The Basement Yard – Episode #529: Announcing The Word Of The Year!

Release Date: November 17, 2025
Hosts: Joe Santagato & Frank Alvarez (Santagato Studios)
Episode Theme: The playful unveiling and discussion of Dictionary.com’s “Word of the Year” (which isn’t even a word), plus classic banter about memes, personal health quirks, sports, and an alarming number of medieval torture references.

Episode Overview

In this characteristically chaotic and hilarious episode, Joe and Frank, joined by friend Ant, announce the much-anticipated Dictionary.com Word of the Year for 2025, only to discover it’s… not actually a word! This launches a spirited and absurd exploration of meme culture, the evolving nature of language, and why “67” has taken over the internet. Throughout, the trio reminisce about old memes, swap gross-out stories about tonsil stones, debate the hypothetical battle against hordes of bloodlusted seniors or toddlers, and take a sharp left turn into discussing historical torture methods.

Key Discussion Points & Memorable Segments

1. Opening Banter and Body Horror (00:15–15:36)

• Minor Health Woes:
  The guys riff on having styes (“I was fucking stied out and it sucked.” – [02:21]) and tonsil stones. Frank admits to almost popping a sty with a needle.

• Tonsil Stones Gross-Out:
  Joe describes picking them out with a toothpick (sometimes even a knife), and the conversation devolves into tonsil “milking” and what those stones actually are.

  • “Look up science.” – [03:44]
  • “Tonsil stones are a combo of food, calcium, detritus, and dead cells.” – [07:43]
  • Detritus as Greek god:
    “It does sound like a Greek God who’s in with Hades: ‘It’s me, Detritus!’” – Frank, [08:09]

• Exploring Other Stones (Kidneys, Gallstones) & Body Milking:
  They marvel at the horror of kidney stones, discuss body parts that “need milking” (dogs’ anal glands and the prostate get mentions), and continue their signature blend of crude, medically incorrect humor.

2. The Meaning (and Meaninglessness) of Memes (15:36–35:32)

• Announcing the Word of the Year:
  Frank brings out Dictionary.com's past “words of the year” (from “demure” to “pandemic” to the infamous “xenophobia” in 2016).

  • “Do you want me to keep going?” – Frank, [17:22]
  • “I don't even need that word.” (re: “tergiversate”) – [20:37]

• 2025’s Shocking Winner:

  • After much build-up, it's revealed:
    “The Dictionary.com word of the year... 67.” – [22:02]
    • “That’s not a word.” – Joe, immediate reply, [22:12]
    • Discussion around “67” as an internet meme, with attempts to explain its viral spread and total lack of intrinsic meaning.
    • “The hardest thing to explain about 67 to my parents was how it means nothing.” – Ant (quoting online sentiment), [24:36]
    • The hosts attempt to trace the meme’s origin to TikTok/Twitch (rapper Skrilla’s song “Doot Doot”), but acknowledge it might be a meme beyond meaning:
      “There is comedy in zero meaning.” – Joe, [28:39] “It started as a meme within a meme...” – Joe, [25:05]

• Philosophy of Memes:

  • Throwback to rage comics and “old-school” meme culture.
  • Frank: “Memes meant something to me. They stood for an emotion you couldn’t put words to.” ([31:10])
  • Discussion of how modern memes (like just the sound of pipes) can be pure randomness – and why that makes them so funny.

3. Sports, Hot Dogs, and Drinks That Embarrass You (35:34–45:29)

• Experience at the World Series in Toronto:
  • Joe shares his “dog in me” experience (i.e., eating a hotdog at the game) and recounts ordering a giant, embarrassing frozen drink (“manganada”).
    "A girl who works there ... comes over to us and goes like, 'This, manganada.'" – Joe, [38:45]
  • Discussion of local sports culture: being in a city with one team makes fandom more intense, and New York’s split allegiances dilute that energy.
  • Frank describes his wife getting “horns down’d” for wearing a Longhorns hat:
    “He doubled back … horns down to her. And she was like—because she didn’t know what the fuck.” – [43:10]

4. Hypothetical: 100 Bloodlusted 3-Year-Olds vs. 95-Year-Olds (49:07–61:54)

• Ant pops in with a question:
  Would you rather fight 100 bloodlusted 95-year-olds, or 100 bloodlusted 3-year-olds?
  • Spirited, pseudo-logical breakdown follows:
    • 95yo pros: slower, easier to out-tire, but might strategize.
      “You could tire out a 95-year-old by just jogging in a circle for five seconds.” – Frank, [51:35]
    • 3yo pros: less powerful, less strategy, could swarm you.
      “A charging 3-year-old zombie is scarier than a 95-year-old.” – Ant, [53:30]
  • Joe: “If you fall on either of them, you’re dead.” ([60:26])
  • The concept of “bloodlusted” becomes a running joke, with debates on who could be more dangerous in real life and in zombie scenarios.

Notable Quotes:

• “If you put me in a corner, bloodlusting, I’m defending myself.” – Joe, [63:38]
• “Let’s make this very clear, we’re pacifists.” – Frank, [63:24]

5. Medieval Torture: Why Are We Talking About This? (64:04–73:01)

• Rundown of Torture Devices:
  The hosts (with Ant’s encyclopedic knowledge) unravel truly disturbing historical torture techniques.

  • From the “bamboo shoot” (growing through the body), to “stocks,” “the brass bull” (prisoners cooked alive, their screams piped out the nostrils to mimic a bull), to the “pair of anguish,” Vlad the Impaler, and the “Heretic’s fork.”
  • “That is unbelievably nightmarish.” – Frank, regarding the brass bull, [70:40]

• Why this topic?
  They halfheartedly try to justify the tangent as a “history lesson,” with Frank reflecting:
  “You gotta know where you were to know where you’re going.” – Frank, [72:49]

  • Ends on signature Basement Yard absurdity:
    “Hope you enjoyed torture. Toy. Toy. I hope you enjoyed the toy talk.” – Frank & Joe, [73:01]

Timestamped Memorable Moments & Quotes

• [02:21] Frank: “They took my ID badge picture and I was like, ‘you're stydo.’ I was fucking stied out and it sucked.”
• [07:43] Ant (after googling): "It's bacteria, dead cells, calcium and phosphate and food debris all in one."
• [08:09] Frank: “It sounds like a really, really cool Greek God ... on the River Styx ... ‘It’s me, Detritus.’”
• [22:12] Joe (on ‘67’): “That’s not a word.”
• [24:36] Ant (quoting online): “The hardest thing to explain about 67 to my parents was how it means nothing.”
• [28:39] Joe: “But there’s comedy in zero meaning. In the same way that, like, the pipes thing, like, would make me laugh.”
• [31:10] Frank: “When I was a kid, memes meant something. They stood for an emotion you couldn’t put words to. So what came to the rescue? Picture of a kid in a backwards brown hat and a big puffer jacket.”
• [38:45] Joe (on his drink): “A girl who works there ... comes over to us and goes like, ‘This, manganada.’ And I was like, ‘That’s me.’”
• [43:10] Frank: “He doubled back … horns down to her. And she was like—because she didn’t know what the fuck.”
• [51:35] Frank (95yo strategy): “You could tire out a 95-year-old by just jogging in a circle for five seconds.”
• [53:30] Ant: “Imagine like, these two scenarios in terms of zombies. Like, would you like a charging 3-year-old zombie? I feel like that’s scarier than a charging 95-year-old.”
• [60:26] Joe: “Anywhere, if you fall on either of them, you’re, you’re [done]. You can’t go down.”
• [70:40] Frank (on the bull): “That is unbelievably nightmarish.”
• [72:49] Frank: “You gotta know where you were to know where you’re going.”
• [73:01] Frank (closing): “Hope you enjoyed torture. Toy. Toy. I hope you enjoyed the toy talk.”

Overall Tone & Takeaways

The episode is an unrestrained, NSFW romp through the internet’s latest viral madness (the “67” meme), coupled with signature Basement Yard gross-out humor, self-deprecating philosophy, and hilariously grim detours. Joe, Frank, and Ant skillfully balance idiotic hypotheticals with offbeat insight into why internet culture is so gloriously meaningless.

Seriously, if you need to explain the word of the year “67” to your parents, good luck—and don’t walk into any boats with honey and milk.

Note:

• Advertisements (Ross, Prize Picks, Fitbod, Rocket Money, BetterHelp) and Patreon plugs are omitted from this summary per instructions.
• The recap preserves the freewheeling, irreverent tone of the Basement Yard.
• For context on meme culture and the specifics of their Word of the Year discussion, refer to segments [15:36–35:32] and [22:02–24:00] for the “67” bombshell.