Remember Shuffle

Some Remember Shuffle episodes are about influential, fundamental pieces of pop culture that help explain the pop culture landscape that we find ourselves in today. This is not one of those episodes. On this episode, the Shuffle Bois unpack and analyze Spike TV, the 2000s TV network for men, and one of its original brogram, The Deadliest Warrior.

After walking through Spike TV’s unhinged manifesto, the Shufle Bois scientifically deconstruct every aspect of the Deadliest Warrior: its three milquetoast hosts, its comically unscientific methodology, its most egregious robberies, its cavalier relationship to history, and its lasting impact on culture today, mostly through gun YouTube.

In a pod, in the cloud, the Shuffle Bois and special guest BillBurr Baggins leave the POW camp of life and talk about a hopeful, optimistic, escapist fantasy, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. The first entry in Peter Jackson’s masterpiece trilogy, so many things make it great: its fundamentally sincere and positive message, the spectacular worldbuilding and execution of Peter Jackson’s vision, and its perfect pacing (despite its extended runtime).

We also trace the behind-the-scenes making of the film, muse on what the movie would look and sound like if other directors had made it, and discuss the film’s long-lasting impact on culture, whether that be through memes, the attempted cash cow that was the Hobbit trilogy, or the absolute trainwreck debacle that was Amazon’s “The Rings of Power.”

00:00 Intro 

04:16 Actual Topic Intro 

16:00 Plot Walkthrough 

34:00 Themes of LoTR 

41:13 How did the movie get made? 

1:02:00 Echoes in the culture 

1:09:50 It's reception in 2000s Culture

Of the three presidential elections that happened in the Y2K decade, 2008 was, without a doubt, the most entertaining. It features a fascinating cast of characters: alien body-snatcher Hillary Clinton, sex rascal Bill Clinton, legend-icon-moment Barack Obama, foreign policy war psycho John McCain, and the ineffable Sarah Palin. She’s ineffable in that she can’t talk right. Put all these people on the national stage, and you’re guaranteed a spectacle only rivaled by 2016.

We walk through the marathon democratic primary between Hillary and Barack Obama, move on to the general election between Obama and McCain, and wrap up with the collapse of the economy in the Fall of 2008 and the ongoing aftermath of the election. En route, we discuss Hillary Clinton’s myriad weaknesses, Bill Clinton’s sex crimes, the media’s shameless support of Obama, John McCain’s total self-immolation of his reputation, Joe Biden’s failing upwards, and Sarah Palin’s inability to produce a thought or recall memories.

The Strokes rock. Period. Full stop. End of discussion. Here’s a 1:12:51 long discussion on how cool they are.

The Shuffle Bois discuss how bad rock music was in the late 90s and early Y2K era, which made what the Strokes pulled off all the more impressive. They discuss why the indie garage rock scene in NY blew up, the hilariously privileged background of the Strokes, and dissect some songs from their first three albums and why they’re great. They also have some connections to the 2020 Bernie Sanders’ primary campaign, which genre of Y2K rock you can have sex to, and the general uselessness of the UK and the blood debt they owe the world for giving us Adele.

Nowadays, the content mill churns out superhero fare at maximum capacity. Whether that’s the endless multicoloured sludge of the interconnected MCU across platforms, or the Justice league being released twice - with viewers being able to see both the soy Whedon and self-serious Snyder cuts, but what if we told you that there was a time before society took seriously movies based on baby brained picture books? And these two films from the Y2K era, more than anything else, changed that.

Today the Shuffle Bois are looking at Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight.” the two films most responsible for the legitimising of superhero content as “art.” While the hosts acknowledge that these films undoubtedly rock, they also discuss the half-baked Y2K politics of the films, the exponentially increasing gaping plot holes across all three films, and why Christopher Nolan is in fact a neo-feudalist.

On this episode of Remember Shuffle, the Shuffle bois return to the world of… well I wouldn’t call it “literature,” but maybe books? We’re talking about the ultimate mormon edging fanfic book: Twilight. We discuss how to write around sex and temptation through vampire metaphors (so as to maintain your mormon sensibilities), the attraction to danger and mystery that may or may not be universal, and the many, many toxic aspects of the Edward-Bella relationship. We also discuss the horrendous movie adaptation and its problematic casting choices, Donald Trump’s Twitter feud with one of the stars, and Twilight’s lasting impact on the publication of fan fiction.

What’s the worst you’ve ever screwed up at work? Whatever it was, we promise you it’s not as bad as today’s topic. In this episode’s Reading Series, we discuss the media’s influence on and culpability in the lead-up to the Iraq War. We focus on two commentators who, despite being hilariously, comically, aggressively wrong, failed upwards to prestigious positions in the liberal media sphere: Joe Scarborough and Megan McArdle. When it comes to holding people accountable, the Shuffle Bois can proudly say: “Mission Accomplished.”

Remember Shuffle’s second music episode turns away from the mainstream to look at two bands who represent the sub-genre of emo music: Brand New and Taking Back Sunday. The shuffle bois review both bands’ first two albums, discuss their histories, and look at emo music’s impact on culture today. Have you ever wondered why millennials can’t seem to ever stop crying? Listen to this episode to maybe understand why.

The 2000s were such an apolitical decade that even the folk music and abortion movies lacked any social commentary. Remember Shuffle takes a look at 2007’s “Juno” and asks some Very Important Questions™: is Juno an indie film darling that struck gold, or a cynical cashing-in on the twee craze of the aughts? Is it a sweet film about an independent and self-sufficient teenager maturing and embracing vulnerability, or is it a coded message to the working class that the bourgeoisie is fracturing and through class solidarity there is a world to win?  Is Juno single-handedly responsible for the Dobbs decision stripping away reproductive rights in most of America, or can movies not do that?

Links to Jordan’s Book:

Booktopia:

https://www.booktopia.com.au/ugly-paul-fenech/book/9781761043727.html

Penguin website:

https://www.penguin.com.au/books/ugly-9781761043727

Are you a right-wing chug who’s tired of the Lib woke media ramming its PC content down your throat? Are you a lib who worships the ground Obama walks on, and wants to watch some of the former president’s favo(u)rite shows? Are you dissatisfied with your life and want to escape to a world in which bad things don’t happen? Are you illiterate? Today Remember Shuffle is discussing Entourage, a show that would satisfy all four of those hypothetical viewers. The Shuffle Bois discuss how Entourage was the ultimate post 9-11, wish fulfillment, dudes rock show, how it ran for 8 seasons despite nothing fundamentally changing or happening after early season 3, and how it may, totally on accident, be the greatest criticism of Hollywood ever created.