Singing Backwards, Free Blockbusters & The End of Columbia House

Remember when getting 11 albums for one penny seemed like a completely legitimate business model? Pepperidge Farm remembers. More importantly, Rizz remembers — because apparently Columbia House helped build the musical foundation of the man you hear yelling into a microphone every morning.

Episode 52 starts with a guy who has somehow learned to sing a hit song backwards, melody and all, so that when the recording is reversed it sounds remarkably close to the real thing. It's impressive, unsettling, and exactly the kind of useless talent we deeply respect around here.

Then nostalgia kicks the studio door off its hinges.

Those Little Free Libraries have apparently evolved into Free Blockbusters — neighborhood boxes stocked with DVDs, Blu-rays and VHS tapes for people to take, trade and return. It's basically streaming for people who enjoy leaving the house and trusting strangers. Lern immediately wants one, complete with an old-school beaded curtain for the grown-up section, because apparently we're rebuilding the entire video store experience one suburban lawn at a time.

And while physical media gets another tiny breath of life, the funny podcast says goodbye to an absolute legend: Columbia House.

Yes. THAT Columbia House.

The “11 albums for a penny” people.

Also: they were apparently still around.

Rizz takes us back to the golden era of putting an actual penny in an envelope, receiving a box full of music, getting bills in the mail and having the financial security of knowing, “What are they gonna do? I'm 11.” Guns N' Roses, Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard and Bon Jovi helped build the Rizz starter pack, while Rafe reveals Columbia House was also apparently part of his mom's Christmas gift strategy.

Nothing says “Merry Christmas” like potentially questionable mail-order accounting.

Then it's time for Crap on Celebrities, where the crew gets into the Tupac murder trial, an upcoming Elvis hologram experience in Vegas, Gillian Anderson's truly wild teenage arrest story, celebrity divorce becoming content, a Clueless sequel series, more Fast & Furious, and Ella Langley's monster chart run.

Matthew McConaughey also delivers possibly the most Matthew McConaughey story ever: getting so high before his own birthday party that he sat in his car listening to Janet Jackson over and over until the party was finished.

Everybody left.

Birthday over.

But that song? Apparently fantastic.

Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell also kick the hornet's nest by discussing extreme Disney adults, because nothing brings the Internet together like telling grown people their favorite mouse might be a red flag.

Meanwhile, Ella Langley's chart domination has the crew officially becoming “Ella fellas” and wondering whether she can finally defeat one of the most powerful forces in American culture: hearing the same Mariah Carey song every December until the sun explodes.

And because this funny podcast occasionally invites people who actually know what they're talking about, Cardinals assistant GM and 2006 World Series champion Randy Flores joins the show to talk baseball and the Cardinals' Draft365: Scouting MLB's Future Stars, which pulls back the curtain on scouting, drafting and finding the organization's next generation of players.

So Episode 52 has everything: St. Louis baseball, celebrity gossip, physical-media nostalgia, weird Internet talent, questionable teenage financial decisions and Matthew McConaughey losing an entire birthday to Janet Jackson.

Another educational installment of your favorite funny podcast.

We use the term “educational” very aggressively.

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