THOUGHTCRIME REWIND — How Many Streaming Services is Too Many? Is LOTR Gay? Best Burger?

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Charlie Kirk Show

Episode: Thoughtcrime Rewind — How Many Streaming Services is Too Many? Is LOTR Gay? Best Burger?
Date: September 6, 2025
Host: Charlie Kirk
Guests/Panelists: Ben, Blake, Ryan, Jack

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Overview

This "Thoughtcrime Rewind" episode compiles highlights from previous debates and conversations among Charlie Kirk and his co-hosts, covering a mix of pop-culture and conservative commentary on reality TV, streaming services, video games, pop-cultural “gay” readings of classic movies, and the timeless “best burger” debate. The episode features spirited, tongue-in-cheek banter, sharp cultural critiques, nostalgia, and memorable “hot takes” about American society.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Reality TV Deep-Dive: Love Is Blind

• [01:21–14:57]

  • The hosts dissect Netflix’s “Love Is Blind,” debating its dystopian premise and what it says about modern romance and TV culture.
  • Show Format:
    • Contestants speak through walls, never seeing each other until after a marriage proposal, then decide at the altar whether to go through with the marriage.
    • The panel lampoons the concept, incredulous at the superficiality and public nature of the process.
  • Criticism & Entertainment Value:
    • Ben admits to being roped into the show but defends it as "trash TV"—not high culture, but as good as anything available on current streaming ("Netflix is a barren waste." [08:38] – Ben).
    • The group suggests reality TV is fundamentally fake and that watching such shows may be detrimental to society.

• Quote:

  • "Okay, so there is a little bit of—I gotta give them credit. There's some creativity here. It's not...okay, it's still a complete waste of time, but we're getting closer to some redemptive value." – Charlie Kirk [03:59]

  • "People who watch reality TV should not be allowed to vote. Sorry, Tyler. Oh, yeah, we're revoking it.” – Blake [17:56]

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2. Streaming Services Overload & Subscription Fatigue

• [09:09–11:49]

  • The group laments the sheer number of subscriptions — Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, YouTube TV, Peacock, gaming services, and more.
  • Blake claims he doesn’t pay for any TV streaming subscriptions, prompting incredulity from the others.
  • The consensus: media fragmentation has become excessive and wasteful, creating “consumption taxes” that millennial savers should avoid.

• Quote:

  • "This is how one amasses capital as a millennial. They avoid the 8 million different millennial, like, consumption taxes." – Blake [11:49]

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3. Reality TV’s Cultural Decline & Politicization

• [15:08–18:08]

  • Reflecting on “Love Is Blind,” Jack and Charlie bemoan that dating shows today are "over-politicized" (religion, vaccines, BLM).
    • Jack draws a comparison to '90s dating shows, which focused on personalities, not politics.
    • Reflection on how pop culture now merges private life and politics, signaling cultural instability.

• Quote:

  • “We don’t want to be so over-politicized. We want people to be getting married and having kids and sort of going on about their life...the idea that you’re gonna run your entire life over what someone’s views on BLM are...that’s not actually a good situation.” – Jack [15:58]

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4. Video Games: Nostalgia & The State of Gaming

• [21:20–32:24]

  • Host panelists reminisce about Xbox and PlayStation classics (Halo, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto), remarking that the most popular games now are largely unchanged from 20 years ago.
    • Discussion of the rise of "Battle Royale" games (Fortnite) as the last major innovation.
  • Debate on whether video games or TV are a worse “waste of time.”
  • Reflection on escalating production costs and slower technological leaps.

• Quotes:

  • "My takeaway is that nothing has really changed. The same games are still basically the same popular games." – Charlie Kirk [26:40]
  • "The last big leap, I would say, was probably about 10 years ago. And then since then, they improve, but it’s on the margins." – Blake [32:07]

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5. Pop Culture “Gay” Readings: Lord of the Rings and Beyond

• [33:56–45:03]

  • Debate erupts about whether Lord of the Rings (as a film) contains homoerotic subtext, sparked by Tyler's persistent observations.
    • Charlie admits the suggestion has “half-ruined” the films for him.
    • The panel explores how changing cultural views and the “gay lens” influence interpretations of classic male friendships in film and history (Abraham Lincoln’s friendships, Italian men’s displays of affection).
  • Spirited banter goes on to label numerous beloved movies as “gay,” including Top Gun, The Godfather, Star Wars, Citizen Kane, and even The Wizard of Oz—mostly in jest.

• Quotes:

  • “I always used to look at it as, you know, brotherly love. And then Frodo and Sam, there’s some very long gazes...Tyler gets in your head about this, and then all of a sudden you can’t unsee it.” – Charlie Kirk [34:00]
  • “If you go far enough back to the Greeks, it was only male actors, right? That would probably attract a certain type of male even back then.” – Ryan [49:06]

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6. The Great Burger Debate: In-N-Out, Whataburger, Habit, and the Burger as Memory

• [49:18–55:23]

  • The show concludes with a spirited dissection of which fast food burger reigns supreme.
    • Habit Burger’s billboard trolling In-N-Out as “number two” sparks discussion.
    • Jack sides with Whataburger for its “more meat.”
    • Ben and Charlie defend In-N-Out for its taste and powerful nostalgia for West Coasters.
    • Blake confesses his favorite burger is a bizarre local creation: a peanut butter and jelly cheeseburger.
    • Charlie closes the segment encouraging listeners to “support your local In-N-Out” and shares his “secret” order.

• Quotes:

  • “In n Out is the best. And Tyler, you have to admit, Arizona became a better place when in and out came here.” – Charlie Kirk [51:08]
  • “It has a taste that’s associated with, like, memories, especially like vacation memories and beach memories that you can’t break.” – Ben [52:13]
  • “Here's the order. Get 24 by fours. Animal style, protein style, extra secret sauce, extra pickles, extra peppers. Heard it here first.” – Charlie Kirk [55:03]

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Notable Memorable Moments

• Love Is Blind as “public humiliation ritual” ([06:42], [06:55])
• Lampooning subscription overload and the “millennial consumption tax” ([11:49])
• Comically accusing all classic movies of being “gay” in 20/25 lens ([44:01]–[46:51])
• Panel’s animated nostalgia for old video games and LAN parties ([24:00])
• Charlie’s “secret” In-N-Out order ([55:03])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Love Is Blind breakdown: [01:21] – [14:57]
• Streaming subscription debate: [09:09] – [11:49]
• Reality TV vs. Game Shows: [17:56] – [21:08]
• Video game nostalgia & critique: [21:20] – [32:24]
• LOTR homoeroticism debate: [33:56] – [45:03]
• Classic films and the “gay lens”: [43:23] – [47:56]
• Best Burger debate: [49:18] – [55:23]

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Tone and Style

The conversation maintains a sarcastic, riffing, and sometimes provocative “no-holds-barred” style characteristic of Charlie Kirk’s conservative commentary. The hosts blend sincere nostalgia and cultural frustration with rapid-fire humor, parody, and shared generational experience. The episode is as much about the panel’s camaraderie as it is about the underlying cultural commentary.

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For Listeners

This episode is for those who appreciate irreverent, critical discussion at the intersection of pop culture and politics, particularly from a conservative standpoint. Whether debating reality TV’s impact on society, the never-ending proliferation of streaming services, or the secret code to the best In-N-Out order, the hosts offer listeners both laughs and serious cultural takes.

Transcript

[Charlie Kirk]

Hey, everybody. This is an evergreen episode of Thoughtcrime. A best of some of the previous episodes we've had of some really good stuff, such as my favorite episodes is Lord of the Rings, Gay, where to Find the Best Burger. And more some of the best thought crime debates as both Jack and I are traveling internationally this week, so we were unable to do a live thought crime. Email us as always, freedom charliekirk.com and subscribe to our podcast. That's the Charlie Kirk show podcast page. And become a member today. Members.charliekirk.com and get involved with Turning Point [e-mail] that is tpusa.com Buckle up, everybody. Here we go. Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

[Ben]

Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.

[Charlie Kirk]

I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

[Ben]

I want to thank Charlie. He's an incredible guy.

[Charlie Kirk]

His spirit, his love of this country. He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever.

[Blake]

Created, Turning Point usa.

[Charlie Kirk]

We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives. And we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country. That's why we are here. The Charlie Kirk show is proudly sponsored by Preserve Gold, the leading gold and silver experts and the only precious metals company I recommend to my family, friends and viewers.

[Blake]

Love is Blind. We wanted to read.

[Charlie Kirk]

This is an important one.

[Ben]

Yes.

[Charlie Kirk]

So, first of all, I have to really plead ignorance. Watch this.

[Blake]

Millions of people watch. This is incredibly popular.

[Charlie Kirk]

Goggles on.

[Blake]

I don't know about goggles.

[Charlie Kirk]

Why would they not watch it with VR, man?

[Blake]

VR goggles are expensive, Charlie.

[Charlie Kirk]

So love is not blind. Not everyone took out.

[Blake]

Not everyone took out.

[Charlie Kirk]

By the way, imagine the mark. They should hire me. They should not. It should not be called Love is Blind. It should be called love is VR and they would sell like 5 million of these things.

[Blake]

Okay, so this was just to remind.

[Charlie Kirk]

I watched every season except this one. And I repent of my sins. I've never even heard. Heard of this show.

[Ben]

My. My wife. My wife has been watching this.

[Blake]

The first season of this around Covid time. I. I remember it when I was this.

[Charlie Kirk]

On Netflix.

[Blake]

I believe so, yeah.

[Charlie Kirk]

It's on Netflix.

[Ben]

It's on Netflix.

[Charlie Kirk]

What. How does this show work?

[Ben]

It. I. I can explain it.

[Charlie Kirk]

Please, Real simple.

[Ryan]

You've watched it.

[Ben]

You have. And I've. I've had to watch it because I'm like sitting there trying to sleep.

[Blake]

I had no choice.

[Ben]

I try to follow storylines Try to follow the storylines. I have to admit it. Trash TVs, like, you know, it just goes, we'll get there.

[Blake]

We're gonna.

[Ben]

But you have two people that they are. You have two groups of men and a women, and they're in separate parts of the house, and they have to go into rooms and communicate each other with each other through walls, so they can't see each other. And so they have to pick a match based off of their conversations. And so they normally talk to a handful of people before they pick the person.

[Charlie Kirk]

So it's like a death match. Look at this. This looks so dystopian. It's basically like, look, it's in an octagon and everything.

[Ben]

It's like a sick twist on. What was that old show called where it was like, Match Game or whatever, or the one that Jeffrey Dahmer went on or whatever.

[Charlie Kirk]

Are we back to the Cannibal?

[Ben]

No, but. But he went on this thing.

[Blake]

What shows about cannibals?

[Ben]

No, this is like a thing. Some. Maybe it was a Jeffrey Dahmer.

[Blake]

He's known about the Furries. He's not about Donna. They're going out.

[Ben]

Yeah, but this happens to be crossover. It's like one of those sick games where you don't see the person and you have to ask questions. But they do it for, like, days.

[Blake]

Yes.

[Ben]

And then they decide to get married right away.

[Blake]

So you're in the pod for a long time and you just talk to people.

[Charlie Kirk]

So it's like a telephone call?

[Blake]

More or less.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Blake]

I think that.

[Ben]

Do they type or. No, it's voice.

[Charlie Kirk]

Oh. Being love is blind is the idea.

[Blake]

Yeah. So the idea is they interact only by voice, and then they can send each other. Build affinity with people.

[Ben]

They can send each other notes and.

[Charlie Kirk]

Stuff and gifts, but, like, they can't send each other Instagram handles or anything.

[Ben]

No, I don't think they. I don't think they have phones. I could be wrong. I'm going to get, like, blasted by girls.

[Charlie Kirk]

Okay, so there is a little bit of. I got to give them credit. There's some creativity here. It's not. Okay. It's still a complete waste of time, but we're getting closer to some redemptive value.

[Ben]

It's interesting for the viewer because you can always tell when somebody's not going to be a good match, but they think they're a good match, so.

[Charlie Kirk]

And then you waste 45 minutes watching.

[Ben]

And then they're like, oh, yeah. And then you're like. You're like, oh, I Can't wait for them to meet because they're going to hate each other when they meet.

[Charlie Kirk]

Can I? Of course. Love's not blind. Who came up with this stupid idea?

[Blake]

Yeah, it's extremely dumb.

[Charlie Kirk]

Okay. But it's. It's. Anyway. Okay.

[Blake]

I feel it's important to remind people St. Paul said you should only get married if you have, like, the overwhelming hots for somebody.

[Ben]

This last season.

[Blake]

Solomon, it's better to marry than to burn.

[Ben]

There was a guy who, like, looked, you know, you just knew he wasn't gonna like the girl. And he saw the girl and he's like. He's. He's just trying to get out of it then because he, like, committed to marrying her. And so after he saw her, he's like. You could just tell. He's, like, trying to find a way. But he spent, like, five episodes trying to get out of it.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah. Okay. So. So, so, so. So they. They say they talk and then they. They commit to marriage. Yeah. Marriage without seeing the other one.

[Ben]

Yes.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. So what happens if she's like a horse?

[Ben]

That's what I'm saying. The guy showed up and he's like, I don't know if I really, like, below my standards. And then he's trying to get out of it from that point.

[Charlie Kirk]

Okay.

[Ben]

Because then they have to go live together.

[Blake]

This is incredible. Daisy just sent this to me. I just want to read it quick. They aren't supposed to talk about appearance, but one season, a guy asked a girl, if hypothetically, we met at a music festival, would I be able to put you on my shoulders easily?

[Ben]

That was smart. That's smart.

[Charlie Kirk]

But you can't ask height or weight.

[Blake]

You're not supposed to ask about or, like, race either.

[Ben]

I think you have to. You have to guess by their intonation.

[Charlie Kirk]

Got it.

[Ben]

So their nasal.

[Charlie Kirk]

So. So let me understand. So then the. The. The moment that we saw that went viral with liberal Becky.

[Ryan]

Yeah.

[Charlie Kirk]

Was they never saw each other before that moment.

[Blake]

Do they. Do they only meet at the altar or do they meet in, like, the days?

[Charlie Kirk]

Is there a pre. Meeting time?

[Blake]

There's, like, a room.

[Charlie Kirk]

Daisy says, no, wrong.

[Ben]

There's a room.

[Charlie Kirk]

She says, I'm typing. Oh. So they meet one time before.

[Ben]

There's a room where they meet, and I think they can propose at that exact moment.

[Charlie Kirk]

They can meet if they get engaged. Yeah.

[Ben]

They don't have to get engaged. I think they just have to.

[Charlie Kirk]

So the engagement allows them to meet the person they're going to marry. Do some people call off the engagement after they meet them.

[Ben]

Oh, yeah. Probably a majority.

[Charlie Kirk]

And then they go on a trip together for a week or so.

[Ben]

Yeah. And they have to, like, live together, which is also, of course.

[Charlie Kirk]

So then they basically live together for a few weeks. Okay. So then what we saw. And then they date in person for six weeks until they get married. I just read that Andrew. Daisy's. Daisy is the pop culture person. So then at the altar, they decide what they just.

[Ben]

Whether to get married or if they.

[Charlie Kirk]

Got to go hang out. Let me understand this. So in this clip, before we get into the clip, these two people invited their entire families on camera to, like, have this public humiliation ritual based on something that might not happen.

[Ben]

I think they all.

[Charlie Kirk]

They're sick.

[Ben]

I think they all have to meet the families.

[Charlie Kirk]

No, but, like, they invite them to the wedding that may or may not happen. Yeah. And all these people, like, yeah, we might be on camera and in front of, like, a hundred million people.

[Ben]

Well, a lot of these families meet them beforehand. So, like, during the time that they're hanging out before they get married, like, some of the families get, like, overly involved. So, like, really know about. A sibling will. Like, hey, I know this one specific couple because it was hilarious watching this guy see this girl, and you could tell, like, he's really into. Really into her. And they met, and then he's like, oh, that's not my.

[Charlie Kirk]

I'm going to still watch tv.

[Blake]

The big. The big picture here, which has to be brought up is are people who.

[Ben]

Watch reality TV, humans trash TV. This is 100%.

[Charlie Kirk]

We got to get to the. Because we're crescendoing to the cliff.

[Blake]

Okay? We're building.

[Charlie Kirk]

It's. It's like. This is. It's an orchestra, okay? Like, it's. We're building.

[Ben]

Okay, okay, okay.

[Blake]

Like, flying down the trench towards.

[Charlie Kirk]

I guarantee you most of our audience had never heard of this stupid thing before, okay?

[Blake]

I guarantee you they have.

[Charlie Kirk]

A lot of our audience has taken Hillsdale online courses, okay? We have an enlightened little remnant of American society.

[Blake]

They're just going to read classic literature, pray the rosary.

[Charlie Kirk]

I'm telling you right now. A little remnant. They're studying Aristotle when half of the other audiences.

[Blake]

All right, all right, tell us, Chat. Have you watched Love is Blind or at least heard.

[Charlie Kirk]

I want to. Have you ever heard of the show? Email me freedom@charlie kirk.com.

[Ben]

Can I just. Oh, my gosh.

[Charlie Kirk]

And if so, you should be taxed.

[Ben]

You're gonna have. Some of you guys are like, never. No, I Haven't.

[Charlie Kirk]

No.

[Ben]

But I want to make a pitch, though, to defend the people who have, including myself, that have gone on the show. No, there's just not very much good TV left. Like, Netflix is a barren waste.

[Blake]

So this is great. So we turn to this because it' awesome.

[Ben]

They're cheap. They just. All they do is cheap stuff.

[Charlie Kirk]

I use Netflix. I used it for one thing, and then it got unuseful for Seinfeld. Seinfeld reruns?

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Charlie Kirk]

And then they got. I think they still have it.

[Ben]

I bought them all during COVID and then I gotta watch them.

[Charlie Kirk]

Hulu has Frasier now.

[Ben]

Oh, yeah.

[Charlie Kirk]

So I got Hulu for Frasier and Seinfeld for Netflix and everything else is Netflix. Can we just pause how awful Netflix has become last five years? It's not. You guys should cancel the subscription if you're watching this crap. It's such a waste.

[Blake]

Have you canceled?

[Ben]

There's no.

[Charlie Kirk]

Because I do. Fine. And I like Seinfeld for me, by the way. I don't. I don't want people to complain about their financial situation, which I'm not. I'm very blessed. If you're paying for Netflix.

[Blake]

I don't pay for a single subscription.

[Charlie Kirk]

Service, for the record. I also used it to watch the Thanksgiving football game, of which they did a terrible job promoting.

[Ben]

There is no way you don't have a single subscription.

[Blake]

I mean. Well, I mean, I have, like, my power Bill, but, like, I don't have a streaming service.

[Charlie Kirk]

Power Bill. It's not.

[Blake]

I don't have. I don't have a. I don't have Spotify.

[Ben]

You do not not have a single subscription.

[Blake]

Like what?

[Charlie Kirk]

Like a power bill is not a subscription.

[Ben]

I'm going to make you download whatever that app is. Like, we. No free ads here for that.

[Blake]

No. Like what I don't have.

[Charlie Kirk]

I don't have Amazon Netflix now.

[Blake]

I don't have Amazon Prime.

[Ben]

There's an app that looks up all your subscriptions. You hook up Spotify.

[Blake]

I don't have.

[Charlie Kirk]

See, I have all of these. I'm like, I am.

[Blake]

I don't have any tv.

[Ben]

I have a million.

[Blake]

I don't have, like, I got.

[Charlie Kirk]

I don't have Microsoft. I got fubu.

[Blake]

I don't have Microsoft gaming. I don't have any other video game.

[Charlie Kirk]

Hulu, I got Netflix. I got Amazon. I got YouTube TV. I've made a bunch of people. A lot of.

[Blake]

I don't have, like, I'm not in, like, dollar shave club or whatever that stuff is where they, like, send You a razor every month.

[Ben]

Oh, I've got, like, Amazon Kindle.

[Blake]

I'm not on. I don't have Kindle. I don't have Audible.

[Ben]

Brooks is on Xbox. I've got Sirius XM with Andrew.

[Charlie Kirk]

I hate not wanting to watch a sporting event and not having it.

[Ben]

I.

[Charlie Kirk]

And then that's why I Peacock. I get these emails from Peacock. I don't care about Peacock. But the Peacock takes the big ten, which is now Oregon. It's. The whole thing's all Primevy.

[Ben]

I will. I will say prime video is good.

[Charlie Kirk]

I agree. Prime is great. You know why I like Prime? I could purchase movies I want to watch.

[Ben]

Yeah, and you keep it forever.

[Charlie Kirk]

The best of all is YouTube TV. YouTube TV is the best.

[Ben]

The best. Yeah.

[Charlie Kirk]

It's subjectively for live tv. It has great coverage. Okay, so back to the love is blind.

[Ben]

I can't believe you don't have a subscription.

[Charlie Kirk]

I. I don't think that's crazy. You don't have a magazine subscription.

[Ben]

That's like, cannibalism magazines.

[Charlie Kirk]

I read magazines.

[Ben]

Are you a cannibal?

[Blake]

And, like, I'm not subscribed to, like, any, like, online websites, which is why I always have to figure out how to get around people's paywalls.

[Charlie Kirk]

Why do you even have any?

[Ben]

Not gaming.

[Blake]

What?

[Ben]

What do you have an email I always watch. That's a subscription.

[Blake]

That's not a.

[Charlie Kirk]

That.

[Blake]

No, it's not.

[Charlie Kirk]

It's free.

[Ben]

Yeah, that's free.

[Charlie Kirk]

Do you have TSA Pre? Nope.

[Blake]

Why would I need TSA Pre? Check that one.

[Charlie Kirk]

I almost got them. That one is a subscription.

[Blake]

I don't.

[Ben]

What about Uber Plus?

[Blake]

No. Uber Eats. I take Uber, like, only for Turning Point Times where I have to fly and get to the airport and, like, that's it. Uber Eats. I don't. I don't think I've had. I don't think I've gotten a meal delivered by Uber Eats or doordash since I came to Arizona. Like, I've been here two years.

[Charlie Kirk]

Like, has Turning Point Eats. It's a lot better.

[Blake]

Yeah, it's way better. This.

[Ben]

Way better crazy. I can't believe this is.

[Blake]

This is how. This is how one amasses capital as a millennial. They avoid the 8 million different millennial, like, consumption taxes. All right.

[Charlie Kirk]

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[Liberal Woman (Love is Blind clip)]

I love you so much, but I've always wanted a partner to be on the same wavelength, and so today I can't.

[Charlie Kirk]

At the music. Boom.

[Ryan]

I love you so much and I.

[Ben]

Know I want to stay with you and keep growing our relationship. If you'll let me.

[Liberal Woman (Love is Blind clip)]

We'll see.

[Ben]

All of America.

[Charlie Kirk]

No, no, we got to keep playing it. No, no, that's not even.

[Blake]

There's a couple more clips. Yeah.

[Charlie Kirk]

By the way, I would have told her to get out of here and. Yeah, cash my check from Love is blind and go away.

[Ben]

All of America lost total respect for this dude. He just looked like such a.

[Blake]

Apparently they continue to date for weeks after this. Even like, she was like, I can't get married now. But like, they kept dating, which Daisy informs us of because she's a watcher of love is blind.

[Charlie Kirk]

Okay, do we have the kicker where she's sitting around her liberal relatives in the car?

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Liberal Woman (Love is Blind clip)]

So they asked him to, like what his church's views are, and he said he didn't know. And so then I watched a sermon online from his church about, yeah, sexual identity. And it was traditional.

[Charlie Kirk]

I told that to Ben.

[Liberal Woman (Love is Blind clip)]

He doesn't really have much to say about it. You know, I want them to think about that stuff sometimes. I did wonder if it was surface fun, carefree love that we had. Equality, religion, the vaccine.

[Charlie Kirk]

The vaccine.

[Ben]

The vaccine. Of course, the vaccine.

[Charlie Kirk]

So I've commented on this extensively. The guy is at fault here for A, not standing up for himself, B, not leaving her. Jack, I know you're an avid Love is Blind fan. What is your.

[Jack]

Yeah, yeah.

[Charlie Kirk]

Take on episode.

[Jack]

Yeah, no, I mean, look, this, this is kind of goes back to, you know, funny enough, like, it goes back to what I was saying in the other segment where we've just got too many people in this country that have this fried mental model that are like over socialized. People are way too invested in politics, into their personal lives. They bring these things out and they bring these things up as if it's some kind of like deep seated commitment to them. And look, you know, I certainly want, you know, people to understand what's going on in their country, but the idea that you're gonna run your entire life over what someone's views on like BLM are or some, you know, some kind of like, like. And if you're just like some normie, like, that's, that's not actually a good situation for.

[Charlie Kirk]

Right.

[Jack]

Like, we don't want to be so over politicized. We want people to be getting married and having kids and sort of going on about their life and they're having their quality of life be somewhat stable and living in a system that's somewhat stable. So the fact that politics in general is so mainstreamed is it just kind of shows how bad things have gotten up into this point, you know, up through the 2024 moment. The 2020 moment, obviously. Because in a stable society, you know, people are just kind of going about their lives and you're not going to be mixing politics with like a dating show. Go back to what was the old. Oh, my gosh, the dating show on MTV back in the day. Like the original dating show, the one.

[Charlie Kirk]

That Sean Duffy was on.

[Jack]

Singled Out. Thank you. Singled Out. Single Files got me in the chat and like, you would never ever hear anyone talk about politics on a dating show in the 90s. It literally didn't exist, exist. It's like, what music do you listen to? What movies do you like? That's awesome. You know, and just, just, just not a thing. Yeah. And yeah, everyone's chatting that Sean Duffy and his wife actually met on the Real World, which was the original reality TV show. Rachel Campo Stuffy and their incredible family and obviously incredible relationship that actually started on another reality show also on MTV.

[Charlie Kirk]

Called the Real World.

[Ben]

And the Real world did start to edge into the political and religious stuff, but not.

[Blake]

So that was, like, the whole point, I think, because, like, the idea was.

[Ben]

They tried to put, like, a bunch of people who are different because, like.

[Blake]

Sean Duffy's season iron I just. Because I looked him up once was like, he had. They had a person in their house.

[Ben]

Like, who.

[Blake]

Because John Duffy was, like, conservative. And then, like, they had a person who was, like, had aids. So he was like, you know, because this is the early 90s. And so that was much more taboo then.

[Ben]

But Jack Stright, like, the old dating shows were so, so much more, like, fluffy and just fun and stupid. Right? And, like, just, like, you never would get that deep. That wasn't the point. It was like, that was it. The real world was the first, like.

[Blake]

Real reality show, which really goes at the truth of this, which is the cosmic thing that's important, which is, one, reality TV is actually fake, and two, people who watch reality TV should not be allowed to vote. Sorry, Tyler. Oh, yeah, we're revoking it like, I. I am on now that I. I don't watch reality TV yet. I will continue my jihad against reality tv.

[Ben]

There's no reality TV that. That, like, is okay to you.

[Blake]

A decade ago, I watched a few episodes of bar rescue because I kind of enjoyed the part where he would explain, like, how to run a bar correctly. Like, the business side of it was cool. But then I realized it was all fake because I saw a preview for an episode, and they were like, this bar is out of control. And the. The owner. It was like, a clearly staged shot or like, he just slept. Like, she's like, why are you carrying it that way? And he slaps, like, a tray out of someone's hand.

[Ben]

I think the survival shows are fun.

[Charlie Kirk]

But, I mean, I'm trying to think of the last reality TV show I've watched is American Idol. Reality tv.

[Blake]

I feel like that's a consideration.

[Jack]

I would say no. I would say no. I don't even think the Apprentice is a reality tv. I disagree, because it's.

[Blake]

It's like a. It's a contest.

[Charlie Kirk]

American Idol for four or five seasons was.

[Jack]

Game shows are not reality teenager.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah, American Idol was a good show the first five seasons.

[Ben]

Well, I think it was a great show. I think American Idol is cool because.

[Charlie Kirk]

We all set some from our high school win. So that was.

[Ben]

Yeah, you actually had to, like, achieve something.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah, we had someone from our high school literally win. It's amazing.

[Ben]

Yeah. What's her face that was here in.

[Charlie Kirk]

Arizona Haley Reinhardt was her name.

[Ben]

Oh, yeah.

[Blake]

Danny Wright says that I am a TV snob and they are correct. Although some sno snob is almost overselling. I just don't watch tv. I think the I like.

[Ben]

I like, even though it's a little bit fake too, is like naked and afraid. And those ones like the survival. There's survival.

[Blake]

It's.

[Ben]

It's cool to watch.

[Blake]

What's the other thing? Are they gonna die?

[Charlie Kirk]

There's a cameraman next to him. They're not gonna let him die.

[Ben]

Like, oh, wow. But they do lose a lot of weight. That should be like today's fat camp.

[Blake]

That would be cool.

[Charlie Kirk]

Like.

[Blake]

Yeah.

[Ben]

No.

[Charlie Kirk]

Angelo likes the gold mining reality shows. What are these shows? I never.

[Blake]

Those are really bad. I'm sorry, Angela. We're gonna shame you. Like, those are the. On the history Channel where they. Road Truckers. What was so done with Ice Road Truckers is the entire conceit of Ice Road Truckers is like, this is a super dangerous job. And like the only reason to watch is in theory, the ice could break and they would like die. But that never happens. So what's the point of all.

[Charlie Kirk]

Andrew says this, Blake, you play more video games than I watch TV. Which is worse.

[Blake]

1. I don't think that's actually true. And to like, who cares? Actually, probably watching TV is worse.

[Charlie Kirk]

I actually think watching TV could be worse.

[Blake]

Yeah, like you're just literally just there in a passive observer.

[Charlie Kirk]

I think they're both irredeemable.

[Blake]

But what I will say is the. I think the CDC or whoever, when they were doing one of their obesity warnings, they were commenting on how much TV is America TV Americans watched. And they were like suggesting you should be more active. And one of their ways to suggest being more active for the. The truly hopeless watch 40 hours of TV a week was try playing video games instead because you at least like move your hands.

[Ben]

I have a different take. I think video games are worse because I think veg out tv, like when you're going to sleep or whatever. I think a lot of people do. That doesn't take away as much other than your sleep, which is health concern.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah. Video games can have a ramp up video games.

[Ben]

You have to like go remove yourself from reality, sit in a box and be there. And then the other thing with video games is this is like, it's so lonely.

[Charlie Kirk]

Do you play computer games or do you play like console video games?

[Blake]

I play some console. It's not super often.

[Charlie Kirk]

What, like, what is Xbox still around?

[Blake]

It's still around. I don't own one.

[Charlie Kirk]

I own a PlayStation still.

[Blake]

PlayStation still around. Yeah.

[Jack]

What do you play?

[Charlie Kirk]

So when kids say they play video games, what, what do they play?

[Blake]

Oh, that would vary a ton. I mean, what's the most popular today? Fortnight, probably or what console is that in? Those are on everything nowadays. Like the big thing they is every game is on every system I play with. No.

[Charlie Kirk]

So because I grew up in a world where Halo was only on X. Yeah, yeah, that's.

[Blake]

Only Nintendo games are like that.

[Charlie Kirk]

And then I turned 18, I was like, this is a waste of time. I'm go build something.

[Ben]

Well, Halo's still only on Xbox, but really.

[Charlie Kirk]

So that's not a PlayStation?

[Blake]

No, that's. Is that on PC now? On PC.

[Charlie Kirk]

So not everything's on everything. But can we play the Halo music? It's really good. Keep going.

[Ben]

Well, the guys.

[Blake]

Oh, I never play well.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah, I haven't played it. We played 11, 13 years.

[Ben]

We played Halo like it was our day job in high school. That's like how we played.

[Charlie Kirk]

So is Call of Duty still around?

[Ben]

Call of Duty? So I'll play Call of Duty with Brooks. So I play Call of Duty and I'm bad, but there's some fun games on there.

[Charlie Kirk]

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[Blake]

Yeah, there's some. There's so many now. And like a lot of them, like I will deliberately avoid because they can be such an addictive time sink. Like, they'll place. They play those, like, paradox strategy games where you're just, like, conquering the world. And people will play like 5,000 hours of that.

[Ben]

I'll play with Brooks, like Madden or a hockey game. Because It's. It's like 15 minutes. You sit down, you play a game, and you're out.

[Charlie Kirk]

That's not hate.

[Ben]

It's not Halo.

[Blake]

What is this?

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah, yeah, seriously.

[Blake]

And I know that by the way.

[Charlie Kirk]

The guy that wrote the Halo songs, like a Winger. We talked about that. Yeah.

[Blake]

He didn't win, unfortunately.

[Ben]

No, they're in, like, fourth place.

[Charlie Kirk]

Original Halo song. Exactly. Right.

[Jack]

Okay, so Gregorian chant.

[Blake]

Martin O'.

[Ben]

Donnell, Marty O'.

[Blake]

Donnell.

[Ben]

He came in like 34 times.

[Jack]

By the way.

[Ben]

He's in Vegas.

[Charlie Kirk]

He was a scene. This is. This is good music. This, that. You know what? You know why this is good music? It feels like you're on a home screen.

[Ben]

Oh, my gosh.

[Charlie Kirk]

It feels as if you're going through settings and, you know, it has that kind of aura.

[Ben]

We. We used to play all night long in my. In my parents, man. We would.

[Charlie Kirk]

We would completely sync up.

[Ben]

We would sync up Xboxes and we would play, you know, whatever that. What was that map?

[Blake]

Blood Gulch.

[Ben]

And I'm trying to think of the other one.

[Charlie Kirk]

There was like, Misty Mountain or something.

[Ben]

Oh, man. Oh, yeah, yeah, I remember that one we played. There was one called Damnation that we played.

[Charlie Kirk]

I gotta look.

[Ben]

That was incredible. We played Capture the Flag.

[Blake]

People are now listing off random games and the people are listing age vampires. I do still play.

[Ben]

I'm gonna tell you right now.

[Blake]

Which is still awesome.

[Ben]

I'm gonna tell you right now. Because they released Battle Creek. Battle Creek.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah, Battle Creek.

[Ben]

There was the big one, too.

[Charlie Kirk]

Oh, I was Hang em High.

[Ben]

Was good. But there was this one game, this map, you can play on the new Halo, because they have it. And they just revamped and redid all the originals. Damnation. One flag. Capture the flag.

[Charlie Kirk]

Okay, so what is Roblox?

[Ben]

Roblox should be.

[Blake]

I think it's like a platform so, like, people can make games in it.

[Charlie Kirk]

So is that an Xbox?

[Blake]

I think that's. Again, it's not like everything that's. A lot of kids get really into robots.

[Charlie Kirk]

What is the purpose of Fortnite? What is. What is Fortnite? What is the thesis?

[Blake]

Fortnite. The gimmick of it was it popularized? They call them Battle Royales. And so the idea was a hundred people would be in a game at once.

[Charlie Kirk]

So that's like the League thing.

[Blake]

No, that's World of Warcraft. So this is like 100 people would be in a game at once, which is way more like, you know, Halo. You could be like 4v4 at best. But this was. You can have 100 people and it's called a battle royale. So they go to. Only one is left. It has other game modes they've added over time too. I know what makes it popular is like, you can be like any character in it at this point. So like, you can be Spider man, you can be Mario, you can be like, there's a million different characters that you can be.

[Ben]

Well, and now Call of Duty is doing that. Yeah, exactly. So Call of Duty. Now I. You can be a Ninja Turtle.

[Blake]

Yeah, great.

[Charlie Kirk]

I just.

[Ben]

Okay, so Call of Duty, that's.

[Charlie Kirk]

So basically my. My takeaway is that nothing has really changed. The same games are still basically the same popular games.

[Ben]

Yeah, but they're really nice, dude.

[Jack]

Charlie, I completely agree with you.

[Charlie Kirk]

Oh, no, I'm not. Please, Jack, affirm me, because I am a. I'm a stranger.

[Jack]

My kids, you know, my kids are kind of at the age where they're starting to like, to get, you know, like video game curious. We don't have games in the house, but they'll like, you know, we have like one of those smart TVs. And so they could see. They could see kind of like, you know, videos of people playing games or they'll go through the store and look at games and you look at stuff and you're like, okay, Minecraft is just a ripoff of Legos in 3D. Roblox is just a ripoff of Minecraft. There's another one, actually. Cernovich was telling me about it the other day that his kids are into, and I looked into it and I'm like, this is just a ripoff of all the same games again. And then when you go and look at like the actual popular, non sort of like building things games, it's literally all the same characters that were popular in like the late 80s, early 90s. It's like, here's another Mario, here's another Sonic, here's another Ninja Turtles, and on and on and on. And it's like the one. I'll throw it out. Like, the one that. The only one that I've heard that's like kind of new is Five Nights at Freddy's, which I'm not even going to get into right now. But like, the vast majority of games that you go out and see right now, like, just, you know, walking through the aisle looking, I'm like, wait a minute. These are all the exact same games and characters that were around like 30 years ago.

[Blake]

What about the.

[Ben]

But the only. Like we. They brought up the battle royale thing did change everything. But it. Other than that, there was like no changes.

[Charlie Kirk]

So. But let me list it off. Okay, so the most popular games of 2025, Call of Duty, I had that. And then I grew up. Madden had that. Final Fantasy 8, Rebirth, which existed. EA Sports, FC25, I'm guessing is soccer.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Charlie Kirk]

And then Minecraft. Literally nothing has. And then Grand Theft Auto is. GTA was huge. And I was growing up. That's still.

[Blake]

No, Grand Theft Auto 5 is the most successful entertainment property of any kind of all time.

[Charlie Kirk]

Well, it says Tetris is more popular.

[Blake]

No, they're. They're wrong. GTA 5 has sold like, I think over 100 million copies.

[Charlie Kirk]

There's a. There's a 200 million here, but yeah.

[Blake]

200 million. Yeah.

[Ben]

There's a new Grand Theft Auto coming out.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah.

[Ben]

Everybody's looking forward.

[Blake]

One thing that's wild with this is it take one reason it's all the same old stuff is it takes them like, you know how we can't do anything in America anymore because it costs 15 times as much as it used to? Same thing with video games. So you used to make a Mario game with a team of 20 people and it took.

[Charlie Kirk]

Which one was Grand Theft Auto 5? Was that LA?

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Blake]

Yeah. Or they. They don't call it LA, but it.

[Charlie Kirk]

Was like San Andreas. Los Santos.

[Blake]

Los Santos in the state of San Andre.

[Charlie Kirk]

So they have not done a new grand theft auto in 12 years.

[Ben]

It's been a long time.

[Blake]

And like it used.

[Charlie Kirk]

So let me ask you, have the graphics gotten better in 12 years? They don't. They look the same a bit, but.

[Blake]

It slowed down a lot like it used to be. You really could tell. You know, it goes 2D.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah. Look, the shadow dimensions and stuff looks largely the same.

[Blake]

I mean, even most games that come out today, like on PL, they're on PlayStation 5 now. Most games that come out on PlayStation 5 will also still have a PlayStation 4 version. Well, it's just slightly not.

[Ryan]

I don't know.

[Ben]

Call of Duty looks a lot better than it was a few years ago.

[Blake]

I wouldn't know.

[Ben]

But. But I'll tell you this. Red Dead Redemption, is that the.

[Blake]

Is that redemption? That came out like a decade ago.

[Ben]

That came out a while ago, but that is a fun game. That's like Grand Theft Auto, but it's in the Wild West.

[Blake]

You're on a horse.

[Ben]

You're on a horse. That's actually fun. Like, Brooks was playing that for a little bit. You could just mess around and just like, hijack horses and stuff like that.

[Charlie Kirk]

So the video game I went all in on on was Star. Star Wars, Knights of the Old Republic. Anyone else know that?

[Ben]

Yes, I remember that. Yeah, that was.

[Charlie Kirk]

That was a lotar. Yes.

[Ben]

At the time, wasn't that the most expensive?

[Blake]

Were you like, side or dark side?

[Charlie Kirk]

Charlie.

[Jack]

You were a cozar guy with one or two?

[Charlie Kirk]

I think one. Yeah. Okay. I tried two and I hated it. It was definitely one. It was definitely one. Two was like, rushed.

[Jack]

One did really well, and then two.

[Charlie Kirk]

Was like, super rushed.

[Jack]

It was like, kind of used a different.

[Charlie Kirk]

So like, developer. So. So hold on. It was. It was. It was called a massively multiplayer online role playing series. What. What was it?

[Jack]

I know, I never played the online.

[Charlie Kirk]

What is an RPG is role playing, which means you could have different directions.

[Blake]

And, like, you level up your character, that you adjust their stats, but there's different paths that.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah, exactly.

[Blake]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then mmorpg, Massively multiplayer online role playing games when there's hundreds of people, thousands of people not interested in that.

[Charlie Kirk]

But yes, I. I took the dark side.

[Ben]

I think. I think Knights of the Old Republic, I think that was like, the most expensive game ever made. When they made it, it was like. It's supposed to be like.

[Blake]

You might be thinking of the Old Republic with just the Old Republic, which was. That was an MMORPG they made.

[Jack]

The Old Republic was the. Was the online one.

[Blake]

The Tortanic, they called it.

[Charlie Kirk]

Maybe I'm confused. Which one is which?

[Blake]

So Knights of the Old Republic was your 1 player. It has a story and everything.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Blake]

And then there was one called just the Old Republic.

[Charlie Kirk]

I didn't do that.

[Blake]

Which came out a decade later and was, like, massively hyped and we won't.

[Charlie Kirk]

Republic came out in 2003 and I'm looking at images of it. It looks as good as video games today. Like that.

[Blake]

That is not true, I think.

[Charlie Kirk]

I'm sorry, I'm just looking at the.

[Ben]

Image of that on VR. Yeah, I think they've made this. That game on VR, like a. Maybe a cheaper version.

[Charlie Kirk]

That was an objectively good video game.

[Blake]

It was good, but it. It does not look like what they're putting out today. I will. I will contest that one. Like, the last big leap, I would say, like, was probably about 10 years ago. And then since then, yeah, they improve, but it's on the margins. And they're like, oh, you need to have a 4K TV to see this.

[Ben]

Yeah, I've always wanted so one of the game. So the games within the games, like on Call of Duty, if you've never played this, this is the only time I've sat and played something by myself. And it was with. With my son, with Brooks. Is the zombies thing that is like, actually creepy? Like, it gets to different points where if, like, you're in a dark room and all that stuff, it like, creeps you out while you're doing it. It's interesting.

[Charlie Kirk]

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[Blake]

You gave in.

[Charlie Kirk]

No, I don't.

[Ben]

You see it. You see, I don't agree.

[Charlie Kirk]

I'm saying that he ruined it. It's just as I. I always used to look at it as, you know, brotherly love. And then Frodo and Sam, there's some very long gazes. It's. It's.

[Blake]

It. It's. You guys.

[Charlie Kirk]

I don't want to say Tyler's giving.

[Blake]

In, but, like, to the propaganda.

[Charlie Kirk]

No, no, no. Tyler. Tyler gets in your head about this, and then all of a sudden you can't unsee it. I'm not even saying it's right. I'm saying you kind of infer it and like, geez, Frodo doesn't look at women that way. This is Peter Jackson's the woman in the woods that way doesn't look at Liv Tyler that way.

[Ben]

That's right.

[Blake]

I think, I think you can infer that Frodo knew.

[Charlie Kirk]

And then you really start wondering like Mary, Pippin, Salmon, Frodo are all sharing a room. And you really start thinking about things you shouldn't be thinking about.

[Ben]

This is like a three week long, like conversation and it's gonna keep going.

[Blake]

Until I win this conversation.

[Charlie Kirk]

And you gotta wonder like, what are they actually doing in Rivendell? What are they really doing in Rivendell? Because you look at it through kind of the modern woke lens and I got it's. I'm not saying Tyler's right, but it, it half ruined the movie.

[Blake]

You realize what they're doing at Rivendale? Yeah, there's. They're singing.

[Ben]

Why is Gandalf going down there?

[Blake]

Like a weirdo. It's like literally music and they're singing their elfish songs, their elfish language. There's nothing gay about it. No.

[Ben]

What's Gandalf really going down there for? He's like his little Thailand. Like, this is like.

[Charlie Kirk]

Is Gandalf the Epstein wizard of Middle Earth?

[Ben]

Yes, he is. Yeah. That's his Thailand.

[Ryan]

I'm not saying throw this up. Brian wants to throw this up. 204. There it is.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah. I'm telling you, once you see it through the Tyler lens, he's not that he's right. It's just. You can't unsee it and it kind of ruins the film.

[Blake]

You guys, you guys, I want to.

[Ben]

Make this point that we didn't make the a few weeks ago was it's not just that I think Peter Jackson had this weird homoerotic approach to this because like the elves are all super gay. They're all, they're all super gay. Orlando Bloom is like, he looks like Pete Davidson. He's like, he's just like. He's got Pete Davidson vibes to him. Which is like that. Yes, yes. And we, and we talked about all the orcs. There's no women orcs. There's no female. Like, what is this? Like, there's a lot of gay.

[Blake]

What do they do? That's gay. What do the orcs do? That's gay.

[Ben]

There's no girls. There's no women.

[Blake]

Yeah. So is the military gay? Like when we make Pete Hegseth's goal to like make combat really gay. Is that, is that the goal?

[Charlie Kirk]

Tyler story itself, the story itself is not necessarily homoerotic, but there's like gazes that are like half a second, two seconds too long and then like the whole, like, Sam, I'm so glad I have you with me. It's like completely unnecessary extra lines of dialogue. I'm sorry. I, like, I rewatched it and it's such a good movie and it's so amazing. But if you kind of go back to watch a movie 20 years ago through modern ultra, like, let's just say gay lens of film, you see some things there and you got. Boy, if that was made in 2025, it would be Brokeback Mountain of mountain. It would be awful.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Ryan]

This reminds me. This reminds me of what happened with Abraham Lincoln.

[Blake]

Right?

[Ryan]

So he had this really close friendship with a guy named Joshua Fry Speed. And this is before they were. He was president, like, well, before I sent the.

[Ben]

The.

[Ryan]

The old timey image of Joshua Fry Speed. But there was in 1926, a biography of Lincoln by Carl Sandburg. Alluded to the early relationship. Lincoln and his friend Joshua Fry Speed hat as having a streak of lavender and spots soft as May violets. And that kind of reminds me of like a really good description of.

[Charlie Kirk]

That's Ian McClellan. That's Gandalf.

[Ben]

Yeah. Gandalf is gay.

[Charlie Kirk]

I forgot.

[Ben]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Ryan]

But like, I also call it like, this is. You know, we're changing history here. I mean, I can guarantee you that. That maybe the movie's a little bit like homoerotic, but like the books.

[Charlie Kirk]

And the original Grand Marshall, he's the grand marshal of the Gay Parade.

[Ryan]

Yeah, but that's. That's modern, you know, that's not that. That's not the way the books were written. That's not the original intent. Oh, geez.

[Charlie Kirk]

I know you guys are.

[Blake]

When you accept this framing, you are giving in to.

[Charlie Kirk]

To the.

[Blake]

To the gay. And I will say complex.

[Charlie Kirk]

I never thought it at all my entire life. And then Tyler mentions it and it half ruins it. Like.

[Ryan]

No, hold on.

[Blake]

If you let them do it, if you let them get away with it, they're going to make George Washington gay. They're going to make. They're gonna.

[Ryan]

That's the. That's. That's why I brought up Lincoln with his. So he had a. Like, he has four kids. He was in a long relationship with his wife. What was her name? Mary Todd or whatever. And he had a history of having romantic relationships with other women before that. I don't. I'm not sure they were physical. But the point is everybody thought he was heterosexual his whole life. And then we get to like 2020 and all of a sudden he's gay. This so. So I do want to make space for the fact that men can have intimate, non sexual, very heterosexual relationships. And I think before the gay agenda took over modern pop culture, nobody would have thought differently about it. Stop it, Ryan. One of our producers keeps putting in very inappropriate pictures. Anyways, what it's worth, we have to make space for the fact that.

[Ben]

Well, I mean, this is a real conversation though, because. And this does tie back to Pete Davidson because, you know, his, like this, you know, growing up, fatherless thing. Obviously no fault of his own. His dad died in nine, 11, whatever. But like, this entire feminization of males. I think the feminization of males in general has made it impossible for guys to have, like, those old school, you know, guy best friends because people look at you and question if you're gay. So when you create a world in which that's so prevalent, I think it's harder to be. It's hard to have like a best buddy. And this. Actually, I've talked about this recently with friends. It's like, it's actually hard in general for men to get together and do anything. Like kind of the old school days, it was like men used to get together and do bowling leagues and poker nights and da, da, da. And those things happen. But I don't think they're nearly as prevalent as they were, you know, many years ago. And. And I think it's like this is all part and parcel to, like, again, Hollywood, everything just like pushing the gay agenda, which, you know, may or may not have started with Lord of the Rings. So, you know, just.

[Ryan]

I totally agree. Here's. I don't know if this is going to help my case or hurt it, depending on. But I'll never forget when I went to Italy and. Okay, so it's apparently gonna hurt it based on Blake's reaction to Italy. But I remember going in Italy and there would be men holding hands, walking down the street, just holding hands. And they were. I asked, I was like, are they gay? And they're like, no, no, no. They're straight as an arrow. Like, that's just. Men in Italy, they'll just hold, like, if they feel close to another man, they'll just hold each other's hands. I'm just. I'm just saying what I saw.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Charlie Kirk]

Through a 20, 25 lens. You watch the movie 20 years later, and it's just. You can't help but think because we look at all of that stuff as. As homoerotic and gay.

[Ryan]

Thanks for ruining a childhood favorite, Tyler. Really appreciate it.

[Charlie Kirk]

Oh, no, no, he completely wrecked it.

[Ben]

Well, I mean, it was. Somebody had. Had planted that in my mind. But this is how it happened for me. I watched during COVID I downloaded all the trilogies that existed because there was like. So every night I would just watch. Start watching one of the trilogies. I watched literally every movie that had a trilogy, and I downloaded Lord of the Rings. I started watching. I was like, man, this is really gay. I can't watch this. And I like, shut. I downloaded all three. I paid for all three movies. And I only watched like, the, like, first half of the first one.

[Blake]

Now I'm. Now thanks to. Thanks to Andrew's, like, Italy's super straight thing. I'm. I'm looking up Liberace to make sure he was, in fact Italian. And yes, he was Italian. And he put a big candelabra on his piano and he insisted he was straight his whole life. And then he. Well, he died of a condition not associated with that.

[Ryan]

Well, I'm just telling you what I saw. And men in Italy walked down the.

[Charlie Kirk]

Street holding each other's hand. And if you. If you watch the movie closely, near the beginning at Bilbo Baggins 110th or 111th birthday, Sam was really nervous to go up and talk to the ladies or the woman. So he needed like, an extra thing of beer and had to be thrown into it. That's really straight.

[Blake]

That's straight. Like, gays are great at talking to women because they have, like, women brain.

[Ryan]

Wait, hold on.

[Charlie Kirk]

Not always a lot of.

[Ryan]

So why.

[Blake]

Why would a gay dude be nervous about talking to women? What's he worried is gonna happen?

[Ryan]

A lot of dudes are. That's. That's so cliche. It's a stick they used in the movie. That men are nervous of talking to women. Only. Only a certain subset of men are nervous.

[Charlie Kirk]

Not nervous to talk to Marian Pippen.

[Ryan]

Hey, I will tell you that if you go watch Top Gun, the original, like, go watch that for homoerotic.

[Blake]

Oh, you're gonna make. You're gonna make Top Gun gay for Charlie now, ruining everything for all of us.

[Ryan]

I mean, Top Gun is. Is objectively homoerotic.

[Blake]

Andrew, you are putting this conversation in the danger zone. You are on a highway to the danger zone right now. Yeah, this is not.

[Ryan]

There is a reason why there's a lot of rumors flowing around about the lead in that film, Tom Cruise. I'm just saying that what.

[Charlie Kirk]

All this. What else are you gonna ruin for me?

[Ryan]

1980S Top Gun is the most homoerotic movie ever created. It's a fact.

[Blake]

You're just gonna come in every, every, every week. It's gonna. Yeah, but there's also gonna assert another movie is gay. You're gonna be like.

[Ryan]

I mean, Star wars is gay.

[Charlie Kirk]

The Godfather is. It was really kind of like. It wasn't really about five families. It was kind of like a gay conclave that was running inner Italian mafia.

[Blake]

Yeah. You're going to be like the good, the bad and the ugly gay. You're going to be Citizen Kane.

[Charlie Kirk]

Gay.

[Ben]

Citizen gay.

[Ryan]

No, it's not under every rock.

[Charlie Kirk]

Rosebud was not actually his sled growing up. Rosebud was a secret lover that he had during college.

[Blake]

Yeah, Charlie, don't look up the slang term. Don't look up slang terms for that word. Just. That's all I'm gonna say.

[Ben]

Clarence, man, you can't. You can't touch. You cannot touch. It's a Wonderful Life. Okay. You cannot touch it.

[Ryan]

Okay, hold on. I mean, Top Gun is like, this is not me breaking news. Everybody knows Top Gun's homoerotics.

[Ben]

No, I just.

[Charlie Kirk]

I googled it that way.

[Ben]

He's right.

[Blake]

You're gonna.

[Ben]

He's right. It's gay.

[Charlie Kirk]

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[Ben]

I googled the gayest movies that are explicitly gay. And also on there is wizard of Oz.

[Blake]

Oh, that's like. That's a different one where whether that movie is gay or not gay people are obsessed with wizard of Oz because gay men love Judy Garland. I guess the more. The more, you know.

[Ben]

I also think that there's that connection, the same connection with Lord of the Rings as you have. In fact, if small people, if you.

[Blake]

Look up like gay icons, I think Judy Garland is literally the first result. It's kind of. Kind of strange. Oh, man. We're good. This is getting way too deep into the lore. We should probably hit the evac button to the next topic before every. It'll turn out. Everything.

[Charlie Kirk]

Everything is why people pay the big bucks.

[Ryan]

Hold on, hold on. I'm. I'm. This is top ten macho blockbusters with hidden homoeroticism. Number ten is Ravenous from 1999. I've never heard of that. 300 is number nine. Number eight, Top Gun, 1986.

[Charlie Kirk]

What are you talking about?

[Ryan]

Number seven?

[Charlie Kirk]

Come on.

[Ryan]

Yeah, well, because it's all these dudes running around.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Blake]

It's called like, dudes who are murdering other dudes. Yeah.

[Ryan]

All right. A Nightmare on Elm Street. Freddy's Revenge from 1985. Tango and Cash, 1989. X Men First Class, 2011.

[Ben]

Yeah, X Men's kind of gay.

[Blake]

We're corrupting the 1950 Yoma 63. I feel like I'm being corrupted. I never saw gayness in topic.

[Ryan]

This is gonna mess with that.

[Blake]

You're destroying our audience.

[Ryan]

Ben Hur, 1959. I could see that. Fight Club, 1998. 9. But Fight Club.

[Ben]

Fight Club's kind of gay. Yeah. Yeah.

[Blake]

I have not actually seen the Fight Club movie. I think I'm the only person born in my year to have not seen it.

[Ben]

That's a perfect example of a movie that was. That was directed at men that men, like boys were supposed to like. That had severe gay undertones for sure. Yeah.

[Blake]

I wrote the book. The book is like.

[Ryan]

Because they're like, they're. They need like, camaraderie. That's just like what a gang is. Like a. You know, I just. I don't know if I agree with this at all.

[Ben]

No, there's a. There's a. I actually. Because I got into that after I was reading because we were talking about gay movies. Because that's. This is how this came up. And I can't got to Lord of the Rings. This was one of the ones. The Reddit threads I read was all about how Fight Club has all these, like, it's tons of undertones, like, throughout, and it was like planting in like, boys minds all like, in the 2000s or 90s or whenever it came out.

[Ryan]

Well, we probably ruined Everybody's Night here.

[Blake]

DJT 2020 suggests that just all acting in fiction is gay, which was kind of what the. That is like the true classical take on it. You know, the ancient Romans considered actors the equivalent of prostitutes, basically. Maybe we need to bring that back.

[Ryan]

Well, I mean, if we go far enough back to the Greeks, it was only male actors, right?

[Ben]

So.

[Ryan]

That would probably attract a certain type of male even back then.

[Charlie Kirk]

Okay, let's go really quick. Who wants to take the what? Jack, you're awfully passionate about this, this in and out whataburger thing. Go ahead.

[Blake]

So just. I'll set it up with some context here, which is.

[Ben]

Oh, yeah, give us a context.

[Blake]

Someone put up a billboard to troll in and out because I guess, which burger was it that did it? They like in and out.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Ryan]

Started in Santa Barbara, actually, Funny enough.

[Blake]

Alrighty. So Habit Burgers. That's the name of it. Yep, Habit Burger. They beat In N Out as like the number one tastiest fast food burger and now they're trolling in and out by putting up a congrats on number two billboard. But I just wanted to have that context.

[Jack]

So I don't know what that was. So the. Yeah, I was. I was in the time machine there for a second, boys. But no, now I'm back. Now I'm back to America. So look, this is kind of what. You know, funny enough, J.D. vance and and Tucker got into this the other. When I saw them in Hershey regarding the Quarter Pounder and the Big Mac. And JD was arguing that the Quarter Pounder is better meal because you get more meat. And Tucker was like, yeah, but there's no special sauce. And JD responds, he goes, tucker, you have been manipulated by the elites. Special sauce is nothing. It's all about which. Which burger has more meat. And that's kind of where I come down on this. That Whataburger just has more meat to it. That it's. It's got more meat than in and out. So I'm like, I don't know. Like, I just. I feel like I like that burger, man.

[Charlie Kirk]

Charlie, are you allowed to defend in and out? Not. I'm on this weird, like, diet right now, but typically the In n out is the best. And Tyler, you have to admit, Arizona became a better place when in and out came here.

[Ben]

So In n Out is. If you're a West coaster, especially growing up now, it's kind of like it's. It's everywhere now. I think they just opened up in and out. Good for them, by the way, open up In n Out in Tennessee. But when I was growing up, it was like we like, longed to go to. Every time we go to California, you long to go wait in line at In n Out and just go to In n Out. And everybody did that. That still kind of exists for people who are on the east coast for the most part. But like, it was. If you asked an east coaster about In n Out, nobody really knew what it was at all. Like, no one ever like pre social media, all that stuff. So it was like really the pre era of it was. And Andrew can probably add to this too, being from Nevada. If you're from, like Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, you know, probably like Utah and like other parts, people would go. And that was like part of your experience. So it was like culturally part of visiting California was In N Out Burger. So I would. I actually, the way I view In N Out Burger is different than probably how younger people view In N Out Burger, which is that it has a taste that's associated with, like, memories, especially like vacation memories and beach memories that you can't break. But people who don't have that appreciation for it that like that pre era, it just has a different meaning to you. So I love In N Out Burger because it has, like all these memories. It's straight up California. Like, it's like invariably attached that when they came to Arizona, it was like the biggest deal ever. When they first opened up the first restaurants in Arizona, it was like such a big deal. And it still is. You go to in and out. You go to any In n Out Burger any night. It's like Chick Fil a. Chick Fil a In and out. It's the longest lines that you'll find in the entire state. But the taste, I still, every time I taste it, the spread, it's like I think of being in California, the beach, I can almost like smell like. Like the sea air.

[Blake]

This. This is an embarrassing story. In. In 2016, my dad. I was out of the home by this point. My dad flew our family, so a lot of my siblings were still at home. But. But he's also like, blake, I'll buy you a ticket. You have to come with us. And he flew our entire family to Los Angeles. This is the first time I had been to Los Angeles so that we could go visit the Reagan library and the Reagan Ranch, which is definitely like the most. I am a baby boomer, conservative thing that my family has ever done. But as part of that, we ended up Going to In N Out, I think two or three separate times because our Airbnb was close to one. And it's as you describe it was very long lines. This was right when I think the cult of In N Out was really becoming, you know, a nationwide awareness thing. And, yeah, we went there a bunch. I did like In N Out quite a bit. I don't eat enough fast food burgers to have strong opinions on which one is the best, to be honest. I usually get chicken sandwiches if they offer them. My favorite burger that I actually eat regularly. We have a place here in Phoenix. I have no idea if they're elsewhere, but cold beers and cheeseburgers. They have a peanut butter and jelly burger on their menu. And every time I go, I order that. And I always tell them I've never been there.

[Charlie Kirk]

Is the food good there?

[Blake]

This burger is good. I always tell them, don't wuss out on the peanut butter and jelly. Like, really, like, slather it up. And they do when I tell them to. And it's kind of disgusting. You end up with peanut butter everywhere. It's a little. Little gross, but, oh, oh, it's satisfying and delicious. And it's even more delicious knowing that Charlie will never be able to eat one.

[Charlie Kirk]

That's right, Blake. That's really sick and sadistic. All right, everybody, I have to go and do some stuff here. Go support your local In N Out. Get it animal style. Double, double. Get the secret sauce.

[Ben]

Animals. Animal style is incredible. It's incredible. Animal style is incredible.

[Charlie Kirk]

Here's the order. Get a get 24 by fours. Animal style, protein style, extra secret sauce, extra pickles, extra peppers. Heard it here first. God bless. Keep on committing thought crimes. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. Email us. As always, freedomarliekirk.com thanks so much for listening and God bless.

[Blake]

For more on many of these stories and news you can Trust, go to charliekirk.com.