Straightio Rewind: "Jackass" w/ Sarah Squirm

Summary

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StraightioLab – Episode Summary

Podcast: StraightioLab
Episode: Rewind – "Jack Ass" with Sarah Squirm
Date: February 20, 2026
Host(s): George Civeris, Sam Taggart
Guest: Sarah Squirm

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Episode Overview

This special “rewind” episode of StraightioLab features comedian and SNL cast member Sarah Squirm (Sarah Sherman) joining hosts George and Sam to hold up the mirror to the phenomenon of "Jackass" and its complex relationship to straight culture. The trio explores the evolution of online language, the ways straight and queer cultures intersect (and sometimes appropriate each other), and ultimately delivers a riotous intellectual deep-dive into "Jackass"—the MTV legacy, its homoerotic undertones, cultural impact, and much more. As always, the tone is both playful and whip-smart, oscillating between razor-sharp cultural critique and hilarious self-deprecation.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Emptiness and Evolution of Online Language

• Algorithmic Humor & Empty Phrasing: The episode begins with George and Sam lamenting the rise of "algorithmic" humor and empty captions on social media—a far cry from when queer and femme-coded posts felt subversive or original.
  • Example:

    “The caption was, ‘I don’t usually like button downs, but this shirt made some points,’ and it was indeed a photo of someone wearing a shirt.” – George (05:23)

• Influencer Speak & Feminist Lens: The same vacuous tendencies can be found in “hot girl” Instagram culture. Both hosts struggle to fabricate truly nonsensical influencer captions—an exercise in understanding cultural saturation.
• Notable Quote:

  "Now it's completely empty. It's nonsensical, and it's just used as, like, I'm hot and I'm there." – Sam (05:46)

Appropriation & Tired Tropes in Queer and Straight Social Media

• Stealing Language, Both Ways: The group discusses how both gay and straight communities continually borrow from each other; sometimes in self-aware ways, sometimes not.
• Notable Moment:

  “It's funny because we think we're so on alert for people stealing gay language that we actually are completely blind to the fact that we're constantly stealing straight language, which is basically any kind of language, except 'it's giving turkey girl.'” – George (15:39)

The Pitfalls of Intellectual Inquiry and Edgelord Humor

• Hosts’ Self-Reflection: The hosts joke about inadvertently becoming “edgelords” through their satire—playfully challenging their own progressive bona fides.
• Quote:

  “It's interesting how that works. It's kind of the pitfalls of intellectual inquiry.” – George (10:14)

The Queer/Monogamous Dichotomy

• Sarah’s Self-Description:

  “Has there ever been a guest that is so queer presenting as me? And as straight monogamous as me?” – Sarah (21:23)

“Straight Shooters” Segment

(26:00) Rapid-fire absurdist questions with a “no follow-up” rule—further commentary on the arbitrary nature of social traditions and games within straight culture.

• Notable Moment:

  “This game has never made any sense. And we have done it for over two years. And in fact, it is a fan favorite.” – George (27:44)

The Culture of Podcasting: Disposable or Eternal?

• Sarah’s Bold Claim:

  “I woke up on January 1, 2022, and I said... this is the year of music. No more Podcast. I'm going into this year saying a podcast episode should have the shelf life of the zeitgeist that it's in. You listen to it when it happens and it dissipates into the ocean, into the whales of China. Music is forever. Music is eternity.” – Sarah (20:07)

• Hosts’ Rebuttal:

  “Well, just like in Jackass, they kind of have to destroy themselves in order to liberate themselves. We had to declare the end of podcasting on this episode to save the form.” – George (71:16)

Housewife Discourse & “Reclamation Fatigue”

• Unpacking Pop Feminisms: The group examines life cycles of reality TV reputations, particularly Real Housewives, and how endless cycles of “reclaiming” undermine any stable cultural meaning.

Frankenstein TV and Drag Race Parallels

• Meta-Performance:

  “The reclaiming of the reclaiming of the reclamation of the reclaim has produced... in the most recent franchise of Salt Lake City, a Frankenstein of a group of women... that it has reached the pinnacle of outrageousness.” – Sarah (31:08)

• Housewife as Performance Art:

  “I literally do think being a housewife is one of the most transgressive forms of performance art.” – George (33:02)

Main Topic: The “Jackass” Phenomenon & Straight Culture

Sarah’s Journey with "Jackass"

• Grew up thinking “Jackass” was inaccessible (“boys like this don’t like me”), only to revisit at age 25 and see its latent queerness and inclusivity.

What Makes “Jackass” Queer?

• Male Friendship as Intimacy:

  “They would literally die for one another. Die for each other, in Demi Lovato’s words.” – George (40:48)

• Demystification of the Homoerotic:

  “When one of them puts a toy train up their butthole... demystifying the butthole.” – Sarah (42:59)

• Consent is Key:

  “Everyone in that show is part of a community. They have agreed to the rules. They are in fact, using a form of group therapy... It is within a safe space.” – George (44:13)

• Kink & Body Positivity: The hosts note the cast’s openness to “cock and ball torture,” body horror, and a spectrum of bodies—the “humiliation is inclusive.”

Is Jackass Harmful? Pranks, Misinterpretation, and Legacy

• Prank Legacy: Despite good intentions, shows like Jackass did inspire problematic pranking; the hosts don’t absolve it from all social consequences.

  “Whether it's their intention or their fault or not, it did inspire some of the worst behavior among teenage boys and later adult men that I think our gorgeous country has ever seen.” – George (58:14)

• What Makes a Prank Bad?: Delineating between consent-based group “play” (Jackass) and nonconsensual pranks/catfishing.

Jackass as Suburban Subversion and Escape from Masculinity

• Skate Culture Roots:

  “We can't deny that Jackass culture is the direct descendant of skate culture.” – Sarah (52:09)

• Violent Architecture of Suburbia → Escape:

  “What do you do to play in the hostile architecture of suburbia? You grind.” – Sarah (62:14)

• Breaking Out of Masculinity:

  “What do you do to escape the violent architecture of masculinity?... Literally self-combust by destroying your masculine body.” – George (62:30)

Physical Limits & Gender

• Sarah recounts a personal anecdote of trying (and failing) to have her boob punched by a Jackass member, leading to an injury and questions of feminine limits in spaces like Jackass.

  “The shattering of my breasts when the fist punched it, I did a blood vessel bursting... Was I limited by my female sign at birth body in that moment?” – Sarah (65:59)

The Podcast Form: Destruction as Liberation

• Post-Podcast Society: The group playfully posits that to reinvent podcasting, one must destroy it, just as Jackass does with the (male) body.

  “We had to declare the end of podcasting on this episode to save the form.” – George (71:16)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It's giving turkey girl the boots house down. It doesn't mean anything anymore.” – Sarah (13:14)
• “At the beginning of every jackass, they go, don't try this at home. End of story.” – Sarah (46:16)
• “What is this? This is music. This is the music of language.” – Sarah (76:11)
• “Pod is giving community and cast is giving Turkey girl.” – George (74:10)
• “Dow Jones stays giving Turkey girl.” – George (77:06)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Algorithmic Humor & Online Language: 03:36–09:45
• Social Media Borrowing & Appropriation: 13:04–17:16
• Housewives Culture & Drag Race Parallel: 30:04–34:04
• The "Jackass" Discussion Proper Begins: 38:59
• Homoerotic & Queer Readings of Jackass: 42:53–47:20
• Physical Limits, Pain, and Gender: 64:14–69:13
• Podcasting As Form (Destruction/Liberation): 71:16–74:39
• Signature Shout-Outs Segment: 78:30
• Closing Philosophical Riff on Language: 75:10–76:48

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Conclusion

This episode brings the quintessential StraightioLab experience: rambunctious camaraderie, genuine cultural critique, and dazzling humor. By threading a conversation about “Jackass” through queer theory, suburban malaise, the violence of language, and the nature of podcasting itself, George, Sam, and Sarah push against the limits of discourse, all while keeping it brilliantly ridiculous.

For New Listeners:
You’ll come away with a new appreciation for both the weird intelligence of Jackass, and the straight-washed emptiness of contemporary online life, all via the most delightful group therapy session comedy podcasting has to offer.

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For Further Enjoyment:

• Sarah on social media influencer captions, straight men & internet trolling: 13:04–14:43
• The performative reclamation cycle of Real Housewives: 30:23–33:36
• The boundary between prank and violation, featuring Sarah’s bloody anecdote: 65:02–66:26
• Final segment: radio-style “shout outs": 78:30

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Transcript

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[Sarah Squirm]

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[Sam Taggart]

Hooty Hoo Glamour Girls? You're listening to studiolab. Rewind.

[George Severis]

Once a month we will be re releasing an old classic stratolab episode to re familiarize new listeners with the lore that built the podcast. The government cannot shut down because we

[Sam Taggart]

recorded some of these long long ago. The audio quality may be mixed but trust the ideas are eternal and dangerous.

[George Severis]

So take out your notebook and open to page one because it's time to start Taking notes about the things we've said.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay. Enjoy the past. Bye. Podcast starts now. Wow. Hello, all, and welcome to Stradio Lab. We have an incredible episode for you today. Sorry, I thought that would be like a fun, different way to.

[George Severis]

No, I love it. I love when you. I can kind of tell when you start the intro, when you're losing steam.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah, we're at like a cool five seconds now. Yeah, I love that I can. I can say the name of the podcast.

[George Severis]

And I never help you. I always let you do that.

[Sam Taggart]

No, and you watch with Glee.

[George Severis]

I know, but I kind of like the tradition of you always start, you always say the first word.

[Sam Taggart]

I mean, what is a podcast without tradition?

[George Severis]

I mean, let's face it. Nothing.

[Sam Taggart]

It's nothing. But I did think it would be fun to introduce the podcast. Sort of as if I know what's going to come. Right? Which I think is fun because obviously I have no idea and there's no way to know, but sort of, I mean, to bring it back to where we were at the beginning, sort of Marc Marining the podcast and sort of talking about the interview as if it's already happened.

[George Severis]

Oh, that's fun. It's fun to do that. Even though it hasn't already happened.

[Sam Taggart]

It hasn't already happened. And it's sort of like someone emulating something and not understanding why it's done that way.

[George Severis]

Oh, my God, yes. Genius.

[Sam Taggart]

And so, hey, maybe we should try it.

[George Severis]

It's like when people say, when people use cliches, but they don't make any sense. Like when people are like, he wasn't in love with me. He was in love with the idea of me. But, like, in context, that makes literally no sense about what you're saying. You know what I mean?

[Sam Taggart]

It's also a lot of stand up open mic culture, specifically. It's a lot of people, like, using the cadences, using the like tools, but sort of not understanding why they're there or how we got to them in the right place.

[George Severis]

Okay, wait, do you know what? Actually, I've been witnessing this a lot recently with my suggested content on the various social media sites that I spend most of my hours on. Is people will kind of caption things with. With a sentence that sounds like that. That sounds like an algorithmic version of a joke someone would make. So they'll be like, you know, maybe the sun isn't so bad or. But that's a bad example because that actually makes sense. But they'll be like, you know, it'll be like after a haircut, and they'll be like, sometimes gays get haircuts. Why can't I think of a good one?

[Sam Taggart]

You know, you brought up the one you tweeted about this.

[George Severis]

I know. I didn't want to roundup, but I did get. I saw a tweet, and the caption was, I don't usually like button downs, but this shirt made some points, and it was indeed a photo of someone wearing a shirt.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah, you're really hitting on something. Like, gay Twitter language did used to have meaning. It used to be funny, and it used to feel, like, edgy or something.

[George Severis]

That's right.

[Sam Taggart]

Now it's completely empty. It's. It's nonsensical, and it's just used as, like, I'm hot and I'm there.

[George Severis]

Right. And then to bring it. To bring, you know, to view that also through a feminist lens. The same thing can be said of hot girl culture on Instagram, where, you know, let's say a certain woman spelled with a Y will post a photo of herself spelled with an I on the. At the pool, and then. And the caption will be like, why can't I think of good examples? Maybe it actually takes more talent to do it badly than to do it well, because everything I think of actually does make sense. What's a good example of, like, let's say I'm. I'm posting a photo of myself in a bikini at the pool, and I'm. And I, like, don't know how language works. What would I write? You know what I'm trying to say?

[Sam Taggart]

I. I guess I know. Like, it would be like. Like, hot girls go to Miami or like that.

[George Severis]

That makes too much sense. No, I don't find it like that, but it would make sense. Like, it would be like, gorgeous, gorgeous

[Sam Taggart]

girls use their phone.

[George Severis]

It would be like, someone said, orange means I'm back. I can't. It's like, I have too. Too good a grasp of the English language, so every sentence I say is a masterpiece.

[Sam Taggart]

George, this is not. I cannot help but feel that this is not endearing to claim that you are too much of a genius to be stupid, even for a second. I don't know.

[George Severis]

I think people love it.

[Sam Taggart]

I cannot help but feel this will lead to backlash. I cannot help but feel we have to be able.

[George Severis]

Between the two of us, we have to be able to find an imaginary example of a bad Instagram caption.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay.

[George Severis]

This is not that hard.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay, well, I guess, like, I don't know how silly you're Trying to go with it. Like, I'm like, I keep trying to think of like Wednesdays or for the sun or like something like that.

[George Severis]

Or like, my dad said I could sit.

[Sam Taggart]

Oh my God.

[George Severis]

Your dad said I could sit by the. No, here's what it is. My dad said I could sit by the pool if I ate my vegetables. Like it. There's like an uncanny valley quality where it's like. That is almost. That is almost a funny caption.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay, that's.

[George Severis]

My final answer is my dad said I could eat by the. My dad said I could sit by the pool if I eat my vegetables.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay, I see what you mean. Okay, it's. That's more. It's quirkier than like normal Instagram influencer.

[George Severis]

Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm talking about someone like trying to be, trying to be half funny. Like knowing that you can't just post a photo of yourself by the pool. You. There has to be a self deprecating element. But then you like don't actually have this. You don't actually feel something resembling insecurity in order for you to be, to be self deprecating. You actually do think what you're doing is important. So you have. You're like panicked and you're like, my dad said I could sit by the pool if I eat my vegetables.

[Sam Taggart]

Well, and here's where I'm struggling with this specific prompt is that I don't follow any, like, sort of women who aren't absolute geniuses. I don't know any women who are flawed. And every woman that I know is a social media goddess who is incredible at being quirky and hot in their own unique and non male pleasing way, unless they want to.

[George Severis]

That is really, really interesting. Whereas every woman I follow is an absolute moron.

[Sam Taggart]

Definitely the gay men that Twitter puts on my feed without my consent are morons, but the ones I follow are gorgeous, gorgeous girls who can eat their vegetables by the pool.

[George Severis]

Okay, well, I kind of thought this was like, I. When I brought this up, I really thought I was going to make some grand point, but I guess all I've done is said women are stupid.

[Sam Taggart]

No, no, no. You also implied that gay men are stupid.

[George Severis]

Yeah, I guess I did. I mean, it's funny because I almost wanted to be original and not making fun of gay men. And then my solution to that was making fun of women, which is so. It's like I've gone full circle of horseshoe theory and I'm just being sexist.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah, yeah. Huh.

[George Severis]

It's interesting how that works. It's kind of the pitfalls of intellectual inquiry.

[Sam Taggart]

There are a lot of them.

[George Severis]

There are a lot of them, and I fall into them every single day.

[Sam Taggart]

I know. And, you know, every time we record this episode, we're dodging them left and right. And yet every once in a while, we're going to slip in a damn hole.

[George Severis]

I know. It really is crazy that I've kind of said anything I can say that would sound intelligent. And now last episode, I was talking about being alt, Right. Yeah.

[Sam Taggart]

It's a dark path we're on.

[George Severis]

It's weird. It's actually, like, I do feel like, ultimately, are we being just kind of edgelords?

[Sam Taggart]

No. No, no, no, no. We're too. Our core is too sweet. We can't go all the way. Even if we wanted to, we couldn't do it.

[George Severis]

And everyone who listens to this knows that if I make some kind of joke, it's out of not just a deep respect for women, but I actually bow down to them and to their feminine power.

[Sam Taggart]

Oh, say that. And actually, I feel like maybe this is a great time. We actually have a woman in the zoom.

[George Severis]

Oh.

[Sam Taggart]

That you could maybe apologize to, which could be really helpful.

[George Severis]

I mean, I had a whole other thing I wanted to talk about, but I guess we can bring in a woman.

[Sam Taggart]

Well, you know, it's just we've been talking for, like, 12 minutes, so it's like, it's about that time. You know what I mean? Like, not to be structured in that way, but we've been holding our guest hostage once again. Wow.

[George Severis]

The time really flew by. I honestly feel like we've been talking for, like, three minutes.

[Sam Taggart]

It's been a little while.

[George Severis]

Okay, fine.

[Sam Taggart]

You know what? I should have done this before, actually. Sarah, I don't know what name you're going by right now.

[George Severis]

Yeah, who are you who literally who.

[Sam Taggart]

Speak for yourself.

[Sarah Squirm]

I want to be referred to as whatever comes out of your mouth without even thinking about it.

[George Severis]

The way you said cum was like you were saying C U M.

[Sarah Squirm]

Because I did it kind of, like, Jewishly. I went, like, calm, like, with the. With the Hebrew chai sound. Whatever comes out of your mouth.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay, well, then I'm gonna go with the original. Please welcome to the lab. We don't say that.

[George Severis]

This is.

[Sam Taggart]

That's a joke. Please welcome to the lab. Seriscorm.

[Sarah Squirm]

Happy to be here. And you know what? That came naturally to you, and that felt good. And that's how I wanted to be introduced.

[George Severis]

So what do you think of everything you've heard so far.

[Sarah Squirm]

Okay. Do you know how hard it was for me to not pipe up the whole time? I wanted to pipe up so badly, but you had me locked in a cage. You had me muted. You had me censored. You had me silenced.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah.

[George Severis]

Daddy didn't let you go to the pool because you weren't eating your vegetables.

[Sarah Squirm]

For me, the algorithmic this gets me hot and heated, this conversation.

[George Severis]

Thank you.

[Sarah Squirm]

It actually pisses me right off, the whole. It's the whole picture of a girl at the beach and saying this sand. Understood the assignment.

[George Severis]

Yes. That's a great. That's a great example.

[Sarah Squirm]

Oh, Thanksgiving. This turkey. It's giving Turkey girl. Giving turkey girl. It's giving turkey girl the boots. House down. It doesn't mean anything anymore. Oh, you live like this mattress on the floor. What are you. What are we talking about here? You live like this. It pisses me off.

[George Severis]

Well, now it's interesting because we're getting at the intersection of hot girls and gay guys on Twitter.

[Sarah Squirm]

So everyone's hands are dirty.

[George Severis]

Very true. The only people that really are coming out of this unscathed are straight men whose behavior online is exemplary.

[Sam Taggart]

Well, and they've been scolded so much, you know, they've. They. They can't be just being weird on the Internet anymore. They can't get, like, brownie points for just being basic.

[George Severis]

Like, oh, yeah, it's not about being basic. It's like, straight guys will be like, kill yourself. You know? And then at least it's. At least it's easy to critique that.

[Sarah Squirm]

It's hard. It's also, like, hard. I think we can really access the gay. The gays in the girls voice so easily. Like, you know, it's giving that comes out like water does. But for me to, like, properly mimic the drill slash, clickhole voice of Twitter, I cannot replicate that. I cannot do it. It is not in the skill set. It's not in the tool belt.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah, I can't either. And it does still feel like. I can't describe it, but it feels still like a straight male gatekeeping, where it's like, well, let me do it. And it's like, no, you actually just will understand it. And it's like, no, you're kind of right, though. Like, I can't do it. And when I do, it's like it feels false. It feels like saying it's giving turkey girl, like, because it's false in its own way.

[George Severis]

You feel like when you try to emulate a kind of straight. What's the Word that people use, straight presenting Twitter voice. You suddenly go, go full. It's giving turkey girl.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah, I bet. Like, there's a straight male podcast that is like, don't you get annoyed when people try to do what we do? And it actually sounds like this. And the genius co host is being like, I can't even think of a way to make it sound.

[George Severis]

Yeah, it's funny because we think we're so on alert for people stealing gay language that we actually are completely blind to the fact that we're constantly stealing straight language, which is basically any kind of language, except it's giving turkey girl.

[Sam Taggart]

I had. Okay, I hate doing Twitter roundup. And yet somebody has to. One time I did tweet, like, weed makes me want a snack or something. Like, along those lines,

[Sarah Squirm]

you got me hook line in sync.

[Sam Taggart]

And then I responded like, who wrote this? And I'm like, okay, this is me being like, this is very much not gay language. If anything, I'm in a more straight territory right now, pretending to be, like, a weird, basic guy. But I actually feel like it was a complete flop because it's just. It was. Yes.

[Sarah Squirm]

Sarah, can I straighten up your tweet? Can I please bring Usher that tweet into the promised land of the Straits?

[George Severis]

Sarah, please, we need it.

[Sarah Squirm]

Greatest version of that tweet would have been. And by the way, this. This is going to make no sense to anyone who listens to this podcast. In 2037, if you were to have tweeted, my large male sons love weed that makes them hungry. That is a straight tweet.

[George Severis]

And there you go. That's.

[Sam Taggart]

And there you go.

[George Severis]

See, you have to fully commit. Sam's instinct was to be like, I'm sorry if I'm appropriating straight men, but weed makes me hungry. So already there's a kind of insecurity there that's coming through.

[Sam Taggart]

Wow, you've.

[Sarah Squirm]

The apologizing.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sam Taggart]

You've pointed out large adult sons is straight. It's giving. That's so correct. That's crazy.

[George Severis]

It's interesting, Sarah, that you said this.

[Sarah Squirm]

I have a finger on the pulse of the straight.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah.

[George Severis]

It's interesting that you said this would make sense in 2037. I'm starting to think it barely makes sense in 2022.

[Sarah Squirm]

Absolutely. Absolutely. That's because straight culture, it's getting brittle. It's giving.

[George Severis]

And the thing with large adult sons is, like, that's kind of like the peak of. I mean, that's like advanced straight culture. You know, it's like oh, wow. Good for you. You're no longer saying that's what she said. You're saying large adult sons. What are you, a PhD? That.

[Sarah Squirm]

That is what she said. You know what you just did to my brain when you said that's what she said? Something went, like, right hit the back wall of my brain and, like, the cricocheted around my skull in the craziest way.

[George Severis]

Yeah, no, it's the. It's the equivalent. It's like, oh, congratulations. You're not saying San Diego means a whale's vagina anymore. You're saying large adult sons. Sam is losing it.

[Sarah Squirm]

Yeah, I'm losing it.

[Sam Taggart]

I feel like I'm in, like, an etymology class. Like, the way you're pointing out, like, how language grows is truly freaking me out, because I forgot. You forget that everything is related and everything just, like, gets renamed, and it's like, wow, it's not whale's vagina anymore. It's adult sons. Which. It's kind of crazy to live through all of these things.

[Sarah Squirm]

And somewhere in the middle of the spectrum is Florida. Is the armpit kind of.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sarah Squirm]

Structure.

[George Severis]

Yes, Totally. Oh, and even just like, Florida, as, like, only in Florida, like, Florida, man does this only in Florida. Florida is. Or like. Or like, oh, New Jersey. New Jersey. Isn't New Jersey the armpit?

[Sarah Squirm]

Someone's the armpit, someone's the penis.

[George Severis]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's like, God, straight people are upset. The idea of states really tickles them because it's like, the only kind of borders they can ignore. Like, they can really wrap their heads around. They don't know a lot about global geopolitics. Yeah, yeah, no, the. Any kind of land. Kind of the separation of land. It's kind of their bread and butter. So when they conceive of, oh, this state ends here and this one begins here, it's like catnip, I feel.

[Sam Taggart]

Sarah, you brought up this podcast being listened to in 2037. What do you think the shelf life of a podcast should be? Do you feel that a podcast should deteriorate over time? I kind of think yes.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sarah Squirm]

I'm going to say something that is going to be incredibly disrespectful.

[Sam Taggart]

Please.

[Sarah Squirm]

I had the realization when I Woke up on January 1, 2022, where I. I literally called up dear friend, Ruby McAllister, past guest. Past guest, former podcast host. So nothing but respect for my presidents in the zoom.

[George Severis]

Absolutely.

[Sarah Squirm]

I woke up on the morning of January 1, 2022, and I said, ruby, this is the year of music. No more Podcast.

[George Severis]

Wow.

[Sam Taggart]

Wow.

[Sarah Squirm]

I am going into this year saying a podcast episode should have the shelf life of the zeitgeist that it's in. You listen to it when it happens and it dissipates into the ocean, into the whales of China. Music is forever. Music is eternity.

[George Severis]

Right, Right.

[Sarah Squirm]

Music is love. Music is life.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay, that's an Instagram caption.

[George Severis]

Music is. Music is love. Music is life.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah.

[George Severis]

Very, very edgy. That's. You should write that when you post your next poolside selfie.

[Sarah Squirm]

Hot dog legs girl.

[George Severis]

Hot dog legs. Hot dog legs girl. Hashtag, music is love. Music is life.

[Sarah Squirm]

I want to get out ahead of this and say I want to know. In the history of streetohab, has there ever been a guest that is so queer presenting as me?

[George Severis]

Right.

[Sarah Squirm]

And as straight monogamous as me.

[George Severis]

Oh, that's a great, great question. Yes.

[Sam Taggart]

We probably can't say, but I want to.

[George Severis]

I think she would agree that she is queer presenting and yet and in fact queer, period. But straight relationship presenting.

[Sam Taggart]

Oh, God. Oh, sure, yeah, Smart. That's correct.

[George Severis]

But Claire, okay, is queer. And we would never deem to erase that.

[Sam Taggart]

Of course.

[Sarah Squirm]

I go, I go. Stamp me straight.

[George Severis]

Right. Whereas you are proud, proudly straight, in fact, uncomfortably proud of how straight you are.

[Sam Taggart]

For everybody at home, Sarah is lifting up a fist.

[George Severis]

Yeah, lifting up a power fist,

[Sam Taggart]

which is, you know, very dark energy.

[George Severis]

Oh, and now. And now doing a kind of peace sign.

[Sam Taggart]

Oh, she comes in peace becomes.

[George Severis]

Yeah, okay. Alien peace sign with the two fingers on each side.

[Sam Taggart]

Well, Star Trek.

[George Severis]

Oh, is that. Yeah, Star Trek. Sorry.

[Sarah Squirm]

That's a queer show.

[Sam Taggart]

That's a queer show.

[George Severis]

Yeah, queer show.

[Sarah Squirm]

Not the way you say that.

[Sam Taggart]

Yes.

[George Severis]

And yet somehow you just made it straight with that gesture.

[Sam Taggart]

Oh my God. Wait, should we do our first segment?

[George Severis]

I believe that would be for the best.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay,

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[George Severis]

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[Sam Taggart]

Learn more this is Matt Rogers from Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.

[George Severis]

This is Bowen Yang from Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. What if your WI fi was more than just WI fi? What if your WI fi made everything in your whole house just work together better?

[Sam Taggart]

Well, Xfinity WI fi pretty much does exactly that. It's powered by their best, most elite high performing tech.

[George Severis]

Allow us to paint a very realistic example. Everyone in your house, everyone is on their devices at the exact same time. Gaming, working, swiping. Right? Because of course they are. And the finale of your favorite show of all time of the week is on at the exact same moment. Well, you can boost the WI fi to your device with Xfinity.

[Sam Taggart]

And have you ever asked yourself, what if my WI fi could keep watch over my kids for me? Well, probably not, because that's a weird thing to ask yourself. But Xfinity WI fi has parenting skills, even if you sometimes forget yours. Xfinity's like, don't worry, I'll monitor the WI fi.

[George Severis]

It's completely proactive, fixing issues before they even happen. Bottom Xfinity is smart and reliable. You deserve the peace of mind of having WI fi that's got your back. Xfinity.

[Sam Taggart]

Imagine that. We're going to do our first segment. George, can you please introduce it?

[George Severis]

I hate anything for you, Sarah. Our first segment is called Straight Shooters and in this segment we ask you a series of rapid fire questions to gauge your familiarity with and complicity and straight culture.

[Sarah Squirm]

Now, the to nail this 100%. It works.

[George Severis]

Just you wait. The tea sis booth is that how this works is we just give you a series of rapid fire questions where you have to choose one thing or the other. And the one rule is you can't ask any follow up questions about how it works. And if you do, you're immediately disqualified. Okay, so Sarah. Sarah Jolene Squirm.

[Sarah Squirm]

Thank you.

[George Severis]

Your first question is post hosting a selfie or hosting the 94th annual Academy Awards?

[Sarah Squirm]

Wait, what am I doing again?

[George Severis]

I got a text.

[Sam Taggart]

I sense a question. Uh oh, I smell a question.

[Sarah Squirm]

Here's the thing. I got a text that my laundry was ready. And what that text did to me was shuttle me. Shuttle me a different dimension where I was so enraptured about my laundry being ready though, I forgot.

[George Severis]

Oh my God. To have a text based laundry system. We really are living in the future.

[Sam Taggart]

I know. Sheesh. Podcasts are irrelevant. I know you laundry happy to protect.

[George Severis]

I know you think you're missing something, Sarah. I can promise you you're not. This is as like it. Truly there is nothing more to what's happening except you have to choose one thing or the other thing and we're giving you no additional information.

[Sarah Squirm]

I just. Okay, you're right.

[Sam Taggart]

Goodbye. Essentially, this game has never made any sense.

[George Severis]

This game has never made any sense. And we have done it for over two years. And in fact, it is a fan favorite.

[Sam Taggart]

And we were like, should we cut it? It makes no sense. And people were like, we love that game. And I was like, it's truly not a game. We just say different words.

[George Severis]

Yeah. And people were like, this is commenting on society. And we were like, yeah.

[Sarah Squirm]

It's so not a game. That one piece of information coming through my telephone completely, completely rocked me off the sock.

[George Severis]

Well, that's the thing. You have to be kind of in a sensory deprivation tank for this to make sense. If you bring in any outside knowledge, even if that outside knowledge is that your laundry is ready immediately, the game cannot go on.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah, it crumbles.

[George Severis]

So, Sarah. Okay. Hosting a selfie or hosting the 94th annual Academy Awards?

[Sarah Squirm]

Hosting. Next.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay. Hugh Jackman. Hugh Hefner or Phillips. Hugh lights you up north.

[Sarah Squirm]

Next.

[George Severis]

We didn't start the fire or we bought a zoo.

[Sarah Squirm]

We bought a zoo. Next.

[Sam Taggart]

Oh, I love that you're doming us. Studying the bard or doing an impression of Bart Simpson?

[Sarah Squirm]

Bart Simpson. Next.

[George Severis]

Renewing your vows or renewing your passport.

[Sarah Squirm]

Do you see how that one just like.

[George Severis]

That's a tough one.

[Sam Taggart]

See, there's something here.

[Sarah Squirm]

Renewing your passport. Next. And I'll have more on that later. Do I get to comment on it or no?

[George Severis]

I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that question. And we will move on.

[Sam Taggart]

The electoral college or the Electric Slide?

[Sarah Squirm]

Electrics. Electoral college.

[George Severis]

Purchasing a throw pillow or throwing a surprise retirement party for your elderly father?

[Sarah Squirm]

Throw pillow. Next.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay, she got her groove back. Reminiscing on the one that got away. Or wondering if a guy is gay.

[Sarah Squirm]

Wondering if a guy is gay. Next.

[George Severis]

Reading a book review or reading a book?

[Sarah Squirm]

Reading a book. 100%.

[George Severis]

And, Sarah, that is your time for today.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah.

[Sarah Squirm]

I have so much to say about reading.

[George Severis]

Okay. And now we can talk.

[Sam Taggart]

Please, now please get into it.

[Sarah Squirm]

Has it ever voted well for a real housewife to renew the vow.

[George Severis]

Oh, to renew the vow. Are you a housewife queen?

[Sarah Squirm]

Absolutely.

[George Severis]

Wow.

[Sam Taggart]

Wow.

[George Severis]

Fascinating.

[Sam Taggart]

That is surprising to me.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sarah Squirm]

You not tell for my queer haircut that I'm a housewives now.

[Sam Taggart]

I guess it. That's what threw me off.

[George Severis]

Can I say something about housewife culture? There's something about. I understand that at this point, we've reclaimed it so many times that you're like, okay, first it was trashy. Then people were like, it's actually Shakespeare. Then people were like, oh, they're all criminals, or whatever. Then people were like, they're fake. And then people were like, actually, they're the only people who are real. And now it's got. It's gotten reclaimed and re. Reclaimed so many times that I'm kind of like, okay, what? Like, I'm completely lost, and I don't know what I'm supposed to think about these women.

[Sarah Squirm]

And you bring up an amazing point. And I think the reclaiming of the reclaiming of the reclamation of the reclaim has produced.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sarah Squirm]

In the most recent franchise of Salt Lake City, a Frankenstein of a group of women.

[George Severis]

Yes.

[Sarah Squirm]

That is so uncanny. Valley. And so out of this world.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sarah Squirm]

That it has reached the outrageous. The pinnacle of outrageousness.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sarah Squirm]

We've hit it.

[George Severis]

It's like, it's. I would say it's dada.

[Sarah Squirm]

It's absolutely.

[George Severis]

And can I actually. I want to now connect this conversation to the conversation about my dad let me sit by the pool because they ate my salad. And it's the following. So our good friend. Our good friend and also enemy, Max Witter, wrote something. Wrote something about selling Sunset, and he posted about it on Instagram. And it's specifically about Christine, who I have not seen the show, but she is a character in the series. Selling Sunset, Christine found the post and commented, in fact, in a complimentary way, she liked the piece. And she commented that she really liked what he wrote. And then she wrote the following sentence. She wrote, I'm not ashamed of understanding the assignment. And that, I think, perfectly encapsulates like that. Perfectly encapsulates where? Like what kind of meta world? Like this kind of like Frankenstein world that these women are occupying, where it doesn't even matter what they say as long as there is some gesture at both straightforward earnestness and self aware and ironic self awareness. Like they kind of can just say whatever they want. Because if it's stupid, then it's immediately funny. And if it's. And if it's smart, then they're genius. Like, so where. What is the end game?

[Sarah Squirm]

I'm gonna say something slanderous. Okay. I feel like it could all. To me, it all boils down to the phenomenon of now. Like the culture of drag is young people growing up watching the reality television show of RuPaul's Drag Race.

[Sam Taggart]

Yes.

[Sarah Squirm]

And doing drag to be on the show. RuPaul's Drag Race. It's almost as if we live in a Philip K. Dick future, dystopian future where we are even taking the most transgressive forms of performance art.

[George Severis]

Being a housewife.

[Sarah Squirm]

Housewife. Is nothing sacred?

[George Severis]

I literally. I do think being a housewife is one of the most transgressive forms of performance art. I don't even talk about the show. I'm just talking.

[Sam Taggart]

I mean, in a capitalist society, of course. Yes, absolutely.

[Sarah Squirm]

You're going to marry a dying psychopath Nazi, right? Just to live in a Cheesecake Factory looking ass house.

[George Severis]

Yeah, I mean, that's.

[Sam Taggart]

I mean, it's a lived in art. I. I love. We. We haven't gotten to this space in a while where the sort of the full. We live in a society and to get there in a podcast is so bold.

[George Severis]

And so if not here, where.

[Sam Taggart]

And this is.

[George Severis]

No, no, no. Sarah, you have no idea how necessary this is.

[Sam Taggart]

I think this, this piece of podcasting is one of the most necessary pieces of media of 2022. I think you have simultaneously called and predicted the end of podcasting as an art form and reinvented what it is to have a podcast.

[George Severis]

Yes. This is the exception that proves the rule in that this is the one useful episode of any podcast, the episode that predicts the end of podcasting.

[Sarah Squirm]

And can I say, can I extrapolate on that? The only way to save this podcast is for you to start Screen recording right now and start the reality show of the podcast.

[George Severis]

Okay, wait, first of all, this is being screen recorded. We just have never, we would never ever in our, in our wildest dreams release a screen recording. We're only, we only would ever release the audio. But if someone were to hack into my computer, for instance, they could find the screen recording of you in your queer presenting outfit calling for the end

[Sam Taggart]

of podcast, holding up your straight power,

[George Severis]

holding up a straight power fist, calling for the end of podcasting.

[Sarah Squirm]

That's somebody who supports the pod.

[George Severis]

Okay, I, I, this is just based on one thing you said, which I think, like, hits the nail on the head. So you're saying, you know, the young queer kids watch Drag Race and want to do drag to be on the show, which is interesting because it used to be that, like, drag culture existed outside of it, and then this was just, like, something that showcased certain queens. But you're saying now you watch the show and that's why you want to be a drag queen. The thing with the rest of the reality shows like the Housewives is like, okay, so you watch that, and then that teaches you how to be a person. Like, the only conception you have of being a person in the world is like, what kind of reality show star can you be? So it's raising little toxic gays and girls to be housewives. Wow.

[Sarah Squirm]

There is, There is a housewife on the Real Housewives Orange county right now. Okay, this goes deep. And also, this is alleged and conspiratorial, but I'm going to state this as if it's bad.

[Sam Taggart]

Please.

[Sarah Squirm]

We're talking two episodes in a Real Housewives of Orange County. She is saying that she has been served divorce papers from her husband from Puerto Rico. And the papers are in a language that she doesn't understand. And she's crying on the show, saying, I can't believe my husband is divorcing me out of nowhere and serving me divorce papers in a Spanish language that I do not speak. I can't believe he's fled to Puerto Rico and done this to me. I go to his Instagram, to his direct address, facing camera videos. His name is Attorney Sweet James. He's got billboards all around Orange county, and he is alleging that they lived in Puerto Rico where they raised their son, and that to get on the Real Housewives of Orange county, she moved her and her son to Orange county, abandoning him in Puerto Rico. And now she has fabricated a lie about divorce papers and fabricated a lie about Puerto Rico being a place she's Never been. And that is dedication to the craft.

[George Severis]

And so what, you're leading your life

[Sarah Squirm]

to becoming a fake person.

[George Severis]

So just to confirm what I'm hearing here is that you, you don't believe women and you immediately are taking the man's side.

[Sarah Squirm]

All it takes is one front facing camera video in an empty, poorly decorated, poorly lit house.

[Sam Taggart]

I love that. I think maybe it is time to get to our topic. Sarah, you. You know, I'd say we did not send you the proper email before this episode. You sort of didn't really know what to what was needed of you and yet we asked what topic you want to talk about and you, without waiting even a second, brought us a topic. Would you like to say what it is?

[Sarah Squirm]

What did I say in 0.1 millisecond upon being asked, you didn't even finish your question. You said, what do you want to talk about? I said, jackass. Jackass culture.

[George Severis]

Well, first, if I remember correctly, you had almost, I would say, an ego death moment where you could not stop talking about how in fact, fact, you are so knowledgeable about straight culture that this will be a challenging podcast appearance for you because you have so much to say that it's oozing out of every pore.

[Sarah Squirm]

One of my biggest humiliations is that I am so unbelievably well versed in the straight culture. Ask me anything you need to know. If you have any questions going forward, yeah, I can probably provide an answer.

[Sam Taggart]

I mean, well, let's start with Jackass culture. Explain like your history with it and what reads as straight about it to you.

[Sarah Squirm]

So growing up as a precocious Jewish goblin on Long Island, I would see Jackass on the television, say, this is not a space for me. Okay? This is not a space for me. It is these boys like this. This is my child's mind. Boys like this don't like me. This is not a welcome space for me. I then hit the age 25, do a revisit on Jackass, and what do I see but a space that was built for gays and girls. Actually, a space for gays and girls.

[George Severis]

You are completely correct.

[Sarah Squirm]

Absolutely. First of all, number one, everyone knows they're all hot, all hilarious. There are guys hanging out with their friends. They're all real friends. We all see these shows, like these reality shows where you see a group of friends doing stuff. They're not friends, they don't like each other. They're not actually on one another.

[George Severis]

Right. It's so interesting. I mean, it almost, I would say, even Perpetrates, perpetuates certain harmful stereotypes because you have male friendship portrayed in such a nice light. I mean, they would literally die for one another. Die for each other, in Demi Lovato's words. And then with women in the Real Housewives franchise, they are stabbing each other in the back left and right, and as you said, marrying Nazis in order to live in a. In a. In a Cheesecake Factory house. So what do you have to say about that?

[Sarah Squirm]

And they're not even like, I would die for you. Like, I would give you a kidney. I would die just to get one. Make you laugh once.

[George Severis]

Oh, that is actually.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah.

[Sarah Squirm]

I would go through such tremendous bodily torture to get one laugh out of you then. I mean, they're all fabulous in their own way. We've got a cast of characters that all have something to offer. They. All of their pranks prey on their deepest fears. You get, like, Steve O. Famously doing Bathroom stall on a bungee cord where he gets put in a porta. That's what it's called. Porta Potty. A porta Potty filled with dog shit that gets shaken up and down by a bungee cord, which. And that prank is built off of his deep fear of bungee cords themselves. So you've got, like, an interesting play with, like, a carnal, deep, like, death drive.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sarah Squirm]

And so that's sort of interesting. And then you get, you know what we get? We hit on. You know, it can be. You know, the show can be interpreted as homophobic. We've got a lot, you know, the character of Party Boy, Chris Pontius's character of Party Boy, where he puts on a little song and goes into a, you know, Sam Goody and, like, dances all over the. And then we have Wild Boys, which is Steve Owens and Chris Ponies in little songs dancing all around the Sahara. So, you know, are they being homophobic or are they demystifying the homoerotic dynamics in their relationships?

[George Severis]

Yeah, okay.

[Sarah Squirm]

When one of them puts a toy train up their butthole.

[George Severis]

Up their butthole.

[Sarah Squirm]

Demystifying the butthole.

[George Severis]

The butthole.

[Sam Taggart]

I think they're demystifying. I mean, but now they are. I think part of why it didn't feel like the space for us at the time was because it was like, dare I say, like, too soon. Like, it was like. You can't look at it with, like, this distance because all the boys that are watching this are homophobic and, like, loving that side of it.

[George Severis]

I think the critical discourse hadn't evolved. They were.

[Sarah Squirm]

Were.

[George Severis]

They were doing what they were doing in the wrong culture, because. Yes, and I. And that actually is probably true of a lot of the comedy of that time. Because if there had been women and queer people in positions of power, by which I mean if they were professional television critics, and that's the most powerful position one can occupy, then our cultural memory of those shows would be very different, my friend.

[Sam Taggart]

There has been like, I think more than most shows, like, there's been an art popification of Jackass where people are like, actually it was good. Actually it's pro gay. Actually. It's like commenting on masculinity instead of embracing it.

[George Severis]

Yeah. And can I actually tell you why? And it's very simple why Jackass is pro gay, but someone using those exact tactics to, like, bully you in school is not. And that issue, ladies and gentlemen, is the issue of consent. Because everyone, everyone in that show is part of a community. They have agreed to the rules and they are in fact, using a form of group therapy to process their trauma. They have their version of safe words. They have their version of like, kind of group play, so to speak. It is within a safe space. And yes, someone can watch that. Maybe a kind of, you know, an insecure straight 12 year old can watch that and then go and potentially pants me in the locker room and kind of be like, look at this guy's ass. But that is missing the point and the spirit of the original, of the original work of art.

[Sarah Squirm]

And that is why it always comes back to friendship. It's this consenting community that has the common understanding of play and laughter.

[George Severis]

Yeah. And now, and I guess this raises the point, though, if, if, I mean, how much can art be held accountable for what people see in it and what kind of behavior it inadvertently allows? And that actually goes back to the Housewives too, and the drag race too. Like, like, is it the housewives fault that we are raising a generation of gay men who are dumber than a brick?

[Sarah Squirm]

It's giving brick.

[George Severis]

Is it the housewives fault that for many gay men it's giving brick?

[Sam Taggart]

That's a tough one. I think partially they can't. It's hard to tell.

[Sarah Squirm]

At the beginning of every jackass, they go, don't try this at home. End of story.

[George Severis]

They do, they do say, don't try this. And can I actually say something? Talk about one of the first shows to literally use a trigger warning.

[Sarah Squirm]

Speak on that.

[George Severis]

One of the first shows. Talk about a sign of like, not just kind of like progressivism, but like, to a conservative's eye, an almost Toxic campus culture. Progressivism. That. That boogeyman. The famous right wing boogeyman. The trigger war warning. Well, guess what? Guess who the first people to use trigger warnings were. That's right. It was Stevo and Johnny Knoxville, baby.

[Sam Taggart]

Wow. This is an insane conversation.

[Sarah Squirm]

Literally, then this. This community that you've so eloquently put is a safe space. Trigger warnings, safe space, consent. What other buzzwords we get?

[George Severis]

Trigger warning, consent.

[Sam Taggart]

Kink positive.

[George Severis]

Kink positive. Safe space. Sex positive.

[Sam Taggart]

Sex positive. Body positive.

[Sarah Squirm]

It's the crawfish in his diaper for the stunt. Crawfish diaper. That is cock and ball torture. That is exploration of kink exploration and

[George Severis]

also an artistic openness.

[Sam Taggart]

Wow, wow, wow.

[George Severis]

In fact, I would say as the former, or I'll say it, house manager of my college's LGBTQ center, I see very few differences, very few differences between the culture of that organization and the culture of the show Jackass.

[Sam Taggart]

Wow. I'm shocked.

[Sarah Squirm]

What I care about most with artistic integrity is something we're missing in our culture today, which is commitment to the Bitman.

[George Severis]

I. Yes.

[Sarah Squirm]

How many people at your college group were willing to lay it all in the line for the cause?

[George Severis]

Yeah. And I think, in fact, you know what? You're actually pointing to that the one hole in my argument is those two aren't the same. In fact, Jackass is more politically progressive than the LGBTQ center that I was the head of.

[Sam Taggart]

I'm also like, the commitment is a real, like, thing. They really do go for it. And, like, they are hurting themselves in a way that is like, so many people are, like, half assing everything they do, especially in the entertainment industry, sort of being like, well, how can I just, like, clock in maybe, and get, like, my royalties.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sam Taggart]

And be like, the most inoffensive that I possibly can be for a half hour on NBC. And these guys are coming in here.

[George Severis]

I mean, who I love on cbs.

[Sam Taggart]

On cbs. On cbs.

[Sarah Squirm]

Speak on that and speak on it.

[Sam Taggart]

These guys are rolling up on MTV late at night and putting. Letting a mouse bite their dick off. And why not?

[George Severis]

I do have one more point, actually, which is that, as we've mentioned, as we've kind of alluded to this a few times, there's a lot of danger specifically targeting the male genitalia. So, in fact, you could say not only aside from everything you've already said, it's also literally kind of a misandrist. The aesthetics of it are almost as though it was created by a group of radical feminists to have this group of Men torturing one another. I mean, we're talking scum manifesto level shit.

[Sarah Squirm]

It is the fantasy of watching the hyper mask body being destroyed and with pleasure.

[George Severis]

Yeah. It's like. And it's destroyed. And not just destroyed.

[Sam Taggart]

Humiliated, humiliated, mocked.

[George Severis]

It's literally, it's like saying, look. And in fact, the fact that they're hot, as you said, is like part of that too because you, you, you're saying, look, these are like white men kind of that have the body that we are conditioned to think is ideal. Now we're going to literally have an alligator bite their nipples off.

[Sarah Squirm]

And I'm going to speak on this further. We are getting, and I could get in trouble with this. Oh, Jackass. We are getting the heteronormative American male form of attractiveness, which is the rip male. We got the Johnny's and the Sibos. We have also got a spectrum of all bodies. Everybody, we've got Preston.

[George Severis]

That's true.

[Sarah Squirm]

He's a big guy. Okay. And we. You. And they use this for. We, they use this body play for a comedy. We get him cannonballing off the side of the ship.

[George Severis]

Okay. We got.

[Sarah Squirm]

We man. Another different kind of body. All everybody's. It's, it's. The humiliation is inclusive. And we're playing with it. We're playing with the body horror.

[George Severis]

Yeah, yeah, well, right, exactly. It's like if it was only one kind of body, then, then almost the commentary would be too obvious. It would be. Then you're, you're, you're like, okay, what is this? Aziz Ansari's master of none. You know, you kind of, of, it's, you know, it's too on the nose. But then you add the added layer of everything you're talking about. And I mean, at that point, you know, this is, this is, you know, we can only study in a, in a film department.

[Sarah Squirm]

And here's the thing, this is blowing it open a little. But we can't deny that jackass culture is the direct descendant of scape culture.

[Sam Taggart]

Of course.

[George Severis]

Yes.

[Sarah Squirm]

Which is an incredibly straight field and I think that we should, you know, commend Jackass for queering skate culture.

[George Severis]

Yeah. Here's a question, like, have we gone too far in the other direction in this critique?

[Sarah Squirm]

Yes. Because I'm about to tell you a story that's going to blow your mind.

[George Severis]

Okay.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay. Please.

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[George Severis]

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[George Severis]

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[Sam Taggart]

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[George Severis]

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[Sarah Squirm]

Did I wait in line two hours at a jackass meet and greet and ask Chris Pontius to punch me in the boo and he didn't want to do it? Yeah.

[George Severis]

Wow.

[Sarah Squirm]

So do I forgive him and hope he doesn't real remember that? That was me.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sarah Squirm]

Because. Yeah.

[George Severis]

Well, that's where the whole system breaks down. You know, is like. Is basically like this world cannot include non straight men, but the new movie

[Sarah Squirm]

does, and I'm curious to see how that plays out.

[Sam Taggart]

But wait, him not punching you in the boob, I feel like, isn't misogyny inherently? I think it is. I think what you were lacking, what you were forgetting, is that you were in the circle of consent, and he. Even though you were consenting to him, he was not necessarily consenting to you. And that, you know, you can't. You can't push it. They built this little circle of trust.

[Sarah Squirm]

It's a circle of trust. You can't. You don't get cast into it by a casting director. It's a circle of trust built on mutual organic respect and friendship.

[George Severis]

I guess that's true.

[Sarah Squirm]

I betrayed that violently. I violently entered.

[George Severis]

Yeah, well, it would. It would be the equivalent of someone entering the LGBTQ center and immediately demanding of me have anal sex with me.

[Sam Taggart]

I know you like to do this.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sam Taggart]

So do it with me.

[George Severis]

If anything, it's almost offensive what you did. I mean, it's like. It's kind of like using their own traditions against them. I mean, it's like. It's kind of like going to, you know, let's say a wedding of a tradition that is not your own and kind of like taking the traditional food and making a joke of it and putting it up your nose.

[Sam Taggart]

Well, and Sarah, how would you feel if, you know, someone came to a Sarah Square meet and greet and was like, well, dump these, like, brains I brought all over me?

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sam Taggart]

How would that feel?

[Sarah Squirm]

It would feel. I would feel as if a violence had been done.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sarah Squirm]

And the Chris Fanius. I apologize for pissing on the sacred church, Jack. You would not piss on the sacred church. And yet I did.

[Sam Taggart]

And yet you did. Okay. We are being so pro Jackass. I feel normally we have sort of a more nuanced takeaway with our topics where it's sort of like, well, we hate it, but we do kind of like it.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sam Taggart]

And this one is we went all, like, we went all the way direction.

[Sarah Squirm]

I think I can find a nuance here.

[Sam Taggart]

I'm. I'm genuinely searching and I'm like, do I talk about, like, how general prank culture is bad? But we already kind of did that. That's, like what the legacy stuff is.

[George Severis]

It's the. It's the legacy of it, because. And again, whether it's their intention or their fault or not, it did inspire some of the worst behavior among teenage boys and later adult men that I think our gorgeous country has ever seen.

[Sam Taggart]

Sarah, do you have a point? You're raising your hand.

[Sarah Squirm]

I want to extrapolate on prank culture.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay.

[Sarah Squirm]

I think that some people. And I'm taking prank culture out of the context directly of Jackass. Sometimes people in our lives go too far with pranks that aren't skateboarding off the Empire State Building, that aren't putting a fish hook through your mouth and jumping into shark infested waters. Just general. I'm talking the realm of catfishing.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sam Taggart]

Is catfishing a prank?

[George Severis]

I mean, it's kind of the ultimate prank.

[Sam Taggart]

I guess that's true. I. There is something about this being born out of skate culture as opposed to being born out of comedy culture, where they were, like, brought. They found comedy, but it wasn't like they weren't thinking super hard about the comedy.

[George Severis]

I actually think it would be worse if it was born out of comedy culture. I just want to go on the record.

[Sam Taggart]

Well, that's what I'm saying. I fully agree.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sarah Squirm]

Has anything good come out of comedy culture? Really?

[George Severis]

I mean, I mean, I guess, like

[Sarah Squirm]

Joan Rivers, by the way, best answer I could think of.

[George Severis]

End of list, babe.

[Sam Taggart]

I was like, wait, something good.

[George Severis]

Must have. Yeah, I can't think of anything, because the thing was, it's like.

[Sarah Squirm]

But then he.

[Sam Taggart]

George Costanza, the herb. Yeah. It's hard to tell. Okay, which one's the hottest? Go. I was gonna say Chris Ponius.

[George Severis]

Wait, hold on. I'm literally, like, trying to remember. Oh, no, the hottest to me is Johnny Knoxville.

[Sam Taggart]

He loves the star.

[Sarah Squirm]

Okay.

[George Severis]

Yeah. I almost think that's basic, that that's my answer, but that it is. No.

[Sarah Squirm]

Because he's so hot that he blows convention out of the water. So there's no litigating this.

[George Severis]

Yeah. And I also like, like, I like how Johnny Knock. I feel like it was a Trend for, like, 10 years that when he would do a photo shoot, he would do like, a really, like, crazy face that's almost like, makes him look like a, like, sick in the head or like, wasn't there. There's probably some movies where he plays like a villain or something. Like, he, He. There's something about him. He has like an evil face kind of.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah. Evil elf face.

[George Severis]

Evil elf face.

[Sarah Squirm]

Like Miley Cyrus and her dead pet's face.

[George Severis]

Like a hundred.

[Sam Taggart]

Oh, God.

[George Severis]

I mean, Miley Cyrus's dead pets era, in many ways was born out of jackass culture.

[Sarah Squirm]

100 greatest work.

[George Severis]

Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

[Sam Taggart]

Literally, something about, like. I feel like I've read an article and I'm pulling from that with this comment, but it, like, is also a takedown of like, suburban culture in a way.

[Sarah Squirm]

Like.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sarah Squirm]

What did Bam Margera do to his family home? He destroyed it.

[George Severis]

Well, that kind of goes along with skate culture. I mean, I am so uneducated about the history of skate culture, but in my mind it is like, I hope. No, I hope this is not wrong historically, but skate culture to me is like a way to do something alternative within a suburban context. Right.

[Sam Taggart]

I think maybe it didn't start that way, but that's definitely what it has been.

[George Severis]

That's at least like in the popular imagination in like the 90s and 2000s. That's what I would think when I think of straight culture. It's like the one alternative thing one could do when living in suburbia.

[Sarah Squirm]

Well, because you have the violent architecture of suburbia.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sarah Squirm]

Okay. The physical three dimensional bounds that you're in with no escape. What do you do to play in the. The violent architecture of that. In the hostile architecture of suburbia? You grind.

[Sam Taggart]

You grind and you ran even. And you Ali.

[George Severis]

And similarly. And I'm about to say something so intelligent that this zoom might literally end. Okay, similarly, what do you do to escape the violent architecture of masculinity? Oh, wow, my literally self combust by destroying your masculine body.

[Sarah Squirm]

Yep.

[George Severis]

The only way out is through.

[Sarah Squirm]

I mean, when Johnny Knoxville puts on his Evil Knievel, respectful, referential. He knows his place in history. He knows he's intertextually referring to cultural moments. When he puts his evil knave on and he shoots himself out of a rocket, he is jettisoning himself out of his masculinity through the phallus. He is using the phallus to violently expel himself.

[Sam Taggart]

You. I mean, can a podcast be a book? That's what I want to know.

[George Severis]

It's also like, it is. There is a. There is a desire to escape. Like, basically, it's like. It's a desire to escape the physical body it's almost like the end goal is like, for them to do something so extreme that their skeleton leaves the skin and it's a desire to leave the corporeal form.

[Sarah Squirm]

I mean. And this is where my straight walls come up.

[George Severis]

Right?

[Sarah Squirm]

Okay.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay.

[Sarah Squirm]

This is where my straight walls come. The pain and pleasure, the play. I personally, I can't, maybe I can't get off on suspending myself from the ceiling on my nipple rings.

[George Severis]

Right.

[Sarah Squirm]

That's not for me. But is there something in there, this clearing of the pain and pleasure?

[George Severis]

Right. Like, what is Each. Each one of us has our version of doing jackass.

[Sarah Squirm]

Right?

[Sam Taggart]

Well. And we derive pleasure from watching jackass. And so what is. What is that?

[George Severis]

It's. It's almost like maybe, but then maybe it goes full circle and it's like in the same way that there, you know, there's talk of like, like penis envy. There's almost. It's like an envy of being liberated enough to destroy your own body. We wish we could be the kind of people that could participate in that

[Sarah Squirm]

ritual, but I know my limits.

[George Severis]

I cannot.

[Sarah Squirm]

I feel pain. I feel pain and I hurt. And the part that of the. My story that I'm leaving out about my Chris Bodius encounter.

[Sam Taggart]

Thank you. I was going to bring it back to that was.

[Sarah Squirm]

Did I have my friend practice punching me in the boob before I posed it? The Crispinius?

[George Severis]

Yes.

[Sarah Squirm]

Was I able to handle it? No. Did it cause a rupture of a blood vessel inside of one of my breasts that I was bleeding out of a nipple for days?

[Sam Taggart]

No.

[Sarah Squirm]

Days. A congealed dark brown liquid coming out of a nipple could. Was I a Jewish neurotic, anxious Jew from Long Island? Not a skater, but an anxious bookworm? Was I able to handle that body horror? Wow.

[George Severis]

Wow.

[Sarah Squirm]

I mean, what is that? Feminine? You know, not to use speak so binarily, of course, but as someone who is a woman with breasts.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sarah Squirm]

The shattering of my breasts when the fist punched it, I did a blood vessel bursting that caused a nipple leakage. And was I limited by my female sign at birth body in that moment?

[George Severis]

Well, but I mean, I don't. I don't think so because I think that they are also. I mean, you're destroying your body just like they are. I mean, you're basically showing that you can be one of the guys.

[Sam Taggart]

I think maybe you underestimated the cost of the pain that they do experience.

[George Severis]

Right. I mean, their nipples bleed constantly.

[Sam Taggart]

They're always bleeding, they're always cut, they're always Broken in some way. And a lot of them had issues and continue to. And I think probably because they're constantly doing things that cause them pain.

[Sarah Squirm]

But can I say something problematically, Please. Was I, in that moment, for lack of a better term, a pussy? Was I?

[George Severis]

I guess what I'm failing to understand is where. Where is this? Where do you see cowardice? Because what I see is someone who. Who literally, like, pushed herself to her limits. And then even when you saw that it was painful, still asked Chris Pontius to once again do the thing you knew would cause you pain. So I don't see any. In nowhere. Did you give up when the nipple leaked?

[Sarah Squirm]

I went into a panic.

[George Severis]

Okay.

[Sarah Squirm]

Spiral in a way that has prevented me from ever pursuing prank nature.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sarah Squirm]

Ever again. And this is six years later we're talking. I've had years.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sarah Squirm]

Away from this to get a bird's eye view. And what I've learned. I never want to feel pain. I don't.

[Sam Taggart]

Well. And that's. You're right. And I think. You know, I don't think you're a pussy, as you say. I think maybe you're just learning your boundaries and maybe even you need to work your way up to that level of prank. Maybe you went sort of expert level when you needed to just get like a pinch on the nipple or something, and you shouldn't go full punch right off the bat.

[George Severis]

Yeah. This is a difficult question, to say the least.

[Sarah Squirm]

It is. Because we got a full circle now.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sarah Squirm]

Because we came into the conversation. Is jackass for boys.

[Sam Taggart]

Huh? Huh?

[Sarah Squirm]

When my nipple leaks.

[Sam Taggart]

Right.

[Sarah Squirm]

I leave the circle. And maybe it isn't. Maybe it isn't the culture for me.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sarah Squirm]

Who exists within.

[George Severis]

Right. Sure. But do you think that has. But. But it's. It's up the way you interpret that. You can interpret that as being about your gender, or you can interpret that as just being about you not being part of that. About that not being for you. I mean, you could just as easily have been a guy who tried to do something extreme, then thought that it went too far and then could not handle the pain.

[Sarah Squirm]

I flattened my personal experience with my gender.

[George Severis]

Right. I mean, it's.

[Sarah Squirm]

I did that.

[Sam Taggart]

And, you know, George was the head of his LGBTQ center, so he's.

[George Severis]

I've dealt with things like this in the past. I've had these kinds of conversations. I know. I know the signs. I know when someone is flattening their identity because of a, you know, prank

[Sarah Squirm]

based injury, you can see the schism.

[George Severis]

Right.

[Sarah Squirm]

You can See how the codified organ to me, the breasts.

[George Severis]

Right.

[Sarah Squirm]

But at the time of the bleeding was a very codified symbol of my femininity. And I felt betrayed by that feminine. Do you see what I mean?

[George Severis]

Yes. Yes. Well, you did symbolically choose kind of a symbol of cisgender women, womanhood. The symbol, one could say.

[Sarah Squirm]

Exactly.

[George Severis]

Which I think is in keeping with the spirit of Jackass.

[Sam Taggart]

That's true. I'm trying to make a larger point. Wow. Okay.

[Sarah Squirm]

Well, you know what, boys? Can I call you that? You know what this has actually made me think?

[Sam Taggart]

What?

[Sarah Squirm]

Maybe 2022 isn't just the year for music.

[Sam Taggart]

I'm not following. Wait, what else is going to happen in this year?

[George Severis]

Yes, say more.

[Sarah Squirm]

Maybe this podcast is really gonna pull podcasting back into the eternal realm.

[George Severis]

Well, just like in Jackass, they kind of have to destroy themselves in order to liberate themselves. They have to hurt themselves in order to feel empowered. We had to declare the end of podcasting on this episode to save the form.

[Sam Taggart]

And if you are listening to this in the year 2037, you're welcome.

[George Severis]

Yeah, you're welcome.

[Sarah Squirm]

This podcast is the phoenix that rises out of the 2021 Time Best Podcast of the year, jettisoning it as the Phoenix rising from the Ashes. Porn's 2037 best podcast. I'm calling it now.

[Sam Taggart]

I love it. And you know, to be completely honest, Sarah, we have always been post podcast. We started as the first post podcast podcast. And I. So I do feel it is our role to show people what a podcast can look like in a post podcast society.

[George Severis]

Much like Jackass, we were ahead of our time in the sense that the critical establishment was not ready for what we were doing, which was kind of podcasting. That was born out of the hatred of the art of podcasting. And so people kept saying things like, you're the top podcast of the year. Where in fact, we were trying to say, like, no, we're actually kind of trying to create an entire new reality where the binary of podcaster and non podcaster no longer exists.

[Sarah Squirm]

You know what it's doing? It's keeping the imagination open.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah.

[Sarah Squirm]

When Sam said so eloquently, can a podcast be a book? You're opening new ground.

[George Severis]

Right.

[Sarah Squirm]

When you say stuff like that.

[George Severis]

Well, yeah, it's post form. I mean, the idea of a podcast as like an audio file that gets uploaded to the cloud is not just limiting, it's oppressive. And not just to us, the people that exist within that audio file, but to anyone who listens and Even anyone who doesn't listen. I mean, everyone is implicated in the same way. The jackass influenced like how a generation of men thought about their bodies.

[Sarah Squirm]

I mean, and there's the podcast pod. An inhibited, small, oppressive face.

[George Severis]

Well, not just that literally. It's. It comes from the word ipod. Corporate. Literally, like corporate.

[Sam Taggart]

Oh my God. Like, it is insane.

[George Severis]

It's like limiting. It's limiting and it's literally like neoliberal.

[Sarah Squirm]

What about chest? You cast exactly outward infinitely.

[George Severis]

You have to podcast presents a red pill, blue pill situation. Do you pod or do you cast?

[Sam Taggart]

This is definitely a pod. This is more pod than cast.

[George Severis]

This is more pod than cast. Limiting.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah, I think. No, no, no. Like it's creating a new like pod to exist within. I feel.

[George Severis]

Wait, wait, wait. No, in my mind, pod is the limiting one and cast is the. Is the right Sarah.

[Sarah Squirm]

But. But Sam is saying it's giving community.

[George Severis]

Oh, it's giving.

[Sam Taggart]

Thank you, thank you.

[George Severis]

Pod is giving community and cast is giving Turkey girl.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay, I'm like, this is in. We actually, I think need to wrap up. We have gotten to such a place that I'm like, afraid.

[Sarah Squirm]

Won't be afraid.

[Sam Taggart]

I'm scared.

[Sarah Squirm]

What happens when a pioneer sojourns on

[George Severis]

new territory, Sam, when you are the most afraid? That's when you have to keep going. This is like literally like Steve O. Before he jumped off the bridge while his balls were tethered to a crocodile.

[Sam Taggart]

I'm just like the language. You have both like pointed out how empty all language is. And it is like making me like. But it also powerful and how we can continue to like zoom out exactly in a way that I'm like, how can we keep going? I can't believe this has gone this far.

[Sarah Squirm]

And that is the original point of the podcast. Right when you guys were speaking.

[George Severis]

Yeah. It's like, is language empty or is it so meaningful that you can use it to do. To. To do so. To do an infinite number of things?

[Sam Taggart]

Oh my God.

[Sarah Squirm]

Empty because you are daddy's girl eating vegetables by the pool.

[George Severis]

Right, right, right.

[Sarah Squirm]

Or is that an eight dimensional dimensional edifice of language that we. We only. It's. It's the. It's the iceberg. We only see the tip of what that could be. We are Sagin's Flatland. That's right down on a flat dimension. But there are dimensions on unknown to us in that phrase.

[George Severis]

When you see. When you see someone posting, my dad let me sit by the pool because I ate my vegetables. That's the tip of the iceberg. And do you want to know what the rest of the iceberg is? Literally the history of language.

[Sam Taggart]

Oh, my fucking God. This is insane.

[Sarah Squirm]

What is this? This is music. This is the music of language.

[George Severis]

Podcasts can not only be books, they

[Sam Taggart]

can be music of language. Well, I just want to congratulate both of you. I think this has been so groundbreaking in a way that I think people will be sort of, like, upset for, like, a day. Like, I think they'll see the world, like, too differently. It will be like, they'll see the world too different. They'll be like, now I have to quit my job. Like, now I need to, like, sort of reset my life because I'm seeing through the matrix, if you will.

[George Severis]

Certainly, I think it will affect the stock market.

[Sam Taggart]

Dow Jones found dead in a ditch.

[Sarah Squirm]

I think Dow Jones did not understand the assignment.

[George Severis]

No, Dow Jones has never understood the assignment.

[Sam Taggart]

No, absolutely not.

[George Severis]

Dow Jones stays giving Turkey girl.

[Sarah Squirm]

Next question.

[Sam Taggart]

Next question.

[Sarah Squirm]

Okay, I'm not even kidding. I'm, like, profusely sweating.

[Sam Taggart]

I'm crying.

[George Severis]

I mean, intellectual work is, like, physically rigorous.

[Sam Taggart]

It's also, you know, the brain is a muscle. The brain is muscle. And, like, not to be like, it's like a Monday night. I was sort of like, you know, what are we going to be bringing to this podcast? Yeah, like, it could be. Is it. You know, each one has a different mood, and you never know when you're going to. What just happened? Sarah's looking shocked. But you never know when you're going to accidentally make a discovery. But, Sarah, what happened?

[Sarah Squirm]

The doorbell ring? The sushi's here.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay, we have to wrap up.

[George Severis]

We have to wrap up because the sushi is here. And. And honestly, that's commentary more than anything we've said. The fact that this podcast ended with sushi arriving almost is actually, I think it, like, doesn't reflect well on us because it's like we're here thinking we're in the trenches of intellectual work and we're just waiting for our sushi.

[Sam Taggart]

Wow, that is so dark.

[Sarah Squirm]

Whom the bell tolls. The bell is tolling for 30 year old to get her sushi.

[Sam Taggart]

Turkey girl. Airplane emoji going. Sushi girl. Okay, George, segment.

[George Severis]

Our final segment is called shout outs. Now, this work, we're going back to basics here. We're talking the epitome of straight culture, the radio shout out. We like to end every episode with each of us giving a sh. Shout out to something that is giving us life AF this week.

[Sam Taggart]

Wow, that hurt.

[George Severis]

Yeah. Sam, do you have anything?

[Sam Taggart]

I think I do have one that I hope I haven't done in the past, but I don't know why I would have. But this. What's up, perverts, freaks and losers out there in America and everywhere else. You're normal, I assume. I want to get give a shout out to the one and only Brooklyn based comedian Dan Licata. Our conversation around Jackass made me feel like, you know, if there's a scholar of the form, it is also Dan Licata. And I one time he has a story about how he jumped off of his roof because he liked Jackass a lot with and he was holding an umbrella and he broke both of his legs. This guy loves Jackass. And you know, when I meet a Jackass middle schooler like lover as an adult, it's kind of nice to see that they've grown to be such a sensitive and cool person. And Jackass is beautiful and Dan Licata is beautiful and Squirm Nation is beautiful. And that's pretty much my shout out.

[George Severis]

All right, what's up, idiots out there? And also people who aren't idiots and aren't. Hey, Marv. This is your boy George. And my shout out this week is I want to give a shout out to. That's right, starting your New year's resolutions on February 1st. Let me tell you something. You wake up on January 1st, you're hungover from the night before. If you're me, you just recovered from COVID you are trying to literally just live your life and honestly survive from one hour to the next. And yet what are you doing February 1st? Suddenly you're refreshed. It is a more manageable month because there are fewer days. Why not start your resolutions there? Why not take January as a period of self reflection of the year that just passed, rather than being so obsessed with productivity that you start your resolution right after the new year and then with a sense of Zen, with a sense of, you know, you know, looking towards the bright future. Start your resolutions on February 1st. So my shout out to you is take a moment to smell the roses and start your resolutions on February 1st.

[Sarah Squirm]

Woo.

[Sam Taggart]

And like George, you were incredible at like getting extensions on your assignments, weren't you?

[George Severis]

I was pretty good at it.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay, Sarah, whenever you are ready.

[Sarah Squirm]

What's up, fuckers and fuck heads? And what the fuck? Next. This is my shout out for tonight. My amazing straight boyfriend who was being supportive of me while I was screaming at a podcast in the apartment tonight.

[George Severis]

Wow.

[Sam Taggart]

And, you know, listeners should know that Sarah even, you know, displaced him and had to sort of close the door, sort of say, I. I'm taking this space for my.

[Sarah Squirm]

I colonize the space.

[George Severis]

Yeah. And that was an act of radical violence. Radical violence. Radical feminist violence. That was an act of radical feminist violence. And now the strayed power fist again.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay, well, Sarah, this has been absolutely incredible. Thank you so much for doing our podcast.

[Sarah Squirm]

Thank you guys so much for having me. I've never felt so enlightened.

[George Severis]

I don't think any of us have. And I don't think our listeners have either, to be perfectly honest with you.

[Sam Taggart]

They're gonna need to. No, they have no idea. And imagine if I had kept with the beginning bit of trying to predict what our conversation was going to be like. What a mistake that was.

[George Severis]

Oh, I know.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah. Okay. Well, that being said, bye.

[George Severis]

Yeah. Shout out to boyfriends everywhere. Podcast ends now for our visual learners. You can watch full video episodes on our YouTube channel and subscribe to our

[Sam Taggart]

Patreon for two extra episodes a month

[George Severis]

at patreon.com Stradiolab Stradiolab is a production

[Sam Taggart]

by Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network and iHeart podcasts created and hosted by

[George Severis]

me, George Severis and Sam Taggart, executive

[Sam Taggart]

produced by Jenna Cagle, co produced by

[George Severis]

Becca Ramos, edited by Lauren Stumpf and mixed and mastered by Doug Green Artwork

[Sam Taggart]

by Michael Fails and Matt Grubb Theme music by Ben Kling.

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[George Severis]

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[George Severis]

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[Sam Taggart]

Or you could just, like, eat them

[George Severis]

both because you're obsessed with slow roasted chicken bacon. Okay, you get the idea. The new Chicken Bacon Ranch street Chalup is at Taco Bell. By participating Taco Bell US Locations for a limited time while supplies last. Thirty years ago, Scream changed horror forever. Now it's all led to this.

[Sam Taggart]

In Scream 6.

[George Severis]

7, Sidney Prescott thought she'd finally escaped the nightmare of Ghostface, raising her family

[Sam Taggart]

in a quiet town far away from the horrors of Woodsboro. She was wrong. And this time, the target isn't just her.

[George Severis]

It's her teenage daughter, Tatum, who's the same age Sidney was when the terror began.

[Sam Taggart]

Neve Campbell returns in her iconic final girl role as Sidney Prescott, facing the

[George Severis]

most brutal and psychological Ghostface yet, joined

[Sam Taggart]

by franchise favorites Courtney K. Cox, Jasmine Savoy Brown, and Mason Gooding, alongside terrifying

[George Severis]

new blood, including Isabel May McKennie, Grace, Asa German, and more. Directed by franchise creator Kevin Williamson in his directorial debut, Scream 7 is packed with edge of your seat scares and shocks for everyone.

[Sam Taggart]

With references and callbacks for Scream fans everywhere, Ghostface is the terrifying horror icon alongside Freddy Jason and Michael Myers.

[George Severis]

And after 3:30 years, the mask still means one thing.

[Sam Taggart]

No one is safe.

[George Severis]

See Scream 7 in theaters February 27, because screams are always better when you hear them together.

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