Which Riddle Riddle?

This is a HeadGum Podcast.

Okay, left hand, red.

Okay, left hand, red. Easy.

Right foot, yellow.

Right next to red. This could not be simpler. Left hand, right foot.

Easy, easy.

Left hand, riddle.

I don't see a riddle. Oh, there's one. There's one riddle circle, but it's way over there.

Way over there. Oh, I see what this is. This is one of those things where you try to get your friends to hook up. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Nice try. No.

I'm not trying to get you good.

We hooked up on the way over here. Nice try.

Wait, what?

We're not... Oh, man!

You guys, are you getting back together? I don't have to parent trap you anymore?

Oh, God.

You were parent trapping us? Is that why we're playing Twister on this cruise?

Yes. And I sent you guys to the same summer camp. Wait, no. That's the opposite.

And so in this... That's what the parents did.

Sorry.

And JPC and I are twins or we're...

Lovers. I'm Lindsay Lohan. You're the parents.

I feel like we're talking a lot about movies, which has to suck for our guests because I'm sure that they have like a ton of opinions about the movies that we're talking about. So I feel like we just kind of have to get them in there.

Yeah, Twister was a movie we talked about.

All right, let him out. Let him out of the trunk.

From How Did This Get Made, from Unspooled, from a fantastic new book, Joyful Recollections of Trauma.

Joyful Recollections of Childhood Trauma.

Paul Scheer. Hello, everybody. How are you? I'm so excited to be here. That is the title. Don't let it scare you. It's not a book that's going to bum you out.

I very much enjoy the Home Alone chapter. Oh, thanks so much. You write about being a kid and being scared of like adults in the neighborhood. I very much related with just how that all played out and having a weapon in the house and everything. It's a fantastic book and very much resonated with me when I was a child. Oh, man. Well, I really appreciate that. Thank you so much. Paul, thank you for coming on the show. We're going to be doing some riddles. How do you feel about riddles? What's your relationship with riddles, lateral thinking problems, even escape rooms? I love an escape room.

I mean, I really love immersive theater probably more than escape rooms because, you know, it seems like everybody now can just, you know, have an escape room. It just seems like all you need is like a small studio apartment. And I feel like no one's really dictating the quality of these things. Thanks for watching.

But you're not going into the bee room, right?

No, you're not going to go into them, but it depends. But if it's like Pink's Hot Dogs or something like that, they may have a bee. And you have to be like, well, yeah, I'm not going to go fine dining at a bee. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure.

I'll eat a dirty hot dog. If it's a little dirty.

Now, Paul, you said you like immersive theater. Have you been to Sleep No More? Oh my gosh, three times. Closing down now, yeah. Yeah, I think this next couple weeks here or something. Do you find in immersive theater, did you treat it like an escape room the first time you went in terms of maybe specifically Sleep No More? Did you try and go through drawers and find...

I did, yeah, and then I realized very quickly that was a futile effort, and really what you're supposed to do is just kind of enjoy the experience. I think I really enjoy being lost in a world and just kind of being a part of something. There's been a few really cool ones here in Los Angeles where there are games within them. You're not trying to escape a room, but you are playing a part in a larger story. There's one that I went to about two years ago around Halloween, because it seems that they always pop up around Halloween. Um, where you were, you know, I went twice again, cause I like to go twice to see how it changes. And, uh, and at one point I was told to poison somebody or not poison that person that affected the end result of the actual show. And that was really fun. And. And, you know, there's a lot of different things you can kind of see. I think it's a really interesting challenge, but if done well. If done poorly, you know, it's a mess. We actually on How Did This Get Made had the lead, not designer, but the experience creator for the Star Wars Hotel, which is something I really wanted to experience. Oh shit, yes.

That sounds amazing.

Yeah, in the Walt Disney World, yeah.

Did that last like a year and a half? That was so short-lived, right? It was brief.

It was really short-lived. Yeah, I think unfortunately it was very expensive and then also bad planning in the sense of, hey, I just spent all this money to take my family to Walt Disney World, which is getting more and more expensive by the year. It's not like a casual vacation spot. And then I'm going to cut myself off from that to do this specialty Star Wars hotel Which I just think doesn't make that much sense. It's like you're going to Disney World to then go to Disney World. And it's more expensive. It's all this sort of stuff. I wish that they would just do it for six weeks every year. I think that would be a better way to maybe run it or something like that. Keep it open because they have the infrastructure.

I was there earlier this year in Disney World and it's still there. The infrastructure is still there. It's there.

It's a big giant building. Yeah, it's already been built. Well, that's why I'm like wondering if they are gonna reopen it. I don't understand how they didn't quite, you know, figure out like the cost effectiveness of it. Like it seems to me like we all can look at that and go, yeah, that's a really tough idea to tell people who are paying so much money to then Go off and not enjoy the theme park that you are paying money to go to. It just seems complicated. Like they should have done it somewhere else. They could have done it here in Los Angeles, honestly, because, you know, at least in LA, there's less stuff to see.

Right. People are starved for that out here.

Yeah. Well... I mean, people are going to really crappy... And that's the other version of this, sorry. Escape rooms and immersive bars. They're all kind of... And then these other Instagram museums. Everything's kind of merging together in this weird way. And I feel like I am mixed on it. I feel like there's a lot of bad. in this thing. It's like, we're immersed. Are there challenges? Who knows? But like, you know, I feel like sometimes the simple is better. Like, In-N-Out secret menu. Like, let's keep it on that level. We don't need to be building, like, Kevin McCallister's house just so you can take a picture of it in his bedroom. Like, you know, it's like, what else is there to do?

And we actually have that house in Chicago. I know. You can just go to that house and get the fucking picture if you want.

Well, but you know that they have now opened an immersive home alone experience in London, of all places. Where you just walk around Kevin McAllister's house. It's fully recreated and that's that.

I don't want to judge that because if they did that with like the father of the bride house I would go every year.

You probably could just walk. I'm sure that that one you can do in LA easily.

Oh they know my car. I sometimes just go and sit outside of it just to feel close.

I did go to the Breaking Bad house when I was in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Well, I went there, but it's like a real house that people live in, and there was a car parked in the driveway with the lights on, and so my wife and I just kind of drove past. We were like, we're not going to do this.

It's a real bummer because, you know, it's almost like the studio should buy that house, right? Because it's not going to be fun to live there. Or next to it. Or next to it, yeah. It really is. I saw that Breaking Bad house at one point and they had a big chain link fence around it because people were just getting too close to it.

We're throwing pizzas up on the roof for a while too. Yes. Yeah, that stops. Someone kind was like, we should be stopping there.

I'd be like free pizza as long as it's hot.

Roof pizza. I just saw a thing- That's a B grade. I just saw a thing yesterday where, I think this is in England, wherever they shot Teletubbies, which is like this picturesque little meadow or something, wherever they shot that, I guess people kept showing up to this guy's property to take photos or do videos on that land, so the guy got so annoyed he flooded it. He just made a lake out of the area of the set. So I do agree with Paul where it's like, step in, pay the extra money to just buy that property if the person wants to sell so they don't have to deal with the harassment of constantly people trespassing.

Or you monetize it in some way because it's like the hobbit land. And when you go to New Zealand, you go there, you take your pictures, we'll do the whole thing, we'll give you the whole experience. But I do think that that's the issue. People want something, so you need to set it up. My friend lives across the street from the house from Halloween. And every day, throughout the entire year, they have a pumpkin right out in front of the house. There you go. You got it, right? Like, there's always something you can drive by, you can feel good about it. You know, Bo Burnham shot his special in the Freddy Krueger Nightmare on Elm Street house. Like, that special, like, when he was in the house the entire time. That was the nightmare. Yeah. You know, there's so many of these houses, but it's... Yeah, like whenever I drive by the Doc Brown house, I get excited, but I'm not stopping and jumping out there, you know?

Paul, I would love it if you did Hollywood tours around the city. I would love it.

I would go on tours. One of my first gigs that I ever had was I worked on this show called Make My Day, and it was an ill-fated, it wasn't even a WB show, I think it was a CW show or whatever, You know, it was WB, where it was like, because I remember that when you would call the main office, the person would have to answer the phone and go like, hello and welcome to the WB. It was like they had to do the Michigan J frog thing.

That sucks.

So we did the show is based on a British show called make my day and the premise was it was a positive prank show. So from the moment you got up to the end of the day you were on a prank show and you didn't know it but we had created a perfect day for you in this. in knowing everything about you. We've had a dossier, your friends had set you up, and we created this amazing day. So I was a writer on that, and I was in all the episodes, and one of the things I got to do was this tour bus. In New York City, we rented a tour bus. I was on it, and it was called Celebrity Fishing. I was dressed like a fisherman. I had a fishing pole. And I would go out with my fishing pole and pull celebrities into the bus, and obviously it was all set up, and I fished in Mario Lopez, who just happened to be walking on the street, and then Mario Lopez and this girl had a really fun day together. That's incredible.

So funny.

That's so wild for someone to like get through that day and then to be told it was on a fun prank show and be like, okay, so like nothing good.

Yeah, that was like, that was kind of the bummer of it on some level, because there were these moments where, you know, this one guy, he had this amazing day where he, he basically was like helping kid from kid and play like create a new rap song. And he's always been wanting to do that. And, you know, then you're like, oh, it's fake. And you know, and And look, overall, it was a very positive thing, and I think people felt good. I think they were heartbroken at first, but it wasn't meant to make you look like an idiot. That wasn't part of it. It was really how you reacted to the stuff. But what I did love was We shot all like 12 episodes of it and then the head of the network at that point was like we don't do positive prank shows we only do negative prank shows and at that point the number one prank show that they had was a fake American Idol where they were pushing through all the worst people. And at the end it was... I'm sure you can find this on YouTube, but at the end it was a gut-wrenching moment because they're like, you won, you won. The person's like, oh my God, oh my God, I won, I won. Yes, you're the worst singer. And they're like, what? And they're like, yeah, yeah, this is a contest. You're the worst. But don't worry, we're going to get you singing lessons and you'll be better. And it was so fucked up. It was so fucked up.

And the person who created that show just went home at night and slept and like had a normal life.

I know. I know. On a big bag of money. I remember just like, I don't know who thought that was a great idea, but it was such, like, you know, again, I was very young when that show came out and I was excited to see the end. I was like, yeah, these fucking idiots, let's let them, you know, and man, it was gut-wrenching to watch, you know, somebody's, you know, because they've been, they've been fooled for so long.

I think I know who would think that was a good idea, and it's about six guys and girls that I went to high school with. And I still can tell you their faces pretty clearly.

And their names.

Oh, their names, of course.

By the way, the show was called Superstar USA. It was a WB show. Sorry, Paul, a what show? A WB. And guess who it was created by? The creator of The Bachelor, Mike Fleiss. The three judges were Tone Lok, Vitamin C, and Christopher Briggs, who also was a producer.

If I show up to a show and I see Tone Loke and Vitamin C as the judges, I'm like, this is a prank show. This is for sure a prank show.

Now, can I tell you this? Now I'm looking on this Wikipedia and I just have to share this with you. Please. They told the live audience that they didn't want the live audience to be laughing at the singers, so they told them that they were all terminally ill young people who were having a wish fulfilled by charity organization.

What are you talking about? Oh my God. Yeah. This seems like we've established some safeguards so stuff like this can't happen anymore, right? This seems like a bad time.

It's honestly impressive to make every wrong choice. Like, that is like batting a thousand of the next wrong thing to do.

We're talking about this is Iraq war era. So it's like we were as a country making some really bad choices just Blanket without no accountability turning left.

We're like all it is.

Mm-hmm. It is really I mean really rough stuff yikes yikes yikes

Hey, speaking of bad choices and rough stuff, Erin, you're gonna give us some riddles today, right?

Yes, believe it or not, we are a riddles, puzzles, and improv podcast. Yes, I love it. Believe it or not. Sorry, this is a prank. Paul, we're so sorry. We're setting you up to humiliate you publicly on a riddle podcast. Oh no, I knew it, I knew it.

And it's not the one where you get to have a really good day, it's the one where you get to have kind of like an uncomfortable 40 minutes where you're like, these are riddles? What? Oh no, oh no.

Well, these first riddles are from Tara, inspired by Sandy's Spoonerisms of movie titles. So, how do you explain Spoonerisms? It's like when you're... So, Spoonerism... Yeah, Adal, you go. You go.

I believe invented by Shel Silverstein. It's where you put the... You swap the first letters of a two-word phrase. So, instead of cold pizza, it might be pulled pizza. Terrible example.

This actually got me on Wheel of Fortune. I was on Wheel of Fortune, and they have a similar kind of category. And it was like, I forget the clue, but it was like, name this Star Wars assassin. And it was Darth Hater, which is like Darth Vader and Bill Hater. Darth Hater. Maybe I'm not giving you the right clue, but that was the answer on the board that none of us could get. Darth Vader. It's almost like a before and after, but yeah, yeah. But I guess you're right, but it's not exactly the same because we're not flipping, it's not like, it's not Barth. Yeah, it's not Barth.

I will have some of those later.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay. So this one we're just swapping like the first letter.

Yes. Or the first consonant sound.

So if it's cold pizza, oh fuck.

If we want to go back to grade school, Tiggle Bitties is the best example.

And why? Why is that the best example? And why is it the best example? So the clue is going to be for the spoonerism. So we're working backwards. You'll see. I'll give you the example. The example is, this movie is about a prohibition on floor coverings. The movie came out in 1989.

I'm

Batman.

Wow, Michael Keaton's Matt Damon.

1989, Batman. Okay, I get this now.

Okay, now I'm understanding. So I'm, these clues are not, I was thinking like road to perdition. I was thinking like, okay.

Untouchables.

A Coen brother. Yeah, okay, so I don't, okay, got it. So I am going, I gotta go out of, I gotta really go far away from this.

Yes. The clues are just to get us to words, but the clue itself has nothing to do with the movie that we're gonna see.

The clue will not make the movie seem familiar at all. Okay.

Got it. Okay. I do want to see a quick scene. Oh, okay. More of like a public commercial. JPC, I would like you to be Mat Man, a local salesman who sells sort of rugs and carpets and mats. And Paul, at some point, I would like you to enter as the, whatever the Mat Man Joker version is, the villain in this. Okay, great.

Coming down to Mat Man's Rug Warehouse. We're having a big sale on rugs all weekend long. 40, 50, 60% off rugs. As a child, I was beaten by a rug by my stepfather who was a real dick and it made me terrified of rugs and now I've taken that back on me and now I'm the Mat Man.

Not so fast, Batman. It's me. That's right, it's Linsanity, the linoleum salesman who's coming in with the easiest way to clean your floors. Spill anything on it. Milk, blood, whatever it is.

Don't get those dirty, dirty rugs. Linsanity, you fucking bastard. I'll kill you with my hands. I swear to God I will. But you'll slip on my linoleum floor. Try to catch me. Do you want us to cut or keep rolling?

No, this is all in the script. We work together. I do one side of the story. It's hard to actually keep the business open yet.

Batman, he breaks his back and then he has to rebuild himself to go fight Lin Sandy in the next movie.

Failing to Launch a Flying Toy on a String

Okay. Failing to launch. Kite.

Yeah, kite.

All right, so kite is one.

Failing.

I'm failing. What year is this movie from, Erin? Does it say?

Yes, the movie is from 1999. Oh, kite.

Bad kite? Biked kite?

Kite flub? Is it kite flub? And then what would the movie be?

Kite flub! Kite flub.

But what would the movie be?

The lower extremities of people who make fun of others

Lower extremities.

It's like if you do an impression of someone, you're... Mock? Mock?

Mock? You got it? Meet the Fockers. Meet the Fockers. Oh wow.

Feet the Mockers.

Feet the Mockers. Meet the Mockers. Meet the Fockers.

Fock the Meters.

A basic seasoning that is not very close to you. And this is 2014.

Distant Spice.

It was like a teen movie.

Salt? Yes.

Okay, we got the salt. Salt and Catch Fire. It's a teen movie, so salt. She Salt That? Oh, yeah, She Salt That. She Salt That. That's a different game.

What's the first part, Erin? When something is not very close to you, it's... Bar. Yep.

Far Salt?

Salt? Sar? Fault? Far.

The Fault in Our Stars.

Yes, The Fault in Our Stars.

Hank Green? John Green?

John Green is the writer.

The Fault in Our Stars. There were extra words in that one that really fucked me up.

Sounds like an excuse. Sounds like a bunch of cowards coming up with an excuse.

That's what it is. Kind of what it is.

That movie is way too sad, by the way.

Well, yeah, it's about like a kid who's dying of cancer, right?

Yeah, I guess they'd have never promised it wouldn't be sad. They didn't.

Yeah, I've never... Erin, I've never read it. By the end, do you learn that it's not a kid dying of cancer, but someone they're pranking? Yes, exactly. Okay, yeah.

Yeah.

Erin, isn't that also what a walk to remember is about as well?

Yeah, and she goes, whatever you do, don't fall in love with me. And he goes, I won't, you're a nerd. And then he falls in love with her. And then she dies.

And then she gets cancer. Yeah.

She had cancer the whole time.

Ended always the way. Oh, twist.

Ain't that just the way. Okay, hitting a high schooler's strappy shoes with your foot. This one's hard.

1984.

Cleat. Because this one is like kind of a mess. This one's really hard.

Strappy shoes, strappy shoes. I feel like a high schooler's strappy shoes. Is that freshman or senior? Classman?

It's like the kind of the age range a high schooler would be.

Teen.

Yes, teen.

Not another teen movie or no... So teen will... Wait, wait. Spaghetti straps?

This one's so hot.

Do we need to get strappy shoes now?

Yes, what's a strappy shoe that you'd wear in the summer?

Is it the Velcro Teen Rabbit? Sandal. Sandal teen.

Teen sandals. What rhymes with sandals?

So like if you can't get it then what rhymes with sandals?

Red in Spanish plus what a nurse might say to her vaccination trainee.

Rojo and then what a nurse might say to their vaccination trainee is that yeah like how you give someone a shot

This one's also very, very hard.

2019.

Remember what was in like the award circuit in 2019? This was sort of like a dark comedy. The premise is pretty wild, but they made it work.

Roho Land?

No. What is that? Olala Land.

2018. This is a big one.

Yeah, it got its flowers. I haven't really heard people talk about it since it came out, but I thought it was good.

Then I have memory hold it. Okay, so rojo is one of the words, right? Rojo. Well, rojo is not obviously one of the words in it because... But there's a spoonerism, so ojo is going to be in there, right?

So soho... But think about rojo is spelled.

I'm I'd like to see a scene.

Paul, you are training Adal to give shots and JBC, you're the person that they're practicing on and you're a little bit nervous.

Okay, so what I want you to do is just jab it. Wherever you see skin, just jab it in. It will work.

Pause. So, pause. Are we sure that we should be doing this on a person?

Because it feels like... Yes, anybody. It's good. The shot is good for anyone. You just jab him with the shot and it'll be fine. It'll be fine. It will work. It will work. You don't even have to find veins anymore. This is how good it is. This is how the vaccinations are so good.

And doctor, this is sort of like when you were teaching me how to do a heart transplant when you told me just have fun with it. It's kind of like that. Yes.

I showed you that movie with the Moulin Roum and I said, just go in there and take out one out and you put the other one in. Just like Indiana Jones. Yes.

Oh, perfect, perfect. Oh, man. Alfred Molina. Oof.

Okay, so just so you know, if I see blood, sometimes I get like a reaction to a scene.

Oh, no, no. If you do it quick and walk out of the room, you'll never see blood. You'll just jab it and you'll run out. Just get people, just get them real quick. I've been doing it on the street, you know, because you have to make sure everyone gets their vaccinations. So I just run up to people, jab them, and then run. We don't need the needles back. Because it's dirty. It's bad to keep the needles.

Okay. Sir, do you have any issues with your neck?

Oh, yes.

Okay. I was going to jab him in the neck real quick. I probably shouldn't tell him. Okay, yeah. Yeah, you don't tell him.

You have to make a surprise. Make him go say, hey, look at this bird.

More recently, my issue with my neck is I think I was walking down the street like a couple weeks ago, and I think that someone jabbed something into my neck, and so now I wear the scarf. Hold on.

Let me see. Were you wearing like a Knicks hat? A long journey for a single foot covering, and this is 2004.

So, kind of prime prank TV show time.

Yeah. A single foot covering.

A long journey. A slipper.

Not a walk.

Maybe a trek. A trek.

A trek.

And then a foot covering.

Maybe a star trek. But maybe it's a tarp, not a sock.

No, what goes over the sock?

A long... A long... A shoe. Shrek-chu. Oh, Shrek-chu?

Yes.

Shrek, wow.

My favorite of the Shreks.

The best. These make my brain, like, tickle. I can, like, feel, like, the base of my brain tickling. Erin, if I may... Thinking?

Are you trying to describe thinking?

I don't know. Erin, if I may, in the warning, I'm making moffles? Is that a little extra bonus point?

Yeah, I'll give you a point. I mean, we've never done points on the show before, but we can start now.

Perfect, yes, perfect.

Um, this one is a three-parter, okay? So it's three words.

Okay.

A sound that is rap-curiously good to listen to, made by Sam from Cheers.

Wow. A sound that is curiously good. Sam from Cheers, that's Ted Danson. That's Ted Danson. Danson.

Yeah, so just Danson.

We'll call him by his last name.

Dirty Danson. And that's the last word. Danson. Okay. A sound.

Noise. Wait, that's just noise, right?

Yep. Where do you hear sound from? Ears. Yeah, ear. Ear. So ear. Blank. Danson. Oh, Dear Evan Hansen.

2021.

Oh, wow. Ear Heaven Danson.

Wow. Dear Evan Hansen.

A movie that no one had a single complaint about. Everyone on the internet was so nice when that one came out.

I do want to see a scene. Let's say Paul and JPC, you are two people who just arrived at the gates of heaven. Erin, you are sort of a Gabriel, St. Peter, is that his name? St. Peter sort of stand-in, but this is ear heaven. You were thinking of Peter Gabriel. I was thinking of Peter Gabriel. So you're the person who guards the gates at ear heaven, and we're going to see the differences between ear heaven and regular heaven.

Hey, welcome. So sorry you died. Um, looks like you two were pretty good on Earth.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah.

Congratulations.

Yeah. So what do we get? Like, do we get like better stuff? Like we get like a nicer spot, like a penthouse kind of a thing or something like that?

Yeah. Cause I like, I've really tried to cram it into like kind of the last 20 years of my life, like all the good deeds. I was really going like overboard with that.

I really wanted to like get like a nice thing here. Like that's what I was like, kind of like, like a down payment. So I was really working on that.

Well, as you know, there's a bunch of different kinds of heavens and you qualify for some.

How would we know?

Did you guys walk past orientation? That's fine. If you did, but... Well, it's boring.

Yeah. Yeah.

Honestly, it is pretty boring. But you qualified for ear heaven. So this is where we just play the Tarzan soundtrack 24 hours a day all the time. And we sort of all smoke weed and we vibe and we go, how good is this? Can you believe this is so good?

I like that but now I'm just now what I just want to clarify what what Tarzan?

Which Tarzan? The Phil Collins Disney one.

Oh, okay. Okay. The Disney one. Okay. Yeah. All right. So we'll listen to that soundtrack.

Yeah, what Tarzan would I have been talking about?

Well, there's Tarzan the Legend of Greystroke. There's a bunch of different Tarzan movies. I mean, there's the Johnny Miller Tarzans, you know, the one that came out in 2016. I don't remember what it was. I think it was.

Oh, that's actually one of the Hells is the Alexander Skarsgård Margot Robbie Tarzan. They played it out on a loop.

Oh, wow. You see, I did not know that. Good. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Well, so we're just gonna hear that the the Phil Collins Tarzan and is it just the the main song or we're gonna hear the whole soundtrack cuz I I do I feel like calling that the Phil Collins Tarzan is also kind of like some heavy.

He did three songs on that. He did a bunch Yeah, well, you'll be in my heart Yeah

It was actually like a bunch of reprises of the same song, but I don't really count that as like... Yeah, it's like, you know, I mean, look, I mean, my favorite probably from that, you know, I mean, I think there's more, right? There might, there actually might be more. There's more. When he was composing the music, I mean, that's the thing. It's like, did he do everything?

I don't know if you guys are going to fit in here.

He actually didn't compose the music on that. I can't remember the composer's name, but he... I mean, hey, good for Phil Collins. He's getting his name out there. If I could do 20% of my job and take credit for 100% of the job, I would do it.

Well, here's the thing. I mean, you have a lot of these musicians are just coming on to, you know, they're putting their one song in there, you know, and Phil Collins is like, I want to dip my finger in the whole thing. You know, so I, you know, for me, you know, artistically, I appreciate this. So again, we'll be hearing, I would prefer if we can make a note, I don't know if we can pass this up to the big man. Yeah, yeah, you know, we wouldn't want to hear any of the Mark Mancina stuff. We just want to hear the Phil Collins stuff.

And I also don't want to hear Trash in the Camp at all. I don't want to hear the NSYNC remix.

I don't want to hear... Strangers Like Me, Two Worlds, You'll Be in My Heart. Two Worlds. Two Worlds for sure I could hear.

Strangers Like Me, You'll Be in My Heart, NSYNC remix of Trash in the Camp.

No, NSYNC Trash in the Camp I don't want to hear because that... I mean, what was the thought process there?

Okay, Strike 2, Strike 3, you're going to Tarzan Hell. What? No, no.

The Margot Robbie one or the 1982 one?

Today's episode is Thanks for watching. There is a hell where it is you sit and you listen to Trash in the Camp by NSYNC all day long.

Oh, don't want that.

And there's a heaven where you listen to Trash in the Camp by NSYNC all day long. And you know what it is? Attitude. It's your attitude about it. Wow, it's what we bring to it.

Wow.

It's what you bring to it.

You know what? I'm almost wishing, not really, but I'm almost wishing our meth lab had never even exploded. Because this is just... I know, I know, I know.

So we talked about Peter Gabriel guarding the gates of heaven. You brought up Phil Collins, Erin. And then what band were they in together?

Genesis. That's why I thought about it, because I've been thinking about that song. What is it? I was just in my head all weekend.

Indiana Tonight?

No.

That's a Phil Collins song.

It's the one where he goes, do you feel?

That's got to be Jethro Tull, right? Or Peter Frampton? That's Peter Frampton. Erin, why don't we take a quick break?

Follow me. You know what I'm talking about? It's the Genesis song. Is this a Christmas song? It's follow me, follow you, follow me. Follow you and then follow me. Fuck you guys. We're going on a break. Genesis.

Genesis. You know, Genesis. This podcast is sponsored by Squarespace.

Oh, I'm so full I couldn't eat another bite.

Oh, GPC, what's going on, buddy?

Oh, it's just I've, uh... I see this dish that I have in front of me. It's kind of like a lasagna, except it's not really a rectangle. It's kind of... Square.

It's like a Squarespace. Like Squarespace.

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Whoa, JPC, what are you doing? You're sending this package overseas? This is... Erin's inside of this. You really are in your Garfield era.

I can breathe!

I'm trying to normalize it.

Normalize it? You're trying to what? Have a good night, everybody. Have a good night. Three, two, one. Happy New Year. It's time to get ready, get organized, set my goals, and prioritize what matters most.

Erin, you pulled out a whole desk.

Mm-hmm. I'm working on my financial wellness.

Oh, there's no financial wellness without rocket money. Have you heard of this? You seen this?

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Rocket Money will even try to negotiate lower bills for you. They automatically scan your bills to find opportunities to save, then you can ask them to negotiate for you. They'll deal with the customer service so you don't have to. It's like having an assistant.

I have JPC negotiate lower bills for me. He'll call and just kind of out-crazy the other person until they're just like, I don't want to deal with this.

This is a lot better.

It's wild that people on customer service centers don't really want to be crazy. Because I'm like, I'm looking for someone who wants to be as crazy as I am. And it's just, Erin, I don't want to blow up your spot too much, but don't you, in fact, use rocket money?

Oh, big time. I love it. I've been using it long before it was a sponsor when it had a different name. That's how loyal I am. I've been using it for years. I love it. It's so if you are neuro spicy like your gal Erin, this is such a great way to keep your finances organized. It's color coded. It automatically does things for you. So it's sort of a set it and forget it kind of situation. It's the best.

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RocketMoney.com slash Riddle. Happy New Year, everybody. Happy New Year. GPC, I'm going to try to out-crazy you this year. Out of love to make you feel seen. And we are back from break, and I'll be honest with you, we talked about Genesis songs, if we know any of them, the whole break, and I don't know if we landed on anything. Really.

Shock the Monkey? No, that's Peter Gabriel.

You know who I know is Super Tramp? Who is that? Erin, is it possible?

I'm looking at this Invisible Touch album, and I definitely had this Invisible Touch album, and man.

What is going on? Why do you know Genesis so well? I don't know. Yeah, Erin, what's going on? I have a very specific kind of dad.

Yeah, I also have a specific type of dad. But my specific type of dad is more the like, I remember one time I went home for like Thanksgiving or Christmas. And it was like the first night I was back, but not the night that we were like doing all of the festivities. And we sat in the dark and listened to I think, two Jethro Tull albums like in full. Didn't say a word to each other. We got more riddles. These are kind of similar.

These are from Sage, we can use their name. I've been a longtime listener. Y'all have gotten me through my entire undergraduate degree and I look forward to losing my mind to more riddles as I become your target demographic as someone working on their master's degree. Great.

I hope it's in philosophy. That just sounds like a fun thing to get a master's in.

Oh, yeah, my friend got a doctorate in philosophy of like philosophy of technology and he's very smart. He does have existential dread all the time.

Sure. Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I was thinking about the Doomsday Clock the other day. I mean, it must be pretty far, pretty close to Doomsday Clock.

Yeah, it's broken. Yeah, it's off the charts. Yeah. Okay, so these, these are kind of confusing to explain.

Oh, Erin, do you want to hear my impression of someone who just got their master's in philosophy?

I would love that. I'm ready.

Okay. Why did I do this?

Well done. Okay, so these, while palindromes are words spelt the same forwards and backwards, the reverse spelling, semirndralinip, is cheekily used to describe a word that spells a different word when backwards. Also called anadromes, if you don't want to be cute about it. For example, pool and loop would be anadromes. The riddles below use four lines to guide you to the two words that an anadrome would spell. Does that make sense? They will.

So the answer would be something like pool loop. It's going to be one word both forwards and backwards.

Yes. This is an example.

I've never thought about it before, but I'm also now pretty mad that the word palindrome isn't a palindrome.

I mean, that's a pretty, that would be a pretty solid thing to do. A missed opportunity.

I mean, yeah, a total missed opportunity.

How do we, who do we talk to about that?

I would, let's just change race cars and palindromes. Let's call the things that you drive around the court palindromes.

Why do you park in the driveway and drive in the parking lot? That's one of the questions that we've been asking for all time.

Here we go.

Okay.

A river winds easy and free. The movement of water is what you call me. Howling more than wind and air. Predator in the woods. It's packed all there.

Now, here's the thing, Erin. I was listening really hard to what you were describing, and then once you started reading it, I'm like, I think I'm playing a completely different game. Well, I was like, immediately, I was like, stream.

I think stream is a part of it, but then I'm like, no, but then I kept on going, and I'm like, well, now I don't know where we're at.

So this is, inside of this- We're getting two words. We're getting two words. So this is, it's pointing you towards two words, which is hard. This is hard to throw at a guest. Paul Scheer. No, stream is not one of them. A river winds easy and free. Oh sorry, winds, winds. I'm so sorry. A river winds easy and free. The movement of water is what you call me. Howling more than wind in the air. Predator in the woods, it's pack all there. So predator in the wood, predator in the wood that's in a pack is a Welcome back to

Well I got Flo and then I was like, what is Flo backwards? I don't know, I mean, F-L-O-W, how would I ever get that?

Um, great let's do another one. Okay. Okay. Moved by the moon, a motion in cadence, oceans roll with the waves advance, running across an improv stage or what is done to a marked up page.

You three are an improv team and Paul and JPC, you're trying to gently give Adal a note that he is editing too much.

Hey, great show. Oh man, that was awesome. Fun audience, like good house, like it's always quick though too, right?

We just, I mean, that was, we had that, I think we had that slot for 30 minutes where we did like about a quicker show than normal, right?

Yeah, it was quicker than normal, right? Like, because we were, because, yeah, we went on at 10 o'clock sharp and it's 10.04 now.

Alright, I think we should just let some of these scenes breathe a little bit more too. I think we could just do that because it's like they're fun. I mean, such funny stuff. I mean your thing with the, oh my gosh, the alien president was really funny. I think we could live in that I think for a little bit longer probably.

Yeah, because I said, I'm the president of aliens. And then it felt like the scene was kind of like almost immediately over after that. I'm not sure who edited that one.

Oh, I think, well, I think it was me. I think I ran on stage and picked you up immediately and kind of shook you. And I was like, these are my toys. And then I kind of, and then I swept it. And then Jeff, you started the scene, you started that scene where you were sort of like a psychic and you had a crystal ball. And I remember I ran on and picked you up and kind of shook you around. And then I was like, these are my toys. So just to keep it in the same world.

Yeah, for sure. Because that's cohesive for the show. And also, Steve, I do think that they will pull the lights as well.

Yeah, you don't have to call for the lights.

Yeah, you don't have to say lights, lights, lights, lights, lights, lights, lights, lights, lights, lights, lights, lights, lights until they pull the lights.

I got a ladder and got up and unscrewed all the light bulbs at the end there. But I thought it was super funny though.

Yeah, was it?

Yeah, I just think we should definitely try to do different stuff, though, too. I think we're getting caught, and we don't have to do all those callbacks. It's not necessarily a callback as much as it just felt like we can be different characters and stuff. Yeah.

Well, I think when we do callbacks, the audience will forget. If we do any scene that's not tethered immediately, Tethered immediately to the previous 10 scenes, the audience will lose interest, right?

Does that seem familiar for what happened in the show? Yeah, I thought that I said that in my head.

It was out loud.

Yeah. Yeah. Again, you know, let's not even give notes here. I think what we should know is this, but like, you know what, I think we should just, um, I think if anything, I'm guilty of this too. I think that we just need to just like let things breeze because I think what we'll do is we'll find different fun stuff that we didn't even realize. Cause I think what we're doing is we're getting like a really funny pop and then we're just editing right out of it. If we exist in it, we'll even find more stuff to even call back. Like you were saying, that's actually really good.

Okay. So like if If the two of you are like two jurors debating over the trial you're presiding over, maybe I let it sit for like 20 seconds and then I pick you both up and shake you and say, these are my toys?

I think we don't have to get so connected to this and my toys.

Why don't we also do this one thing, and this is just going to help our next show have a little more variety. Why don't we just do two kind of ground rules, like let's try to do this for the next show, where we don't pick anyone up and we don't slap anyone hard in the face while they're trying to initiate a scene. I'm out.

I'm sick that out. Yeah, I don't know Yeah, improv to me. I know for you guys improv is like a creative outlet, but for me It's like a way I like get you know how sometimes you just want to pick up something and shake it That's how I get yeah, I keep on saying the thing about shaking it.

I mean yeah But we don't want you to be out because obviously you're the one that has a car, and that's you know Yeah Yeah How do we proceed from here?

Maybe instead of slaps, we just go, we pivot to like nut taps. That's, and that's funny. And we like that.

Yeah, I think we, I think we just walk to shows from now on and I think we're, I think we're good. I think, yeah, have it, and yeah.

This is good. This is good. We're, we're, we're learning. This is good. All right. I like this. Let's just kind of table this and then, yeah, like, you know what? We'll just make, we'll challenge, we'll do a little challenge next time. We'll make sure to see who can do this the longest. I don't know. Yeah, well, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Here's my promise, and this is a promise for myself. I'm going to do this because I love you guys, I love performing with you guys. I don't have any fun in these shows, but I'm going to do this without making any money for six more years, and then I'm done. Then I'm going to start writing. Then I'm going to start focusing on writing.

Oh man, I'm going to start doing that at the end of shows. Lights, lights, lights, lights, lights, lights, lights. Um, Paul, you've done improv in your time. A lot of it. Is there like a show that you have in your head that was like, like, like you still have nightmares about that just went so poorly?

You know, there's one show that I did way back in the day when, you know, improv has kind of taken off in this really amazing way. Like, you know, we just got off tour a couple weeks ago with this group. I have Dinosaur. And, you know, we're playing these giant houses. And the idea of that is so foreign based on where we started. And, like, when we first started, you know, we got called to go to the Minneapolis Comedy Festival. And I think people were expecting And we were doing like stand-up and stuff like that. They weren't expecting like an improvised show. And we weren't even doing an improvised show. We were doing a show called The Real Real World, which is an improvised version of The Real World, which is an MTV show. And, um, you know, and, um, and so what we did is we got on stage, and as I started doing the introduction to the show, which is, you know, conceptually a heavier show, but again, I thought it was gonna be great, because it's popular. We were selling out in New York. It was gonna be great. KILL YOURSELF!

I wonder if that guy had anything else going on in his life at that time.

You know, you never know, you never know, you know.

To go to a comedy festival. The act directly before you was a roast comic that only does crowd work and you targeted that guy for 45 minutes and then the next show started and that guy goes, it's not gonna happen to me ever again.

Now Paul, I saw, I'd be remiss if I didn't say this, I saw, 2003 maybe, I went to Bonnaroo and had a wonderful time, and there was a comedy tent, and there was a time where I was like, I like comedy, let me check this out, and you were performing in there, and I remember, that might have been like the first improv I ever saw, and I remember being like, oh this is incredible, like this is a blast. Hey Riddle Riddle.

But you know that I'm so excited that you saw that show because those are actually really fun because we really leaned into, you know, we kept on like leaning into the idea that we were going to make it about the audience. We would talk to the audience and kind of get them to tell their craziest stories and stuff like that. And so they felt like you could see it happening. I feel like that's been my big challenge, that you always have to show the audience that you're actually improvising, or they're not going to believe it. Kind of checking back in with them and showing, hey, no, we're still doing it. We're still doing it. I'm doing a show right now with Marta Kaufman, an improvised show for Amazon. Hopefully, we'll get to make more. But one of the things that comes up is like, well, Like if a singer is too perfect live you're like, eh, it doesn't feel as fun. Yeah, exactly. Well, I think what people want to do is see a live experience. I think that people are so suspect that you are making this stuff up. And when it's funny and they're laughing, it's like, well, they couldn't have made that up. That's impossible, right? It's almost like they're angry at the trick of improv, but it's not like you're not tricking them. You're just creating comedy on the spot. And I feel like If people, like when people are so suspect of it, we ran into this a lot in LA, like, well, no, they couldn't, you couldn't have made like, well, you knew you were going to do a scene with two doctors. Like, no, like we don't, you don't. And the truth is like, you forget the scenes that don't work and you remember the scenes that do work. And, uh, and it is a magic trick on some level, but it's like, there's no trick of the audience. It's like, yeah, I think the trick is really that you remember the better stuff and you probably forget the stuff that wasn't as great.

Yeah, I also think when people are like, but you're not, you're obviously like this, this stuff is like planned or rehearsed. It's like, well, I'm not walking out there with absolutely nothing in my head. I don't, I don't bang my head into a wall three times and then walk on stage. I'm coming in with decades of experience and an idea of what kind of things are funny. And yes, that's what I'm doing for the show. It's not like, this is not my first day on earth. Like, yeah, yeah.

Well, I mean, I think that people really, like, it's, you know, one of the things that's so, I think, important about improv, too, is like a familiarity with your players and who you're up there with. And yes, you can improvise with anybody and you get the idea of it and you understand certain rules and you're not denying and you're yes-ending. But like, there is a camaraderie, a teamwork that you build in with people when you are performing for so long.

A package left or a letter sent. What a phone will say when you send a text. Criticized and condemned. Words that hurt. An archaic word to drag one's name through the dirt.

Hmm.

A package left or a letter sent. That's the easy one to get.

Mail? Mail, William?

Someone has to... Send?

No, but the person actually handing it to you.

Delivered. Yeah, delivered. Deliver and reviled.

Wow. Wow. Adal got that backwards so quick. It would have taken me 10 minutes to type out delivered and then look at it backwards.

Pieces of a whole rolls in a play. Put together the puzzle and you'll know what to say. Found on a purse, a guitar, or a bird... I got this one.

Partstrap.

Yeah, partstrap.

Mm-hmm. Wow.

This one just came to me as if in a dream. You're getting, I mean, you're getting warmed up and we're about to be done. Used to store all kinds of junk. A broken one might close with a clunk. It might be a trophy one on your own accord. They say virtue is its own... Reward.

Reward. Reward? Reward and... No.

I like how that one gave us the whole puzzle basically.

It gave us the word.

I feel like we should have started with that one. I would have had such a much better time starting with the one that just gives it to me. Well, thank you, Sage, for those riddles. Thank you, Sage.

That was really tough.

I loved it.

Those were hard.

And good luck on becoming a doctor of... What is it gonna be? Probably, like, European studies.

Yeah, it's always... A lot of people who are in the sciences listen to our show, though, so it's probably, like, research on molecular... I don't even know how to make up a science thing. That's fine. Paul, anything you'd like to plug?

Oh my gosh. Uh, no, I mean, they, uh, nothing. I mean, my book, Joyful Recollections of Trauma is available wherever you get your books or eBooks or audio books. And yeah, you can listen to how Unspooled and How'd This Get Made wherever you get your podcasts.

Very much recommend picking up Paul's book. It's a goddamn delight. And then I would also recommend, since we're talking about immersive theater, there's a newer show in New York City called Life and Trust, which is by, I think, some of the team that put on Sleep No More. And it's basically, it's like Sleep No More, but even bigger space. And it's sort of about Dr. Faustus and some other stories kind of weaved in there, but it's a fantastic time. So I recommend going to see Life and Trust in New York. Erin, do you have anything to plug or promote?

I was watching Twisters on the plane yesterday and guess who showed up? I actually won't spoil it but someone on this podcast right now shows up and made me laugh.

I'm not going to spoil it. Yeah, we did. I did too. I loved it. Incredible. And when you showed up at the end, I was like, holy shit, that's amazing.

It was so unexpected. It was unexpected for me. I was down in Oklahoma shooting a Super Bowl PSA, or a PSA that was going to air during the Super Bowl.

Oh man, I thought the other one would have been great.

I thought it would have been awesome.

And it was such a funny thing because I happened to be sitting next to the director and the next day I got a phone call and they're like, hey, were you on a plane? Or are you in Oklahoma City? And I was like, I am. Like, well, you were sitting next to the director of Twisters and he wants to put you in his movie. And I was like, OK. And it was the first day back from the strike that they shot. It was pretty crazy. That's so fun. Yeah, it was really a blast.

Okay, so you hear that everybody. Go try to sit next to movie directors on planes.

That's how you guys do movies. It's also wild because the discourse around the time that Twisters came out and around the time of that scene was how funny that Paul is in that scene. But the real discourse should have been how unacceptable that guy's behavior was in that scene. Because what he does to the ground at that airport The movie should end with him being arrested and thrown in the back of a fucking squad car. He is definitely going to jail. There's no doubt about it. And it's an airport.

I mean, they're pretty strict about airports. That's all I'll say. I mean, all I'll say is that it seemed like I gave him a lot of chances to just talk. And also, it seems like you could just park that anywhere. It's Oklahoma City. It's not like trying to park at LAX or something like that.

Hey Riddle Riddle

And then, uh, like, uh, leave the keys in the car and just take off and know the car is gonna get towed because he thought that was a better way to get on the flight.

That's about it. That's so nice. Wow, that sounds awesome. Okay, hey before we leave here I do want to read a five-star review if you want to get a five-star review that you write Featured on the show just write one leave it someplace. I might read it. Hey today. I'm reading one from Cameron Poulsford Cameron writes JPC don't use my name if you read this review well anyway Thank you for the five-star review Aaron anything from you Jupiter.

Goodbye.

Bye-bye Created by Adal Rifai Starring Erin Keif and John Patrick Coan Casey Toney did the editing. MRE parents in the music. Logo created by Emily Cardenas and Emily Navarez.

Genesis. You know, Genesis.

I don't know it.

I can feel it. I mean, that's really what I know. That's the Genesis song, you know. coming in the air tonight is that genesis or is that just phil collins who does phil in the air tonight is genesis has to be because that's like the band of the hand or whatever like phil collins is like i mean phil collins is an actor we have that uh that was that was buster but i'm trying to think of like phil collins Oh, you're right. Nope. That's a Phil Collins song. I can't dance. I can't sing. I couldn't tell you a single Genesis song, for sure. You know what you can? We built the city on rock and roll. That's a Genesis song.

Oh, is that?

That's Jefferson Starship?

No. No, it can't be. I think it's Jefferson Starship, who used to be Jefferson Airplane, who sings One Girl Makes You Smaller. And then they changed their name to Jefferson Starship when they went into the 80s, because they're like, we can't be Jefferson Airship anymore. We have to change it to something

Okay, Genesis sang I Can't Dance from 1991. I don't know that one.

Yeah. I can't dance. You're right. Wow. Yeah.

I'm looking at all these Genesis songs and none of them look familiar to me.

I had Genesis albums. I don't remember a thing. Yeah. I can picture it. Casey put all this in the credits because I like this deep dive.

Hey there, cupcakes and clowns. If you liked that, you're going to love this week's Patreon. It's more public access with our special guest, Janet Varney. You can listen to that plus our entire back catalog at patreon.com slash hey riddle riddle by joining the clue crew for $5 a month or start your seven day free trial or the review crew for $8 a month. Plus you get those ad free episodes. See you there.

That was a hate gun podcast.