Undercooked Analysis

A finale so weird, it had to be done twice! Well, sort of. Abysmii, Allen and David manage to patch together two different recording sessions to put a bow on this finale, where Doctor Satan gets egg on his face, Ascott realizes he doesn’t own a gun, and Bostiff gets an unceremonious sendoff.

Story by Paul Ernst, first published in Weird Tales, May 1936.

Normally reserved for our Patreon audience, we’d like to offer a full-course of Choice Dregs for you to try. These rambling warmups are normally what get us into the show, and due to a technical snafu we’ve got this delicacy as a backup. Topics include Platonic body horror, allegedly-prudish generations, fictionalizing how work kills you, War Planets virus and Date Everything.

The penultimate Doctor Satan story dials things way back after the last entry, leaving David, Allen and Abysmii to wonder again about the logical continuity of the series. Ascott Keane is somehow wowed by Doctor Satan’s ability to hypnotize people, an ability he himself possesses and uses to track his foe; meanwhile, Frank Exposition goes to a kissing party with a 10-cent book.

Story by Paul Ernst, first published in Weird Tales, May 1936.

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the debut Five Nights at Freddy’s musical, David and Kaela reminisce with AJ and Gwen and discuss how the initial puppet-based collaboration with Markiplier turned into one of Random Encounters’ biggest undertakings, growing to become an entire series with its own myriad stories, challenges and lore.

Part 4 of Poe Standards takes people-watching to complicated and needless extremes as Allen and David witness a protagonist who has nothing better to do than spend an entire night pursuing an odd-looking stranger throughout London, legitimately for no real reason.

Story by Edgar Allen Poe, first published in 1845. Read along here.

Part 3 of Poe Standards has an upset: some things in the tier list got moved around, and now there’s an additional story for Allen and David to read! Poe tries his hand at writing a more esoteric fable, and our hosts try to discern what in the world is going on in this narrative of demon headpats, a man on a rock and hippopotami.

Story by Edgar Allen Poe, first published in 1838. Read along here.

Part 2 sees a strangely philosophical side of Paul’s storytelling as Ascott Keane pursues his nemesis into the land of the dead, meets his deceased father, and battles Doctor Satan in a sphere of damned souls. But has the continuity been restored? Does Girse show up? And who exactly is the “dictator of Texas?” David, Allen and Abysmii aim to find out!

Story by Paul Ernst, first published in Weird Tales, March 1936.

David, Allen and Abysmii hesitantly return to the tales of Paul Ernst after being left chilled by the previous entry. Thankfully, it seems Doctor Satan is up to his old tricks of weird crime, with a plan involving speaking to the dead via a peculiar “antidote.” Will Ascott Keane have to follow suit? Why is he keeping a tiny corpse in his pocket? And is the new best character one that the hosts create almost by accident?

Story by Paul Ernst, first published in Weird Tales, March 1936.

Part 2 of Poe Standards - the newest UCA segment that might only last 4 episodes - sees Allen and David reading what begins as an essay but continues into a cautionary tale about intrusive thoughts, self-destructive tendencies, and murdering people with candles.

Story by Edgar Allen Poe, first published in 1845. Read along here.