Boy Oh Boy...Boys!!

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: Boy Oh Boy...Boys!!
Date: January 22, 2026

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Overview

In this episode, Armstrong & Getty delve into two interconnected yet distinct topics concerning young men today: one serious and one absurd. They begin with a deep dive into the rise of alienated, angry young men gravitating toward extreme online subcultures and conspiracy-laden politics, before shifting to the bizarre and sometimes dangerous world of "looksmaxing"—where adolescent boys take drastic, even self-harming measures in pursuit of unattainable physical ideals.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Alienation of Young Men and Alt-Right Radicalization

[00:10–06:21]

• Influencers & Ragebait
  The hosts discuss viral videos of Nick Fuentes and associates openly celebrating Nazi iconography and seeking attention online. This behavior is dismissed as “human rage bait” and “engagement bait.”

  • Getty: "They are human rage bait.” (01:11)
  • Armstrong: “To the extent that...people particularly, who are into it and follow that, I don’t just want to yell at them that you’re stupid...I would like to understand them.” (01:14)

• A Systemic Perspective
  Armstrong reads from an essay analyzing the disaffection of young male Trump supporters.
  Key points from the essay:

  • Progressive institutions racialized discourse and demonized traditional male traits—leading to “a widespread kind of non coherent mood of distrust.”
  • Distrust is summarized as:
    1. Nothing works anymore.
    2. The system is rigged.
    3. The people in charge hate us.
    4. All causes are just more schemes to "bleed the country dry."
  • Armstrong reflects on how a lifetime of being told one is “inherently suspect” can damage young men’s sense of self.
    • Armstrong: “If I had been raised and schooled in that...that environment, it would end it very, very badly.” (02:44)

• Emotional Impact of Societal Narratives

  • Charlie: "If somebody keeps telling you over and over again, you should be upset and miserable...even though the reality is you live in a perfectly fine house..." (03:27)
  • Armstrong: “You’re told you’re a piece of crap because you’re masculine, and especially if you’re white, your entire life...where would that leave you?” (03:53)

• Sexual Alienation & College Culture
  The hosts discuss modern sexual politics, referencing cases where young men have been expelled from college without due process.

  • Armstrong: "If you put your hand on top of a girl's hand, that's sexual assault, unless you've gotten her permission..." (04:33)
  • Charlie: “…you’re discovering, kicked out of college based...on her word with no investigation...” (04:54)

• The Resulting Generation

  • Armstrong: "I apologize. I really do. We should have been better. And number two, I wonder if this generation will be written about like the lost generation..." (06:00)
  • Charlie: “Add in some porn addiction, a couple other things, and man, it just gets bad fast.” (06:21)

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2. Looksmaxing: Desperation and Dangerous Trends

[07:00–16:41]

• Self-Destructive Beauty Trends
  Armstrong brings up the “looksmaxing” subculture, where young boys modify their bodies to fit extreme beauty standards. Methods include:

  • Jawline “sculpting” through special exercises or gadgets
  • “Bone smashing” (hitting oneself in the face with a hammer to change bone shape)
  • Injecting feet with fillers to appear taller
  • Armstrong: “Gabriel Blank was 13 when he became obsessed with improving his looks...he started bone smashing…” (07:43)
  • Armstrong quotes Gabriel: “I got a permanent swelling...but it looked good.” (08:31)

• The Absurdity of Extreme Measures

  • Charlie: “I feel like a human that hits themselves in the face with a hammer...there’s gotta be a Darwin thing there...” (08:44)
  • Armstrong: "The crime is its own punishment." (08:46)

• Looksmaxing Forums and Peer Pressure
  Boys, some as young as 14, exchange advice ranging from benign tips to life-threatening ones.

  • A forum post: "So I started meth like a week ago because I wanted to get hollow cheeks. But now my heart has been acting really, really weird..." (10:36)
  • Charlie: “I just think this is natural selection.” (11:01)

• Brutal Appearance Rating Scales

  • Armstrong describes the PSL (PUA, SlutHate, Lookism) scale, where young men request to be "rated brutally" by strangers online.
    • Armstrong: “One of the first posts I saw was from a 14 year old boy who was asking to be rated brutally. He added he was told to get a skull transplant.” (11:46)
  • Charlie: “Who wants that opinion in your head for the rest of your life? What a weird thing to do.” (12:05)

• The Core Belief: Physical Appearance as Destiny
  On these forums, young men internalize that only "Chads" have success with women or careers, and women are only interested in "the most attractive men."

  • Armstrong: “Being outstandingly physically attractive is the only path to a successful career or a good social life...in these forums, men seem to accept the idea that women are hypergamous by nature...” (12:23)

• Contrasting Perspectives from Real Dating Sites
  Charlie offers a counterpoint: many women on dating sites express interest in “regular” men or “dad bods,” not just the “Chads.”

  • “There's tons of women who say looking for a dad bod don’t need to be...Just want a regular guy who's nice to me. You see that sort of thing a lot.” (14:37)

• Humorous Take on Looksmaxing Rituals
  The hosts mock the various devices and routines:

  • Charlie: “Are they chomping down? And then I need that, the apparatus I wear on my head that I’m just going to start wearing around because that'll definitely help me get dates, right?” (13:38)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Alienation:

  • Armstrong: "If I had been raised and schooled in that...that environment, it would end very, very badly." (02:44)
  • Armstrong: "Oh, my God, did we fall asleep at the switch, letting our education system become that." (04:12)

• On Looksmaxing Extremes:

  • Armstrong: "The crime is its own punishment." (08:46)
  • Armstrong: "One of the first posts I saw was from a 14 year old boy...he was told to get a skull transplant." (11:46)
  • Charlie: "Who wants random idiots'...opinion in your head for the rest of your life? What a weird thing to do." (12:05)

• Wry Humor:

  • Armstrong: “Well, then do your Masai jumps and get a little taller and you’ll be in tall clover.” (14:16)
  • Armstrong: “Imagine being subhuman and dreaming of chadhood all the day long.” (16:09)
  • Charlie: "Son, your mom and I want to talk to you. Stop hitting yourself in the face with a hammer." (16:43)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Video of Fuentes & Nazi Meme Culture: 00:39–01:11
• Analysis of Young Men’s Alienation: 01:32–04:12
• Discussion of Sexual Politics & College: 04:23–05:57
• Reflections on Generational Impact: 06:00–06:21
• Introduction to Looksmaxing: 07:00–07:43
• Bone Smashing & Self-Harm: 08:06–09:14
• Face Rating Forums & Unhealthy Standards: 10:34–12:23
• Online Dating, 'Chads', and Dad Bods: 14:16–15:09
• Subhuman vs. Chad Scale & “Influencers”: 15:09–16:09
• Closing Humor: 16:31–16:43

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Episode Tone

The episode oscillates between serious concern, exasperation, and biting sarcasm. Armstrong & Getty blend empathy for disaffected young men with incredulity and mocking wit, especially when skewering the absurdities of online beauty subcultures.

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This summary captures the core discussions and the episode's distinct blend of critical reflection, skepticism, and comic relief.

Transcript

[Charlie]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.

[Armstrong]

Boy, oh boy, boys. It's one more thing.

[Getty]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Armstrong]

One more thing. Two different thoughts slash topics about young men. One serious, one seriously stupid. The first one, I thought this was pretty good. I've been sitting on it for a while. It's, it's seeking to explain some of the young men, nihilist, alt right, angry, you know, whatever, groiper thing.

[Charlie]

Did you see that video over the weekend of Nick Fuentes and some of those other well known influencers of that whole super aggressive male Nazi thing? They're riding on a bus, they were going out partying and listening to the Kanye West Heil Hitler song. Did you see that?

[Armstrong]

I did not. Oh, it's really charming.

[Charlie]

So they posted it themselves. They're playing the Kanye West Heil Hitler and they're all smiling and laughing and waving their hands in the air about how cool that is, that they're Nazis singing the Nazi song.

[Getty]

They are human rage bait.

[Armstrong]

Yes, correct. An engagement bait. On the other hand, here is, and to the extent that it's not that the people, the young men particularly, who are into it and follow that, I'm, I don't just want to yell at them that you're stupid, you're stupid. I would like to understand them.

[Charlie]

Stop being that.

[Armstrong]

So, and this is, let's see, this is just a short part of a long reflection on the Trump coalition and why it's cracking up a bit. And this author takes a look at different aspects of the support for Trump and he turns his attention to your Nick Fuentes Tucker Carlson thing in the Heritage foundation dealio. And he writes this. Many observers still imagine this America first revolt is a spontaneous bottom up development. Young men alienated by economic and cultural collapse, simply discovering isolationism and conspiratorial politics on their own. That story is half true at best. Here's where he gets to his point. What's actually happening and what's actually happened is simpler and more deliberate. For two decades, progressive institutions racialized every public discourse, taught an entire generation of boys that their skin color made them inherently suspect and demonized the traditional markers of male identity, strength, duty, faith, family, nation, as forms of toxic oppression. The result was not a political movement, but a widespread kind of non coherent mood of distrust. And he numbers the aspects of it. One, nothing works anymore. Two, the system is rigged. Three, the people in charge hate us and always will. Four, everything they tell us to care about, democracy abroad, allies, global leadership, is just another way to bleed the country dry. That mood is real. It is raw. It is also politically malleable. I think about myself, if I had been raised and schooled in that. Getting that message that, you know, that environment, it would end it very, very badly.

[Charlie]

Yeah. Because, you know, if you. If somebody keeps telling you over and over again, you should be upset and miserable because look at the way you're being treated, Even though the reality is you live in a perfectly fine house, you got plenty of food, you're healthy, you got all the things that human beings have wanted forever, but if somebody constantly told you, no, no, no, there's somebody else with more, and they're keeping you from having it. Yeah. You could go. You. You would do a twist.

[Getty]

You.

[Armstrong]

But what about the part that I was just saying, though, that you're told you're a piece of crap because you're masculine, and especially if you're white your entire life, where would that leave you?

[Charlie]

Yeah, exactly. Even if it's not. Well, if somebody's telling you that all the time. Yeah. It's gonna. It's gonna get into your system.

[Armstrong]

Yeah. Yeah. And. Yeah. Oh, my God, did we fall asleep at the switch, letting our education system become that. Anyway, the whole.

[Charlie]

The aspect of the Nick Fuentes thing in that he doesn't have sex and all that is just so weird to me.

[Armstrong]

Well, I think that that responds to the. The sexual aspect of what I was just talking about or what I was just reading about, where, you know, any. If you. If you, you know, put your hand on top of a girl's hand, that's sexual assault. Unless you've gotten her permission. And women have become militantly progressive and the rest of it. And so.

[Charlie]

And you could be very young men.

[Armstrong]

You'Re discovering, kicked out of college based.

[Charlie]

On her word with no. No investigation or anything like that.

[Armstrong]

And even though it turns out she's a psycho bitch or whatever. Yeah, a psycho bitch.

[Charlie]

Wow.

[Armstrong]

The technical term, the. So you would. You would say the same thing about sex as you would about democracy abroad, allies, global leadership, etc. It's. It's. I don't care about that because everybody has been pushing that's a liar and says I'm a piece of crap.

[Charlie]

Yeah, I mean, clearly it's true to a certain extent, because we know the statistics on people coupling and having sex. It's just surprising to me. I mean, you can convince me that there's global this or that, and. But, man, my desire to get some is, like, in my genes. You got to overcome that.

[Armstrong]

Right? Right. Yeah. I wonder if the emotional beatings because that's what the school system has been for young men, particularly young white men. It's been an emotional beating over and over again. That might be enough to, you know, end your sex drive.

[Charlie]

Well, I think we did the experiment. We've seen the result.

[Armstrong]

Yeah, I would agree. Yeah. So two things. Number one, I apologize. I really do. We should have been better. And number two, I wonder if this generation will be written about like the lost generation and various notable generations of young men through history. Almost certainly, yeah, it'll be robots doing the writing, thanks to Elon in the crowd.

[Charlie]

But man, add in some porn addiction, a couple other things, and man, it just gets. Gets bad fast.

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[Charlie]

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[Armstrong]

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[Armstrong]

Anyway, that's the serious part and it doesn't depressed the crap out of me. Here's the less serious part, although it's also unaffin believable. I'm sure you've looked, you followed this. You've seen the articles the boys breaking their bones to be hotter on. In online forums for Looks Maxers, teenage boys share tips on how to get jacked. Sharpen your jawline and suppress your appetite with meth.

[Charlie]

My son, my youngest, was talking about the whole jawline thing when he was like nine. As like I'd never heard of the concept of a jawline when I was a little tiny kid and who's got the right jawline and all that sort of stuff. That's not.

[Armstrong]

Yeah. Gabriel Blank was 13 when he became obsessed with improving his looks. And at 15 or 16, he started doing facial exercises he'd learned about in YouTube videos. Facial exercise promised to give him a more contoured face. Katie, you're hip to all this, right?

[Getty]

Yeah. These are being pushed all over social media. These different rubber balls you can bite on that make your.

[Armstrong]

Yeah, and let me get just real quick. A few years later, he started bone smashing, another technique he'd learned online, which involved hitting himself in the face with a hammer one minute in each place every day in an Effort to create micro fractures in his jawline and cheekbones. The bones were supposed to get bigger as they healed, giving him a more chiseled look. Quote, I got a permanent swelling, he told me, but it looked good.

[Charlie]

So we don't like criticizing children. But I feel like a human that hits themselves in the face with a hammer. I don't know. That's a. Well, it's.

[Armstrong]

The crime is its own punishment.

[Charlie]

Well, and I just. There's got to be a Darwin thing there at some level, isn't it? You're a person that hits themself in the face with a hammer.

[Armstrong]

By the way, this guy I'm quoting is a well known 25 year old Swedish influencer. Okay. He started doing Masai jumps. Named for a tribe of towering East African herders. Blah, blah, blah. The only thing the 25 year old Swedish influencer does regret is the time he injected the bottoms of his heels with hyaluronic acid to make himself taller.

[Getty]

I give up.

[Charlie]

So, yeah, me too. Tell me more about these facial exercises. Because my head, as everyone knows, is round as a basketball. It's like a perfect sphere that us can only be created in space. But it's.

[Armstrong]

A Mexican drug dealer once called you not only Charlie Brown, but Mr. Clean.

[Charlie]

This is true. What are some of these face exercises?

[Armstrong]

Oh, you know, I was sneezing uncontrollably. I hit my. They're called a cough button but they certainly well work well for sneezing. I wanted to finish the injecting his heels thing. It basically created a big like round thing in my heels. From what I could gather, the treatment was like implanting high heels in the soles of your foot. Quote I was walking on my tippy toes a bit and the results didn't even last. Quote. When you walk every day with all the pressure from the ground, the filler gets flatter. I didn't want to keep injecting myself with filler all the time just to.

[Charlie]

Get some extra inches and inches. It couldn't have been inches. It couldn't have been multiple inches.

[Armstrong]

But like that's a quote from him.

[Charlie]

How much better was your life being a half inch taller? Dude, did you really notice it being really a fantastic. Worth the pain and the odd way to get there. Stop the hammering.

[Armstrong]

Well, and you'd have to new pants, right? Unless you. Well, the short pants are kind of.

[Charlie]

In.

[Armstrong]

And so on. These looks masking discord chats, for instance.

[Charlie]

Yeah, yeah, I need the face exercises.

[Armstrong]

Where boys as young as 14 exchange tips. Someone's always asking for advice and someone's always giving it. Questions range from the range from the benign something as simple as a request for advice on a more flattering haircut to the alarming quote. So I started meth like a week ago because I wanted to get hollow cheeks. But now my heart has been acting really, really weird again. My BPM has been randomly rising up by like 30. When I'm just chilling, I'm kind of worried, should I get myself checked by a doctor or something?

[Charlie]

I just think this is natural selection.

[Getty]

I'm with you.

[Armstrong]

The de facto initiation ceremony in spaces like this is to have your face bluntly rated on the PSL scale. The acronym unites the initials of three controversial early manosphere forums. The pua, Hate, Slut Hate and Lookism. So it's the PSL scale. It's an intricate scoring system that measures everything from facial symmetry to eyebrow thickness. When I entered a look maxing forum a couple weeks ago to begin researching this piece, one of the first posts I saw was from a 14 year old boy who was asking to be rated brutally. He added he was told to get a skull transplant.

[Charlie]

Jeez, I've seen this on Reddit a lot, these forums. There's, there's, there's tons of these where you go on there and you put your face on there or your, your ass or whatever part of your body you want rated and it's always like I want complete honesty here. What do you think? And so your eyes are too close together, your nose is too big, or.

[Armstrong]

Blah blah blah blah blah.

[Charlie]

And I think, and these are usually young people. It's like who wants random idiots? Probably a holes opinion because who, who goes on there and rates other people? Who wants that opinion in your head for the rest of your life? What a weird thing to do.

[Armstrong]

Here's the uncomfortably true part. Although this is all craziness, I mean there's just, there's no caveat. But in the looks maxers view of the world, being outstanding physically attractive is outstandingly physically attractive is the only path to a successful career or a good social life. It's also the only way to get a girlfriend. In these forums, men seem to accept the idea that women are hypergamous by nature, meaning they are hardwired to date only the most attractive men. Uh, but in the past, before women's rights, their lack of power forced them to settle for lesser males. In other words, a few guys are the only guys getting laid on dating sites. Which we've heard over and over again is true.

[Charlie]

So if I chew on the rubber balls. What's that gonna do for me? Katie, about my round head help my jawline or chisel jaw.

[Armstrong]

You got the big jaw, the movie jaw.

[Getty]

Apparently it enhances the muscles along your jawline. Then I saw another contraption that looks like headgear from when you wore braces and it goes under your jaw and you have to open it. It's supposed to work the muscles in.

[Armstrong]

The other way, big jaw muscles. Because that's the key. It's not just the bone structure you're born with. Well, that's why you got to hammer yourself with a hammer, right?

[Charlie]

Well if, you know, lifting weights, if you do it right, the up and is, is the down is as valuable as the up if you do them slowly. So that's what the jaw thing is. So I'm getting the down pressure on the rubber balls and then I need some. Are they chomping down? And then I need that, the apparatus of that, the apparatus I wear on my head that I'm just going to start wearing around because that'll definitely help me get dates, right? I'll wear this head apparatus that'll help exercise the opening of the mouth. So then enclosing will be the balls, then open opening will be and pretty soon a big muscular jawline. And imagine how much better my life would be.

[Armstrong]

Well then do your masai jumps and get a little taller and you'll be in tall clover. So here's the insidious part of this and it's as old as time. I'm looking at a picture of a couple of these guys. They're like ridiculously good looking Swedish guys who are selling the idea that you not only can you look like them, but you must look like them.

[Charlie]

I would say though from. Because, you know, as I've mentioned, I've spent some time on some of these dating websites and I'm sure that statistically it is true the best looking dudes are having lots of promiscuous sex in, you know, one night stands. But for the people who are actually on there looking for a boyfriend or a girlfriend, there's tons of women who say looking for a dad bod don't need to be. I mean I see that a regular more than you would think. Just want a regular guy who's nice to me. You see that sort of thing a lot.

[Getty]

I hear that sort of thing from.

[Charlie]

My girlfriend a lot.

[Armstrong]

Perfect. Man. I It's a shame I'm on the bench, really. Anyway, let's end on a lighter note, shall we? So this one influencer dude, Clav, which is short as clavicular. Oh, God. He's. He's made the news a couple of times in recent months, partly in one, he allegedly hit someone with a cybertruck during livestream, which is neither here nor there. A few days later, he appeared in an interview with the Daily Wire's Michael Knowles, who was aghast when Clav told him he'd vote for Gavin Newsom over J.D. vance. Because the California governor mogs while the vice president is subhuman. Subhuman is the very bottom tier of the looks maxing community's elaborate scale of male attractiveness. The other categories are low tier normie, mid tier normie, high tier normie, Chad Light. And at the top, Chad. Oh, man. Imagine being subhuman and dreaming of chadhood all the day long.

[Charlie]

Gotta chew on the rubber balls. That's what I'm gonna do. Starting a day, I'm gonna get it. Come those bouncy balls, like, out of the thing, you get gumballs. And then the one next, like a plastic ring, and then the one next to.

[Armstrong]

It's got the rubber balls.

[Charlie]

You bounce when you get. Start chewing.

[Armstrong]

Subhuman.

[Getty]

Yeah, you're on.

[Charlie]

I'm on my way.

[Armstrong]

Just working on my jaw here.

[Charlie]

There you go with your hammer.

[Armstrong]

He's doing his massage jumpings.

[Charlie]

Yeah. Oh, man. Well, I guess that's it. Son, your mom and I want to talk to you. Stop hitting yourself in the face with a hammer. This is an I heart podcast. Guaranteed human.