Episode 231 - Quiz Boys feat. Michael Kupperman

Loved this one!

Torgosaves

I am asking to get this episode unlocked for the chapo-freeloaders, since it would probably help Kupperman sell some dang comics. Sort of sad to have the episodes where cool guests promote their stuff locked (and it's more than two years old).

Drew

So.... a little late, but someone later referenced a similar or revival version of this show in the early 90's. Read somewhere that P.T.A. worked on that show as an assistant when he was just getting started in film industry (also the golden girls!). I think it's also referenced in Woody Allen's "Radio Days", one of his most underrated films in my view. "Not to go on a rant here", but with all the Exodus 8:2 references in Magnolia, I always took the film as sort of a metaphysical or psychological "exodus" for the Kids-Adults from the bondage of their awful parents and the damage they brought to their lives and their inability to escape it. And....grubhub's here, gotta go.

Stormy_Ramone

I mean I know the crypto-essentialists are triggered by the race/sex swaps but Cloud Atlas is a great leftist film.

Dritëro Demjaha

shut up grub

Wavvy Mango

Ugh. Boring, but nice try.

MShark

Great show can you guys please try to get Boots Riley on to talk about his new movie.

Jose Logrono

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb6OfWRw8-U" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb6OfWRw8-U</a>

Mark Cons

Good interview, chaps, though I'm a little surprised nobody -- not Michael Kupperman, not his editors, nobody, seemed to notice the autism checklist printed in boldface on his dad's personality. Literal-minded, poor at relating to people, the awkward social interactions like his handling of a wrong number, the photographic memory, being a target of bullying, the guilelessness. A few years ago, the apt word would have been called "Asperger's", before recent revelations about Dr. Aspeger's activities during the Nazi era. Michael's insight that his dad should have left America behind and never come back is particularly on the nose. It's been discussed in the emerging autistic self-advocacy movement that people diagnosed later in life frequently noticed they were expats and/or in cross-cultural relationships, where cultural and language differences slow down people's assessments of one another long enough for relationships to form.

Steve

no idea who this guy is (i know nothing about comics), and know very little about most of the other cultural trends/media of past decades which were mentioned, but this episode was really interesting to me. thanks

Jamie

Great episode

Terry Kang

seconded

cartoondiablo

Where wss the Magnolia side reference?

Erik Weissengruber

you all should do an episode on Kid Nation. that show was a dark portent.

David

The commoditization of the past and our place in history is the best neo-liberalism can offer as it can’t offer a better future.

Jacques Robespierre

Great episode. I love Michael Kupperman. People should really pick up a few of his books, probably after you buy the Chapo book.

Brandon Engmark

To me, nostalgia isn't popular for that reason as much as the boomers' generation supremacy that triggers all the "millennials are killing X" kinds of takes. They think whatever they watched in their childhood truly was the equivalent of the gospel, and anything that merely exists now for children is alleged to be a fuckin scam. You also see this in millennials with like 90s shit and Disney Channel because tbh so much of their media is run by people older than them, whom even though plenty of them are in their 30s, are still considered children still trying to understand the world. The generational gap really is strong as fuck

Casper Kareem

I'm not sure that it's "realizing the future holds no improvement" as much as the Democrats have given up on promising to pursue improvements (because the neo-liberals prefer remaining capitalist over improving to more socialist ). I may be wrong but i think the key difference is not that there are no improvements to pursue, its that the only party on the left does not want to pursue them. this is a theme in Adam Curtis films that the Leftist political parties in the U.K. and U.S. no longer dream of what a better future entails, and instead world rather manage perception of the status quo.

hot_local

Cultural continuity. You could argue that for 2,000 years classical culture was a form of cultural nostalgia.

Ellen Harold

Next Wednesday

Marc Catapano

This episode is an awesome example of Will’s chops and talent as an interviewer, which i feel like is often overlooked. Great episode!

Calvin Bishop

Really fascinating episode! Going to pick up this graphic novel.

Sam Tung

hey guys, can you try to get norman finkelstein on the show. cheers.

realm lich

Yes! Also, this goes a long way toward explaining the prevalence of memory industries in the American South, which FDR labeled the nation's “number one economic problem” in 1938, and where Civil War, Civil Rights and music tourism are significant local industries.

Gareth Hedges

This was one of my favorite episodes! On the subject of nostalgia, my wife and I found this board game called Reminiscing "the game for people over thirty" from the 1980s, where players are asked trivia questions for each decade from the 1940s to the 1970s. The questions can get really specific, like "Back in 1941, America's most colorful sportscaster was ________" or "The most popular book of 1946 was written by __________." Then the game offers additional clues that will lower the point value of the question until finally for 1 point you can simply respond to a prompt to tell a story from your past loosely related to the question, like "Who were the most permissive parents you've ever known?" There's also a booklet just for stories, "tell a story from your past that has something to do with ..." and then lists 216 subjects like "...A Boat," "...A Politician," or "A Bill Collector," "Eggs," "False Teeth," "Life's Hardships," and "Yelling." I may be alone, but I find the whole idea deeply amusing and sad. (Answers to the trivia questions were Dizzy Dean and Dr. Benjamin Spock, respectively)

Gareth Hedges

I said "Shocking" kind of sarcastically, but the comparison is right there. The whole movie is about children's lives being ruined and fucked up by weird adults in the quiz show atmosphere.

Lucas Potter VII

Damn, should've refreshed the page before commenting lol

Ryan McMullen

Interesting episode. Will referenced the film Quiz Show obviously, but I was surprised that William H. Macy's character from PTA's Magnolia—"Quiz Kid Donnie Smith"—never came up, especially when discussing the negative ripple effects that appeared later in Joel's life as a result of growing up a child prodigy star..

Ryan McMullen

No Magnolia Quiz Kid Donnie Smith references from Matt and Will? Shocking...

Lucas Potter VII

So sorry, if you oink louder, we'll be sure to fill your trough with better slop

Chapo Trap House

uhh problematic chapo fash hauss why didn't you forcibly convert your guest to third worldist maoism

nonny

Pe

DB

DB

Red

DB

happy birthday

Mike Scipioni

this episode was so painfully boring

ubik 2084

Henry Ford presents Quiz Shoah!

Ted Reece

I was a (non-televised high school) quiz teen. <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reach_for_the_Top" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reach_for_the_Top</a>

sensorsweep

Make Felix do an eating contest

Saying Monty Python Quotes In Lieu of Conversation

I really liked this one. It was a nice little change of pace. Virgil had a pretty good episode, picking his spots and draining jokes. I could see you guys going more in this direction a bit more often (that is, culture episodes that are not a form of self-torture).

John Williams

Very interesting episode! Kind of scary Matts thought on nostalgia, that it is only so prevalent in neo libs because they realize deep down that the future hold no improvement over the past. The fact that "Only 90's kids will remember" is so popular speaks to this, as millennial's, I feel, realize how royally fucked we all truly are and yearn for a less terrifying time. Also Virgil had the correct take on JAWS.

Daniel Whittaker

should have made him do the whole jk, MFer. he wants to start it, call his bluff.

@Jai_Cilento - This Underground Life...

Amazon and Apple should be pariahs for anyone who remotely cares about how stuff is made/handled, especially workers' rights.

Petter Nybråten

Your works, they shall live forever! Like Ozymandias, or HRC!

Igor Calija

I AM.

@Jai_Cilento - This Underground Life...

it's all for you! it's all always been for you!

@Jai_Cilento - This Underground Life...

It was really good and funny

Matt Crossin

make Stav do an eating contest

Ben Poop

the OZY episode? that shit was hilarious

This Town Is Doomed, LLC

Will's DeLillo influence is taking over

Michael S. Judge

It's broadcast on WAMU-FM (88.5 MHz) in the Washington DC area, Sunday evenings 7-11PM (ET). I'm pretty sure you can stream it online (wamu.org) during its broadcast, but I've never seen episode archives online. The website for the show - The Big Broadcast, <a href="https://wamu.org/show/the-big-broadcast/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://wamu.org/show/the-big-broadcast/</a> - has links to what they've played in past shows, as well as the schedule for the upcoming show.

S.L.

This kind of stuff is interesting, and helps paint a nuanced picture of where we come from. Good Chapo. Previous ep was a tiring, way too long bashing of establishment dems. Just chiding, no moving forward. That was bad-Chapo.

Petter Nybråten

Is that rebroadcasting show broadly available?

Petter Nybråten

nah it was good

Siobhan Finniss

this was so boring

js4n6

This was a really interesting episode. The co-evolution - or w/e it should be called - of our entertainment media and our culture is fascinating. I often listen to a weekly program that re-broadcasts radio shows from (mostly) 40s and 50s, and while some of it seems to have been just pure fun, I get the impression there may have been more subtle intentions with some of it. They include the old ads in some of that too, and those are also interesting.

S.L.

I'm gonna have to check out Michael's book. (I'm an old-time radio fan, and I've listened to quite a few QUIZ KIDS broadcasts in the past.)

Ivan G Shreve Jr

Thanks for not posting a link to amazon for the book ❤

Jacob

happy birthday dude

Gordon Schmidt

Can't wait till tomorrow, got to listen now!

Dale Brennan

I was

Dale Brennan

Aw hell yea midweek Chapo on my birthday

Rusty