S4E29.5: KJB Q&A #13

I CALLED MUPPET PRIDE&PREJUDICE like MINUTES before you said it and I'm so ecstatic that you said it :D

googling "animal" is insane work

How best to service trans women over 40? Well, I've got this lead to attach to your collar to start with..

Hitchcock Season would rule because he's one of the all-time greats w/a plethora of classics, *but* also he has some stinkers in there *and* his relationship w/women both behind and in front of the camera (which contrast in fascinating ways depending on the film) is probably some of the most fertile ground for your analysis after the Bond films. Oh, and since I started listening to this I've been wondering when you'll get to North By Northwest, which was both deliberately intended as the culmination of Hitchcock's spy thrillers going back to The 39 Steps, and subsequently quite blatantly used as the model for the first decade of Bond films to the point that Hitchcock was annoyed w/his friend Albert R. Broccoli for ripping him off so blatantly; even just looking at that film would be great for that context, a full Hitchcock season that allowed you to see how much the thriller/escapist genres were shaped by his films would be sublime.

Please do eventually "orientalist adventure season"🫡🔥✊: lawrence of arabia, indy jones, allan quatermain, apocalypse now perhaps....

In Australia season please do Animal Kingdom. On Pluribus, like Abby I wanted it to be The Show I Want to Watch where each ep followed the hivemind through administrative, ecological, supply, maintenance etc issues planning and execution.

I can say that as a listener of religion season it has in fact made me more of an atheist

Holy fucking shit Black Coal Thin Ice mentioned. Ive never heard ANYONE talk about that movie!

I'm not a woman over 40 yet, don't get me wrong I'm over 40, it's just that the influence of this podcast can be profound and unexpected so I'm not ruling anything out.

Motion to dub Devon’s niece “Devon Jr.”

Completely forgot to ask Dev what their favorite Steely Dan album is

All the batman movies would be great if you do them chronologically, so you have the 1940s anti-japanese spy thrillers then the 1966 camp version then the Tim Burton ones ...

DESPERATELY desire a viewing of The Core for the podcast. Not even tangentially related to any season of anything but the performances are just phenomenal, as the hosts attest.

Re the "merry Christmas to hamas etc" story I couldn't tell if you meant "twitter" as in X or "twitter" as in bluesky and was thinking wow how did you get away with that at all on The Reading Comprehension Website

Podcasts are a form of entertainment that can be enjoyed while Working at a Work Job and while Driving, neither of which are particularly true of TikToks. Just because nobody's put on a headband with "(your podcast or channel here) martyr's brigade" and started the revolution yet doesn't mean that light historical and political education delivered through parasocial entertainment is a completely meaningless waste of time. Keep up the good work, team!

Speaking of bad films which you enjoy I'm showing my friend some of my old favourites and it's genuinely interesting which ones hold up when you show them to another person. A recent one was Masters of The Universe which I would say is objectively a bad movie if you pigeonhole it in the epic fantasy genre although I'll go to the mat for Frank Langella's performance as Skeletor but taken on its own terms as a kids film it's a lot of fun.

Fun fact: diamonds burn, like charcoal. They're the same stuff, (though the former *is* harder to light with a match

This Australian trans woman is only 37 but I'm very maternal if that helps.

nova saying she's liking for all mankind because she gets really emotional about space made me realize that my favorite weird fucking unreliably-narrated scifi/speculative fiction series, terra ignota by ada palmer (historian of ideas/philosophy, censorship, and the renaissance + enlightenment), might be a decent rec for her or anyone else listening to this podcast who likes dense literature narrated by weird guys. it's a witness history of a period of societal upheaval written by a criminally insane (therefore his account is entirely unadmissable in court) adjutant to most world leaders in 25th century earth, and also the major catalyst for these events was the child he was secretly raising who was a manifestation of the divine on earth and could perform actual miracles. it's catnip for a lot of the themes that get discussed on this pod, gender and religion and liberalism and fascism and pop culture. (and it does also get so so emotional about space and human spacefaring in ways that for real make me weep). anyway that's my soapbox, love these q&a episodes with y'all honestly and i love the icebreaker "what media we engaging in" tradition now, word of mouth recommendation is always better and more fun than every algorithm combined

*elmer fudd voice* shhhhh, i’m hunting secwets

I feel like you missed a trick with the secrets vs diamonds one. You’re assuming you try to take advantage of the situation, which gets you killed. If it’s diamonds, I can give them back the diamonds, like, they don’t want to kill me, they want their diamonds, and I definitely don’t want stolen diamonds.

In another life, I would have loved listening to a Buffy podcast from you Thinking about it, damn, Buffy is like the opposite of the Kill James Bond podcast. It's about how being born That Girl means you're locked into an eternal violent struggle and you are destined to die in battle

icelandic trans woman reporting in to say, if you are interested i can give you the hookup regarding any underground punk and punk adjecent shows happening when you're in the area (with the caveat that if i am a part of the line-up, i will tell you about that show before anything else) PS: BOTTLED WATER IS TAP WATER HERE, DON'T GET SCAMMED

It's funny that whoever said "the Lenin of video essays" because I was literally taught the basics of political theory by Philosophytube. As in, I had a Florida public school high school diploma and didn't know the definition of liberalism or Marxism before Abi's videos on the subject. I am literally a Marxist because of Philosophytube

abi as genderbent julius caesar getting stabbed to death by several muppets

Who ever that girl is who did the poggers bit is a godamn hero

If you're going to be doing movies about found families doing vehicle-based action together, I cannot suggest "Convoy" enough. It's an almost explicitly leftist sort of marxist sort of anarchist movie based on a country song. Working class people versus dirty cops and the American government. Pro, or at least normalizing, sex work. Multiracial. Unions mentioned. There's also one quick (derogatory) trans joke in there I was going to watch one battle after another in theaters, and they were only airing it at 9:40 p.m. and I clock into work at 6:00 a.m. almost every day therefore I am asleep by 10:00 p.m. pretty much every night I had pork shoulder for Christmas. We made pernil As for the getting jacked: I've started Dan John's Armor Building Formula (kettlebell version) January 4th. Going to see what that does for me after 2 months. My squats are weak enough where I'm actually doing air squats instead of the double 16 kg squats. I'll probably end up running the program for the 8 weeks, then doing the program again with 16 kg goblet squats and then seeing where I am after that. Yes pthalo green is almost objectively the most beautiful color

I feel exactly the same about Pluribus, Abby also, THE CORE (2003) MENTIONED????? I love that stupid ass movie so goddamn much

A Muppets moby dick where the one human actor plays moby dick.

Not to be that person but in case you would rather be told, Devon, is this not Q&A #13?

all I'm gonna say is that you've got 15 years until I'm a woman over 40 so you gotta keep the pod going

Other Kink scene from Goldfinger - strapped down on the golden slab with the crotch laser

A general suggestion: Border (2018), a Swedish movie that really reminded me of Under The Skin. And if you are still doing religion season, Maqbool (2003) is a very good Indian adaptation of Macbeth, set in a very particular Indian Muslim/Sufi culture. (Will probably need a guest familiar with it?). Would also work as part of crime season!

Random suggestions because I'll miss heist season when it's gone. Conan The Barbarian is about a barbarian who steals a lot of stuff over the course of the movie. Assigned Barbarian at birth but he does a lot of rogue stuff. It's a hard movie to take seriously because it's peak Arnie grunting and looking confused (which in the context of this movie is actually perfect, my guy is min-maxed and where he's going he didn't think he'd need charisma) but it's a much, much better movie than it has any business being. Could also sneak into religion season if worship of Crom counts. Also occurs to me that Glengarry Glen Ross is a heist film. I also think it would be a world class muppet movie. I think the human actor plays Williams (the office manager unfortunately played by Kevin Spacey), and I want to see them getting absolutely verbally obliterated in foul mouthed tirade by I'm guessing Kermit playing Roma? Training Day is also a heist movie, it has a shifted perspective which means it tends to get put in the wrong genre. Although I'm sure I've mentioned that one before. My contention is that is a movie that might almost pass undetected under the SCUM system's radar.

- Listening to this on Jan 5 - Get to the part where they joke about holding secrets about US spying on the Venezualan government - Joke is abruptly both far more funny and far less funny

>Listening to this on Jan 5

Wes Anderson does have a couple heist movies with Bottle Rocket and Fantastic Mr Fox

If you do Found Footage Season you should include 84C Mopic, a zero-budget Vietnam war movie entirely from the POV of a combat cameraman.

Abby PLEASE pick Annie Biller's The Love Witch for a bonus someday

Gonzo favorite Muppet, 100%. The fits and self description as "I'm a whatever." Very influential for me.

I think Nova just invented The Kingstran

Riley's exercise routine not exactly beating the No Gods No Mayors running gag allegations

I'd love to go back to Peru. I went there on a high school class trip and fell in love with the country. The natural landscapes are so gorgeous, and the pre-Columbian history is a special interest of mine. The people are very friendly as well. It also solidified my undying hatred of the Spanish. Imagine coming into a new beautiful country with its own unique culture and architecture, and then tearing it all down and building ugly inferior shit in its place. Fuck all imperialist and colonialists.

My mom always thought that I was a human version of Grover from Sesame Street.

Muppets The Illiad, and Abby is playing Achilles just destroying all these Muppets in battle, dragging Muppet Hector behind her chariot, and having a very real emotional scene with Muppet Priam.

Clearly Conclave would smell the best with all the incense.

November's joke about the US government spying on the Venezuelan government aged so quickly.

"sekwets" drove me nuts for several minutes

Also, props to November's partner for not flying. It's actually great and a lot of fun. Especially in Italy. Italian trains RULE.

If classic breadtube essays are too Obama, how about starting the new year of Philosophy Tube episodes with How To Blow Up A Pipeline and progressing to how to lock onto railings?

me and my siblings completely derailed Christmas by discussing casting various classic stories with muppets. thoroughly confused my uncle, and annoyed the hell out of just about everyone. every time we seemed like we were going to stop there'd be a long pause and then someone would say, like "Muppet War and Peace" and it would all start again.

Don't worry the audience ages into Video Essays as they get more mature and start to think more deeply.

I know I keep recommending them, but if you do disaster season please bring on James from the Weekly Planet (get Maso as well but def get James) because he has a whole thing about Rolland Emmerich disaster movies. Or get them on for a Batman because the boys love Batman.

With YouTube, you can’t lock your phone and listen to a YouTube essay because I like to take you for a walk. Two percent /millenial director - Peter Jackson (non LOTR) eg meet the feebles, braindead, heavenly creatures. Further chats with my two per cent posse or pussy?, movies like Johnny Guitar, Thelma and Louise plus noir 🖤

As an Aussie who is damn proud of our film industry I would LOVE an Ozploitation season. Wyrmwood Muriel's Wedding The Cars That Ate Paris Undead Cosi Mad Max Metal Metal Skin One Perfect Day Ground Zero Young Einstein The Big Steel

As a 41 year old trans woman, I got into Well There's Your Problem and then KJB by dating a Zoomer. Hope that helps.

For the cheese course sheep cheese & tokaj with which a ¿drug dealer? Paid me back for lifting a curse

This is proper glazing behaviour and I'm sorry... but to find November's twitter I have to go on the KJB account and click through from the description because her shit dont even show up when you search her @

I am reading & gifted all my family members the book Glorious Exploits & It is darn good & terribly sad

The Christmas cake went 100% mold overnight. The omens are BAD

Coming to this podcast to develop my opinions on Rowlf and the sovereignty of Taiwan.

where's bones?

Please, please, watch Hudson Hawk before the end of robbery season.

Having now read Dracula for the first time, I whole-heartedly am here for a full season of Dracula movies. Penalty for not including my man, Quincy Morris.

vancouver liveshow come on

still halfway through the episode but regarding Devon's comments on religion - please consider covering Wake Up Dead Man (the 3rd knives out movie) because it has some interesting things to say about the purpose of religion in modern society. also technically it does also involve a heist.

Holy crap the spell really didn’t work

It's a shame the IP holders for the Muppers are having them shlll for booking.com

01:14:41 = any given police department upon entering a household

Yey Iceland ringroad mention! Come on down! (And message if u wanna know which tourism spots are 100% overrated)

Ummm, shouldn't this be Q & A 13 not 12?!!

Abby, because you’re a witch now, and your spell work is effective… pretty please Google the county executive of Nassau County, New York, and follow your heart on how to apply to your powers. (I’m sorry, I did my best to fight his hateful shit the county legislature, but that shitbeast thunders on. And is running for NYS governor. Ugh.) Only sorta kidding. Maybe the universe can be nudged to solve shit? Fingers crossed.

The quest of all your shows becoming to stress out people named sam is fun.

The juxtaposition made me think that Rowlf would actually make a decent James Bond

1:08:16 Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, season one, "The Laughing Man Incident"

1:37:30 actually its "THE fast and THE furious", which is the distinction between that one and "fast and furious", the fourth movie

Kermit vronsky shooting himself and a gout of stuffing flies out, he gets a bandage ironically stitched onto him

Two percent here, and also Team Rowlf! Look up the video of him singing to a tiny puppy - there's nothing purer. I'd love to see a Muppet season, actually! I'd also be very excited for a Folk Horror season, a Queer Classics season, and someone up above had the idea of a Film Noir season! A pretty badass move would be to do a season of Palestinian Film, but it would be pretty hard to critique or riff hilariously on.

If they do Metropolis 1927, they should also do the 2001 anime as well.

For continued Automotive Heist season I am again asking for Kelly's Heroes

Two percent here: Hello. KJB badge with two percent as the design. Attracting more of us? More 70s 80s action flicks viewed a female gaze with bonus episodes of noir films e.g. double indemnity, Chinatown, north by northwest, last seduction. 💋

I envy those of you who can just go to Cuba, looks like a lovely place. If I were to travel anywhere I suppose I'd go to England, hang out. I could teach Devon to drive, I'm pretty good at it.

Yayyyy witch Abby!

I watched one battle etc and I don't get it~

I know heist season is now dead and gone but who do I need to bribe to get you three to review the 2011 movie Drive? (Preferably with Victoria Scott as guest)

Muppet Count of Monte Cristo. Abbie is the Count, exacting dastardly revenge on, I dunno, Bad Kermit and Sam the Eagle.

Journey to the West is one of my favourite books. I used to tell the story leading up to Sun Wukong’s imprisonment as a Campfire Story at my old job.

For geographically identifiable genres: Chinese neo-noir

Which Patreon tier is the “Get jacked with Devon and Abby” where we get workout routines?

I often fall asleep to historic engineering videos like Rex's Hanger but when I wake up Youtube has autoplayed an hour of AI slop while I dozed. I feel like the algorythm has been tweeked to feed views to the worst channels. Youtube is trying to kill itself, as far as I can tell.

I would make a trip to the UK just for the live ten night stand of live Fast and Furious shows.

Coincidentally sailing within sight of the shores of Cuba as I listen to this, it does look nice

I’m listening Dev and Nova talk about liking twitter the same morning a bunch of news outlets are reporting on Grok being used to undress children. I’d delete my account and move on, using it at all benefits the platform and elon.

I also got into witchcraft this year!!! Welcome to the club Abby!!!!!!!

I read Crime and Punisment for university a couple of years ago (early 2023?) and we also talked about Raskolnikov being a proto-groyper! None of the other people I know who read that book on their own picked up on that; they all found it very inspiring, which made me a little sad. If you want more Russian Lit with manosphere-adjacent protagonists, I recommend Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev. Bazarov is the absolute picture of a guy who wants to be Patrick Bateman.

Its a real good time to visit Hawaii Abby, there have been some spectacular, regular eruptions every 2 to 3 weeks on Kīlauea. Massive, beautiful lava fountains.

The icebreaker reminded me I checked out Absolute Wonder Woman because of the previous Q&A, so immediate locked in to hear about more

I actually tried to do my own personal "Cronenberg Season" for October a few years back. I went off his Wikipedia filmography list without really looking into it so I ended up watching his student films without realizing that's what they were and feeling very bored and confused. I got up to The Brood before life circumstances made me drop off and I never really picked it back up. Turned out to be an interesting experience, even if it wasn't what I thought I'd be signing up for. I really should try and finish Cronenberg Season this year.

Speaking of Metropolis, Its interesting how something made so long ago can be relavent today. An artificial facsimile of a person leading the masses astray with misinformation leading to the collapse of society hits a little close to home with AI being what it is.

God, Abby's comments on Current State of Video Essays is so deeply felt. I could rant and rave about how much I want more people to actually say something in their video essays.

How did neither Abi nor Nova catch Devon's 'Take this honky out back and spit roast him' in minute 58, incredible

Right there with you on ditching Twitter Abby. Deleted my Twitter and Facebook accounts a year ago and I dont miss it.

glad to hear devon is holding down the scientific materialism fort on the pod 💪

Was at a trans-run rave until 330am on new years. The 11-12 spot the dj (mother3k) counted down with "2026 will probably suck too, but at least it's the first full year with no Charlie Kirk" and counted down to a drop of The Shot going off at midnight. I love my culture. I danced until I couldnt stand with beautiful ravenous lesbians, and my angelic wife came round to pick me up and bring me home.

"Non-State Civilian Transgender Intelligence Agency" is a strong contender for the next 'TERF boogeyman that would be awesome if it was real.'

I'm so excited about the prospect of natural disasters season because they're almost always bad but in different and unique ways.

muppet shakespeare. hamlet with statler and waldorf as rosenkrantz and gildenstern

Muppet Terminator 2 and Abby is Sarah Connor

Okinawa has great scuba diving and also not cold even in the winter

I am also rediscovering how to devour paper books (was audiobooking last couple of years) and currently enjoying all the foundation series (Isaac Asimov)

High five having parents in their seventies 🙃 Mine absolutely do not get any pop culture references

When you get to War Season, you have to do some of the Soviet war movies- especially pertaining to WW2. I watched Ballad of a Soldier. It is simultaneously a war movie and not a war movie, in that way the civilian life parts of All Quiet on the Western Front are. I would hesitate to say it is a good movie, but it is an interesting movie.

Working very hard on becoming a woman over 40 but it's gonna take me about 10 years.

Erika Kirk rocking that dead husband glow.

God, Mosfilm season would unironically be so peak. The Soviet Sherlock Holmes movies would be my personal highlight for that I think

42:38 History Buffs (Nick Hodges) reviewed Waterloo (1970) on youtube and to his frustration couldn't find anything historically inaccurate in it. The Red Army did the battle scenes with 16,000 troops and made sure it was correct historically in every detail. They recreated the cavalry charges 1:1. It is said the filming was the last time a full scale cavalry charge has ever been attempted with real horses (no CGI etc.) https://youtu.be/sWKk5Sy0JT8?si=6UNjA3O7An1m4Z6K

Maybe animal season? It would be super interesting to look at the relationship to other species in relation to masculinity. Lots of things to talk about related to the domaination of nature etc

Not a fan of dry jack january

I feel like there is something interesting in a season of movies called something like not much context season. Basically movies from countries where you don't understand the culture much, China, Korea, Vietnam etc etc.

FOR ALL MANKIND MENTION!!! one of the silliest tv shows ever. but also ellen waverly one of the most important and silly characters ever. what if the first female president of the US was a republican and then she came out as a lesbian. such a good show. also makes me emotional about the soviet union and a world where it might still exist.

November isn't posh maxxing enough, my family does a tasting menu and wine flight for xmas. This years was somerset themed so we had local cheeses, game, scallops with cider glaze etc. Good shit since we all love cooking and my dad despises turkey (too dry folks!)

Thank you for all the earnest, insightful and funny work you three have put in this year and every prior one. KJB legit makes me hoot every week.