Speaker 1: Hello the Internet, and welcome to this episode of trend
Speaker 1: Stein where wind trend Stein's money. I am Jack, That
Speaker 1: is Jam McNabb, writer on the dailies like Geist, what's
Speaker 1: going on? So much is going on? Jack? So much?
Speaker 1: I know? Well, ben Stein's name is trending. I did
Speaker 1: have to do the young people check and ask superproducer
Speaker 1: Becca and super producer Victor if they knew who ben
Speaker 1: Stein was. They they affirmed that they did thanks to
Speaker 1: Ferris Bueller the lasting impact of the film Ferris Bueller. Um,
Speaker 1: So ben Stein still out here occupying space in people's
Speaker 1: brains and trending on Twitter today for reasons that I
Speaker 1: would have assumed were death related. Yeah, me too. I
Speaker 1: thought he died, But no, he hash He was complaining
Speaker 1: about pancake syrup. Yeah he had a hot he had
Speaker 1: a hot one that he had to let go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a video of him not looking great,
Speaker 1: looking a little bent over. Stoops. It's been it's been
Speaker 1: a while since we've seen ben Stein in the flesh,
Speaker 1: and old age has not been kind to Ben No.
Speaker 1: I I honestly I thought he was about one hundred
Speaker 1: and eight years old and had to google it and
Speaker 1: he's only like seventy nine. Yeah, because you know, people
Speaker 1: trying to win your money just ages you. And he's
Speaker 1: just up all night worried about all the people coming
Speaker 1: for his coin. But yeah, so he posted a video
Speaker 1: where he complained that his bottle of ant Jemima syrup
Speaker 1: used to feature quote a large African American woman chef,
Speaker 1: but due to the inherent racism of America's corporate culture.
Speaker 1: Uh he it seemed like he wanted to be like,
Speaker 1: it features I think, he says, but now because of
Speaker 1: the racism, it features a white person, and then like
Speaker 1: noticed that it didn't and was like features, I mean
Speaker 1: no person, I mean nothing at all, just avoid and
Speaker 1: it's like, should should we do take two, Ben where
Speaker 1: you don't say it's a white person? That no, just
Speaker 1: in the ancient art of improv and just kind of
Speaker 1: riffing up here. But yeah, I mean he he got
Speaker 1: the camera up, had the thought, got the camera up,
Speaker 1: and yeah, it's a it's an old take. I would say,
Speaker 1: that's one one way of putting it right. Yeah, Like
Speaker 1: the it's just so like people were even pointing out
Speaker 1: online that, like because now it's the products a whole
Speaker 1: different name like for it to have been called Antremima
Speaker 1: and have no logo at all, and not have the
Speaker 1: new name which is like pearl mining milling company. Milling company. Yeah,
Speaker 1: not mining, they're not. You don't get the syrup from mining.
Speaker 1: But for for it to be that specific product, like
Speaker 1: it would have had to be like a two year
Speaker 1: old bottle of syrup. Because everyone took his money twenty
Speaker 1: five years ago. He can't afford syrup anymore. Yeah. So yeah,
Speaker 1: very dated from very specific period of time. It's very
Speaker 1: curious why anyone still cares what he has to say.
Speaker 1: But I do think like people probably generally, you know,
Speaker 1: they're aware of him from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, maybe
Speaker 1: from his game show wind Benstein's Money, which helped launch
Speaker 1: the career of Jimmy Kimmel was a former Nixon lackey.
Speaker 1: And yeah, is also like a deep right wing ideologue,
Speaker 1: like a creationist. Yeah. He made like that whole documentary
Speaker 1: about like how they shouldn't teach evolution in school. Yeah
Speaker 1: I remember, yeah, yeah, and he's like he went to
Speaker 1: Yale but somehow ended up as a as a creationist,
Speaker 1: which I don't know. Once again, like it feels like
Speaker 1: maybe A lot of the mystique of these Ivy League
Speaker 1: schools comes from the fact that they've just only given
Speaker 1: jobs to each other in the halls of power, right
Speaker 1: for the past two centuries. And so we end up
Speaker 1: with Ben Stein letting the cat out of the bag
Speaker 1: maybe a little bit. Why should not listen to every
Speaker 1: character actor from classic eighties comedies? Right? And I have
Speaker 1: to remind myself of that all the time. Yeah, be skeptical, like,
Speaker 1: don't just believe what the principle from the Breakfast Club
Speaker 1: tells you. Yeah, And I have a fall victim to that.
Speaker 1: I've lost millions in Ponzi schemes to various police Academy
Speaker 1: past members. So yeah, it's a dangerous world out there
Speaker 1: for those of us who were raised on eighties pop
Speaker 1: culture and just inherently trust it. It is Fat Tuesday.
Speaker 1: Carnival is happening in Brazil, one of the biggest parties
Speaker 1: in the world. This is a pre Lenten festival celebrated
Speaker 1: around the world Brazil, most famously Italy, Spain, New Orleans
Speaker 1: is I guess the Mardi Gras as a version of this,
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's it's time to pack in all the
Speaker 1: drinking and eating because we're all about to starve ourselves
Speaker 1: during lent am I right, everybody, everybody on the same
Speaker 1: page about that, Right, That's just how I do it.
Speaker 1: Every week. I just like, I eat a bunch one
Speaker 1: day and drink a bunch, and then the next day
Speaker 1: I'm sober and I fast. Yeah yeah, and perpetually I've
Speaker 1: had several heart attacks. And it's really kind of out
Speaker 1: of sync with the way other people because you party
Speaker 1: your hardest on Tuesday, which is usually not the day
Speaker 1: everybody else reserves for partying hard, but you just go
Speaker 1: all in on Tuesday, and then it's the day I
Speaker 1: used to party when like CDs and DVDs all came
Speaker 1: out on Tuesday. That was what a time to be
Speaker 1: alive when we just yeah, yeah, I remember. This is
Speaker 1: kind of a tangent, But I had a friend that
Speaker 1: worked in like the big a big bookstore in Toronto,
Speaker 1: like one of the chain bookstores, And this was when
Speaker 1: Prince was living in Toronto, and he used to come
Speaker 1: in every Tuesday with like his entourage and would just
Speaker 1: buy every single CD that came out that day. That
Speaker 1: didn't matter what, it was, just everything that came into
Speaker 1: the store. He bought and yeah, r I P. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there are stories about that, like with you know, directors
Speaker 1: and movie stars and stuff out in LA like that
Speaker 1: used to just be a real status symbol. It's like
Speaker 1: you would buy all the DVDs like when they came
Speaker 1: out and now look at us. But you know, Fat Tuesday,
Speaker 1: get ready to put some ash on your forehead. Catholics
Speaker 1: the day that put ourselves out there to be you know,
Speaker 1: marked for death by the CIA. If the Kennedy assassination
Speaker 1: is any indication. Wait what, I'm just saying that they're
Speaker 1: not fond of Catholics. Jeff Kok the first Catholic president.
Speaker 1: My people are you know, always on the lookout as
Speaker 1: supers or Brian just said, don't get me started on this.
Speaker 1: Arianna Debose, Academy Award winner for her role in West
Speaker 1: Side Story Super Talented Artist, hosted the seventy sixth annual
Speaker 1: Baptas and started the show with a song that celebrated
Speaker 1: the various nominees. And like I'm trying to picture in
Speaker 1: my mind, like compare it to like the Billy Crystal songs,
Speaker 1: you know, when he would just come out and sing
Speaker 1: a song at the beginning of the Oscars back when
Speaker 1: he hosted the Oscars, and like instead of jokes, it
Speaker 1: was just like references to the movies. Yeah, like that's
Speaker 1: kind of what it feels like, but even more like
Speaker 1: it almost feels more like a like rap song that
Speaker 1: your HR department would make for a training video, right
Speaker 1: at that level of just like this runs with this
Speaker 1: and it is what we're talking about, you know, like
Speaker 1: just like going through a list and finding word that
Speaker 1: rhyme and here we go on to the next one.
Speaker 1: And people are disagreeing about whether it's camp or whether
Speaker 1: it's cringe on the internet. I am reserving judgment for
Speaker 1: I need to study it further, But Jam, do you
Speaker 1: have a position? Is it cringe? Is it camp? I
Speaker 1: think it's closer to camp. I yeah, because there's something
Speaker 1: about it, like I've probably watched it thirty times by now,
Speaker 1: because I check there's it's it's both objectively bad and
Speaker 1: completely rewatchable, and also like there's something to it that
Speaker 1: is fascinating the world, but it's also not good. I
Speaker 1: think part of it may be like the reason why
Speaker 1: no one's totally sure what to call it is like
Speaker 1: she is super talented, you know, it was working with
Speaker 1: not great material, you know, like Billy Crystal is not
Speaker 1: a super talented you know, singer and dancer, so those
Speaker 1: were just you know, silly, where this is like, you know,
Speaker 1: she's committing to something that is stupid and probably shouldn't
Speaker 1: have been done. It's also like weird that she was
Speaker 1: hosting at all, Like it's always a bad idea when
Speaker 1: you're like a hot young talent and you host an
Speaker 1: award show, Like it didn't work the one time that
Speaker 1: had happened in my lifetime with like James Franco and
Speaker 1: Anne Hathaway. I would not compar to that. I don't know,
Speaker 1: like no, but just in terms of a career decision,
Speaker 1: I would. I actually probably like defend this a bit
Speaker 1: more than like some of the people on the internet
Speaker 1: like yeah, I was it was pretty dumb, but also like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I grew up with Billy Crystal, which was real bad,
Speaker 1: really bad. And then also I think what also did
Speaker 1: this the bit no service was the way it was
Speaker 1: edited because like she's singing and like I guess I'll
Speaker 1: call it rapping, but rapping like all of these names,
Speaker 1: and they do the Awards show thing where they cut
Speaker 1: to that actor to get their reaction, but she's listing
Speaker 1: them off so quickly. They're having a cut to people
Speaker 1: so fast. It's like the whole thing just felt really jarring. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think the cringiest part of it is
Speaker 1: the part that isn't being shared online as much, which
Speaker 1: is at the end of like rattling off all the
Speaker 1: actors and directors names, they start singing, we are family.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you got that far in the
Speaker 1: I didn't know. Yeah, Like that seems like, okay, I
Speaker 1: don't know if I can defend this anymore. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: the rest of it was just I don't know them. Also,
Speaker 1: the BAFTAs through Ariana Debos and her team under the
Speaker 1: bus and said it was their idea and not the bathtub,
Speaker 1: which I always like the producers of award shows feel
Speaker 1: like they need to get over themselves. I think just
Speaker 1: generally they should be like, yeah, it's stupid, but it's
Speaker 1: an award show, and like protect their talent. But this
Speaker 1: reminds me of like when the Grammy's through Frank Ocean
Speaker 1: under the bus and we're like, he doesn't cooperate with
Speaker 1: our vision. Like the Grammys award producers are like very
Speaker 1: self serious and like take their craft of award show
Speaker 1: production like very seriously, and that just just be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're we do a stupid thing and this one didn't land,
Speaker 1: but we'll try try again next year. I guess our idea. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's so silly like that. The other thing is like
Speaker 1: I watch all the you know, like I watched the
Speaker 1: Oscars and stuff, and it's there's so many goofy bits
Speaker 1: that don't land. It's like, this is not even the
Speaker 1: worst the bunch. Yeah, as super producer Brian put A,
Speaker 1: trade shows are supposed to be cringe and that's what
Speaker 1: these all are. Whether they want to be like dressed
Speaker 1: up as like Hollywood's Night of Bright Stars or you know,
Speaker 1: the night that Hollywood Stars shine the brightest. It's just
Speaker 1: people who work in the same industry awarding each other.
Speaker 1: And you know, yeah, and you know what, that performance
Speaker 1: got everybody talking about the BAFTAs, which I can't remember
Speaker 1: the last time that four D chess is what you're
Speaker 1: talking about, baptis the thing that you're so eager to
Speaker 1: get away from you that's called four D chess. And
Speaker 1: it's the only reason I've ever watched the BAFTAs other
Speaker 1: than that, one. I think it was a Kanye performance
Speaker 1: with the Flamethrowers. It was pretty dope. But yeah, anyways,
Speaker 1: let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. And
Speaker 1: we're back. And so there's a lot of wild weather happening. Tornado,
Speaker 1: winter storm on the East Coast in New York, New
Speaker 1: Jersey this week. Those aren't supposed to happen near one another.
Speaker 1: Strange weather coming to California. So I don't know, just
Speaker 1: weird times. It's crazy. I heard two women on the
Speaker 1: bus the other day and one of them was like, oh,
Speaker 1: he has like climate change. Oh so crazy. We've never
Speaker 1: haven't we don't have spring anymore, Like, we don't have
Speaker 1: we don't have spring or proper winters. And she was like,
Speaker 1: and we haven't since the seventies And I was like, what,
Speaker 1: I've never experienced a real spring in my life. Yeah
Speaker 1: yeah that Oh man, spring used to be amazing. Man,
Speaker 1: you just yeah, yeah, I missed it. Yeah. And finally
Speaker 1: The Bachelor finally caught COVID. We've been waiting for it
Speaker 1: to happen for a while. Apparently the Bachelor like has
Speaker 1: to basically create an NBA bubble, like the what the
Speaker 1: NBA did with the bubble, like they just do that
Speaker 1: every season to try and prevent a COVID outbreak. But
Speaker 1: Zach tested positive for COVID, forcing you know, just a
Speaker 1: lot of awkward, you know, a rose ceremony the iPad,
Speaker 1: I believe, or a virtual cocktail party via iPad. I
Speaker 1: don't watch the fucking Bachelor, you guys, but it's in
Speaker 1: case that isn't obvious. But do you watch The Bachelor?
Speaker 1: Jam No, no, I've seen it, but I don't watch regularly.
Speaker 1: I think the like bubble, like NBA bubble thing they
Speaker 1: did like when COVID started, because they were like, you know,
Speaker 1: like everything's shutting down, like whole industries are collapsing, like
Speaker 1: healthcare workers are exhausted. We really need to like pare
Speaker 1: down and make sure we get the Bachelor made, because yeah,
Speaker 1: the world will grind to a halt if if the
Speaker 1: Bachelor stopped. So that's when they and they were right,
Speaker 1: we needed that ship, we needed that, we needed the
Speaker 1: last dance, we needed Tiger King. Yeah. So okay, so
Speaker 1: apparently this one, yeah was the ahead them in the
Speaker 1: Bahamas London, so they're they're just traveling all over the
Speaker 1: place and caught covid Like, uh, like one is want
Speaker 1: to do if traveling all over the place. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: seemed kind of inevitable, but and it I guess I
Speaker 1: don't know how these production schedules work. Like you would
Speaker 1: think they could just wait till he didn't have covid
Speaker 1: R to finish it, but instead there Yeah, they did
Speaker 1: it all virtually. They had like a Zoom Rose ceremony,
Speaker 1: the Zoom Rose Ceremony. Actually, Super producer Brian is pointing
Speaker 1: out that because like the end of The Bachelor announces
Speaker 1: the next bachelorette, and it's sort of this inextricable cycle,
Speaker 1: like you you can't delay it. You would have to
Speaker 1: like actually stop the calendar like you were just the
Speaker 1: date would be the same for like a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks in a row. If you just delayed The Bachelor,
Speaker 1: like the actual calendar, all of the dates that we're
Speaker 1: working with, they would just stop it on February twenty
Speaker 1: first until they were able to make new episodes. That
Speaker 1: makes sense. Yeah, so it's just a never ending chain
Speaker 1: of The Bachelor. It's like, we don't recognize this, but Christmas,
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving and New Year's are all determined by when the
Speaker 1: Bachelor comes out and as a finale that explains why
Speaker 1: I buy all of my family roses single roses for
Speaker 1: Chris Ross. All right, well, we're all hoping Zach feels
Speaker 1: better even though he caught COVID probably like were or
Speaker 1: five months ago now or I don't know how long
Speaker 1: it takes them to turn this shit around, but I
Speaker 1: don't know. All right, Thank you, jam Where can people
Speaker 1: find you? Follow you all that good stuff? Oh, you
Speaker 1: can find me on Twitter at j m mcnavigant. All right,
Speaker 1: those are some of the things that are trending on
Speaker 1: this Tuesday, February twenty First, we are back tomorrow with
Speaker 1: the whole last episode of the show. Until then, be
Speaker 1: kind to each other, be kind to yourselves, get the vaccine,
Speaker 1: don't do nothing about white supremacy, and we will talk
Speaker 1: to you all tomorrow. Fights