0:00

Hi, this is

0:03

Rachel McElroy.

0:18

Hi, this is Griffin McElroy. This is wonderful.

0:20

This is wonderful, a show where we talk

0:22

about things that's good, that we like, that we're

0:25

into. We hope that you've come to the

0:27

right place. And that you, oh

0:29

no, there's someone standing up in the back

0:31

of class right now. They look real nervous.

0:34

They're like, uh-oh, I thought this was a,

0:37

I thought this was one of them murder shows.

0:40

I'm supposed to be in Murder Shows 101, how to get

0:42

away, I was supposed to be in How to Get Away

0:44

with Murder Class. Griffin doesn't really like the

0:46

murder shows. No, I don't.

0:48

I guess I- What is it about

0:50

murder that you think is bad? Well,

0:52

I'll tell ya. Yeah. Somehow

0:55

I'm sort of socially, not all

0:58

there, like I'm uncomfortable with a

1:00

lot of sort of interactions. Okay.

1:03

Murder seems like one of the more

1:06

sort of transgressive social interactions that

1:08

you- I know, that's why it's so delicious.

1:12

Gross. Do

1:14

you have any, do you think anyone ever

1:16

stood up in the How to Get Away with Murder Class

1:18

and was like, I'll be straight with you guys? I

1:22

was looking for- You're all under arrest. I'm

1:25

supposed to be in like

1:27

Earth Sciences and I have

1:30

been so embarrassed to like stand up. You

1:33

all seem like you're really into this

1:35

and I'm gonna go learn about minerals.

1:38

Do you have any small wonders? I do.

1:40

So you've got kind of a grunge look

1:42

going on. You like that. Which I like,

1:44

but actually my small wonder is a t-shirt

1:47

over a long sleeve shirt. That's

1:49

the opposite of what I'm doing though. And so that's

1:51

from the grunge era. Yes.

1:53

Okay. It made me think of- I

1:55

always get delighted when I think of the

1:57

fact that I could wear a t-shirt over

2:00

a long sleeve. sleeve shirt. It is not

2:02

something I remember to do frequently because it's

2:04

not really the style anymore. No. But anytime

2:06

I see someone doing it, I'm like, oh my

2:09

gosh, I could do that. I guarantee you that'll

2:11

come back. I feel like the cyclical

2:13

way that fashion trends go, and I'm really plugged into

2:15

this shit if you can't tell. Yeah. I

2:17

feel like 20, 26

2:20

around the time that the internet stops

2:23

being a thing we all use, I

2:25

think we're all gonna go full fucking

2:28

Doug on it. Just all our

2:30

underwear on the outside of the pants, quail man

2:32

style. That reminds me that I want to get

2:34

a sweater vest. I really like sweater vests and

2:36

I don't have one right now. You would look

2:38

great in a sweater vest. And this is the weather we're

2:40

in. This is the moment. This is the

2:42

moment. Not much longer. It's gonna heat up. You can't wear

2:45

sweater vests when the blossoms are blooming.

2:48

I'm gonna say Doug. That show had a very

2:52

special place in my heart. This is

2:54

a little boy and he wasn't, he was

2:57

not very cool,

2:59

but he wanted to be so bad. And

3:01

he liked a lot of cool stuff. Yeah.

3:03

That's why I always appreciate about Doug. He

3:06

liked a lot of cool stuff. He knew

3:08

a lot of cool people, but he

3:10

himself wasn't. He himself wasn't. He was

3:12

kind of a regular guy, you know. Sort of a right,

3:14

well I don't know. Except when he was quail man. Except

3:16

when he was quail man. Big imagination,

3:19

bigger nose. Whoa. Big

3:21

nose. Everybody in that show had pretty honking

3:24

on their shoulders. I

3:26

go first this week. Doug is also

3:29

my big wonder. What's up? No. How

3:31

wild would that be? I know. I had a moment where I

3:33

was like, really? You looked frightened at

3:36

the possibility of me talking

3:38

about Doug. It's more that it's

3:41

so taboo to use your... You should talk

3:43

about Doug. No. To use

3:45

your small wonder is your topic. Right.

3:47

No, I would never. I would never. That's

3:49

against the unwritten rules that we have created

3:51

for the show. No.

3:54

My big wonder this week is a game, but

3:56

I think it's one that we can all get

3:58

behind. It is Super Smash Bros. Oh,

4:02

this one is really good for everyone. It's

4:04

good for all of us. Even if you

4:06

don't know what you're doing, you just hit

4:08

a bunch of buttons. And that's fun. And

4:10

the guys will do stuff. I

4:12

get into that a bit later on, but I've

4:15

never really gotten deep

4:17

into the fighting game scene,

4:21

all the way back from like, you know, Mortal

4:23

Kombat when that was first coming out. Because

4:25

it always annoyed me that

4:28

every character had a different

4:30

sequence of, like,

4:32

arcane button inputs

4:34

and combos that you had to

4:37

memorize. And so like, even

4:39

today, like people who are good at fighting

4:41

games are like, well, I main Sub-Zero. So

4:44

I know all the different controls for

4:46

Sub-Zero. But if you drop me down

4:48

into, you know, into,

4:50

I can't think of a single other

4:52

Mortal Kombat Scorpion, then like, I'm not

4:55

going to know what I'm doing. That's

4:57

always very annoying. Smash Brothers did away

4:59

with all that. It's like you press

5:01

one button and it does the same

5:04

shit for every character. And that's

5:06

very good. Well, they do have different

5:08

powers. Different powers, but you don't have to do like,

5:11

you don't have to do like a button sequence. Right. Yeah.

5:14

So to do a Hadouken in Street Fighter, sort of the most iconic

5:17

move in fighting, you have to do a

5:19

quarter circle turn with the stick and then

5:21

hit punch. And you have to do it

5:23

with the right timing. And so

5:26

like, it's not like you press the Hadouken button. That

5:28

always drove me fucking crazy. And

5:30

so like, I would learn how to do that.

5:32

And then I'd be like, well, I guess I

5:34

main Ryu. Now when I played Street Fighter, the

5:36

character I would always play as was E. Honda,

5:38

because you could crouch and then press the punch

5:40

button really fast. And he would do this thousand

5:42

hand slap and you could just slowly walk into

5:44

your opponent and hope that they didn't move around

5:47

too much. And I was like, well, that's my

5:49

main. But Smash Brothers, it's the same buttons. It's

5:51

the same buttons every time. And there's not even that

5:53

many buttons on a Nintendo 64 controller to begin with.

5:55

So it seems like a lot of buttons to me.

5:58

Well, yeah, anytime you get those like shoulder buttons. I'm

6:00

like, what? What? You're not

6:02

on the top. So I've

6:05

been a Nintendo fan my whole life because the

6:07

NES more or less came to the States around

6:09

the same time I did. And

6:14

I play everything they make, I pretty much

6:16

always have. And so in November 1999, which

6:20

was like a wild time for Nintendo in the

6:22

first place because that's about when Pokemon came out,

6:25

just a lot of game playing was

6:27

happening around that time. Nintendo

6:30

released Super Smash Brothers for the Nintendo 64. And

6:32

it was just, it was one of the

6:34

more monumental kind of gaming moments in my

6:36

life. Because imagine you grow

6:38

up playing games that

6:41

have Mario and Donkey Kong and

6:43

Link and Samus

6:45

from Metroid and all

6:48

of these different characters in it. And

6:50

then all of a sudden you can play as all of them in

6:52

the same game. That was

6:55

literally unheard of. And

6:58

I would say remains unheard of outside of the boundary.

7:00

So it started with a whole bunch of characters. It

7:02

wasn't like it started with fours. It started with 12.

7:05

It actually started with eight and you had to

7:07

unlock the other four. And it was really fucking

7:10

hard to unlock the other four. I

7:12

remember playing this game

7:14

with my friend Clint, trying to

7:17

unlock Ness from Earthbound, which is

7:19

a pretty obscure, like Super

7:21

Nintendo RPG, but he was like the last character you

7:23

had unlocked. You had to like

7:25

beat the arcade mode on the hardest setting

7:27

without like having to use a continue. And

7:30

it was really, we had

7:32

multiple days of attempts. And

7:35

then finally we did it. We beat the game on

7:37

the hardest mode without using a continue. And then you

7:39

have to beat Ness. And we

7:41

were just like on like

7:44

the edges of our seats. Like

7:46

one of the biggest pop offs

7:48

I think ever. Which

7:50

like knowing the two of us, not really

7:52

the popping off type. It

7:54

was a huge moment. But

7:58

yeah, I mean it was a tough game. where

8:00

you could play as these 12 different characters from

8:02

different games using a very

8:04

simple control scheme. And so all of a

8:06

sudden, like, I could play fighting

8:08

games. Anyone could play fighting games. And

8:11

so in that way, it became more

8:13

of like a party game, which the

8:15

Nintendo 64 had some like really good

8:17

ones up. So it was just in

8:19

this rotation of that and Mario Party

8:21

and, you know, Mario

8:24

Tennis. There was like a

8:26

beautiful sort of ecosystem of

8:28

party games that Smash Brothers like

8:30

dominated when it first came out in 99. So

8:34

I played it, I played it nonstop with my brothers

8:36

and my friends, everyone at my school was talking

8:38

about it. It had one of the,

8:40

no, it had the all time best

8:42

commercial for video games ever, because

8:45

it was just people in

8:47

mascot costumes for Mario and

8:50

Donkey Kong and Pikachu. And

8:52

they were like holding hands, frolicking through a field

8:54

to, I can't

8:57

thank you, love you no more. And

8:59

then they just start beating the shit out of

9:01

each other. I do not remember this, but that's

9:04

great. I will show it to you later. It

9:06

was so like sacrilegious in a way. And

9:12

it also was like very much like 90s tood that

9:16

really, really worked for me. So this was like

9:18

a huge, huge game for like

9:20

all the people in my life who I

9:22

knew who played games. More

9:24

entries in the series came out. There

9:27

was Smash Brothers Melee on the GameCube

9:30

that added like a bunch more characters and also added

9:32

like a bunch of weird high

9:34

level play sort of strategy that I

9:36

didn't really enjoy. Like there's

9:38

a lot of very advanced techniques you can do

9:40

to like move your character like a little bit

9:42

faster or be a little bit

9:44

more evasive. And so like the hardcore Smash

9:47

Brothers community still plays this one because it's

9:49

the one that like lets you do the

9:51

most like technical high level

9:53

shit that is completely inscrutable to

9:55

me. And frankly kind of goes

9:58

against the spirit of Smash. in

10:01

the first place, which is why I didn't really rock with that

10:03

much too much. From the very beginning, did they do this thing where

10:05

you could fall off the edge of the platform and die? Yeah, that

10:07

was another big thing. It's like you weren't trying to deplete

10:09

someone's health bar, right? Half

10:12

the game is about movement

10:14

and positioning yourself well so

10:17

that you're not just gonna take a bunch of hits

10:20

right on the edge of the map. It's also about

10:22

picking up the items that appear and so that's a

10:24

huge balancing. And also being able to find

10:26

your character on the screen at any point because

10:28

that happens to me a lot. That's why I

10:31

hate those levels where you can fall off the

10:33

edge because if there's like

10:35

four characters on the screen, all of a sudden. And

10:37

you just walk right off. Yeah, and I've seen this happen to

10:39

Henry too. It's like, wait, where am I? Oh no. He

10:42

does get very, very frustrated. So

10:44

then there was, on the Wii, there was Super Smash

10:46

Brothers Brawl which added even more characters. There

10:48

was Super Smash Brothers for Wii U which is

10:51

not a great title that added

10:53

even more characters. And then finally, Smash Brothers Ultimate

10:55

came out on the Nintendo Switch in 2018. And

10:59

Ultimate was notable for one, being sort

11:01

of the last Smash Brothers

11:03

game because I can't imagine why you

11:06

would need any more, anything else. It

11:09

was notable because it included every character from

11:12

the roster that had ever been present in

11:14

any other entry in the series. I remember

11:16

when they announced that at E3. Like,

11:19

who's kinda, a lot of people come in and they're like,

11:21

oh, I miss playing as

11:24

Falco in this one because he wasn't in

11:26

Smash Brothers for Wii U. Well, guess what?

11:28

Fuckin' everyone's going to be there. Not only

11:30

that, this game, Super

11:32

Smash Brothers Ultimate for Switch contains a

11:36

unthinkable amount of crossover characters.

11:38

Not just characters from other

11:40

Nintendo games, although they certainly

11:43

go very, very deep in

11:45

the roster for those

11:47

characters. Games that Nintendo didn't

11:49

even make, right? You have Sonic,

11:51

you have Pac-Man, you have

11:53

Simon Belmont from Castlevania, you have

11:57

Banjo-Kazooie. I feel like a lot

11:59

of the Nickelodeon. characters right well that's

12:01

Nickelodeon all-stars brawl which is a different

12:03

which is a different game that would

12:05

be lit if like we could get

12:07

that get Danny Phantom in

12:09

the official Smash Brothers mix that game is great

12:11

I love Nintendo all-stars brawl I think

12:13

is what it's called and Henry does too because you

12:16

can be Garfield in it but

12:18

like you had like old RPG

12:20

characters cloud and Sephiroth from Final Fantasy

12:22

7 Sora from Kingdom Hearts that game

12:24

has 89 playable characters

12:27

in it which is crazy

12:29

that is a bonkers number of characters

12:31

for any game especially any fighting game

12:33

where like balance and fine-tuning is like

12:35

the most important thing nobody's gonna like

12:37

play a competitive game like that if

12:39

there's just like the one character that

12:41

can beat all of the other character

12:43

I imagine what happened is they like started

12:46

with less and they kept getting feedback like

12:48

oh you should really include this one and

12:50

they just kept doing it until it was

12:52

like every single absolutely like

12:54

it was an ongoing

12:56

thing of when

12:59

ultimate came out in 2018 right this

13:02

this franchise is almost 20 years old and so

13:04

that was 20 years of people asking for characters

13:06

to be in the game and teasing out like

13:09

a big one is Ridley is this

13:11

big alien monster from Metroid

13:14

named for Ridley Scott and so like people

13:17

have been asking for him for so long

13:19

and then I remember when the trailer came

13:21

out anytime they would announce a character they

13:23

would do it this big cinematic trailer

13:25

that would be like several minutes long and it

13:27

would show like Mario you know walking along a

13:30

bridge and then Sephiroth comes like flying out of

13:32

the sky and stabs him through the chest and

13:34

everyone's like oh shit Sephiroth's in the game some

13:37

of my favorite gaming videos ever

13:41

are like crowd reactions to

13:43

character announcements because

13:45

there is something so pure and

13:49

just undeniably enjoyable about

13:51

seeing a crowd of adults

13:53

gathered at the Nintendo World

13:55

Store to watch the like

13:58

Nintendo Direct press conference And

14:00

then when they announced that fucking

14:02

Banjo Kazooie is coming to the

14:04

game and just everybody loses their

14:07

minds That is I watched that

14:09

video from time to time because

14:11

it is just pure delight to

14:13

see To see people

14:15

get excited. There is nothing else like it

14:17

in all of gaming I can't think of

14:19

another thing where every time they would announce

14:21

some new character again 89 times people would

14:24

just loot flip absolute shit And

14:26

then of course the game came out and was

14:28

incredible just like one of my favorite games

14:30

ever one of

14:32

the things I really do enjoy about how approachable

14:34

it is is that Henry has been able to

14:36

like play it and get Really into it because

14:39

it's not that hard to like make the characters

14:41

do cool stuff and sort of succeed I don't

14:43

like play with the difficulty, right? So yeah,

14:45

you can customize the game in like a million

14:47

different ways to make it so that you are

14:50

beating up, you know seven You

14:52

know jiggly puffs that are

14:55

have their difficulty set to zero Yeah, all

14:57

of a sudden like it's a totally different

14:59

thing There's like a whole story mode that

15:01

is like genuinely very good that that

15:04

we have played through I think a couple of times now And

15:07

it's really wonderful to like have this game that

15:09

I love playing That I get

15:12

to play with Henry that he gets a big kick

15:14

out of and also like he

15:16

gets to like learn about all of

15:18

these different characters Most of

15:20

which like I grew up with and

15:22

so like this is his first exposure To

15:25

like a lot of a lot of these characters.

15:27

He has played way more Smash Brothers than he's

15:29

ever played any Zelda game so like he knows

15:31

who link is and tune link and Young

15:34

link who are three different characters in this master

15:36

because of because of Smash Brothers I

15:40

think that's I think that's really really really special

15:43

and cool. I Love

15:45

this game. I can't think of too

15:47

many other more important games than it

15:50

We're like desert island If

15:52

I'm on a desert island with my switch like

15:54

I would want Smash Brothers ultimate to be there

15:56

with me because it's just a it Is just

15:59

a big toy box Full of stuff that

16:01

is fun to play with that you can play

16:03

with any way that you want You

16:05

make your own levels you like make your own

16:07

characters now It's like there's so many so many

16:09

ways to get around with it It is it

16:11

is a very generous game and everything it does

16:13

is so good And and I can't think of

16:16

too many other games that kind of fit that

16:18

bill. Yeah, let's smash brothers. Cool Can I steal

16:20

you away? Yes, thanks Our

16:28

children are home from school I

16:31

mean the little ones always at home a real lay about

16:33

that one That means that he's wanted

16:35

to use the iPad which means he's wanted to play

16:37

some apps that he hasn't played with in a while

16:39

And have me pay ten dollars a month to subscribe

16:42

to those apps But you know what? I'm not stressing

16:44

about it because I know rocket buddy is gonna get

16:46

me on the backside When

16:48

we inevitably stop playing these apps Rocket money

16:50

is so incredible for going through your subscriptions

16:53

figuring out which ones you don't want They'll

16:55

even help you cancel some of them, which

16:57

I think is just above and beyond the call of

16:59

duty You've used rocket money a lot

17:02

recently to save some cash, right? Yeah,

17:04

my biggest Weakness

17:06

is when a regional newspaper says

17:08

do you want to read more

17:10

do this free trial and

17:13

then it's only Seventeen dollars

17:15

a month and I'm like, I'll cancel this

17:17

and then I don't yeah, you're like, when am

17:20

I gonna want to read the Oklahoma Sun

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rocket money comm slash wonderful That's rocket

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selling this guy Yeah, you

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mean Cyberman the internet guy. Uh-huh. I love

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Squarespace because you must have a website I'm

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don't keep too terribly updated But I

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how it looks so much that I don't worry about

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a website or domain The

19:17

Eurovision song contest hundreds of millions of people

19:19

watch it every year It played a part

19:21

in a democratic revolution in Portugal and introduced

19:23

the world to River Nance and it launched

19:25

Celine Dion's career But you might have never

19:27

watched it It's got so much history and

19:29

so many storylines that it can feel overwhelming

19:32

to get into. Mm-hmm It's like a real

19:34

housewife season, but everyone's a better singer. Well

19:36

sometimes but that's where we come in. I'm

19:38

Dimitri Pompey I'm Oscar Montoya and I'm Jeremy

19:40

Bent and we're the hosts of Eurovangelis if

19:42

you're new to Eurovision We'll tell you everything

19:44

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19:46

world's most important song competition And if

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19:50

on its wildest moments Like when Ireland

19:52

sets a turkey puppet to sing for

19:55

them You're evangelist new episodes every Thursday

19:57

on maximumfun.org or wherever you get your

19:59

podcast I'm

20:05

Sean Cruciola, host of Sealing Scene, where

20:07

we start by asking our guests just

20:10

one question. What movie character

20:12

made you Seal Scene? I knew

20:14

exactly what it was. Clementine

20:16

from Eternal Sunshine of the

20:18

Spotless Mind. Shoei Wang, slash

20:20

Shabu Kipaki. That one question

20:23

launches amazing conversations about their lives, the

20:25

movies they love, and about the past,

20:27

present, and future of entertainment. Roy in

20:30

Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I worry

20:33

about what this might say about

20:35

me, but I've brought Tracy Fligg

20:37

in the film Election. So if

20:39

you like movies, diverse perspectives, and

20:41

great conversations, check us out. Oof,

20:43

this is real. New episodes of

20:45

Sealing Scene drop every week on

20:48

maximumfun.org. You

20:53

want to know what my thing

20:55

is? Desperately. It is the NHL All-Stars

20:57

Skills Competition. Oh, hell yes. I'm

21:00

so stoked to learn about the NHL All-Stars

21:03

Skills Competition. This is coming up. It is,

21:05

yeah. What

21:07

made me think of it is we were watching

21:10

hockey last night, and the teams across the league

21:12

are going to go on what they call the

21:14

All-Stars break because on February 2nd is when

21:17

they're doing the skills competition, and then I

21:19

believe on a different day they actually play

21:21

a game, like conference versus conference. Is that called

21:23

up for the Blues? Is Thomas going up? Thomas, yeah.

21:26

Thomas is a Blues player who is great.

21:30

Robert Thomas. Robert Thomas. Not

21:32

on first name basis. You've got to be

21:34

out there for Thomas. Tommy going to be

21:36

there? Tommy! So this hasn't

21:38

actually been around that long. It's been

21:40

around since 1990. Okay. And

21:43

it's funny in the beginning. Does the All-Star

21:45

game precede it, I assume? Or

21:47

did both come out at the same time, the All-Star game

21:49

and the skills competition? Oh, that's a good

21:52

question. All-Star game, I

21:54

think, started in the 1940s. Okay,

21:58

so yeah, about 50. years.

22:02

So this is I was trying to think of

22:04

something applicable in other sports and

22:06

I know that like baseball does like

22:08

the home run derby. Yes yeah. Like

22:11

but football doesn't do anything like this

22:13

right? There's the NFL

22:15

combine but I don't know what that

22:17

is. I

22:19

think it's so I think I think it's where play

22:22

like new players come to like

22:24

show how fast they can run

22:27

a 40-yard dash. Oh there's

22:29

something along those lines. It's

22:32

been so long since I've

22:34

watched all

22:36

football games. When I used to watch a lot of

22:38

them it feels so

22:41

weird to me to

22:43

be so wildly detached from this

22:45

from the space. Well I won't let you

22:47

be that way about hockey. I don't want to be that way

22:49

about hockey. So

22:51

the All-Star Skills Competition is

22:54

if your team has a

22:56

player or a couple players

22:59

that are particularly good like

23:01

they're they're great scorers or

23:03

you have a great goaltender

23:05

or whatever they will get

23:07

kind of nominated to participate in this and then

23:09

they have some fan votes too where you can

23:12

like vote for the player you want included. I

23:14

checked. None of the Blues got

23:16

voted out. Oh I just remember the NBA slam dunk.

23:19

Oh yeah yeah.

23:23

So they all will like represent their various

23:25

divisions and play a game together and then

23:27

now since 1990 they do a

23:30

skills competition which has like a variety

23:32

of events. Yeah. One of

23:34

the ones that is like most iconic

23:36

to me is the the accuracy shooting.

23:38

Yeah. So this is where they used

23:41

to put a target in each corner

23:43

of the net and

23:45

then players would have to like hit all of them

23:47

with the puck. They would stand back I think like

23:49

at the blue line or maybe a little bit closer

23:51

and fire pucks

23:53

at those plates. Yeah it used

23:55

to be that the object was to hit all

23:58

four targets in as few attempts as possible. But

24:01

in that format, a lot of people were doing

24:03

it. It's like in 92, 93, 96, it was just

24:05

people kept being able to do that. And

24:13

so now they changed it and how fast you

24:15

can do it. And

24:18

they also for a couple of skills competitions,

24:20

they changed it up a little bit. In

24:24

2018, the foam targets were

24:26

replaced with LED targets that light up

24:28

to show the player where they had

24:30

to shoot next. In

24:33

2019, the targets had

24:36

emojis. That's nothing.

24:39

In 2020, they put a fifth target

24:41

in the center of the net. Well,

24:44

you don't usually shoot because there's a guy there.

24:46

Most of the time. That's

24:48

the most confusing one for players. It's like right in

24:50

the middle, where's the guy? But

24:53

the current record holder hit four out of

24:55

four targets in 7.3 seconds. Fucking,

24:58

who was that? It

25:01

is Sadeen. Daniel

25:05

Sadeen, Swedish

25:08

hockey player used to play with

25:10

Vancouver. That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah.

25:13

So I like that one a lot. That one's just

25:15

cool to watch. It

25:18

is amazing to me how accurate some

25:20

of these players can be. It is also a

25:22

trip in hockey. Whenever

25:25

someone scores a goal, it's a huge fucking

25:28

deal because it doesn't happen that often per

25:30

game compared to a lot of other

25:32

sports. And so to just watch people hum

25:34

puck after puck after puck after puck into

25:36

an empty net, there's a

25:38

weird primordial serotonin that

25:41

is released where it's just like,

25:43

yes, puck, go in there. Yes,

25:45

puck, get in there. I love when puck

25:47

go in net. There

25:51

is the Breakaway Challenge, which they

25:55

made into like a slam dunk style, like if

25:57

you were talking about challenge. This

26:00

didn't start till 2008. And

26:02

for 2008, 2009, and 2011, I

26:06

think 2010 there was a strike happening.

26:10

Alexander Ovechkin won all

26:12

three years. Oh really? Petranjola won in

26:15

2022, which I think I remember. I think we watched

26:17

that one. That's the one where they kind of

26:19

have to like stunt as they- They stunt, yeah.

26:22

So they will do some kind of clever

26:24

thing as they are skating towards the net

26:26

and then fans text message who they think

26:28

should win. Oh, that's good. Fastest

26:31

skater. That's

26:33

one I really like. Jordan Kairu won in 2022.

26:37

You have to just go around the ice as

26:39

fast as possible. You just do

26:42

one full lap around the outside. And

26:45

the record is 13.172. Jordan

26:51

Kairu got 13.55. That's

26:54

really good. But it kind of ranges.

26:56

It's funny, the first year they did this in 1990, they

27:00

did 28 miles per hour. I don't know

27:02

how they figured that out, but instead of

27:04

counting the amount of time, they measured the

27:06

speed. How fast did you get up to

27:08

28 miles an hour? No, they measured the

27:10

speed of who could skate fastest. So the

27:12

winner, if you look at the ranking, the

27:16

winner in 1990 just has 28 miles per

27:18

hour and everybody else has like 14 seconds, 13 seconds, 15

27:22

seconds. I don't know what they did that

27:24

first year. I see why they changed it, because otherwise

27:26

you would just get up to 28 miles an hour

27:28

and then just shatter the glass in the back of

27:30

the rink. Hardest

27:33

shot is a really good one. Oh

27:35

yeah. That's one I

27:37

like because dudes who do

27:39

that one can't do any of the

27:41

other ones. Yeah, usually we- They're not

27:44

great skaters typically. No, when you have

27:46

someone like Colt Pareco, who does like

27:48

100 plus miles flat

27:50

out several times a game, he's

27:53

not the nimblest fella out

27:56

there. So the

27:58

all-time winner of this win- winning seven

28:00

years is Al McGinnis, who

28:03

is a Saint Louis Blues player. Right. His

28:06

numbers are not actually particularly high,

28:08

but he used a wooden stick

28:11

because he thought it was more accurate. Players

28:14

now don't typically use a wooden stick

28:17

because they can get faster. Like some crazy fiberglass

28:19

shit, right? Yeah, like his fastest speed

28:21

ever in all those years was

28:23

105.2. I

28:27

mean, that's faster than I could hit it. Oh yeah, no, it's incredible.

28:31

But the

28:34

hardest shot now is up to

28:36

108.5. I

28:42

mean, that doesn't sound like a big

28:44

difference, but that's faster than any shot

28:46

I've ever seen shot in all my

28:48

time watching hockey. So those are kind

28:50

of the main ones. Yeah. And

28:53

there are a bunch that they have

28:55

tried and not continued. The

28:58

thing that I kind of love about the

29:00

NHL is there's this kind of grassroots quality

29:03

because the industry as a whole makes

29:05

half with any other. The other

29:07

sport does, yeah. So every year they're kind of

29:09

trying something new. Has there ever been

29:11

a fighting one? No. That's

29:13

my question. That would be so great though. Have

29:16

they ever had a fighting one? I'm sure they're not

29:18

against that idea. I'm sure someone suggested it. I'm

29:20

sure Craig Barubie in his time was like, hey, I have

29:22

an idea. The one we watched,

29:24

and I don't know if you remember this, this

29:26

was in 2020. Players

29:30

shot approximately 30

29:32

feet above the ice from

29:34

the seating area. They

29:38

shot seven pucks scoring points for

29:40

each target hit. They did this

29:42

one year in 2020 and Patrick

29:44

Kane won. Okay. You got 22

29:46

points. But yeah. Not

29:49

applicable traditionally when you

29:51

watch hockey, because I know there's a lot of

29:53

our fans who maybe don't watch it. So our

29:56

discussions of it is the

29:58

only exposure they have. Traditionally in

30:00

hockey, you're on the ice. There's not a lot

30:03

of There's

30:05

not a there's not a play it where it lies

30:09

It's not like a Cirque du Soleil show

30:11

where players go into the audience and interact

30:13

with the fans now I will say I

30:16

would love eradicating the delay of game penalty

30:18

when you shoot it over the glass on

30:20

your own end If

30:22

instead the rap is just like go get get

30:24

out there guys I Open

30:28

the you have to go get it now

30:30

crack open the the Zamboni portcullis and

30:33

you go get that part There

30:35

was another one a passing challenge, which I

30:38

think sounds really cool Players

30:42

had to Complete

30:44

four successful passes to the targets that

30:46

randomly lit up So

30:48

that I guess that they would have to like if

30:51

it would be lights around the arena And they would

30:53

have to like pass it to that light But

30:55

that's a shot like if you you can

30:58

only pass it to a human I feel in

31:01

my estimation the

31:03

robots aren't gonna I'm

31:06

gonna choose you when they do

31:08

their great calling in sports video

31:10

games There is a pass button

31:12

and there is a shoot button

31:14

and the pass button I

31:16

feel like necessitates a receiver of the

31:18

path of the path. Yeah, I mean,

31:20

what are you passing if it is not to? Yeah,

31:23

yeah now you're just now you're just Ridding

31:26

yourself of it as fast as you possibly can

31:29

Okay, so 2024 this year in Toronto There's

31:37

a lot that is fun about this so

31:39

one thing is that each

31:42

team Will

31:44

have a celebrity Attached

31:47

to it. I don't know if you remember it's

31:49

in path I feel like Jon Hamm was at

31:52

one year but for celebrity captains, so they are

31:54

connected to the various. Okay, that's nice You

31:56

know, there's like a metropolitan league and

31:58

a central league and Pacific League So

32:01

those four celebrities for whatever reason they only list

32:04

three in this article. So I don't know what

32:06

that means Justin Bieber We'll

32:09

are we'll our net which teams are they? Associated

32:12

are they are they each associated with a team

32:14

you said? Yeah, okay Do you have do you

32:16

know who each one I assume both of them

32:19

are I'm guessing Canucks and

32:21

Oilers and well, no

32:24

Each division has all

32:26

okay. So then I'm saying yes, I get you now So

32:29

it doesn't really matter honestly, you know,

32:31

because every division will have players from

32:33

different teams I thought you were saying

32:35

each NHL team now had a celebrity

32:37

representative, which is like that's 32 celebrities

32:40

That would be a lot of famous people I

32:42

think to get to go to the now the

32:45

celebrity captains helped the four all-star

32:47

team captains select their 11 player

32:50

teams Now help I don't

32:52

know what that means in this case.

32:54

Yeah, but it's Justin Bieber will our

32:56

net Who both have

32:59

connections to hockey like both hockey

33:01

enthusiasts both Canadian? Yes. Yes Okay,

33:03

I mean the third I

33:05

think is also a Canadian Michael Bublé

33:08

Okay, I don't know what his connection to hockey

33:10

might be it's possible. He also has one So

33:17

the thing that is particularly interesting

33:19

this year Usually with

33:21

the skills competition it was kind of

33:23

open to everybody like anybody could get

33:25

out there like, you know Jordan Cairo's

33:28

like oh, I'm a fast skater. I'm gonna

33:30

compete in the right skater This

33:32

year only 12 players are

33:34

gonna compete in the competitions and they're

33:36

gonna compete throughout Interesting

33:39

and then the winner will get a million

33:41

dollars. What? They

33:44

will collect points throughout the competitions

33:47

And at the end the winner will get a million dollars.

33:49

Apparently the winning goalie will get a hundred thousand dollars,

33:51

too So but there's not a blues player

33:53

in these skills competition, right? No. Okay. No

33:56

They announced all the players actually Nice.

34:00

A lot of the i they have to be

34:02

big name. The yeah ways as.

34:04

I. Know Connor Mcdavid era when asked

34:06

him off the list. He's He's

34:08

quite good. Yeah, ah, I'm.

34:11

By. Ah, up a dark Delobel

34:13

though. Now.

34:15

I mean he's brand new already. I don't think

34:18

you get there right away. The

34:20

other thing that I thought was funny

34:22

about this is how much it is

34:25

sponsored like. You know how ninja warrior

34:27

like would have the minions? whatever. Next

34:29

day, buddies vapours. You can't say

34:31

that and then just expect from

34:34

the sense that if anyone other

34:36

than your beloved husband to glean

34:38

that your little spare. Portions of

34:40

the Ninja Warrior course that have

34:42

some kind of promotion associated with

34:45

it and sell i get the

34:47

go over appeared as is the

34:49

like Minions Ted. And there's big

34:51

balls that role when you jump on

34:53

them and you have to run across

34:55

a very fast and the number of

34:58

people who had built their whole years

35:00

around this one ninja warrior course run

35:02

to be thwarted by the minions and

35:04

and look up at them from the

35:07

pool of water like you fucking minions

35:09

is funny. Every single time it happened.

35:11

So around one fastest skater it

35:13

is the Sas and all Nhl

35:16

fastest skater I had to look

35:18

up with Sas and all was

35:20

apparently it is a as was

35:22

as the largest fastener distributor in

35:24

north. America? Are you there have? that's where

35:26

we the Zephyr he weeks three. Like

35:28

a D S an idea second

35:31

set up there says the Cheetos

35:33

Nhl Accuracy Cities. That

35:37

I will say if they suspended

35:39

Cedars I know right weigh a

35:41

miraculous shattered. You. Know puffy or

35:43

currency me to your choice. This

35:45

one's new. There is a Pepsi Nhl

35:47

obstacle. Course. By. Sammy. It's

35:50

like ah the top six point ers

35:52

will advance to the eighth and final

35:55

event. Ah, An obstacle course. I

35:57

think they have to do a little bit everything. Okay,

35:59

cool. all at once. Hey, I wanna watch this,

36:01

I think, even if we don't know anyone in it. I

36:04

know, that's my thought. If you are not

36:06

somebody that follows hockey because you find it

36:08

complicated and difficult to stick with, this is

36:10

just a fun thing

36:13

to watch. Yeah, I remember, obviously,

36:15

we're very, very deeply invested in the

36:17

Blues as an organization, but

36:19

watching Cairo win the speed skating competition

36:22

in 22, you said, I

36:24

remember that just on our feet, really,

36:28

very, very, very excited for this

36:31

very silly thing. Also,

36:34

the Tim Horton One-timers

36:37

competition, that's

36:39

just like somebody passes it

36:41

to you and you just immediately shoot.

36:44

That's fascinating. I think

36:46

that's it. I think I'll be

36:48

curious to see if this new format

36:50

sticks around or not. Like on one

36:52

hand, I get the 12-player idea because

36:57

it makes them more competitive. The prize

36:59

will make them, I guess, compete harder.

37:02

But also we don't see any players we know

37:04

because it's a much, much smaller roster. Yeah,

37:06

and I used to think of it

37:08

in Olympic format where I wanted to

37:11

believe when Jordan Cairo won, he was

37:13

officially the fastest skater in all of

37:15

the NHL, which you

37:17

can't even really say was much confidence

37:19

if only 12 players did it. Yeah.

37:23

Hey, do you wanna know what our friends at home are talking about? Ben

37:26

says, when you go to fill up your pill

37:28

container for the week and you dump exactly seven

37:30

pills in your hand, it makes me feel like

37:32

I have some sort of superpower. Ooh. Shit,

37:37

I love it. This is the most adult

37:39

thing to be excited about, but I know

37:41

exactly what this person is saying. It's very

37:43

good. It's convenient, it

37:45

makes you feel good about yourself. I

37:49

know when seven pills are in my hand.

37:51

Yeah. It's huge. And

37:53

also you have to spend less time refilling your pill

37:55

caddy, which is such a chore. Finn

37:58

says, my small wonder recently has been the presence of... bodega

38:00

cats at my local deli and always makes my

38:02

day that much better to meet a furry little

38:04

guy when getting my morning coffee, especially when the

38:06

staff refers to the manager. So if we've had

38:08

bodega cats admitted for this very

38:10

segment again, I can't get enough a year and

38:12

about these little guys. Yeah, the only comparable

38:15

thing I had growing up was there was

38:17

a used bookstore that had cats and as

38:19

a kid, I always used to like going

38:21

because there were just cats hanging out in

38:23

Sunbeams. We had a costume

38:25

shop called Magic Makers in Huntington

38:27

that we went to unsurprisingly live.

38:29

The owners of that store owned

38:31

a monkey together. So

38:36

you go into like Dracula teeth

38:39

or whatever. And

38:41

the monkey would be

38:43

there. I'm confused. I thought

38:45

only the monkey was a caputria. I

38:47

did a whole report on it for set minds in seventh

38:49

grade. I thought when

38:51

you owned a business, you were under some scrutiny

38:54

and it seems like somebody would be like, oh,

38:57

you can't own a monkey. Not if I

38:59

mean Huntington was pretty chill about it.

39:03

That's it for the episode. Thank you so much for

39:05

listening. Thank you to Bo in and Augustus for these

39:07

for a theme song money won't pay. I'm going to

39:09

link to that in the episode description. Thank you to

39:11

maximum fun. Also for having us on the network, go

39:13

to maximum fun.org. Check out all the great stuff they

39:15

got floating around on there.

39:17

You're going to find something that you like there, I bet.

39:21

And we have merch over at McElroy

39:23

merch. I don't know what day you're listening to this on.

39:26

If it is January,

39:28

we got that three brother moon shirt still

39:30

going on. If it's February, what's other new

39:32

stuff? February got in store. Can you give

39:34

any teasers? Oh yeah. Oh

39:40

yeah, baby. There's

39:43

a, uh, there's

39:46

a new shirt. First of all, if

39:49

you want fun galore, you're going to have fun.

39:52

Do not worry about that. We've got you so

39:54

many. I don't, I don't know when this

39:56

episode comes out, so I don't want to spoil too much. So maybe I'll just

39:58

drop that to say a lot of fun. Yeah, I mean

40:00

I think a lot of our Lord coming your way. Yeah So

40:04

so go check all that out. Uh, let's

40:06

stop. Let's let's stop there Okay,

40:08

this has been a good one and let's not let's

40:10

not get greedy, you know, we got in there We

40:13

delivered gold. Let's get out. Okay,

40:15

wash our hands of it. Okay we'll

40:18

see you guys we'll see you guys next week and That's

40:22

us washing our hands of you. Bye. Bye

40:30

I love her Maximum

41:02

fun a workaround network of

41:04

artist-owned shows