#4384 You Could Have Banned It Longer

Summary

TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live – Episode #4384 You Could Have Banned It Longer

Release Date: January 20, 2025
Hosts: Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh

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Introduction

In the Monday edition of TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live, hosts Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh dive into a range of intriguing topics, blending humor with insightful commentary. Episode #4384, titled "You Could Have Banned It Longer," explores the recent brief ban of TikTok, media critiques, personal anecdotes about wildlife, and a hearty discussion on the current state of football playoffs.

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TikTok Ban Incident

Timestamp: [02:19] – [10:34]

The episode kicks off with a significant update: media personality Chris Hayes received a mock "Saturday Night Live" treatment, marking a noteworthy moment in the show's lore. However, the primary focus shifts to the controversial and transient ban of TikTok.

Luke Burbank shares his experience of witnessing TikTok "going dark" while browsing the app, describing it as a "weird experience" ([02:34]). Andrew Walsh criticizes the ban, suggesting it was a politically motivated move to bolster the incoming president's image:

Andrew Walsh [04:20]: "But they did. Allegedly. TikTok was banned for a period of hours, a very few hours. You can ban it for a little longer. It doesn't have to come back that fast."

The hosts debate the legitimacy and implications of the ban, with Luke expressing skepticism about its permanence:

Luke Burbank [04:13]: "I don't want to use the word banned because I do not believe TikTok was banned. Or at least this weekend when Tick Tock went away, it was not because of a ban."

They further delve into the political maneuvers surrounding TikTok, pointing fingers at both Republican efforts led by Donald Trump and what they perceive as cynical corporate decisions by leaders like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. Luke highlights the platform's resilience and the financial motivations behind its quick reinstatement:

Luke Burbank [10:34]: "I think that's a completely cynical move by TikTok to just, oh, of course, try to stay in business as opposed to an ideological one."

Andrew Walsh adds context, acknowledging TikTok's essential role for many users' income and community, especially within movements like sobriety:

Andrew Walsh [20:40]: "Sober TikTok movement where people have really reached out to each other and kind of inspired each other."

The discussion underscores the precarious balance between political influence and the economic realities of social media platforms.

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Seattle Times 'Self Rant'

Timestamp: [03:42] – [07:30]

The conversation shifts to a "self rant" featured in the Seattle Times, where an individual publicly apologizes for not allowing another driver to merge while exiting a parking garage. The hosts critique the grammatical construction and the sincerity of the apology:

Andrew Walsh [04:06]: "I'd been waiting so long to exit. That was petty and I apologize. Rant also to the person I didn't let in for cussing at me. That was rude, by the way. That's a comma splice."

Luke Burbank emphasizes that a genuine apology requires full ownership of one's actions, rather than a half-hearted acknowledgment:

Luke Burbank [04:57]: "I need on this, on this morning."

The hosts agree that the apology lacks depth and fails to fully address the offender's behavior, highlighting a broader issue with media representations of personal grievances.

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Personal Anecdotes: Hummingbirds and Stray Cats

Timestamp: [06:21] – [15:25]

Adding a personal touch, Luke Burbank narrates his morning struggles with frozen hummingbird feeders and a stray cat seeking warmth beneath his car. The story humanizes the hosts and provides humor amidst heavier topics:

Luke Burbank [07:30]: "These hummingbird feeders, of course, because they're gravity-fed, right, you need there to be a certain amount of gravitational pressure for the water... I was spilling half frozen purple hummingbird nectar everywhere."

Andrew Walsh offers solutions, suggesting the use of multiple feeders to swap them out or employing radiant heat to prevent freezing:

Andrew Walsh [09:36]: "Genevieve has several feeders... But it does seem like Sisyphean."

Their exchange illustrates the trials of attempting to care for wildlife during harsh weather conditions, blending practical advice with light-hearted banter.

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SNL's Mock of MSNBC

Timestamp: [54:01] – [63:42]

Luke Burbank discusses a recent Saturday Night Live (SNL) cold open that parodied MSNBC's coverage of the inauguration weekend. The sketch featured impersonations of Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid, Ari Melber, and Chris Hayes.

Luke Burbank [54:01]: "Stephanie Rule... Our friend, television's Chris Hayes was portrayed on the show."

The hosts express mixed feelings about Chris Hayes's portrayal, noting that the SNL impersonators struggled to capture his essence:

Andrew Walsh [60:08]: "They were like, the only thing they. At one point, they're trying to make this joke that, like, the literally the only recurring joke was that people were thinking that Chris was Rachel Maddow."

Luke appreciates the effort but feels that Chris's character offers limited material for satire:

Luke Burbank [59:38]: "He does not have annoying characteristics on air. He does not have... So what they went with the Stephanie Rule thing... And again, very good at drilling down on issues."

The segment highlights the challenges of impersonating real-life figures and the nuanced perceptions audiences hold of media personalities.

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Football Talk

Timestamp: [14:13] – [48:56]

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to the hosts' passion for football. Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh delve into NFL playoffs, specific game highlights, and the evolving landscape of college football.

NFL Playoffs and Bills-Ravens Game:

The hosts analyze the intense Bills vs Ravens matchup, discussing key plays and player performances. Andrew Walsh expresses his enthusiasm for the playoffs, likening his addiction to a "playoff drug":

Andrew Walsh [35:37]: "I just think it's a really interesting playoff here. Everybody was talking about..."

College Football Playoff Structure:

They critique the shortened downtime between college football playoff games due to the expanded 12-team format:

Andrew Walsh [42:54]: "Because they expanded the playoffs again this year. Yeah, it's like 12 teams now."

Personal Football Anecdotes:

Luke shares humorous memories, including late-night trips to Taco Time after a boxing match, creating relatable and entertaining stories:

Luke Burbank [51:16]: "We had gone back to this Taco Time in Lacey. And we were so famished... just ate in silence at the lake in the Lacey."

The discussion extends to fan rivalries, particularly between Notre Dame and Penn State, highlighting the cultural and familial tensions that arise during major games.

Luke Burbank [46:12]: "There is an intense Intense, how do I call it? East coast maga. Weird energy around the fan bases of both Notre Dame and Penn State."

This segment underscores the hosts' deep engagement with football culture, blending analysis with personal anecdotes and humor.

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Wrap-Up

Timestamp: [63:38] – [64:20]

As the episode concludes, Luke and Andrew extend gratitude to their donors, acknowledging specific listeners from various regions. They share a final light-hearted exchange about their appearance and preparations:

Luke Burbank [50:30]: "Do I look a little, I don't know, somehow more. Even more balanced, more centered, better today on camera than normal?"

The hosts wrap up by reflecting on the show's role as a comforting distraction:

Luke Burbank [64:17]: "This is one of those things where this has happened before... but often I get done talking with you for like an hour and a half or something and actually I do feel better."

Andrew Walsh echoes this sentiment, emphasizing the therapeutic nature of their conversations:

Andrew Walsh [64:18]: "Yeah, definitely."

They close with encouraging words to listeners:

Luke Burbank [64:20]: "Thanks for listening everybody. We'll see you tomorrow. In the meantime, have a great Monday. Take care of yourselves and please remember, no mountain too tall and good luck to all. Power out."

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Notable Quotes:

• Andrew Walsh [04:20]: "But they did. Allegedly. TikTok was banned for a period of hours, a very few hours."
• Luke Burbank [10:34]: "I think that's a completely cynical move by TikTok to just, oh, of course, try to stay in business as opposed to an ideological one."
• Andrew Walsh [20:40]: "Sober TikTok movement where people have really reached out to each other and kind of inspired each other."

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This episode of TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live offers a blend of current events analysis, personal storytelling, and playful banter, providing listeners with both information and entertainment. Whether discussing geopolitical maneuvers affecting social media or sharing heartfelt tales of local wildlife, Luke and Andrew deliver a rich and engaging listening experience.

Transcript

[Luke Burbank]

What are you doing in here?

[Andrew Walsh]

Getting away from the bad news. Just trying to, you know, realign myself. You know what I'd like, uh, I'd like to be cryogenically suspended. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And then be woken up in the future.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, never wake up. Just stay suspended.

[Luke Burbank]

Are you drunk?

[Andrew Walsh]

Tbt.

[Luke Burbank]

El.

[Andrew Walsh]

You keep hiding from in the world and eventually the world comes to your front door.

[Luke Burbank]

Nice. Very nice.

[Andrew Walsh]

I heard an episode of Touched by an Angel. Whoa, watch out. Says that bird. Ew, it's got a snake. Oh, it's chasing a jackal. Oh my gosh. I'm sorry. All right?

[Luke Burbank]

That's the kind of guy I am.

[Andrew Walsh]

Give little to no thought for the.

[Luke Burbank]

Things that I do or say. Just off the top of my head, you know, S.D.

[Andrew Walsh]

Cinnamon buns. Tony Kitang, right?

[Luke Burbank]

Did not think about those words at all.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's a regional dialect.

[Luke Burbank]

Uh huh. What region?

[Andrew Walsh]

Upstate New York.

[Luke Burbank]

Really? Well, I'm from Utica and I've never heard anyone use the phrase steamed hams.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, not at Utica, no. It's an Albany expression.

[Luke Burbank]

I see. Well, all right. Hello, good morning and welcome everyone to a Monday edition of TBTL show that just might be too beautiful to live.

[Andrew Walsh]

And boom goes the dynamite.

[Luke Burbank]

My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host. But seriously, coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio, perched high above the mighty Columbia where we have got an absolutely beautiful day. Blue sky, white puffy clouds just kind of rolling down the river here and oh, Ma Pa. It's just beautiful. I'll say that. Looking out on the mighty Columbia and watching the clouds and nature and all of that this morning was really putting some much needed wind in my sails. That and the fact that I chose, I chose to listen to jazz music and obsessively clean my kitchen. I'll tell you, I'm having an okay Monday morning. I know a lot of you aren't. It's a big day for this country. And not in the good way, not in the way we'd hoped. But here we are. It's episode 4384 in a collector series. Let the fun begin. It's a big day here in the lore of the show because our friend, television's Chris Hayes was finally got the Saturday Night Live treatment this weekend.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's like someone punching your brain, but.

[Luke Burbank]

In a weirdly satisfying way. Since we will never get the Saturday Night Live treatment, just being kind of one Chris Hayes away from it, that's the closest we're going to get. And we'll talk about that also, I guess they. I don't even want to say they banned TikTok because I think it was honestly kind of a. It was a made up thing that was meant to benefit the image of the person becoming president today. But they did. Allegedly. TikTok was banned for a period of hours, a very few hours. You can ban it for a little longer. It doesn't have to come back that fast. I was online tiktoking or at least watching TikTok looking at TikTok when it went dark. And it was. It was a kind of a weird experience to be there at the moment of them pulling the plug. So we'll get into that and we'll talk to this guy. He is the longest running cobra of the show. Maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. Hey, cheer up, it's Taco Tuesday. He's Andrew Walsh. He's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[Andrew Walsh]

Good morning. I think it's funny if you want to talk about media today that you want to talk about that, that little TikTok story. Did you not read the rants and raves this weekend? That seems to be the media story that's really got everybody talking. The Seattle Times Rants and raves. Luke, there was a very rare self rant. Somebody self ranted in the Times Times yesterday.

[Luke Burbank]

Explain what a self rant is and should we ask the children listening to leave?

[Andrew Walsh]

First of all, be careful. You will go blind. Yeah, this was what I read in the Seattle Times Rants and raves yesterday about halfway through. Rant to me for not letting another fan merge while exiting the parking garage after a Silver tips game. Luke, what the hell are the silver tips?

[Luke Burbank]

Is that a Tacoma hockey program? Okay, Everett hockey. Everett hockey program. I think that they are a hockey silver tip. Hockey Silver tip Evert. The ever silver tip.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, nice. And they are a hockey organization. Okay, sure. That's a huge blind spot for me. I don't really know much about hockey anyway. But this person is saying rant to me for not letting another fan merge while exiting the parking garage. I'd been waiting so long to exit. I was fed up with people cutting in front of me. That was petty and I apologize. Rant also to the person I didn't let in for cussing at me. That was rude, by the way. That's a comma splice. That should be a period and then a separate sentence. Not comma. That was rude. But apparently the people at the rant and raves desk know what they're doing better than I do because I can't get published.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, here's my problem with that self rant, as you put it. An apology. To me, an apology is only an apology when you are owning your behavior, not when you're throwing in a little side of. But also, you were being not great. Because if I understand this, if I'm following the major media story of the day this Monday, January 20th, or as I put it on the show sheet I sent you, January 19th, that may have been.

[Andrew Walsh]

While you're in a good mood, that.

[Luke Burbank]

May have been my brain subconsciously trying to do something.

[Andrew Walsh]

Andrew, tomorrow's gonna be rough.

[Luke Burbank]

It's. It's going from January 19th to January 21st.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right? Actually, maybe you found the.

[Luke Burbank]

Maybe trying to create a sort of some sort of a time glitch where today does not exist for us. But anyway, if I understood the story right, this person said, my bad for not letting you in or for. For rushing through or for being kind of rude. But also you're bad for cussing at me. Is that what this person is saying? I don't feel like that's a full. That is not the mea culpa.

[Andrew Walsh]

I agree. I don't like that, you know, that.

[Luke Burbank]

I need on this, on this morning.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm with you. I mean, I think most of it is good. The last line rant to the person I didn't let in for cussing at me, comma. That was rude. And again, I'm gonna write a rant in about the Seattle Times letting comma splices just like survive willy nilly in the paper, in the pages of the August publication. But that's the real rant. But no, I'm with you.

[Luke Burbank]

The old green lady.

[Andrew Walsh]

That is not what we call the Seattle Green lady. Is that what you said?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I don't know.

[Andrew Walsh]

The Emerald City, the old Emerald lady. I don't like the fact that they try to turn and I don't like the fact that they try to make it like, well, we'll just thr one sentence and at the end that points the finger at the other person when really it's two sentences. I would be better without that. But it is the first self rant I've seen in the paper and I. I do like the format breaking of it. And again, it's sort of because I sent in a self.

[Luke Burbank]

We're gonna get you in there, Andrew, by hooker, by crook. We're gonna. Because you've got a lot of. You've got a lot of rants and a lot of self rants. Honestly. Yeah, that is, I think need to be aired out now that the seal's been broken on that. I think this might be your time to shine in the pages of the Old Green Lady. It's happened. By the way, Andrew, the thing that you forecasted last week, it has absolutely happened. I am now other than my daughter, my family, my girlfriend, my new niece, Gemma. Other you, Genevieve. Okay, it's a long list. But on the list with all of these people I care about and love, the hummingbirds in my neighborhood have now they're in the top five.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh sure, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Because this morning as I was running around trying to get ready for the day and the show and deep cleaning my kitchen and coming out here for my little jog on the treadmill, I look over and guess what has frozen into a block of ice. Oh yeah, of course, their nectar. And so I have to then get risk life and limb, scale out to this like very steep, icy kind of hill, then reach up and unhook the bird feeder and then bring it in here to the Madrona Hill studio, go into the bathroom. I was trying to open it up just to break the ice. But these hummingbird feeders, of course, because they're gravity fed, right, you need there to be a certain amount of gravitational pressure for the water, AKA the nectar, to disperse. They are impossible to take apart without just spilling purple shit everywhere. So I'm like in my running clothes, it's five degrees inside the Madrona Hill studio and I'm spilling half frozen purple hummingbird nectar everywhere so that I can then refill, run into the house, find the bag of the sugar stuff, come back out, put it in, eyeball it, fill it back up and hang it up just in time for my two favorite hummingbirds. Although they're kind of, sometimes one of them is a little bit of a jerk to the other one. There's one that has a red belly that's kind of the alpha. But anyway, so the one that's a little bit more the beta had shown up and they went over and they were getting some nectar and it was working. And then the, the red belly one came over and kind of menaced them. But anyway, point is we are back, we are operational here. But my first thought was like, am I going to do this every morning that the temperature gets below freezing? Do I bring the hummingbird feeder in at night? But then I'm worried that they might come by at night and want to dine from it. Also, there was a cat under my car last night. When I went to take out the garbage and I became very worried about the temperature for the cats, I felt like the cat was under my car because I had just gotten home and probably the engine was warm. Oh, sure, this cat is seeking warmth. I mean, it's like a feral cat that would literally kill bubbles as soon as look at her. And yet I was like, is that cat okay? Tonight I'm very worried about the animals out here.

[Andrew Walsh]

You need two feeders so that you can swap them out. Genevieve has several feeders. I don't know exactly what her system is, but I know that during the winter she's bringing the bird feed, she's bringing specifically the hummingbird feeders inside and letting them melt for a while and then putting them back outside. But it does seem like Sisyphean.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, what we could really do, I think you've actually suggested something even better, which is two sets of feeders. You bring one in at night, although I don't know how quickly it freezes. That's another question. Like, if I put a fresh feeder out, I was also thinking, could I hook up some kind of radiant heat? Could I have a heater outside? This is where my mind goes. Also, I. Before they. Before they went dark with Tick Tock, I want to. I don't want to use the word banned because I do not believe TikTok was banned. Or at least this weekend when Tick Tock went away, it was not because of a ban. That ban was not in place yet, if I understood right.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, it's supposed to place today. Today was the deadline.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, well, yeah, yesterday was. I think it was.

[Andrew Walsh]

Or was.

[Luke Burbank]

It was as of January 19th. But let's just go with midnight of last night, like the end of it being January 19th, probably. If you say something gets. Or. Or even, let's say midnight on Saturday, the beginning of what it. The time that it did not need to go away was like 7:34pm West coast, which is when I was scrolling it. But I did see something on there a couple weeks ago, which, I swear to God, Andrew, if I get one of these, you need to have me committed. It's a warming. Like, it's like a warming box for stray cats. It's like kind of big. You set it up like somewhere in your yard. You don't put it at your house. You're not trying to turn into that lady from the Simpsons. It's pulling cats out of her hair and throwing at people. But like, you set this kind of hutch up somewhere on your property that you can get power to it, and it's just got enough warmth in it that the stray cats can hang out in there and not succumb to the cold. And last night when that cat ran out from under my car, I thought, am I getting one of those? And also, is that a sign that I've officially crossed some kind of mental line? Because that's, that's one step away from becoming the person who has too many animals living in your home that, that you may not even be able to take care of. Right. You start trying to warm the stray cats of the neighborhood.

[Andrew Walsh]

You also need to be careful about getting animals up in your car. What do you call that filter? This is a whole thing on Spotless. Because this happened to Hannah and then it happened to other listeners too, and.

[Luke Burbank]

People in the engine or something.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. So there's a filter. I want to say. It's like what they call a cabin filter, I want to say. And it's a filter that la somewhere in your dashboard area or maybe below your dashboard in most vehicles. But the filter itself, which is kind of a classic cardboardy looking kind of filter, accordion style, probably inside there. But it lies horizontal. It slides in and out, I think like a piece of toast. If your toaster were on its side, I feel like I could have come up with a better analogy there. But I also think you're all along with me. So anyway, that's how it slides in. And then when it gets really cold and then you come in and your car's warm, animals can crawl up in there somehow. And people have sent us in photos of just like pure, full nesting scenes from rats and mice. And sometimes the mice actually get up into the glove in the glove compartment. And somebody was sending in photos of mice kind of living in there. And it really does cause conundrum for animal loving people because it's nasty. But also like these animals are seeking shelter.

[Luke Burbank]

Could I just hear me out because I do feel like I connect with these animals in a dolittle in way. Could I train the mice to be like Jacques and Gus from Cinderelli, where they live in my glove compartment. But if I get pulled over and I need to produce my insurance and my registration, they hand it to me with a flourish.

[Andrew Walsh]

Gus.

[Luke Burbank]

Gus. And he's holding my insurance card and he just hands it to me and then I show it to the copy.

[Andrew Walsh]

And if you have to take a breathalyzer, the mouse takes the breathalyzer.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, some of those mice seem pretty. Pretty loaded in Cinderelli. Maybe. I'm thinking more of when dumbo falls into the bucket or whatever.

[Andrew Walsh]

I got this. I got this. Where's the miles?

[Luke Burbank]

Maybe it's more of a ratatouille kind of a thing. Could I get. You know, I'm really tired driving home. Like yesterday I was driving home from Becca's. We went down to Turner, Oregon, and we did this little half marathon race, the Cascade half marathon, which was a blast. I mean, not really the last three miles, I was in the. As they call it, the pain cave. But. But I was so tired driving home.

[Andrew Walsh]

It was a pit of despair.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm thinking of the new cool terminology. Andrew, if we ever get you Back to that 24 Hour Fitness, we're going to start talking about the pain cave. That's the new. That's the cool terminology for when you're basically at the point in your exercise where you just don't want to be doing it. I literally went into. I was not even going that far. Like, the pain cave is reserved for ultra marathons. That's reserved for people that are running 100 miles. I was in mile 12, and I was like, all right, I'm inside this pain cave. Let's look around. Let's see what's here. I was trying to psych myself out of it. But all that is to say, I was so tired driving home, physically tired, that I was like, okay, try not to fall asleep. If I could have had a ratatouille kind of pulling on my. Pulling on my chef's hat and keeping me driving, pulling on the steering wheel. I'm just saying, let's not rule out the benefits of having mice live in our car.

[Andrew Walsh]

As long as their cartoons, it makes sense. Also, I was thinking, what if it was the opposite? Instead of these mice creating a mess, if they had a sense of ownership for the insides of the cars, like, maybe they could actually take care of the car for you. They could clean it up, you know. Absolutely.

[Luke Burbank]

And we'll make a pretty dress for Cinderelli. Leave the sewing to the women. You go get the. What do they say? God, I love that song, though. When the. Cinderelli. Cinderelli Night and day. It's Cinderelli.

[Andrew Walsh]

They actually say Cinderelli, not Cinderella. I thought you were just being cutesy.

[Luke Burbank]

I was, but only in. I was. I was almost direct quoting the. The cartoon mice because that's just how cute they are. Andrew, they don't call her Cinderella. They call her Cinderelli. Cinderelli. Speaking of TikTok and the. The goings on this weekend, I really was. This is how, you know, by the way. And I'm not trying to put her on blast, but I'm. I was embroiled in some sort of CBS waiting game based on a story that was going to air and then didn't air. And I'm scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, waiting the 7:30 on Saturday night. And everyone on TikTok who are people that have large followings were just kind of like, they were all. It was like the Titanic was going down but everybody was leading the band, everybody was being brave for everybody else. I was kind of like, you guys, this is coming back. There's too much money to be made here for this thing to not be in America long term. Like, and you also have a deeply broken person who wants to be seen as heroic, who actually probably has enough levers to make this thing continue on. By that I mean the person becoming president today. So I thought it was a little funny. What I really felt like was I was looking at a lot of people on TikTok who have clearly not been around the block a ton. Maybe based on age, maybe based on like life experience. It was it really. And also probably based on the fact that this is how a lot, a number of people are like legitimately making their living. Right? I'm just somebody who likes to look at Tick Tock to distract my brain from my thoughts. But there are people who like did not have a, so a quote unquote platform. And then they did on Tick Tock they found their people on there and now they're making money and now this is their whole livelihood and someone says it's going away. So they were in their feelings about it. And I always thought like, you know, this is coming back in like five days. Like, of course it is. Well, they, of course TikTok turned it off for some reason and then put up a message honoring the incoming president who then before they were even able to do anything and be president, like yesterday, Tick Tock comes back on and is of course thanking this person who becomes president again today. Which the whole thing struck me as kind of the worst version. Like this is the worst outcome of all of it because we now have basically, you know, the three of the major, or four, if you count Facebook and Instagram as separate entities, but if you count meta as one thing, if you count meta and Twitter, and now Tick Tock, the three of the hugest social media platforms have very, very obviously bent the knee to the incoming administration. And I just think it's a really, a really shitty outcome. And it's a major self owned by the Democrats like it is such a self owned. I. Last night I was like, let me make sure I've got the timeline on this straight. Okay, the timeline on this is. BTW, this started with Donald Trump in 2020. This was Donald Trump trying to flex on China and float the idea of getting rid of TikTok. Then it, he actually pushes it through with an executive order and then TikTok takes it to the courts and then it's just kind of wending its way through the courts and it's mostly losing on national security concerns. But then you have like Marco Rubio and other Republicans, except there's one Democrat, John Warner from Virginia, who I once urinated next to. And by the way, I wish I would have hit his shoe. What a. What a. What a knob. Other than Mark Warner, this is a Republican run thing of the like Protecting America's data Act, which then ends up sailing through largely on a bipartisan basis. And then the Democrats spend a significant amount of time in court defending this piece of legislation right up to the moment when they just handed over to Donald Trump so that he can be the hero of TikTok. Like, how bad are you at politics? And also, how did you get caught up in this moral panic around TikTok? It's just so dumb.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, the whole thing is really gross. And you know, for context here, I do want to like sort of acknowledge anything I say should be considered within the context from which it comes, which is I'm not somebody who you think.

[Luke Burbank]

You just fell out of a coconut tree.

[Andrew Walsh]

Who uses, who uses TikTok. Right. And so I think what you're talking about, especially for younger people, especially for people, like there are. I don't want to exaggerate too much, but there are young people who kind of. I mean, TikTok hasn't been around that long, so I feel like I'm on the edge of hyperbole here. Which is a great song by Fleetwood Mac, right?

[Luke Burbank]

Absolutely. That was the C side to Silver Springs. The A side was go your own way, the B side was Silver Spring, and the C side was edge of.

[Andrew Walsh]

What was it? Edge of hyperbole. Yeah. Okay, so, but I was going to say that there the impact on people who are losing a community. I just want to like, honestly acknowledge that because, like, it's not my community, so I don't feel it in my.

[Luke Burbank]

Bones, but it's kind of my community. I want to just say, like, as a person who, who gets a lot of entertainment and information from it, I was bummed that it was Potentially going away and I'm with you. I want to. I don't want to short shrift that experience.

[Andrew Walsh]

So having said that, for people where this is a centerpiece of not just like you say, maybe their income and in a lot of cases their identity, but then also just their community, how they talk to people and maybe their.

[Luke Burbank]

Sobriety, there's a really big sober TikTok movement where people have really reached out to each other and kind of inspired each other. Like, that's a legit thing.

[Andrew Walsh]

So my question for you about all that is. So I was. It was funny because I was texting with you about football related stuff during the game on Saturday evening and you're like, I'm not even watching with the sound on because I'm trying to enjoy the last hours of TikTok. And then I think it was sitting.

[Luke Burbank]

By TikTok's bedside trying to make it comfortable.

[Andrew Walsh]

And I remember like, even thinking like, huh, that's funny that Luke is. That Luke is counting down the hours because I have just been very loud. Well, I guess maybe not loud wrong anymore, but like literally on Spotless, which I recorded with Hannah on Saturday afternoon, maybe three or four hours before this all went down, maybe five hours before this all went down. And I got to figure out if I'm editing this out of the show before I post it. Today we had a conversation about TikTok. I'm like, that's not going anywhere. Like, it's just not. Like there's like everything you just said, there's money in it. Trump has already said he's not going to let it go anywhere. He's going to be the populist hero around this thing. Like, it's just not going to go away. And then hours later, you're like, oh, I'm trying to enjoy the last few hours of TikTok. I'm like, oh, really? Does Luke? And then I kind of changed my thought a little bit because you're on there a lot. And like, maybe people really are thinking this is going to go away. And then poof, it does go away. And everybody I see, unlike the other social media sites, like Blue sky, everybody screen capping their notice that they can't use. They can't use anymore.

[Luke Burbank]

I screen capped mine and my daughter texted me the same screen cap at like, at like 7:37, which was. That's what I knew. She was my daughter. We both were there at the moment that it went dark.

[Andrew Walsh]

I literally think that. I mean, I saw it immediately all over the place. And I'LL bet you there is some. If you crunch the numbers, which may be impossible, you would find that was probably the most screen captain shared image, that the same exact image that everybody shared, either publicly on social media or. Because it felt like a moment, you know, And I think I do sort of understand that. Even though I wasn't there for it, like, I did open my app right away to see if I'd get the same message, which I did. And I remember during the last days of Twitter as we knew it, like, kind of going back a couple of years, there were several events where everybody was like, this is it. We're jumping ship now. And there's a sort of, like, last day of chaotic school sort of sadness, but also people showboating. And like, just so I kind of understand, if you were on Tik Tok in those last hours, there was probably that feeling in that vibe. This is everything that I'm leading up to, Luke. And my apologies for blabbing so much because it's actually a question, which is when it goes away and they post a message, which even the first message I think said, we're looking forward to working with incoming President Donald Trump or something. And then the heroic return 15 hours later in mid, you know, mid morning on Sunday, it's like, thanks to the efforts of incoming President Donald Trump, like.

[Luke Burbank]

Them, who has no legal power at this moment.

[Andrew Walsh]

So are there people who are just going to be turned off the app now, or is everybody just. Who's so hardcore into TikTok just so glad that it's back that they don't even care that it comes along with this setting of Donald Trump and our. Our hero and everything? Because, you know me, I'm. I'm ditching social media sites faster than they can make them at this point in my own personal life. So, like, maybe I'm the wrong person to ask, but I think if I were even a more aggressive TikTok user, I still think that I would be so turned off by that that I'd probably delete the app.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, it's very possible that that is a sentiment that's on there. I haven't seen a lot of people saying that that are in whatever my, as they call it, they're a for you page. But I'm also going to be honest, I haven't looked at TikTok that much since it came back.

[Andrew Walsh]

It seems to me, it seems real gross.

[Luke Burbank]

When I said that to you on Saturday, I was sort of half joking. I was watching that. I mean, I do. I will say that like I am now a person who is. If I, unless I'm watching like severance or something where the dialogue is totally critical. If I'm watching a sporting event that is two NFL teams that I'm not following. Like, in other words, if I'm watching a game that isn't a Seahawk game in the NFL, there's a decent chance that I have the TV at half volume and I'm scrolling TikTok only because my brain needs complete stimulation at all times. If it's a Seahawks game, I'm. I'm watching and listening because I take it more seriously. But. So that was a little bit of what was going on on Saturday night. But that being said, I don't think out of a. I don't. I'll say this, I feel like it's, it's a gross outcome that Tick Tock out of a sense of self preservation. I mean, what they identified was that their best chance at getting to continue in the US Relatively unfettered was to sidle up to Donald Trump, which is unfortunately what the Zuckerbergs of the world and to some degree the Musk. So I think Musk is just rotten from the inside out. I don't think he's, I think with like Zuckerberg and Bezos, I think it's, I honestly think it's, it's a, it's a slight combination of they're both taking too much testosterone and doing too much like fricking Jiu Jitsu and trying to get ripped. And then somehow that's infected their brain. So they, they're unfortunately starting to drink that Kool Aid. I think Musk has been mainlining that Kool Aid for too long now. And I think TikTok just, they just are like, well, we would like to keep printing money in the US when we sell. Luke Cable management. I've been meaning to tell you about these since we came back from the break. Andrew. I got these things on the Tick Tock shop that are these like little kind of hinges, they're plastic that you can stick to things and then do cable management with. It's a whole new world here in the Madrona Hill studio. But they basically, I think this is a completely cynical move by TikTok to just, oh, of course, try to stay in business as opposed to an ideological one. So I don't know if that's me justifying my, like, I, I somehow, believe it or not, I find it less repellent that TikTok is doing it, that I find it when you have somebody like Zuckerberg or Bezos who at one time were standing up to this person.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And who have now completely and totally either through. Either because of just naked ambition with their business, but I think because of brain rot and, and again getting red pilled to some degree and, and a bunch of other really pernicious, you know, things, I find that more troubling than a Chinese owned company just being like, yeah, who do we, what do we say? What do we write in American English on this website so that we just keep getting money. Like, duh. Like, imagine an American company that just had to be like, you know what? We really appreciate the support of President Xi. Like, you'd be like, yeah, of course you're doing that in America or, excuse me, in China. American company. Like, so I don't know that, that, I don't know if there's, if that holds up logically, but I think that's kind of how I feel about it. That being said, I played this drop at the beginning of the show, which was a guy who basically said, I don't know, his point was like, you could have left it down a little longer. You can bend it for a little longer. It doesn't have to come back that fast legitimately. Andrew. When it went away on Saturday night, I was like, huh? Well, I'm a little surprised it really happened. And I was like, welcome to the rest of my life. Like, okay, fine, I don't have this to look at. I'll just look at other stuff. Maybe books, maybe other, I mean, maybe a different website that pops up. But I was like, okay, like I, I mourned it for, like, I was more sad about leaving Twitter than I was about leaving Tick Tock. Because on Twitter I kind of had a thing going on TikTok. I was like, wow, okay, that's. I did not expect that thing to disappear. My guess is it will come back at some point when like Trump forces its sale to Elon Musk or some nightmare scenario. But honestly, like, I wasn't, I wasn't that sad about it. And yesterday after our little run and Becca was like, we were getting breakfast and she goes, well, I guess Tick Tock's back. And I thought I could have used a longer break. Literally, I was like, I could have used a month.

[Andrew Walsh]

But did you find yourself logging back in? It sounds like you find yourself using it.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I didn't have to log back in. I just, you know, I was, I was logged in.

[Andrew Walsh]

I just mean opening it up or whatever.

[Luke Burbank]

No, because no, I'm not trying to be. I'm not trying to. To. To be whatever, you know, obtuse there. What I mean is if I would have had to type back in my information or read download it, that might have been enough of a barrier.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like I just. A time you said log in the way one might say, did you begin surfing the information highway like I was.

[Luke Burbank]

Don't make me laugh, please, sir. I. I mean, really, like I did look at it again because it is just a tile on my phone that litter like my brain and my muscles.

[Andrew Walsh]

Your thumb goes right there.

[Luke Burbank]

My thumb goes. It's on my thumb. Yeah, sort of, you know, without even being directed consciously by my brain, my thumb goes to click. It is in the upper. Let's see where it is on my phone. I'll show you my phone. Look, I don't know if you can see this. It's right here. It is the northwest corner of the apps on my phone. I don't think I did that intentionally, but it certainly represents something like. And so I found myself poking it a couple of times because I'm used to doing that. But then honestly, not like I didn't spend a tremendous amount of time looking at TikTok last night, as much as I might in other scenarios. What I found myself trying to do was read like find a newspaper in America that didn't have nine stories about the inauguration. And it was hard, it was difficult because the ones I subscribe to, that's their whole friggin Bailiwick right now. So I don't know, it was a kind of. And then also, and this isn't. I actually was trying to make sure to not bring this up because this is the last day that we need to be talking about football of all things. But I did. I got home last night and basically Beck and I were hanging out during the Ravens Bills game. And so I was like. And I realized there was a point at which it was like, now if I. If I were to race home, I might get to watch the last two minutes. So what I'm going to do is just wait. I'm going to go kind of media blackout, which is fine. Anyway, thankfully, I'm going to go home, I'm going to get in the bathtub and I'm going to watch it on my Fubo TV on my laptop. I was all excited for this and of course got home and there was. I hadn't recorded the game, so I was trying to like turn on Fubo but then tell it to record the game. So I could go back to the beginning of the game and I just got completely pwned. Another brand new Internet term. I got completely pwned because as I'm turning it on and I'm trying to do the. Like I'm trying to sing.

[Andrew Walsh]

You know, just to be clear, I was misunderstanding here.

[Luke Burbank]

Your.

[Andrew Walsh]

Your intention was not to watch the. This sounds like a dumb question. For a second I thought you were just going to watch the end and then maybe if you liked it, go back from the beginning. No, you're trying to watch from the blackout.

[Luke Burbank]

I was trying to. Yeah, I was trying to not know anything about the game and. But. But in order to get it to. It's. This is overly complicated, but basically it. Much like your television at home, if you're trying to tape a game.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

There's that moment where you turn on your TV to try to get to the screen where you can start from the beginning, but you run the risk of jumping in in real time.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yep, I know what you mean.

[Luke Burbank]

And I was like trying so hard to not jump in in real time. I was just hoping it was a goddamn BK commercial or something. And instead it was Josh Allen. And I was like, well, far now I know they're not interviewing Josh Allen because he lost.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay. So it wasn't even the last two minutes. At this point, the game is totally over.

[Luke Burbank]

Game's over. And I'm trying to not look at the screen. I'm trying to like. And I'm hearing voices and I'm trying to go. I'm literally going. And then. But I needed to move the cursor. And in that I see Josh Allen, he's interviewed on. He's a big quarterback.

[Andrew Walsh]

You see, that hasn't been remarked upon.

[Luke Burbank]

And I was just like, come on, guys. Now, I mean, they ain't. They ain't interviewing him because he lost.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, no.

[Luke Burbank]

So anyway, I got to say you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Said you don't want to talk about football because on all days I actually think maybe like, you know, I really lost myself in some football this weekend.

[Luke Burbank]

That was your coping mechanism.

[Andrew Walsh]

I was going to say. Yeah, maybe that's on my mind. Because they had to play that Eminem song during the Detroit game. In fact, didn't they play Lose Yourself as bump out music? I think at one point.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, really? Because I was on TikTok, remember?

[Andrew Walsh]

Because Michigan, Saturday night.

[Luke Burbank]

That was Saturday night.

[Andrew Walsh]

That one was Saturday night. What a hell of a game. It was a great, great weekend for football. And we had talked about this a little bit last week that I've just been really getting into the playoff. I don't think it's just me, by the way. I thought there was something going on in my life that I'm way into playoff football this year in a way I haven't been in previous years when a team I don't root for when all of my teams are basically eliminated. I just think it's a really interesting playoff here. Everybody was talking about. Every time I would turn on the radio that was anything sports related or adjacent, people were talking about the huge matchup of the game that you just mentioned, the Bills Ravens game and how, like.

[Luke Burbank]

Which, by the way, delivered.

[Andrew Walsh]

Which totally delivered.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, a two point conversion that dropped. I mean, it doesn't get more. Oh, that was the other thing.

[Andrew Walsh]

That guy's Andrews too. It was.

[Luke Burbank]

I know. And on my. Here's. So let me just. Quickly, really, really fast. I'm sorry I'm interrupting your story, but like, like the other thing that happened was somehow in trying to get into this FUBO world, literally a headline pops up on my phone and I was trying to not look at and it says something like, brutal drop by Andrews. And I know that Andrews is a tight end for the Ravens. Well, guess what? Mark Andrews, I think is his name. Guess what? He both had a fumble. Which when I saw that, I was like, well, that's the brutal drop. And then it's like we're getting down like they score a touchdown. And I'm like, okay, the Ravens just scored. But also I saw Josh Allen being interviewed. Is this the brutal drop? I'm just trying to like reverse back to a headline I saw.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yep. No, I. Trying to. Yeah, trying to have kind of what we used to call a media blackout, but then having little things seep into your consciousness and then trying to enjoy the game anyway, it can be a real. It can be a real trip. But all of that is to say I did end up. For those who are just on the edge of their seats waiting to find out, I did end up like kind of taking the day off of my volunteer gig. I still, like, I woke up and I made a bunch of coffee, actually, because it was so cold outside. I made even like double coffee and hot chocolate, everything. And then I went and I did help them set up and I dropped off all the coffee supplies, but I was like, just take the coffee supplies back to the storage area after this. I'll pick them up on Monday. I'm out of here. And we had made arrangements and there were enough volunteers. I appreciate Everybody kind of stepping up to do that in my absence. None of them listened. I don't know why I'm giving them an Oscar acceptance speech right now. But all of that is to say I really did enjoy it. And so the game, the big game of the weekend, this one that we're talking about now is on Saturday, or I'm sorry, on Sunday at 3:30pm Usually my volunteer thing is from 4. Well, I'm sorry, from 3 to 4. But the setup and everything, it just takes up my day basically up until like 4 or 5. So all of that is to say I just had this one day of like taking off. I had sent to our coordinator, like, I'm thinking about taking the day off. But then I started to like, back out of. I'm like, no, that's okay. You guys are light handed. She's like, no, you're taking the day off. Like you're out there all the time. Take the day off. And I really appreciated that. But now the conundrum continues. It doesn't continue because I will be out there next week.

[Luke Burbank]

But the thing is, Chiefs.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. What it has done is this was. This Sunday was the premier matchup, but it ended in a way that makes next week's matchup even more premiere.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, sort of.

[Andrew Walsh]

Of course, although Ravens, there's less of a backstory with Ravens Chiefs, that's still a great matchup. That would still be tempting, but something very specific about Bills, Chiefs, the history of these two teams now the AFC championship. And I swear last year the AFC championship started at Sunday Night Football time. More like five. I could be wrong about that because I thought it was like, I remember I thought we lit a fire in the fireplace and watched Bengals Chiefs on my laptop last year. But maybe I'm wrong about that. But I look up the schedule and now next Sunday, the real matchup of the season is taking place right when I'm volunteering.

[Luke Burbank]

And if we're doing this and I, I like your. I like how you think Walsh. Now I'm promoting this as self care.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, it is.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't care if you care about football or not. We're not talking about the inauguration in this moment. Yeah. And that's a distraction maybe we all need.

[Andrew Walsh]

And we're talking about how I spend my Sundays and prioritize things. We're not talking about like, and also the unhoused.

[Luke Burbank]

There's a lot of important. There's a lot of. My point is like, things.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't even consider this sports talk. This is not you And I like kind of getting into the weeds about who's.

[Luke Burbank]

I know. But I'm taking it into the.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, you're taking it.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm driving it right into the weeds. No, no, no. Really? I decided two things happened this weekend. One, and this is. We were talking about this on our text chain. A peace and love. We've got listeners in Kansas City. We've got great listeners in Kansas City who are Chiefs fans. But I. They're officially now the NFL heel to me based on Patrick Mahomes is based on the way the NFL treats Patrick Mahomes. Like, if you look at him wrong, it is a penalty. And the wagers.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And I mean. And I don't. Luckily, I don't think think Patrick Romes is in the personality department in Aaron Rodgers, but just in the. He did this move during the game on Saturday where he's running. He's already been gifted two roughing penalties that should not have been called. And he's running to the sideline and he literally stops so that the defender behind him bumps into him and then he throws himself on the ground like he's been tased. And luckily the officials did not throw the flag on that. But something inside of me shifted. And me and Ders, by the way, welcome back to my life, Ders. Me and Ders were both comparing notes that we didn't have any particular thoughts about the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes up until that moment. And that moment, something inside me kind of shifted. I was like, enough is enough. You've had enough victories, you've had enough beneficial calls. You've had enough. You know who hasn't had enough? The Buffalo Bills never won a Super Bowl. Only team other than the Vikings rip to go four times and never win. I think we officially stand the Buffalo Bills. Now, I don't think that there's any other logical way to look at this.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, absolutely. And if you're going to bring the NFC into it, I'm. I went from, you know, watching them be to the Buccaneers, and I was rooting for the Buccaneers, so I didn't love that outcome. And then. And them dismantle. Wait, who did they.

[Luke Burbank]

Who are you talking about here?

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm sorry. I was talking about the commanders. Did I not say the commander? I started to say the nfc and then I never. I never finished my thought.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, Washington.

[Andrew Walsh]

But who did the Commanders beat this weekend? Because I was rooting.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, they. They beat Detroit.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, Detroit. Of course. Yeah. And I was rooting hard for Detroit. Really hard for Detroit. But the moment city, the moment the Commanders won, I'm like, oh, but now I'm rooting for them. There's something about that team that I watched them beat two teams. I was rooting for more, but. But they're so fun to watch. Jaden Daniels is so damn cool. I had no idea I'd been hearing his name all season, but I didn't see any of it. And so like, I'm definitely rooting for. I mean, no offense to our Philly listeners, but like Commanders are interesting. I think Wayne just. That's the only last sort of interesting storyline on the NFC side. But on the afc it's just been like, it's so interesting. Like all of these teams in these matchups. Like I was just like, I feel like I'm a. I'm addicted to this, to this playoff drug. It's been so good. And now next weekend at 3:30, like, you know, in the morning we'll be able to watch the Eagles Commanders and I assume the Eagles will just win that, right? Will they just roll? I don't know.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't think so. I think that Jaden Daniels is having like, he's having one of those years where he seems to just be improving and, and like, you know, almost like when Russell Wilson really kind of broke out where you've just got somebody. I don't know if Russell Wilson was technically a rookie. Maybe it was more like his second year. But like there are these kind of moments where everything sort of coalesces for a quarterback and they become almost unstoppable. I don't, I just, I don't think the Eagles are actually that good. I think that the Commanders will win. Honestly.

[Andrew Walsh]

That would be great. I would like to see them go to the Super Bowl. That would be kind of interesting. And then on the AFC side. Yeah, certainly the bill. So if you're looking at a Bills, I think a Bills commander's super bowl would actually be interesting.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. Except I didn't even realize this till about. Of all people, Becca reminded me of this yesterday. I'm going to be flying to England on the day of the Super Bowl. I forgot that that's on the 9th. And so I don't even know if I'm going to know what happened in the Super Bowl.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's interesting. I mean the big thing for us, both me and you, and especially my show with Genevieve about commercials, the super bowl is big because the podcasts we do on Monday the 10th in this case are usually like even TBTL. Usually we just Lean heavily into what we thought of all the commercials, I guess. You will not be able to do that.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm gonna. I need to actually look at the exact. Well, it's like I'm flying. The flight goes from Seattle to New York and then New York to London. I don't know what my access to any kind of live programming will be. We'll. We'll see. You know, I'll try to. I'll try to at least get eyes on. And the other thing is, I've got like a 25 hour head start on you on Monday. In other words, I could get up and probably FuboTV the entire thing before you've even opened your eyes on the west coast of America. So I'll be. I'll. I'll make sure that I'm up to speed. But I, I forgot to. First of all, it's never fully occurred to me that we do the super bowl in February anymore, because when I was growing up, it was a January thing. Oh.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And so I. They've probably been doing it in February for 15 years and it doesn't still feel like real to me, but. Yeah, I know, it's. I. I'm with you. Like, I think that the number one thing that had to happen was for me to tell you a couple weeks ago that I have no interest in NFL football anymore. For me to now be like, pretty much more dialed into this playoffs than I have been in a long time when the Seahawks aren't in it.

[Andrew Walsh]

But I have a question for you that this really. Oh, and actually, we are running a little bit out of time, so let me just ask you just a quick question. I swear last year I was paying attention to college football just a little bit more because of the local teams that were involved in one way or another. And I swear last year there was a. I feel like I even asked you on the show about this. I swear there was like a full month of no college football between the last playoff game and the championship. And me saying to you, that's really weird that these kids don't play for an entire month before they come back for the championship. You're like, that's just the way it is. And now this year, there was only one week. There was just like the normal playoff.

[Luke Burbank]

Because they expanded the playoffs again this year. Yeah, it's like 12 teams now.

[Andrew Walsh]

So I'm not insane. There used to be longer.

[Luke Burbank]

You're not.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, because I was like, I swear I was shocked by this last year, and now it's just like oh yeah, no, it just rolls right into next week.

[Luke Burbank]

In the olden days, in, in, in back in my day before there was any playoff system at all was just bowl games. Literally what would happen is the season would be over in like, you know, December. And then, I swear to God, I don't know if this really happened. This could just be sort of me overly Pollyanna eating it. I think there was even like literally a time when the football players would go home for Christmas. Like be like, school's out. People are going to do Christmas with their family. I'm sure that wasn't the case because it was still a incredibly, you know, lucrative and money driven entity that was college football.

[Andrew Walsh]

But I don't know why, but I'm just picturing very large college students just ripping open GI Joe toys.

[Luke Burbank]

That's what I'm, that's, that's. I, I choose to believe. I choose to live. I choose to live my life in the spirit of Steve, Emmanuel and Gandhi. Anyway, four people got that joke and I appreciate you. Anyway, so, yeah, in the olden days, it was a really long break, like, and then when they brought in the college, the playoff thing, it was four teams. So that was still. You had two games and then the championship, but now it's like, it's bigger. I think it's like 12 teams. So I think that ate up that, that, that downtime. So there's like not very much downtime anymore anymore. And here we are. I guess they're playing tonight. That's a thing that regardless of, I'm not. This is not going to be like when I said I don't care about NFL Super Wild Card Weekend and then I did. I could not possibly care about college football less. Some of that is because the Huskies aren't good anymore and some of it because I feel like it is such an unbelievably broken like unit it now. College football does not achieve, achieve even one thing that college football should achieve. Either it should be professional football or it should be fully amateur. It is somehow the worst of every single possible thing a sports league can be, in my opinion. And I just have no, again, if I was a fan of Ohio State or I guess this round, Notre Dame. Boy, when Notre Dame and Penn State were playing each other, I want to say this with peace and love. I don't know which one. I don't know how the various factions of my semi racist Philadelphia family felt because they're either Penn State or they're Notre Dame folks. There is a, there is an intense Intense, how do I call it? East coast maga. Weird energy around the fan bases of both Notre Dame and Penn State. And when they play each other, it's like it's real. It's real Civil war. It's real. Tearing families apart.

[Andrew Walsh]

I didn't realize that. I didn't know that I guess about either. But I.

[Luke Burbank]

These are the people I come from is the only reason I feel like I can kind of indicate towards that.

[Andrew Walsh]

There are the Notre Dame thing is just because the Irish, because I always think I'm like, oh, they're, they're Catholic Irish. Like those are the, those are the demographics that tend to like root for Notre Dame aside from people who are connected to the school or from that region. So I didn't realize that there was a kind of a, aside from the Catholicism, a sort of socially right leaning aspect to that.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't. What I will say is that growing up, up. Let me put it this way. The comedian Shane Gillis, who was hired and then fired from SNL and who is pretty red pilled, although I do think funny at times, but pretty red pilled, who's described himself as being. This is his joke. The kind of guy who he says he looks like the guy who says, let's see all of the body cam footage. That's a sh. That's how Shane Gillis frames himself. Huge Notre Dame fan. Fan. Huge Notre Dame fan. And everybody that I know in my personal life and I know a lot of Notre Dame fans because of my people being from Philly and being Irish Catholic. It checks out. I'm not saying every single person in these two fan bases of Penn State and, and Notre Dame are. I'm not trying to describe all of them. Paint them all with the same brush. But I'm going on the Penn State fans that I know personally and the Notre Dame fans that I know personally and they're often in the same family. They're often in the same Irish fraternal organization. Getting drunk in the basement of the ancient Order of Hibernia having bad takes and the idea that those two teams had to play each other, it was just like a collision of bad take fan bases.

[Andrew Walsh]

Getting drunk. I will say getting drunk in the basement of a fraternal organization does sound right up my alley though.

[Luke Burbank]

That sounds that part. You take out the, you take out the Sinn Fein element. And I do think it's. I do think it can be a vibe. It can be a vibe. Vibe. Thank you for being a. Let's thank some donors. Andrew. I was, I Was almost kind of scared to open the donor doc today because I was like, it's going to be Happy Valley, Pennsylvania. Happy Valley, Pennsylvania. South Bend, Indiana, please. If you are a Notre Dame or a Penn State fan and you listen to this show, you are. You are part of the. You are part of the good part of the fan fan base.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, anybody from Ohio, do you feel.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, here's the thing. I don't know enough Ohio State fans to make an. A very hurtful and yet anecdotal sweeping proclamation. I do know enough Penn State and O'Day, or I said O'Day because they're also the Fighting Irish, Notre Dame fans. But I. I don't know where these folks fall, but I know that none of them seem to be in the affected regions. So thank you, Ali Palmer, from being from Salt Lake City, Utah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Go Ute. Is that a thing? Are the utes.

[Luke Burbank]

That is the. Yeah, but I don't think they're. Are they in Salt Lake City?

[Andrew Walsh]

The.

[Luke Burbank]

The Utah utes? They might be. They very well could be. You could also say, go Cougars. That's where Brigham Young is.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, okay, cool.

[Luke Burbank]

You've got. You've got. What's.

[Andrew Walsh]

The utes? Is fun to say, though, like that, isn't it? No offense to the Cougars, but maybe because we have that team around here, too. Cougars. I.

[Luke Burbank]

Sure.

[Andrew Walsh]

There's something very exotic and fun about going Go.

[Luke Burbank]

You kind of feels like you're doing a My Cousin Vinnie thing, too, right? Because famously.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, you.

[Luke Burbank]

There was two.

[Andrew Walsh]

Look at the Utes.

[Luke Burbank]

There were two Utes. And then the judge is like, two Utes.

[Andrew Walsh]

I forgot.

[Luke Burbank]

Is the.

[Andrew Walsh]

I didn't see that.

[Luke Burbank]

Is that Fred Murray or Gwyn.

[Andrew Walsh]

Fred McMurray.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, from Big Shaggy Dog or from My Three Sons? Is he the judge in that? While I'm thanking Julie Lambert of Julie in California, can we get. Get eyes on who plays the judge and my Cousin Vinnie.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Is that a. I don't think that's a Fred. I don't think it's Fred McMurray. I think it's a different.

[Andrew Walsh]

Could it be Fred Gwynn? Is he the guy who's in, like, pet cemetery? The guy, like, the real New England with the big face? That would come back. Right. Let me see. Okay.

[Luke Burbank]

Actually, I. I remembered the scene based on that impression. Thanks, Julie and Julian. Thanks also to Kristen Henry, who's in High Point, North Carolina.

[Andrew Walsh]

If this isn't Fred Gwynn, it's the guy that I thought was Fred Gwynn. This Is the face I was picturing. How did I know that?

[Luke Burbank]

Good picturing. What's the person's name?

[Andrew Walsh]

Fred Gwynn. Yep. Gwa look at me.

[Luke Burbank]

It's an Andrew W. Monday, the ute. It's also a Sarah Cantler. Monday. Sarah is in Brooklyn, New York.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hey, thanks, Sarah.

[Luke Burbank]

Sarah, thanks for supporting the program. Appreciate you. Thanks to Kara Greenwalt of Seattle, Washington. Andrew, do I look a little, I don't know, somehow more. Even more balanced, more centered, better today on camera than normal?

[Andrew Walsh]

If it is less. Weirdly, half your face is melting and the other half.

[Luke Burbank]

No, I look great. And you know why? Because I finally got a sun shade.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, nice, nice.

[Luke Burbank]

I got a curtain and that cuts down on the weird side light that was coming in the glare. And those are the kinds of things, Andrew, that we purchase with the pay that we get. By the way. I guess I could have maybe tried to make that a show expense. I didn't. But, like, that's because of the donors that we. I mean, we do little things like being able to buy finally a decent curtain so that I can try to, you know, not look in, like, not be in the most uneven light of all time. And that's thanks to Kara Greenawalt and. And Erica Brazier of Lacey, Washington.

[Andrew Walsh]

What's Lacy's claim to fame? I should know this. That's not the giant egg. That's not Lacey.

[Luke Burbank]

No, that's Winlock Lacey's in the greater Olympia area. I mean, for me, the big draw to Lacey is one of two restaurants there. There's a Taco Time in Lacey that I love. There's also an Arby's that I used to go to. And I think.

[Andrew Walsh]

I really thought you were talking about a couple of, like, I'm not even joking. Like, oh, a couple of farm to table little spots. Spots or something. There are two restaurants that I love.

[Luke Burbank]

No, no, no, sir.

[Andrew Walsh]

One is an Arby's and one is a Taco Time. How was Taco time the high watermark of that? And I say that as somebody who loves Arby's. I didn't think it was going down from Taco Time.

[Luke Burbank]

Camaro. Kevin. I once went to that Taco Time in Lacey. We had gone to a fight, like a boxing match at like the. I think it's like Seven Springs Casino or Seven Feathers or something. Some like down by my sister Hannah in, like, Shelton. And we'd watched this boxing match and then we had gone back to. We were. Long story short, we were. We were staying in a. In A. In a hotel not too far from this Taco Time in Lacey. And we were so famished, slash probably hungover. When we got up, we went to this Taco time. I'm gonna say we ordered $40 each of food and we just laid it all out on the dashboard and just like, just ate in silence at the lake in the Lacey. Why we didn't go in. I don't understand why this was occurring in the car.

[Andrew Walsh]

George Brett shit his pants on the radio.

[Luke Burbank]

Honestly, probably. I mean, so, yeah, no, those are a couple. The other thing I'll say is I think it technically, I think the Slater Kinney exit might be in Lacey Wash.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay.

[Luke Burbank]

Driving on ice on I5. And you see that overpass that's marked Slater Kinney? That's. I think it falls within the parameters of Lacy. So those are. That's everything I can give you on Lacy Wash.

[Andrew Walsh]

I see. And isn't. Isn't Brad Blackburn from there, too? Is that why you were seeing Brad Blackburn, the MMA fighter Brad Blackburn? I just. I was trying to pretend I knew what I was talking about. One of the. One of the notable people, according to the Wikipedia pages, from Blackburn, from Lacy, as an MMA fighter. And I was just trying to, you know, I really wanted to just drop that in and just see if you just believe that. I just knew. I couldn't tell you.

[Luke Burbank]

I couldn't tell you, honestly. When Ken Shamrock got out of the game, when Hoist Gracie stopped putting people in the Gracie submission hold circa 1989, that was when I stopped knowing who anyone in MMA is.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, black. And it wasn't called the Lacey.

[Luke Burbank]

Joe Cole, he puts them in something called the Arby's. He puts them in the Taco Time parking lot, and they never recover.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right.

[Luke Burbank]

The Cane Cake. Precisely. Thank you, donors.

[Andrew Walsh]

Foreign.

[Luke Burbank]

Hello and welcome to Top Story. All right, before we get on out of here today, my sister. My sister Hannah, who actually tipped me off to this. I didn't catch Saturday Night Live this weekend, but the Cold Open was an MSNBC set, like, it was the set of msnbc. And the premise was sort of MSNBC trying to figure out how they're going to cover this next four years, which is actually a legitimate question and something I think that they probably wrestle with a lot. But so it's. It's hosted by, you know, somebody playing Rachel Maddow, and they've got Joy Ann Reid, and they've got. What's her name? Stephanie Rue Rule, rather. And they've got. Who's the. You don't Watch as much as me, but how am I blank? Oh, Ari Melber, the attorney who's become a sort of a commentator and host there. And then our pal, television's Chris Hayes, was represented as well. I was very proud of Chris. Very happy to see somebody there pretending to be him.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I just learned about this via the show sheet this morning. I was, like, pretty blown away. Like, obviously, I know Chris is very famous, but, like, it occurred to me, like, wow, when you're a level of fame that you're being portrait that's pretty.

[Luke Burbank]

Much pretending to be you who played.

[Andrew Walsh]

Them then, or are you getting to all that?

[Luke Burbank]

I want to say the actor. I want to say the performer is named. Like, I'm doing this off top of my head. I think his name might be John Millhouser. Is that a different person on that show who's not on the show anymore? You'd think I would have this. Let's see Saturday Night Live.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm looking it up.

[Luke Burbank]

This is the thing about it. Our boy Chris on the set, but he's sort of getting skewered the least. They do call him woke young Sheldon, which I thought was kind of funny. Although not really Chris's vibe. You know what I mean? Like, I know Chris. Chris is not. Chris is not young Sheldon. Chris is a guy who, like, went to high school in the Bronx and, like, pick up basketball. Like, the. The fact that they're calling him woke young Sheldon, I was like, that joke kind of makes. Maybe it's just because I know Chris, so I'm a little bit, like, protective of him. But I'm also like, you guys, you misunderstand what this dude is all about a little bit. Let me.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't know how to say his last name, but it's dismute. Dismute.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh. Oh, okay.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't think I'm saying that right. Right.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't know. I thought his name was John Milhouser. Hello and welcome to msnbc. I'm Rachel Meadow. This is Sarah Sherman, AKA Sarah Squirm, playing Rachel Maddow. Dads, you better hide your older bookish lesbian daughters. Cause. Yeah, I'm back on TV tonight for our special inauguration weekend coverage. I'm joined by our panel of MSNBC hosts, basically like the Avengers. For your aunt, it's Ari Melber. Thanks, Rachel. Joy. I was wondering, by the way. So this is the whole thing with Ari Melbourne, who's obviously very smart, very poised individual. Ari Melbur's lane, or like, the thing that Ari Melbur loves More than anything in the world is working hip hop lyrics into his analysis.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, really?

[Luke Burbank]

Do you know this at all?

[Andrew Walsh]

I did not. I don't like the sound of that.

[Luke Burbank]

He's like, again, he's like, very, very smart, you know, attorney who is become a TV host. And again, very. He's very good at drilling down on issues, but often punctuated with or sort of highlighted by saying it's like, you know, it's like Jay Z said or whatever, you know. And so I was like, are they gonna do that with him? And oh, yeah, Andrew. They went there. Speed. Glad to be here. Stephanie Rule. Hey, girlfriend. And finally, Chris Hayes, AKA woke Sheldon. Okay, Drag me, mama. Well, tonight we have a lot of news to cover. The Lea wildfires are officially affecting thousands. By the way, this was. This sketch overall, other than the fact that someone we know was represented in it, which was the highlight, was a little rough. Like, I feel like they were. There was. Sarah Sherman was having some issues staying in the character and kind of like hitting the, you know, the. What was on the teleprompter, etc. But really what ended up unfolding over it was over the course of the sketch because I kept being like, okay, let's see more of our guy Chris. Let's see what they're going to do with Chris. What are they doing with Chris? And what they did with Chris was not a ton because he does not have annoying characteristics on air. He does not have. So what they went with the Stephanie Rule thing, which, by the way, a little. I mean, they get to make the jokes. They want their joke with Stephanie Rule, who hosts something I think called like the. The round wrap up or the roundup or the whatever. I actually really like Stephanie Rule.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's. That's the one person I don't have any context for Stephanie Rule at all.

[Luke Burbank]

I think pretty. I think pretty. Pretty long time. And again, I. I really like, like, they decided to go the joke. So what they did is they sort of identified the joke around each host. Like, what do they do a lot that we can lampoon. And with Stephanie, it was the fact that she sort of like has a very casual nature during the hosting of her show where she's got her glasses off and she's kind of got maybe her one part of her glasses in her mouth that she's asking these questions of her panel. Their joke with her was that she's sort of being like a sex pot, that she's just kind of being overly whatever. Their joke with Ari Melber was that he constantly working in rap lyrics. Kind of constant, like, forcing them in. They couldn't really come up with anything to nail our guy Chris Hayes with, because Chris Hayes does not have any annoying habits on television.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I got a list.

[Luke Burbank]

They were like, the only thing they. At one point, they're trying to make this joke that, like, the. The literally the only recurring joke was that people were thinking that Chris was Rachel Maddow.

[Andrew Walsh]

I was just reading a little, of course, from the pages of the Washington. I'm sorry. Of the New York Post. They were today. They were like, the biggest burns came to Chris Hayes and that everybody confuses him with Rachel Maddow. I'm like.

[Luke Burbank]

Which I would imagine has never happened once in the. Because. Because. Glasses. I'm not.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'll bet you conservative. I'll bet you conservatives, like, dial in on all kinds of insults for the MSNBC crew. I'm sure that that is something that is maybe around amongst the readers of the Post, potentially.

[Luke Burbank]

You think that the readers of the Post are taking time out of their day to make a. Actually, Chris would know probably not that he reads it.

[Andrew Walsh]

I know this sounds weird, but, like, I feel like we should just get back to the tape because I haven't heard this yet. But, like, I just remember, and it really stuck in my brain. I mentioned it recently, like, the conservative talk show host who would take over the studio after you got done with Ross and Burbank. And I was producing that show. Oh, yeah. I just remember hearing, like, the snide comments of, like, the people who are more conservative in the room, like, judging the looks of MSNBC people. And I could sort of see, with the gender dynamic stuff going on, I could see them just being like, oh, yeah. Which is Which. I don't know that I've never heard people say that, but I could certainly see knuckle draggers making, like, chris, get at us.

[Luke Burbank]

I know that today's a pretty quiet day for you, so when you get done listening to tbt, why did we.

[Andrew Walsh]

Not have Chris on today, by the way? That seems like.

[Luke Burbank]

I can't think of any reason. Andrew, that doesn't look like anything to me. Do you know that I tried to find that tape from Westworld and they never say it in the clear. It's so messed up.

[Andrew Walsh]

I can picture the scene. She's outside. She's on the porch or like, just off the board standing in front of the front porch of that. Of that old Western house that she and her dad.

[Luke Burbank]

Shockingly hard to find. Rachel. What's her name? No, no, no, that's.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's the other one. I'm bad at that game.

[Luke Burbank]

You know Rachel Evanwood.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

It's hard to find her saying it without, like a massive swell of Westworld music underneath. You know, you want to go back and watch that.

[Andrew Walsh]

You, knowing Evan Rachel Wood's name there just felt like. Like you just. You just did something miraculous. Because I'm so bad with people's names. And then there are certain, like, actors who I don't have a great beat on. So I get them all confused. Like, I don't know, one of the Rachel's. Right. Or one of the Chris's or whatever. Like Chris Evans and all those guys. And so you say that. I was, like, thrilled. I was like, how did you get that? It's like, oh, because you're a human being.

[Luke Burbank]

We've lowered the bar so far on this show and in this nation. All I will say is because I'm not going to play the rest of the sketch because the audio would be very annoying. Because the premise was they've all decided that they're not going to. The MSNBC hosts are not going to sort of COVID every single deranged thing that Trump says. And then, of course, as you might imagine, immediately Trump starts saying deranged things and then they just keep getting interrupted by this breaking news Sounder. And I mean, the whole thing was, I got to be honest with you, you, as far as it fell in line with most of the cold opens, which is not their best work.

[Andrew Walsh]

No.

[Luke Burbank]

Other than the fact that someone that we kind of know was had a Saturday Night Live performer had to spend the whole week watching clips of them and trying to get down their vibe. And so I feel in a bizarre way, like TBTL was honored by the fact that our friend, television's Chris Hayes was portrayed on the show. I wish they would have utilized his character more in the sketch. But also. So he did not give them enough to work with. He is not quoting rap lyrics all the time or, or eating his glasses or whatever. Ever. He's not.

[Andrew Walsh]

Chris. Be quirky, Chris.

[Luke Burbank]

Start doing some weird ass. So then they could do an impression of you and then we can start getting. You can get more airtime and then we can know someone who's getting more airtime.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly. Get a face tattoo.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm just picturing that would be. I wonder if msnbc. I wonder what their response to that would be.

[Andrew Walsh]

I guess it really does depend on the tattoo.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, I'll. I don't what this. We got to wrap things we gotta go.

[Andrew Walsh]

Don't you have a flight to catch or something?

[Luke Burbank]

I catch flights. Not feelings, Andrew. That's the, that's what I live by. I do have to run to something right now and I was gonna go into a whole thing about how I guess Mike Tyson got the last laugh with his face tattoo but I just don't feel that's a strong ending to today's show.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, best not to bring it up.

[Luke Burbank]

Probably not today anyway. Listen, thank you for listening to the program today everybody. We'll be back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio. Hope that today's show was some sort of a distraction. It was for me anyway. Was it for you, Andrew?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, definitely.

[Luke Burbank]

You got to work in some NFL.

[Andrew Walsh]

I mean I, I don't, I don't like to say stuff like this because I don't want to make you feel too good about yourself or what we're doing here but this is one of those things where this has happened before. I had a tough time waking up today. It's a dark friggin day. But often I get done talking with you for like an hour and a half or something and actually I do feel better. I'm thinking about football and things that Chris can ink onto his face instead of the worst of the world, the.

[Luke Burbank]

The ascension of the Buffalo Bills and the Chris Hayes face tattoos. If there's two takeaways ways that's right, today's shows, that's where we're going. So anyway, thanks for listening everybody. We'll see you tomorrow. In the meantime, have a great Monday. Take care of yourselves and please remember, no mountain too tall and good luck to all. Power out.