Some People Like Cockfighting...

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: "Some People Like Cockfighting..."

Date: September 4, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Armstrong & Getty dive into the oddities of human entertainment, exploring everything from cockfighting and dogfighting to Major League Baseball, Dancing with the Stars, and the mysteries of why some people just can’t dance. With their signature mix of irreverence and self-deprecation, they reflect on personal preferences, the limits of judgment, and the peculiarities of popular culture.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. On Cockfighting, Dogfighting, and Personal Judgments

• The episode title stems from Armstrong’s tongue-in-cheek comment about cockfighting, which pivots into a broader talk about what people enjoy watching and when judging others is warranted.
• Armstrong quickly clarifies his humor:
  “I am anti cock fighting. That was just an attempt at humor.” (00:39)
• Getty distinguishes his feelings between animal sports:
  “Dog fighting I find like disgustingly abhorrent. I want you locked away forever,” (01:07)
  but he feels less passionately about chickens:
  “I don't care about chickens that much.” (01:07)
• Story of a friend’s cockfighting experience:
  Getty shares how a friend was blindfolded and taken to a clandestine rural arena, complete with stands and concession stands, for a cockfight. (01:44–02:14)
• Both agree that attending a dog fight is unthinkable, while watching unusual entertainment is, at some level, relatable.

2. Diversions and Mindless Entertainment

• The hosts transition to examining varying tastes in entertainment, using Armstrong’s own golf-watching habit as a point of reflection:
  • “I watch other men play golf on television. I mean for hours. So who am I to judge?” – Armstrong (01:22)
• They discuss the explosion of dance shows and reality TV, like "Dancing with the Stars," and how celebrity status has diluted over years:
  • Getty observes: “They seem to be running out of even D list entertainers…they're down to like L list entertainers.” (02:55)

3. Dancing with the Stars: The State of Celebrity

• The hosts read through a roster for the new season:
  • They riff on social media stars (“a hottie chick of some God knows what brand of Internet hot chick she is…” – Armstrong, 03:35),
  • Robert Irwin, the son of Steve Irwin, whom Armstrong calls “Super handsome, charming. He does the same gig as his dad but with a modern media twist.” (04:06)
  • The infamous Hilaria Baldwin:
    “Plus going back and forth to see her family in Spain, of which there is none. Of course, she's from Boston. Anyway. Yeah, she has hilarious accents.” – Armstrong (05:02)
    • [Memorable Moment: Playful mocking of Hilaria’s infamous accent confusion, with a direct quote from her:
      “We have very few ingredients. We have tomatoes, we have, how do you say anything? Cucumber, cucumbers. It's not easy.” (05:12)]
  • They riff on relationships, referencing Alec Baldwin and Hilaria (“God, I was lonely. I was on the rebound. She is young and hot…” – Getty, 05:59) and make edgy jokes.

4. Judgment and Mindless Entertainment

• Getty says he’s become nonjudgmental about people’s mindless distractions, so long as it’s reasonable in quantity:
  “I have become very, very nonjudgmental on what your particular choice is of mindless entertainment...But if every night you come home and spend several hours on that... I think there are better things you could do with your life.” – Getty (07:03–07:27)
• Quick run-through of more Dancing with the Stars cast: Corey Feldman, Andy Richter, and others.

5. The Inability to Dance: Talent, Intelligence, and Gender

• The conversation pivots to personal tales about learning to dance:
  • Armstrong recounts his total inability:
    “I sucked so bad. I was like borderline handicapped… It would be like a dyslexic kid trying to read War and Peace.” (08:08)
  • Both agree rhythm and dance are not the same skill:
    “If you've ever seen Ringo Star dancing...He looks like a guy with no rhythm. He was the drummer for the freaking Beatles, right?” – Getty (09:28)
• Armstrong references Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences:
  “At the time they thought seven, seven different kinds of intelligence. And one of them that really caught my ear was athletic intelligence...That is neurological excellence... The ability to dance is a particular part of your brain.” (09:54)
• Getty shares stories of natural dancers he saw as a nightclub DJ:
  “Just were so naturally gifted at that. It was amazing. I would watch them. It’s just stunning.” (10:46)
• Both hosts wish they could dance, seeing it as a valuable talent both socially and for self-expression.

6. Dancing and Gender Stereotypes

• They ponder if women who can’t dance actually exist:
  • “Have you ever known a woman that couldn't dance? That, like, really couldn't?” – Getty (12:36)
  • Armstrong references the classic "Seinfeld" Elaine dance bit, and Getty expands:
    “Gay men tend to be able to dance. So there’s something there, right?” (12:47)
  • They humorously solicit emails from “a woman who’s a terrible dancer or a gay dude who can’t dance a lick”. (12:55)

7. Cultural Moments and Human Nature

• The show repeatedly circles back to the subjectivity of interests and the importance of not taking oneself too seriously. There is a running appreciation for human quirks and pop irrationality.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Who am I to judge? It's one more thing.” – Armstrong, opening line (00:04)
• “I don't care about chickens that much. Dog fighting I find like disgustingly abhorrent. I want you locked away forever.” – Getty (01:07)
• “If you've ever seen Ringo Star dancing... He looks like a guy with no rhythm.” – Getty (09:28)
• “The ability to dance is a particular part of your brain... Has anybody ever studied that?” – Armstrong (09:54)
• “If every night you come home and spend several hours on that... I think there are better things you could do with your life.” – Getty (07:26)
• “It would be like a dyslexic kid trying to read War and Peace. I just was utterly incapable, no matter how hard I tried, of learning and memorizing dance steps.” – Armstrong (08:08)
• “Gay men tend to be able to dance. So there's something there, right? The fact that all women can kind of dance and gay men.” – Getty (12:47)
• [On Hilaria Baldwin:] “How do you say in English? Why are you asking me your native language there, Hilaria?” – Armstrong (05:25)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:04–02:14: Cockfighting, dogfighting, personal lines on entertainment
• 02:44–05:02: Dancing with the Stars cast rundown & Hilaria Baldwin clip
• 07:03–07:27: Nonjudgmental attitude toward “mindless” entertainment
• 08:08–09:54: Armstrong’s inability to dance & discussion of types of intelligence
• 10:46–11:15: Getty’s experience as a nightclub DJ, natural dancers
• 12:36–13:10: Gender, sexuality, and the stereotype of who can dance

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Episode Tone

Witty, irreverent, and self-deprecating, with the hosts riffing honestly about their own shortcomings and cultural observations. They blend humor with a sincere curiosity about human nature and society, making fun of themselves and pop culture without ever getting mean-spirited.

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Useful for listeners:
This episode offers a lighthearted, critical, and sometimes philosophical look at pop culture, judgment, and human foibles—mixing funny anecdotes with deeper musings on what intelligence and skill really mean. If you want to feel better about what you enjoy (or don’t), this conversation’s for you.

Transcript

[Announcer]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Armstrong]

Ah, some people like cockfighting. Who am I to judge? It's one more thing.

[Getty]

Armstrong and Getty. One more thing. Before we get to that, off the top of your head, what Major League baseball team has the best record in all of baseball with roughly 20 games to go?

[Armstrong]

Toronto.

[Getty]

No, by quite a bit. The Milwaukee Brewers.

[Armstrong]

Oh, really?

[Getty]

Yeah. Toronto is a first place team.

[Armstrong]

Yeah, but Milwaukee Brewers, NL Central, right?

[Getty]

Yeah, the Brewers.

[Armstrong]

Yeah. That's the Cubbies division. I didn't know that. You know, I've drifted away from Major League Baseball and I feel kind of bad about it. Speaking of things you watch and enjoy and I am anti cock fighting. That was just an attempt at humor. Yeah, I just, I don't really watch baseball anymore.

[Getty]

Cubs are a playoff team. If the started today though, they're a wild card.

[Armstrong]

Yeah, Giants are close to hind teeth in the west, right? It doesn't matter. Information is readily available.

[Getty]

I, I, I don't like cockfighting. I wouldn't attend one and I, but I don't care about chickens that much. Dog fighting I find like disgustingly abhorrent. I want you locked away forever.

[Armstrong]

But yeah, chicken on your total poll of abhorrent. Yeah, dog fighting is way higher. Yeah, I would agree. So I'm talking about what people like and watch and are into and some of it mystifies me. But I must be kind and understanding on this topic because I watch other men play golf on television. I mean for hours. So who am I to judge? But I have a friend who went.

[Getty]

To a cockfight one time and I would go and I could watch it. I wouldn't dig it, but I could go and watch it. I couldn't attend a dog fight.

[Armstrong]

Oh no.

[Getty]

He, he, they, they blindfolded him, drove him out in the country because they didn't want him to even know where it was. And he went out there and it was like an arena. It was built out there in the country and it was a full on arena and it had a concession stand and everything like that. And everybody gathered around and threw down money on the chickens, killing each other.

[Armstrong]

So were there like stands? Yeah, like aluminum stands. I'm picturing bleachers. Yeah, I'll be damned. Never had the experience. I don't want a bunch of guys of any ethnicity blindfolding me and driving me out into the country. Thank you very much. Either you know me well enough that you know you don't have to or you don't, in which case you're not effing blindfolded me and driving me out into the darkness.

[Getty]

That's an excellent point.

[Armstrong]

Please. Anyway, the 478th season of Dancing with the Stars has been announced. Announced. Every three and a half days the new season begins.

[Getty]

I did notice last couple of seasons, I haven't heard this one, but last couple of seasons they seem to be running out of even D list entertainers. They're down to like L list entertainers.

[Armstrong]

Yeah, that was one of the, the recent, you know, programs of the Trump administration is to open up more levels of minor celebrities because we've run out.

[Getty]

I feel like we might be famous enough to get on Dancing with the Stars at this point.

[Armstrong]

Well, it has evolved in a way that is at least slightly interesting. I'm looking at the list here and the first person, I don't know what order these are in, but is social media star Alex with an eye Earl.

[Getty]

Who could be huge and I wouldn't know it.

[Armstrong]

A hottie chick of some God knows what brand of Internet hot chick she is. Whether she doles out beauty hints or sex advice or how to be a better frontier wife or something.

[Getty]

Endless appetite for hot, young, hot chicks. It just beyond me.

[Armstrong]

Yeah. Wildlife conservationist Robert Irwin, who is a big deal among the youngsters, the late Steve Irwin's son.

[Getty]

Okay, I was going to ask a relative. Okay, yeah, yeah.

[Armstrong]

Super handsome, charming. He does the same gig as his dad but with a modern media twist.

[Getty]

And has managed to stay alive.

[Armstrong]

Two different people from the secret lives of Mormon wives.

[Getty]

Okay.

[Armstrong]

Were they married to the same dude or others? My daughter watches that some. Oh, really? My, my youngest, the like super achiever law school daughter. That's her. I need to turn off my brain. This is what I'm watching.

[Getty]

Escape.

[Armstrong]

Yeah. Alec, that was a well known Mormon man. Nice job, Mitt Romney. Michael. That's just fine. The judges will allow it. Also next up on the list, Alec Baldwin's faux Spaniard wife, Hilaria.

[Announcer]

Oh my God. When I'm talking, you're not talking. No, when I'm talking, you're not talking.

[Getty]

They got like 11 kids and one of them just recently how she got time to go on Dancing with the Stars.

[Armstrong]

Plus going back and forth to see her family in Spain, of which there is none. Of course, she's from Boston. Anyway. Yeah, she has hilarious accents. Remember she, we had this clip.

[Announcer]

We have very few ingredients. We have tomatoes, we have, how do you say anything? Cucumber, cucumbers. It's not easy. And I think part of it is that I'm in shape before I have a baby and then I stay active when I'm pregnant.

[Armstrong]

Oh, God, stop it. Just shut up. How do you say in English? Why are you asking me your native language there? Hilaria.

[Getty]

Who?

[Armstrong]

Who her parents considered naming her obnoxia Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles.

[Getty]

Do you think Alec Baldwin is, like, still, like, in love with her and everything like that, or is he at the God, what was I thinking? Stage of his life?

[Armstrong]

I have no idea.

[Getty]

He certainly could be that, though. It's just like, God, I was lonely. I was on the rebound. She is young and hot and I just. But, you know, we got eight kids, so let's ride it out.

[Armstrong]

Yeah, I don't. I don't know. I can't even guess. Nobody knows what's happening inside a relationship they're not in.

[Getty]

But course, if he doesn't like her, he'll shoot her.

[Armstrong]

Oh, Lord. So Olympic gymnast, star of the Traitors, Dylan Efron.

[Getty]

Really? The Traders. What is that?

[Armstrong]

Somebody, Anybody. NBA star Baron Davis and his beard.

[Getty]

Foreign former warriors star knocked off the Dallas Mavericks when they are one seed is on Dancing with the Stars.

[Armstrong]

You ever watch the show? I mean, like, ever?

[Getty]

Ah, boy, Many years ago I watched a little of it.

[Armstrong]

Yeah. Yeah. I don't. I don't care who dances better, but some people love it. And again, it's escapism. That's fine. You do you. Boy meets world star Danielle Fishel, who I've never heard of. I've heard of the show comedian Andy Richter. It's a payday.

[Getty]

I have become very, very nonjudgmental on what your particular choice is of mindless entertainment. Whether it's a frivolous book, frivolous TV show, whatever. Doesn't matter.

[Armstrong]

How about the amount of frivolous entertainment? Are you still willing to judge people on that?

[Getty]

Absolutely.

[Armstrong]

Okay.

[Getty]

And judge harder.

[Armstrong]

I thought you'd gone.

[Getty]

So if every night you come home and spend several hours on that. I think there are better things you could do with your life.

[Armstrong]

Actor Corey Feldman molested by a former producer way back in the day.

[Getty]

Right.

[Armstrong]

When he was a young man.

[Getty]

We've talked to Corey Feldman. Yeah, we have.

[Armstrong]

Yeah. One of the singers from Pentatonix, a fabulous acapella vocal group. And somebody else I've never heard of in my life and wouldn't remember their name. 10 seconds.

[Getty]

And they. Out loud, they pair them up with a professional dancer, right?

[Armstrong]

Yes.

[Getty]

And then you try to learn a routine. I would like to try that once. I've never tried to learn a dance routine. I'M sure I'd be horrible at it, but it'd be kind of fun to try it once.

[Armstrong]

Yeah, I've mentioned this before. I was super into drama as a kid. Like, you know, like, not just in my private life, but doing plays and musicals and that sort of thing. I may be a bit of a drama queen, but no, I was doing it intentionally. There were scripts and I was, with all due modesty, a very solid actor, pretty damn good singer. And then it was time to learn choreography for the first time in my life, whether I was 12, 13, 14, something like that. And I thought, okay, this will be fun. And I sucked at it. I sucked so bad. I was like borderline handicapped. Like, it would be like a dyslexic kid trying to read War and Peace. I just was utterly incapable, no matter how hard I tried, of learning and memorizing dance steps.

[Getty]

Think I've never tried it at all, not even a little bit. But I think I would be like that too. Which is interesting because, like, if you gave me kind of a beginner level music thing on any instrument, I think I could learn it this weekend. But I'm not sure I could learn the most basic of dance steps.

[Armstrong]

Oh, no. And people say, no, it's just about rhythm. If you got rhythm, you can dent. No, no, sir. I've got pretty good rhythm, thank you very much.

[Getty]

They don't translate. They're different things. I've learned that in recent years. They are different things. Things which you can see by if you've ever seen. My best example of this, if you've ever seen Ringo star dancing. Oh, he looks like a guy with no rhythm. He was the drummer for the freaking Beatles, right?

[Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Getty]

So they don't, they don't go to. It's not rhythm. People always say that he's got no rhythm. No, it's a different thing. And I don't know what it is.

[Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah. And I'm so persuaded. I was so blown away and informed, I had to dig more into this. The idea that there are, at the time they thought seven, seven different kinds of intelligence. And one of them that really caught my ear was athletic intelligence. It is your brain communicating with your muscles and limbs what they should do in many sports in an incredibly short time frame. That is neurological excellence. How would you not describe that as a sort of, of intelligence? And I thought, wow, that's a really good point. Musical intelligence was another one of them. And just verbal intelligence, mathematical, blah, blah. But yeah, the ability to dance is a particular part of your Brain. Has anybody ever studied that?

[Getty]

I don't know. When I worked at a nightclub, I was a DJ at a nightclub. And before it became a country nightclub, it played like hip hop stuff and like that. And there were guys that would come in there that just were so naturally gifted at that. It was amazing. I would watch them. It's just like. It's just stunning. It's not like they took classes or anything like that. They just could do it.

[Armstrong]

And for the record, I don't disdain dancing at all. If I could, I would. I'd love to be a good dancer.

[Getty]

But especially when you're younger because, man, they. Every girl danced with them because they wanted to dance with somebody who could dance.

[Armstrong]

Right? Right. Yeah. Well, we've got the electrodes hooked up to Joe Getty's head. Now let's try to teach him a dance routine. Well, the same areas are lighting up as if he were being stabbed by a group of thugs in an alley. Well, then the memorizing. Error and disgust. The memorize.

[Getty]

How do you memorize all those moves?

[Armstrong]

That's just amazing.

[Getty]

You watch those. Because now a lot of modern pop singers, they all have a dance troupe behind them. J. Lo and everybody. Like that. How do you memorize all that stuff? Incredible.

[Armstrong]

Yeah, I know. I wonder at that. It's like somebody pole vaulting 18 and a half feet. I look at that and think, that's miraculous.

[Getty]

Can you dance, Michael? Not at all.

[Armstrong]

Not at all. I wonder if there are characteristics that go along with that. Right? I mean, the fact that all of us get along so well. I don't. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but gay men. If Michael said, yeah, actually, I'm a gifted dancer, I. I had a scholarship too, so I wouldn't think any more or less of them. But I think, wow, that's really cool. That's. Actually, I would think more of you, Michael, if you told me that.

[Getty]

But.

[Armstrong]

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. It's. It's mysterious and. And science, frankly, has neglected this area of.

[Getty]

Here's a question. I wish Katie was here for this. Have you ever known a woman that couldn't dance? That, like, really couldn't?

[Armstrong]

I haven't ever. That's why the Elaine bit in Seinfeld was so funny.

[Getty]

And gay men tend to be able to dance. So there's something there, right? The fact that all women can kind of dance and gay men.

[Armstrong]

All right, so if you're a woman who's a terrible dancer or a gay dude who can't dance a lick. Mailbagarmstrongyeghetti.com Email us.

[Getty]

It must be hell if you're a woman and you can't dance.

[Armstrong]

You think?

[Getty]

Yeah, I think you would stand out among your friends when the wedding is happening and everybody takes off their shoes and it's all the women who run out there and they're dancing because none of the dudes want to, and you can't because you can't dance. Yeah, it would suck.

[Armstrong]

Yeah, that's why you approach the the gal was not dancing. Say, hey, you want to go have sex? She's like, yeah, anything but sitting.

[Getty]

I'd even do that with you. Rather than dance. They would say.

[Armstrong]

Well, I guess that's it.

[Announcer]

This is an iHeart podcast.