The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds

Episode 143 – The Past Times with Matt Braunger

Release Date: September 19, 2025

Guest: Matt Braunger

Episode Overview

This episode of The Dollop’s spinoff, The Past Times, features comedians Dave Anthony, Gareth Reynolds, and guest Matt Braunger. Together, they riff on bizarre and revealing stories from a randomly selected newspaper—in this case, the August 1st, 1897 edition of Chicago’s Sunday Chronicle. Their sharp, irreverent banter and improv skills turn old news into wild, often hilarious commentary on American history, gender roles, technology, family, and more.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Opening Banter & Tank Top Talks

• Technical difficulties launch the episode, with Matt Braunger joking about his new, intentionally silly podcast, Tank Top Talks.
• Tank Top Talks explained: Guests wear tank tops, discuss their tanks, and share "tucked-in takes" (wild opinions). Dave refuses to be a guest, despite protestations.
  • Matt Braunger: “It's all about being silly. That's all.” (07:12)
  • Dave Anthony: “If I put on a tank top, I'm coming on your podcast swinging. We're fighting.” (06:08)
• Humor about podcasting and masculinity/absurdity:
  • Tank tops, leapfrogging, and fighting are linked in classic Dollop style.

2. Guess the Year Game

• The show’s format involves guessing the year of the random newspaper.
  • Matt guesses 1937, Gareth 1971, Dave reveals it’s 1897.
  • Gareth Reynolds: "Matt, I'm glad you won legitimately, Matt, because Dave is a real piece of crap." (08:39)

3. Gun Technology of 1897: The ‘Wire Gun’

• They discover an article about the U.S. government building a "10-inch wire gun":
  • Confusion and humor over what a "wire gun" is, with wild speculation: grappling hooks, Batman tech, wire deliveries.
  • Actual description: Cannon wrapped in 75 miles of wire, firing a 600-lb shell. Intended for coastal defense.
  • Matt Braunger: “I feel like wires were the lasers of the day in the 1800s.” (10:23)
  • Dave Anthony: “If you go to Home Depot and you order enough wire, they'll go, ‘Alright, go around back to the wire gun.’” (11:30)
• Extended riffing about American militarism, male overcompensation, and penile analogies.

4. Strange Human Interest Stories

a) Nine Years of Silence After a Bad Dream

• Charles Shrank, a Wisconsin boy, went mute for 9 years after a nightmare, then suddenly recovered.
• Speculation about horror backstories, repression, and 19th-century medicine:
  • Matt Braunger: “Reads like the basis of a short horror story… You dreamt that and you're going, oh God, I wouldn’t believe it so much.” (19:38)
  • Doctors' "treatments" (slapping, cocaine, “experiments”) lampooned.
• Lack of journalistic depth: The article doesn’t reveal how he recovered or what the dream was.

b) Michigan’s Sprightly Girls and Leapfrog Parties

• Article on Greenville girls “up-to-date” for swimming, marksmanship, and, bizarrely, “leapfrog parties.”
• Comedians riff on leapfrogging as both a weird social trend and possible euphemism.
  • Dave Anthony: “I have a leapfrog podcast.” (27:24)
  • Gareth Reynolds: “You say that because you haven’t done it, but it’s pretty fucking great.” (27:18)
• Turned into a discussion of gender, historical innocence, and implied homoeroticism:
  • Matt Braunger: “I bet that's how it started… No, we were leapfrogging.” (31:03)
  • Jokes about leapfrog parties being gay cover stories in the closeted past.

5. Family Dysfunction: Kicking Out the Parents

• Charles Spahr seeks legal permission to evict his elderly parents from his basement; his father subsequently disappears.
  • Dave and Matt riff on generational cruelty, parental basementing, and economic hardship.
  • Mother claims she loaned Charles money; he says she’s rich but favors other kids.
  • Gareth Reynolds: “You live rent free inside your mom for nine months, you little—” (41:41)
  • Matt Braunger: “His basement is his leapfrog workout studio. You’re not reading between the lines here.” (40:56)

6. Peculiar Crime: Forcible Nail Trimming

• A man is charged after forcibly cutting a boy’s fingernails as punishment after being scratched.
  • The hosts are half-disgusted, half-amused: “How do you forcibly cut nails?” (52:41)
  • Gareth connects it absurdly to domestic pet care.

7. Medical Mishaps: X-Ray Dangers

• Ms. Josie McDonald blisters, blacks, and loses hair after 25 minutes of X-ray exposure to her cheek—an early example of medical overzealousness.
  • Matt Braunger: “This is the attack of the X ray. She comes back and she's disfigured. But she has phenomenal powers.” (58:20)
  • Jokes about 19th-century doctors blaming the victim, lack of medical responsibility.

8. Spirit Photography & Dead Siblings

• Article claims a deceased girl appeared beside her sister in a photograph.
  • No image provided—cue jokes about cameras that only see dead children.
  • Matt Braunger: “This model is just dead children. Sorry.” (66:30)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On masculine podcasting idiocy:
  • Matt: “You show up like that psycho doing flips in Roadhouse with the pool cue to my Dalton.” (06:57)
• Wire gun confusion:
  • Gareth: “What if it just shoots out like a big wad of wire that just hits you in the face and hopefully scratches you?” (10:44)
• On 19th-century medicine:
  • Matt: “The best solve to a non-talker is a bump [of cocaine].” (23:38)
• On leapfrogging as a coded activity:
  • Matt: “How many guys were like, ‘No, what? No, we were leapfrogging.’” (31:14)
• On leapfrogging technique:
  • Matt: “You got to, like, put your chin to your chest. Otherwise, you’re going to get a sack to the back of your head.” (29:17)
• On family dynamics:
  • Dave: “All parents should be basemented.” (37:41)
  • Gareth: “You live rent-free inside your mom for nine months, you little—” (41:41)
• On 19th-century journalism:
  • Matt: “What is this journalism? If any of us went back in time, we would lose minds. They didn't share the dream or the cure in this article.” (24:07)
• On early x-rays:
  • Matt: “You cooked her face! You put her in a little Chernobyl.” (57:45)

Important Segments with Timestamps

• Tank Top Talks & Dave’s Reluctance
  05:00 – 07:33

• Guess the Year Game
  08:07 – 09:11

• Wire Gun Article & Reactions
  09:13 – 13:10

• Boy Mute for Nine Years After Dream
  18:31 – 24:24

• Michigan Girls Leapfrog Parties
  25:02 – 31:38

• Son Tries to Evict Elderly Parents
  37:08 – 48:48

• Forcible Nail Trimming as Assault
  52:27 – 54:56

• Victim of the X-Ray
  55:01 – 61:15

• Spirit Photograph/Dead Sibling Article
  65:11 – 67:37

Final Thoughts & Episode Tone

The episode is a classic Past Times romp, blending genuine historical oddities with absurd, modern commentary and relentless riffing. It’s irreverent throughout, lampooning not only turn-of-the-century events and journalism but also masculinity, family, and the inanity of both old and modern societal rituals. Matt Braunger fits in seamlessly, maintaining the fever-pitch of improvisational banter with the hosts.

Summary for New Listeners

If you’ve never heard The Dollop or its Past Times offshoot, this episode offers the perfect blend of American weirdness, lightning-fast comedic interplay, and historical curiosity. Whether debating "leapfrog parties" as covert queerness, marveling at the dangers of x-rays, or skewering the villainy of evicting one’s own elderly parents, the hosts and guest wring every drop of comedy and insight from the 1897 news—making history as hilarious and strange as it really was.

Note:

• Advertisement segments (Mood gummies) and show plugs are omitted for brevity, focusing only on the main content.
• All speaker attributions and timestamps correspond to the transcript above.