Welcome to Fandom Shmandom, the fandom podcast
that covers everything you love and more. I'm
Sierra Obermark. And I'm Sam Williams. In this
episode, we will be giving you guys a little
sneak peek behind the curtain. We will be discussing
all of our categories, how we are organizing
this podcast for you guys. And what was the reason
behind why we named the categories what they
are? Because they're kind of nonsensical unless
you have a little bit of information behind them.
Or if you get every reference, then great. But
not everybody will get every reference. There's
one in particular that's really just for Sierra
and I. So moving on, moving forward. That's okay.
First thing, just want to let everybody know
that when we say, without further ado. as roger
smith says dive on in that is an american dad
reference to roger smith the alien character
who in one season is australian and runs a business
and every time he meets somebody he says the
slogan of the business dive on in so that's why
we do that uh which is not so much a category
it's just me wanting to brag that i i know cool
things that's american dad is not that it's fine
all right whatever um all right so this first
category Get up to 88, because it's time to travel
back to our story recap. Sierra, what is this
a reference to? Back to the future. Yeah. Woo
-hoo! Woo. Good old little 1980s nostalgia science
fiction. Going back to the 50s. Marty McFly almost
doing his mom. It's terrible. It's a really weird,
wacky story when you say it out of context. Yeah,
this is the 1980s. This is some sci -fi nostalgia
going back to Marty McFly and his trouble with
his parents and almost breaking them up and almost
disappearing with Doc and everything. We're doing
this because we are traveling back to show you
guys all the different things that happen in
the episodes that we've watched for our episode
of the podcast. So that's pretty self -explanatory.
We will sometimes have what we call an expert
corner, which for this season is our executive
producer, Aurelia, coming in and giving us information
on the books. And then our friend, friend of
the pod, Elizabeth Wade Stickle, who is a history
teacher and will be giving us some real life
information. So when we say, before we get to
that nitty gritty schmitty, we welcome blank
to provide us with that vital information. That
is our expert corner. And those are like. People
who have gone and done some real work to help
us out on the pod to give you guys even better,
further context and analysis of these characters
and of this show. Sierra, go ahead and read.
What is this next category? The next category,
find your donut holes. It's time for our knives
out category, where we sleuth out which three
storylines are the most vital to pay attention
to. Yeah, and listeners, you'll have to sleuth
out. How many times do we say sleuth? Versus
Sooth. Sooth. Sus. Scooth. Skeeth. Yep. We may
have said a bunch of different versions of this
by the time you've listened in. So, Knives Out,
of course, is the Daniel Craig mystery detective
movies that have been really fun to come out.
The third is out, possibly, by the time you listen
to this. It's about to be out as we're recording.
And this is about us identifying, over the course
of all the episodes that we are talking about,
what are the actual three storylines that are
important to pay attention to, and why. So we'll
be detailing all of that. Following that category
is, keep your finger on the pause button and
rewind that tape, it's the Prestige category.
What did we notice on this watch through? The
Prestige is a Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman movie
that Sierra absolutely idolizes. I love it so
much. It was really impactful for me. And I absolutely
adore this movie. It's fantastic. And it's also
entirely different on a second rewatch. Exactly.
Because it's one of those big, huge twist movies.
It is very, very interesting to go back and rewatch
this movie. This is a category to really draw
attention to the things that you may have missed
on the first time that you watched it. And then
going back with more information, fresh eyes,
what potentially could you pick out that you
didn't see before? Yeah. So one of the big things
that we'll talk about is there is a part in one
of the seasons before we ever know anything about
Vecna where Vecna's clock chimes. And you're
just like. Now, having heard that sound and know
what that means, it's kind of mind -blowing when
it happens in the television show. So that's
what that category is for. Next one. You know,
you don't always have to face down a horde of
angry soldiers by yourself. Buckle up, Schmisseners.
It's our Sansa is smarter than John category.
What is this, Sierra? What is the most important
character moment? It's... From Game of Thrones.
Yes. In case you didn't get it, from Sansa and
Jon, there's people who haven't seen Game of
Thrones. That's true. It's possible. It is possible
you didn't recognize those names, but that's
what it's from. So the reason why we named it
as such is because there's this whole arc later
on in Game of Thrones, which this is a spoiler
for Game of Thrones, so if you were watching
it, I guess tune us out for like 30 seconds.
So Jon is up in the north, finally kind of free
of his Nightwatch stuff, and he's with Sansa
trying to defend Winterfell, and there's a huge
hold of angry soldiers coming his way, and he's
like, oh, tough it out. I got this. Hold my beer,
Sansa. And Sansa just, like, sidesteps his beer
and lets it fall, and she instead goes and is
political and gets a whole army to come and rescue
him. So, but that's a hugely important character
moment. for Sansa. It's this moment of sort of
full realization of her character, from dainty
little pretty thing that's only there to be married
off, to I have survived through some of the worst
horrors that this world has to offer, and I'm
stronger and better and smarter than all of you
around me. So that's why when we're talking about
the most important character moment in these
episodes, why we've named it sort of after Sansa.
The next is, I know you just lost a hand, but
listen up. It's the I am your father category
for most iconic character moment. Iconic character
moment, meaning this moment is huge for this
character, whether the fandom loves it or whether
the show really sells it or anything of that
nature. So you think about Darth Vader extending
and being like, I am your father. It's a huge.
giant character moment both for luke and for
vader right it's incredibly revealing but a fandom
we separated it out from important character
moment because sometimes there's there's just
a really really fun awesome not that important
moment that fandoms just absolutely adore that
has nothing to do with like an importance to
the storyline exactly yeah something that is
potentially more Or when you think about this
series or you think about this season, this is
what you think of. And it doesn't necessarily
have to have anything to do with the main plot
or to be the most impactful, but it's iconic.
Yeah, iconic. Which leads us to the next one.
Everybody sit down. It's time for our I am Iron
Man, which is most iconic. And most important
scene category. This, if you didn't get it, is
from Iron Man. Yeah, a scene that is both the
most important and the most iconic. And the most
iconic. Because not only is this scene, like,
extremely quoted and referenced by its own material
for the ultimate moment of that series of MCU
movies. It's also extremely important for both
real -life versions. Robert Downey Jr. ad -libs
that line, they keep it, and it becomes this
huge, amazing ending that everybody loves and
skyrockets this movie, creating the MCU single
-handedly. And it is also important in the movie
because it drives home Tony's whole message that
it's actually me, not some random vigilante that's
doing this. I have changed my heart. Huge, huge,
huge. So in this, we'll be grabbing what we think
is both the most iconic and the most important
scenes, which usually, for moments, you can get
away with splitting them, but for scenes, they
almost always coincide. So we may have honorable
mentions or stuff like that, but there's almost
always one exactly that you can pick. Crack open
in the encyclopedia, Sierra, as Elijah Wood once
said, no, how could we have known? This is where
we discuss the most important information disseminated
to the fandom over these blank amount of episodes,
right? This is a pretty deep pull. It's a very
famous tweet from Elijah Wood, if you are deep
in fandom as Sierra and I are. But there's this
awesome tweet where Rise of Skywalker was about
to release on Disney Plus or something, and Star
Wars Holocron released as a tweet this information
that it was like, Did you know that the planet
of Exegol was formed with Sith worshippers who
were creating the Forsterter fleet the whole
time? And it's just like, if you've seen Rise
of Skywalker, spoilers for this, but this fleet
and Palpatine just kind of come out of nowhere
with no world building, no lord building. They
just kind of drop Palpatine and the fact that
now all Star Destroyers are also Death Stars.
They just can't keep getting away from planet
-killing technology. And it's just really frustrating.
But then... The Star Wars Holocron goes and drops
this information. Which is like, no, of course
nobody knows. And Elijah Wood, Frodo Baggins
of all people, goes, no. He, like, re -quotes
the tweet. And then above it says, no. How could
we have known? So, um. I will use this in whatever
context possible, and I thought it had to be
a category, where we are discussing sort of what
is the most important information to the fandom
in this series of episodes. Later on, we have
big takeaways, and this is kind of a precursor
into big takeaways. So not everything is a big
takeaway, but there might be little pieces of
information, like how physics works, or how somebody's
powers may have adjusted or are different from
one another. So that's where that information
belongs. Keep your horses safe. It's the I'm
gonna make him an offer he can't refuse category
for best lines. Super self -explanatory. The
Godfather. Yeah. Yes. It's pretty self -explanatory.
The line I'm gonna make him an offer he can't
refuse is the best line in the movie. In all
three movies. In all three movies. It's definitely
the most quoted. Yes, if you would like to argue,
please drop your Godfather lore in the comments.
In the comments, yeah. And we can discuss if
you think that there's a better one. I will be
hard -pressed to agree with you, but please challenge
me on that one. Yeah, certainly. Dust off that
card deck and get ready to shuffle. It's our
Joker category for who is the MVP. Of this episode,
story arc, movie, whatever it is that we're doing.
This is a Dark Knight reference, the second of
the Christopher Nolan Batman movies, where Heath
Ledger, RIP, plays the Joker. And the Joker is
the MVP. He's the most valuable player in that
movie. By far. The movie's great. And the first
Batman Begins movie... Incredible. It's a great
movie. Liam Neeson's in it as a villain. He's
awesome. But nothing quite drives Dark Knight
into the stratosphere of one of the best movies
ever made than Heath Ledger's Joker. Both the
writing for it and his acting. So when we're
picking MVPs, we've named it after the Joker
because of how clear of an impact that character
has on that movie. Exactly. This last category
is really just for Sam and I. Clean your evil
lair and get ready for our I was the turkey all
along category. What is the biggest takeaway
viewers should leave with in preparation for
whatever we are preparing you for? This is an
invader zim -hole. Yes, it is! This is something
that Sam and I quoted to each other, sent back
and forth videos of, would hide in random places
and pop out and yell to each other. This was
our, like, never gonna give you up. Constantly.
To each other. Our Rickrolls or whatever it is.
Yes, Rickrolls. This was our Rickroll for years.
So it's a moment where Invader Zim, who's this
little alien that's trying to infiltrate Earth,
owns this house in a neighborhood and in the
basement is his evil lair. And he goes down and
there's this Thanksgiving turkey just down there.
And Invader Zim has this little side companion
named Gur, which stands for garbage and robot.
It's like a malfunctioned robot that the people
who gave him this mission wanted to fail. And
Gur doesn't work that well, but Gur is hilarious.
And so Zim just sort of looks over at this turkey
and ignores it. And then the turkey explodes
and it goes everywhere. And Gur goes like, ta
-da! And Zim just ignores him. And he goes, oh,
there you are, Gur. And then he keeps talking
and Gur goes, it was me! And Zim's like, uh -huh.
And he goes, it's me! I was the turkey all along!
And Zim just completely ignores it. But it's
just like, it's the big realization, right? It's
the big realization is what we're going for.
What's the biggest takeaway? Because the biggest
takeaway in that moment is that Gur was inside
the turkey all along. I don't know that we're
very good at this, Sierra. People maybe should
fire us. I love it. Hey, we've said if you enjoy
us just a fraction of the amount that we enjoy
ourselves that we crack ourselves up we're all
gonna have a good time. Awesome. Today's public
service announcement comes from turkeys. Please
stop hiding inside of us. Thank you, dear listener
schmissiners, for listening to this short intro
explanatory episode of Fandom Schmandom. If you
would like to discuss the shenanigans that we
just got up to, or any future episode slash current
episode, that we are doing please hit us up on
our social media channels you can find us on
tiktok and instagram at fandom shmandumpod and
on x at fandom underscore shmandum please don't
forget to rate and review us if you like the
episode it really helps the algorithm place us
in front of other like -minded schmissioners
out there and with that we're out y 'all don't
forget to tip your categories and fare thee well
Fandom Schmandum was created by Sam Williams
and Sierra Obermark. The show is produced by
Aurelia Lieb. The editor is Brittany Fisher.
The music is by Jeremiah Alves. We're giving
you guys a little sneak peek behind the curtain
here, where we...