MBMBaM 744: The Naming of 2025

Summary

Podcast Summary: "My Brother, My Brother and Me" — Episode MBMBaM 744: The Naming of 2025

Introduction

In Episode MBMBaM 744 titled "The Naming of 2025," hosts Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy embark on their annual tradition of selecting a theme name for the year 2025. As seasoned advisors with a penchant for humor and creativity, the McElroy brothers navigate the complexities and pressures of choosing a name that not only resonates with their audience but also encapsulates the spirit they wish to promote for the upcoming year.

The Pressure of Naming the Year

The episode kicks off with Griffin expressing the immense pressure they feel as "Hollywood it boys" tasked with the seemingly monumental responsibility of naming the year. He remarks at [01:23],

"Do you guys ever feel like nobody understands the pressure that it requires to be Hollywood it boys? Carrying the immeasurable burden of naming the year."

Travis jests about the challenges, responding at [01:43]:

"Powerful Hollywood it boys and powerful Internet influencers. Yes, Griffin, let me answer your question with a question. Do you ever feel like a plastic bag drifting through the wind, wanting to start again?"

This light-hearted banter underscores the seriousness of their mission amidst the comedic setup.

Brainstorming Session: Initial Ideas

The brothers dive into brainstorming, generating a plethora of ideas each prefixed with "20" to signify the year 2025. They explore various themes ranging from whimsical to action-packed, reflecting their diverse creative influences. Notable suggestions include:

• 20 Funny Guys: Emphasizing humor and camaraderie.
• 20 Forward: Signifying progress and movement.
• 20 Grifting: Adding a mischievous twist.
• 20 Serpentine: Suggesting complexity and fluidity.

Griffin expresses his preference for names that are both meaningful and actionable, saying at [07:37]:

"I had 20 Freddy Fright guys... They sound like characters who could resonate with our audience."

Travis introduces a more structured idea with a fictional action franchise:

"Thunder Force Five. The Omega Continuum." ([17:20])

Refining the Ideas: Pros and Cons

As the brainstorming session progresses, the brothers critically evaluate each suggestion, considering factors like memorability, relevance, and aesthetic appeal. They discuss the feasibility of implementing certain themes in their live shows and marketing materials. For instance, the idea of Thunder Force Five evolves as they seek a more compelling subtitle, leading to debates about its viability and marketability.

At [50:35], Justin highlights the challenge:

"Tummy Buddy Life, Dare to Care" requires balance between humor and sincerity, aiming to foster generosity and community spirit.

Griffin and Travis engage in back-and-forth discussions, refining the themes to better align with their values and audience expectations. They emphasize the importance of creating a theme that is not only catchy but also encourages positive action among listeners.

The Final Name: "Tummy Buddy Life, Dare to Care"

After extensive deliberation, the brothers converge on the theme "Tummy Buddy Life, Dare to Care." This name encapsulates the essence of community, generosity, and personal growth. Griffin elucidates the meaning behind the theme at [116:00]:

"Tummy Buddy Life, Dare to Care means sharing meals, sharing stories, and being there for each other. It's about generosity of spirit and fostering meaningful connections."

Travis adds depth to the theme by linking it to actionable steps:

"20 Canned Food Drive. Act locally." ([82:14])

This alignment of the theme with charitable initiatives underscores their commitment to making a tangible positive impact in the community.

Conclusion

Episode MBMBaM 744 serves as both a creative expedition and a heartfelt discussion on the responsibilities that come with influencing a broad audience. By selecting "Tummy Buddy Life, Dare to Care" as the theme for 2025, the McElroy brothers aim to inspire their listeners to cultivate generosity, strengthen relationships, and engage in meaningful community actions. This theme not only reflects their values but also sets a purposeful direction for the year ahead.

As Justin aptly summarizes towards the end of the episode ([122:51]):

"Tummy Buddy Life, Dare to Care is going to hit in a pretty major way, I think. It's all gonna be worth it."

Through humor, introspection, and collaborative creativity, Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy reaffirm their dedication to guiding their audience with both laughter and meaningful advice.

Transcript

[Griffin McElroy]

The McElroy brothers are not experts and their advice should never be followed. Travis insists he's a sexpert, but if there's a degree on his wall, I haven't seen it. Also, this show isn't for kids, which I mention only so the babies out there will know how cool they are for listening. What's up, you cool baby?

[Travis McElroy]

It's the start of something beautiful A.

[Griffin McElroy]

Small acquaintance has blossomed it's ripened into a precious friends I could have never.

[Travis McElroy]

Seen what was coming for me Hangs.

[Griffin McElroy]

At the skate park Hangs by the beach My life, it feels like it's better it's better with you My life, it's better it's better with you this is true it's better it's better with two.

[Justin McElroy]

Hello everybody and welcome to My Brother, my Brother and Me, an advice show for the modern era. I'm your oldest brother, Justin McElroy.

[Travis McElroy]

I'm your middlest brother, Travis Big Dog, Wolf. Wolf McElroy. What up Trav Nation?

[Griffin McElroy]

Do you guys ever feel like nobody understands the pressure that it requires to be Hollywood it boys? Carrying the immeasurable burden of naming the year.

[Travis McElroy]

Powerful Hollywood it boys and powerful Internet influencers. Yes, Griffin, let me answer your question with a question. Do you ever feel like a plastic bag drifting through the wind, wanting to start again?

[Griffin McElroy]

I do. And not like the sexy kind from American Beauty, Just a normal bag.

[Travis McElroy]

No, no, no. Not a totally fuckable plastic bag. Like just a raggedy ass.

[Griffin McElroy]

Last night we were going to bed and I was like, I'm gonna stay up and prep some stuff. Prep some stuff for this episode.

[Justin McElroy]

Just prep a little bit.

[Griffin McElroy]

Rachel was surprised that I would do that, that I would voluntarily work in the evening on this. And really she was sur. Just leaned in and she said, 20 funny guys, be yourself. And that was really sweet. But also the pressure like that obviously can't be it. The pressure is so much.

[Justin McElroy]

Guys, I've gotten so many texts from so many different huge multi hyphenate talents.

[Griffin McElroy]

That are asking like, where's my name? Where's my name I need to name?

[Justin McElroy]

Where's the day? Where's the day?

[Griffin McElroy]

I've had.

[Justin McElroy]

I've had my wife, my kid, one of my kids.

[Travis McElroy]

You know what I mean?

[Justin McElroy]

Like everyone, it's a band.

[Travis McElroy]

Which bothers you more? One of your kids asking you or the other one not.

[Justin McElroy]

It's equal. It's. It's exactly equal.

[Travis McElroy]

It's like my kids don't even know what I'm doing. They care about fungalore, they love Fungalore.

[Griffin McElroy]

Let me. Let me tell you. Can I talk about where my heart's at? I love Fungalore. We discussed 20 Fungal Live. I think we can keep that a branch universe. I think that can be our question of. But where's Fungalore? Because we love him. I don't want to kill him. We can just say 20 fungalive. But that's not the name of the year.

[Justin McElroy]

Here's what's interesting about Fungalore. Can I speak on Fungalore, please?

[Griffin McElroy]

He's so strong.

[Justin McElroy]

Before we get into it, I'd like to say a bit about Fungalore. The weird thing about Fungalore is it was when we did it, I thought the worst we'd ever done.

[Griffin McElroy]

The worst thing ever.

[Justin McElroy]

I thought it was the worst job that we had done. And I thought the. Well, we said as much. Trav. This isn't a staff.

[Travis McElroy]

It's hard sometimes to tell what the kayfabe is in the moment. But part of our touring this year has been like a video thing in the middle of the show. And I've gotten to see Justin's face over and over again as he has to say, this year is a guy. 20 fungalore. You had your wish. And I'm trying to really read through, like, oh, well, what's the Justin behind the Justin? And what's he really feeling here? Is it a bit.

[Justin McElroy]

I like Fun Galore a lot. I mean, I.

[Griffin McElroy]

It took us a long time to get to Fungalor, but it took a.

[Justin McElroy]

Long time to get there, and we were all mentally and spiritually exhausted. And I thought, like, I don't know if this is it, because there's a lot riding on it. And I feel like what was interesting about Fungore is it was the best job we've ever done. Interestingly, everyone loved him. Yeah, great. We love this. The other thing is that weirdly, and I didn't actually get confirmation on this from other people until December or so, but also, mushrooms just aesthetically became hugely on trend.

[Griffin McElroy]

Amazing. Was that us? Was that us?

[Travis McElroy]

Was that us? Here's my theory. When people are worried about this year ending and what's gonna happen to Fungalore, I don't think we created Fungalore so much as I feel like we encountered Fungalore.

[Griffin McElroy]

Good.

[Justin McElroy]

Right?

[Griffin McElroy]

We can't collect Fungalore because we didn't.

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah, he's not ours.

[Justin McElroy]

He's like. We went on the Haunted Mansion ride to find the name, and we got with you the whole ride, and we didn't find the name. And then there's like a hitchhiking Fungalore that rose.

[Griffin McElroy]

Ghost on the seat.

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

There's a ghost on the sea.

[Travis McElroy]

And I don't want to say I discovered fungal because that sounds like a thing you say when you found like a cafe that hundreds of people have.

[Griffin McElroy]

Been to all that we encountered him.

[Travis McElroy]

For the first time we encountered fungalore. I wouldn't be surprised if in some annals of like, foraging, like history books, there has been tale of he's been found before. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

Other cultures have known me by, you know.

[Travis McElroy]

Right, exactly.

[Justin McElroy]

Like whatever it is, like, it kicks ass.

[Griffin McElroy]

It kicks ass that we did a guy last year. I don't think we can do that. I don't think we can do that.

[Travis McElroy]

We can't.

[Justin McElroy]

And that's the thing about it. Right. It has to be.

[Travis McElroy]

I don't think Frank set out to.

[Justin McElroy]

But how do you follow a guy?

[Travis McElroy]

Okay, then let me start off strong with a strong pick.

[Justin McElroy]

Wait, wait, wait.

[Griffin McElroy]

We have to. Before. We have to stand on precedent here and go through the list of.

[Travis McElroy]

Okay. Can I try to do it from memory? I was doing this last night. Yeah, that's fine. From memory juice.

[Griffin McElroy]

Can you pull it up just to check?

[Justin McElroy]

I'll pull up the real.

[Griffin McElroy]

The real ass shit.

[Justin McElroy]

Oh, man.

[Griffin McElroy]

This is always such an uncomfortable segment for us. I understand. Cause we just laugh at our own jokes for a good. I mean, it gets longer. Like two minutes.

[Justin McElroy]

It gets longer every time.

[Travis McElroy]

I know. 2010 was Zolo Zolo correct. Meant nothing.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Travis McElroy]

Then was it 20 heaven?

[Griffin McElroy]

I mean, I meant Zu only live once. Like you.

[Travis McElroy]

That's right. Yes.

[Justin McElroy]

I don't think the best version of this is Travis butchering it and then me saying it. Right. So, Travis, you either get it clean.

[Travis McElroy]

20 heaven. Get right with Christ.

[Justin McElroy]

2,000 in heaven.

[Travis McElroy]

2,000 in heaven.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Travis McElroy]

And then it was 20 does. Get it done.

[Griffin McElroy]

Getting it.

[Travis McElroy]

Getting it.

[Justin McElroy]

Getting it correct.

[Travis McElroy]

2013. Dig it up.

[Griffin McElroy]

Dig it up. Get it out.

[Justin McElroy]

Okay.

[Travis McElroy]

This is the one I always stumble on.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 griftine. The con is on.

[Travis McElroy]

That's 15. 14 was 20 forward.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yes.

[Justin McElroy]

Yes.

[Travis McElroy]

Then 20 grifting. The con is on.

[Justin McElroy]

Correct.

[Travis McElroy]

What was 20 forward? Was there a subtitle?

[Justin McElroy]

There was no subtitle on 24.

[Travis McElroy]

That's strong.

[Griffin McElroy]

I want to encourage us to play with the form like we did in 20. 15.

[Travis McElroy]

20 grifting. And then 20 fixed team building bridges.

[Justin McElroy]

Yikes.

[Travis McElroy]

20 serpentine. Zaggon em.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, yeah.

[Travis McElroy]

Collaborating stronger.

[Justin McElroy]

Okay. It's actually technically 20 Serpenteed. Keep em guessing. Keep em guessing in parentheses.

[Griffin McElroy]

We didn't follow. Keep em guessing. At all.

[Travis McElroy]

Well, just because I can't remember. The subtitle is always keeping me guessing.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Travis McElroy]

20 serpentine. Then collaborate. Teen stronger together.

[Griffin McElroy]

This is where we start to get into the ones I actually remember.

[Travis McElroy]

Frankenstein. Teen Become the monster.

[Griffin McElroy]

Correct.

[Justin McElroy]

And then now, here we get it. Here we get it.

[Travis McElroy]

This was 20 Funny Fill youl Life with Laughter and Love. Which then change to 20 honey down to beesness. And then Funny Honey. Fill your life with Laughter and Bees.

[Griffin McElroy]

Right.

[Justin McElroy]

Never at any. Okay, now the thing that history is gonna have a hard time figuring out is that we changed the theme of the year three times in 2020. But at no point was it a reference to the rapid spread of the novel Coronavirus in America that really reoriented all of the global.

[Travis McElroy]

Or a lot of social unrest that was also going on during the time.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, it's a hugely.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, I'm just a shame. I feel like people lean on these names for guidance, for direction. And I think people probably could have used more laughter and love in 2020.

[Travis McElroy]

And we were fucking cowardly shit.

[Griffin McElroy]

We were cowards. We were like, we don't got it no more, gang. Sorry, we're stepping back. You're on your own. Here's some fucking bees to play with.

[Justin McElroy]

So.

[Travis McElroy]

And then it was 20 big dog run. No bones about it. Right?

[Griffin McElroy]

Cool.

[Travis McElroy]

20 rendezvous. Fancy takes flight.

[Griffin McElroy]

Amazing.

[Travis McElroy]

20 sun and sea. Surf the Vibe.

[Griffin McElroy]

Fuck.

[Justin McElroy]

Fuck.

[Griffin McElroy]

We're only getting better at this.

[Justin McElroy]

This sucks.

[Travis McElroy]

And then 20 fungalore. He heard your wish.

[Griffin McElroy]

This sucks. We're getting better at it as the years go on. Which means that there's all.

[Justin McElroy]

You have to trust it.

[Travis McElroy]

And this year will be 20 honey hive. Back to Beesness.

[Griffin McElroy]

Now, I have written here, Travis will suggest 20 honey hive first.

[Justin McElroy]

That's on the bingo car.

[Griffin McElroy]

You're stuck on. You're stuck on bee stuff.

[Travis McElroy]

And I feel like, okay, but what do you think about it?

[Griffin McElroy]

What are you encouraging me to do with Back to Beesness?

[Travis McElroy]

Get back to Beesness. Now, I also thought about 20 honey hive. 20 honey hive. What's the buzz?

[Griffin McElroy]

And what are you trying to communicate with that, Travis?

[Travis McElroy]

We should all start talking together, right? Build a hive. What about 20 Honey Hive? Dance it Out.

[Griffin McElroy]

There's so much stuff about bees working together that you could have 20 honey hives sweeter together. There's so much stuff. Build a network. That's like what they do in there. There's so much stuff you could have done.

[Travis McElroy]

20 honey hive. The needs of the Many.

[Griffin McElroy]

I mean, you're getting Andrew Ryan in there.

[Justin McElroy]

It's Getting worse.

[Travis McElroy]

No, that was Spock. Don't. Don't. How dare you?

[Griffin McElroy]

All those fictional guys.

[Travis McElroy]

Spock invented the idea of the needs of the many.

[Griffin McElroy]

You know that fictional smart guys. They all.

[Travis McElroy]

No one said it before him. Okay, so we'll put that at the top of the list for now. For right now, 20 Honey Hive is our best option.

[Griffin McElroy]

Let's.

[Travis McElroy]

And I just. I like to start off at a place where 20 Honey Hive is our best option.

[Griffin McElroy]

It was the only option to start with. I think that's great, Travis. And what I do like about 20 honey hive is that. And this is becoming increasingly important to us Hollywood it boys is. It's also an aesthetic. Bee stuff. I could see myself dressed up like a big bee on stage.

[Travis McElroy]

I could see that too.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah. We've done a lot of bee related stuff over the years though, right? This doesn't feel like a new direction for us so much as it's of a hearkening. I feel like I've seen us dressed as bees 10, 15 times in my life.

[Griffin McElroy]

Have we?

[Travis McElroy]

Wait, are you thinking about when we were the bee in the bee mascot costume for the local oldies radio station?

[Justin McElroy]

Oh, Travis, this is something I would never. I would never dress as the bee.

[Travis McElroy]

Oh, you were cow bunga only.

[Justin McElroy]

No, I would never lower myself to dressing as the bee, Travis. I only dressed as the cow. A mammal. Thank you.

[Travis McElroy]

I'm sorry, Dreux. And I didn't mean to offend your speeches.

[Griffin McElroy]

Can we focus? Hey, guys, can we focus up a little bit?

[Justin McElroy]

Just a little bit?

[Griffin McElroy]

Can we fucking dial in a little bit?

[Travis McElroy]

You're right, Griffin. Sorry.

[Griffin McElroy]

Just. I hate to be the. I hate to start cracking the whip already, but it just. This is a serious job that we're doing here.

[Justin McElroy]

Okay, Travis, thro. Does someone have a list going?

[Griffin McElroy]

Yes, I shared it with you. It's a Google document now I'm looking at it. Travis suggested a sequel. I want to get my sequel out of the way. What's wrong now?

[Travis McElroy]

What you've written here, Griffin. Though, not to start on the what we've written in the doc jokes, but you've written 20 honeyhive colon, blank, blank, blank. Something shitty.

[Griffin McElroy]

Well, you don't have a good outro for it, so what do you want me to put in there? What do you want me to commit to? What do you want me to commit to? Written history, Trav.

[Travis McElroy]

No, something shitty works for now. Maybe something shitty.

[Justin McElroy]

Bees.

[Travis McElroy]

Back to bees. Nest.

[Griffin McElroy]

Back to bees. This is good. Here's my.

[Travis McElroy]

What about 20 Honey Hive? Beez nuts.

[Griffin McElroy]

Travis, my oldest son, hits me with about eight to ten deez nuts jokes a day at this point.

[Travis McElroy]

I witnessed it at Christmas. That's true.

[Griffin McElroy]

And there's so many I know that could fucking. That would annihilate this kid that I would get in a lot of trouble for saying out loud to him. They talk about Imagine Dragons a lot. And there's an amazing Deez Nuts coda, DSL coda you can put at the end of that, but I can't, and I won't. I got a sequel that I feel pretty good about.

[Travis McElroy]

Okay.

[Griffin McElroy]

Since Travis just did his 20. It's alive. Rebuild the monster.

[Travis McElroy]

Mmm.

[Griffin McElroy]

Here's what I want you to think about 2019. Become the monster Strong. We all wanted to become the biggest, strongest, best, nastiest, boldest versions of ourselves. And then the novel coronavirus happened, and we kind of had to put that away for a little while, didn't we? We all had to put that away a little bit and be sort of put the walls up. And what I'm suggesting is in 2025, we can smash through those walls and rebuild the monster you once became.

[Travis McElroy]

I like the 28's alive. I think that maybe there's a better tagline to capture because Rebuild the monster, I think embraces too much failure.

[Griffin McElroy]

You haven't had any of that stuff, baby.

[Travis McElroy]

Personally, no.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, man.

[Travis McElroy]

All I do is win, right?

[Griffin McElroy]

I know most of us, though, failures, that's frequent thing, man. So taking back some of what we've lost, something to think about.

[Travis McElroy]

Okay. Okay. Are you ready for another one?

[Griffin McElroy]

I want Justin.

[Travis McElroy]

Justin, you got one?

[Justin McElroy]

No, not yet.

[Travis McElroy]

Okay, hold on.

[Griffin McElroy]

Wait. So let's stop on that for a second. You didn't. Yeah, you didn't. You don't have anything?

[Justin McElroy]

No, I have some here, but I.

[Travis McElroy]

Feel like you want to get the chaff out of the way.

[Griffin McElroy]

Well, we never go with the first few, so.

[Justin McElroy]

You don't want to go.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, you don't want to know.

[Travis McElroy]

If anything now, I would push back. That what I found.

[Justin McElroy]

You guys. You guys, sometimes you got to burn off a little fuel to get into orbit, you know?

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah, I found that 50% of the time. Every other time, it tends to be, we say one in the first 10 minutes, and then we circle back to it in the last 10 minutes.

[Justin McElroy]

I was telling Sid in the car the thing about the year theme is that you have to prepare for it.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

But we'll never, ever use a name that one of us has picked beforehand because we all want to feel like.

[Griffin McElroy]

We'Ve we found it together. We built it together. Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

A little brushstroke on the Sistine Chapel.

[Travis McElroy]

Now for the next one. Do you guys. We've done this so many years now.

[Justin McElroy]

I'll give you one.

[Travis McElroy]

Okay.

[Justin McElroy]

20:45. Welcome to the future.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's awesome.

[Justin McElroy]

I know. I know.

[Griffin McElroy]

2045.

[Justin McElroy]

Welcome to the future.

[Griffin McElroy]

Welcome to the future. Okay, so Justin's playing with form, which I really like.

[Travis McElroy]

I like.

[Justin McElroy]

I really like that because it's like.

[Travis McElroy]

I never in a million years wouldn't have thought of that.

[Justin McElroy]

Justin, what I'm saying is it's a shift in continuity for my brother. My brother me, that. That rockets us.

[Travis McElroy]

It's Tokyo Drift, is what you're saying. This is our Tokyo Drift.

[Justin McElroy]

This rockets the continuity 20 years into the future so you can see how.

[Travis McElroy]

They'Ve all created for the rest of time. People will look back and be like, where does that fit in in the bigger scene?

[Griffin McElroy]

Well, but then they'll get to the actual year 2045. When we do 2045, and we'll just.

[Justin McElroy]

Go right past it, though, we'll skip that year.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, interesting.

[Travis McElroy]

We already did it.

[Justin McElroy]

So we would already do 20:45 ahead of time. Right. And then when 20:26 starts, we'll just.

[Griffin McElroy]

Pick back up where we left off.

[Justin McElroy]

Where we were before.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, sure.

[Justin McElroy]

Now, here's the beauty part. When we do get to 2045.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

The theme of that year is 2025.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

Remember when.

[Travis McElroy]

Oh, a look back.

[Justin McElroy]

It's a look back. It's a retro year.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's cool, man. I like this one a lot. I would love to dress up like RoboCop.

[Travis McElroy]

All right, for my next pitch.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, go ahead, Trav.

[Travis McElroy]

For my next pitch. We've been doing this together for a while, so I've kind of mentally categorized these in three different ways.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Travis McElroy]

So do you want one that I like?

[Griffin McElroy]

Just say, I have 30 ready to go. We gotta just pass.

[Travis McElroy]

I like that you won't. I like that you won't. One you might like. Three, playing with form.

[Griffin McElroy]

Three, playing with form. Easy.

[Travis McElroy]

Okay, great. We've done a guy. Yeah, right? That was powerful. Now I'd like to pitch to you an action movie franchise. Thunder Force five. The Omega Continuum.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay. No, no, no, no, no, no. Justin, Justin, don't you addict you.

[Justin McElroy]

Don't you dare.

[Griffin McElroy]

Justin, you don't get to play with form. And then when.

[Justin McElroy]

Griffin, we have a production slate extending to 2045 already on the docket. I have no room to put in another tiered universe project.

[Griffin McElroy]

Now, hold on.

[Travis McElroy]

Thunder Force Five.

[Griffin McElroy]

Thunder Force Five.

[Travis McElroy]

The Omega Continuum.

[Griffin McElroy]

The Omega Continuum. How's it start? Start. Me and Juice are in the room with you. Hit me with your best shot.

[Travis McElroy]

So The Thunder Force 5, who we know is Snarky Bobo. Time out.

[Griffin McElroy]

Time out.

[Justin McElroy]

Time out.

[Griffin McElroy]

Time out. Let me stop you right there. We don't know these guys, okay? So, like, if we're building a world, we need to build it. We actually need to, like, show people. This is.

[Travis McElroy]

They're space adventures. Half pirates, half gods.

[Justin McElroy]

Say it again.

[Travis McElroy]

Space adventurers who are half pirate, half God.

[Griffin McElroy]

Are you flexible on that? Because there's a lot of people.

[Travis McElroy]

I'm open. Listen, I'm open to notes.

[Justin McElroy]

Janice, it's me. Clear my day, Janice. Clear my day. Something really hot just came in the room.

[Travis McElroy]

The five of them travel around.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah. What are their names again?

[Travis McElroy]

So it's Snarky Bobo. Is that Talus Jan?

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay.

[Travis McElroy]

Dink Blastar.

[Griffin McElroy]

Cool. Big board. Who's the pilot?

[Travis McElroy]

Yes. Dink Blastar.

[Justin McElroy]

Wait, did you say Dink Blastar?

[Travis McElroy]

Dink Blastar.

[Justin McElroy]

Hey, Janice, refill my day, Big horse. Get out of here in about 30 seconds.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Travis McElroy]

And Jack's Sensation.

[Griffin McElroy]

Jack Sensation.

[Travis McElroy]

Jack Sensation.

[Griffin McElroy]

Say that last one for Juice again. Catch this last one.

[Justin McElroy]

Jack Sensation.

[Travis McElroy]

It's Big Hulk and Jack Sensation.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay.

[Travis McElroy]

And there. Butler slash mascot actor, Jonathan Frakes.

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't like that, Travis. You're, like, really doing something really good here. And then you Confident.

[Travis McElroy]

They're chasing Frakes. They're trying to stop. We see them. We start with them trying to stop the Glumlok contingent who has stolen the Omega continuum. They're racing through their cryon clouds of space.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Travis McElroy]

What's that? Oh, no. A black hole combines with a cryon cloud. They're both pulled through it.

[Griffin McElroy]

Fuck. Yeah.

[Travis McElroy]

Right. Then they land on Earth in 2025. But then turns out the Glumlocks arrived on Earth in 2015. They've been blending in seamlessly.

[Griffin McElroy]

That would make so much sense, Travis.

[Travis McElroy]

They're nine foot tall robots, but they've blended in seamlessly. We land in Martha's Vineyard.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Travis McElroy]

And we're trying to. Oh, what's that? Turns out Snarky Bobo is half Glumlock. He just found out. Right.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay, cool.

[Travis McElroy]

Which is creating some tension in him. But he ends up working his way through it. And from a safe distance, on board their ship. The Killer Pacifist.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Travis McElroy]

They blast the world. Earth explodes.

[Griffin McElroy]

They blast the world. Earth explodes. Thunder Force 5 does this.

[Travis McElroy]

Yes. Which ignites the Omega continuum and starts Us back. Wait, Justin. This is the best part.

[Griffin McElroy]

Juice. It's almost back. It's almost back. Juice.

[Travis McElroy]

This is the best part.

[Justin McElroy]

I'm listening. Go ahead.

[Travis McElroy]

The Omega continuum began at 2015. Our world resets to 2015.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay.

[Travis McElroy]

And now we're able to relive those following 10 years with all the knowledge we had previously.

[Griffin McElroy]

Of the 10 years. That's cool.

[Travis McElroy]

Of the 10 years.

[Griffin McElroy]

So in order to provide it to save Earth, Thunder Force 5 has to obliterate Earth.

[Travis McElroy]

Correct.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's a big gamble they took.

[Travis McElroy]

And it's a big choice for Snarky Bobo.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, the name sucks. If you had a different name, Travis, I would be totally, totally, totally.

[Travis McElroy]

Is it Snarky Bobo or Thunder Force five or.

[Griffin McElroy]

Thunder Force five is really strong.

[Justin McElroy]

Cool.

[Griffin McElroy]

Really cool.

[Travis McElroy]

I'm open to different names.

[Griffin McElroy]

You can't have a cool team name and then have their names be weird. Shit. We love Dink Strongk. What was his name?

[Travis McElroy]

Dink, Blastar, Bighork, Jackson, Talus Jan, and Snarky Bobo.

[Griffin McElroy]

The Omega continuum does not drip off the tongue. Thunder Force five. I'm gonna put. This is our first asterisk, boys. Cause that's. I like Thunder Force five. Can they have different colored armor and then have robots that are bigger than them that are.

[Travis McElroy]

Because they're half God? They all have different powers.

[Griffin McElroy]

Awesome.

[Justin McElroy]

That's cool. Yeah. A lot of merchandise offered.

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah, man.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'm gonna bust out like six in the time it took Travis to do one. Is that.

[Justin McElroy]

Thanks, Christian. Well, I'm gonna give high quality.

[Travis McElroy]

Well, quality quantity.

[Griffin McElroy]

So let's just start here. 2020 knives, 400 blades.

[Travis McElroy]

Huh?

[Griffin McElroy]

This is a lot of mine. Guys are pretty fucking out there. Okay. If you don't like it, just say, I don't like it.

[Travis McElroy]

So is it 20x?

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't like it.

[Justin McElroy]

It's so. I don't like it. Feels so final to me. And I don't want to settle.

[Griffin McElroy]

I have so much shit juice now.

[Travis McElroy]

I've written this Griffin as 20x20 knives.

[Griffin McElroy]

Could be that. Yeah.

[Travis McElroy]

I have to make these sets of.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 knives for 400.

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah. I'm trying to make the math work.

[Justin McElroy]

Why 400 knives, Grif.

[Griffin McElroy]

400 blades. It's 2020 knives because Knive rhymes with five. That was where I started with the idea.

[Justin McElroy]

400. Okay.

[Griffin McElroy]

That was the seed I nurtured into 2020 knives.

[Travis McElroy]

Is your problem with Justin the math of it?

[Justin McElroy]

No, it's not math. I didn't. I was trying to understand why he picked 400.

[Griffin McElroy]

Pure aesthetic. 400 knives. Can you imagine the set decor of these fucking live shows? All the knives and blades.

[Travis McElroy]

Oh, man, it would look exactly like knives out.

[Justin McElroy]

But 20 times 20 is 400, right?

[Griffin McElroy]

Yep.

[Justin McElroy]

Okay, so it's not. It's not. Because it's 20. 20 knives, 400 blades.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's 20 sets of. How are you struggling with this?

[Travis McElroy]

I don't understand what you're not getting here, Justin. I didn't understand why 20 times 20 knives.

[Justin McElroy]

Right. I understand now. At first, that didn't occur to me. So the selection of 400 books.

[Travis McElroy]

See, my first thought, Justin, was that's too many knives. But your thought is, is it enough knives for the mask to work out?

[Griffin McElroy]

The discussion that has followed the name's introduction tells me, of course, this can't be it. 20 Joni. I've mind the bez.

[Justin McElroy]

What I like about it is it's timely.

[Griffin McElroy]

Sure.

[Justin McElroy]

And I like that everyone will get it. I like that. Here's the other one I like Griffin.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

Easily trademarkable. We own that name. Joanie 5.

[Travis McElroy]

I'm not sure I spelled any of this correctly.

[Griffin McElroy]

No, you misspelled Joanie. The rest of it was kicks ass. Mind the bezels. I like more than 20 Joni. I've mind the bezels is like, look on the. Keep your eye on the perimeter. Like, keep your. Keep your, you know, your sight lines open.

[Justin McElroy]

So let's do like a minus. Like, minus an asterisk. That'll help us remember that we don't like the first part, but we do like the second part.

[Griffin McElroy]

This is a good system we've come up with.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

20. This is just a joke for the podcast. This won't be it. So we'll just say it and then we'll move on. 20 do it live. Fucking thing sucks. Now, we can't obviously do one that. Bill.

[Travis McElroy]

Oh, I had 20. I said 20 do it live. No rehearsals, man.

[Justin McElroy]

I like rehearsing.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'm letting it. I'm letting it mull in my palette.

[Justin McElroy]

What about 20? 20 Do It Live Curtains up.

[Griffin McElroy]

Say. Say that shit with your chest. Justin.

[Justin McElroy]

How about 20 do it live? Curtains up.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's cool. Curtains means death to me. Like, but that's what the current clothes is. Yeah, I guess so.

[Justin McElroy]

Fuck.

[Griffin McElroy]

Fucking thing sucks. I don't know if you guys have watched that video of Inside edition. Bill O'Reilly, can you close it out? I don't know if you've watched it lately. Still fucking hits. Still hits so hard.

[Justin McElroy]

It's actually so funny. It's actually the best thing that Bill O'Reilly has ever done.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah. I mean, that's not a very high low bar. Yeah. You guys want to bust one out? That was three.

[Travis McElroy]

Justin, you want to give one?

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah. Here's what I got for you. 20 Superdrive, pedal of the metal.

[Travis McElroy]

Ooh. Hey, can I tell you what I love, Justin?

[Justin McElroy]

What?

[Travis McElroy]

When we think I had 20 overdrive. Full throttle. Full throttle, baby.

[Justin McElroy]

Overdrive, too.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 overdrive. I also had 20 overdrive. Feels fucking amazing. What was your tagline for 20 overdrive? Yeah, no limits. But then also, because that's not a great. That's not a great motto for this day and age, it can also be K, N, O, W. Limits.

[Travis McElroy]

Ooh.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's a. Choose your own motto. Adventure.

[Travis McElroy]

It can be like K. And what was with superdrive?

[Justin McElroy]

Pedal to superdrive is the old news. I think if you're gonna do superdrive, you might as well do overdrive. What does superdrive even mean?

[Griffin McElroy]

Let's bust all our drive stuff right now. Let's get drive out of the way. Cause I think overdrive is the superior drive word. I had.

[Justin McElroy]

I agree.

[Griffin McElroy]

24 wheel drive off the beaten path. Then I had 20 front wheel drive on the beaten path.

[Travis McElroy]

Oh, I like that.

[Griffin McElroy]

That one.

[Travis McElroy]

I think I had 20 hit warp drive, land among the stars.

[Griffin McElroy]

Hold on. We are not writing these fucking things down. 20 overdrive.

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah, I shouldn't be doing it. I'm the slowest typer.

[Griffin McElroy]

So we're just getting all of our 20 drives out. Okay.

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

Just all the drive stuff.

[Griffin McElroy]

Is someone else editing the document in real time?

[Justin McElroy]

I'm not even touching it, baby.

[Travis McElroy]

Okay, I was, but I'm not.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 superdrive pedal. I can't spell this word right anymore. Pedal to the metal and then 24 wheel drive. Front wheel. That's not gonna make it, so I'll just stop there. Okay, Travis.

[Travis McElroy]

20 hit warp drive, land among the stars. There's a very Star Trek very end right now. There's more Star Trek Hit warp drive.

[Griffin McElroy]

Doesn't hit warp drive.

[Justin McElroy]

Hit warp drive. Doesn't hit warp drive.

[Griffin McElroy]

That doesn't hit. That doesn't feel good.

[Travis McElroy]

20 Sunny Drive. A weekend away.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay, I also had 20 Sunny Drive. I had 20 Sunny Drive. We can't make it a weekend away when it's a whole year's theme.

[Travis McElroy]

That's fair, but it's attainable.

[Justin McElroy]

It's nice to take a weekend. Yeah, not a weekend.

[Travis McElroy]

A cheeky weekend.

[Justin McElroy]

You can take a weekend throughout the year several times.

[Griffin McElroy]

You're suggesting we take a cheek end Together.

[Justin McElroy]

Take a cheek perhaps.

[Griffin McElroy]

I had 20 Sunny Drive the road is calling. This is more now see for that.

[Travis McElroy]

I had 20 take a drive. Oh, sorry.

[Griffin McElroy]

You really yelled at me. You really, really yelled at me. You yelled.

[Travis McElroy]

Sorry. I was just. I get excited when we sync up.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay, I know, I know that for sure, but you yelled and let's just watch that. The energy's already kind of tense.

[Travis McElroy]

I didn't mean to yell. I'm so sorry, Kofo. Okay, what was your 20 sunny drive? The road is calling. Yes, I like that.

[Griffin McElroy]

But then you know what happened after that? You yelled. And so the energy around that one.

[Travis McElroy]

It was an excited yellow. It wasn't an angry yell.

[Griffin McElroy]

Cloudy energy.

[Travis McElroy]

If I'm being. It wasn't an angry yell. I'm so sorry.

[Griffin McElroy]

If we pick that one every time it comes up, like on the screen as we walk on stage.

[Travis McElroy]

Hold on. I'm gonna stand up and turn around three times to clear.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, clear that. I'll just be scared every time I see that name now because of how scared I got when you yelled. Okay, well that's not actually. If you hurt someone, you can actually just turn around three times and then it's better.

[Travis McElroy]

Oh, wait, I have to say sorry too. I'm sorry that I yelled.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, I did it.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, it's fine. I'll do a problem.

[Travis McElroy]

20 take a drive. Ah, the open road.

[Griffin McElroy]

Ah, the open road sucks. And you know it does. And you know better than that.

[Travis McElroy]

Ah, does it? Because I like punctuation in there. The ah comma, the open road that's.

[Griffin McElroy]

Playing with form, but not in a way that feels like, mm, okay, the.

[Travis McElroy]

Road is calling is better.

[Griffin McElroy]

But do we wanna lean into a driving sort of aesthetic? Right. If we talk about driving a car, there's a lot of people who don't like that stuff.

[Travis McElroy]

If we were willing to commit to like a long ass tour with a bus, then, then I think we could commit to it. But we know we're not gonna do it.

[Griffin McElroy]

I also don't wanna pick a name that people are gonna clock us on. You just picked that because it's a good tour name, you know. 20 Sunny Drive, the road is calling. The McElroy's four month long tour of these great United States of America.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

Is a little transparent.

[Justin McElroy]

Seems self serving a little bit.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 overdrive.

[Justin McElroy]

20 overdrive. I my. Even though. Yes. It's like I wrote it down because you kind of have to. I'm not sure that we can live up to 20 overdrive.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's stinking I feel like with 20.

[Justin McElroy]

Overdrive, I've known you guys for a long time, and, like, even though we can get pretty riled up right now.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

What I'm saying is, come, like, August, you know what I mean? I'm like, are we all three of us gonna feel like pushing it into overdrive? Or by that point, might we feel like, boy, it'd be nice if we had a few, just to be able to, like. You know what I mean, for a second.

[Travis McElroy]

I've always thought of it as a sliding scale where maybe your new maximum is 15%, and then you give 16%. And that's overdrive, man.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Travis McElroy]

No, because if I give full throttle on a Hyundai Elantra, it ain't the same as doing in a Lambo. You know what I mean?

[Griffin McElroy]

I guess. So. Are you the Lambo in this analogy?

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah, I'm a Lambo guy now.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay.

[Justin McElroy]

You're a Lambo guy?

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah. Now, I'm an influencer. It's not up to me. I don't want to drive a Lambo. It's horribly inefficient. I have children. There's no room for car seats or anything. How am I supposed to look pulling up to my kid's school driving off a Lambo, and I just have to pop the trunk and they're rolling around in there. But I, as an influencer, I have to.

[Justin McElroy]

Can I pitch one of you guys? That was not mine. It was made up by a member of my family, my daughter Cooper, who suggested Freddy fright guys.

[Travis McElroy]

Cool.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 Freddy.

[Justin McElroy]

Listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, LISTEN. 20 Freddy fright guys.

[Travis McElroy]

What is 20 Freddy?

[Griffin McElroy]

Before you ask, try to. Let's try it all together. 20 Freddy fight fright guy. 20 Freddy fright guys.

[Justin McElroy]

Now you have it.

[Travis McElroy]

So is this much like 20. 20 knives, right? Is this saying that there are 20 of these Freddy Fright guys, or is the 20 not part of it?

[Justin McElroy]

There's 20 Freddy Fright guys. Now, you might be thinking that, like, it kind of sounds like five nights at Freddy's.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

Because that's probably why Cooper said it. Right? But, like, it's not. So that's huge for us.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's not about, like, kind of sounds.

[Justin McElroy]

Like that very popular thing, but it's not that. It is like, smells like Freddy Frank. You know what I mean? Five Night at Freddy's. But it's not. It's 20 Freddy fright. I believe Freddy Fright Guys.

[Griffin McElroy]

Some of those.

[Justin McElroy]

It's also not Freddy Krueger.

[Travis McElroy]

No.

[Griffin McElroy]

No.

[Travis McElroy]

But what's more evocative.

[Justin McElroy]

It's more evocative A la Freddy Krueger.

[Travis McElroy]

Like, I get the idea of it.

[Justin McElroy]

As made famous by Freddy Krueger.

[Travis McElroy]

Exactly. Yes, yes, yes.

[Griffin McElroy]

I would love to start to.

[Justin McElroy]

Freddy Krueger.

[Griffin McElroy]

I would love for our work to start popping in some kids FNAF algorithms.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

And we can start seeing we're never.

[Travis McElroy]

Gonna be on a kid's. Kids still do Trapper Keepers and stuff.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, they are definitely doing that.

[Justin McElroy]

They will when they have our faces on them.

[Griffin McElroy]

But I can say things like, I'm gonna snap Huggy Wuggy's neck if you don't hit the subscribe button. And they'll just do it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen them do it. That would be so huge and sick for us. I'm gonna put two asterisks next to 20. Freddy Frank, guys.

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah, I like that one. 20, jump and jive. Swing is back.

[Justin McElroy]

I knew. Okay, Griffin.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, that one's also on my list.

[Justin McElroy]

Come here, Link. Wait, no. What? I thought we had prepared for.

[Griffin McElroy]

No, that one's on my list of things that I knew Travis was going to say. I'm okay, so link arms with me, please.

[Justin McElroy]

Link arms. He's gonna try to push through us to bring swing back.

[Travis McElroy]

You were talking about an aesthetic. You could see the look. You could see yourself dressing as bees now. Well, here you are. Wallet chain.

[Griffin McElroy]

My big fans. Oh, yikes. My disappointment in you is so complete right now. But mostly because you have the subtitle. And you're ready to wail now. You're ready to wail now get ready to wail. How the fuck does that song go? And that's kind of.

[Travis McElroy]

And you're ready to wail.

[Griffin McElroy]

And you're ready to jump and jive. Get ready to wail. What's that mean? What does it mean to wail in 2025?

[Justin McElroy]

Griffin, how did it feel to tell Travis how disappointed you were of him and then just absolutely shit your pants?

[Griffin McElroy]

Listen, I think whaling.

[Justin McElroy]

I'm here as a bystander.

[Griffin McElroy]

I think whaling is strong scream, a primal scream against this bad world. That's something. There's something there, aesthetically.

[Travis McElroy]

Here's one I think you guys will like monkey with a knife. Chaos reigns.

[Justin McElroy]

I mean, it will. And, like, can we not have a counter? I mean, I don't think I want chaos to be a prime primary theme. I like stability. You know what I mean? Like, I don't want chaos to rain. I like showing up for our live shows at the right time. You know what I mean? I don't want people to shoot us with silly string and be like, chaos reigns.

[Griffin McElroy]

I mean this as a compliment, Travis. It's really, really, really gonna seem like it's not. I just wanna set that up.

[Travis McElroy]

Okay, Go on.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's a compliment to your craft. It's giving family guy a little bit monkey with a knife is. I mean it as a compliment that.

[Travis McElroy]

I'm better than that. Is that what I mean? Is that the compliment that I'm better.

[Griffin McElroy]

Than that monkey with a knife. I can see on a T shirt at Spencer's gifts, and it gives me the yucks. The chaos rain stuff is also rough. I don't want to instill that in the world, but monkey with a knife.

[Travis McElroy]

Justin, thank you for adding the little bit Family guy parentheses to remind me just a little bit guy not to bring it up again.

[Justin McElroy]

It's a little bit failure.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's not not to bring it up again because I did mean it as a compliment. I'll put one asterisk and a plus sign.

[Travis McElroy]

Okay.

[Griffin McElroy]

Next to this1 *+, I have about.

[Travis McElroy]

Three more that I really like. If anybody else wants to go next, though.

[Griffin McElroy]

I got on rhyming dictionary, and I got some that are like. So clearly, like, you got on rhyming dictionary, and it's like, nine words. Like people. No. So, like, 2020 Shrive. Confess your sins to shrive, I guess means to say the unspeakable things that you've done. 2020 skive. Shedding layers. That's like if you peel leather when you skin something, I guess that's skiving. I had 2020 chive. Ramp it up.

[Justin McElroy]

Oh, that's cute.

[Travis McElroy]

That's clever.

[Justin McElroy]

That's clever.

[Griffin McElroy]

But do we want to do another plant one?

[Travis McElroy]

Well, so I also had a chive.

[Justin McElroy]

A lot of Appalachian energy in that.

[Griffin McElroy]

There is good Appalachian energy in there. I do agree.

[Justin McElroy]

I like that.

[Travis McElroy]

Can I share my chive one as well?

[Griffin McElroy]

Sure.

[Travis McElroy]

I had cream cheese, lox, and chive. It's bagel time.

[Justin McElroy]

You had it where? In your head and then decided, where did you have it?

[Travis McElroy]

I wrote it down on my list.

[Justin McElroy]

It's on your list.

[Griffin McElroy]

Cheese, lox, and chive. It does. The meter is correct.

[Travis McElroy]

Was this. Sorry.

[Justin McElroy]

Was this one of the year themes you were suggesting? Yes.

[Travis McElroy]

Cream cheese, lox, and chive.

[Griffin McElroy]

How hard are you fight? How hard are you fighting for this one, Trav?

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, well, I was gonna fight for.

[Travis McElroy]

It as hard as the room.

[Justin McElroy]

Can I ask you a serious question? Is there a bar?

[Griffin McElroy]

No.

[Travis McElroy]

Here's the thing, boys.

[Justin McElroy]

Is There a bar before it gets to us, or is it just sort of a funnel?

[Travis McElroy]

Here's the thing, boys. I don't like to limit myself because I don't know if you guys have noticed this, but I don't have a good filter. And so that means that some. The occasional whiff makes its way through. But if that means the rest of the gold is able to make it out.

[Griffin McElroy]

There's gold in here. There's absolute gold in here.

[Travis McElroy]

I don't want to go front. Coming in.

[Griffin McElroy]

Thunder Force 5 is one of my front runners right now.

[Travis McElroy]

I haven't even given you guys. I have two more, and I'm saving the best for last.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay. Fuck yeah. Fuck, yeah, man. I like that energy. Did we put 2020 chive, ramp it up. No, we didn't. Of course, I'm the only student.

[Justin McElroy]

I'll add that. I haven't added any.

[Griffin McElroy]

I just think if I'm speaking, you could type mine in so I don't have to talk and type at the same time. What is 20 chive, though? Like, what's that mean? What is that trying to tell?

[Justin McElroy]

I don't know. You said it.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay. Yeah, you're right. 20 power dive. Coming in hot. A power dive is a term in aviation that means to use the engine to go down faster than gravity is pulling you down.

[Travis McElroy]

Yes. I learned about it from tailspin, I believe.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 power dive. Coming in hot. A lot of people feel like they are going down to the bottom. I'm saying push it harder. Push it to the bottom.

[Travis McElroy]

I don't think Griffin, if I may, I'm not a pilot.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, true.

[Travis McElroy]

Justin, it appears, is a sea captain. I can tell by his hat. Yeah, but I don't think that a power dive ends with you crashing into the ground.

[Griffin McElroy]

There's nothing in my thing about crashing.

[Travis McElroy]

You said to the bottom to land.

[Griffin McElroy]

There's something about if you feel a downward trajectory in your life, take control of it and pass through.

[Justin McElroy]

Okay, let me mention this. Then let me go ahead and throw out 20 take a dive. I meant to do that.

[Travis McElroy]

Okay, so in 20 take a dive.

[Justin McElroy]

You maybe it looked to the outside observer like you failed, but actually, it's all part of the plan. 20 Take a dive. I meant to do that.

[Travis McElroy]

So here's my pitch. I love 20 take a dive. It's my favorite one. Okay, here's my pitch. Funglor. Best one we've ever done.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay.

[Travis McElroy]

As Griffin pointed out, we've been slowly ramping up quality of years every time.

[Griffin McElroy]

Are you guys by the Way. Starting to feel the dread that we're not going to get it, because I'm.

[Travis McElroy]

It's going to reach an unsustainable point. Okay, so this year is 20 take a dive. Can't all be winners. And this year. Yeah, it's not good. It's not good.

[Justin McElroy]

It's not good.

[Griffin McElroy]

No.

[Travis McElroy]

We're resetting. And we're resetting the expectations of the year so that by 2026, we're back, no pressure, ready to start over and rebuild from there.

[Griffin McElroy]

I wasn't sure what the aesthetic of 20 take a dive is.

[Travis McElroy]

One big shrug.

[Griffin McElroy]

Until you framed it that way. A shrug. A fourth place medal.

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

There'S something there. I think that's a message I want to give to people like, take a dive and lower your expectations. I don't know that I could do it myself. I want everything that we work on to be the best that it can be and that I know it can be every time. And that informs a lot of my personality.

[Travis McElroy]

That's why the tagline is can't all be winners.

[Griffin McElroy]

But to me, I think they can and they have to be. Or else. Or else. Or else people won't like me anymore.

[Justin McElroy]

And it seems like Riff, they'll discover that he's a phony.

[Travis McElroy]

Now you're the type of person who really needs to take his dive and see how it turns out.

[Griffin McElroy]

For sure, Travis. For sure, Travis. For sure. Dr. Travis. I know this. I've heard this, been told this.

[Justin McElroy]

We are never going to recover from the formatting of you putting a sub bullet into this list. I don't know how we come back to our beautiful list since you put an indented sub bullet into our bulleted list.

[Griffin McElroy]

I apologize. This is the sub. This is like an addition, a suggestion for a subheading.

[Justin McElroy]

No, no. Here we're going to do. I thought it was pretty Slash, like earlier.

[Travis McElroy]

Ye.

[Justin McElroy]

Like earlier in the document. Okay, I got to do that. Slash.

[Travis McElroy]

Can all be winners.

[Griffin McElroy]

Can't all be winners.

[Justin McElroy]

Here's. Okay, so we got 20 take a dive. I think we all kind of saw that coming. What about 20 clear your drive. No, seriously, Because I think we all have some things on that drive that were like, I do need to clear it, but you don't have a sign from the universe. It's like, no, really, it's time.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

This is like kind of a plant your flag like we, the podcast, are telling you you have to this time.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, you have to.

[Travis McElroy]

Will we get angry emails if it's not blast your own cash it does.

[Justin McElroy]

Feel a little bit. Kind of feels winky. It feels winky, doesn't it? Ugh. Delete it.

[Griffin McElroy]

No, I do. There's something about 20 Blast yout Drive. 20 clear your drive. Is that what you said? 20 clear your drive. Not because you've got secret naughty shit, because you've got Looney Tunes Hentai on your computer. You gotta get rid of that stuff.

[Travis McElroy]

Deep pull.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's just sort of informational hygiene. Sometimes I look at my desktop and I wanna be sick because of how I've held onto so much digital garbage.

[Travis McElroy]

One time, BB came in and I have dual monitors, and they're filled with so many weird JPEGs from, like, abnormal stuff, and just like, a lot of JPEGs from things I've pulled of bits for my brother, my brother, me, and Clubhouse and stuff. And they're all just loose.

[Griffin McElroy]

Just long wave files just drifting.

[Travis McElroy]

And BB was like, why does your computer look like that? And I was like, oh, it's just a bunch of files. She was like, why don't you get rid of them?

[Griffin McElroy]

And a lot of dang time my computer doesn't work so good or fast. And almost always I go in and I clear up my drive. And then it starts working a little bit better. And this can be more of a metaphorical thing too, right? Like, clear your life drive. What's in your life drive? Filling it up now. I'm feeling sort of a reboot aesthetic. Just a sort of like digital avatars. And it's like, what's in your life that you need to get rid of to get right with Christ? What would Jesus. Not like that you do in your life every day?

[Travis McElroy]

I think it would be powerful to be like, 20 clear your drive. Reboot. Big exclamation point.

[Justin McElroy]

Reboot.

[Griffin McElroy]

I mean, that's embracing the rebuild the monster energy that I aesthetically was drawn to. A reclaiming. A reclaiming vibe.

[Travis McElroy]

Oh, okay. Can I just say, to jump back to the monster, something about 2.0 as a mindset, right. Of it's not rebuilding because of failure. It's an iteration improvement. You know what I mean?

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Travis McElroy]

This isn't like starting from scratch.

[Griffin McElroy]

No.

[Travis McElroy]

Because it was wrong. This is like a 2.0 iteration.

[Justin McElroy]

22.5. Kind of mix it up.

[Griffin McElroy]

22.5 doesn't mean anything. How long are we going? 47 minutes. Huh. That sucks. Let me. Let's crack this. Let's crack this baby wide open. Let's crack this baby. Let's go to money. Do we have Money Zone?

[Justin McElroy]

I mean, okay. If there's a money zone, it's here.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

It'S better.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's better.

[Justin McElroy]

If you have wanted to get out there into the, the great big world of web design, but it seemed a little scary for you because of all the. You don't know how to do any of it. Well, don't worry about that anymore, guys, because Squarespace will make even the dumb, dumbest person look like they know what they're doing because they got the real pros.

[Travis McElroy]

Why did you say that like you were talking about me?

[Justin McElroy]

Oh, I. That was an intentional trash.

[Travis McElroy]

It felt very pointed.

[Justin McElroy]

It wasn't at all. No. Travis, anybody, no matter how smart they are or how well they think, is able to design a site using Squarespace. They have made the templates. They're world class designers do that. Then you just plug in your photos, your stuff you want to sell, maybe your shopping options, your photos, your stories, your words, whatever. Whatever your dream is. Squarespace is going to help you make it a reality. Go to squarespace.com for a free trial and when you're ready to Launch, go to squarespace.com mybrother to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

[Griffin McElroy]

We're recording.

[Travis McElroy]

We have a brother who's like, real stupid and like, not good with money. No, this is just in general, Justin. This is just in general and like, it's not good with money. And like, you wouldn't trust him.

[Justin McElroy]

The character's name is Justin General.

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah, Justin General.

[Justin McElroy]

Okay.

[Travis McElroy]

He's a lance corporal.

[Justin McElroy]

Okay.

[Griffin McElroy]

Clearly a captain.

[Travis McElroy]

He's a captain.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, I see he's wearing a hat that says captain on it.

[Travis McElroy]

Listen, it's a good time. In all seriousness, folks, new year starting, everybody's looking for new things to work on, things to get in order. It's a great time to get your finances in order.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 unsubscribe. I don't know if we've said that yet. Cause we're recording this after we finish recording the.

[Travis McElroy]

Oh, this is great.

[Griffin McElroy]

But that would have been really powerful for this rocket.

[Travis McElroy]

Money will help you unsubscribe from all of those old subscriptions to apps and stuff that you signed up for or websites you signed up for that you've completely forgotten about that you're just wasting money on.

[Griffin McElroy]

And I want to say, I want to say we don't go with 20 unsubscribe. Me saying that wasn't me saying that's what we end up going with. What we end up going with is going to kick your Fucking ass, man.

[Travis McElroy]

That's right.

[Justin McElroy]

That's great.

[Travis McElroy]

Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bill. Seeing growth, your savings. Rocket Money has over 5 million users and saved a total of 500 million in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to $740 a year when using all of the app's premium features.

[Justin McElroy]

Oh, wow, that sounds great, Travis. Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

Is this exhaustion or is this disappointment with the name we entered? This is.

[Travis McElroy]

I have strep throat and my love.

[Justin McElroy]

Throat is killing me.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay, I got.

[Justin McElroy]

Cancel your unwanted subscription and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to RocketMoney.com my brother. Today. That's RocketMoney.com my brother. RocketMoney.com mybrother before we get back, we.

[Griffin McElroy]

Gotta tell you about. We got some new tour dates in Florida.

[Travis McElroy]

Nude tour dates.

[Griffin McElroy]

Nude. All nude in Florida. February 20th and 21st, doing a bim bam. And Taz in Tampa. It's our first ever live Taz in Florida. And then February 22nd, and our best ever and our best one. February 22nd, we're going to be in Jacksonville doing Bam. Bam. Bam. Tickets go on sale this Friday, January 10th, 10am local time. For more info and ticket links go to Bit Ly Macroytours. We got a new episode of Clubhouse coming out for you January 7th. Make sure you catch that and go to mackroymerch.com, check out all the new stuff we got for the new year. 10% of all merch proceeds this month get donated to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund. So head there to the mcelroymerch.com we got an Energy Dragon pin. We got a new wake up and do good shirt. It's going to be great.

[Travis McElroy]

And we just did a reveal of. We're doing a plushie Miggy on youtooz. If you go to. If you go to our TikTok profile while active, you can see it there and check that out. Just go to McElroy family on TikTok and you can see the new Mickey plushie.

[Griffin McElroy]

Hold onto your ass. Here it comes.

[Justin McElroy]

Yada da da da da.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay, so I'm gonna crack this baby white this coconut open and drink the sweet juice inside. And we're all going to drink it. Let me take this conversation and blow it up into manifold galaxies. XXV get rid of 2025 XXV if we want to go with a subtitle, a naming rhyming scheme, it can be. It then rhymes with V, which is.

[Travis McElroy]

That would just be 25, Griffin.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, no, I know, but we're not going to be alive in the 22nd century, Travis.

[Justin McElroy]

But what he's. What Travis is pointing out, Griffin, is that. I mean, it isn't 20.

[Travis McElroy]

25.

[Justin McElroy]

You're just saying 25.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay. MCM XXXV. Oops, it's ruined. Or should we do the other one? That's fucking cool and sexy.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, but like, I think it would.

[Travis McElroy]

Actually just be mm.xxv mxxv.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, yeah. MCM was so. Mmxxv. That doesn't fit.

[Justin McElroy]

Mmxv.

[Griffin McElroy]

Five letters is kind of cool. I feel like XXV is worth.

[Travis McElroy]

If we could figure out a thing that it stood for, like an acronym that mmxx. But what. Give me two words back to back and start with X. That makes sense. Xerox, Xerox, Vape.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's vape.

[Justin McElroy]

Hey guys.

[Travis McElroy]

Machine Monster. Xerox, Xerox, Vape.

[Justin McElroy]

If you can get me to Mighty Morphin, we got Mighty Morphin, right?

[Travis McElroy]

Xerox, Xerox, Vape. Mighty Morphin. Xerox, Xerox, Vape. New from Bandai.

[Justin McElroy]

Mighty Morphin. X Ray Vapors.

[Griffin McElroy]

Xxv. I could see in a silver embossed font on the side of a bottle of fancy men's cologne sold at the. Sold at the Nordstrom Rack. Xxv. Serenity. Like, that's the name of a cologne by Dior.

[Justin McElroy]

Right? So your suggestion is Roman numerals. Just the idea of Roman numerals.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's never gonna be this short and tight and hot again as xxv. Never gonna be that.

[Travis McElroy]

Is there a subtitle to it or you're just saying xxv.

[Griffin McElroy]

Xxv. The next one's me.

[Travis McElroy]

Xxv. Classy boys.

[Griffin McElroy]

We already did a classy year and it was awesome.

[Travis McElroy]

Dignified.

[Justin McElroy]

XXV Rome. If you want to.

[Griffin McElroy]

And that's R O, M E. Good. No, we have to. I want to foster a space where what you just said is cool. Cause we're not going to get there if we think that that sucks.

[Justin McElroy]

Exactly. Rome.

[Griffin McElroy]

We should all be able to say shit like that. Juice is what I'm saying.

[Justin McElroy]

Now listen, listen. XXV Rome. If you want to. Like, we all know the numerals and they're cool, right? But one of those Rome stuff.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'm gonna start a new bullet pointed.

[Justin McElroy]

What if we. I'm saying. I'm saying I want to make a year theme where every day people will think about Rome. You know what I mean? Like, think about their.

[Travis McElroy]

Like, what's your Roman Empire? Kind Of.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, like, it'll be like their ro. Like, I want people's Roman Empire to be the Roman Empire. You know what I mean? Where they're like, thinking about. They're thinking about it again.

[Travis McElroy]

So thinking about what they think about a lot will become.

[Justin McElroy]

No, I'm just saying, like, everybody can think about the Roman Empire this year.

[Travis McElroy]

Not just men.

[Justin McElroy]

Rome, if you want to.

[Travis McElroy]

Huh?

[Griffin McElroy]

Can I stretch?

[Justin McElroy]

We should. We should have taken a break. The money's out.

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah. I thought that's what we were going to do. And then we rolled right through it.

[Justin McElroy]

Let's take an actual break.

[Griffin McElroy]

No, cuz we already did it. I'm starting to feel that sort of frenetic panic, and I think we can use that.

[Travis McElroy]

Guys, while I was pissing, I had an idea.

[Griffin McElroy]

Can you give it a little bit more gravitas than that?

[Travis McElroy]

It struck me. An epiphany.

[Griffin McElroy]

An epistony.

[Travis McElroy]

An epistony struck me, guys.

[Justin McElroy]

Let the record show. Excuse me.

[Travis McElroy]

Excuse me, judges.

[Justin McElroy]

Let the record show I beat Griffin.

[Travis McElroy]

By.03 points and it's a portmanteau that I love.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Travis McElroy]

Choose your own adventure year.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay, hold on.

[Travis McElroy]

No, hear me out, Hear me out. Because my Last suggestion was 20 strive to thrive better than ever. So what if we split the year? It's a hybrid year of 20 take a dive and 20 strive to thrive, and you choose which one you want to embrace.

[Griffin McElroy]

The Rhyming Convention of 20 strive to thrive is so deranged.

[Justin McElroy]

It's strange credulity.

[Travis McElroy]

Well, I didn't want. I didn't want strive or thrive by itself. Yeah, but strive to thrive really hit me in my heart. But if you're like, I don't have it in me to strive to thrive this year, I feel like. Then you take a dive.

[Justin McElroy]

I feel like to make another different.

[Griffin McElroy]

Different 5 rhyme.

[Justin McElroy]

Reuse the rhyme to use the different rhyme before it.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay.

[Justin McElroy]

It just really calls attention to how.

[Travis McElroy]

Rhymes don't Thrive to thrive and. Or take a dive. It's all one.

[Griffin McElroy]

The fact that take a dive doesn't have two five rhymes in it. Also, like, kind of, it makes it a little bit.

[Travis McElroy]

Strive to dive. Strive to thrive or dive. Your choice. That's right.

[Justin McElroy]

Strive or dive, your choice. Strive or thrive.

[Travis McElroy]

Thrive or dive, your choice.

[Griffin McElroy]

How. How much do we care about that? How much do we give a shit about that?

[Justin McElroy]

How important is the.

[Travis McElroy]

If we take never die.

[Griffin McElroy]

20. Never die. Like, it really. 20 funny, guys. Be yourself. Like, a lot of these things come back.

[Travis McElroy]

I mean, if we look back to 20 forward. 20 forward.

[Griffin McElroy]

Way out there.

[Justin McElroy]

Seems like if we can't do a I've sound, what are we doing? You know what I mean?

[Travis McElroy]

It's one of the easiest. Yeah, it's one of the easiest.

[Griffin McElroy]

Not one of the easiest. It's not one of the easiest.

[Justin McElroy]

20 I've arrived. Take it or leave it.

[Travis McElroy]

Ooh.

[Justin McElroy]

Or I will also accept. 20 I've arrived. You may begin.

[Griffin McElroy]

Ooh, what's that mean?

[Justin McElroy]

What that means is I've arrived.

[Travis McElroy]

Uh huh.

[Justin McElroy]

Whatever it was. I've arrived. You may begin.

[Griffin McElroy]

You gotta give me. You gotta tell me what it is.

[Travis McElroy]

I think it's pretty self explanatory.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's cool.

[Justin McElroy]

20 I've arrived. Yeah, you may begin.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'm asking follow up questions because I'm interested.

[Justin McElroy]

Okay, good, good, good, good.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay, what is it? What are you talking about?

[Justin McElroy]

Okay, so let me. I'm hearing what you're saying.

[Travis McElroy]

Hold on, Janice, I hear. Clear my schedule.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, I hear what you're saying.

[Griffin McElroy]

You guys have gotta get different secretaries at some point.

[Justin McElroy]

By the way, that's.

[Travis McElroy]

Well, Jess and I have the same schedule.

[Justin McElroy]

We do.

[Travis McElroy]

We share a calendar.

[Justin McElroy]

20 I've arrived. You may begin. You asked me, what is it? Right?

[Griffin McElroy]

Yep.

[Justin McElroy]

So I'm gonna do something interesting. It's a thought experiment. I'm going to take that question and turn it around. I'm gonna ask you, Griffin, what is it?

[Griffin McElroy]

Awesome. The function.

[Justin McElroy]

Exactly. The meeting, the intervention, whatever it is.

[Travis McElroy]

It's more than those two options though, right?

[Griffin McElroy]

It's one of those two.

[Justin McElroy]

20 I've arrived. You may begin A funeral. Whatever.

[Griffin McElroy]

Be cool. Energy to say, don't start the intervention until I get there.

[Justin McElroy]

I get there.

[Travis McElroy]

The intervention. Don't start till I walk in.

[Griffin McElroy]

We're all really worried about it.

[Justin McElroy]

Because it's for me, I'm the one benefiting from it.

[Travis McElroy]

Or because I'm the paid therapist who's late. So sorry. It's probably awkward to have arrived. I like it because it does imply like a. I'm in my power. I'm taking this like it's.

[Griffin McElroy]

I've. I don't like.

[Travis McElroy]

You don't like the double rhyme, I think, is what we're learning here.

[Justin McElroy]

20 I've arrived. Is that what it is?

[Travis McElroy]

20 We've arrived in our power.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 We've arrived.

[Justin McElroy]

We've arrived.

[Griffin McElroy]

We've arrived.

[Travis McElroy]

Arrived. Have I've. Does that work better?

[Justin McElroy]

20 they've arrived. Let's deal with it.

[Travis McElroy]

Oh, like an aliens thing.

[Griffin McElroy]

This is cool.

[Justin McElroy]

Like it's aliens.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

20 they've arrived.

[Griffin McElroy]

You seen them? Drones.

[Justin McElroy]

20 drones arrive.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 drones arrived.

[Travis McElroy]

20 seas arrive.

[Justin McElroy]

20 drones arrived. No more fireworks.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay.

[Justin McElroy]

Cause really, they're back. That is true.

[Travis McElroy]

Okay, listen, right, you're onto something there. Who's fucking using fireworks anymore?

[Justin McElroy]

Maybe someone would do a drone show for us for free if we called the year 20 drones arrive. No more fireworks.

[Griffin McElroy]

There's. I'm feeling good about 20. 20. They've arrived. Something. The outer space esthetic is kind of cool to me. I also feel like it might be this year.

[Travis McElroy]

Then could it be 20 they'll arrive. Like it's a prediction.

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't like the prediction.

[Travis McElroy]

Okay.

[Griffin McElroy]

It would be like if 20 fungalore was called 20 mushrooms are going to get so hot. Like, we don't want to put our name on the line.

[Justin McElroy]

We do. If you read the news, there has been a fun thing for quite a while now where a lot of the big government people were kind of like, yeah, yeah, yeah, aliens the whole time.

[Griffin McElroy]

Absolutely.

[Justin McElroy]

And everyone's kind of like, yeah, yeah, yeah. We thought the government guys are just kind of standing there like, you guys got any follow ups?

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah, you were right.

[Justin McElroy]

You're right. Okay.

[Travis McElroy]

What are you doing with that?

[Griffin McElroy]

Now I do know.

[Justin McElroy]

You got us. Okay.

[Travis McElroy]

You got us. It does seem like a lot of people who are like, I think there are aliens didn't have a second step to that plan.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Travis McElroy]

So that when government guys like, yeah. They're like, oh, okay.

[Griffin McElroy]

I imagine there is a super.

[Travis McElroy]

Do we see them?

[Griffin McElroy]

No way.

[Justin McElroy]

No, absolutely not.

[Travis McElroy]

Well, now I don't think there are aliens. That's my new conspiracy theory. You're lying about there being aliens.

[Griffin McElroy]

I imagine there's a class of sort of nomadic podcast listener who once the show that they're following starts talking a bunch about aliens, they're like, they start packing it up and they say, we will find our way to less alien rich waters. I think a lot of shows go this route and it's a slippery slope now.

[Travis McElroy]

But this is also a chance, Griffin, for us to establish a new base of listener with aliens.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'm not even interested.

[Travis McElroy]

So if it was 20, they've arrived. Open arms.

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't want to espouse that.

[Travis McElroy]

Okay.

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't want to espouse that.

[Travis McElroy]

You don't want aliens to like our show.

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't think there's any chance aliens.

[Travis McElroy]

You don't want to court that demographic.

[Griffin McElroy]

I think it's pointless. I worry what it says to humans more than what it says to aliens. If I'm like, come on, Aliens. Come and give it. This is cool for you. Come and get it. That sends a message to real humans. That's what I'm more concerned about.

[Travis McElroy]

20.

[Justin McElroy]

They've arrived. Characters welcome.

[Griffin McElroy]

What are you doing right now, Juice?

[Justin McElroy]

I'm just thinking.

[Griffin McElroy]

What are you looking at?

[Justin McElroy]

What? My finger. Just thinking. Look at my finger. I got a splinter. I got a splinter.

[Travis McElroy]

It made you seem so philosophical.

[Griffin McElroy]

It really did, man.

[Travis McElroy]

I was thinking, like, Justin's going through something. Justin's processing.

[Justin McElroy]

That's like. That's why, like Stanislavski when he was teaching people acting, he would have people stand on the stage and they wouldn't do anything. And then he'd have them count the floorboards. They then instantly become more captivating. We just love to see people, you know, in their element, really living their lives. I don't know that I'm.

[Travis McElroy]

I don't.

[Justin McElroy]

Do you guys think you see it on here?

[Griffin McElroy]

No. No.

[Travis McElroy]

Now there's a base level of 20. We'll survive. Just get through it. But I don't think that. I know, I know, but I didn't want. Do you ever get to a point in the naming of the year where you start thinking, what's going to be the thing that people like? Message us later? Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah. I don't. I. Yeah.

[Travis McElroy]

What about 20 honey hive back in Beesness?

[Justin McElroy]

Okay. What about 20? You know what? That's not a bad idea. Travis, let me read through the list real quick.

[Travis McElroy]

Oh, have I already said that one?

[Justin McElroy]

20. It's alive. Rebuild the monster. These are two, like, retro themes. 2045. Welcome to the future.

[Griffin McElroy]

Cool.

[Justin McElroy]

Thunder Force 5. The Omega Continuum.

[Griffin McElroy]

Cool.

[Justin McElroy]

20. 20 knives, 400 blades.

[Griffin McElroy]

Cool.

[Justin McElroy]

20. Jody Ives. Mind the bezels.

[Griffin McElroy]

Cool. Fuck. These all rule. Damn it.

[Justin McElroy]

20 do it live. No rehearsal. Fucking thing sucks curtains up. 20 overdrive.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 overdrive. I will say is my most phonetically, I think pleasing one the most opportunity rich option.

[Justin McElroy]

20 overdrive. And there's no subtitle.

[Travis McElroy]

I had.

[Griffin McElroy]

No. I had. Here, I'll add the subtitle that.

[Justin McElroy]

20 overdrive. No subs. All dubs. 20 super. 20 super drive. Pedal of the metal. Sure. 24 wheel drive. Okay. No limits. That's with both a K and. Yeah, that's aesthetically great. 20 Sunny Drive the road is calling. 20 Freddy Fright, guys. 20 Jump and jive and you're ready to wail. Monkey with a knife. Chaos reigns. I think even hearing it, we know that's not right.

[Travis McElroy]

No, it's a little bit Family guy hearing about 20.

[Justin McElroy]

20 chive. Ramp it up. 20 power dive. Coming in hot. 20. Take a dive. I meant to do that. Slash. Can't all be winners. 20. I've arrived. You may begin.

[Griffin McElroy]

XXV Rome, if you want to xxv. And then there's like an awaiting. Like, there's gotta be more on this XXV vine. Some meat on the bone, if you will. 20. Strive to thrive. I see Travis's and or dive. XXV. Tex Mex me. That's awesome. Yeah, that's awesome. Tex Mex me.

[Justin McElroy]

Okay, you got the emphasis right that time. It's like Tex Mex.

[Griffin McElroy]

But then you'd have to say it like, xxv Text Max me.

[Justin McElroy]

It's quite simply XX me. XX me. Text mex me.

[Travis McElroy]

Mm, I like that.

[Griffin McElroy]

Text mex me. Sounds like you're about to do a character that is gonna get you kicked out of whatever friend group you're in. And this is a character I call TexMex Griffin. Here he goes.

[Travis McElroy]

Can I just say.

[Justin McElroy]

And this is Polish me. Here we are all.

[Griffin McElroy]

Here we go. Yeehaw.

[Justin McElroy]

Here we go.

[Travis McElroy]

I don't want to use up roman numerals because 20, 30, we could make it XXX too hot for TV.

[Griffin McElroy]

You are saying, let's not do this joke now. Let's let it ripen on the vine for five more years, and then we'll definitely bust it out.

[Travis McElroy]

I don't think XXV is. Cause I'm looking at it like, oh, it's disappointing that that last letter is.

[Griffin McElroy]

Not also X. I think it's kind of cool, actually. It's what makes it. Why you would see it on a cologne bottle of Dior.

[Travis McElroy]

So it'd be like XXV almost too tv.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'm trying to play with form.

[Travis McElroy]

I understand that. That's why I did Thunder Force five. The Omega Continuum.

[Griffin McElroy]

Can you give me another. Can you give me something a bit more phonetically pleasing than the Omega Continuum? Do you have other subtitles prepared?

[Justin McElroy]

That is what I'm. The problem that I have with Thunder Force 5 is that part is good.

[Travis McElroy]

Okay?

[Justin McElroy]

And then when I get to the Omega Continuum, I feel like it's nerd shit. You know what I mean? Like, it's not cool anymore. I want it to be something cool, like a cool thing.

[Travis McElroy]

Thunder Force 5, Dink Blastar begins again.

[Justin McElroy]

Every time you say Dink Blastar, I want to quit. And Joe join podcast the rise of Big horc. Say it again.

[Travis McElroy]

The rise of Big Hulk.

[Justin McElroy]

Now unsay it.

[Griffin McElroy]

I like Dink Blastar. And I just want to put that out there and say that I Like Dink Blastar. It's toyetic. Is really good for me.

[Justin McElroy]

Thunder Force 5 is toyetic, but I feel like the Omega continuum, it's getting a little bit Michael Crichton.

[Griffin McElroy]

Well, then let's do what we do every year. Let's take a subtitle from a different one and put it on there. Thunder Force five.

[Travis McElroy]

They can't wait to wail.

[Griffin McElroy]

Can't bagel anyone. They can't all be winners. Text me. I like Thunder Force five can't all be winners because it references itself. It like, fails and then acknowledges the failing.

[Justin McElroy]

Which is cool. That is cool.

[Travis McElroy]

It's like how it took Marvel until, like, Iron man for it to really kick off.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Travis McElroy]

Give it time.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, yeah.

[Travis McElroy]

400 blades. Mind the bezels.

[Justin McElroy]

No limit. 20 overdrive. 20 line drive.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's not the meter. Meter's all fucked up.

[Travis McElroy]

How about medium overdrive?

[Griffin McElroy]

Like middle throttle, middle drive?

[Travis McElroy]

Well. Cause everybody does maximum overdrive.

[Justin McElroy]

Full throttle. Too long. Too long of a walk. Is it 2045?

[Griffin McElroy]

Pretty good. I don't know how we. How actionable 2045 is aesthetically. Obviously.

[Travis McElroy]

Thunder Force 5. Welcome to the future. The future is now.

[Griffin McElroy]

I want to put Thunder Force 5 on pause. As the world's biggest Thunder Force 5 fan, I do think we to set it aside for a second to sample the other flavors.

[Travis McElroy]

Maybe we need to come at this from a different way.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'd love that.

[Travis McElroy]

Of thinking about, like, in the past, the kind of messages we've embodied with the year. And like, what messaging do we really want to encapsulate this year and work from there?

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Travis McElroy]

It's been a while since we talked about Christ.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah. It's a good streak. I'd like to keep that.

[Travis McElroy]

Okay, great, great, great.

[Justin McElroy]

20. Find your drive.

[Griffin McElroy]

I am drawn to technological ideas. I am drawn.

[Travis McElroy]

Is it because 2025 sounds like such a future year?

[Griffin McElroy]

Possibly. Possibly. I feel like a lot of my sort of abstract leanings are becoming strong. Becoming the monster. Becoming the machine. What if instead it is more Destroy the monster, Destroy the machine. 20 overdrive. Destroy the machine. Rage against. But I guess that's what rage against the machine means, huh?

[Travis McElroy]

No, to be fair, I've always thought rage against the machine was too passive. Okay, you're raging against it. Time to take action.

[Griffin McElroy]

What if it's 20 overdrive?

[Travis McElroy]

Rage within the machine.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 overdrive. Actually rage against the machine?

[Justin McElroy]

No, but really rage against the machine.

[Travis McElroy]

Parentheses actual.

[Griffin McElroy]

Really rage against the machine.

[Travis McElroy]

Really do it.

[Griffin McElroy]

Really rage against the machine. Comma, guys. 20 honey hive you can't take us back.

[Justin McElroy]

20 don't deprive. I want to throw out some bad ones. Okay.

[Travis McElroy]

Whoa, hey.

[Justin McElroy]

20 don't deprive.

[Travis McElroy]

You can't include 20 honey hive and throw out some bad ones.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's a bad one. Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

No, no, no.

[Travis McElroy]

I think it's the best one we have so far.

[Justin McElroy]

I'm putting out some bad ones. 20. They're all good.

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah. I feel like when this show ends, it will be during one of these, right? Like this.

[Travis McElroy]

This will be the moment.

[Justin McElroy]

It's so.

[Travis McElroy]

Not with a bang, but with a whimper.

[Justin McElroy]

At this point, it has built to a point where it's like I could see a distant, far future version of myself. It's like, no, I'm not. I can't. It's not there.

[Griffin McElroy]

Johnny Wonderknife.

[Travis McElroy]

Huh?

[Griffin McElroy]

Johnny Wonderknife. No subtitle Johnny Wonderknife. This is a new guy.

[Justin McElroy]

That's another character I really don't want to.

[Travis McElroy]

Hold on. It doesn't have to be a character. It could be something like that. You would have seen on Amazing Discoveries where we're selling an item called the Johnny Wonder Knife.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, cool.

[Travis McElroy]

What about 20 Johnny 5 short circuit reboot?

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't even want to reference the ghost.

[Travis McElroy]

Justin got so half excited, though. Justin, when did I lose it?

[Justin McElroy]

I thought you were about to. What the subtitle. I thought you had something good.

[Griffin McElroy]

20Johnny5, you need input it. 20Johnny5, it's like, that's not universal enough.

[Justin McElroy]

Only like three people like that, and even they will only kind of smirk at it. Oh, man.

[Travis McElroy]

20 throwing knife. 20 let me look around my room.

[Griffin McElroy]

20.

[Justin McElroy]

Okay.

[Travis McElroy]

20 scary guy in corner.

[Griffin McElroy]

20. 20 honey.

[Travis McElroy]

20 gives me hives. 20 no more hives. Allergies are in the mind.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's cool. That's cool. I don't like it, but it's cool. I'll tell you. I'll tell you.

[Travis McElroy]

Let's.

[Griffin McElroy]

Let's explore this because we're going through every crack and crevice of this fucking booger. Is I like hive? I don't think I like honey. 20 Is there another type of hive or another word we can toss in there?

[Travis McElroy]

Could it be something about instead of a beehive, like a wasp hive that you need to destroy?

[Griffin McElroy]

20 wasp hives are fine. 20 burn the hive. 20 burn the hive. Yeah, eat them.

[Justin McElroy]

Because the one thing our fans are notable for is their hatred of bees.

[Travis McElroy]

Not bees. Not bees.

[Griffin McElroy]

Bad.

[Justin McElroy]

I mean, like wasps. Okay, I know, I know. Wasps are not just angry bees.

[Travis McElroy]

They're bad.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 Guard the hive. Protect the queen.

[Travis McElroy]

No, I don't want to embrace monarchy.

[Griffin McElroy]

But it's the queen inside.

[Travis McElroy]

Be the queen.

[Justin McElroy]

The queen inside is okay. Hold on, wait.

[Travis McElroy]

20 honeyhives the beaten queen inside. 25. 20.

[Justin McElroy]

I've arrived. The queen inside.

[Travis McElroy]

Ooh.

[Griffin McElroy]

You're writing an awfully big check right now, Justin. With the aesthetics of that that I don't know that any of us are willing to cash.

[Travis McElroy]

I. Okay.

[Justin McElroy]

20 funny drive.

[Travis McElroy]

Listen to this funny podcast I found.

[Griffin McElroy]

We're getting close.

[Justin McElroy]

20 funny drive. My brother. My brother.

[Griffin McElroy]

We're getting close.

[Justin McElroy]

This is at least a year. This is a year.

[Travis McElroy]

20 max fun drive. Consider supporting the theme of this year is giving us money.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 funny drive. Put the boys back in the car. Feels pretty good to me because people don't listen to podcasts in their car anymore, and it's not putting my kids kids through college.

[Justin McElroy]

20 funny drive. Boys back on the menu.

[Griffin McElroy]

Boys back on the menu. School boys back on the menu. Quick. Keep going. We're hot right now, Justin. Keep going. Don't stop saying it.

[Justin McElroy]

I feel like I'll say things that I can't say.

[Griffin McElroy]

No. Build, build. You're hot right now, juice.

[Justin McElroy]

20. 20. 20 funny drive.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yep.

[Justin McElroy]

Boys are back in sound.

[Griffin McElroy]

Boys are back in sound. It's awesome.

[Travis McElroy]

That's really good.

[Griffin McElroy]

That sounds like one of the taglines they came up with for our television show.

[Justin McElroy]

It was just a short season, Griffin. We're gonna get him back.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 mega drive. Mega drive time. 20 mega drive.

[Justin McElroy]

20 bunny drive.

[Travis McElroy]

Bunny honey hive, Funny honey drive. Fill your life with laughter and be's to the max maximum bees.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 mega drive. A new Genesis. The Sega Genesis was called the Sega Mega Drive outside of North America. So this would be a very, you know, very 1990s sort of vibe, I guess. I'm trying to.

[Travis McElroy]

I just want to say a new Genesis would also be a great subtitle for Thunder Force 5. Just saying. Thunder Force 5. A new Genesis would be. That would work for us. I'm talking with my PR team over here and they're all nodding.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay, Juice, what are you exploring right now?

[Justin McElroy]

20. Gimme five.

[Travis McElroy]

Oh, okay. This actually occurred to me. I'm so glad you reminded me of this because I had this idea last night of 20 give me five in which we expanded out the language of high fives to not just be celebration or greeting, but depending on at what angle your arm was. Like the arm of a clock would indicate different emotions. So 20 give me five more than words. And so like, if you went fully.

[Griffin McElroy]

Like, done more than words before. We've done more than words. We've cooked with that spice so many times.

[Travis McElroy]

I just like the idea of if someone's like, how was your weekend? And you, like, hold your arm out straight to the right and it's like. It was.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay, think about that. Think about that.

[Justin McElroy]

You guys need to get back to writing these down because I've thrown out some really good ones.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay.

[Justin McElroy]

I'll add some of these myself while you're coming up with coming up with more.

[Griffin McElroy]

Huh?

[Travis McElroy]

Now, I also thought and I'm worried about the first bluffs messaging of 20 Gimme 5 slap around the world. But my idea being that we try to do like a hands across America kind of thing, but it's that we encourage our listeners to, like, high five him every country.

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't want to touch people more than I already am, which is not much.

[Travis McElroy]

No, we wouldn't do. Now, Justin, I enjoy this one you've thrown in here. Now, that's one that we've already done talked about. I 20 pennywise, quit clownin round Buster.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, no, that's new.

[Justin McElroy]

Is that new, Travis? Did you just come up with that yourself?

[Travis McElroy]

Well, Justin, if I did, it was planted in my brain by my brother, Inception style.

[Justin McElroy]

You're the first person to say it in the podcast, so I feel like you must have come up with 20 Pennywise, quit clowning around, Buster. And Travis. I love it.

[Travis McElroy]

What I love about that is the image of one of us standing at a sewer grate while Pen Pennywise is down there like, I've got balloons. And you're like, quit clowning around, Buster. You know what's got me? Pennywise. Where you going, Griffin?

[Griffin McElroy]

Stretching.

[Travis McElroy]

20 sleep deprived. 20 I hate to pry.

[Justin McElroy]

20 hate to pry is really tough to be actionable, but I is fun.

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

20.

[Griffin McElroy]

20. Love my wife. 20 love my wife. A true romance.

[Justin McElroy]

20 love my life.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 love your life with laughter and love.

[Justin McElroy]

20.

[Griffin McElroy]

Fill your life. Colin.

[Justin McElroy]

20. Love your life down to pieces. I'll look back.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 fill your life with laughter and love as like a second called shot something of.

[Justin McElroy]

An even less. 20.

[Griffin McElroy]

Fill your life. Colon, purpose, meaning laughter.

[Travis McElroy]

Bees.

[Griffin McElroy]

Love bees.

[Justin McElroy]

20. Live your life. No theme, only love. 20 live your life.

[Travis McElroy]

Gap year.

[Justin McElroy]

Gap year. 20 live your life. They can't all be.

[Travis McElroy]

They can't all be winners.

[Justin McElroy]

Just do whatever you want. 20. No, it's such a I can't shirt duty like that. People need it.

[Griffin McElroy]

I feel like the answer lies in playing with the form and it's so. That's the hardest part of this whole God dang endeavor.

[Travis McElroy]

Is there something we can do? Playing with the choose your own adventure thing, where we're making it like open ended with guidance, allowing people to tell us. Almost like a mad lib of a year, where it's like. Because this is what fun was, I think so magical about Fungalore. Yes, he heard your wish, but the wish is for you to make. For you to accomplish. He doesn't do it. He's gonna hear your wish. And once you've spoken that wish into existence, you're gonna do it right. We need something like that that isn't telling people what to do, but rather giving them an opportunity to do the thing they need to do.

[Justin McElroy]

I have the strangest sensation that it was delivered to all three of us simultaneously during the break.

[Griffin McElroy]

Holy shit.

[Justin McElroy]

I feel like we all know it.

[Griffin McElroy]

You're kidding me.

[Justin McElroy]

No, I think it was sent to all three of us.

[Griffin McElroy]

Do you guys have one? I have one that I feel pretty good about.

[Travis McElroy]

I do too.

[Justin McElroy]

Okay, we're gonna count to three and then we'll all say it.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay?

[Justin McElroy]

One. Two, Three.

[Griffin McElroy]

Honey, you've arrived.

[Travis McElroy]

Food drive.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay, so let's go in order. Justin, Travis. What was yours?

[Travis McElroy]

20 Canned Food Drive. Act locally.

[Griffin McElroy]

I like the energy. I like the intent of it.

[Travis McElroy]

Imagine this every live show as people come in, don't set.

[Griffin McElroy]

We're gonna have to do this now, Travis. We're gonna have to do a camp food drive now, Travis.

[Travis McElroy]

We can still do that. Even if it's not the year we got to now.

[Griffin McElroy]

Cause you said it.

[Justin McElroy]

That's the worst case scenario.

[Griffin McElroy]

We don't get the joke out of it. And we have to do a campfire.

[Justin McElroy]

Do the work. Cool. You condemned us.

[Griffin McElroy]

Do you know how to do one of those traps?

[Travis McElroy]

Hey, Trav, quick question.

[Griffin McElroy]

Do you know how to do a canned food drive, Trav? Because now we gotta do them when.

[Travis McElroy]

We do a live show. We find a place in town.

[Griffin McElroy]

Who's gonna do that? You're gonna do that? You're gonna find a place and get all the cans?

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah, we'll make tour manager Paul do it.

[Justin McElroy]

Okay. Thank you, Paul.

[Griffin McElroy]

So fucking wild.

[Justin McElroy]

Hey, listen. Hey, listen. I'm excited to announce right now.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, here's my year.

[Justin McElroy]

I'm excited to announce. Listen. No, listen. I'm excited to announce right now that every My Brother, My brother and me live show in 2025 will be participating in the Paul Sabor food drive Memorial.

[Travis McElroy]

The Paul Saborion memorial canned food Drive.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's cool.

[Justin McElroy]

No, it's the Paul Saborio Memorial Food Drive.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's awesome. He doesn't have enough stuff to do at the show, so he's gonna be fucking psyched. Here's my.

[Justin McElroy]

He sets that all up. And the beauty part about the Paul Siborial Memorial Food Tribe is that we don't even do anything interface with it at all.

[Travis McElroy]

We are merely the conduit.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

We get all the credit.

[Griffin McElroy]

My year theme is 20 free sunglasses. And if you come to our show, you get free sunglasses delivered to you by Paul.

[Justin McElroy]

All right, so wait, Griffin, what was yours?

[Griffin McElroy]

I forget. Oh, yeah. Honey, you've arrived. Cool subtitle. Honey, you've arrived. This one's for you. Honey, you've arrived.

[Justin McElroy]

That's good. That's a better version of 20 I've arrived.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

Honey, you've Arrived is really good.

[Griffin McElroy]

Honey, you've arrived.

[Justin McElroy]

Honey, you've arrived. But what. But what's the subtitle?

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't know, but it feels like a strong base.

[Travis McElroy]

Stand in your power. 20, you've arrived. Stand in your power.

[Justin McElroy]

20. Hit subscribe. Go play button. I like Justin.

[Travis McElroy]

Oh, that's good. That's the first time someone said that on the show. What do you think?

[Justin McElroy]

That's one that I. I just saw 20 likes subscribe.

[Griffin McElroy]

Smash it. 20 likes.

[Justin McElroy]

20 like subscribe. 20 like subscribe. Subscribe, brothers, hit it big. Ooh.

[Travis McElroy]

If we couple that with a canned food drive, that's okay. As long as we do the canned food drive too. We can ask people to do things for us. Little give and take.

[Justin McElroy]

Most of the year it's 20 like subscribe brothers, hit it big.

[Griffin McElroy]

Hold on.

[Justin McElroy]

The theme of our live shows is 20 can food drive. Thank you, Paul.

[Griffin McElroy]

No, we can't do that. We can't bifurcate like that. I'll get.

[Justin McElroy]

No. Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

All right. Follow like subscribe. Support the arts.

[Travis McElroy]

And Justin, what was yours?

[Justin McElroy]

Mine was 20 sunny life. It's beautiful outside.

[Griffin McElroy]

We did sun and sea. It's too close to sun and sea for me. We did one that was extremely sun focused.

[Justin McElroy]

Don't even put it down. Honey, you've arrived.

[Travis McElroy]

Stand in your power.

[Griffin McElroy]

Not stand in your power. It has to. This is where we can play with the form. I feel like in the subtitle. Honey, you've arrived.

[Travis McElroy]

Honey, you've arrived. What do you need? How can we support you? Honey, you've arrived and we're loving it.

[Griffin McElroy]

Honey, you've arrived.

[Travis McElroy]

Can I say right now what's sparking joy within Me, Can I talk about. Follow like subscribe. Support the arts.

[Griffin McElroy]

But that's. Oh, man.

[Travis McElroy]

Human creator. Something about human creators. Pay the artist.

[Griffin McElroy]

Follow like subscribe. Destroy the machine is cool. Follow like subscribe. Just take. Take down the machine. Take down the machine.

[Travis McElroy]

The human element.

[Griffin McElroy]

The human element. That's interesting.

[Justin McElroy]

Are we at all concerned about the fact that Follow like subscribe sounds almost nothing like the words 20?

[Travis McElroy]

I'm not worried about that at all.

[Griffin McElroy]

No. Because we've been recording for an hour and a half, so.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, I don't. It feels too self serving, guys.

[Travis McElroy]

Follow like subscribe. Humans are perfect.

[Justin McElroy]

No, we are. No, listen.

[Travis McElroy]

What? Creators unite.

[Griffin McElroy]

20. 20 unsubscribe.

[Travis McElroy]

Huh?

[Griffin McElroy]

20 unsubscribe.

[Travis McElroy]

Touch grass.

[Griffin McElroy]

The road is calling.

[Justin McElroy]

The road is calling.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 unsubscribed.

[Travis McElroy]

20 unsubscribe. Life is the greatest video. Life is the art.

[Griffin McElroy]

Tony, answer. This is cool. Travis is doing his fucking thing now, which is just say a bunch of garbage and one of them's gonna be like, yep, ding dong.

[Justin McElroy]

Because you said that you got 20 unsubscribed.

[Travis McElroy]

God is the greatest creator.

[Griffin McElroy]

Almost keep jazz in. You're close to the surf, the vibe kind of magic. That's where I want you right now. That's where I need you. 20 unsubscribe.

[Travis McElroy]

20 unsubscribe. Real life, Minecraft, craft your life.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 unsubscribe. Are we saying unsubscribe? Okay, hold on.

[Travis McElroy]

Not from us.

[Griffin McElroy]

Not from us. Clearly.

[Justin McElroy]

This is what I'm saying.

[Travis McElroy]

That's it. 20 unsubscribe. Colon. Not from us.

[Griffin McElroy]

Not from us. Though. 20 unsubscribed could mean get rid of the stuff in your life that you don't use, that you don't need anymore. The parts of your life you don't want to have anymore. Get rid of those. It can also mean unsubscribe from your. From emailing letters and text messages that you don't. That you don't do any. Or are we saying like unplug from. Unplug from it all and. Cause I don't give a shit about that. I'll never unplug from it all. I need this stuff. I live for this fucking tech shit.

[Travis McElroy]

20 come to life. Escape the version.

[Justin McElroy]

Come alive. 20 come alive. What about that? 20 come alive.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 come alive. It sounds so. You sound. 20 come alive, buddy, come alive, buddy, come alive.

[Justin McElroy]

Honey, come alive.

[Travis McElroy]

Wake up with me, honey Funny come alive.

[Griffin McElroy]

Funny comes alive.

[Justin McElroy]

McElroy brothers, colon, funny comes alive.

[Travis McElroy]

Before your very eyes.

[Justin McElroy]

See, that puts the subtitle at the beginning.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, and it can be like us climbing out of a computer screen, like.

[Justin McElroy]

Whoa, Funny come to life in your face.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's a great tour, guys. It's a fucking killer tour.

[Justin McElroy]

It's a great tour, but doesn't mean anything.

[Griffin McElroy]

Funny come alive. Funny come alive. What can it mean to people who aren't professional comedy, guys?

[Travis McElroy]

Funny come alive. The joke is in you.

[Griffin McElroy]

Funny come alive. Become the joker.

[Justin McElroy]

That thanks.

[Griffin McElroy]

Felt like a cool joker.

[Travis McElroy]

Become the chuckle. 20 Come alive. Your subtitle here.

[Griffin McElroy]

We gotta stop passing the buck.

[Justin McElroy]

No more buck passing.

[Griffin McElroy]

This is the only work we do all year and we can't make the subtitle do our work.

[Travis McElroy]

So you don't want to make it like a Sad Lib. Where's 20 come alive? Give me a noun and an adjective.

[Justin McElroy]

No, what I want to do is eat the banh Mia got in the fridge.

[Griffin McElroy]

Traveling hungry through that.

[Travis McElroy]

That's why I had biscuits and gravy before this. Cause I knew I.

[Griffin McElroy]

Damn, that was smart.

[Justin McElroy]

I always think your carbo load in farmer's instinct.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 come alive.

[Travis McElroy]

Funny come alive. A new Genesis gravy drive. 20 the trains are coming.

[Griffin McElroy]

Come alive.

[Justin McElroy]

20 gravy drive. The trains are coming.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 gravy drive. What the fuck? What did you say?

[Justin McElroy]

I just got hungry, man. I'm sorry.

[Travis McElroy]

Wavy gravy drive. 13 dead end drive. Who did it?

[Griffin McElroy]

Who done it?

[Justin McElroy]

Who done it? Who fun it?

[Griffin McElroy]

Who fun it?

[Justin McElroy]

Who fun it?

[Griffin McElroy]

13 dead and drive. Who fun it?

[Justin McElroy]

Who fun it?

[Griffin McElroy]

It's fucking garbage, bro. It does. It's just words.

[Justin McElroy]

It's also like the legal. The legal problem.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, man. Claiming 13 dead and four full dookie.

[Travis McElroy]

Thirteen dead and drive. It's ours now. You're not using it. 13 dead and drive.

[Justin McElroy]

Imminent domain. Is this okay? The theme of the year is 13 didn't derive squatters rights. The theme.

[Travis McElroy]

No one's living in 13 Dead End Drive.

[Griffin McElroy]

No.

[Justin McElroy]

Got it. Okay. Oh, man, it's nice to. Sometimes when you record your comedy podcast for long enough, you gotta remember to have to have fun. Lift your spirits.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Justin McElroy]

Get to do a joke or two, you know?

[Travis McElroy]

Okay, I want us to look at the list that we have here, and I want us to each pick. Pick two that we think there's something within.

[Griffin McElroy]

I.

[Justin McElroy]

Okay. What's wrong, Revin?

[Travis McElroy]

I'm not saying that they're it.

[Griffin McElroy]

I just don't think we're there yet.

[Travis McElroy]

But is there something refinable within them?

[Justin McElroy]

20 Freddy Fry guys.

[Griffin McElroy]

Still like 20.

[Justin McElroy]

Overdrive 20, jump and drive. Now you're ready to wail. Oh, God.

[Griffin McElroy]

There may be something actionable and cool in there. The aesthetic is tough for me to get past.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, I know.

[Griffin McElroy]

It'll be hard for me to buy this Griffin here.

[Justin McElroy]

Okay. Can I tell you guys the thing about it? Here's where I'm at.

[Travis McElroy]

Okay.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Travis McElroy]

Here's where I'm at.

[Justin McElroy]

I came in really nervous about Jive, you know, and I think that that's. That's fair. I think that we all saw that Jive was gonna try to rear its head. And I do think the swing aesthetic I was very, very on guard for and I agree with. But the more I think about Griffin dressed in a swing style outfit at a live show, it starts to get funnier to me. The idea that we would try to that in all of our marketing for the year.

[Griffin McElroy]

This is crazy.

[Justin McElroy]

We are attempting to.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's chilly. It is chilly here in D.C. we have our furnace going full blast. I just got cold all over my body from all my blood inside me.

[Justin McElroy]

All I'm saying is like, to the.

[Griffin McElroy]

Outside, my high heart rate warning has activated on my Apple watch.

[Justin McElroy]

When you look at the marketing for our shows this year, you would swear to God it's gonna be a cherry popping daddy's tribute act. Like, it is just full swing, new swing. And here's what I'm saying, here's what I'm saying. If we do that now.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

And then by the end of the year, swing is back, then I think we could say definitively we are steering the ship.

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah. Because that didn't happen on accident.

[Justin McElroy]

Right. That style wise, that one is more. This is. I'm saying it's almost an experiment to see.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, man.

[Justin McElroy]

If we could shift the culture. Like, I need to know if the fungalore thing was a one off or if we can really put some English on the ball.

[Travis McElroy]

So I think we're ready to call it.

[Griffin McElroy]

There's no chance in fucking hell or heaven or earth simply won't do it.

[Justin McElroy]

Okay, that's interesting.

[Travis McElroy]

That's a good energy.

[Justin McElroy]

So interesting. Now, we don't vote here on this show, so let's not vote. But Griffin, I would love to simply know. You know what's hard, Griffin, is I can. I feel like I'm standing next to you on a stage somewhere in this great nation of ours when we're watching this on a screen, like, simply.

[Griffin McElroy]

No, we're not. We're not. We're not. We're not.

[Justin McElroy]

We're.

[Travis McElroy]

I feel like there's a hard cut coming, though. Like, this is where there's no way, absolutely no way we are gonna be. And there's Griffin.

[Griffin McElroy]

We'll be recording for another hour before we get even close to this. This will be a footnote in what is already a long and pony.

[Travis McElroy]

But what Griffin didn't know.

[Justin McElroy]

Nope.

[Griffin McElroy]

This isn't one of those moments. I can feel it.

[Travis McElroy]

You're probably wondering how I got here. 20, jump and jive.

[Justin McElroy]

5. 20, 25. Two more hosts.

[Travis McElroy]

Ooh.

[Justin McElroy]

Just try to get some fresh heats. Yeah, some new heats.

[Travis McElroy]

How about this? How about this?

[Griffin McElroy]

Can I ask who?

[Justin McElroy]

Well, that would be with the years.

[Travis McElroy]

Oh. It's like building the band kind of thing.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay.

[Travis McElroy]

I would like to maybe. What? Griffin, what you need to get your juices flowing is a little pressure. And what if I said, if we don't find one we, like in 15 minutes, then it's 20, jump and jive. Now you're ready to wail.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah. We've been going for so long. Griffin, you're gonna have to give us something that's better than the idea of us trying to force a swing aesthetic back in the year 2025 and into.

[Travis McElroy]

Our youngest brother's heart.

[Justin McElroy]

Into what? It's not. I really don't want it to be a theme. If the theme is funny because Griffin hates it, that's not funny to me. It is funny. The idea that we would. I like the idea that we are trying to test the theory as to whether or not we have the amount of power that Funglor made it seem like we have.

[Griffin McElroy]

But we would be making the world measurably worse. Demonstrably worse.

[Travis McElroy]

If we do have power this time, we get to shape it. Griffin.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, no, it's. It's.

[Travis McElroy]

Okay.

[Justin McElroy]

Wait. What if it's 20, jump and jive? Swing's last chance, and we give swing one more chance.

[Travis McElroy]

One more chance.

[Justin McElroy]

One more chance.

[Travis McElroy]

And if it doesn't happen this time.

[Justin McElroy]

If it doesn't happen this time, we're.

[Travis McElroy]

20 jump a dive. Three strikes, you're out.

[Justin McElroy]

Swing's last chance. It's the last chance for swing, Griffin. You give it one more shot. One more bite at the apple.

[Travis McElroy]

20, jump and jive. Swing and a miss.

[Justin McElroy]

20.

[Travis McElroy]

Could we do something with give?

[Justin McElroy]

No, no, Travis. We can't get something on paper, but.

[Griffin McElroy]

We can say it like 20, 20 guy.

[Justin McElroy]

Wait, now. Wait now. If it's 20, 20 guy. Charity, some sort of, like, charitable aspect. I think that's great.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

20 money. 20 money guy.

[Griffin McElroy]

Support your support. The arts.

[Justin McElroy]

20 money guy.

[Travis McElroy]

Do what you can.

[Justin McElroy]

20 money guy. Spread it around.

[Travis McElroy]

This is shaping up to be our longest one.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'm so fucking hungry. Can this be the first episode where we eat on the episode?

[Justin McElroy]

No, because I got a wedding here tomorrow and I gotta go take down all my Christmas decorations.

[Travis McElroy]

Do we need to stand up?

[Griffin McElroy]

No, I don't think I can.

[Travis McElroy]

Well, I have strep throat. Griffin.

[Justin McElroy]

I messed up the video and I'm standing up.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay, I'm gonna lower my desk slowly in case any cables just fucking snap.

[Justin McElroy]

Okay, how about this?

[Griffin McElroy]

Let's see.

[Travis McElroy]

Bye, Griffin.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, fuck.

[Justin McElroy]

Hey, how about this?

[Griffin McElroy]

The lamp is off the ground.

[Justin McElroy]

20 front wheel drive. Here's how cars work. And it's. You're also learning this year how cars work. It's like education cars, you know what I mean?

[Griffin McElroy]

I like cars as a thing.

[Justin McElroy]

Oh, okay. The idea of cars. You like?

[Griffin McElroy]

Uh. Oh, one of my monitors moved. I'm gonna stop right there. I like cars as an aesthetic. Gearhead. Shit. Like. Yeah, I think that's kind of cool. I had to put my lamp on the ground and now it's. My lighting has gotten extremely dramatic.

[Travis McElroy]

20 learn to drive. 20 earn to drive.

[Griffin McElroy]

Feel the drive.

[Travis McElroy]

Feel the drive. That's powerful.

[Justin McElroy]

20 live the drive.

[Travis McElroy]

Live the drive. Live to drive. Live to drive.

[Justin McElroy]

Thrive the drive. 20 live the drive.

[Travis McElroy]

Thrive to drive.

[Griffin McElroy]

Guys, I just took a few steps back and now I can see my heavy power strip through which my entire like, shit is routed, is hanging off the ground by the tension of the wires. At any moment they could slip and give and I will disappear.

[Travis McElroy]

20 slip and give. So we did 20 times to drive. 20 like subscribe.

[Justin McElroy]

Is there anything vibe?

[Travis McElroy]

20 surf the vibe.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Travis McElroy]

What was that? That was our 20 sun and semtitle.

[Griffin McElroy]

For 20 sun and sea.

[Justin McElroy]

How about 20 surf the vibe? Colon Sunsee.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, all right.

[Travis McElroy]

I look back. A McElroy retrospective.

[Justin McElroy]

2045. You're not going to find it in silence.

[Griffin McElroy]

We will.

[Justin McElroy]

One thing I could say, can't find it in 2020 count the magazine. 20, 20, 20, 20, 20,. 2020 funny drive boys back on the menu. Boys back in the car. 20 funny drive.

[Travis McElroy]

Oh, I do like boys back on the menu, frankly.

[Griffin McElroy]

But what's it mean? What does any of this mean? What does the specs on the menu mean?

[Travis McElroy]

What do you mean?

[Griffin McElroy]

Juice. Does your camera not go up there? There he is.

[Travis McElroy]

Who are you? Griffin.

[Justin McElroy]

20 Shrive Rive.

[Travis McElroy]

20 justified. 2020 crime.

[Griffin McElroy]

Clive. 20 20. Clive Owen or.

[Justin McElroy]

Oh, you're so close. Griffin Clive we need some more Clives when they're monkeys.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 gunman Clive. A lesser known DSIware hit from Nintendo. From the Nintendo company.

[Travis McElroy]

20 heavy side.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 heavy side. 20 side. Can we sign?

[Justin McElroy]

20.

[Travis McElroy]

20 heavy side ascending.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 heavy side. Off into the. Off to death. 20 Heaviside. Death with dignity.

[Justin McElroy]

Okay, what about Monkey with a Knife? Colon a little bit Family Guy.

[Griffin McElroy]

This year we really lean into real McFarlane on it.

[Justin McElroy]

More singing. Like a lot more singing.

[Travis McElroy]

20 little cry. Let it out.

[Griffin McElroy]

New Mummies alive. This we're relaunching the mummies alive cartoon.

[Justin McElroy]

20 mummy dive.

[Travis McElroy]

Uh huh.

[Justin McElroy]

20. 20 money dive. Scrooge McDucket. Huh. 20 money dive. I wanna. I don't wanna do anything else. I have a family. Have I told you guys? A wife, two daughters. They are counting on me to come back.

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah. And you know, time goes by so quickly. Who knows how old they are now.

[Griffin McElroy]

Daddy mummy live. Daddy mummy live. Your parents on display.

[Justin McElroy]

Buddy, funny life. 20 funny live. Please come to our shows. 20.

[Travis McElroy]

20 brothers live. You guys have got to let go of this self surfing thing. I don't know what to tell you. Oh, I thought you had it.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 underside the.

[Travis McElroy]

Flip it up.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 under side underdrive. Flip it over. Flip that shit. 20 taker.

[Travis McElroy]

Sleazy. 20 underdrive taker.

[Griffin McElroy]

Sleazy underdrive. What's that mean?

[Travis McElroy]

It's the opposite of overdrive. Kick it into underdrive. Pedal off the metal.

[Griffin McElroy]

Your full throated endorsement of failing to live up to your potential.

[Travis McElroy]

I'm just saying we put so much aspirational shit, we put so much pressure on people.

[Griffin McElroy]

Can I say something every year? We also say every year we keep doing these aspirational ones. I don't necessarily think we are.

[Justin McElroy]

I just think people want to aspire.

[Travis McElroy]

Is there something about. Okay, okay, honey, now you drive.

[Griffin McElroy]

Wait.

[Travis McElroy]

Give up control, Honey, now you drive. Now you drive, honey.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's cool because it's like a. It's like a script that you're supposed to read when you're driving, honey. And you say to your partner, honey, now you drive.

[Travis McElroy]

Well, it doesn't have to apply to just driving or just partners. Maybe a friend, a family member. Something where it's just like, you know what? I've been making all the decisions. Now you drive.

[Griffin McElroy]

Buddy. Buddy by it.

[Travis McElroy]

Buddy, now you drive, buddy, now you drive. Jesus, take the wheel.

[Griffin McElroy]

Buddies are for life. Buddies are for life, buddy.

[Justin McElroy]

20. No sounds so much. It sounds nothing like 2025.

[Travis McElroy]

Buddy, you're my life. Worst by Bon Jovi.

[Griffin McElroy]

Buddy. Buddy, life.

[Justin McElroy]

Buddy Buddy Life.

[Griffin McElroy]

Buddy Buddy Life. Friends to the end.

[Travis McElroy]

Buddy. Is there something about Buddies for life?

[Griffin McElroy]

No, but there is. Buddy Buddy Life.

[Travis McElroy]

Buddy Second life.

[Justin McElroy]

Funny, funny. Tummy Life.

[Travis McElroy]

Huh?

[Griffin McElroy]

Tummy Buddy Life. It's time to find your Tummy Buddy.

[Travis McElroy]

Now, as the one Griffin who keeps asking, what's that mean? I'm gonna have to turn it around on you here.

[Griffin McElroy]

So this is a guy. This is a character obviously named Tummy Buddy.

[Travis McElroy]

And everybody has one.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, everybody has a Tummy Buddy. And this is their life. You live life. It's an enjoy. It's aspirational. Cause it's telling you to live your life like a Tummy Buddy.

[Justin McElroy]

So is a Tummy Buddy a person, a character? Or is it like.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'm so glad you asked, Justin. Tummy Buddies eat their meals backwards. That means dinner at the beginning of the day, lunch in the middle, and breakfast at the end. One of the crazy idiosyncratic thing about Tummy Buddies. You're saying funny Tummy Buddy, not funny Tummy Buddy. What are you talking about?

[Travis McElroy]

That doesn't make any goddamn sense, Justin. It's Tummy Buddy life.

[Griffin McElroy]

Tummy Buddy life.

[Justin McElroy]

Tummy Buddy life.

[Griffin McElroy]

Back to the pasture. I don't know. Wherever Tummy Buddies live the patch.

[Justin McElroy]

Tummy buddy life. The truth is not.

[Griffin McElroy]

I feel like you'll be hit. I feel like we're so close to jumping off the edge. We just need a good subtitle to catch us there.

[Justin McElroy]

I feel like you. It was right there, Griffin.

[Griffin McElroy]

Tummy Buddy life.

[Travis McElroy]

Tummy Buddy life. No one eats alone.

[Justin McElroy]

20 buddy life.

[Griffin McElroy]

A Tummy Buddy is not someone you eat meals with, right? Or could it be?

[Travis McElroy]

Why not? Why isn't it?

[Justin McElroy]

Tummy Buddy life. Tummy buddy life. No one eats alone.

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

And that. And that is like if you alone. Hey. Tummy buddies make a new friend.

[Griffin McElroy]

Tummy buddy life. Gather round the. Gather round. Gather round the table. Room at the table. Tummy buddy life. Room at the table.

[Justin McElroy]

Tell me, Buddy life.

[Griffin McElroy]

Tell me, Buddy Life. Tell me, Buddy Life.

[Justin McElroy]

Tell me, Buddy Life. Tell me, Buddy Life.

[Travis McElroy]

Tell me, Buddy Life. Tell me, Buddy life.

[Griffin McElroy]

Tell me, Buddy life. Room at the table.

[Justin McElroy]

Set the table Fix a plate.

[Travis McElroy]

Everybody eats Room for more.

[Justin McElroy]

Tummy Buddy life.

[Griffin McElroy]

Tummy buddy life. Got a seat, got a plate for you.

[Justin McElroy]

Pull up a chair.

[Griffin McElroy]

Pull up a chair.

[Travis McElroy]

Pull up a chair.

[Justin McElroy]

Pull up a plate.

[Travis McElroy]

Pull up a plate. Grab a plate.

[Justin McElroy]

Tummy buddy life. Pull up a plate.

[Griffin McElroy]

Tummy buddy life is awesome and I'll tell you why it can mean generosity of spirit.

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

Be a tummy Buddy and give. Tummy buddy could mean, oh, I don't have any adult friends.

[Travis McElroy]

Yup.

[Griffin McElroy]

I need to make a few tummy buddies. Maybe that means I go out to lunch every now and then with one of my peripheral social contacts.

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

Cause there's room at the. Pull up a seat. There's room at the table. What's more actionable? Room at the table isn't. That's very passive. I want. I want tummy buddy life.

[Justin McElroy]

I really think the alliteration and the forcefulness of tummy buddy life. Pull up a plate.

[Griffin McElroy]

Pull up a plate. That's nothing to do with plates, though. Is my only.

[Justin McElroy]

I know. That's why it's a comedy show. You.

[Griffin McElroy]

No, no, no, no. Don't. Don't. Please.

[Travis McElroy]

Shoes.

[Griffin McElroy]

We're so close.

[Travis McElroy]

TY1 on Taiwan on Dig in.

[Justin McElroy]

Tell me, buddy life. Tie one on is. I think that's about drinking.

[Travis McElroy]

Dig in. Get your fill.

[Justin McElroy]

Get f. My Tummy buddy life. I fixings come free.

[Travis McElroy]

Tummy buddy life.

[Justin McElroy]

Tummy buddy life.

[Travis McElroy]

Chew on it.

[Justin McElroy]

Tell me, buddy life. I don't want to tell people how.

[Griffin McElroy]

To eat or how much to eat or anything.

[Travis McElroy]

Take a bite.

[Griffin McElroy]

I want to invite to dinner.

[Justin McElroy]

I don't even think it wants to be about food.

[Travis McElroy]

Take a bite out of love.

[Justin McElroy]

Tell me, buddy life. Pull up a chair Pull up a.

[Griffin McElroy]

Chair at the table Set the table.

[Justin McElroy]

The table Breaking bread Pull up a.

[Griffin McElroy]

Story Tummy buddy life.

[Justin McElroy]

Pull up a smile.

[Griffin McElroy]

Pull up a smile. Tell me, buddy life. Now you're ready to wail.

[Travis McElroy]

Mind the bezels.

[Justin McElroy]

Now listen.

[Travis McElroy]

Pull up a smile.

[Justin McElroy]

Now listen. Tummy buddy life. Pull up a smile. I think it's a very low bar.

[Griffin McElroy]

Tummy buddy life Sweeter together. Tummy buddy life Yummy Together, together. Tummy buddy life.

[Travis McElroy]

Yummy together.

[Justin McElroy]

We already did stronger together. We can't. Yeah. What about this? Tummy buddy life.

[Griffin McElroy]

And then nothing.

[Justin McElroy]

No, I just said it a second ago. It was very good.

[Griffin McElroy]

You did.

[Travis McElroy]

Yummy buddy. Tummy buddy life. No seconds till everybody eats.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'm inviting you to the table.

[Travis McElroy]

I want you open invitation.

[Griffin McElroy]

This is literally, I think, the actionable part of this year. Generosity of spirit. And also have a meal with your friend.

[Travis McElroy]

Yes.

[Justin McElroy]

Tummy buddy life.

[Griffin McElroy]

Be my tummy buddy.

[Travis McElroy]

Open arms, open mouths.

[Justin McElroy]

20. Buddy life. Tummy buddy life. Pull up a smile.

[Griffin McElroy]

I thought you were gonna say.

[Travis McElroy]

Can I just say pull up a smile.

[Griffin McElroy]

Justin just took two and a half minutes of bodywork that he just did off screen, and then he.

[Travis McElroy]

Tell me by life. Puppet smile is really doing it for me, it makes me happy in a way I can't explain. Maybe it's because I'm broken by two hours of this, but. Tell me, buddy life, pull up a smile.

[Justin McElroy]

This is. This is not just a. This is a. Is this our longest episode ever?

[Travis McElroy]

100%.

[Justin McElroy]

100%. Listen, how about this? Tell me, buddy life, pull up a smile.

[Griffin McElroy]

Why are we talking about pulling up smiles?

[Travis McElroy]

Why do we care about smiles?

[Griffin McElroy]

Pull up a smile. Have anything to do with meals or food.

[Travis McElroy]

It's like pull up a chair or fill up a plate.

[Justin McElroy]

And it's like if you don't feel.

[Travis McElroy]

It for yourself, Fill up a plate. Pull up a smile.

[Justin McElroy]

Your fellow human. The least you could do is like, pull up a smile.

[Travis McElroy]

Smile.

[Justin McElroy]

Just pull up one smile.

[Griffin McElroy]

Ha.

[Justin McElroy]

Hey, I could throw you that smile. I'll pull up a smile for you. Hey, there it is. You know, I'm pulling up smiles right now. Griffin Pagliacci over here, pretending he doesn't have a bond. Me upstairs just calling his name.

[Griffin McElroy]

No, we're all giving up a lot right now. Now for sure.

[Travis McElroy]

Is it. Is it also maybe showing our hand that two out of three of us are very hungry and we're landing on tummy buddy life?

[Griffin McElroy]

Yep, that's going to happen.

[Justin McElroy]

That's going. Tummy buddy life may art triumph toy. Buddy life. Truth and art. Cuz it's the art. 20. Buddy life. You keep saying Tummy buddy life.

[Griffin McElroy]

Tummy buddy life. Fuck, we're so close. We're so close. My body is seizing up from the. I need a tummy buddy now.

[Justin McElroy]

Tummy buddy life. Tummy buddy life. Coming in hot.

[Travis McElroy]

The side of smiles, Tommy. Buddy life life making room. Tummy buddy life. Scooch on over.

[Griffin McElroy]

Share.

[Travis McElroy]

Tummy buddy life, share, share.

[Griffin McElroy]

Tell me buddy life. Share.

[Justin McElroy]

Tell me buddy life, dare to share.

[Griffin McElroy]

20 buddy 20.

[Justin McElroy]

Tell me buddy life, dare to share.

[Griffin McElroy]

Tummy buddy life, dare to share.

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah. Okay. It encapsulates everything we're going for. Generosity of spirit. Share a meal, share a story.

[Justin McElroy]

Share a feeling.

[Travis McElroy]

Share a feeling. Pull the smile.

[Justin McElroy]

Tummy buddies.

[Travis McElroy]

You know what I mean? Tummy buddy life, dare to share.

[Griffin McElroy]

We all love Tummy Buddies a lot.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

We can't step away from tummy Buddies because if we. Here's the. Hey, listener, you might be at home and you might be thinking there's no way they're going with tummy buddies, right? Let me tell you what tummy buddies is, Tommy. Buddies is a like 8 inch by 8 inch rock that the three of us are standing on. We're sharing this small rock together. If we take a step away from tummy buddies, we fall into an abyss of possibility. Because, like, I don't know what the fuck we land on.

[Justin McElroy]

If we go like, tummy buddy's life, you should stop listening because it's definitely.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's definitely gonna be tummy reality.

[Travis McElroy]

I was. I was just picturing us standing on that Aiden trog and thinking about mutually assured destruction. And then I thought about, like, mutually assured smiles. Tell me, buddy life.

[Griffin McElroy]

Mutually.

[Travis McElroy]

A shared support.

[Justin McElroy]

Tell me a buddy life.

[Travis McElroy]

Dare to share is really getting me 20.

[Justin McElroy]

20. Tell me, buddy life. Dare to share. Griffin, I think you're just digging your heels, man.

[Griffin McElroy]

No, man, I think it's good. I think it's good. I think it's good. I think it's good. I'm trying to imagine. I'm trying to imagine seeing it. Care to see it?

[Travis McElroy]

Then maybe it's a question.

[Justin McElroy]

Oh. Care to dare to share?

[Travis McElroy]

Well, here's what I like about care.

[Griffin McElroy]

To share is a question that's playing with form a little bit.

[Justin McElroy]

Care. Oh, tell me, buddy life. Care to dare to share?

[Griffin McElroy]

Tell me, buddy life. Share. Tell me, buddy life. Share your chair.

[Justin McElroy]

Care to dare to share.

[Travis McElroy]

Dare to Care to share. Dare to share a care.

[Griffin McElroy]

I lost it.

[Justin McElroy]

20 buddy life. Dare to care. 20 buddy life. Truth or dare?

[Travis McElroy]

Now, here's what I like about care to share. Care to share would apply in both. You're walking up to a table, someone's eating alone. You're eating alone. You can say, care to share. Share. Right. Share the meal together. But I'm also asking you, the listener. Do you care to share with people who need it?

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah. Or do you care to share your life and time with your friends? That's the thing I'm most drawn to because it involves me eating with a friend, which I do like, and I don't really do that much anymore. Care to share. Dare to dare. Dare to care also hits good for me because that's not like caring about it gets harder to do in these troubling times.

[Justin McElroy]

Dare to care is powerful. 20 buddy life.

[Griffin McElroy]

Tommy. Buddy life. You keep saying 20 buddy, which makes me worry. This is not memetic.

[Justin McElroy]

Tummy buddy life. No, I said tummy. Tummy buddy Life.

[Travis McElroy]

Now is 20 Buddy Life Care, don't care. Don't say it again. No, no, no. Hear me out. Is tummy buddy life making it too much about food?

[Griffin McElroy]

No.

[Travis McElroy]

Okay.

[Justin McElroy]

No. Tummy buddy life.

[Travis McElroy]

Dare to care.

[Justin McElroy]

Dare to care.

[Griffin McElroy]

Tummy buddy doesn't have to mean Food. I want to say that out loud.

[Justin McElroy]

This is what I'm saying.

[Griffin McElroy]

You can just be Tummy buddies with food.

[Travis McElroy]

Tummy Buddy Life. Dare to Care.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's a special friendship. Tummy Buddy Life.

[Justin McElroy]

Tummy Buddy Life. Dare to Care.

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sitting back down.

[Griffin McElroy]

I just feel like the form could be played with a little.

[Travis McElroy]

No, shut up, Griffin.

[Justin McElroy]

Griffin. Here's what I will say to you, Griffin. When you go into the chat of our staff and we tell them that the year's theme is Tummy Buddy Life.

[Travis McElroy]

There to catch.

[Justin McElroy]

Dare to Care. It is going to hit in a pretty major way, I think. Griffin.

[Travis McElroy]

It's all gonna be worth it.

[Justin McElroy]

It's all gonna be worth it, Griff. You wait. You wait.

[Travis McElroy]

And when we tell our wives, our children, our friends, they're gonna think we have to text MacArthur Genius Award winner Lin Manuel Miranda and tell him what we settled on. Cause he asked us yesterday.

[Justin McElroy]

I'm worried about Griffin.

[Travis McElroy]

I'm always worried about Griffin. No more so now than usual.

[Griffin McElroy]

Dare to Care is obviously.

[Travis McElroy]

Oh, gosh, I haven't been recording. No, I'm just. I'm just joshing.

[Griffin McElroy]

Tummy Buddy Life is good. That stays, obviously. Dare to Care is a beautiful sentiment.

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah. Balanced out by Tummy Buddy Life.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah. There is balance There, isn't there?

[Travis McElroy]

Because you hear Tummy Buddy Life and you're like, what the fuck? And then you get to Dare to Care, and you're like, oh, shit.

[Justin McElroy]

Huh? Maybe I should care about what Tummy Buddies are. I wasn't gonna learn about this.

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah, it really pulls you back in just as you start to think, like, that's really weird.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, wait, I'm gonna really quickly go on Urban Dictionary and look up Tummy Buddy.

[Justin McElroy]

And that was the last episode other my brother and me.

[Griffin McElroy]

Tummy Buddy Life. Dare to Care. Tummy Buddy Life. I feel like I always Dare to care. I care too much, if anything.

[Justin McElroy]

Okay, well.

[Travis McElroy]

But it's not about you.

[Justin McElroy]

It's made me care about different things.

[Travis McElroy]

Or care in a better way.

[Griffin McElroy]

Share your care.

[Travis McElroy]

It's Dare to Care, Griffin.

[Justin McElroy]

Dare to Care is what it is.

[Griffin McElroy]

You know what, guys? You know what, guys? I'm not 100% on it. I'm like 94% on it. I'm Dare to Care is great. I planted my flag so hard with. It's not going to be Jump and Drive. Now you're ready to whale.

[Travis McElroy]

You also pitched Tummy Buddy live and we were with you.

[Griffin McElroy]

I just. I feel like I used up my one black ball on that one. I think Tummy Buddy Life, Dare to Care is very, very good.

[Travis McElroy]

Thank you. We're calling it.

[Griffin McElroy]

There's a balance there.

[Justin McElroy]

He said he's 94%. We're. It's not.

[Travis McElroy]

That's an A, Justin. We're calling it Justin. Call it that.

[Justin McElroy]

Say it, Griffin. Here's from Griffin. No, all. All I need from Griffin is I want Griffin to say the year's theme one time, like he means it and like he likes it. That's what I want to hear. I want Griffin to call it. Is what I'm saying.

[Travis McElroy]

Griffin. Call it.

[Griffin McElroy]

Tummy Buddy Life, Dare to Kiss.

[Justin McElroy]

Yes. Okay. Okay. Okay. I'm Justin.

[Travis McElroy]

Yep. I'm Travis.

[Justin McElroy]

Thanks, Montague. Thanks, Montaigne.

[Griffin McElroy]

There's other stuff we should say here.

[Travis McElroy]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'm Travis.

[Justin McElroy]

That's it. Yeah, that's it.

[Griffin McElroy]

Are we sure, though? Are we?

[Travis McElroy]

Say it, Griffin. We're not doing this. We can't keep doing this. Say it.

[Griffin McElroy]

The year's theme is Tummy Buddy Life, Dare to Care. It feels preachy. It feels a little preachy, I guess.

[Travis McElroy]

Tummy Buddy Life feels preachy.

[Griffin McElroy]

Dare to Care feels a little preachy. It's about balanced.

[Justin McElroy]

It's about balance.

[Travis McElroy]

That's the goddamn balance, Griffin.

[Justin McElroy]

It's the balance of it, Griffin. Dare to Care, Griffin.

[Travis McElroy]

It can't be silly shit. And silly shit. I wanna be with you guys.

[Justin McElroy]

That's peanut butter. And peanut butter.

[Travis McElroy]

You're so off.

[Justin McElroy]

Mike's rocks hard.

[Griffin McElroy]

I wanna be with you guys. I wanna dare to care about this. Maybe that's. Maybe I should follow the thing. Yeah, that's cool, actually, because.

[Travis McElroy]

Because it's cool to care. You're worried that it's serious.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay. And now I'll just put all cards on. I think Dare to Care kind of sucks, but I'll follow it into itself. I'll dare to care so hard this year, by the end of it, I'll be unrecognizable.

[Justin McElroy]

That's cool, man. Yeah, that's good.

[Griffin McElroy]

I think it sucks, but if I used it, then I wouldn't think it sucks.

[Travis McElroy]

This is my thing, is we live in a world with too much jaded.

[Griffin McElroy]

Preachy, preachy, preachy. Preachy.

[Justin McElroy]

Griffin thinks there's too much caring. That's our problem. Griffin thinks everybody's carrying so much.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's not that it's super preachy.

[Travis McElroy]

I hate that.

[Justin McElroy]

But.

[Griffin McElroy]

If I use it, I'll get on board with it by the end of it. Does that make sense? It's immediately actionable to the people making it. And that is really strong. And it plays with force.

[Justin McElroy]

What about this?

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, if you're about to change the juice, I'll lose my fucking.

[Travis McElroy]

We were done.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, I know. I agree. I agree. Truth or dare to care?

[Griffin McElroy]

Tummy buddy time. Dare to care.

[Travis McElroy]

Nope.

[Justin McElroy]

You fucked it.

[Travis McElroy]

Tummy buddy life.

[Griffin McElroy]

Tummy buddy life. Tummy buddy time though. Can we? No. Well, hold on because now it's. Now it's time for buddy tummy time. That sounds so much like time for Tell of Time, dubbies. And that's not our buddy tummy time.

[Travis McElroy]

Strengthen your core. But we're not doing that.

[Griffin McElroy]

Tummy buddy life. Dare to care.

[Justin McElroy]

Thank you. My name is Justice MC.

[Travis McElroy]

I'm Travis McCoy.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'm about to go eat three hot dog.

[Justin McElroy]

My brother, my brother me. Kiss your dad square on the lips?

[Travis McElroy]

It's better, it's better with you?

[Griffin McElroy]

It's better?

[Justin McElroy]

My life?

[Griffin McElroy]

It's better?

[Travis McElroy]

It's better with you?

[Griffin McElroy]

Cause it's true? It's better, it's better with you?

[Justin McElroy]

My life?

[Griffin McElroy]

It's better with you. Maximum Fun, a workaround network of artist owned shows supported directly by.