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Guest: Sam from Way Too Late TV
11 Plays6 months ago
As an all-around great dude and the producer of Way Too Late TV, Sam joins us to discuss his experiences with electro-convulsive therapy, giant robot fighting games, and television production. We talk about language, Velocipastor, and how by and large--most abled folk will eventually go through times of being disabled. We also talk Robert Englund, Voltaire, and coping with memory loss. Plus, a Mad Lib.
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Transcript
Introduction to The Mentally Oddcast
00:00:02
Speaker
You are listening to The Mentally Oddcast, brought to you by sometimes hilarious horror magazine. Each week, your host, Wednesdayly Friday, will be talking with creators from many disciplines who live with mental illness, addiction, neurodivergence, and the impact of trauma. We'll discuss how their mental, physical, and emotional health impacts their creative goals, processes, and the things that they create.
00:00:30
Speaker
We hope we can assure all of you who live with these things that you are not alone and you can make art about it. Art helps. Hey, you are listening to The Mentally Oddcast.
Guest Introduction: Sam from Way Too Late TV
00:00:48
Speaker
My name is Wednesday Lee Friday. And this week we are talking with Sam from Way Too Late TV. He is a movie fan and an all around dope dude. Hi, Sam.
00:01:00
Speaker
This is a first for me. I've not actually done a podcast since the podcast I used to do myself with one of my other friends called the Windows XP's podcast that didn't actually get shut down by Microsoft for the trademark infringement for the name, but thankfully they didn't know we existed, but you know, life got in the way, but you know how it be.
00:01:30
Speaker
I do, I do indeed. So, you know, let's actually start out with like kind of a lighthearted question.
Sam's First Horror Movie Experience
00:01:38
Speaker
The first horror movie that I remember seeing in a theater was, well, I guess it's not really a horror movie, but it was Young Frankenstein in the theater. That's the first one I remember. And I remember feeling like I was too young to be hearing some of the stuff that I was hearing, but also being like,
00:01:58
Speaker
I was very intrigued because, you know, when you watch Young Frankenstein, it's all the same sets as Frankenstein. So it still gives you like a super horror vibe, even if you're not like legitimately frightened by anything that that's happening. What what was your first horror movie that you remember?
00:02:16
Speaker
I'm not actually that huge into horror type stuff, but I have a friend, Faust the Haunted Mask. He is a VTuber, which is a virtual avatar streamer that I am the head mod for over on Twitch.
00:02:39
Speaker
He is one of my best damn friends in the world and they they are one of the premier horror type people out there and They wanted to kind of get me into horror type stuff I met them back when they were playing dead by daylight, which is a kind of a
00:03:05
Speaker
There's a killer and four survivors and it's a game and the survivors have to start up generators to get out of the area and the killer has to hang them on hooks.
Favorite Horror Movie Discussion
00:03:17
Speaker
He wants to get me into horror and he showed me his favorite horror movie, which is and this is very obscure, but it is now my favorite horror movie.
00:03:35
Speaker
behind the mask at the rise of Leslie Vernon. It's so meta. It is. It is such a great movie because you don't realize that the first two thirds of the movie is setting you up for the last third of the movie. Sure. Now, the thing is, that movie is so referential that it surprises me that someone who is not a horror fan would be so into it.
00:04:04
Speaker
Well the thing is Dead by Daylight is like almost all the characters in that that aren't original characters like all the killers are licensed characters like there's Leatherface there's yeah yeah so I knew a lot of the characters already from all that stuff but when I saw
00:04:25
Speaker
like the references and everything in behind the mask. I'm like, Oh, I know that. Oh, I know that. And Faust was like, Hey, all right. I've been teaching you're good. Now I wonder how you would feel about cabin in the woods. Oh, that one, that one. I know the twist on that already, unfortunately, but it still would be a good watch.
00:04:53
Speaker
It is also very meta, but it's larger in scope because it's not just slashers. It gets, you know, the monsters and the puzzle boxes and whatnot. I actually did not like cabin in the woods. I felt that it was, I mean,
00:05:09
Speaker
I guess I felt that it wasn't taking me seriously as a horror fan. It was for casuals, which is such a gatekeeping, ridiculous thing to think. And I feel super like horror, just for thinking about that. But, you know, like my thought about watching it was, my God, we get it. You watch horror movies. We all watch them. That's why we're here. You're not as clever as you think you are, but
00:05:36
Speaker
I was definitely shouted down by the horror fan community. That film gets mad praise.
00:05:44
Speaker
And, you know, I don't want to I mean, people should definitely like what they like. But yeah, it did not work for me. Certainly not in the way that Leslie Bernard does because I love that movie. That is right. It's it's so solid. It's a great movie, even compared to other meta horror movies, like a lot of the ones that are coming out now there, there's a couple different like time travel horror movies.
00:06:07
Speaker
where people are going back in time to stop their moms from being bitches in high school or something. And, you know, they're fun. No, there is one like that on Netflix where literally girl goes back in time and she's so excited to like meet her high school mom and her high school mom is a total mean girl bitch.
00:06:25
Speaker
And it's so funny because, you know, I'm, I'm older. So I am of the age where like a lot of my friends from high school are parents and even some are grandparents now. Cause it's amazing because, you know, they post all these memes that are like, yeah, well I didn't talk back to my mom and I didn't go out all night and I didn't do this or that. And it's like, bitch, yes, you did. Okay. I don't know who you think you're kidding, but it's not people who knew you.
00:06:55
Speaker
Yeah. Let's go to the microfiche. Really? Let's go to the microfiche. I think we have that. Yes. And we're both old enough to know what microfiche is. So that, that bodes well for us. Yes. Yeah. No, I'm curious though. You really were an adult the first time you watched a horror movie. You didn't have like a local horror host. You didn't catch King Kong or Night of the Living Dead at some point.
00:07:23
Speaker
See there's a little story behind that.
Sam's ECT Experience and Mental Health
00:07:27
Speaker
Back in 2004 I had to undergo ECT which is electroconvulsive therapy.
00:07:37
Speaker
Aka shock treatment and I don't mean the sequel to rocky horror picture show That would have been preferential honestly Despite how bad the sequel to rocky horror picture show Shock shock treatment is They don't know exactly how it works just that it does work They think of it as like basically rebooting your brain little little
00:08:07
Speaker
bit of electricity goes through your brain. It's not a one-time thing.
00:08:17
Speaker
one week of like five times a week like once a day five days and then once a day for uh three out of five days for uh like two weeks and then um and it goes on and on um for about maybe like uh two to three months um and um
00:08:42
Speaker
Yeah, you get anesthetized like fully put under every single time and like it's a scary process. I'm not going to lie. Were you impatient for that?
00:09:00
Speaker
No, I was outpatient for this. You just get dropped off at the front of the hospital. They take you back, they take your vitals, they take your weight and everything.
00:09:17
Speaker
They put you in a curtained off room, basically. And I'm using scare quotes for room because there's a whole line of people in rooms that are curtained off. And then you can literally hear the doctor and the nurse going down the line.
00:09:44
Speaker
with the machine and the machine makes this like kind of noise and the scariest part is the nurse has this like
00:09:58
Speaker
has this like breathing apparatus type thing that she puts on your face to keep you breathing during the procedure and it's just like this Darth Vader type sound yeah it's not exactly pleasant but it worked but
00:10:21
Speaker
getting back to why I can only remember seeing Leslie Vernon like maybe three or four years ago is it erased my memory from birth to 2004 when I was 24 pretty thoroughly.
00:10:39
Speaker
Um, and, uh, all the ums and uhs and, uh, uh, that's part of it too. Um, I have a lot of trouble finding words when I need to, uh, find them. Uh, that's part of it. Um, it decimated, and I do mean decimated the actual definition of it, my short and long-term memory capabilities.
00:11:02
Speaker
And yeah, I can't really read for pleasure or fun that much anymore. And it saved my life though.
00:11:13
Speaker
And I'm grateful for that. I was extremely suicidal at the time because the psychiatrist that I went into a day program at a mental hospital had taken me off all of my medications, cold turkey, like some sort of sadistic weirdo.
00:11:38
Speaker
Yeah, that's nuts. And yeah, that's you don't do that. No, even even in a hospital, that is a dangerous thing to do. Yeah, no. Yeah, and it was an outpatient day program.
00:11:53
Speaker
And I'm like, in hindsight, I'm like, why was this guy practicing medicine? But we got me back with my actual psychiatrist who I'm still with today. And we if I remember correctly, we got a restraining order against that guy. And we got the other psychiatrist at the
00:12:19
Speaker
at the facility to do the actual ECT. And if I remember correctly, he looked a lot like Jeff Goldblum, which was an added bonus. That would be. Yeah. So, you know, you've actually hit on a couple of things I want to I want to mention. Well, first of
Understanding ECT and EMDR
00:12:39
Speaker
all, nothing terrifies me like the concept of ECT.
00:12:44
Speaker
Um, because I was introduced to it, you know, and like old school asylum things, not dissimilar to like American horror stories, season two, like just a very terrifying, like punitive hold them down. We're going to put this thing on them and do it. Like when my husband and I first got together, I had a mental health issue. I went in for counseling and they misinterpreted several things. I said.
00:13:14
Speaker
and ended up sending me to a mental hospital for the day. I basically talked to someone. They said, oh, you're fine. You don't need to be here. And I said, I know. And they let me go. But the experience was frightening enough
00:13:32
Speaker
that I wanted to sit down with H and just talk about what my parameters were, what's okay, what's not okay. And I made him promise, no ECT ever, no matter what they say to you, never, never, never agree to it on my behalf. I am not, this is not, I would prefer not, I am saying no, this is a hard line for me, I will leave you if I wake up and find out that you have done this.
00:14:01
Speaker
And yet, I hear you saying, well, you actually said two things that intrigued me. One is that it seems to be worth it, the things that you've given up in order to have the treatment help you.
00:14:14
Speaker
Um, and also the concept that people don't know how it works, but they know that it does work. Um, because the therapy that I've actually embraced, uh, has the same thing going on. Cause I love EMDR. EMDR has changed my life. It helps my relationships. Right.
00:14:33
Speaker
helps me get a good night's sleep. They don't really understand how it works either. They just know that when they do it, it works. And if it stops people from hurting themselves, if it stops people from being constantly afraid, obviously those are all good things. But I wonder, like, what is a
00:14:54
Speaker
What would be a helpful way to get people on board with that? The concept of they don't know how it works, but we do know that it works because that's straight up anecdotal. And under normal circumstances, you would not tell someone to accept anecdotal medical advice. Like that's not typically a good idea. That's how you get people eating horse pace. Yeah. So, you know, I, I, but again,
00:15:22
Speaker
You seem to have had a good experience. I know my EMDR experiences were excellent. I mean, it's a rough therapy. It takes it out of you, but in the whole like memory loss thing, I mean, I don't think I'm really aware of how much memory loss I have because I do find myself like remembering things that I had forgotten about.
00:15:46
Speaker
Yes, I have that too. But like sometimes pictures will jog memory from like 30 years ago or something like that and like, or I'll see someone's face or something and I'll just be like frustrated for like the next two days just because like I know that person somehow and I don't know how, I don't know where, I don't know when, I don't know why.
00:16:13
Speaker
but they exist in my head somewhere and I don't know where. Wow, that sounds really frustrating. Like I don't... I'm trying to get my head around that and that's...
00:16:28
Speaker
I guess I do something on way too late to be my YouTube channel called Way Too Late to the Party, which is me reacting to music often for the first time. Sometimes there will be a song that I'm reacting to.
00:16:48
Speaker
And it's from like the 90s or something. And I hear the song. It's the first time I've ever heard it since the ECT. And it's like I know it's the first time I've ever heard it, but I know all the lyrics. Right. OK. By heart. Wow. So it's like. That is that is the weirdest feeling.
00:17:19
Speaker
Cause it's like, I've never heard this song before and I know exactly what the next word is. Wow. That's huge. Yeah. So that fucks with you. Well, what is your process? I mean, you just have to live with that. So what, what kind of tools are you using to, to, to deal with that? Um, just basically couldn't bear it.
00:17:49
Speaker
Yeah, a lot of laughter. Honestly, you just you just you just move with move with the flow of the water and just continue moving. Yeah, that's sometimes that's all you can do. Sure, sure. Um, well now you you live with your mom. I hope I'm not like outing you when I say that. Um, no, you're fine. You guys are obviously pretty tight. You live together. Um, so
00:18:18
Speaker
I'm trying to get a sense of what that's like when you don't remember most of your childhood. Like, I mean, my childhood was fucked up. So I think, I suspect that I would be happier now if I couldn't remember a lot of my childhood. That doesn't sound like it's the case for you. So how does that impact your interactions with your mom?
00:18:41
Speaker
like just not having those memories it's gotten to the point where she knows that talking about stuff like that often does frustrate me so she and I have come to the understanding that it does
00:18:57
Speaker
Cause me to get triggered pretty hard If it's something that I don't remember So I will I will tell her mom, please Not now or something along those lines and she will just drop it immediately and if it's if it's something that She's told me a hundred times before then it will be like
00:19:25
Speaker
either an artificial memory, I want to say like a third person memory. Like it's been told to me so many times that I can imagine myself outside of myself doing. Because it's something that I've heard so many times that I can just construct a memory from it. You know, I really want to ask you now, if you've seen that movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,
00:19:57
Speaker
I have not, but I've heard the premise a lot. I'm sure many people have recommended it to you that are friends and know your situation. Yes. It's pretty mind blowing. It is because I think that, well, one of the things that takes place is that it sort of leads you to a place where thinking, wow, wouldn't it be great if I could just stop thinking about these things that are hurtful, that upset me,
00:20:25
Speaker
make me feel bad about myself. Wouldn't that be wonderful? And then ultimately you find out that like, no, it's not wonderful, especially in a situation where you made a mistake and you need to learn from it. So you don't repeat it. That when that, that the knowledge of that mistake goes away, then you just want to repeat it again because you, you haven't retained the lesson that that awful mistake taught you.
00:20:52
Speaker
You know, yes. And in the movie, it leads into a whole thing about, you know, young girls and predatory men. And like, that's the thing is that I think a lot of women would love to forget a lot of their bad romantic decisions in their twenties.
00:21:11
Speaker
But you need those. That's how you're smart by the time you get to your 40s. And so that you can warn young girls away from much older men that say, oh, I always date young women because they're so much less hassle. Yeah, because they're not wise to your bullshit yet.
00:21:29
Speaker
Well, you know, there's the whole discussion right now about men versus bears. And it's yes. It's so funny how angry some men are getting about it. Just for listeners who don't know. Yeah. A man was asked if his daughter was in the woods alone. Would you prefer that she come upon a man or a bear? And the dad thought about it for a while and then asked what kind of man.
00:21:55
Speaker
And so women on the internet took the time to chime in and explain all the reasons that it would be better both during and after if you're going to be attacked, that you're better off with a bear than a man. And it's pretty cutting a lot of the things that people are hearing, you know, that no one will ask you what you were wearing, how much you had to drink after a bear attack. You know, your friends won't stay friends with the bear on social media, stuff like that.
00:22:24
Speaker
So it's and it it's I love how much conversation it's inspiring because really for me it's
Societal Perceptions of Disability
00:22:32
Speaker
I get a good look at who is even willing to have the conversation because a lot of men aren't and As you might imagine, it's the very men who should be listening to this conversation that are not You mentioned using a cane now I've seen your face and I know you're handsome and you look young and
00:22:53
Speaker
And what I wonder is, uh, I've actually had complete strangers make comments to me during the time when I got sick and I was using a cane to get around, uh, just complete strangers that say like, Oh, what, what's that for? Why do you need that? Oh, I bet if you lost weight, you wouldn't need that. You know, stuff like that. Like, Oh, for God's sake. Well, have you encountered anybody being negative because you're a young person using a cane?
00:23:21
Speaker
Yes, yes I have sometimes even the people taking care of us just making sure that you know we're doing okay and sometimes they just say like oh you're so young you know you don't even look
00:23:44
Speaker
I turned 44 probably by the time this thing comes out on the late part of May. And like some even like two days ago, literally two days ago said, yeah, you look like 33 at most. And I'm like, thanks. And like,
00:24:11
Speaker
They were saying, um, you probably don't even need the cane. And I'm like, why the fuck would I have it if I didn't need it? Canes aren't fun. You're not going to break into putting on the rips. Yeah.
00:24:24
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. If I don't have the cane, I cannot balance. And you don't want me at 525 pounds falling over because the caretaker that may be in the area to help me back up is not going to be able to get me back up. They're going to be able to call the paramedics
00:24:51
Speaker
to maybe get me back up, but she is not going to be able to get me back up herself.
00:24:57
Speaker
Not wanting to use a cane when you need one sort of reminds me of how in the fifties people didn't want to wear their glasses because there were such stereotypes about people that wore glasses. And it just in hindsight seems so silly. Like if you need a thing that helps your life be easier and help you be more comfortable, you should absolutely have that thing.
00:25:22
Speaker
But even that is, uh, well, you know, when I was in the hospital in 2022, one of the things people kept saying to me without looking at my chart is, oh, you're going to bounce right back from this. You're so young. You're going to bounce right back. And the third time that a medical person said, I'm so young, I finally said, what the fuck are you talking about?
00:25:44
Speaker
Like people keep telling me you're so young, you're so young, you're so young. I'll tell you what, since I turned 50, I don't feel that way. And the physical therapist stopped what they were doing, turned around and said, 50? Like, well, I'll be like 52 in like three months. Like he was shocked, like beside himself shocked. And I know that that's one of the things that is nice about being a fat person. Like one of the few things is that
00:26:13
Speaker
We don't look as old as we are. Like I, even after being sick and having my body retain a bunch of water and then lose it, I still, I still don't look as old as I am. So let's, I want to talk about your channel actually, because you cover a lot of different things on it.
Way Too Late TV: Content and Focus
00:26:30
Speaker
Um, what would you say is like the main focus? Like if you were going to elevate or pitch me your channel, what would you say?
00:26:38
Speaker
Alright, the main focus of Way Too Late TV is a series called Bite Size BattleTech and Bite Size BattleTech EX. There's a game called BattleTech that is a video game equivalent of the tabletop game of the same name.
00:26:59
Speaker
that was made by hair brain studios back in 2018. I was a Kickstarter backer of this game back when it went up on Kickstarter in like 2016. Now there was a tier of Kickstarter backer that like if you plunk down enough cash you could actually get your likeness and bio in the game. Oh, wow. It's like a Kickstarter
00:27:27
Speaker
tier pilot for one of the max. But I was not even close to that kind of money plunking down your type person. So I just got myself a copy of the game. But basically, it's like,
00:27:49
Speaker
fighting giant robots as giant robots and you blow apart the giant robots that you're fighting against and you put together giant pieces of giant robots and you basically play pokemon with them a little bit oh
00:28:08
Speaker
It's a weird description, but it makes sense if you look at it. And the bite size is my little thing. I make it so that no episode is over 20 minutes.
00:28:25
Speaker
Um, and that is so that you can get in, get out, uh, get a good, uh, meal, uh, as far as, um, uh, getting a good view of an episode of, uh, battle tech, uh, and, uh, yeah, 20 minute episodes, um, get in, get out, watch a mission, um, watch the cleanup.
00:28:52
Speaker
and watch me be entertaining as heck. And I put in a lot of work to make the episodes look good with like graphics and audio type stuff and that stuff too. So yeah, I do voices and stuff like that.
00:29:12
Speaker
It's a lot of fun to do, but normally the schedule is Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday episodes of Bite Size BattleTech, EX, Endgame, and Friday would likely be a new episode of Way Too Late to the Party, which is me doing music video reactions. Wow. That is a ton, man. That is a lot of output.
00:29:42
Speaker
I went to school back at the turn of the millennium and was a television production major. So I know how to do editing with the best of them. And my buddy that now works at CBS Television City as an editor
00:30:05
Speaker
actually sold me on using a program called DaVinci Resolve, which is normally a free program that anyone can use.
00:30:21
Speaker
that they use up in Hollywood to do color grading and everything like that in Hollywood movies and everything. But yeah, it's a free editing program. And I got the paid version, which is $300 through perpetuity. No matter how many new versions come out, it's all paid for already just one $300 license fee.
00:30:48
Speaker
And yeah, it comes to second nature to me now. I can knock out pretty much any kind of editing project in maybe a day or so, depending on how I'm feeling, honestly.
00:31:06
Speaker
Wow. Sometimes it takes like 20 minutes. Sometimes it takes a day. I can sometimes do YouTube shorts for friends in like 10 minutes. Dude, I swear to you, it takes like three, sometimes more hours for me to just sit down and edit together one podcast episode. It's kicking my ass putting out an episode every week. You probably saw it. We already missed a week.
00:31:34
Speaker
because I had recordings that weren't usable and I had like nothing ready to go up after being like way ahead. Well, the thing is though, for one thing, the people that I have on my show are not only very busy, but they're dealing with a lot of various mental health things. So sometimes people will come and be like, yeah, we're supposed to have this interview in 10 minutes, but I don't think I'll be done crying yet. Like, okay, I get it. That's fine. We can catch up later.
00:32:04
Speaker
So there's that, but like, that kind of output is really, really impressive. And I wonder- Thank you. I mean, I hear you saying it, but like, do you appreciate how impressive that is? Or are you one of those people that kind of downplays all their achievements? I do. I do appreciate how impressive that is, you know? When I was able to get really, really good
00:32:31
Speaker
ideas for like YouTube shorts and whatnot for clients because they would send me the footage and everything and said do what you can with this and I would conceptualize something and actually get it done within like maybe an hour and
00:32:54
Speaker
It would be a one minute short, completely done in an hour. And they would absolutely love it. And that was the greatest feeling. That was the greatest feeling. The companies that you want to hit up for stuff like that are companies that put out lots of content and
Challenges of Disability in Work and Independence
00:33:13
Speaker
then want to get into video to go along with their print content. Because that's I mean, when I was a WHO, that was just huge. Suddenly, they needed like
00:33:22
Speaker
Once they got a little bit into video, they had so much that they wanted to do because I don't know if you remember, I did that series about DIY Fleshlights.
00:33:33
Speaker
So I'm showing all these different ways to make sex toy like Strokers for Men. And from the time I shot them and turned them in, it took like two months for them to go through editing and come out because there were so few people to do the editing. And so it was, there was so much of it and they couldn't get it all out quickly. And I was so bummed as the performer because I'm like, oh my God, these videos are going to be hilarious. I'm wearing all these new wigs. I got Don Jr. merch in all of them. So it's extra, extra funny.
00:34:03
Speaker
Yeah, I wonder if he even knows how many sex toy videos he's in because it's a lot. But just like the waiting, I think that having somebody on hand who can get like video editing work done quickly like that would be such a boon. Yeah, I think honestly, if you really want to be doing more paid work in that that it is out there because you can't you can't source that to AI. That's not something that an algorithm can do. You need a person.
00:34:33
Speaker
So hang on to that. The thing about it is I'm disabled and everything, so I can't actually get paid for it. I don't advocate cheating on taxes. Cheating and lying is wrong. But that said, I mean, it's stupid to discourage people from working and improving their lives and updating their skill sets and all those things. I think what gets done to disabled people
00:35:00
Speaker
is it's pretty fucking obscene in a lot of ways. And I know I don't have to tell you that, but I think we have a lot of listeners that don't know, for example, that disability pretty much leaves people in poverty. And yet they're penalized for doing anything that would financially improve their situation.
00:35:22
Speaker
I don't know what the answer is to that, but I know that it's bullshit. And I know that it hurts a lot of great people who are stuck at home through no fault of their own. Yeah. It's expensive as hell to be disabled.
00:35:35
Speaker
Yeah, it is. Well, and one of the things we've talked about on the show is that if the fact that a program may exist to address a certain problem does not mean that everyone with that problem is having their needs addressed. It just means that a program exists and it may be available to some people. I know that there's a part of disability care and management, like when it gets into socio-politics, that there's a line of thinking of like,
00:36:03
Speaker
people should be grateful for whatever they're given. And like, sure, when someone gives you something, you should be grateful. But having an accommodation for a disability shouldn't be treated like a birthday present. It's not something that someone goes out to get you because they love you. It's something that everyone is entitled to, and that's part of living in a developed country.
00:36:26
Speaker
that we take care of each other. We've decided all these things as a society. Human life has value. People deserve dignity. People deserve basic kindness and respect. And now there are so many people in the sociopolitical sphere that not only don't feel that way,
00:36:43
Speaker
But they like aggressively don't feel that way. They're mad. When someone says, hey, I have this thing going on. Can you please respect that? Well, you can't tell me what to do. Well, I didn't. I told you I had a thing going on. And then I asked you to respect it. And now you're yelling at me. Like, what even is that?
00:37:02
Speaker
What do we do about it? Like we see it, we recognize it as a problem. And I mean, you know me, you've seen me on the internet. Like I will go one-on-one with everyone to tackle this debate or that debate because I always think the debate is worth having. But then it turns out that like a third of those people, it's not just that they don't want to debate, it's that they don't know what's happening.
00:37:24
Speaker
Like, if you honestly think that people become drag queens, so they can go to libraries and touch children, you shouldn't even be having this conversation. You should be sitting and listening, because there's already way too much you don't know. Yeah, my thing for people who are being extremely ableist is just knowing in the in my heart of hearts that everyone is only temporarily abled. Yes.
00:37:53
Speaker
Yes. And eventually, somewhere down the line, they're going to lose that ability. And they're going to have people just like them shouting or doing exactly what they're doing to other people to them.
00:38:18
Speaker
and uh it's not schadenfreude but it is kind of um just like let's say just desserts just desserts yes well i think that it kind of
00:38:34
Speaker
I mean we're hearing a lot of that again socio-politically because people who have been bigots and racists their whole lives and like misogynists and homophobes and whatnot are now living in a place where we recognize across the board in some places like the general tenor
00:38:54
Speaker
is that bigotry is bad. Racism is bad. You're a jerk if you're a misogynist. You're a jerk if you're a homophobe. And so now, all these people that have been flinging slurs for the last 40 years are like, how dare you call me sis?
Language Morality and Context
00:39:07
Speaker
I'm not sure what it means, but I'm sure it's a slur. Well, yeah, because you've been using trans like a slur. That's why you think it's a slur.
00:39:15
Speaker
And again, being a fat person, there's a lot of debate in the fat community about whether or not we should even call ourselves a fat community. To me, whether or not I perceive someone calling me fat as an insult is based on whether or not they're using it as an insult.
00:39:34
Speaker
You know, because if you're looking for me in a store and you need a description of what I look like, leaving out the word fat is unhelpful and dishonest because visually, it is a clear defining character is characteristic. You know, am I the am I the lady in the blue dress or am I the fat lady in the blue dress? If you're calling me fat to my face, it's like, I'm aware.
00:40:01
Speaker
It's like, you're not telling me anything I don't know here. There are very few words that should not be used across the board. You know, words are so dependent on meaning. Even if you're talking about a racial slur, if someone of that race wants to sing that in a song to describe how they feel about people using that word, that's not for me to say, no, you can't do that. Of course you can do that if that's what you want to do. Now, I think where boundaries come in,
00:40:30
Speaker
You know, please don't say that word to me. Don't say it to my child. Don't say it in my presence. Like all of those kind of boundary things are fine, but assigning a morality to a word itself, as opposed to taking into context how it's being used, I think is pretty lazy and ineffective, but it also lets people off the hook.
00:40:55
Speaker
You are, obviously you're big in gaming. I am not a big gamer. My gaming pretty much is about, I think the most recent game that I was actually good at was like Pinball of the Dead or something. Like I'm very, very old school with video games. Yeah, I think Game Boy Advance is where I stopped with the handhelds. Cause you know, eventually I got an iPhone and that's where all the games are now.
00:41:22
Speaker
There's, I know that there's pushback in the gaming community that like, if someone who only plays games on their phone calls themselves a gamer, that there's like some gate-keepiness that goes on. There's room for everyone. I would hope so.
00:41:38
Speaker
I would hope so. But I mean, I kind of see where people are coming from. Because if you're putting in 30 hours a week getting good at some kind of, you know, war game or whatever, and then some lady that plays Bejeweled is like, Oh, yeah, I'm a gamer too. I can understand how someone who takes games very seriously might not appreciate that. But, you know,
00:42:01
Speaker
gatekeeping on the whole. Like I am so torn because I really understand why people want to do it. But at the same time, I recognize that it's really smug and douchey because you know, I'm a horror person. So people talk about elevated horror versus, you know, be horror. And like, if I want to watch Velocipaster and find it great and hilarious, I will, you know, you don't
00:42:26
Speaker
People don't get to say I'm less of a horror fan because the horror movies that I watch the most are objectively terrible and cheap. Like I've got a friend who does Bad Movie Nights.tv, I believe it is. And he every Friday night, he has like a triple feature or something and they do horror in October and
00:42:55
Speaker
they've shown velocipaster and um that's awesome absolutely freaking loves it have you seen it it is so clever there's so many clever things that i've seen it dude first of all i've not seen it but i have heard it's really really badly good it has voltaire like i didn't even know that it had voltaire in it when i put it on to watch it he plays an exorcist
Enjoyment of B-Horror Movies
00:43:18
Speaker
And yeah, he's actually he's making a new movie now about an exorcism with a buddy of his I don't remember the dude's name but I went through like a hard hard Voltaire phase for a while because I discovered him just suddenly I've done a video of his on way too late to the party when you're evil.
00:43:37
Speaker
Oh, okay. Yeah. That was the first song I encountered. And the only reason I saw it is because I was watching lost videos on YouTube and, uh, you know, from, from the show lost and somebody did a Ben Linus video featuring that song. And I was like, well, I don't know who this guy is, but I'll be making the whole rest of my life about it. And then it turned out that I was familiar with his work. I just didn't know. Cause he used to do all those little claymation bumps for MTV back in the nineties. Oh, okay.
00:44:06
Speaker
And that's the thing, he's such a Renaissance man, Voltaire. So he's in Velocipacitor, and that movie is so... I think one of the things I love about the B-movies now is that they're so audacious.
00:44:18
Speaker
And there is a scene, it's not a spoiler in Velocipaster, where there is supposed to be a car explosion and a character loses his parents when their car blows up. Well, they didn't have any money for a car explosion. So there was literally a still shot of a street with text underneath it that says FX car explosion.
00:44:39
Speaker
and then they cut to the person on the sidewalk and the foley is there and the light is there and they're shielding their face and falling backward but there was no explosion.
00:44:51
Speaker
Like, my god. Well, you know, if I may break out a really sexist term, the balls on those people, man. How are you doing that? That just is a delicious level of audacity to make a film like that. Well, and you know, there's a that shark movie that's just called shark exclamation points. And the sharks
00:45:15
Speaker
They get somehow computerized and they talk. There's like an AI shark that talks through that movie. Oh, yeah. They're delightful, man. There's just so much happening in that genre now. And actually Shutter did a documentary, a shark exploitation documentary that actually took you through. Well, there's a B shark movie called, well, it's Shark Attack 3. And that one is the subtitle is Megalodon.
00:45:44
Speaker
And the reason that that movie is significant is because John Barrowman stars in it before anybody knew who he was in America. And there is a point in the movie where he is hitting on a woman, which is already kind of hilarious, because, you know, that's that's not his bag. But he says, Oh, God, I don't want to get the line wrong. But he makes reference to like, why don't we go back to your place and have some drinks and I'll eat your pussy?
00:46:14
Speaker
and he's just out with it. Cause I was, I had only seen that movie on sci-fi and then a movie reviewer that I liked sent me a screener of it. Cause I told him I liked it. So I'd never seen it on edited and I was kind of watching it and playing on my phone or whatever. And then that line happened and I was like, wait, what? Did I miss hear that? No, I must've misheard that and I rewound it and good God, no, I had not misheard it. So some of those old gems will have just, I mean,
00:46:44
Speaker
It would have been worth paying full DVD price. I didn't have to, but it would have been worth it if I had. Just to hear Barrowman say that. Like, wow. Because I mean, that predates Jack Harkness. Well, that's the thing. We're kind of used to it now because of Jack Harkness. We're used to him being like a little blue. But back in the day, like what? This was just out of nowhere.
00:47:10
Speaker
Well, and if you only know him as like Malcolm Merlin or something, that's, uh, it's going to hit the ear a little wrong. I guess ultimately it's kind of like gatekeeping. Like I understand why people want to restrict language because they want to protect people and they want to keep things relatively clean and tasteful, but there are just as many reasons not to do it.
00:47:35
Speaker
It's like when people say, someone should decide who can have a kid and who can't have a kid because bad people shouldn't have kids. Well, as much as we all agree that yes, bad people shouldn't have kids once you get to, all right, who gets to make that decision?
00:47:50
Speaker
No one's ever going to agree on that. You know, no one's ever going to agree what language is okay to use and what words are not okay to use. Cause then every time you say, well, no, I think that word is okay to use in some circumstances. You get somebody like Bill Amar saying, well, why can't I call myself a house and like, well, you had a guy on your show explain to you why you couldn't and you're still mad.
00:48:15
Speaker
So, but, you know, film art is just one of those guys. Go from prescriptivism to, yeah, go from prescriptivism to eugenics in three seconds there. But this, this is the part where I asked the guest if the guest has any questions for me. Okay. Let's see.
00:48:39
Speaker
I'm actually, honestly, I've known you for so long. I have, I've known you for like 10, 15 years, I think at this point. At least, yeah. Well, wait, were we friends on LiveJournal? I think we probably were, yeah.
00:49:01
Speaker
We were, yeah. And I deleted my live journal once the Russkies took over. Yeah, I didn't delete it. I moved over to Dream With and just never went back. And it's interesting because we talked about that a little bit on the show. Just the whole, you know, the Russians bought live journal because they wanted to see if they could learn how Americans talk about politics. Like, wow, do you think they got anywhere with that?
00:49:27
Speaker
Yeah, but yeah once once they got rid of the queer folks Yeah, and one of my friends Was like number two user on live journal and was Brad's right-hand man and once the Russkies took over he was out of there like like a flash in the pan and
00:49:54
Speaker
Yeah, he used to work at like, he used to be a CIS op at Neopets and LiveJournal.
00:50:03
Speaker
He had a web hosting business actually that he gave me space on for free called Rydia.net that if you're familiar with Final Fantasy IV at all, there was a character named Rydia that he absolutely loved that he named his hosting business after in secret because if you asked him then it wasn't named after Rydia from Final Fantasy IV at all because don't sue us square.
00:50:32
Speaker
Right, right. Yeah. Age is huge into Final Fantasy or he was, I don't know. I think he plays other stuff now, but yeah, cause we, I used to work for blockbuster. I was working in video, video store management when I met age. And so I would take home, I think final fantasy eight and nine, maybe more than that, but just the big cardboard displays and stuff. He loved that. That was super cool.
00:50:59
Speaker
So, okay. I'm using the Final Fantasy 14 right now, but yeah. Are they really up to 14? Good heavens. They're up to 16. What? That's too many. Yeah. 16 just came out. Okay, take it from Friday the 13th. You can only go so far after you call something final. I'm just saying.
00:51:20
Speaker
It's true. It's true. Well, cause I was actually explaining this to H because Friday the 13th part four is called the final chapter. And H is like, why is it called the final chapter? Like, dude, nobody knows. It's, it's lost to time. But, um, cause you know, there's, I think just that series, like the original series before the reboot still went to like 11. Like it's final tap. Cause there's Jason 10. And then there was, I think one more because Jason 10 was the space one.
00:51:51
Speaker
I guess I don't know where. Can I tell you a story real quick? Please. It's horror adjacent. All right.
Robert Englund's Freddy vs. Jason Story
00:51:59
Speaker
I used to work on a talk show at my college, Chapman University. We had Robert England on. Nice. Yeah, Robert England, Freddy Krueger. And he was just the picture of,
00:52:17
Speaker
class the entire time there. And it was, I forget what year exactly, but Jason versus Freddie was coming out. Okay. And he let slip on our show, our rinky dink cable access show that there were multiple endings on that movie. Nice. Yep. That is fantastic.
00:52:47
Speaker
So I imagine this would have been before you saw Leslie Vernon then because he's in that as well. Yeah, he is funny in that. Yeah. This was, this was actually when Jason versus Freddie was coming out, but back in college, like back turn of the millennium era.
00:53:12
Speaker
Wow. That is amazing. Exactly. Because obviously that was before the ECT, but yeah. Well, actually I think, yeah. H and I saw Freddie V Jason in the theater. So that would have been, I want to say like 2001. Does that sound right? Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's about when I went to college in 98 to 2002. Oh, okay.
00:53:37
Speaker
All right, man. So we are nearing the end here. It is time for the Madlib. Yeah. And so let's see. All right. So we're going to start with adjectives. I'm going to need one, two, three different adjectives. Okay. Adjectives.
00:54:04
Speaker
let's see um gentle late late's an adjective right yep shining oh wait no that's not an adjective yeah it is okay okay let's go with that all right I need a part of the body actually I need three parts of the body so you can't just say penis for everything that's gonna be tricky
00:54:32
Speaker
Well, son of a gun. Right elbow, duodenum, buttock. Okay, I need an adverb. Oh, oh, I know the word. I just can't put it into words. undulatingly.
00:54:56
Speaker
undulating flea. All right, so now we need some nouns. One, two, three, four, five singular nouns and two plural. Okay. Um, hill, spray, lights, umbrellas, gauze, hamburger,
00:55:26
Speaker
dollar okay and i need one don't know if that's that's all of them and i need one verb okay one verb yep um shit that's my verb okay now here's the thing i also don't need an exclamation exclamation like uh anything you would yell out for shitting out loud
00:55:56
Speaker
Okay. That that is my go to phrase. All right. And there's one that's person in room. So I put you because that's the rule. It's always the guest. Um, so this is a mad lib called scenes from a horror picture. And we don't choose these, we got a big book, we do them right in a row. Right. Um, so this is to be read, well, to be read aloud. Come on now.
00:56:23
Speaker
uh actor one why did we have to come to this gentle old castle this place sends shivers up and down my right elbow actor two we had no choice you know all the lights in town were filled because of the pill convention i'd have been happy to stay in a late motel relax here comes the bell boy for our spray wow i don't even want to um
00:56:52
Speaker
Actor number one. For shitting out loud. Look, he's all bent over and has a big gauze writing on his duodenum. He looks just like Sam from the horror flick Frankenstein. Nice. From what? It says he looks just like Sam from that horror flick Frankenstein. Actor number two. No, I think he's my old umbrellas teacher.
00:57:18
Speaker
Actor number one, I'm putting my buttock down. I'm not staying in this shining place. I'd rather shit in the car. Actor two, you're worrying undulatingly. Actor one, really? Look at the cowboy. He has my hamburger in one hand, your dollar in the other, and in his third hand, his third hand! And that's the end.
00:57:49
Speaker
It worked out. It worked out. They always do. I love Mad Libs. I can't help it. It's like, wait, there's a game you could play and it's just words. Okay. I'm in. If there was a game about diagramming sentences, I'd probably like that too. Oh yeah.
00:58:05
Speaker
Sam, I am so glad that we could do this. I'm so glad you could be here for the interview and that we could talk about so much interesting stuff. Um, so thanks so much. Thank you. Right. Right. I mean, tech problems not withstanding. Um, yeah, great combo. And, uh, so I want to remind all of our listeners to people on coffee. Uh, we are supported by sometimes hilarious horror. So the best way to support us is to support sometimes hilarious horror on coffee.
00:58:34
Speaker
and we will see everybody next week. Bye.