Dark Comedy

Let’s just get this out of the way right at the top: Yes, we missed a show last month. And many of you noticed, and correctly surmised why. So it was important that we did one this and not wait until the last few hours of November to put it out. That said, we can’t ignore what’s going on in the world right now, so this outing is er, long (no pun intended) on current events and short on the pop culture content. But there are plenty of laughs nonetheless, and (we hope) some insights and observations on current events. Here’s hoping we can get back to our normal course of juvenile double entendre programming next month.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
We'll do live the apprehension of thebos Brothers. Ed Manaprow. Hey,

(00:24):
here we are. It's November.It's not yet Thanksgiving, but we give
thanks for being here with you.We're glop culture. I'm John Podhorns in
New York with Rob Long in NewYork, Hi, Rob, Hi John,
And in Washington Jonah Goldberg, Hi, Jonah Hey John, so la

(00:45):
Hi. Last time we did this, I don't think there was a war
on. There is now a waron. And of course everybody always asks
this question, can you be funnywhen there's a war on? And the
obvious answer is, well, ifyou weren't funny before, why would you
be funny now? So we willjust be ourselves and it's gonna be up

(01:06):
to you to decide whether or notwe are funny, because this is the
business that we have chosen. Right, so you're doing that? That uh
uh meyer Lansky? What's his name? In the what? What? What?
What? What? What was thatsupposed to be? It's like he

(01:29):
had a he had a he hada a schmick and his gimme a dung.
And I said to myself, thisis the business we've chosen. I
didn't ask who gave the order becauseit had nothing to do with business.
Okay, he had make it hisgimmer dung. Yeah, so he had.

(01:55):
He had, he had a Cubansandwich and it did not agree with
him. Didn't know nicol. Butyou have to admit that it was quite
an acting coup because it's fifty yearslater and you remember Lee Strasburg going,
you know, in that scene,no one had ever gone in the middle
of dialogue in a scene before.That's like, well, there's a lot

(02:17):
of things no one's ever done themiddle of dialogue before. That doesn't make
it. That just makes it weird. I don't you know. It was
weird, but it was incredibly memorable. And of course, the interesting thing
about Lee Strasburg giving this indelible performancesthat he was the most famous acting teacher
of his time, the man whotaught Marilyn Monroe, the man who taught

(02:38):
Brando, the man who brought Stanislavskyto America. But no one had ever
seen him act because he was ateacher, not an actor, and so
there was a lot of eh,what does he know? And he got
I guess everyone everyone watched this.Yeah, right, you say this about

(03:00):
Lee Strasbourg. But it was likeone of the biggest f yous ever that
he comes out at the age ofsixty five or something out of nowhere and
gives one of the most famous performancesin history. And then, as you
and I discussed, as you andI discussed only a few years we're talking
about Cinnacle because you and I discussedjust a few years later how he gave

(03:23):
this beautiful performance in the incredibly underratedmovie Going in Style, in which he,
Art Carney and George Burns play threeretirees and queens bored to death,
sick of their lives, who decideto knock over a bank and then going
bared to death. Welcome glop listeners. This is the way. This is

(03:45):
the way. So Okay, you'rein a very weird mood here, Ron,
I don't understand this. You're you'reno ending me, You're no budding
me. All podcasts are yes andexercises and improvisation. I don't even agree.
That's the worst part of improv isthe yes and yeah okay, because

(04:06):
I'm about to mute myself. Solike, we had a dispatch meet up
in New York yesterday, and itmight as well have had a sub chapter
of as a Glop meet up becausethere were so many people asking me about
laps up, lots of people concernedhow John is doing. I said,
John's fine and uh one of theuh and and several people said that they

(04:31):
were completely fine with the fact thatwe're basically turning into three out Thecaccas at
Barney green Grass and I was justat green Grass. I rest my case.
It's true. It's funny because it'strue, funny because it's true.
I gotta I have a have anemail friend who loves to play the game

(04:53):
of did you spot this actor who'sin the background of this movie? Kind
of thing with it? And i'this guy for a while and he's a
huge fan of glop. He justhad bypass surgery and uh, and he
came out of his recovery to emailme to say, can you please tell
John Pedora's that frank Oz is notthe guy in the Blues Brothers who says

(05:19):
authorization to use extreme violence is grantedor whatever. Frank Oz is the prison
guard who checks out Jake in thebeginning of the movie, and he was
so moved by this that he actuallyviolated doctor's orders. So he could have
me convey this to you because apparentlyyou said this on the commentary podcast.
Okay, so we are we arewe're crossing the streams and you are not

(05:42):
across the streams. So Jonah,when he said this to you, did
he say, please tell John PRIs. I'm now going to look up who
it was, because I think itwas probably some other famous director because there
are all these directors in the BluesBrothers that John Land has put in the
Blues Brothers, because there's nothing morehilarious than a cameo by a director that

(06:08):
really gets you're right there in thefunny bone. To know that he was.
So you guys talk while I lookup who it was because it's how
was the dispatch meetup? But Ididn't get it. I didn't get that
in my as a dispatch member,I didn't. I didn't receive the invitation
a few times in various products maybewe had we wet, you're not you're

(06:30):
not listening to the products we getsome the uh the it was great,
great bunch of people gratifying all thatstuff. Not the best plan all on
all because it was a debate watchingparty. Oh yeah, where like Steve
and I didn't do our riffs untilafter the debate, So you're hanging around

(06:56):
till ten o'clock at night, andpeople got there, you know, depending
on you know, three two tothree to four hours earlier, and and
we got went past seating capacities.There are people standing all that time.
But we didn't get a single complaintfrom anybody. It was just it was
just never going to do a debatewatching thing unless we're on the West coast,

(07:18):
because then the timing kind of works. That makes sense. That makes
sense. Also until there's just adifferent bunch of candidates. How about that
that would work too. I havereally good news for you guys, because
the name of the actor who playedthe police dispatcher is one of the great

(07:39):
names of all time. Though heis not a film director, his name
is Ralph Foodie f O O dY, and he is the one who
says use of unnecessarily violence in theact has been approved. Ralph Foodie,
we we I. I hope you'restill alive. If you are still alive,

(08:01):
we congratulate you on your brilliant linereading and on your excellent, excellent
name. The Ralph Footie Ralph footalso the guy I just looked him up.
You know in Home Alone, wherethe Macaulay Halkin kid plays the clip

(08:24):
from the Mobster movie, or theguy shooting people in the one in the
Plaza Hotel. That's Ralph Footie.Ralph Footie is an indelible American performance,
a man, a legend, andwe are making him a legend as we
speak. Not only I mean I'mlearning so much here. Not only was

(08:46):
he in Angels with Thirty Faces,he was something called which I've of course
heard of, that's the James Cagneymovie. But he was also I'm hoping
this was actually a sequel because theywere just trying to monetize. He's also
in something called Angels with Filthy Souls. Sounds like a child. We're talking

(09:09):
about a timespan. This is aman with a historic career. Angels with
Dirty Faces, if I'm not mistaken, was made in the late thirties,
Brothers Blues Brothers in nineteen eighty andHome Alone too, I think like ninety
one. This is his career.Space the twentieth century. He saw nothing

(09:30):
for the President of television and thetelephone and space is how old a gentleman
is he? Or is he hashe already gone to his reward to the
great. You don't feel like you'dknow he would have thatched her in the
sky. Yeah, where is hisage? Let's see, Well you're looking

(09:54):
that up. I found out.I want to apologize the listeners who are
expecting a more exacting, factual repretageon this podcast. Yeah, all two
of you. Angels with fifty FilthySouls is the made up movie that Oh,
there we go, Angels with FilthySouls. This cast list of the

(10:18):
Blues Brothers. There are like fivethousand people in the Blues Brothers. This
is like a nightmare. It's likea needle in a haystack trying to find
Ralph Foodie's name. So I'm gonnatry it another way. But I looked
at it. Ah didn't make itto Y two K. Yeah, that's

(10:39):
that's really that's really sad. Buthe did span the twentieth century like a
colossus, and I think we needto pay him tribute. I think there
are other actors with excellent, excellentnames that we could pay tribute to as
well. One of my favorites wasa a Yiddish theater actor who then went

(11:01):
on to be in the movies.And in Star Trek episodes perhaps more important.
And his name was David Opatoshu,not open Toshu, but O,
and he was like, I can'tremember he was an elder or something on
some episode of Star Trek, buthe was. He was in Exodus,

(11:24):
and he was in various other things. And though his name sounded Japanese,
he was in fact an actor ofthe Yiddish theater David Opa Toshu, who
I think we deserves credit for havingan excellent name. If he if he
was in a store and you werein a store and you said, the
guy is there, where do Ibuy an open to shoe, he would
go, yeah, over here,no one of those I think exactly.

(11:46):
He would say, well, youknow, I need the sag minimum.
Uh. And speaking of the sagmnimum, of course the right the actor strike
is now over, so people likeRob and others in Hollywood can now get
back to work making six hundred televisionshows that nobody watches. Right. But
before we talk about that, sincewe're talking about sag minimum, there are

(12:13):
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(12:35):
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(13:01):
You know, I am currently atthis moment wearing Tommy John's and you
know, keeping up my SAG minimum. I don't. I think that Joe
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(13:22):
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(13:43):
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this minute. So Rob, Idon't want to milk the joke any further,
but as iPort, you describe thetechnology wrong, it's it's that exactly.
Do have a SAG minimum and aSAGA maximum. That's what makes them
so comfortable they are. Basically theyhave a right. I would just like

(14:07):
to say that it's my belief thattowards the end of his storied life,
a life that spanned the twentieth centurythat had the highs of angels with dirty
faces to the lows of angels withdirty souls, that by the end of
his life, Ralph Foodie had achievedSAG maximum. I'm sure that's that's just

(14:31):
I think something that we need inour memorialization of him. And unfortunately,
to be fair, there were probablysome sag residuals. You know. See,
that's how you yes, and right, I know how you do it.
Yes, Oh, I know,I know. I'm familiar with with
the technique. I just choose.Yeah, you're right, that's how you

(14:52):
choose to neg. You just chooseto neg. Like vivek Ramaswami, who
chooses to nag by saying, don'tlet you Oh you let your kid watched
TikTok. So I want to askJoe, what is that really pissed me
off? It was her twenty fivefrickin year old married daughter who had been

(15:13):
on TikTok. It was the lamestfriggin' attack. But here here's my point
in the annals of rhetoric. Okay, we have friends Romans country and lend
me your ears. We have uh, those who are abed in England tonight
will think themselves a curse that theywere not here. We have. Let

(15:33):
you know that was Let you knowthe government of the people for the people,
by well shall not perish from theearth. And ask not what your
country should do for you, butwhat you should do for your country,
and you're just scum. I believeNikki Haley may have achieved Periclean funeral oration

(15:54):
levels of immortality by saying you werejust scum. I believe that until the
day he dies, once a daysomebody is going to go up to vivek
Ramaswami and say, and boy,will he deserve it, and his campaign
slogan in twenty sixty will be vivekRamaswami not just scum. It was a

(16:18):
dazzling moment in as as we gointo the decline and fall of the American
empire, let it be said thatDonald Trump's rhetorical destruction of the heights of
American politics at least had this oneglorious moment to it. When Nicki Haley
felt free to call the vek Ramaswamiscum on national television, we will take

(16:44):
the news for both of them,he said, nobody was watching last night.
Do we have ratings? I gota they haven't been corrected, But
the FLASHYG guy was that they werepretty low. It's interesting because they were
the first one that was actually ona broadcast network like it was on It
was on NBC. Broadcast Network andshe won. So the so the first

(17:08):
poles say, which I think isright. But it's Neilism time here on
the four thirty movie because who caresdoesn't matter. Trump's gonna win. I
don't know what they're doing there becauseneither of them, neither she nor DeSantis,
is going to be vice president.I guess they're just spending the money

(17:30):
they raised. Or maybe Trump willget hit by a truck and then they'll
be left over and they can likerun and see who wins or something like
that. But I mean, comeon, does anybody now think? Yes,
I know people, I could makean argument. People are making the
argument that someone else can be theRepublican nominee. Yeah, does anybody really
believe it? I believe it?Yes, that would I bet, Like

(17:55):
would I like to put my moneywhere? Like? Do I think it's
gonna happen? No? I meanI think he's going to be the nominee.
But I'm not as positive as youare about it. I think there's
a there is a chance. Nonnegative, I'll call it negative. But
yes, I take your point.I mean I was saying too. Uh,

(18:17):
I'm not as convicted as you are, as convinced as you are.
Yeah, you're you're shades of JohnCandy explaining if they had been in Germany
he would have won the poker gamebecause they're in Italy. Yeah, I
take your point. Look, takeyour point. You know what is going
to be big. But like youknow, so like I've had I've made

(18:38):
this point for a very long timeabout the Democratic and Republican parties, and
we don't need to dwell on thepunditry because there's so much more enjoyable thing
to talk about. But like,both parties exist because they hate the other
one. So if if one partydies, the other party loses its reason
to live. And it feels tome, like you talk to Democrats away

(18:59):
from cameras, the certainty that Biden'sgoing to be the nominee is not as
there as you might think, right, And if Biden's not the nominee,
I'm not sure that Trump is notany If Trump's not the nominee, I'm
not sure Biden's no nominee. Ithink there's this kind of like weird stalemate
because sixty to seventy percent of thepeople of the American people don't want either

(19:22):
of them to run and I keepgoing back to the Howard Dean thing.
In two thousand and four, Iwent and looked at like, what the
where the punitry was, including fromyou know, smart people like Stu Rothenberg.
They were all convinced Dean had itsewed up. And then a bunch
of people in Iowa on caucus nightwere like, really, we really think
we can win with this guy.I mean, I know that John Kerry

(19:45):
is a human toothache, but youknow he's got the military thing, and
they voted for John Carrey. Deandidn't win anything right until Vermont. I
think he won, and so thepsychology I still think can change, but
we should be you know, Ithink, to be honest, he's you
have to bet these that he hasincredibly strong odds to be the nominee and

(20:08):
he could win. It's I don'tthink he could win. Not that I'm
saying that he will win, butI'm saying that the assigning this as a
hey, you know, he couldeven win is the wrong tone, like
he has even odds to win.You know, if Christopher Pike were in

(20:30):
the machine and eighty and rolling arounddrooling, that's Biden. So I don't
know. I don't know. I'min despair, beyond belief. It's obviously
been a tough month. The warin Israel is taking it out of me

(20:51):
emotionally. But I I look,and then I see every moment at which
it's possible that this could be turnedaround, because the Democrats could say,
oh my god, what are wedoing. We can't run with this guy,
something has to be done about it. Then there's an election like there
was this Tuesday night where they dookay, and therefore they say themselves,

(21:17):
well, you know, we're kindof doing okay, and he's at the
top of the ticket, and Idon't know what message makes if he goes
off the ticket, So what arewe going to do them? Everyone says
they don't want him, but theydon't want Trump either, and Trump's you
know, going to be convicted,and and so then that Diosex Machina of
the Democrats saying, oh my god, we're headed for disaster. Let's get

(21:37):
this. You know, two hundredand seventy five year old crook out of
our way isn't going to happen either. So, I mean, John,
this is why I'm cutting myself.I mean, I know, I didn't
know that you were cutting yourself andI'm sorry. I'm really sorry to hear
it. I don't I think youneed new coping skill. Speaking of coping

(22:02):
skills, I can't pay attention toanything on tele because the war is consuming
the war and everything that's going onis consuming my attention too much. Is
anybody watching anything that you can cancan recommend because people need distraction. And
the only thing I'm watching because I'mwatching with my son is Loki, the
second season of Loki, and itsucks so badly. It stinks at a

(22:27):
level that a three week old fish, you know, left outside the Wayne
Scott fish store would stink. SoI'm just asking you, is there something
else that people might want to alas. I'm reluctant to agree with you about
Loki because I want it to begood, but so far it's really it's

(22:48):
it's not good. First season wasgood, so I guess you get good.
Look six episodes. You can't complainyou got six good episodes. Don't
look a gift horse in the mouth. But I will say my wife and
I we are enjoying Bosh Legacy,which is the spin off from Bosh.
It's really not bad and on thetrain ride today back from New York,

(23:11):
I started watching jen v Oh,which is the spin off from the Boys
on Amazon Prime. Yes, anduh again not family viewing, but I'm
you know, it's it's it's enjoyableand terrible in all the ways the Boys
is. But I really liked watchingThe Boys. I love the Boys.
So I this is just the problemof my my inability to to focus.

(23:36):
So Rob, this is your business. This is what you do for a
living. This is the thing thatyou can break down like a molecular biologist
dealing with, you know, microorganism. So isn't there something that you
can tell the people that they noblynot? How about? Because that's the

(23:57):
only thing I was able to watchfor ten minutes. I was just changing
the channel and there was the sceneon showtime of Hyman Roth and Michael in
the hotel room talking about Moe Greenand I my hand froze and as I
was switching between CNN and MSNBC orwhatever, and there it was like,

(24:19):
this is what life, This iswhat makes life worth living. You hit
The Godfather, The Godfather Part two, and you're like, what else is
there? Like I don't really needto see anything else? Ever, this
is as good as it gets.But if you can't just watch those rob
nothing, you got nothing. Well, I mean, I'm watching I have

(24:41):
one more episode to go of theFrench thing Loupan, which I like.
I don't like this one as much. But I also feel like the season
of Lupan right because I watched thefirst and it was pretty good. Second
season well, it's like the firstseason was sort of two parts and then
this is like the third part.Okay, you know, I actually feel

(25:03):
like we watched too much. Ithink that this is when, when this
stuff is going on in the world, it's kind of better not to have
a TV on. I think you'renot going to learn anything. There's no
news on the television. There's nothingyou need to know on TV. You
don't need to stay abreast of anynews. You can just catch up with
it really every three or four daysof the newspaper. If you want sitting
quietly and reading the reading a booklike a mystery novel is I think the

(25:27):
only real balm if you're looking forrelief from this. The part of the
the agony of all of this terriblenews is just that we have to watch
it all the time, and likeI and where I said, and where
I'm standing. Sometimes I have tohear it because I'm not that far away
from Washington Square Park and not thatfar away from the corner of the News

(25:49):
School on Fifth Avenue fourteenth Street.So I often hear the young people who
is for whom someone is spending tensand tens and tens of thousands of dollars
for them to get educate, toget the college college degrees from NYU,
and the new school spouting inanities ora historical non facts. So the best

(26:18):
thing to do is to could puton a pair of noise canceling headphones.
I recommend Bose. They're not,by the way, a sponsor, but
I do recommend Bose and getting areally great book. We all have books
in our house right now that we'vebeen meaning to read and we just haven't
read. So I am I'm gonnasay that part of the ajitah and the

(26:38):
anxiety and the misery is coming throughthe screens that we are now addicted to,
that we feel entitled to and wefeel like, well, I should
be able to look at a screenand be able to see something that's relaxing
and know all that has been thatscreen has been toxified and just pick up
a book. If you're anything likeme, you have a certain tency to

(27:00):
put things off to the very lastminute and be late with things. And
I'm sure that my editor a commentaryJohn Patora's can agree. And while most
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(27:21):
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(27:45):
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(28:08):
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think Ladder for sponsoring the Glove podcast. I have to disagree with you on

(28:30):
this and get a little earnest justfor a second. But I don't have
that luxury because things are in facthappening fast and furious all over the country
and all over the world that arevery Jewish specific like, and they're happening
every two hours. So Concordia Universityin Montreal, you never heard of it,

(28:53):
thank god, and you should neverhear from it again. So some
kid calls another kid, a kikeat Concordia University. And that's a three
miles down the road. Three milesdown the road. The previous evening,
someone throw molotov cocktail at a synagoguein Montreal. This may not be this
may not be accurate what I'm aboutto say, but I did see it

(29:14):
because I saw it on Twitter,so so it could be alive. But
the most remarkable thing about the guywho killed the guy in California with a
megaphone and the woman that you saidthat the kid at the Concordia whatever,
that ridiculous universities. They were notstudents, they were college professor. She's

(29:37):
a professor. Yes, yeah,So it's not about the kid. I'm
just saying that the incidents themselves arecoming at a blistering pace, you know.
But they'll wait, they'll wait acouple of wait, seventy two hours.
My I'm gonna side with pod Andyou know, I don't normally said
with pot on things in here,mostly because that's my role of the heel.
But so I he used to usethis analogy a lot when I was

(30:00):
trying to explain to people why Imade I made such a stink about Trump
and what was happening to conservatism AndI think it applies even better to Pod
than this. Right. So there'san episode of Spencer for Hire where Spencer
meets this woman who's been a fugitivefrom justice because she was sort of like
Patty Hurst type who got caught upwith some bank robbers, and she was

(30:22):
a fugitive because the security guard triedto stop the bank robbery and got shot
and killed, and so she becamea fugitive for homicide. Right our accom
accomplished a murder. And she's likesaying to Spencer, why did that security
guard have to get in the way. We didn't want to hurt anybody.
And Spencer gives this little speech wherehe says, maybe it's because he took

(30:45):
people's money for lots of days wherehe had nothing to do, and where
he was there to be a reassuranceand a security guard, an insurance policy
against bad things happening, and hefelt honor bound to do what was required
of him when there was actually aneed for him at the bank. Commentary

(31:06):
exists for this moment. We've beensitting on a stool looking for like examples
of anti Semitism which have been aroundbut like not worthy of, like freaking
out about for the last ten years, and then this thing happens. This
is the bank robbery that the securityguard feels they have to get up.
Why have commentary if not for thismoment. We did publish several superb articles

(31:30):
by you in the in the Getand Rob every month. No, but
you know what I mean. I'mglad you mentioned Spencer for hire because I
don't want to talk about the show, but I would like to say that
Rob is right that there are timeswhen you are in desperate straits when you
wanted just to sit down and sitdown with like a mystery novel or something,

(31:52):
and really those first ten or fifteenRobert Parker Spencer books, you are
just not going to have a bettertime reading a And they're pretty good intact,
they are really, really, reallygood, and they're short, so
they come at you real fast,and like this anecdote, it indicates they
are morality tales and Spencer the wholepoint about Spencer is that he is the

(32:14):
last moral man in a very corruptBoston and he is always struggling to do
the right thing. So they're verymoving and move worth the reading. But
I do want to say, askyou this about all these analogies. So
this stuff is just coming and comingand coming coming, And of course everybody
in the Jewish community and probably otherpeople as well, are like, what

(32:36):
the this country was attacked? Youknow, five thousand people were killed or
injured, and that ignites anti Semitismworldwide, Like shouldn't this ignite like sympathy?
What on earth is going on?And I am telling you right now
we are going to be finding outover the next six months. And you
guys know that I am the oppositeof a paranoid, delusional person who thinks

(33:00):
that there are connections between everything,but not the opposite. But yeah,
I'm pretty close to being I donot believe. I do not say secret
networks, thank you, But stuffis going on here that was activated by
October seventh, that has simply beenhappening too fast and in too many locations

(33:22):
and with too much speed and accuracyand effectiveness for this all to have been
spontaneous. I don't mean that,you know, somebody in gutter is pressing
a button and then a robot.You know, it's like call someone and
says the woods are lovely, darkand deep and then they are robot tied

(33:45):
in like upon and then they goCharles Browntony the world. Yeah, I'm
just saying that this. For twentyyears, there's been this world of leftist
activists. They have been building uptheir networks and their abilities to mobile each
other with a phone call or atweet or or you know, a series
of tiktoks or something like that,and it is happening everywhere, and it

(34:08):
is a dazzling example of why everythingthat has happened in the last twenty years
is evil. I'm like, everythingI want to think is good about the
phone and the Internet and Facebook andsocial media. You can get information a
typical the touch of a fingertip andyou can do that. And then the

(34:28):
Lotites or the philosophical lot it's likeChristine Rosen and others who are saying,
no, no, no, that'sall a bluff, that's all just the
cherry on top of the septic tank. And I mean, what we're seeing
here is really making that argument thatwe we are being we are being drawn
into a larger world and being manipulatedin this larger world by people who are

(34:52):
siding with eliminationist, genocidal monsters.And their goal is to turn it around
and see that the victims are eliminationas genocidal monsters. And it's not really
working. The polling still shows seventypercent of American support is real, but
it's working enough, and it's atleast working enough to be pushing a lot

(35:14):
of people's buttons who are crazy.And then go out and while people are
walking in to see a screening ofthe Horrors at the Museum of Tolerance in
LA they're throwing punches at them asthey walk into the Museum of Tolerance,
like this is a new thing,something new that built off of Howard Dean
and various other things has now cometo fruition, and we had better be

(35:37):
we had better start figuring out howwe're going to handle this, because it's
going to happen again and again andagain, and not just to Jews.
So I agree with all of thatto one extent or another. I do
think, just to pick up onone point, I think it is fascinating
this thing that you see all overthe place about the what you mentioned this

(36:00):
screening, you know, it's thisfootage from the attacks. It is this
bizarre thing where people are saying hamaswas completely justified in what it was doing,
that this was a breakout of anopen air prison, and all this
bs right, and that violence andresistance to set colonialism is justified in all

(36:22):
forms. Blah blah blah blah blah. But how dare you say that they
raped anybody? How dare you saythey killed any kids? And how dare
you say that their own go profootage isn't propaganda? Right? I mean
they want to say that the evidenceof what they're what they're refusing to condemn,

(36:44):
is a lie. And it's thisweird sort of we want to have
it both ways. We want tosay Hamas did nothing wrong, but how
dare you, you know, pointout the wrong things that they did.
It's it's it's a weird tension,and the fact that they get away with
it at all it is kind offascinating. It was remarkable how quickly it

(37:04):
just like by October eighth, thebiggest concerns were, you know, there's
gonna be a lot of Islamophobia outthere now. That was pretty much like
if you say, well, youknow, in October seventh, they kind
of chopped people's heads off and theydid all this stuff that pretty bad and
they killed families like the Manson familyTimes twenty ran into like a, well,

(37:28):
that's islamophobic. It's all of thedeath. All of the defenses were
so hilariously I mean hilariously in thedark ironic sense, I mean in the
darkly comic sense, twisted and distortedthat even even the language we may just
walk by today was walking down andthere was the big protests in front of

(37:50):
the New School and just like eventhe language is just like this kind of
elaborate, academic, ornate kind oflanguage that that they the people in the
bullhorns, just that it's like it'slike it's been scripted by some you know,
AI machine. It doesn't sound youknow, it's like when you get

(38:13):
a junk man, you know,you get spam and it's like, clearly
you know your count Apple has beencompromised. Now must press and you know
it all said like it's obviously someof you doesn't speak English has written this
and is like trying to get youto, you know, give them your
password. It has that feeling toit doesn't feel like they're that they are
really saying they know what they're saying, or they are saying anything or that

(38:35):
they're any behind any of this.It's like they could point out Gaza on
a map. It's like a It'slike a drama exercise. And I think
that we've created that in this culturebecause we've decided that the most important thing
for you to do is to feeland to emote and to share, because
we've spent twenty years feeling and emotingand sharing and maybe shuting up and keeping

(38:58):
silent is something that we should beencouraging. I like the Harvard protesters who
would be the die in who complainthat people were stepping over them and because
that made them feel unsafe. ButI mean, you know, part of
the joke here is that we've spentten years talking about the threat of the
microaggression. The microaggression is a verydeep problem, makes people feel bad,

(39:23):
makes them feel unsafe. By definition, a microaggression is not as bad as
a macro aggression. You know whata macroaggression is. A guy in the
New York on New York City Streetjust happened just now. His protest is
talking about the kidnap posters or something, and somebody comes and smashes a chair

(39:45):
over his head for being Jewish.That's a macrogress. Guess what's worse the
macro aggression. Guess what's worse Havinga megaphone thrown in your face and then
you hit your head on the pavedand die. That's worse than someone in
a classroom saying niggardly and then someonesays, oh, I think I thought

(40:09):
you said the N word, andnow I feel terrible. You should lose
your job. Everything is turned aroundbackward. The symbolic is more important to
these people than the actual, Thelittle is more important to these people than
the big. And it's like anattempted genocide was perpetrated in Israel on October

(40:30):
seventh, and now the claim is, oh, there might be Islamophobia in
America if things that there already wasjewophobia active in five thousand people getting killed
and wounded in a country of ninemillion, Like, this is not how

(40:51):
you think about things, right,we don't. You're thinking about them wrong,
and you're doing it on purpose inorder to evade the meaning of what
happened and to suggest who is responsible. So it's like, yeah, go
ahead, sorry, I mean Iagree with it. I agree that I
think two things. One, youknow, I've been saying for a long
time now that there's this view oncollege campuses, the campus left thinks that

(41:15):
speech they don't like is violence,but violence they like is speech, right,
and so that gets it some ofthis. But then the other thing
is, I'm I mean, Iagree with you. Macroaggressions, which is
another word for just violence. Yes, should be condemned in a free society,
right, that's why we have criminallaws and whatever. But like,
the thing that bothers me more insome ways is the inherent anti semitism of

(41:40):
having two different standards for different microaggressions. Right, So if you misgender someone,
that is violence. That is somethingthat get you sent to counseling or
suspended or whatever. But if youyell gas the Jews, people are like,
well, you know you have tounderstand the context. Was like you
can't have like, can't have amaster hard drive, right, or can't

(42:02):
say master bedroom because that's you know, evokes visions of slavery. But you
can say we need to liquidate theZionists, Like if you have a free
speech policy on campus that says allforms of bigoted speech except for bigoted speech
against Jews, all forms of triggeringspeech, accept speech against Jews, all

(42:25):
endorsement of violence of any kind isreboten unless it's endorsement of violence against Jews.
Then you're by their own standard,the very logic of structural racism says
that they are structurally anti Semitic.And it's just it's so glaringly obvious and
it drives me to the point ofdistraction at times watching it. Right,

(42:45):
And you know, these were interestingdebating arguments for the last ten years,
Like we had wonderful debates about themand interesting articles, and I published great
polemics on them. And Jonah haswritten a column a week practically on this
subject in some fashion now for goingon a decade, right, and it's

(43:05):
all very interesting. And now peopleare getting hurt and killed in real time
in front of us, and thepeople who were making these bad arguments are
still making the bad arguments instead ofgoing like proof, that is not what
I meant at all, That isnot it at all. Like I just
meant that we shouldn't dubblah blah blahblah, but geez, people are getting

(43:30):
killed. I better stop now untilthings are And they're not stopping, they're
accelerating, which is why I'm sayingto you that there is something else going
on. There is a meta structure, and I'm not again, not a
paranoid meta structure where there is apuppet master controlling it, but rather a
mindset that has been linked together throughthe Internet packet system to make it possible

(43:58):
for there to be multiple in incidenceof minor violence happening independently in forty cities
on the same afternoon. That issaying to my people, go inside and
hide and protect your children, andtake off your key pote, and take
your mug and da VID and putit under your shirt in case somebody is

(44:22):
going to come up and hit youwith a baseball bat. Like this is
not theoretical anymore. This is notyou know, the kind of thing that
only happens, you know, it'slike plane crashes, Like, oh,
you should fly on a plane.It's really safer than driving in a car.
And you're being irrational by worrying aboutit. No one is irrational in
America right now, worrying that theymight be a victim of anti Semitic violence

(44:45):
if they are somehow identifiable as aJew. And that listen to what I'm
saying, that this is the case. I mean, I can't believe I'm
saying this. I ran and Iwent to a protest not protest for missing
for the kidnapped people a couple ofdays ago, and on the line to

(45:06):
get into the rally, I runinto a very very left wing rabbi,
very left wing, a woman I'veknown for a long time ran the JCC
here in Manhattan, is a reconstructionistrabbi nice. Obviously, our politics are
unbelievably dissimilar. And she's i wouldsay, not good on Israel and has

(45:27):
bad views on a lot of things. And I looked at her and I
said, how are you doing?Joy? And she said, I have
never felt this way in my entirelife ever. I am terrified. I
have never felt this way. LikeI may have said I felt this way,
but I never felt this way before. And tens of thousands, if
not hundreds of thousands of people arefeeling that in the United States. I'm

(45:50):
not talking about being afraid because Trump'sa fascist and he's going to take the
country over. I mean, I'mwalking with my kid and is someone going
to come up and punch my kidin the face because he's wearing a T
shirt that has Hebrew on it.That's what I mean. And I'm not
being hysterical. I mean I wishI were being hysterical. No, I

(46:13):
mean, I'm sure you saw Tevy'spiece in the Journal last week where he's
like, you know, allyship isbubkis right, friendship is real, and
like a lot of Jews on theleft in particular, bought into this allyship
that you know, we have tobe allies to various members of the Coalition

(46:34):
of the oppressed, and it's anidentity politics sort of popular front, and
that's just in tatters. I mean, every liberal Jew I know and talk
to or have heard from, they'rejust like, what how am I supposed
to sit with people who are sayingyou have to hear both sides about people

(46:57):
who murder babies and so has nothingto with It's like, the actual murder
is the thing that it's supposed tobe easy for everybody to condemn, and
it's really hard for some people tocondemn. So I would just say one
thing because people ask me this allthe time, and our listenership, I
assume is not a particularly Jewish listenership, and people are like, what should
I do? How can I help? What a was going on out what

(47:19):
can I do if you want meto help? And I have two very
simple things to say to you.Don't buy into the tell a Jew that
you'll hide them line. There's awhole thing I did. Would you hide
them? Would you you hide themin your attic? Like thanks a lot?
You know that's nonsense, Like don't, don't, don't, don't be
involved in that. I would sayone practical thing and then one theoretical thing.

(47:45):
And the practical thing is, ifyou are anywhere near Washington on the
fourteenth of November, there is goingto be a big rally for Israel for
the kidnapped against Tamas on the mall. Go the numbers matter. It's going
to be very important for there tobe a huge turnout. So if you

(48:05):
are in the Virginia, Maryland,DC area, if you could take a
road trip, whatever, go tothis rally. It is really important.
I hate rallies, I hate demonstrations. I don't like going to them.
I don't like being in them.It's not something that I think is the
way to do things. But itis important for there to be a visual

(48:25):
manifestation of the force of American publicopinion, which seems to be in this
direction. So if you can,if you are in a place where you
can do this, do it.Go. It would be unbelievably welcomed by
the people there. And if youwant to show friendship to Jews or be
an ally of Jews or whatever thisis, and it's practical for you to

(48:51):
do it, this is the bestway to do it that I can think
of, at least, you know, in the sound of my voice at
this moment. And the other isget on these chains. It's so simple,
and this is what the other sideis doing. There are these organizations
that will ai chat bought letters toCongress for you. You just go there

(49:14):
and you say, I want tosend a letter in support of Israel,
or I want to send a letterin support of the kidnapped or something like
that, and you fail your namein and they will send five hundred and
thirty five letters in your name withone push of a button. And this
is something that the Palestinian side hasdid the first week or the second week

(49:34):
and scared the Jesus out of Democraticlawmakers across the country who couldn't believe the
floods of calls and letters and robocalls that were coming in on behalf of
basically of Hamas. But let's saythe ceasefire or the Palestinian suffering or something
like that. There is on theother side. There are the same tools,

(49:54):
and it will be very helpful tosend them to your elected representatives,
not only nationally, but locally andstate wide, so that they know at
least that the numbers that support Israelor against murdering babies or something, or
at least equivalent to the numbers ofpeople who are willing to send these robo

(50:16):
letters that say the opposite. SoI'm only I'm not a call to action
guy. I'm just I'm like,I'm a nurse, scenic intellectualist that's behind
a desk. Don't listen to meabout how to be a good activist.
But this is what there is athand. So some people like that and

(50:37):
this is gold. That's cold.Well, I think we proved that that
you can't be funny at this point. But you know, if you're a
longtime listener, you know that Ihave been drinking agu one for I don't
know, ten fifteen years. Istarted drinking it when I heard talking about

(50:59):
Tim Ferriss talked about it. Ithink Tim Ferris talking about it saw them
talking about it in person, andI used to take it in the canister,
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say take it in the morning,and maybe that's the right way to do
it, but I just do itin the afternoon because I think the afternoon
gives me a little lilyft and whenI need a little lyft. So that

(51:42):
that's why I do it. Andag one is the supplement I trust to
provide the support my body needs daily, and that's why they have been a
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(52:04):
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(52:27):
number one dot com slash glop.That's drink ag one dot com slash glop.
Check it out. We thank agone for being a glob sponsor and
for making a terrific products. Okay, I have an idea of how to
close, to bring this to ahigher level, but without betraying the tone
that we've struck before, which is, how about each of us recommend a

(52:49):
really good black comedy. I'm talkingabout, like, you know, something
that satirical and raw and funny andthat sort of like treats humankind and with
the contempt that often deserves. Sothat's what came to mind, and I
will start. Since it's my idea, you guys can then think of one

(53:13):
otherwise. I would like to suggestthe comedy Used Cars, made in nineteen
eighty by Robert zamechis his first hissecond movie after I Want to Hold Your
Hand. Kurt Russell breakthrough performance afterplaying Elvis as one of the sleaziest used
car salesman's on the planet Earth.And he is in a war with another

(53:34):
used car lot in a town inArizona that is even sleazier than his used
car lot, and which used carlot is actually going to succeed and which
is going to fail, and whichone is going to run a foul of
FCC communications rulings about what you canand cannot say in advertising to sell your
horrible jalopies that are going to fallapart the minute they drive off the lot.

(53:58):
Kurt Russell ishilarious in the movie.It has an incredible turn at the
end with a judge with the meanestjudge in the world, who was played
by l Grandpa Munster Lewis. Thisis one fantastic, bizarre, hilarious late
seventies early eighties, America is goingto hell and and handbasket movies, and

(54:22):
I cannot recommend it enough. Okay, so the criteria was exactly what Black
Comedies just. I mean, everythingis a dark comedy if you laugh,
right, I mean I actually Ifind the movie Ordinary People to be hilarious.

(54:43):
Okay, that's a good one.That's a good one if you want
to see a hilarious shrink save aguy a kid's life by telling him how
to feel. Yeah, and itis it is. It's not nice to
your people, Rob, I wouldsay, it's a very uh, it's
not nice to your people either.Let's be quite honest with you, my

(55:04):
people, savior people, even thoughwe do so, it's very bad acting,
yeah, by Judd Hirsch. Thatis. There isn't a performance in
Ordinary People by Judd Hirsh that isso bad. That is what it's.
It's like, it's almost like hewent to the uh, you know,
the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art ofHamas. But you gotta what's amazing is

(55:31):
that they asked him to reprise therole in Independence Day. Yes, and
then and then the Bableman's like,we can't get away from him, and
he was he was good on taxiand then look what happened to him.
Anyway, he was well. Ineveryone in Hollywood's defense, it's hard to
find a Jewish guy talking about aJewish actor. Really. Now Strike is

(55:57):
over. Yeah, well it's differentnow, I know, so you can't
think of a well no, Imean, I like, like I was.
If we were having a different wewere a different place in the conversation.
I would say, like, Ikeep seeing that Harold and Maude is
being replayed and I want to rewatchit, but I also don't want to
rewatch it. Yeah, I know, I will say. If you're just

(56:22):
looking for escapism, I gotta sayevery year step Brothers goes further up my
list as when it's on, Igotta watch it. I actually bought a
T shirt the other day for theCatalina Wine mixer, so like does that

(56:42):
is also, you know, thisis the twentieth anniversary of Elf, which
is a great movie. So neitherof these dark neither of these black comedies,
I should know they're not black comedymade is a black comedy. I
mean, I believe Jonah that onceupon a time I found and sent you
a shirt that said Oscar Madison forcounsel. I believe you did. I
did yes because of the Odd Coupleepisode where Oscar Madison runs for city council.

(57:08):
This is my kind of shirt becauseit's so obscure. Yeah, that
it doesn't look like you're selling anybrand, So I didn't tell you on
the At the Dispatched meetup last night, there was this guy, good guy
from Brooklyn, who first of all, he asked me to sign my books,
which I was always happy to do, right, And then he brought

(57:30):
He thought he was gonna like youdidn't want to hurt Steve Hayes's feelings,
so he brought a book for him, But it turns out he made a
mistake and he bought Steve Hayward's Politicallyand Correct Guide to the President, so
he had him sign that too.And then he was reading Patty Chaievski's autobiography,
which he says is fantastic and it'sgot a great scene in it,

(57:51):
apparently from seventy seven, because hewas a presenter the year after he won
the Oscar and Lynn Redgrave gave someanti Israel spiel and then that's a red
Grave and he cut her down tosize on stage, and so by the
end of the night we got sodeep in our cups that he asked me
to sign that too. By theway, that is a great book.

(58:12):
And it's not his autobiography. It'scalled mad as Hell. Yes, it's
by Dave. It'skoff who writes toThe New York Times his biography of fascinating,
fascinating book. I have to say, can I pitch a dark comedy?
Sure? Because I failed? AllRight, you're not gonna like how
it starts. We're gonna have togive him notes. Go ahead, you're

(58:32):
not gonna like how this starts,but you got to stay with it.
Okay, Oh you're pitching. Pitching. I thought you were like, yeah,
I'm just thinking about it. Somethingthat John said. Something John said
earlier. You said, don't goto your Jewish friends and say I will
hide you. And I wanted tobreak in. You were so passionate,
want to break in and say,like, don't worry John, I won't

(58:52):
hide you. I don't have theroom. I'm on the expectation of you
and the guy in the In thefirst act of the Diary, Van Frank
from the audience shouting she's in theattic so bad, right, just so,
so, just say a guy hideshis friend, yes, and his
friend's girlfriend or wife, and thenhe kind of falls in love with a

(59:15):
girlfriend and the wife, you know, like she's great, she's really cool,
but he kind of doesn't really likethe friend anymore. See, now
he's got to figure out a wayto unhide the friend but keep hiding the
girlfriend. And that's just the opener. I don't know how it goes,
but I like that. It's good. Yeah, it's uh, it's got

(59:36):
it's got some darkness to it,that's for that's for sure. And uh,
but still got what we say inshow business, we call it it's
got the heart, got the ticker, It's got the ticker. I just
want to commend to everybody's attention probablytomorrow. We're recording this Thursday afternoon,
so maybe you're not even going tobe able to hear this until tomorrow,
but everybody should go to commentary dotorg and read Rob's Hollywood commentary this month,

(01:00:00):
which is called the content moderation crisisand is that right way to get
content content crisis right? And it'sbasically the rules under which Rob, as
a Hollywood creative is now being askedto conceive of the TV shows and the

(01:00:20):
movies that the studios think they wantto make for people. And it will
chill your blood, it will crackyour bones. It make you think that
you will never again. You mightenjoy it, I mean the piece you'll
enjoy. The piece you'll enjoy.It is what Rob and his fellow creatives
are being asked to fulfill. Themandate that they're being asked to fulfill.

(01:00:45):
That is jaw dropping in its again, like end of all civilization right there
on a piece of paper right infront of you, from the people who
command the heights of our culture.And it's a great piece. And it
will be in the December issue ofCommentary dot org online again like over this

(01:01:08):
coming weekend, the tenth, eleventh, twelfth and thereby. So that's my
relation, all right. And Iwill be, of course every day on
the Commentary podcast being even less cheerfulthan I was on this podcast. You
Yeah, people have been telling mefor a while now that I should listen

(01:01:30):
to this podcast, The Rest isHistory, Oh, which has got what
to say, Tom Holland, theBritish historian and another guy on it.
It's called The Rest Is history.A lot of people I know really really
like it. I finally started listeningto it when I was in New York
yesterday. I started listening to theepisode on The Blackout of nineteen seventy seven.

(01:01:52):
And I'm sure pod will have noteson it because it's a little at
points, it's you can't thisuish betweenwhether it's a liberal perspective or sort of
a British perspective or just a thirtythousand foot thing. But it's really good
and it's got a lot of granularlike stats and data, and the other
show titles look really pretty exciting aswell, so I'm kind of psyched about

(01:02:15):
it. And the only other thingI'll tell people is I am now going
to be part of the starting standingrotation, so I won't be on every
week, but Chris Wallace is gonnahave a new show that's gonna be on
Saturday mornings. We'll record on Fridayevenings, and I'm going to be on
it, and I'll be on itthis Saturday on CNN. Actually, yeah,
all right, I'm excited. Thatgives me something to watch that may

(01:02:38):
not depress me as much as theother things made that I have been watching.
Rob Martine. Let's sell the MartiniShot right now. Sell the Martini
You go to Mawthankler dot com,or you can go to Martini Shot and
you can wherever you get your podcast, and you can subscribe to my under
fourteen minutes. I promise little disquisitionson show business and and how it relates

(01:03:05):
to you. But it's a butit's under fifteen minutes. I always,
I promise you. I'm trying tolead the lead the new trend to short
to podcastlets, podcast debts, littlemick podcasts, podcast light. You know,
they're all like, well, thisis a this's gonna be a little
long one. There's gonna be twohours talking to you. But no,

(01:03:25):
I don't do anything podcast seats,podcast eats. Yeah, now, bite
size excellent. Well I missed thatstupid app that just had movies on your
phone for ten minutes, the tenminute movie at Quibi Quibi. Oh.
I love that you were like theonly person defending it when it was going
down the toilet. I wanted itto work so badly. I just think
that I wanted it to create akind of a movement for everything to be

(01:03:50):
eleven minutes. Yeah, well,you like TikTok and the entire Republican Party
just came out last night for thecomplete abolition. Not only should Hamas be
completely obliterated, TikTok should be completelyobliterated. So you are, you are
and in this and as many inmany other ways. You are. You

(01:04:12):
are no longer in the mainstream ofthe Republican Party. Yeah, that that
should not be breaking the news here. So we will be back in a
couple of weeks to be even furtherout of the mainstream of the Republican Party.
See you guys later. Ready,Ready, this is gonna be uh

(01:05:10):
I don't know if this is ladderready three two one. If you're anything
like me, you have a certaintendency to put things off til the very
last minute. I can guarantee youthat my commentary editors, John Fedor it's
and uh At let me do itagain. I don't want to bring Amy
to do this. Not fair.Three to one.