Rewind with Karen & Georgia - Episode 40: Squad Gourds

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Because nothing says I love you like a cocktail tailored to her. Hello and welcome to Rewind with Karen in Georgia.
It is Wednesday, which can only mean one thing. That means we're trapped in your phone, in your ears, and we're forced to recap our old shows with all new commentary, updates, and insights.
Forced. We have the privilege of being forced.
Today we're recapping episode 40, which at the time we named Squad Gourds. Oh my God.
Iconic. So iconic.
Just FYI, this episode came out on October 26, 2016. That's the same day Marty McFly traveled back in time.
That's fun, right? Because we're about to travel back in time. But although he traveled back to 1955, we're going back to 2016.
And it also doesn't work because we're going back to October 26. And he was traveling from that.

You're overthinking. You're overthinking this.
Let's just listen to the intro of episode 40. Okay.
Let's start with a prayer. Yeah.
Good idea. Dear Oprah, can you help us please? Please.
Oprah. Oprah, we just need $10,000.
What if we were like, Oprah's our guest at the Chicago podcast festival. Someone asked us that on Twitter.
Right. They were like, is the guest going to be Oprah? And I immediately wrote no, because I just didn't want her to be sad or have any big feelings.
I don't know if she would talk about murder. I feel like she's like not in that headspace anymore oh but i feel like that's what that show was i mean like in the beginning that show was like this man lit his child on fire like let's give him a makeover for real that show was like oh really sally jesse rafael well we're gonna take a one step lower yeah however there is one episode where club kids are on one of those shows and it's like fucking epic on sally jesse i think so uh i feel like i've seen like screen grabs from that yeah anyways uh like go ahead no no no i won't no and i just yeah i just no you so hard.
Okay. The first thing I would like to talk about is how we, although it is not our birthday, nor is it yet Christmas.
You and I? Yes. We got a surprise gift from Steven.
I know! And you guys, if you ever want to get me a gift, don't bother. Because this is the only gift I've ever wanted.
Stephen brought, Georgia and I, the book, Mysteries of the Unknown, the Time Life series we each have. That we talked about last week.
And then he went on eBay. He must have had to overnight these on eBay.
I mean. Here's the problem.
Spent all the money in the world. The problem is you're so, like, he brought a bot like we were drinking we drink my whiskey and he brought over a bottle and like steven no you're like we're supposed to be buying you all the shit you're our unpaid intern it's so thoughtful i get college credit at the set scientology uh you got me phantom encounters i mean we we're gonna co-own these though, right? Because the second he handed you yours, I was like, but wait, what's that one? We share these with the universe.
That's true. Mine is, except for you guys can't borrow them.
Mine is Mystic Places. Which was the one in the Google image search.
Yeah. That's right.
With the pyramid in the eye and the Sphinx. Some Illuminati shit.
It is. Some crazy.
This is beautiful. I mean, I just can't stop staring at it.
It's the best gift. Here's one.
Here's an article. Here's a page titled Banishing Baneful Ghosts.
What? Who came up with that? Just some bullshit time writer who was like... Oh my God, I'm so unhappy.
Yeah. They were like, I'm so sick of like writing about Nixon.
And Shakespeare's haunted stage. I'm getting a paycheck.
Mine's tracking the earth's energies. And look at this guy who has like those crazy sticks that go in different directions.
He looks like he has one of those hats on that have like a pinwheel at the top. Oh, Stephen.
Thank you. Yeah, this is amazing.
Stephen Ray Morris from the Percast podcast. We should actually put these down because now we're reading books on our podcast.
Oh, my God. That's are like you can't terrifying these are i feel like these were on every coffee table in the 80s yeah we're like if you went to your boring aunt's house and got stuck what my my mom's classic thing was sorry it's adult time so we would get like banished into the tv room and then if nothing good was on tv because there were only four channels because i'm 67 then God bless the house that you went to that had a time life series book on

the coffee. And then if nothing good was on TV, because there were only four channels, because I'm 67.

God bless the house that you went to that had a Time Life series book on the coffee table.

But do you remember those people's houses

you used to go to,

like friends or boyfriends,

families when you were like staying for Christmas or whatever.

And it was like,

you had memorized the one magazine

that they had in the bathroom

because you went to the toilet

to fucking escape the family.

Just to get away.

And so you knew the fucking Us Weekly

from 10 years ago.

Not 10,

like it's more like four.

So,

Thank you. because you went to the toilet to fucking escape the family.
And so you knew the fucking Us Weekly from 10 years ago. Not 10, like it's more like four.
So, but it's still somehow crazy outdated. Yes.
Like I would have memorized every word of these books as a kid because I would have just read them over and over and at my aunt's house. That's right.
And nothing when I was a child was catered to us. There was a box of toys that were entertaining when we were three and under.
And then it was like, and if something good's on TV, or even if something, my boyfriend's here. Bye, cool writer.
We played, I remember this as a kid, like here's what it was like. We played with kitchen utensils under my grandma's grand piano.
And you need to shut the fuck up

and play with this ladle from 1960.

And like pretend it's something.

Yes.

Just use your imagination.

Potato masher.

Ours was always just go outside

because we would like,

we're on a farm.

There was all kinds of shit

you could be doing outside.

And now everyone has Lyme.

Yeah.

God, these children are tired.

So thank you, Stephen.

You're the greatest.

Yeah, Stephen.

We really appreciate your angel human.

I'm not. Everyone has Lyme.
Yeah. God, these children are tired.
So thank you, Stephen. You're the greatest.
Yeah, Stephen. We really appreciate your angel human.
Couple, should I just do some Twitter corners? Hell yeah. Because there's been some great stuff happening on our Twitter page.
First of all, Krista tweeted at us because Gary Condit is going to appear on Dr. Phil.
Shut up. Uh-huh.
He he's gonna discuss the chandra levy murder on dr phil um it took me a minute because i'm so bad with names but now that all makes sense sorry i should have included both i'm just trying to open this link so i can tell you exactly what's gonna happen but i could also ask my friend oh yeah because it may have already been taped well so we know that now the person who got who was suspected of killing Chandra Levy was let go. That's right.
And so they're starting to open up that maybe it was Gary Condit, the former senator? Well, they're basically, they exonerated the person who was in jail for the murder. Right.
And they have reopened the investigation. No one's named Gary Condit specifically, but we do know that they've gone back in.
They're looking into like basically people who gave him, what do you call that? Like I was there alibi. Alibis.
Alibis. They're called I was there.
They're called the I was theirs. They were the best.
I was there when he wasn't killing her. I believe it's the technical term.

Oh, alibis, man, those things get shaky

after fucking a couple of years.

That's right.

And it's been quite some time.

Oh, man.

And you know he's had another affair

and so his wife is like,

you know what?

Fuck this.

He wasn't at home with me

watching fucking Matlock.

Yeah, I feel that's kind of the key

to like an old cold case.

Totally.

Is you get those people who are like, oh yeah, remember your awesome boyfriend that you would have done anything for in 1985 who is a murderer yeah and it turns out wasn't all that cool he actually wasn't with me that night it turned out he also loved to give me the back of his hand across the face often so and he came home that night covered in blood he was just he looked like a tomato anyhow, that's going to be on Dr. Phil.
I can't find a date, but that's exciting. The link is on our Twitter feed.
Also, the other thing I just wanted to give a shout out because we had been talking last week about how we hate carving pumpkins. Oh no, what happened? Well, Caroline sent us a picture of perfect halloween jack-o'-lantern goals for us and this is it it's the tiniest face uh carved into a pumpkin and it made when i saw it it made me laugh so hard it's it's like a it's like an emoji it's like the size of an emoji and the face of an emoji like the happy face emoji it's that's all i want in life then on the hugest pumpkin.
So it's basically like this person took a pen and stuck it into a pumpkin. It's so funny.
And then they were like, where's my wine and where are my Ritz crackers? I'm done. You can laugh out loud, Stephen.
That's good stuff. That's beautiful.
Thank you so much, Caroline, because I really loved that. Can I have a quick pun corner? Please do.
Squad gourds. Instead of goals.
Squad gourds? Because a pumpkin is a gourd. Let me explain this.
My comedy is like kind of, you know, like it's intellectual. Squad gourds.
It's written. It's reader comedy.
You gotta. Squad gourds.
That's really good. Like give me a hot minute.
Mimi loves it. No, my God.
Mimi's crying laughing right now you can't see it but trust she looks so bored um that's amazing it's really good thank you oh and then the um uh we got that super awesome um uh for somebody I'll find her name right now um her name is Jessica Hullinger and she wrote an article for The Week called Why I Am a Murderino. That was, and I love when people write articles.
It's been, you know, there hasn't been a lot, but when they write them and they post photos that other people of like Murderino's fan art. Yes.
Because it makes, it's so great to get other people's art out there. It's very cool.
It's one huge communal effort, kind of. Also, the name of the article is I Am a Murderito.
I added the why because I can't not do that. What did you say? Why I Am a Murderito.
Oh, that's weird. Well, you know what? So I want to go ahead and give someone that we need to find on the Facebook group credit for making up the word Murderino.
Yes. Who is that person? It's a dude and he's like, hey, I came up with that.
So we need to find on the Facebook group credit for making up the word murderino. Yes.
It's a dude. And he's like, Hey, I came up with that.
So we need to find him. Oh yeah.
Someone, people are like, not people, some people are like, let's get that fucking word in Webster's dictionary. Okay.
I mean, if too much for you, I hate stuff like that, but I don't mean for us. I mean that, I mean that the word that that word means people who are really into true crime.
I don't mean like from the, my favorite murder podcast. I mean like the people who are into true crime, like who, who are you? What did you, I'm a murder arena.
I like that. I just feel like whenever we say the words, like, let's get this going, then there's going to be like, you know, a bunch of people are like, they want us to do it.
So let's do it, which I get that stuff is of all the things we should be putting our effort behind. Let's get Trump in the White House.
That's the thing that I want everybody to really get feet on the sidewalks about. Karen, people are going to think you're, I posted something today of like Hitler is Trump and like, look at all these photos.
And someone was like, Oh, thank God that I thought I heard you last week say that you were voting for Trump. And I'm and I got scared.
You know what? If you're scared, goodbye. Because that means you don't have a sense of humor.
Yeah, please. I would say 75% of the things I'm saying are either sarcastic or lying.
It's that's the kind of the jungle of a personality that I have. That's why I love you, man.
Squad squad gourds girl okay i have something to talk about okay from instagram you had twitter corner i have instagram corner that's right all right i'm sitting at a bar as i do on saturday night the roost which is one of my favorite bars in la very cool place divy Hanging out with my friends. And then I like scroll to Instagram and someone tagged me in something.
And I open it and almost started crying and just turned it to my friend and showed her. And she looked at me like, you know, like one of those dude looks.
Yeah. Have you seen this? Oh yeah.
You sent that to me. Oh right right.
Okay. Well, so Pillworm on Instagram motherfucking got a gorgeous tattoo that says stay sexy, don't get murdered.
And am I wrong to say that it looks like I'm assuming that's a woman? Yeah. I just because that's the usual.
I think it's on her like back shoulder. Yeah.
But it's like across her back shoulder. Big old.
Big. I just wonder, like, what if it turns out? Oh, yeah.
No, we were serious about Trump. and she's like across her back shoulder big old big i just wonder like what if it turns out oh yeah no we were serious about trump and she's like oh fuck i have this tattoo these awful people are like oh no we're racist oh fuck she's like wait a second i just right as the tattoo machine is like ding there you go 75 it's a beautiful tattoo and it's by a girl named her under jaw tattoos j-i-w tattoos made it it's like really well done and gorgeous tattoo and i'm like in awe of it it's beautiful and i have to say you sent me that picture my sister sent it to me adrian sent it to me and april sent it to me like i got it was like ding ding ding ding.
There's another one too that I just, we can't, I have, I feel like we have to give credit to because it's like this tattoo that she, that pillworm God is me in my twenties. This tattoo that this other girl is me in my like teens.
And it's a poke, it's a pokey tattoo that you do when you just, and I, underneath this beautiful tattoo on my leg are the initials of my best friend from when I was 14 with Indian ink. And so this girl did that.
I'm just going to keep talking until I find it. It says fuck politeness.
And she said, it's a stick and poke, I guess it's called. And she wrote fuck politeness and stick and poke.
And her name is Paulina with three A's and an underscore at the end. And you can see her tattoo.
It's on our, it's on Twitter. I'll put it on Instagram.
Yeah. Yeah.
Man. It's very cool.
I fucking dig it. I mean, it's nice that it's, there are things that people really, that's resonating and making people feel good and things that they like and that are enhancing their lives.

Considering just the amount of shit

that comes out of our mouth

that we just don't think twice about

and then like,

you know what I'm saying?

My Trump material?

Is that what you're talking about again?

That comes out of Karen's mouth.

No, I was at the bar

and I almost started crying

and I'm so fucking honored

and it's amazing.

It's awesome.

Okay, this is like,

we'll call this Laura Corner

because my sister, the lurker. We'll call it the other Kilgara.
The other white Kilgara. She loves the Facebook page and goes on there all the time.
She's so touched by the fact that there's all these rad people talking to each other, supporting each other. About her sister.
What's that? About her sister, right?'s my sister yeah that's what i meant yes but also talking about she's like they're all so nice they're so fucking nice i mean everyone's just cool and chill so but she found this and it's her favorite it's a guy named dylan who's in the army and he wrote and said i'm in the army and i always give a short, semi-serious statement to the service personnel I supervise on Friday before we leave for the weekend. Usually I end with something like be safe, don't die.
But today I said, stay sexy, don't get murdered. And then just walked away to a bunch of guys in the military.
The funny looks I got made it totally worth it. Just wanted to share that.
Love you. Oh my God.
Thank you for your service. Oh my God.
Thank you. Thank you for all the people you freaked out for their service.
But also the idea that we crossed over into a military. Military.
Oh, who? What? Do you know me? Hi. Hi.
That is the coolest. It's so crazy.
And oh, I also want to give a shout out. Speaking of everyone being cool and awesome on the Facebook group, the moderators are fucking, they're, you know, amazing.
They bust their asses. They're fucking school of everyone and it's the best.
Thank you guys. Yeah.
What else? Let me look at my list. I made a list in a font that looks like it's, if there is a four or two font, that's what I did because it's tiny and I can't see.
You can't see what oh here it is go and we got lots of people reached out to tell us about this uh because it happened in sacramento the woman who was walking up the street with a head on a stick did you hear about this story you didn't am i the one telling you first you first? A head on a stick? Girl. What the fuck, Sacramento? You guys have some fucking ether in the air.
It's a floodplain and no one has anything to do. Everyone's just huffing shit.
They're just hot. You know what I mean? It's like there's fumes coming up from melting asphalt.
Do you know what else? What? Everyone has fucking lime there. I promise you.
Why? Because you run through a field, a cornfield, lime, lime, lime, lime, lime, and then your brain goes crazy. It's true.
I mean, I can't argue this. But then you put a fucking head on a...
So, apparently, this woman had found a dead body in an abandoned homeless encampment. What? That somewhere...
And I actually looked it up on a map because I was like, where did this happen? All I could picture was myself in the late 80s, early 90s, driving all hot and bummed out in Sacramento and then looking over on the sidewalk and a woman with a head on it. Now, here's what my problem is, is I would the person who would who would come upon that abandoned homeless encampment and want to search through it well yeah i mean yeah you would if if you're like out in the woods or something and then all of a sudden it's like oh people lived here but they're not here anymore why it's like detectiving you're like well there's got to be a note or receipts that show when they were, you know.
The story, the article I read was limited information. I feel like more to come.
But it seems like this woman herself is homeless. And the first article I read said head on a stick.
But then when I looked into it, it was a skull on a stick. So it's not going to be as totally nightmare town as they were kind of selling it.

Yeah.

But still.

The media was making something seem more.

That's crazy.

I don't even.

But in the picture, it was pixelated.

So there's a chance that there was some bad action on that skull.

So anyway, I'm very interested to see what the next phase of like.

So obviously they took her. Everybody saw her walking walking down the street why did she do that well here's my theory is either maybe she was mute or she knew that there would be a communication problem if she said i found a dead body she wouldn't be able to express herself correctly you think she was mentally disabled well i don't know i mean she's a homeless person and her choice was to put a head on a stick and walk up the street with it.
And she didn't want to leave it there. But also she decided to put a head on a stick and walk up the street with it.
So I think she probably was like, this is going to be the quickest way to get health. And I don't want to touch it.
And I'm going to put it on a stick. I'm not going to put it on the top of my head.
I'm not going to put it on my fist and like use it as a puppet. Oh, no, I'm being disrespectful now.
No, it's all so bad. But anyway, so we will, I'm going to keep my eye out for that story and what even, what all of that is.
You know what's so bananas to me and like of these stories that you hear and then you'll never hear about it again. I know.
It's these like, this person got killed in a hit and run accident and then you just never never hear about it again. Well, the bummer too is like, if this, this was an abandoned homeless encampment and somebody died there and who knows what the circumstances were, but the, but they said the body was, um, had been there for a while.
So they, you know, they probably won't be able to get a lot of information. And then it's just going to be like, yeah, and that's what happens.

And someone hasn't heard from their brother in 15 years.

Oh my God, I'm making myself want to cry.

I know.

So anyway, there's crime all around us, but especially in Sacramento.

Everything's the worst.

Just look for the best things in life.

Get cats.

Be happy.

Stay positive.

Get a dog.

Dogs are good too.

Should we do our podcast?

And we are back okay can I explain squad gourds because I've been thinking about it since this episode for eight years for eight or nine years yes absolutely I was thinking of squad goals which was a big like hashtag saying at the time yeah I should and could said squash goals, which would have been I still am like, why didn't you say why? I made it harder for myself by saying squat instead of squash goals. I said squad gourds.
Yeah. Squad gourds.
Which is just like how my like I think to me, that's a great example of how my brain works. Because your brain doesn't work like the hashtag gals.
Yes. It's very different.
It's a little harder. It's going to take a longer route and it's going to get there.
And then the people who are there when it gets there, those are my people. Yes.
Right. Also, it's the thing you always say a thing as a stand up comedian.
You get trained to guess the joke, right? Right. So when someone is in a setup, you're you're gonna say yeah and that is basically what you do and that's why comics are so insufferable because they always have that kind of attitude like and you can't make me laugh because i already get the joke yes exactly i just knew you were gonna say that and i never know what the fuck you're gonna say and in the biggest compliment way and same with my friend kevin christie one time texted me because he was like binging our show and he goes i swear to god i just never know what she's gonna say i was like i know that's the thing oh my god i might cry you know the thing oh my god that's really touching because as a kid i was like that and it made my life really fucking difficult and hard hard and like made me uh i got get teased a lot and bullied because i was exactly like that and i couldn't fucking control it no and i still can't yeah but now it works exactly i'm so happy that makes me so happy you found your people oh my god you found your calling if i Yeah.
And also that is like a creative brain never works in fifth grade. A creative brain is despised in fifth grade because that's ultimately like when you're supposed to start really fitting in.
Yeah. And my brain always was like, Karen, stand over there and say this really loud.
And it's like, no, quiet. We're trying to be shy.
It's like, nope, you're not going to be. Oh, my God.
Yeah. Be like, be cute and timid now.
No. Just be fucking weird.
Not an option. I love it.
I love it. I'm so happy about that.
Yeah. Okay.
What else did we talk about? I still have Stephen's book that he gave me. Do you have yours? Oh, yes.
And prominently displayed. I mean, that was, first of all, Stephen.
Stephen. It's been so long.
I know. We miss him.
But that was that kind of thing where I was like, this is the loveliest gift. Yeah.
It was like a gift where someone like went into my mind and went, what do you want? You don't even know what you want. So thoughtful.
Totally. Like you wouldn't know that you want this.
And I found it. I put effort and time into it.
You're like, what are you doing? Also, because when Stephen and maybe even know what you want so thoughtful totally like you wouldn't know that you want this and i found it i put effort and time into it you're like what are you doing also because when steven and maybe even when you were growing up did you see those infomercials for mysteries of the unknown okay obsessed oh i thought we were gonna get abducted by aliens i was so obsessed with that stuff a woman a woman in ohio cuts her hand across the country, her twin sister starts to bleed or whatever. This truly was the monoculture back then.
It was like we all saw one commercial. Yeah.
Freaked out. Shit.
Oh, the alien in the barn. Man, it's fucking happening.
It's happening right now. It's all over.
All right. Well, let's get into Karen's story, which is one I had never heard.
This is so fascinating. One I think about a lot.
This is the My Way killings. Yeah.
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All right. It's my turn to go first this week.
It's absolutely not. It is, isn't it? No, it isn't, but I don't care.

No, no, no. You went first last week.

No, I didn't. I went first.

I had the eyeball killer.

And you went, you're right.

Oh, no.

Right up to the second.

You were positive.

I'm telling you, man, I can argue anything.

Even though I don't know or believe it. I can just...
I was like, shit, okay. Me too.
This is... This one...
Let's go. Oh, yeah.
Everybody calm down. The reason that I...
This is my murder this week is because uh guy branham a friend of the show hilarious comedian um asked me if i'd heard of these killings uh and he was good he's so good and when he said what they were i was, my brain wrote an entire thing of what it meant.

Oh, that's one of those names.

Yeah.

And then, so it takes place in the Philippines and they're called the My Way Killings.

Okay.

So let me paint the picture for you a little bit.

It will be a little bit confusing at the beginning, but I'm just going to run down a little information for you and then it'll all become clear. Get at it.
Get out of town. Get up into that attic.
Okay. So I don't know if you guys know this.
I didn't until I started looking into this that Filipinos love karaoke. They fucking love it as a a nation, it's basically their national pastime.
Almost every Philippine home has a karaoke machine. Whoa.
They would hate me. It's...
Why? Because I can't sing for shit and I'm scared of karaoke. I'm scared of karaoke.
Well, we'll we'll talk about that but it's so let's make this about me me me me. So they every every birthday party every holiday party and they have so many karaoke and video key which is a different version of karaoke where you get scored against other people that are doing karaoke that night.
Who scores you? The machine. Holy shoot.
So it's how many, um, there's another thing that's like that. Maybe it's banned.
Um, Jesus Christ. Uh, sorry.
I just hit my microphone. Man, machines are fucking taking over and judging us now and scoring us.
Oh, Guitar Hero. It's a little bit like Guitar hero where it knows if you're hitting the right notes or not and so you get a score for video key um so it actually gets very competitive in the bar so if you're singing like it's whoever's getting the best score on their song can we all just chill please i mean so in in the philippines there's k tvs which stands for karaoke television and that bar is wholesome it's like your whole family can go there people have parties there or whatever okay they cater to all ages they serve food there's private rooms um then there's regular karaoke bars that are laid back you you have a drink you embarrass yourself publicly that's the whole idea of it good times don't go there if you want to just chill.
It's like there's people singing. It's fine.
Yeah, exactly. It's funny and you're going to get drunk and whatever.
Sometimes there's even a live band to do vocals with. That is awesome.
But then there's nightclubs and their nightclub, the thing that are called nightclubs in the Philippines are basically strip clubs with karaoke. And there's exotic dancing.
There's back rooms that feature more than just singing. That's direct directly from an article.
What is more than just singing? Well, so basically they have women who work there that they're called guest service officers. I think guest service officers.
And they're basically like strippers that are paid to sit with the guys at the tables. They have those in Japan.
They're not strippers for sure. They're, you know, but they are sitting, have a conversation, like hosts.
Yes. They're hostesses.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. We're going to get, um, I feel like it'd be basically they're trying to get a bunch of things done at once at their nightclub.
So they kind of offer all these different things. To get people in.
Exactly. Even in remote villages, families living in bamboo huts will have a karaoke machine in their house.
Wow. Yeah.
Because it's amazing. And so the world's first karaoke machine was invented.
It was called the Juke 8 and it was built by a Japanese inventor and musician named Daisuke Inui in 1971. But the current patent holder is the Filipino inventor Roberto del Rosario.
And he developed the karaoke sing-along system in 1975. So it's basically like it's their hometown invention.
That's awesome. So I was looking into like it's why is singing this popular in the Philippines.
And just a little background, nearly 50% of the people who live in the Philippines, and that's estimated 87 million people, live on less than $2 a day. Wow.
And many are forced to eke out a living selling scrap, bric-a-brac, or begging. A lot of impoverished neighborhoods.
The karaoke machine is the one luxury that the whole community gets to enjoy and doesn't do without. So basically, that's their only entertainment and it's the closest a lot of them get to come to escape besides drinking and whatever it's like you have a little moment where you know you can kind of be good and also i looked it up um research is there's a time medical time magazine article that was written in 2013 about the positive effects of singing.
No way. And they researchers, I'm just reading from this article thing, but they researchers discovered singing is like an infusion of the perfect tranquilizer, the kind that both soothes your nerves and elevates your spirits.
You feel elated when you sing, which comes from endorphins, a hormone released by singing, which is associated with feelings of pleasure. And you also release oxytocin, which is a chemical that's found to alleviate anxiety and stress.
And it enhances feelings of trust and bonding, which explains why more studies have found that singing lessens feelings of depression and loneliness. A very recent study even attempts to make the case that music evolved as a tool of social living.
And the pleasure that comes from singing together is our evolutionary reward for coming together cooperatively instead of hiding alone in a cave by yourself yeah um that is fucking heavy and intense i know crazy and like makes me want to sing a lot more to myself it's also make me when i read that i was like oh that's why i immediately start crying when i hear like gospel music when like amazing or amazing choral music or like musicals well when i go to like uh temple the rare times i go to temple and we sing these songs in a language i don't understand but i know what it means and we all know the words in hebrew which is fucking crazy because I don't speak Hebrew.

It's just beautiful.

Like it feels, yeah, it feels like community.

Yes.

Yeah.

And that feeling, it's like, it's doing the work for you.

Yeah.

Being there and being submerged in that sound.

Connection.

Is bonding you to those people that you're doing it with.

Fuck.

It's very cool.

I'm going to not hide my voice next time. Vince and I are driving and he puts a song on that I know because I'm like, sing really quietly.
No, go for it. Who cares? I mean, because that's the other thing is I've always been like a big loud, I came up on like the Annie cast album.
So like just big loud nose singing has always been my thing. But it's very, it's also, I think part of, for me, singing is so embarrassing because it's so personal that once you do it, I think people respond to it because they know how hard it is.
It's like public speaking or anything else. I'm amazed.
And I've seen you sing and I'm amazed. I can't, I'm so in awe of people who can draw things that don't look like nothing close to what it's supposed to be and people who can sing.
It's just, it's amazing to me. Yeah.
When I first started singing, though, doing songs on stage, I would say the first 15 times I did it, it was very quiet. Like, I couldn't breathe very well.
And it was just so, but I just kept doing it anyway. Somehow.
I don't know why. That's life.
Anyway, off of me, unfortunately, I'm going to change the subject off of myself. And so anyway, all these factors are part of that cultural phenomenon.
It's basically these people are figuring out how to self-soothe and it's like life is really hard there's you know a lot of people like have it hard and you know live it's it's also a very violent place there's a ton of illegal guns there there's a lot of machismo culturally um a lot of fighting and it's so so there's the need for that kind of uh release valve. And that's where they find it, which is actually really beautiful.
Totally. So all of these factors contribute to a disturbing phenomenon that's taken place in the past decade.
There have been over a dozen murders of people singing the song, My Way. Stop your fucking face.
Are you fucking kidding me? I swear to God. To that song.
Oh my God. To that song.
Losing my mind. Like you said, everything leading up to this was beautiful.
I really led you down the stony path. Really? I thought it was like, and then Venter got killed.
I did not expect the craziest thing I've ever heard in my life. I'm so excited.
Isn't it so good? It's so good. When guys said that to me, he was like, have you heard of the My Way murders in the Philippines? I was just like, immediately like, please let there be a serial killer that goes around to karaoke bars and only kills people in their car after the thing.
Whatever. You know what I was going to say? I was going to say, I didn't know what it was going to be.
And I was like, oh, My Way must be a place in fucking the Philippines. My Way, you know, it's like, that's how you say it.
MEI, My Way. And it's going to be that.
This is so much more intriguing. It's so good.
I mean, it sucks. I'm so sorry for everybody.
Tell me everything. It's rough.
So on May 29th, 2007, a 29-year-old karaoke singer of the song My Way. And it and it's if you haven't heard it it's the Frank Sinatra hit from 1969 it was written by Paul Anka and it's basically a biographical song it was written for Frank Sinatra it's just basically like my career's been like this because I fucking did it my way yes it's been hard but also I kicked ass and it's super braggy braggadocio it's basically a fuck yourself it's a fuck yourself I did it my way.
Yes, it's been hard, but also I kicked ass and it's super braggy, braggadocio. It's basically a go fuck yourself.
It's a go fuck yourself. I did it my way, right? It's a bit self-explanatory.
But also fuck you, Frank Sinatra is a dick. I hate that guy.
Do you hate Frank Sinatra? I fucking hate. I think he's a dick.
Well, I love him. And so now we're in a fight.
Congratulations. Read what he did to fucking Mia Farrow.
Oh, no, I know. Yeah, it's that's rough stuff.
Okay, sorry. No, no, it's okay.
So a 29 year old karaoke singer of the song My Way at a bar in San Mateo, Rizal was shot dead as he sang the tune by the bar's security guard who was arrested after the incident. According to reports, the guard complained that the young man's rendition was off key.
And when the victim refused to stop singing, the guard pulled out a 38 caliber pistol and shot him dead. So this, this is the other thing about the song my way.
It's pretty hard to sing because it's in this weird key where it's low. It goes up high, but there's when you're in the low part especially if you're drunk it's like but there is a casual drunkenness to it too the way Frank Snatcher sings it that it's just like an I actually don't care that much about the you know yeah it's almost talk singing in certain yeah and it's it's very direct it's like a long song yeah it's draggy and it's sad it could be like depressing if you're in a bar drinking and you just want to fucking hang out.
Right, exactly. So it's actually become such a problem that that song has been taken off of most karaoke bar song lists because people don't want the problem.
They don't want trouble. I thought it was one guy who was going around doing this.'s just like a okay it's a it's basically it's a thing that causes people to fight and murder dude uh dude i'm gonna lose so fucking crazy okay um uh so there was actually an article in new york times about it and the writer asked are the killings the natural byproduct of the country's culture of violence, drinking and machismo? Or is there something, or is there something inherently sinister about the song? Which is kind of funny.
Like it's a cursed song that you will die at the end. It was one, the first person who was mentally unstable, who brought his 38 to work and killed a guy.
And then everyone else is copying him. Yes.
So next. So anyways, moving.
Sorry. Well, but I think it's a good theory.
Most of those karaoke bars that I was describing to you earlier are really violent places anyway. It's like people are going there to blow off steam.
They're going there to get shit faced. There's a lot of steam to be blown off.
And so there's lots of fights anyway. So there's nefarious people who are there anyways.
Yes, but they often fight over bad singing and the singing of boring songs. I could see that.
And so they're saying it could just reflect the popularity of the song combined with the popularity of karaoke combined with the violent culture. And the competitive nature, too, of it.
That's exactly right. Because that one video gear or whatever, it literally scores you.
So you're in a bar. You're trying to have a good time on a Friday night.
You've got the hired gals here and the real gals over here. And you're going up there and you're trying to be cool.
You don't want to suck. And in your drunk mind, I mean, how many times you've been to karaoke where someone's like, I'm going to sing like, what if God was one of us? Or something where you're like, please don't do that to us.
Fuck you. I know you're showing off.
Sing something with your fucking friends't sing nora jones at a karaoke bar

oh my god you can't sing like nora jones yeah just get get some should i stay or should i go let people have a good time the cars always good cars blondie's probably always good blondie cars just shut the fuck up don't do fucking fiona apple right yeah yeah don't bring that don't bring that sadness to your own door.

No, don't bring me down.

Another great song.

All right. right yeah yeah don't bring that don't bring that sadness to your own door no don't bring me down uh no another great song um all right so uh i lost my spot i can keep talking and naming songs people should sing if you want now uh shit this is all repetitive um when was the second murder tell me the second murder i'm gonna first tell i'm gonna tell everyone in the meantime yeah about uh-huh i uh i did the thing where i click and it flicks me back to the top and then i lose my spot the only time i've done karaoke where i was like that was the fucking coolest is i did it at a bowling alley in eagle rock and they happen to fucking have dead kennedys on there they happen it was kill the poor which is like not it wasn't like the guys that's sarcasm just in case yeah it was no no it was a song called kill the poor no i know okay uh i'm sorry i fucking killed it like i already knew those songs because i was 14 and obsessed with dead kennedys and i i just fucking i had a couple beers already but people went crazy my three friends that were there and the rest of the empty bar were like, yeah, Georgia.
They were like high five. That's the opposite of the, one of the few times I've done karaoke is my friend put my name in without telling me.
Oh, fuck you. And you know what song she picked for me? Oh, no.
Nothing compares to you. That's kind of cute though.
No, it isn't. Because talk about my way.
It's a dirge. You're just like, You're right.
I can do whatever I want. Yeah, but listen to how good you sound.
No, no, it doesn't matter. I'm sorry.
Everyone's going to tweet at us right now and be like, Yeah, but Karen, that was better than I've ever sounded in my life. Stop.
Here's the thing. You can have the best singing voice in the world.
Don't do it to us. It's that.
That was basically like a prank song. You should be able to murder people if they put your name down without you knowing it.
That is unacceptable. Yeah, that's...
Actually, I just shouldn't have gone, but it was one of those things where there were so few people in the room. Yeah, they're like, Karen, Karen, go get her.
And then they're like, get up there. Get up there, girl.
You're a comedian. You're supposed to have a sense of humor.
We tricked you. We're not, you can't trust us.
Here's the thing. There's such a problem with violence in karaoke bars that they actually hire gay men or transsexual men.
They call them baklas. And they're, they are there to diffuse the undercurrent of tension with the male patrons of karaoke bars, because they're not seen as rivals for the women.
And they're not seen as rivals for the singing. So they're just, and they're there and they, it's basically like drag queen comedy.
Like they come in and make jokes and like it all, it basically keeps the tension down. That's beautiful.
It really is nice. But it also is kind of funny that that's the amount of competition and tension in those bars is so extreme that that happened.
You know, in the very beginning of the story, they sounded so chill and it sounded like families were there uh well yeah but no but there are places in this world there's got to be chuck e cheeses that are fucking dangerous man that that fucking in somewhere in in the inland empire new jersey or the inland empire or fucking that's where mobsters meet yeah you don't want to you one bad drunk dad near the pizza station and you're like oh this is a ruined saturday and then he gets fucking cement shoes and gets thrown to the ball pit oh the mafia guy yeah i'm sorry um here's a really good quote and i will wrap it up here no i love it this guy uh is this guy that got interviewed for that new york article said, in the Philippines, life is difficult.

And he is a man who repairs watches at a street kiosk.

There's government corruption.

It's a weak economy that's driven a lot of Filipinos to work overseas.

His own wife is a maid in Lebanon. And so he says, but, you know, we have a saying, don't worry about your problems.

Let your problems worry about you.

Yeah, that's right. So that's they're just trying to deal i also there's just a couple on the wikipedia page they had other video karaoke rage incidents in other countries uh which is kind of funny just saying it's not some people get really competitive about karaoke um there have been several reported cases of singers being assaulted shot or stabbed mid-performance usually over how the songs are sung in malaysia a man in 2008 in a coffee shop was performing and he hugged the karaoke microphone so long that he was stabbed to death by other patrons plural oh and everyone had a knife on them.
Or what if's like butter knives butter knives so it's like took forever to stab him um and this is rough in thailand a man was arrested um because he shot eight of his neighbors to death one of whom was his own brother-in-law um because they were singing take me home country roads uh repeatedly and terribly we've talked about my ex uh roommate who just sang uh moon shadows played the bass and sang moon shadows just into the night i'm being followed by a moon shadow that song wait what's the other one yeah that one that over and and and she was a bass, so she was playing it on bass. Like, it wasn't even guitar.
Oh, my God. So I get it.
Yeah. I murdered her.
A man hacked two other men to death with a meat cleaver over a fight over a karaoke microphone in China one time. Who the fuck knew? I mean, it's pretty intense.
I mean, I get it. I get angry at karaoke when I get an Evite to a friend's birthday party at a karaoke private room.
Yes. I want to go sit at the bar and talk to you.
Yeah. I don't want to watch you sing ABBA bad.
And drink so much sake that I have a Yeah. And, and pay $18 for chicken wings.
Well, be grateful that you live in a country where you basically don't have to sing karaoke all the time. Cause it sounds like that's kind of just what people do.
Oh, that's true. It's like, you can't be like, no, I'd rather go bowling.
Nope. Everyone's like bowling.
That's not a thing here. Are you crazy? We don't do that.
I mean, can we start skee-balling instead of karaoke-ing? Do you know how happy that would make me? Do you know how shot you would get? Anyway, that's my murder. I'm done.
That, I love that. It's pretty good, right? I would have never known about that.
I know, me either. But I really, I have to admit, I really did want it to be just one guy in like a trench coat who would watch you sing my way and then kill you in the parking lot.
Well, we're going to write this. Nicolas Cage, are you available? I feel like you might be.
I have a sinking sensation. You're going to be a gritty cop, a gritty ex-cop hired as a security guard at a karaoke bar.
Where's Willem Dafoe come in? Where is he? He's doing a lot of Snickers commercials right now, but I think we could get him on this project. Okay, we're back.
Wow. Karen, any updates? I mean, not specifically.
Just the update of me being reminded by going back to this story that when I first heard about the My Way killings, I truly thought there was a singular serial killer killing anyone at a karaoke bar that was singing that song. We still need to write it.
I mean, we absolutely should. It still needs to be writ.
But also the amount of work that would take. Oh, yeah.
It's so specific. Yeah.
Yeah. We have our own media company now.
We can fund it. We can film it.
Remember? We have a green screen. Oh, my God.
We could shoot it right in there. I thought you meant we could fund a person that would do that.
It's like, I don't really want to invest in that. I think that's wrong.
Here's the updates I can give you. Since 2016, there have been no widely reported incidents specifically linked to the singing of Frank Sinatra's My Way.
In karaoke settings, however, karaoke-related violence, of course, continues to occur globally, usually stemming from disputes over performances, and then parenthetically, I would add, and too much liquor. Yeah, because they're one and the same.
You know, you get there, you think you have it, you know, the pride, the beer, maybe a couple whiskey shots, someone sings way better than you, you get there, you think you have it. Yeah.
You know, the pride, the beer, maybe a couple whiskey shots. Sure.

Someone sings way better than you.

You get up and your dream dies.

What was the last karaoke song you sang?

It was the one my friend made me sing, Nothing Compares to You.

Oh, that's good.

It's just like, I'm never doing this again.

No, I won't do it again.

I might.

I won't.

I should.

I mean, I feel like it would be really freeing. Depends on who's there.
Yeah. I won't ever do it in front of strangers again, like at a bar night, but I'll do it with friends if it struck me.
You know what I mean? Yes. Because actually the last time I really did karaoke, I just didn't think of it because it wasn't a karaoke bar.
It was those individual booths and I was in New York City. Those are the best.
And this was my favorite because my friend Haley was kind of drunk and she kept she wanted to do an entrance for her song. So she took the mic and the mic cord and walked out into the hallway and then kept missing the intro because she couldn't hear at the beginning of the song.
That's such a drunk thing to do. Like four times where I was crying.
I was like, please stop. I'm laughing so hard.
Like it was the best bit. And she was not doing it on purpose at all.
It reminds me of a cat, like something a cat would do. Yeah.
You know what I mean? Where they're just like, no, I've got this. They're like, start it over.
I'll do it this time. And it's like, if you can't hear it out there, you'll miss it every time.
You can't knock to start. Whatever ABBA song she was trying to sing.
Oh, my God. So there have been, Alison Agassi, our writer, went through and found us some karaoke violence stories.
Oh. They're notable.
For example, in Parks, Australia, Elvis Presley impersonator Bernie Perry was found dead in his home after a karaoke night at the Royal Hotel, and a fellow musician was charged with his murder. Yes.
So, you know, I think the drama around karaoke continues. Always will.
Tell us your karaoke stories for Hometowns, you guys. Good one.
We want to hear your fucking horrible, wonderful, worst, best karaoke stories. Yes.
Send them to MyFavorMurder at Gmail, please. Have you been discovered at karaoke? Did you get broken up with because of your karaoke performance? That would be amazing.
Please let us know. God, my fantasy is that I'm with friends, a karaoke night starts.
I don't want to do it. Everyone makes me do it.
And then I sing some awesome like Rihanna song. Like something genuinely cool.
Yeah. And that's why it'll never happen.
happen right it's because that's not how karaoke works last time I thought about this when I was drunk and I'm like what is going to be my karaoke song I think it needs to be Doja Cat's Paint the Town Red but I can't sing like her so it's like I thought of that not even at karaoke so that's like a terrible idea right but one time Vince and his friend Jesse did I Put Your Picture Away by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow, which I just think is the funniest. I don't think I could fucking I think I would just piss myself laughing.
Also, those two dudes are the most dude dudes of all time. They're Midwestern dudes through and through.
Just like beer in hand. How's it going? Types of dudes.
Sheryl Crow and Kid Rock. God, that's funny.
All right. Well, now it's time for Georgia's story.
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We are just hard workers. It's your time to shine.
All right. I think this episode is a pop culture episode.
Okay. And we actually touched on this and I didn't go as deep't go as deep into this earlier as I wanted to, because I was like, we're getting into my murder territory.
All right, Karen. Yes.
1995. I remember.
Do you remember what you used to do when you'd come home from school or when you'd wake up at 3 PM and you'd sit down with a bowl of cereal? So, Karen, would you watch daytime talk shows like Maury Povich?

Yes. And like Jenny Jones.
Thank you. Yeah.
And for example, Jenny Jones. Yeah.
All right. So this, this, I want to, I feel like we have a lot of young listeners who don't know what it was like back then.

Before we had reality TV shows, we had daytime talk shows that were introducing us to interesting characters and fucked up things.

And it was all salacious and shitty and tawdry, but it was fascinating and amazing and sometimes great.

And then sometimes there'd just be makeovers.

So there would be, I wrote like a couple things uh lie detector cheating so like a guy would come out and they're cheating on me lie detector yeah uh out of control teens just love that send them that boot camp right in their face yes scream in their face and then i wrote fucked up makeovers because i was like you don't dress like a mom because you're wrong and they always rhyme they always rhyme and then there would be a weird entrance where they would walk down like a fake catwalk at the end oh yeah but to me i was always like i liked you better when you had that weird leopard print tank you look so boring now yeah um yeah that and then the audience would just scream shit it was just like a free-for-all yeah and it was fun good time and we watched the shit out of that yeah um so one of those people that had a show because everyone was getting that at the time but i actually liked the show a lot was the jenny jones show and jenny jones had been i don't know an actress and a singer was she really jenny jones was a stand-up comic i will just slide this one in please uh who was on she um and she always wore a tiny blue sequin dress for her sets she had really big blonde hair she was basically kind of like the cheesecake stand-up comic girl that was like i look like this but now i'm gonna now i'm gonna get real and tell you stuff like this so it was like she would be quote-unquote playing against her own type sure in her stand-up comedy well thank you for doing my research because i totally meant to do that no problem yeah so all right um a lot of fucked up a lot of fucked up episodes let's get to march 6 1995 five when an episode was taped that was, the premise was people revealing their crushes. All right.
So one guy named Jonathan Schmitz, who's 26, he's brought in under the guise of someone has a big secret crush on you and the crush will be revealed on stage. Okay.
I just have to say, in a setup like this, I feel like this is everyone's dream come true. Like, isn't that...
We all wanted to be on these. It's the stuff of like...
But even aside from being on TV, the idea of someone going, someone likes you. I've been obsessed with you and I'm crazy about you.
Like when your friend goes, oh my God, you know who likes you? Isn't that like basically a high point of life? That's kind of like what we all live for. When you find out and it's like, I don't know.
I feel like this is so 90s and such a like, we passed notes. We didn't have writing on people's message boards and texting.
That's free social media. Yeah, we passed notes and we passed rumors and gossip through our friends.
And there was no other way of fucking handling it. You couldn't find out what anybody was doing or where anyone was going was all gossip all gossip um what the producers didn't tell jonathan was that the actual name of the show was same sex crushes revealed they didn't tell him that jonathan was straight so he goes on the, as he says, out of curiosity.
He later claims that the producers implied that the admirer was a woman. So they didn't keep him in the dark.
They told him he was a woman. Although they claim they didn't tell him that.
And they told him that he would meet the girl of his dreams. Oh.

So he's on stage, and they're, like, building it up as they do.

I mean, these shows were great at doing this kind of thing.

Yeah.

And The Secret Admire comes out, and it's Scott Bernard,

oh, God, I meant to look this up, Amdur.

And he was in Quaintance of Schmitz.

They had lived near each other in Lake Orion, Michigan.

And when Scott comes out,

he reveals his crush to Jonathan.

Jonathan is visibly shaken and embarrassed, apparently,

and states that he's heterosexual,

but he laughs it off and he's amiable.

And then Scott goes on to tell the audience

about a fantasy that involved Jonathan

Thank you. heterosexual and but he laughs it off and he's amiable and then uh scott goes on to tell the audience about a fantasy that uh involved jonathan and whipped cream and strawberries and champagne um and then that's when jonathan becomes enraged on camera uh i think in his heart okay okay yeah not on this, and, and so another thing for like 1995 for people to understand is that, that homophobia was fucking, I know it seems like we're in a different place now, but homophobia was hard fucking core.
Also, it was, it, it was completely okay culturally for people to be homophobic. It was crazy.
Even if you weren't homophobic, making gay jokes was okay. It happened constantly.
Yeah. And there was no, there were no voices to say, Hey, go fuck yourself or you're in the wrong or anything like that.
Okay. This is the, you don understand.
The prevailing attitude was like,

that's funny or that's something to mock or that's something disgusting

or it's, you know, it's a very different time.

And that's not that long ago,

which is so troubling.

And so that, you know, in 1991,

Paul Broussard,

who was a 27 year old Houston area banker,

died after a gay bashing incident outside a Houston nightclub where nine high schoolers beat and stabbed him to death. And this was what life was like back then.
You can't not mention Matthew Shepard in 1998. 1998.
That was 98? 98. He was beaten, tortured, and left to ultimately die in Laramie, Wyoming.
So this wasn't like, you know, we'll make fun of gay people time. This was a, if you're in certain parts of the country and certain people want to fuck with you and you're gay.
Yeah. I mean, not to say that it doesn't happen now as well.
But there's such, it's just a totally different. There are people who will speak up against it everywhere you go

yeah there's a shift of understanding that that that and a shift of identity of like of people that are saying all those all the prevailing attitudes of like this is a deviance as opposed to no i am your relative yeah i'm your brother your friend um it's people that you know this isn't some aberration that it's like... It's not an affliction.
It's an identity. And also it's the majority of the population, not the majority of the population, but it's an even amount.
There used to be a, like there was a government, an old, old government projection that said 10% of the population was gay when it's way, way higher. So it's just that thing of like, you know, it's an educational process that's taken us forever.

And it's great.

I mean, as much as I fucking hate the internet, it's like there's, you would never have known

what a huge population of people who are way fucking different than you in every way are

out there unless, you you know you had that the

internet right and people have a voice now yeah yeah fuck yeah so let's cut back to three days after the taping um and scott leaves a suggestive note on jonathan's at jonathan's house Jonathan finds the note

and withdraws money from the bank

purchases on Jonathan's at Jonathan's house. Jonathan finds the note and withdraws money from the bank, purchases a shotgun, and then went over to Scott's mobile home.
He questions Scott about the note, and then Jonathan goes back to his car, gets his gun, and goes back to the trailer. He shoots Scott twice in the chest with a 12 gauge buckshot at such close range that paper wadding from the shotgun shell ended up on Scott's heart while a fragment of the other shell's casing entered his left lung.
So like, this is a look at me while i'm fucking killing you situation um after killing uh scott jonathan leaves the residence and he calls 9-1-1 and confesses wow yeah okay so um let's see okay during the, he was arrested during the trial, it's stated that Scott's friend says that after the taping of the Jenny Jones show, Scott and Jonathan actually went out drinking together and had an alleged sexual encounter. So, it's possible this whole thing, I mean, that's a weird element to it.
They don't talk about a lot in a lot of these articles. It's alleged.
Because it's hearsay. Yeah.
Yeah. Total hearsay.
It's hearsay that, that's, yeah. It kind of, it puts the, it puts the level of anger into, it makes a little more sense to me, you know? Yeah.
Or it could be a lie. It could be a lie to justify.
No, no, no. But this is Scott's friend.
This is the guy who gets killed friend said that that they went out together that night. But you're right.
No, no, I'm just saying. Alleged is a big word.
Yeah. So he's found guilty of secondary murder in 1996, sentenced 25 to 50 years in prison convictions overturned upon retrial found guilty of the same charge once again sentence reinstated in 1999 scott's family sues the jenny jones show telepictures and warner brothers for the ambush tactics tactics and their negligent role that led to the death of Scott.
The jury found that the Jenny Jones show was irresponsible and negligent and that the show intentionally created an explosive situation without due concern for the possible consequences, which is like fucking every reality show right now too. The michigan jury found the jenny jones show negligent and responsible for the events they gave scott's family over 25 million 6.5 in funeral costs and burial 5 million for um the pain and suffering and 10 million each for loss of companionship and compensation.

But the judgment was later overturned by the Michigan Court of Appeals in a two to one judgment. And the Michigan Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
So then they never had to pay that money? No, it wasn't Jenny Jones's and it wasn't their fault, you know. Although there was apparently a letter saying that was, I don't know, it seems like they didn't fucking tell him what he was expecting.
And, you know, so they're at fault. And the producers decided not to air the show, but you can see it on Court tv's coverage of the trial and it's also featured in an hbo documentary called talked to death oh but man wow it's so fucking sad isn't it well also it makes me think because you you said um like that i could happen again but i bet you after that a shit ton of rules were put into place into place by production companies that were like, and if you do this, you have to do this.
Like say something like on Maury Povich or whatever. Like I'm sure all those other really exploitive Sally Jessie.
Cheaters. Cheaters recently? Yeah.
Yeah. Cheaters was crazy.
I used to watch that all the time. But I mean, that's like kind of stabbed.
Yeah. Yeah.
The host got stabbed. Yes, that's right.
You know, what I've always had a problem with is so you, when you're on a TV show or you're going to be in an area where there's a taping, you have to sign a, you know, a waiver saying you're okay with your, your, you know, your image. But you know, I bet they had him sign that before this happened.
No, here's the thing thing tell me everything you know here's what i know yeah is that it's only in certain states that you have to do that and um because there's certain states where like in new york city you can film you can walk down the street and film and you're and you're fine in california you can't do that so in california like when we would like I've had, you have to stick signs up. Now in New York, you have to do the same thing.
You have to put up a sign that says you're about to walk past a rolling camera or whatever. Due process basically.
Exactly. But in California, you have to have waivers.
So if you, if we would do man on the street stuff and there'd be a lady that would walk behind the interview and then go blah, blah, blah. It was something great that you wanted to use.
You'd have to have PAs run down to get that lady to make sure she signed or you could not use the footage. Because basically the footage then becomes the proof.
You know what I mean? Like they have a open and shut case that like, yeah, you film me and I didn't say you could. And I, you don't have the paper that says I said you could, so you can't use it.

So what about when you worked on like talk shows

and you had guests that would come in,

like they signed shit beforehand,

like that anything you say can be aired.

You can't go back and be like,

I didn't expect this question to be asked of me

and I don't want this on TV.

Well, no, they do do that,

like ask questions that they weren't either prepped for

or whatever, but that goes into like more of a celebrity thing. I don't think they do do that, like ask questions that they, they weren't either prepped for or whatever, but that's more,

that goes into like a more of a celebrity thing.

They would,

I don't think they do that to like human interest guests that much,

but in the celebrity world where they're like,

okay,

this is the person that just had the affair and it's in the news and

everyone knows this person just had the affair.

And so the publicist is like,

you will not be talking about the affair.

And the producer question,

we're fucking leaving. Exactly.
And then the producer goes, of course we we won't of course we won't and then when they're sitting there everybody makes that call they literally make that call where they're just like ask the question the question gets asked the celebrity answers the question because they're in that situation where what are they going to do and they don't want to be rude and the publicist goes goes bat-chip bananas backstage. I've seen this.
I mean, like that, I haven't, it's not like I've been in those gotcha situations. I've never worked on gotcha shows like that.
But that is a thing that's done where then it becomes a political thing, but usually between the publicist and the show where it's like, I will never come back. None of my clients will come here.
I will pull this. And it becomes like a thing.
Is this worth losing all those clients because Angelina Jolie said whatever the fuck about her marriage? It's worth it. Let's just fucking do it.
It's worth it. It's worth the ratings.
We will be the first people to have had the word on this. And then the publicist sees that the movie that they're making gets way more fucking people watching because they saw this thing.
I can't deal with it. It's crazy because that it it really is that thing where that whole world of like bad publicity is is there's no such thing as bad publicity because it really is true with the way social media is and the way the digital world has changing entertainment yeah that kind of stuff is like there are people that plant their own gotcha stuff because they know it's the same thing of like how the kardashians call the paparazzi on themselves we're gonna be here it's that thing where people when you people have learned over time that being in that victim stance actually can be good for your career and so they'll do it or they'll set it up like if they feel that this is a question they weren't expecting and they're being suddenly open and honest when really they fucking knew it was going to happen and then they get played as the victim.
But they magically handle it so well that suddenly the public who, you know, it's kind of that thing. It's a raw moment.
I know it wasn't, I don't think, I shouldn't say I know, I do not know for a fact, but I'm pretty sure when Hugh Grant went on Leno to talk about when he got caught with Divine Brown and he was married and all that stuff, the way he handled that. Let's go back to 95.
Right? Was it around then? He handled that so beautifully. Because it was like, he basically went, oh, I did it.
And he's like blushing and like, yeah, I'm sorry and bad, whatever. And it's the thing that up until that point, any publicist would tell an actor in that position, you can't go on a talk show or if you do they will not talk about this whatever and instead suddenly we see how it can this situation can be handled in a different way and and you can turn an entire culture back onto your side and so basically this is just one more karen ruining tv for everybody but but it's that where it's like these things are strategized and planned out so much more than anybody thinks.
It makes me ill and it's the reason why I yell at the TV all the time. I cannot watch late night talk shows.
I can't watch those interviews. It makes me want to scream, hey, Karen, I heard you went to the went to the fucking beach lately oh my god that's so funny you bring that up because um it's weird yeah and the weirdest creepiest part i'm not acting anymore yeah no we're the weirdest creepiest part is there are people that are so good like you you can watch people who have done the same story on more than one and they look like they're just like oh my god i'm I'm just remembering this.
Oh, that's right. That birthday was so crazy where you're just like, Oh, this is just what, this is a, the completely orchestrated conversation.
Nothing is real. Nothing is real.
Speak for yourself. Speak for yourself.
Question authority. Timothy Leary.
Goodbye. No, I'm on acid right now no i just can't i just can't it's not

reality it's not real and it scares me and it's not tv it's hbo what 95 why did they get a plug we've been plugging so much shit like time time magazine uh fucking books check out time magazine everybody boards they don't fucking they haven't paid us to like them fucking pumpkins oh man guys that was you know what i like that because it was like kind of different still on theme but then we we both took it in a little bit of a different direction no children got killed this episode that's right that's rare could we just aim for that once a month. I'm sorry.
Yeah, just once a month and a fucking child.

Did you? episode that's right that's rare could we just aim for that once a month sorry yeah just once a month and a fucking child did you see somebody made an i'm sorry where they made the i'm really small it was basically like the visual and it was perfect because it that's exactly what sorry yeah it's good stuff um all right we've done it again we've done it uh yeah wait this is episode 40. shut the fuck up is it yeah episode 40 yeah oh my god look at us go that's crazy karen i'm proud of us i'm proud of us too we've been friends for 40 weeks here's to 20 more no there's the one week i got married and your mom died oh that's right i'm sorry so i'm sorry i got married we've been friends for 39 weeks that was the realest week of all though and we were so casual about it sorry you guys we're not because we didn't have any there was nobody march man nobody here in march i was like this is a thing yeah no one cared you're like i like that girl from that thing and that girl from that thing yeah i'll listen um we have to tell uh tell each other one good thing from this week oh good idea you go first because i can't think of anything we'll always forget that part um my my thing is that uh i really reconnected with mimi my cat mimi what i know it's so stupid but like suddenly i like i'm obsessed with elvis he's my fucking why are you laughing at me it's true because you're taught you're as you're telling me you're petting mimi like in but you're it's a little dr evilly or you're like my cat we got eye to eye and brain to brain uh can i plug my their instagram it's elvis and mimi sure on instagram and she's just i i've always been scared to love her because i thought elvis wouldn't love me anymore for it wow i know i'm fucking insane i have a what's it called that when your cats but i have worms in my head toxoplasmosis thank you steve feline aid um and then suddenly i realized what a sweet angel she is and elvis gives zero shits about anything but cookies it's very true we're good so it was nice to like it's been nice to i love cats go on they're pretty great yeah these ones are sweet they like you guys which is rare for them not not for people to like you but yeah but it pretty real i'm sorry okay um this whole time i've been scrambling in my head okay this fine i'll just do it anything this is honest this is at least i'm being honest the shirt i'm wearing right now is my favorite shirt i've ever owned in my life it looks amazing thanks um it's just a salmon and navy striped uh shirt that i got at crossroads steven um you look like like a hot pirate hey but a pocket i there's something about it it like reminds me of high school it reminds me of all these things it's really weird but then i like i appreciate the thinness of it and yet itantial.
Yeah. And it's a little tiny bit blousey, but then it also, it's just, it's working for me in every way to the point where- I noticed your boobs earlier.
It's a thing I do as an A cupper. Drapey.
It's like, you know, it's like, oh, she's womanly, but she's not trying to throw it in my face. That's right.
I actually cover it up to make you want it more. It's a very Victorian of me.
The more layers you put on, the more I'm like, what could be under there? I'm going to start wrapping a scarf around my neck and then you're going to be so into me. And then I'll be like, does her neck fall off when I unwrap that scarf? You mean that Halloween story? Scary stories to tell in the dark? Stephen's having a nervous a nervous breakdown you know what Stephen's saying right now to us with this laughing this hysteric laughing is end this fucking podcast you guys are out of your mind stop talking about everything scary stories to tell in the dark don't even look it up Stephen I got this you take off the necklace and never take my scarf never take my necklace and then her head falls off and she says I told you not to take it and he puts it on a stick.
And he walks down the street of Sacramento with it. You guys, thank you so much for listening.
We love you. We're totally insane.
Stay sexy. Oh, don't get murdered.
Rate, review, subscribe on Instagram. I mean, where? Oh, my God.
Elvis. Elvis.
Save us. Do you want a cookie? You want a cookie? Want a cookie cookie? Yeah.
Bye. We both get shot.

So we're back. Do you have any updates on the story? I actually do.
So in August 2017,

Jonathan Schmitz was granted parole and released from prison after serving 22 years of his sentence. Scott Amiger's brother, Frank Amiger, said to the Associated Press at the time, quote, I'd like to know that he learned something, that he's a changed man, is no longer homophobic, and has gotten psychological care, end quote.
A Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman told people he was released because of good behavior credit. Schmitz has kept a low profile since his release and is still in Michigan.
So that's that. I mean, it's such a sad story.
It's a terrible story. And I know a ton about it because my old boss was there when it happened.
That's so wild. And they used to talk about how horrible it was all the time.
Just like that thing of you go from, that was very like 80s, 90s television that they used to try to produce and the daytime wars and trying to get numbers. And so shows like that, it was Ricky Lake and Jenny Jones and all the Sally, Jesse, Raphael.
Like for some reason they came on at like 3.30. So you'd get home from school.
Why did they come on when children got home from school? I was traumatized. We binged that shit.
It was like, there was an episode of Donahue where basically the KKK comes to speak on their own behalf. Yeah.
And it is the most upsetting. I was just sitting there as a 12-year-old bawling.
Yeah. And then this amazing black woman stood up and was like, y'all to sit down you're in new york city now and the whole audience is like on donahue that's amazing it was great yeah those i mean that that transformed our childhood somehow and somehow we're still successful people i mean it's really or maybe we're maybe it's because of i don't know it opened the door to reality mean, that was like the beginning of true reality television, even though it was very produced and often fake.
But some of it started and was very real. Yeah.
Yeah. So crazy.
The characters. Okay.
Just really quick. I forgot about that navy and salmon striped shirt that I was talking about was my favorite shirt.
I would kill for these days oh is that long gone I can't keep anything that I like is gone in like three months why could you wear it so much it falls apart I know it's like I bring it places and then oh no I left it somewhere or I don't know it's so irritating but like that shirt when I was when I was reading this I was just like oh like bring it back so stupid someone find that shirt when I was reading this. I was just like, oh, bring it back.
So stupid. Someone find that shirt, please, on what's it called? One of those sites.
All right. So we would hate to change Squad Gords as this moment of Georgia's, you know, organic and natural brain genius.
Thank you so much. But maybe we would call this episode, if we were to change the title today, we would call it Let's Start With a Prayer.
Yep. Oh, George is always going religious at the beginning of the show.
It's just me. It's who I am.
I'm weird like that. And the beginning of my prayer was Dear Oprah, so we could name it Dear Oprah.
We should. We always should.
Oh, wow. Yeah.
Good one. Episode 40.
Episode 40. We're really getting into our podcasting chops.

Just 900 more to go.

Fuck.

Thank you guys for listening.

And we'll keep doing it if you keep listening on Wednesdays.

We got Mondays.

We got Wednesdays.

We got Thursdays.

We have so many options for you.

And we appreciate whichever you listen to.

Yes, that's right.

We appreciate everything you do.

And we'd also appreciate it if you'd stay sexy.

And don't get murdered.

Goodbye.

Elvis, do you want a cookie?

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