In this special double feature Christmas Drive-In episode, hosts Christian Ashley and Evan Garcia are joined by former host Nick Polk to dive into a festive discussion about "South Park: Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" and "Phineas and Ferb's Christmas Vacation." They kick things off by pondering how the secular world celebrates Christmas, exploring the hilarious yet poignant social commentary in the South Park episode, which feels as relevant now as it did back in the day. Nick shares his fresh perspective on the Phineas and Ferb episode, revealing it as his first viewing, while the trio reflects on gift-giving and the true spirit of the holidays. With witty banter and clever insights, they navigate through nostalgia, culture, and the quirks of holiday traditions, all while keeping it light-hearted and fun. As they wrap up, the conversation underscores the importance of finding common ground amidst differing beliefs, all while celebrating the joy and silliness of Christmas cheer. Christian Ashley, Evan Garcia, and former host Nick Polk dive into a special double feature Christmas Drive-In episode that explores the delightful chaos of two beloved holiday specials: South Park's 'Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo' and Phineas and Ferb's 'Christmas Vacation'. The trio brings a mix of nostalgia and witty banter as they dissect how each show approaches the holiday spirit. They kick things off with South Park, a show known for its sharp satire and irreverent humor, where they discuss the timelessness of its messages amidst the absurdity of Mr. Hankey, a literal piece of feces who embodies Christmas cheer. The conversation highlights how the show's commentary on societal issues feels eerily relevant today, making it clear that while the humor is crude, the underlying messages about acceptance and the absurdity of holiday commercialization resonate deeply. Transitioning to Phineas and Ferb, they revel in the show's charm and creativity, praising its ability to blend humor with heartfelt moments. They discuss the brothers' whimsical approach to Christmas, which emphasizes giving and the joy of togetherness over materialism. The crew appreciates how the show remains accessible to younger audiences while cleverly incorporating jokes that resonate with adults, creating a rich tapestry of humor that appeals to all ages. They touch on the significance of family, friendship, and the importance of creating memories during the holiday season, making their analysis both insightful and entertaining. Throughout the episode, laughter is abundant as they share personal anecdotes and reflections on their experiences with both shows, creating an engaging atmosphere that captures the true spirit of Christmas: joy, reflection, and a touch of nostalgia. As they wrap up, the hosts leave listeners with a shared sense of warmth and camaraderie, reminding everyone of the magic of the holiday season through the lens of two iconic animated series.

Takeaways:

1. Christian Ashley, Evan Garcia, and Nick Polk dive into the holiday hilarity of South Park's Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo, revealing its timeless commentary on modern-day Christmas chaos and cultural clashes.
2. Nick Polk shares his fresh take on Phineas and Ferb's Christmas Vacation, offering insights into the show's unique blend of humor and heart, making it a must-watch for fans of all ages.
3. The trio discusses the delicate balance between holiday cheer and the complexities of faith, touching on how South Park tackles themes of inclusion and exclusion during the festive season.
4. Listeners are treated to a witty banter about the absurdities of Christmas traditions, including a discussion on the infamous Mr. Hankey, and how his character serves as a metaphor for the holiday spirit.
5. The episode explores the importance of understanding different cultural celebrations during Christmas, with the hosts reflecting on their childhood experiences and how they navigate holiday interactions with friends from diverse backgrounds.
6. Christian highlights how both episodes serve as mirrors to society, challenging listeners to think critically about what Christmas means to them amidst the commercialization and societal expectations.

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Systematic Geekology

Our show focuses around our favorite fandoms that we discuss from a Christian perspective. We do not try to put Jesus into all our favorite stories, but rather we try to ask the questions the IPs are asking, then addressing those questions from our perspective. We are not all ordained, but we are the Priests to the Geeks, in the sense that we try to serve as mediators between the cultures around our favorite fandoms and our faith communities.

How does the secular world celebrate Christmas? We're gonna be asking this question a lot more in today's episode of Cismak Ecology.

We are the priests of the geeks today doing a special double Christmas episode with Phineas and Ferb and South. South End Park. South Park. You know, we're keeping it in. We'll do it live. It's me, your host, the one who can actually speak words well.

And good Christian Ashley, joined by one of your fellow hosts, Evan Garcia. How's it going, Evan?

Oh, I had to. I had to. Yeah.

I mean, that's one of what we're covering today, but we're not alone. You may miss his voice, but he true Christmas miracle has happened. Today we are joined by Nick Polk once more as a guest. How's it going, Nick?

I'm so good. And just the fact that Evan brought out the Mr. Hankey Hidey Ho is just, you know, the best. I love it. And I'm excited because this.

This episode, this is the first time I've ever watched the Phineas and Ferb episode, so.

Oh, really?

Sounds very exciting.

All right, well, when you're so enthusiastic, you're like, oh, yeah. Well, Nick obviously loves Phineas and Ferb too, so I was wrong. And you got to experience. I mean, it's one of the best ones. So here we go.

I'm happy to have you along. So we're gonna start with south park today, and then we'll go to the Phineas and Ferb episode after we're done with this one.

So, gentlemen, we've watched both of these. Are we going to say at the same time, it's quite the interesting double feature we put out here. So we just left the drive in. We saw.

Let's say we just saw south park first. What's your first reaction and the first thing you want to say?

My first reaction is, I'll check my toilet for any Santa Claus hats or anything. I don't be flushing down any Mr. Hankies because he'll be useful to save the day when everyone starts fighting about Christmas.

We all need Mr. Hankey Fair.

Nick, man, you know, I think I would have saw. I would also be checking my toilet for Mr. Hankey. But I.

You know, I think one of the things that surprised me because I haven't watched the episode in a while now is it felt like the episode was written yesterday, you know, like the same issues, the same type of tone, you know, and I was just like, this is. This is kind of wild. Also, there's one thing that Uncle Jimbo said.

He said when everyone's fighting, he's like, I'm sick and tired of these black lids on the. To go. Coffee is. If you don't know how to drink your coffee without spilling it, you shouldn't be driving with it.

And I was like, that's like my hot take. And I was like, whoa. There's another reason why I love South Park. Yeah.

That's one of the shocking things about the show is that unfortunately, not a lot has changed. So they could release the same episode today and not change much, and it would have just as much value. Yeah, yeah. So my reaction is, you know what?

That is some. Some solid social and religious commentary. And I know this is going to be the unpopular opinion of the episode.

I don't care for Mr. Hanke or scatological humor. It's not for me. Yeah, it is.

It is like the lowest of the.

Low, you know, I mean, I'm not going to judge anyone for laughing at that type of humor. It's just. It's like the lowest common, nominated humor, in my opinion, is to go for stuff like this.

Yeah. The. You know. Yeah, yeah. True. I agree with that. It's the point across for sure.

So would you two gentlemen like to help me summarize the events of the episode real quick?

You know, where do you want me to stop? Where do you want me? Do you want me to do, like the first third here?

I mean, we can build up off of each other.

Okay, well, I'll start off and then someone. I'll stop and see where he wants to interject.

So we're at the school, South park elementary, and they are doing a Christmas play that is very much inspired by the Charlie Brown Christmas special.

And, you know, they're doing the Jesus born in a manger with a very sort of as graphic as you can get with south park birth scene to which Mr. Garrison is directing and very unhappy because it's not believable. You know, the birth scene with the fake doll with, you know, fourth grader.

And all of a sudden, Kyle's mom comes in and she's very upset because separation of church and state. How can there be a Christian play at a public school? What about Hanukkah?

And then basically, Kyle's mom starts a whole riot in town for different factions of religions and political views on how to make a. The least offensive Christmas play possible. Yeah.

Yes.

And that's how it starts off.

Yeah, Evan.

And then we get into more of the characters in play, and then we find out that Kyle's Jewish and he busts out into song, which is always a fun time when south park does a song. And I completely, completely forgot about the song. And then honestly, I don't remember what came after that. Did they go, yeah, I don't remember.

After the song.

This is when he had mentioned, like, as an alternative to like, Santa and Jesus, that they could do Mr. Hankey, which no one else believes in him. And that's part of this is he is actually getting committed to a mental asylum because he's the only one who believes in him.

So all these things happen to where Kyle's around. He's active Mr. Hanke, but when he's with other people, he's not. So it looks like he's just carrying a bunch of feces around with him.

And all these things happen with Mr. Mackey getting upset, Mr. Garrison getting upset, the kids getting upset. So that's why they commit him.

And eventually when they mention the name to Chef, he knows who Mr. Hankey is and he helps inspire them to believe in Mr. Hank too. They get Kyle out and they celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, which is, you know, loving each other in the south park view.

And then we cut to Jesus by himself wishing himself a happy birthday at the radio station.

Yeah. The point being, you know, because they. They strip away all the meaning of Christmas at the end of the day. Like there's nothing you can do.

Right.

Where they even just remove all the decorations. I think it's just, you know, Chef sings a love song. Oh, yeah. They wear those weird leotards and. And so Mr. Hankey comes and brings.

Meaning back to Christmas by spreading his little poo everywhere. Yeah.

Everyone gets offended and it's like just some ridiculous things brought up about what people are offended by. And of course, Mr. Garrison is himself and talking about how, because Kyle's family doesn't want to be involved, they must be pagan.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Was it the pagan kind of the Mexicans?

No, we can get rid of the Mexicans.

Which is part of the great hypocritical humor with him is that he is obviously very much not a Christian himself, and yet he's trying to enforce these Christian values because that's what's expected of the time. All right, so we've gone through the episode summary. Let's go through what we like and what we love, what we don't love about it.

Who wants to go first?

I'll start off with what I liked about. It was like what we talked about is it's. It's just as a poignant now that it was, what, 30 years ago now, which. Wait. Yeah, 30 years ago.

Holy cow, that's crazy. South park is 30 plus years old. Okay. But I like that. Just the bluntness. The. The bluntness of it. That when.

That when I first watched it, the 30 years ago, most of it went over my head when I was a kid. So now I can see it in its context and try to pick up on the nuance that is there, which. And I liked. How was I saying? No, just the.

That I remember it being just more funny and kind of silly because of the whole Mr. Hankey thing. But I did appreciate the commentary of. At least there's some kind of meaning to Christmas outside of the binary of Christian and not Christian.

And there's a importance that you still can celebrate it and not fall into those gaps, I think. And I think that's an important something for the community to hear now.

Yes.

How about what you don't like?

Well, I don't like that song. Just made me feel uncomfortable.

Which one?

Kyle's song. I'm Just a Jew. I'm like, oh, great. Like, he's so negative about it. I'm like, bro, come on. Jesus was a Jew. Let's go.

No, the. I was watching this, and I have the Mr. Hankes Christmas classics Christmas album, which is a real album that you can buy.

And if you love south park, it's one that I think many people would love to have in their collection. But this episode has some of, like the first renditions of like a quarter of the songs in that album. And so they're like more produced and stuff.

But anyway, yeah, the. The I'm a Jew. A Lonely Jew on Christmas is, you know, a classic.

It's classic. Yeah.

How about you, Nick? What do you love and not love about this episode?

Yeah, I think I love the two. Two things, you know, kind of piggybacking off of Evan.

But I think just the noticing as an adult, like the political commentary, because as a kid, of course, it's a talking piece of poo, which is just hilarious when you're, you know, between 6 and 13 years old, you know, maybe even a little older. And it's. For me, it's still pretty funny. Like, it's still some of the really slapstick physical humor is. Is.

I think still holds up in a certain way now. I don't think that I'm not a big. I'll say the thing that I don't like. I. I think that the smears that Mr. Hanky leaves are very.

They are very disgusting.

Oh, they.

They get it. And I would rather watch their little Mr. Hanky live action commercial they did because you can clearly tell it's play. D'oh. Yes.

Instead of the smears. But yeah. So ultimately that was the thing I didn't like.

But then the political commentary came in and I think it's a very uniquely American show in the sense that it really tries to navigate like a pluralistic society. And how do we. What's the thing that we could come together on Christmas without removing all meaning? Right. Because that's the thing.

Like everyone's offended by everything, so you can't celebrate anything. And of course, they're very tongue in cheek sarcastic about it. But then of course, you celebrate around a piece of poo.

It's just like one of the ultimate kind of. I don't know the right word for it. Like slap in the face, like ironic presentations. I don't really know where it's like, there's no meaning.

So here's a piece of poo. This is what you get and deserve. You know, I don't know if that's.

Right, but yeah, I'm with you guys a lot here. This is early. South park is not my favorite by any stretch of the imagination. They're finding themselves and they go a little too far at times.

I say that they haven't done that in later seasons. There are definitely some. Some scenes there I could never have seen again or rewatch.

But this is when they're, I think, not really at their crudest, but pretty close. So I'm not. That's not my type of humor outside. Every now and then they'll get me.

Like when it's mixed in, like the commercial you mentioned with like, oh, man, I wish dad were still here or alive or something like that. It's like, oh, that got me.

Yeah.

Because I'd forgotten that one toy. That was a gem, whatever. But like. But that line, out of nowhere, I was.

I was dying.

The mom's face.

But like that. The political commentary, I think is some of the. I mean, their best early material here.

One thing they've been accused of over the years is always trying to find, like, the golden mean always be like, this side says this, this side says this, actually we should all meet in the middle. And that doesn't always work. They try and make it work sometimes.

But I think that's one thing they do do well is that they show why someone would think a way that they do. And as someone who likes to Argue.

Even I like arguing from a point I don't agree with because it helps me understand why someone would think that way. I appreciate that a lot.

Because, you know, Kyle's mother, Sheila, is right in that she and her family, they don't believe in this and in fact, believe the exact opposite, that Jesus is not a messiah or anything like this. So should Kyle be forced to be a part of the school play? Well, that's the question we need to ask.

But that same time, it's like, look, this, especially at that point in time in history, a majority Christian nation. So, like, how best to fit in for the majority to bring up something that most of them are aware of. And then getting into the.

Obviously it gets a little crazy and how they go too far in, like, removing references to anything that could offend anyone. But, like, there's a point being made there if, like, at some point you're going to be offended. So we'll get to that later on.

But, like, you got to be prepared for that.

I just remember now the Philip Glass cameo. Oh, my gosh, that was perfect. I completely forgot about that. I would. I lost my.

Did you put a hat on it and did it start singing to you?

I said that and I lost it. So I don't know what happened to it.

I just realized I skipped over a question. So my bad. How were we introduced to this episode?

I was at a sleepover with my friend that was. He was very. I wouldn't say he was. I guess he was an atheist, but how can you be a atheist when you're nine years old?

But he was very much trying to rebel against his grandparents. And I knew about south park because of my dad. He was into the politics of this kind of stuff. So I knew that there was something I shouldn't watch.

But it was important in the sense that it said some.

Like.

Like that. That. That. That it was important in the pop culture ness. So I had seen a couple episodes and, And, And.

And I knew that there was a Christmas episode in that first season. And he just. My friend put it on when we were at sleepover, and I was like, all right, let's do it. And it was one of the best.

It's one of the times I remember laughing the hardest. Just laughing just at the sheer stupidity of it. Just laughing, laughing just as a kid, you know, just.

Do you just laugh and you just kind of forget where you are and like, yeah, good times. Good times.

Yeah. I was also very young. I was, you know, I was in kindergarten or first grade. And so I went to a friend's house.

You know, it was a play date that my parents set up with a random kid from school, you know, so we had an N64 Nintendo 64 for all those, you know, and so we played everything from the Legend of Zelda, we played. And then he started bringing out the rated M games, right? We started playing Turok and we started playing Mortal Kombat.

And so I knew I wasn't supposed to be playing these games, but I had. This was like one of the first. Like, one of the first thing conscious memories that I have of, like, ooh, I'm pushing the line here.

And so he brings out the south park game, the first person shooter one. And so Mr. Hankey. There's a cut scene where Mr. Hankey is there. And like you said, I just remember laughing and laughing.

So that's where I got first introduced to Mr. Hankey.

And I don't remember if it was that same sleep, that same play date, or a little later, but I remember being at someone's house around that same age, somewhere between that time period and watching it. And like Evan said, just. It was more just a talking piece of poo and kids saying cuss words. That made me laugh, you know? And that's. That's.

I think that's it. Yeah.

Cartman song to. To Kyle's mom. I was like, I should not be laughing at.

Gosh.

I was like, this is horrible. But just hearing the. The B word over and over and over, it was just like, oh, okay.

In D minor.

That itself is not. Isn't funny. But it's the fact that he keeps going.

Yeah.

And like, you think he's crossed the line, but, like, the line, it doesn't end. He's pushing it, and it's so far in the horizon, you're like, okay, we're just gonna keep going. Yeah.

Me, as mentioned on other episodes, I didn't get to south park until I was in high school. It was never one of those things, like, you can watch this. My mother may have implied that at some point in time.

I never actually heard that from either parent. I got into it. Oh, man, this is cool. I like what they're doing. This is funny. And I'm young and dumb.

I don't get every bit of the political commentary, but I probably saw this one in later high school at some point and said, okay, I like what they said, but I really hate that stupid Mr. Hanke. And that has not changed. In fact, in the latest episode that they've done There's a moment where it's almost like he's going to show up.

And I was like, please, please don't. And the fact that I cheered that literal Satan spawn appeared instead of that says a lot about me. I suppose.

Christian wants the Antichrist before Mr. Hanke.

That's fantastic.

Right? So getting into the episode proper, what do we feel like it's actually saying about how Christmas is viewed by the world?

Okay.

I wanted to bring this up like I felt like with a Cartman song, like, I don't know, I don't know if I've seen it, if I've seen it before where the group that is complaining about about it was. The Jewish people. I don't know why. That really made me kind of uncomfortable.

I was just like, why are they putting that speaking point to that to them? And I was just like, yikes. But I see what they're saying. But it didn't sit well with me. It didn't sit well with me.

Yeah, there's a lot of early comment or commentators now and even early stuff within south park academia, which is a real thing, and other fan places where there's a lot of sort of kind of implicit anti Semitism in a lot of early south park where obviously it's centered around Kyle's mom. But anyway, I do think that part is probably the part of the episode that aged the worst over time or just wasn't good.

And part of it is that Matt Stone is Jewish. And so a lot of the Jew jokes are written by Matt Stone, who's one of the co creators for most of the south park fans know that.

But I think that the episode, I think that like you were saying, Christian.

A lot of the first season, even the second season, a lot of the jokes and even some of like the political messages or even just the commentary on society kind of fall flat sometimes. Or you're just kind of like, eh, I don't get it, you know, but I think this one actually lands.

Like I think they actually do this thing where they're like, listen, we can't have no meaning at all during Christmas time. Right. There's obviously something meaning in this American culture, right. Whether it's Santa Claus or whatever you want to do. Right.

So we have to come together on something. And I think they. I think they land the plane brilliantly with Mr. Hanke.

Yeah. And right here I.

If you think about it logically, the Christian interpretation of Christmas, which by the way is where we start, is offensive to other people because it says you're wrong. And yeah, I agree with that idea because I do think anyone who doesn't believe in Christ is wrong. But how do you present that well to other people?

How are you doing it correctly? Because in forcing the school to do a play based around Jesus, probably not the best. Now a church. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

Have a play about Jesus. And I'm not saying that Christianity should never be in the school system. We'll get the separation church of state later on.

But I think what this episode is saying is that especially at the time that this was originally being shown, I think Trey and Matt kind of saw not really the future, but saw how things were at that time and that people were moving away from Christianity, moving away from even associating themselves with it just for the point of, oh, for the sake of family or for the sake of looking like I'm part of the team. And they deserve something too, at this time of year. Which, yeah, I still think they're wrong, but I still, out of love, would want them to feel.

Have something good at this point in time. Like, it should not be a requirement for me to give you a present just because you also celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Like, we as a society have changed. Christmas is into something else.

And there's definitely something about the commercialization of Christmas they touch on in later episodes that they're big on. But why don't we use that as an opportunity to love other people? Even though I disagree with how they would choose to, you know, celebrate.

Yeah, but Christian. But a Christmas is pagan, remember?

Well, we discussed this another episode.

No, I just. Yeah, Yeah. I just like how they. How they kind of sum that up in that one little comment too. And I was like, okay, to see what they're doing.

Yeah. I think South Park. I agree with you, Christian.

I think south park, this is something they've been good at for, I think the long run of their career is that you. Like you said, you can't have. Everyone can't be right. Right. That's like the whole point. And how do.

Where's the common ground that you can navigate that without nullifying other people while also not giving up your own values?

Yeah, yeah. And that's something they definitely do a lot better in later seasons.

They're not perfect by any stretch of the imagination because they're still human beings and they'll have wrong views every now and then. But you know what? It's fine. I don't expect any production at all that I ever watched to always be 100% correct.

So as mentioned, before, like, a big fight here is between the friction between Jews and Christians around the holidays. We get many references to Hanukkah, especially through Kyle's song and through seeing his home life. How does this play out?

What are our thoughts as it relates to celebrating the holiday?

I think that for me, that in the. The nature of what the United States is. I think that because I remember.

I remember as a kid, I had two kids in my class who didn't celebrate Christmas. So we would have, like, little Christmas parties, right? Parents would bring cookies.

You know, people would decorate whatever it was, and two kids would kind of be in the corner and my teacher would let them play computer games or whatever it was. And I remember being a curious kid. Five, six. However I was. And I just kept asking, right? Because I was like, how this is, like, so fun.

What do you mean? Like, you're over here by yourself, whatever. And of course, they were their kids, so they're really embarrassed.

So I had a teacher pull me aside and they were like, hey, they're, you know, Jehovah's Witnesses. You can talk to your parents about what that means, but they don't sell Christmas. So, you know, give them their boundaries. Right?

She's trying to be like, let's go have some fun, right? To distract me. But I think that. And like, we have to be aware that there are other traditions in the United States.

Does that say we need to know the nitty gritty of, like, doctrine or this particular religious holiday and calendar dates Now? But I think we.

I think as a culture, I think that south park does say, like, okay, we do need to be aware that this is a real issue because if we don't, we're going to end up like Mr. Garrison or Kyle's mom or, you know, the. The. What are they? The global warming people. The. The Earth Day people, you know, and. Or, you know, Uncle Jimbo.

But yeah, I think they do a good job of saying, like. And I think that they. That. I think I agree on that sense where it's like, okay, we need to be aware of this.

And instead of just making fun of everybody like Cartman. Yeah. How do we get past the jokes and get into some real communication?

Yeah, yeah, Evan, what was the question again?

Well, it started you Christian. But like, the Jehovah's Witness is a good one too, in the fact that they don't celebrate holidays, especially gift giving and stuff like that.

Once again, not required learning.

But, like, if you're gonna be around people like that, like, how do you relate to Tim, about this, how when it comes to celebrating the holidays, how do you help relate to them?

I remember I was high school already, and I was with my group of friends at the mall, and I. We were walking and two of them. We were all. Two of them were Jewish, and we were walking around the mall and.

And I remember saying, oh, look, the Christmas lights are up. And they were like, bro. I'm like, what? And I was like, oh, sorry, holiday lights. And ever since then, I was.

I felt like I got to be careful that I don't impose myself on others. You know, it's like I got to remember that things are. Are not always from my perspective. And.

And it's always good to see other content trying to stretch that out, even if it's with. With. With a talking poop. So, yeah, that. How do you deal with that?

And like, I try to be radically pluralistic in the sense of I know that I'm not even right about my beliefs, so I tried to.

Because that helps me see everyone else as kind of in a equal playing field when it comes to that, and that helps me see the value in what others will bring to something like Christmas, that was a Christian holiday, but now is spread out and more secular. So, yeah, yeah.

I was thinking through this episode, like, if someone invited me, if I had a Jewish friend and they say they wanted to invite me to a Hanukkah dinner, what would I do? And I came to the conclusion, not go.

And my reasoning behind that would be like, yes, Christ is the reason for the season, but at the end of the day, at this point in time, we don't know when he was born. And we've talked about this in other episodes.

Christmas Day is as good a day as any to celebrate because surprisingly, you know, three Jews on the run from the authorities don't really have the proper documentation, seeing as the status quo wants them to be murdered and dead. So we don't know when he was born.

So the fact that there are other holidays celebrated around this time does not offend me because they existed before we decided this day.

And Hanukkah is, if you actually explore the history behind why it exists, it's a wonderful thing of the Jewish people fighting against their oppressors, fighting for their God, fighting for the ability to have religious freedom to worship the one true God again. And if I can't get behind that, I mean, I don't know what we're even dealing with here now.

The fact that they are rejecting God still, yet it's its own separate Thing, but I can still be with them in that moment and experience something wonderful. Because as dictated in the law multiple times over, God said, hey, take these days off. Celebrate with each other. Have fun, glorify me.

And you can do this in holidays I'm telling you to do because I know what you humans do. You work and work and work for the wrong reasons. So let me remind you every now and then, stop worship me, take care of each other and celebrate.

And he's. I mean, yeah, we don't follow the Jewish holidays anymore.

As you know, the law has been, you know, fulfilled by Jesus, but he still tells us to spend time with each other. One of the last things he did was hang out with his best friends. Like, how can we not do the same?

I went to a dinner once and. And just. I had to. I. I had never seen it before. And like, just a couple years ago, our neighbors invited us to one.

To one of the dinners and I had to take a moment and I had to go to the bathroom.

Man, I got emotional and cried and cried and cried because I thought that I correlated me being right and them being wrong, that there was no value in what they did, in what they did into their thing. But when I was there, I said how wrong I was. It was such a beautiful display of being with family and being who you are in Christ.

They wouldn't use that language. But as a People just being beautiful and. Yeah, yeah, that. That was. Yeah. Fairly recent too. And. And I'm very grateful for that moment. Yeah.

Yeah. I like it. You know, I won't keep it too hard, but what I. It reminded me of what Tolkien said about how story. What. What's. What's. What is truth, right.

When you've got stories that are true. Right. And I'm kind of riffing off Tolkien. I don't think he would probably agree with me in the way that I'm using it here.

But I think that there are things within certain stories, right? A Tolkien believed that, you know, the. The story of Christ's resurrection, Birth, resurrection or death and resurrection was like the truth.

But there's elements of truth within different stories and religions.

And so I think that for me, you know, when I look at the story of Hanukkah, you know, the truth of the Jewish people fighting their oppressors, right? Or even looking at a holiday like Ramadan and affirming the truth behind, you know, some of that for.

For our Muslim neighbors and then even, you know, bring it back to south park, like there's some truth in Mr. Hanky, you know, in the Christmas poo.

And for me, I think that this episode kind of brought me back to where I kind of riff off that, where I look at the truth, maybe even some of the shared truths that we can enjoy as different people with different beliefs in different holiday seasons.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

The one thing kind of explicitly mentioned in the episode two is the idea of separation of church and state, especially for this episode in particular in regards to celebrating religious holidays. So, like, what are our thoughts on that as a whole?

I can pretty much figure out where we're going to be, but I want to hear you elucidate on those ideas.

Yeah, I'm a big no. Go for it, Evan.

All right. I was just going to riff on the word elucidate. So I love it.

I like it, I like it. Elucidate.

Yeah.

For me, I'm actually part of an organization called Americans for the Separation of Church and State. So there you go. For me, I'm very much into this idea of keeping in the United States church and state separate.

You know, obviously in England, church and state are not separate. So there's. Within our current discourse, I think Christian nationalism gets hijacked in a lot of different ways.

Now, Christian nationalism and what it means for what most people mean it in the United States has a particular flavor to it, which I disagree with.

And that's why I think in the United States, separation of church and state is important not just for the separation of Christianity and the state, but Islam in the state, Judaism in the state, Hinduism in the state.

But with that said, I think with this episode, rather than strip everything down and create a new symbol that people can celebrate with, like Mr. Hanke, I think I would be somebody who would enjoy giving every religious community an opportunity to celebrate their holidays in a public school setting. Right. I'm more of a. I'm less of a nobody and more of a everybody kind of guy and give it. Leave it up to the parents to let their kids participate.

They participate, that sort of thing. Because we are very religious. Like, we're a very religious nation. It just. The majority of people are still religious even if. If that is declining.

So, anyway, I think that I really like the episode. That's how I feel. I agree with south park, but I would riff it a little differently and affirm everybody get an opportunity in the public square.

I like that idea of the term church and state doesn't only mean church. It means every other kind of religious point of view. I've never thought of it like that, like almost like there should be some other word for that.

But yes, I do agree. The church and state. Yeah, the separations. Because of the current discourse.

The hot topic of Christian nationalism is what, I guess what we're trying to.

Prevent with that, as mentioned on the show before, Christian nationalism, like you said, Nick, has taken on a different term than what it is supposed to be.

As far as being active in the government versus making all policies fall for my definition and everyone get on board versus actually just being active and making why you make the laws you do, the laws you pass be because of your faith. That would be my thing.

Because Christians who aren't active in the government or refuse to vote I think are wasting their opportunities to further the kingdom. You can argue we'll meet out behind a parking lot later on for that.

But when it comes to church and state being separate, that's not in the Constitution. It is now. There is a freedom of religion in what we have here in our Bill of Rights and amendments and so on and so forth.

But like the term and the word separation of church and state do not exist. That is a Thomas Jefferson saying. And there are many things to be angry about with that man. That's my bugaboo with him.

Even though I'm sure there's a more popular one and a right one to be angry about what he decided to do in his free time, as it were.

But I'm also not one of those people who say we were founded as a Christian nation because I've actually looked at the demographics of our founding fathers and if that's what you think, you're going to be sorely disappointed.

There were some who would claim to be on the team, but they were God forsaken deists like Thomas Jefferson and had no correct views, theologically speaking. But I also think at the end of the day the majority of the nation is Christian and so that's going to be the policy.

Now it's not to say we ignore the minority and make laws that discriminate completely against them and say you can't believe in what you believe in. That I would say that would be anti what even Jesus would ask us to do.

But to think that this blanket statement has somehow become law even though it's not part of the law really does kind of irk me because it's just parroted by people who don't understand what's going on. Now to go back to the episode in particular, the argument is made, how do we represent ourselves? Well, if you strip everything away.

Why are we doing any of this? There's a reason this time is celebrated, so I am not offended if there's a menorah and a cross at the public. Sorry.

At the courthouse or what have you during Christmas time, during Hanukkah time or even. I don't know what the symbol for Kwanzaa would be. I am woefully unprepared to even talk about that subject.

But, like, it's also celebrated around this time, so if there was a particular symbol there. Well, yeah, they can be next to the Christmas lights.

Oh, and by the way, Santa, who isn't in the Bible, but, you know, actually Santa, Saint Claus, Saint Nicholas, who did a great job at beating up people who deserved it. I can celebrate that.

Slap spit. Yeah, I like that. I like that. I think, like, I feel like I'm with you there, Christian, especially, like. And maybe. And like, we're not.

I'm not everybody. So there is a.

There is a sense of, like, how do we take people's feelings into account with not allowing everyone's feelings to dictate everything else? But, like, you know, I don't know, the summertime. I don't know what this. I mean, if I saw, like, the. The Arabic script that's very popular.

I don't know if it's the name of Muhammad or Allah. I don't really know. But if I saw that during Ramadan, it wouldn't be a big deal to me. What's the. What's. What's the festival of colors for Hinduism?

Oh, gosh.

What is it, Bali? I can't think of it off the top of my head.

I can't either. But if I saw the symbols for that.

If I saw, you know, Naduani. No.

Oh, Dwally, Dwally, Dwally. Yeah, that's it.

You know, I'm saying.

Yeah.

Holy ho li.

Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, yeah, I'm kind of with you there, Christian. I feel like those.

Facing those things instead, it feels like it's sweeping it under the rug and not actually dealing with it. You know, I don't know if you feel the same way, but that's kind of how I feel about it.

Yeah, I see where you're coming from. Okay. Yeah. This episode is going to be way longer than I thought. I'm loving it. And now for something completely different.

The Phineas and Ferb Christmas vacation episode, season two. If I'm remembering correctly, guys, we just left the drive in. Saw this for the first time.

What's your first reaction to seeing this compared to what we saw.

My first reaction, literally, was that's where that song came from. The Christmas is starting now because.

Yes.

Because in the theme park world, that song has been infamous in how annoying it is. And because they used to play it in the parks way too much in the Walt Disney World parks. And I completely forgot that it came from this episode.

So I was like, ah, cool. Nice.

Perfect.

Nick.

Yeah.

For me, it was also kind of a recognition, so I knew already, but Jared Riddick is the lead singer of Bowling for Soup, and he is the one who wrote the Phineas and Ferb theme song. And then the. The Christmas vacation song. I saw, I think, at Disney. Bowling for Soup.

Yep.

That's so dope. I'm so jealous.

They were there a couple months ago. Yeah.

Nice. One of my favorite early bands. They his hair. Goofy pop punk. Yeah. Oh, he's got the. He's got great hair.

But, yeah, I think I would have saw that, been like, oh, that's a Bowling for soup guy. And I'd be like, that's a cute episode. And that's probably my first impressions.

Yeah.

Fair. Yeah. For me, it's like, oh, wait, how does this tie in? It's supposed to be like this 104 days of summer vacation, but now we're in Christmas.

Don't think too much about. It's fun. It's what Phineas and Ferb does. Well, I love and adore this series. It's a good comfort. It's zany. It doesn't overplay itself.

It knows what the tropes it deals with and it'll make fun of them and make fun of you and make fun of the story that's going on. And it's just have fun.

It's a good thing to put on if you just want to have fun and watch two brothers create these wacky things as their sister keeps trying to bust them, and their friends join in on the problems they that inevitably. And as a platypus who fights an evil scientist, you know, that's all you need in life, really.

Yeah. Come on, Doofenshmirtz. Come on. Everybody knows and loves Doofenshmirtz.

Typically, the premise of the show is Phineas and Ferb with their friends on summer vacation, not being in school, having all this time devoted making new inventions or going to a different country or just having fun with each other, and now we get to do it at Christmas time. I don't care that that's a deviation from the norm.

It was a cool version of the of the song.

Yes.

Yeah.

I do love when the title changes like that. And they play with different things and they'll maybe use new animation or play a different song like that show. Like.

Yeah, we'll put that in the budget, too, because we care about what this episode is doing. All right, who wants to help me summarize this bad boy?

That it is not a Phineas and Ferb version of the National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation? Because I was thoroughly confused. I was just like, where's the. Where's the grandma singing the national anthem and stuff? Like, huh? What?

Where's Griswold with the eggnog? A cup with the moose cup?

Where's the squirrel?

Where's the squirrel? And the cat that gets a fright in the tree? Yeah, so that. So that it is not.

A very different spin off.

Yeah. Yeah. I'll do the beginning again. Y' all will have to pick out the details because I think y' all have probably watched it more.

And obviously, Christian, I think you're an actual fan of Phineas and Ferb. And so I said this at the beginning, but this was my first Phineas and Ferb episode that I ever watched fully, just because I didn't grow up with it.

I didn't have people who watched it. And so this was. It was a good opportunity, and I enjoyed it.

But, I mean, I love that it starts off with Phineas and Ferb in their beds that are rocket ships, and they're flying around doing fun stuff. And so while they're flying around trying to get back to their bedroom, what I'm assuming is to get there before their sister finds out.

Is that their mom or. No. What's the sister's name? Someone tell me the sister's name.

Candace.

Candace is.

So as they're doing their little flying thing, Candace calls their mom, who is at the airport, and they have her parents have to wait for their grandparents at the airport because it's delayed. And Candace is complaining about getting her boyfriend the perfect present, and her mom distracts her by saying, hey, what are your brothers doing?

So Candace gets temporarily distracted and goes to investigate what they're doing. And Phineas and Ferb, they land in their bedroom before Candace is able to find out what shenanigans they're up to.

And I think that sets up the rest of the episode. So, you know, pick up the details from there. Somebody.

Yeah.

So at this point in time, it's Christmas, and they're waiting for family to come in, and the boys kind of realize, hey, you know People always get gifts for Santa from Santa, so why don't we do something for him? And they create a rest stop for him so that he can be there. And Candace lasted them because they still believe in Santa.

We'll get into the logic of that later on in a world where he's obviously real.

And they also, because they have very natural charisma, get everyone else the entire, you know, tri state area of Danville to decorate the entire city in for the hopes of Christmas. And Candace has figured out if she wants to figure out what Jeremy wants, instead of asking him what he wants like a logical person would do.

The real logical thing to do is to write letters to Santa together, even if she herself doesn't believe in him, so that she can learn what she needs to buy for him for Christmas, because Santa obviously wouldn't give it to him. At that same time, Ferb is left to wonder where Perry is.

And Perry has gone off to the OWCA party to hang out with his friends there in the organization, they're having a secret Santa, one of which is the South Tuscany cd. And we'll get to the anagram, well, kind of anagram that plays in that later on.

And unfortunately, they get the news that Dr. Doofenshmirtz is up to evil again, even on Christmas. And he's created a naughty inator that can ruin Christmas. But there's just one problem.

Despite his horrible backstory and all the terrible things that have happened to him before, like being raised by ocelots or both of his parents not showing up for his birth, or being forced to be a lawn gnome for many months on end, nothing bad happened on Christmas. He actually had a good time. And he can't bring himself to hate Christmas until he gets attacked by a bunch of carolers who demand figgy pudding.

And this is what gives him the impetus to actually say, no, I'm going to make everyone naughty. And so the naughty Inator causes everyone in Danville to be put on the naughty list for Santa.

And we get to Phineas and Ferb's friends were always upset about that because we should be nice. They sing a song about it. And this reaches two elves up to the North Pole who are kind of like this many people at once. I mean, that can't be right.

So they go to talk about it, and they decide that if Santa's not gonna be able to come there because he can't change his schedule at all, they can do it themselves, because that's what they do. They just build things and solve problems so they become Santa for the city.

Meanwhile, Perry is confronting Dr. Doofenshmirtz, and it gets to the point where they're able to.

The boys are able to deliver the presents and have a moment of where Santa comes to them and he reveals that there was all a big elaborate scheme on his part to give them what they wanted for Christmas. Because, you know, Phineas, one of his requests, one of his gifts he wanted was to actually be Santa for Christmas.

So this whole scenario was brought up and the South Tuscany CD is revealed to be an anagram for Santa Claus. Don't worry about the extra. Yeah.

And this has given Doofenshmirtz the ability to actually hate Christmas because he's the one who sent him the naughty Inator. And now he can actually celebrate the holidays and hate them at the same time.

And Candace is able to get a gift for Jeremy for his guitar, and he's giving her a gift of earrings that both gave up and, like, a gift of the Magi kind of situation here. And everyone has a very pleasant Christmas. Best Christmas ever. So, Nick, you were introduced to this episode here. You mentioned it before.

Anything you want to add before I ask how we were introduced?

You know, like you said, you sent me the text, so let's do it. I've got Disney and watched it, and, you know, seeing Santa come out of the steam room clubhouse was a treat. Was a real treat.

Clancy Brown. Clancy Brown.

Clancy Brown. Yes.

Classic.

All right, Evan, when were you introduced to this one?

Into this. Into this episode specifically? Yes. It's my first time. It's my first time.

This was a episode that was in my lore that I've always wanted to watch because, like you, Nick, the Phineas and Fern was a little bit after my time, but I knew about it, and I liked a lot of episodes because of just being a Disney fan. And. And I like the value of the. The idea that they are kind of south park light in the sense of they. They don't shy away from some topics, but they.

Yeah, yeah.

But they cover it completely differently. So. Yeah. And it was fun to see a lot of things that I just know familiarly from different parts show up here.

I mean, it's what happens when you get old. Memories just kind of blend together, I suppose. Maybe that's what I should ask for.

Christmas is a memory Inator just to help me not have this early onset Alzheimer's plague me. And I said, I was introduced to the series. It was around the time I got TiVo all the way back in the day to record stuff.

And I had heard from someone else in college that this was fun. I don't remember who it was. And I was like, it's a Disney cartoon. What are you talking about? That's for kids, idiot. Me. And I watched an episode.

I was like, this is amazing. I was a fool to think otherwise. And I kept watching. And eventually, somewhere along the line, I saw this episode. It's like, man, this is really fun.

I'm so, so very glad this exists. And I have not seen the newest ones they've done yet because they put out some new episodes pretty recently.

But I have since spread the gospel, as it were, to other people. My brother is now a huge fan of the show. He's introduced it to my nie and I've introduced it to it. A kiss. My mom watches. It's a wonderful thing.

I love that. I love that you were able to, like, spread it around to your family and friends. And people are on the Phineas and Ferb train. That's like the best.

Dude, that is fantastic.

Even my mom watches it and won't admit that she likes it. But, you know, she watches it with the kids.

Yeah.

Just to keep them entertained. Of course. Right, right. All right. Actually, no, she has gotten better. She has actually said she liked it. She's grown as a person, as we.

All should find wine.

There you go. What we love and what don't we love about this episode?

You know, for me, I think there was. I mean, I love the whole episode. I think it's like you said, it's very fun. Very wholesome, very zany and quirky and fun.

I mean, like I said, I don't think there's anything I dislike about it. I think I'm 100% all in on this one.

Hey, Evan.

It falls in line with what I love about the show. They're wholesome, but with little bit of width. Wholesome, but with heart, too.

Yeah, I adore this show. That's not evident. Clearly, I'm not doing enough of a job here to spread the message.

It's just fun and, like, the zaniness that you mentioned, the quirkiness, it's part of it. Like I said, they're self aware. They know when they overuse a joke and they'll mention it.

The whole thing with like, hey, if you figure out where Perry is like, every episode is like, hey, where's Perry? And they'll find ways to do different twists on that. Every scheme that Dr. Doofenshmirz does, he has one per episode.

Candace tries to bust him at least one per episode. And yet it doesn't get stale over time. You would think, you know, with over, like, 100 some episodes would.

But, like, they find a way to make it refreshing almost every single time. So, I mean, the only negative I have is that it mentions figgy pudding, and I've never once tasted it, but it doesn't look like something for me.

Yeah, I agree. It hasn't been made since the 16th century. Yeah, what you say.

And yet he has some in his house.

Industrial, like Costco plus size, like, geez Louise, seriously. But one thing that I loved that I picked up on was when.

At the beginning, when Candace is giving them crap about Santa not being real, and he brings up a shroud of turin, but it's Santa's face. What?

Yeah, I did not catch that.

So many jokes like that. They're meant for the parents. Oh, yeah. They do a great job with that. All right, so one of the major parts of this is the idea of gift giving.

So how does this play out in the episode proper? And what are some of the best gifts we remember having been give before. Given before?

My Nintendo 64, man.

Same.

There's a reason why that is a cliche meme. You know, it's like, for some reason that we.

When I pulled open the wrapping paper and I saw the box with it was the 64 bundle with shadows of the Empire and the gold controller that I wanted. Oh, my gosh. So much. I was so excited that later in the day, like, when you go out and you go play with your toys outside with your friends.

My friends were like, bro, we heard you from down the block. Like, what happened? I was like, I got my 64 guys. They were like, oh, cool.

Yeah.

You were literally that meme.

Oh, my God, I was flipping out. I was. I'm surprised that my mom hasn't sent me the video because. Because she was right there taping me with the little camcorder.

So there's that video out there.

Need it. Need it. Yeah. You know, that was my. That was actually mine, too, because I remember that moment very clearly.

But I think part of it, too, is, you know, I think what this episode does really good at capturing is, like, the actual spirit of gift giving. It's not just about getting a ton of stuff or even material things. Right. Candace And Jeremy sell the things that they like to get each other.

The presence. Right. And even, like, what Phineas wants isn't like, a lot of stuff, right? It's to be Santa Claus so that he can give people presents.

It's like, yeah. So I think that it does. It captures, like, in a kid's cartoon, the spirit of giving without making it materialistic in a way that I think is very.

Was very unique and fun.

And, and it gives the, even the. Not the negative, but the, like, the view that, that Buford has where he just does that one deed and that'll.

Make up for everything that'll make.

Yeah, yeah. They, they, they, they, they kind of COVID on it, but they don't look down upon that idea at the same time.

Yeah, that's an important one, too. See, he wants to be seen as nice by his friends. And Santa gave him that gift too.

And I don't think Isabella gets a gift, but she does have a moment there because she herself is half Jewish and half Hispanic, and she's like, hey, I don't celebrate Christmas, but I love you guys, so let's do this together. It's a wonderful gift of giving her time to. For with her friends during the holiday season during Christmas. It's wonderful.

And of course, Doofen Schmirtz. I love that man so much. Just the more you learn about him, the more the terrible things that have happened in his past.

About one time a whale stole his girlfriend away from him or all these other ridiculous things that happened to him, and yet he's not really that evil.

He wants to be an evil scientist, but yet he's such a great dad to his daughter, who surprisingly doesn't show up in this episode, but I guess there wasn't enough time. But also, like, is frenemies with Perry to the point where they give gifts to each other here in this episode too. It's just wonderful.

Now, as far as best gifts for me, I know I've talked about this before, but there was one Christmas in particular. I got myself a Godzilla action figure. And I'm talking like this one was about maybe a foot and a half, two feet big.

And of course, like, he's massive at that point in time, you might as well tower over you. Even though I was taller than him and I'd use it to terrorize my sisters and brother.

And being a good older brother, but also like destroying and smashing things. Wish it with him. And I'm kind of cheating with this because it was actually in November, but I'm going to consider it a Christmas present.

When we went to Disney a couple years ago, my brother told us that he was going to be a dad. Little Malin is my girl. Like, they're coming down in two weeks from now and get to hang out with them and just love on her.

That's amazing.

What better gift could there be?

Yeah, Being an uncle is fantastic, dude.

Oh, yeah. You got two nephews, right?

Two nephews, yeah. And then three nieces.

Yeah. Okay. Oh, yeah. That's such a wonderful feeling. But what else is also a wonderful feeling? Not being able to hate Christmas.

Despite everything else in his life that he can hate. Doofusmirz just can't bring himself to it. So, like, how does this enhance his character?

Is there something in our lives that we just can't bring ourselves to hate, even though we really want to?

Is there something like that? I don't know.

I think for me, it's trash. Some variations of trash tv. Like, there are some reality shows that I like. My wife loves reality shows. That's like her thing. She loves those.

And so every time she puts one on, I always give her. You know, I give her a hard time where I'm like, why are you watching this trash? This is horrible. Why do you spend your time doing this? You know, as.

We just spent an hour talking about south park, but I, you know. But then I will always eventually get sucked in and we'll watch with her. And so I'm always in denial that I'm like, no, it was horrible.

But, you know, there's. There's a little bit of enjoyment that I have, and I keep trying to hate it, and I. You know, I can't fully.

Evan, whenever I find a meme that is. It's like. It's so. It's so where. It's where. It's. Where. It's. The word that I think of is very mean. Like, it's very much that. It's that. It's.

That it's beyond a meme where it's just kind of like a punch in the face. But they do it so cleverly. Like they award it or it has a certain cadence to it. I'm like, okay, I can't hate that. That's.

Do you love six, seven, Evan, do you love six, seven?

Not anymore. No.

Working in youth. Oh, my gosh. It's like literally every other word I hear.

Eight, nine, eight, nine.

No. Okay, so on topic. Kind of off topic, really. I was just at one of my dad's basketball games last week, and the final score was 67 to something.

And our student section went 67. It's like, oh, I hate this. But I also can't bring myself to hate you because this is your brain rod of this generation. We had our brain rot before.

Like, you know what? We were young and dumb at one point too. So God bless you. Wow.

So true.

But what I appreciate about this is this is a good way of twisting what you would expect to happen in these episodes is that it's a once an episode different schmurts. Perry gets kid it's gonna kidnap. Gets captured him. He didn't explains his evil plan because XYZ bad thing happened to me.

So that's why I built this Inator to destroy what have you. This one is. No, I don't have a reason to hate it. And I, you know, I want to. Like, I have all these other reasons.

And like, this is who I am as a person. And it's just so funny from a character perspective to see someone brought to that point.

I. I really enjoy it because, like it, their relationships are strengthened in this episode due to the foe and hero kind of side of things. But also, like Doofenshmirtz himself, like, is even loved by Santa enough to give him a reason to hate the holiday. That's all about what he's trying.

What he's trying to dismantle and make everyone naughty. Like, there has repercussions for everyone. But Santa knew that was going to happen in the first place, so he allowed it.

And it's so much fun now when it comes to things that I really can't bring myself to hate. You know, Laura and I did an episode that was for Patreon Den. We're on elsewhere now about Twilight. I do not like Twilight one bit. I think it's slop.

I think it tells terrible things to young women about what they should expect from their man to do.

I don't like how it handles vampires or werewolves, but I can't bring myself to hate it because I know there's a devoted fan base out there that actually loves it unironically. And I don't want to be that guy and be like, you're all wrong. How dare you have a different opinion than me.

So are you team Edward or Team Jacob?

Team. Shut up.

I mean, out of those two. Jacob.

Okay, okay. Yeah, I'm team Jacob too.

If I have to pick gun to my head. My life depends on answering Edward or Jacob. Jacob.

So you have seen that?

No, I own all the books because I believe if you have the corner. Criticize something. You need to experience it. And unfortunately, I have, even though now I can say I've read them all anyways.

There's also one that's more personal to me. There's these old Star wars books. They're known now as, like, the Jedi Prince stories, and they're written for children. They are bad, bad, bad, bad.

They're an example of every complaint a sequel fan has made about the old eu. They're kind of like the definition of what they think it was all like.

And I can't bring myself to hate him because I read them as a kid and I got to see all my characters together, and they're fighting the Emperor's fake son, Trioculus, who's pretending to use force with the glove of Darth Vader, and they're trying to save these whales on Mon Calamari and then stop. Princess Leia ends up getting married to him, but it's actually this different type of robot in her place. It's wild nonsense.

It is completely and utterly bonkers, and it has no merit whatsoever at a literary level. And yet I can't bring myself to hate them like I own them, too.

I completely forgot about that. Yeah.

And one, I know this one affects you, Nick, Rick, and Morty. I want to hate that show with every fiber of my being. It is cynical, nihilistic trash, and I hate it.

But I can't, because once again, I know there's a fan base out there that loves it and has legitimate reasons. They're not the fans you heard about, like, yelling at McDonald's employees for the Szechuan sauce or anything.

Like, then they legitimately love it, and it means something to them. So I can't bring myself to say it has no value whatsoever.

One that I thought of just now is a Five Nights at Freddy's. Do you guys know about that?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

I was. My son's been into it, and I didn't know what. I didn't know what that was.

And until I saw the first movie, and I could not believe what that movie was about. I'm like, what? In what? I was so flabbergasted. Like, this is what you guys are so excited about. What is this? I could.

But my son, man, he was all about it. He was all about it. And I was just like, we saw the same movie, I guess. I don't know.

And he's seven years old, and that's his other headcanon now, you know, like, but who.

But.

But now when we saw the Second movie a few weeks ago, I was like, okay, this is much better. This is a lot better. They. I did not hate it as much. I kind of did enjoy it as a.

As a spiritual successor to the Scream movies, too, which was fascinating to me.

Yeah. I've never played the games because I'm a scaredy cat. I can't do that. But I can watch a horror movie.

It's different because I'm in control in one and then not in the other. I don't pretend to understand why I. Someone else can psychoanalyze me. Yeah, I get it. It's. It's not the best, actually.

If you want a better adaptation, watch Willie's Wonderland, which is Nicholas Cage just being a movie.

I've never heard of this. I need to watch it.

Like, it's the same premise. It's basically a rip off of Friday Night at Freddy's, but it's Nicholas Cage. He doesn't really talk. He comes in.

He just kills some animatronics and then he goes back and he kills things. As soon a man is. It's a fantastic.

He's. Yeah, they. They ripped it off. But they did it so well.

And I'm surprised that that movie doesn't get the hate from that community because they did it so much better. They. Yeah, they did it so much better.

It sounds like John Wick, but five. Five Nights at Freddy's.

I mean, not all.

Sure, sure.

Yeah.

Yeah. And it's produced by the company that did the Chicken Noodle Soup for the Soul books.

Really? That is so random. Is.

So they are doing movies now, and. And if you look up that production company, you would be shocked as to see what movies they are pushing out.

Wow.

Yeah.

But that movie's fantastic. I saw that movie and. And I saw Mandy on the same night.

Oh.

Blew my mind.

What a double feature.

Right? I was just. I didn't know that I was gonna have the best night of my life until it happened. Great, great, great films.

Anything else? We can't bring ourselves to hate, even though we really want to. All right.

They say it in the special. They're like, there's a difference between doing naughty things and being a naughty person.

I was gonna bring that up.

Yes.

But, like, I mean, I think we all kind of abstractly know what that means, but at the end of the day, like you said, who. Why does Santa. You know? And I feel like it's the same reason that Elf on the Shelf exists.

It was original, I think, in the context of the way presents and things Work in the modern rendition of Christmas is that it's a way to make kids behave.

I mean, that's a lot of mythology. As someone who loves reading up on stuff, you'll see like, why does Krampus exist?

Why does this specific deity or monster that lives by the river exist? Well, to make sure that children behave. They don't get drowned or they don't go where they're not supposed to go.

So that's a huge part of it there too. It's like, okay, Santa's watching. Which should be sufficient that you say, I, your parent, I'm watching you. I, your guardian, am watching you.

But sometimes you gotta add someone else into the mix. Go ahead, Evan.

No, it's.

Yeah, no, I like the nuance that they threw in there, and I think they kind of touched on that in the Santa Claus, a series that came out a few years ago on Disney plus. Like, how does a human become omniscient? Like, where's that line? Where's that threshold? Like, did he wake up all of a sudden going, oh, so and so is.

Is doing nodding things right now? And yeah, yeah, yeah.

Otherwise you introduce some type of police state where all these elves on the shelves are reporting back to their masters, like in home, seeing things they shouldn't be seeing it. Come on. Is he really going to be the person to tell me who's naughty and nice after he does something like that? He goes full patriot act on everyone.

I mean, Tim Allen did have a whole secret service elf section, you know, so, like, faction. So, you know, oh, Santa is just like. Santa's like Bruce Almighty, dude. Like. Like you're saying that it's like Bruce Almighty.

What happens when you get the power of God?

Yeah, you just answer yes to every prayer on Yahoo.

Ma.

Yes.

Yahweh. Oh, Yahweh. That's right.

Oh, great.

Oh, man, oh, man, I'm so glad we got to do this one. I know we go way longer than even what we're supposed to do for these ones, and then beyond with the normal episode we do.

But I had a blast with you guys talking about these two things. All right, so we discussed two things here. Out of both, you can either do one or both. I don't care. What would you design as a Christmas treat?

Say, one for the drive in? Specifically, they wanted to make this hot item limited release for these two episodes.

I would make a one of those. One of those little Debbie cakes. But make it in the. In the shape of the figgy pudding. Can that giant figgy Pudding can, but then you just eat it.

Like.

Okay, I was actually. I'm gonna steal part of your idea, Evan, because I thought you were going in this direction. But I would do the same thing with the.

I would take the little mini Swiss roll cakes, little Debbie cakes, and I would, like, melt the ends and then make, like, little Mr. Hankies with them. Yeah. And they would be, like, on a stick. So I'm glad that you didn't do that. So I could steal your idea to.

Put them on the toilet to make sure to upbring people. Just.

Just put them out in the toilets.

Oh, yes.

Dude.

Did that to me once. So that's why.

Oh, gosh.

I'm designing something I myself wouldn't eat because I'm a picky eater, but I would make Fig Newton figgy pudding.

Hey, I've never been together, even.

Even though that's not really my thing. I don't like figs. I don't like Newtons. If you're a Newton out there, I can bring myself to hate you.

He's always had a problem with Isaac. You know, Isaac Newton has just really.

Ground his gears, he and I, man. Ever since I first learned about him, he's been on the list. Oh, man. How dare you bring those laws into effect.

How dare you witness the world around you and scientifically discuss things.

You're a jerk.

All right, was it just me or did the. Who was the general the. With Perry the Platypus's boss monogram? His assistant. I had to look it up. And yes, I don't know.

I don't know why I. I didn't see. I didn't look up the meaning why. But his assistant there with the glasses was identical look to Doug. Funny, the sweater, the shirt and everything.

Except his shirt had, like, long sleeves. And I was just like. I wrote it down here. I said, I'm gonna go down that rabbit trail soon and see what kind of meaning there is there.

Pretty cool.

I don't know why they dress Carl like that.

Carl. Okay.

Just been. I'm pretty sure that's his name. All right, so, guys, thank you for getting through this special double bonus episode that went even to quadruple.

Really considering our standards for this figgy pudding size, please chance. There you go. Figgy pudding size. Industrial figgy pudding sized. Systematic ecology episode.

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