The Bonfire: "Ralph Malph with Steve Rannazzisi"

Hosts: Big Jay Oakerson & guest host Mike Feeney (Robert Kelly off)
Guest: Steve Rannazzisi
Original air date: August 27, 2025
Recorded live on SiriusXM’s Faction Talk, Ch. 103

Episode Overview

This episode of The Bonfire fires up with Big Jay Oakerson, guest host Mike Feeney, and guest Steve Rannazzisi (of "The League"), riffing on everything from reality TV disillusionment, nostalgia for old-school gym fads, the perils and absurdities of public school education, to embarrassing high school stories. Their signature NSFW humor, blunt honesty, and deep-cut pop culture references shape spontaneous, wide-ranging conversation that's both hilarious and relatable—especially for listeners with fond (or traumatized) memories of the 1990s and 2000s.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Rewatching Old TV & The Sopranos (01:07–03:43)

• Jay teases Steve about rewatching The Sopranos, equating it with a relationship death knell:
  Jay: "If you and your chick start rewatching The Sopranos again, just break up. ...You're trying to find ways to kill time till you die." [01:20]
• Jay confesses he couldn’t enjoy The Sopranos on repeat, calling out its awkward early fight scenes and over-familiarity with the plot.
• Mike and Steve share nostalgia for old open casting calls, with Feeney riffing on his futile auditions:
  Mike: "I went to an open call in New Jersey... It was my chance!" [03:10]

Fame, Fantasy Football & Life After "The League" (04:17–06:41)

• With football season looming, Jay asks Steve if people still expect him to deliver insider fantasy football tips:
  Jay: "This must be the time of year where everyone who thinks TV is real starts bothering you for your fantasy football picks." [04:19]
• Steve reflects on fans' confusion about his real/life football expertise (it’s all acting), but admits he still crushes it on Cameo, setting daily fantasy lineups for fans:
  Steve: "I'm crushing it right now on Cameo...I set people's fantasy lineups and they love it." [04:55]
• Steve left fantasy football for a while, then reengaged for his sons and family leagues. Jay jokes:
  Jay: "The Giants drove you right back into friendly family gambling!" [06:33]

Reality TV Exploitation and The "Biggest Loser" Exposé (06:41–11:18)

• Jay and Mike decry the public’s surprising naïveté about the manipulation and cruelty behind reality TV shows, especially after watching a new exposé on The Biggest Loser:
  Jay: “How many years into reality television are we gonna have to be before people start realizing TV is TV and they don’t care about you?” [08:33]
• They share horror stories about show contestants, American Gladiators, Dan Schneider, and the vulnerable kid actors from Nickelodeon, touching on how parents "feed their kids to the system":
  Jay: "The parents feed their kids to them. And then they're blown away... Do you know Jerry Springer brought me my wife and the guy she's seeing behind my back?" [11:15]

1980s/90s Workout Fads & Home Fitness Equipment (14:45–21:17)

• The hosts recount buying—and never using—various fad exercise equipment: Thigh Masters, Ab Flexes, electric massagers, etc.
• Jay confesses to stealing an ab machine as a teenager and posits how life would have been different if it sparkled his fitness journey—instead, "it just sat there."
• Steve admits to trying those ab-shocking belts and jumping on the P90X bandwagon, with Jay noting Steve's penchant for self-help infomercial programs:
  Jay: "You really are a self-help video guy...you got us all doing wrestling yoga with Diamond Dallas Page." [20:17]
• Discussion of fitness classes (Orange Theory, Curves, CrossFit), sometimes bordering on the lecherous—Mike and Steve joke about being the only men in a class full of women, letting daydreams run wild: Mike: "I could just start a new generation with all these women." [24:39] Jay: "I should have thanked them... You really got me through that last 20 minutes" [24:13]

Meal Prepping, Diet Products, and Food Shame (27:13–35:14)

• The crew laughs about the sadness of eating microwaved prepped meals (e.g., Factor, Nutrisystem), with Jay admitting they're practical but leave him feeling unloved:
  Jay: "When you pull it out of a thing, it really makes you feel—wow, dude, no one loves me.” [28:01]
• Steve and Mike recall friends eating out of Tupperware on the golf course, and how disciplined but joyless gym diets can be.
• Jay sums up the aging attitude:
  Jay: “If I end up being on my deathbed, I'm not gonna be like, if I just would have ate a few less cheesesteaks...you gotta enjoy life at some point.” [33:30]

School Nostalgia: Embarrassing Stories, Vocational Track, and Book Covers (35:13–55:00)

Highlights include:

• Smoking in school and on campus in the ‘90s; speculation that cigarettes may be coming back with Gen Z [37:36]
• Jay’s detailed story of having to publicly apologize in a school assembly for false rumors about a classmate (starting at [56:30]), culminating in wearing a husky double-breasted suit—his ultimate humiliating high school moment.
• High school curriculum gripes: Jay wishes he’d paid more attention to “consumer math” and home ec— “teach me how to cook, for real!” [50:01]
• Reminiscence about school supplies—binders, Metallica-covered book wraps, the heartbreak of ripped folders, destroyed backpacks after a fight.
• Grading school systems: classes for “advanced” vs. “normal” kids, and the surreal world of trade schools/Boces/Vokey programs:
  Steve: “We had Eli Whitney, where you'd go to college electrician... but it was almost a punishment.” [41:59]
• Mike tells a childhood story about being bullied, only to have his mom confront the school bus filled with kids:
  Mike: "She comes out to the bus... 'No one's gonna call my son Ralph Malph!'" [62:11]
• The trio ponders why contemporary kids carry around massively overloaded backpacks, given everything's supposedly on Chromebooks now.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Big Jay (on reality TV): "How many years into reality television are we gonna have to be before people start realizing TV is TV and they don't care about you?" [08:33]
• Steve (on self-help/diet fads): "I bought the one that did the abs for you that just shocked you..." [16:30]
• Jay (on pre-made meals): "When you pull it out of a thing, it really makes you feel—wow, dude, no one loves me." [28:01]
• Mike (on male fantasy at women’s fitness classes): "I'm the dominant male here. I could just start a new generation with all these women.” [24:39]
• Jay (re high school humiliation): "...all of my high school agony and discomfort came into that when I had to apologize for not saying that I didn't have sex with a girl in front of an assembly at my school." [57:01]
• Steve (on “consumer math”): "My final was, how much dirt is in a hole, like, 7ft long by 3ft wide by 4ft deep? ... The answer is, there's no dirt in a hole.” [48:52]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:07] – Rewatching The Sopranos & open casting calls
• [04:17] – Steve on fame, fantasy football, Cameo
• [06:41] – Reality TV exploitation, Biggest Loser doc
• [14:45] – Exercise fads & fitness equipment nostalgia
• [20:17] – Steve’s self-help phase, fitness trends
• [24:13] – Daydreams in gym classes, male fantasies
• [27:13] – Prepped meals, dieting, food sadness
• [33:30] – Enjoying life vs. diet discipline
• [35:13] – School memories: embarrassing moments, old textbooks, book covers
• [41:59] – Alternate/vocational schools, educational trajectories
• [47:33] – Jay’s unexpected Jewish supplementary “ninth grade” in a synagogue
• [48:52] – Steve’s consumer math class, "no dirt in a hole" final
• [56:30] – Jay’s most mortifying school memory: the public apology assembly
• [62:11] – Mike’s "Ralph Malph" school bus anecdote

Closing Thoughts

The Bonfire serves up its usual irreverent, freewheeling blend of nostalgia, social commentary, and confessional comedy—always grounded in the realities of family, middle age, and the relentless passage of time. In this episode, shares of humility intersect with confessions of pettiness and embarrassment, making the humor both biting and weirdly unifying for listeners with their own cringe-worthy stories from youth.

For more on Steve Rannazzisi’s tour dates: steverannazzisi.com
Find Mike Feeney’s touring info: PunchUp Live
Big Jay Oakerson’s dates & streams: bigjaycomedy.com
Listen to The Bonfire live: SiriusXM Faction Talk, Channel 103, Mon–Thurs, 5 pm Eastern