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TIDBITS Episode 1: What is a Tidbit?
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The very first episode EVER of TIDBITS, with the now-famous Bicker Buddies: Rob, Gaz, & Mike!
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Ha ha!
00:00:09
Speaker
wait that only goes to decide that de guard was
00:00:19
Speaker
Welcome once again to tidbit think all Tidbits. Tidbits. It's actually the first Tidbits. It's going to go on for a while. This is going to be a really good Tidbits. This is Tidbits, Rob.
00:00:34
Speaker
And joining me as always are the Bicker Buddies. In the Tidbit Tower is me, your friend, Mike. The Bicker Buddy. And who else is here? Who else is here? else is here?
00:00:50
Speaker
Who is here? Come on. Hold on. I'm trying to talk. Hey, it's me, your buddy, Gaspot. Here in in the middle the middle tower of tidbits.
00:01:03
Speaker
I'm not even trying to say it wrong. What are we calling? Are we really calling it that? thought you guys messing with me. Tidbits. Mike sold me on Tidbits.
Trivia Tidbits Concept
00:01:10
Speaker
Welcome to Tidbits, everybody. So that was a good intro. What is the show about, Rob?
00:01:14
Speaker
Oh, that's a good question, Mike. Tidbits is about tidbits. A tidbit is a storied piece of trivia. That we will share with each other each week. Okay. And then we're going to judge who had the most interesting tidbit.
00:01:26
Speaker
So did you both... can vote for yourself. Did you both choose a little ah trivia tidbit? Yeah. I have a little i have a little div yeah yeah bit, yes. okay All right. So let's ah make you say, what the fact?
00:01:39
Speaker
That's what I was going to call it. this What the fuck?
00:01:46
Speaker
What if not? Go ahead, guys. Because two people are going to vote. If there's a tie, then then what? but then the listen There can't be. There can't be a tie. There's three of us.
00:01:57
Speaker
You can't vote for yourself. You can't vote for yourself. Okay, so we'll assume there can't be a tie, and if that happens, then we'll deal with it. There can't be a tie. Think about it. I don't want to do the math. There's three of us. Too much math.
00:02:09
Speaker
All right. You'll have to vote. You might well read map at this point. I mean, unless Mike is like, I abstain. All right. So we've done a good job of establishing who we are and what the show is about. Not really. did. No. We set our game for another detail or two in about ourselves.
00:02:26
Speaker
Okay. I'm the biggest Quantum Leap fan out of the three of us. And we all went to high school together. i am the biggest Star Trek fan of the three of us. And I have a cat named Yiggy.
00:02:37
Speaker
I did not watch any science fiction in high school. I was a football player. never yeah Because I used to stuff them into lockers. And that's how we became friends.
00:02:50
Speaker
Because they talked to me through the locker. Hey, you seem kind of nice. Maybe we'll do a podcast in 25 years. So we've established very well who we all are. So Rob, why don't you start us off with a tidbit? That's what the list is. I think Gaz.
00:03:05
Speaker
Here's the thing. I kind of have a hint about what Mike's tidbit is, but I'm really curious to know what Gaz's is. All right. So Gaz, why don't you start us off? Okay. Am I as loud as I sound?
00:03:16
Speaker
Yes, you're very loud. You're the loudest of the three of us. on on the Like the little spectrograph running on the bottom. yeah you're a little loud, but that's fine. You're a little loud in real life, so it's accurate. Yeah, I'm going to move my mic away.
00:03:28
Speaker
Okay, so let me tell you a quick story here.
The Chain from 9/11 to Fifty Shades
00:03:32
Speaker
In Summit, New Jersey, in, don't want to say like 1999-ish, there was a 24-year-old man who, he was a struggling comic book writer, and at the time he was an intern at Cartoon Network, but even though he a creative, he wasn't feeling very fulfilled.
00:03:46
Speaker
And then one day, he saw two planes hit the Twin Towers because it was 9-11 in America. And this was you? No. What? Oh, okay. I mean, 1999 could be a math.
00:03:56
Speaker
None us are good at math. None of us are good at math.
00:04:01
Speaker
Here's a trivia. Did you know that we were like 20? This is, this is my tidbit. I sucked you in with the power of storytelling, but it's not about me or my life at all. My bad. and that changed the focus of his life because he didn't feel creatively fulfilled. And he sort of felt like it was the end of the world and said, well, this is the end of the world. Like what would I want to do?
00:04:23
Speaker
And he decided to start a band and pursue music of a sort of a deep nature that'll shake people and communicate emotions and all this, let a lot of lofty ideals. And that band really took off. And that band was My Chemical Romance. And this person was Gerard Way, the lead singer and founder of the band.
00:04:38
Speaker
Now, where are going from here? Because that would be boring if that was the whole tidbit. That's the beginning of the bit. um There's a writer, ah an aspiring writer. What? Robert? butn That's the tid part of the tidbit. Yes.
00:04:49
Speaker
There's an aspiring writer, a little bit older, 29, and she lives in Connecticut. And she has a dream one night that inspires her to start writing a series of books ah that she begins while her daughter is at swim lessons. And the books she decides to write are Twilight. And this is Stephanie Meyer. Mm-hmm.
00:05:07
Speaker
And she becomes very heavily inspired by music, including Muse, but especially My Chemical Romance. She listens to it as track lists while she's writing. The character of Jacob is heavily based on the one of the songs from um what's the name of the song? It's My Last Words. I forget the name of the one. It's off. It's a one of the popular songs. is is it na no One quick interruption. Is My Chemical Romance the people who do the Black Parade?
00:05:32
Speaker
Yes. Yes. Okay. So was it that song? No. i I was starting to say that there were several songs that maybe influenced her general. She listened to My Chemical Romance in general, but the character of Jacob specifically was influenced by Famous Last Words. That's the name of the song. like, I know can't make you say, but where's your heart? And like, so she's oh, that's like Jacob speaking me and helped her form that. And like,
00:05:54
Speaker
Basically, My Chemical Romance is sort of indirectly responsible for Twilight either existing or existing in the form it does or becoming popular in the way it does.
Salman Rushdie's Critique
00:06:02
Speaker
So we're getting a chain here. So 9-11 leads to My Chemical Romance leads to Twilight. And then there's another writer named Snow Queen's Ice Dragon. And she's a little older and she lives in London.
00:06:14
Speaker
And she writes a story called Master of the Universe. which is essentially a Twilight fanfic, but much more sex and much more erotic weirdness. and but it becomes very popular to the point where she changes the characters' names and takes out the supernatural elements, reworks it, and it turns into Fifty Shades of Grey and becomes a very popular pseudo-bondage sort of abusive relationship, depending on how you look at it. But it's very popular regardless.
00:06:40
Speaker
So now we've got Twilight leads to Fifty Shades of Grey. And after it comes out, Salman Rushdie... author of ah the Satanic Verses and other things, who has famously has a fatwa against him and was stabbed, survived, lost an eye. yeah a really tough guy, a really important figure. He read all or some of Fifty Shades Grey at some point for some reason and had this to say, quote, I've never read anything so badly written that got published. It made Twilight look like War and Peace.
00:07:07
Speaker
So 9-11 upset Salman Rushdie for the reasons you wouldn't think. Wow. My Chemical Romance, Twilight, Fifty Shades of Grey, Salman Rushdie. There's my little trivia bit. All right. That's a good tidbit.
00:07:20
Speaker
Now, I will do one little disclaimer. In my research, there there's some conflicting how much did My Chemical Romance, how much is it responsible for Twilight? Okay. And think she has talked in interviews about how she listened to them and they were big influence and she loves them, et cetera. And specifically the song influencing Jacob. But there's some timeline stuff where it seems like she wrote the first book before their first album came out. Okay.
00:07:42
Speaker
But they did have like a first album that wasn't as popular that came out early. And so I read conflicting things. So if there is a nitpicker, you might, the timeline might not quite line up exactly. And I've read different levels of influence that she's had and stuff after I decided to do this. So I'm just full transparency. There's a little discrepancy there. And as a secondary little ah trivia, going to My Chemical Romance was invited to do a song for, I think, the second movie, Full Moon, and they declined. So that's kind of oops. Then on their next album, not the Black Parade album, but the one following it, they wrote a song called Vampire Money, which was basically just a big you to Twilight and all of that. Yeah. Wow, really? Yeah. Yeah.
00:08:21
Speaker
So there you go. that's That's what I got for you folks today. So we're going to add a feature to the show. Oh. It's called the Quick Follow-Ups.
Star Trek Voyager's Political Ripple Effect
00:08:28
Speaker
so ah Because I was very interested. That was an interesting tidbit, Gaz.
00:08:31
Speaker
Thank you. And I don't have too much to add, except for we watched the second to last Twilight movie recently. And it is terrible. Sure. i guess There's no movie there. It's just, ah what's like ah what's the main character's name? Edward. Edward. Edward goes, no, Bella.
00:08:49
Speaker
And she goes, please. And it's two and a half hours of that. and it goes, no, Bella, you can't. You can't become a vampire. And that was, it was awful. That was my follow-up. Any follow-ups, Rob?
00:09:00
Speaker
No, I got nothing, man. The main actor that played Edward has gone on record as being like, i don't think these movies are good. And like, you know, I got paid, but I i don't think they're good. He's a good actor. He's very good.
00:09:11
Speaker
That's what I hear. And also, good secondary follow-up since Rob abstained from following up. I'm always very amused when I watch those movies at all the jorts, all the jean shorts that the werewolves are wearing.
00:09:25
Speaker
Well, jean shorts, yeah, in the late 90s is a look. It was a look. but But those movies are not going to be... That was a, I, I'm feeling a slightly self-conscious. My tidbits, not as well researched. Uh, do you want to go next? Honestly, I thought about saying something like, do you guys really want to follow me? but I'm like, no, that's not going to be that good.
00:09:43
Speaker
Rob, you want to go ahead? Uh, yeah, I'll go. I'll go. So, uh, I'm going to try to keep this short. I wanted my first tidbit to reflect my personality a little bit, to reflect that I'm the token nerdy Trekkie. Well, maybe not token, but the most enthusiastic nerdy Trekkie. Trekkie specifically.
00:10:01
Speaker
You guys are bigger nerds in other arenas. But my tidbit is about how Star Trek Voyager forever changed the fate's of national US politics and the world. Okay.
00:10:13
Speaker
So you don't have to know much about Star Trek, but Voyager was like the fourth Star Trek series and I love it. It's not my favorite Star Trek, but it's like pizza. There's no bad Star Trek.
00:10:24
Speaker
And like other Star Trek shows, Voyager took a long time to find its footing. It was really kind of boring the first two seasons. It was like meh. And the show was like floundering. So they're like, we got to change that.
00:10:35
Speaker
That kind of happened with every Star Trek show. Like, Next Gen and Deep Space Nine took a while to find their footing. But Voyager had some good, like, characters, like Kate Mulgrew as the captain was cool. Robert Picardo as the doctor was cool.
00:10:46
Speaker
But then there were, like, really boring two-dimensional characters like Kes, the telepathic alien. And so third season rolls around and they're like, we got to just redo everything. So they fire Kess and they bring in Gary Ryan as Seven of Nine, who is a former ah Borg, a former cyborg, part human, part robot who's rediscovering her humanity. And the showrunners are obviously not the fact that Jerry has major sex appeal. like She is just a blonde bombshell. She's She's beautiful, she's voluptuous, and everybody else in the cast is running around in these grumpy Starfleet uniforms, and Jerry Ryan is wearing this super tight hip suit in every scene. And it's a little unfair because she's more, Seven of Nine is more than just a sexy character. She's ah actually, I think, one of the most interesting Star Trek characters ever. She's nuanced, it's complicated, and Jerry Ryan's performance is great. It's compelling, it's believable, but it does attract a lot of attention. Viewership of Star Trek Voyager like shoots through the roof. And let's face it, it's because Jerry Ryan is hot. And everyone in America is watching hot board. Jerry Ryan though, is having a hard time. Kate Mulgrew, the captain, doesn't like it.
00:11:55
Speaker
First of all, she was very good friends with the actress who played Kes, who was just fired. And not for nothing, and I can kind of understand this, she's like, thought like we were making a show about strong women commanding starships and you're just bringing in like this, it's an ass.
00:12:08
Speaker
And to make matters, so she doesn't really, she conflicts with Jerry Ryan. And then to make matters worse, Jerry Ryan's, Jerry Ryan's marriage is falling apart because the distance. Her husband, Jack Ryan, is in Chicago. She's shooting in LA. The hours are crazy. The marriage kind of falls apart and they get a divorce in 1999.
00:12:26
Speaker
In 2004, her ex-husband, Jack Ryan, is running for the US Senate in 2004. Illinois. um And he's like the GOP golden boy. He's favored to win. But the press is whispering about hearing rumors about weird stuff in these divorce proceedings. And the divorce proceedings are sealed. And um Jerry Ryan says, please keep them sealed.
00:12:47
Speaker
But the press smell blood in the water and they push the courts and eventually press pressure and public interest. The fact that she's like this kind of famous actress, they unsealed the divorce. And the press has a field day. There's like some weird scandals in there where Jack Ryan was taking Jerry Ryan to like sex club. Jerry Ryan was like totally not into it. And Jack Ryan does not look good. Like there's a couple, he's like pushing her to have like sex in public places.
00:13:12
Speaker
At one point she's like in a club. crying. He's like, come on, crying isn't sexy. hello That's true. I mean, in in his defense. It true. It is true, but it's just not a great husband move.
00:13:24
Speaker
So this scandal explodes and Jack Ryan just has to drop out of the Senate camp because it just ruined him in the political sphere. And the GOP has no time to mount anybody against the Democratic candidate who wins in the landslide. And that Democratic candidate was Barack Hussein Obama.
00:13:43
Speaker
Wow. it Immediately is thrust into the national limelight, he goes to the National democratic ah Democratic National Convention, makes a big name for himself, and in a couple of years, he's president. And one other little bit of of tidbit tidbit, is um Voyager ah was about the first woman captain of Star Trek. And ironically enough, um this scandal from Voyager led to blocking what would have likely become the first female candidate because without Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton would have been the front runner who was projected to win in 2008. That's a tidbit.
00:14:19
Speaker
Do have any follow up, Gaz? Yes, my follow up is that didn't the actress who played Cass who got fired end up having a lot of legal trouble and like like a mental breakdown or there's something terrible happened?
00:14:31
Speaker
Yeah, I think so. But I just didn't want to go into that because this is the fun show. itpress I don't know the details. OK, I think she was an alcoholic, but I don't know.
00:14:43
Speaker
OK, I could just be spreading rumors on the Internet. I don't remember what it was, but i remember reading an article about how things went very bad for her after Voyager. I don't remember exactly why. i have a follow up. Follow up. um Listeners may be thinking to themselves, gee, these guys have probably been doing this for years.
00:15:01
Speaker
But actually, to let you in on a secret, this is our first ever podcast together. So we all had to come up with a tidbit. And I like how both of you guys sort of ended up with that sort of you ever see that meme? It's like knocking over a small domino and it's like a bigger domino and a bigger domino. Yeah. like Something crazy happens. So you basically like nine eleven is a little domino. at a Giant domino. The end of that one is Salman Rushdie did not enjoy a book.
00:15:29
Speaker
I guess so. That seems like it went from the big to the small. But ah yeah, Rob's works very well the other way. ah Kess was a boring character. So um I have a tidbit that may be of interest to both of you.
Dog Behavior Explained
00:15:43
Speaker
I am the owner of two dogs. And I like to, well, I actually don't like to. I'm the only person in this house who walks these dogs. Yeah. I didn't that wasn't prepared. That statement it just occurred to me as I was saying it. The anger swept over me. the sole person in this household.
00:16:01
Speaker
I take the two dogs out and often after they poop or pee, they will kick the ground, like scrape their back legs and kick the ground. Yeah, like they're covering their poop. Well, actually, so that's the interesting tidbit is that they don't really know why dogs do that. oh'll cover their poop.
00:16:19
Speaker
If they're not covering it, they think it could be that they're trying to spread the smell somehow. But this shows you how stupid dogs are, because how is it? already picked the poop up. I thought the science of it was that they were covering their scent by covering up the poop, to kind of, so they couldn't be tracked by... will say, so I did a little bit of research. So there's a couple of theories. They don't know why they do it. So one of the theories is they want to spread the smell to let other dogs know they've been there, because that is how dogs have a conversation in the neighborhood, by, like, leaving their shits around and...
00:16:57
Speaker
come by and you smell it and you say, oh my friend was here and I'll leave him a smell. That feels a lot like tidbits. But then another theory is what you just said, Rob, that they want to cover up the smell so that predators don't find them.
00:17:09
Speaker
But those two theories cancel each other out. Yeah. Because you can't be like, oh I'm spreading the smell from my friends while also hiding the smell from my predators. Yeah. And then there's also theories that they have like little smell glands on their paws. That's the one I've heard. yeah They're like triggering them somehow.
00:17:27
Speaker
Oh. But the real, pi the little interesting bit of data, the real tidbit here is we won't really ever know because we can't ask a dog.
00:17:40
Speaker
Why do you cover your face, guys? Isn't that interesting? I think we know he's not winning tidbits this week. Yeah, that was growing early. just came up with those jokes on the fly. How pleased you were with yourself is why I covered my face. Because I could see it on your face like, here it comes.
00:17:59
Speaker
I'm so excited to save my trivia a bit.
Tidbit Judging and Winner Announcement
00:18:02
Speaker
I thought you were going to be like, and because of this, Salman Rushdie was stabbed with a knife. and That is why. that's why i yeah Obama became president. It's just interesting how things connect. yeah For sure.
00:18:15
Speaker
I think those were some good tidbits, guys. Good tidbits. Good episode. Good hustle, everybody. good let's everybody back Who wins? mike owe and You can't vote for yourself.
00:18:27
Speaker
Can't vote for yourself. All right, I'll vote first. And I'm torn, I'll tell you why. Because Rob's was clearly better, but he told it to us before and I'm annoyed that he I had to listen to you. You're not supposed to tell the audience. I'm not running for you anymore.
00:18:40
Speaker
I was trying to sell you guys on the idea of tidbits. But in all fairness, it was better, so I have to vote for Rob's. All right, well, there you go. I think I have to also agree everything was better than Mike's tidbit. So I'm voting for Gaz. But I like...
00:18:56
Speaker
This is where he might win you. live for his died Of the tidbit. I like the anger. I like King Solomon severing myself in half and giving you both half a point. and And it is a tie.
00:19:07
Speaker
It couldn't happen. We didn't plan. We didn't plan. I'll go with Gaz. Because Gaz is going to be me. Well, we all learned a lesson. Rob's going to work on the new tidbits next time.
00:19:21
Speaker
I will. It was good one. It was a good one. It was worth sharing. Yeah. Yeah. What do we do if we come with the same tidbit? I know it's unlikely, but it's possible. Like if I come next week with the dog one again? No. i yeah If we had both come with the dog one, let's say, on the same week. Because can talk about it ahead of time. There are so many tidbits that that would be like finding two snowflakes that looked exactly alike. Right.
00:19:41
Speaker
If it does happen, you cancel other out and the other guy wins. Okay. Well, so I won this week. What do I get? I don't think you won. I think the the important thing is that Mike lost. That's true. That's a way to put a negative spin on it.
00:19:52
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. right, well, thank you everybody for listening. We'll see you back next time with... Tidbits! Tidbits with the Bicker Bunch. This is the show that we are on. it the Bunch or the Bicker Buddies? Bicker Brothers. Bicker Brothers. Better. I wonder if you guys enjoy the name too much if it didn't bother me so much. I do feel like that's... What the fact?
00:20:12
Speaker
Yeah! Yeah! Woo! Bye, guys. Bye. Bye, everybody. Bye.
00:20:28
Speaker
you has been made or consru to brood at least passively in the life of
00:20:39
Speaker
You dig memory as such, nothing gets away. Everything you touch finds a place deep inside your inner club.
00:20:52
Speaker
And it seems, gigantic, oh, seems pouring in from your outer dreams. Wrinkle mental stuff in your own stully hug.