Talking Futurama - I Dated a Robot

I saw the 2019 movie it was so boring.

Mark D Myers

Your kissing only theory is bunk!

Mark D Myers

Is it weird that I saw that Madeleine Albright died and my first thought was to come here to discuss how she narrowly avoided the TS "curse"?

PurpleComet

Fry mentioning the vampire and explosion before the scene makes perfect sense: he's seen it before. Probably my favorite Futurama joke.

Rhomega

We are against whichever side has allied with the Lucy Liu-bots. - Bob

Talking Simpsons

I actually kind of wonder if the overloaded Scary Door at the beginning of this episode is there to lightly foreshadow the twist of the sex robots being made using evil head shocking mumbo jumbo. It’s tough to say, since Scary Door always seems like such a time filler bit (and the extended length of the fake PSA makes me think they had time to fill), but it’s certainly a relevant filler if that’s the case.

SomeBloke

I'm lost, what is Henry's position on Russia invading Ukraine? In the podcast it makes it sound like he is mocking people who think that Russia has a point in their bombing, but this was recorded before the invasion. Surely he's vocal about his opposition to the invasion to be consistent in his positions. Haven't listened in a while but love the show.

shea dewar

Sorry, I know this convo is done but I just remembered what you were talking about re: Infinity Train and wanted to clarify. The writer Lindsay Katai said she doesn't care if people pirate her show, then Bob jokes "the only thing people shouldn't pirate are podcasts!" but that's just it -- it was a joke. Clearly he doesn't believe that (especially since piracy helped preserve the early Retronauts episodes!).

nina matsumoto

No prob and thank you for your civil discourse! I was initially taken aback by your first post so I was hesitant to respond as I thought you were looking for a fight, but I'm glad to have been proven wrong and you're clearly a good listener.

nina matsumoto

While this likely falls under the producing umbrella, I have also been amazed over the years at some of the guests they get. Guest booking definitely takes a lot of work and Bob/Henry are great at it! (Btw, if you are looking for a guest for a sports episode, in particular a baseball one, I would highly suggest the Distraction podcast hosts (one of Defector's podcasts, they are big Simpsons fans)) I reread my initial comment and I was far too hostile. I'm sorry about that, you don't need me coming off the top rope nor was it deserved, but I truly appreciate Bob and Nina's thoughtful responses

I.C. Weiner

Glad you decided to take the plunge and pay! I don't need to convince you, obviously, but just musing here -- Bob and Henry aren't just being podcasters. They're also: -Producers -Social media/community managers -Researchers -Editors (now they can pay others to edit most of their eps but when they started out, they had to edit everything) In a corporate production, those are all separate paid salary positions! AND they have to pay for: -Libsyn hosting -Their "studio" (which is Henry's apartment, but it's space that takes up his home, which he has to pay rent for) -Equipment -Research material -Health insurance -An accountant -misc self-employed business fees -etc. etc. Again, in a huge production, most of the above would be provided FOR them. So yeah, they deserve a few dollars from their listeners.

nina matsumoto

Yea, you may be right. I'm not trying to argue that point in particular but more make the point that while you guys have long discussions regarding piracy, I don't think they are nuanced discussions or acknowledge the nuances. As an aside, I thought paying for podcasts was the dumbest thing in the world and I was of the opinion that they should be free. I found your podcast because of your beef with a certain conservative and after listening for 6 months or so I decided to take the plunge because I knew you and Henry wanted to expand your content but couldn't without support and you put out such great content how could I say no to paying the people that brought me so much entertainment and joy? Despite breaking my thought process for you guys, I still have only ever paid for one other podcast (WHM, which I found through your show). So, I think you definitely have it harder in the podcasting mines to convince people to pay for your content than musicians do.

I.C. Weiner

People have been conditioned to pay nothing or almost nothing for media for more than a decade now; heck, podcasts started as a free form of entertainment. This is why we charge $5 up-front from 1000s of hours of audio, which is practically free. Piracy isn't something most podcasters are concerned about since most of us get people to pay for extras by giving away a dozen hours of free content every month. Everyone is competing with the endless amounts of free or nearly free entertainment—even us.

Bob Mackey

I agree that this is a nuanced conversation and while I don't agree with everything articulated here I do feel like this is far more of a nuanced discussion regarding piracy then I have heard discussed on an episode which generally is very one sided without really acknowledging how piracy can be bad or have negative consequences. Like on this episode Bob concluded that Napster more or less (edit) made the music industry far more accessible (end edit) and set the market for the true value of music which is why it is free on Spotify now. When it is arguable--and I too don't particularly care if Metallica is hurt a few hundred grand or what have you--that music was so devalued by piracy that people have now been conditioned to pay $0.00 for music on demand and it has done incredible harm to that industry.

I.C. Weiner

Ultimately, libraries are the secret villains in this, and they must be stopped at all costs

Bob Mackey

I think Patreon just makes broad reply threads so you can't reply to anyone directly in it so no worries about that; thanks for replying I think it's a grey area which is why I say I don't 100% agree with them -- I agree in parts, not so much in others. I'm against manga scanlations for example because they do actively hurt the industry (especially in this day and age when SO MUCH content is being localized, and FAST, too -- which I think was fueled by the massive manga scanlation movement). I wouldn't want my indie comics being pirated either. But Sparks, eh... it's published by such a huge company. If a parent can't afford to get it for their kids and they feel like they have to resort to a pirated version, then whatever. Though if a parent can't afford to get it for their kid, they'd probably just go to the library. There are enough free options that I think piracy is a non-issue. It's a real case-by-case thing, not an "it's always bad " "it's always good" thing.

nina matsumoto

It's a nuanced issue, and I'll say stealing an episode of a TV show, movie, or any corporate product is much different than stealing a podcast supported by less than 3000 people, and produced by two people who handle and pay for every facet of the production. And if you're trying to compare those two situations, it feels to me like you're doing it in bad faith. I'm not going to care if I see you shoving Yu-Gi-Oh cards down your pants at Wal-Mart, but I probably would care if I saw you swiping something from a yard sale. Ultimately, it's not a black and white issue—which is why we talked about it for 30 minutes. But hell, you have to illegally pirate old episodes of Retronauts to hear them! And without piracy, that's a decade of work in the toilet. Like I said, it's complicated.

Bob Mackey

I can't figure out Patreon's interface so sorry for not replying directly to either of you. I have seen Bob on Twitter get mad at someone for hosting a Patreon Retronauts episode, and even in a previous episode discussing piracy with the Infinity Train creative (apologies, I can't remember her name or what episode she was on) Bob and Henry sang the virtues of piracy while explicitly saying it was uncool for people to do to them. Outside of getting more exposure by having more or less accidental breakout content once (which a lot of podcasts do for marketing purposes) I'm positive Bob doesn't want the entirety of Babbling 'Bout Batman or the new Sparks graphic novel (loved the first two Nina and can't wait to read the third to my son) to be put on the internet outside of the monetized ecosystems

I.C. Weiner

Yeah I don't know what you're talking about?? I remember Bob telling me "people are alerting us to our Chapo episodes being on YouTube but I don't care." I don't 100% agree with their piracy arguments (being part of the comics industry, where piracy does hurt) but I do not think they are being hypocritical. Can you show examples of them talking about their content being stolen?

nina matsumoto

I don't think anyone has posted our Patreon episodes for free (though I'm sure it's happened), and I don't think we've ever vocally complained about it in any non-joking way. I saw someone had recently posted some of our episodes with Chapo guests on YouTube, but I didn't mind because they had 10s of 1000s of hits, and that meant even more people finding out about our show.

Bob Mackey

Everytime Henry and Bob condone piracy and pretend it is good actually I chuckle to myself because I know how upset they get when someone posts one of their Patreon episodes for free even though there is no way a single posting can possibly hurt their bottom line and all of their arguments as to why they were entitled to other people's content also applies to people stealing their's.

I.C. Weiner

That's what I thought too! The satire actually applies way more to deepfakes than anything Napster did. Remember when the existence of deepfakes came out because they were using it to make non-consensual porn videos? Cut to a few years later it's like "yeah, whatever, let's just use it to bring a young Luke Skywalker back."

Harry Thornton

It's funny how while the criticisms of Napster in this episode are rather naive and petulant, this episode did make me think of more personal issues that come from sharing private information with private nudes pictures and the use of deepfakes. If in 2020 became can make algorithims to copy anything a Lucy Liu were to say or every part of her body; that could do a lot of damage depending on who was in control of images. Any argument that Napster would harm corporations or the industry is very laughable and more good tends to come from the sharing of art for easier/broader consumption. But I think on an individual level of copying somebody could probably lead to a deeper ethical conundrum.

SilkiePJ

the first time i watched this episode i totally thought we were about to watch an episode about fry losing his hands only to regain them in the 3rd act. such a funny fuck you kind of joke like oh yeah this doesnt matter at all.