Hey everybody, welcome to the Mark Mo Show Podcast.
This is season four, episode ten. Finale of this
season, and we take a little mini break over
the holidays. And this one's called Traditions.
It's gonna be a fun one. And you can find us
on all podcast platforms, YouTube. I would like
to introduce my co -host, producer, all -around
fucking Giva guy. Aiden Maloney, how are you,
dude? My man, I'm chillaxing. Are you? Chillaxing
after a rough day. The weather's been insane.
Warm and rain and then like 10 degrees. It's
messed up. Yeah, I clock out one day, it's 53
degrees. I clock in the next morning, negative
three windchill. I'm like, what are we doing?
I don't know. My body can't get used to the cold
if we're randomly blessed with 40s and 50s. Not
that I want to get used to the cold, but that's
just a part of winter. I think the weather is
just trying to match the insane vibe of our country
right now. Oh, yeah. I think they're just like,
well. Well, here you go. There you go. You're
expecting that. Ha, psych. There's your roller
coaster, boys. Yeah, no doubt. So yeah, it's
been interesting. Yeah, it is something, man.
And I guess in a couple of days, it's supposed
to be back in the 40s again, so. I'm fine with
that. It's supposed to be a warm Christmas here.
Uh, 50 degrees, I think. In the Midwest, yeah.
50 degrees. Uh, even like, um, the Southern Midwest.
So like, downstate Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky,
Texas. Like, it's supposed to be in the 60s.
Wow. You know, when it gets to the 60s on Christmas
Day, you know where's my grill. Right. We are
grilling steaks on Christmas Day, because we
can. Oh, man, that's an idea. That is an idea,
isn't it? Yeah. It's not a bad one. Food for
thought. I know, food and eating and a steak.
Wow. There's a reason they pay us the big bucks.
Yeah. Good night, everybody. But to this super
all -star next to me has his own YouTube gaming
channel called Aidan Spelled the Right Way. And
he plays a lot of PC gaming content, GeoGuessr,
PolyBridge, Observation Duty, and much, much
more each and every week. So Aidan, what can
we expect? I know you kind of dove back into
a game that you hadn't played in a while. Yeah,
yeah. I've been playing, of course, Observation
Duty 8 since it came out. That's right in my
wheelhouse of video games that are fun and spooky,
and also audience can interact and play along
as well. And another one that's not spooky is
GeoGasser. That's right. Which is a really, really
fun one. We played it on AK -209, and then I
had my As you said, I believe triumphant return
indeed to it on my channel, which I thought was
fantastic Yeah, oh for sure got me thinking hmm
What if I make my own map? Right because each
and every time we get and play it We kind of
toggle around all these thousands and thousands
of maps Oh, yes from and different types of games
and things and it's really neat but Yeah, like
how have we not put two and two together to this
point to be like, hey, why don't we make our
own? Yeah. So I made my own with, of course,
collaborations from all my family members. It's
just titled What I Know. So it's places I've
been to, it's places I go frequently, all across
the nation, at least where I've been. So I think
that could be fun to play and maybe have you
play it. And I'll just see what you know of what
I know. Okay. And I'll just be the man with the
controller. Ah, I like it. I like it. I think
that's a good idea because after... And after
this, I will kind of put my own criteria together.
And then maybe do one of my own down the road
here. Yeah, that'd be fun. And then you find
beautiful people, of course, get on to GeoGuessr
and join us. Yeah, absolutely. I don't know if,
I believe GeoGuessr allows you to play like one
or two maps a day for free. And then there's
the paid version where you get unlimited access
and you can make your own maps and all that.
Yeah. So yeah, we will put the... the link to
the map in our YouTube video when we play it.
Absolutely. For sure. Yeah. It sounds fun. It's
exciting. It's good stuff. It is. So, you know,
and it also, I guess, worth mentioning, because
I even brought it up a second ago, is AK219.
That's our collab gaming channel. So it's kind
of the craziness, silliness. hilarity sometimes
of this show and we bring that to gaming and
it's one reason why like Observation Duty and
GeoGuess are two games that we play often because
it allows us to kind of interact and have fun
and talk as we're playing the game. Right. There
are some games where you just really have to
be so tuned in it's a little bit more difficult
to do that. Right. So we'll continue to research
and look for games where Number one, they can
be funny. They can be funny. And that we can
kind of interact as we play them. Yeah, I like
that. Yeah, that'll be a lot of fun. But AK -219
is our collab, so look that up. Oh, and my radio
show. It's still going. There may be an end date
coming up soon that is yet to be decided, but
I'm really heavily leaning towards that. with
an eye towards internet radio, potentially in
the spring. I think that's what I would like
to do. Once again, you get out from FCC, you
get out from other stuff, and you can just do
what you want to do. I kind of dig that and have
been wanting to do that. For now, it is on wvlp
.org. That's where the stream's at. You can also
find it under TuneIn App on your handheld device.
Let's see, other than that. Is that all the housekeeping?
Probably Alexa, if you want to yell at her. Oh
my goodness. Say hey, play after hours and maybe
not yell at her. Maybe just kindly suggest. Sure.
AI's a little weird this day. Yeah, you know,
I feel like, you know, you're going to yell at
her and then she's going to turn all the lights
in your house off. Yeah, it's going to be like,
Zeebsorp, accessing Planeteer. What is it called?
Palantir? Oh, Palantir, yeah. Calling up Palantir.
Beep boop boop. Oh, fuck. Mom, help me. My mixer's
trying to kill me. I yelled at Alex again, didn't
you? Yeah, we don't need that. We don't need
that at all. But anyway, check out After Hours.
I do it Tuesday nights at 9 p .m. Central Standard
Time, and then Friday at 8 p .m. Central Standard
Time. So check that out if you want. Play some
alt rock, which is, I think the last five to
ten years, they've just had some great music.
Popping off. Popping off. And some could argue
even before that. even maybe the turn of into
2k you could say there's some great music but
it's been great because I've just it's been a
little different I did heavy metal for a long
time and I still love heavy metal don't get me
wrong but you know you sit there and you play
it and you play it and you play it and I just
started listening to more alt rock kind of locally
at some of the bars and I'd always ask people
be like what is that who is that yeah and the
more I kept asking I'm like I think I need to
start playing this, because I'm digging it. And
people in their 20s and 30s are digging it. So
I'm always looking to expand the brand. So I
thought, you know what? I really love the sound.
So I think we're going to change that up. And
it's easy for me to incorporate Celtic punk,
which I love too. your tossers, your Flogging
Molly, your Dropkick Murphy, kind of all those
bands. Genres play well together. They do. Yeah,
they do. They're very similar. Well, they're
often at the... I was at Ride Fest over the summer
and Dropkick Murphy was there with All Time Low
and Jack White. So, yeah, they're kind of two
slightly different flavors that go very well
together, I think. Can you even chuck grunge
in there? Although not... Which I do sometimes.
Yeah, not many bands played... not many grunge
bands left that i'm aware of no uh i don't want
to say it's dead because it's not uh sound garden
still tours without uh their original lead singer
sadly um i believe alison change does the same
thing oh right uh i think billy corrigan is smashing
pumpkins i think he has been doing this tour
he was just in chicago or like this one man tour
where he does this kind of orchestral take on
a lot of the Smashing Pumpkin stuff. Oh, that's
interesting. Which is kind of neat. So they're
still out there, out and about, but once again
I think that's the grunge plays into those two
other genres, I think. Sure. Pretty well, you
know, so there's a lot of shows. Well, I'll incorporate
like some Soundgarden off Bad Motorfinger. Yeah.
Or, you know, just... A little Alice in Chains.
A little Alice in Chains, a little Screaming
Trees, something like that, and it just, it all
plays well together. So we have... uh we have
we have a lot of fun we play some good music
so if you want check it out for sure and uh you
know in christmas season it's upon us that it
is indeed it is and and there's a lot of interesting
and weird celebrations and traditions for everyone
and I don't know if you've heard of a guy named
Krampus. Oh, I'm very familiar. That's my guy.
We go way back. I bet. It's like, oh, man, we
have tea. Krampus backwards is sup, Mark. So
we should open the show with that. Honestly,
he just said that. And I'm like, why would he?
Holy shit, he's right. Sup, Mark. I love that.
So in Austria. Alpine folklore tells us this
evil horn creature part goat part demon definitely
sounds like I want a beer with oh, yeah, his
name's Krampus Whole purpose is to punish children
who've misbehaved. I like this guy While good
children blood might be spitting might be While
good children are treated by Santa bad ones are
taken and by Krampus In his bath, okay, that
sounds a little oh, it sounds like that should
be in the Epstein files. Yeah Krampus in his
bathtub to his hellish lair Austrians honor the
legend with Krampus holiday cards and dress up
as the monster on the eve of the December 5th
aka Krampusnacht or Krampus night. Yeah So how
about that? I like that. Yeah, I like the character
of Krampus anyway and And where'd you say this
was Austria Austria? God bless the Austrians
man. That's that's grand. I wish we were that
cool I know right we we do Halloween right over
sure here in the States, but man we we do not
do Krampus Justice we really don't we really
don't we go hard in on Santa we do but then like
I Don't know I think it would be amazing if someone
had like a Krampus like figurine thing out in
their front yard. Oh my god, like those big 12
foot skeletons and they dress it up as like Krampus.
And they dress it up as Krampus and he's like
holding a kid by his ankle. That's great. I love
that. Yeah, that's that's really getting in the
spirit of things. All right, so on December 28th
in Spain, the day of the Holy Innocence is observed.
Think of it as Spanish April Fool's Day with
jingle bells. Bakers uphold the tradition by
making salty cakes using salt instead of sugar
to play a trick on unsuspecting customers. Wow,
that's great. Can you imagine all these sweets
and treats, and they mix a couple of those in
there, and you grab one and it's like, ah! Ooh,
don't mind if I do. Ah! You have like a cup of
salt or something. Oh, poor. Like, there's my
electrolytes for the day. Right, exactly. Now,
the marvel of marketing has made Colonel Sanders
more of a figure than Santa in Japan. Yeah, yeah,
yeah. Now, I didn't know this, but when I did
the research, I'm like, oh man, one Christmas
I want to fly to Tokyo and go to a KFC. Oh my
gosh. A Christmas. Can you imagine how magical
that would be? It would be magical. That would
be unbelievable. Ever since an insanely successful
KFC holiday campaign in 1974, while we tuck in
to our ham or turkey to celebrate the holidays,
Japanese households enjoy Kentucky Fried Chicken.
That's awesome. It's so popular that the prices
skyrocket on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day,
and people have to place pre -orders to get their
family buckets of KFC. Wowee. They do surge pricing
on KFC in Japan just because it got too popular.
Yep, because everybody's ordering a bucket of
chicken. Honestly, you can't blame them. I love
it. Yeah, I love that for them. Wouldn't it be
amazing if we took all of these and just incorporated
them into our holiday? Just like big old thing
at Krumpus holding a kid by his ankles while
we're sitting there munching on fried chicken.
Eating a salty donut. Eating a salty donut. I'm
saying there's a possibility. Yeah, yeah. candy
canes are always a thing. Whether you like them
or you hate them, I just think they're weird.
They're shaped like an actual cane, right? Right.
And it's just like, how the hell do you eat it?
You put the one end in your mouth, and it's just
like, it's just too big. Right. And then the
other end, and it's kind of like a cigarette,
but then, like, you get the whole hooky thing.
Yeah, and unless you leave some of the plastic
on, there's no good way to grasp the candy cane.
And your fingers get - Without getting tacky
on the thingies. Right. Yeah, I agree. So, you
know what? Forget the candy canes. In South Africa,
the Christmas Caterpillar is a festive treat.
The what? Hear me out. Okay. Deep fried ember
moth caterpillar is a Christmas day delicacy
believed to bring good luck for the coming year.
I can't say I'm down with that, but then again,
I haven't tried it. Your mother would be. I haven't
tried it, so I can't make a determination as
such. There are people that eat fried insects.
Yeah. I am not one of them. No. I think I've
tried a few. Maybe, I don't even recall. No,
you know, all I know is that little caterpillar
is trying to be a moth. And you're gonna eat
him? Right. For good luck? Let the man grow wings.
Let him grow wings. I'm a peacock, Captain. You
gotta let me fly! Ah, for recording that movie.
God, I love it. Okay, so, check this one out.
I'm gonna botch the shit out of this one. No,
you got this. Do I? Okay. Yeah. Takanakui is
a Quechua term for to boiling blood. Oh. And
in certain places in Peru, December 25th is a
time for an organized brawl in the form of Takanakui
festival signifying reconciliation, new beginnings.
People dress in fantastical costumes. Then they
wrestle in a ring. Folk music plays, and there
is a merry festival atmosphere. That's awesome.
I kind of dig that. Tacanacuy. I want to be there.
So imagine, like, all those crazy costumes on,
like, the masked singer. Right. But you're in
Peru. You're in the Royal Rumble. And you're
in the Royal Rumble, right? You're just swinging.
You're swinging for the fences. That's great.
I kind of dig that. God bless Peru. That's awesome
news. Yeah, it definitely is. Taka anukui. You're
welcome. We should look that up on YouTube at
some point. There's got to be videos of that.
There has to be. There has to be. In Norway,
on the night before Christmas, it's believed
that evil spirits and witches visit... Some of
these countries, I think, got Halloween and Christmas
mixed up, for sure. And I actually kind of dig
that. Yeah. So they believe they visit the households,
right? So everyone hides their broom to prevent
witches from stealing it. They might fly away
on it. A Christmas Eve joyride, indeed. Yeah,
wow. Yeah, you got to hide them. That's hilarious.
Can you imagine like going to sleep at night
and being like, oh my god, honey. What? I'm tired.
No. The broom. Do you hide the broom? It's in
the kitchen. Shit shit like tiptoeing around
your house It's too late you see like a window
crash No Meanwhile your kids like god guys. They're
three dollars at home depot. Let's go back to
bed. That's not the point Timothy Now, to keep
evil out of household the week before Christmas,
Guatemalans undertaking a big cleaning project.
Trash is heaped outside with a scarecrow of the
devil on top. Then everything is burned in a
bonfire. La cuema del diablo, the burning of
the devil. The idea is to be destroying the evil
from the previous year, so the new year can be
born from the ashes. Wow. That's deep. So it's
like spring cleaning, but you do it over Christmas,
and then it's like, okay, we're chill now. Right.
You know, bring in the new year fresh. It's like
a fresh start. Fresh start for Breeze Brothers.
Another fresh start. Last one. Last one, Alan.
Now, a rather fairy tale festivity for Czechs.
Single women stand outside their homes on Christmas
Eve and throw one of their shoes over their shoulder.
If the shoe lands with the toe towards the door,
they will be married in the coming year. Wow.
Damn. That's tense. If you're a single woman
and you enjoy being single, you just keep those
shoes on. Yeah. Don't even gamble. Just throw
the shoe forwards. Don't even gamble. Right,
you're heading out the door, you got that shoe
in your hand and she's like, man, Harold's really
kind of a dick. Just chuck it across the road.
Yeah, we're gonna put that shoe right back on.
Sorry, Harold. Not this year. Fuckin' Harold.
Thought to date, back to the Dark Ages. Oh, this
is one. Jola Koturin, or the Yule Cat. Yule Cat?
Yule Cat. That that sounds amazing already is
a giant beastly creature who roams the Icelandic
countryside and peers through windows and Christmas
Eve To see your Christmas presents Wow anyone
who doesn't get new clothes for a Christmas present
You do your chores you get given clothes gets
eaten by the evil cat Wow Yeah, so you'll catch
just like okay is it clean in there? They do
the chores would they get right like every house
you have to like assess Oh for sure feel like
what we looking at yeah, no no I just I don't
want any part of fuel cat I swear Timothy we
bought you new socks fucking you'll cat Where
did Timothy go? fuel cat fuel cat then Krampus
and Krampus in between the two the kid didn't
stand a chance This is good new Timothy. Oh,
well. Oh well back to the drawing board Finally
the last the Chinese festival Dongxi is linked
to the yin and yang philosophy and takes place
around the winter solstice. Families gather to
enjoy a meal, including ear -shaped dumplings.
Whoa. Because of an ancient legend where a doctor
fed the poor with dumplings to keep their ears
from getting frostbitten. Wow. Hmm. If that man
was a doctor, he needs his license revoked. What
a fucking idiot. You don't feed people dumplings
to protect their ears. You give them the hat.
Eat this. Eat this. Eat the dumpling, child.
Your ears will be fine. I don't want a dumpling.
I just want a skull cap. Right turn the furnace
on oh my god. So yeah, those are just some You
know some interesting traditions there from around
the world And it's funny because you read all
these and like it just so quirky and weird and
interesting kind of dark, right? Where is that
you look at ours and it's like man. It's trees
and blinky lights and blinky lights and You can
open one present on Christmas Eve, the rest you
gotta wait for... It's like, come on, man. Come
on, what are we doing? We couldn't have thought
of something more original, enticing, you know?
Something that could have made this list. And
yet, granted, I wonder if people overseas look
at what we do and they're like, oh, well, that's
kind of fun. Probably. Probably. Like, I wonder
if eggnog... Enjoyed in like Europe or Asia or
sure because it's different yeah Like his eggnog
just a North American thing it might be because
leave it to Americans to create eggnog and then
go You know it would even make this better. Oh,
it's that little little bourbon bourbon. Maybe
some rum Yeah, I think that would be just delightful.
It's like we put the egg yolks in the milk put
in the sugar and the booze It's like magical.
Don't forget the nutmeg. Yeah, how can I get
through this holiday with some eggnog and cookies
and all that? Hmm, let me think. I'm gonna get
fucked up. Right. What can we put in this eggnog?
Don't mind if I do. Don't mind if I do. Cue the
Clark Griswold rant as he's throwing back the
eggnog. Is that Billy's fourth glass of egg?
Hey, don't you count my eggnog. You watch out
for the ewe -cats. You watch ewe -cats. In campus,
they're coming for you. Yeah, man, I'm telling
you. But yeah, there's just some... You know,
we need to liven it up. Like, little does Billy
know he's just drinking Dean's eggnog. He's just
drinking Deeds, that's all there is. It's like
a total placebo effect. That would be amazing.
Your wife would be like, hey, um... Is he drinking
spit? No, it's just regular. I just told him
about a spike. Kid's just a dork. But you know,
I think we need to liven up our traditions. Yeah.
A little bit. Like, I need more, I need the essence
of evil. There should be like one master gift
that is just like an awesome gift. Especially
if you have multiple children. Because then what
you do is you can take in the backyard and just
have a Hunger Games. Right. Oh yeah. And the
surviving kid gets the gift. Right. The first
one not unconscious. The last standing. Right.
That's yours now. That's it. If we wait for Krampus
to scoop these ones up. Right, exactly. You'll
cat, you may take them. All yours. Our sacrifice,
too. Right. That's awesome. Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know what other weird little things there
are out there that we do. It is fascinating,
though. Like, I imagine places where, well, then
again, artificial trees exist. But I was just
thinking like you remember those old like Corona
beer commercials where they like put the Christmas
lights on the palm tree Yeah Switch and do they
really do that they put Christmas lights on palm
trees in like tropical places Being that I lived
in a tropical place for a year. You're mr. Florida
man. I am and on a day like today I wish I was
love that There isn't much I love about that
place, but the weather in the winter, early spring.
Mwah, chef's kiss. God bless. Just amazing. Yeah,
they, um, typically, like in the commercial,
they show it actually on the leaves. Yeah. They
don't do that. What they do is they, like, corkscrew
wrap it from the base to almost the top. Oh,
sure. That's kind of how they, they do those.
Gotcha. Yeah. Okay. That checks out then. Mm
-hmm. Interesante. It's very interesting. But
if there's any foreign listeners, anyone out
in Curacao or Russia, Bulgaria, anyone checking
in from out there. Our peeps. Let us know. Is
an eggnog a thing for you? I'm so curious if
that's just like an Americano flavor. Or do you
have another drink of sorts that we don't know
about? Right. Well, in Mother Russia, we drink
vodka straight. You drink vodka. What do you
drink at Christmas? we also drink vodka straight
no need to say twice no need to say twice we
drink the vodka we drink vodka it's like god
bless you that's awesome it's like i i really
respect that that's amazing but anyway if you
have different traditions whether you're outside
of the united states or you're inside the united
states the the amazing thing about our country
is it is one country but so many different types
of people, you know, you got, you know, people
in the south, but then the people in the south
aren't exactly like the people from Texas. And,
you know, the people on the west coast are just
a little bit different than those that live in
the mountain region. And Midwest is just kind
of its own thing. It's a vibe. It's a vibe. In
the east coast, they have like... You can get
like in New York, you have like three different
ways to speak. Right. You know, and then Boston,
you park your car in the yard. Yeah. Right. You
have that. But even with all of them, and even,
you know, Minnesota, you know, it's almost Canadian.
It's almost it's it's like. the Americans that
tried to be as Canadian as possible. All right,
we're gonna try to speak like them and play a
lot of hockey. So they can. To be fair, they're
kind of good at both. They're kind of good at
both. They're kind of good at both, to be fair.
And then like up by Maine and all the like, they
speak differently. It's all lobster people. They're
lobster people. Lobster people. Yeah, it's just
like, it's a little bit like the Boston accent.
Although they're just a little bit harder because
their winters. Yeah, it can be rough I I heard
a fascinating thing too that people in Boston
and then up in Maine as well Don't Like like
speak like they do yeah without emphasizing the
letter R on like car or butter or things like
that Yeah, because that came from England. Yeah,
where they don't emphasize like It's, it's buh
-uh. You put it in the water bowl. You put it
in the water bowl. Yeah, it's, they don't emphasize
like we're one of the only countries or, yeah,
one of the only countries, us and Canada. Yeah.
And excluding New England and Boston, like we're
one of the only ones that would say like butter.
Even though the R is clearly there. There. Butter,
car. It's a sweet - Why would you, why would
you add the R if you're not gonna say it? We
acknowledge that it's there, and damn it, we're
gonna say it. We're gonna say it. We are going
to say it. But anyway, yeah, if you have different
traditions and things like that, whether you're
in the US or outside, hit us up. Hit us up on
the socials. Let us know. We're happy to check
that out and chat about it for sure. Maybe you'll
teach us something. Certainly. That's why we
do what we do. We're certain. So all right, what
we're going to do is we're going to take a quick
break and come back with some Carpe Diem. Alright,
we are back mark most show. I'm your host mark
Maloney along with Aidan Maloney and It is time
up for a little carpe diem You find beautiful
people send us your diems and we read them on
the show Well, I mean we could read them We've
the ability to do so we do and if you ask a question
we well, I mean Well, we're capable capable of
answering it. We could we were right or wrong,
right? We could answer it. We could be influenced
to do so. We could, most definitely. You know,
like for example, you say, hey, Mark Mosho, I
have a question for you, to which I might say,
ha, whatever. Whatever. Whatever. And then you
might have a $20 bill. And then I'm like, I'm
hearing an echo. Did I hear something per chance?
And then all of a sudden. it doubles then there's
a couple of 20s and then I look up I'm like oh
hi how are you do you have a question do you
have a question yes actually I do and then it's
like oh hmm so you you want an answer right that's
we see it's one thing to get your question heard
correct you know but then a little bit more to
get that answered. You know, we've got a good
friend who actually checks in a lot. Very, very
influential in Carpe Diem's. His name is Benjamin
Franklin. Yes. And they put his face on some
weird little notes, but we love these weird little
notes. We do, we do. I believe he used to fly
kites with turkeys or something. I don't know.
Fly kites in Turkey? Yeah. Wow. The Thanksgiving
dish. Hey, they spell it that way. Hey. I didn't
tell them to. Uh -uh. But anyway, any rate, I
have some DMs here. Oh my goodness. I do. The
first one I haven't heard from her in a while,
at Barfly Betty. Hey. Hello, boys. I have a few
friends that would love a bottle of liquor for
the holidays. I have a friend who loves bourbon.
I have one who loves Irish whiskey and another
who likes gin. Any ideas? Ooh. You just get one
of everything. Let's get one of everything. Yeah,
and then like you you you find one they like
right and then and as you Keep them all on it
for yourself. Yeah, right. You just go to the
liquor store Be like I would like one of everything
please trust me. I'm just doing gifts Yes, and
then if it pains out of pains out if it doesn't
any You'll probably need a new cabinet to fill
stuff up with I would say so I would say so I'm
a huge makers mark fan makers is great It's a
great one. It's kind of a decorative looking
bottle anyway, so you're getting a good product,
and it's kind of a fancy bottle Yeah, so I'd
say you could probably do that in terms of gin
Kind of aviation, but then there's that one Irish
one Irish gunpowder Is it Glennon gun the gunpowder?
Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah one, but then I'm thinking
like a Glennon Dow or something to you Okay,
they have one so either one of those I think
would be fine Irish whiskey you can't go wrong
with Jamo, especially when they do like their
their cask series Stout cask was great out cask
was really good. So I think those are all All
very solid. Yeah In terms of bourbon, I like
the makers pick. There's another one. I like
it's called tin cup Which I believe is an American
bourbon as well. Which I think is redundant because
I think bourbon is an American product. But yeah,
tin cup is fantastic. I really like it. And then,
yeah, you already mentioned the Irish gunpowder
gin, that was gonna be my pick. And not to sound
too basic, but Tank Array is fantastic. It really
is. I kinda like Bombay Sapphire myself. Especially
when I'm making G &Ts. Which I don't do a lot,
but like in the summertime, I get it. You put
some lime in there, it's more of a summertime
drink. It really is. But I'm alright with Sapphire
too. Because there's kind of like two versions
of gin. You have the more citrusy ones and you
have the more floral ones. Correct. The botanist
makes a really great floral gin. Yes. That's
another good one, too. That one's super floral.
But yeah, tankerade's a little more on the citrusy
side. So it's really just what you like. But
there's a lot of... I am a big gin fan myself.
Are you? I would say, yeah. Let me ask you this.
Because I had a conversation with a bartender
one night. Because someone came up. and ordered
shots of gin. Okay, would you do shots of gin?
I would say yes with the caveat of it's not my
first choice. I would say shots of gin are acceptable.
People do shots of vodka. But it's not, it wouldn't
be my go -to. You know, I'd quicker go to a whiskey
or a bourbon of some kind, but even some of those
you'd rather sip than shoot. I would argue, I
think the best use case for gin, besides G &Ts
or gin and juice, is subbing gin for vodka in
cocktails. Like a Cosmo sub gin. Oh, I see, yeah.
I think could be a better use case for it. But
I have nothing against the idea of gin shots.
I have talked to several coworkers, though, who
say they do not, quote unquote, get along with
gin. I was like, I don't think I've heard that
before. That surprises me. No, that surprises
me as well. But it was funny how we had that
conversation. And for someone who's been a bartender
for many years, just that whole idea of what
kind of person takes a shot of gin. Just like,
you have a problem. That is right up there with
Malort for some people doing shots of gin. Oh,
sure. Well, that depends if you dislike gin or
not. That's, yeah, that's true, too. I mean,
how much we tell Malort, and there's people out
there who've vomed trying it. Yeah, because there's,
I mean, there's people that don't like to shoot
vodka. Like, the idea of it is not very pleasurable.
But, you know, I had a bartender friend whose
favorite drink is vodka, or favorite alcohol,
rather, is vodka, and, like, I would shoot it.
Like, I don't mind shooting it. As a matter of
fact, if you take the vodka and you shake it
up and chill it, it's even much more palatable.
Oh, sure. That way. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, a lot of
those hard liquors that are just meant to be
mixers or shooters that you aren't... Especially
vodka, where the only flavor is pain. Yeah, you
can get that sub -zero and it's much easier on
the palate. You know because I forget what it
is, but there's a I saw a video on why alcohol
burns drinking it and it has to do with not the
fact that it's Burning you or it's physically
warm. It's something along the lines of it changes
or temporarily changes your body's chemistry
to feel like your own body heat is burning you
or something along those lines. And I was like,
that is fucking crazy. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That just
like a simple chemical compound could just be
like, oh, hey, nerve ending. You're going to
start feeling like your own body heat's killing
you. And it's like, oh, God. It's like the same
shit with capsaicin. There's nothing hot about
it. Right. It's just telling you, hey, taste
buds. Fuck you. Right. And then your taste buds
are like, oh no. Right. Right, because it just
depends where everything falls on your palate.
And like for Malort, for example, because we
just talked about it, there are people that just
can't do it. Yeah. And they think it's just the
most god -awful thing ever invented in terms
of alcohol. But the thing is, it just depends
where it falls on your palate and that aftertaste.
So if... You know, if you swallow it and you
don't let it linger on your tongue too long,
you're gonna be alright. It still has that little
bit of piney kind of... Essence. Essence to it.
And it does linger on your palate longer than
most things. Sure. To be fair. But once again,
it's just, it depends. I mean, what someone on
someone's palate just might be the most awful
thing ever. Like, it's almost unfair for me to
talk about it because I can drink anything. Sure.
And I, in my group of friends, I am the designated
shot taker, because there's a lot of people in
my group that don't do shots. So people would
be like, oh, let me buy you a shot. And they'd
always be like, don't buy me a shot. I don't
do shots. And I'd buy them a shot. And then they're
just like, hand it over. And I'm like, OK, I'll
do it. And that's just because I care. It's because
you're brave. I am brave. I'm brave, and I care,
and godspeed. Godspeed. All right, next one is
at the Santa Claus. Oh. Gentlemen, I have a few
issues this year. Ruh -roh. Due to tariffs, I
had to lay off 45 % of my elf force. I am also
having issues getting things shipped. to the
North Pole on time. However, the naughty list
is bigger than it has ever been. Yeah. Also,
due to lack of holiday spirit, the sleigh ain't
getting off the ground. Should I just retire
and become a Walmart greener? Oh, man. Well.
Santa's kind of depressed. He's kind of down
on his luck, and I can't blame him. You know,
you got everyone's broke, so they can't necessarily
participate in the capitalistic side. and of
course being the Santa Claus providing such toys
and not being able to get the parts clearly from
overseas where most everything is made. That's
tough. I would say no, don't work for Walmart.
That's like actual culty type behavior. But man,
that's rough. Aren't you omniscient, by the way?
Couldn't you just get a job being like... God
almighty's right -hand man. Pretty much could
do that. Just take it. Hey, yo, big man. Take
a little load off. I'll keep an eye on them if
they're naughty or nice. He's magical. Go to
Vegas and get on the stage and make yourself
a little cache. Right. You could be like a street
magician. If you believe this sleigh will rise,
it will rise. It will rise. And it's like, OK,
I believe. And it goes up. It's like, whoa! Well,
that guy's great. He's crazy. He's also kind
of... Dressed like Santa Claus, but I'm not gonna
judge him. I mean, that's pretty What do you
call himself? Nick? That's weird Is he really
a saint? Is he really a saint? What is he the
saint of? He doesn't look like a saint that I'm
aware of But whatever he just levitated that
sleigh. So I mean that's Pretty good. Put a fiver
in the guitar case. That's right. Exactly. There
you go, man. That's that's pretty that's pretty
fire But there's no David Copperfield, but anyway
Next one at sexy Sadie three four two whoa All
right, let's see what she's gonna say hi there.
You guys are interesting funny and hot whoa Do
you ever take your show on the road if so? Can
you please come to Austin, Texas? Wow we well.
Thanks for the compliment. That's great Not yet,
not in our current state, but Because that would
be Indiana. Yeah, exactly. Hey, there's the funny
part. That's the funny part. That's all you get.
That's all you get. I can't give you freebies
every week. Yeah, until the show starts making
money, I think touring is not quite on the ticket,
if you will. But Austin, Texas sounds like a
good time. It sounds like their weather would
probably be great this time of year. Oh my god.
I can't even imagine. Yeah. But yeah, that sounds
great. Maybe do something during a South by Southwest.
That'd be fun. Now, Sadie, why wouldn't you come
to Indiana to see the Mark Mo show, if you're
that big a fan? Why not come to Valpo? I mean,
because Valpo has... It's the place to be. I
mean, it has. It has. We have a food place? A
couple of food places. We got a couple of gas
stations for you. If you're into gas stations,
everyone's into gas stations, am I right? Oh
yeah, for sure. Check that out. We've got a few
of those. Trees. We got some trees. We've got
some trees. How could I forget the trees? But
anyway. But anyway, yeah, check out Valpo. Check
out Valpo. It's a site to be seen. You could
imagine driving down a road. Yep. Valpo's got
those. We got roads. We got roads. But where
are we going? We don't need roads. We're just
the quote machines today. We are, indeed. And
I think that's why Sadie loves us, for sure.
God bless your soul. Yeah. Last one. Oh, here
we go. At stonerstanley420. You knew it was coming.
My man. Momo and Alan, happy Krimis. Happy Krimis.
And joy time for next year. Okay. You make happy
time for all, and that is a gift. Thanks, Stan.
That is very nice. Thank you, Stanley. I laugh
at times, and then times my cat eats my socks.
Oh, my God. And I don't have the happy time for
me. Drink some eggs, eat pie, and kiss a pretty
girl under your toe. Peace out. Under my toe?
Under your toe. That's a weird situation. I don't
have a mistletoe. Got a toe. Plenty of toes.
Tend to be exact. To be precise. I would say
happy chroma to you. To you. And joy time to
your next year as well. Absolutely. I think I'll
pass on drinking the eggs. Yeah, I don't want
to drink the eggs. Are you certain it isn't a
yule cat that is eating your socks? I was going
to say, oh man. You might want to check that
out there, Stanley. That could be an issue for
you. Oh, man, that's crazy. If he runs out of
socks, does he get taken? Oh. Row, row. Well,
if we don't hear from Stanley anymore. We don't
hear from Stan. I think we know. He ran out of
socks. Indeed. Indeed. Now, your DMs. Oh, my
goodness. What do you got? Evil Genie. Checking
in again. Would you rather lose your sight irreparably?
Or lose one of your legs. Well, that's pretty
evil. Evil Genie. I don't like either one. I
don't like either one. That's a bad time. If
I lose a leg... Where did I put it? I know. That's
no good. It would be different if we lived overseas
or in Canada. If you lose a leg, you have this
thing called universal health care. Probably
just slap a fake one on. Slap a fake one on.
You'd probably be okay. You'd learn how to walk
again. But losing sight would be terrible. Terrible.
I couldn't work my current job if I didn't have
sight. Right. I'd drive for a living. Really
large vehicles. And you can't really do that
without eyeballs. But can I do that with one
leg, maybe? Maybe. Maybe? Ah, I think I'm gonna
have to lose the leg. I think sight is too important
of a sense to me. Right? Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah,
I think I'd drop a leg. Man, you know, that's...
Like with the leg... Oh man. Yeah, that's real
tough. Yeah. Hmm well and see that the site is
a little more personal to me because that like
that shit runs in the family right and I've already
started losing a little bit of eyesight in my
left eye and I'm not that old so You know 10
15 20 years down the road probably doesn't look
super great for me Doesn't look super great Sorry.
Sorry. Wow. That was so insensitive. I wouldn't
know if it would look great or not, to be completely
honest. I'm sorry. No, that's fine. That's fine.
It's like when quick wit meets brutality. It's
like, fuck, do I say it? Finish him. Of course
you do. Of course you do. Fatality. If I could
see you, I'd kick your ass. It makes you a great
comedian, but a shitty son. Right. It's like,
okay, cool. A sacrifice worthy of making. Yeah,
and then if the leg thing, and I'd be like, oh,
I'm gonna kick your ass, you'd be like, go ahead.
Which one? Go ahead. I'm about to take a tumble,
old man. If you only have one leg, does that
make every kick a drop kick? 100%. 100%, it's
gotta be. It would definitely make it a drop
kick. Wow. Fascinating. And then it's kind of
hard. You really can't use the terminology hop
at all with someone like that, because that's
just rude. Right. Come on, let's hop too. Oh.
You kind of already do that. All right. You dick.
Right, exactly. Oh, man, that guy doesn't have
a leg to stand on. What I meant to say. He's
got one to stand on. He's leaning a little. Yeah.
He's got to fortify and plant your feet, plant
your foot somewhere. Oh, no. Yeah, I don't like
either one of those. But I'd probably take eyesight
because that's going to be something I'm going
to lose anyway. Get used to it early. Get used
to it early, and then I can just listen to Bear's
games and use my imagination. Yeah, right. Sounds
awesome. Gumbo 35 checking in. Gumbo! Temperature
has cursed you with opposite day. Specifically
regarding ingestion. Oh. Interesting concept.
All your cold food is hot, and all hot food is
cold. All of your cold drinks are now hot, and
all your hot drinks are cold. Which do you think
would be worse? All of your cold drinks are hot.
Oh, yeah, could you imagine, like, steaming warm
beer? It'd be awful. It'd be terrible. You're
out in the yard, you're pulling weeds, cutting
the grass, cleaning out in the garage, sweating,
you come in, and it's warm. That just sounds
gross. And there's not many hot drinks besides
coffee and tea that people regularly consume.
And granted, iced coffee's a thing. So if my
hot coffee was all of a sudden iced, that'd still
be fine. I would just be a little perturbed in
the winter, where I'm like, I kinda wanted it
hot. Yeah, like when I go work in a coffee shop,
and sometimes my coffee sits there for a little
bit, and... You know I've got half of it left,
but now it's cool. It's cool. Yeah, so it's like
all right now It's kind of closer to an iced
coffee, or if I have a hot chocolate. It's more
like chocolate milk Yeah, right. It's fine. Nothing
wrong with that. No. I just thought the the cold
hot I just think that's or yeah like coming inside
after mowing the lawn you want a cool glass of
water or you want to crack open a cold brewski,
and they're both warm It's like God damn it that
sounds awful because like cold pizza makes sense
Cold noodles are fine. Cold fries, that's a no.
You definitely lose fries. That is one food when
it cools off, you just throw the garbage. Could
you imagine a warm cereal and milk? God, that
sounds nasty. I think the drinks would be worse,
but... Breakfast would feel a little different
No, and that's funny you say that because I feel
like I acknowledge that which is why if I have
a bowl of cereal I eat it really fast you got
to yeah You got to see they're gonna saw or it's
gonna become room 10 room temp and that's gross.
That's foul Another DM here from evil genie actually
checking in again Never mind the last one actually
thinking about turning a new leaf in 2026 Okay,
would you rather have? $75 ,000 right now, or
have a $75 ,000 a year job that climbs with inflation?
Interesting. Now, that is an interesting question.
Because I imagine the $75 ,000 right now didn't
say anything about that being taxable income.
I might just have that. Or that it'd even be
a good job. Yeah, what if it's a shitty job?
It could be a terrible job. Well, it pays well,
but if I'm gonna hate myself for 2 ,000 hours
a year... Right. What if it's so shitty you quit
in six months? Right, right. That's 75k right
now. I'm taking that right now, because I owe
people money, man, and I gotta get them that
cashola. So I'm gonna take that, and whatever
I got left, I'm probably going to disappear somewhere
for a long weekend, and just get my shit together.
Yep. I'm in the same boat. Because if I don't
get to choose the job it could be really really
bad, and I don't like the thought of that So
I'll take the 75 right now as hell. Yeah final
DM. I received hero brine asking hmm. What's
your favorite? Minecraft sprite I Love the design
we have played that on yeah, I love the design
of the sheeps The sheeps are cute. I need to
I love how the, uh, like the oak and the dark
oak play together when you're building a house.
Right. I think it looks very cute. The sheeps
are great. The interplay between the different
woods are great. I like the little ocelot cats,
as well. Yeah. I like the chickens. I like the
fact when you whack them with the swords, like,
And then they like, leave you an egg, and it's
like, why do I gotta kill this little dude to
get an egg from him? Why can't they just randomly
lay eggs around the island that I just built?
I think they do. It just takes forever. But if
you bonk him one, it's like, gah! Oh, yeah. I
love... setting up these huge pens and putting
a bunch of chickens in there and putting a bunch
of pigs and just Having just these orgies go
on and all of a sudden the wheat all the wheat
seeds. Oh, yeah Now your island looks like Nebraska
because you've just got these pens filled with
animals that can't even move It's like the game
starts to lag a little bit. There's too many
entities on screen. Yep, exactly. God damn it
Yeah, those pigs they pork my man You're welcome.
I don't know if this counts, but the little green
dudes that hiss at you. Oh, the creepers. Yeah.
I like and hate them at the same time. Because
if you're in creative mode, it's really a non
-issue. But if you're in survival mode, and all
of a sudden you hear it sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
You're just like, oh shit, where is he? Especially
if you're already in the mines and there's lava
around. It's like, God, don't explode me into
the lava. Oh yeah. I can't lose the two diamonds
I found. Right, exactly. Because then he just
explodes. And if you're down under the earth,
all hell breaks loose. And it's just like, OK,
how do I get back up there now? And it's just
not pretty. It's not at all. And I think there's
kind of a cool story. You can look up the full
thing. I'll just try and... Paraphrase it from
memory, but apparently they never attempted to
make creepers Like they were trying to build
a pig, but they actually like inverted all the
y -axis with the x -axis. Oh So it was like this
weird upright shaped thing and it looked all
strange And then of course they had the bug where
shit just explodes randomly Yeah, and they just
kind of paired the two together and like I guess
it's a new character now Like the creeper actually
came by by accident Wow, yeah, I thought that
was kind of fun. That is fun Feel free to check
like fat check me in the comments, but I'm pretty
sure that's how the story went down Pretty certain
and I don't like the villagers. I don't like
them. They've all they look like Brown Squidward
Yeah, they always got a toot so I was like her
And they just give you this dirty look and then
like if you're building houses and you open the
door And there's a five of them standing in there
like this is not a hotel get the hell out of
my place man, right? And then they've got the
gall to be like, oh, well, you give me five diamonds.
I'll give you an emerald. It's like, oh, well,
what's an emerald worth? A carrot. Oh, cool.
What the fuck, man? Such a great idea. Where
did I put that sword? Yeah, right. In the villager.
Hurr. How? Hurr. Hurr. Hurr. Fuck them guys.
Mm -hmm. That was the last DM I received. All
right. Those are the DMs for this week. If you
got any, send them to us on the socials. And,
uh... We might read them. Get back to you. No
doubt. We have a little segment called The Other
Foods. Aidan scours the planet, the globe, flat
or otherwise. And he will find a country with
some putrid -ass shit. And I would like to know
what he found this week. Well, this week, we
already kind of hinted on it. Inadvertently,
just in passing a segment ago. Insects. I found
the three lowest rated insect dishes on the globe,
which all, ideally, could have been their own
segment. But hey, it's a season finale. We go
all out. First one here, Han Mahai, which is
especially popular in Bangkok, deep fried silkworm.
Yeah. Deep -fried silkworm, of course, then seasoning
with salt and pepper, and quote -unquote, sometimes
a secret sauce prepared by the vendor. Oh, no.
It's typically sold out of street carts. Once
fried, quote, the silkworms turn crunchy and
greasy, while the flavor is sometimes described
as slightly bitter. Oh, why? Why? Why would you
do that? Why would you do that? The next one.
the second highest rated bad one or lowest rated
it's the second worst second worst hormiga culona
are the quote world famous fat -bottomed ants
which i where you say world fat bottom ants it
makes the queen song sound a little different
yeah yeah uh yeah i wouldn't use the term world
famous so liberally like that The fat bottomed
ants, an unusual delicacy from the Department
of Santander in Colombia, originally harvested
from the Guane Indians as a protein source. Guano!
Hello! Today it takes about five hours to gather
the ants from their nests in the springtime.
Their bottoms get soaked in salt water. And then
they are fried for about 45 minutes, and then
strained, just before they remove the wings by
hand. So they soak the ass of the ant in the
salt water to puff it up, fry it, and then remove
the wings. It's like, there's your food. No,
mm -mm. It's like, brother, I think I'm gonna
have to pass. Fat bottom and to make the rockin'
world go round. That's all we can say. You make
my taste buds go... sad. The last one I've got
here is a Beondegi, a classic, quote unquote
classic. I'm sure. South Korean street food consisting
of silkworm pupae insects. Oh no. With these
little guys being boiled and steamed. Oh. And
then of course seasoned before they're served
in small cups of course another street food there
for you now I understand being I Understand the
whole thing of why people eat insects like it's
it's one of the more protein protein packed environmentally
friendly ways to eat animal protein But at the
same time it's like dude. There's a reason why
people powder Cricket protein and then throw
it on like a Dorito chip. It's because the only
thing you're tasting is Dorito chip Yeah, you
don't just put the bugs in a bowl and be like
there you are Uh -huh, then I know I'm eating
bugs. I know right. Yeah, that's a it's a hard
pass I gotta say definitely a hard pass. So those
were the three According to I believe the website
was taste Atlas. Those were the three lowest
rated worst rated insect dishes. I'd buy that.
I'd buy that for sure. I wouldn't purchase it.
No. But I'd buy that. No. You know, and then
conversely, I do this thing called Frozen Guy
Reviews, where I, since I live on my own, I,
you just kind of get used to eating the frozen
meals once in a while. You just keep a bunch
of those in your freezer, and you know, it's,
because grocery stores, when you're talking like
fresh food, meats and vegetables, There isn't
much there for a single person Because like I'll
cook and I have like some looking at six pork
chops. I'm like, well shit I'm not eating six
pork chops and then in three or four days you're
gonna be like, oh shit forgot about those leftover
pork chops Now I gotta toss them. Yeah, and so
I'm not not really happy about that, but you
get some frozen meals They've got a pretty long
shelf life on the old freezer. So anyway, I've
been rating them And I just tried one. Actually,
I had one today, which is the same kind of food
as this one. So I'll have to do that one next
week, but this is Stouffer's Swedish Meatballs.
Ooh, okay. Big Stouffer's guy? Well, well! We'll
find out, I guess. You know, a lot of times I
look for what's on sale. And frozen foods don't
typically have really great sales, but, you know,
if I see something knocked off 20, 25 cents or
something, it's like, eh, okay. And so Stouffer's,
the one criticism I have of most of their meals
is that quantity isn't great. Oh, sure. So you
can eat one, but then I feel like I need one
more. Yeah. And so if you're only paying three
bucks for it, if you just eat the one, Well hell,
you just filled your belly and it only cost you
three dollars, so fantastic. But it's gonna take
two to fill my belly, so now it's like six dollars.
Yeah. Not, mid. Yeah. Very mid. The meal is kinda
mid. The noodles were fine, but the sauce was
kind of liquidy. Oh yeah. So I'm not a huge fan
of that. And the meatballs, while they were good,
were small. That's no fun. So meatballs are small
tiny balls tiny balls He had tiny balls Yeah,
tiny balls Liquidy sauce and the noodles are
okay, so not the best But it's the same sense
like I was really hungry when I had it So my
oh, I shouldn't make myself really hungry when
I do these because I'm not gonna raise you yeah,
excuse it, but I will be honest in my review
anyway. And I'm gonna give it a 6 .2. Ooh, the
lowest rated so far. I think so. Stouffer's,
what are we doing, man? What are we doing, yeah.
But I'll have another Swedish Meatball review
next week, because I had it for lunch today.
And you just have to wait. You'll just have to...
Clifhanger! Clifhanger. That'll be season five,
so we'll do more Swedish Meatballs then. Other
than that, I think we'll just take a break here
for a hot minute and you just made the list is
coming up All right, we're back everybody it's
mark mo show Mark Maloney with aid Maloney, and
we are now on to you just made the list top ten
list we go ten through two with our big number
one reveal and These lists say they could be
anything and they have been just about everything
and anything and the only rule Let me look at
the rule book. Oh look at that. No rules. Whoo.
Thank goodness. How about that? I like having
that that PDF File of all the of all the rules
I get worried because it's like 218 pages 218
pages It's like a 10 megabyte, you know document
a text file, right? It is and then you just get
in there and it says nothing no rules. No rules
Yeah, that's it. That's all it says these be
defragmented if you ask me. I'm Right, man. So
last week we did some top ten terrible gift ideas
for the holidays. That's so great. Which was
pretty good. And then this week we're doing top
ten ideal Christmas vacations. Maybe just places
you might go to that just scream the holidays
or just places where you might like to spend
the holidays. So Aidan, what do you got, man?
Number ten. I'll run my ten through two. Save
my big number one for later. Number ten. Rome,
Italy. I think Christmas in Rome would be gorgeous.
I think so. Also, I just kind of want to go to
Italy and try the pasta. I do too, man. I just
try that pasta, see what their pizza's like.
Yeah, here it's different. I've heard it's just
different. Yeah. So try that, you know. Maybe
you'll be like, yo, da pope. Da pope, yeah, exactly.
Go and meet the pope, but you're wearing a Cubs
hat. He's like, curse the... Like a bolt of lighting
comes down. Cursing. It's like, hey, my city's
had a pope and president. How about yours? Hey
-o. Just saying. Gotti. Gotti. Yeah, I'd love
to see Rome. And I think Rome is further south
than us, so it should be nice and warmer. Yes.
Which I think is ideal. Number nine, though,
not very warm, Chicago, Illinois. USA Chicago
because nothing go nothing screams the holidays
my friend like a nice cheesy beef that cheesy
beef But I mean you got the Chris Kindle Mart
you got I mean you go see the bean Go to a hundred
and third story the Sears Tower look down on
the beauty of Chicago Yeah, the snow the bean
is cool, man Yeah, I mean you can you can go
you can like take your picture in the bean or
with the bean you can flick the beam Whatever.
Yeah, why not? Why would you not? Why would you
not? In the public of Chicago? Go ahead. Go ahead
flick the bean. Go ahead flick the bean on your
way to You do some ice skating. Yes downtown.
They got that going on. Michigan Avenue is beautiful
Oh, yeah, Lake Shore Drive is always a beautiful
drive down by the water tower. It's very cool
Yeah, so that's definitely up there number eight
Somewhere a little warm give us a break from
the weather Miami, Florida. Yes, give me somewhere
warm Want it to be 72 70 degrees on Christmas
Day? I'll be able to walk outside with a t -shirt
on right t -shirt some shorts Walking on the
beach just kind of going Yep, doing grilled burgers
on Christmas Day. This is this is good This is
life. Yep number seven. I would love to see what
it's like London, England Yeah on there because
there's been a like anytime. There's a Christmas
episode of Doctor Who I'm like that just seems
magical It really does seems magical and I want
to be there And it's like always a joke that
like london really doesn't get a lot of snow
if any Right and like in the doctor who episodes
that always snows on christmas snows on christmas,
right like that's very fitting. That's cinematic
number six tokyo japan Yes. I would love to just
go there and not only experience... I just like
to go there to go there. Yeah, exactly. I just
want to go there to go there, but of course being
able to see like what their Christmas traditions
are like, going to a KFC perhaps. Hell yes. Spending
$200 on a family size. Bucket of chicken. Number
five, I had Honolulu, Hawaii. Because it's warm
and it's tropical. Yes, and it's Christmas and
granted. That's one of the more touristy locations,
but You can sit by the pool with a drink and
be like, yep. This is the best. This is Christmas
day Yeah, what's that? Oh god, what is the one
song from Christmas vacation? When he's like
envisioning the pool in the backyard Yeah, cuz
Ben Crosby will crawl out of the grave ensue
us damn melikaliki maka sure yep is that right
Sure, I don't know I wasn't the singer now sounds
good to me number four Dublin Ireland Yeah, I'd
love to not only go there, but of course experience
Christmas out there. Just seems gorgeous. And
of course, I don't think Ireland really gets
terribly cold winters. They get the heat off
the ocean and then they're kind of chill. They're
a lot like Seattle. I mean, Seattle probably
gets a little bit more snow and ice than they
do. but it's a maritime climate, so it's cloudy,
it's cool, they get rain, whatever, but it's
not overly snowy by any stretch, but even so,
even if you just had just a little bit cover
on the ground, you got your Irish cottage, little
wreath on the door, it's awesome. That'd be beautiful.
Number three, going back to the hot places, Sydney,
Australia. Ah. If it's winter up here for us,
it is summer down there for them. So that would
just be gorgeous. And I know Australia shares
a lot in common with the U .S. as far as certain
cultural customs, so I'd be very interested to
see what their Christmassers are like down there.
I would agree. And number two on my list, because
I've heard great things about it, of course great
things about it during the holidays as well,
Munich, Germany. Oh, yeah. If it's not Oktoberfest,
I would love to see it during Christmas at least.
Well, like the Christkindl market is very similar
to like a German market. Right. But imagine being
in Germany where like every town's got probably
one of these. Right. And they just call it a
market. And they just call it a market. They
don't have to call it a German market. Nope.
Nope. Because you're already there. You're in
Germany. Why would we call it German market?
Buy my goods. Buy my goods. Thank you. Thank
you. All right, my top ten, number ten, Washington
DC. I heard the Capitol is like, it's very pretty
around this time of year. I mean, current...
Yeah, I was going to say maybe you want to go...
...current leadership withstanding. Maybe wait
a few years and then hop back over there, but
we went there when Barry was in and it was delightful.
It was very delightful. It was delightful and...
You know, you kind of went there and talked to
our US rap and some other people. And it's just
like, wow, I'm so hopeful. And then that went
away. That went away. That went away. That went
away. But we had a good run, boys. Yeah, we had
a good run. That's great. Anyway, but I think
just like it's very pretty this time of year
and all the lights and everything. Boston, Massachusetts,
number nine. Oh, yeah. Now I've been there. The
one thing I wouldn't want to do, especially if
it was super snowy, is navigate those tiny streets,
because those tiny streets were originally designed
for horses. Oh, the carriages, right. Yeah. So
those can be a challenge. But if it's not overly
snowy, just a beautiful city, old buildings,
I can imagine just all the decorations and everything
would be really cool. Can you imagine if they
did Christmas tours of Fenway? It's like snow
all over the field. Yep. Walk in there. He's
like here's an eggnog have fun have fun get to
like walk the base paths sipping your nog That
would be a hot cocoa do that man. I'd be down
come in What if they actually have like an ice
rink out there? Oh, no, that's an idea around.
Yeah, that'd be cool Number eight Estes Park,
Colorado beautiful now We've been there, Boulder,
Denver, Estes Park, Big Bear, to that old couple
who's giving me shit because I couldn't breathe,
bite my ass. Oh, you must be out of towners.
Nah, he called me a lowlander. Lowlander, that's
right. He must be a lowlander. Bite my ass, buddy.
No, it's more like this. Bite my ass, buddy.
Wake me up in 10 minutes. I'll tell them, I'll
really tell them then. God, that was the worst.
It was the best and the worst at the same time.
I could not fucking breathe. Estes Park is just
kind of that little mountain town, and I just
could envision everybody all decorated, all the
lights and everything, and the mountains and
the snow. That would just be unbelievable. You
actually get to look up and see the stars at
night. That was cool. We were in a hot tub one
night at this lodge we were staying in, and you
could see every star. Every star. Every freaking
star. And it was amazing. And then this couple
went in there, and it looked like they wanted
to do a couple things. We're like, yeah, we should
get out of here. It's skedaddle. It's time to
skedaddle. They did not want to share their hot
tub time with a... With three dudes. With three
dudes, right. Yeah, we're all sitting there eating
cheese doodles like, no, go on, continue. Did
you see those stars up there, huh? Did you see
those stars up there? What stars? How about this
weather? How about that weather? Those aren't
two pillows. Number seven, Montana. Oh, Montana's
beautiful. One of my favorite states to drive
through. Big ass state. Just a great state to
drive through. Love the mountains and the snow
and everything and I could just imagine like
staying at a ranch. Like over the holidays. Oh,
yeah, and just like doing like a whole like ranch
weekend where you're like riding horses and all
that kind of stuff and and just having the snow
falling in the background and having marshmallows
like in the fire play like I could just see it
being awesome Like Billings is cute. Missoula
is cute. Yep Or just if you're out in the middle
of nowhere. Oh, yeah, who cares? You know, rattlesnakes
aren't going to be an issue in December. Right,
right. At least I don't think so. God, I hope
not. Rattlesnake comes out of nowhere. He's got
a park on. Yeah, right. It's like an AP news
article drops. It's like, Montana rattlesnakes
become immune to winter. It's like, oh, no. News
at 10. Number six, New York City. New York City,
Holiday, Big Tree, I mean you saw Elf, you saw
the movie Elf, you saw New York at Christmas
time. It's amazing to stay away from those rangers
in the park. The park rangers. The park rangers,
they're not nice guys, stay away from them. Number
five, Finland. I could have picked Sweden, I
could have, but like Finland is just more along
that North Pole vibe, so to speak, and I think
the Finns just do the holiday upright. Number
four, Dublin, Ireland. Hell yeah. We talked about
that. I think it would just be absolutely gorgeous.
Number three, kind of a tie even though it's
the same place, Rome slash Vatican City. Oh yeah.
I think that's, you know, it's the... you know,
Christian holiday, so why not go where all the
Catholics go? I imagine they probably put on
a righteous party. A big show. A big show, so
to speak, so I think that'd be kind of neat.
And number two, downtown Chicago. Ah, yeah. I
might be a homer in that pic, but I've spent
a lot of holidays there. And it's just beautiful.
It is gorgeous. It's beautiful. Everybody's in
a good mood, even if it's cold and snowy. Everybody's
just, their moods have changed. You go in all
the stores. The stores are all decorated. The
Chris Kindle Market at Daily Center is just awesome.
Gorgeous. They also have one now at Wrigley Field.
So you can go to Wrigley Field and they have
a big Chris Kindle Market. You can walk onto
the field. That's cool. And they have a big ice
rink. That's what we were just talking about.
I can't believe I predicted that at Fenway. They're
doing it at Wrigley. And they are doing it at
Wrigley. That's crazy. They definitely do it
at Wrigley. And yeah, there's a lot of pop -ups,
too. That's one thing the bars in Chicago do.
They do these pop -ups. There's actually a pop
-up right now at a bar called Replay, and it's
a Stranger Things pop -up. Oh, that's fun. So
they're just real big on these, and there's several
Christmas pop -ups and Christmas -themed bars.
They're just cool. It's all part of it, so. That
is very neat. Yeah. Yeah. That's wicked. Alrighty.
We actually shared about half of our answers,
I want to say. We're very close on a lot of these.
Yeah, no doubt. What do you got for your number
one? Have I said it yet? It has not been said
yet. Ooh, okay. I went San Diego, California.
San Diego. San Diego. This makes me think of
him drinking that milk in the phone booth. I'm
in a glass case of emotion. Backstar! But I would
love to go to San Diego. I was going to pick
LA, but I'm like, ah, I don't know. I don't know
if I would want like big city, big city. Although
San Diego's still a big city. But just like somewhere
warm and on the west coast and kind of out of
the way where I can just chill. Yeah. And not
get hit with any arctic blasts, arctic circles.
Now, you're good in San Diego, for sure. It's
like every day is 80 degrees and sunny. Yeah,
and they have an amazing food truck scene with
some amazing Mexican food. And I imagine... Oh,
that's right. That's like my favorite food. And
that is like right in the wheelhouse, right there
in San Diego. I mean, what are they like? Less
than 100 miles from the Mexican border, so...
Right, right. You know, they have amazing food,
but you're on the water and yeah, it would just
be fantastic. Holiday destination. Yeah. Yeah,
I dig it. I like that. That's my numero uno.
All right, that's solid. My number one is Germany.
Germany has been said, but there's so much in
the traditions of the Christmas holiday that
are taken from Germany and the Germanic people.
I feel like Ireland and Germany are the two that
kind of set up what the modern Christmas holiday
is here. Sure. I can see that. I think that's
fair. And so I just love their markets. I want
to sit in one of those big tents. after buying
all sorts of little tchotchkes from from the
people in the market and then just trinkets and
gadgets trinkets and gadgets and just sit down
with all of my my newly purchased items and just
sit there in my literhosen and drink yes a bear
bigger than my head I think that would be wonderful
that would be oh yeah I would dig that What a
great list there's a good list right that is
fun And I like both of our takes kind on on where
we were going with that for sure We definitely
share your number one was my number two, so we
definitely shared the idea Yeah, and we both
had Dublin Ireland at number four for sure so
Same idea. And I like your warm places, though.
Yeah. Oh, I definitely emphasize. After today,
which, of course, is Friday for us. It's Saturday.
I want to go somewhere warm. Oh, it was brutal
today. Beautifully cold. So like I got home and
I was just thinking, I'm like, I think I need
to make some adjustments. I need more warm places
on my list. Yeah. I made some redactions, put
some new ones in there. I love that. I'm thinking
warm. We have one more segment to do before we
hit our break. While you were sleeping, sleep
is wonderful. Sleep is great. But sometimes while
we're doing it, we miss something. Oh, gosh.
That sounds like it could be devastating. It
could be. It depends what you're missing. But
yeah, I have to be honest. Sometimes it's a YouTuber,
a movie, a TV show. Who knows what we're missing.
But you know what? I know Aidan's going to tell
us. I'll find it. And last week I did a YouTuber,
so this week I'm doing a YouTuber. Because I
thought of another one. As always, I think last
week I brought up Summoning Salt. The hyper fixation
on crazy world records, and Mike Tyson's Punch
-Out, Lego Star Wars, all that crazy stuff. I
found another video game -centric channel that
I thought needed more attention. Because it's
not like Let's Plays or commentary... Gaming
like we do it's it's very it's so niche, but
it like it activates my neurons It's like oh,
this is this is cool. Yeah, he makes videos doing
atypical things in video games Oh, okay by the
name of any Austin Making videos along the lines
of what's actually illegal in Grand Theft Auto
where he will spend hours playing GTA V to figure
out what exactly the cops deem as not breaking
the law. Right. Or a one -star misdemeanor, if
you will. Two stars or plus being a felony. Right.
And actually find out, wow, felony vandalism
does not actually get a police response. Nope.
But walking up to the cops and standing there
for too long, you'll get arrested. You will get
arrested. Yeah. So he actually spent like hours
in game sourcing like the data for that Finding
out what's on the edge of the map of Skyrim like
walking around the huge map and be like well
What's actually here? Wow like spending the time
to do that like our Grand Theft Auto's airports
realistic like taking data from actual airports
like like Liberty City and then the airport it's
based off of and being like Was it real? Like,
do the runways make sense? Does the spacing make
sense? He did this whole video on Grand Theft
Auto's airports and how they're not accurate
in scale. Like, it would be completely unsafe
for an actual, like, 787 to land on GTA 5's airports
because it's way too short. He did a video of,
like, do Grand Theft Auto's street signs comply
with California law? And he finds, like, Every
street sign in the game and comments on it. Oh,
no way. That's fun. It's crazy. It's super fun
It's it's a great watch. I highly recommend it.
It's like it's the kind of niche weird Type of
content where I'm like, I love this. Yeah, like
it's it's something I'm so curious about but
the curiosity never crosses my mind until he
makes a video I'm like Holy shit, do the signs
in GTA make sense? I never thought about it.
Well, the most amazing thing, too, is that even
though it's not an exact map of Los Angeles,
California, the very first time I played this
game, I had this deja vu moment where I went...
God, I know I have never played this game before,
but why the hell does it feel like I've played
this game before? Because I've been to Los Angeles,
and holy shit, there's the forum. I wonder if
I can go watch a Lakers game. I mean, I'm literally
driving around. There's Santa Monica Pier. How
cool is that? So it's kind of neat. So some of
that is... I would call it semi -accurate. I
think there's obviously streets and things that
they've removed and taken out, but there's sections
where it's like, holy shit. It's like, yeah.
It's pretty freaking close. It's like Google
Street View Accurate. It's like, wow. Yes. Oh
yeah, for sure. Yeah, no doubt. But it's fun.
That's awesome. I have definitely got and that
was any Austin Austin Okay, check out any Austin
on youtube for sure Thank you for that aiden
and uh, we'll take a quick break and we're gonna
finish up. We have a beer review coming and No,
world of weird news got something a little different
All right, we are back and we're in the home
stretch here on the Mark Mo Show podcast. I'm
your host, Mark, and this is Aiden, and we are
about to embark on our last beer review of the
year. And I think this one is fun. We had a little
bit of a holiday theme recently. And go, Aiden,
what are we drinking? Today on the final beer
review. of 2025, and what a year it's been. Oh,
just to see how... And what a year it's been.
At least in terms of beer review, it's been great.
It's been great, yes. The restaurant kind of
diarrhea, but you know, whatever. Yeah, well.
It is what it is. It is what it is. Today we
are drinking Pimp My Slay. Let's go. From Fat
Heads Brewery, which is a regional brewery out
of Ohio. It is a Belgian strong dark ale 10 and
a half percentile That's got some some percentile
to it 30 on the IBU scale as their style defined
by them Over the river and through the woods
to this rich complex Belgian style holiday brew.
Intricate aromas and flavors of sweet dark malt,
dark fruit, raisins, figs, ennies, and spicy
fennels. This beer will sting the toes and bite
the nose, but no worries, the horse knows the
way. Ho, ho, ho. I'll be the judge of that. What
happened at grandma's house? Shit. Was we're
going to grandma's house and it's like now we're
getting off of this idea right here They got
that pin my sleigh. Let's go. Did no exhibit
change to style like that Pit my beer it's crazy.
He went from rapping on Dr. Dre's 2001 to being
like I'm gonna take your shit box ride and it's
gonna stay a shit box But you got LCD screens
and the wheels Check that out, yeah. Thanks,
exhibit. This guy's got a 1988 Ford Escort, but
yo, check out those spinners. It's like any...
I've heard, like, recent interviews of people
who've, like, been on Pimp My Ride. Yeah. And
they're like, yeah, I thought they were gonna
kind of fix the car, but they just put a bunch
of tiny TVs all over the place. It's like, state
of shit box. Oh, God. Kind of funny. But yeah,
we're using the Untapped app, a free beer rating
app for your phone, not sponsored, but it is
free, so free's for me. On a scale from zero
to five on how much we like it, we're drinking
it out of the can today, and we'll give you our
tasting notes as we go. That's right, that's
what we do. So hey, cilantro to you. Cilantro
to you, here we go. Merry Christmas. Merry Kremes
to Stoner Stanley. Murray Scromdis and a Happy
2026. That's right. God bless. Oh my goodness.
Oh my goodness. That one's up your alley. I know
that. I've got a weak spot. Yes, you do. From
Belgian Ales. Holy hell. That's so good. That's
so good. Oh my gosh. Wowee. I definitely get
pit fruit. Yeah. Some kind of... Plum or Plum
apricot you could argue Wow, that is great. That
is full -bodied if ever full -bodied Beer. Yeah
were to be embodied. It was it's this. Oh for
sure. It is full -bodied. That's Very much dark
pit fruit. They weren't lying on that. I definitely
get like like plum almost prune In a way? Yeah,
I'm having a difficulty figuring out the notes
that I'm picking up. Yeah, because there is a
touch of cinnamon. What's lasting on my tongue
is definitely cinnamon -esque. Because it is
strong. Yes. It has some bite. I would agree.
I like it though. I would say touch of cinnamon,
but I am definitely getting like plum, prune,
apricot, like pit fruit more so than anything.
And usually Belgians can sometimes sway towards
almost tasting like banana -esque. I do get a
touch of that. I definitely get a touch of that.
It's a good beer though. It is a great beer.
This is right up my alley. I knew it would be.
And that's kind of one thing we've come to appreciate
with these official beer review reviews is you
get two opinions at once. That's right. You know,
you get someone that loves IPAs and Belgians.
You get someone that loves... Ales and lagers.
Ales and lagers. Irish ale, red ale. Yep, porters.
Granted, oh yeah, porters and stouts. So if you
take the average of our two scores you will get
an accurate representation of what's really going
It's fair. I think would be fair to say Yeah,
I did this this flavor profile is it's coming
together for me. I would say very interesting
it is the first sip went down and I was like
Oh, that's not the Belgian. I was expecting and
then the more I'm sipping it It's like I'm picking
up like the pit fruit is so strong But then the
touch of, I'm not getting nutmeg, I'm not getting
like true Christmasy, like all spice type flavors.
It's just like hint of cinnamon, and then it's
like plum. You know? Yeah, cinnamon might be
one of the only ones I'm picking up, but I'm
having a hard time picking up some of the other
ones. But yeah, I mean, it's good, has a little
bit of bite. But even though it has a little
bit of bite it does seem to go down smoothly.
I would agree. Yeah, it said 30 on the IBU which
There is not a hint of of IPA like bitters That
I'm picking up. Oh correct. No, no different
You know, those IPAs where it's like 45 IBU and
people who are afraid of IPAs might be like,
ah, that's too high. If you see 30 IBU and you're
turned away from this, I would say that it's
not the same. I'm not getting that same. I agree.
Piney citra hop. You don't. Yeah, you do not.
Man, I like that. All right. I'm awaiting your
untapped score. My untapped score, my flavor
profile in whole is apricot, banana, plums, prunes,
strong, sweet, and boozy. Ooh, okay. Is what
I added to it. I'm going high, I'm going back
in the fours. 425. Really? 425, I really like
this. Wow. This is one of those beers, I think,
that maybe you couldn't have more than one or
two. in an evening and probably shouldn't have
more than one or two from the from the high ABV
but it's so it's unique and fulfilling like my
palate is wholly satisfied yeah in its flavor
so it's it's getting a four and a quarter that's
that's uh that's a great score man uh i am going
to go three two five okay uh and that's simply
because it's I don't know. There are some Belgians
I really, really do like. Tutlaman, which is
a Megadeth creation, is actually an excellent
Belgian. One of my favorites. The Chame. Belgium's
are outstanding. Those, I mean, I don't know
if we've actually done one for the show. We might
have to do that. But like those, I would probably
rank close to a four. Yeah. But this one, it's
a good beer. And, you know, three, two, fives
where I'm at. That's definitely fair. Oh, and
my profiles are strong, dark, and smooth. Yeah.
Totally fair. How do I like my men's strong,
dark, and smooth? My man. Get in line. Never
ask for a second cup at home. Okay, that leads
us to something that is not World of Weird News.
Oh no. I know. Something we have done a time
or two. Tier listing. God, I love tier listing.
Getting back to a little bit of tier listing
and what are we tier listing? Are we staying
in the holiday spirit? A little holiday spirit.
We're gonna be tier listing Christmas movies.
I love it. We will rank them on a scale from
F being the worst of the worst. D being bad,
C being mid, B being good, A being great, S being
the best of the best. Of the best. Of the best,
of course. And we're gonna go down this list
and rank some Christmas movies. I dig it. For
the season. Sweet. Starting off strong. Scrooged.
Ooh, I do dig Scrooged. It's great. I like that
it's a little bit dark. I have no problem with
that. Bill Murray was absolutely the dude to
do it. I like the story. I like the actors and
actresses. Carol Kane. Hilarious. And then was
it Buster Poindexter? The ghost in the cab. Frickin'
hilarious. Oh yeah, that's right. I just, I dig
it. You almost had Beetlejuice vibes. A little
bit. A little bit. In a way. Yeah. I dig it.
Seeing as there are a lot of other movies, and
I don't want to overload the S category. I will
give it an A. Sure. I will influence that. Oh,
here we go. I'll argue A+. Okay. I think it's
great. I'll be the plus or minus man. Okay, A
+, I will go for. A+. For sure. Die Hard. Clearly,
unequivocally, a Christmas movie. 100%. 100%.
100 % a Christmas movie. Unarguably. No doubt.
Oh, I'm thinking S tier. Not only is it a great
movie, it is a great Christmas movie. Few and
far between are the action Christmas movies.
Right, there's just not many of them. You know,
ho, ho, ho, now I've got your guns or whatever.
It's hysterical. I love it. Bruce Willis is the
man. Snape falls off the tower. Oh, right. Yeah,
that's just... Nakatomi Plaza, rather. Just one
liner after one liner. Yippee -ki -yay. Yippee
-ki -yay. You gotta love that. Okay, S tier.
That's where I'm at. An S for Bruce Willis. Yes,
100%. The Grinch Jim Carrey's version. Ooh. I...
I love Jim Carrey, so I am biased towards it.
Oh, I am too, and I love Jim Carrey. I love his
take on it. The little girl who turned out to
be Taylor Momsen in Pretty Reckless. That's so
cool. And she just redid the song, Where Are
You Christmas, and she does it where, like, it's
her child. Version of that song and then it slips
into her current hard rock. So cool. I think
that's just awesome So I love that but that's
technically not the movie. So we're not gonna
be swayed I'm gonna go a I like that a is it's
just solid. It's funny And I dig it. I like that
a down the middle. Yep. Next up the Santa Claus
The Santa Claus. C -L -A -U -S -E Claus. Yep,
I believe that was a Tim Allen vehicle. I love
that you just did that, that's amazing. Fucking
Tim Allen. And here's the thing, I like Tim,
I've liked his older shows, he's a funny dude.
He's very Midwestern. He's from Michigan. So
like that whole Midwestern humor thing only people
in Midwest kind of get it but I dig him I The
movie though To me is mid. It's not on the itinerary
to watch every year. It really isn't for me No,
but I I will it being in the Christmas spirit.
I will throw a plus on him I will give it a C
plus C plus. I like that. No notes next up a
Charlie Brown Christmas I have a soft spot for
this. Me too, honestly. And honestly, it's because
Charles Schulz... was incredibly depressed when
he wrote this. And if you watch it and take the
time to just soak this thing in, you're just
like, holy shit. You can pick up on the notes.
It's like the saddest Christmas shit ever. Sometimes
Christmases are like that. But that's why I love
it. It's real. It's like for people that go through
seasonal depression, you watch that and you go,
yup, yup, this right here. This is exactly. And
I think it's the Vince Giroldi trio. That does
most of the soundtrack for it. Yes, correct.
Iconic. It matches perfectly. Iconic. You know
what? I'm gonna throw this out there, and maybe
I'm wrong for doing it, but S -tier. S -tier.
I like that. S -tier for sure. I absolutely agree.
I would argue S +, but we're not down the list
yet. Right. Next up, Violent Night. uh see now
you're you're you're tugging at my heartstrings
on that one because i i went to see that and
uh we were just talking about the rarity of action
christmas we were and uh i love who's the actor
oh it's uh what's his name hopper from uh it's
a hopper from stranger things um david david
arbor yeah yeah yeah david arbor uh i love it
i love his take on it imagine Friday the 13th
Jason Being Santa Claus so cool. That's so cool.
It's just it's awesome, and it's funny and Like
it still has a little bit of heart. They're still
trying to teach something in it, but it's a slasher
flick Yeah, and you have to take that you know
what it is Solid be yeah solid for sure next
up A year without a Santa Claus. The old school...
Is that claymation at that point? I think it
was. I think it was claymation. And I think,
if I remember correctly, that's the one with,
I'm Mr. Heat. Oh, yeah. Is that that one? I'm
Mr. Sun. Right, I like him. And then Mr. Freeze
is such a dick. Yeah. And you're just like, man.
Like Coldmiser? Yeah, he's just like, ah, I want
everybody to be an icicle. And I'm just like,
oh, Heatmiser kick his ass. Just kick his ass.
Send him. I'm Mr. Snowmiser. Nah, send him back
to the North Pole. I like the cold. It's like,
man, fuck that guy. Fuck that guy. No, that dude
sucks. At least Heatmiser's verse was better.
Yes. Like, I will burn your fucking world down.
It's like, yo, bring it on, son. I feel it. I
feel it. Bring it on, son. B plus. Yeah, I like
that. You know what? Uh -oh. Can I bring it to
an A minus? The songs, and I'm not a musical
guy. Yeah. I'm not a musical guy. I'll give it
to ya. I'll give it to ya. But, like, the Heatmizer
track is just like, oh, that bad hits. It's solid.
It really does. Yeah. That hits. I dig it. Next
up, It's a Wonderful Life. Oh, now see, this
movie... First off, it goes back to family tradition.
I used to watch it with my sister on Thanksgiving
night. Dinner's been done, the pie's been had,
whatever. And we get our pillow and our blankets
and we lay on the floor with our eggnog and we
watch a movie. And so there's a little something
there for me there, like family stuff, nostalgia.
But as you get older, you really feel that movie.
Yeah, like where George Bailey is when he's on
that bridge trust me when I say three -quarters
of all you fine folks out there Have been in
that mindset like why am I here right? What's
what the hell? You know and to the point was
like I wish I had never been born and right he
gives him that look and it's so Impactful sometimes
it takes a kick in the ass. It really does and
then just for how it ended like that It's still
it still makes my eyeballs. Yeah, so S tier.
S tier. I like that for sure. Next up, this is
one you've seen I don't think I have. Office
Christmas party. I've seen it. I love it. It's
amazing. There's so many great comic actors in
that. Oh, yeah. I just roll. I stacked roll when
I watch that movie. And Jason Bateman is like
the perfect comic actor in that and like Bateman's
Bateman. He's just like, oh, yeah, he's he just
hits a sweet spot there. Tim Miller's hilarious.
Jennifer Aniston's funny. Yeah. Gosh, what's
her face from SNL? I can't think of her name
off the top of my head. She is frickin hilarious
in that movie It's great. It's it's it's one
of the funniest if not the funniest Christmas
movie I go a solid a solid a yeah in the middle.
I like that home alone is next I'm gonna surprise
people yeah this even though we always Managed
to put it in our rotation of movies during the
holidays. Yeah Let's be honest First of all,
Kevin's a dick. Kevin's a little dick. He might
just be a little sadistic bastard, but to be
fair, he was just defending his house. He was
being kind of a smartass, and I hate the uncle.
Like, if I was the dad, and my uncle treated
my kid that way, I would punch him dead in the
face and kick him out of that house. That dude
is done. So I don't like that. And then you have
this poor old guy who's the neighbor just trying
to live out the rest of his life. Everybody looks
at him like, ah, he's a serial killer. What leads
you to believe he's out there with some salt
in the shovel? I'm like, what are you doing?
You see him in the store and you go, ah, you
run away. I'm like, you freak. Is this an old
guy? Say hello. Like, what is your problem? And
then he meets him, and he's like, oh, he's a
nice guy after all. Well, you're a little asshole!
Yeah, that's the story. Oh, man. That's the life
lesson, is like... So much in this story riles
me up. Oh, yeah. And I have to be honest, it's
not accurate in the fact that if the bandits
were gonna take that house, and they were gonna
rob it, and there's this little kid, hee -hee,
I heated this up, I heated that up. They're taking
their Glock, they're shooting the kid in the
fucking head, and they're gonna take all the
shit in the house, they're gonna burn it. Right.
And instead he's like, hi, you slipped on my
matchbox, and what planet? What planet is this
happening? Right. So yeah, I am not... You riled
me up with that one, man I tell you because there's
like there are little pieces of it that I like
little heartfelt moments that I like oh and by
the way Go to jail Kevin because he stole shit
from the store And then he's like he he and he's
got his little toothbrush on the shit that he
stole from the corner store And he's running
around and he's sliding on the ice causing people
to collapse into one another distress Yeah, yeah,
and this misdemeanor public news and send the
kid away. Yeah Also with the amount of of of
iron boards to face or paint cans thrown at people
you could have killed that's attempted murder.
That's attempted murder. That is pre Not predetermined.
What's the premeditated? He set that shit up
ahead of time Oh, yeah, anybody could have walked
in house. What if his mom rolls in there like
oh my god, Kevin I'm so sorry smash. I just killed
my mom. Well shit You were one of the robbers,
anyway. But anyway, yeah. Yeah, I, C -minus.
C -minus. And I'm being generous. C -minus, well
I'd love to hear your take on this one then.
Home Alone 2. I think it's subtitled Lost in
New York. Yeah. Starring one of the most, if
not the most, pedophilic president in history.
Yes. I, it should have been called Lost in the
Box. Film canisters lost in the box office. Yes.
That's what it should have been. I give it a
D I'll do you one better. We'll go D minus fair
enough next up Rudolph the red -nosed reindeer
I believe another claymation classic. Another
claymation classic. I like Rudolph. Rudolph's
got heart. You know, he's trying to do the right
thing. People keep shitting on him. And it's
just like discriminating. Really discriminating.
It's like, aha, look at his red nose. It's like,
I'm about to save your ass, bitch. I'm like,
how about that? How about like Santa's like,
oh, it's so foggy. Rudolph, will you guide my
sleigh? And I'd be like, no, bitch, I'm going
back to my den. Right. Have a good night. Peace
out. Everyone was clowning on me. Oh, they're
all clowning on him. And it was it wasn't until
You oh, yeah, you only want me when it's convenient
right, okay? It's got a flash night on his nose
cool, man Help us out. I bring him along. I guess
right exactly grudgingly Yeah, so it's like even
though. He's like a cool kid. He's a cool reindeer
He likes Clarice and his does go kind of hot
so Rudolph. I dig what you're trying to do there
He's got taste. He's got taste. Man's got taste.
That's right, man. And you get yourself a couple
of doughs and you got yourself some bucks, you
know? Rudolph the Red Dough's reindeer. Oh, there
you go. Hey, hey. Okay. Now he's on Only Dough's.
Anyway, that's what it is. C+. I was thinking
B-, I gotta go C +, just because everybody's
a dick to him and I hate that. Everyone is a
dick. That is true. I was about to argue to bring
you up to a B -. And then I changed my mind.
Yeah. Simply put, I changed my mind. Right. And
then there's Bumble and Bumble's just trying
to live his life. And everybody's being an ass
to him. Yeah. It's a world filled with asinine
morons. Right. He's all grumpy and shit, and
then it's like, oh, he's just got a bum tooth.
Right. Hermy should have figured that shit out.
I want to be a dentist. Right. And what? They're
shitting on him too? They're shitting on him
too. Right. He wants to be a dentist. No, make
a toy, bitch. It's like, bro, I got other aspirations.
Right. He wants to get out of the North Pole.
Ski -daddle. I don't blame him. No, me neither.
With that workplace hostility? Oh, no. Shit.
I'd be filing agreements with the Union. The
final five. Elf. I love Elf. Well, I love Will
Ferrell. Oh, he's great. But I I love the fact
putting the syrup in the coffee this syrup I
love syrup he jumps the whole thing in there,
and he just got oh He got Hank you got fucking
crash how he did it was so great And it's just
the fact that he puts all that chocolate syrup
and the M &M's and everything in that pasta or
ate it Jesus oh my god. He got diabetes just
from that scene um, but it's great and and james
conn is his dad and Like he plays his role perfectly
the little brother's fun uh, and then uh Oh gosh,
who's the actress his love interest? Yeah That's
not reese witherspoon. No, no, it's the one from
the tv show zoe de chanel zoe. Yeah Um, and we
already knew she had a great voice because she's
in a band and everything too But like that whole
scene in the uh in the locker room trying to
get Or like as it progressed is like that scene
prompted what ended up powering santa sleigh
right spoiler alert I guess if you haven't she's
saying if you haven't seen elf then you're what
planet are you on right? But yeah that that's
a good that's good writing is like you make a
point and you return to it It's like oh, this
was a key plot point. You didn't know was gonna
come back for sure I'm gonna go a plus. I like
a plus. I was thinking a plus as well Christmas
Vacation. Oh, man, this is right on the edge.
I love it. I am already biased towards. I love
it. I've got a Griswold hox jersey, so I mean,
that says everything right there. A lot of people
that criticize it just say like Chevy Chase,
like his character is sexist and this and that.
And while you might be right, it's kind of like...
Is he doing anything like a lot of middle -aged
guys wouldn't do flirting and knowledge. It's
like That's not the point. It's not the point
of the movie. And so It's just it's I don't know.
I just think it like it's a character. He's playing.
It's a character, right? It's just the character.
You can have your qualms against Chevy Chase.
I've heard from multiple Reports he's kind of
a penis kind of a dick in real. Yeah, he is but
that's that's Clark Griswold the character right
playing the character as it's meant to be. As
it's meant to be, without a doubt. He's not meant
to be infallible. And I love that they change
the kids in every movie. Oh, it's so funny. And
what's his face from, oh, gosh. What's the sitcom?
Oh, jeez. The Big Bang Theory. What's it, Johnny?
Oh, oh yeah. He's the kid. Yeah, that's right.
He's the kid in that one. Holy shit. Yeah, oh
yeah. And then Elaine is the next -door neighbor.
Yeah. And it's like they get good actors for
this thing. Right. The parents are a trip. Oh
my god. So it's like, you know, a lot of people
criticize Chevy, but it's like, it's an ensemble
movie. The little lights aren't twinkling. Oh,
that's so good. It's so good. And then Cousin
Eddie. Cousin Eddie is just... the car, feed
the hog, do the laundry. It's just amazing. Gee,
look at the time. It's so good. And then it's
them cutting down the tree. Oh, yeah. It's everything.
Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Fix the null post.
You know, I was in A +, but I think I got to
bump it to S tier. I'm going S. Yeah. I like
S. I got to bump it to S tier. I would have been
upset if it wasn't S. Yeah, it's an S. Next up,
the final three, A Christmas Story. That's another
one that's interesting to me because it's such
a classic. It is. I love the time period for
that movie because it just lets you believe in
the magic of Christmas a little bit. And so for
that, it's amazing. It's special. But once again,
looking at it for what it is. Ralph's a dick.
He throws his best friend under the bus. Oh,
where'd you use the f -word? Oh, is my buddy.
Yeah. Calls it up. The mom's beating the shit
out of it. It's like he just threw his kid under,
a friend under the bus. Right. And the other
friend, they threw him under the bus when his
tongue was stuck to the pole. Right. Ah, recess
over. I got a bounce. Right. And then doesn't
even say, I mean he could have gone to class
and been like, hey. My buddy's out there, and
he put his tongue in the pool. Right. How difficult
of a situation would that have been? That's a
lack of emotional intelligence. Right. So he's
got problems. Yeah. I like when he wails on the
bully, though. That's pretty great. He pops the
shit out of him. Right. Pop, pop, pop, pop. And
I love the bigger kid of the bullies just casting.
Primo like yeah, hey, let's find a kid that really
looks like a bully that dude like yeah bully
all the way and then his little his little toadies
his little toadie is is dressed like a 35 year
old man his coat and his 1920s gangster he really
is and he's like God it's really funny. I mean
he's totally like a gangster So but there's like
a good message and it's a fun movie spirit spirit.
I love the Chinese Christmas dinner and the dogs
and Fragile must be Italian and it's the leg
in the window Looking at me You know, I was looking
at this dog the bumpers his dogs I was thinking
S tier, I gotta go A plus. I like that. I gotta
go A plus. Yeah, that's a fair score. Penultimate
one, The Polar Express. The Polar Express, another
one. Believe it or not, I've not seen the movie
in its entirety. I've seen - I'm in the same
boat actually. Bits and pieces maybe a dozen
times. Like it's on and then I get busy and whatever.
Which, that's point enough to show it's on. And
it's not good enough to hold your attention.
To hold my attention. Yeah. Whereas, like, if
I'm going to sit down and do It's a Wonderful
Life, it's an event. Oh, yeah. And I'm getting
pie, and I'm getting eggnog, and I'm getting
my blanket, and I'm getting under there, and
the lights are off. Yeah. I'm not moving for
the next hour 20. Right. And Polar Express is
dark. And it times. And to me, it's not as magical.
Sure. For me. And as you say, the story's not
super captivating, at least not for me. It's
like, oh, it's a Polar Express. It's like, all
right, whatever. Yeah, right. And even though
it's Tom Hanks, and Tom Hanks is the G in his
so many great movies, like this one is mid to
me. And I go, I'm going to be nice again. C plus.
C plus. I'd have argued C. All right, let's go
C. We'll go C. Because I was thinking that, actually.
Yeah, yeah. Yep. The final one on the list I
have is The Grinch. Dr. Seuss animated version.
The animated version. Excellent. Excellent. I
love it. I love it. I love the music. The music's,
oh my, that's the original score. Was it Boris
Karloff, I think? Did the, did he do the voice?
Sounds. I wanna, I wanna say he maybe did. But
I love the animation to it. The dog, he's just
the best. As a matter of fact, I think I have
a fluffy. Him yeah somewhere him and the Grinch.
I have both of those I love them. I love the
story little little Cindy Lou who? Who I could
swear your sister Kara was little Cindy Lou during
her younger years at that little boop she had
on top of her head She definitely could could
pull that off. I am boy. Oh boy. This is I'm
on the We gave Jim Carrey's The Grinch an A.
Yeah. I think, I think this is an S tier for
me. I like that. I think it's an S tier. It's
where the original, and we mentioned this the
other week, the best diss track, at least one
of the best diss tracks of all time, is the original,
You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch. Yes. That's, ain't,
no one says, you nauseate me. You nauseate me.
That's insane. The writing, the style of the
song. I love it. Holy. You're a nasty wasty.
Wasty isn't even a thing. Wasty is not a word.
Stink, stank, stunk. Holy shit. I love it. All
of it's great. I mean, not like us is a good
diss track. You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch. It's
right up there. That's an S tier diss track.
That really is, isn't it? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. That's
S tier. That is S tier, I like that. To recap
quickly, Scrooged A +, Die Hard S, The Grinch
Jim Carries version A, The Santa Clause C +,
A Charlie Brown Christmas S, Violent Night B,
A Year Without a Santa Clause A-, It's a Wonderful
Life S, Office Christmas Party A, Home Alone
C-, even though the people hate that, we stand
by it. Stand by it. Home Alone 2, D-, almost
F tier, I would argue. Close. Rudolph the Red
-Nosed Reindeer C +, Elf A +, Christmas Vacation
S, A Christmas Story A +, The Polar Express C,
The Grinch, the Dr. Seuss animated version from
the 60s, not like the other weird one. Correct.
S. Awesome. I love it. I love it. That's our
our last show for season four and our holiday
show. Last show of 2025. It really is. I hope
everybody has a great holiday whatever holiday
it is that you celebrate and a good new year
because I'll tell you what we we need good shit
to start happening man. We're due. We're overdue.
I think a lot of times that the will of good
people will overcome a lot of bullshit but as
much as I did not see that in 2025, 2026 gotta
be better. We have to hope. Has to be. It's a
hope that it's better. And we'll see. But at
any rate, I know one thing for sure. I appreciate
everybody that listens to this and supports us.
We appreciate you guys. There is also Ainspeld
The Right Way gaming channel. Check it out on
YouTube. We have AK219, which is our collab for
gaming. Check that out. That's also on YouTube.
The After Hours radio show, WVLP .org or the
TuneIn app. Make sure you check that out. Some
good music. And that's about all I've got for
you fine, beautiful people. Anything else you
want to close out with? Merry Christmas, Happy
Holidays, Happy 2026. Enjoy the new year. It's
gotta be better than this one. Gotta be. Peace
out.