Stephen Glover on His Secret Star Wars Movie, Inventing Memes with Donald, and Inspiring Atlanta

Welcome to Pablo Torre finds out.

I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is.

People are like places like, Man, this show Atlanta sucks, you know, like, like, I got to sit around long enough to like see the full spectrum of it.

We're like, man, who wrote this stupid episode?

Like, man, that wasn't feel that long ago.

I was at a Golden Globe party dancing the bad and bougie, you know, like

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What are you allowed to talk about when it comes to your actual profession right now?

The one you are currently on strike from.

I think everything is fine as long as I'm like.

As long as, so I can say, like, Steve, congrats on you and Donald doing this new Lando show, which I read about.

Oh, boy, you shouldn't have said that.

But that's

literally that's the extent of what you can say, is that.

All right, so that is the voice, the already regretful voice of my friend Stephen Glover, the genius screenwriter, and rapper and producer,

the guy who may be best known as the head story editor of Atlanta, the TV show which won pretty much every award in Hollywood and is also one of my absolute favorite shows of all time.

Steve and his brother Donald are now making a widely reported and super highly anticipated new Star Wars show, a Lando Calrissian show for Disney Plus.

Or at least I thought they were until now.

No, yeah, I mean, I could pretty much be like, yeah, you know, we're, we're doing uh, it's, it's not even,

should we bleep it?

I'm sure, like, the nerds will figure it out anyway.

Like, they'll read my lips or something.

But wait, you said it's not even a show?

No, the idea right now is to do a movie.

You know, but

like, that's the thing.

Like, right now, because of the strike, it's kind of like telephone, all the information, like, so I can be an information broker between you and the Walt Disney Company,

guys.

They're doing a movie.

You gotta, you gotta pretend like you just got a text.

I'm hearing my sources are telling me.

Did you ever play a game?

And I hesitate to call it a game,

but in high school, we played the pass-out game.

This sounds like something on a date line.

It was definitely some things that, like, some white kids at school were like, hey, check this out.

And you would like stand there up against the wall.

You'd cross your arms like this,

like hand over shoulder, crisscrossed.

And they would like press up and under your like rib cage until like you lost consciousness.

See?

And you would pop back in like 15 seconds later and people would be like, yo,

that was like, that was like being inside of like Mortal Kombat or like, it was like a Mario Kart level.

I didn't even know you could do this.

I'm about to go home and play the pass out game right now.

So I should say that I never played it, but I was in the room socially

watching and i was like this doesn't feel like a thing that my mom

i couldn't even lie to her about this

i always kind of wanted to like faint just because i wanted to know what it was like or what was happening but like yeah i remember like i like i played football and there was like a kid who like like an offensive lineman he's like really big and i remember we were like taking like the photos and we're like all standing Like a team photo.

Yeah, yeah, like a team photo.

And we're like all standing on like these little makeshift like, you know, bleacher things they set up or whatever.

The offensive linemen are like in the back because they're the biggest.

They're like on the top thing.

We're like getting ready to take it.

And also you're just here, why?

Like this like giant offensive lineman just tumbling forward over onto everybody.

And everybody is like, what's going on?

He like passed out and the coach is like, I told you guys, stop locking your knees.

Like,

don't lock your knees.

I'm like, lock your knees i'm like that's all it takes i'm like i lock my knees all the time so i want to just set up a little bit about uh the fact that i think i've i was trying to do the math on this i think i first encountered you and or donald and or ibra and or swank like 10 years ago now like 2013 which is wild i don't think i've ever asked you a single question about what it was like to play high school football.

Yeah.

I honestly forgot until you just reminded me about that now.

No, it's a part of my life I'm trying to like forget.

I've been like running away from.

No,

I mean, high school football.

What was the scouting report on Stephen Glover?

What position did you play?

I don't know any of these answers.

Honestly, I told you.

I played running back.

I was

running back.

So me getting to see the devaluing of the running back position personally

affects me.

At what point were you like oh i'm not gonna be doing this in college man i i didn't play a whole lot like i didn't have like i'm shocked to hear that i didn't i wasn't like

highly recruited pablo so at what point did you at what point did you resolve in yourself like oh this is like a thing that's this is this is where this ends for me man it's funny i remember

how quickly did he get disabused of this idea there's a there's a funny story man my like everybody who played football remembers this speech because it was hilarious at the time.

We had a coach and my 11th grade year,

we found out like at the end, it was going to be his last year coaching there.

So like, but it's like the last game, like right before.

And he gives us like this speech.

He's like, you know,

like we're all like huddled together.

He's like, you know, you want to like take this time.

Like, this is like a special time right here.

Like, this is, you know, remember this moment like look at the guys like around you because like

some you know some of you this will be the last time you ever play football like this will be the last time you ever touch a football field like kind of days like that's like kind of inside for he's like you know a couple years from now like some of you will be in jail some of you will be dead like

it's like really like morbid yeah it was like like yeah like some of you you know you're gonna have problems with your wife kids like you like 1.6 of you will be involved in a heavy machinery accident.

Some of you are just going to, you're not going to make it home from this game.

Like, statistically, at least one of you is dying in a car crash.

We're all just like looking at each other like,

like, wow.

I mean, I guess.

Like, I thought this was a celebration, but now it's like.

It's getting increasingly specific.

Kind of like an evil fortune teller.

Yeah, no.

But what was funny too is he was right.

That's why I can't be mad at him because I'm like, man, he was trying to tell us the truth.

And I think when I thought about that, it's not like basketball where it's like you go to like the pickup game, there's like an 80-year-old man like shooting three-pointers.

Like football, once it's over, like there's no like pickup football game, there's no recreational football over a certain age.

You're never gonna put on a butt pad again.

That's that's it.

So Atlanta, like for me to provide context for the listener on like you, I almost need to like say stuff like you are the real life inspiration for Paperboy.

And I don't know if people really appreciate that.

And no, they don't.

They don't appreciate it enough.

I am the real Paperboy.

Okay, so I should just do a crude summary here, I think, for anybody who has never seen Atlanta, which is a shame because the show ostensibly is about a rapper named Paperboy, who is played by Brian Tyree Henry, and his manager/slash cousin, Ern, who is played by Donalds.

And it speaks to, I mean, truly, like so many different things.

It speaks to viral video culture and magical realism and race in America.

And anyway, I'm writing a f ⁇ ing think piece at this point about my friend's TV show.

Anyway, know that it's ostensibly about music.

In reality,

hijinks ensue.

I do do all of the tracks.

So, A, you're the actual voice.

You're like on those songs.

Yeah, I do all the tracks.

That's me.

You're rapping for Brian Tyree Henry.

You're his ghost rapper.

I am.

I'm the ghost rapper for Paperboy.

Paperboy, paperboy, always about that paper boy.

If you ain't on your brand, no, you flexing, you layer boy.

Paperboy, paper boy, always getting paper boy.

And, you know, because

I grew up in Atlanta and spent like a good part of my formative years out there, like a lot of the stories are based on stuff that I've seen and like gone through.

But also like

our friend like Swank, you know, who he's also a writer.

He's from Atlanta.

And like my father's a lot of people.

It feels like you, but you and Swank, though, in the lore around you guys, as I've gotten to know you, it's like the shit that is the most absurd.

that is in the show seems to be inspired by like you and or swank's actual real life adventures no very very much so very Very true.

What's an example, just so I can express this like accurately.

What's an example of an episode that is in fact inspired by something that happened to you guys that seems like it happened to nobody?

Cause it's ridiculous.

The second episode of Atlanta where,

you know, Earn's in jail and Paperboy gets out of jail.

Like, that was like me and Swank.

You know, like, we jail.

Yeah, we went to jail when we were like college.

I know.

That's exactly when I knew.

I was like, wow.

I was like, I'm never playing football again.

And I'm in jail just like he's.

But what were you in jail for?

So it was funny.

We were shooting a music video.

I was just getting ready to like move to LA, but we were shooting a music video.

And it was funny because we were shooting at this like

these like artist warehouse things it was like kind of like private property but we had this director like this guy he was like directing I said he was living there in like the artist thing So we're like,

we're like shooting in this like car.

It's like Friday night, so it's all or Saturday night.

It's like already like kind of hot out there in like Atlanta as far as like cops are out.

They're looking for like in every sense, literal and figurative.

It's real hot.

This block is extraordinary they're looking for like troublemakers but we weren't doing anything we were like we shot this video we're in the back of this like place this like these warehouses or whatever and the king so the director is like i'm gonna go inside my house and like grab something real quick so he walks into his like house or like the little studio thing we're standing outside And this like cop car just comes around real slow.

And like, it's like a lady, she's like, what are you guys doing here?

And we're like, oh, we're like shooting a music video.

You know, we just finished.

And then she like looks around.

She's like, I don't see any cameras.

And I was like, oh, this isn't going to go well.

Like, I already knew.

I was like, this isn't going to go well.

Right.

Her first follow-up question indicated a lot about the rest of this conversation.

She already doesn't believe us.

So I'm like, all right, well, yeah, you know, the director,

he has the camera.

He just like went inside.

She's like, uh-huh.

Like, yeah.

And then she gets out.

The funny part about this

is the direct the dude who's directed the video he like saw this cop car from inside and he he ran out the other side of the building he just ran out got this car and left us he was like

later he was like yeah man i had i got like warrants you know so like i once i saw that like i just and so so it really felt like we were lying like we're like

this video she's like where's this director i'm like he'll be back any moment he like never came back he he ditched us like completely so

we're there she's like she calls for like backup you know we're like okay like we're standing there looking in the car and then there was like a gram of like weed in the car and she's like whose weed is this We all like looked at each other.

She's like, all right, you're all going to jail.

So we went to jail.

What's also funny about this story, too, is it was such a small amount of weed, they lost it.

On the ride over to the jail they lost the weed the the one piece of evidence you're saying the the chain of custody on this evidence was not especially rigorous it was it was not the whole the whole case was botched from the beginning it was like the oj trial like

that's what many say many people say this about your arrest So the whole thing was just like a kind of like silly people were protesting outside

for you and Swain over freeways, holding like shirts with people running after the car, the cop cars that we're in so it was like yeah like the whole thing was like very like just farcical and like funny it all ended up like we just had to we spent like 18 hours in this you know holding area in like jail and so that's so this is something i do want to find out about though briefly is what's that 18 hours like

man it's it's just like the episode it's terrible you know there's like a simpsons episode where like the school gets like those cheap like chairs that they have like a hump in them and like the kids can get comfortable in the chairs.

It's constantly

trying to find a groove that doesn't ever arrive.

That's how it felt.

Like the chairs in there are like super uncomfortable.

You're just like.

So my first thing I've learned about being in jail from you is that the chairs are suboptimal.

Yes, they suck.

They're not comfortable at all.

The other thing too is whenever you go to jail, you will be hungry.

You will never go on a full stomach you know

like only my bosses get arrested right after dinner

so

as soon as you get there you're gonna be like damn i wish i had eight i wish i had thinly sliced some some garlic yeah you know because

the food they had given us they're like here's like this baloney sandwich you know with that's was made who knows hold on though hold on at this point you're sounding a little bit like a snob

actually sorry the jail bologna wasn't up to steve's specifications i personally hate bologna i've always hated baloney so you know i'm like i wish it was turkey you know a turkey sandwich in jail would have been great but yeah so i am kind of a snob on that i'm like

so you get chairs and uh the lunch meet the lunch is terrible

and it's a lot of sitting around and there's there's a joke in the episode where like,

like you try and like go to sleep and they're like, you can't sleep in here.

And it's like, so what am I supposed to be doing?

Saying, I don't know, just stare forward.

Think about your life.

You know?

What's the logic behind don't sleep?

Is that, is that's a rule that's imposed?

It's probably so that you're not mentally.

you know, there enough to fight back.

You know, that's the first move of mind control.

It's like sleep deprivation.

They're like, let's keep these guys up for the next 18 hours and they'll be easy to mold.

And, you know, they'll do whatever we tell them to do kind of thing.

And so the resolution of this, 18 hours passes.

And then what happens at hour 18 or thereabouts?

Well, you get bailed out and you

bailed you out.

Who did bail me out?

That was, it was my friends.

Who did you ask to bail you out?

Well, that was the thing.

Everybody, my friends, me,

Terrence, and Swank, we were shooting the video, so we all got arrested.

So we had to call our other friends who weren't there to like bail us out.

And it's like, you know, it's like college.

So it's like trying to get-you're at Georgia Tech at this point.

Yeah.

So like trying to get together, trying to scrape together like 200 bucks between your friends is still hard.

Everybody's like,

I don't know how much

padding of pockets.

Yeah, like,

gotta like get get eight people together to get this bail to happen.

Like,

before I end up, like, getting in trouble for changing the story.

I'm like, my ex-girlfriend bailed me out.

That's true.

Let the record show.

She's like somewhere like, I'm the one.

Where am I in the episode is what she's asking right now.

She's van.

Van comes at the end.

Bail's earned out.

That's right.

And she's mad about it.

And she knows she's van in real life.

She knows she's van in that situation, you know, for sure.

because van's character arc does get

yeah she was she didn't go to paris and yeah beat anybody up but

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Whether you're celebrating a big win or simply enjoying some cocktails with family and friends, Remy Martin 1738 is the perfect spirit to elevate any occasion.

So go ahead, treat yourself to a little luxury, and try Remy Martin 1738 Accord Royale.

Learn more at remymartin.com.

Remy Martin Cognac, feeding champagne at Fortune Alcoholic Volume, reported by Remy Control, USA, Inc.

New York, 1738.

Centaur design.

Please drink responsibly.

It's important to point out that, like, you go from that

to like

being

an objectively successful.

Do you feel highly respected in Hollywood?

No.

No, I don't.

Because, like, you guys won golden globes.

You've been got WGA awards.

You've been nominated for Emmys.

I've seen you on red carpets.

I've snuck into parties with you after you've won things.

And it's, it's, I, I've gotten the sense that it's sort of like you're living a lucid dream, except for some

reminders, I guess, that you're not in the most inner, inner sanctum yet.

No, I mean, it's funny because it's like,

you know, like, especially early on, the success was like, it was like strange because like it came so

so quick.

It haven't, it was, I just want to, if I could salute myself for just being a great stockholder yeah i mean you you know how to pick

you can tell early on you're like this kid's going

i'm a yeah i'm a gm a gm of friends hollywood gm yeah this guy there's a glint in his eye his motor

He's an unstoppable motor.

You got all the intangibles you look for in a writer, in a TV writer.

But wait, you were saying, though, that like it happened immediately, which was how it felt to me watching it.

And I was like, holy

you know i mean the the success like was was very early on which was which made it like crazy but i mean now that we're past that you know like i've gotten to see like in the beginning it's like wow atlanta it's like the greatest show and like it's awesome to like now i'm like

People are like places like, man, that show Atlanta sucks, you know, like, like I got to sit around long enough to like see the full like spectrum of it.

We're like man who wrote this stupid episode like man, that was didn't feel that long ago.

I was at a Golden Globe party dancing the bad and bougie, you know, like

it wasn't so long ago that you literally introduced Hollywood

to the Migos,

you know, and now no one cares anymore.

Now everybody, I'm like, check out this ice vice chicken.

Everybody's like, shut up.

Nobody.

You watch comment sections turn.

Yeah, you know, it's, but I mean, like, you know, I just feel like that.

But hold on, you're making a, potentially, you're making a Lando movie.

So on some level, like, but, but, so explain how it is that both things can be true.

Like, how is it that you're doing the shit that like is a dream, but also, you know,

I feel like,

you know, there's a baloney situation.

You're like, look,

well, my sweet at the at the Chateau Marmont,

they didn't fluff my pillow.

pillow well no it's like you know now i'm now i know enough to be like there are pitfalls to all of this you know this like when episode one of star wars came out people were excited i remember that like

yeah you know they were like oh man it's gonna be cool and then it's like you see jar jar binks and like people were upset

like man like there's always room for people to be disappointed there was always room for decades later a series of think pieces.

Exactly.

Only now reckon with the racialization of the gungans.

Are you ready?

So by the way, that's, and that's the part where, like, I actually do want to know how you and Donald on some level, like, because you guys,

something that I, I, I respect and fear for both of you guys is that you, as much as anybody I know, you guys are attuned to the internet.

Yeah.

Like both, both in ways that are like speaking speaking to the creative sort of like fuel that you guys get from it and also like the cynicism around how it works.

But also that means that your antenna has to be way up for how this can be dangerous.

No, for sure.

I mean, you know, like the, just the internet in general.

Like, like I said, I've gotten to see the, I've gotten to see the love and the hate several times in just different contexts.

You know, I got to.

What was your favorite moment of Steve getting high off the internet?

I won't say this is my favorite moment, but just showing like the highs and lows.

It's like, you know, in Hollywood, like especially, it's like you're only as valuable as the last thing you did.

And it's like, until you're like Martin Scorsese or something, like everyone is like, this could be the last we ever hear from you.

So like

Swarm, we just did Swarm and Swarm didn't have a lot of fanfare like going into it.

I don't think.

I think a lot of people may not even have known it was going to come out at first, but then it like came out and it was like a big deal, big hit.

Everybody was watching it.

It was crazy.

Right.

Inspired by the super fans of Fianna.

Inspired by the internet for sure.

Yeah, and the hive.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it's like,

that was like a cool moment to like

just like.

Yeah, it was like, I imagine being DMX, you know, in the 90s.

It's like you go outside and you're just hearing your album playing on the streets.

It was like everywhere I went, there were people talking about Swarm.

It was, it was crazy, you know, but it was like, yeah, like just a reminder, like, oh, okay, like, I, I know what I'm doing, you know, like,

maybe I'm not as terrible as everybody thinks I am, you know, like, maybe we still got something,

you know.

So that, that was just like a, a good, like, reminder of like, yeah, you know, on to the next thing, you know, and like,

you don't get too high or too low ever because it's all coming back around.

So, wait a minute, but I'm, I, what I'm registering from all of this is that, like,

that

your experience releasing Swarm and people having it resonate with them on some level made you think to yourself,

I want to do something else that has some element of, does it feel like this thing has risk with it?

Well, I mean, everything,

everything has risk with it, and unless it's like, well, like, look,

Swarm, it's like, I'm going to do a show about what it's like to be an unhinged, animalistic Beyoncé super fan.

And then I'm going to do a show or a movie about Star Wars Lando, which obviously Donald had portrayed Lando before, but like the idea of like, this is going to be our thing.

It feels like it's also daring the hive that you just commemorated

to then attack you.

I think that...

This is not me trying to persuade you to not do this, by the way.

I'm just curious.

I'm not doing it.

I've already decided.

Like, this sounds like a dangerous idea, guys.

You should have called me first.

No, but I think, you know, everything that's worth doing has some risk to it, especially when you care about.

the quality of things.

You know, I think that's like a big part of us.

It's like, we don't want to do things that are just going to be mediocre or just going to be like yeah they came and went or like that was fine enough you know you guys take swings exactly so there's always going to be some risk and with something like this

you know there's going to be people who are going to who are really going to like judge you maybe

they may realize you guys made lando white yeah it's going to be when they realize that lando is everything has been run past the dnc first before

woke lando

woke lando he that's right like none of his none of the stuff you saw in the other movies is canon so critical race theory lando is not gonna play well on reddit

yeah no people are they're not gonna like it but i mean

i think it's just like yeah you know

i think a lot of people would probably be worried to do something like this because of the pressure of pissing off these fans, you know, but I think it's like, yeah, you know,

you're like Bane is what you're saying.

I hear you like rounding your way to like being born in the darkness.

Exactly.

It's like I was molded it.

Exactly.

This is what I want.

This is what I live for.

You know,

I want to, because that's the other thing, too.

It's like, it's like Eli Manning to circle this back to football.

I have no idea how this is like Eli Manning.

Let me explain how this is like Eli Manning.

Eli Manning comes into the NFL.

He's supposed to go to the Chargers.

He's like, nah, I want to go to New York.

He comes to New York.

So there's already that hanging over him.

Then he comes in.

People are like, man, you are nothing like Peyton.

You got this look on your face.

You know, you got this body language we don't like.

Everybody's like, man.

I don't know.

This kid has it, you know?

And then it's like he beats the Patriots, you know, on a crazy run with randy moss and all and now the greatest team of all time exactly derp face payton manning and now i'm sure eli can walk into any bodega in new york and get a chopped cheese for free you know he's the man now it's like most people do not want to step into that into that cauldron of the new york giants quarterback position with you know

and for years people like this team is terrible like you know it could have went the wrong i just like how you have eli going into a bodega.

I guarantee Eli Manning is not walking.

I saw Eli Manning in the Hamptons.

He could be.

He could go.

I saw Eli Manning.

Dude, I was eating.

I was eating lunch with David Samson, who works for Metalark.

We're at, we're very stoned.

We're eating lunch at like a dock side fancy restaurant in like the Hamptons, right?

And in walks Eli Manning.

And Eli Manning is like six five, like just tall, confident, perpetually dressed like he's at an Easter function.

just like shorts, polo, just like the dude, the confidence that he has in any setting in the new, in the tri-state area, that part is real.

That's what I mean.

He can go anywhere now.

It doesn't matter what he did the other years of his career.

It's like that was enough.

Like this fan base that has chewed people up and spit them out a million times.

Yes.

No, that's, by the way, that's, that's some of the shit that I love about New York, like the mythology of New York that I do subscribe to.

It's like, if you survive the media here and the spotlight here, that shit is real.

We were talking about like the ways in which attention and spotlight can like melt your brain.

People who have won, who made it to that highest level, Derek Jeter is like fascinating for this reason.

Eli, too, they, they escaped unscathed, which is the hardest thing.

It's like, we did everything we could to try and break you and you didn't break.

So now you can be our friend, like kind of thing.

That's how New York operates.

It's like, yeah, like, of course, we were hazing you the whole time.

Like,

but, but you passed.

So now you're, now you're the guy, you know?

But it's like, yeah, that's kind of how I feel like with, you know, doing something like Star Wars.

It's like,

there's a,

I get the metaphor.

See, now you're bringing it all home.

It's like, you, you take that risk.

It could end up badly.

You know, you could end up like, I'm trying to think of a New York Giants quarterback who flamed out.

Let's.

Who was the shittiest?

Oh,

Joe Pisarchyk

Greg Morton

Scott Bruner?

I think the point is being proven.

And we don't even know who these guys are.

Frank Filchok.

No,

you don't.

You don't remember Frank Filchok from 1946?

You know, 60.2Q.

You don't have to go back that far to find a Giants quarterback.

No, Danny Cannell.

Danny Connell from 96, 98.

that's a good one

so i should say that the uh you identifying with eli manning feels a little on the nose

i i am and me and eli are shit you know we're like kindred spirits he's the younger brother too you know he gets what i'm going through so i texted donald and I said that we're gonna do like a podcast.

And he was like, Is there anything specific you guys are talking about?

And I was like,

What should I ask him about?

Let me know.

And Donald said, quote, ask about the clip art jokes we used to make as kids.

End quote.

I have no idea what the clip art jokes are.

Donald, Donald likes to be like, We invented memes.

We invented memes in the 90s, early 2000s, like you guys.

Like,

What does this mean?

Well, there was a computer like game program called like Spider-Man like Comic Book Maker, which we had on our like family computer, which is like, it had really like sh kind of like animation that would just do like certain things like Spider-Man walking weird or

Spider-Man cartoon maker.

I did comic book maker.

Oh my God.

Yep.

Photos of a CD-ROM

just as the cover art.

So we would just make funny stuff with that you know we would make little like comic book things it was pretty terrible there was that but then what I started doing was you know PowerPoint had all the clip art

in it and so we I just started doing things where I would find clip art that I thought was funny and I would just like put it there and it like kind of like put like a blurb or like a meme of like you know explaining this out of context like clip art.

So in a way, like making memes based off of like the shitty stock clip art that you find in powerpoint it sounds like you were making new yorker cartoons pretty much

powerpoint this sounds far more highbrow than i imagine

no that's what i mean it was it was ahead of its time this is me as like a 13 year old being like let me let me find these these funny like clip arts and be like this is

This is great.

One that I remember specifically, there's like a clip art of like an umpire in between two people.

It was like a black because it's like, you know, it's like corporate stuff.

So it's like one guy in like a tie and another guy in a tie.

And it's like a real umpire like in between them.

And because it's like clip art too, like one guy's black and one guy's white.

So I just remember I had that clip and I just put underneath like, hey guys, save that racism for the game.

Just

trying to keep them apart.

But just like, yeah, stupid stuff like that to make each other laugh.

We probably did.

We probably had like 80 of these things that we would just go at different times.

You and Donald had

a hard drive full of mostly based on hard drive sizes back then, mostly full of clip art.

90% clip art memes that we made.

So, yeah, that's how we changed the world.

Once Bill Gates got a hold of it, it was out.

But wait,

you and Donald at that age, like making each other laugh?

To what extent were other people laughing?

I mean,

a lot of people.

I mean, my family in general, it was like, it was pretty funny.

My sister is also funny.

My sister, Brianne, she wouldn't make Cliphart.

She joined in with us doing that too.

So a lot of it was always just like making each other laugh.

You know,

my dad was also like a silly guy, like loved to laugh.

And I remember we had a,

Donald had a talk boy.

If this is really going on, yeah, like the home alone talk boy.

Yeah.

And like, we would like, just make like fake commercials and like fake stuff on that, you know?

So it was always just like,

you know, we

like, not to like be like, we never had much, you know, but it's like, no, it's like, if we

like, as kids, I think our imagination was really good because we could just take something as shy as that Spider-Man comic book maker, which I think my dad bought like secondhand for like 10 bucks or so.

It was like

your dad bought a ripped version of bootleg Spider-Man cartoon maker.

It was already 10 bucks.

On a burned CDR.

I'm sure it was like on sale for like five bucks.

I'm sure somebody had already bought it and was like, this is terrible and like returned it.

That stuff would be, you could like sell all of those as NFTs now.

You guys got to find that hard drive.

Like two years ago would have been

right now.

No, no one.

Yeah.

Like

$7 million.

They'd have like the arena in like LA is named like the Spider-Man comic book maker arena.

There's a shot of it being airlifted off.

They have to rename.

They had to unrename the staples center.

Spider-Man.

That's going to be funny to look back at it in a couple of years.

She was going to be like, the crypto sin.

What is that?

It's like an old man explaining, like, well, Jimmy, there were these bored apes.

And

in that way, you did foresee.

I mean, that is clip art fundamentally.

It is.

You know, they should have put something funny underneath these bored apes.

Nope.

They took themselves too seriously.

That was the problem.

They should have been memeing themselves.

So, wait, so just give me a sense of you.

So, what year is this roughly?

I want to place myself in this timeline.

Oh, man, it was probably like

201999, maybe, like, right around there.

Were you guys, were you and Donald on AOL?

I didn't.

What was your IST?

To what extent are you guys of the internet?

Man,

it's funny.

I remember we went over to a friend of my dad's house and like

he was like,

We came in there and I remember he was like, I got like the internet.

I got like the computer.

And like, I remember Donald was super excited.

Donald was like, What?

Like, he like ran over there.

He's like, and I didn't really know what it was.

I was like, and I like went over and I'm like, look at that.

It's a big, big Eli Manning face wandering over there.

And I'm like, look, and I'm like, so what is this?

And he's like, you know, you can like go on.

You go like to all these different things.

I'm like, so I'm a kid.

I'm like, go to nickelodeon.com.

That's okay.

Like, let me see that.

It's like, you pulled it up.

It was like so early that you would go there and it would be like under construction.

It's like a picture of like a one

cartoon, like Chucky from the Rugrats, like shrugging.

Like, like,

like

literal clip art of like those orange construction cones on either side, like a web counter

at the bottom.

Yeah, it's like you're first enough for 628

to come here.

It's like, disappointed?

Like, you shouldn't be like soon one day we'll have something and i remember we went to a couple of like sites and they were all like that they were all like under construction like you know what and i was like i don't get this and i remember like like a year later a couple months later like my dad was like he got a computer and he was like yeah you you all need email addresses you guys gotta have like email i had what were we using we're using like juno i don't even know people that's i mean all you needed to do to express your poverty was say, I was

Eve Glover at Juno.com.

Somewhere out there, there's a Juno account racking up like Nick Toon's

newsletter.

I appreciate my dad about my dad, like his enthusiasm for like new technology.

He was always like on the cusp.

He was like, like, he was excited about the internet.

He said, we got to like have a computer.

My dad is the same way.

My dad brought us a joystick before we knew what it was you know like my dad like was somebody um

who loved a sharper image catalog or so it seemed in retrospect just like devices and stuff here's another here's another deep cut there was a video game called monster rancher yes yes yes monster rancher was a great game where you raised a monster kind of like pokemon but the cool thing about it was like these monsters are like trapped on disc, disc stones was like the thing.

So you could find any disc, put it into the PlayStation, and it will create you a random like monster, like based on the data on this disc.

So because my dad had hundreds and hundreds of CDs,

it was like the greatest game ever, you know, and like, they're like super rare ones that you could only get from certain discs.

And he would like, it's like this in living color CD.

You could get this cool monster.

I'm like, my dad has this CD.

Wait.

So I should say that my memory of Monster Rancher ends at there was a thing called Monster Rancher.

And the idea that there would be specifics, there would be specific CDs that resulted in like triggering, unlocking

a special monster.

Exactly.

And you're saying that literally the programmers of Monster Rancher were like, if you have this CD,

you will get this special edition like limited Kenny G monster well he wouldn't like look like Kenny G or anything but it might be the monster might be called something you know winking at Kenny G like a I don't know like a jazz jazz a source I don't know but it'd be like this is an incredible special it'd be like a special like one of like you couldn't get it on any like by using any other disc like sometimes you could use two like C Ds and you'd get the same monster.

You're saying you would get like a David Allen Greer monster after plugging in like your In Living Color CD?

See, this is also taking it back.

In Living Color, like Living Color, there's a rock, there's a black rock band called Living Color, and then there's the show In Living Color.

Oh, yeah.

See, this is, I should, I should, I should now reflect on why I thought In Living Color would have a C D.

This is like the soundtrack to like this

soundtrack to Living Color.

It's like Jim Carrey doing songs.

But you know what's funny is back then, that's how it used to be.

My dad had the original Batman soundtrack that Prince did.

He actually had like three Batman soundtrack CTs.

A lot of great music came from Batman soundtracks.

Very true.

You know, Kiss from a Road.

Oh my God.

I mean, the Batman Forever soundtrack is an all-time classic.

Man, there's a, I remember there was a song, Method Man does a song about the Riddler

I think he raps from the perspective of the Riddler wait

Hold on, I'm gonna play some of this hold on

there is no people not a problem

It's the red line

I crack a wall and I quarter by the mill

Cody

Johnny Blazing Bobby

so at this point we should point out that the music video is interlaced with like almost like strobe like clips of jim carrey becoming the riddler in batman forever

it's like the least hip-hop thing you can see

and weirdly also bring us back to in living color yeah

everything's connected everything is connected to jim carry this is uh

this is incredible yeah

My dad had to be able to do that.

How many views do you think this video has?

Like, I'm going to say 700.

It has 13,000.

Wow.

This is the official music video.

It has 13,000.

We're going to chart the success of this episode based on how many views this gets when this comes out.

I want to come back to that video in two weeks and just see people in the comments like came here because of Pablo.

Only here.

Came here because Steve referenced his dad's CD collection.

If you told me, Steve, that this podcast would end in us playing the music video for The Riddler by Method Man, I would have said, yeah, it's about right.

I wouldn't have guessed it, but I'm not surprised.

I look forward to being cast as a character in your Lando movie.

You can be one of the senators.

You can be a space senator.

You guys got that?

It's a legally binding.

I'm turning to our producer.

That's a legally binding contract.

I'm sure Lucas Philms is already canceling our contract.

You weren't supposed to say,

you're already making promises to people.

You're casting people?

The WGA is going to come down on me pretty hard, too.

So

this may not happen.

Steve,

getting in trouble with me.

Yeah, no, thanks for having me.

Anytime, man.

Anytime, a good excuse to come to New York.

Okay, so I'm sitting down at my computer and reflecting on what I found out today.

And I knew this, but I should just reiterate it:

I love Steve.

I think he's just brilliant, one of the most brilliant writers in entertainment in general.

I'm definitely gonna demand to have Steve in our regular rotation here as a friend of Pablo Torre finds out.

Because today,

specifically,

what I found out is so clear to me: if you have a friend who's making a secret Star Wars movie,

you can just invite him onto your show and shamelessly pressure him until he finally agrees

to make you a galactic

senator.

This has been Pablo Torre finds out

a Metalark media production,

and I'll talk to you next time.