My Brother, My Brother And Me: MBMBaM 440: The Naming of 2019

January 6, 2019 5:28 PM

This episode is pretty dang near mandatory for anyone who wants to live 2019 in the correct manner. Join us as we decide the most powerful, most liberating, most attainable goal-slogan imaginable — a process that, yes, does take us half the episode. Suggested talking points: Deliberation of the Annual Theme for One-Half an Hour, Yeastblasting, Parkour for Cash,  Round Etiquette, Bean Halen
posted by drezdn (17 comments total)

i'm happy they ended up picking a theme as dumb as they did
posted by JimBennett at 6:27 PM on January 6, 2019

The great thing about Frankenstein-teen compared to the runner-up themes is that it can be as silly or as meaningful as each listener needs it to be. Last year was unfortunately more like No-self-esteen for me, so the idea of "becoming the monster" in '19 by embracing imperfection is awfully appealing.
posted by mcfighty at 12:37 AM on January 7, 2019 [3 favorites]

I do regret all the great nautical-themed Twenty-Brineteen: The Sea Is Calling art that we are going to miss out on.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:38 AM on January 7, 2019 [3 favorites]

Also, I remain eternally flummoxed that Griffin has yet to realize that the less structure there is in a given episode, the better it turns out. Maybe they get a lot of complaints via email or something, but Birthday Surprise Hole is possibly their best episode ever.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:40 AM on January 7, 2019 [4 favorites]

This episode was pure gold and I love the theme.
posted by bleep at 11:54 AM on January 7, 2019

Rock Steady: I do like to imagine the person that listens to MBMBaM *for the advice, which they proceed to follow to the letter*. That's quite a thing.

Griffin is the one that seems to worry about the quality of the episodes on axes that I do not. He always describes something as audio poison at the point I am falling off my chair laughing.
posted by tchemgrrl at 12:22 PM on January 7, 2019 [2 favorites]

I think Griffin complaining about the quality of the show is a shtick.
posted by maxsparber at 1:01 PM on January 7, 2019 [6 favorites]

I think when he does that it's both genuine exasperation and schtick, since he would often react in similar ways in videos he produced for Polygon. He's a control freak by nature and, for the McElroy podcasts at least, he's also the editor, so he probably feels compelled to try to steer a bit when he's in the moment and feeling mindful of what he's got to edit later. But, he's also got editorial control and he leaves those bits in, so he's at least gamely aware that his brothers playing on his anxiety makes for good comedy.
posted by ardgedee at 4:47 PM on January 7, 2019 [3 favorites]

I know it's sort of part of a joke pattern at this point but man, yeastblasting just slayed me. Griffin has a real talent for naming terrible 90's style Extreme Teen fads. You can practically taste the Mountain Dew.
posted by range at 5:56 PM on January 7, 2019

The first thing I thought of, re: becoming the monster, was getting all beefed up muscles. Getting fit, getting ripped.

I've never had any muscle strength, and I'm pretty dang out of shape. But maybe, just maybe, I can do it.
posted by meese at 7:34 PM on January 7, 2019 [1 favorite]

I re-listened to Birthday Surprise Hole yesterday and it still holds up.
posted by Rock Steady at 5:14 AM on January 8, 2019

I've never had any muscle strength, and I'm pretty dang out of shape. But maybe, just maybe, I can do it.


I've been exercising for about six months now. I've worked my way up to being able to do 200 sit ups and 100 push ups, and I look like a sickly goth.

Which is a vast improvement, as I have lost 40 pounds in that time. But whatever work it takes to make you yoked, I don't want to do it.
posted by maxsparber at 7:41 AM on January 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

It’s interesting to me that while Griffin quite often flags themes that could be interpreted as encouraging or tacit acceptance of the worst that the internet has to offer, Become the Monster got a pass. Like, compared to unbushel your candle which Justin pointed out could encourage some folks who we would much rather stayed busheled, thank you very much, this one didn’t trip that same filter.
posted by lazaruslong at 8:45 AM on January 8, 2019

I feel like that might be thanks to Monster Factory, which very clearly has enormous affection for monsters and the monstrous, and the lovable and weird and delightful things about them. I too thought there were way more negative possibilities in the Become the Monster theme, but with the Monster Factory context, I'm like, you know what? Maybe I should strive to be more like Final Pam!
posted by yasaman at 4:55 PM on January 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

Hah! That’s actually a really helpful framing to get me over that hump. Thanks!
posted by lazaruslong at 6:43 PM on January 8, 2019

I feel like that might be thanks to Monster Factory, which very clearly has enormous affection for monsters and the monstrous, and the lovable and weird and delightful things about them.

Not to mention The Adventure Zone's clear love of "monsters" like Klaarg, Spider Bryan, Roswell, etc.
posted by Rock Steady at 4:44 AM on January 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

And Mothman, and goatmen, and Bigfoot.

Bom-boms in general, though, they're on the fence about.
posted by meese at 8:31 AM on January 9, 2019 [2 favorites]