This Show is Awkward

Recorded in February 2022, Henrique Couto says he is finally beginning to feel like himself again after being ill, then celebrates by recounting a run of movie-theater visits. His capsule reactions cover Jackass Forever, Moonfall, Licorice Pizza, Blacklight, Dog and Uncharted. The food tie-in arrives with Little Caesars’ Batman Calzony, a bat-shaped combination of pizza and calzone that immediately exposes Michelle’s strong—but no longer entirely secret—opinions about what deserves to be called pizza.
The hosts test the boundaries with BLT pizza, taco pizza, pierogi pizza, loaded-baked-potato pizza and a Japanese restaurant’s sushi pizza. A Kitchen Nightmares compilation adds an enormous greasy pie advertised as thin crust, raw dough and more examples for Henrique and Michelle to judge. They agree that even disappointing pizza can still be enjoyable, but price, execution and expectations matter when a restaurant asks customers to treat it as something special.
Then the debate turns regional. Henrique and Michelle compare New York and New Jersey slices with Chicago deep dish, Detroit-style squares and the thin, square-cut pizzas associated with Dayton and nearby Midwestern chains. They discuss fresh versus canned mushrooms, black olives, anchovies, extra sauce and well-done crust, plus the abundance of neighborhood pizzerias and diners on the East Coast. Michelle remains willing to eat nearly any pizza, yet still refuses to offer a final universal definition.
The conversation closes with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze and its opening montage of New Yorkers eating pizza. Henrique remembers needing a pie whenever he watched the movie as a child, recalls Ernie Reyes Jr. as Keno and notes wrestler Kevin Nash’s turn as Super Shredder. It is a nostalgic finish to an hour spent asking whether pizza is a set recipe, a regional tradition or simply something you recognize when you see it.
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Recorded in February 2022 after a nearly three-week break, Henrique Couto recounts a second bout of COVID-19 and the slow return of his voice. He compares it with his much harder illness the year before, explains why a sore throat and congestion disrupted his podcast schedule and says he is finally doing much better. This is a personal account from that moment, not current health information or medical guidance.
Before getting sick, Henrique had driven to northern Michigan for a writing retreat. He describes buying groceries away from the storm, then white-knuckling the long trip back to Dayton through ice, snow and poor visibility. The trip’s highlight was riding a Ski-Doo on Houghton Lake, a huge frozen expanse where he reached high speeds, stopped near shore for lunch and saw the Christmas trees local riders used to mark old ice-fishing holes.
Henrique also recalls walking on nearby Higgins Lake and how dramatically the scenery and temperature changed away from shore. The wide-open ice felt like a desert, while snowmobile access made restaurants and shops along Houghton Lake part of the day’s route. The story is presented as a 2022 travel memory—not frozen-lake or vehicle-safety advice—and Michelle’s fear of cold water offers an appropriately cautious counterpoint to his enthusiasm.
The conversation turns to Jackass Forever as Henrique prepares to return to a movie theater. He explains why he sees Jackass as creative stunt comedy with roots in carnival geek shows, praising Johnny Knoxville’s cannon-shot angel pose and Steve-O’s modern versions of old sideshow acts. Michelle remains unconvinced because watching real injuries makes her squeamish. Moonfall, Licorice Pizza and the Tom Green Show round out a short comeback episode about recovery, risk and the things each host considers fun.
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Recorded in January 2022, Henrique Couto asks listeners where they hope to go after two years of limited travel. His own answer is northern Michigan, where he plans to spend five days writing in a secluded house followed by two days off. The combination of snow, isolation and a screenwriter alone in a cabin sounds like the setup for a horror movie, but Henrique is excited by the chance to work without internet access and perhaps try snowmobiling.
Preparing for a seven-day solo stay becomes its own project. Henrique inventories eggs, bread, tortillas, cheese, canned soup, bacon, pancake mix, maple syrup, soda and emergency caffeine while Michelle questions nearly every choice. Their planning session moves from pancakes and French toast to grilled cheese, quesadillas, breakfast burritos and the practical challenge of feeding yourself when every meal has to be anticipated in advance.
The food discussion expands into childhood cooking and comfort meals. Henrique recalls learning boxed macaroni and cheese, ramen, guacamole and hot sauce; Michelle remembers helping her mother cook; and both compare vegetarian chili, meat substitutes, V8 as a soup base and the creativity of transforming leftover pasta sauce into chili. Pieces of April, Primordial and Speed enter the conversation through stories about Thanksgiving cooking, deliberately bleak shelf-stable meals and movie scores.
Michelle jokes that she is not going anywhere and expects to keep working on the post-apocalyptic webcomic Stray Cats. The hosts also consider what a truly restorative trip might look like, whether a remote retreat can still count as work and how leaving Chicano and Henwolf behind complicates Henrique’s excitement. The result is an episode about dream destinations, creative solitude, cabin meal planning and all the small decisions that make leaving home feel real.
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Recorded in January 2022 after an Ohio snowstorm, Henrique Couto turns a chosen snow day into an excuse for comfort food. He walks Chicano and Henwolf, makes grilled cheese and revisits the chicken-and-dumplings recipe associated with his late aunt Betty. The meal brings back holiday gatherings, her insistence on simple ingredients and the last Christmas when Henrique cooked the family specialty for her instead.
Snow-day entertainment includes Until Dawn, the interactive horror game in which player decisions determine who survives. Henrique explains the quick-time controls, the challenge of holding the controller still and the deaths already caused during a new playthrough, while noting co-writer Larry Fessenden’s independent-horror background. The hosts also celebrate stovetop popcorn, Jiffy Pop and Henrique’s use of Flavacol to recreate a movie-theater flavor at home.
Then Henrique and Michelle watch Kay’s Cooking videos featuring spaghetti, lasagna, Mexican-inspired food and two attempts at egg fried rice. Their reactions move between concern, curiosity and Michelle’s reluctance to judge a meal she cannot taste. The discussion examines presentation, technique and the strange intimacy of watching someone learn publicly, without treating the hosts’ improvised observations as cooking or food-safety advice.
A longtime listener’s arrival shifts the final stretch into podcast nostalgia. Henrique recalls The Freak Forum, The Hen House, Ustream broadcasts, Skype callers, music-and-comedy formats and the old Podsafe Music Network. Memories of a pumpkin-themed horror story and the recurring “political bear” sketch reveal how much of his present audio work grew from those early experiments. What begins as chicken and dumplings becomes a two-hour conversation about family recipes, online creativity and the communities that form around live shows.
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Recorded in January 2022, Henrique Couto and Michelle begin with an expensive but reassuring round of pet updates. Henwolf’s hard bump turns out to be an infected nodule, Chicano remains under observation after an earlier tumor, and Michelle discusses Gigs’ arthritis and dental care. Stories about a rambunctious husky mix and a veterinarian whose own dog cannot tolerate the clinic keep the check-in affectionate rather than clinical.
A bottle of Clearly Canadian opens a tour of nostalgic drinks and treats. Henrique investigates why the sparkling beverage disappeared from view, remembers TCBY frozen yogurt and talks with listeners about Royal Crown Cola, Diet Rite, maple candy and candy-cane hazards. His love of sour flavors leads to a vivid childhood story about eating so many Warheads that he damaged his tongue, while Michelle argues that tartness is simply a sad flavor.
Movies steer the conversation from the revenge-android oddity Steel and Lace to Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Henrique explains an extended scene involving the Terminator’s learning chip and why John Connor’s relationship with machines matters across the franchise. That becomes a bridge to Star Trek: The Next Generation, Data’s legal personhood, his daughter Lal and the way synthetic life stories ask audiences to reconsider consciousness and ownership.
The original notes’ comedy-Twitter rabbit hole takes over with TNG Season 8, a parody account built from imaginary episode summaries involving Picard, Worf, Riker, Geordi, Data and Barclay. Henrique then introduces Sad Paul Giamatti, whose fictional version of the actor documents meals, money trouble and low expectations with relentless melancholy. The playful feeds give the title its “Next Giamatti” joke and turn an episode about pets and candy into a celebration of deeply specific internet comedy.
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Spoiler warning for Parasite: recorded in January 2022, Henrique Couto and Michelle finally compare reactions to Bong Joon Ho’s Academy Award-winning thriller. Michelle is struck by the humiliating “basement smell,” the flood and the working family returning to serve their employers immediately after disaster. The hosts examine how the poor Kim family lies its way into jobs yet proves capable of doing them, while the wealthy Park family is neither innocent nor a simple collection of villains. Their discussion centers on class, aspiration and the film’s refusal to make desperation morally tidy.
The movie talk branches into Snowpiercer, Okja, Cobra Kai and the circular exchange between Japanese manga, anime and international film. Then Henrique discovers the Italian sword-and-sorcery Ator series with the audience before revisiting Troll 2, Claudio Fragasso’s famously strange story of vegetarian goblins turning people into plants. The hosts react to selected clips, including Grandpa Seth, the family’s poisoned meal and the immortal argument over hospitality.
During the livestream, the YouTube feed is briefly interrupted after the Troll 2 excerpts. Henrique interprets it as an automated copyright action and argues that their commentary should qualify as fair use; the episode does not independently establish which rights holder or system caused the interruption. That confusion preserves the original notes’ point that watching Troll 2 clips created platform trouble, while keeping a 2022 incident from becoming a current claim about YouTube or MGM.
The final act is a search for a “waifu simulator” that becomes an impromptu playthrough of Katawa Shoujo. Instead of quick dating choices, Henrique finds a long visual novel about Hisao, a teenager with a heart condition who transfers to Yamaku Academy for students with disabilities. He reads through the hospital backstory while Michelle chooses the library over an intrusive question about a classmate. The game’s disability language and the hosts’ improvised jokes can be insensitive; the segment is presented as a chaotic artifact of the livestream, not a medical or disability resource.
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Recorded on December 29, 2021, this loose year-end episode keeps the original notes’ joke: Henrique Couto and Michelle announce a review of the year, then mostly avoid reviewing it. Instead, they compare Christmas celebrations, from Henrique’s roast-duck dinner and abandoned latke plans to Michelle’s family visits, new smartwatch and holiday-movie viewing. A new webcam and a sleepy Chicano on “doggo cam” turn the livestream itself into part of the catch-up.
The monkey talk begins with Link, the 1986 British horror film starring Elisabeth Shue and Terence Stamp. Henrique describes discovering its unusually polished killer-ape thriller setup, while Michelle explains why monkeys frighten her and reacts to the trailer. Their search expands to the orangutan performers behind Link and Clint Eastwood’s Every Which Way but Loose and Any Which Way You Can. Claims about animal treatment raised during their improvised research are not repeated here because the episode does not verify them.
Michelle also reports back on Fatman, the dark Christmas movie with Mel Gibson as Santa Claus and Walton Goggins as the hitman pursuing him. She likes the film’s world-building and the assassin’s affection for his hamster, although both hosts find the third act less compelling than the premise. Henrique adds a spoiler-light reaction to Spider-Man: No Way Home, praising its fan service, character work and readable action while separating his enthusiasm as a Spider-Man fan from his assessment of the film on its own.
Live-chat questions widen the conversation into Michelle’s music and webcomics, including At the End of Everything, as well as anime, streaming recommendations and the economics of independent horror distribution. Henrique discusses those platforms only from his experience at the time; no service availability or payment figure should be treated as current. A listener’s COVID-19 quarantine also prompts personal illness stories and viewing suggestions, not medical advice. It is a warm, wandering holiday hangout built around movies, pets, audience banter and considerably more monkey talk than year-end analysis.
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Recorded just before Christmas 2021, Henrique Couto and Michelle compare holiday-spirit levels while preparing for a celebration that may not look the way either expected. The catch-up moves through homemade cookies, a Christmas sweatshirt, eggnog experiments, roast-duck plans, family visits and neighborhood lights. Michelle is doing the traditional things without feeling especially festive, so Henrique and the live audience search for ways to make the season gentler rather than insisting on a particular mood.
That search opens into the episode’s heartfelt center: Henrique describes Christmas as a celebration of hope and an excuse to notice what is good before life moves on. After a difficult change in his own plans, he remembers that adults can build traditions around the friends, food, films and generosity that matter to them. Michelle may not share every part of his philosophy, but she recognizes its warmth. Their exchange turns the “true meaning of Christmas” premise into an honest conversation about making a holiday your own.
Movies and music provide the comic route back toward cheer. Henrique enthusiastically explains Fatman, the dark Christmas action comedy starring Mel Gibson as Santa Claus and Walton Goggins as the man hunting him, focusing on the film’s inventive world-building rather than promising current availability. The hosts compare favorite sad and old-fashioned Christmas songs, touch on Scrooged and other seasonal movies, and let the chat propose increasingly ridiculous solutions for Michelle’s holiday slump.
The original notes’ dog joke also gets a full payoff. Doggo cam follows Henwolf and a dreaming Chicano, while Henrique repeatedly argues that both dogs should accompany him to Michelle’s house. Michelle protects her cat Gigs’s peace and refuses. Beneath the bit is real affection for pets, chosen family and the people who show up. Technical glitches, a surprise package and one very dark Santa video keep the livestream loose, but the closing message stays kind: celebrate if you want, skip what does not fit and look for whatever hope the season can still hold.
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Recorded in December 2021, Henrique Couto is finally feeling festive after wrapping gifts and preparing for a Christmas party, but Michelle is still waiting for the holiday mood to arrive. The livestream begins with last-minute presents, Henrique adjusting to a new computer and Chicano’s return to doggo cam. Michelle has been baking and watching seasonal movies, yet doing the expected activities has not produced the Christmas cheer Henrique hopes to find for her.
His first plan is a tour through Tiny Tim performances. They watch the singer move from sincere falsetto and ukulele standards such as “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” and “Livin’ in the Sunlight, Lovin’ in the Moonlight” to eccentric later appearances. Some material relies on stigmatizing illness-based shock humor and has aged badly, so the episode’s language is not reproduced here. The musical detour eventually reaches Roddy Piper’s wrestling-themed version of “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” along with Henrique’s warm memory of meeting his childhood hero.
The conversation then develops into a thoughtful discussion of outsider music and artistic influence. Wild Man Fischer and Daniel Johnston prompt questions about work created by people facing serious mental-health challenges, while Jad Fair and Mojo Nixon lead the hosts to compare inspiration with imitation. Henrique objects to performers copying another artist’s visible struggles as an aesthetic. He and Michelle trace how their own voices changed through filmmaking, live music and comics, including Michelle’s early magical-girl stories and Henrique’s move beyond horror comedy.
Holiday movies, dark seasonal stories and Chicano’s strategically timed naps keep the tone playful between those deeper subjects. Henrique offers increasingly elaborate movie and music suggestions; Michelle remains honest that she is doing the expected activities without quite feeling Christmas. The result preserves the original notes’ promise of fun songs and pro wrestling while adding the episode’s more surprising creative theme: artists may begin by echoing their heroes, but sustained work can reveal a voice of their own.
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Recorded in December 2021, Henrique Couto opens with the update listeners awaited: Chicano had visited a veterinary oncologist after a removed tumor proved cancerous, and the news at that appointment was cautiously hopeful. Earlier heart testing delayed surgery, and the pathology report brought fresh uncertainty. At the time of recording, Chicano was comfortable at home and the plan was continued veterinary monitoring—not a guarantee about his later health and not medical advice for another pet.
The story is as much about loving a rescue dog as it is about treatment decisions. Henrique recalls fearful reactions that he interprets as signs of Chicano’s past mistreatment, along with the dog’s growing trust and determination to befriend visitors anyway. A live doggo cam shows Chicano sleeping on his favorite couch while Henrique processes the exhaustion of waiting through the appointment. The details preserve the original notes’ reassuring tone without repeating private costs, fundraising totals or clinical percentages that could be mistaken for general guidance.
From there, Henrique and Michelle compare unusually vivid stress dreams. Their examples include an unwanted tattoo performed by a dentist, an inexplicably angry parent, forgotten items after a long drive, endless falling or bouncing, trying to run without speed, fighting a pillow and being unable to keep one’s eyes open. They distinguish ordinary nightmares from sleepwalking and sleep paralysis through personal experience only; joking references to disability and mental health are not treated as diagnoses.
The final stretch turns to Jewish identity and the end of Hanukkah. Henrique asks how the noun “Jew” and the adjective “Jewish” can sound in different contexts, while Michelle offers her own perspective rather than a universal rule. They also touch on candles, latkes and the holiday’s final night before Gigs tries to eat wallpaper. Some jokes and terminology are dated or insensitive, but the grounded through-line is friendship: one host worried about his dog, both hosts trading anxiety stories and Michelle supplying personal context where Henrique’s questions outrun his knowledge.
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