What Did I Miss? (November 2025)

We dig into November’s biggest shifts across gaming and pop culture, from Valve’s living-room Steam device to Call of Duty’s stumble, Funko’s slide, and a surprising anime controversy. Laughs, hot takes, and a Thanksgiving trivia showdown round out the ride.

• Valve’s living-room Steam machine as a console disruptor
• Pricing realities, SteamOS strategy, and ecosystem lock-in
• Where PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo head next
• Funko’s oversupply problem and collector fatigue
• Call of Duty’s sales drop, battle pass burnout, and better alternatives
• One Punch Man S3 animation backlash and AI suspicion
• Indie victories and why fair pricing matters
• Discord headlines in one-sentence lightning round

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🔻BACKGROUND MUSIC PROVIDED BY:
Music track: Everyday by Eric Lund
Source: https://freetouse.com/music/
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Chapters

• 0:00 Cold Open, Jokes, And Setup
• 1:10 Guests Return And Live Show Banter
• 4:55 Format Games: Wheels, Races, Chaos
• 8:40 Introducing November’s Pop Culture Roundup
• 8:55 Valve’s “GabeCube” Steam Machine Deep Dive
• 16:40 Pricing, Ecosystems, And The Console Question
• 22:40 Steam’s OS Push And Industry Shift
• 28:30 Where PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Go Next
• 34:40 Funko Trouble: Oversupply And Value Collapse
• 43:30 Collector Fatigue And Resale Reality
• 49:25 Spin The Wheel: Topic Roulette
• 50:15 Call Of Duty’s Decline And Player Exodus
• 59:30 Battle Pass Fatigue And Better Alternatives
• 1:07:10 Can COD Course Correct Or Is It Done?
• 1:13:20 One Punch Man S3 Animation Backlash
• 1:20:50 AI Accusations, Studio Pressure, And Crunch
• 1:28:30 Why 2025 Animation Standards Are So High
• 1:35:10 Cutting Room Floor: Labubu, Witcher, Mummy 4
• 1:43:10 Discord Roundup: One-Sentence Takes
• 1:53:45 Thanksgiving Kahoot: Trivia Mayhem

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:04

This is the Wait For It Podcast. This is the Wait for It Podcast.

SPEAKER_07: 0:16

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Wait For Podcast. I am your co-host Phil Barrera, aka Phil the Filipino.

SPEAKER_05: 0:21

And I'm your other co-host, Mr. Eric Almighty, and we have returned to this series called What Did I Miss? That has been promoted to a series regular. So we brought a couple of series regulars back to the fold for this edition to cover what you might have missed in the month of November.

SPEAKER_07: 0:39

Yeah, Eric said that we will actually be able to get returning guests uh five timers jackets like they do at Saturday Night Live with our new Capital One credit card. The Wait for Podcast is presented by the Capital by Capital One member of FDIC.

SPEAKER_06: 0:54

Stop.

SPEAKER_07: 0:54

Stop, please. We're not. For legal reasons, the Way4 Podcast is not sponsored by Capital One. Yeah, so no, we're we're not. But I'm gonna try and get returning guests uh some some some sort of recognition because we have two guests that have also been paired up before. Uh so very, very excited to bring everybody back in. First, let's get over to our Super Bracket Bros Cinematic Universe member, Andrew. Andrew, it's good to see you, especially since you know, um, friendly neighborhood gamers went on a little bit of a hiatus, but you ventured into something new with the uh the YouTube stuff, which is really, really cool. So it's good to see you. How are you? And uh welcome back.

SPEAKER_03: 1:33

Hey, thanks for having me. Yeah, this is my first podcast appearance since the show took a break. So I was trying to figure out how to get my webcam to work starting this thing up. It's it's good to be back, though.

SPEAKER_07: 1:45

It's always a lot of fun to be on the way for a podcast. Hopefully, like riding a bike. Uh maybe it's like a little bit of a like a test run before we jump onto Twitch in December for the holiday special, which I'm sure is gonna go off without a hitch. Uh, there's gonna be no technical issues with that many people on at one time, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05: 2:02

With that many people that haven't podcasted in months as well.

SPEAKER_03: 2:06

But there's something about being on Twitch where it's like, meh, who cares?

unknown: 2:11

It'll be fine.

SPEAKER_07: 2:12

But uh, and then let's bring in our other guest returning once again, I believe her third time, Sid, aka Caught Redheaded. Sid, it's so good to see you. I was t uh, you and I were talking before Eric joined. This is like the first time in quite a while where we didn't get to like hang out in person this year. So hopefully we can make that happen in 2026. Uh, but how are you? And thanks again for coming back, despite your anxiety.

SPEAKER_01: 2:34

Hello, yes, third timer here, and I'm still anxious. Um, I've carried that through all the whole time. But yeah, I'm glad to be here. Thank you so much for having me. Um, I'm super sad that we haven't seen each other in over a year at this point, but at least glad that I can be here with you guys on the podcast. So thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_07: 2:51

Yeah. So Eric I was telling her, you know, we'll be making appearances at, you know, like MegaCon and some of the other shows in in Florida. So we'll figure something out. And you know, hopefully we'll drag Andrew along and we can all finish Black Adam together. Uh so I think that's what we should aim for in 2026. Then I can die happy.

SPEAKER_05: 3:10

Yeah, no, I'm gonna check my calendar.

SPEAKER_07: 3:12

I think the party Black Adam.

SPEAKER_05: 3:15

Nope. Nope, nope. I am uh I book solid, Phil. I just checked.

SPEAKER_07: 3:19

No, that can't be true. We share a calendar. Anyway, guys, thanks so much for joining us for what the November edition of What Did I Miss? Like Eric said, this is the uh it is going to be promoted to full-time status in 2026. So this is like the last. I mean, it's kind of well, no, because it's coming out in November. So it's not yeah, it's it's officially part of the rotation here at the Wave Forward Podcast going forward. Uh, we uh if you missed our last episode of the Game Room where it happens, we took it out back and double pumped it in the back of the head because we talked about Fortnite and it is gone. Uh, and to soon to maybe be replaced by something very, very soon that Eric and I need to discuss. But uh very, very excited to at least have the opportunity to continue hanging out with friends on what did I miss? Uh, if you've not listened to this episode before, it's our most casual episode we do each and every single month where we talk about any pop culture stories that you may have missed in the previous 30 days. Um, so very excited to jump into this here. And if you want to know where you can find the rest of our content, as well as where you can find more of Andrew and Sid, make sure you stick around at the very end of the episode and uh we will let you know where you can find all of that. But Eric, if you want to get our participants prepped for what comes next, because we've we've made some changes since they were on What Did I Miss Last Time.

SPEAKER_05: 4:32

Yeah, so if you're a fan of the show, you've been on the show before, you have any idea about me and Phil, you know we love a good wheel. Well, Phil has ventured into uh the unknown with our our mixture of things, and I believe we're starting off with his favorite. Uh, unless I'm wrong, Phil, but we will be doing a couple of different variations other than just the wheel to determine who is going to go next. And uh for our first one, Phil, I uh I'll let you let us know what to fully expect, but you usually do a nice little mixture.

SPEAKER_07: 5:10

Okay, so I found one that's maybe not necessarily uh in the best, you know, taste.

SPEAKER_05: 5:19

Okay, that's not that's not what you want to hear. For me, it is similar to Oh my god. It is a Thanksgiving themed racing. Phil, Phil, these are normally okay, hold on, hold on, hold on. Hold on, hold on, hold on. For context. What? Hold on, hold on. For context for the listening audience. These are usually horses. These are usually horses.

SPEAKER_03: 5:43

Does that make it better, what you're about to say?

SPEAKER_05: 5:46

I did not know that he was gonna be doing a Thanksgiving themed. There are two pilgrims up against two Native Americans.

SPEAKER_03: 6:03

Sandwich between Best Buy Black Friday ads.

SPEAKER_06: 6:06

Yes. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 6:07

How fitting.

SPEAKER_07: 6:09

Yeah, this website is riddled with ads.

SPEAKER_05: 6:12

We have to crop that out.

SPEAKER_03: 6:13

No, it needs to stay.

SPEAKER_01: 6:15

Yeah, it's a part of it at this point.

SPEAKER_05: 6:18

All right, well, um What does the commentary on this look like?

SPEAKER_03: 6:22

All right, why is your guy so sad?

SPEAKER_07: 6:25

Winner gets Plymouth Rock.

SPEAKER_01: 6:27

I don't think I don't think I need an answer.

SPEAKER_07: 6:30

There's a lot of reasons as to why.

SPEAKER_03: 6:35

I guess they're both sad. Yeah, they both look sad.

SPEAKER_07: 6:37

They're all pretty upset. The one that's happened is definitely Eric's. Uh Eric's character is definitely feeling pretty good in his getup there. Or her get up or their getup. I don't know, whatever. We're not really sure. All right, Eric, what is the uh countdown for this? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 6:53

Um I don't even know what is happening.

SPEAKER_05: 6:56

What are we supposed to do? Well, so we're gonna we're gonna count down and then we're gonna say something, but it's not spin that wheel. Um in the in the honor of probably what we're looking at, I say we go 3, 2, 1, steal that land. I think.

SPEAKER_03: 7:10

I think you're not getting my voice saying that.

SPEAKER_05: 7:13

No, okay, no, okay.

SPEAKER_03: 7:15

Uh Andrew's like, that was AI.

SPEAKER_05: 7:17

Um not me. Uh maybe let's I don't know. Uh chase that turkey. Chase that turkey. Chase that turkey.

SPEAKER_01: 7:25

I like chase that turkey. Chase that turkey sounds good. I'll vote for that.

SPEAKER_05: 7:29

All right, let's do that. All right, we're gonna count down, guys. Everybody knows the drill.

SPEAKER_07: 7:32

And I will provide commentary for the case.

SPEAKER_05: 7:33

It's just a little different. That's all. It's just a little different. Yeah. Uh so yeah, uh, let's count down. We'll go uh three, two, one. Chase that turkey.

SPEAKER_07: 7:47

All right, everyone's off. Uh Phil is off to an early lead here with Sid in second place. Eric is way far behind, but he is making a push here at the end. Well, air. Oh no, Eric! And Phil, yes, I got what I wanted. Jesus carried through. I get to go first. Sid, I think you were in last history there. That's crazy. That's exactly how it happened. As well, I think. Uh they're all still livering, living prosperously in the woods.

SPEAKER_05: 8:16

Oh, thanks for that, Phil. That's great.

SPEAKER_07: 8:19

You're very welcome.

SPEAKER_05: 8:19

So, yeah, last episode of what did I miss on the podcast?

SPEAKER_07: 8:22

That's probably why my computer's running so slow, is because of this fucking website. So it is a mess. Okay. Let me close those out for right now. All right. So I wanted to make sure I went first in case Andrew took my story because Eric, you probably can guess what I want to talk about, and it's the steam machine. And because I figured it would be on all of our minds. It is something we're um, you know, a very exciting uh reveal that came out is that Valve will be releasing a essentially an in-home console. Um, they're calling it the GabeCube, it looks like a GameCube as well. Uh, and um people are kind of wondering what what this thing is gonna be priced like. So really the kind of uh thing that's gonna be bringing people into this is most likely going to be the fact that you know you have your access to your entire Steam library right there on your TV. And I think depending on pricing, this has an opportunity to like really, really majorly impact the console market. I mean, pretty soon you'll be you'll you know, we'll have the ability to have if you have a PS5, a Switch, and then this Steam Machine right there on your TV, you'll have access to pretty much any uh any game that you want to play. So um Valve uh coder has confirmed that the Steam Machine will be priced like a PC, but it will be at a good deal. Um, so this is a um an article for PC Gamer. The Steam Machine might remind you of a console, it's a cute little box instead of a monolith of noisy fans. It's well suited to play on a TV, and if you don't have to and you don't have to build the damn thing yourself, it's a lot like the Steam Deck, but it might qu uh cost quite a bit more than Valve Celebrated handheld, uh, which is what Valve coder Pierre uh Lupe Griffet confirmed uh on a podcast appearance. He said, quote, if you build a PC from parts and get to basically the same level performance, uh that's the general price window that we aim to be at. Ideally, we'd be pretty competitive with that and have a pretty good deal, but we're working on refining that as we speak. Right now is not is just a hard time to have a really good idea of what the price is going to be. When asked if the Steam Machine would be subsidized like a console, which tend to go for around$450 to$600 these days, he said that he said no. That isn't to say that the device will necessarily be priced like a pre-built. Um, as he continued on the podcast, obviously our goal is for it to be a good deal at that level of performance. And then you have features that are actually really hard to build if you're making your own PC from parts. So um again, this is really going to depend on on pricing. I am pretty much committed to like budgeting this thing in somehow in 2026 because I I would love to. One of the things that we talk about here on this podcast, Eric, is some of those story-driven games that I've bought on Steam. I don't want to sit here at my desk and my computer chair to play them. I'd much rather play them, you know, in the comfort of my my room, my game room, wherever, my living room, wherever that may be, um, and get through those longer narrative-driven games. So, Andrew, I want to throw it to you first as our uh resident gaming expert. So, what did you think about this announcement? Do you think it will be affordable? And is this something you would you consider getting, or are you just gonna, you know, go with a PC?

SPEAKER_03: 11:28

Yeah, well, I have a PC. But similar to what you were talking about, like having the option to sit in your living room or on your couch or whatever is definitely uh tempting. I think I'm curious to see what the price is because they say it's gonna be more in line with like a PC, and there's all the issues going on right now with like AI data farms and stuff buying up all of the RAM and components and stuff out there that's causing prices to kind of skyrocket. But I think that this is just a really smart move as far as making Steam accessible to the casual gamer because PC gaming still kind of has that you know that it's like a stigma. Yeah, like a stigma around it of well that's you know, that's too much for me. I'd rather just buy a console and plug it in and play it. And this allows you to get that experience, but with Steam. You mentioned all you need is a PS5, this, and a Switch. You don't even need a PS5 if you're patient. Most of those games are coming to Steam now, too. So it really is just this and a Switch if you care about Nintendo games. The other interesting like side of this, and it kind of started with the Steam Deck, but it's Valve is kind of pushing their operating system a little bit. Like that's kind of a subtle thing that's happening because they're using their own like Linux operating system that to run on these different devices that they're putting out, and it it kind of feels like they're trying to test the water a little bit to see if maybe they can compete in that arena as well and put something out there to compete with Microsoft and and Apple as well. So it is really interesting. It's Steam can kind of do, or I guess Valve can kind of do whatever they want because they have just it feels like infinite resources and infinite money. So is this a weird time for them to finally dip their toes into this more, I guess, like casual market? Maybe the test was the Steam Deck. They're like, hey, we'll put out the handheld first, see how that does, and then if that does well, which I think it has done well, then we'll broaden that and start selling more, you know, plug-and-play kind of devices. Me personally, I'm excited. I think I will get one definitely at some point. I just don't don't know if it'll be like right at launch. If it's priced competitively, I feel like this thing is gonna be impossible to get at launch. It's gonna be like going back to when the PS5 and the Xbox Series X came out and we were looking for bundles and trying to buy them from Kohl's and you know, crazy things like that.

SPEAKER_07: 14:03

And I think you didn't have to call me out with the Kohl's thing yet. That feels that felt target.

SPEAKER_03: 14:08

You got some Kohl's cash, right? I sure did. But yeah, I am it is kind of down to price for me because you know, I still haven't bought a Switch 2, and that's another thing that I probably will get at some point. But it's like these consoles and and devices are they keep creeping up, and my salary is not creeping up with them, so I kind of have to be a little bit more choosy these days.

SPEAKER_07: 14:32

Yeah, one of these markets is not adjusting, and that is our salaries. So that is a really, really good point. And you bring up a good point too, as well, because like you I think I can speak for Eric on this too. Before we got gaming PCs, the whole concept of like playing some of these games and like what is Steam, it it is a little bit intimidating until you see how amazing this interface is, and I think that's a huge thing that obviously the Steam Machine would bring to the market as well.

SPEAKER_03: 14:56

Um not to mention the sales and stuff that are all happening through Steam. It's like you can build up a backlog in basically like one week on Steam.

SPEAKER_07: 15:06

Yeah. How beneficial would it have been for you, Eric, back in 20 whatever to have bought Watch Dogs One, played it for an hour and a half, known that you didn't enjoy it and be able to return it? You know what I mean? Like it's just something that's like, man, I wish that was available on PlayStation. You know how you have to like go through a gauntlet to get a refund from PlayStation. You come out like bloody and bruised after talking to customer service to try and get any kind of refund from PlayStation, and even then it's like not gonna happen. So um, yeah. Sid, what do you think about this? Uh, have you been keeping up with any of the news? I know and again, all of us have gaming PCs. Is this something you think, again, if it was priced competitively, that you would attach to a TV to use for more casual stuff or even play some of your other library on like, you know, a bigger screen?

SPEAKER_01: 15:50

Uh I had I had heard about it, um, but I didn't like really delve too deeply into it. But also nothing makes me more happy than commenting on something that I know absolutely nothing about. So um, yeah, I knew that this was coming out and I kind of like was like, whatever, but when I'm actually met with the information that you you've said and you and Andrew have talked about here, um I'm like honestly, I kind of am a little bit excited for it because I don't know. Um, like the switch and stuff doesn't really, I don't really care about the switch very much. But when it comes to like this, I it's like a happy medium. It's like a nice happy medium between like a console and a PC. And yes, I have had a PC for a while now. I've actually been like PC exclusive gamer for like at least 10 years minimum. Um and the last console I believe I bought was a secondhand Xbox 360, maybe. I don't know. Um, so yeah, I I don't know. I think maybe this would out of all the consoles that I could get or console-like things I could get, this one I would be more likely to buy than than any of the other ones. Um for a long time now, I've been kind of feeling like I think actually a lot of people that would have talked to me about this um in the past couple of years would know. But for a long time I've been very anti-call console. I think it's just ridiculous. And I think one of the only things that's really keeping consoles alive at this point is their exclusivity of games. Um, but I do think it's extremely ridiculous because a lot of them, as you said, do end up on Steam at some point. So I don't know. I feel like consoles are unfortunately a failing market, even though it is very easy to just kind of plug in and play in comparison to like the PC where it's harder to navigate. But Steam, for better or for worse, is kind of, you know, becoming the go-to place to uh not only get games cheaply, but like get a lot in bundles and things too. And I think I don't know, it's a it's a good move overall for them. I don't exactly know where I'm going with this, but I do think that it's a good thing and I like it. And maybe it'll make more people like kind of interested in like more PC aspects instead of just like consoles for the sake of having consoles, because yeah, I don't know. I I think PC PCs are sorry, not PCs, I think consoles suck. So I've been wanting them to go away for a while. I'm tired of the whole uh PC or console uh argument because I'm I'm very clearly on one side.

SPEAKER_07: 18:12

Yeah, I mean Nintendo's that last pillar to fall, and it it won't because they make too much money. That one you know kills me.

SPEAKER_01: 18:18

That one kills me.

SPEAKER_07: 18:20

Yeah, you know, we get we're we're get we're about to get Halo on the PlayStation 5, and like you said, Andrew, all the PlayStation exclusives come to Steam eventually, so like you just have to wait it out. You know, Xbox is really the one who's just Dylan's not here, so we can no one's here to defend them. So um, yeah, so that's uh Nintendo is the one that's just gonna stick around and continue releasing the you know, whatever it is, Switch 5 in a few years. So uh yeah, Eric, what do you think about this? You just have a you have a Steam Deck and you know you're loving that thing, and uh, you know, this is the next evolution, you have to pair it with this, and also get uh, you know, some sort of VR headset as well. So you need to be fully integrated into Steam pretty soon.

SPEAKER_05: 19:00

I don't want to get the VR headset, but listen, there I don't even really want to get the Steam console because I just got my Steam Deck. I'm usually on my PC, but like I can't lie and say it wouldn't be appealing. I'm staring at a PlayStation 5 that's basically just covered in dust because I just don't touch this thing anymore. So like I don't need another console that I'm not gonna play. But I do love playing my games on Steam, getting access to it. You know, there's also Steam, uh, you know, the family sharing as well. I don't know how that's gonna play onto console. Obviously, like if I want to play on my PC while someone else is playing on console, while I'm playing on my Steam Deck, there's some, you know, logistics you gotta kind of work through there. But I do think there's a lot of appeal of being able to have it wherever you're more you're most comfortable. And Phil, that's something we've talked about in our streaming journey a lot, about how I'll sit here for a few a few hours and play a game where you'd rather sit on the couch in the living room or in your bedroom and play it. And I think uh, you know, it gives just another option for gamers to game the way they want to. I definitely do agree with Sid though on the console thing, because if you look at everything that's been happening though, like Steam's coming in at a really nice time where they might be able to just put the final nail in the coffin and just take over. Because I mean, Xbox has not looked very interested in keeping their console alive ever since, really, which is crazy. Ever since the 360 days, because once they move to the next version and that didn't do well, we move to another generation. It's okay, nobody ever talks about the Xbox like that. It's only been PlayStation because of the exclusives, and they're not having those anymore. I think you guys nailed it right on the head, and I think uh maybe what next decade from now, like we're not gonna be talking about consoles the same way we are now. I wonder what that looks like. I think we're starting to get more glimpses into what that could be.

SPEAKER_03: 20:56

Yeah, it's gonna look like Steam with their plug and play PC, Microsoft with their plug and play PC, because Microsoft is 100% moving out of the console game. If if Xbox wasn't such a recognizable brand at this point, they would just start calling it Microsoft Gaming because they're trying to pack it in with your TVs, with everything else. Like they don't, they're not interested in the in the console thing anymore. They want you to subscribe to Game Pass. But something you guys were talking about with the Steam stuff, it's like similar to what Apple, their whole idea is like getting you into that ecosystem. And then once you're in, it's like, oh well, I I have my library and my handheld device, I have it on my VR headset, I have it on my comfy console on the couch. And I think that's really smart, especially since the the bones that like the Steam infrastructure is already so solid. Like they established that over so many years. Now just allowing you to access that through whatever option you want. Yeah, I it it will be really we're in a very like major transition period in the gaming industry right now. It's it's definitely going through some growing pains.

SPEAKER_05: 22:10

Yeah, and that's really smart too, because like getting them into the ecosystem is so important versus the IP, like Nintendo does such a good job of getting you back because of the IP, but PlayStation and Xbox are not replicating that, and Microsoft's buying all of the IP, and it's not happening, so like they're definitely making it clear like they're trying to own the IP, but elsewhere, you know, and I don't know where that leaves PlayStation. Uh, you know, in a decade, it's gonna be interesting. They do seem like the ones that are getting left behind right now, if I'm being completely honest, and that's crazy because like the PlayStation 5 controller is still like one of my favorite controllers, right, Phil? Like, we talk about that pretty actively, and they just did not maximize this new gen console that they kept raving about in a time where people all they wanted was a new gen console because of the pandemic. Crazy, crazy missed opportunity looking back.

SPEAKER_07: 23:02

Yeah, and they're already supposedly in very early development of the PlayStation 6, and you know, so we're halfway through this generation, like we're the current generation. Everyone keeps calling it next gen, but it's current.

unknown: 23:13

Like we're gonna do it.

SPEAKER_03: 23:13

Well, and they released the console that nobody cares about. Like you remember when the PlayStation 4 Pro and the Xbox like One X or whatever it was? One X, yeah. When those came out, it was like, oh, this is an actual substantial step up. Like you could see the benefits. Yeah, and I bought a 1x when Red Dead came out because I wanted that extra like power for that game. But now, like, you have to just have too much money to buy the PS5 Pro. Like that the games aren't even utilizing the power of the PS5. Yeah, they're still releasing on PS4 up until like last year, right?

SPEAKER_07: 23:50

Exactly. Yeah, and that thing, the PS5 Pro, is you're not getting bang for your buck.

SPEAKER_05: 23:55

So at that point, like, yeah, who even disgusted that we talked about consoles this much.

SPEAKER_01: 24:02

You know, I'm just actually baffled about how little I know about anything that's been going on in the console world, and that's extremely like, I don't know, horri, yeah, I guess horrific to hear about. I've just been sitting here on my PC, just not paying attention to anything to do with all of that.

SPEAKER_07: 24:17

Just playing games. Yeah, you can walk into any target right now and get a Switch too. And that that was not the case with the Switch five years ago, you know.

SPEAKER_01: 24:25

So I'm even shocked to hear that. Yeah, I thought that those were already sold out. I didn't even know because I just stopped listening.

SPEAKER_05: 24:31

But I mean, say that's a great example of someone who's like been in the the the ecosystem that that uh Andrew was talking about that has just been like, oh, everything's great over here, we're doing just fine over here, and like me and Phil have been in that for a year, and we like we see it now. Like, oh, that's really a thing. So I do think it will help uh getting back to you know the just the topic at hand as we're wrapping up. The the console version of it, I think, will help get people into that environment, help get rid of that stigma uh that Andrew was talking about, and that's definitely again just an interesting place to be uh so soon, you know, and especially when we got you know, games, gaming is still like in its best form right now, it feels like, especially indie gaming. Indie gaming is killing it right now. All your friends slot games, all your different type of uh award-winning type of games that are coming out, you know, Silksong was the biggest thing, Claire Obscure, huge, Hades 2, and then you got the smaller fish on the other side of things, games that people are finding and enjoying. There's just so much on that end of things that I just think again, it's just really great timing, Phil.

SPEAKER_07: 25:38

Yeah, 100%. And I'm more likely to take a flyer on an indie game that's$20 on Steam and keep it as opposed to playing it on PlayStation, knowing that I'm gonna have it forever. Uh, you know, so that's just something that's more beneficial all around. So yeah, I think um again, pricing is gonna be very important, but um, you know, we will see what happens. Uh, but in in the meantime, Eric, we'll go back to a classic here.

SPEAKER_05: 26:02

Okay, thank God. All right, guys. So we've got horses now. It works the same exact way. And uh, Phil, what did we say for the horses? Do you remember?

SPEAKER_07: 26:12

Pretty sure we just said race those horses.

SPEAKER_05: 26:14

Race those horses seems pretty easy. Yeah, a lot less controversial.

SPEAKER_07: 26:18

Those engines isn't a thing, they're horses, so horsepower.

SPEAKER_05: 26:22

If you can get some car ones, I will do the Kevin James start your engines. God bless the groups!

SPEAKER_06: 26:29

God bless the Mair America and gentlemen, start your actually my story on this.

SPEAKER_07: 26:36

Have you seen there is like this crazy viral marketing going on right now with Kevin James, who is pretending to be an elementary school teacher? Like, like art teacher, yeah. And everyone's like, this is fucking Kevin James. What's happening in these videos? It's definitely for a movie. It's 100% for a movie, and I'm gonna see it. So uh I appreciate the marketing.

SPEAKER_05: 26:55

So it's it's smart. All right, guys. Uh, we're gonna count down. I'm gonna count down three, two, one, and then we're gonna say race those horses. Uh, if you're ready, come off mute. I'm gonna count down.

SPEAKER_06: 27:06

Three, two, one, race, horses.

SPEAKER_07: 27:14

All right, Andrew is off to the front to an early lead with Eric trailing a little bit behind. Sid is falling behind once again in another race. Andrew and Eric are gonna find.

SPEAKER_06: 27:21

Oh, Sad is gonna make a move. No, and it's oh, it's gonna be Eric at the very last moment.

SPEAKER_07: 27:26

Oh, look at the jerking off right now. Why is your character jerking? Why is he why is he doing that?

SPEAKER_05: 27:32

Sid, did we take your first story? So you're good. You're okay.

SPEAKER_01: 27:35

No, no, I'm fine, I'm fine.

SPEAKER_05: 27:37

Okay, good.

SPEAKER_07: 27:37

All right, Eric, what you got? What did we miss in November 2025?

SPEAKER_05: 27:41

Yeah, so there was a story that came out today that I'm gonna I'll probably put to Didn't Make the Cut because the the one I shared in our Discord, uh, which we'll get a lot of our stories and didn't make the cut from uh in our pop culture news channel. I shared a few weeks ago about the state of Funko and the story around that. I think it'll be interesting knowing that everyone here is familiar with what a Funko is, and some of us own Funko's, maybe all of us, and some of us see Funko's every time we go to conventions and we're very much in the know, right? So this is a popular toy company. Everybody at least is aware of it, but what you might not know is that they are reportedly experiencing financial struggles with a recent report suggesting that the company may not be able to survive the next calendar year, which is pretty crazy. Now, this story comes from Game Rant, but you can find several different articles talking about this particular story, and there's obviously no end to Funko Pops right now, right? Kpop Demon Hunters was huge, we got some K-pop Demon Hunter Funkos. Whenever there's a big franchise or a new season, you'll typically see a new line. But I think it's really interesting that the fact that after a new report was filed with the SEC, now we're starting to question its future. I just wonder what it's gonna look like over the next year, and then after, if this was to happen, because Funko has been like king of the castle for the longest time, or at least on the outside looking in, and apparently Funko's sales have tanked by 20% year over year, uh, recording a loss of one million dollars in the third quarter of 2025. So again, it's not going well, they're going in the wrong direction. What caused this? What might it look like when it goes down, and even after the fact, what does that look like in this particular area of pop culture? Uh Phil, I'm gonna throw it to you first. Uh, as a maybe are you are you a resident Funko hater now? I feel like that's both of us now, right?

SPEAKER_07: 29:49

Trying to hide my Funko's in the camera in the camera. So here's the thing like, I uh for for me, as someone who never bought Funko's to resell them, like I this is just like The inevitable thing. Like Funko is the the new generation, like beanie baby. A lot of people hoarded them eventually, thinking they were gonna be worth a lot of money. And I like getting them because I like that they're easy things to get signed. Um, and the the unfortunate thing about that is you know, so many scalpers try to get them autographed and then resell them. So this doesn't surprise me at all. And so so many of them, like, what is the one that what do I have back here? It is a oh, the U-2s. Remember, I told like the U-2s, I think are a lot more detailed, and but they're just priced more, which they should be. They're way they're way better than Funko's, but because Funko had such a foothold on this collectible market, like they weren't really able to kind of like wedge their way into a specific uh you know type of fan, so they're kind of like we're seeing those less and less. But this does not surprise me. I'll be honest, like one of the one of the main indicators that this was happening a couple of years ago, that they were just going too far, um, is that like class 1B got Funko pops. No disrespect to class 1B in my hero academia, maybe a little disrespect. They did not, most of them did not deserve a Funko.

SPEAKER_05: 31:06

And that's and that's exactly when I stopped. Like, if you guys see my wall here, yeah, I have Funko's back there. I was collecting my hero pops like it was nobody's fucking business. I got rid of a lot of them, and these are the ones I kept because I just said I'm not doing it anymore.

SPEAKER_07: 31:21

I just gave three bins of Funko's away to our friends at Mayhem Trading um to give away to kids because there's so many of them I were just sitting around. I was never going to be able to display them, and I just gave them away. And there were some startling purchases uh in that in those bins. I was like, why the fuck did I buy this? So I buy a Funko now. Like it started off where I just wanted to buy the ones that I wanted, then it turned into the ones that I wanted ones that nobody else has, which I still do every once in a while, and and I'll if I find one I like, I'll get it. But now I I almost exclusively buy them just because I know I can get them signed by like people we work with or anything like that. But yeah, I am past the point where like I I want to uh get them. I mean, they were always pretty low effort when it came to the details, um, aside from some of them. So like this doesn't surprise me. And then there's that meme that went around like, why the fuck did Patty Jenkins, the director, get a Funko pop? And those have been in like the Walmart um by my house for years, and no one has ever bought them. So they they just made them too easy to get and they uh over they flooded the market, and this is what they get. So well, I'm excited to see what the next Funko thing is. That like I guess it was kind of like Laboo Boo, but that's also kind of like falling off now, too. So I think it's just blind boxes. I think blind boxes are now just the new Funko. So that's where we're heading.

SPEAKER_05: 32:40

Yeah, yeah, and I mean, like when it comes down to like the chase, that was always part of it when I initially started like collecting them, and I didn't care about them being in the box. We took we found that was so rewarding finding the Mika saw that I'm looking at over over to my side is uh one that I I display because like when we finally found it, like it wasn't an amazing Funko, it was the fact that it was harder to find my L with cake, L from Death Note and his little cake, and he's like bending down.

SPEAKER_07: 33:05

Listen, guys, for years, Eric would come out to Dallas to visit me, and he'd be like, Do you have L with cake? Do you have L with cake? And each vendor was like, No, I either I just sold it or I haven't been able to find it, and yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 33:16

And then when I got it, I was so happy. Uh, but that that died down over the over the years, and then again, we started seeing them miss out on huge opportunities where like people would want certain Funkos and they wouldn't come out till like a year later, or like they would just be way too late. And then there would be Funkos that nobody asked for, like you mentioned, Phil. So Sid, uh, it's it looked like you might be happy for their downfall. I feel like at this point everybody kinda is, we're kind of over it. There's always gonna be collectibles, but how did you feel about Funkos from your point of view?

SPEAKER_01: 33:47

Um, okay, I'm okay. I I was pretty excited when we first started the topic, but I guess all in all, I'm pretty impartial, uh, to be fair, like in my entirety of going to conventions and stuff. I've been not very interested in figures of any sort for the most part until more recently. And when I started becoming interested enough in any kind of figures, I will tell you the Funko ones were not the ones that I would ever have been uh interested in purchasing. Actually, I have one and it was from a very good friend as a gift, and that's the only reason I kept it. Um, but yeah, I guess I'm relatively impartial, but I'm also kind of glad to see them go because I hate going to like shop around at the, you know, um at the convention and just seeing walls and walls and walls of Funko Pops, and a lot of vendors don't even often bring other stuff, and I think that it's like I don't know, kind of just the majority of what you see, and and not only have you already mentioned it and all, like, but it's so watered down, it's just like I get so exhausted of seeing them, and yeah, the the details were so just plain. I've saw I've seen people like remake them and make them look way better, and I'm just like, I would buy that, but as they come, no. And while I said I'm pretty impartial, and I still am for the most part, I I can't say I'm sad to see them go. Tired of looking at them, tired of actually people haven't talked about them for a while, really. I was gonna say tired of hearing people talk about them. But back in the day when they were more popular, I was so over them.

SPEAKER_05: 35:18

And that's a good point. The fact that you see more of them than you hear about them. Like they're all over the place still because people are trying to do those resells. And like when you look at those huge, uh the huge shelving, uh, again, as somebody who doesn't go in there, uh said, you might not know this, but when I walk in there these days, it's been less and less. But when I do it, I like try to stick to a wall or like a theme, like, okay, anime. Because if I don't walk, if I walk away from this anime section, I'm gonna be in like every span of pop culture and the most random pops. I'll see a parks and rec pop next to a Marvel pop, next to a nightmare before Christmas pop, next to a Moana pop, next to this one, this one, this one, it just keeps going. And it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_07: 35:59

Next to Patty Jenkins.

SPEAKER_05: 36:01

Next to Patty Jenkins. Uh, it's it just doesn't, it's endless, and it's not fun to walk through anymore. Um, it's honestly chaotic. Uh so Andrew, what is your familiarity with Funkos? What's your relationship with it? What are your thoughts about it? Uh, you know, I'm gonna give you a Black Adam Funko. Fill us in.

SPEAKER_07: 36:20

I'm gonna get each one of us, the four of us. What Funko Pop do we have? Black Adam Rose. That's what we're gonna call ourselves. Hold on, let me go change the name of the game.

SPEAKER_05: 36:27

Don't like that. Don't like that.

SPEAKER_03: 36:29

Relationship is a strong word. Yeah. Uh I've never really liked Funkos. I think it was probably pretty obvious that they were uh headed down the wrong path when they like teamed up with GameStop, another failing business. And uh I think the reason that they're not selling anymore is that all the collectors ran out of wall space, and so they're they're just like, well, we can't fit any more of these things. But also, yeah, it it reminds me of Telltale Games a little bit and how they were just like basically making trying to make a game out of any IP that would come their way, and they just spread themselves too thin and ultimately had to shut down like the amount of Funko's that are just these like they made them for the one fan that would buy it. It's like, how is that a really smart business strategy? And it's I think it happens to a lot of businesses that hit that kind of like viral success where they like really spike and then they just kind of overreach because it all happens so quickly, and then when things settle down, they're like, oh, we we overreached here, and now we we're in trouble. And so yeah, for me, I have no emotional or any sort of attachment to Funko. If they die, it's not gonna I'm it's not gonna affect how I sleep at night or anything.

SPEAKER_07: 37:49

Um they're they're just like you mentioned Andrew like in a deep sleep, like Patty Jenkins, like a Patty Jenkins Funko. He has like a nightmare where Patty Jenkins' wall of Funko pops just falls falls on it.

SPEAKER_03: 38:04

I think of uh my sister got one that was uh Dean Winchester from Supernatural, and he's got like this knife in his hand, and he ended up like my kids ended up with that Funko somehow. And it's just like this little Dean Winchester with like his knife in his hand, and I'm like, who what who is this for? I mean, who's still buying who still wants supernatural fun? I mean, I'm sure there's people out there, but yeah, it just for me, like I have no personal attachment to this. I think it's interesting kind of watching the story and listening to you guys talk about it, kind of being more on the inside and seeing kind of the rise and fall of the the demand. But for me, I never never got into this craze, and at this point I'm probably glad that I that I didn't.

SPEAKER_05: 38:53

Yeah, I mean it's the right the right move.

SPEAKER_07: 38:56

Well, guys, we are in luck. I just created a new group chat in Discord. Funko Fusion is now on sale on Steam for seven dollars. Should we stream it?

SPEAKER_03: 39:06

Yes. Now, if it's a video game, yeah, sure. But only if we play on console. Yeah, sorry, Sid.

SPEAKER_07: 39:15

I don't know if it's on 360. We'll check.

unknown: 39:17

We'll check.

SPEAKER_05: 39:19

But but even though so the Funko Fusion game was like not well received, and like they put a lot of they put a lot of stuff on that, uh like into that. Uh I don't know, that probably didn't help. Uh, but yeah, Funko's that was my story. Is uh they're they're they're dead, they're dying, they're uh finito soon.

SPEAKER_07: 39:39

And I think if Funko had come out with a game like maybe 10-15 years ago, it may have worked. So, you know, it is what it is now.

SPEAKER_01: 39:49

So um, yeah, not uh I have a friend that used to collect a lot of Funkos, and he ended up selling them and was able to purchase his house.

SPEAKER_07: 39:58

So Jesus, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_01: 40:01

It wasn't just from the Funko Pops, but it helped a lot, I heard I hear.

SPEAKER_05: 40:04

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh the prices on them like can get crazy, you know, from like from a collectible standpoint. Funko definitely made its mark, but uh no, it just wasn't enough. But yeah, now we are back to the tradition as it should be. Man, I can't keep up with all these different I I listen. I don't I don't control things here. This is this is Phil's baby. We just we let him do whatever he wants so he's happy, and then we we just show him along.

SPEAKER_06: 40:34

You let me be myself.

SPEAKER_05: 40:35

You guys know the drill. Uh 3, 2, 1, spin that wheel. Uh Andrew has been very enthusiastic about all of them up until now. We will see how this goes. Let's count down three, two, one.

SPEAKER_07: 40:50

Spin. Your voice gets so deep. Why did three, two, one? It just gets deep in a world. Jesus Christ. All right, Andrew.

SPEAKER_03: 41:04

Wow. Sid called it. This feels a little sexist, I'm not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_01: 41:09

It happened this way last time. It's okay.

SPEAKER_03: 41:11

Alright.

SPEAKER_01: 41:12

Oh, is that it did it?

SPEAKER_03: 41:13

Did it?

SPEAKER_05: 41:14

No. So maybe we are doing it on purpose for first.

SPEAKER_07: 41:16

Wait for the first time. I just want to save your wrestling story for last. So all right, Andrew. Uh, what she got? What did we miss in November 2025?

SPEAKER_03: 41:23

All right, well, my number one story, Phil took. So we're uh dipping into the backups here. I think keeping with my kind of gaming perspective on things, uh, Call of Duty might finally be getting what they deserve. Talking about consoles failing, Call of Duty is starting to see some failure as well. So the I have a couple uh like articles that I looked up prepping for this, other than just kind of hearing you know things being talked about. But apparently in Europe, the game has sold 63% fewer copies at launch compared to Battlefield 6, and also 60% down compared to Black Ops 6 from last year. Uh and then there's been a lot of talk about the uh player numbers on Steam. Like I don't remember exactly what the highest concurrent players that it's hit have been, but it was significantly lower than expected, and then when the kind of the comparison the comparisons, the benchmarks for this have been Battlefield 6 being its like kind of biggest competitor this year, and then Black Ops 6 being its most recent entry, and it's it's been lower than both of those um pretty significantly. People it feels like people are fine, like the general gamers, the ones that people always say, Well, they're gonna buy Madden, they're gonna buy Call of Duty, they're gonna buy GTA, it doesn't matter. It feels like they're finally sick of it as well. Like this has been the most phoned in Call of Duty. I think they're comparing it to Modern Warfare 3, the not remake, but like modern re-imagining of Modern Warfare 3 that came out a few years ago where the campaign was essentially just like a remixed war zone map. They're saying that this campaign is like worse than that. And so as someone who has dipped into Call of Duty like very casually over the last couple of years, but hasn't played one legitimately since man, I don't know, maybe Black Ops 3 or somewhere back in those days. I hope that this will like there's two potential like positive outcomes that I see. One is that we see other games kind of get to live in this market again, like Battlefield coming in and having a successful game. Uh, we've been seeing Arc Raiders doing really well recently. It's not one-to-one with this game, but I feel like a lot of the player base is probably playing that instead of this. And I also hope that it will maybe let the like force the publisher and and Xbox, because they own it now, Microsoft, to look at this franchise and maybe kind of take a step back and do something with it instead of just regurgitating the same crap every year. That might just be wishful thinking. But this seeing it fail a little bit is a good sign because it's kind of like for every year up until this point, it's been like, well, you know, it's more Call of Duty, but everybody's gonna buy it. It's gonna be like the number one selling game of the year, and that's been true. But Black Ops 7 is not looking to follow that trajectory, at least, not currently.

SPEAKER_07: 44:51

Yeah, if there's one thing I love to do, it's watching the downfall of a franchise on YouTube. So I've definitely been keeping up with Black Ops 7 and just how much of a disaster it has been. I don't know if you guys know this, Andrew. You probably know. You got you can't pause the campaign. Uh, it is a totally online campaign. So if you go like walk away and just put it down because you have to pee or go get some water and you're gone for too long, it will kick you and you have to start the level open over. So there's no checkpoint. Um, it will just boot you from the campaign, you have to start it over.

SPEAKER_03: 45:27

But it's only like two and a half hours long, right? So you should be able to do it in one sitting.

SPEAKER_07: 45:32

Right. Also, that should be a sign if you have chosen to play the Black Ops 7 campaign. That's like your punishment anyway. So, like, why are you doing that and making those decisions? So, yeah, uh, Eric, I'll throw this one to you first because you know, we were pretty heavy in the Call of Duty ecosystem for a good while. We got our, you know, our fix, what was it, Mono Warfare, whatever the fuck we played a couple of years ago, and now we don't even touch it. And like Andrew said, we'll jump into uh a battlefield, battle royale every once in a while to do that. But if we want to do something that's like a competitive multiplayer, you know, I I would rather play uh an arc raiders. I'd rather just play Marvel Rivals once every couple of months, as opposed to jumping into this where they're just regurgitating the same crap over and over.

SPEAKER_05: 46:18

Yeah, I mean, I I think at some point I got sick of you asking me to download it to play it for a few hours, we would never touch it.

SPEAKER_07: 46:25

Also, I back up for game pass. Hold on, I have to delete everything on my PC.

SPEAKER_05: 46:29

Used to be the best deal in gaming, used to be the best deal in gaming, but what I will tell you is the appeal of it still is that I could, if I wanted to, if if Phil convinced me to do it, I could go download it on Game Pass, I could play it for a little bit, and there's not like that financial repercussion of like, oh, I gotta keep playing, I gotta keep doing it. I think we talked about this a little bit on the Fortnite episode, Phil, of the the series finale of the game room, which was a lot of reasons I stopped playing those type of games was because how many times do I have to, you know, complete a battle pass or complete challenges or prestige, multi-prestige in these type of games? Like, there's a certain point where like it's just not fun anymore. And we talked about the criminality of having a battle pass within a paid game. I think that is an actual criminal offense. So I again, when it comes down to Call of Duty, like I want it to be done in the way that we just said Funko's gonna be done. Like, it's time, it's time to take it out, take it out back, double bump, get rid of it, right? We talked about that. Let's just get out, get out of the way, old yeller style, and uh be done with it.

SPEAKER_03: 47:40

Bring back Titanfall. Oh god, please.

SPEAKER_05: 47:44

If I have to see one more report of we were maybe gonna get Titanfall 3, I'm gonna fucking puke.

SPEAKER_07: 47:50

They discussed Titanfall 3 and they ultimately decided not to do it. Here's Black Ops 7. Yeah, no, it's uh it's a disaster. Sid, um, you know, what's your experience with this series? Did you ever jump into like any of the previous Call of Duty's? Um, have you kept up with any of their any of their downfall? And uh, you know, do you have any interest in downloading Black Ops 7 and streaming it exclusively through Game Pass? Are we gonna download it right now?

SPEAKER_01: 48:16

I have never been a Black Ops enjoyer. I'm not really that big into FPSs in general, but um I have had some friends inform me of this, and I do think it has been hilarious to watch. Um, I've definitely been enjoying the clips I've been seeing from streamers of people playing it and just being like, what the f is this? Like, um, I yeah, I don't know. I don't have anything much to say on this, but I'm also not terribly upset about it. Um, but yeah, I mean I think you guys pretty much covered everything that I would have said. But oh, there was one kind of interesting tie-in though, I guess, that I wanted to kind of like throw out there. Do we also think that the sales on this game have gone down because of the market in general with gaming? Because I know this is something we've talked about in the past, but like games have increased a lot in price. And I think at this point we have to be pretty choosy, especially like for these console games. Um, not that it's only on console, but I think we need to be a little bit more choosy with how we're spending our money these days on on what games we want to buy, and especially if you're getting a game that has like a two and a half hour campaign that you had you get kicked from if you have to go like get some water. That's that's wild to me. Like, I wouldn't want to pay$70 for that. But then we have so many other games, like Andrew mentioned, that have been like doing really well lately. Um, Battlefield and Arc Raiders and stuff, and it's like, why would people rather like play a$70 game that has a two and a half hour campaign instead of get one or two games for that whole game price? I don't know. I wonder if that has anything to do with this, in addition to the fact that I mean, I I've seen some things about the game and it looked absolutely horrendous story-wise, so I can understand why that's not so great.

SPEAKER_07: 50:01

Yeah, and Arc Raiders is what$40?$40. So you buy Arc Raiders.

SPEAKER_03: 50:08

Fortnite's free.

SPEAKER_05: 50:08

Helldivers 2 last year was$40.

SPEAKER_03: 50:10

Helldivers, it's not on Game Pass, is it? It came to X Men Game Pass. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_07: 50:16

Uh battle the Battlefield Battle Royale is free if you just want to play that. And then if people want a grounded military shooter, they're and they're spent gonna spend$70, they're just gonna buy Battlefield. So, like, why would anybody rush to I'm I'm convinced like Call of Duty is in that Madden 2K tier now where like it is the content creators keeping this shit alive, like um pushing the battle passes, pushing the you know, the the blind boxes and all this shit, and like that's what's happening um with with Call of Duty.

SPEAKER_05: 50:47

Well, and and here's the catch, right? Kind of to bring this full circle, like that was their bread and butter, but there are a lot of content creators not playing it right now. Yeah, they are not they're they're I mean, boycotting is a strong word, but they've gone from like less and less time from release playing the game, and now I think this year is the first year where some of them are just like opting not to play it at all, or this is the shortest amount of time they've played it from launch, and now they're playing something like an arc raiders again. Arc Raiders right now has turned into some big competition, it's the buzz game right now for those content creators, and they're finding an audience there. So, I mean, that's ultimately what's gonna drive the conversation forward. Maybe it's a wake-up call, but I I do hope it's the start of a downfall because I I think we need to have something new at some point or another. And and again, it's like with anything in general, once you start getting towards the oh, we're about to hit double digits soon. I think it's time for something fresh and new if you're not actually nailing it, knocking out of the park every time. And they haven't done it for some time.

SPEAKER_03: 51:54

Yeah, it's it's been a perfect storm of you know, people having to make financial decisions, the game just not being good, and the actual gameplay being buried under yeah, either a game pass subscription or uh full price$70, and then you have multiple battle passes and ads popping up all the time, and you have to navigate through the Call of Duty like launcher and menus to actually find the game like that. Oh, that fucking launcher dude. It's literally, yeah, it's it's just a perfect storm for them with them putting out a garbage product that people are starting to get exhausted by and having to financially make decisions on like where they want to spend their money while also being offered better, more enjoyable, funner, more rewarding experiences for free or cheaper. And it's all kind of just culminating in hopefully Call of Duty having to step down from its pedestal and either kind of reinvent itself to be relevant again or move out of the way for newer franchises. Something like it's gotten stale and it's gotten exhausting.

SPEAKER_07: 52:59

Can they even like even if they were to step away, like what at this point could they offer? I think we've just moved on from the military shooter, maybe. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03: 53:09

I mean, you say that, but Battlefield is doing really well.

SPEAKER_07: 53:12

It's like right, right, right.

SPEAKER_03: 53:13

So it's just yeah, I mean, I think the Call of Duty gameplay at its core has always been fun to like quick matches, arcade, time to kill. Like, you can get in, play 10 minutes, get out, you're done. Like that has always kind of been what people come to it for. I think it's all the stuff surrounding it has become become so much more of a focus trying to sell skins and trying to compete with Fortnite that like the actual game has taken a back seat and and has suffered for it. And I mean, running around as Snoop Dogg killing Godzilla or whatever in Call of Duty, it's like Nicki Minaj and Evis and Butthead. That yeah, that should never want in Fortnite, but I don't want it in the Call of Duty, and that's why people are so refreshed with Black Ops 6, or not Black Ops, Battlefield 6, where it was like Battlefield 6 came out and it was like a grounded military shooter with the class, like it went back to that series' roots and did everything that the fans wanted, and that game is doing really well. And so theoretically, Call of Duty could maybe do something like that, but I saw some sort of a headline or a blurb or tweet or something earlier that was like they're not gonna be able to course correct by the next game because you know that one's already set to launch next year, like it's probably past mid-development at this point because they're just churning these things out. And it's crazy because we used to go from Infinity Ward doing their modern warfare, and then they incorporated Sledgehammer, and they did like Advanced Warfare and and you know, none of theirs were ever like the big ones they did. Infinite Warfare and yeah, what is it, World War II or World War I they did that people liked? Um, and then you had Treyarch doing the Black Ops series, but now Call of Duty and the like excessive monetization has gotten so big that they've kind of pulled everybody just into Call of Duty. We had Black Ops six last year, and now it's Black Ops 7, and like so the whole plot and rotation and everything, even there on the development schedule has has been lost and thrown off, and so yeah, it's it's just a mess. I mean, pretty much you can look at any of the most of the games and studios that Xbox decided to to buy up and and get involved in, and they've all kind of suffered from it.

SPEAKER_07: 55:32

Yeah, so um uh again, you'd like to think that maybe they're gonna look in the mirror, but they're they they they won't. Like you said, the next one, that's such a good point. The next one is already being made right now, and they're like, well shit, what do we do?

SPEAKER_03: 55:46

Yeah, the ship's too big, like they can't turn it at this. Like, if they start to course correct now, we'll see it at like Black Ops 10, maybe.

SPEAKER_07: 55:54

You know that um that scene, Eric, in Goldmember and Alistair Powers Goldmember, where he's trying to reverse the truck out in the into the hallway. And the guy's screaming, he's like, No, no, no, the one where he's stuck, well, he's trying to make a three-point turn and he gets the the cart stuck in the hallway. That's that's like Call of Duty trying to reverse and like correct course correct. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 56:15

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_07: 56:16

Alright, well. He has no time, oh my god.

SPEAKER_05: 56:20

What's it gonna be? Alright, what is it gonna be?

SPEAKER_07: 56:22

I kinda wish I had found this a little sooner.

SPEAKER_05: 56:26

So do we have to do something for the final person? Uh yes, the answer is still yes. So we are going to do something. Uh now what that is is a great question. Uh uh because I never know. Uh it's either horses or Native Americans. Alright. Who's gonna come out? Alright. I don't uh Okay. Oh, we're gonna I'm gonna count down three, two, one.

SPEAKER_01: 56:58

Wait, what do we say?

SPEAKER_05: 56:59

And we're gonna all say Abracadab. Perfect. Sounds good. Alright. Steal that land. No, no, no, that was we missed that one.

SPEAKER_03: 57:11

We missed that opportunity.

SPEAKER_05: 57:12

You guys didn't want to do it.

SPEAKER_03: 57:14

You didn't want to do it. I want to go on record saying that I didn't want to do it.

SPEAKER_05: 57:18

Oh well, all right, guys. Let's uh let's get to Abracadabra. Ready? Three hambrands one.

SPEAKER_04: 57:28

Look at him.

SPEAKER_05: 57:29

God damn it.

SPEAKER_04: 57:32

Oh, it's God, it's me.

SPEAKER_07: 57:34

That was that one way earlier. Uh yeah, way earlier.

SPEAKER_01: 57:38

Wait, how would it have worked with more people though?

SPEAKER_07: 57:40

I just put more names.

SPEAKER_01: 57:43

Wait, no, I you wouldn't have had as beautiful of a visual if people were running across the wave.

SPEAKER_07: 57:48

That's fair. That is fair. The horses and racing Native Americans is pretty good.

SPEAKER_03: 57:55

Like had to sit there and make that website. Like they're they're programming it and they're designing the little arm that pivots, and they're like, man, they're like God.

SPEAKER_07: 58:04

He's like sitting there smoking a cigarette fuck, man. Sand, what did we miss in November 2025?

SPEAKER_01: 58:14

Alright, well, um at the top of the show, I had a I had a statement. And uh I'm gonna we're gonna I'm gonna talk briefly about that statement, um, but also go into some other things. So I think it's easy for me to say, and maybe maybe you guys would agree that in terms of animation for anime that have been coming out this year, I think we've hit new highs. Just it's been phenomenal. Maybe not across the board, but that's what we'll get into. Um, but I am just still floored with the Chainsaw Man movie and honestly the Demon Slayer movie as well, that just came out in the past month or two. Um not really good with my dates here, but yes, those I I was looking forward to them all year, and I was not only not disappointed, but just astounded by how far past my expectations they went.

SPEAKER_00: 59:08

On the other hand, One Punch Man season three has been um yes, anyway, so uh it has hit the lowest ever rating and uh it's still dropping.

SPEAKER_01: 59:26

So I and you know, this story makes me feel really bad because I think we've seen some amazing animation out of One Punch Man in its earlier seasons, um, from Madhouse, I believe, if I remember correctly. And now this this season was probably especially next to the other great animated things. We've seen like earlier, like solo leveling for one as well. And now we're getting One Punch Man season three, and there's yeah, there's a lot of things people have had to say about it, but yeah, the the I'm really mixed on. Wanting to just go in on them, but it's hard not to. Um, obviously, there have been some people that have said some stuff like that it looks like a slideshow and um other awful things, but I don't know. I guess the sad part is though that like you know, the here's a quote anyway from let's see who is this. This one's from Hashimoto, and yeah, he said, When it comes to One Punch Man, the criticism from overseas viewers who are frankly watching it through illegal means is overwhelming. I think the people on the production floor are probably feeling really hurt. None of us are trying to make something poorly. We all share the same intention, yet we get attacked over tiny details. Where are our motivation and morale supposed to go? And that makes me extremely sad to hear because I do understand at the heart of this that these people are working on it to the best of their ability in some capacity. Um, but it's just when it's stacked up against so many other amazing anime just this year, like we've seen, it's really hard to watch. And I I, you know, I guess to those who maybe haven't seen it yet or don't know anything about it, um, there's actually been clips of say there's a character kind of walking down a hill. That character is just a clip art piece that is just sliding, not moving, besides just sliding. Like they're not doing any animation like for their arms or their legs or their head. There's no breathing or anything like that. It's just sliding down the hill. And yeah, it's it's kind of rough. Um, I also saw, I think just today, where people were worried that they were using AI because there was a character that's holding something, and the character has six fingers. And it's yeah, anyway, I don't know, but I feel really conflicted kind of going in on them because that makes me really sad to hear that, like anyway. The rest of the quote is like, I will say this clearly: in the coming weeks, something we put our hearts and souls into will be broadcast. If people call it trash or a slideshow, then there is nothing we can do. But we worked to the very limit. So please think about the creators behind the visuals. We are not doing this as volunteers. This is our job. The more we are bullied, the more staff will disappear without fail.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:06

Ugh, soul crushing to hear that. I don't know. What do you guys have to say about any of this? I guess maybe.

SPEAKER_07: 1:02:20

So we'll talk about it all. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 1:02:22

So, so I have uh yeah, I've watched only a little bit of season one of One Punch Man, but what I do know is that everybody, and rightfully so, because I've seen enough clips to know that the animation was just stellar. Uh, but they had to wait a while for season two, and then there was like another six-year wait for season three, and the animation quality has gone down. Like, I again you could you there there's there's something about you know some people in the industry coming to bat for the team, and maybe some of the harshness of it, but at the end of the day, like anything that's put out there can be criticized, and it's a form of media that should be looked at. I think, and again, I've only seen like some stills and stuff. You got the six fingers. So somebody's wondering, you know, somebody would be wondering, is AI being involved, right? And unfortunately, you don't want to give people a reason to ask that question these days, especially in this early iteration. I mean, the Sora update had all these people making anime characters fight each other, and people had to crack down on that because, like, no, you can't steal IP and make Goku fight Gojo. Like, that just doesn't you can't do that, right? Animators need to have their jobs, so I don't think they need to be having people question whether AI is in use, and then there's other stuff like I heard that there was a scene that looked like it was ripped off the manga and it had someone's head partially cut off because that's the way the manga was drawn, so it was like a clear one-for-one shot and like part of their heads missing. So, you know, if you could beat the allegations, that's one thing, and I think that's what season two had kind of done over time. Season three doesn't look like it's gonna be able to survive that, and it's unfortunate for a series that a lot of people like and a lot of people enjoyed and swear by, especially for those of that have read the manga. I personally have not kept up with the show, but I have kept up with the drama, and it has been very disappointing because, like you said, Sid, this is a year of like fantastic animation. Right now, the final season of My Hero Academia is going on. Fucking Christ, where has that been? Oh, I know where for the movies that nobody asked for. That's where it went, nobody fucking asked for. They brought the movie portion of bones, the movie studio portion of bones in for the final season, and it looks fucking fantastic. So, yeah, we're getting some of the best animation ever, but yeah, when you're getting the complete opposite with a beloved series, I can understand the uh you know the outcry from fans a little bit to a point.

SPEAKER_07: 1:04:58

Yeah, like I said, I had no idea this was going on. Um, I do not keep up with One Punch Man for reasons that will remain private, uh, but we'll talk about that uh again off air. Uh, but yeah, that is crazy, especially for uh again a franchise that I know is incredibly popular. Um, but yeah, 7% tomato or popcorn meter score, 2.6 on IMDb. That is crazy. Oh my god. And I put some of those clips and those uh the um the things you guys were talking about in our new Funko Fusion uh group chat that I created over on uh on Discord. So my god. So yeah, that's nuts, man. That's unacceptable too, especially in a time where again animation is as good as it has ever been. And also, like when you see um so many people, so many AI artists, quote unquote, they're not artists, but trying to essentially like rip off people's uh work. Uh, this can't happen in an IP this big. So that is it's it's pretty unacceptable. So that is crazy that that is happening to this franchise um specifically. So uh Andrew, I don't know how much you know about the One Punch Man IP or if you have just anything to comment on in terms of just animation in general. I did put those examples there in the chat if you want to take a look at them. But um, yeah, what do you think about this as far as uh, you know, when you hear like we're we've been telling you, One Punch Man is a very popular anime and manga. So are you surprised to hear that it seems like something has gone very wrong with the animation here in season three?

SPEAKER_03: 1:06:26

Yeah, I was looking at these images that you shared, and it definitely seems like something has gone wrong. Uh I I'm aware of One Punch Man like as a character and as a franchise. I've never I know nothing beyond that. Um, I do think that it's it's interesting, kind of like what Eric was saying. You feel for the creators, the people that are actually working on this, to let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say they're doing it to the best of their abilities. Because you hear this a lot in the video game industry as well. It's like something comes out, it fails, or whatever, people get laid off, the studio closes, and it's like, oh no, all these people lost their jobs, and that's sad. But at the end of the day, it's like you're making a product that is supposed to be something for us to enjoy or or use or whatever, that's like and it needs to be quality, something that we, you know, and especially when you're working with a series like this, that obviously, like you guys have said, to start as season one was amazing and has gradually gone down and down and down. And then if you're talking about not just quality dropping from, you know, say lack of staff or manpower or resources, but then you're talking about like cut corners and it looks like you scanned in a picture from the manga and tried to get away with it, and you're, you know, potentially trying to use it, like if you're cutting corners and you're trying to pass it off, then it's I mean, you can say whatever you want about we're you know, we're working as hard as we can and putting our hearts into this and everything, but it's like at the end of the day, like we see the cheapening happening here, and and that's unfortunate, especially for like you guys have said, something so recognizable. And it's I feel like we are seeing this a lot, this kind of conversation happening just in creative entertainment spheres all around. And I think especially with the rise of AI, this is just gonna be something that's gonna like be prevalent until it all kind of settles and we reach some sort of like new normal with these new AI tools and things come constantly coming into the the conversation. But yeah, I I'm just looking at this the one picture of the dude's hair chopped off, and it's like, yeah, that's that's crazy.

SPEAKER_01: 1:08:40

I do want to say, um, I believe Madhouse was the one that did the first two seasons, and they did switch to being animated uh the third season by JC's staff. So there definitely was some kind of corner cutting, and I just don't know what it is because I'm not very well versed in anything to do with JC's staff. I don't know if they're new, I don't know if they've done anything before. Um, I could probably look that up right now while I'm talking, but I'm not going to because I would not be able to figure out what I was trying to say.

SPEAKER_03: 1:09:06

So well, and especially in this day and age, like if you're making something that's art, like whether even if it's entertainment, like whatever, if it blends into art, if it brings art into the picture at all, the community around that is so hypersensitive to AI right now that like you're you're it's basically a death sentence if you are are using it and don't at the very least have some sort of a like reasonable explanation for why or what you're using it for or whatever. Because I I know there was that um anime announced, I think it was earlier this year, that they're making a uh anime based on Sekiro, Shadows Die Twice, and the trailer looked super awesome, and not even probably like a week after that trailer came out, there were all these articles circulating about you know, AI this, AI that. And it's like you you have to be ready or you have to be prepared if you're using it in your creative process to be able to like I guess show the receipts or you know, whatever, and if if and if not, prove that you're not, because in this realm, people are so hypersensitive to it because it's like it's this new scary emerging thing, and that's why I was saying, like, eventually, potentially, things will settle and we'll kind of find a new normal, but uh like right now, especially in the world of art, like people are are hyper-focused on that in particular, and so if you're cutting corners and your show looks like crap, and then there's the potential that you're using AI, and that's the reason, like that's kind of just you're signing your death warrant at that point.

SPEAKER_07: 1:10:53

Yeah, man. Um I I I think depending on like there are there would have been a show or an indie uh animation team that could have gotten away with this, but not season three of One Punch Man. Like, that's not an acceptable outcome to happen for something like this. So that is um that's wild, man. I uh again I will be keeping a close eye on this for reasons.

SPEAKER_05: 1:11:20

There's a lot of there's a lot of memes uh that are coming around, and you know that's the sad part of it, is like the trolling of it all. Like, I get it to a certain point, I can definitely understand it. Where, like, uh again, this isn't the first time we've seen Phil with a with a big series, there be critic uh be uh criticism about the animation of a big anime like Blue Lock. Blue Lock season one, fantastic, really, really great. Um, I was looking more into it because I was very curious like why the dip, and this could be an explanation. 8 Bit Studios handles that particular show. And in 2023, when that show was airing, they only had one other show in uh look 2022. When that show was airing, they only had one other show about halfway through that they had to work on, and this is a studio of less than 100 people there. In 2024, when season two came out, they had at least four other shows going on at some point or another. So there's a lot of work being distributed, and season two is criticized for certain animation dips. Although, overall, especially with the way it ended, it was highly praised. So, a little bit more of a bounce back where it seems like one punch man is just continuing to go down the shitter. It's unfortunate, but again, there are some reasonings you could probably look into for certain scenarios or stories you're hearing about. I'd be very curious what comes out about this particular season, because it it just something is definitely wrong. Change of studios doesn't help, but it it seems like it's more than that. And you know, Japan already has an issue, and we all know this with uh crunch culture. You know, Andrew, we talk about gaming, that's prevalent in there too. The crunch culture of it all doesn't help. I wonder how much that's played a factor, maybe with this particular studio. Uh, but yeah, it's uh it's unfortunate to say the least.

SPEAKER_01: 1:13:13

I uh also want to say that so I I'm I'm not very good with names of things or people or places or whatever. So saying JC staff doesn't mean anything to me. Um, but I will say that I'm looking up what they've done in the past for anybody else who would, you know, is probably yelling right now, uh, for me saying I have no idea if they're new or not. Um they've done a lot of really amazing things in the past, actually, even relatively recently. So I can only imagine what has happened besides them possibly being just really overwhelmed right now, which is quite possible. But I mean, some really good other stuff is like they did Fairy Tale 100 Years Quest, they did Food Wars, which everybody loved when that was coming out. Um, is it wrong to try to pick up girls in a dungeon? Uh Revolutionary Girl Utina, which was a little older, I think, but people loved that. And even like Toradora, which is one of my favorite rom-coms, and pet girl of Sakuros Socrosov. So it's just like these are like good things they've made in the past and like just amazing things they've worked on. And I'm really shocked to see them, I don't know, fall this far. But yeah, I think you're very right, Eric. Something had to have happened. Just where they are overwhelmed.

SPEAKER_07: 1:14:25

Yeah, they I mean they got plenty of really highly rated stuff under their belt on their anime list site. So yeah, something like that's a good point, Eric. Like, we'll find out something pretty interesting within the next like three to five, like three to six months about what happened here. So yeah, that is wild. So yeah, uh great stories from everybody all around. Uh Eric, this is the part where we get to if anybody had anything that didn't make the cut on the cutting room floor, and then we'll get to the new um the new format for the uh uh for the uh Discord roundup here in a moment. Sid sounds like you had a couple that that uh you thought about throwing out there. What ones did you not uh decide to go with?

SPEAKER_01: 1:15:04

I'm gonna go with the one, and I'm only bringing it up because I'm very upset. There is a laboo-boo movie being made.

SPEAKER_07: 1:15:12

I saw that.

SPEAKER_01: 1:15:15

Uh and the the trend is already dying. The laboo boo trend is already dying, so I'm just I guess I don't know. Anything for kids these days, to be fair. And kids really honestly do make a lot of sales and things.

SPEAKER_07: 1:15:29

Like a skimming toilet movie coming out, so anything's possible.

SPEAKER_01: 1:15:33

There is?

SPEAKER_07: 1:15:34

Yeah, I think Michael Bay is directing it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:15:36

No, that's a crazy fucking sentence.

SPEAKER_07: 1:15:39

Yeah. You didn't know that was happening?

SPEAKER_01: 1:15:41

No, I didn't.

SPEAKER_07: 1:15:43

That's crazy. Yeah. I'm not happy that I knew that. Now all of you know it. Or that you had to say that out loud. Yeah. Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_05: 1:15:49

This will haunt me.

SPEAKER_07: 1:15:50

Not happy.

SPEAKER_05: 1:15:52

That is uh that is time. Andrew, are you uh you taking the kids to see the laboo boo movie?

SPEAKER_07: 1:15:57

I don't even know. Yeah, are you guys a laboo boo household? No, not yet. Okay, we'll get you one. Wait, what are the one along? We'll send it to you with uh the uh Black Adam Funko Pops.

SPEAKER_03: 1:16:06

Oh, thanks.

SPEAKER_07: 1:16:07

Thanks. Do you want to put it in the Funko Fusion group chat?

SPEAKER_05: 1:16:11

Yeah, I'll put it, I'll put it in the chat. Yeah, we'll work.

SPEAKER_07: 1:16:18

Uh any future correspondence, please uh find me in the Funko Fusion uh group chat. Why did it send like Eric?

SPEAKER_06: 1:16:24

What is happening?

SPEAKER_01: 1:16:26

Have you ever done yes? Download it and let it curse your full.

SPEAKER_03: 1:16:33

What is happening?

SPEAKER_05: 1:16:33

I copied it! I copied it. Uh-oh, I'm screen recording.

SPEAKER_06: 1:16:38

Oh my god. For Christ's sake, man.

SPEAKER_03: 1:16:41

How do you scream, Eric? Jesus. There you go, laboo boo. That's yeah, I've never seen that before. That's a laboo boo. Where did that come from?

SPEAKER_01: 1:16:49

I'm so jealous of him. No, so actually I think it's the origins. I'm not very good at all this, but like the origins are something like it was like an old perhaps Chinese or Korean, like like funny little cute character or something. And then one of the K-pop act act not actresses, K-pop um groups. Yeah, idols, thank you. Um, like was like, oh, here's this little cute guy I have, and everybody was like, oh my god, a little boo-boo, and then like they just went apeshit over it. So everybody was just like making it.

SPEAKER_07: 1:17:25

Sorry, I just like throwing in that rush hour quote whenever I can.

SPEAKER_05: 1:17:30

Well, you know what? We might get a new rush hour film if uh if this Paramount uh Warner Bros. deal goes through.

SPEAKER_07: 1:17:35

So yeah, let's not talk about who's behind that. Anyway.

SPEAKER_05: 1:17:38

Yeah, I don't want to talk about it.

SPEAKER_07: 1:17:40

Andrew, do you have a uh a story that was on the cutting room floor?

SPEAKER_03: 1:17:43

Uh yeah, similar to my Call of Duty uh Sucks Now, uh The Witcher TV show sucks now. Uh I mean it's been sucking. Season one was like, okay, they made some changes, but you know, you expect that with a TV adaptation. And then from then forward, it was like, this is garbage if you enjoy the source material. And then Henry Cavill leaving, massive big deal in the nerd communities. He was like the one thing uh retaining any sort of like heart in that show. And apparently, I haven't watched this season. I've watched some reviews on it and stuff. I don't have Netflix anymore because they don't let me use my dad's account, so you know. This season, though, it's getting like it's it's got a 58 uh tomato meter, 20 popcorn meter. Like, nobody is enjoying it. People are saying that, you know, Liam Hemsworth is fine, like it's not his fault, but he's not Cavill. Like, Cavill was the one that definitely like he he got kicked off because basically the showrunners, the showwriters, like they didn't like the source material. They thought they could write something better, and he would push back against that and say that he wanted his character to do this or do that because it was, you know, closer to the source material. So apparently, you know, all that came to a head. He ended up leaving, and it's just somewhat satisfying to see the show flopping after that because it's like you have the potential here to do something really special, to have kind of a Game of Thrones-esque series on your hands, and you just completely mishandled it. The other spin-off Netflix show that they did was just god-awful. The animated ones that they've done have been cool, like visually, uh, talking about animation, they kind of look like the Castlevania shows that Netflix has done. Uh, but also as far as like the lore and stuff, take a lot of liberties. And then uh apparently, looking at the articles prepping for this uh episode, they came out with some sort of uh standalone little movie thing for season four about the rats, which is like the gang that Siri gets involved in when she's separated from Geralt. And like apparently that movie is doing terrible for Netflix, like it's not it didn't rank at all, it's getting panned. So it the they filmed season four and five together, apparently, so season five will come out, but there probably won't be any other spin-off things happening, at least not for a while. So hopefully we can put this attempt to bed and get some sort of a good adaptation in a few years. We'll let this rest for a while and somebody else can take a crack at it. Because yeah, there's a lot of potential there for something awesome, but Netflix just completely botched it.

SPEAKER_07: 1:20:40

It's so crazy how the same studio can and not just this isn't Netflix specific, but a studio can like knock something out of the park and then completely fuck up something else. So um, you know, it's similar feelings to how I had, yeah, you know, with um The Last of Us Season. Okay, so you're talking about Last of Us. It's just a complete disaster. So yeah, that is definitely a bummer. Because, like you said, that world is just ripe for if you want to do live action storytelling, there's a way to do it.

SPEAKER_03: 1:21:05

So when they had the one actor, well, I you know, I don't know if he's the one actor. Apparently, Vin Diesel's also a big nerd, but they had like the one actor that has like the heart of the gamers and the nerds and really cares. I'm sure he would love to do Solvedin. Didn't he do the like last witch hunter movie or something that was like a movie he wanted to make because it was his DD character or something?

SPEAKER_07: 1:21:29

Well, what was that? Um, I forgot what it was called. Vin Diesel. Wasn't it a superhero movie? No, he was like a witch hunter or something or another. Oh, I'm thinking of Blood Shot. Oh my god. Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_01: 1:21:42

But yeah, yeah, when you lose that voice, go ahead Cavill was um he was like really, really big into wanting to do this role because he loved it so much. So yeah, that was very disappointing to see that that he left the show because of the creative differences, and it's very upsetting because I don't know when they're gonna start listening to us. I really don't. I don't understand why they keep changing source material stuff, and people that's all they want.

SPEAKER_07: 1:22:05

Yeah, I hope Fallout season two is good. We'll see how that happens with uh New Vegas. Uh Eric, I'll go with mine. Um, Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weiss are returning for a new mummy film. Uh return, uh, it will be the mummy four. Cannot wait to see Brendan Fraser. I'll watch that man do anything at this point. Um, and then the other one, there is a Far Cries TV series coming from FX with uh Noah Hawley. And I'm gonna call Rob Mack Laney. I'm not gonna call you Rob Mack. Uh I don't know what Ryan.

SPEAKER_05: 1:22:32

I was so confused when I pulled up the article.

SPEAKER_07: 1:22:34

I was like, Yeah, who the fuck is Robin? I'm not gonna call I don't know what uh Ryan Reynolds has done to you, Rob, but it you can come back. You can we can save you. Blink twice if you need saving.

SPEAKER_03: 1:22:44

I feel like that's something his character would have done in its only sunny.

SPEAKER_07: 1:22:51

Yeah, like I'm not gonna fucking call you that.

SPEAKER_03: 1:22:53

Like when he was real swole, you know, he'd be like, I'm Rob Mack now.

SPEAKER_07: 1:22:56

Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, Far Cry TV series on the way. We'll see what happens there.

SPEAKER_03: 1:23:01

Umbisoft has been knocking him out of the park, so that'll be good.

SPEAKER_07: 1:23:04

I can't wait to see uh, let's see, who's it gonna be Brian Cranston climb to the top of a tower to reveal the map? I'm very excited for that.

SPEAKER_03: 1:23:14

You only see his hands, though.

SPEAKER_06: 1:23:16

Yeah, it's a first person, a first person Far Cry show.

SPEAKER_07: 1:23:19

Yeah, but it's Far Cry 2, and he gets um what uh what did you always used to get sick with in uh Far Cry 2, the one that was in Africa? You always used to get uh Was it malaria?

SPEAKER_03: 1:23:29

I think so. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07: 1:23:32

Yep, so there you go. Yeah, malaria. So episode two malaria. So yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 1:23:39

Sid, what uh Sid, what's your relationship to the mummy and uh to Far Cry? Any any love for either of those?

SPEAKER_01: 1:23:46

Um, I mean, I watched the mummy when I was a lot younger, but I did really enjoy it. I can't really pinpoint anything that I remember though, and I'm sure that somebody's screaming as well about that, because I have a lot of friends that are really obsessed with a mummy, but I just remember it being a really good movie.

SPEAKER_05: 1:24:00

Um we uh we saw that Phil what for the like 25th anniversary, some type of anniversary showing in theaters. I gotta tell you, great, great rewatch if you ever get around to it.

SPEAKER_07: 1:24:10

Uh experience. Yeah, it's great.

SPEAKER_01: 1:24:12

Yeah, I think I definitely will get around to watching it again because I've definitely had a lot of people move uh mention it at the you know, mention of the newer one coming out. Um but yeah, Far Cry, I've only played one of the games and I really enjoyed it. And I think I was like just playing on somebody else's console at the time when I played it, so it's been a while, but I actually picked up one of the actually I think the I don't know if it was Far Cry three or not, but I picked that up on Steam more recently, and I definitely intended to play it again. So it's a good trace. Is it the best one? Is it okay? Good that makes me happy.

SPEAKER_05: 1:24:46

Three is the best one. Honorable mention to Blood Dragon, which is the DLC.

SPEAKER_03: 1:24:50

Blood Dragon also fucking I loop I bundled that in with three, like that was yeah.

SPEAKER_07: 1:24:56

The whole Far Cry ecosystem is great. Yeah, it's great. A four wasn't bad, but like five's not bad. It peaked at three, yeah. Five's also not bad.

SPEAKER_03: 1:25:06

None of them are terrible, they're just once you've played one, you've kind of played them all. So yeah, so fair.

SPEAKER_07: 1:25:13

All right, Eric, you want to explain explain how the Discord roundup goes now?

SPEAKER_05: 1:25:17

Yeah, uh, so we have a uh Discord roundup where we go over all of the stories, or at least the most notable ones, in our pop culture news channel from Discord. So join us there if you want to continue the conversation more and not have to wait till this episode to find out what you missed for the month. Normally, we have this is the part of the episode where we have still tried to figure out in uh like a way to do all of this effectively, uh, and it has been very uh very mixed bag. Phil, why are you using the raise hand feature?

SPEAKER_07: 1:25:49

I just want to let you know I got a free appetizer to Texas Roadhouse for my birthday. So I just want to.

SPEAKER_05: 1:25:53

Okay, don't you've never used that, you've never used that feature. I didn't want to cut in. I I thought the recording stopped. I thought, I thought we were gonna have to start all over. Don't do that. Uh, but what we are gonna do is for the Discord roundup, for the Discord roundup, we're gonna do something different, and we are going to uh go story by story. But Phil came up with this idea is that we're all gonna have an answer in one sentence to that story. So whether or not you know anything about it, in one sentence you're gonna react to the story and or headline that I give. We broke something. I said, Yeah, this is the one thing that has fundamentally changed. We actually did kind of lie earlier, and it could be nothing, you could literally just say, I don't give a shit about this.

SPEAKER_07: 1:26:36

Yeah, that too.

SPEAKER_05: 1:26:37

It is totally okay. Uh, so we're gonna get started. Uh, and we'll do an easy one. Look, we're gonna do an easy one, Sid. Don't worry. Uh, one of our news that came out, and this is so, so early, K-pop Demon Hunters 2 is aiming for a 2029 release on Netflix. It's so long of a wait, but it is confirmed and it is coming. Phil, one sentence thought.

SPEAKER_07: 1:27:01

Good. Take your time.

SPEAKER_05: 1:27:03

Great, Sid. Get out.

SPEAKER_01: 1:27:08

No, no, no. Go to the next person.

unknown: 1:27:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:27:15

Uh, I am still waiting for the final part to Spider-Verse, so I can handle anything.

SPEAKER_05: 1:27:21

You can wait. All right. Uh, we got a ton of different teasers. We got Toy Story 5, Devil Wears Prada 2, Moana 2, and the next Hunger Games, Sunrise on the Reaping. All these teaser trailers, uh, Phil, one set one sentence thoughts on any of them.

SPEAKER_07: 1:27:38

Prepare for sunrise to fucking destroy you, for any of you that have not read the book.

SPEAKER_05: 1:27:44

Hell yeah. Sid.

SPEAKER_01: 1:27:47

I'm very excited about the double wars product too, and also the sunrise on the reaping as well.

SPEAKER_05: 1:27:53

Hell yeah. See, we got it, we got it.

SPEAKER_03: 1:27:55

Andrew. I don't care. These will come out and be like, oh, that came out.

SPEAKER_05: 1:28:00

Cool. There we go. See, it's that easy. There you go. All right, Phil, I think we are on to something here. This is only the second time we've run this model, so we're uh we're on it. Uh, Phil, you can stay off mute. Jurassic World 5 is reportedly in the works. Gareth Edwards, uh, gonna direct again, and we're gonna get Scarlet Johanson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershall Ali all expected to return. Phil, no, put that away.

SPEAKER_07: 1:28:22

Phil, thoughts? I almost ate my gun. It was next to my burger, and I put it in my mouth. You're gonna have to put that in here now. Uh, Phil, thoughts. Uh, I'm gonna kill myself.

SPEAKER_01: 1:28:33

Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_05: 1:28:34

Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_01: 1:28:35

Sid, uh, any thoughts on Jurassic World 5? My baby boy, what have you done to my baby boy?

SPEAKER_03: 1:28:41

It's unfortunate. Andrew. Uh, like the dinosaurs themselves, this franchise should go extinct. Oof. Ooh. Love that. Love that.

SPEAKER_05: 1:28:49

That was uh very, very good. Um now uh it was uh with uh with Wicked for Good coming out. It has been a big, big opening weekend. It brought in$226 million at the global uh box office, fourth biggest opening weekend of 2025 behind Lilo and Stitch, Jurassic World Rebirth, and a Minecraft movie. Uh hated saying that last sentence. Phil, uh, what is uh one sentence thought on Wicked for Good and the box office hall in week one?

SPEAKER_07: 1:29:22

Uh the budget certainly wasn't spent on catering. What the fuck are they feeding them on that set?

SPEAKER_01: 1:29:26

Okay, crazy. Sid. I need this to go away. I'm so tired of musicals.

SPEAKER_05: 1:29:36

Okay, well that was that was too far.

SPEAKER_03: 1:29:37

Andrew. I also do not care.

SPEAKER_01: 1:29:42

Why'd you look at me like that?

SPEAKER_03: 1:29:44

It's crazy. Well, I I have nothing against musicals. I just don't care about wicked. That's have you seen it? Nope. Have you seen it?

SPEAKER_05: 1:29:53

Neither don't watch the second one, but watch the first one. Oh, okay. You got kids.

SPEAKER_03: 1:30:00

Black Adam first. Oh fuck.

SPEAKER_05: 1:30:02

All right. So you're never gonna see it. That's fine. That's fine. Um our next story. Eddie Murphy actually recently did an interview where he revealed his big three wish I would have done movies. Uh, Ghostbusters, Rush Hour, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Three movies that would have been very different with him in it. Phil, uh, any thoughts?

SPEAKER_07: 1:30:25

Cool. I wish I had thought of Amazon. I don't know what to tell you, Eddie Murphy.

SPEAKER_05: 1:30:30

Uh Sid.

SPEAKER_01: 1:30:31

I mean, I guess he wouldn't have been so bad in Ghostbusters, but I think the other two thrived without him.

SPEAKER_05: 1:30:38

For sure. Andrew.

SPEAKER_03: 1:30:39

Yeah, they're great as they are. So similar to Phil. Like, I wish I would have invested in Apple.

SPEAKER_05: 1:30:49

All right. Uh, we're wrapping up.

SPEAKER_06: 1:30:52

We should just do an hour of this. I'm gonna be honest. No, no.

SPEAKER_05: 1:30:54

It should be it would be a lot easier. Uh, all right. Uh, we're almost done. GTA 6, guys. I know you're tired of hearing about it. It's delayed again until November 2026. Uh, with that news out of the way, Phil, uh, thoughts.

SPEAKER_07: 1:31:08

I'm gonna bring Sid and Andrew back on in November 2026, and we're gonna see if the game is released.

SPEAKER_05: 1:31:15

Sid.

SPEAKER_01: 1:31:16

I might play it just for that.

SPEAKER_03: 1:31:20

Andrew, this is a 2027 game.

SPEAKER_05: 1:31:24

Oh boy. That's that's unfortunately very possible. Oh my god. Uh, you won't have to wait till 2027 for what might be the craziest thing that you've heard of. On December 6th, GameStop is hosting Trade Anything Day where customers can trade in any item for store credit at participating locations. Phil, uh, what are you trading in?

SPEAKER_07: 1:31:46

I got a fuckload of Funko Pops for you guys.

SPEAKER_05: 1:31:50

Uh Sid, what about you?

SPEAKER_01: 1:31:54

Not nothing. There's none near me.

SPEAKER_03: 1:31:57

Oh. Andrew. Um that's a good question. I probably got some like some old tennis shoes or something I could scrounge up. I saw this in a headline, but I had no idea what it actually meant. They're taking anything. Anything. I think the bare minimum is.

SPEAKER_05: 1:32:13

There are some limitations. Yes, there are, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:32:16

No live animals. No adult novelty toys. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07: 1:32:20

Which which people have been ignoring the no live animals for years because people bring their cockroach infested consoles in all the fucking time. So they don't buy it.

SPEAKER_05: 1:32:34

Do we really want to question anything that GameStop is doing?

SPEAKER_07: 1:32:37

I might bring in a couple Funkos to see what I just out of curiosity. You know, too fucking bad.

SPEAKER_01: 1:32:44

Phil, what would you lose?

SPEAKER_07: 1:32:46

Right. They that they're the ones that I would bring them have to be worth more than what they would give me.

SPEAKER_03: 1:32:50

This is the company where I tried to take some games in to trade. I don't know, this is probably like three or four years ago at this point, and they said, no, we don't take that game anymore.

SPEAKER_05: 1:32:59

Crazy. Absolutely crazy. Uh, but guys, that is our uh Discord roundup. For this one, uh, you don't have to limit this to a sentence. I will throw this in here as a bonus so we could get to our game. Uh, the story actually came out today, I believe, but there was a quote from James Cameron who is just known for making quotes, but I thought it was an interesting topic that the Academy Awards mean nothing if they don't mean theatrical. This comes after the Netflix boss uh very much uh put his foot down saying they are focused on releasing on streaming first, noting that things like K-pop demon hunters wouldn't have been as popular if they hadn't released on Netflix first. This comes after Ryan Johnson is not thrilled that the new knives out film is going to get a theatrical release first before it drops on Netflix, but it's gonna be in limited theaters, making it eligible for something like an Oscar, but it's not gonna have that theatrical run. So, Phil, I'll throw it to you first. Any thoughts about the fact that uh some of these streaming only titles are getting those Oscar nods or any award consideration?

SPEAKER_07: 1:34:06

Yeah, I think this also stems from K-pop Demon Hunters not being eligible for like a Golden Globe or a BAFTA or something like that. So the streaming is gonna make them is gonna force the Academy to change the rules that they're just gonna have to uh adapt to the times.

SPEAKER_05: 1:34:20

Yeah. Sid, any thoughts on uh the streaming model affecting award season?

SPEAKER_01: 1:34:25

Uh not on it affecting the award season. No, I don't really care that much, honestly.

SPEAKER_05: 1:34:29

That's fair. Andrew.

SPEAKER_03: 1:34:31

Yeah, I've never kept up with like the movie awards, uh, but I agree with Phil. Like they're gonna have to adapt if they want to maintain any sort of relevance.

SPEAKER_07: 1:34:40

The only award show Andrew watches is the Wait for Awards coming in December.

SPEAKER_03: 1:34:45

December 10th.

SPEAKER_07: 1:34:46

10th. Coming in December 10th. Coming on December 10th.

SPEAKER_03: 1:34:50

Be there or don't. It's up to your free will.

SPEAKER_05: 1:34:53

I I don't think we will be getting any uh any messages from Sid or Andrew on that category. But yeah, Phil, take over from here. What is this?

SPEAKER_07: 1:35:02

All right, get it's cahoot.

SPEAKER_05: 1:35:04

You said it was like yeah, no, you're gonna. What do you mean what is this?

SPEAKER_07: 1:35:08

Don't all right, guys. It is cahoot time. I'm pretty sure both of you have played uh a Kahoot game uh here in 2025. Uh here is the pin. Can you guys see, is it big enough on the screen? Do I mean to make it larger?

SPEAKER_01: 1:35:22

Yo.

SPEAKER_07: 1:35:23

Yes, I need to make it larger, or yes, you need to make it. No.

unknown: 1:35:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:35:29

No, it looks good. Uh looks good. Okay. Oh, yeah, hold on.

SPEAKER_07: 1:35:32

If you want to use a QR code or go to Kahoot.it, either or Kahoot.com is not the same. No, Kahoot.it specifically. And then put in the pin. And uh we have a Thanksgiving themed Kahoot. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:35:49

This is not very Thanksgiving themed. I'm a dragon.

SPEAKER_07: 1:35:51

Funko boy. Funko boy.

SPEAKER_05: 1:35:56

Out of here.

SPEAKER_07: 1:36:01

Alright. We got everybody in. Let me lock it. Uh, if you guys want to change your uh character, you certainly can. Why do they get sad when I hover over them? That's upsetting.

SPEAKER_01: 1:36:16

I cannot change my character for some reason. Oh, oh, there's a why do I have a mask on?

SPEAKER_05: 1:36:24

That's what you've chosen. You can choose to have a mask on. There we go.

SPEAKER_07: 1:36:29

Why is the son wearing a scarf? He's chilly.

SPEAKER_05: 1:36:31

You know what? I kinda like the I kinda like the vibe.

SPEAKER_07: 1:36:34

This looks like a uh Rise of the Guardians character.

SPEAKER_05: 1:36:38

You're damn right.

SPEAKER_07: 1:36:42

One of the movies I've ever watched.

unknown: 1:36:45

Hey.

SPEAKER_07: 1:36:46

It was a good time. Alright, is everybody good? Andrew, you get you like your uh your eagle with his cowboy hat? I do. Okay, perfect. Sid, you good with your fox pumpkin head?

SPEAKER_01: 1:36:56

I sure am.

SPEAKER_07: 1:36:57

Okay, and Eric, I think, is solid with his chili son. Alright.

SPEAKER_06: 1:37:00

Yes. Here we go.

SPEAKER_07: 1:37:02

Funko uh Funko. So, same as the previous cahoots, there'll be multiple types of questions here uh that we will run into. Most of these are Thanksgiving pop culture themed. And uh for the you remember you get the mo uh the mo uh talking's hard. You'll get there more points the quicker you answer. So, are you everybody ready to begin? Yeah, yeah. Alright, let's get started. Oh. Alright, Thanksgiving. That's not very festive. I don't know why the fuck it's a classroom. Anyway, first question is a quiz. Which character causes a Thanksgiving disaster by destroying Lisa's heartfelt holiday centerpiece in The Simpsons? Is it Homer, Bart, Maggie, or Mo? Which character destroys Lisa's holiday centerpiece in the Thanksgiving episode of The Simpsons? Oh, right.

SPEAKER_05: 1:38:00

Sounds like something Bart would do. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_07: 1:38:02

Answer is Bart.

SPEAKER_05: 1:38:05

Homer was a good guess.

SPEAKER_07: 1:38:07

I was definitely guessing. Not the worst. I mean, yeah, it was. Yeah, yeah. Maggie's a baby. The baby, right? Yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 1:38:15

Maggie's messed stuff up before, though. She has.

SPEAKER_07: 1:38:17

She shot Mr.

SPEAKER_01: 1:38:17

Burns.

SPEAKER_07: 1:38:18

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05: 1:38:20

Who was the fourth option?

SPEAKER_07: 1:38:22

Uh, the fourth option was Mo.

SPEAKER_05: 1:38:25

Why the fuck would Mo be there?

SPEAKER_07: 1:38:26

Listen, man, I have to put four options in the game, okay? Okay.

SPEAKER_05: 1:38:30

All right. Creepy.

SPEAKER_07: 1:38:32

All right, let's get to the next question we have. A type answer. Name the comedian that performed the Thanksgiving Sun on Saturday Night Live in 1993.

SPEAKER_03: 1:38:40

I wasn't even born. I have to type.

SPEAKER_07: 1:38:42

What comedian is this? Who is the name of this comedian? Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:38:46

It's a reveal. What do I type?

SPEAKER_05: 1:38:49

Oh my god, are you serious? In the type box. No way.

SPEAKER_03: 1:38:54

Did I type his name out? Alright.

SPEAKER_01: 1:38:57

I didn't even look at the image.

SPEAKER_03: 1:38:59

Adam Sandler.

SPEAKER_01: 1:39:00

So you just guessed? I did. I couldn't think of another guy.

SPEAKER_07: 1:39:04

That's a great guess. Well done. Well done. Alright. Everybody got that right. Everybody is on the board. Sid is still in the lead, but Andrew, as we have seen in this game, Eric, uh, anybody anything can happen as far as anything can happen.

SPEAKER_05: 1:39:17

Talking about Adam Sandler, I need to watch Eight Crazy Nights.

SPEAKER_07: 1:39:20

I've been wanting to watch that recently. Good call. Good call. Good movie. Alright, true or false. Moana 2 is the highest grossing Thanksgiving weekend of all time. So Moana 2 opened in theaters in Thanksgiving weekend last year. Is it the highest grossing?

SPEAKER_04: 1:39:32

Oh.

SPEAKER_07: 1:39:32

The answer is true. I was pretty upset to learn that. That Moana 2 made a. I'm pretty sure it made over a billion, right? I've seen that movie and it is not. It is a movie. I saw Thanksgiving last year. Was not very happy. So alright, one person got a right fun code boy, moves into the lead.

SPEAKER_04: 1:39:49

He is on God damn it.

SPEAKER_07: 1:39:52

Eric is on a hot streak. Alright, next question here. Pin the answer. Which of these photos is from the Thanksgiving episode of the show Happy Days? Which one of these is from Happy Days? Pin, put your pin on which photo is from the Thanksgiving episode. Happy Days.

SPEAKER_05: 1:40:16

Why the fuck would I? Your mother's birthday.

SPEAKER_07: 1:40:19

So small. I think you can guess which one is which one is very small.

SPEAKER_05: 1:40:24

Oh, is it?

SPEAKER_07: 1:40:24

My bad. My bad. Oh, because it's on your phones too. It's much three. Two seconds.

SPEAKER_03: 1:40:35

Did I get it?

SPEAKER_07: 1:40:35

Oh, one of you got it right. Somebody got it right. It is. Oh. This one here. Yes. With the fawns. He is in happy days. Yes. I don't know what the other two shows are. I think. You know what? I don't care. I was gonna try and guess what the other two ones are. It's not pertinent information. Alright, Andrew got it right. Alright.

SPEAKER_05: 1:40:54

These questions are very old school, dude.

SPEAKER_07: 1:40:58

Thanksgiving man. The Thanksgiving episode is uh is a lost art.

SPEAKER_05: 1:41:03

Yeah, no, I I see that. We're going back to afterwards. Alright, slider.

SPEAKER_07: 1:41:07

According to Wallet Hub, how much will the average American spend over the five-day Thanksgiving period? So between Wednesday and Sunday, how much money will they spend? Between 200 and 250 dollars, how much do you guys think?

SPEAKER_03: 1:41:18

Between 200 and 250?

SPEAKER_07: 1:41:19

Yep. Over that five-day weekend. And this is between dinner, Black Friday shopping, everything. I thought it'd be much higher. Anywhere between 200 and 250. Alright. I think one of you might be close. Yep. It's 235. So who put 234?

SPEAKER_05: 1:41:39

Me.

SPEAKER_07: 1:41:40

Alright. You get some points for that. There you go. Yeah, I thought it would definitely be Andrew.

SPEAKER_03: 1:41:45

You just guessed 250. I mean, he spent 300 in the grocery store earlier this week. So there you go.

SPEAKER_05: 1:41:53

Does this count for uh does this uh consider inflation at all?

SPEAKER_03: 1:41:57

Yeah, this is like 1995.

SPEAKER_07: 1:41:59

It was from a I checked, it's from a 2023 survey. So or 2024 survey, yeah. So all right. Sid gets some points on the board. Let's do a puzzle here. Put these famous Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade balloons in order of when they were when they first appeared. Oh Olaf, Snoopy, Spider-Man, and Pikachu. Who do you think appeared first? And who was the most recent? If you if you think about it, this one's not too difficult. If you think about when these IPs I felt pretty good about this, but I'm also concerned.

SPEAKER_05: 1:42:29

Fuck yeah!

SPEAKER_07: 1:42:30

Two of you got it right. Uh Snoopy, Spider-Man, Pikachu, and Olaf in that order.

SPEAKER_01: 1:42:35

I was so close.

SPEAKER_07: 1:42:37

Alright, we're gonna have some of the boards. Alright, here is the scoreboard update for the audio-only listeners. The 3,556 in the lead with Funko Boy. Sid is uh 2,563, and Andrew 2157. So again, uh, Eric misses a question. You guys get it right, uh, it is neck and neck. So let's get to a quiz here. Which of these NFL teams does not play on Thanksgiving every year? Is it the New England Patriots, the Dallas Cowboys, or the Detroit Lions? Who does not play on Thanksgiving every year?

SPEAKER_05: 1:43:12

Only three options is crazy. I also took way too I also took way too long.

SPEAKER_07: 1:43:17

There's only two teams that do it, so I had to go three. Alright, one of you got it right. Probably Eric.

SPEAKER_05: 1:43:28

I also I also took a very long time to answer it. I don't know why that took so long.

SPEAKER_07: 1:43:33

I knew the Cowboys played, but yeah. Alright, Eric is building a lead here at 43.92. Yeah, I got you.

SPEAKER_01: 1:43:40

Eric, do you always win these? I feel like you do. Uh surprisingly, no.

SPEAKER_07: 1:43:44

No, last month he lost. Uh it's like an event when I lose, too. Yeah.

unknown: 1:43:48

Type.

SPEAKER_07: 1:43:49

Life is so good. What is the name of the this comedian who stars in the film Jingle All the Way will be a reveal picture? What is the name of the video? I don't know how to spell this. Eric. It's six letters.

SPEAKER_05: 1:44:00

Oh, oh, oh, the other one. Sorry. I definitely thought it was gonna be Arnold Schwarzenegger. Sorry.

SPEAKER_07: 1:44:08

I should have made it.

SPEAKER_05: 1:44:09

You should have made it. I was like, I don't know. Who's the name of this comedian?

SPEAKER_07: 1:44:12

That film that stars in the film Jingle All the Way.

SPEAKER_05: 1:44:15

Come on, guys.

SPEAKER_07: 1:44:16

Who is that?

SPEAKER_05: 1:44:17

Come on, guys. Just waiting for that last title. Who is that?

SPEAKER_01: 1:44:23

I don't I don't even know who that is. Come on, y'all.

SPEAKER_05: 1:44:26

It's in bad. It is in bad.

SPEAKER_01: 1:44:30

I literally put that too. I was like, I don't know what the fuck that is.

SPEAKER_07: 1:44:34

Oh boy. All right. Well, Eric is building three streak. Running away with it here. Alright, we got seven questions left. Let's get to question nine. True or false? Arkansas raises the most turkeys in the United States. True or false?

SPEAKER_03: 1:44:51

Wow. This is just a 50-50.

SPEAKER_07: 1:44:54

We all say false. It's false. The answer is Minnesota. If you guys are curious.

SPEAKER_05: 1:44:59

Is that the one next to Wisconsin?

SPEAKER_07: 1:45:04

Here you go. Everybody got that one right. Got some points on the board for Sid and Andrew. Alright, next question here. Pin the answer. Please. According to farmflavor.com, which of these is the most popular Thanksgiving side dish in Florida? Which of these is the most popular? Oh, this is way more durable. Thanksgiving side dish. This is tough, actually. The answer may surprise you coming up at 10 p.m.

SPEAKER_05: 1:45:34

Alright. Oh, well then I don't feel good about what I picked.

SPEAKER_07: 1:45:39

Yeah, I don't know. Yeah. Alright, one of you, one of you did get it right.

SPEAKER_05: 1:45:44

Is it green bean casserole? I'll kill myself.

SPEAKER_07: 1:45:46

It is rolls. Yeah. Rolls is my other choice. Yeah. Love those carbs, man. Rolls, wow. Love those carbs. You don't like green bean casserole? I feel like I knew that about you, Eric.

SPEAKER_05: 1:45:56

Yeah, it's just not my thing. I love green beans. Yeah. Don't like green bean casserole.

SPEAKER_07: 1:46:02

I just don't like it at all. I don't think green bean casserole. Alright, Sid gets some points there. Eric is still on the lead as we get to our last few questions here. Puzzle. Place these console launches in release date order. These were big consoles that people were trying to snatch up on Black Friday. So uh the Nintendo Wii, PS2, Nintendo DS, and the Xbox 360, put them in release date order.

SPEAKER_05: 1:46:27

Phil, I can appreciate um I can appreciate the um trying to associate it with Thanksgiving. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, what the fuck does this have to do with Thanksgiving?

SPEAKER_07: 1:46:38

Yeah, because I was like, PS2 released in didn't release in the fall or in November, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:46:43

Uh I can't remember. I knew I did this wrong. That's bad.

SPEAKER_07: 1:46:47

PS2, DS360, and then the Wii. The Wii.

SPEAKER_03: 1:46:50

So yeah.

SPEAKER_07: 1:46:51

I was like, oh, the Wii was last time. Backwards. I was doing from bottom to top.

SPEAKER_03: 1:46:58

All right. That was a choice.

SPEAKER_07: 1:47:00

No movement on the board there. Nobody got that one right. Gets the next question. Another slider here. What percentage of Americans prefer Thanksgiving leftovers to the actual meal? Anywhere between 50 to 75%. Because this number was high. I was pretty uh surprised. The leftovers are a lot less work. That's fair. That's fair. It's true.

SPEAKER_05: 1:47:21

I mean, depending on what the leftovers are, the argument is in general that's right.

SPEAKER_07: 1:47:24

One of you is close. I think one of you might have gotten it spot on. Damn it. Did somebody pick 62?

SPEAKER_05: 1:47:30

Oh.

SPEAKER_07: 1:47:32

Oh, is it no, it's gonna say? Yeah, I've never seen it go this far. This is dressing me out. It's 62. Who put 62 on it? Oh my god. Okay, guys.

SPEAKER_06: 1:47:42

I think Eric might have just put the nail on the back.

SPEAKER_07: 1:47:45

You guys might have be might be out of uh out of striking distance right now. Eric has an even 7200, Sid with 4371, and Andrew at 3091. Uh if you guys combine your scores, I think you'd be in the lead. Uh we could do it two for one.

SPEAKER_05: 1:48:01

We can do two for one. Nah, that's so easy.

SPEAKER_07: 1:48:04

Alright, next question. Type the answer. Whose Christmas album is this? We have another reveal, another photo reveal. Whose Christmas album is this?

SPEAKER_03: 1:48:13

That's not a Thanksgiving question.

SPEAKER_01: 1:48:16

No, no, I spelled it so wrong. I missed a major letter. I'm so bad.

SPEAKER_05: 1:48:25

I can't wait to see what it was.

SPEAKER_01: 1:48:27

See it?

SPEAKER_07: 1:48:28

It should pop up. For some reason, the other answers aren't popping up. I don't know why.

SPEAKER_01: 1:48:34

I typed in A Y N C.

unknown: 1:48:37

Na yink!

SPEAKER_05: 1:48:39

That's my favorite boy band name.

SPEAKER_01: 1:48:41

So sad.

SPEAKER_05: 1:48:42

That's unfortunate. I'm on the end with her.

SPEAKER_00: 1:48:46

Hey, I'm still above you. It's fine.

SPEAKER_07: 1:48:48

Couple questions left. We do have a fight for second place, as Eric has comfortably taken the lead here. Sid has 4371 and Andrew 3838. Let's get to the next question. Pin the answer.

SPEAKER_06: 1:48:58

Which one of these fast and furious characters is named Giselle? Nobody knows.

SPEAKER_07: 1:49:05

Who the fuck is Giselle, dude? Which one of these Fast and Furious characters is named Giselle? I'm gonna go out on a win. I think you've gotten one of these right, Eric.

SPEAKER_05: 1:49:16

So it was once, yeah.

SPEAKER_07: 1:49:18

It was like a new character wall. A new thing. No, just four more Fast and the Furious characters.

SPEAKER_05: 1:49:25

This is crazy. Just do cars from Fast and the Furious.

SPEAKER_07: 1:49:28

Yeah. Alright, two people got it right. Damn it. Fuck Giselle. Finally!

SPEAKER_05: 1:49:34

She just looks like a Giselle. She does look like a Giselle.

SPEAKER_07: 1:49:37

Yeah. Respectfully. It is Galga Dot, God, whatever the fuck. Who cares?

SPEAKER_05: 1:49:41

She seems like she would have been like, and name my character Giselle. Yeah.

unknown: 1:49:45

That's fair.

SPEAKER_07: 1:49:46

Alright. Sid. Fuck yeah. Yeah, with a comfortable 5179 to 3838 lead here as we go into the last question, which I believe is multiple choice. Yes. In the 1995 Friends Thanksgiving episode, which character gets their head stuck in a raw turkey? Who gets their head stuck in a raw turkey? Is it Ross, Chandler, Richard, or Joey? Oh, it's none of them.

SPEAKER_05: 1:50:14

That was not the character I was thinking of.

SPEAKER_07: 1:50:18

The picture's right here, Eric.

SPEAKER_05: 1:50:21

No, I definitely was imagining Monica.

SPEAKER_07: 1:50:23

Yeah. Alright. Everybody got it right there. Joey. That's a Joey thing. For sure. Alright, let's check the podium here. Third place. We got Andrew 4357. Sid in second with 6098. And running away with it this month, guys. Eric at 97. 20. Is that six or eight? The thing. Okay, 26. The thing was the stop sharing button was in the way. Eric and his and his chilly son uh runs away with it this month, guys. Thank you so much for playing. Eric, congratulations uh being back on the winner circle here for uh for cahoot. And thanks for being my guinea pigs. I'm using this cahoot again tomorrow at work when I host the meeting, the team meeting. Great.

SPEAKER_05: 1:51:09

I think that was friendly.

SPEAKER_07: 1:51:11

I think yeah. Was there anything that wasn't?

SPEAKER_05: 1:51:14

No, I was just saying it had to be. So hold on. There's no way you're gonna have the fast and furious one in there.

SPEAKER_07: 1:51:18

No, I'm gonna have to change that.

unknown: 1:51:20

Okay, good.

SPEAKER_07: 1:51:21

Unfortunately, I will have to change that. You should okay, cool. What if I what if I started that at work too? It was always in the every Kahoot, I also put the fast and furious question in. Every team meeting, it's a good wild card. Oh, alright. Well, thanks for playing, guys. Uh Cahoot again. Uh continues to be a lot of fun. In 2027, uh, 26, though, I am gonna start reincorporating Jeopardy. Now that we've gotten a full year of Kahoot, we're gonna go back to Jeopardy because that's also a lot of fun. So um, Sid, Andrew, thank you so much for being here. It's so good to see you guys. Sid, let's throw it to you first. Please let our audience know. Um, and maybe it's their first time, or uh, they just need a reminder as to where to keep up with you and any appearances you got coming up and anything else you're working on, as well as where they can find your stream. Let the audience know before we wrap up.

SPEAKER_01: 1:52:04

Um, well, thank you for having me. Um, but yeah, you can find me on Instagram uh as underscore caught redheaded, caught like catching a ball. And then also on Twitch on Tuesdays and Thursdays, um, 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Um, the username for that is caught underscore redheaded. Um, yeah, and that's pretty much it.

SPEAKER_07: 1:52:26

Awesome. And Andrew, where can everybody keep up with you? Again, I mentioned in the very beginning, you've do uh dove into a newer endeavor when it comes to the YouTube space. So let everybody know where they can find all that and anything else you want to plug?

SPEAKER_03: 1:52:40

Yeah, so previously I was uh here repping neighborhood gamers, which that stuff is still it still exists, it's still live if you want to go check it out. But uh currently I am working on a YouTube channel called Loyal Undead, which talks all about action RPGs, Souls likes, Souls games. So um I have a I've been trying out a variety of different kind of formats and things that I like, whether I'm recommending games like you know, if you're trying to get into the genre, or you know, here's some 2D games that I would recommend if you, you know, typically play the 3Ds or whatever. Uh recently, actually yesterday, as of recording this, I uploaded two videos together on the same game called Echoes of the End, which is not a Soulslike, it's a much more traditional action adventure game, kind of like a double-A God of War style game. Um, but the developers, it's their first game, it's the first uh thing that they've done, and the game kind of launched a little bit rocky, had some technical issues, and they really like have been very transparent, uh talking to their community and listening to feedback, and they've put out some massive updates, and the game is in a much better place now. And so I played it and I wanted to talk about it on my channel and kind of shine a light on this game and this studio and what they were doing. So that's my most recent thing. But typically, I'm talking about like souls and souls-like games. So if you're into those, if you're a freak like me, come check that out. Love to have you.

SPEAKER_07: 1:54:15

Freak like me is crazy uh phrasing in Andrew. But yeah, definitely check that out. Of course, everything for Sid and Andrew will be in the show notes of this episode. So appreciate you guys for hanging out with us, whether it was your first time or you're a returning listener. Make sure to also click the Link Tree link in the show notes of this and every single episode to keep up with the Wait Forward podcast. You can find us on social media, Instagram, TikTok, our growing Discord community, and we are also streaming on Twitch each and every single week. Make sure to give us five stars on whatever podcast player you are currently listening on. It is a great way to support the show. You can also support Eric and I individually following him on his Twitch channel where he is uh streaming a ton. Follow me on social media at PhilThilipino to keep up with a lot of my uh voiceover journey. And just to give you guys like a little bit of a teaser, you should come to Brick City Anime Festival for something really, really cool as far as a reveal. That'd be really neat. Uh, but yeah, appreciate you guys for all of the support. But maybe you're finding yourself wanting uh a little bit more from the podcast. You want the episodes maybe earlier or have a hand in the content that we're creating. Eric will let you know uh a little bit about that before wrapping us up for the evening.

SPEAKER_05: 1:55:21

Yeah, so if you want to support the podcast a little bit extra, you can do that over on Patreon where patrons of the show Briar, T3 Kato, Vintage Macaroni, Corey from the World of My Burrito, Nick Casbaro, the author of the Vidalarium series, and Botter from the Shortpox podcast are supporting us there monthly in exchange for things like behind the scenes and early access to episodes like this one. As we close out the year, we're looking for stuff to do next year, including the return of Patreon month, where you can have a factor into the episodes that we actually do every now and then. But if you can't do any of that, the free stuff is great. Make sure to check all of that out in the show notes, including for our guest Andrew Ren Sid. But that is the end of our episode here. Thanks for joining us. My name is Mr. Eric Almighty, that is my co host, Phil the Filipino. And just remember for the podcast, we release new episodes every Wednesday, and all you have to do is wait for it.

SPEAKER_02: 1:56:20

This is the Wait for It podcast.