
the original owner of the Sudbury Bulldogs, her daughter is Nat, and
she apparently had passed away, andthere's very there's some pictures on the wall
at the end of season one thatyou can see Shoresy and the original owner
and Nat in and that's there's adifference right there. The mom and Nat

(34:27):
did not look anything alike in termsof that. The No Show administrators,
the three ladies who run the NoShow, who are great? Who are
they've they've we've seen them twice inThey're fantastic each time. And the humor
and the wit is right on point, and it's perfect for the scene too.
Yeah, it's not like a bunchof extra talking, just them trying
to shove the little jabs and knowthe jabs are pretty good. And they

(34:51):
also and it's funny. I alsolike the administrators because they come down on
them real hard, but they alsolike them and they like what they represent
about hockey because what they talked aboutwith the no show is it's sort of
old school, lose your teeth hockey. The complaint about pro hockey, the

(35:15):
NHL is it's it's become less physical, which is very true. Listen,
I'm a Philadelphia Flyers fan. Youknow those they are notoriously brutal teams.
The Broad Street Bullies is what theywere known of. The old Flyers team
were so brutal that twenty years later, in an episode of Treehouse of Horror

(35:37):
for The Simpsons, when Homer wasbeing put on trial by the uh by
the Devil, they get like themost evil person people in the world,
like Hitler and Stalin and it's likeand the starting lineup for the Philadelphia Flyers
and they just walk in because ofhow scary and brutal and meaning that team

(35:59):
I are, you know, butsports change, yep, and the idea
of the No Show is about allstyle, gritty hockey, and it's the
only place where a guy like Shoresybelongs. Shorgy doesn't belong in the NHL,
which is literally the plot point thatthey Shorzy belongs in the No Show
because of who Shoresy is. Imean, they're the whole plot point in

(36:22):
part of Letter Kenny the first seasonof Shorzy is he might be the dirtiest
player in hockey. And then theyshow some highlights of him just face checking
somebody right as soon as the guyturns around, there's a stick right under
the mask and the guy's unconscious.He's hitting people with sticks, He's hitting

(36:44):
him in the nuts. He's doinganything he can to be the dirtiest player
and not a goon. He's noteven a goon. He's just dirty.
Yeah, he's dirty, but he'snot as big as the gyms. He's
not as strong as Goodie or Hitch. He's not nowhere near as fast as
Dolo. He's just the mouthiest andthe dirtiest and that's part of his charm.

(37:07):
Yeah, and it was funny.It's something that they touched on Ray
towards the end of the season.I wonder if it's going to be a
big plot point where it was addressedit's like you're ten years older than everyone
else playing, and it was likeaddressing the fact. It's like, yeah,
Suresys, he can't keep up witheveryone else. And I wonder if

(37:30):
that's going to be part of thenext season, because I know part of
it was they were trying to getenough money so they could host the senior
tournament, the senior tournament, Sonext season will probably be them, Yeah,
and will it be about like Shorsynot being able to keep up and

(37:50):
you know, you can't play forever. And they don't show Shorzy doing anything
else. He doesn't have a dayjob, there's no Yeah, none of
the guys are shown with any dayjobs, none of them. So they're
making they're making enough to live andliving enough to make that's it, Hey,
that's what you like, man,go for it. And their apartment
there's five guys, five guys,and they're sharing a two bedroom apartment and

(38:19):
one of them sleeps in a chair, one of the couch, and then
each of the two guys share abed. And it's not a big apartment.
I mean, it's it's it's it'sa media apartment. Let's be real,
it's too two beds, a bath. But yeah, it's not.
It's not the friends apartment or anythinglike that. But they live, They're
happy, they get food, theydrink and they drink and they eat the

(38:43):
ice cream. Always love it.And I've known people I handfuled a long
time ago because I've aged out ofit. But working outside of Baltimore,

(39:08):
I knew a handful of people whoplayed for University of Maryland basketball teams,
and they were very people go fromUniversity of Maryland into the pros in all
the sports. There's pro football players, pro basketball players. They come out
University of Maryland, but very youknow, it's hard to get into the

(39:31):
NBA. So I worked with ahandful of people who either did or knew
or were offered contracts to play basketballin Europe. And there was a guy
that's like, well, I ammaking okay money doing what I'm doing,
and I have been offered the chanceto make pretty much the same money.

(39:52):
So I could do customer service inMaryland or I could go to Europe and
play basketball for about the same money. I remember the gentleman telling me about
it. I was like, whydon't you do it? He's like,
well, because I have a fianceor something like that. Yeah, something
here tying back. Yeah, butit's like why wouldn't My thing is like,
do it because you know, youget a chance to go to Europe.

(40:14):
Live in Europe. You're not gonnaget paid a lot of money,
but they also cover your living expenses, so take the Yeah. But that's
what sort of I see these guysare. They are doing this as long
as they can before they kind ofhave to find the day job because,
you know, do it for solong. Sam Guinette, the coach of

(40:36):
the team, that's sort of whathe was. He was a healthy scratch
on the last multiple games. He'snot a good enough hockey player, but
he's a pretty decent manager now tobe fair, sure as he helped him
for a little while of it,but he is a pretty good manager.
And that's the joke at the beginningof the first season is Hitch, Goody
and Dolo are basically pulled out oftheir day jobs. One was a rap

(41:00):
you know, you have a rapperand a real like playing another sport.
Yeah, Dolo is a rapper.Goodie was playing a different sport, not
well, like lacrosse or something.He was very good at lacrosse but hadn't
played in years. But they hadday jobs. Right now, they don't

(41:21):
have day jobs. They just playhockey in a small town in Triple A
hockey. And that's kind of thereason it's it's pretty cool. Is it's
like they're just regular people for themost part. Right they've announced the third
season is suresy. What makes thatinteresting for me is you know I sent
you to the the ad for it. There's a thirty second ad. It

(41:46):
was a pretty bad ad. Yesdo they announced? It's just Katie walking
in a swimsuit through the trees,swimsuit and leather chaps, so dumb.
She looks great, She looks exactlythe same as she's looked for thirteen other
seasons. Yeah, she's fine,she's very rit But it does doesn't tell

(42:06):
you anything about the show. Whereforty ish days away from the final season
and they just announced this is thefinal season. They haven't even said it
previously. Now again, six toten episodes, fourteen seasons. They've had
a very good run. It's notoverly surprising because it's hard for them to

(42:27):
make Letter Kenny because the writer's strikewas going on, the actors strike was
going on. All these things happenedto the letter Kenny multiple times. It's
probably just about that time. Also, they're probably tired of portraying well just
for a few episodes, right,And also you have seen because it's going
on for some everyone looks different.Oh yeah, definitely, there's a few

(42:50):
characters that are getting older. Yeah. Bonnie McMurray definitely has changed her appearance
throughout the show. But she's gottenolder. It is what it is.
Yeah, when she started, shewas just a cute, younger sister one
of the characters. And then likearound season three, I want to say,
all of a sudden, she's turnedinto a stunning young woman and now
she looks different. A lot ofchanges, Yeah, a lot of changes.

(43:19):
But in some ways the show hasrun its course. Yeah, you
have the McMurray's. If you're nota fan of the show, just look
it up on YouTube. You'll seewhat we mean. But the McMurray's.
The behavior of them as people probablyis less well received now than it was
seven eight years ago. Different politicalenvironment, different PC culture. The way

(43:44):
they interoperate is definitely not accepted asmuch today. Oh yeah. Jacob Tierney's
character, the obviously gay pastor,Yep, yaikes, you don't do that.
He's excessively flamboyant for a reason.It's part of his character, it's
whom he is. And they literallyshow him having ten different jobs of both

(44:07):
shows and there he's shown excessively flamboyant, and everything he does is overtly or
subvertly sexual in nature, every comment, everything in the first two seasons,
it's funny. It's a gag joke. As the seasons go on, part

(44:28):
of me is like, Okay,we get it, we get it.
It would have been and they didn'tgive And because there's so few episodes per
season, and because it's about WayneSquirrely, Dan Derry Katie, there isn't
a whole lot of space to growthose other characters. So you're not gonna
beig cast. Yeah, so youcan't have the pastor get you know,

(44:50):
getting a boyfriend or coming to termswith his sexuality or anything like that,
because he's it's phenomenally it. Yeah, in an episode, but it's very
overt. It's not directly stated.It is what it is, right,
I mean, thinking about the cast, you've got the main four right,
You've got several other farmers, You'vegot Gail, You've got four or five

(45:14):
six hockey players that they talk about, the skids obviously, you know,
there's Stewart. Yeah, it iswhat it is. You have Tennis and
the whole reservation side. You've gotother random characters that they've brought in intermittently.
It's a cast of like twenty tothirty people. You can't give everybody
time, right and no offense.Not every side character is that interesting that

(45:38):
you want to give a whole episodetoo. Well. They this is mean,
a lot of them are bad actors. They are perfectly cast. Maybe
bad, it's not the right term. They're limited actors. These are this
was a small budget show where youcould tell they were asking their friends or

(46:00):
their you know, or people,somebody who showed up, somebody from the
world of comedy. They you know, Squirrely Dan and the Coach of they
are both successful comedians. That doesn'tmake you an actor. And a lot
of them are you know, sidecharacters. You know, some of them

(46:20):
are, you're pretty obviously their Instagrammodels who can who can speak? Yeah,
that's fine. So you can't youcan't grow the characters because the actors
can't do the heavy lifting of thework, which hey, I get I've
done community theater, I've done collegetheater. I know what it's like when
you have ten roles and you haveseven actors and the last three you're just

(46:43):
gonna have to find some people whocan stand there and not screw stuff up.
And God bless them because it's noteasy. Because you do that because
you're passionate about it. Yeah,and they're doing it on a show that's
going to be seen by millions ofpeople, and you don't want to make
yourself look bad. But at thesame time, you're there to have fun.
Yeah, they do have fun.Doesn't make them bad, It just

(47:04):
makes them side characters and they're they'rejust not gonna be fleshed out the same
way. But then you have someside characters that get brought up. The
mc murray's were basically one off,two off in the first season, second
season of Letter Kenny, and thenas the middle of Letter Kenny came out,
they got much more prominent. Imean, missus McMurray played winowna IRP

(47:25):
in the Winoa IRP show. Thatwas her show, so to see her
go from that lead actress to justsome very very sexualized side character is so
surprising because I had been watching Whynoa IRP right when that came out and
like, wow, that's different.Well it was cool. Yeah, I
mean she's a good she's a goodactress. But it's so weird to see

(47:49):
that they were given a bump upin terms of story writing and Gail doesn't
have anything as the bartender very shehas one storyline about her and that's basically
it. Probably the worst actor onthe show probably she overacts everything the hill.

(48:13):
That's part of her character. Ican't blame the actress for playing the
character. But at the same time, I had no interest in seeing more
about Gail. She Gail is Gailperfect. It is what it is,
and I'm sure there are sure's theactors I can't they go off the top
of my head that are probably similarthat sisters. I don't know that they
can act at all. Meg andZig yeah they well, to be fair,

(48:37):
I think it was the actress forMeg was the one in the accident,
right, I think you're right.Yeah, she had been in an
accident and they weren't sure if whatwas happening. For the most part,
to be fair. Meg is ifthe stationary in the entirety of the season,
you barely see her like walking aroundand stuff. She's she stands there
and that's that's fine, but thatdoesn't make her a great character. They

(49:02):
are given some of these characters,they're given a very broad thing to do,
and they can just do it broadand there isn't a whole lot of
nuance. Gale's perfect example. Yeah, so the last season's gonna come out.
There isn't a lot of movement onthese shows. On I mean,
Letter doesn't have a lot of movement. It's it's basically just telling stories of

(49:27):
this small town. And then inthe first and or last episode they move
their characters forward a little bit.Wayne has been with his girlfriend for a
few seasons now here, Yeah whoAnd I like I like that dynamic.
I like that actors. You know, I could there's a couple of things

(49:50):
I could see. It's like,you know, it's not everyone's The characters
are getting a little older, andI could see them like Wayne was engaged
before, and I could se heis like, hey, it could be
interesting to see him married or herpregnant. You know, yeah, it
could be interesting to see dairy moveon or you know, there was a

(50:13):
great episode Squirrely Dan, who inreal life, the actor is a successful
comedian and they had an episode wherehe did a comedy thing and he was
very funny. It'd be funny tosee it's like, oh, Squirrely Dan
kept at that and now is nowhe's not a farmer anymore, he's a
comedian. Yeah. You know Katiewho has been a stagnant character, which

(50:34):
is literally an entire season revolving aroundthe fact that she's a stagnant character where
she goes scorched Earth with all theguys in Letter Kenny and anyone around them.
But yeah, she's been stagnant fora while. Yeah, it'd be
interesting to see where they take that. But but I can also see them
just saying it's like, just endthe show like any The final episode is

(50:55):
just like any other episode, andit's like, no, they just sort
of live in that world. It'sjust a ride off into the sunset exactly
as it is. It's very possible. I would like to see some closure
for a few characters. I'd loveto see Wayne get engaged, married,
have a kid, something like that. It'd be a really good arc to
finish him off. Same with Katie. Something for her. The main four

(51:19):
especially, it'd be really it'd benice to see them closed off, especially
Darry, because Arry's sort of asad character. Yeah. I mean,
he had that one French actress who'sagain name is currently escaping me that he
was very head over heels for cheatson him, right, right, but
he still pines for that girl.It'd be cool to see them end up
together. But at the end ofthe day, is that Darry's character.

(51:43):
I don't know. He's always thatthat weird guy off to the side and
he's happy, he's content. Thedude literally wears his farm clothes everywhere.
It's a running joke that he smelledbad, right, So it's not you
know, him finding the girl who'ssort of like the girl Darry and they
they're both in their overall like they'reboth in Yeah there now Jered Kiso and

(52:07):
I haven't heard anything about it fora while, but there was so much
talk when Marvel got the rights backto the X Men character. Everyone wants
like Jered Keisa would be a greatWolverine because he's Canadian, he's not real
tall, he's sort of stopped likeBroad and he could do that role.

(52:27):
And because then they announced that HughJackman is coming back, and but I
could. I really think that JaredKiso could do a lot. And he's
at that perfect sort of cult statuswhere people know who he is, they
know what he can bring to it, but he's not so but he'd be

(52:49):
the perfect guy to bring into aMarvel DC or some sort of How great
would he be like as a youknow, a henchman for in a Fast
and Furious movie, because he'd probablybe fine, Yeah, especially if they
a little bit biased here, ifthey give him the Wayne or Suresy style,
you know, either the chirping orthe stoic conversation, he'd be a

(53:15):
fairly good counterpart. Yeah, there'sso many like I could And that's not
too similar to the career path ofthe actor who plays shun Chi in the
Marvel movies. He was a Canadianactor who had a little bit of buzz
and they you know, they yeah, because you can get him cheap.

(53:37):
He has a little bit of he'sa known quantity, but not you know,
he's not going to be too expensivebecause they like to bring a lot
of the actors in cheap and forreasons. Yeah, I would love you
know, is that something? Wherewould you see? You know, jerre
Kisso has had a really nice careerin Canada. He could keep He could

(53:57):
stay in Canada, do six moreseasons of Short and then go on to
the next thing where he has completecreative control. Or he could come to
the States. And I mean,where do you see him going? Where
would you like to see him go? God, I would love to see
him as Wolverine. I've seen somefan art of him, you know,
with the chops and looking just likeLogan. It'd be good. I think
he'd be great. I would loveto see him pretty much do anything.

(54:22):
I am a fan of his.I like Wayne, I like the way
he does his writing. I likeShory's obviously, I'm wearing a Shorzy shirt
because of my favorite characters, it'sShorty. I mean, who doesn't like
the jerk that chirps at everybody?But I could see him in Wolverine.
I could see him. I don'tknow. I'm sure there's other lesser known

(54:44):
superheroes he could do fine. I'msure there are other things he could do
fine. I'm curious to see wherehe goes from here some of the other
actors. You see him every nowand then they do side guests. Stuart
starred in The Actor Plays Stuart startin like a lifetime movie romantic comedy.

(55:06):
I had no idea that he didthat. Yeah, he and wow,
yeah, that's great for him,you know, great for him. A
lot of those are filmed in Canada, so yeah, like the Hallmarks and
the Right it was one of thosegood for him. Good looking guy.
Uh, you know, they alwaysmake him look greasy and pale, but

(55:30):
that's a wig because he had toone season where he had his hair cut
short and he was working out andgetting bigger, and it's like, I
wonder if that was when he wasfilming this other thing. Probably I was
like, oh, he sort ofhas like a young Tom Cruise vibe with
the hair short. And yeah.It's like, okay, Tannis has popped
up every now and then one ofthe Lady Shamrocks, uh, the African

(55:52):
American girl is a main character onthe New Fraser show. Really Oh oh
okay, so they're out there.Yeah, I mean, okay, biased
again, I would love Shorzy foranother six to ten to twenty five years
if I could. I am achild at heart. I don't think I
ever grew out of high school humor. I love Chory, I love the

(56:15):
chirps, and that was news tome. I didn't realize. I've been
around hockey players my whole life,no big deal. I was not aware
of how much they chirped. Andthen I start watching Letter Kenny and Shorsey,
and then of course I look itup. Yeah, they chirp all
the time, but Chorzy's chirps arevery personal and some of them, I'm

(56:38):
like, wow, if somebody saidthat to me, humh, no,
you'd be you think somebody should bewaiting outside the stadium for him too,
And they had that. That wassort of that's when they sort of set
up to spin off from Letter Kennyto Shorsey. It was the only time
you saw another side of when hewas practicing real hard and had Wayne waiting.

(57:01):
So basically the rink, yeah,he was driving the zamboni and basically
just to get into fights with helpShoresy out with his fights because people were
waiting for him outside. And itwas also you saw how hard Shoresy worked
and he was like practicing until hethrew up. I guess an example and
It's not a perfect example, butIdris Elba, who has become a big

(57:23):
he's an A list American movie star, but he still goes back to the
British show. He did Luther,and he'll do it as a TV movie
or a short season. He'll gothree years in between, but he goes
back. Yeah, he goes backto Netflix. Yeah. I would love
to see that where jer Kiso keepsdoing Shorsy. But you know, if

(57:49):
he has to go eighteen months inbetween seasons, fine, If he's going
to do an American you know,yeah, he's I think he's got movie
star potential. And provided Marvel doesn'tfall into a sinkhole they could, that'd
be a whole nother podcast. Yeah. At this point, we're talking as

(58:12):
we're in the opening weekend of TheMarvels, which my understanding is the movie's
supposed to be pretty good. Ihave a friend that went and saw it
and he said it might be oneof the best out of the phase,
and that made me feel really bad. If that's one of the best of
the phase, you're you're not comparingit to a lot of very good other
movies. Here. It's basically thatare Guardians three Guardians three you got.

(58:37):
Yeah, that's a whole other podcasttopic for this phase and how I feel
about it. But it's well,there's momentum with like franchises where even if
it's good, it's big nothing.Yeah, but because the last three have
been disappointed or whatever, all ofa sudden, it has to be great
to change the momentum. And that'snot the I'm probably gonna see it next

(59:00):
weekend. It sounds like it's apassable movie, yeah, with a decent
enough story, which is as goodas you can ask. And if if
it's at least decent, it's alreadybetter than the eternals. Josh has been
so great. We usually ask peopleto plug their pluggables, But you don't

(59:20):
have another podcast or another I'm nota cool kid. Yeah, this is
a this is a lifelong dream here. I'm on a podcast with my friend.
This is fun, But I don'thave anything to plug. Do you
have something that you would recommend someone, something that people should check out other
than Letter Kenny U? Yeah,definitely Shores and Letter Kenny. Off the
top of my head, what haveI been watching lately? Anime? Watch

(59:45):
a lot of anime. What's thebest anime? Out right now, because
I'm not an anime. Guys,there's a lot of really good ones.
It depends on what you're into,I would have to say right now.
One of my big favorites is Eminencein Shadow. It's a High Dive exclusive.
Nobody watches High Dive. You haveto pay special for it. It's
an extra five bucks a month.Not everybody wants to pay for another streaming

(01:00:07):
service. But it's a it's theycall it isakai. It's the genre where
you're reborn into another world, andin this one, he is. You
know. It's actually a perfect parallelbetween Shortzy and Letterkenny because the main character
is extremely likable and really stupid.He's he's insanely smart, but he has

(01:00:29):
no common sense and he just likesays things off the cuff and he's just
like making it up as he goesand come to find out, everything he
said as a joke ends up beinglegitimate. And he's the leader of this
massive organization and he has no conceptof what he's done. But it's a

(01:00:49):
very good show, very very good. We'll recommend everyone check that out.
Josh, It's been awesome. Thankyou so much, man, Yeah,
thanks for having me that raps episodetwo ninety four big thanks to Josh Simmons.

(01:01:23):
It is one of the few faceto face recordings we've done in the
history of the show. It wasa lot of fun to sit back and
talk about one of my favorite showswith one of my favorite people. Coming
soon to the Cosmic Geppetto podcast,Amy Kenra returns for our final music that
made us episode till Then, inthe words of jar Park seeing the funny

(01:01:47):
pages, Subscribe to the Cosmic Chuppeopodcast on iTunes, Stitcher for wherever quality
podcast can be found, Rate andreview us while there. Follow us on

(01:02:07):
Twitter at cosmic gapod and we willfollow you back unless you're a jerk.
We don't follow jerks. Like uson Facebook at Facebook dot com, forward
slash Cosmic Geppetto. We love hearingyour ideas for upcoming episodes. Email us
at Cosmicchippetto at Comcast dot net.There's a lot of fart jokes. There's

(01:02:29):
a lot of guys beating each otherup and being macho. Connery