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#97. The Substandard on Disney-Fox, Breakfast Samplers, and 'The Big Game'
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Dudes Chatting — Disney–Fox merger, Marvel IP history, and "the big game": The episode opens with a cold-read montage of NFL advertisers trying to skirt the NFL's trademark on "Super Bowl" by calling it "the big game" — Sonny notes the code has become so obvious the NFL might as well trademark that too. After Georgetown football history from Vic and college basketball banter (Sonny is briefly a UVA fan after they beat Duke), JVL delivers his prediction that the Eagles should actually lose, in order to preserve the cosmic purity of the Philly fan's suffering — made with full Joss Whedon "character needs vs. wants" framing. The main segment is the Disney–Fox merger: Vic sets up the nearly $70B deal and JVL analyzes it along two vectors. On streaming, he argues Disney will eventually crush Netflix "like a bug" — the company has dozens of pathways to subscriber acquisition, a massive IP library, and the Fox film and cable assets (not Fox Sports 1) make it instantly Netflix-competitive; Sonny partially agrees but notes that Netflix's strength has always been new exclusive content rather than library depth, and that Disney's existing cable channels complicate a clean streaming transition. JVL then traces the entire history of Marvel IP rights — Spider-Man sold to Canon Films for $225,000 in 1985, X-Men to Fox for $2.6M in 1993, Spider-Man resold to Sony for $7M in 1999 — through Disney's $4B Marvel acquisition to the $52.6B Fox deal, which reunites the X-Men and Fantastic Four with the rest of the Marvel universe. He speculates on Kevin Feige's strategy for refreshing the MCU without rebooting it. Sonny counters that critics lamenting studio consolidation are missing the point: the interesting work is now happening at the indie level and on streaming, not at the majors. A Vic family-visit coda covers his father's labeled DVD collection, Sucker Punch (Sonny defends the director's cut featuring Oscar Isaac), and watching The Lord of the Rings trilogy with his son Michael.
Box Office: Maze Runner: The Death Cure opens at #1 ($23.5M); Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle holds at #2 ($16.4M); Hostiles (Christian Bale) surprises at #3 with $10M.
Spirit of the Week: A flight of craft beers courtesy of Molly Drankard at Anheuser-Busch — Elysian Space Dust IPA (Vic), Wicked Weed Pernicious IPA (Sonny, 7.3%), Golden Road Tart Mango Cart (JVL).
The Corrections segment closes with a listener named Steve Schmidt warning Vic about his potentially breached bathroom sewer pipe — advice Vic has already ignored, assuring everyone he checks the toilet before sitting down.
Full transcript
Guest00:00:0014 seconds to go, 31-31, Matt Dodds, the puck, it's a high snap, gets it away, it's a knuckle, Jackson takes it at the 35, kicks it up, looks for running room, he's at the 40, he's at the 45, midfield, he's at the 40, he's letting go, the shot's out, almost here, he's jumping, he's running around, and he's in the end zone, and there's no time, and the Eagles win, the Eagles win!
Vic00:00:30Hello, and welcome back to another edition of The Substandard, sponsored by Tripping.com. I'm Victor Matus, along with Sonny Bunch and Jonathan V. Last. I'd like to remind you, The Substandard is available on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher. Just look at a podcast and search for Substandard, you'll easily find us. Please subscribe, tell your friends, and leave a review. Gentlemen, how are we? JVL, what's going on?
JVL00:01:00Getting ready. Getting ready for the big game. How are you holding up? The big game.
Sonny00:01:03How do you feel? Question! Are we only allowed to call it the big game on this show? Yeah. Because of, you know...
JVL00:01:10Got a letter from the National Football League.
Sonny00:01:12This is one of Beth and I's favorite pastimes in the weeks leading up to the big game, is to go through all of the ads in the various ways they try to skirt around it. And it has definitely gotten to the point where the big game is such an obvious code word that...
JVL00:01:30Dog whistle.
Sonny00:01:31That the... I'm surprised the NFL hasn't tried to, like, trademark that as well.
Vic00:01:35I had no idea that you couldn't say that.
Sonny00:01:37You can't say that. That's insane. You can't say the name of the big game. You have to call it the big game. Because if you call it the name... You have to pay for it? You have to pay for it. Oh my gosh. Do you know what I like even more than that?
Vic00:01:46It's not like the World Series does that. Nope.
JVL00:01:49Only the National Football League. What I like even more is watching the lengths to which they go dressing up football player endorsers in commercials. Where the sponsoring company hasn't wanted to pay the NFL. Because there clearly is some legal bright line. Yes. So if you play for the Chiefs, you can be with a plain red jersey with maybe your number, but maybe not your number. I think you can have your number. But no logos of any sort. And probably not your name on the back. So a lot of times, what you'll see, to get around that, they'll have a red t-shirt with the pads over top of it. Or the eye black. And anyway, it's just hysterical.
Sonny00:02:32I feel like Paisanos does this. Oh, yeah, of course.
JVL00:02:35Paisanos has their own sponsorship team of athletes, which makes no sense to me.
Sonny00:02:40It's fascinating. It's just a collection of retired guys. Ryan Kerrigan is there. It's like the Eastern Motors. Oh, I love that one. You know, pizza chains.
Vic00:02:48I wanted to download that song. Eastern Motors. Eastern Motors.
Sonny00:02:52Do you have that on your iPod? Your job is for credit.
JVL00:02:53When you're working.
Sonny00:02:54These are, once again, the local D.C. people will get this. Santana Moss.
JVL00:02:59Did the band play that at Hoya Games?
Sonny00:03:02Not that I know of.
JVL00:03:03I believe that the Georgetown band played that.
Sonny00:03:06Wait, are we going to talk about college basketball? Whoa, Sonny. University of Virginia defeating Duke. Is that right? I'm now, once again, a giant UVA fan. I've always loved the Cavaliers.
Vic00:03:17Suddenly, you're Sonny Wahoo Bunch.
Sonny00:03:20I'm so glad that our coach, who has a name.
JVL00:03:25How about that player of theirs who scored all those points?
Sonny00:03:28Let me tell you, guys. I was so. I was so shocked that number, did that thing. I was just blown away by it. And, you know, Duke, you know, nobody likes Duke. So, everybody was on team. Yay. Team Cavalier. Yay. And, frankly, the fact that if we don't leapfrog Villanova, it's a travesty. We should be number one. Number one. Actually, Duke is the good guys. Usually, I cheer for Duke. I actually do usually cheer for Duke. If they're not playing UVA. Are you kidding? You know what I like? This is your worst opinion ever. You know what I like? It is your worst opinion. You know what I like? I like excellence. I cheer for Duke. I cheer for the Patriots.
JVL00:04:05If you like excellence, you should be cheering for Kentucky and John Calipari. The wins without pretending to be, you know, a good guy who's out there trying to do things the right way with all of his players who don't graduate.
Sonny00:04:14You know who's great? It's Coach K. Coach K loves America, loves the military. Coach Team USA back to victory at the Olympics. KVL is about to have an aneurysm. The only person who is better than Coach K in college basketball is nobody. He's the best.
Vic00:04:29Oh, I don't know nobody.
JVL00:04:33That's how my father-in-law, who grew up in North Jersey and went to college in North Jersey and has never had a child attend Duke, but who wears Duke paraphernalia literally every day of his life, that's exactly how he thinks about this. Look, Coach K, great guy. He's like, yeah, he wins, and he does it the right way. He wins, and he does it the right way.
Sonny00:04:53That's a weird thing. No, I will say, this is, seriously, this is like the first college basketball game that I have watched for a long time. From more or less start to finish in the last three years.
JVL00:05:02See, I would have guessed that when you were at UVA, you were like, you would have been like a super-duper college basketball fan. You would have been at all the games and cheering. No, I was definitely not. Having opinions.
Sonny00:05:11I would say that I- Takes.
Vic00:05:13Did you camp out?
Sonny00:05:14No, no, no, no. I definitely went to more college basketball games than college football games, because going to college football games is terrible.
JVL00:05:21Why would anybody go there?
Sonny00:05:22College football's the worst. I mean, it's just, why would I want to watch minor league NFL teams play their shoddy brand
JVL00:05:28Well, on the other- Crap ball. But you do get to get thrown up on by idiot 20-year-olds.
Sonny00:05:32Yeah, I mean, it's, that's a, but at the, the college basketball games are a lot of fun, because it was kind of like a more, you know, buoyant atmosphere.
JVL00:05:39It's a more intellectual atmosphere, let's be honest. And also, the college game is closer to the professional game in basketball than it is in football.
Vic00:05:46Well, I always went to the Georgetown tailgate, never went to the Georgetown game, because, well, it was, it wasn't D3, but it was Patriot League. Did anybody go to the Georgetown football games? I assume if you had family, friends, and relatives, you would go to the game to watch them versus Iona, or Holy Cross.
Sonny00:06:02Watching football in person is just an abysmal event. I mean, football really is a sport that was made for television. It is a, it is a, watching basketball in person is, is, is much better. You, you get a, you get a real sense of the speed and the size of the game. Yes, definitely. But, like, watching in a football stadium, you're way far off the action. Well, not at Georgetown. Well, okay.
Vic00:06:21No, you could get really close at those games.
Sonny00:06:23Yeah, but then you're, but then you're basically just watching middle schoolers play, so.
JVL00:06:26Victorino, do you remember the kerfuffle that the NFL had? What was the answer caused when he, on campus, said that, you know, yeah, I mean, if I was, if I was on the football team, I'd be starting quarterback, and we'd actually win a bunch of games. Do you remember this?
Vic00:06:41No, I don't remember that, but of course, that's true. I've seen, I've seen, I've seen the clips of him playing in high school. He's insane. He was an insane player.
JVL00:06:49He was the top quarterback in the state of Virginia. Yeah. He was junior and senior.
Vic00:06:52He could have done anything. I remember seeing him hanging out on campus. When I started as a freshman, I would see Alonzo Mourning on campus, and then as I was on my way out, I would see Allen Iverson on campus. I think he only had one tattoo at the time. He was a fine arts major. Mm-hmm.
JVL00:07:06Something he picked up during his unfortunate incarceration.
Vic00:07:10Don't know what you, I forgot about that, but no, I don't remember that, but you know, I also don't remember much about the tailgates, because they ended up getting banned. It used to be a giant parking lot, and it was just gross. Where was this? This was like behind campus where the football stadium was. In D.C.? Yeah, in Georgetown, for the Georgetown football games, so they have a little stadium in the back. I thought Georgetown... I wouldn't call it a stadium, but...
Sonny00:07:32I thought Georgetown didn't even have a football team until like very recently.
Vic00:07:35No, they've always had...
JVL00:07:36Did they play in the same field as Georgetown Prep? Serious question. I'm not sure. No, no, no, no, no. I don't know if Prep... Do they play in the same field as Georgetown Prep?
Vic00:07:42No, no, Prep is up in Rockville, that area. You go all the way up Georgetown Pike, and then Prep is up there, so it's very far a distance away. Oh, okay. But the Georgetown football team has been around for, I don't know, over a century. It's where they came up with Hoya Saxa was what rocks. It was that whole Greek thing. They had a player on the Georgetown team in the early, like in the 1900s, named Charlie Barabbas, but he was a benchwarmer like Rudy. Give us... And so towards the end of the fourth quarter, they'd start yelling, give us Barabbas!
Sonny00:08:13Anyway, sorry. Sonny, you wouldn't get this joke. I don't understand that reference. It would have been so great if I had been there.
Vic00:08:19You could have probably played. Okay, all right. Anyway, to really... Do, do, do. What is that? Do, do, do.
Sonny00:08:27It's the sad Charlie. Oh, yeah, that one. Do, do, do. Yeah, that's right. That's very good.
Vic00:08:31Like from Arrested Development. That's very good.
Sonny00:08:33He's literally got his head down right now. If we had the Facebook Live cameras in here, you could see. So let's talk about something else.
Vic00:08:39Okay. Move on. Sure, sure.
JVL00:08:40Let's talk about the Eagles.
Vic00:08:41All right. By the way, really quickly about the jerseys controversy. Yes. You know how I would go around it? I would wear a jersey that said, like, instead of... If you couldn't wear Miami Dolphins, I'd say the Miami Sharks. Instead of Dallas Cowboys, I'd say Dallas Knights. That's what I would say to any Oliver Stone fans out there.
Sonny00:08:57If you've listened to the... Weekly Substandard Oliver Stone episode.
Vic00:09:01That was episode 37. No, just kidding. JVL, go.
Sonny00:09:04So I now have a theory.
JVL00:09:06And my theory is that the Eagles need to lose.
Sonny00:09:13Oh. Okay. Let's see how you've talked yourself into this.
JVL00:09:17Joss Whedon often makes the case that there is a difference between what the audience wants and what the audience needs. The er case of this being cheers. The audience was desperate to have Sam and Diane get together. But what had happened? But the audience needed them not to get together. They needed to be kept apart because that is where the life force for the show came from. That's where all the energy lies. The Eagles fans want the team to win a Super Bowl. But what if they need them not to? Because right now we're special. The misery and futility and the anger and the passion. All mixes into something that is big and cosmic and real. There is this exquisite tension between being and becoming. Between being and becoming. And this exists. Are you about to go Red Dragon on us? This exists because they have never won a Super Bowl. He just ate a piece of artwork. If we win the Super Bowl, suddenly we're just like the Steelers or the Giants or something. We're just another team. We're just another passionate fan base with a bunch of criminals who run into poles on the subway.
Sonny00:10:34Okay, first off, let's not. You're more like, I don't know. The Ravens. Whatever.
JVL00:10:40Just pick some garbage team with animalistic fans. And we don't want to be that.
Sonny00:10:46The Raiders. The Raiders. Actually, well, no, the Raiders are better than... No.
JVL00:10:52Wrong. But if we lose, we maintain our purity. And so I think... Of essence. I think...
Vic00:11:02Very good, Sonny.
JVL00:11:04That what Philadelphia needs, and what I will personally be rooting for, is for a very close and noble Eagles loss. And I will count that as a win.
Vic00:11:14It's like a win-win for you. They lose, and yet you win.
Sonny00:11:17This is like when the... This is a true story. When I was at The Weekly Standard, many years ago, I went to Vegas for, like, whatever. The Eschler Party or something. And when I was there, it was the week before the Packers were playing the Giants, I believe, in the NFC Championship game. And I placed a wager on the Giants, because I'm a Packers fan. I was like, happiness.
JVL00:11:43Smart.
Vic00:11:44It's happiness insurance. That's right.
Sonny00:11:46It's a hedge on your happiness. Packers lost, and I was still very angry. I was so angry, I never even cashed the betting slip.
Vic00:11:53Whoa!
Sonny00:11:54Never even cashed the betting slip.
Vic00:11:56How much did you wager?
Sonny00:11:58Say it right. Say it right. Introduce your question correctly. Okay, all right.
JVL00:12:05I'm sorry, Victorino. You have to form your questions in the form of a question.
Vic00:12:09What am I supposed to say? What am I supposed to say? Question. How much did you bet? Oh, question.
Sonny00:12:13How much did you wager? Do it right. Don't laugh. Do it right. This is a new format here.
Vic00:12:18Do it straight. Yes, go ahead. Answer. Question. How much did you wager? You're still laughing.
Sonny00:12:24You're still laughing. I guess we'll never know. Question.
Vic00:12:26I guess we'll never know.
JVL00:12:26How much did you wager?
Sonny00:12:27It was only 50 bucks.
JVL00:12:2950 bucks?
Sonny00:12:31Yeah. I left something. Mr. Tightwad. Mr. How much is a car? I left $125 on the table. Because I bet, I bet.
JVL00:12:38You left $125 on the table? Yeah. What sort of idiot are you? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
Sonny00:12:45I was just very sad.
JVL00:12:46You know what you could buy for $125? Two lap dances. Oh, no, no, no, no. Go ahead. You could buy half of one of these Nike Elite jerseys.
Sonny00:12:53No, I just, I was so depressed. And then I thought about the process of, I would have to send it. I'd have to make it. I'd have to mail it back to the casino. It just seemed like a lot of effort, frankly. It's like $125, not worth it.
Vic00:13:07The worst would have been, the worst would have been had you lost and lost because they didn't cover the spread or something like that. Or they covered, right? No, I bet.
Sonny00:13:15Well, the Giants were pretty heavy underdogs. They were heavy underdogs. So I just bet, I bet Giants to win. Oh, outright. I just bet the money line. And the money line was like negative, or positive 125 or something like that, I think. At the moment. Or it was even, no, it was even more than that because, again, I bet, the money line was like plus 200 or something. I can't remember.
Vic00:13:38According to the-
Sonny00:13:39I'm sure somebody will go back and look up that line and be like, oh, here's how much it was.
Vic00:13:44Actually, you would have won $700. Correction, Sonny. I did something similar when I was in Vegas, and it was Redskins-Broncos. And I picked the Redskins because I said, you know what's going to happen? The Redskins, they're going to lose the game, but they're going to- Cover. Yeah, they're going to cover. They'll cover the spread. Sure enough, they did. They lost by three. So that was very exciting for me and my wife. I think we probably-
Sonny00:14:07That was very exciting for Kate.
Vic00:14:08Kate was thrilled. I'm pretty sure she was thrilled as we were going from casino to casino trying to find the game, and probably got a seafood tower out of it. Hey, all right. Is that a euphemism?
Sonny00:14:21It's a euphemism for a lot of seafood.
Vic00:14:23That's right. Yeah. Okay, yeah. Look, I just- Go ahead.
Sonny00:14:27God, now that we're talking about Vegas, I just- I really hope the next time- We need to do a show. We got to do a live show from Vegas. I'd be all over that. Do you think The Weekly Standard would pay for that? Fly us all out to Vegas and put us up in a- We could get a suite at the Wynn. I bet they're pretty cheap right now. Very good. Live from Olympic Gardens. I'd be very uncomfortable. We could. I would feel great. Whatever. He's not coming after me. He's not sticking his German shepherds on me. That was the creepiest thing in the whole story. The German shepherds. No politics, but that was freaking weird.
JVL00:15:02And the German shepherds that answer commands- Only in German.
Vic00:15:04In German. Oh, my God. There's a bit of that that's gone on the history of Vegas.
Sonny00:15:09How do you think Sheldon Adelson felt about that? Oh, my gosh. Do you think Sheldon and Steve Wynn are friends?
Vic00:15:15That's a thought they were because-
JVL00:15:17Are they frenemies? Well, frenemies because they're politically aligned. Yeah, I mean- Politically aligned. Their interests overlap, but yet they're competitors.
Sonny00:15:23Yes, and also there's the weird German shepherd thing.
Vic00:15:26But this is the thing. I mean, you know, the old- Because I don't- I can't remember his name anymore. The old casino owner of the IP. Remember the Imperial Palace? Remember that place? No, that's before my time. That still exists. I don't know if they've blown it up yet, but the old owner- Imperial Palace. Yeah, the IP. Is that on the old strip? It's really- No, no, no. It's actually on the regular strip, but it's near Harrah's. I mean, it's just tucked in. People have forgotten about it. But back in the heyday, the owner of that casino was a huge collector of that kind of Nazi memorabilia, and one day he thought it would be cool to showcase in the hall. It was called Hitler's Staff Car. Full-on flags and sexy models or strippers wearing sort of- Wearing Nazi? Yes. Nazi regalia? Yeah, that didn't go over well. Apparently, that didn't go over well. Wow. Yeah, look it up. It's it. That's a true story.
Sonny00:16:14Well, if you people out there on Facebook think that we should do a live show from Las Vegas, you should leave lots of comments, and then maybe we'll get to do it. Yeah. I'm not going to lie.
Vic00:16:26We can crowdsource it. Is that what we're doing? I'm not going to lie. I'm not saying that we should start a GoFundMe. GoFundMe page.
Sonny00:16:31I'm just saying that maybe The Weekly Standard will pick up the tab if we have lots of engagement on our posts.
JVL00:16:36If three of us decided to jet out to Vegas for a couple days, I would 100% do this. Yeah. All right.
Sonny00:16:42Well, we'll figure this out. Where would we stay?
JVL00:16:45The Wynn.
Sonny00:16:46I'm telling you. Would we stay at the Wynn? We would have to stay at the Wynn.
JVL00:16:48Have you stayed at the Wynn?
Sonny00:16:49No. I've eaten there. But I've always wanted to. I've eaten there. J-Pod says it has the best buffet in town.
Vic00:16:56Oh, I bet it does. There's a great Chinese restaurant in there I was at. Excellent stuff. We could do a Chinese buffet. Oh, my gosh.
Sonny00:17:02We could do a live show from every restaurant. We could do a live show from the buffet, from the steakhouse, from the Chinese place.
Vic00:17:08Yeah, absolutely. I would have liked to have done one from the frontier and do the prime rib buffet, $14.95. That would have been something.
Sonny00:17:15We could even pitch it to the Wynn. We have literally ones of thousands of listeners. Don't you want the free advertising of us doing a show?
Vic00:17:24We must have some Vegas listeners.
Sonny00:17:26We have literally dozens of listeners, people. You know, so maybe you can put us up in a nice little suite with a view. I don't think the rooms are all that expensive.
JVL00:17:37They're not cheap. Oh, we have to.
Sonny00:17:39I mean, the Wynn's a nice hotel.
Vic00:17:40Would we have to share a room, the three of us in one room?
JVL00:17:44Oh. Yeah, no. Never mind. You're thinking about it. No. Never mind. You've thought about it. It's a big bed.
Vic00:17:49Look, if it's a big bed, you could do the over-under. Were you in a situation like that once, Sonny, in Atlantic City? What? Didn't you have to share a room?
Sonny00:17:57Well, yeah, but I slept on the couch. I didn't sleep under the bed. What kind of animal sleeps under the bed?
Vic00:18:02No, not under the bed. Like, under the sheet, above the sheet. Ask John McCormick. That's all I'm saying.
Sonny00:18:07Jesus. What? I just wish I was there. We might want to cut this whole part.
Vic00:18:14Oh, this is before he was married, everybody. Okay.
Sonny00:18:17Wow. Quickly, quickly.
Vic00:18:19The point spread is 4.5. What's your prediction? Patriots by four and a half. What do you say? JVL.
JVL00:18:26I would probably take the point. I would probably take the under on that, because both those defenses are pretty good. But that's a very close over-under. I mean, that number is right.
Sonny00:18:45I would take the over, and I would take the Patriots.
Vic00:18:47I'm taking the Pats over the Eagles, 28 to 21, so over, but just barely. You're right about the over. Right, that's really, that's a good line.
JVL00:18:55They've pegged it. Okay, good.
Vic00:18:57Oh, moving right along. Sonny Bunch, what's going on?
Sonny00:18:59Can I get another one of these beers? No, you can have mine. I'm sorry, I didn't realize you finished it so fast. You only brought three beers?
Vic00:19:05They only gave, she only gave me three. We have a crisis. I'm serious, we only have three. She can give me six. You can have the rest of mine if you want, because I still have the Shuffer Huffer. Oh, take the Shuffer Huffer. No. No. He says no, and Sonny says no.
JVL00:19:19Can't have my Shuffer Huffer. We'll make it up next week.
Sonny00:19:21I didn't realize that we were only going to have one beer. I thought, no, you didn't, you said we had samples. You didn't say there was only one of each. Sorry. This is bullshit.
JVL00:19:29This night, sorry, Sunday night, my five-year-old says to me, you're having another daddy juice? That's two in one night. I said, well, honey, they're in the tiny cans, so really, if you think about it, it's really like I'm only having one. She bought that. Did she buy that? She bought it. That's good.
Sonny00:19:47That's good. Kids are stupid.
Vic00:19:49Okay. You don't have half of it. Drink. Wow. Drinks aside, Sonny, what's going on? Everything okay?
Sonny00:19:56Yeah, I guess. Except for the drink. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Sorry. He's parched.
Vic00:20:02All right. Well, then. What was the transition? I don't know. I just want to see how you're doing, and then move over to me. I'm fine.
Sonny00:20:08How are you doing, Nick?
Vic00:20:09Oh, great. You'll know about this one. Like, I don't care.
JVL00:20:13Well, bathroom is actually done. Like, I care about your bathroom.
Vic00:20:16So we're very excited, but we'll talk about that in a little bit. I was going to mention, I was up in Jersey for my father's 80th birthday.
JVL00:20:23Your father's 80?
Vic00:20:24Yeah, he's ancient. He was born in 1938. How was it? Was it great? It was great. Wonderful. We surprised them. They were thrilled, happy, everything. And Sonny knows this, because on maybe Friday night or Saturday night, it was Friday night, they decided that, Michael, now let's do a movie night. And my father has every movie under the sun. Every time he walks into, you know, Costco or wherever, and there's usually at front, there's all these things on sale. Oh, I heard this was good. He'll just pick it up. And so you've got the best of the best and the worst of the worst. And I was going through his collection, and what did I find? Sucker Punch.
Sonny00:21:00Sucker Punch! Zack Snyder's masterpiece. To be fair, it was not the director's cut.
Vic00:21:04No, and a number of our followers and listeners noted that, which is really, I didn't realize it was that big of a difference.
Sonny00:21:09Yeah, it's a huge difference between a pretty good movie and an amazing movie. Is that right? And a great, one of the all-time great movies.
Vic00:21:16So what happened in the director's cut? Why? Was he reined in? Was it a studio issue? Who didn't like it? What happened? Why did they just run with it? Too long?
Sonny00:21:22It was running a little bit long. The extended cut is, I want to say it's like two hours and ten minutes, something like that. But it has a great song and dance sequence featuring Oscar Isaac. Oh, really? Oscar Isaac. And I don't understand. And then there's another extended scene with Jon Hamm. I mean, I honestly don't understand why they had to cut it. They lost two of the best actors of our any generation, frankly. Yes. Oscar Isaac and Jon Hamm.
Vic00:21:50So I thought it was funny, and I decided to tweet out the picture. But little did I know, my father put a label on his DVD. It was Sucker Punch that has his name and address. And so this was very confusing.
Sonny00:22:03We were all, because I just, I just, I just. On the box? Yes. He put it on the box. Because I just quote tweeted you, and I was like, hey, look at this. You should get the extended edition. But why was it on there?
Vic00:22:17My father labels everything. And it's like kind of nuts. And so like, he'll like tennis rackets, golf clubs. He always puts his name and address in case, you know, you never know if you lose it. But there must be. That's something OCD related. Because why would you put it like, God forbid, he's thinking he's going to lose Sucker Punch. That's why he decided to put a sticker on it. But he didn't put it. He didn't put it, Sonny, on, as I showed you, not every movie. There was a movie he had from a direct-to-video movie of Steven Seagal called, I believe it's called Under Attack. And that one had no label. So in case somebody steals it, it's okay. Yeah. Does he lend them a lot? No. I mean, my sister, I mean, she'll go in and take whatever if she wants to take them. I mean, he has every movie. We did not end up watching Sucker Punch. Sucker Punch, I'll tell you that. Not for the kids. I guess it's not appropriate yet for children.
JVL00:23:02How old is he?
Vic00:23:03Oh, oh, I'm sorry.
Sonny00:23:04Oh, yeah. Oh, it's no alien.
Vic00:23:07So you know what we ended up watching? We ended up watching The Two Towers, Lord of the Rings.
Sonny00:23:13Extended cut or?
Vic00:23:14No, the regular. Oh, really? Have you let them watch the first one? Yes. He watched the first one, so he wanted to watch the second one. And then the following day in the afternoon, we watched Return of the King. Interesting, because you know what? It's totally true. You could easily lop off. The last 30 minutes of Return of the King.
JVL00:23:31Or the last two and a half hours.
Vic00:23:33There's some great parts. You know, the spider is great, you know. No. But it's really. But the first two are really good. And when we came back home, Michael wanted to go back again and watch Fellowship of the Ring. It's a good movie.
Sonny00:23:47Each of these movies are progressively worse. Every Peter Jackson, Lord of the Rings universe movie has gotten worse and worse. And look, the first three are all. Like, good to very good. I mean, Fellowship is great. It's amazing. Two Towers is good. Return of the King is a little bit long, but still very good. But the Hobbit movies. Wrong. Just get progressively trash and trash. Now, I know that you have this whole thing about Peter Jackson being, you know, overblown and way, his head way up his own ass on Return of the King. But, like, I think you're wrong on this. I think it is generally.
JVL00:24:21Wrong.
Sonny00:24:22Agreed upon that you're wrong.
JVL00:24:23You were wrong. No, you are. You're the puppet. You are.
Sonny00:24:27You're the puppet.
JVL00:24:28No, you are. You puppet. You want to make out? Wow.
Sonny00:24:31No. Not until we get that room at the Wynn. Hey.
JVL00:24:36You know, it started out as a very tasteful massage, and I'll just say, Sonny, move your hand a little higher.
Vic00:24:41Just roll over.
JVL00:24:42Higher.
Vic00:24:43Okay. Anyway, it felt like, you know what it felt like forever? When Sam and Frodo are getting to the volcano. Mount Doom. Mount Doom. You see the, in the distance, and it always feels like, it's like, they've got to be closer than they are. And it just goes odd.
JVL00:24:59Well, you know, if you'd ever actually done any mountaineering, Vic, you'd understand that that's actually what it's like. Like, the mountain. I'll never know. The mountain looks like it's right there, but it's still like 50 miles away.
Vic00:25:10I've been to the top of Mount Lucerne in Switzerland. Well, he took a bus. But, you know, my father said his- What's a mountain? Even better. My father said the real hero of Lord of the Rings was Gollum, because he's the one, because at the end, Frodo- It is, because he said at the end, Frodo keeps the ring on, and it's Gollum who then fights him for it, bites the finger off, and then falls into the pit of lava with the ring.
JVL00:25:37Gollum was just sacrificing himself for the good of Middle Earth.
Vic00:25:41Yes. Sure.
JVL00:25:41See, there you go.
Vic00:25:42Yeah, we can do this. Smeagol. Smeagol. And he likes sushi. There's nothing wrong with raw fish. He was tortured. He was tortured.
Sonny00:25:51He was-
Vic00:25:52Spokesperson for bipolar disorder. Question.
Sonny00:25:56Yes.
JVL00:25:57Vic- No, no, no. Mike Mattis. Yeah. Prefers Legolas or Gimli?
Vic00:26:04Oh, no. The Witch King, Agnarr.
JVL00:26:07Really? I'm not kidding you.
Vic00:26:09He loves- He's obsessed with the Witch King. Okay. I would have said Legolas without a question. I had a-
JVL00:26:18Completely hairless below the eyebrows.
Vic00:26:19Oh, my God. Believe- What's crazy is- I was thinking of Arwen. Come on. I was not. Thank you. Love him. Come on. Well, you know, that's how they do it in- In the elf world, you know? They shave everything in the elf world. Okay. Let's pretend I had a segue. Speaking of mazes, over the weekend, the Maze Runner, Death Cure, took the top spot at the box office. That was released in theaters? It took the top spot, 23 and a half million, followed by Jumanji, still going strong at 16.4 million, and then Hostiles in third place with 10 million. Has anyone here seen the Maze Runner, anything of the series? I literally have never seen a Maze Runner movie.
JVL00:26:59But Sonny has seen Hostiles, which looked like a big, fancy Oscar-style movie with Christian Bale. Yeah, I could do that for next week. Maybe that's next week, Westerns.
Sonny00:27:08Yeah, maybe we can come back to it. But I would say, I was a little bit surprised that it grossed $10 million, frankly. I was expecting this to do like five. Yeah, but it's a good movie, and people should see it. Maybe we'll talk about it more.
Vic00:27:26Good.
Sonny00:27:26More next week.
Vic00:27:27It has nothing to do with The Hunger Games?
Sonny00:27:30No, this is actually- No, this is part of the Divergent extended universe. Hostiles. It's like Divergent, Insurgent, Hostiles. You mean Maze Runner? No, that's- Oh. You know the Divergent movies are a different franchise of young adult- Yes, I do. Hunger Games. I do, I do. Knockoff. Do you?
JVL00:27:50But what do you mean Hostiles? Isn't Hostiles the Christian Bale one?
Sonny00:27:54We're just talking about Hostiles. Yeah.
JVL00:27:56I'm joking. I'm saying-
Sonny00:27:57I'm saying it's not part of that.
JVL00:27:58That didn't really work.
Vic00:28:00Yeah. But you know, that's fine.
Sonny00:28:01That's okay.
Vic00:28:02All right, fine. Good show, guys. Lovely. This is a great show. We wanted to talk about- Sure, I'm glad I don't have anything else to drink here. Better to do. It's that time of the year, January, when there's absolutely, as you can tell, nothing really in theaters. And so we have a little bit of a- we have some backup themes and subjects we think it's time to bring out. And this time we're going to talk about- You're selling this well. You're really- You're really just crushing this one.
JVL00:28:28We're reaching in there, and this is- we were going to talk about the Fox- Reaching around. Yes.
Vic00:28:32We're just reaching around. Whatever it takes. Whatever it takes. The Fox-Disney merger. As you know, this happened not long ago. Well, it hasn't really happened yet. No, no, no. It hasn't happened yet. It was announced. It's valued at almost $70 billion. But, of course, there are fears about, you know, antitrust fears, so they want to have these hearings over the takeover, Disney's takeover of 21st Century Fox. Includes film studio, cable networks, regional sports channels. They say it could be 18 months away. But what is happening here? What's the big takeaway from all of this?
Sonny00:29:07Does it include the regional sports channels? Because I know it doesn't include Fox Sports 1. Well, that's good. I assume that trying to glom Fox Sports onto ESPN would have created a real, like- Yeah. For the 2% market share that Fox Sports has, you know.
JVL00:29:23Well, this is how you always avoid antitrust, is by maintaining a fig leaf of competition.
Sonny00:29:28Yep. JBL, you probably have more thoughts on this because you hate capitalism and corporations. I do hate capitalism. Would you- That is true. Could you share- Fact check, true. I'm not even joking here. Oh, that's true. And I don't think JBL is either. He does actually hate- Yes. Corporations and capitalism.
JVL00:29:43You know, I mean, I care about this only along two vectors. The first vector is about what it means for Marvel, and the second vector is what it means for Netflix. So those are the only two. Those are the only two things I care about. So if you'd like to talk about those and put it later in the machine, I can do that. We need you to kill about 10 minutes of time, so go for it. So the proximate cause for this is because Disney wants to kill Netflix, and the way to do that is by creating- They have a giant streaming service, which they announced six months ago called- TBD. Everything about the Disney giant streaming service, TBD. Nobody knows what it is. I don't think Disney knows what it is. It's not that it's some big secret. They just haven't thought it all the way through. They just decided, huh, well, you know, we think that the future of streaming- Streaming is important, and we think that the future of streaming belongs to intellectual property. We have a lot of intellectual property right here, and so they want to stand something up. You know what? I did an interview with our buddy, Richard Rushfield, who runs The Anchor, a few months ago, and I asked him, I said, is it possible that Hollywood learns- Hollywood has learned nothing from the music industry's encounter with the internet? And he said to me, Hollywood has learned nothing from the music industry's encounter with the internet, which I find amazing, because I generally think that despite the fact that we all pretend that people in Hollywood are stupid, that that's actually not true. They make a bunch of choices which make sense when you look at how incentives are aligned, and they're actually, Hollywood is run in large part by people who are pretty sharp. And ruthless. And awfully ruthless. Yeah. Petty, but ruthless. Yeah. So, a big part of this is about absorbing the Fox library, so that when the Disney streaming service, whatever it is, comes up, they will have an enormous amount of material, and it won't be Sharknado 7. They will, this is, I mean, people don't even realize, when you talk about Disney, it isn't just the Disney movies, Disney has like five channels already, I mean, there are hundreds and hundreds. There are hundreds of Disney series that are, that you and I never see, you know, unless you have kids you never, who are watching Disney Family and Disney Kid, they're out, they're all out there. So, there's going to be an enormous amount of content. They will, from day one, be Netflix competitive, and I, I find it impossible to believe that Disney is not going to crush Netflix like a bug. My view. The other vector about this is about Marvel. Would you like for me to read some figures? Some numbers and statistics?
Sonny00:32:28Could we, before we do that, can we just talk about the streaming for a moment? Yes. Funny. So, you know, my, my whole thing on Netflix is that I more or less agree with you that Netflix has no chance in a future in which competition is based on who has the deepest library of things that you are just like, I want to watch X or Y, right? Like, anybody who in the last two years or so has turned on Netflix and been like, I want to watch this Paul Thomas Anderson. Movie has almost certainly been disappointed, right? I mean, there's, because Netflix doesn't, doesn't have, doesn't have a sister wife season five, right? Right. They've got, they've got, they've got tons and tons of titles and they've got some new titles and they've got some old, but like they almost never, if there's, you know, there's roughly a 3% chance that if you were just like, I want to watch this movie, you'll be able to see it if that. So the, the, the, the future competition for streaming eyeballs has never, or at least for the last few years has not been who has the deepest library. It's who has the best new thing right now, who has the best new content that is exclusive to your streaming service. And in that sense, it is not at all clear to me that Disney slash Fox will have the advantage there because they're still going to have their television channels on which all of this stuff is going to appear. Right. So like they're, they're, they're, my guess is my guess, and this is just my guess is they're not going to take the shows that are native to FX and say, all right, we're not going to put these on FX. We're going to put them on our streaming service, at least not in the foreseeable future, maybe in the, in the, in the 20 year time horizon and the 10 to 20 year time horizon. But they could, if they wanted to, they could, if they wanted to.
JVL00:34:12But well, so the point, I mean, their field of options is so enormous that they get to choose how do we want to try to kill Netflix? This is why I mean, I said this a couple weeks ago, we talked about Netflix as a corporate in an entirely defensive mode. Every choice they have made as a corporation has been defensive going back like eight years. This is a company struggling for survival. And yet their price versus earnings ratio is like 300. It makes the whole company makes no sense to me. Disney has a number of different avenues available to destroy Netflix, and I am reasonably confident they will do it right. I mean, it's like, how does Netflix survive this? Disney can sign up subscribers so easily they have. Literally dozens of pathways to get people signed into the system.
Sonny00:35:01Just inertia.
JVL00:35:01I mean, ask America online how long inertia will get will get you.
Sonny00:35:05Netflix, Netflix, Netflix is incredibly cheap. Just it is. It's ten bucks a month. Nobody like ten bucks a month is nothing, right?
JVL00:35:14And so the only thing they can jack it up now and it's keep jacking it up.
Sonny00:35:17And they have 117 million subscribers already. And that number keeps going up. I mean, I like I would say I it's entirely possible that Netflix is not here in ten years. I would be shocked if that was the case.
Vic00:35:29Which is something I think you echoed in a previous episode.
JVL00:35:31Yeah, I would know. I mean, they will be here in the way that America online is here. America online still exists. There are people with four old people. Yeah, there are people with AOL phone numbers. God help me. There are people who pay. I heard a rumor about that.
Vic00:35:42I heard a rumor that dial in who are paying AOL.
JVL00:35:47Yeah, this exists. That's just a thing which is happening now in America. Netflix will not go away. I mean, there will be, you know, some rump of old people who have come to the party ten years late and are still paying Netflix at that point $17 a month or something so they can watch Sharknado 15. But that's about it, I think. Oh, whatever.
Vic00:36:08Where does Amazon fit in all this, though? Because they have their own thing.
Sonny00:36:11Well, Amazon's video selection is just kind of an add-on, really, to Amazon Pro. It's a hobby, right.
JVL00:36:17I mean, all of that is, in fact, a side. The entire Amazon instant video thing is a tiny, little baby piece of the Lord Bezos plan for world domination, right? I mean, think of it this way. Amazon Web Services, which is a side project that grew out of just the need to do something and monetize their IT infrastructure of the company, is something like the 200th biggest company in the world, all on its own. I mean, Amazon is so big that eventually Amazon will either eat UPS or make its own UPS. They will be a shipping company. They will be fully vertically integrated. With drones. Because what they are is they're a logistics company that sells things. I can't even tell you how excited I am.
Vic00:37:07As small as it is, they still put out an extremely high-level value production like the marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Yeah. You need to watch this, JV. We're four episodes into it. Does it get better? You like it?
Sonny00:37:20It's okay.
Vic00:37:21It gets better.
Sonny00:37:22It's like woke Mad Men.
Vic00:37:23Yes. Oh, boy. Actually, it is. Yeah, that sells me. It is. But you still got to watch it because it gets better. Okay. And what's her name? Susie. The manager's fantastic. Yeah, she's good. And Tony Shalhoub is great. Yeah. Anyway.
Sonny00:37:34He does. All right. So let's talk about X-Men.
Vic00:37:36Yeah. Go ahead. What happens here? Because they're not ... Oh, wait a minute. I have a question regarding this. In the comic books, since you know I don't read, but I know you do, was there any overlap with the X-Men and the Avengers world in this thing? Please go ahead. Oh, yeah.
JVL00:37:56Oh, yeah. This is a ... I mean, it's always a treat when the X-Men and the Avengers overlap in the comic books. And some of the great classic covers are with the X-Men coming on one side, and they're always fighting one another. The genius of Marvel is that even though they're on the same side, they find ways to make them ... Because nobody really cares about the bad guys in the Marvel world, unlike DC, which puts a lot of stock in the villains. In the Marvel world, it's all about the heroes and finding ways to make them fight each other. And so we'll ... We'll get to that. 1985. Marvel puts up the rights to Spider-Man for auction. There's only one bidder.
Vic00:38:36I think I know. Can I guess? Go ahead.
JVL00:38:39Harvey? No. No. Okay. Go ahead. It is sold to Canon Films for $225,000. $225,000 for the rights to Spider-Man. Interestingly enough, Canon Films is eventually bought by ... Herald Co. And James Cameron is attached to direct, and he writes something like a 57-page scriptment for his Spider-Man movie.
Guest00:39:07Wow.
JVL00:39:09Did I just blow your mind? You just did.
Vic00:39:11I'm still thinking about Canon, because I loved all their ninja movies in the 80s.
JVL00:39:15Were they the ninja?
Vic00:39:17Oh, yeah.
JVL00:39:19It almost happened. Now, we know a little bit about it. I was not able to get my hands on the scriptment. Have you ever read it, Sonny? No. So, the things people fixate on are the organic web spinnerets, so he doesn't use... It's not a device. It's not a device. It's part of his body. There is evidently a scene where he is undergoing his transformation, and he wakes up in the middle of the night, and is just covered when he lifts up the sheet with sticky white fluid everywhere. And so, Cameron has said, in an interview with Collider, that he really thought a lot about the psychosexual aspects of the web fluid. Of Spider-Man himself, that the whole thing was about teen sexuality. Is it, though? I mean, that's the question. Was it about that? Well, what I find funny is that Cameron is a guy who is not really great with sex. That's not his forte. Much like Scorsese, it's not his forte. That is not his forte.
Sonny00:40:16There's like one sex scene in a James Cameron movie. It's really awkward. No, no, no. Well, okay, two sex scenes. There's the Titanic one. And it's really an after sex. But also Terminator.
Vic00:40:26Oh, yeah.
Sonny00:40:27Remember that awful...
Vic00:40:28In the movie trailer. Really, just... It was in the trailer.
Sonny00:40:31And it's got this like... Brad Feidel does this awful kind of synth romance score for it. And the tempo speeds up as they get towards the end. It's the worst.
JVL00:40:43With Linda Hamilton.
Sonny00:40:43It's the worst, most awkward thing ever put on film.
JVL00:40:47So from what I was able to take from my research into this, it appears that Spider-Man would have been Cameron's sex movie. There's a scene where... Where he takes Mary Jane up to a bridge and spins them a web. And they start doing it in the web as it bounces. And there's weird foreplay. And he talks to her about, you know, there's a certain type of spider that likes to tie up its mate and stuff.
Vic00:41:10I'm sorry. Continue talking. This is really good. A little light bonded with Mary Jane.
Sonny00:41:16That's fine. And then what happens? Was this an R-rated Spider-Man?
Vic00:41:19It seemed like it would have been R-rated.
JVL00:41:20Would have been, yeah. Lots of cursing. Very... Who was the villain? Uh, the villain was, I want to say Doc Ock.
Vic00:41:29Huh. Fascinating.
JVL00:41:32Never happens. Never happens. In 1993, Marvel is in the throes of bankruptcy. They sell the rights to X-Men, to Fox, for $2.6 million.
Vic00:41:45Million, yeah.
JVL00:41:47In 1999, Marvel, having recovered the rights to Spider-Man, resells them, this time to Sony, for $7 million. And a mere decade later, Disney buys Marvel for $4 b-b-b-b-billion. This tells you something about, uh, underleveraged IP, and what its actual values are. And then, a mere eight years after buying Marvel, Disney buys Fox for $52.6 billion. And this is, I, I mean, I'm not kidding when I say that I think the, the comic book Marvel rights probably make up, like, 20% of that deal. Mm-hmm. And, um, because now you can merge all Marvel IP together, which gives you a way to refresh things without rebooting them. Mm-hmm. So the, the, what Marvel, well, we have, the trick Marvel hasn't done yet in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is what to do with things once they are stale. And Kevin Feige has, I think, hinted to us that what he thinks about doing and do what he's done in the comic books, which is to say, make it a diversity lottery. And so we're going to get Anthony Mackie as Captain America, and we're going to get Chick Thor, Ladyboy Thor, and we're going to have all, you know, like every, all the characters you love are going to go away, and we're just going to replace them with, with diversity hires. Um, I think that would be madness from a commercial point of view. I don't think it would do very well. But what you could do is just go away from the characters for a while and make a bunch of movies in this other, corner of the Marvel Universe for 10 years, and then a decade from now, come back and play around with the Avengers some more. This is, having, having the X-Men plus the Daredevil, plus now they have access to Spider-Man through their alliance with Sony.
Vic00:43:39Oh, did you mention the Fantastic Four or no?
JVL00:43:41Fantastic Four is coming. They're a part of this package.
Vic00:43:44The reboot of the reboot of the original.
JVL00:43:46We have never had a truly, Marvel has never been able to execute its own Fantastic Four. I like Michael Chiklis is the thing. No? If there's one thing you liked about it, and it wasn't Michael Chiklis. Invisible Girl, whatever her name was. No, no, no. Jessica Alba.
Vic00:44:04Yeah, no, Jessica Alba. Sue Storm.
JVL00:44:05Thank you, Sue Storm.
Vic00:44:07And what would they do with Johnny Storm slash Captain America? If Johnny Storm met Captain America, what would happen?
JVL00:44:14In the annals of Geek, I would say Chris Evans occupies a place next to, now I'm blanking on his name, Magneto and Ian McKellen. Guys who have, and then Patrick Stewart. In the Geek canon, actors who have gotten to play two iconic nerd characters.
Sonny00:44:32Except for the fact that both the Fantastic Four movies are widely reviled, and nobody likes them. I mean, this is the difference.
JVL00:44:38But he's the best part of the Fantastic Four. He's the only guy on screen who has any idea what he's doing.
Sonny00:44:43Yeah, no, those movies are so bad. True. And annoyingly bad. They didn't have to be that bad.
Vic00:44:49Who played Mr. Fantastic again? What was his name?
JVL00:44:52Oh.
Vic00:44:52Yeah.
Sonny00:44:53Yoan Gufford. That's right, yeah, yeah. Yoan Gufford, something like that.
Vic00:44:58We're going to be corrected on that one. Sonny, your thoughts?
Sonny00:45:02Well, it's very funny when this news broke, because immediately, of course, the conversation is, oh my God, we can do X-Men Avengers. And then all of the serious film nerds on film Twitter were like, how dare you reduce this to superhero span. We're losing a film house here. We're down to five major studios. They're not wrong. Who cares? No, I think they are wrong. Who cares? You know where the interesting work is being done? Interesting work is being done in the small studios, in the independent labels, on Netflix, on Amazon, in the smaller markets, in the smaller scales. You know what the major studios do? They do crap. They do big budget crap. They do Maze Runner games, virgins. Did you say virgins? Virgins. And then that's it. And you know what? I don't care. Let all the major film houses die. Die. And just make their comic book movies for losers forever. And we grown-ups will get our entertainment elsewhere. What do you think about that, JVL?
JVL00:46:04You know what? If the recent history has shown us anything, it's that when capitalism destroys an existing order, what pops up is always way better.
Sonny00:46:12Yeah, right.
JVL00:46:12Exactly.
Sonny00:46:13For instance, Amazon.
JVL00:46:15Yeah. No, no. We're all way better off with robots running everything. Aren't we? Not being able to have jobs. Aren't we now?
Vic00:46:22Hey, Vic. I had to tell you something. Did you know that the... Which family visits five totally different websites before booking a vacation rental? You can spend less time planning your next trip and more time relaxing with Tripping.com, the world's number one site for vacation rentals. Tripping.com is trusted by millions of travelers and featured by The New York Times, Travel & Leisure, Forbes, and more. Whether you're looking for a cabin or a beachfront home to get away to this winter, or already looking ahead to vacations this spring, Tripping.com can help you find the perfect place to stay. Vacation rentals offer flexibility, perks and amenities that hotels don't, like multiple bedrooms, backyards, hot tubs, free Wi-Fi, and even fully stocked kitchens. So you can plan and cook your own meals, great for families and large groups. With Tripping.com, one search lets you filter, compare, and sort over 10 million available properties on trusted sites like VRBO, TripAdvisor, Booking.com, and more. Don't wonder if you're getting the best deal. You'll save an average of 18% per night by booking your vacation with Tripping. Tripping.com. So don't forget, if you want to save time and money while booking the perfect vacation rental for your next trip, head to Tripping.com slash Substandard today. That's T-R-I-P-P-I-N-G dot com slash Substandard. Tripping.com slash Substandard. Maury's wigs don't come off.
JVL00:47:46Thank you.
Vic00:47:48Okay. Do we have any other further Disney Fox thoughts before we move on?
JVL00:47:54It's generally bad. It's really bad for the industry to have... This is like, when Magazine X goes out of business, that's just better for journalism. No, it's not.
Sonny00:48:02No, I'm joking. I mostly agree. But that being said, the studios have brought all of this on their own heads by just wagering on tentpole after tentpole. So the urge to get bigger and consolidate makes some sense within the absurd world that they've created for themselves.
Vic00:48:21Fair. Okay. Are we ready to move on? Yeah. All right. Spirit of the week. Special thanks to some micro-brews we received, courtesy of Molly Drankard at Anheuser-Busch. Thank you, Molly.
JVL00:48:38This is awesome.
Vic00:48:39She used to work at the House Conference Committee, and now she's over at Anheuser-Busch. Well, she traded up, didn't she? Tell me about it. I'm drinking something called Elysian Space Dust IPA, and that really matches me. It's kind of... Spacey looking, and it's quite delicious. I'm not an IPA person, and yet I found it quite tasty. Sonny, what do you got?
Sonny00:49:01I'm drinking the Wicked Weed Brewing Pernicious India Pale Ale. I liked it. Yeah. 7.3% alcohol. Whoa.
Vic00:49:08I like that. No wonder. That really put you in a special mood.
Sonny00:49:10Yeah.
Vic00:49:11You could have used two more.
Sonny00:49:12Well, I mean, honestly, one more would have been fine, but this was very good.
JVL00:49:17JVL, what do you got? Golden Road Brewing's Tart Mango Cart. It's a mango weed ale. I loved it. Delicious? I liked it. Really good. Molly, thank you so much.
Vic00:49:27You could send more if you wanted. Yes. In fact, you know, she said their office, no surprise, on I Street here, downtown D.C., they've got taps and kegs and stuff like that. And all these, oh, we've got all these extra, you know, Stella Artois chalices, because they've got swag. They've always got swag. And I said, what about your repeal reserve? Apparently, that was a limited time only thing, but if she finds any, she'll bring some over, because I'd like to try that. Can we do a live show from their office? Yeah, we should do a live show from there.
JVL00:49:54Anheuser-Busch?
Vic00:49:55Yeah. That would be a lot of fun, actually.
JVL00:49:57I am 100% serious. I will mention. Corrections, additions.
Vic00:50:03Everybody's okay. Correction.
JVL00:50:04Oh, please. JVL. The Eagles are absolutely going to lose. No, I'm just, look, I'm getting my head around it, but as I said to you. I'm glad you're not overthinking this. It's better. This is what we need, because we don't want to become like the Ravens or the Giants or the Steelers fan bases.
Vic00:50:23What happens, right? What happens? Right.
JVL00:50:24You're like, oh, okay, okay, so you want. Look, there are two ways to be special. You can be a dynasty, or you can be cursed. Everything else, you're just another team.
Vic00:50:33Yeah, right. That's right. That's why I like the Redskins. I'm sorry.
JVL00:50:36You got like four Super Bowls. Our entire youth was dominated by the Super Bowl. Most of the people alive on this earth have been born after 91.
Vic00:50:44Okay. Regarding corrections, additions, the bathroom renovation is complete. It's lovely. I did get a very concerned tweet from some standard listener. My old friend, Steve Schmidt, who, after hearing the rat episode, said, quote, Your potentially breached sewer pipe is quite serious. Before the toilet is installed, you should have a plumber use a camera, think endoscopy, to survey pipe to make sure no breaks. Otherwise, infestation. It's possible it broke during the demo. That's very smart. Did you do it? No, the toilet's installed. So what I do is, before I use it, I look in the toilet. Otherwise, it'll be like a scene from Ghoulies 2. Do you remember that? All right, listeners, if you don't know what I'm talking about, just go to YouTube and type in Ghoulies 2 toilet scene. Thank you.
?00:51:33Ghoulies.
Vic00:51:34You really didn't? I thought it was Critters. You didn't do it? You know, they're pretty, they're like, don't worry, it's, I'm, they're sure.
Sonny00:51:41Don't worry, it's fine. That's what the contractor said.
Vic00:51:44Oh, the contractor said, I'm sure it's fine.
Sonny00:51:46Don't worry, it's fine.
Vic00:51:47I brought the inspector, it was fine.
JVL00:51:50You know, contractors never lie to you in the course of construction jobs. So you're okay.
Vic00:51:54Believe me. Okay, that's all the time we're giving to this episode. Questions, comments, complaints, compliments, tweet us at Victorino Matus, at Sonny Bunch.
Sonny00:52:03At JBLass.
Vic00:52:04Again, be sure to subscribe to us on iTunes or Google Play. Just type in Substandard at a podcast and we're there. Leave a review, tell your friends. Until next time. I do.
JVL00:52:21Yeah, tell me, because all I did was sit around with sick kids all weekend. I'm sorry to hear that.
Vic00:52:26So, you know, I was up in Jersey celebrating my dad's 80th. And we, of course, have to go to IHOP, because they always do this thing.
JVL00:52:34We've got to, you know, after church, go to IHOP. Kids love IHOP. You could go to a real diner. Because you're in Jersey. Why would you go to a fake diner? It's like my mother. She also likes Papa John's pizza. Question. Question.
Sonny00:52:45Are there more IHOPs or are there more one-off diners?
JVL00:52:50More diners. In Jersey?
Sonny00:52:51No, I'm saying each one. No, no, but are there chains? Are there chains? Is it how many IHOPs versus how many Al and Steve's?
JVL00:53:00Nationally.
Guest00:53:01Yeah.
JVL00:53:02There's more IHOPs, right? I'm sure there are more diners. No, I know what he's saying. No, I'm saying individually.
Sonny00:53:06I'm saying, like, how many IHOPs are there? You have IHOPs versus each individual diner's store.
JVL00:53:13They're all run by the same Greek family.
Sonny00:53:15That's like saying- You beat me to it, JVL. I was going to say the same thing. That's like saying how many IHOPs are there versus pizza. And you're like, well, there's a million pizza places.
Vic00:53:23There's a million pizza places. It's the same family. So anyway, I make fun of them because- IHOP wins. They always get the 55 plus special, right? Which is, so they'll get like, so I get like the breakfast sampler, which is like two eggs, two pieces of- You know, two pieces, two of everything. It's two of everything. But if you get the 55 plus breakfast sampler, it's one of everything. So I said to my dad, so how about you for 80? Do they have like an 80 sampler, which is like half a strip of bacon, half an egg? And my mother said, just think, in 10 years, you can order the 55 plus special.
Sonny00:53:53She wrecked it. She wrecked you. She wrecked you so hard. The worst thing I ever heard. I'm sure it'll be fine.
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