Whatcha Poppin' About?

In this special episode, we talk about Gabe's Bar Mitzvah and how he wrote his D'var Torah using references in pop culture. Terumah, the name of his Torah portion, means gift. Gabe takes us through his list of favorite TV episodes where someone gave a gift to someone else. 

Special appearances by Tommy, Lev, and J.J. the dog. 

Shrek has been an interesting through line in our family's history. We talk all about this famous ogre: the movies, the book, the musical, the memes.

Lev has us play "Who says the quote: Gabe or Donkey?" (20:01) and Anthony ranks his favorite Shrek characters (23:10).

Originally recorded 9/26/20

We discuss the 1978 television Star Wars special centered around Chewie and his Wookie family during the holiday called “Life Day”.

Anthony and Gabe take a break from the discussion at one point to argue about whether or not it’s considered a “Lost Episode” (12:34) . Then we go back to discussing the special itself (22:09).

We also chat a little bit about the end of Mandalorian, Season 2 (36:59).

Originally recorded on 12/19/20

Anthony takes us through an abridged history of practical effects in cinema starting with the 1902 short, “A Trip to the Moon” (3:20). Lev discusses Star Wars practical effects (19:30), Uncle Steve tells the group a little about American makeup artist, Tom Savini (43:20), and Gabe chats about Annoying Orange (50:06).

Originally recorded on 9/19/20

Shortly after Chadwick Boseman passed away, the boys wanted to do an episode on the actor and Black Panther. We discuss the hero's history in the comic books (11:33), Chadwick Boseman's career (21:13), and Black Panther's role and best moments in the MCU (35:57). Also, Lev really wants to know who would win in a fight: Black Panther or Batman (and then later Hulk).

Rest In Power, Chadwick Boseman. Rest In Power, King. Wakanda Forever.

(Original record date Sept 12, 2020)

We discuss anthropomorphism & personification, Gabe tells us about the dark cartoon Animals of Farthing Wood (8:07, TW: there are some death scenes described from this show), and Anthony closes the episode out by reciting the entire plot of Zootopia (24:49).  

THWIP THWIP, we're talking Spidey in this one. We touch on some brief history of the webhead, Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark (12:09), the live action movies (15:52), Miles Morales and Spider-Ham (19:26), Spidey VILLAINS (23:57), and the ol' famous "with great power comes great responsibility"...

A special edition episode where we just play some games. Well, kind of... We start off playing games like "One Star Movie Reviews" (6:00) and a round of "Categories" (16:04) and then by the end Lev has us doing Buzzfeed personality tests on which Hamilton characters we are (22:36) and which Hogwarts houses we are in (30:02). 

Background music is by our pal, Brad Kemp, at Second Bedroom Studio.

Grandma (& Grandpa) join us for a jam packed episode about Hamilton. Lev takes us through some of the special musical elements within the show (12:13), Anthony gives us a history lesson on Lin-Manuel Miranda (21:30), we discuss the logic behind DUELS and a closer look at Aaron Burr's story (32:30), and Gabe ranks his favorite Hamilton songs (53:39). 

Before we dive into Toy Story, Gabe shares details with us on his creative project "SUPER BUBBE"! Then we discuss the Toy Story movies (17:35) and our favorite characters (28:50). AND THEN we close the show out with a game by Anthony: Is this a Trump or a Kanye Tweet? (40:53).