What popping everybody hello and welcome to popcorn culture my name is Ben Carlin and I am your host here with me today is my brother Jay who will be in every episode Ben do you know what I was thinking about while we were doing the thumbnailing ton just now what were you
Thinking about when we were doing the thumbnailing ton just now Okay so you know like the the the classic imagery for home alone you know yeah oh yeah yeah of course like the like the Hands-On face thing Hands-On face screaming yeah which was always one of
Those things where is is that like after shaved is that is that supposed to like burn I’m glad this is exactly what you brought up Ben because yes one what always bothered me what always bothers me about the imagery for home alone is that him making that face has nothing to
Do with him being like like the the wet Bandits invading the house that’s so true he never makes that face it’s not like oh my God there’s burglars it’s like the fa he makes the face when he is in his parents’ bathroom and I he like
Puts aftershave I guess on his face I guess that’s what’s happening and like every time I watch that movie like every single time it makes me feel so dumb because I watch that scene and I have no idea what’s happening like he puts it on
His face and it must burn but I’m like like I think after shave something that has just like gone by the wayside maybe like I’ve never used it whatever he’s putting on his face don’t know what it is I literally don’t know what yeah I
Don’t know what after shave is or if it is different from cologne or like if it was supposed to help with um like if if instead of like a scent related thing if it was supposed to help like uh cool like like ease your face after you’ve
Like had like a close shave or something like that but here’s the thing he’s not shaving oh no I know I know yeah I mean he’s he’s a small child he’s a small child he has not shaved his face he has nothing to shave he’s just like putting
It on it’s like presumably he’s putting it on because he’s seen his dad do this yes but like to me if it burns if it’s supposed to be something post shave and it burns then it must just be because whatever you’re putting on your face like it like hurts on the newly like
Razored skin which he would not have yes so like what is he compl like if it just hurts to put on your skin at all this like how did this ever catch on and maybe this is why it’s not around anymore but like it always makes me feel
So so dumb cuz I’m like this is a little kid interacting with an adult man’s thing and that’s like why I guess why it’s funny but like now I’m an adult and I still don’t know what’s happening and it makes me feel extra dumb because it’s
Like the poster of the movie it’s such imagery the movie doesn’t go away because it’s a Christmas movie and it comes back every year and I have to feel dumb every year but it would be it would be hilarious to me if the image that
They did famously use on the cover or on like all the all the you know posters and everything was for something that was actually like like a little bit of like a movie fail too if it was sort of like okay like we we did it because it
Would be funny and because like most adults when they’re shaving like kind of famously like stings when you put on your face but of course it wouldn’t actually hurt him because he’s not actually doing anything you know but then like it became like so so like relevant or it seemed to like Express
His uh it was the best image we had of maau kulan looking just like like terrified or shocked or or something alarmed you know so it fit it fit really well with like with what we’re going for here but also it never would have bothered him in the first place because
He wasn’t actually shaving because blah blah blah but it’s funny because it actually does remind me when I was a little kid I remember going over to my childhood best friend’s house and we we I feel like in our house we didn’t really do like the mouthwash thing you
Know like like Listerine or whatever um you know which I don’t know really why but my this was like one of those things like when I would go over to my friend’s house it was sort of like a novelty like you know part of the experience was like
You br brush your teeth and then they had they had like the the beginner mode which was like bubblegum flavored mouthwash which was my personal preference because the first time you ever do like actual lisine mouthwash it is like woo okay like you know I feel like I’m breathing out alcohol in it
Yeah yeah exactly yeah it’s like it’s like I feel like I’m breathing fumes or something afterwards um it was like such a like I don’t know what like so I could I could almost see you know if you’ve if you’ve like lived your life up to a certain point you’ve never experienced
Like the the full-blown like Listerine mouthwash experience and then you do it’s sort of like wo like that was that was a lot but it still wouldn’t Merit the hands on the face scream reaction so it must be the case that whatever After Shave was intending to do um was was
Even more like visceral yeah you know I guess so so anyway I was making your face during the thumbnails where I put my hands on my face like Home Alone style and it just then and then I felt dumb because I was I was like hey this
Is a home loan thing I was like that’s a joke I don’t get but I feel like I should cuz I’m 35 right right yeah it’s like at this point I probably should have interacted with whatever he was interacting with it is such an example too of something that
I could like I it feels like I should so easily be able to Google and even though no one would know that I’d Google it I’d feel so embarrassed for having needed to Google it yeah you know like how does that stop youever you’re like boy I the
Answer is there but I’m pretty embarrassed even to look it up even though that would just give me the answer no no I don’t have that I don’t have that this is almost like your your salad guilt from last week where it’s it’s like it’s like I I feel like I
Don’t have I don’t have any well actually okay I was about to say I don’t have any Shame about Googling something I will say that because my my um we have an iMac in like our our uh kitchen at home and so um like all of the Apple
Devices or whatever are all synced up so like the stuff that I Google and search at work versus is like from my phone versus from like the home computer like it all has like the same uh I cloudified ominous right you’re logged in like the same Gmail account everywhere yeah
Exactly yeah yeah so like all of the information so it’s always really complicated like when I’m Christmas shopping for for Alice because like if she goes and she like opens up the computer and like you know clicks like the search bar and it drops down like like the recently searched thing and
It’s like oh you know like that must be a like I’m afraid it’ll be like a giveaway so sometimes what I’ll or not even sometimes when I’m Christmas shopping for Alice in particular I’ll always go like Incognito and that way it’s like it it’s like being like preserved or whatever from that
Particular uh like drop- down menus and that type of thing and so I will say like occasionally there will be a search that I will do where it’s like I would rather if this existed somewhere else so like when Alice like logs in later she’s not like oh okay Ben doesn’t know how
Trapezoids work or something like that what’s up but then on the flip side of this I also I mean it is hilarious and also like um I’m going to say upsetting but it’s not actually upsetting but like very frequently we will have conversations in like the main
Area here at SCB where we’ll be like talking about like oh yeah who did win best picture last year and it’s like was it so until it’s like oh no I can’t no maybe it was this one and it was like it like we could solve this really fast um
And I don’t know if this is something that um maybe more people like the game of being like no no no I can remember I want to look it up because it’s in my brain and I can I can get there on my own and maybe for me I’m just like
Shortest path is always the easiest where it’s it’s like let’s let’s just let’s just get to the answer like this is this is so solvable that like you won’t even have to click a web page like the autofilled like result will tell you yeah who won best picture last year
Whatever um so I can never tell whether or not this is if this is like a like a like a pride type thing it’s like no no no I can do this like you know it’s like I will not resort to looking up the answer because I can remember it um it’s
Like in a weird way like having a conversation about who won best actor last year at the Academy Awards it’s kind of like it’s like a very old-fashioned conversation you know like trying to discuss trying to discuss the information out of yourselves when everyone when you could just get the
Answer it’s like so readily available I this is interesting because I think like a lot of what we do like you’ve always you’ve always done a such a remarkable job of like maintaining like trivia in your brain all the things we and a lot of things that we don’t cover um like
I’m I’m sure that uh okay let’s see here oh boy what is in Rugrats the TV show yeah what is Suzie’s last name carmichel wow wow what a great example it’s like let me just pick something like I haven’t thought about or watched an episode of Rugrats in in
20 years easily um if you didn’t know that but he still knew su’s name I I as I was pulling the thought together I was like what’s a good example of a question that we can deep dive into here um but like you’ve you’ve always been so good
At this but like one of the things that I think has blown my mind and so like we do like our trivia show J ver Ben or whatever um and for a very long time I mean I think this past year I think that we we finally reached maybe a closer
State of of like competitiveness at least in in those those shows um but um forever and ever and ever it was something where I you know if I won two a year it was like whoa one it wasn’t even Ben one it was like what happened
To Jay that day you know like you must have been distracted the story is still about me somehow right exactly yeah it was like it was you had a bad day not me having a good day dude this used to drive me crazy in college about the
Dallas Cowboys okay like I that I would like watch a lot of like NFL football back then and of course the Cowboys are almost always better than the commanders or you know or Washington and they’re like one of the big rivals but it would uh drive me crazy cuz you’d have like a
Like you know You’ sit down you’d watch a game and you were just positive the Cowboys are going to roll over you yet again and somehow Washington would pull out a victory and be like no freaking way what an amazing day and I would just relish like logging in to like ESPN the
Next day to be like let’s hear all about how great the commanders were and it’s just like wellow the Cowboys really fell down or like yeah Washington had nothing to do with winning that game it was th% the Cowboys getting in their own way oh
Oh how it would drive me crazy yes no you’re you’re exactly right you’re exactly right so I think I think forever and ever but like I haven’t ever really felt like my lack of trivia knowledge has ever been um like I never feel like it truly holds us back while we’re like
Writing theories you know so it’s like and and I think because a lot of that is like you know we’ve got like all of our all of our like um resources constantly ready at hand and so it’s like it’s like who said that line again it’s just like
You know I’ll punch it in to like you know our like database or whatever it’s like oh that’s right lavender Brown and you know and then and then you know the answer to to the question and then you’re able to just like March forward with the piece of knowledge and mind and
So a lot of times I wonder whether or not I like I offload you know or or almost like Cloud store a lot of knowledge where it’s like I don’t know I can’t pull it off on my own if I’m on a deserted island with no information
Whatsoever like I will never be able to find that laender brown said that sentence but like but like what I what I have allowed myself to do is not increase like my brain’s cash by by by keeping it ready at hand because what I have allowed myself to know is like well
You can look it up very quickly like you can have the answer to this if if there’s ever a meaningful reason why you need to know you can find it very fast yeah and therefore no no need to store it no need to store anything but this is
This is like it’s it’s kind of a curiosity because I think in general I would say and you could argue this and so I’m curious to see um I think that I operate with a scarcity mindset basically at all times okay and I I I would assert that maybe you’re on the
Opposite end of the spectrum and you have an abundance mindset um and so at least from our our memory storage standpoint you’re like man the more I know the more it tells me I can know more right like like I’ve been able to learn all these facts which means that
Like I trust that I’ll be able to learn more facts which helps me learn and memorize even more facts right you know and so like as you progress through life it doesn’t seem like you’ve ever like been encumbered by like man should I offload some of this like Hey Arnold
Knowledge that I have from our childhood your brain is like I need to dump this so that I can learn more things I have to be very selective about the amount of things whereas my brain’s like there’s basically Infinite Space don’t worry about that yes exactly yeah yeah so and
And I think that’s exactly what happens to me where it’s like you know if if I’m like trying to like enter some new fictional domain or if I’m like like taking in like a new TV show or something like that like a lot of times
I will it’s almost like I mean I’m not actually consciously like parsing through like what to let go of or anything but there there’s a small piece of me that’s almost like man I’m really getting into Gilded Age lately which means that like Shadow and bone is going
To have to go you know like like I think on some level it it’s one of two things like it’s it’s either maybe you weren’t as invested in it to the tune of this surprises me sometimes like the number of TV shows or like reality shows or something that I’ve watched where you
Could like show me a person who was on the show and I wouldn’t remember them at all this happen yeah like certainly like on shows like Survivor something like sometimes like I won’t even I couldn’t even tell you who won a season even though I watched the whole season like
Aggressively you know you’re like you’re you’re making all the moves in your head you know the alliances you know like all the this that the whatevers um I yeah certainly like sometimes I’ll just watch it and like you the characters will be having conversations and it’s like the
Show was gone to Such Great Lengths to try and like like confuse you out of knowing who’s going to win the vote for the sake of drama that like I’m like I can’t even keep track of who is in an alliance with who because it changes
Like by the minute and like this past season was a great example of like there was like four like the it was a great example of really good reality TV show editing I thought okay because there was a there was like a red tribe that there
Was like four of them left at the merge and they basically just ran the whole game and that that four Alliance just did everything they wanted to the whole game and they were very powerful and you could tell like if you’re watching the show the ways in which like every every
Single episode they would try and undermine you as the viewer like oh man maybe the red Alliance is going to break or maybe they’re going to vote differently this week and it’s like no every single time they’d set you up for it to happen like clearly they take one
Of the red guys aside and be like are you considering voting for someone else what would make you vote for someone else and they just play that answer and You’ be like oh man maybe Drew is going to break the alliance but like they didn’t at all they just like it’s like
It was very obvious those four people are just going and that’s there’s nothing they can do about it yes yes yes you know you’re absolutely right and then and then that’s the other thing too is that like when I’m watching the show a lot of times I’m like all I’m playing
In my head over and over and over is whether or not it’s like could I do this what would I do in this situation how would I respond to that who would I go and talk to would I trust this person would I be like would I lie would I like
You know and and I this is ex where I think they they edit together reality TV in such a good way that like you sitting there on the couch are like almost like overwhelmed because you’re like oh my gosh but then this person talk to that
Person then who are they voting for and they’re trying to split the votes and oh my gosh I like you know but I wonder if in real life it’s like a lot more like obvious and I don’t even know if like obvious is the right thing because I
Mean obviously blind sides happen people say like I was blindsided like I didn’t know this was coming um but like I I do wonder if it’s less confusing in real life and they’re they’re showing you this like weird Rubik’s Cube Twisted not version of events because that helps it
Be entertaining to like watch whatever unfolds unfolds yeah there there’s there’s almost a very clear formula where it seems like yeah you know they they come out of like whatever challenge somebody’s want immunity they’ll basically say right away like this person’s going home and there’s no way that they could say themselves that
Person’s never going home right like you know they’ll they’ll always establish right away this person they’re Doom or even even if it is even if it is the case where it’s just like yeah as long as that person doesn’t win the challenge they’re going home and like if that’s
Even if completely true that like okay they didn’t win the challenge and everyone just knows yeah it’s going and they they’ll come back no matter what they will throw in an extra edit that’s like they made a play for it who knows maybe they flipped three people or
Whatever like they won’t let you just like go into Tribal Council knowing what’s going to happen they W they will try and throw like a slice of Doubt at you yes for the sake of the entertainment and like thank goodness they do because otherwise I think
There’d be a lot of Seasons where it’s just very boring right right right it’s just like dominating whatever yeah um so but yeah so anyway um I don’t know how we I don’t know how we fully the point is there are people like sometimes I’ll like listen to people talk about
Survivor and they’re like oh yeah Franny was so good and be like I can’t tell you who Franny was I couldn’t tell you you know like I you I remember that’s a person who played Survivor but what she did what she looks like how far she got
You know okay well maybe I have a perfect transition then because of this because this sounds to me almost like a perfect representation of uh a new a new phenomen a new psychological observance that I have to credit our dad um after after Christmas I was chatting with him
And he was telling me about it he was like I feel like it applies to you in a really good way and um I I I couldn’t remember the name of it and then literally on break I was listening to the uh Freakonomics podcast where I stumbled across the very episode he was
Telling me about and I was like no way so credit to Dad credit to Freakonomics uh no stupid questions I think is like the subcategory for it just just for the the purposes but I think the exact thing that we’re describing like where you you can like watch the show you’re so
Involved you’re so invested and then the show is over and you like dump it all is I think it’s a good example of what’s called I could be pronouncing it wrong but I’m going to go for it the zyg garnic effect um and that’s a $10 word I
Know right so zynic yeah wow I love that already I’m gonna try to use that um but I think the the name comes from I I believe the researcher who originally put together the the concept where as The Story Goes uh this researcher and maybe like some some fellows uh about
Like you know I think it’s maybe like a hundred years ago or something like that it’s been around for a while um but they all went out to this like fancy dinner at a restaurant where there was like a whole bunch of different like uh orders
And like drink orders and all the stuff that was going on and they had this like phenomenal waiter and the whole time that they’re there you know the waiter is just on top of everything knows every single person’s like individual meal preferences is like super on top of like
Where they’re at and their drinks and what their refill might be and all the rest okay and so the the whole crowd as they’re at the restaurant is just like in awe of this waiter’s ability to have just met all of these people and to have
Known them so well right away right um so in this example this would be like us watching Survivor so it’s like you know while you’re inside of the episode while you’re inside of the Season you know everybody you know all the moves you know all the strategies you know like
What everybody’s kind of doing like what their plays are what their strengths are what their weaknesses are alliances all the rest and then this group of people leaves the uh the restaurant and one of them realizes they’ve like left something back at the table so they run
Back into the restaurant and flag down the waiter that they just had who they’re you know of course and like so impressed with the you know the memory and they’re like hey I was just sitting at that table over there I think I left my jacket and the waiter is like I’m I’m
Sorry like who are you and they were like wait you don’t you remember all of our meals all all of our preferences all of our drink orders and you don’t remember me from 10 minutes ago right and so they’ve said that as as time has gone on this this particular story is
Kind of like part of the Mythos of the origin story maybe it’s just a very good representation of of going how the concept came to be but it’s it doesn’t mean that it’s not still a fairly real concept which is that for that waiter it’s very important while uh while the
Guests are there to be like that’s that’s what this person is doing you know like they need to be able to uh cater to you know the guests as best as possible and provide them with a positive experience and and all the rest but then like once they’re gone it’s
Like it’s not important for them to know this information out in the real world like it’s not it’s not information that is going to be beneficial as time goes on and so pretty much as soon as that table clears it’s like clear clear the memory yeah like tomorrow it does not
Matter what Mrs Smith ordered as an entree yes exactly it will never be useful information again right right right right um and so you could you can translate this often times like if you were ever one of those students you know in in high school or college or whatever where
You would go and you would like cram for an exam you would take the exam and then the moment the exam was over you it was sort of like can you still explain what mitosis is and it’s like no it’s like but you got an A it’s
Like you should be able to like you learned it right and it’s like well I learned it enough to pass the examination and then once the examination was over I didn’t have a practical application for that information so I like go of it right um now what’s interesting about this is I
Think as it translates so I to me that’s that’s the Survivor example it’s like you know it’s important to know everybody’s strategies and stuff like that while you’re watching but then like once you know who wins once you get the answer to the question who is going to
Like like emerge triumphant the rest of it doesn’t super matter so so maybe the main thing you might remember is the winner of a season but even then like once he gets to the next season you’ve got a whole new batch of characters to pay attention to and right maybe at this
Point in time like whoever won season 44 isn’t Ultra relevant to season 45 because you know like like now you’ve got like look that same strategy might not work again a different group of people it’s a different group of people different group of personalities different different alliances all
Together so even that information might just get like dumped from the back of your brain but the other question with this uh then it has to do with the concept of closure um and basically like what’s what’s happening is that like the closure that you get while watching the
Game Survivor or taking your exam is is successfully completing the mission and once you’ve completed the mission you’re able to let it go the problem is that and and as the Z the let me try it again the zynic effect as it applies to closure out there in the real world is
That a lot of times people need a sense of closure with another individual because without it they can’t they can’t pass the test they can’t see the finale so all you would ever know is is like you’re like left in this sort of like limbo land where like something has
Happened with another person and because you’ve never like gotten to the end of the test so to speak you you don’t ever get to let go of the information and then that information just like lives with you so like if you’re ever lying awake in the middle of the night like
Having like an argument with somebody in your head where you never got to like get in the last word or or like solve the problem or feel at peace with that person about something it’s like you can’t let it go and then it and then it like that’s like rumination you know
Like that’s that is the problem where where now it’s just like in this cycle and it lives rentree in your head does does this ever happen to you is is like one question yeah I think so where it just sort of feels like boy it’s been like years since something happened and
Sometimes if I let my mind wander over to a situation and it’s just like yeah I can pick you right back up with all the injustices of this situation of people even here and I haven’t talked to them in years whatever just like like yeah but like somehow the information
Still just like feels fresh yeah exactly exactly it’s just like it’s like completely completely unresolved and you know so one of one of the interesting examples of of this for me is uh one of the one of the like shock factors I’ll occasionally get is um uh once upon a
Time I would say I had what I would regard as the best breakup of my life oh great um and this was this was like one of those things where going back to high school I was probably the worst about a breakup because like there’s I mean as as like
Your your classic people pleaser to me there’s nothing in the world worse than making this person not happy like I don’t want that to happen even if by being with them they are making me unhappy I would still rather not hurt their feelings you know it’s like it’s
Like that stinks and I don’t want to have to do this and so I would constantly like you know try to soften the blow or like you know there there’s the all the the cliche lines like we could still be friends or like maybe maybe we’ll just like take a break for a
Little while and we could try again at some other time you know or or one of those things and what it would do is it would leave the person with this like like with without closure with a lingering sense of hope that maybe it’s not over yet that maybe there’s still
Something that that could come from this if if like the circumstances align more correctly which very frequently just is not the case the person is just attempting to let you down gently right the irony is that in attempting to let somebody down gently you might be doing
More harm right because you’ve left that door open you’ve you’ve right the wound is left open there’s no stitches exactly exactly so you know you you might get to the the final vote in in Survivor and it’s sort of like well we’re pretty sure that this person won but we’re gonna
Have to wait like a year until we can like re-review the tapes because the other person may have actually won so like we’re going to have to wait and find out you know and it’s kind of like all right okay well then but but I’d be willing to bet that if that happened
Then you might be more invested for that whole year and and waiting to find the outcome right so I feel like once upon a time when I say like I had the the best break up of my life what I did was what going into it is I was like this is not
A decision that I can make lightly you know this is a decision that I need to be very clear in my intentions about how I am doing this um and I think that that came from a certain amount of you know like experience then just overall
Maturity in life and and kind of like growing as an individual and everything but more than anything it was like I know that the worst thing I could do for this person is to leave any hope on the table at all right and so in in the
Breakup that was what I did I it was just sort of like there is absolutely no chance that I would like revisit this like this has to be it this will be done forever and that’s that right and what has been amazing to me is that since
That day there has been I have never once had the compulsion to go and like do like the the the Facebook stocking the Instagram you know like whatever and be like well what are they up to now like what’s going on where did their life go you know like like I I don’t
Have any lingering curiosity like I I absolutely unequivocally Let It Go yeah um which is not common for me if you know me as like an individual like that’s true like I can have a conversation that that everybody in the room thought went fine and then go and
Spend the entire weekend thinking about like you know like but there was that one bur you know and all I can think was that that one that one little thing like did that go okay that was that how I intended did they mean something to me
Were they trying to speak in coach I talk to them like you know like I I have this like you know so so to me it was so jarring almost because of the differences in these situations like one of them was like a major Paradigm life shifting moment for me whereas like the
Other was a conversation like you know amongst friends where I was like you know did did I did I say something that may have come across poorly and then I don’t sleep because of it right you know it’s like it’s like oh my gosh well like
Of these two things one of them was way bigger than the other one and right like why is it so easy to forget this giant thing whereas this like tiny in like worst case scenario someone was lightly bothered for a few seconds yes yes and
And it’s funny because I I think on some level my brain like unconsciously figured this out because I used to leave lots of Hangouts with friends and I would text people afterwards I’m like hey I just want to make sure everything was okay yeah like you you know like and
And like I’ll get to the I’ll get to the end of like a like an evening or a hangout or whatever and so I dad told me about this on Christmas and I had some friends over uh you know that evening to just just hang out and do holiday
Festive stuff you were yeah um but literally so I was I was explaining this concept to them and I was I was telling them you know like I think part of part of my problem is I get to the end of like a party at the end of the night or
Whatever and I’m like oh man I talked to so many people surely I stepped in it at some point in time so I was like we’re having this big discussion we’re all looking at each other and we’re like are we all good we all good you good you
Good you good we’re good we’re good nobody has to ruminate we’re all good it was like but it was it was amazingly helpful to me really to to just sort of be like okay okay nothing left un said you can hit me with it right now like
Are we good and it was like we are good lock eyes good um so anyway this is this is it’s just been very interesting to me because it makes me wonder I think a lot of times when I have something left over I worry about going and disrupting someone’s life so
Like if I’m ruminating on something from from something that happened years ago we sometimes talk about like the heavy weights conversation which is a yeah heavyweights is just a different podcast where yeah basically the whole premise of that show is to close these doors that’s exactly it yes and and I think
That like when I’ve listened to that show in the past like so this be this could be the case where like maybe somebody excluded you or denied you entrance to a fraternity in college and it’s been 15 years and you always felt like your life took on a completely
Different path because of it and so and the host will reach out to the the president of the you know fraternity sority the time you were there they’ll get you both on a you know a zoom call they’ll be like a big discussion it’s like hey this happened was there a
Reason why I wasn’t involved it’s like Yeah we actually thought it’d be for your own good we were worried about you and it’s like no way that was the reason it’s like oh that’s so good you know like whatever cuz I felt bad about myself for 15 years yeah exactly yeah
Yeah so you can you can finally let go of it um and so my big debate is often that like I I could have people in my life where it’s like gosh I I I feel like there is this like thing left undone with that person and I would love
To solve it I would love to reach out and just be like hey can we talk but I am always just like so in my head about it like as if if I as if I were like if I go and I open that door even further
It’s going to make it so much worse you know it’s like it’s like what you know there’s one situation where the person’s like I am so glad you said something because this keeps me awake at night too you know or they’re just like well that was no big deal like you you have
Nothing to worry about promise like everything’s fine you know like there’s there’s good scenarios that could go and then there’s the one where it’s like why are you bringing this up I’ve moved on with my life and now you are like now now for for your own peace of mind
You’re you’re barging back in in here and and rling up negative feelings letting me know that this thing I haven’t thought about for 20 years has I’ve actually been like this enormous pain on your life and yes exactly like now I have to feel guilty about that
Yeah right um and so this this is this is like this is the uh um the mental debate that I feel like since since I heard it because I was like man there are things where I bet I could alleviate so much pressure on my mind like you know so
Much of what my brain space spends time on right if I would just be willing to go and like attempt to have a handful of conversations but I’m really scared to do it right like what if what if they what if it makes it worse what if it
Makes it worse exactly yeah yeah like because I like that’s that’s the big thing it’s like you you don’t want like I would love the relief of of knowing that things are okay between between anyone but also like like but I don’t want to be harmful in the process that’s that’s the that’s
The too long didn’t read right um so anyway that’s that’s been that’s been like the big sort of like okay okay this is this is something and especially kind of like learning about it like coming into the new year was kind of like is this something like I could spend the
Year like I don’t need to do it all at once I don’t need to go like burden myself with that but like should should I attempt to go and and and see what happens I suppose there’s probably like just have like there’s probably a way to
Be more aware of like when it’s about to happen where like you know if some if something happened you know yeah 10 years ago and you’re still on it you’re right like there’s that risk of like ooh is bringing it up with that person going
To make it like worse but like you could potentially also Now sort of like like start to recognize the pattern like oh this person’s about to like I’m I’m entering a conversation that could that has unresolved things or like that that I can should actively try and like close
The door on right now lest it Fester lest it Fester yes yeah so yeah so is there that’s the other yeah so is is there a statute of limitations oh I have no idea I don’t think I mean I don’t I don’t know no one’s ever come up to me
And been like oh man you you said something to me 20 years ago and wow did it change me right but it’s so often the case like you mean nobody’s inside your brain I know right like so I mean it could be the case that like I was the
One who messed up and like would it make them feel better to know that I was like I know I messed up like you know like this is this is me coming forward being like hey if it helps you at all it would help me for you to know that I know that
I messed up yeah so often if like if that I don’t know I don’t I don’t feel yeah I don’t know I don’t know I do there are there are moments in my life from like did that like how much did that affect me going forward like how in like um would
It be would it be worth trying to like talk to this person about a situation or or would it just be interesting them to know that like oh yeah like no hard feelings or anything there was just a thing you said to me when we were kids
And it was like it just changed a lot of stuff and I couldn’t have even known it in the moment but like I come back to it all the time and you know like just you know isn’t it interesting right right no and well and it’s fast the other the
Other piece of this as well like is uh and and tell me I this is another one where I’d be curious to hear your thoughts as well because here on the pop like I’ve compared it to therapy before because like we’re we’re coming in we’re having a very very um like intentional
And engaged dialogue between the two of us in a way that can be unique compared to the outside world you know like especially um you know like I can think of like any type of family gathering that we have like where the whole family’s in one place like you might
Think like wow that was so great like I got really good quality time with my family in and some I mean not to say that that’s not happening but like inside of those occasions it’s almost like the fact like the togetherness is sort of like that is the thing that has
The aura around it it’s like you know you get to like watch the kids go run off and play in the other room or or go do this that or whatever but it’s a lot harder when there’s you know especially in our family of 15 people you know it
Can be harder to um have like a like a deep and meaningful discussion while there’s just so much other pulling on your attention right yeah like at almost any given moment a child needs attention from someone for some reason large or small and there’s you know like if if
Chances are the person you’re talking to is going to be pulled in some other direction or you’re going to be pulled in some other direction before you’re able to get like too deep about anything and you know maybe maybe whatever might count as deep is like too personal to
Even have in a situation where the conversation could be overheard yeah also that yeah which is a big one but the reason I bring that up though is because it’s like sometimes I’m like well would it be would it be how could it be the case you know that that
Recording the pop with Jay could could be um like breaking down other other barriers of of my life like this and in some ways like one of the things I’ve I’ve talked about in the past was like you know i’ I feel like we we reminisced
Early on in the pop about like some of like our high school Adventures so like I’m I’m talking about some of these things and relieving yourself of it in a way that is almost like more negatively aligned but but the opposite can be true as well like a lot of times like having
Like the ultimate reminiscence of an experience um can then sort of like like you have you have this positive memory and you then got far enough away from it that you then got to look back on it with one of the people that you experienced it with and re-experienced
It joyously and then as a result of that it’s almost like that memory itself also seems to like like or like FL away in this like strange way for me so like you’re getting like closure on positive things yeah yeah exactly exactly which is which is its
Own it’s been odd because I think sometimes it’s making me now super crave like adding new ones before me because I’m like man I’ve gone through and I’ve I’ve reminisced on like a lot of like these amazing moments of my life right and and now it’s like you know it’s like
Wow I now now I must need to got to go make some new ones got go make I mean I guess there’s I just I’ve never I don’t think I’ve really felt it like that like I’ve used up reminiscing about a thing right like I I feel like there’s so many times
Like when we get back you know like if if you and me and Mike or John or something like inevitably you know we we will reminisce about something that happened in the past even if it’s the 10th time we’ve done it I I you’re you’re not wrong I often times do feel
For our spouses because they’re like oh then there was the time we went and spent the whole night in the cave and they’re like yeah we’ve heard this story so many times I think they like it who wouldn’t want to hear that story no I mean I think they I’m sure
They do I’m sure I you know I bet it was I bet we were just warming them up the first like four times they heard it and then from there it was like well now that I know the Beats like I can I’m I’m like you it’s like he my favorite song
Yeah exactly exactly yeah okay yeah got to got to Hash it back out on the note of that exact Story We just watched a me and Beth just watched a Mr Beast video where he locks himself in solitary confinement for 7 Days okay basically just like a it’s like in a white padded
Room where he just he’s just in there by himself with no clock notably and like the lights don’t turn off and the meals arrive at complete random times so he has like no way of tracking time or anything he’s just going to be in there
Alone for 7 days and I was just like this reminds me like this like it was so interesting to watch because when we were in the cave the the thing that you lose track of immediately is time like so swiftly and it was so interesting to
Like watch cuz like I sort of was watching I know it’s going to happen almost right away and sure enough just like like your ability to judge time in any like meaningful way just is out the window so quickly and we were only in there for one night and this was like
Seven days you know and he’s like you know talking himself into like there’s got there’s got to be like you know if if if there’s more than one day left if there’s more than 10 hours left like I’m you know I’m going to have to tap out
Just like well there’s 30 hours left so you know go you’re way off but like you don’t even know how would you even know if it had been 10 hours oh I know yeah I mean your your basis for anything so yeah as a refresher anybody who hasn’t
Heard the story before Once Upon a Time there’s in uh near the New River uh in like in in blackburg I guess um there is the New River Cave and once upon a time we we used to go like spelunking I guess is probably the the closest to technical
Term for what we were doing I think spelunking that’s I think that describes being in underwater caves oh is it okay I didn’t realize okay okay well so anyway um what we would do though is we would like gear up we would have like headlamps and all this type of stuff and
We would like helmets and all the rest and we would go into a cave you know with a with an underground map of of like where the cave goes and what it does and everything but we would go so far into the Earth that I mean like if
You turn all the lights off it is nothing but like thick velvet black such Darkness is I mean you can’t see your fa your your fingers directly in front of your face you could probably sleep with your eyes open because like you’re there is no difference between them being
Closed and shut right um so once upon of time the game plan was to go into the cave and attempt to see if we could spend the entire night in the cave and then what time we would be then exiting in the morning if we didn’t have any
Clocks and basically you know sleeping in a cave is kind of a miserable and uncomfortable experience because it is wet and cold and dark um and so you part of us was thinking like oh my gosh we’re going to in at you know 8 9:00 at night whatever time it
Was and we’ll be back out here at like 3: in the morning and we’ll be going to Waffle House and and laughing about like wow we thought we were there for a whole night we had like told our friends and family like you know if you don’t hear
From us by like you know noon the next day at absolute worst case scenario maybe start to worry at that point in time but like I it won’t come to that we’ll be fine like I have work you know like we’ll definitely be out by then oh
My God and you know so we we go in you know like l go off at some point in time we fall asleep for some amount of time of time and you know we wake up and we’re like all right I think it’s time
To time to Ho it out of here so we load up off our gear and we show up and like the sun is in the middle of the sky right it is like 1: in the afternoon yes and our phones have been blown up and they like you know of course we didn’t
Have any cell service deep underground and like the whole family and you know like just everybody is just like what happened to them like are they okay and it was just like we had no idea we had no I think we were like positive it was
Going to be like 6 a.m. in the morning or something and like I think even like we were like trying to like we we should stay a little bit longer cuz otherwise we’re just going to come out in the middle of the night and like yeah we
Should we should stay a little bit longer yeah and I think when I think there was like a bunch of other considerations as well at some point was like people like at some point everyone kind of had to get up and go to the bathroom and it was like that was like
That should have been more of an indicator that like that’s your like biological clock it’s like you pretty much do that at the same time every day and that’s what was happening cuz it was like 8: a.m. or whatever but we were all just like nah you know like no big deal
That doesn’t mean anything I’ll go climb back to my sleeping bag and sleep some more yeah like try and get some more sleep in here this uncomfortable slab of rock we found yeah super fun but yeah once you once You’ fallen asleep at all like any any amount of time you might
Have been able to judge like just just gone yeah which was super fascinating it was it was yeah it was very very very jarring at the same time so anyway that was the experience yeah transition transition man I’ve been having a weird month or so okay wherein uh because we
Were so busy in the month of December like with holiday parties and just general um things to do on the weekend that I have been very disconnected from the Pokemon Trading Card Game oh oh wherein I I would say at this point it has probably been like a month since I
Have like played a game at all wow that it is very unusual for you cuz it’s I feel like I feel like once upon a time you had your like your main job and like super Carlin Brothers was the thing that you did like when you weren’t thinking
About your main job or what you’re having to resist think about yeah and it seems like the TCG has largely become the thing that you think about that’s not here yeah yeah like it was like this oh was like new hobby it’s was like oh yeah trading cards and like you know we
Have like the show where we open them and like you know I would like I would say for the most part most of my YouTube consumption was just like more like Pokemon Trading Card Game stuff like oh be aware of this this is new in the meta
This is what the top decks are these are oh these are sort of the funny like uh creative decks people come up with right now that’s what you this is what tournament’s happening you know this is a new set that’s on the horizon like we just finished filming an episode of box
Breaks and like I can’t even tell you the name of the next set it’s like it has been so like such a weird exper experience to me to have been like so deep and like so all focused on it and to suddenly just be like like I haven’t done anything I’ve like barely
Interacted with it you know like for like a month like even when we open the cards I was like God I forgot what cards were in this set a little bit and it has been like praying on my mind in this weird way over the past like week or so
Where I’m like I feel like almost like a responsibility to like open the app and like play a game or like go watch some videos about it or like do do something cuz like I like I haven’t done anything but at the same rate I’m like but I’m
Not really like super deter like I’m not feeling like oh yeah I can’t wait to go play or anything um and I’m like I just it it has just been this very weird experience where it’s like it’s this thing that I know I like and have put a
Ton of time and energy into but I’m also not feeling particularly compelled to do at the moment interesting yeah um so I’m well do you have sorry I know that yeah I to know what’s what’s your take what’s my take well so I mean this is this is I
Not to not to try to like parallel everything back to the the the same exact scenario but it’s a curiosity a little bit because I I’ve I have on occasion uh gone through similar experiences to I’m going to compare it to the the zynic effect a little bit
Because I think like in my mind so if I if I’m if I’m like you know sitting across from you trying to like break down mentally what could have happened um this is my interpretation this is this is a possible interpretation would be that like because I I have this a lot
Like what I will like there might be like a thing like I really want to buy and then like I’ll buy the thing and then I’ll sort of be like you know I don’t know if I really like I’ve wanted this for years and now I have it and I
Always thought like you know that like once I had it you know like I would that would be all about this thing and and now I do and now I’m not doing it right um and so that that can be kind of like it its own interesting version version
Of like getting to the you know the end of the proverbial quiz but like I wonder if on any level like this was something that we loved as kids right like we were we were so into it and I feel like I would like you know as as like a
Brotherhood me you and Tyler I feel like we all really wanted the cards but I feel maybe you more than and well I can’t speak for Tyler you more than me wanted to play the game right um and I feel like as kids it was kind of like
One of those things that like we never really were able to do to the potential that maybe we would have wanted to or you weren’t able to do to the potential because who who were you supposed to play with if like your your two brothers were unwilling to right you didn’t want
To play yeah competitively playing like did we really know the rules that well and like you know there wasn’t like the the ecosystem of the internet and like the the forums and and all that type of stuff like to go and find Community which which exists in such a a better
Way now than it did then sure um we also lived in a small town that probably I don’t even know if it had a card shop yeah yeah I mean even even if there were people Gathering even if there were like you know tournaments for kids available which almost certainly there were
Somewhere yeah you know it wasn’t the sort of thing that Mom and Dad could take one of you two for 5 hours on a weekend leave the rest of the family behind like the unless everyone was all in on it but then you know is that how
Mom and Dad want to spend their weekend also true probably not right but so then I think what I witnessed as your brother and kind of being like like close by for a lot of this is that then you got really into uh Yu-Gi-Oh for a period of
Time where we had like neighbors who were willing to play Tyler did play that one I remember competitive with you um and like we would go downstairs there like the pool table in our basement you guys would have it like set up sort of as like the like the game board so to
Speak many many games of Yu-Gi-Oh yes but once again one of the things we talked about was like at that stage in life it was like I could play the game and it was always one of those where it was like if I could go to the tournaments on the weekend which you
Were doing and and I think doing reasonably well at yeah um but it was still like you still weren’t able to have been able to fully experience like like man how great would it be if if I could just buy each of the rare cards that I needed to have the best possible
Deck like I’d be unstoppable it did there was always that like yes there was the sense of like I like that what is holding me back more than anything is card availability yes yeah so then we make it yet another big step forward in our lives and we’re we’re kind of like
Doing what we do here at Super Carland brothers and it was kind of like man maybe we can do like some card opening you know for um like live streams or like we can find some like different ways to like engage with it because there’s like a whole new especially
Going through like the pandemic like it seems like it had like a just a total Resurgence like the Nostalgia just like hit and everybody was back into it and like card collecting became like a big thing again so then we’re starting to like amass cards again and I feel like
You were you were struggling with a kind of Battle of like can I commit like time energy and resource to go and do this and like compete like more intentionally a lot of 2023 like sending you to those places I I mean we went I went to three regional
Tournaments in 2023 right so like I I wonder if there’s any part of you that feels like like since you were a kid and then really like this through line through your life you’re constantly like in this state of kind of like like imaginative Wonder like it’s not
Complete it’s not complete yeah like like it was always like man if I just if I could just do that and then if I could just you know have more cards if I could if I could find the right people to play if I if I was willing to let myself
Spend the the time energy and money to go to a different city to play the game on the level like what would happen and it was sort of like like I and I I obviously can’t speak for you and not to say that I think your journey is over in
Any way shape or form but like I wonder if there’s a piece of you that was sort of like I I got to push the boundaries further than childhood me knew how to imagine them sure um and if and if on any level it was sort of like okay I did
It right yeah like we yeah like every the the the thing yeah as if like the thing I wanted like we actually like we actually did it like you got as far as you pretty much could without like really committing everything yes yeah and and like the the reason that that
This Theory comes to mind is because it was my exact relationship with rock climbing which was like I I mean there was it’s the only sport that I ever felt addicted to like I couldn’t stop going and I reached a point and it was the same thing it was like I couldn’t the
Only way for me to excel more climbing was to literally take it on as a part-time job if not more right and like you’ve hit like a like a a really large plateau in the hobby yes right yes yeah like where before yeah I think May there
There could be a certain amount of that happening for sure where it’s just like you know what card access no longer a problem like travel not necessarily like harder but it could be accommodated for with enough planning yeah exactly which which I think is what we did for most of
2023 I think yeah there’s there is a certain part of me that’s like I think like like the the what it would take for me to go like win a regional or something feels like almost unattainable to the point where it’s like there’s such professional players and people who
Are so like all in on it that like there’s just it’s it’s very difficult to compete when you’ve also just got family and everything else going as well um but so like but then but then to what end is it that you’re doing it other than just
The joy of competing at all you know right right yeah and and yeah so but I mean the the big thing here is that like you know they this was just another thing I had written down in the notes but it was you know in life do you
Regret the things that you that you did do or the things that you that you didn’t do and like I think on some level it’s like you would never regret having gone and and done all things absolutely not yeah no I don’t regret any of that
At all right yeah the question yeah but it’s like I also don’t feel like part of me is just like is it just the time of year that I’ve just sort of like like even the thing is like even if I’d wanted to go be doing all the things
Over the past month like I just couldn’t have sure yes of course simp unavailable right right yes which I mean this this brings me back to another question that i’ that I feel like I’ve POS in the past that I I would continue to be curious about is that I think our generation
Will retire from our careers very differently than I think other uh than historically other Generations have or maybe exactly the same way other Generations have like it’s just the case that like possibly like like our grandfather for example has like like three tractors a bulldozzer and like a
196 Ford truck and a boat and it’s like they’re all projects they’re all things that he can just go Tinker on because like like none of them are like particularly like um like brain spanking new or anything like that most of them are more antique than anything else and
You know he would go out and like buy him you know at an auction trailer him to his yard find a way to get him to work but like you know that is the way that he goes and it’s probably what he coveted for a huge portion of his life
Like how much of his life was he just like if man I just all I want to do is go Tinker on my tractors exactly yeah it’s like nothing like that that is what I want to do and so it’s like you you could be in the stage of life right now
Where you’re looking at you’re like man you know like if anything you know Luke’s starting basketball you know like like the kids are going to be doing these activities like weekends are going to start to fill up like like I’m not in in necessarily like the
Exact like like uh like Valley of life so to speak where it it feels like there’s going to be grand opportunity to do these things but it also doesn’t mean that you’re not still like like maybe what you’ve now found is like when you were a kid for example we didn’t have
The money at all to go buy unlimited Pokemon cards and so maybe the the wall you’ve run into now is just the same wall you ran into when we were like like 13 14 it was like like you know what I don’t have the time to to do it in the
Capacity that I want to be able to do it to excel at the way that I want to excel but what to me that says is that it’s not finished yeah well I don’t think it’s done I think you know I haven’t gone to my last Pokemon Regional yet you
Know and like I know the North American International championships are coming up in New Orleans later this year which I desperately want to go to I I I want to go to that one just cuz I want to go to New Orleans and eat New Orleans Food
It just sounds like so fun like we just have to make a trip out of that for sure like cuz you could just go compete so I think that’ll be really fun and I will say that it’s like it’s interesting to me that it’s like and maybe maybe it is
Just a scheduling thing because like on the flip side the other the other card game I play as on my phone it’s just called Marvel snap which I remember showing you some stat the other day that like part of the game if you ever played like a mobile app before they have like
A ladder where you know the better you do the higher on the ladder you get and the way this game works is that if you get to like you know um rank 100 you break into what’s called infinite which is like the the next the next competitive level of the game I suppose
Yep and it stops showing you where you are on the ladder and just where you rank in the world or something and I I hit infinite for the first time ever last month and I showed you and I was like oh look I I know you’re not going
To have any context for this but like it’s giving me a rank and it was like 80,000 or something sure and I remember you’re the look on your face just like how is it possible that you are 80,000 like there’s no way there’s that many more people playing I know yes I mean
That was that yeah you’re exactly correct I was GAA I was like what there’s there’s no I mean because this is this is like one of those things like where it’s like anybody I talk to if they talk about like their Mario Kart abilities or whatever I’m like well you
Can’t beat my brother and I think that this has been true like in every application of the conversation that I have witnessed the far like I don’t think I’ve seen a situation before where somebody sat down with you and really truly honestly was able to like contend
And it’s been one of those things where it’s like you have been so good at it in a way that in my mind I’m like he must be like like categorically good at it you know like like you know like people can’t beat him or whatever and so like
When I watch you play This and like I know the level of tenacity and like commitment that you bring to like the games that you were like in loved with you know it’s like in my head I’m like there aren’t many people on this planet
And to be fair 80,000 out of like nearly 8 billion people on the planet still ranks you in incredibly high regard right you know um well I think because we looked it up cuz I was almost I was like to me cuz it’s like I’ve been
Playing this game for a while and to finally hit infinite at all and just see what the rank was and then it was like 880,000 like I can’t believe 79,000 other people have already done this this month I know you know that’s the crazy thing but like we looked up like what is
The player base of the game and it’s like 8 million yes and it’s like are you kidding me 8 million people play this game like that blew my mind I know yes it is it is yeah it’s just mindboggling um yeah so that that was
That was like one of those where I was like I I don’t know how it is possible that there could be 880,000 people on this planet who have played as hard as he has played when I know he is as good at strategic based games as he is right
Well so this was a sort of an interesting tidbit so that was the first time I ever did it and I literally we were like I I was like I got to work early so I could try and make it because I was at like you know 98 or something
And I was like I’m going to be at work early all I’m going to do is sit out on the couch work be work be darned I’m I’m going to make a solid effort at getting to 100 like I am going to do it I know
This is the closest I’ve ever been I’m going to make it it’s going to happen and like we had to like go like so the the way it was going to work was that like at 2:00 that day the lad the the month was going to reset so and I was
Like like like if I don’t get it by 2:00 I’ll be reset down to like level 70 or something and I’ll have to do the whole thing over the next month again I was like this like I’ve got it and I was like at like 99 or something we had like
It was like 150 and we were about to go record our other podcast through the gryffin door and I was like this is this is literally it this is my last game before like I have to go sit down and do something else that will take be over
The line so no matter what happens I just there’s like a little there’s like a beding system sort of or like a wagering like your like a confidence wager basically right right right where you can bet your cubes or whatever and so the game started I just immediately
Hit it before I even looked at my hand and like the the I guess my opponent at some point felt like they were going to win so they also did it which pushed it to an 8 Cube game and I won and I couldn’t believe it and I crossed over
So I literally got like over the line with like 2 minutes to spare like skin on your teeth I was like oh my gosh I can’t believe I made it and so I think I was basically like the it is possible I was the last person over the line that
Month and that put me at 80,000 or or probably by proper expectations assuming you were 80,000 in the world at this game you were like like 4,000th from being the last person yeah I know yeah turns out yeah another everybody else in the world just sitting there on the wire
I know well so over over Christmas break though um I had a lot of free time cuz we had Co you know we were all stuck so I’m like you know what I’m going to try and make my little infinite climb again
And this time I hit it a I I hit it with like you know 26 hours to spare this time wow I was in a whole day early luxurious it was quite it’s quite a good quite a good FAL game I thought it was I
Was having I was in the zone I was in the zone 26 hours plenty of time and go to to go spend one night in a cave yeah and the difference between getting there with like 2 minutes of spare and 26 hours of spare was instead of being
80,000 I was up to like 50,000 oh my it seems like over the like like if you I mean who knows what the what the conversion rate is but it seems like over the course of that last day like 30,000 more people must have crossed the
Line oh my yeah yeah yeah yeah yep yeah wild crazy so getting there like one day earlier just made like a huge jump difference that is pretty impressive so now you’ve been as high as 50,000 I think I’ve been as as high as 49 in the
For yeah and then once you’re in there it seems like you know if you win a big game it’ll move you up like you know a th000 spots at a time but then you’ll also drop correspondingly as well yes yes yes yes so I was I was having a
Similar kind of experience where I was like a classic Ben is that I basically found something like 15 years ago and have pretty much only ever enjoyed one game ever since then but uh there’s there’s the the iconic tower defense game is Kingdom Rush Oh it’s so good
It’s the best tower defense game it is the best it’s like the all versions of it yes it’s it’s so great it’s so great but so I was playing and if you play through I think like the campaign once or whatever it unlocks like horde mode which is is basically just like there
Monsters will just keep coming until you fail which is honestly has always been like one of those things that like I have I have like loved inside of video games cuz it’s like nobody can beat it there is no beating it you just continue to go just how far can you get exactly
And so I I forget what it was I was like traveling over the summer or something there was there was some some impetus that led me to playing it a bunch on the plane and normally I play it on the plane and only on the plane and then I
Land and then I don’t open it again until I fly home and then I don’t open it again until the next time I go any sort have to like relearn it every time a little bit precisely and for whatever reason I think it was because I found
The hoorde mode for the first time ever instead of just like playing the campaign and I was like oh this is pretty cool this is pretty cool let me see how far I can go and so for a while I kept debating on bringing it up on the
Pop because I almost like wanted to like put my like score out there and just challenge everybody to be like come at me bro like and it was because it was exactly what you’re talking about there’s like there’s like a worldwide leaderboard that you can like like like
Chime into and it was sort of like this thing where it was like and part of the problem with the game was that once you got so far it would take you like 35 minutes to complete a round so like you were having to like set up all these
Like little things early on and then you wouldn’t know for like another like 25 to 30 minutes whether or not it was like working when push came to shove oh that is yeah that game like the the amount of time and effort you have to put into like getting just getting another score
At all is hard it is it is um but I think I want to say I capped off but it was it was very similar so like I I started like hitting like the global leader board or whatever which I think was more out of like like a million
People not not anywhere near like what you’re up against with Marvel snap and it’s an ancient game um but I was getting to the point where it was like you know I would get like a new high score and it would move me up from like
10,000th in the world to like 7,000th in the world right yeah yeah like that’s where like every 30 seconds you’ve survived is like flying you up the leaderboard yes because at this point in time the people who are in front of you are in front of you by like 10 points on
A game that has like millions of points being exactly yeah so it’s just a little bit better is a lot better A lot better than the overall leader board that is but what’s crazy what is this is the baffling part to me Ben that we looked
Up this game like Marvel snap has like an 8 million person player base yes and like I got over infinite and I’m in whatever 80,000 or whatever and that’s clearly not everyone playing the game but I don’t know a single person in real life that plays like it’s like you’re
Like on an like it it consume like I love it so much it’s one of my if you don’t play it Marvel snap such a fun game not sponsored not sponsored but like it’s like it’s like I’m in there experiencing it putting like time and
Energy into it and it’s like I’m on an island you know it’s like I have like I don’t know anyone who plays it in real life despite their obviously being you know hundreds of thousands of people who love this game yes like where are they yeah where my peeps at where where is
Everyone I don’t get it no I know this is this is exactly we used always say with Twitter it was like you know it’s like we we were like you know we do what we do and so as a result we have Twitter accounts and stuff like that we spend
Time on Twitter but like if I go and hang out with my friends and I mean this is not all the way across the board but like most of my friends I would say I would say almost all of my friends don’t have Twitter and the people who do
Probably created it because I was doing something on Twitter and they joined it just to be like helpful right like some of the people I know yeah like I know some people who like have it just to look at Twitter sure you know not not because they have tweeted anything and
You know have don’t have something more than an egg as their profile picture whatever classic Twitter now X yep qu yeah yeah sorry the platform formerly known as Twitter whatever yeah but no it feels exactly like that where it’s just like it’s like there like tons and tons and tons and tons and
Tons of people use it it is like it is a highly robust platform and yet somehow I don’t know anyone who does I know I was like am I am I getting punked over here what’s going on this is yeah how could this be possible how can I
Have so much fun with it and no one I know even is like has any idea I wonder if this is like a shared problem like it would almost be like out like being like in the middle of like the Pacific Ocean and it’s like it’s like like like
Millions of islands that are all one mile apart from each other like just far enough that you probably can’t even see them off in the distance but like whatever that distance is that’s exactly how far each every other person is so every single person who plays that
They’re the only one who does and yet they are surrounded by just like like miles and miles and miles and miles and miles in every single direction of other people who are just alone on their Islands right do like everyone like afraid to say they play maybe it’s just
A sort of thing you wouldn’t assume comes up maybe may not yeah this okay the game I played before this was called Clash Royale same thing just hyper popular game yeah like and I used to play it I don’t anymore but like I just I I played it for years without knowing
Another person in real life who played it until one day uh my I was at the dentist and my dental hygienist had like finished doing like the cleaning and we’re like okay the dentist will be over in like a minute and it had been like several minutes I was like I’m just
Going to play around right now CU it seems like this is taking longer than expected yeah and the dentist comes over and he looks at my friend goes oh my god do you play Clash Royale at she was like no way do we just become best friends I
Know I was like we could be best friends right now is okay so here’s the question though is like it is I wonder if this is the case for people if there is something inherent about like like using like like what like what mobile
Games you do Fe like I like I wonder if like for some reason it feels personal like it feels like like something that you you and you do alone like like if they’re almost meant to be like like like a like a like a one-way relationship type thing because like on
Top of this I am certain that plenty of my friends have mobile games that they play I’m pretty sure cat in the office for a while was like really big in like a like a Mario Kart version of like AED game but it was like one of those things
Where she was like I play it all the time and I was like I have never seen you play it before like not once um and of course I spent a lot of time around you so of course I’ve seen you play Marvel snap before but like um plus
You’re often waiting for me in here to come and record the show and like I’ll walk in you’re like hold on let me let me finish a game real quick yeah who’s waiting on who now no I’m just kidding um but like I wonder if this is a thing like I like
And I’m not asserting that it is I’m just curious if it is that like if if people in their relationships with their games is because I suspect that people are playing their mobile games when they are otherwise bored and chances are if you are bored it’s because you’re not
Around other people other people yeah yeah so like it’s not like you’re sitting down to play with someone else right you’re right it is like a hard to identify like shared hobby or something right yeah that’s exactly it so like I wonder and and I I almost even wonder if
Like our own perceptions of mobile game so like like um not to not to throw car brands under the bus or anything like that cuz I have no issues or or judgments on these whatsoever but I know that both like Kia and Hyundai for quite some time have been doing a really
Really good job of finding their way into the like automobile conversation by making like really great cars but if you get if you date back like the early 90s at some point in time I think Kia literally ran a buy one get one free campaign for one of their cars and it
Was like a like you know like a fairly inexpensive car and you got two of them right um and it was because at some point in time they were competing on the basis of value not really on quality which has changed drastically and they’re much much our dad drives a
Hyundai now um they’re much better Vehicles than than they once were but they’re still fighting the perception that had existed in the past right and I wonder if mobile games have this in any way where like if you’re playing like breath of the wild for example it’s like
It has so much clout and like cache attached to it that like you you have no qualms whatsoever about coming in and being like yeah I played like two hours of breath of the wild last night because you know that people will like resonate and get that but I wonder if people you
Think that if you said like I spent two hours playing Marvel snap last night someone’s going to be like you got to find something better to do I know like I think there is like this like this line with specifically mobile games where it’s like I will play it when I
Have nothing else to do but it’s never like I’m like looking forward to play I’m never like identifying it as like a like a hobby or something yes yes yes and and it’s it’s funny because it’s like to me there it feels like um it feels like there’s something inherently
From a perception standpoint cheaper about the experience of a mobile game versus like a console game or a PC game but I I think that probably what has happened is that as phones and everything have become a lot more sophisticated so have the games yeah and
And then uh as well as you know that that technology pressing forward the the consumers the users are also a lot more savvy so they’re able to like participate in these games in a much more competitive capacity even if it’s not being as like broadly recognized yeah cuz I feel like
Even at one point in time you told me that there are like Marvel snap content creators that you like follow and like you know tune into advice from and even that to me I was like there are content creators around a mobile game like which which again is like this is my
Misperception not not anything else you know yeah and it’s like yes there are and like not just like one or two like many you know there people like they wake up and they stream 8 hours of marble stap and that’s their week right you know they convert some of it into
YouTube they do commentary they probably do coaching or whatever but like this is this is like it’s not like oh yeah Marvel snap amongst other games I mix it up it’s like no that this right yes yes so go no sorry so what I was what I was
Trying to uh what I was trying to surmise here really quickly is that um I was trying to look so I think this is for 2022 so maybe maybe there could be a more recent piece of data for 2023 but um this is saying that in the year 2022
Marvel snap from um uh second dinner Studios Inc um generated $16 million in revenue and so the thing that’s fascinating to me is I often times talk about like the movie theater principle which is like can you spend $10 even in an in that purchase for example and usually my argument would be
Like well you would spend $10 for a 2hour movie theater experience so if you can find 2 hours of entertainment from that inapp purchase then there you go yeah but I mean $116 million I mean I wouldn’t say it’s the most competitive box office um like score ever for like a
Feature film that almost seems like a low number to me I mean it seems low to me as well but like but you know this is like one of those things where it’s like there are plenty of films that come you know that are like like Blockbuster
Films that would come to the theaters and you know hitting that number would be at least somewhat you know remarkable right um and so I mean to me that’s wild because this even if like that’s just one app yeah you know and this says in 2023 Marvel snap generates 8 to9 million
Per month on average 8 to9 million which I guess still gets you about the same number yeah yeah okay yep yep that sound about yeah that is wild so my question for you guys is one do you if you play Marvel snap please let me know because I
Feel like there’s I must know people can you add friends I don’t no there’s not there’s not like a friend there’s Clans or anything there yet although man I think that’s coming this year and we should have a popcorn culture Clan if that happens but otherwise not even not
Even just marvel SN do you play a mobile game with like any amount of like intentional intensity outside of I’m sort of bored right now like just do do you have a game you play yes on your phone that like you are dedicated to I want to know like just because it would
Just make me feel more comfortable I think if I just knew that other people do right because clearly they do like it’s like I mean they’re raking it in people are doing it they’re spending money you know like people are invested so yeah so I just looked at this so uh
This is just another fun fact for you so Clash Royale that’s the other one you played that’s the other one I played so lifetime Clash Royale has surpassed more than $3 billion do not surprised billion with a B billion with a B that means that Clash Royale the mobile app has
Made more money than Avatar did at theater that’s crazy yeah yeah that’s like insane but you could talk to any person and they know if you were to say are you aware of the film Avatar with with the na’vi the like the blue people I would be willing to bet that you could
Go and pull any person on the street and they would at least know what it was even if they haven’t seen it I bet you could pull the same people and say do you know what Clash Royale is and it would not be the same I agree you’re
Right it would not be the same but it’s out there like quietly just you know just just the yeah maybe this is is what’s happening maybe maybe like we all pay attention because it’s such a big thing it’s like whenever a new film comes out like you’re like oh but how
Did they do with the box office how did like like it’s a testament to whether or not the film is good is its box office score and this app alone is absolutely smashing the best box office Absolut absolutely oh my God that’s so funny okay yeah so be sure to let us
Know which mobile games do you play and how invested uh have have you been with him are you competitive are you into it do you think you can beat beat us at Marvel snap Andor Kingdom Rush Oh bring it on there you go send all your feedback to popcorn culture pod
Atgmailcom otherwise if you would like to support the show you can do so by heading on over to patreon.com pocorn culture where we have a variety of fun teers available for you and some additional content if you want to check it out patreon.com/crashcourse
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