Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Episode 179: Art Film with Explosions

February 26, 2016 10:31 AM

Let's schmooze a while in the Gaming Hut as we spitball a game based on social experience points.

Get in touch with your inner cave dweller as the Conspiracy Corner checks out Neanderthal conspiracy theories, most notably those of painter and sculptor Stanislav Szukalski.

Finally it’s that time of year again: in a bumper segment of the Cinema Hut, we list our top 10 films of 2015. Get your golf pencils ready; they’ll be needed to overcome a shocking clerical error that threatens to tear the world of Ken and Robin apart!

posted by graymouser (5 comments total)

Robin's Top 10 Films of 2015:
10. Spring
9. Trainwreck
8. Office
7. Ex Machina
6. In Her Place
5. Hitchcock/Truffaut
4. Mad Max: Fury Road
3. The Big Short
2. R100
1. Assassination

Ken's Top 10 Films of 2015:
10. Spring (Ken originally put Inherent Vice at #3 but it was released in 2014 so he moved Spring here.)
9. Hitchcock/Truffaut
8. The Laundryman
7. The Hateful Eight
6. The Martian
5. The Revenant
4. They Look Like People
3. The Big Short
2. Assassination
1. Mad Max: Fury Road
posted by graymouser at 11:07 AM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

I loved the Neanderthal conspiracy segment. It made me imagine a weirdly involved "urban fantasy" heartbreaker with a lot of unfortunate implications where being or not being a Neanderthal was the central question. Or just generally a modern game where that was the one paranormal thing. Maybe some obscure GURPS book. Possibly something I could toss into the stew that is Hite's wonderful Day After Ragnarok, at least as a stupid awesome still dumb conspiracy theory.

Your posting of the list reminded me of a pet peeve I have: I'm totally for Ken and Robin (and their sound engineer) getting compensated for working on the podcast, but whenever someone asks for a list of the films mentioned in the episode, Robin always acts as though people are asking for copious show notes instead of copy-pasting the list from a word processor or wherever they're keeping their own show notes.
posted by Gnatcho at 3:33 PM on February 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

For extra fun, combine the Neanderthal conspiracy theory with one of the time dilation/compression ones (the missing or fake centuries ones).
posted by Gnatcho at 3:36 PM on February 27, 2016

Yeah, and looking at the Amazon preview, Behold!!! The Protong is exactly as crazy Fortean as you'd want a good conspiracy book to look. This is no calm, rational exposition, it's deep in the lunacy.
posted by graymouser at 3:56 PM on February 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I was immediately checking costs of getting it off of bookfinder.com. Those exclamation marks!!!
posted by Gnatcho at 5:23 PM on February 27, 2016 [1 favorite]