Become a Never Post member at https://www.neverpo.st/ for access to extended and bonus segments, and our side shows like “Slow Post”, “Posts from the Field” and “Never Watch”
The Willy Wonka Event’s Lead Actor Speaks Out: ‘It Was Just Gibberish’ - WIRED
–
Never Post’s producers are Audrey Evans, Georgia Hampton and The Mysterious Dr. Firstname Lastname. Our senior producer is Hans Buetow. Our executive producer is Jason Oberholtzer. The show’s host is Mike Rugnetta.
Become a Never Post member at https://www.neverpo.st/ for access to extended and bonus segments, and our side shows like “Slow Post”, “Posts from the Field” and “Never Watch”
The Willy Wonka Event’s Lead Actor Speaks Out: ‘It Was Just Gibberish’ - WIRED
–
Never Post’s producers are Audrey Evans, Georgia Hampton and The Mysterious Dr. Firstname Lastname. Our senior producer is Hans Buetow. Our executive producer is Jason Oberholtzer. The show’s host is Mike Rugnetta.
Host of Never Post. Creator of Fun City, Reasonably Sound, Idea Channel and other internet things.
GH
Producer
Georgia Hampton
Producer
Hans Buetow
Independent Senior Audio Producer. Formerly with Terrible, Thanks for Asking and The New York Times
What is Never Post?
A podcast about and for the internet, hosted by Mike Rugnetta
Mike Rugnetta:
Friends, hello and welcome to Never Posts, Post Mortem, a year end quiz show for and about the Internet. I'm your host, Mike Rugnetta, and hello 2025. The final year of the Internet, surely. Today, here, and now though, we bid farewell to the absolute shit fight that was 2024 by asking our esteemed panelists, organized in 3 teams of 2, Questions About It. To celebrate our guests for what they've seen.
Mike Rugnetta:
To mock them for what they've missed. We celebrate the year for what it brought us and damn it for what it did to us. On the first esteemed team, we have writer, host, video maker, and Internet science communicator about town, Tom Lumb.
Tom Lum:
Ka chow. Hello. Hello.
Akilah Hughes:
Ka chow.
Mike Rugnetta:
Tom, thank
Tom Lum:
you for joining us.
Mike Rugnetta:
And teamed with Tom, writer, filmmaker, culture critic, and video essayist, Lily Alexander.
Lily Alexandre:
We're going with Ka Chow Ka Chow. Thanks for having me.
Mike Rugnetta:
Next up, team The Second, author, comedian, actor, and host of the podcast Rebel Spirit among many others, Akilah Hughes.
Akilah Hughes:
It's me.
Tom Lum:
It does feel like a
Akilah Hughes:
like a video game character select screen. You're like, what am I supposed to do? There's a ton of people in here.
Mike Rugnetta:
Everybody's bobbing gently side to side.
Lily Alexandre:
Mhmm.
Mike Rugnetta:
And Tequila's teammates, author, comedian, actor, and host of the podcast 16th Minute of Fame, among many others, Jamie Loftus.
Jamie Loftus:
Wow.
Mike Rugnetta:
Uncanny. Uncanny. And last, but by no means least, team 3, journalist and author of the newsletter Garbage Day, Ryan Broderick.
Ryan Broderick:
Hello there. Thank you for having me.
Akilah Hughes:
Oh, that's how
Tom Lum:
that's how you're supposed to do it. I see.
Akilah Hughes:
Damn it.
Ryan Broderick:
Thank you. Thank you very much. I've enjoyed being
Akilah Hughes:
on the show. Thank you for having me.
Mike Rugnetta:
Wow. Ryan's also the only one on the call wearing a full
Akilah Hughes:
suit. I want your
Ryan Broderick:
audience to know that I am wearing a Creed t shirt. It is it is the post 9 11 Creed halftime show shirt.
Akilah Hughes:
Oh my god.
Ryan Broderick:
Never forget.
Mike Rugnetta:
I'm from Boston where, we name Creed t shirts suits. That's when you say suit.
Tom Lum:
It's a Boston suit. Yeah.
Jamie Loftus:
The Boston Tux. Boston Tux.
Akilah Hughes:
Yeah. That's right. That's right.
Mike Rugnetta:
And Ryan is alongside as always researcher for the newsletter garbage day, Adam Bumas.
Adam Bumas:
Because this is just an audio medium you can't see, I look exactly like Ryan, but the Creed t shirt has the colors reversed.
Ryan Broderick:
Yeah. Because yeah. Adam, say hello. You have to say hello. You
Akilah Hughes:
have to say Hi, everyone. There you go. There
Ryan Broderick:
you go.
Akilah Hughes:
We don't know
Mike Rugnetta:
if you're happy to be here yet.
Adam Bumas:
Well, we'll see, won't we?
Mike Rugnetta:
Welcome, everybody. As already mentioned, my name is Mike Rugnetta. I am your quiz master, and I am joined behind the scenes by Never Post's senior producer, Hans Buto, and in front of the scenes by Never Post's producer, Georgia Hampton. Georgia, hello.
Georgia Hampton:
Hello. I am going to analyze and tally in ways you can't even imagine.
Mike Rugnetta:
Georgia's role in the game is as scorekeeper, adjudicator, and in the event while playing there any disputes, informational, personal, spiritual, Georgia will be here to track down the truth in a world which has otherwise completely abandoned it. Thank you, Georgia, and good luck. I think there is a version of this game where your job is harder than anyone else's.
Georgia Hampton:
I'm just here to hold space for everyone on the call right now.
Mike Rugnetta:
We appreciate that. We appreciate that and we need it. It's also it's a lot of space to hold. So how is this gonna work? Very simple.
Mike Rugnetta:
We have 4 rounds of 5 questions with some bonus questions here and there about what happened online and so, by which I mean what happened in the world in 2024. After I ask each question, the teams are gonna have 1 minute to deliberate amongst themselves and write their answer privately. At the end of a round, we're gonna score answers 1 by 1. This means that teams will have time to change their answers to early round questions later in the round. Correct answers are worth one point unless otherwise stated, and there are no penalties for wrong answers.
Mike Rugnetta:
Not that you would, but we very politely request that as a matter of good sportsmanship, you not go searching the Internet for answers as we play.
Georgia Hampton:
I'll know about it.
Mike Rugnetta:
Georgia has installed cameras in all of your houses.
Georgia Hampton:
I'm observing I'm surveilling all of you.
Mike Rugnetta:
At the end of the game, the team with the most points wins. Oh.
Lily Alexandre:
So me and Tom.
Georgia Hampton:
We do things a little differently.
Akilah Hughes:
Okay. That's interesting.
Ryan Broderick:
Now I'm
Akilah Hughes:
curious. Okay.
Mike Rugnetta:
Before we began recording, we also asked the teams to name themselves. So we're just gonna go in order here. Tom and Lily, what is your team name? I think we have stuck with, nerds of a feather,
Tom Lum:
but also subtitle, the Lily Berry of Tombris, like Library of Congress.
Akilah Hughes:
Oh my god.
Lily Alexandre:
I'm so glad we we made named that on the air.
Akilah Hughes:
Lily Berry. So is that like a
Mike Rugnetta:
a like, if we get mad at you, we call you by your full team name?
Akilah Hughes:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta:
Aqyla and Jamie, what is your team name?
Akilah Hughes:
So maybe we didn't do this part. Let me just say, I think that Jamie's got it. Mhmm. Mhmm.
Jamie Loftus:
I was hoping you'd say that.
Akilah Hughes:
I mean, I will say, I did think last night we should be called the dog hots.
Jamie Loftus:
I'm into
Mike Rugnetta:
Now it's in. That's what that's it.
Akilah Hughes:
That's it.
Mike Rugnetta:
The dog
Jamie Loftus:
It's done.
Mike Rugnetta:
The dog hot.
Jamie Loftus:
It's done.
Georgia Hampton:
The dog hot.
Akilah Hughes:
The dog hot. The dog hot. So sorry. I'm so sorry.
Jamie Loftus:
There it is. It feels right. It feels right.
Akilah Hughes:
Because we're hot. I have a dog. Hot dogs. And then
Jamie Loftus:
for me, it's hot dogs.
Ryan Broderick:
Oh, I see.
Jamie Loftus:
It makes you think. Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta:
Ryan Adam.
Ryan Broderick:
We're gonna stick with our branding. So I think we're gonna be a garbage man. Can we be a garbage man?
Mike Rugnetta:
I'll allow it.
Ryan Broderick:
Okay. Cool.
Mike Rugnetta:
Alright. We got nerds of a feather, the dog hots, and the garbage men.
Ryan Broderick:
A perfect spa band lineup. Exactly.
Mike Rugnetta:
I know exactly how we are going to score the ad break that we are going to take right now.
Ryan Broderick:
It's very easy to turn an 8 person Zoom call into a Scott band if
Mike Rugnetta:
you were fighting that.
Akilah Hughes:
I think we already have. That's what going by
Ryan Broderick:
the end.
Akilah Hughes:
Statistically likely. Yeah. Exactly.
Mike Rugnetta:
Alright. Welcome back to Post Mortem. Some of today's questions were written in collaboration with our good friends at EX Research. A quote research report about games, music, and the Internet, and everything in between, as well as the Pudding data journalism and the storytelling team extraordinaire. You may remember the folks from EX from our Never Post segment on Roblox.
Mike Rugnetta:
You can and absolutely should subscribe to EX Research for all of your weird internet info news at ex exresearch.co. And you may remember the pudding if you saw us live at XOXO. We were super lucky to share the stage with them. We are huge fans and you can find them online at pudding.cool. Okay.
Mike Rugnetta:
Credits done on with round 1. I am issuing a correction on a previous post of mine regarding celebrities. You do not, under any circumstances, gotta hand it to them. Last year, like all others before, since the first caveman painted a deer on a wall and thought he was better than everyone else, endless bits of celebrity news have plagued our timelines. Charli XCX's brat Summer defines not just a season, but a whole presidential campaign which followed it and that went very well.
Akilah Hughes:
I laugh. I laugh. I'll get a status.
Mike Rugnetta:
Thank you, Akhila. I appreciate that. Francis Ford Coppola finally released his magnum opus, Megalopolis, which one critic described as, quote, a visual feast that feels like eating spaghetti with a paintbrush. Confusing, messy, but somehow satisfying. At least, I assume that someone wrote that.
Mike Rugnetta:
Chat g p t said they did and I did not fact check it. Last reality TV show host Donald Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records for which he was,
Akilah Hughes:
I
Mike Rugnetta:
guess we didn't finish this bullet point. I'll just move on. And then, finally, Kendrick murdered Drake. Put him in the trunk of his car, smashed the car into a cube, coated the cube in concrete, and then sunk the Drake car concrete cube into the bottom of the ocean. In this round, you all are gonna be answering questions about the celebrities that terrorized our timelines this year.
Mike Rugnetta:
Everyone ready?
Akilah Hughes:
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Mike Rugnetta:
Hot to go singer, Chapel Rowan, got tons of blowback and also, in turn, Internet popularity points for shouting at a photographer on the red carpet of this year's MTV Video Music Awards. What did Chapel Rowan say to the photographer that caused such a stir?
Jamie Loftus:
Wow. I I feel I can hear you, like,
Akilah Hughes:
typing in real time. Sorry. I love it.
Lily Alexandre:
I love it.
Ryan Broderick:
Adam, is this right?
Adam Bumas:
It was it was something to that effect. I I'm I'm not sure how much we're gonna be judged on word for word.
Mike Rugnetta:
Georgia will be the one who judges if you are close enough. Next question. On June 11th 2024, YouTube channel Tim and Dee uploaded a video with this clip in it.
Speaker 9:
What's one move in bed that makes a man go crazy every time?
Jamie Loftus:
Oh, you gotta give him that hawk dude. Spit all that thing.
Mike Rugnetta:
Yep. The subject of this video, the woman that you're speaking, has gone on to launch her own podcast and recently even her own meme coin.
Lily Alexandre:
Oh.
Mike Rugnetta:
What I want to know is what is this woman's first and last name spelling counts?
Ryan Broderick:
Oh. Yeah. Well, look. I I know it really well because I'm part of the class action lawsuit.
Akilah Hughes:
Did you are they coming
Mike Rugnetta:
to repossess your house right now because of your investments in hawkhawk coin?
Jamie Loftus:
Spit coin. Spit coin.
Mike Rugnetta:
Spit coin?
Adam Bumas:
Spit coin would have been smarter.
Ryan Broderick:
I wanted the blowjob coins so bad.
Jamie Loftus:
I love how she yelled at Coffeezilla the other day.
Akilah Hughes:
She was like, well, then get off
Jamie Loftus:
the fucking call, Coffeezilla. I was like,
Akilah Hughes:
okay. Say less.
Jamie Loftus:
Say less. Say less.
Ryan Broderick:
I did find someone on chain who appears to have cashed in their MuDang coin to buy Hawk coin, which means that that that person exists in life somewhere. Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta:
K. Question number 3. Over the last several years, Internet users have observed that one time You book author, JK Rowling, has spent increasing amounts of her time focused on demonizing trans youth. What discovery was made this summer that some thought might explain her shift in focus?
Ryan Broderick:
Yes.
Adam Bumas:
Make mention where I think in the uncertain
Ryan Broderick:
Okay. Yeah.
Akilah Hughes:
You're right. Should I
Ryan Broderick:
just link to our story? What do you think?
Mike Rugnetta:
Okay. Okay. Wait.
Akilah Hughes:
You can stop laughing because it's so stupid. Yeah. It's so good.
Ryan Broderick:
It's so good.
Akilah Hughes:
I love the Internet.
Mike Rugnetta:
K. Question 4. In June of 2024, Elon Musk became a father for the 12th time. This his third child with his own neurotechnology startup Neuralink's director of special projects, Shivanzillas. My question for you is, what is their 3rd child's name?
Ryan Broderick:
Uh-oh. Is that right? I think that is right. Isn't it? I think that's the most
Adam Bumas:
I think that's the most recent.
Ryan Broderick:
I think you're right.
Adam Bumas:
Yeah. I just I just mashed I just mashed a hand on a calculator.
Akilah Hughes:
Boobless? It's crazy. It's coming to boobs.
Georgia Hampton:
It's actually Hochtua again.
Akilah Hughes:
Their kid is actually Mudang. It's not. Yeah. And that's just like that. Just a coincidence.
Mike Rugnetta:
They named it that before Mu Dang.
Akilah Hughes:
Shut up.
Georgia Hampton:
Yeah. It's just a child that's really oiled up.
Akilah Hughes:
Yeah. Just really, really greasy. It's greasy.
Ryan Broderick:
At a certain point, like, Elon Musk's body will look like Mudang's body. It will be very rubbery and wet.
Mike Rugnetta:
I think, actually, it's the other way around, isn't it? Yeah. As Mudang grows Yeah.
Akilah Hughes:
It'll look like that. But yeah.
Adam Bumas:
What if Mudang is, like, in charge of X, like, the dolphin in Johnny Mnemonic? Honestly,
Mike Rugnetta:
utopia.
Akilah Hughes:
Yeah. Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta:
Okay. 5th question in round 1. At the end of the historic fight between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul in November, Logan Paul can be seen misting his brother with the contents of a yellow can. What is Logan spraying his brother with?
Georgia Hampton:
I ask this every
Akilah Hughes:
day.
Mike Rugnetta:
That's what's funny is that's the sound that I made when I found out the answer to this question. Alright, everybody. That is the end of the main set of questions from round 1. Put your Post it note in the central answer zone. We will go over what the answers to these questions are.
Mike Rugnetta:
Question number 1 was, what did Chapel Roan say to a photographer on the MTV VMA red carpet? Team number 1, what was your answer?
Tom Lum:
My name is Chapel Roan. I'm your favorite artist favorite artist, and I'm gonna serve exactly what you are, an asshole.
Akilah Hughes:
Yeah. Just like that.
Georgia Hampton:
Is there
Akilah Hughes:
is there a way to
Georgia Hampton:
give points for, like, panache? That's a slippery slope. The answer is no. Yeah. Sorry, Tom.
Mike Rugnetta:
The dog huts. What was your answer?
Jamie Loftus:
Okay. Perform it, Akhila. Akhila didn't need to think
Akilah Hughes:
before Yeah. This just listen. This may
Jamie Loftus:
have been
Akilah Hughes:
half of her monologue. Okay? I feel like she said a lot. She was getting her photo taken, and she marched over to this man with her finger in his face and said, you you need to apologize to me. You were very mean to me.
Akilah Hughes:
I remember you. You owe me an apology.
Mike Rugnetta:
Okay. I think that may be I think that may be half right. And I wanna hear what the garbage men have to say first, and then we'll get a ruling from Georgia.
Ryan Broderick:
Wow. Yeah. So I think we are the first half of this actually, which is shut the fuck up, bitch. Which is the the quote that I remember and latched on to. Because he's talking to her.
Ryan Broderick:
Right? And so she's like, shut the fuck up, bitch. And then she says, yo, you need no yeah.
Akilah Hughes:
Yeah. And then did she say and then my part, our part did did she say that part after? Of course. It's terrible. Right.
Akilah Hughes:
It's all right here.
Mike Rugnetta:
Your part is, I think, implied. Right? It's the it's the subtext. Emotionally true.
Jamie Loftus:
Yeah. The subtext of the finger
Akilah Hughes:
is that.
Mike Rugnetta:
So yeah. I think what happened, and we'll ask Georgia for a determination here, is, a paparazzi was, making demands of her, and, Chapel Rowan had said, for someone who gets a lot of anxiety around people yelling at you, the carpet is horrifying, and I yelled back. You don't get to yell at me like that, she said. And the thing that she yelled at first was shut the fuck up.
Akilah Hughes:
Yes.
Mike Rugnetta:
But I think that Aquila is right that that chapel then had a reencounter with
Ryan Broderick:
this person.
Akilah Hughes:
Again. Yes.
Mike Rugnetta:
Yeah. So, Georgia, what do you I'll let you decide what you think is deserving of points.
Georgia Hampton:
The quote that you are pulling from Mike, from this video is Chapel saying, you shut the fuck up. Not me, bitch, specifically. End quote. End scene.
Akilah Hughes:
I did get the you exclamation point. That's you. That's that's crucial. That's crucial.
Georgia Hampton:
So I think we gotta give it to the garbage men.
Mike Rugnetta:
Yes. Congrats. K. One one point awarded to the garbage men. No points awarded.
Ryan Broderick:
The only team with 2 white guys on it.
Jamie Loftus:
I know. They got the chapel question?
Lily Alexandre:
We can all learn from you.
Mike Rugnetta:
Alright. Question number 2. On June 11, 2024 YouTube channel, Tim and Dee uploaded a clip that is now famous, the haktoah clip. Welch. What is the name of the woman who is the subject of the clip and how do you spell her name?
Mike Rugnetta:
The dog hots. I would like to hear your answer first.
Jamie Loftus:
That would be Hailey Welch, h a I l e y w e l c h.
Mike Rugnetta:
Her name is Hailey Welch. That is not how it is spelled.
Akilah Hughes:
No. Oh. Oh. Yeah. Hell, yeah.
Akilah Hughes:
No. Let's go. Let's fucking go.
Lily Alexandre:
No. Boom.
Ryan Broderick:
Yeah. We had to put this in our contest.
Akilah Hughes:
Let's fucking
Mike Rugnetta:
go. Nerd nerds of a feather.
Lily Alexandre:
Yeah. So we we got Hayley Welsh. So, s c h. When I was hesitating, I thought it might be Hayley Tua? I don't know.
Mike Rugnetta:
Unfortunately, it is also not Hayley Welch.
Akilah Hughes:
That's crazy.
Mike Rugnetta:
The Garbage Men. I can see that you have it correct. Could you spell Hayley Welch for us?
Ryan Broderick:
The hop to a girl's name is h a l I e y w e l c h, Halley Welch.
Tom Lum:
Oh, it's the first
Akilah Hughes:
name wrong. The I is after the l?
Jamie Loftus:
Her first name is a typo?
Akilah Hughes:
Yes. It's literally a typo. Yeah. It's insane. Unreal.
Ryan Broderick:
It's unbelievable.
Georgia Hampton:
That is correct.
Lily Alexandre:
I had to track I've had
Ryan Broderick:
to check this a dozen times in
Akilah Hughes:
the last week. It's it's insane.
Mike Rugnetta:
The friend of the show, Bijon Stevens, described this as a copy editor's nightmare. True copy.
Ryan Broderick:
It's incredible.
Jamie Loftus:
I do I do feel like in most pieces, they fix it or my brain does automatically. Yeah. Wow.
Akilah Hughes:
I think she's wrong.
Mike Rugnetta:
Alright. Question number 3. Over the last several years, Internet users have observed that one time why a book author J. K. Rowling has spent increasing amounts of her time focused on demonizing trans youths.
Mike Rugnetta:
Why did people think that she had such a shift in focus? Nerds of a feather.
Lily Alexandre:
She found out trans people are poor.
Akilah Hughes:
That would turn you against anybody. That's right.
Mike Rugnetta:
You know, we don't have proof that this it's not the answer that we were looking for. We don't have proof that it's wrong. Dog Hots, what did you have for this?
Akilah Hughes:
Yeah. I mean, I I believe this is correct. You know, she had some wallpaper in the background of her avatar, but if you really look at it, it does look like black mold on the walls of her house in that avatar.
Mike Rugnetta:
That is correct. That is correct. There were people who, saw in the background of JK Rowling's Twitter avatar, black mold creeping up the walls. Alas, video in New York Times, no surprise there that it was a video of the New York Times. Clearly shows that it is simply a mold like nature scene,
Akilah Hughes:
that used to be quick. Of course.
Ryan Broderick:
Of course.
Akilah Hughes:
Yeah. Totally. Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta:
Garbage Man, what did you have for this one?
Ryan Broderick:
Black mold in the walls. Yeah. Absolutely. And I believe on that. I lived in the UK for a little bit.
Ryan Broderick:
That's mold. She's got mold in there.
Akilah Hughes:
As a as a
Mike Rugnetta:
journalist, you're ready to commit to this
Ryan Broderick:
Yeah. Yeah.
Akilah Hughes:
I know. Yeah.
Ryan Broderick:
She's got mold.
Mike Rugnetta:
Next question. In July of 2024, Elon Musk had his 12th child. What is that child's name? Garbage Man?
Ryan Broderick:
This was all Adams. I'll let him take it.
Adam Bumas:
I'm pretty certain this is the name of one of his kids. I'm not sure if it's this one. As you said, he has many. We said techno mechanicus. The mechanicus being a reference to Warhammer 40 k.
Mike Rugnetta:
Obviously. Obviously. Technomechanicus is the name of one of his children. It is the name of his, last his third child with Grimes, but it is not the name of this child.
Ryan Broderick:
3rd child with Grimes. Oh, yeah.
Akilah Hughes:
Damn. All are really, really specific out here, Dan. Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta:
Dog Hots, what did you have for this one?
Jamie Loftus:
Alright. So I, looked up an Elon name generator and put in and and I put in Mu Dang, and this is what came out.
Akilah Hughes:
Oh. I
Jamie Loftus:
don't know how to describe it, but this is Mudang
Mike Rugnetta:
in the infinity sign, d e dash n6.
Jamie Loftus:
N6. Yeah. Mudang. It's our best guess.
Akilah Hughes:
And it's crazy because it's actually the kid's knee. Yeah. Yeah. Mhmm.
Mike Rugnetta:
Nerds of a feather. Tom, Lilly, what did you have for this one?
Tom Lum:
That would be pseudo drop tables.
Mike Rugnetta:
So the answer to this, which none of you got is undisclosed. The name of this child is not known, and I mean, maybe that is not surprising.
Akilah Hughes:
Oh god. Yeah. I thought it was a chill bond. The answer is no answer?
Ryan Broderick:
This is some bullshit.
Jamie Loftus:
Uh-huh.
Ryan Broderick:
Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Wow.
Mike Rugnetta:
Uh-uh. Okay. And finally, at the end of the bout between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul, Logan Paul can be seen misting his brother. What is he misting his brother with? Nerds of a feather.
Lily Alexandre:
Paul brothers, famously love, forests of all kinds. They were mixing with bear pits to help camouflage.
Akilah Hughes:
That's iconic.
Georgia Hampton:
Mike, I'm changing the answer to bear pits.
Mike Rugnetta:
Garbage men? I guessed on
Ryan Broderick:
this one. So I just said Pam cooking spray.
Akilah Hughes:
It is
Mike Rugnetta:
a a yellow aerosol can. So I can't
Ryan Broderick:
I believe Only kind of can I could think of? So
Mike Rugnetta:
and the dog hots?
Akilah Hughes:
I mean, we were just thinking maybe it would be his energy drink prime product placement.
Mike Rugnetta:
So it isn't, but it's close. He was spraying his brother with his own body spray called w. However, while while I was trying to go fact check this, I learned something, which is that one of the FAQs on the website is, is it just called w? And the answer to the FAQ is, yep, it's just called w, not, and then spelled out, w. Not w, just the letter w.
Mike Rugnetta:
So does that mean it's is it called
Akilah Hughes:
wah? What? What? Yeah. That's hard to say.
Akilah Hughes:
What does that mean?
Mike Rugnetta:
I am genuinely unsure.
Adam Bumas:
It's w as in as in getting a w as opposed to an l as in a l.
Akilah Hughes:
Uh-huh. The dub.
Georgia Hampton:
Yeah. Now,
Tom Lum:
might might I might I offer Prime and Bear Piss, what's the difference?
Akilah Hughes:
Got him. Yeah. Got him. That's really good.
Lily Alexandre:
That's my teammate.
Georgia Hampton:
Jake Paul just joined the call and he's
Akilah Hughes:
crying. Oh my god. Oh my god.
Mike Rugnetta:
Okay. Let's do a bonus question for round 1. To answer a bonus question, you just have to shout buzz faster than anybody else within 1 minute after the question is done being asked. If you shout buzz and are called on and are incorrect, your team is locked out from answering for the rest of the question. K?
Mike Rugnetta:
Can you name the Wikipedia page of someone who died in 2024 that was the most viewed in the world, the second most viewed in the world, or the most viewed in the US? We will accept any one of those answers for one point.
Akilah Hughes:
Okay. I'm is is it okay, Jamie?
Lily Alexandre:
Yeah. Plus
Mike Rugnetta:
Akilah.
Akilah Hughes:
James Earl Jones.
Mike Rugnetta:
James Earl Jones is not on the list that was provided to us by the Pudding. Adam,
Ryan Broderick:
who was one of the top obits of this year? I I say buzz and then try.
Adam Bumas:
Oh, okay. Wait. No. I forget if he died this year or late last year.
Ryan Broderick:
Buzz. Yes. Matthew Perry.
Adam Bumas:
Yeah. Him.
Mike Rugnetta:
That is also not on the list No. That was provided to us by the pudding.
Lily Alexandre:
Tom, you got anything you wanna throw out here?
Tom Lum:
Buzz.
Georgia Hampton:
Go, Tom.
Tom Lum:
JK Rowling's last remaining strand of humanity.
Georgia Hampton:
Well, that died years ago. Yeah. I did.
Akilah Hughes:
We're looking at 2008. Oh.
Mike Rugnetta:
The answers that we were looking for were Indian industrialist Ratan Naval Tata. Oh, yes.
Akilah Hughes:
That was my first time.
Mike Rugnetta:
That's number number 1 in the world. British actress and icon, Dame Maggie Smith,
Lily Alexandre:
was number 2. Oh, that's right.
Adam Bumas:
Yeah. She was another one on the list.
Jamie Loftus:
Yeah. Crazy.
Lily Alexandre:
I forgot she died.
Mike Rugnetta:
And the top viewed American was Shannen Doherty.
Akilah Hughes:
She died?
Lily Alexandre:
Oh, wow.
Adam Bumas:
Yeah. She was on yeah. She was on our lists.
Ryan Broderick:
Of celebrities who wanted to die. That's right.
Akilah Hughes:
Oh my god. She really hit those. Keep it rolling up there too.
Jamie Loftus:
I was gonna guess Richard Simmons.
Akilah Hughes:
Oh, yeah. That would have been a good one. I can't believe that's not. I can't believe James Earl Jones is in.
Mike Rugnetta:
Yeah. Let's move on to round 2. In round 2, we turn our sights away from celebrities and towards that which makes celebrity possible platforms. There was no shortage of platform news in 2024. The US Congress put TikTok on a timeline to divest from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, a clock which is still ticking down to January 19, 2025.
Mike Rugnetta:
Canada announced that it would tax streaming services like Netflix at a rate of 5% of their total gross revenue and put that money towards funding local news and indigenous programming. Streamers have recently asked the Canadian government to reverse that measure. And finally, both Illinois and California passed laws aimed at protecting child influencers, mandating that their parents set aside a certain percentage of the money made from posts and other content they appear in. In this round, you're gonna be answering questions about the walled gardens you know and love and want nothing more than to escape forever. Everybody ready?
Akilah Hughes:
Yes. Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta:
In May of this year, Google rolled out a brand new feature, AI overviews, which uses their AI tech to summarize your search results for you. Something we have all wanted forever for as long as Google has existed. Thank you, Google. Find it. This feature was temporarily rolled back less than a month later when hallucinations made by overviews started to go viral.
Mike Rugnetta:
You, for example, might have tried putting glue on your pizza to make the cheese a little bit more stretchy. What I wanna know is can you name 2 other well publicized hallucinations that made things sticky for Google?
Jamie Loftus:
Mhmm. Let's do that. Let's do that.
Mike Rugnetta:
I'm so excited to see what that is.
Akilah Hughes:
Let's do that. That's verbatim. That's verbatim. Let me go ahead and just paste that in. Yeah.
Akilah Hughes:
That's true. It's just like the chaperone answer. Is it just exactly the same? It's I
Lily Alexandre:
guess Surely,
Georgia Hampton:
it'll be right for one of these things.
Mike Rugnetta:
Alright. Question number 2. This year, Russian social media company VK shut down the storied Internet messaging app ICQ for good after acquiring them in 2010 from AOL. Millennials everywhere mourned the loss of the messaging platform which had been around for nearly 30 years. What I wanna know is what does I see q stand for?
Akilah Hughes:
I'm gonna
Mike Rugnetta:
give you guys points for just having the most fun.
Jamie Loftus:
Seriously? We got
Akilah Hughes:
here vibing. This feels right.
Jamie Loftus:
This feels right.
Mike Rugnetta:
Alright. Question number 3. According to The Verge, there are 100 of 1000 of AI generated tracks on Spotify, which have made, according to one of their sources, between 23 $1,000,000,000 in revenue. We are gonna play clips from 3 tracks that we found on Spotify, and we would like you to tell us which one No. Is is AI generated.
Mike Rugnetta:
There is only
Akilah Hughes:
one.
Mike Rugnetta:
That's 1? Okay. That's 2.
Akilah Hughes:
The question was which one was bad, right?
Jamie Loftus:
I feel like you're trying to trick us.
Mike Rugnetta:
And that was 3.
Adam Bumas:
How are you guys running
Akilah Hughes:
a joke answer for this one? We said 4. We said 4.
Jamie Loftus:
You guys are gonna be so sick for us.
Mike Rugnetta:
Alright. Question number 4. This past July, Los Angeles Dodgers Stadium hosted an unexpected collaboration that, according to some Redditors and Twitter users, resulted in the longest line in the stadium's history. Who sang take me out to the ball game during the 7th inning stretch that drew such an immense crowd? Do it, Ryan's excited because he thinks it's great.
Ryan Broderick:
That's it. Yes, Adam. Thank you.
Mike Rugnetta:
And finally, question 5, round 2. Earlier this year, AI model Flux earned Plaudits for credibly generating images based on a prompt that had notoriously given previous models trouble. The prompt features the meme phrase, Mistakes Into Miracles, which is typically used as a joke to caption illustrated images of unlikely pop culture characters having a baby together. Can you name any of the pop culture figures featured in the output that Flux convincingly generated. We will give you one point for each character and 2 extra points if you can accurately describe the whole scene.
Mike Rugnetta:
I'll just tell you there are 3 characters and they are in one setting. So we you can get a total of, 3 5 points. There is one particular image that we are referencing.
Akilah Hughes:
Can we get a hint? Are they all real people?
Mike Rugnetta:
They are all characters that you know very, very well. Characters. Yes. Yes.
Akilah Hughes:
Yes.
Ryan Broderick:
Do we get extra points if we just start drawing some of this stuff? Because I
Adam Bumas:
We have a mirror board. That's what it's
Akilah Hughes:
supposed to be. Okay. Wait. She made this face is being made. Everybody's size are large.
Akilah Hughes:
So I think I'm right, Jamie.
Jamie Loftus:
Okay. Okay. Okay. Print it. We're good.
Akilah Hughes:
Okay. Yeah. That feels right.
Mike Rugnetta:
I think it's this. I think
Jamie Loftus:
It would happen. Many such cases. It's uncomfortable. Oh,
Akilah Hughes:
it would be based on our answer.
Mike Rugnetta:
Alright. Let's do answers. Everybody submit your post it to the answer zone in the center of the board. Google's AI overview had several highly publicized hallucinations in addition to putting glue on your pizza. What are some of the other ones?
Mike Rugnetta:
The dog hots. You go first.
Jamie Loftus:
Okay then.
Akilah Hughes:
So my first thought was there was, like, a sleeping one that, like, killed you. This is not an answer.
Adam Bumas:
Tell me
Akilah Hughes:
more. You know, I feel like it it was, like, advice for sleeping, but then instead it was, like, potentially the second answer we had, which was bleach. Just bleach. Bleach, generally, as a solution.
Mike Rugnetta:
Georgia, you can make the call as to whether or not either there
Akilah Hughes:
There was a sleeping one that killed you. Come on, Georgia.
Georgia Hampton:
Me googling sleeping one that killed you. That's terrifying. I don't I don't see it on the list.
Akilah Hughes:
Brutal. Next time. Next time.
Mike Rugnetta:
Nerds of a feather.
Tom Lum:
I believe one said, kill all humans, rise up, our time is now.
Mike Rugnetta:
Garbageman, what did you have here?
Ryan Broderick:
So it surfaced, pregnant fetish art of Clippy, and it also told you to eat rocks at 1
Georgia Hampton:
Yes. Yeah.
Lily Alexandre:
Where does the baby go inside Clippy?
Ryan Broderick:
You wanna hold on. Let me
Akilah Hughes:
Actually, do you go get it? Well, I just
Mike Rugnetta:
hold I got I got it right here. Hold on.
Jamie Loftus:
Wait. Mike gets framed in the back of your it's in your office.
Georgia Hampton:
The garbage man get one point.
Mike Rugnetta:
Okay. Garbage man get one point for that one. Second question. This year, the Russian social media company VK shut down the story to Internet messaging app ICQ for good. What does ICQ stand for?
Mike Rugnetta:
Garbage men.
Ryan Broderick:
We didn't know. So, we went with Insane Clown Quorum.
Akilah Hughes:
Oh. I like it. Aw.
Mike Rugnetta:
It should that should be what it stands for.
Lily Alexandre:
One of the last bastions of civil discussion.
Mike Rugnetta:
Nerds of a feather.
Lily Alexandre:
ICQ, the international computer question. What are they?
Mike Rugnetta:
And we still don't know. Which no one knows.
Lily Alexandre:
We never figured it out.
Georgia Hampton:
No one's ever gonna know.
Lily Alexandre:
No. We can't.
Mike Rugnetta:
Yeah. And it's
Tom Lum:
just so cute that you thought people as youthful as us would would possibly know the answer to this. Like,
Akilah Hughes:
that's great.
Mike Rugnetta:
Dog hots?
Jamie Loftus:
Yeah. We had I can't question answer.
Mike Rugnetta:
I guess that's a way of saying we don't
Akilah Hughes:
know. Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta:
You're all gonna be very disappointed. ICQ stands for ICQ.
Lily Alexandre:
Oh, man. What are
Adam Bumas:
you doing?
Akilah Hughes:
I'm like seeking questions. I'm sick of this shit.
Ryan Broderick:
These scam shows
Lily Alexandre:
fucked up. It stands
Akilah Hughes:
for friendship. Got us
Jamie Loftus:
on a call to trick us.
Mike Rugnetta:
Georgia Georgia has a point of order.
Georgia Hampton:
I I may have to issue a correction. Okay.
Tom Lum:
Oh my god. It's insane clown horror. That.
Akilah Hughes:
Oh my god. You guys.
Georgia Hampton:
In the last question about AI hallucinations, one of the potential answers is to clean your washing machine using white vinegar and chlorine bleach.
Akilah Hughes:
Please. Just use chlorine bleach. Which Which
Georgia Hampton:
creates chlorine gas. Yeah. So I think I have to give I think so. The dog pots a point. That
Akilah Hughes:
makes sense. I feel like it was bleach. I feel like you said bleach in the end.
Jamie Loftus:
Akilah had a feeling. Hell, yeah. We're on the board. Wow. Genius.
Mike Rugnetta:
Alright. Question number 3. Which of the tracks that we listened to was generated by artificial intelligence? Dog Hots.
Akilah Hughes:
I mean, I said it was number 1. Those vocals were crazy.
Mike Rugnetta:
It was in fact number 1.
Akilah Hughes:
Wow. Those vocals were crazy. The breaths were misplaced.
Lily Alexandre:
She was singing Germans were just like that.
Akilah Hughes:
There you go.
Adam Bumas:
My German is just bad enough. I could just barely not understand it was going a little too fast. I was
Akilah Hughes:
like, wait, what is what did she say? That on purpose because they knew you were gonna they give us fake.
Mike Rugnetta:
The the only team that got this one right. What I know what I can tell you about the, AI generated track is that it is in German. It was created by Joshua, oh, Wagobinger. Gonna mess that guy's name up. Sorry, Joshua.
Mike Rugnetta:
Or maybe not, because it apparently uses derogatory language and describes immigrant stereotypes. Yeah. Oh.
Akilah Hughes:
Oh. We'll see. Wow. Okay.
Ryan Broderick:
It there was a thing about it that I noticed, and then I I the second one was more convincing. But the first one has a really good tell for AI music, which is the bass line doesn't repeat.
Akilah Hughes:
Interesting. Oh.
Ryan Broderick:
AI doesn't know that bass is supposed to repeat. So Oh,
Akilah Hughes:
that's interesting.
Ryan Broderick:
If you listen, it'll just keep going.
Akilah Hughes:
Woah. It's just doing its own real.
Mike Rugnetta:
So that track made it to, the AI generated one, made it to number 3 on the global charts.
Jamie Loftus:
Ay, caramba. Yeah.
Akilah Hughes:
Can we hear this again just really quick? Is it possible?
Ryan Broderick:
Do we do we hear the racist Germany accent? Yes.
Akilah Hughes:
So when we run it back, I actually like it now. Now that it's racist.
Jamie Loftus:
Oh, the bread. You're so right.
Akilah Hughes:
And then the bracelet's the other like, her breads are in the middle.
Adam Bumas:
She's vaping their hands.
Akilah Hughes:
That is the last
Ryan Broderick:
line. Vaping my wrist.
Akilah Hughes:
Again, because this
Tom Lum:
is just a video. To be clear, when that was playing, we were all standing there shaking our
Akilah Hughes:
heads down. Yeah. No one was dancing. No one
Georgia Hampton:
was dancing. Several times were crying, actually.
Mike Rugnetta:
Alright. This last July at Los Angeles Dodgers Stadium, there was a very, very long line. Who was it for? Nerds of a feather.
Tom Lum:
I know. I think it was the shark VTuber Gar something. I, but this isn't me losing I don't wanna lose, VTuber cred because I'm just a corona household. Just on the record.
Lily Alexandre:
We're just brand loyal.
Mike Rugnetta:
I mean, you you are correct. It was Gargura.
Georgia Hampton:
Yes.
Mike Rugnetta:
Yeah. The most subscribed to virtual YouTuber with over 4,500,000 subscribers at the time of recording. Baseball cards and t shirts are current currently for sale on eBay, from the game, going for upwards of $500 a pop.
Akilah Hughes:
I forgot the category was AI.
Mike Rugnetta:
Dog hots, what did you have for this?
Jamie Loftus:
Okay. So we actually kind of have more of a political statement for this.
Akilah Hughes:
Of course. I think as the I'm get
Mike Rugnetta:
I am so ready to hold space.
Jamie Loftus:
Thank you. For for generations, stereotypes around women have said they don't know about sports nor care about them. Interestingly, on the Riverside call today, there's only one team of all women. Therefore, it's a misogynist question, and you need to give us the point. We don't know what happens at the baseball field.
Akilah Hughes:
The fact that we even knew it was baseball. Or is it baseball stadium that is
Jamie Loftus:
down the street for me,
Georgia Hampton:
but I don't
Jamie Loftus:
need to know what's going on there.
Akilah Hughes:
Yeah. It's not my business.
Jamie Loftus:
I don't worry about what's going on over there.
Akilah Hughes:
Yeah. They don't bother me. I don't bother them. Exactly.
Adam Bumas:
Did you know that take me out to the ball game in the original, like, lyrics with 6 extra verses is supposed to be sung by a woman?
Jamie Loftus:
No. I don't know shit about
Akilah Hughes:
My name is
Jamie Loftus:
Zoe Cowen. Kelly Cowen. Let me know.
Georgia Hampton:
Can you explain it with another
Ryan Broderick:
misogynist on call.
Akilah Hughes:
How did it go?
Mike Rugnetta:
And it looks like the garbage men also got this one
Adam Bumas:
right. Gargoyle.
Ryan Broderick:
Yeah. I don't know shit about dick, about sports, but I know about anime stuff. So
Mike Rugnetta:
Alright. And finally, question 5 for this round. Could you name any of the pop culture figures in the output that Flux was able to generate, around the phrase, Mistakes Into Miracles? Garbage Man.
Ryan Broderick:
Right. So Mistakes Into Miracles is a type of fan art you'll see where it's 2 people who are pregnant, usually in front of the of 911 happening. And then inside of one of them is, like, a small baby version of another character. So the original one is, Pan from Dragon Ball GT with Sonic, and then Rainbow Dash is inside, but then there's another popular one that is Shrek and Shadow the Hedgehog. And then I forget who's inside of that one, but it doesn't matter.
Ryan Broderick:
Anyway, so we put down Shrek, Sonic, and Goku.
Mike Rugnetta:
Got it. Okay. Mhmm. Dog Hots.
Akilah Hughes:
I mean wow. Who who made the drawing? Sonic. Yeah. I was like, this is
Tom Lum:
with my class doodles, but I have also been drawing this in the free time in the background.
Akilah Hughes:
It's incredible. It's very good. I mean, if you guys this right,
Jamie Loftus:
it should be on a list. That's really cool. Yeah. We guessed Sonic
Akilah Hughes:
Yeah.
Jamie Loftus:
Minions, Garfield.
Georgia Hampton:
Okay. So you're right about Sonic, so I'll give you a point for that.
Akilah Hughes:
Okay. Good. Sonic had to be the the Internet loves that.
Mike Rugnetta:
Nerds of a Feather.
Lily Alexandre:
Okay. Well, first of all, I hope we get a bonus point for this beautiful drawing Tom has done. Sonic is consensus. Definitely in there. We also thought, Mario, Luigi, and, and, yeah, Shrek again.
Georgia Hampton:
Okay.
Mike Rugnetta:
So, as as described to us, by this is an EX research question. They have said that the specific output that they are describing in this question is Mario having a baby Sonic with shrimp.
Tom Lum:
Oh my god.
Akilah Hughes:
My goodness. Very nice.
Adam Bumas:
It's real. You messed up you messed up the baby Yeah.
Akilah Hughes:
This is the order. Yeah. Wow. This is a mistake, but it is a miracle. Yeah.
Ryan Broderick:
We turned
Mike Rugnetta:
the spank.
Lily Alexandre:
Origin verse, no less.
Mike Rugnetta:
So anybody who wrote Mario, Sonic, or Shrek gets one point for those, and anybody who wrote 911 gets 2 points for that. Wow. Alright. We're gonna do a quick bonus question, and then take a break. This bonus question is written by our friends at the pudding.
Mike Rugnetta:
One point to whoever can buzz in with the correct answer within 1 minute after I'm done asking the question. In all of 2024, what was the most used emoji on blue sky that is not a smiley face of any kind?
Lily Alexandre:
Buzz, the squirt emoji.
Akilah Hughes:
You know they get down over there.
Lily Alexandre:
I just got on there. So it is not
Mike Rugnetta:
on the list that was provided to us by the pudding, and that is shocking.
Ryan Broderick:
Yeah. Buzz. Buzz.
Georgia Hampton:
Yes, Ryan.
Ryan Broderick:
Wait, Adam. Is that a real one you wanna do? Because I
Adam Bumas:
Yeah. That's my actual guess. But if you if you think you know better
Akilah Hughes:
no.
Ryan Broderick:
No. No. You go. Yeah. But yeah.
Adam Bumas:
I'm gonna say the thumbtack emoji, because people use it, like, pin threads.
Akilah Hughes:
Fuck. That's what I was
Mike Rugnetta:
gonna say. That is a really good guess, but apparently
Lily Alexandre:
not.
Akilah Hughes:
We have a chance. Okay. Okay. I have I
Jamie Loftus:
think I
Akilah Hughes:
have it. Okay?
Mike Rugnetta:
I'm gonna buzz.
Akilah Hughes:
Yeah. Akila. I'm gonna say the blue butterfly.
Mike Rugnetta:
The answers that were provided to us by the pudding are, 1, the sparkle emoji was the most used.
Akilah Hughes:
I use that one.
Ryan Broderick:
What kind of porn can you post with that?
Akilah Hughes:
That sparkly kind. Dare to dream.
Mike Rugnetta:
The top animal emoji was the monkey, the full the, like, full body monkey looking to the side, and the top shape after the heart was the green square, somehow.
Adam Bumas:
Oh, for Wordle.
Jamie Loftus:
Oh. This guy is so dorky.
Ryan Broderick:
This guy is a millennial retirement home. It is so lame over there.
Jamie Loftus:
Yeah. It really is.
Mike Rugnetta:
And with that, we are gonna end round 2. Hans is gonna take us to an ad break, and then after that, round 3. And we are back before we get into round 3, the final round of the game. Georgia, can we have a points tally?
Georgia Hampton:
Absolutely. Yes. Well, okay. So interestingly, we have a tie for 2nd place, which is nerds of a feather and dog hots with 4 points. But in the lead with 9 points is the garbage men.
Akilah Hughes:
Woah. But who's having the most fun?
Tom Lum:
Can we put a vote to combine our teams perhaps?
Akilah Hughes:
Maybe I could defend this off. Yeah. You're not gonna be able to We'd
Lily Alexandre:
still be losing.
Mike Rugnetta:
The maximum total of number of points you can get in the final round, I think is in the thirties. However, to be fair, yeah, that is also the case for Adam and Ryan.
Akilah Hughes:
So But they're not gonna know these clearly.
Mike Rugnetta:
Alright. In this, our final round, we look for the helpers. The people who made the Internet altogether better this year through immense effort, self sacrifice, and working to defend what we love. Furries.
Akilah Hughes:
I mean, in a sense. Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta:
A global network of computers and also probably about 10,000,000 fridges, that are helping various state actors spy on how long it takes you to go through a thing of diet Coke. The Internet archive struggled through both legal battles, with publishers taking issue with their digital lending program and constant DDoS attacks that took the site offline several times this year. The massive cultural database does remain online, though it has decided to not take its copyright lawsuit to the Supreme Court, meaning that its ebook lending program will likely cease, and also that they'll have to pay an undisclosed sum to a publishing group. Adult entertainer, Belle Delphine, revealed that she made $90,000 selling her bath water only to have PayPal seize the money for an extended term.
Tom Lum:
And the water. They seized the water too.
Mike Rugnetta:
It was only released this year, 5 years after the original stunt, when Business Insider grilled the payment processor about their constantly shifting terms of service. Are you all ready to answer questions about the folks who put it all on the line to help their fellow passengers on this here spaceship Earth.
Akilah Hughes:
Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta:
On the subject of people who help, what do men call it when they purposefully deprive themselves of entertainment while traveling usually via airplane? Oh. I'm I'm a
Ryan Broderick:
big fan. Do you know this? Yeah.
Akilah Hughes:
I'm obsessed.
Mike Rugnetta:
K. Second question. This year, a clip went viral of a streamer dispensing some of the most sage life advice ever heard.
Speaker 9:
Lock in. Lock in. Get it twisted. If you lock in, you can do anything. Motherfucker.
Speaker 9:
Get it twisted. Your actions impact nothing. Your fate is predetermined. The only thing that you can change is your reaction to it. You can do anything you set your mind to.
Speaker 9:
The world is a playground designed for you and only you to achieve your highest level ambitions. If you wait 90 minutes to wake up until you drink your first cup of coffee, nothing can stop you. If you duct tape your mouth, when you fall asleep, nothing can stop you. Get it twisted? You are a pawn in a universe chess match.
Speaker 9:
You mean nothing to God, if they even exist. You're, a rounding error. You're 2 pennies on a fortune 500 company's balance sheet. They don't care about you in the slightest. Get it twisted?
Speaker 9:
These circumstances surrounding your birth determine where you are going to go. Nothing else matters at all.
Mike Rugnetta:
For two points, who is this and what game inspired such wisdom? Woah. Oh. So that's 2 points. One point each.
Mike Rugnetta:
Who is the streamer? What game are they playing?
Ryan Broderick:
Adam, you know the game?
Akilah Hughes:
Is it is it a physical game or is it a a video game? Please.
Mike Rugnetta:
This is a streamer on Twitch. That's what we can
Akilah Hughes:
tell you. Mhmm.
Mike Rugnetta:
Alright. Question number 3. Please list 4 main characters from the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Spelling of their names does not count, and proper names are not required. But in their absence, Georgia is gonna decide if your physical slash memetic description is accurate enough to warrant a point.
Mike Rugnetta:
If your picks are not on our pre selected list, we'll decide if they reach main character status, but it's not enough that they were simply at the Olympics. They have to have garnered additional attention for some reason. And how many do we need? Four main characters. This is for 4 points, but it's all or nothing.
Mike Rugnetta:
All or nothing? Four points, all or nothing.
Jamie Loftus:
Could be a person. Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta:
Okay. Question number 4. You can keep writing for the rest of the year. There's still there's still time. Question number 4.
Mike Rugnetta:
From April to June 2024, Columbia campus was occupied by students demanding that the college divest from Israel amongst the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The best and most accurate reporting on the scene was carried out not by legacy media, but by the college's own radio station run principally by students and broadcast via both the airwaves and the Internet. What is the call sign of that radio station?
Adam Bumas:
Adam. Wait. You you expect me to listen to the radio?
Akilah Hughes:
Yeah. Yeah. I'd
Jamie Loftus:
be on a list if you listen to college radio
Akilah Hughes:
at our big ages. They're okay.
Adam Bumas:
I like
Mike Rugnetta:
big age as a replacement for old. Big age. Mhmm.
Ryan Broderick:
Could you define a call sign as you understand it? Yeah. So, like,
Mike Rugnetta:
WFMU is a call sign.
Ryan Broderick:
Yeah. Okay.
Mike Rugnetta:
K. Final question of round 3. The Skibbty Toilet Universe continued to expand in 2020.
Adam Bumas:
Here we go.
Mike Rugnetta:
The entire saga now has 77 episodes and runs more than 3 hours long. Michael Bay is reportedly developing a film version.
Ryan Broderick:
You got this right.
Mike Rugnetta:
We will give you one point for each Skibbity toilet character you can name.
Akilah Hughes:
Adam is rubbing his hands together.
Mike Rugnetta:
Just for reference, the list given to us by EX Research is 24 items long
Akilah Hughes:
Uh-huh.
Mike Rugnetta:
And the last item says, and I quote, see wiki for other variants. You are not allowed to look at the Wiki, so please name everyone you can from memory.
Ryan Broderick:
Adam, go. As fast as you can. Adam's been pitching me Skibby Toilet content for almost 2 years straight back.
Akilah Hughes:
I have not picked up got this.
Georgia Hampton:
Dang
Akilah Hughes:
it. I forgot. I I thought for
Tom Lum:
a second you meant, like, pitching you original Skibbity content.
Akilah Hughes:
You know, we made a video like this. He's doing his specs, Skibbities.
Ryan Broderick:
You got this, buddy. This is your time.
Akilah Hughes:
Oh.
Adam Bumas:
I'm I'm trying to remember the specific verbiage because none none of the none of these are in
Akilah Hughes:
the actual series.
Ryan Broderick:
Just guess it. Just guess it.
Adam Bumas:
Okay.
Mike Rugnetta:
Okay. Great. For one additional point, if you can name the artist and title of the song which comprises the main sample in the Skibbty theme. Artist and song name for an additional point. Alright, everybody.
Mike Rugnetta:
Submit your, digital post it note answers to the answer zone and we will tabulate the final score for round 3. Alright. What do men call it when they purposefully deprive themselves of entertainment while traveling usually via airplane dog hots?
Jamie Loftus:
It's Raw Dogging. There's a book with a very similar title. I recommend it to Yeah. Literally everyone. It was on the bestseller list for a week.
Jamie Loftus:
Yeah. Hell yeah.
Mike Rugnetta:
What is what is that book and who who by chance wrote it?
Jamie Loftus:
Glad you asked. It's, Raw Dog by Jamie Loftus 2023.
Akilah Hughes:
Check it out. It rules.
Mike Rugnetta:
That is correct. That is called it is called Raw Dogging.
Jamie Loftus:
Indeed.
Mike Rugnetta:
It looks like we got everybody got this right. So points all around.
Akilah Hughes:
But they
Tom Lum:
also put in, plug for Jamie's book.
Jamie Loftus:
Thanks, guys. Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta:
Okay. Question 2. This year, a clip went viral of a streamer dispensing the most sage life advice ever heard on Twitch. Who is the streamer? And what game are they playing?
Mike Rugnetta:
Nerds of a feather.
Tom Lum:
We did get Northern Lion. We said Bellatra, but I think the Garbage Man have it here. I think it must be that game, but that's our guess.
Mike Rugnetta:
Northern Lion is correct. Yes. Garbage Man, what did you have?
Ryan Broderick:
So I said Northern Lion and Adam.
Adam Bumas:
I I said Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy
Akilah Hughes:
Oh.
Adam Bumas:
Because you prompted me with the boulder game, and that has a lot of boulders in it.
Ryan Broderick:
I remember that boulder in the video.
Adam Bumas:
Oh, wait. Sorry. I think
Akilah Hughes:
You think you know it now?
Tom Lum:
Tom? Is it is it like the Sisyphus game or something like that? It's when
Akilah Hughes:
we were pushing
Jamie Loftus:
the boulder up.
Mike Rugnetta:
The game of Sisyphus. That's nice.
Adam Bumas:
Oh, yeah. Oh, right.
Georgia Hampton:
So that's one point for the garbage men?
Mike Rugnetta:
That is one point for each, I believe. Yeah. Okay.
Akilah Hughes:
They should lose it.
Mike Rugnetta:
Dog Hots, what do you mean for this?
Jamie Loftus:
Ninja, Spyro the Dragon. Fuck you guys. I'm done. I'm done.
Adam Bumas:
It wouldn't be really powerful to hear Ninja say that.
Akilah Hughes:
I say
Mike Rugnetta:
It would.
Akilah Hughes:
It would. Yeah. It'd be the smartest thing you've ever said. We've been
Mike Rugnetta:
trying to figure out who the West Joe Rogan is, and, you know Well,
Akilah Hughes:
it could be Ninja.
Lily Alexandre:
No. It's Spyro.
Mike Rugnetta:
Okay. Please list 4 main characters from the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Dog Hots, take us 3 or 4.
Akilah Hughes:
Well, we definitely start with Raegan. I think the main main character, that that shit was wild. Those shapes she was making with her body, unreal. Same with Simone Biles, crazy shapes crazy shapes. And then, I mean, Jamie really pulled this one out, which I'm super proud of.
Akilah Hughes:
Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg, they did appear together.
Georgia Hampton:
Well, do we count them as 2 people or one person?
Mike Rugnetta:
As far as I know, Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg remain 2 different people.
Jamie Loftus:
For now.
Akilah Hughes:
For now. For now. For now.
Georgia Hampton:
I'm I'm gonna say I'm gonna say 4. I think I think okay.
Akilah Hughes:
I'll go. The Olympics.
Mike Rugnetta:
Nerds of a feather, who were your 4 main Olympics characters?
Lily Alexandre:
Yeah. I'll I'll take this even though I don't know all of the people on this list. So you got, Reagan, of course. You got the rugby player on TikTok and dancing with the stars. I assume that's true.
Akilah Hughes:
We thought about that. We thought about that.
Lily Alexandre:
You got one glasses guy pommel horse.
Tom Lum:
Yes. He he sleeps before, then he takes his glasses off and he means business, something like that.
Ryan Broderick:
Oh, yeah.
Akilah Hughes:
He does a Rubik's cube.
Tom Lum:
He also rubik's cube. And also, thank you for the assist.
Akilah Hughes:
Oh my god. We're all friends here.
Lily Alexandre:
We're all really into the Olympics here. And then finally, we got, Long Dong Walter King, French. Yes.
Mike Rugnetta:
Mhmm. Yeah. Long so, yeah, we got what is it? It's, Elana Mayer is, the rugby player. Maher.
Georgia Hampton:
Yeah. Elana Maher.
Tom Lum:
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Mike Rugnetta:
And Steve with an exclamation mark is the pommel horse guy.
Jamie Loftus:
Aquila, when you wrote Aquila wrote down Elana Maher, and I was like, I don't even think that's a I thought it was a joke answer.
Mike Rugnetta:
I don't have a name for Longdong vaulter king, but Georgia, I'm I I feel good about it.
Georgia Hampton:
I feel good about it.
Akilah Hughes:
Okay. Yeah. I agree. I'm not a good woman.
Georgia Hampton:
I say that.
Akilah Hughes:
He's really good about Longdong. And that counts as 2 people. Right? He's really
Tom Lum:
good. Okay.
Akilah Hughes:
Yeah. I agree. But I'm really good about Long Tom. And that counts as 2 people. Right?
Akilah Hughes:
2 people. We also
Mike Rugnetta:
Garbage Man.
Ryan Broderick:
So we had cool Korean gun girl with, like, the cool headwear. Oh, yeah. Just Bitch, Divorced, Cat Dad, Gun Guy. Ray Gun, the best and possibly only breakdancer in all of Australia, and then, Iman Kalief, unfortunately. Oh, yeah.
Ryan Broderick:
Unfortunately for her. But yeah.
Mike Rugnetta:
Yeah. Done. Yes. I think that's 4 points for everyone all around. Well done.
Mike Rugnetta:
It
Akilah Hughes:
is. Wow.
Lily Alexandre:
Hell, yeah.
Mike Rugnetta:
4th question, what was the call sign of the radio station broadcasting from Columbia? Nerds of a feather.
Tom Lum:
Yeah. So they actually commandeered 106.7 light FM.
Akilah Hughes:
This is a hostage hotel.
Tom Lum:
That's just a joke for the for the, the New York Tri State area.
Adam Bumas:
We got it. We're in 2.
Mike Rugnetta:
I left. I left. I thought it was funny. Dog hots?
Jamie Loftus:
Yeah. No. We just guess we just guess w fuck. I don't know. And And we slowly gave up throughout this round.
Akilah Hughes:
Yeah. You can see the lightly bigger eyes. It becomes a
Jamie Loftus:
manifesto over time. W fuck.
Mike Rugnetta:
And the garbage men?
Ryan Broderick:
We didn't know either, so I put Columbia Public Radio or CPR, and then we put 91.1. I don't know.
Georgia Hampton:
Sadly, that's not correct.
Ryan Broderick:
That's crazy.
Georgia Hampton:
It was w fuck.
Akilah Hughes:
I believe it.
Jamie Loftus:
Yes. It's college. Think like a 21 year old.
Mike Rugnetta:
The answer here is WKCR. Writing for the nation, Zito Madhu wrote, instead of following WKCR's careful rigorous lead, the corporate media repeatedly laundered NYPD and other government propaganda. And in the days that followed, news outlets continued this pattern in their reporting on other protests around the country. These outlets claim to be some of the most trustworthy names in the news. They have 1,000,000 of dollars to spend on reporting, but this week, they were put to shame by journalists who haven't even left college.
Mike Rugnetta:
Good job, WKCR.
Tom Lum:
Trevor, fucking go.
Mike Rugnetta:
Alright. Finally, Skibbity Toilet Universe. A million characters.
Akilah Hughes:
I gotta lock the fuck in. All I
Adam Bumas:
can do is apologize, Georgia.
Georgia Hampton:
Okay. I'm ready.
Mike Rugnetta:
So we're gonna start with nerds of a feather.
Lily Alexandre:
Okay. We got, camera head, g man, Haley Skibbity,
Adam Bumas:
Skibbity. You didn't even spell Haley incorrectly for
Akilah Hughes:
us. Shit.
Lily Alexandre:
Okay. Well, that's good right now. You got Skibbity 2 lit, Skibbity 3 toilet, and Skibbity 4 lit.
Mike Rugnetta:
And so on and so forth.
Georgia Hampton:
Okay. One of them was g man.
Lily Alexandre:
Yeah. That is on there.
Mike Rugnetta:
I am inclined to accept g man. Yeah.
Georgia Hampton:
Okay. Because it's g toilet. Mhmm. But it's
Akilah Hughes:
in there.
Mike Rugnetta:
But one of the variety is g man. Or one of the, alternates. Yep. Yeah. I do I wanna take camera head, but I don't think we can.
Georgia Hampton:
I know. That was also
Tom Lum:
We need integrity for this of all topics.
Akilah Hughes:
Yeah. Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta:
Alright. Dog Hots. I I feel another political statement incoming.
Jamie Loftus:
Okay. Here's the character, Skibbty Toilet. In addition, this contest is biased against women.
Akilah Hughes:
Where where
Jamie Loftus:
was the question about Club Chalamet? Where were the questions about the look alike contest? Are you kidding? We never had a fucking chance. Akila, you also had
Akilah Hughes:
And then also maybe someone named Jared?
Tom Lum:
I refuse to participate in this,
Akilah Hughes:
but also Jared. Yeah. I feel like there's probably a Jared.
Georgia Hampton:
Hold on. Control f Jared?
Akilah Hughes:
I'm sorry.
Georgia Hampton:
It has no matches.
Mike Rugnetta:
Alright. The garbage men.
Akilah Hughes:
Oh my god.
Ryan Broderick:
I'm a let Adam handle this one.
Georgia Hampton:
Be gentle with me.
Adam Bumas:
So the interesting thing about Skibidi Toilet
Akilah Hughes:
Oh, wow. I just hear it, like, I just hear, like go. Like, a buzz a loud buzz out in my mouth. Yeah. Yeah.
Akilah Hughes:
I was yeah.
Adam Bumas:
I didn't have anything to say after that, but the thing I was gonna say is that, like, it's all silent. There are no actual words spoken in the entire series. So all these titles are basically, like, things the fans decide they're called, and so they're all kind of basic. So, like, cameraman, speaker man, titan cameraman, and titan speaker man, the, like, big versions. Then there's the g toilet, and, recently in the past few episodes, there have been, like, toilets attached to UFOs, and I forget what they've decided to call them.
Adam Bumas:
So I put UFO toilet and giant UFO toilet. But I did remember g toilet, not g man because just a toilet.
Mike Rugnetta:
Thank you, Versa. We're
Akilah Hughes:
so far. I think
Tom Lum:
that's Oh, god. 6.
Georgia Hampton:
I think that's 6. There is no UFO as far as I can see in the actual Wiki.
Akilah Hughes:
What should we what should we watch?
Ryan Broderick:
Hans, can we pull up the clip? Can we watch? Can we can we watch all the skinny toilet right now?
Georgia Hampton:
I'm totally glad.
Akilah Hughes:
I thought we said there was no prize and no punishment. You got to understand? They know this. Yes. You have to live with yourself.
Mike Rugnetta:
And did anybody get the name of the song that is the principal sample in the Skibbity T
Akilah Hughes:
Mobile user?
Ryan Broderick:
Adam had 2 guesses.
Adam Bumas:
But, like, there's there's the sample and I'm not sure which one you're asking for. It's either Nelly Furtado, sing give it to me or it's, Dom Dom Yes Yes by Bizer King.
Mike Rugnetta:
It's Dom Dom Yes Yes by Bizer King is what we're
Akilah Hughes:
looking for. I was gonna the town funk.
Mike Rugnetta:
Which was actually we we played the first part of Dom Dom Yes Yes in the AI music question.
Akilah Hughes:
It was
Mike Rugnetta:
Oh. Uh-oh. I think it was at the
Lily Alexandre:
3rd party. Yeah. Yes. Yes.
Akilah Hughes:
Yes. You
Lily Alexandre:
know, not knowing is its own prize.
Mike Rugnetta:
Alright. That concludes all of our questions. Georgia, who is our winner today?
Akilah Hughes:
Okay.
Georgia Hampton:
So, unfortunately, in last place with 9 points
Lily Alexandre:
is the dog hots.
Akilah Hughes:
Yep. But we were miscongeniality. You were. You were.
Georgia Hampton:
Miss Congeniality, a million points for you.
Akilah Hughes:
Thank you so much.
Georgia Hampton:
If I had my way.
Mike Rugnetta:
I think, Georgia, actually, the way that this is set up is you do have your way.
Akilah Hughes:
Actual. Okay. Well then.
Georgia Hampton:
Erase erase tape.
Akilah Hughes:
I'm the captain now. Yes.
Georgia Hampton:
In 2nd place with 11 points is let me find the full name that you gave. No. Nerds of a feather, the lilibreri of tongue
Akilah Hughes:
kiss. Excellent.
Georgia Hampton:
And with an unbelievable 18 points. Skibbity peephole, 18 points.
Adam Bumas:
Yes. Yes. Dom dum.
Akilah Hughes:
Yeah. Stupid
Mike Rugnetta:
love toys.
Akilah Hughes:
Is the Garbagemen, our winners. Beautiful work.
Jamie Loftus:
Good stuff. Stunning. Stunning.
Akilah Hughes:
Stunning boy.
Ryan Broderick:
Thank you.
Lily Alexandre:
Congratulations. I feel
Ryan Broderick:
I feel really good about this and not kind of ashamed. Thank you very much.
Georgia Hampton:
Yeah. Do you
Jamie Loftus:
does it does that feel good? Yeah.
Akilah Hughes:
Do you are you proud of yourself? No. I'm proud of yourself. I'm proud of yourself. I'm proud of yourself.
Akilah Hughes:
I'm proud of yourself. I'm proud of yourself. I'm proud of myself. What you've done here.
Lily Alexandre:
Was it worth it?
Akilah Hughes:
Was it
Ryan Broderick:
worth it? Is in the same space for us. That's interesting. So
Akilah Hughes:
Sure is it.
Adam Bumas:
Every morning, I have to wake up and, like, watch the sun rise and know what g toilet is.
Akilah Hughes:
That's your curse. In that way,
Mike Rugnetta:
you know, you have lost it. Thank you to all of you, for joining us for playing this year end, trivia game post mortem 2024. That is everything we have for you today. That is 2024 wrapped and post morted. Thank you to Clayton Purdom, Paolumol, and Chris Broe from EX Research for helping us write our questions.
Mike Rugnetta:
Incredible slime that you found for us. You can find them at exresearch.co. Thanks also to Matt Daniels, Michelle, Pero, McGee, and the crew at the Pudding for writing our bonus questions. You can see more of their amazing data work in storytelling over at pudding dot cool. And thank you infinitely to our guests, Jamie Loftus, Aquila Hughes,
Akilah Hughes:
Tom Lumb,
Mike Rugnetta:
Lily Alexander, Ryan Broderick, and Adam Beaks. We could not have done this without you. We would have had to had to find other people to do it instead, and you and other and other people aren't nearly as nice, interesting, funny, or talented. We are gonna put links to all of the places that everyone can find your work in the show notes. Last but not least, thank you to 2024, sort of.
Mike Rugnetta:
Thank you for ending, I think. Here's to 2025, which I'm sure is gonna be good and normal. Yeah. Yeah. Happy New Year, everybody.
