The Charlie Kirk Show - THOUGHTCRIME Ep. 129 — Spanking Your Kids? The Death of Reading? Star Wars Boycott?

00:00:03.000 My name is Charlie Kirk.

00:00:05.000 I run the largest pro American student organization in the country fighting for the future of our republic.

00:00:11.000 My call is to fight evil and to proclaim truth.

00:00:14.000 If the most important thing for you is just feeling good, you're going to end up miserable.

00:00:19.000 But if the most important thing is doing good, you will end up purposeful.

00:00:24.000 College is a scam, everybody.

00:00:26.000 You got to stop sending your kids to college.

00:00:27.000 You should get married as young as possible and have as many kids as possible.

00:00:31.000 Go start a Turning Point USA college chapter.

00:00:33.000 Go start a turning point USA high school chapter.

00:00:35.000 Go find out how your church can get involved.

00:00:37.000 Sign up and become an activist.

00:00:39.000 I gave my life to the Lord in fifth grade.

00:00:41.000 Most important decision I ever made in my life.

00:00:43.000 And I encourage you to do the same.

00:00:45.000 Here I am.

00:00:46.000 Lord, use me.

00:00:48.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:49.000 Here we go.

00:00:56.000 Noble Gold Investments is the official gold sponsor of The Charlie Kirk Show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals.

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00:01:13.000 That is NobleGoldInvestments.com.

00:01:17.000 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this week's edition of Thought Crime Thursday.

00:01:24.000 We are here.

00:01:24.000 It is an audacious week, an auspicious week.

00:01:29.000 I am in a button down, but I am not in a jacket, nor will I ever be.

00:01:36.000 Tradition now, Andrew.

00:01:39.000 There were comments that it looked like you were in a jacket last week.

00:01:44.000 No, Andrew showed up to work today.

00:01:45.000 The benefit of the doubt, it looked like a windbreaker.

00:01:47.000 No, no, Jack, Jack, Andrew just showed up for this show just a few minutes ago with no shirt on and only a jacket.

00:01:53.000 That's not true.

00:01:55.000 That's and we were like, oh, dude, you got this totally wrong.

00:01:58.000 Savage kind of thing.

00:01:59.000 You're supposed to wear no jacket and a shirt.

00:02:03.000 He got it backwards.

00:02:04.000 He was wearing no shirt and a jacket.

00:02:05.000 I'm confused.

00:02:06.000 I'm dyslexic.

00:02:08.000 Oh, you got it backwards.

00:02:10.000 Shirt sleeves.

00:02:12.000 I did come in with a jacket.

00:02:13.000 So, here's the thing.

00:02:14.000 So, I don't wear jackets very often.

00:02:16.000 And it's funny because I think people just assume I do because of the show.

00:02:19.000 But I come to work and I have an outfit on and I don't have a second outfit.

00:02:23.000 I don't have like a wardrobe.

00:02:25.000 I'm not like some diva that has like multiple wardrobes.

00:02:28.000 I'll never forget it.

00:02:28.000 So, you just deliberately always bring it in here to fly.

00:02:31.000 I get cold because they keep this place like a freaking icebox because of all the studio equipment.

00:02:36.000 Anyways, so yeah, I'm in my t shirt.

00:02:39.000 This is what I do.

00:02:40.000 It's.

00:02:42.000 You look like you got the swingers, the 1950s golf shirt or something.

00:02:48.000 This is just a nice Pacific somewhere shirt that was on sale.

00:02:52.000 There you go.

00:02:53.000 I try my best.

00:02:54.000 But you know what's funny?

00:02:55.000 Go ahead, Jack.

00:02:58.000 Are you seeing what the White House just did?

00:03:00.000 No.

00:03:01.000 They just announced the existence of aliens.

00:03:04.000 Oh, I'm sure.

00:03:05.000 All right.

00:03:05.000 Yeah, if they say so.

00:03:06.000 Can we pull this up? 0.99

00:03:07.000 Whitehouse.govslash aliens?

00:03:09.000 Yeah.

00:03:10.000 That's been live for a while.

00:03:13.000 What?

00:03:14.000 Yeah, hasn't it?

00:03:15.000 They just sent it to me now.

00:03:17.000 Bro.

00:03:18.000 They walk among us.

00:03:20.000 Yeah, okay, wow.

00:03:21.000 You guys seeing this?

00:03:23.000 The U.S. government has kept a closely guarded secret that you can tell is definitely real based on this obnoxious website they've made.

00:03:31.000 Aliens.

00:03:32.000 Oh, this is going to be about illegal aliens. 0.92

00:03:34.000 This is going to be about illegal aliens.

00:03:35.000 Aliens have been walking among us, living in our neighborhoods.

00:03:40.000 They've shopped at the same stores.

00:03:43.000 They've attended the same classes.

00:03:45.000 And they live seemingly normal human existences with one exception.

00:03:49.000 They do not belong here.

00:03:52.000 Oh, that was clever.

00:03:54.000 That was clever.

00:03:55.000 I like that.

00:03:55.000 Millions arrived under the cover of darkness and embedded themselves directly into our society.

00:04:01.000 The truth is now countless presidents, congressmen, senior officials knew exactly what was happening.

00:04:10.000 I, I, I want to know how many real aliens are also on government subsidized.

00:04:17.000 Wait, scroll down.

00:04:18.000 There's like a what is it?

00:04:21.000 Alien arrest map live.

00:04:23.000 Oh, wow.

00:04:24.000 This is actually cool.

00:04:25.000 Okay, this is taking way too long to load.

00:04:27.000 I don't have time to read all of this.

00:04:28.000 But speaking of aliens, no, So, you scroll down, and there's a live map of like arrests.

00:04:39.000 Oh, I love this.

00:04:41.000 That have taken place, and you can zoom in anywhere in the country on it.

00:04:44.000 Look at Texas.

00:04:45.000 It's like pure red in Florida.

00:04:48.000 Based. 0.57

00:04:50.000 Man, I love it.

00:04:50.000 You know, speaking of aliens, we have to shout out most of Thought Crimes listeners for holding a line and not going to the new Star Wars movie, The Mandalorian and Grogu, which grossed a mere $100 million in its first weekend, which.

00:05:06.000 In modern inflationary times, it did the same as Solo.

00:05:12.000 Yeah, but it's been about a decade since Solo.

00:05:13.000 No, that's a lot.

00:05:14.000 But you have to change it to inflation.

00:05:16.000 Seven years.

00:05:18.000 Seven years.

00:05:18.000 Well, yeah.

00:05:21.000 Yeah, Solo was 19, I think.

00:05:22.000 So Solo, but it was the first.

00:05:24.000 Solo was 18.

00:05:25.000 First release in seven years.

00:05:27.000 First theatrical release.

00:05:27.000 Yeah, first theatrical release of anything.

00:05:29.000 It barely made $100 million, which is like half the debut of Star Wars Episode III when you adjust for.

00:05:36.000 Inflation and everything else.

00:05:38.000 But even if most of our viewers weren't holding the line, it seems like there were a lot of defectors in our own studio.

00:05:45.000 Hold on, hold on. 0.94

00:05:47.000 Let's at least take a second to say that, congratulate and appreciate those who actually went along with the assignment of boycotting this because Mark Hamill called for Donald Trump to be killed. 0.57

00:06:02.000 And of course, by extension, all conservatives.

00:06:05.000 This, of course, led to a, you know, we still.

00:06:07.000 We saw something happen where a Star Wars super fan apparently beat to death a Trump, the guy who ran a Trump house in San Diego.

00:06:16.000 So, I mean, this was a real thing.

00:06:19.000 I'm going to play both sides.

00:06:20.000 You didn't see that.

00:06:22.000 No, I did see that.

00:06:23.000 I did see that.

00:06:24.000 You did see that.

00:06:24.000 You got some guy at a Trump house and a guy in a literal Star Wars shirt brutally beat him to death.

00:06:30.000 Beat him to death on the street. 0.95

00:06:31.000 Like an elderly man. 1.00

00:06:32.000 Was he inspired by Mark Hamill?

00:06:34.000 I don't think he was inspired by Mark Hamill, but he was probably inspired by being a Star Wars fan.

00:06:38.000 He's probably inspired by.

00:06:39.000 I mean, it's.

00:06:43.000 Pretty one to one. 1.00

00:06:44.000 Like Mark Hamill says, go kill Trump. 1.00

00:06:47.000 And he goes and finds like a guy who runs a Trump house and beats him to death. 0.99

00:06:53.000 Look, I'm going to play both sides of this debate.

00:06:56.000 I did live by the commitment to not go see it.

00:07:02.000 And that was a tough commitment to keep because I am actually, I like Star Wars.

00:07:07.000 And I actually think that Jack's totally wrong about Star Wars in general.

00:07:11.000 And his hatred for Star Wars is terrible.

00:07:15.000 And it's anti American, and there's so many different things.

00:07:18.000 But here's what I will say. 0.99

00:07:19.000 No, I mean, I'm just against LGBT agendas and people who want to say. 1.00

00:07:22.000 Let him finish. 1.00

00:07:24.000 Hey, so I live by it.

00:07:25.000 I didn't go see Mandalorian and Grogu, but I'm going to defend Andrew because.

00:07:32.000 You outed me already.

00:07:33.000 I'm going to defend Andrew for doing this and breaking the creed because there's only so much time you have with your kids.

00:07:41.000 And if that's your time that you have, was this last week?

00:07:45.000 You know, I don't think it's up to Hollywood or Jack Posobic.

00:07:48.000 To dictate when you can use your free time with your children.

00:07:50.000 So that's what we have to announce, everyone.

00:07:52.000 Andrew, he saw the Mandalorian.

00:07:54.000 He didn't just see The Mandalorian.

00:07:57.000 He went to the special sit down dine in theater.

00:08:01.000 He says, he was telling us, it might be his favorite movie ever made.

00:08:05.000 That is not true.

00:08:07.000 Are you sure?

00:08:08.000 I don't know.

00:08:11.000 What did you eat?

00:08:11.000 I ate a burger.

00:08:13.000 Okay.

00:08:14.000 Wait, which dine in movie theater was it?

00:08:16.000 No free ads.

00:08:17.000 It would just be, it will be vague.

00:08:19.000 But it was Central Phoenix area.

00:08:23.000 Central Phoenix?

00:08:23.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:08:24.000 You went to the bluest part of the state to.

00:08:27.000 I mean.

00:08:28.000 It is what it is.

00:08:28.000 We went to the bluest part of the state to view basically the moon given Republicans.

00:08:34.000 How did you feel during the scene where the Mandalorian?

00:08:37.000 How did you feel about the scene where the Mandalorian turns to the camera and he says, We need to work together to win back the White House in 2028?

00:08:46.000 This is MAGA country.

00:08:47.000 Yeah, yeah, like the bad guy that brought out the HUD.

00:08:51.000 I will say this the Mandalorian and Grogu made a huge mistake, and I don't really understand why they made this mistake.

00:08:57.000 I don't like the graphic of the title.

00:08:59.000 No, no, in recent years, the Star Wars, the only thing that's really been successful in the Star Wars play has been them reintroducing Hayden Christensen into the, into like different parts of the IP.

00:09:13.000 And people love that because he was hated.

00:09:16.000 And now he's like loved.

00:09:17.000 He was so bad.

00:09:18.000 But now he's loved.

00:09:19.000 He was the worst actor ever.

00:09:20.000 Now, like reintroducing Darth Vader and stuff into stuff has been, has been like super, super successful.

00:09:26.000 And, and again, I'm going to, I'm going to use the Spider Man.

00:09:29.000 When they teased like intentionally.

00:09:32.000 Made it try to make it secret that they were going to do the multiverse thing and all the two previous Spider-Man were going to show up in the movie and then it got leaked and all that.

00:09:41.000 It like hyped up the movie so much that like so many like you had to go see, even if you were Jack, you would have and you were anti that, you would have had to go see it and be part of that.

00:09:52.000 There was no hype for this movie, so there was nothing exciting, there was no like special thing that got leaked.

00:09:58.000 There was nothing, it was just like this is just like an extended episode of The Mandalorian, yeah.

00:10:03.000 So, let me explain what happened.

00:10:05.000 And I don't even feel like defending myself that much because I had a great time with my son and it was awesome.

00:10:10.000 And so, like, you know, come at me.

00:10:14.000 My son had a birthday.

00:10:15.000 He turned six and he got, we had a little party for him.

00:10:19.000 He got presents.

00:10:21.000 Some of those presents, people got him expecting him to like the Mandalorian because that's just what people presume.

00:10:29.000 So he gets a little Mandalorian figurine that he freaking loves.

00:10:34.000 He won't leave this thing alone.

00:10:35.000 He takes it all over the house.

00:10:36.000 When he's out in the yard, he's got it in his hand.

00:10:39.000 So he starts like inventing all this stuff about Mandalorian.

00:10:41.000 He finds out there's a movie coming out and he's like, can we go please, please, please, please?

00:10:47.000 And so, anyways, I show him like the trailer and he's freaking out.

00:10:50.000 So they beg me all Memorial Day weekend to take them to the movie.

00:10:55.000 I find a little pocket at the time and I was like, you know what?

00:10:58.000 I'm going to take my son and my daughter to go see the Mandalorian.

00:11:01.000 He was sitting.

00:11:02.000 So the dining theaters, they have these big seats you can like recline or whatever.

00:11:07.000 He's at the front edge of his seat the whole time and he's like, he's like swinging his arms like, get him.

00:11:12.000 Get him.

00:11:12.000 Have it a blast.

00:11:14.000 I loved every minute of it with my son.

00:11:16.000 And so it's great.

00:11:18.000 I know that's what you're saying.

00:11:20.000 Jackson in your household, the children are inspiring.

00:11:23.000 You know, I think you asked me if the movie would be good.

00:11:25.000 I was like, I honestly couldn't tell you if it was that good.

00:11:28.000 My son loved it.

00:11:29.000 And I had so much fun watching my son.

00:11:31.000 Time out.

00:11:31.000 Let me defend you.

00:11:32.000 Jack's a hypocrite. 1.00

00:11:33.000 And you know why? 1.00

00:11:34.000 Because he totally, yeah, he totally took his kids to Disney.

00:11:41.000 I think it was Disney World.

00:11:43.000 No, see, you're no, you're this is fake news.

00:11:45.000 He's totally no, no, no, a long time, Tyler.

00:11:48.000 No.

00:11:48.000 That was prior to the Disney boycott.

00:11:52.000 That was prior to the Disney boycott, and Tanya posted the picture late.

00:11:56.000 Hey, Jack, do you remember the thing?

00:11:58.000 No, Jack.

00:11:58.000 Tanya posted the picture late after the Disney boycott began.

00:12:05.000 There's only like five people in America who lead boycotts, and you're one of them.

00:12:09.000 So you're saying you didn't have the gumption to lead the boycott and then took your kids to Disney World before you led the boycott?

00:12:17.000 No, this was a pre boycott.

00:12:18.000 I know.

00:12:18.000 It's like pre boycott.

00:12:20.000 I know.

00:12:20.000 It's like pre boycott.

00:12:22.000 This is like it was a pre boycott photo.

00:12:24.000 No, this is like insider trading.

00:12:27.000 No, this is basically insider trading.

00:12:30.000 No, the guy who runs boycotts took his family to Disney World and then led the boycott after it, knowing that he was going to lose the boycott.

00:12:37.000 No, here's no, and then just to rub it in all our faces, post the picture.

00:12:42.000 It's like it's like pulling on this is like when they pull up the ladder, which is really which is hilarious because this is from like what four or five years ago, yeah.

00:12:51.000 Um, where there was this whole media like freak out on me because of this.

00:12:56.000 Because I was like leading a Disney boycott over, gosh, some crazy stuff. 1.00

00:13:03.000 Yeah, one of the LGBT things they were doing. 1.00

00:13:07.000 But it was like the first one. 1.00

00:13:09.000 And I called for a Disney boycott.

00:13:10.000 But then Tanya, of course, not paying attention to what I'm doing on Twitter, decides to post our Disney photos from like a month before, like at the same time.

00:13:23.000 So they're like, what?

00:13:25.000 So big is at Disney while he's calling for a boycott of Disney.

00:13:29.000 Actually, funny enough, I can remember.

00:13:31.000 Insider trading.

00:13:33.000 I think I remember the actual day we were there because it was like randomly enough, it was the day that the Ukraine war started in 2022.

00:13:43.000 So I think that's like the very day that we went there.

00:13:45.000 It was like that day or the day after, was when we were there.

00:13:49.000 And I remember noticing that like everybody's still at Disney and like nobody's, yeah, nobody seems to be really. 0.88

00:13:54.000 So then you thought, I've been a whole, the real issue here, Jack, is you can't control your woman.

00:13:58.000 So, I'm kidding, Jay. 0.96

00:14:04.000 I'm kidding. 1.00

00:14:05.000 A bomb's the woman. 1.00

00:14:06.000 Children run his household. 1.00

00:14:08.000 The situation.

00:14:09.000 Child power.

00:14:09.000 I'm sure you had a stern conversation.

00:14:11.000 Children run his household.

00:14:12.000 It's very clear.

00:14:13.000 Listen, I had a great time with my son.

00:14:14.000 No children run my household.

00:14:15.000 No, so by the way, my kids know how to make fun of the kids who like Star Wars.

00:14:20.000 Like, we mock them in our household.

00:14:22.000 We deride them.

00:14:23.000 We talk about how inferior they are.

00:14:25.000 We talk about how their parents don't have any discipline.

00:14:28.000 How you had a strong emotional star wall.

00:14:29.000 You had to do the control stuff before the boycott.

00:14:32.000 My kids do that with Lord of the Rings.

00:14:33.000 I see.

00:14:33.000 I never ascribed to the boycott.

00:14:35.000 First of all, I don't think I was on that episode of Thought Crime, and I was not.

00:14:39.000 So, I. Listen, here's the other thing I would say.

00:14:43.000 This has been a 10-plus year long book.

00:14:46.000 John Favreau directed this, and I thought he did a pretty good job on The Mandalorian, and it's not like wussy stuff.

00:14:52.000 He's like a masculine director who actually understands.

00:14:55.000 Really?

00:14:56.000 Can we show the picture of Pedro Pascal when he was on Stephen Colbert?

00:14:59.000 I mean, Masculine Draco, we should show a picture of John.

00:15:01.000 I always want to say it Farvo because it's spelled exactly like.

00:15:04.000 Swingers, baby. 0.99

00:15:06.000 Come on. 1.00

00:15:07.000 Swingers, baby.

00:15:08.000 I don't.

00:15:08.000 I've never heard of this movie, actually.

00:15:11.000 I've always said Swingers.

00:15:12.000 You've never heard of Swingers?

00:15:13.000 No. 0.98

00:15:14.000 What?

00:15:15.000 Well, first of all. 1.00

00:15:15.000 Jack, you've heard of Swingers, right? 1.00

00:15:16.000 Okay, well, you're mad I haven't heard of this movie that grossed $4 billion in 1996.

00:15:20.000 I'm well aware of it, but I haven't heard of it.

00:15:23.000 Watching Power Rangers?

00:15:24.000 Maybe I saw it, but like forever ago.

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00:16:28.000 Anyways, well, I've never heard this.

00:16:31.000 Anyway, I actually also saw Star Wars, but not The Mandalorian.

00:16:34.000 I saw The Return of the Jedi at the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra with a live symphony, which I will say, excellent.

00:16:44.000 I will say, I went on Friday night this time.

00:16:47.000 I'd gone to the prior two original movies.

00:16:51.000 On Saturday and Sunday, and you could definitely tell there was a different crowd at the opening performance of this.

00:16:58.000 It was a slightly wait, what did you see?

00:17:00.000 Definitely saw more people in costumes. 1.00

00:17:01.000 The funniest thing I saw, there was a woman with her.

00:17:04.000 Jack wants to know what you're talking about right now.

00:17:07.000 Oh, I saw Return of the Jedi, and no, you said, but you saw other original movies.

00:17:11.000 What original?

00:17:12.000 Oh, so I know original.

00:17:13.000 So I saw Empire Strikes Back and A New Hope.

00:17:15.000 They've done each of the trilogy films here.

00:17:17.000 What sets me though is like almost impossible to see find the original original.

00:17:22.000 Oh, yeah, and that was part of this.

00:17:24.000 And the CGI.

00:17:24.000 I can find them.

00:17:25.000 Yes, this one had that.

00:17:26.000 It had the terrible.

00:17:27.000 You can send me the link.

00:17:28.000 Yeah, it had the terrible pop star that's singing, you know.

00:17:31.000 Yeah, I hate that.

00:17:31.000 Yeah, they kept that.

00:17:32.000 It was unfortunately the full George Lucasified version to make money off of it.

00:17:37.000 True story, true story.

00:17:39.000 I don't know why they don't fix that.

00:17:40.000 Why don't they fix that now?

00:17:41.000 Because.

00:17:41.000 The CGI is so much better now.

00:17:43.000 It's like, why can't they just make that better now?

00:17:45.000 Let's just not.

00:17:46.000 Let's just undo all of this.

00:17:47.000 Undo all of this.

00:17:48.000 But since it was opening night, there were more people in costumes, more people in strange t shirts.

00:17:54.000 More people who are of various spherical Death Star shapes.

00:17:58.000 I saw a mom with her daughter, and I'm not making this up. 0.99

00:18:02.000 She was basically in blackface because she was cosplaying as an Ewok. 0.96

00:18:07.000 And so she had the Ewok hat, which is kind of orange. 0.94

00:18:10.000 The wicket is the name of the Ewok character.

00:18:13.000 But then she painted her whole face dark brown, and it was basically.

00:18:18.000 I thought it was Jimmy Kimmel. 1.00

00:18:20.000 Yeah, it was basically blackface, and I got a big kick out of it. 1.00

00:18:22.000 I don't think anyone was offended. 1.00

00:18:23.000 So I apologize, Jack, but.

00:18:26.000 Worth it.

00:18:28.000 So, listen, I didn't get him a Bud Light or something.

00:18:31.000 So, I'm going to say right now, I'm going to go watch the movie with my kids.

00:18:36.000 But I, it's literally the Bud Light of movies.

00:18:41.000 I know, but this is the thing I've heard it's terrible, actually.

00:18:45.000 It's bad.

00:18:46.000 It's bad.

00:18:47.000 Why not go see Michael?

00:18:49.000 But here's the Favreau argument The kitty diddler?

00:18:53.000 I'm just kidding.

00:18:54.000 I saw Michael.

00:18:55.000 I saw Michael on my take.

00:18:56.000 The one who was falsely accused.

00:18:59.000 My take on Michael.

00:19:00.000 On the mic, I still don't know what I think about that, but yeah, my my uh, what's obviously fake, my my take on the Michael movie was that it wasn't as good as everyone said it was, but that's it.

00:19:11.000 It was well made, better, it was well made, but I thought so, but anyways, going back, I still think with the Favreau thing, like he was like executive producer, I think, on like a ton of Marvel, like good movies, that like every single one of those movies had like a major hook into it that had like.

00:19:33.000 Like it was just chock full of, what do they call them when it's like a set pieces?

00:19:41.000 Just like a special thing that happens in it, like that's unexpected.

00:19:44.000 What do they call that?

00:19:45.000 Twist?

00:19:45.000 Not a twist.

00:19:46.000 No, a jump scare.

00:19:49.000 It had something that they had a bunch of stuff, a bunch of things in it.

00:19:53.000 And this movie has none of that.

00:19:56.000 Yeah.

00:19:57.000 It's just very like a lot of action.

00:19:58.000 Straightforward.

00:19:59.000 Yeah.

00:19:59.000 No, no, but it's just like an action, straightforward.

00:20:01.000 There's nothing that's like the Star Wars cinematic, the universe that Star Wars is in has so many different things in it now that it's actually criminal to me to not have any.

00:20:14.000 Like secret things that are pop up in it that aren't huge.

00:20:18.000 Easter eggs, that's the word.

00:20:20.000 There was like no Easter eggs in this movie. 0.92

00:20:21.000 Yeah, well, I would tell you that, you know, me and Foz were having this conversation because it's like a lot of people like to crap on the movie.

00:20:28.000 It's not good or whatever.

00:20:29.000 It's like, well, okay, but imagine kids.

00:20:32.000 It's a movie that kids would really get into, and I had so much fun with my kids.

00:20:36.000 So I appreciate it for that.

00:20:38.000 I'm not like going to do the full movie critic thing on it.

00:20:41.000 I don't, you know, it's an action film in the Star Wars universe.

00:20:45.000 Tesc, tesc.

00:20:47.000 I know.

00:20:48.000 How about we do this?

00:20:50.000 Is it going to break even?

00:20:51.000 That's a question, Jack, that you might appreciate.

00:20:54.000 It probably still was successful.

00:20:56.000 So here's a quick clip of Matt Damon discussing how much a movie needs to make.

00:21:02.000 Clip 13.

00:21:04.000 Or clip 3.

00:21:05.000 Sorry.

00:21:05.000 Clip 3.

00:21:06.000 To publicize.

00:21:07.000 You're trying to get everybody spending about what the budget was to make it to advertise it.

00:21:11.000 Because you got 50% of the theatrics.

00:21:13.000 Yeah, because you split it with the movie house, right?

00:21:15.000 Through the exhibit.

00:21:16.000 So a $25 million movie to break even, you've got to make $100 million.

00:21:18.000 Phew.

00:21:19.000 So that movie, Mandalorian, cost about $180 million to make that movie.

00:21:24.000 Wait, that costs $180 million to make that movie?

00:21:27.000 But, and it's $180 million.

00:21:29.000 You have to double that because of PNX.

00:21:33.000 That's why it's four times.

00:21:34.000 It's $360, which means you need to make $360 times $720 million to break even.

00:21:42.000 I don't think this thing's going to make $720 million unless China just goes gaga for Baby Yoda.

00:21:48.000 Yeah, it's conceivable.

00:21:49.000 360 times two, or is it to break even, or is it 180?

00:21:53.000 We were taking 360 times two because one.

00:21:55.000 They split it with the movie houses.

00:21:57.000 So if you bring in 720 million, you take half of that as profit.

00:22:06.000 The movie houses take the other half.

00:22:08.000 So if you're going to break even, you need that much.

00:22:11.000 So, I mean, there's no DVD sales anymore.

00:22:13.000 There's no DVD.

00:22:14.000 There's no television rights.

00:22:16.000 You can put them on streaming platforms, but that's not.

00:22:18.000 You could get it off of merch.

00:22:20.000 Like a lot of Mandalorian.

00:22:23.000 Do they get new merch out of this, really? 0.97

00:22:24.000 They already had Baby Yoda come out.

00:22:26.000 This is what I'm saying.

00:22:27.000 The merch already existed for this.

00:22:30.000 Yeah, but it doesn't have to be new merch.

00:22:32.000 It has to be new sales.

00:22:33.000 Yeah, but think about it.

00:22:34.000 It's going to help new sales.

00:22:35.000 My son got an action figure for his birthday party because somebody bought it.

00:22:39.000 Listen, listen, I could be. 0.99

00:22:41.000 See, my people in our area know not to bring that crap into my household. 0.98

00:22:47.000 I could be better than Favreau at this than he is right now. 0.97

00:22:51.000 Like, think about if they would have introduced.

00:22:55.000 Another baby Yoda or a child Yoda.

00:22:59.000 By the way, did you know Grogu is not Baby Yoda?

00:23:02.000 No, I know.

00:23:02.000 It's not.

00:23:03.000 I know, but we call him Baby Yoda.

00:23:04.000 I really don't care.

00:23:04.000 I don't know the lore.

00:23:05.000 I just don't care.

00:23:06.000 No, but imagine a sibling to Baby Yoda.

00:23:12.000 Think about when Guardians of the Galaxy came out and they cut down Groot and then he turned into Baby Groot.

00:23:20.000 Baby Groot, yeah.

00:23:21.000 And it was regular Groot and then there was Baby Groot.

00:23:23.000 You're thinking about the merch.

00:23:25.000 That's what I'm saying.

00:23:25.000 Characters in the storyline.

00:23:27.000 How do you run a billion dollar, multi billion dollar franchise and nobody thinks about the merch?

00:23:32.000 And it was like, they produced no, like, your point is a really good point.

00:23:36.000 It's like they produced nothing in this movie that could be its own merch.

00:23:40.000 When Baby Yoda was introduced in The Mandalorian, that produced the biggest boom in merch in Star Wars history.

00:23:45.000 What was kind of cool was that Jabba the Hutt's, I don't know, it's like his son is in this, and he's like an emperor.

00:23:54.000 He's like a gladiator. 0.99

00:23:56.000 No one's buying Jabba the Hutt merch, which is really stupid. 1.00

00:23:59.000 Yeah, but it was kind of stupid. 0.99

00:24:01.000 Let's take a character who's famously a slug that just sits there and is lazy and has everyone else do his work. 0.99

00:24:07.000 And now we have.

00:24:08.000 Jacked, you know, squats 500.

00:24:11.000 Yeah, no, it could be like 5,000.

00:24:13.000 But yeah, so wait, okay, Jack, just so I'm clear, if you just take the nine movies in the series, right, from the original four, then the four, five, six, one, two, three, and then seven, eight, nine, which is your favorite of that?

00:24:31.000 Or do you just like, you're so boycott that you don't care?

00:24:35.000 I mean, I will send you, I will tell you that I just texted you the link.

00:24:39.000 To watch all the despecialized Star Wars editions from the originals.

00:24:47.000 So you can, you know, if you really want to, you can watch that.

00:24:50.000 Genuinely, the most important thing to me, I cannot stand the like boo boo CGI from like, what was it, like 1998, I think.

00:24:56.000 Yeah, so this one was probably crap out.

00:24:59.000 But what they did, this is a fan project, and you can find it on archive.

00:25:04.000 So what the fans did was they went in and they like upscaled, you know, to like, I think this is 720K or 720p rather.

00:25:15.000 You know, to make it look crisp, you know, on a modern screen, but also preserving the original of the original series, which, yeah.

00:25:24.000 So, if I were still watching Star Wars, I would watch the original originals.

00:25:28.000 I would not be watching.

00:25:29.000 Which one of those is your favorite?

00:25:31.000 I would not be watching the Lucas edited editions with like the Ewok eyelids or Han shooting second or any of the other ones.

00:25:38.000 Jack, you're evading the question here.

00:25:40.000 What's your favorite?

00:25:41.000 Yeah.

00:25:43.000 I just said that.

00:25:44.000 No, no, your favorite film.

00:25:47.000 These are the ones I'd be watching if I were watching.

00:25:49.000 Which one of these three?

00:25:50.000 Which episode?

00:25:51.000 Oh, which one of these three?

00:25:53.000 I don't know.

00:25:56.000 I never thought of it.

00:26:00.000 I guess probably Jedi.

00:26:01.000 I'd have to say Jedi.

00:26:02.000 That's my favorite.

00:26:04.000 I'm an absolutist.

00:26:05.000 The original Star Wars film is the best one.

00:26:08.000 It's a new hope.

00:26:09.000 A new hope.

00:26:09.000 But I just call it Star Wars most of the time because I think that's the only one that's actually a transcendently great film.

00:26:14.000 I think that is a genuinely.

00:26:16.000 Great film, start to finish.

00:26:18.000 Every scene is good, amazingly edited, amazingly scored.

00:26:20.000 Caboose, what's the best?

00:26:21.000 Standalone.

00:26:22.000 I like the, just to give the answer, I like the, on Jedi, I like the story of redemption.

00:26:29.000 The story of like atonement, redemption.

00:26:31.000 Yeah.

00:26:33.000 You know, a lot of Christian themes.

00:26:34.000 I like that much.

00:26:35.000 Let me push back on that.

00:26:37.000 I think the story of redemption in Star Wars is actually kind of bad.

00:26:42.000 It's bad in the sense it's presented in this bizarre, facile way.

00:26:47.000 That almost doesn't make sense.

00:26:48.000 So, first of all, all we know of Vader is that he goes and he commits genocide and does insanely evil things and chokes people.

00:26:54.000 And then you show up in Return of the Jedi and Luke just says, I know you're still good, father.

00:26:58.000 I know there's still good in you.

00:26:59.000 What?

00:27:00.000 Where is there any evidence that there's good in him?

00:27:02.000 There's been none.

00:27:03.000 There's just been no actual external evidence of this.

00:27:06.000 Well, there is if you want the first three.

00:27:07.000 And then here goes Blake over rationalizing his thinking again.

00:27:10.000 He's becoming a good person.

00:27:11.000 He just is watching his son get tortured to death.

00:27:14.000 And then he goes like, no.

00:27:15.000 And then he grabs the Emperor and throws him down the elevator shaft.

00:27:17.000 Spoilers for everybody.

00:27:18.000 And then, like, oh, he's now good and he's on the light side again.

00:27:21.000 I think a lot of bad art has come out of that.

00:27:25.000 Like the presentation of good and evil, almost like a light switch.

00:27:29.000 You're on the light side one moment.

00:27:30.000 Oh, bam, you switch to the dark side.

00:27:32.000 And then you could switch back again.

00:27:34.000 Comic books do this stuff.

00:27:35.000 Well, he didn't just bam switch.

00:27:36.000 Back when no, I that you're like you're just like leaving out a lot of the plot of the movie.

00:27:41.000 Like, what happened?

00:27:41.000 What does Darth Vader do in that movie that's not that's good other than other than throw the emperor down?

00:27:45.000 Very key things like he delivers his son to be tortured by the emperor, the emperor starts torturing him.

00:27:51.000 It's through that torture that he starts remembering what his son says, and then he goes and kills the emperor.

00:27:57.000 Okay, so it's like a light switch, suddenly as a good guy again, automatically switch over, he's just a good guy again.

00:28:03.000 I guess he just all that, and then and then we're treated this as his great redemption.

00:28:07.000 I don't think that would undo.

00:28:08.000 I think if, like, I think if uh. 0.67

00:28:11.000 I think if Hitler had a son, I think if some guy worked for Hitler and saw Hitler torturing his son and then suddenly threw Hitler down an elevator shaft, but that guy had otherwise run Auschwitz, I don't think we would say that that undid running Auschwitz. 0.65

00:28:24.000 I totally disagree. 0.58

00:28:25.000 You're totally skipping over an empire when the interactions that they had together led him to the moment of him recognizing and reconnecting with his son.

00:28:38.000 Yeah, isn't there a sense?

00:28:39.000 And identifying.

00:28:41.000 I mean, the most famous line in Star Wars history is not in A New Hope.

00:28:46.000 It's that.

00:28:47.000 And that's also bad.

00:28:48.000 I think that everyone remembers that, and yet that's also a sign of not just decline in Star Wars, but decline in our pop culture as well, which is let's make an out of nowhere plot twist that's kind of irrelevant.

00:29:00.000 Not out of nowhere.

00:29:01.000 Of course it's out of nowhere.

00:29:02.000 They only made it up for the second movie, it wasn't in the first movie.

00:29:06.000 George Lucas goes back and says, oh, I totally had it planned from the beginning. 0.99

00:29:08.000 George Lucas is full of crap. 0.99

00:29:09.000 George Lucas is making that up. 1.00

00:29:11.000 George Lucas is making it up as he goes throughout the entire trilogy.

00:29:16.000 I totally think that that plot twist and the way that they were able to keep it under wraps for so long is like one of the greatest parts.

00:29:26.000 It's one of the greatest moments in American cinematic history is that they were able to keep that completely secret.

00:29:34.000 And again, you talk about twists.

00:29:36.000 That's like what made Star Wars a long lasting franchise.

00:29:40.000 It wasn't a new hope that was good and that made everyone go bonkers.

00:29:44.000 It was the fact that they followed it up with such a crazy plot twist that.

00:29:49.000 It basically forced America to like Star Wars, unlike Jack.

00:29:54.000 Like real Americans like Star Wars.

00:29:57.000 You have to like Star Wars if you want to actually consider yourself a citizen of the United States. 0.81

00:30:01.000 And also, it took us down the dark path, which we remain on today, of you have this giant universe where anything can happen and there's quadrillions of people and infinity planets.

00:30:10.000 And actually, everything is just the family drama of one group of people.

00:30:13.000 That's actually like real life, though.

00:30:15.000 No, it's not.

00:30:15.000 In real life, not everything is a family drama with one family.

00:30:18.000 No, it's not.

00:30:18.000 Or at least it wasn't like that until Donald Trump wrote it.

00:30:20.000 There's only so many families that people care about.

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00:30:28.000 By the time the news tells you to buy gold, it's too late.

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00:31:43.000 Tyler's dumping on me, so I want to dump on him and his weakness in not being able to actually hold on to a boycott because it's not hard.

00:31:53.000 You just don't give money to people you hate who hate you.

00:31:56.000 Especially if you already gave money to them right before announcing the boycott.

00:31:58.000 Hey, I showed up today so that you could convince me to not follow.

00:32:04.000 The path of the dark side with Andrew and go watch this movie.

00:32:10.000 I held out.

00:32:12.000 In fact, you're not watching it right now.

00:32:16.000 You're actively not watching it.

00:32:17.000 There's nothing that's been said so far that actually makes me not want to watch this movie.

00:32:23.000 It promotes homosexuality, it promotes people who hate us.

00:32:27.000 Subtle hints that Peter still had good in him. 0.53

00:32:31.000 In A New Hope, they show that one scene, there is a human vulnerability.

00:32:37.000 Where they reveal Vader's scarred face in the meditation chamber.

00:32:40.000 Yes.

00:32:40.000 That is, I believe, in the second movie.

00:32:42.000 No, that's a new hope.

00:32:43.000 They showed, like, the moment coming in.

00:32:45.000 That's definitely the second movie.

00:32:47.000 That's definitely the second movie, bro.

00:32:48.000 Definitely the second movie.

00:32:49.000 Okay, this write up says it's in the first one.

00:32:51.000 Is your write up generated by a robot on the internet?

00:32:55.000 I gotta watch out for the robots on the internet.

00:32:56.000 Dark City duel, Vader dominates but doesn't kill Luke.

00:32:59.000 That's also in the second movie.

00:33:01.000 I'm saying the first movie.

00:33:02.000 I'm saying the first movie.

00:33:03.000 This is why my argument was Empire.

00:33:05.000 The Empire's the best movie.

00:33:06.000 They made this up for the second movie.

00:33:08.000 So, so, That Luke, you can destroy the Emperor.

00:33:11.000 This is from Empire Strikes Back. 0.87

00:33:12.000 You can destroy the Emperor.

00:33:13.000 He has foreseen this. 0.90

00:33:14.000 It is your destiny.

00:33:15.000 Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son.

00:33:18.000 Yes.

00:33:18.000 All right.

00:33:19.000 So protective but hesitant actions.

00:33:21.000 He wants Luke to turn but stop short of lethal force at key points.

00:33:26.000 Okay, but episode.

00:33:27.000 So he's trying to bring him in.

00:33:30.000 Okay.

00:33:31.000 This is weak.

00:33:32.000 This is weak.

00:33:33.000 Why?

00:33:33.000 AI generated.

00:33:35.000 Bad argument.

00:33:36.000 This is all good.

00:33:37.000 And then Luke, this is the stuff you're talking about.

00:33:39.000 Luke says, I can tell there's good in you.

00:33:41.000 Search your feelings, father.

00:33:43.000 You can do this.

00:33:43.000 I feel the conflicts within you.

00:33:44.000 Let go of your hate.

00:33:45.000 Vader denies it, but hesitation proves Luke right.

00:33:49.000 Yeah.

00:33:49.000 So, episode five is the best because, again, it solidifies episode four.

00:33:57.000 If there's only two movies that ever get created, it would be four and five.

00:34:01.000 Five was a great follow up to a great movie, which I agree.

00:34:05.000 Standalone is the best movie, is four.

00:34:08.000 But if it's not, we're not talking standalone.

00:34:10.000 We're talking about a lot of different movies.

00:34:12.000 Five starts to show.

00:34:15.000 The cracks in Invaders, Sithness, or whatever, right?

00:34:22.000 And then Six is just kind of like you expected that to happen.

00:34:28.000 Even Six, they're making it up.

00:34:30.000 Like the whole Leia's Luke series is totally made up.

00:34:32.000 Made it up on the fly.

00:34:33.000 You know, this is like going in to watch Six.

00:34:35.000 Again, I'm putting myself in the 80s.

00:34:38.000 I'm going in to watch Episode Six in theaters.

00:34:42.000 Your expectation.

00:34:42.000 It's not called Episode Six, it's called Return of the Jedi.

00:34:45.000 Yeah, Return of the Jedi in the 80s, right?

00:34:49.000 The third in the trilogy, you are expecting that Vader turns in that movie.

00:34:55.000 Yeah.

00:34:56.000 Are you not?

00:34:57.000 I don't know.

00:34:57.000 I didn't.

00:34:58.000 Okay.

00:34:58.000 So, what's the most exciting movie?

00:35:00.000 The most exciting movie is Empire, where it's like you were blown away.

00:35:04.000 Your socks were knocked off.

00:35:05.000 You loved one, two blew your mind with that.

00:35:10.000 He's his dad.

00:35:11.000 You're dying to go to episode or to the third installment of the trilogy, and the trilogy delivers exactly what you expected it to do.

00:35:19.000 Yeah.

00:35:20.000 I'm going to have to agree with that.

00:35:21.000 And then, by the way, the next most exciting moment in cinematic history in the Star Wars realm was in episode one.

00:35:30.000 And the poor guy that played Jar Jar Binks got hated his entire life for something that he had to do.

00:35:38.000 Like, without Jar Jar Binks, you do not have the positives in that movie.

00:35:43.000 And at the time, I remember going into that.

00:35:45.000 Jar Jar was the best watch.

00:35:46.000 You guys are really making a hard sell here.

00:35:48.000 I'm just saying, if there's three movies in a row to like, I agree.

00:35:54.000 Four and five, but four and five are a package duo.

00:35:56.000 You have to like them one and two or two or one.

00:35:58.000 Like, that has to be your either the fifth episode, Empire has to be your number one and New Hope has to be number two or vice versa.

00:36:08.000 But my argument would be the next best moment actually comes in episode three.

00:36:15.000 Not because the movie, because the movie sucks, except for the end part, the last five minutes of that movie, like, it doesn't leave you.

00:36:24.000 You know what's really funny?

00:36:25.000 Actually, just to talk about how media is consumed differently today than when we were kids.

00:36:34.000 I don't think I, when I was a kid, I'd only ever seen, you know, Star Wars and Jedi.

00:36:41.000 I never saw Empire until I was in like high school.

00:36:45.000 Really?

00:36:45.000 And yeah, because I used to just not, you know, rent it or.

00:36:51.000 Was it because Jedi was on TV all the time?

00:36:54.000 Dude, I remember Jedi being on TV all the time.

00:36:56.000 I would watch TV or something and I would see it.

00:36:58.000 And, like, just the way that you would interact with media was so different because, like, you would turn it on and be like, oh, yeah, I'm going to watch Star Wars for a while.

00:37:05.000 And then you'd watch this other one.

00:37:07.000 And then, for whatever reason, I just never watched Empire probably until like 98 or so.

00:37:14.000 Oh, you know what it was when they released the special editions, which is right before the prequels came out?

00:37:19.000 So I guess it was like the 20 years in the theaters.

00:37:22.000 I remember I watched the re releases in the theaters because they did a re release.

00:37:26.000 Yeah, there was a hype about it.

00:37:28.000 Like, oh, Lucas re releases the originals in the theaters with all this new.

00:37:31.000 CGI, and I thought, okay, here we go.

00:37:34.000 And I don't think at the time I had the lens to see how bad it was, but if you watch them back now, it's like terrible.

00:37:39.000 It's awful.

00:37:40.000 What can you imagine only watching Star Wars, but only watching the dialogue, Jack?

00:37:47.000 Only watching.

00:37:48.000 That doesn't make any sense.

00:37:48.000 What are you talking about?

00:37:49.000 That doesn't make any sense.

00:37:50.000 The movie is like basically ruined not only Star Wars, but all media.

00:37:54.000 Like, how could you do something like that?

00:37:56.000 That is an interesting segue, then, Jack, because that's our next topic.

00:38:01.000 What?

00:38:02.000 Yes, the trend of reading dialogue instead of an entire novel.

00:38:06.000 All right, yes.

00:38:07.000 Wes loves this idea.

00:38:08.000 I really like it.

00:38:09.000 So, this came out in a recent discovery.

00:38:13.000 This was a tweet, I believe.

00:38:15.000 So, throw up number four on screen.

00:38:18.000 But this was someone remarking on X the other day.

00:38:21.000 Finding out, someone says, Can we please normalize achievable reading goals?

00:38:25.000 30 or more books a year is not common.

00:38:27.000 And then this other person, Ali B, replied, Finding out that people on Book Talk, that is TikTok book readers, they skip everything but dialogue.

00:38:36.000 Which makes reading 30 plus a year books make a lot more sense.

00:38:41.000 And let's see, I think they said another thing.

00:38:44.000 And then someone goes, But this is smart.

00:38:46.000 I hate all of the descriptions.

00:38:48.000 Like, I can't even envision it, and it is boring.

00:38:51.000 Although, when I write, I feel like I need to add stuff like that in to make a good book, crying face.

00:38:57.000 And then Ollie B says, That is not reading or writing.

00:39:00.000 The descriptions are the book.

00:39:02.000 And the person replies, I prioritize character development and plot.

00:39:07.000 Others prioritize prose.

00:39:08.000 Declaring one real over the other is such a weird form of literary gatekeeping.

00:39:15.000 Wow.

00:39:16.000 So literary gatekeeping, if you want people to read the whole book and not just.

00:39:22.000 This makes so much sense.

00:39:23.000 And it's really deeply revealing.

00:39:26.000 Like, no, this explains, like, dude, this explains so much about what I've experienced doing like this kind of stuff and media commentary, whatever, on content over the last.

00:39:41.000 Funny enough.

00:39:42.000 So today, I guess, is my Twitter anniversary, my X anniversary.

00:39:46.000 I've been on Twitter for 14 years as of today.

00:39:52.000 And, you know, people who know the backstory know that I originally got on to crap on HBO Who's Game of Thrones from the perspective of a book reader who was very upset about it.

00:40:03.000 And, long story short, we're here now. 0.94

00:40:07.000 And what's hilarious is that I used to encounter people like this all the time who were just filthy casuals.

00:40:16.000 Who clearly, like, they would these we used to call them SJWs back in the day, but they were like these supporters of the characters, like, oh, I'm a Daenerys supporter, or like, oh, I could never be friends with the Stannis supporter.

00:40:30.000 I'm like, what are you talking about?

00:40:31.000 Like, just watch the show or like read the book.

00:40:34.000 Like, why do you have to like be on a side of a character or something?

00:40:39.000 Like, do you like it or not?

00:40:41.000 And I came to find that these people like saw themselves or saw characters as themselves rather than as their own.

00:40:52.000 You know, a character that was objectively a separate individual.

00:40:56.000 And so this makes so much sense to me because we're dealing with people now.

00:41:02.000 And book talk is huge, by the way.

00:41:03.000 It's all over the place.

00:41:04.000 You see it, you see it everywhere.

00:41:06.000 Uh, when I talked about that, that one show, uh, or that, that one book series that got turned into a movie with Sydney Sweeney about killing her husband called the handmaiden or excuse me, the housemaid, you know, it, uh, house, housemaid, housemaid that, uh, like it, it was a, you know, really rode the, um, You know, the book talk carousel, if you will.

00:41:25.000 And that's what's going on.

00:41:26.000 They're not actually reading these things.

00:41:29.000 They're not meant to be fully read. 0.99

00:41:31.000 It's just like, oh, here's what it'd be like if you killed your husband. 0.89

00:41:36.000 And then women go out and like start thinking that way and start like hating that. 0.92

00:41:39.000 I think there's a lot to that.

00:41:41.000 Blake has read more books than you do.

00:41:43.000 This is so revealing to me.

00:41:45.000 Blake, but you read a lot of history.

00:41:47.000 I know.

00:41:47.000 And so it fluctuates a lot, certainly in the number I can read.

00:41:50.000 So like this year, I think I probably read like 11 or 12 books this year, but they are pretty hefty.

00:41:57.000 I'm getting through, I'm reading Imperial China by F.W. Moat.

00:42:01.000 Yeah, maybe H.W. Moat.

00:42:02.000 No, but what I'm saying is that is distinct from a fiction.

00:42:07.000 True, true.

00:42:08.000 I fluctuate a lot in how much fiction I read.

00:42:10.000 I've read, because when you're reading it, you kind of go on a streak and read a lot by one author or in one series.

00:42:18.000 I haven't read, I read C.S. Lewis.

00:42:22.000 I read C.S. Lewis this year.

00:42:25.000 I read that Hideous Strength in Paralandra, so the later parts of his space trilogy.

00:42:29.000 Those are all right.

00:42:31.000 I'm reading a big long novel about ancient Rome, which is like okay, I'd say.

00:42:35.000 It's the Masters of Rome series.

00:42:37.000 Have you ever heard of that one?

00:42:38.000 Colleen McCullough just wrote 7,000 page long books about ancient Rome, but they're all right.

00:42:44.000 They're all right.

00:42:45.000 Yeah, but could you imagine reading fiction and only reading the dialogue?

00:42:50.000 What would you miss?

00:42:51.000 I feel like you'd miss a lot.

00:42:52.000 Among other things, you'd probably miss what's actually happening.

00:42:55.000 You'd miss like everything.

00:42:56.000 Sometimes in a book, they'll describe major events in the plot that are.

00:43:00.000 Not dialogue.

00:43:01.000 I love that, like, the first tweet that you guys sent in the chat about this one was like, what is happening?

00:43:06.000 What, what, what?

00:43:07.000 Yeah.

00:43:08.000 Like, somebody's freaking out discovering that this is like a trend.

00:43:11.000 And by the way, I feel like this is keeping up with the Joneses' energy.

00:43:17.000 Like they want to be able to say, oh, I read all these books, but you actually didn't read the books.

00:43:21.000 It's like you didn't actually do a thing and you want to claim credit for it.

00:43:25.000 And that to me is the most offensive part about this.

00:43:28.000 It's, yeah, you're missing the art, you're missing everything, but it's this weird drive to sort of say, like, I read 14 books or something.

00:43:34.000 And that gets into another part.

00:43:35.000 Someone pointed out that in addition to people just skipping large chunks of the book, the way a lot of these books are consumed is they'll just take an audio book of it.

00:43:43.000 And they'll run it at one and a half, two times, three times speed as a constant background track of their life.

00:43:52.000 And you miss all the joy of a book.

00:43:55.000 Like, the only reason I like to read is because it's like I put the kids down and I sit there with a book and I'm fully consumed by it.

00:44:02.000 Yeah, and I really don't think anything that's ever children's books can be read any other way.

00:44:07.000 We don't count children's books.

00:44:09.000 A book read quickly is kind of a book not read at all if it's of any size.

00:44:14.000 I got to count children's books in my book total.

00:44:16.000 In my, in my, wait, Andrew's like, I'm engrossed in this really big series.

00:44:20.000 It's called Sea Spot Run.

00:44:22.000 This is amazing.

00:44:23.000 He just, he just, this dog, he just, he just, he can't stop running.

00:44:26.000 If I could count children's books in my book, my book total in a year, it would literally, it would be in the hundreds.

00:44:32.000 I know, right?

00:44:32.000 Well, the funny thing is, is so many of these books they're reading, even frankly, even if they have graphic sex or like whatever stuff in it, a lot of them are still effectively children's books.

00:44:41.000 They are written at a child's reading level.

00:44:43.000 That's really depressing.

00:44:45.000 Very depressing.

00:44:45.000 That's actually a really good point, too, because if you, I, I, I did read, um, Uh, housemaid, and then it was very, very juvenile writing, very amateurish.

00:44:56.000 It's kind of like, I guess, this started with um, what was that series, Fifty Shades of Grey, where it was like a fan fiction of Twilight that later became a uh, you know, like like book series in its own right, and then a movie series in its own right, where you just get this like really, really just so, but this is a big, you know, like grade school level writing.

00:45:22.000 Hey, everyone, I'm.

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00:47:39.000 It's a bit concerned because are we just becoming dumber as a culture?

00:47:41.000 And I think the answer is undoubtedly yes, which is troublesome. 0.89

00:47:46.000 It's problematic.

00:47:49.000 We played one of these Matt Damon clips, and so I'm going to play another one because I think it's really telling.

00:47:53.000 Clip seven.

00:47:55.000 Netflix, you know, standard way to make an action movie that we learned was you usually have like three set pieces one in the first act, one in the second, one in the third.

00:48:05.000 And, you know, they kind of ramp up in the big one with all the explosions, and you spend most of your money on that one in the third act.

00:48:10.000 That's your kind of finale.

00:48:12.000 Um, and now they're you know, they're like, can we get a big one in the first five minutes to get somebody?

00:48:17.000 You know, we want people to stay tuned in, and and can, and you know, it wouldn't be terrible if you reiterated the plot three or four times in the dialogue because people are on their phones while they're watching, you know what I mean?

00:48:31.000 It's the most we're it's it's really bad.

00:48:33.000 This is totally true, though.

00:48:34.000 This is how I watch movies, though.

00:48:35.000 Oh, bad.

00:48:36.000 No, you're this is how you do the show.

00:48:37.000 This is this is the fall, this is the fall of civilization in a nutshell, and you and you see it everywhere.

00:48:42.000 And I think we would be see, this is this is how we this is how you plan the show for.

00:48:46.000 For me, you get me drawn in the first part, and then I sleep through Blake's part in the middle, and then I show up for the end.

00:48:52.000 Oh, okay.

00:48:53.000 That's how it's going to be.

00:48:54.000 Well, dude, Tyler's just throwing out zingers.

00:48:58.000 Just banger after banger.

00:48:59.000 Well, this is the fall of civilization, though.

00:49:02.000 This is as simple as that.

00:49:04.000 I totally think that this is fine.

00:49:07.000 This is not.

00:49:07.000 You think this is fine?

00:49:08.000 Yeah.

00:49:08.000 It's fine that we can't follow a plot or a book, and people are self literate.

00:49:13.000 Life is different now.

00:49:14.000 It's not about that.

00:49:14.000 It's about attention span.

00:49:15.000 Yeah, life is worse.

00:49:16.000 Yeah.

00:49:17.000 Life is worse in a different way.

00:49:18.000 Yeah, but it's not going back.

00:49:18.000 And that is the fall of civilization.

00:49:20.000 In a nutshell.

00:49:20.000 It's not going back.

00:49:21.000 It's like, we're not going to get rid of cell phones.

00:49:22.000 We're not going to, like.

00:49:22.000 I know.

00:49:23.000 And eventually, civilization will just implode.

00:49:24.000 I know.

00:49:24.000 We're not going to, like.

00:49:25.000 And eventually, civilization will just implode.

00:49:26.000 We're not able to achieve great things anymore.

00:49:28.000 No, I mean, like, it's going to get worse.

00:49:30.000 Yeah.

00:49:31.000 We can achieve great things, though, because the movie Michael is right there for all of us to see, and it's amazing, and everyone should go see it.

00:49:37.000 Why?

00:49:37.000 So what if.

00:49:38.000 Okay, I can understand not thinking Michael Jackson is going to be.

00:49:41.000 Yeah, you seem really invested.

00:49:42.000 Are you invested?

00:49:44.000 Are you financially tied to the success of Michael?

00:49:47.000 Look at you, conspiracy theorists.

00:49:49.000 Like, you're just trying to take away my joy.

00:49:51.000 Look.

00:49:51.000 You're just trying to take away my joy of loving Michael Jackson.

00:49:55.000 No, I learned what are your top 30 favorite Michael Jackson songs?

00:50:02.000 No, who cares about that?

00:50:03.000 Top 30.

00:50:03.000 I don't know about that.

00:50:04.000 No, I bet you have a list in your head.

00:50:06.000 Top five.

00:50:06.000 I can tell.

00:50:08.000 So I could.

00:50:09.000 Here's the thing, though my kids will get home and then Jack Jack will be like, Daddy, can you put on Thriller?

00:50:16.000 And I'll put on Thriller and he starts like moonwalking throughout the living room or, you know, he'll put on Beat It, we'll put on Bad, we'll put on whatever, you know, and.

00:50:25.000 He or Billie Jean, obviously, like Man in the Middle, black and white, black or white.

00:50:30.000 You've already named more Michael Jackson songs than I could name.

00:50:34.000 We'll put on, no, I mean, he's legitimately.

00:50:38.000 I've always been a Michael Jackson fan.

00:50:41.000 You think Michael was like a 10 out of 10 movie?

00:50:44.000 No.

00:50:46.000 Well, it depends on what you're going for.

00:50:49.000 Like the experience that we had was 10 out of 10.

00:50:53.000 Yes.

00:50:53.000 If you want to judge it as like a.

00:50:55.000 Like Mandalorian and Grozers.

00:50:56.000 Super film critic had on.

00:50:58.000 Like, I don't know if I'd go all the way in.

00:51:00.000 I just know that, like, in my family, and Cernovich was saying the same thing, by the way, that it's totally infected his household, too.

00:51:06.000 And so, like, we're now both living like the Michael Jackson life where, like, it's like the music's on all the time.

00:51:12.000 The kids love it.

00:51:13.000 We love it.

00:51:14.000 You know, it's just a good time.

00:51:16.000 Yeah.

00:51:16.000 No, that's cool.

00:51:16.000 But see, I support that.

00:51:18.000 If that's your, like, can I say this about the Michael movie?

00:51:22.000 I thought the Michael movie was good.

00:51:23.000 I learned a couple of things.

00:51:25.000 Like, generally, most Americans know, like, way too much about Michael Jackson than they really do.

00:51:30.000 You do learn some stuff, I think.

00:51:32.000 I didn't realize how they had, like, I learned about, and by the way, I thought it was really cool how the family came together to really honor Michael.

00:51:32.000 Yeah.

00:51:40.000 To make that movie and do all that.

00:51:42.000 And I thought that was really tasteful.

00:51:45.000 It's his nephew.

00:51:46.000 Yeah.

00:51:47.000 And it's his nephew.

00:51:48.000 That was really cool.

00:51:49.000 Oh, that plays him?

00:51:50.000 Yeah.

00:51:52.000 Is it his actual?

00:51:54.000 That's not CGI.

00:51:55.000 That's his actual nephew.

00:51:57.000 I mean, yeah, I think I'm sure he uses like a little bit of makeup or something.

00:51:59.000 Whose son is it?

00:52:00.000 That's his nephew.

00:52:01.000 That's mine.

00:52:02.000 Is it Jermaine's son? 0.99

00:52:05.000 Shoot.

00:52:05.000 I think it's Jermaine's son.

00:52:06.000 I think so, but I have to double check.

00:52:08.000 Straight out of Compton, where it was actually Ice Cube's son who played Ice Cube.

00:52:11.000 Yeah, that's cool.

00:52:13.000 I think it's cool.

00:52:14.000 It tells a story about a family, and there's a lot of heartache that's involved with their family.

00:52:18.000 And that's cool.

00:52:19.000 And everybody clearly disliked the dad, and they wanted to get that point across. 1.00

00:52:25.000 And it kind of sucks if you're a dad, but the dad's such a jerk. 1.00

00:52:29.000 Don't be a bad dad. 1.00

00:52:30.000 I mean, don't be a bad dad is kind of a theme that comes out of that.

00:52:33.000 I thought it was really interesting that I didn't realize they had so many exotic animals just running around.

00:52:39.000 I didn't know that either.

00:52:40.000 Yeah, it wasn't just the monkey.

00:52:42.000 No, they like giraffes and all sorts of stuff. 0.79

00:52:45.000 Like the snake, medieval clown. 0.89

00:52:47.000 That's kind of cool.

00:52:48.000 That's kind of, that was a kind of cool one.

00:52:49.000 When we have it on, my AJ will be like, we'll be like, daddy, daddy, get to the snake part.

00:52:55.000 I want to see the snake part.

00:52:56.000 Well, and for me, like, actually, like one of the things I pulled away from it, and maybe this is subconsciously for America, hopefully, was that, like, how cool is that?

00:53:04.000 Like, one of the themes that was in it too was that a family went from basically nothing, you know, to like living, like, quite literally the American dream.

00:53:12.000 And nobody, nobody is like.

00:53:14.000 Nobody like like psycho psycho leftists came out of that.

00:53:18.000 Like, you want to work in a factory like me, boy? 0.74

00:53:20.000 How dare they have safari animals like living on their property and that?

00:53:26.000 Like, but I thought that was pretty cool.

00:53:28.000 And I think that's a cool thing, though, that we like teach people it was obvious to me.

00:53:33.000 It's going to be through like you're going to be a rapper or an NBA player.

00:53:36.000 No, but it played it, but it played into this whole thing of like clearly Michael Jackson, like in part one of the themes too in that movie was like, like he never like.

00:53:45.000 He never progressed or grew up.

00:53:46.000 Like, he was kind of trapped.

00:53:48.000 He kind of was trapped.

00:53:49.000 Well, they show that.

00:53:50.000 Yeah, they totally show that.

00:53:51.000 That he was like, and I think that actually gave a lot more insight to a lot of the misnomers that people took that kind of claimed that he was like this terrible person.

00:54:02.000 But he was like, really, like what they were saying is like, this guy was a kid since the time because the dad made, like, kept him in this kid zone that he never got to experience his.

00:54:11.000 I don't, I'm not saying we're done with this topic, but I do think this is a weird intro.

00:54:15.000 Like, we haven't had this other topic.

00:54:16.000 Talking about millennials and Gen Z.

00:54:18.000 No, it's an interesting segue.

00:54:19.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:54:19.000 It's a really interesting segue.

00:54:20.000 No, we got to dive into this.

00:54:22.000 Michael Jackson's dad definitely believed in corporal punishment.

00:54:26.000 Well, and then, and then, so wait, Andrew, you haven't seen the film, right?

00:54:29.000 No, I haven't.

00:54:30.000 So this is a huge scene in the movie.

00:54:30.000 And they blame you.

00:54:33.000 And, you know, spoiler alert, whatever.

00:54:35.000 But there's a huge scene, you know, pretty early on where he, you know, Michael doesn't want to perform properly.

00:54:43.000 And this is back when he's like Jackson Five, Michael Jackson, like really young.

00:54:47.000 And before they've even.

00:54:49.000 Taken off, and his dad, he likes to talk back to his dad and he's like, You're going to show me respect, and just pulls the belt off and just starts whipping him.

00:54:58.000 And they show it on screen, and he's like freaking out.

00:55:03.000 He's crying.

00:55:04.000 And that's what Tyler's referring to when he says it kind of shows you perhaps some of those forces and family dynamics that maybe made Michael have this childlike personality even as he grew up.

00:55:22.000 Well, I think culturally, psychologically, frozen there.

00:55:25.000 We heard these stories, and then I think as a culture, we got away from spanking.

00:55:33.000 And apparently, according to new study or new reporting, I guess.

00:55:38.000 Gen Z is returning to this, apparently.

00:55:41.000 Can we see number nine? 0.95

00:55:44.000 Put it on the screen. 0.87

00:55:45.000 Shocking number of millennial and Gen Z parents spank their kids, study says, necessary to raise a child properly.

00:55:52.000 So go around the horn. 0.97

00:55:55.000 I believe in spanking.

00:55:56.000 I don't do it very often, but I'm not opposed to doing it.

00:56:01.000 You believe in it?

00:56:01.000 I see no reason to oppose it.

00:56:04.000 Tyler?

00:56:05.000 No, I don't oppose it.

00:56:07.000 I think it's.

00:56:09.000 I think it, I think there's like anything limits. 0.97

00:56:13.000 I don't believe in like just taking off your belt and whipping the crap out of your kid for like 40 minutes. 0.63

00:56:13.000 Yeah. 0.63

00:56:18.000 I think there's people that probably take like, it's a, it, it, it's as close to like getting to child abuse, like from a physical standpoint.

00:56:28.000 Like you shouldn't, you shouldn't.

00:56:29.000 Well, you can't do it in anger.

00:56:30.000 This is, this is the thing.

00:56:32.000 If you're going to, if you're going to, uh, spend your child, you need to be controlled.

00:56:36.000 You need to have your emotions like in check.

00:56:39.000 You can't be going like, I'm going to get you.

00:56:40.000 Like that's, You could do some damage there, actually, psychologically.

00:56:43.000 But if you do it and be like, listen, I told you, I'm going to, like, so we do a thing in our house, like, I'm going to move your body.

00:56:48.000 If you refuse to, like, come to me when we're asking, I'm going to physically move you.

00:56:52.000 You have one more option, one more chance.

00:56:55.000 And then they either come or they don't.

00:56:56.000 And then if it escalates, like, well, listen, like, you know, so we'll do, like, soap in the mouth.

00:57:00.000 We actually do that.

00:57:01.000 Oh, wow.

00:57:02.000 I never ran into that one.

00:57:02.000 Okay.

00:57:04.000 Or put, like, a little, like, Tabasco on their tongue.

00:57:04.000 They hate it.

00:57:08.000 They can't stand that either.

00:57:10.000 It's like, I think, yeah.

00:57:11.000 But, but, like, so there's other ways to do it.

00:57:13.000 So we don't really spank that often.

00:57:15.000 But we do find ways to just like, you know, make it so that they don't want to experience the accountability.

00:57:22.000 Jack, are you pro or against?

00:57:26.000 Yeah, I think I'm more in the camp that you're saying there.

00:57:28.000 We're like, we don't like spank, but there are lots of things that we do in terms of discipline.

00:57:36.000 I haven't ever done the Tabasco thing. 1.00

00:57:39.000 And it's like, I almost don't want to say this out loud, but I just want to say that I remember my parents doing that.

00:57:47.000 Because I had a bit of a mouth when I was a kid and still do.

00:57:51.000 And definitely remember the basketball on the tongue.

00:57:54.000 And I will just say I have not encountered a situation that necessitated it yet.

00:58:00.000 And, you know, praise God.

00:58:03.000 And hopefully we won't have to, but, you know, that's certainly on the list.

00:58:07.000 One thing that we do though is, you know, we definitely do push ups.

00:58:11.000 We definitely, you know, you do something wrong.

00:58:13.000 It's like dropping in me 10.

00:58:14.000 And if you're not.

00:58:15.000 I can sit and plank for a while.

00:58:17.000 Well, and it's like, and if they don't, it's more push up than plank, but it's like, If you don't go down far enough, then daddy gets out the fist and you have to like go down and you have to get to daddy, you like come all the way down.

00:58:27.000 You know, we do, you know, timeouts, obviously, like that's a big one.

00:58:33.000 Just a variety of things and depriving, you know, kids of things.

00:58:36.000 I think, I think there's a lot you can do.

00:58:40.000 I'm not sold on this science.

00:58:42.000 I mean, there's plenty of studies that are, you know, that show that, that spanking is, is like, like really bad and then, you know, leads to like Michael Jackson style issues.

00:58:52.000 Well, that's what I'm saying.

00:58:53.000 You've got to do it if you're not controlled.

00:58:54.000 But I don't think, to be fair, I think some parents probably can't control themselves and do it in kind of a dispassionate way.

00:59:01.000 Well, and I hate to say it, but.

00:59:03.000 The rod spoil the child.

00:59:04.000 So spare the rod, spoil the child.

00:59:05.000 But we're assuming that's a physical rod.

00:59:08.000 It doesn't have to be.

00:59:09.000 It could be Tabasco.

00:59:10.000 It could be soap in the mouth.

00:59:11.000 But the point is, you got to discipline your kids.

00:59:13.000 Like the Bible says that God disciplines his children if he loves them, right?

00:59:17.000 I think it's going to happen.

00:59:19.000 I don't think it has to be done often.

00:59:21.000 But I think a child benefits from the awareness that their parents are capable of hurting them if they need to.

00:59:30.000 Yeah, I think it's important for kids to have a little bit of fear.

00:59:34.000 Like, I, I, I think I got belted one time when I was a kid.

00:59:38.000 Yeah.

00:59:39.000 And I don't think my parents. 0.93

00:59:40.000 I mean, my parents were young, are old Gen Xers.

00:59:44.000 And so I think Gen X is kind of like known as like.

00:59:47.000 45% of Gen X admitted to spanking their children.

00:59:50.000 How much of millennials? 1.00

00:59:52.000 Millennials are the weakest. 0.75

00:59:54.000 So it's like the research revealed that when this demographic of parents was asked whether they had ever spanked their child or children with their hand, about 20% said yes. 0.97

01:00:01.000 So millennials is 20%.

01:00:03.000 Like boomers were probably like 90%.

01:00:05.000 Yeah. 0.70

01:00:07.000 And.

01:00:08.000 Excuse me. 0.77

01:00:08.000 Did it have boomers in there? 0.77

01:00:10.000 No, I just had Gen X. 0.99

01:00:11.000 I bet boomers, like, legitimately, it's like well over 80% spank their kids.

01:00:15.000 It's just, I think.

01:00:17.000 So it's gone down.

01:00:18.000 They're like better behaved than they were.

01:00:21.000 No, they're worse.

01:00:21.000 Yeah, they're like worse.

01:00:22.000 And also, just, it's, I'll just say it this way. 0.91

01:00:25.000 It's an overly, it's like long housed and overly feminized.

01:00:29.000 And I think that actually undermines the authority of parents a lot. 0.59

01:00:33.000 No, let me say this without exposing, like, my family, but I'm the oldest in my family.

01:00:38.000 And.

01:00:39.000 I have four brothers and sisters, three brothers, one sister.

01:00:43.000 And I definitely got belted at least one time, maybe two.

01:00:49.000 But it was memorable enough where I never wanted it to happen again.

01:00:54.000 But the kids in my family definitely didn't get, as time went on, my parents got softer.

01:00:59.000 Yeah, they always get softer.

01:01:01.000 And they didn't.

01:01:03.000 I also think parents get better.

01:01:05.000 I've become a better parent as my kids have gotten older.

01:01:09.000 And I think actually. 0.96

01:01:11.000 In truth, I've used spanking way. 1.00

01:01:14.000 I think my daughter probably was the only one. 1.00

01:01:16.000 If I'm actually thinking about it, I think my daughter's the only one I've spanked.

01:01:19.000 I got better at being a parent and using other tools and understanding how to avoid even having to get to that point.

01:01:28.000 So I think there's some of that too.

01:01:29.000 I think there's an element.

01:01:30.000 It's not how you get softer, you might just get better.

01:01:32.000 But I was going to say, this is the point I was going to make, was that if the kids are close enough together and they observe the corporal punishment, Of, like, the one of a boy, then you don't need to, yeah.

01:01:46.000 So, like, I think that I mean, I was like for sure, like, definitely instilled in my younger siblings, like, you don't want to get spanked.

01:01:53.000 So, the threat actually became real because, like, they knew that I was serious about it because it was like the look they could see in my eyes of, like, oh, yeah, you don't want that to happen to you, and so you don't have to use it.

01:02:04.000 But if you don't do it at least once, right, like, there's no threat.

01:02:11.000 I think I spanked my son one time, I think my dad maybe did it once or twice.

01:02:16.000 And it was that level.

01:02:17.000 So, you don't like doing it.

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01:03:26.000 Yeah, so here's the way to put it together.

01:03:29.000 Because I'm still kind of like, you know, you look, I mean, you could see all the studies out there that say that spanking in general is not good for cognitive development.

01:03:38.000 But those are done by Livs.

01:03:41.000 But at the University of Texas, no Livs at UT Austin, okay.

01:03:47.000 Yeah, that the, a lot of it is like lack of creativity.

01:03:53.000 But the problem though, I think though, is that people saw that stuff and they thought like, oh, we have to go full in on like the therapy style.

01:04:01.000 Like, I'm going to be my kid's best friend and I'm going to do this and this whole like non confrontational parenting.

01:04:08.000 We're like, I want my kid to trust me where I'm one of the buds.

01:04:11.000 Like, I'm a cool parent.

01:04:13.000 And, you know, like, I'm going to give you a sip of beer.

01:04:15.000 I'm going to give you a smoke a cigarette or whatever. 1.00

01:04:18.000 Like, it's really stupid. 0.99

01:04:21.000 And the issue that's now created with the unruly kids is that it's been too permissive and the kids don't actually have any boundaries when they're in that situation. 1.00

01:04:31.000 And so, Like, you do need to drive back. 0.99

01:04:34.000 So, I think if anything, with what they're saying about the shocking rise, is that I think that perhaps like some millennial and Gen Z parents are like, okay, you know, the whole like talk therapy version of parenting is stupid. 0.97

01:04:47.000 So, I'm going to move in the opposite direction. 0.96

01:04:49.000 But then they go too far in the opposite direction.

01:04:51.000 And then you create terrible kids.

01:04:52.000 So, yeah, I mean, I agree.

01:04:54.000 I think actually, like, if you're reading the article, and then your kids actually beat you.

01:04:57.000 Yeah, exactly.

01:04:58.000 Once they get big enough.

01:04:59.000 But like, they could try.

01:05:00.000 You're, you're, you're.

01:05:02.000 They could try.

01:05:02.000 I think the article is like, Saying it's shocking still how many parents do this.

01:05:08.000 I think it's actually like to Tyler's point if there isn't an actual threat of it being real, then it kind of loses its effectiveness.

01:05:18.000 Like it is like peace through strength parenting.

01:05:20.000 But yeah, if you enforce authority and you firmly establish that they need to answer to you and that you're in charge at a very young age, I do think that you can tend to keep those boundaries more established.

01:05:33.000 But there are going to be times where kids try and like.

01:05:37.000 Defy the parents, you know, like, and I would say to your point on the oldest, like, my daughter was she's great now, she's like our easiest kid now.

01:05:45.000 But when she was kind of like spreading her wings and trying to establish kind of the boundary lines with us, she was the hardest that we've had.

01:05:54.000 And so, you know, there needed to be a little bit of like set the pace here.

01:05:57.000 That's in theory, like, but maybe I just wasn't as good of a parent either because with the other ones, I have so many more tools in the toolbox to kind of establish, you know, order in the house.

01:06:07.000 Can I, can I, can I introduce a talk?

01:06:08.000 I'm here, too.

01:06:10.000 Sorry, go ahead.

01:06:11.000 So here's my thought, Crime on this is, and it's something that I just don't see addressed in any parenting literature at all, is that I think that IQ plays a role in this.

01:06:24.000 I think if you have kids who are, or people who are lower IQ, then perhaps this might be more effective.

01:06:34.000 And we certainly have talked about that in the legal process and the judicial process and the Lee Kuan Yew sort of version of.

01:06:44.000 Corporal punishment for adults.

01:06:46.000 And I think with kids, it's the same way.

01:06:48.000 Like, if you've got smarter kids, if you've got kids that are more cognitively aware, then the threat works better than the actual thing.

01:06:57.000 But if they don't seem to have that ability to put that all together, then perhaps it is those ones that are lower IQ where this is more effective.

01:07:07.000 Because I have people texting me right now who are watching the show saying, like, oh, you know, I tried that and it didn't work.

01:07:14.000 Like, my kid just kept.

01:07:16.000 You know, was like outsmarted me or not outsmarted, but was smarter than the punishment and was like just kept going.

01:07:21.000 So, you know, you've got to find something that meets the kid.

01:07:26.000 But that's the thought crime is that, you know, it's not a one size fits all strategy for us.

01:07:30.000 Well, I thought that I experienced that with my daughter.

01:07:33.000 I basically became convinced that it was not the most effective discipline that we could, you know, meet out.

01:07:41.000 So here's this UT, I guess, UT Austin study.

01:07:46.000 In the US, 76% of men and 65% of women. Agree that it is sometimes necessary to discipline a child with a good, hard spanking.

01:07:55.000 70% of mothers of two year olds report spanking their children.

01:07:59.000 By the time they reach, which is interesting, by the way, so 70% of moms, but only 65% of women agree that it's sometimes necessary.

01:08:05.000 By the time they reach fifth grade, 80% of American children report they have been spanked by their parents.

01:08:10.000 I don't know if I believe that.

01:08:11.000 I think a lot of children are like, yeah, me too.

01:08:14.000 Anyways, but according to UNICEF, 60% of children around the world experience physical punishment from their parents.

01:08:20.000 This study basically, I think, agrees with you, Jack, that it's.

01:08:25.000 Probably not the most effective, you know.

01:08:29.000 Spanking does not make children more compliant.

01:08:30.000 I think the answer is in between.

01:08:33.000 And let's remember, I just don't buy these things.

01:08:35.000 That phrase isn't actually in the Bible spare the rod, spoil the child.

01:08:38.000 That's not what the Bible says.

01:08:41.000 No, it says he who spares the rod hates his child, he who loves his son, he who loves his son, disciplines carefully.

01:08:48.000 Yeah.

01:08:49.000 Yeah.

01:08:49.000 So it's about discipline, not just about like the rod.

01:08:53.000 The Bible says, do not, it doesn't say you have to spank them.

01:08:56.000 Yeah, but the Bible says, do not exasperate your children, which is another thing, which, as a parent, has come into focus a lot because you can feel when you're trying to drive home a point, you can feel when they've kind of had enough.

01:09:09.000 And sometimes you need to pivot to a softer approach.

01:09:11.000 But, anyways, I just think people who go out and I bet people can generate studies that'll tell you that any form of punishment is actually bad because a lot of people, they like the anarchy of there being no authority.

01:09:24.000 And something that's pointed out that I think is useful is any law we have, if we want it to exist, It does ultimately need to be backed up by force.

01:09:33.000 It comes up when the police end up choking or shooting someone.

01:09:38.000 They're trying to enforce a law.

01:09:39.000 The guy decides to resist arrest and they end up shooting the guy.

01:09:42.000 And everyone's just like, why do you get shot over a loose cigarette?

01:09:45.000 Why do you get shot over car tags?

01:09:47.000 Well, in the end, you have to obey a $20 counterfeit.

01:09:50.000 And if you don't obey the police, something bad will happen to you.

01:09:54.000 And I think spanking is the micro version of that for a parent.

01:09:57.000 That a parent, ultimately, they have to have authority over their child.

01:10:01.000 There has to be.

01:10:02.000 Their ultimate apex of that is.

01:10:04.000 If you do not listen to what I always say, I will use physical force on you.

01:10:08.000 And I think we have to have it be acceptable for a parent to do that.

01:10:10.000 I think ideally it's actually quite rare.

01:10:13.000 I think all of us who have said it's okay have said we ourselves experienced it maybe once.

01:10:18.000 And so, among other things, I don't imagine any of these studies they're doing are very good at capturing the value that comes from a parent who spanks their child literally once ever while they're growing up.

01:10:30.000 I think that's difficult to capture, but I think the value is real.

01:10:33.000 Did you guys ever experience any physical punishment when you became like teenagers?

01:10:37.000 My dad, the longest thing he would do, and this is going to sound extremely funny today, but I did once possess hair atop my head.

01:10:44.000 And if my dad thought I was giving him lip or being sassy, he would grab me by the back, by the short hairs in the back right here.

01:10:51.000 Which ones you still have, to be clear?

01:10:53.000 Well, I don't really have them there anymore.

01:10:55.000 He couldn't grab them anymore for sure.

01:10:57.000 They used to be grabbable.

01:10:59.000 My mom used to do that when I was a kid, but not as a kid.

01:11:02.000 One time when I was, I must have been like 14 or 15, and I sort of vaguely remember it.

01:11:08.000 I actually look back, just to be in my dad's defense, I look back and I'm like, totally respect it.

01:11:14.000 But I got really mouthy.

01:11:17.000 Like, really mouthy.

01:11:18.000 He said some really nasty things.

01:11:20.000 And I think he slapped me.

01:11:22.000 Not very hard, but he slapped me and he said, You will respect me.

01:11:26.000 You will respect me.

01:11:28.000 And I remember in the moment, I was so shocked.

01:11:32.000 I can't believe you.

01:11:33.000 How dare you?

01:11:34.000 Yeah, seriously.

01:11:35.000 That was basically the general energy.

01:11:37.000 And then it dawned on me when I was 25.

01:11:40.000 I was like, I had this grudging respect for my old man.

01:11:44.000 I was like, Yeah, he put me in my place.

01:11:46.000 Good for him, actually.

01:11:47.000 Because I really deserved it.

01:11:49.000 And now as I get older.

01:11:51.000 As now as I get older, I don't grudgingly respect it.

01:11:55.000 I'm like, that was rad.

01:11:56.000 Like, good for you.

01:11:57.000 Now I'm just thinking on the other freak outs that they can have from punishments.

01:12:01.000 So we reflect on spanking, but I wonder if the experts would now say, like, taking your child's phone away for a prolonged period.

01:12:08.000 That would be problematic.

01:12:09.000 And I am thinking, I'm sorry, I'm going to drag one of my sisters here for a bit.

01:12:12.000 I remember one time my parents grounded my sister by taking her phone away for, I believe, one or two days.

01:12:19.000 And I remember her literally screaming, You have ruined my life!

01:12:24.000 Maybe we did.

01:12:24.000 I don't know how our life would have gone.

01:12:26.000 I got a full nine billion years ago.

01:12:27.000 As a teenager, I got my dad to use the F word one time.

01:12:30.000 Sorry, Dad, I haven't exposed you.

01:12:33.000 That was like the only time.

01:12:34.000 My dad's like really slow to anger.

01:12:34.000 My dad never cussed.

01:12:36.000 He's like really chill and he never gets angry.

01:12:38.000 He always says the F word.

01:12:39.000 But you pushed enough buttons.

01:12:40.000 I pushed enough buttons where he like dropped an F bomb on me and I started laughing.

01:12:45.000 Because I was like shocked and nervous all at the same time.

01:12:50.000 But I was just like laughing.

01:12:51.000 But it left like an impression with me.

01:12:53.000 It was like I actually felt bad that I made my dad so mad that.

01:12:57.000 It probably still my situation where it was like, like I made I felt bad that I made my dad so mad that he did that.

01:13:04.000 And I know he was like disappointed in himself afterwards that I like got on his jack.

01:13:08.000 Anything for you when you got older and got all silly?

01:13:11.000 The one thing that I just have to reflect on is um, this is going back like you know, I guess seven, seven, six or seven years now is that you know, just over the six or seven years that I've dealt with Andrew Colbert, I mean, I'm right there with his dad.

01:13:27.000 I totally get it.

01:13:30.000 I do have that one time when you slapped Andrew in the office.

01:13:32.000 That was weird, Jack.

01:13:34.000 I thought we weren't talking about that on air.

01:13:36.000 I turned the other cheek.

01:13:38.000 Yeah, I mean, listen, maybe I was just a bad teenager.

01:13:41.000 I don't know.

01:13:42.000 I was actually a pretty good kid in general, but I definitely had that coming.

01:13:47.000 I went through this phase where I would say out of line things, trying to get a shock out of my parents.

01:13:54.000 Anyways, Foz says, when I was five, all the kids would talk about spankings, and I was curious and jealous that I never got spanked since my parents were against it.

01:14:03.000 So, I kept doing things that were naughty to try and get spanked, and then it finally happened, and I didn't love it.

01:14:09.000 Never happened again. 0.87

01:14:11.000 Fah's a good kid.

01:14:11.000 Let's see.

01:14:11.000 There you go.

01:14:12.000 Fah's still a good man.

01:14:14.000 So, I don't know.

01:14:15.000 I'm kind of with you, Blake. 0.95

01:14:16.000 My instincts say that this is woke garbage, and it's probably okay sometimes. 0.97

01:14:20.000 You have to do it dispassionately. 0.99

01:14:22.000 You can't be doing it in anger and freaking the kids out.

01:14:25.000 You can't be beaten with a belt for 40 minutes.

01:14:28.000 It has to have boundaries and limitations.

01:14:30.000 But if you don't have that as an option on the table, it's kind of like, you know.

01:14:36.000 Well, and there's a lot of other things I was going to bring up that are non physical, but it's the same thing.

01:14:41.000 If it's just a threat and you never do it, then there are no teeth.

01:14:45.000 You're going to hold your word.

01:14:47.000 You're not your kid's friends.

01:14:49.000 You're not friends.

01:14:50.000 I mean, there's two things.

01:14:50.000 You're the authority.

01:14:51.000 You're the authority.

01:14:52.000 I know we got to go, but.

01:14:53.000 You can't do that.

01:14:53.000 My dad did one thing, not to me, but to my brother.

01:14:56.000 He had his car and he threatened, like, hey, if you do, I can't remember what he did, something like goofed off or broke curfew or did something.

01:15:04.000 He's like, I'm going to take away your car.

01:15:06.000 And.

01:15:07.000 My dad did take away my brother's car without him knowing.

01:15:11.000 He had an extra key to it and then parked it in a storage locker.

01:15:16.000 Like it fit perfectly in the storage locker, closed the door and gave the storage locker key to my brother, but didn't tell him which storage locker it was or where it was at.

01:15:26.000 Right.

01:15:27.000 So he had to live with, like, hey, if you lose this, now you're responsible for the storage locker key.

01:15:32.000 And if you lose the storage locker key, right, you're never getting your car back because I'm not going to tell you where it is.

01:15:38.000 Like it's gone.

01:15:39.000 And so you have to be responsible enough to, like, Keep the storage locker key for as long.

01:15:43.000 And then when I decide to let it out, it's really funny to put it in like one of the extremely large storage locker complexes we have in Phoenix and just say, like, it's one of them.

01:15:53.000 Just make them do every lock.

01:15:55.000 All right, Animal Farm, Jack, take us home on it.

01:15:57.000 Oh, yeah, yeah.

01:15:58.000 I do have to report back that I did finally get a chance to sit down and watch the new Animal Farm.

01:16:07.000 I think I was actually like live commenting on it in our group chat while I was watching it.

01:16:14.000 And Yeah, I just totally agree with Blake.

01:16:16.000 I mean, within like the first 25 minutes or so, it's pretty much like beat for beat, the same story as the book.

01:16:24.000 And then it just takes a wild turn, becomes extremely anti capitalist.

01:16:28.000 It just is.

01:16:29.000 I mean, it was clearly like the villain is clearly driving a cyber truck, by the way.

01:16:34.000 And it's also just not a good story.

01:16:36.000 I was surprised because I was watching your live commentary.

01:16:39.000 You're like, it's not that bad.

01:16:40.000 It's pretty whatever right now.

01:16:42.000 And then, yeah, like the first third was like kind of the same.

01:16:45.000 And then it just goes off the rails completely.

01:16:49.000 All right.

01:16:49.000 Well, it's been a fun episode of very culture, like media.

01:16:54.000 High culture.

01:16:55.000 Star Wars. 0.97

01:16:57.000 Trashy books.

01:16:58.000 Animal Farm.

01:16:58.000 Bad novel adaptations.

01:17:00.000 We should get back into the thought crime y stuff next week, I think.

01:17:03.000 We got to be tempted to say things we don't want close.

01:17:07.000 But we got to bail.

01:17:08.000 So thank you, everyone.

01:17:10.000 Take us home, Jack.

01:17:12.000 Ladies and gentlemen, as always, go out there and commit more thought crime.

01:17:21.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to charliekirk.com.

The Charlie Kirk Show - May 30, 2026

THOUGHTCRIME Ep. 129 — Spanking Your Kids? The Death of Reading? Star Wars Boycott?

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Transcript