You Don't Understand Podcast

Hiatus be damned! It's episode 40! Tom is joined by YDU co-founder Eric Ruelle and YDU all-star Erika Price as he finally gets them to play one of his all-time favorite video games, Hatoful Boyfriend. Hatoful Boyfriend is a Japanese dating sim where you play a human high school girl and attempt to romance your sexy teen classmates, all of whom are, of course, birds. It is also so, so, so much more than that, with characters, worldbuilding, pacing, and writing so good it beggars belief. Anybirdie with a taste for the unique and unusual will find a treasure in Hatoful Boyfriend, but what did Eric and Erika think? Listen and find out, friends!

Guest KT Hawbaker, writer and host of A Fairy Home Companion, introduces one of her favorite movies, Muriel's Wedding, to Tom and returning champion Chris Rife. This movie has a massive number of Abba songs, gloriously garish 80s fashion, delightful Australian accents, hilarious jokes, brutal diagnoses, life-destroying lies, emotional abuse, and suicide. To say the least, it is a unique and fascinating movie. Will Tom and Chris see it the same way KT did growing up in Iowa? Check it out and see, buds!

We spiral into horror with Junji Ito's classic horror comic Uzumaki. Tom loves this grotesque masterwork of dread and decay, in which a town is ravaged by an unkillable monster, specifically spirals. Like, the shape. Like a swirly line. That's the monster. It's scary, I swear! But will guests Josh Zagoren and returning champ Erika Price see the same delicious horror in Uzumaki that Tom does? Listen and find out my buds!

Mike Haverty brings the deranged children's movie Robot in the Family to Tom and guest Joe Anderson, a film featuring a robot named Golddigger who is less interested in finding gold than he is at assaulting people and saying "daddy." Mike found this movie in a thrift store and it changed his life. Will Tom and Joe feel the same way? Check it out and see! Also, if you want to see the movie itself, it's on Mike's YouTube channel right here: https://youtu.be/RwOhdPsZA74

Do you like the Rock? You have a heart, so yes. YDU co-founder Eric Ruelle returns to introduce Tom to The Rundown, the Rock's first non-scorpion-based starring role. Eric holds this as one of the top films of his childhood, but will it stand the test of time? Check it out as we analyze Christopher Walken's tooth fairy metaphor and pitch a spinoff TV series, The Runner Down. I hope you enjoy it!

We're yammering about anime again because all podcasters are incurable nerds! Tom tricked friends of the show Gwynn Fulcher and erica dreisbach into watching Kill La Kill, a one-season anime about high school, fascism, nudity, sentient alien clothing, friendship, and murdering people with scissors. It is a POLARIZING PIECE OF WORK TO SAY THE LEAST, with exceptional writing for well-rounded women characters on one hand, and absurdly revealing magic battle armor on the other. Is it feminist? Is it sexist trash? IS IT BOTH? Tom was extremely hyped to hear erica and Gwynn weigh in and now YOU CAN TOO! This is a very fun one, check it out! P.S.: You can see erica's lavishly illustrated notes here, and I highly recommend you take a look: http://tinyurl.com/YDUKLK

You Don't Understand is back, and we're ready to slither into an enormous coat and solve a mystery while appearing to be extremely ill! Guest Stephen Winchell introduced Tom and returning champion Adam Goron to his favorite mystery show, the legendary Columbo! Will Tom and Adam find the same joy in Peter Falk's bumbling detective that Stephen does? Like, obviously yes, Columbo is DELIGHTFUL! Join us on a journey of bomb-sniffing goats, loose breakfast eggs, Leonard Nimoy, and so much more.

It's nearly two more hours about Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Rare is the show that demands this much yammering, but JJBA is one. This time Tom, Joe Anderson, and Cresten St. Clair tackle parts 3 and 4 of Jojos, which completely throw out the rules and tone of the preceding parts and introduce fighting robot brain ghosts. Also there is a character who is an extremely sexy and talented and acclaimed manga artist whose inclusion in the story definitely isn't some kinda wish fulfillment on JJBA creator Hirohiko Araki's part. OH MAN! Jojos fucking owns! LISTEN, FRIENDS!

We got Joestars this week on You Don't Understand! Cresten St. Clair and Joe Anderson cursed Tom by plunging him into the weird, wild world of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, an anime series about beefy boys, sunlight breathing, vampires, classic rock, posing, martial arts, posing, and of course, posing. In PART ONE of our frankly criminally long discussion of Jojo's, we cover the first two arcs of the show: Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency, starring the enormous British gentleman Jonathan Joestar and his enormous prankster grandson Joseph Joestar. Guys, holy shit, a show doesn't put "bizarre" in its name for fuckin' laffs. It's real. Check it out!

Journey into the pastel-colored world of twiggy goth witches with this week's episode of You Don't Understand! Erika Price stumbled onto the singular 2016 film The Love Witch and knew they had to share it with as many people as possible, and Tom & Gwynn Fulcher were happy to be first in line. The Love Witch is an arch, ridiculous comedy but also super tragic feminist tale of the destructive power of the patriarchy, but also the protagonist pees in a jar?! IT'S A TRIP! Listen as Tom marvels at the head-shapes of all the male actors, Gwynn bemoans how heavily kneeling features in pagan covens, and Erika channels a faded-as-hell 60s English professor. CHECK IT! Official film site: http://thelovewitch.oscilloscope.net/ See Tom, Erika, and Gwynn in The Skewer Best of 2016 book, for sale here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/harrison-dreisbach/the-skewer-best-of-2016/paperback/product-23109896.html

Join us on a journey into the chaotic, warped, meme-filled musical funhouse of mad genius Neil Cicierega. Tom has been hopelessly addicted to Neil's three mashup albums, Mouth Sounds, Mouth Silence, and Mouth Moods, for years. Guests Erika Price and Adam Goron have never heard them before. Will they, too, see the glory within Neil's punishingly frequent reuse of the vocals to Smash Mouth's "All Star," or will they be like everyone else Tom has forced to listen to this music and tell him to go away? Listen and see! All of Neil's music is available to stream on soundcloud.com/neilcic, and if you like his work why not head over to patreon.com/NeilC and send him some dollars?

Real-life brothers Chris and Dan Rife introduce Tom to one of their favorite classic comedy troupes, The Firesign Theater! In the 70s, the Firesign Theater's comedy LPs were groundbreaking, innovative, and unlike anything else out there. The Rifes grew up with these guys and to this day can't get enough of them. Will Tom love the group's weird, dense humor too, or is he some kind of philistine bitch? Listen and see, my buds!

Horror abounds as flesh deforms and gets gooey this week on You Don't Understand! Writer/perfomer erica dreisbach and husband Vlad Seghete introduced Tom to John Carpenter's gory sci-fi/horror classic The Thing. erica and Vlad have long counted this movie as one of their all-time favorites. Tom is an easily terrified nebbish who would do almost anything to avoid watching a spooky movie. Did the copious amounts of tearing muscles and melting skin win him over? Listen and see, yo!

You Don't Understand returns for a new year of sharing our cultural obsessions, and what better way to begin than by going back to our roots? Tom and original cohost Eric Ruelle revisit the xXx franchise, subject of YDU's very first episode, with its inexplicable new sequel, xXx: The Return of Xander Cage. This is a MEGA-SIZED LUXURY episode filled to bursting with extreme shit: sullied bottoms. So, so much fanfic. X juice. A violent aversion to character development. Ah, it's good to be back. Enjoy!

Gwynn Fulcher (PleasureTown) and Cody Melcher (Tomefoolery) return to You Don't Understand to play one of Tom's all-time favorite games, Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game! This is an hours-long game that transports its players into the roles of the harried, hapless, paranoia-mad, mentally unstable characters of the great SciFi Channel show Battlestar Galactica as they tear ass across the galaxy in a desperate chase from murder robots. Will the hilarious likes of Cody and Gwynn find the same joy in the BSG game that Tom does? Will Gwynn successfully trick the humans who ONLY WANT TO SURVIVE into thinking she isn't a genocidal robot infiltrating our ranks? Will Cody ascend to the Xanadu of history as one of humanity's great Khans? And will Tom and Cody say "cuck" enough times to pay Gwynn back for her betrayal? Only one way to find out! LISTEN TO THIS GREAT EPISODE! Learn more about the BSG game from its great creators Fantasy Flight Games here: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/battlestar-galactica/

Guest Eddie Meardon helps Tom and YDU veteran Chris Rife take on the bleak, miserable new world with the power of punk this week, as he shares teenage favorite SLC Punk! This 1998 indie comedy/drama infuses punk's long tradition of punching with its long tradition of not being happy. Eddie happened upon this angsty gem as a teenager in rural Iowa, circumstances seemingly tailor-made for maximum appreciation of this movie. Will jaded, browbeaten Tom and Chris understand SLC Punk? Listen as Tom shares Fugazi facts, Chris regrets an upcoming live engagement, and Eddie tries in vain to hide his true punk nature. This one was super fun to record. Enjoy!

We're off to an exotic adventure filled with luxury, debachery, fashion, and vanishingly little sex and/or the city, Sex and the City 2! This week's guest Shawn Bowers loves this roundly panned movie and was adorably excited to share it with Tom and returning favorite Sarah Shockey. This is a movie where a character says "Bedouin Bath and Beyond" apropos of nothing and thinks it just hit a goddamn comedy grand slam. Will Tom and Sarah find the same joy in Sex and the City 2 that Shawn does? Or will two full-length musical numbers and a character named Dick Spurt drive them to furious insanity? Ha ha! The way I phrased that sort of implies an answer, huh? LISTEN AND DISCOVER, MY BUDS P.S. OH GOD DONALD TRUMP IS PRESIDENT, WE ARE LIVING IN HELL I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO BUT I HOPE THIS GOOFER PODCAST CAN MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER FOR A FEW MINUTES

Journey into a mystical time and place that belongs to neither the past or the present, where creatures of myth work their incredible magic! The vaunted DUNE CREW of Gwynn Fulcher and Joe Anderson, from YDU's most successful episode, are back to show Tom the bizarre fantasy masterpiece Krull! We had a hell of a time recording this one, why not listen and see if you do too? We got rock climbing, we got blithely anti-feminist fantasy tropes, we got wildly impractical legendary weapons, we got about twenty minutes of traveling footage. And then there's us squealing about it all. It's fun! Give it a listen, why don't you?

Tom shares one of his all-time favorite movies, the 3-hour long six-threaded multigenerational metanarrative Cloud Atlas with ORIGINAL YDU CO-CREATOR ERIC RUELLE! This movie was insanely polarizing on release, flopping hard and dividing critics into passionate defenders and venomous haters. Tom can't get enough of this superstuffed, high-concept nonsense from the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer. What will Eric think? This one is one of the most spirited debates yet. Listen and check it out!

GET INTO THE RING, SUCKERS! Wrestling aficionado and all-around awesome person Sarah Shockey tears the scales from Erika Price's and Tom Harrison's eyes and lets the demented glory of PRO WRESTLING shine through. Via the still-ongoing storyline of Broken Matt Hardy, Tom and Erika are led into the weird, wondrous world of wrestling that Sarah has made into a surrogate home. I had a PREEMINISHUN this episode was going to be great, and how right I was! Guys, quit reading the show notes, listen to this BROKEN BRILLIANCE! LINK TO THE WRESTLING WATCHED FOR THIS EPISODE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiktBcRHABU

While testing the sound for episode 21, Erika, Sarah, and Tom geeked out over the excellent animated series Steven Universe. Was their conversation worth releasing? Who knows! But it's three minutes long, so what's the harm?

The inimitable Alisa Rosenthal introduces Tom and Joe Anderson to the generation-spanning rotoscoped animated journey into the weird, lumpy heart of American music that is Ralph Bakshi's American Pop. Alisa grew up with this strange and unique piece of animation, but will Tom and Joe find it as compelling in the harsh light of the year 2016? Listen as Tom finally uncovers the problem with Nazis, Joe has a Rob Thomas-themed brush with brain damage, and Alisa makes You Don't Understand eligible for the vaunted "history podcast" label for the first time ever. Check it out, my buds!

Guest Sarah Magnuson unleashes The Lonely Island's opus Hot Rod upon Tom and returning guest host Chris Rife! Sarah has a deep, personal connection to this mid-2000s Andy Samberg-led comedy, but will Tom and Chris find it as special? Listen as Sarah recounts how Hot Rod facilitated her phoenix-like rise into comedy connoisseurdom at a crucial life juncture, Chris defines the movie's connection to a bag of candy fused into one mass in a hot car, and Tom achieves some primo annoying-white-boy goals. Check it!

It's Streisand time, friends. This week, the hilarious Ilana Gordon introduces Tom and guest host Erika Price to Barbra Streisand's award-winning film debut Funny Girl. Straight up, Barbra is a treasure in this movie. I don't care if it's tipping my hand to include our opinions of the movie in the description. Come on! She's fantastic! Lights up the dang screen! Listen as Ilana shares her very own custom Funny Girl fan edit, Tom wonders how he has never heard of this movie before, and Erika marvels at Barbra's physics-defying coiffure. Listen, y'all!

The inimitable and hilarious Cody Melcher introduces his all-time favorite drama, the 1993 western Tombstone, to Tom and guest-host Joe Anderson. Cody loves Tombstone like a child and knows a truly staggering amount of facts about it! Will Tom and Joe love it as much as he does? Listen as Cody extols the virtue of the badass bard, Tom mourns the bowling pin epidemic of old Tulsa, and Joe marvels at the phrase "smoke wagon." They say podcasts shouldn't be over an hour long, but we don't care about their "rules"! Check it out!

Joe Anderson introduces Tom and guest number two Kevin Johnson to one of the most lavishly illustrated and punishingly difficult titans of the arcade world, Metal Slug 3. This is a game of crabs, aliens, Nazis, Saddam Hussein, yetis, ostriches with machine guns, and many, many player deaths. Joe loves Metal Slug 3 as one of the best examples of his beloved arcade genre. Will Tom and Kevin see it the same way after playing for the first time? Come listen as Tom rightfully takes druids down a peg. Kevin finally understands that life as a whole revolves around Saddam. And Joe sits self-satisfied as he watches us bumble through his favorite game with truly remarkable ineptitude. LISTEN, MAH BUDS! It's fun!

Tom unleashes the horrendous Catwoman on guest Collin Bullock, a comedian and podcaster of true excellence, and guest-host Chris Rife filling in for Eric. Catwoman is notoriously terrible, but somehow it engrosses Tom and entertains him like few other films can. Will Collin and Chris see it the same way? Listen in awe as Tom ponders the limits of cat-based power, as Collin clarifies what can and cannot be called a man sandwich, and Chris wonders why Catwoman is basically a werewolf.

Guest Erika Price inflicts an ACTUAL HORROR MOVIE onto Tom and Eric, a duo of sensitive boys who don't like getting spooked. Will this indie horror film find a way to work past their aversion to horror or will they not understand Erika's love for it? Listen as Erika explains why this is a cut above most horror, as Tom gets TOO SPOOKED, and as Eric ponders the wisdom of hardware store acid-selling policies.

Arrakis. Dune. Desert Planet. That's right, we watched David Lynch's mad hallucinatory brain-spasm Dune. Tom loves this movie as an unmatched pageant of truly bonkers imagery, but will guests Gwynn Fulcher and Joe Anderson understand? Thrill as Tom describes a glistening set of lips repeating "the tooth" in an extreme close-up! Gasp at Gwynn's hunt for the universe's hardiest space pugs! Be amazed at Joe's description of the antagonist's weeping sores! This movie is a goddamn insane asylum. It's Dune, everybody. What more needs to be said?

Eric takes Tom and guest Julie Chereson into a pressure cooker of Cold War dread with Fail Safe. This movie is tense as hell, with all manner of sweaty white men trying to undo the world's inevitable destruction! Eric discovers how much Matthau one soul can take. Tom can't shake the ghost of Dr. Strangelove. Julie spontaneously feels the urge to do the dishes. WILL THEY UNDERSTAND FAIL SAFE?

Elaine Phillips introduces Tom and Eric to Warren Beatty's 1998 hip-hop political satire Bulworth. This movie has hitmen, Halle Berry, socialism, and a 60 year old white man rapping for like 20 solid minutes. It was one of Elaine's first glimpses of political satire, and it holds a special place in her heart for that. Will neophytes Tom and Eric understand?

Tocarra Mallard shows Tom and Eric the weird world of We're Back, a 90s animated movie nominally about dinosaurs but actually about a spooky juggalo circus and little kids being way too sexual with each other. Tocarra makes connections that span all of the 90s animated world. Eric says "Rock a Doodle Doo" better than anyone before or since. Tom gives his respect to the Zondags. Will they understand the magic of We're Back? Listen, friend, and learn.

No guest this week as Tom introduces Eric to the weird and wonderful world of tabletop games with Battlecon, a badass and super-fun board game that simulates 2D fighting videogames like Mortal Kombat. Yes, it's a big ol' box full of cards, tokens, boards, rules, and exceptions to rules. Tom can't get enough of the strategy and flashy theme. But will Eric find the fun within the cards, text, and numbers? Listen and find out, my dude. Want to see a photo of some Battlecon attacks? Follow this link: http://bit.ly/1MdPReF

Comedian and writer Stephanie Weber introduces Tom and Eric to her favorite Christmas tradition, the staggeringly bizarre Rankin-Bass special The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. Featuring the invention of toys, a fight between dragons and wizards, ponderous drone-chants, half-dead orphans, the Lord of the Sleep Maze, and maybe like two seconds of anything to do with Christmas. Will Tom and Eric's baffled minds understand Stephanie's beloved Christmas classic? LISTEN AND DISCOVER, YO

This week's guest Tim Barnes, one of Chicago's best comedians, introduces Tom and Eric to Marvel Comics' Lando, a limited series featuring the Star Wars universe's preeminent cape-wearer. Also there's a guy with robot earmuffs on and some cat boys. Tim auditions for the part of a lifetime. Eric pines for a card game that will never be. Tom wonders how something completely on the outside of a person can be considered an "implant." Will Tom and Eric understand the comics that Tim so deeply loves? Only one way to find out. PS. Check out the new thumbnail! We have brought all of our graphic design skills to bear on this one—that is to say, none. At least it's readable!

Actor Kirk Osgood joins You Don't Understand as we explore the majesty of Canada and OUR OWN FEELINGS with little-known Canadian indie drama One Week, one of Eric's most treasured films. Eric is elated to share a movie that so deeply resonates with him. Tom takes semi-autobiographical novels down a peg. Kirk won't stand for poor dental work. Will Tom and Kirk understand One Week?

Tom introduces Eric and special guest Matthew Young to the peerless Indonesian martial arts/mob epic The Raid 2. Eric theorizes why Indonesia hates glass. Tom gets playfully racist in a way he hopes will not get him in trouble. Matt longs for simpler times when putting "The Raid" in a movie's title meant there was an actual raid in it. Will Matt and Eric understand the greatness of The Raid 2? LISTEN TO THE DANG PODCAST AND YOU WILL SEE! Sorry for the super-sized episode, but The Raid 2 is a movie that demands extra attention!

Tom introduces Eric and the classically-trained baritone Carl Glick to what Tom considers an instant classic by one of his favorite bands, the monumental 92-minute, 29-track 2015 punk opera The Most Lamentable Tragedy by Titus Andronicus. Tom waxes poetic on the power of punk. Eric sees the future. Carl thinks annotations are for chumps and wildly accuses people of being teetotallers. WILL THEY UNDERSTAND? It's one of our most contentious episodes yet, which I guess kind of answers the question! +@ +@ Titus Andronicus Forever! +@ +@ MUSIC CLIPS USED IN THIS EPISODE: No Future Part IV: No Future Triumphant (S)HE SAID / (S)HE SAID Lonely Boy No Future Part V: In Endless Dreaming Stable Boy Dimed Out Mr. E. Mann The Angry Hour Come On Siobhan Auld Lang Syne Fired Up A Pair of Brown Eyes Fatal Flaw Sun Salutation All music clips by Titus Andronicus, PLEASE DON'T SUE US MERGE RECORDS!

Amanda Claire Buckley shares a movie like no other, House 2: The Second Story, a deranged 80s classic that is barely about a house. Eric is on point with Barney Rubble references. Tom profiles a killer. Amanda finally tells the world how many Halloween costumes is too many to wear at one time. It's a fun one!

Special guest Chris Rife introduces Tom and Eric to the surreal world of Grey Gardens, a 1975 documentary about a mother and daughter living nightmare lives in a ruined mansion. It's a hard movie to look away from. Will we understand?

Eric and Tom present Island of Misfit Toys frontman Anthony Sanders with xXx, a heady brew of 90's cliches, hidden shared universes, Eastern Europe, inexplicable explosions, Vin Diesel, and a hell of a lot of fun. Will Anthony understand? Listen and find out.