9to5 Entertainment System (9ES)

We know why you listen to the 9to5 Entertainment System – you want to know what we think about the Oscar Best Picture winner Anora and whether or not you can watch it with your mom.

Just kidding, we kick off the show by talking about how Pierre Polievre looks like Ditto from Detective Pikachu trying to look like a human:

I’m now pretty convinced that the leader of the Conservative party is a Pokémom trying to infiltrate our government.

The answer to the first question is probably a no, by the way. The first hour or so of Anora has a lot of sex. Like, more than you think. Ask yourself “Do I want to watch the son of a Russian oligarch and an exotic dancer do a lot of drugs and have a lot of sex with my mom?” and then make that decision for yourself.

From now on my own personal measure of success will be based on Jim Carrey getting the script for Sonic 3 printed on gold. Someone will be like “hey, we want you to play in our Dungeons & Dragons game” and I will say “only if you give me a character sheet made of real gold.” And then THEY WILL.

Anyways – over on Garbage Time, Scott talks about the challenges of writing a script for an audio drama that hopefully sees the light of day one of these days (hopefully he edits it himself). We also talk about how the future of war should definitely be more like Robot Jox and less like tariffs. Then we talk about the Olsen sisters for much longer than you expect. If you would like to show your support and head over to Patreon and subscribe at the 9ES Deluxe tier to listen to this and all past episodes of Garbage Time that would be appreciated.

Our intro song is a brand new jam cooked up by OKU-DA just for us, do yourself a favour and check out his SoundCloud).

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9ES is back at full strength to talk about comics, movies and video games old and new like Mickey 17, Dune 2, Street Fighter 2: Turbo, Mortal Kombat 2 and of course the appointment of our new Prime Minister Mark Carney.

♪”One of these things is not like the other…”♫

Politics and pop culture combine! Form of podcast!

I think we talk about The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl once every 10 episodes or so and with good reason. She’s such a weird part of the Marvel Universe that is pretty much delightful every time. Honestly if you’re a fan of Marvel weirdness you should do yourself a favour and check out Marvel’s Squirrel Girl: The Unbeatable Radio Show! It’s only a handful of episodes and well worth your time.

You know what’s maybe not worth your time? The latest from Bong Joon-Ho “Mickey 17”. Mickey 17, frankly, is a movie with too many ideas. I will always have time for people making weird movies and even more so when they’re high profile. A recent Oscar winning director and Batman himself teaming up to make a weird movie about space exploration and printing out expendable humans should be my jam but it fell a little flat. Apparently it’s coming out as early as next week on streaming so maybe you’ll have the chance to judge for yourself sooner than later.

Anyways – over on Garbage Time, the gang reminisces about what it was like to wake up hungover in unfamiliar parts of Montreal and figuring out how to get home on public transport in the era before smartphones. We’ve also watched a couple of indie horror flicks like One Cut of the Dead and Companion and a few podcast recommendations for sleepytime listening. If you would like to show your support and head over to Patreon and subscribe at the 9ES Deluxe tier to listen to this and all past episodes of Garbage Time that would be appreciated.

Our intro song is a brand new jam cooked up by OKU-DA just for us, do yourself a favour and check out his SoundCloud).

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Once again we manage to mostly avoid talking about the madness going on as Trump flails wildly, lashing out in every direction like an old man losing his marbles and yelling at clouds even as he clutches the nuclear football like a Teddy Ruxpin while he sleeps. Instead we talk about the Oscars!

But wait, have we seen any of the movies celebrated at the Oscars? Well, we’ve seen some so there’s that. Unfortunately the Scar Princess or whatever Zack Snyder called that Star Wars ripoff wasn’t even nominated for any Oscars so our area of expertise got quite a bit more narrow.

Don’t worry, we go back to the well of Marvel comic books and movies in the back half and I’m actually kind of excited for the new Thunderbolts movie. I do think Marvel has inadvertently made the Thunderbolts the new main characters of the MCU and as a fan of the series I’m here for it.

As I mention in the show, you should really check out the good stuff being put out over at Second Wind and The Backdrop’s take on Captain America: Brave New World is as good a place to start as any.

Anyways – over on Garbage Time, Scott and Keith discuss all the things going on for the Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary. The show is absolutely an institution and even if it may have generated more bland content than bangers, you can absolutely not discount how hard some of the bangers banged. That’s right. Take a trip down SNL memory lane with Keith and Scott on this week’s Garbage Time.  If you would like to show your support and head over to Patreon and subscribe at the 9ES Deluxe tier to listen to this and all past episodes of Garbage Time that would be appreciated.

Our intro song is a brand new jam cooked up by OKU-DA just for us, do yourself a favour and check out his SoundCloud).

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Well we did it, we pretty much made it through a full episode without getting tempted to talk about whatever the hell Trump is up to this second. And we do it the most Canadian way possible: by talking about hockey! It’s the “4 Nations Face-Off” and what started as a glorified extension of the All-Star Game has become a pretty interesting tournament.

Let’s ignore the fact that the 4 Nations Face-Off has also (of course) become political and the head coach of Team USA wants Trump to be at the game tonight or whatever.

We also skirt the presidency a little when we talk about plane crashes and why there are so many of them lately. Though truth be told I am pretty impressed that you can flip a plane and blow the wings off and not kill anyone. Kind of makes me feel better about flying while all these planes are crashing honestly.

We wrap up the second half of the episode talking about a few movies we’ve seen lately. Scott watched Marlowe with Liam Neeson and Keith went to the real movie theaters to watch Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu. You won’t believe which one had more cool vampire action!

Anyways – over on Garbage Time Scott and Keith talk about whether or not Guy Ritchie has lost his cool as they discuss The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare and then we talk about Kendrick Lamar and the SuperBowl. I love it when we talk about football during the “Garbage Time” portion of the show. If you would like to show your support and head over to Patreon and subscribe at the 9ES Deluxe tier to listen to this and all past episodes of Garbage Time that would be appreciated.

Our intro song is a brand new jam cooked up by OKU-DA just for us, do yourself a favour and check out his SoundCloud).

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I hate that once again we find ourselves talking about the same thing as the whole world when we spend a good chunk of time talking about Trump Tariffs but honestly it was all anyone was talking about at the beginning of the week.

Now that the Trump Tariffs aren’t supposed to kick in for another 30 days we just all moved onto the next thing which is *checks notes* permanently taking over Gaza? No, that can’t be right.

Enough about tariffs. If you finish listening to this episode and think “hey, what’s that song Jon was talking about – Dopesmoker? Maybe I’ll give that a listen.” Well, you can do that. Assuming you’ve got 63.5 minutes on your hands.I’m listening to it right now! Meanwhile, Keith has been watching The Expanse and Alien: Romulus and playing Dead Space. It’s a celebration of bleak science fiction!

We don’t talk about the Grammy’s at all in this episode but man – the Grammy’s come off as such crazy boomer shit. Khruangbin was nominated for “Best New Artist”. Wait,  Khruangbin has been around for years – I’ve seen them multiple times. They’ve got 5 studio albums and 6 EPs – Texas Moon with Leon Bridges made No. 23 on the Billboard 200 back in 2022. How are they a new artist?

So about the award: The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since the 2nd Annual Grammy Awards in 1960 (except in 1967)[1] “for a new artist who releases, during the Eligibility Year, the first recording which establishes the public identity of that artist.”

Basically the Grammy’s are like “well it’s new for us so it’s new.”

Anyways – over on Garbage Time Scott and Keith talk about the Royal Rumble (which of course includes a little Steiner Math) and then we go over the list of the 25 Best Muppets as voted by NPR Listeners. The fact this is a list about Muppets as voted on by listeners of National Public Radio is proof that sometimes we don’t live in the darkest timeline. To go back to the simple time of 2021.  If you would like to show your support and head over to Patreon and subscribe at the 9ES Deluxe tier to listen to this and all past episodes of Garbage Time that would be appreciated.

Our intro song is a brand new jam cooked up by OKU-DA just for us, do yourself a favour and check out his SoundCloud).

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Hey California, wanna join Canada? That’d be fun, right? We could be on fire together.

Speaking of irredeemable villains – Jono finished watching The Penguin so we dive into what might make a case for being the best comic book television adaptation of all time. That leads into us talking about Joker: Folie A Deux which might be one of the worst comic book film adaptations of all time. Don’t put your fingers in a child’s mouth in the first movie and expect the second one to be any good I always say.

Scott shares a delightful story about Shia Laboeuf and Kanye West and we fondly member the life and legacy of Bob Uecker. Bob Uecker is one of those fixtures of pop-culture where even if you don’t know the name you probably know his voice and if you see him you’ll immediately go “oh yeah THAT guy”. Plus he got choked by Andre the Giant that one time so he’ll be remembered Then. Now. Forever.

Oh and Scott watched Sonic 3.

Meanwhile over on Garbage Time we talk about Balatro since Keith finally gave into temptation and is now wasting his time playing a rogue-like poker game like the rest of the world. Jono is playing Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous which leads us into a discussion about how much of Dungeons & Dragons lore can just be straight up used by another gaming company. If you would like to show your support and head over to Patreon and subscribe at the 9ES Deluxe tier to listen to this and all past episodes of Garbage Time that would be appreciated.

Our intro song is a brand new jam cooked up by OKU-DA just for us, do yourself a favour and check out his SoundCloud).

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I just realized that after Trudeau resigns there will be a new Prime Minister and said Prime Minister will only be the third Prime Minister governing this country since we started the podcast back in 2011. Since 2005 it has only been Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau running this great nation that we call Canada.

20 years and only two leaders kind of feels wrong. As if 2025 needed more politically insanity right out of the gate here we are without a leader while the President Elect jokes about making our country the 51st State. Cool cool cool.

Ah well – what can you do?

I suppose you could get into a Cybertruck and blow it up in front of whatever the Canadian equivalent of a Trump building is? That’s a thing that people are doing these days.

Or I suppose we can bring back gladiatorial combat and maybe one of us will be lucky and skilled enough to fight our way to political change in the bloodsports of the Colloseum? No no – that’s Gladiator 2. I keep getting Ridley Scott films and reality mixed up. No – YOU failed the Turing Test!

Meanwhile over on Garbage Time we talk about that guy on reddit who read every single Spiderman comic and then discuss Spiderman comics. Keith continues to plow his way through every issue of Thunderbolts and it’s crazy that in a comic published in the year 2000 they just turned a white character black for no apparent reason. Keith also watched the French horror film “MadS” and you should too if you like single-shot tension and zombie outbreaks. If you would like to show your support and head over to Patreon and subscribe at the 9ES Deluxe tier to listen to this and all past episodes of Garbage Time that would be appreciated.

Our intro song is a brand new jam cooked up by OKU-DA just for us, do yourself a favour and check out his SoundCloud).

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We’ve been doing 9ES for something like 13 years now and when we started we usually did a “best of” episode to close out the year. Kind of like the Much Music Holiday Wrap. We’d go over all the best things we watched, played and experience throughout the year and pick our favorites.

13 years ago we were all much younger people who were much more plugged into the pop-culture zeitgeist of the world. Now? We are old men in our 40s. Two of us are parents and Keith has spent most of his time playing video games and reading comic books from when he was in high-school.

Perhaps we are not in the best position to provide any sort of quantitative judgement upon what the “best of 2024” even looks like. So we talk about Marvel Snap and League of Legends instead.

“Faker is GOAT in a gigabanger” is a sentence I want to send back in time 100 years to see what they can make of it.

To close it all off we talk a little about the conviction of 51 rapists in France and whether or not Trudeau steps down as Prime Minister. You know, holiday stuff.

Meanwhile over on Garbage Time we take a trip down memory lane and consult an actual newspaper from 1988 to see what the best toys of that year were. That spins off nicely into us just talking about what some of our favorite toys of the 80s were in general and opens up some deep wounds from Keith because he never got a slot car racing set.  If you would like to show your support and head over to Patreon and subscribe at the 9ES Deluxe tier to listen to this and all past episodes of Garbage Time that would be appreciated.

Our intro song is a brand new jam cooked up by OKU-DA just for us, do yourself a favour and check out his SoundCloud).

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If you haven’t been following the saga of Luigi Mangione and the assassination of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson well – I don’t know what to tell you. I guess listen to this episode since I think we do a pretty good job of running through the main talking points.

Anyways, let me tell you about Andrew Witty.

Andrew Witty is the new CEO of UnitedHealth – he makes 23.5 million dollars a year (here’s a fun tool here to tell you how much CEOs make with a helpful relation to how much more they make than the median employee, in Witty’s case he makes 352 times more than the median employee).

That’s well over double the amount of his recently assassinated by predecessor Brian Thompson – who apparently made about 10 million a year.

Despite all that – a video has leaked from after said assassination where Witty doubles down and informed shareholders that denying claims is actually in the best interest of everyone involved:

In a video recorded after the Dec. 4 murder of Brian Thompson, UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty said his company’s policy of rejecting a certain percentage of claims for coverage was in the best interests of all stakeholders—because the alternative would be a worst-case scenario of a systemic collapse in the health care system.“We guard against the pressures that exist for unsafe or unnecessary care to be delivered in a way that makes the whole system too complex and ultimately unsustainable,” he told employees.

That’s right. By denying insurance claims they’re actually keeping the entire health care system! It’s the insurance companies that are the real heroes! Not the Luigi Mangione’s of the world!

deep breath

We also have now all watched “The Batman”.

Meanwhile over on Garbage Time we shift back to our usual pop-culture driven silliness. Keith continues to spend as much time in the late 90s as possible by almost exclusively reading comics and playing video games from when he was in highschool. Scott and Keith are both watching Interior Chinatown and we fan-cast the inevitable Fast and the Furious reboot. If you would like to show your support and head over to Patreon and subscribe at the 9ES Deluxe tier to listen to this and all past episodes of Garbage Time that would be appreciated.

Our intro song is a brand new jam cooked up by OKU-DA just for us, do yourself a favour and check out his SoundCloud).

One more thing – we mention Jon’s beat poetry of the Luca Mangione “happening” but it truly must be observed to be appreciated. Like a modern e e cummings.

Enjoy:

deny defend depose

assassinate Brian Thompson

united health claim refusal 10.9%->22.7%

NYSE:UNH 2022 profit 20.6b on 324b rev

ai refusal bot

4chan hit list Brian only made 10 million $/yr (list 9 med ins CEOs > 20 mil)

book: delay deny defend by jay feinman

whistleblower claim 2011 unh defraud medicare billions

monopoly money bag in central park

jon’s dza dza insurance

equally bear risks not equally bear costs

righteous justice vs vigilantism

im spartacus

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The Montreal podcast that really enjoyed Transformers: One and thinks Hasbro sucks returns to the airwaves for another episode of podcasting goodness.

To say that Scott really enjoys Transformers is an understatement. He clarifies in this episode that he is really only a mega-fan of what’s known as “Transformers G1” which specifically refers to the original run of toys and accompanying cartoons from 1984 to 1990 (or 1992, depending on how you’re counting). But still – that man has seen Transformers: The Movie well over a hundred times. So it was with mild trepidation that we entered into a viewing of 2024’s “Transformers: One”.

But guess what? It was pretty good. Was it the greatest thing to ever happen to transforming robots? No. But few things are in the last 20 to 30 years. It was an effective telling of a bit of Transformers lore that most fans might only have a cursory knowledge of. Namely the story of the friendship between Orion Pax and D-16 that would devolve into the generational conflict between Optimus Prime and the Autobots against Megatron and the Decepticons. That’s good shit man. It’s a good version of a story that only the most diehard fans are even aware of.

You know what wasn’t as entertaining as Transformers: One? That Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson fight, the less said about that the better. So obviously we devote like 20 minutes to it.

Scott also shares his professional “comic book guy” opinion on Deadpool & Wolverine and his takes are so hot you’ll have to listen to the episode to find out what they are.

Meanwhile, over on Garbage Time – Keith is almost finished with Peter David’s 12 year run on The Incredible Hulk so we talk about that. Scott finished off Agatha All Along and makes Keith try to guess that wacky and wild origins of the comic character Jimmy Woo. If that sounds up your alley do yourself a favour and subscribe to the I <3 9ES level over on our Patreon.

Enjoy the show!

Our intro song is a brand new jam cooked up by OKU-DA just for us, do yourself a favour and check out his SoundCloud).

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