Welcome to “Ear Biscuits,” the podcast where two lifelong friends talk about life for a long time. I’m Rhett. And I’m Link. This week at the Round Table of Dim Lighting, we’re phoning it in again. It’s all coming to a little whimper. “Ear Biscuits” just whimpering into its hiatus. Look at us. I think if I undersell it, people will be glad. I don’t know. That it’s ending. I believe that what you just said is upsetting to most people. I know, but it’s a joke because- “I know, but it’s a joke.” I said it last week and then I’m like, “That was a good episode, man.” Last week’s episode was such a- ‘Cause you set the bar so low at the beginning. Such a good episode, and I was like, “I’m gonna do that again this week.” Okay, all right. So I’m gonna say I’m phoning it in again. We can’t phone it in. We care too much about you listening and we wanna make it special. ‘Cause hey- Oh, that’s quite a- This is the ending. Reversal of course. For an indefinite period. And we need you here for it. And we don’t need you complaining about how we got senioritis, you know? Oh. Ear Biscuititis. “I can tell they don’t care anymore about it.” I haven’t seen that. Have you seen that? In a way it would be- No, I haven’t seen that, because they can’t tell that we don’t care about it because we don’t not care about it. The last thing we want do is keep doing it until we don’t care about it. So who are you talking to? Or we resent it. You! I feel like you’re just having a conversation in your head because you just said, But I’m using my mouth. “Don’t complain about us getting senioritis.” And I’m like, “Okay, either this has happened or you anticipate it happen,” and you’re like, “Well, no!” Well, then why did you bring it up? It’s like Mr. Hypothetical over here. Yeah. Mr. Hypothetical. It’s not even happening! I don’t think, by the way, I’ve ever been Mr. Hypothetical. I don’t like to think of hypotheticals. I’m an in-the-moment guy. Well, you’ve really been hypothetical since we started. No, no, no. In this moment, I’m dialing it in. I’m reeling it back from dialing it in. Okay. To giving it my all. Isn’t it funny that you dial in and phone in? Which sounds like it could be the same thing, but they’re very different. And dialing it back. So dialing in- I’m dialing back phoning it in, because I’m dialing it in today. So phoning it in makes sense because you’re like, “I’m just gonna-” I’m not even showing up. “I’m just gonna make a phone call.” Basically phoning it in is work from home. That’s what work from home is. Yeah. Right? Phoning it in. Yeah. But it kind of means something different now. But what is dialing it in? Like literally, what is that from? Like fine tuning. Dialing it in, like focusing. Yeah, like a… You remember how radios, Rhett, used to work when there’d be the stick that would move and you would use the circle to move the stick. Right, I think that’s the question I’m asking. Is it the radio or is it an engineer on a- It’s gotta be the radio. Dial it in, like really… Yeah, to get it in perfectly. The right frequency. Without any static. Without any static. No static at all. I remember when we first got a car radio that had the stations and it wasn’t an analog dial, I didn’t trust it. You didn’t trust it? I was like, “Hold on-” It was too exact? Are you talking about a digital display? Yeah, because you know that’s how it worked. It wouldn’t let you… The digital display made you land on a certain number. It was like a 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 0.9, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whereas back in the day on my little Toshiba, which I recently watched a movie and they had the same Jambox, the Toshiba Jambox that I had in there, but that had a silver dial like this. And I guaran-damn-tee you, I got to like 94.6, you know? You couldn’t get to 94.6 on- Oh, yeah. 94.7 was the country station. So are you telling me that 94.6- Was nothing. Can’t have anything? It had nothing. But I could get there. Yeah, you got there, but it was 99.7 lite. Think about those times when you got into a double station. That was sweet, man. Where you could go between country and rock. It’s like mix. That’s how country got invented. Analog dialing it in! Somebody got stuck between two stations. They dialed it out. And they were like, “I feel like there’s a little bit of that, a little bit of this. I like both of ’em.” If you phone in dialing it in, then you get a hybrid. That’s how country rap happened as well. Yep, that’s exactly right. That’s how rap got in the country. Everybody wonders and it was a little boy one time somewhere, or it could have been a little girl, somewhere, they were on a 0.8, 0.6, 0.4, 0.2. 98.6. Between a rap station and a country station and they had an epiphany, and that little boy was- Now I’m gonna, I’m trying to name a country artist who raps. Who’s the first one who started doing that? The first country rapper? The first country rap. The first country artist who rapped in a song that would be on country radio. They’ve been doing those trap beats for a while. I wouldn’t know that. I wouldn’t know. ‘Cause the Florida Georgia line guys, they did bro country, but they didn’t start out rapping. And it had to have been before Morgan Wallen. But I really don’t know, you know? We’re both kind of out of it. Bellamy Brothers’ 1987 song, “Country Rap.” Yep. Are you serious? 1987? The Bellamy Brothers did it? Uh-huh. “Country Rap?” Uh-huh. Is the name of the song. Uh-huh. What?! Colt Ford is recognized as a pioneer of the modern country rap genre. Colt Ford? That little boy was Colt Ford! The little boy was Colt Ford. And his uncles were the Bellamy Brothers. Colt Ford is the most country name ever. It’s a gun and a truck. It’s like, that is the best name I’ve ever heard. His middle name needs to be, you know, whiskey. Colt Jack Ford. Colt Wild Turkey. Colt Wild Turkey Ford. Wow. See, we learned something today. Remington… Well, we already have the Colt. Remington Moonshine… We already have the Colt. Chevy. I feel like it needs to be one syllable. I think Colt Jack Ford. Remington Moonshine Chevy. I think Colt Jack Ford works ’cause it’s- Colt Jack Ford. It’s three words. Yep. They’re all four letters, one syllable. You were talking about something and I was thinking- Oh yeah, I was thinking about- A hypothetical? The radio presets that worked in your car on the dial. And the buttons were really long. It’s like, it’s like a long, if a nipple is real long? It’s like, “Oh, that’s a long nipple. That nipple really comes out.” That’s how the preset buttons were on the radios. And you’d push it and it had a good amount of travel. You could push the nipple back in. And when you pushed it in, it was really hard to push and there was a lot of resistance. And then all of a sudden, prop! It would go in, and then it would mechanically move the stick. This is an old radio. And it would skip it a long ways. If you were on the far left and you did the far right button, it’d have to drag that stick or push it all the way over. And you could feel the mechanics of it working. I miss that feeling. I need that feeling in my life again. Those were the ones before the digital display. Oh, yeah. My granddad, my papa had a Ford and it had an 8-track player in it and it had these buttons for the radio, presets on the radio, so you’re not sitting there driving down the road trying to dial it in. Yeah. But when you hit that button, you would still have to do a little dialing it in. But you had to dial it in to get the preset. So you had to find it first and know that you had found it for real. And I think the way you set it was when you put it where you want it, you would pull the button out further. ‘Cause it was like springs back there. It didn’t feel like springs, but yeah, there had be something like a spring. It was sophisticated for sure. You never had one of those in your dad’s Buick or something? I mean, maybe my dad’s Oldsmobile Cutlass. He had a Cutlass Supreme? Supreme. Yeah. Yeah. The burrito supreme of cars. Right. It probably did, I just don’t remember. All I remember, the speedometer was completely horizontal and it had, like, if you were to take the cover off, it would’ve just had a dial that went like this. A big… A big radius on that dial. But it was a black display with an orange needle that, the thing that you could see was a slit. Yeah. And so, it had- It was so wide, right? And it had created the MPH on there in a way that took into account the fact that it was a dial turning underneath. So when you were going 80, the dial was like this. And the literal little ticks on it, on the Cutlass Supreme thing went like this. I know I’m not, maybe- They got bigger apart the further- Further apart, and they slanted. Yeah. Well, not this ’cause it didn’t have negative, it was one direction. It didn’t have negative MPH. The faster you went, the bigger the gaps were in the… It was like somebody was like, “We want this to be a horizontal linear display, but it’s a dial in there.” It’s like making a damn Swiss watch for a Buick dashboard. And then Mama Nel got a new car and it had the speed, speedometer was a digital display and it was a really big number that changed. Oh. And I was like, “How in the hell is this thing happening?” But I bet she still had the- No. The analog. Nothing. No. It was just a digital display. Oh! And I was, I would just sit in her car and just look at the numbers as she drove. Just like, “I can’t believe there’s numbers changing, like magically changing in front of my face inside of a car!” It was looking at it and being like, “Whoa! 65 now it’s 49.” Yeah. It’s pretty cool, man. It’s just a number! It’s not a dial, it’s just a number! I mean, that was how we were entertained. We sound like such old farts right now, but I’m just wanna keep going with this. Yeah, we were entertained by the feel of the buttons. Because the next thing that happened to me later in life was I saw an Encyclopedia Britannica commercial. I know what you’re gonna say. With a CD ROM. They had a CD ROM, and I saw video of a cheetah on the screen moving on a computer screen, and I was like, I had to hold onto the table. I was like, “What? A computer can be like a TV?” A little TV. It was a little TV screen floating on the computer. Yeah, but- From the encyclopedia disc. But I want you to understand how I thought about this for a very long time. I saw that commercial, and then I would wait for the commercial to come back on, I’d be like- “There’s no way I got it right.” There’s a way- ‘Cause meanwhile I’m at school in Miss Everhart’s class on a computer that is a black screen with green text. Floppy disc. And that’s it. That’s all you got. It was an Apple. And maybe sometimes it was an orange text. Oh, I don’t even think so. But there was no color and there it was all just very, it was just text displays, right? And maybe there would be like a Oregon trail that created some kind of thing, but like, that was as… They had very rudimentary graphics. But not a cheetah running. And the to think that it could be a cheetah running? And a 320 by 320 pixel display? What? I thought about it for so long. You never knew a cheetah could be that fast on the computer. I concluded it wasn’t real. You did? I said, “I think it’s something they did for TV.” “I think it’s something, I think it’s like an effect.” It bothered you so much you had to write it off. You had to convince yourself. I don’t think it can be real. It was a lie. I think that if you got a video screen on a computer is something they did in editing, and I wouldn’t have known the word editing or the word effects or anything. I just thought it was a trick. It was a movie trick. Movie magic. ‘Cause if it was true, your life couldn’t have handled it. There was no place in your life for that reality at that point. Yeah, I just couldn’t. And I never ever experienced it until maybe college. What are you- Video on- Video on a computer screen. I don’t know if we had that at Trent’s house. I didn’t have a computer at the house. I don’t think we had that at Trent’s house. I mean, my parents didn’t get a computer at their house until… 10 years ago? Yeah. Why would they? You know? Just keep upgrading your television. You know? You know? Your dad’s got a tablet now, right? Even Christy’s dad has a tablet now. He’s had a tablet for, like, four years. When you say tablet, you mean iPad? He calls it a tablet, and I think it’s not an iPad. I don’t think my dad has a tablet. I think it’s another type of tablet. I think he just has an iPhone and he has a Mac. Oh. Like a desktop. We did get Christy’s parents’ satellite or cable. We got them more channels last Christmas. Well, satellite or cable. We need to specify. You buy people pretty satellite in 2025? I’m pretty sure it’s dish. Dish is a satellite, right? Yeah, it’s a satellite dish. Yeah. That’s why they call it dish. There you go. Yeah. We got ’em that. You’re saying it was too late? They had just five channels until last year, dude. So yeah, I got ’em satellite. Why? Why? What should we have- What do you mean why? Cable! Cable, satellite, same thing. Not it’s not! Cable is a coaxial cable that comes into your house and you don’t have to have a satellite on your roof. Yeah, but I think they didn’t, the cable didn’t run down their street. They’re in the middle of the country. Well, you didn’t specify that. Well. You’re saying cable wasn’t available. Yeah, satellite makes sense for a lot of people who don’t have access to- Dish. Call it dish. Dish makes sense for- Anyway, they have dish. People who don’t have that. But it’s very frustrating because it goes out- I had dish in North Carolina. It goes out. You know? And there’s the damn trees in my yard. We get these big trees and I got dish, and where are you gonna put dish? I should get ’em one of those… I should get ’em a dial, you could dial in the channels. Back to that. Yeah. All right. Let’s have some fun today, you know? We’ve broken the seal on it. We’re fully committed. We actually got a voicemail from Kevin’s dad. Kevin- Kevin that works here. Oh, yes! Yes. And it was very cute. He’s just very cute. All right. Let’s hear. Hey, Rhett and Link. It’s John Kostelnik from Lancaster, California. I’ve watched many shows and even participate in one and I love everything you guys have done. Hey, I’m calling about you ending “Ear Biscuit” soon, and I have to say that I’m more concerned about both of your health. Removing one of your avenues of expression won’t be detrimental to the highways of humor that you guys and your team have built. You know, your fans need… No, Christy, Jenny, and your families deserve you to be healthy and strong enough to continue your journey. Jessie. While enjoying your lives. I support your decision, guys, and wish you all the best. Good luck and thanks. I just thought that was cute. Are you sure that wasn’t Martin Sheen? Martin Sheen is a lot meaner than that. Martin Sheen woulda busted our balls. Are you sure that wasn’t sweet Martin Sheen? Kevin’s dad is sweetest Martin Sheen. The tone of his voice, I’m saying. The tone of his voice. Like the the staccato delivery. Yeah. Maybe he should take over. Bring Kevin’s dad in and take over. It’s interesting that he was worried about Mike’s wife, Jenny, and not my wife Jessie. He meant Jessie. No, I understood it. I’m sure he is met Christy and Jessie. Yeah. Mm-hmm. We met him a couple times. Like he said, he was on at least one episode, but… Yeah. At first I thought he was saying that, he said he was concerned about our health, but I thought he was actively concerned about our health. And then I thought he was saying that by stopping the show, it’s gonna have a negative effect on our health. He was saying that he didn’t think that the- He used a very interesting metaphor, and I don’t remember what it was, but basically- What was the metaphor that he used? The streams of humor? Yeah, it was basically that the pillars of what you guys do is not gonna, taking that away is still gonna work out even without “Ear Biscuits.” Okay, good. Right, yeah. That’s good to hear. Everything’s gonna be okay. And he’s still gonna have “Mythical 24/7.” We know that he watches. Right. Yeah. He watches some “Mythical 24/7.” Yeah. Also love that he didn’t say that he was Kevin’s dad, he just said like a regular caller, like, “Hey!” Yeah, we know you. We know who he is. And also he reminds us of the proper pronunciation of Kostelnik. Kostelnik. Which we never say properly when we were describing Kevin. Costal-nick. Well, I discovered in a meeting that for some… In our monthly companywide meeting, we started doing this thing. I mean, it’s been fraught. We’ll say this. Oh. Yeah. There’s a segment where we acknowledge how long people have worked for us. On the month of their hire date, we acknowledge if they’ve- At a minimum number of what, five years? I think we start at two. Two? Mm-hmm. Yeah, but we can go all the way up to 13. Maybe three. Maybe we start at three. I mean, Kevin’s probably worked for us for maybe 12 years. Something like that. Yeah. Anyway! When we would list out their names, we would say the person’s first and last name for some reason. Well, because there’s a lot of people with the same name. We have to specify. There’s some people with the same name. Yeah. And people’s last name is part of their name. And their last name is part of their name. Yeah. But for Kevin, I just found myself saying his last name and realizing that over the course of over a decade, I had apparently never said it. And so I stumbled over it and said it wrong. Well, you said it the way I thought it was pronounced. But I said it while saying that he’s worked here for 12 years. And so in the same breath as celebrating how long he’s been here, I perfectly conveyed that I had no clue how to say his last name. Which is why we now refer to everyone by their last name. Like Ms. Purdy. That’s me! You know? And let’s see, Miss Pittinger? Pityinger. Pityinger! See? Pittinger. Pityinger. There’s no way by looking at it that you could tell that’s how it’s pronounced. Okay, feel good. But see, that’s just a testament to the fact that we never say people’s last names. Like, we don’t. It’s just like, I see your last name written all the time. Yeah. Yeah, we don’t need to say that. And I’m just like Pittinger. But now I know it’s Pityinger. It’s a high standard to apply to us, so. Have you ever met another Pityinger? You’re the only Pityinger I’ve met. I think she probably has family. No, besides people that you’re related to. So we are the only people that spell it this way. There’s other Pittingers that spell it where you could read it as Pittinger. Oh. But it’s like, only our family, like, people related to us have- So I don’t have to do any numbers, I’m just, like, Jamie Pityinger. Are you sure it’s not Pa-ting! Ger. No, but that would be cool. I don’t like that. Like, ting-ger! I just feel like I’d have to walk around with a screen with a cartoon spitting into a tube. Yeah. Right. Every time I said it. But I do like that actually. Have you guys heard of this? And it’s one of those things that was on Dateline in 2018, but now ends up going viral on TikTok, this is the thing that happens? Yeah. Baseball players, Minor League Baseball players. There’s one guy and his name is something very specific, like Marcus Schrodinger, or you know? Okay. Something very specific. And he’s 6’5, 215 pounds, red hair, red beard, wears very specific glasses, like athletic glasses that have like the Kurt Rambus black thing on top and then the no frames on the bottom, and he’s a pitcher or something in Minor League. Well, they found another guy, who, everything else, every single thing that I just said applied to him and they didn’t know each other. Same name, same height, same weight, red hair, same glasses, both professional Minor League Baseball players. Oh my God. And it was a Dateline thing where they brought them together and they were like, “You have to be related.” And they did a DNA test, and then the first thing that came up was like, they were both 53% Irish. Okay. And everybody was like, “They are twins! They’re long lost twins!” And then the next thing was different. They’re not related at all. Oh. So it was wild! And now they’re like, I guess they’re still in touch. Acquaintances. They’re buds at this point. When they took their hat off and took their glasses off, you could tell that they weren’t twins. Oh. But with the glasses and the hat, the fact that they both did these neck beard, chin strap thing, the same length, red hair? It was fascinating! And to think is that there is somebody out there, everyone has a doppelganger. And when you’re a public figure- Yeah, but- People point this out all the time, but… Not to the extent of- Not to that extent. Yeah, I think it’d be much easier for a Minor League Baseball player to have a doppelganger than somebody like us, I would hope. Well, what are you trying to say? That we’re more unique than- This guy’s pretty, pretty fricking unique! They fall into certain looks. Like, what you described sounded like an Irish descent- Oh, come on. Minor League Baseball player. But what it would be like is if there was another internet person who was named Link Neal who looked like you, and I just don’t think that that could happen because this would’ve been discovered so long ago. Yeah. Like, the moment that it was about to happen, it would’ve been discovered and somebody would’ve made a change. It would’ve been stopped. Somebody would’ve made a change. Someone would’ve put a stop to it. But the worst thing that happens is when somebody thinks you have a doppelganger and you’re not flattered by that. Like when Justin Long said I looked like the guy from “Superman.” And then I was like- The ugly guy. “Which guy are you talking about?” “You know, the ugly guy.” And then when we finally found the guy that I looked like, I was like- And then he saw it and he was like, “A handsome version of this guy!” It’s like, “Oh, thank you. Thank you for that.” All right. Hit us with another one. Hey, this is Caroline. I am an Ear Biscuiteer from Australia. And I wanna say I took a little bit of offense to Rhett assuming that all babies crawling with snakes must be fake. As a python owner who has had pythons for years since my daughter was a little girl and she was a baby crawling with snakes, a toddler crawling with snakes, a child running around with snakes, some kids like snakes. I think it all actually comes down to just whether the parents are okay with snakes. She saw me holding them, carrying them around, feeding them with no fear, no issues, so she’s been fine to do the same. It’s not always AI. Thanks. Love you guys. Okay. I stand corrected. It’s not always AI, sometimes- It’s Australians. Pretty much. It’s an Australian mom with questionable judgment! Oh no. You know what? It is always AI, ’cause sometimes it’s Australian infants! Oh! Oh! Clap. Clap for that. Hey, listen. Hey. Here’s the thing. I gotta say, I’m just checking in a little bit on this because we talked about it last time and I know people are talking about it, but I just feel the need to talk about it because we are in this phase right now, right? Where a certain not insignificant percentage of the videos that are coming up on TikTok and Instagram are AI, and now people are blurring out the Sora logo or they’re somehow removing it all together. And you know, I am gonna add a big thumbs up to what the top comment is on a lot of these videos, which is, “We’re cooked,” you know? Yeah. What are we gonna do? We’re gonna look back on this time. Like, we’re sitting here talking about analog radios and cars and digital displays and CD ROMs. Missing it. And what are we- Our kids, they’re gonna tell their kids, they’re gonna be like, “Hey, there was a time in which we would see a video and we would know if it was real or not,” right? And they’re gonna live in a time where they do not have the ability to decipher between anything, right? And again, I’m not saying anything new, lots of people are talking about this. But I just, what is going to happen? I don’t understand! I just don’t know what’s gonna happen. So you’re saying the consensus out there is that it’s gonna blur and you’re just not gonna know. You don’t think that there’s gonna be a counter movement or regulation like what was suggested on the show that it should be filtered out? I will say- Well, I surely believe it should be filtered out, but I’m saying that- You don’t think there’ll be something that will make it- The news will be that we didn’t know the difference, because in the future, our grandkids will know the difference because there’s protections in place. Or, and maybe not protections is the right word- I don’t know about that. So you’re thinking it’s much more likely to be the opposite, which is you just don’t know and you accept that it could be, and it doesn’t matter to you. Well, I saw another comment and somebody said, “AI has ruined my ability to find things cute or interesting because now when I see a video, I’m trying to figure out if it’s AI.” And I can’t be like, “This is freaking crazy! This old lady on the front porch with this bear, she’s made friends with this bear?” And it’s just like, “No, no, it’s AI.” But somewhere an old lady made friends with a bear! Somewhere! Right? And she’s getting screwed by AI. And maybe the bear, as we’ve stated- I don’t know, We are anti that. We’re not gonna talk about bestiality again. I don’t know what- I don’t know. No, but you’re hopeful, right? You’re hopeful. No, I’m actually not hopeful. They’re gonna be like, “AI isn’t gonna be-” These platforms… I think that they- Obviously TikTok and Instagram and YouTube and everybody, I think YouTube has said that they’re not monetizing, you can’t monetize AI content, which does disincentivize it. But it’s so easy to make AI slop and people are doing it not for a living. And so I don’t think that’s gonna stop the proliferation of it. I can say definitively that it has ruined the slice of social media that I started to enjoy. Well, you know what? Maybe this is the beauty. It’s really frustrating Here the silver lining. You may enjoy TikTok, and so may I, or Instagram reels or whatever, but enjoy is actually not the right word. Mm-hmm. Addicted to it is probably a better word, right? It’s like you can enjoy cocaine as well. It’s fun to do. Is it good for you? No. Well, we’ve heard that it’s fun to do, but we don’t know, we’ve never done it. So here’s the thing. I think that- And we’re not gonna do it. I think, here’s the thing, that maybe the fact that they are letting AI into the algorithm, for me, it has, I think it has severely cut down on my social media usage because I’m just like, “This isn’t fun anymore.” At least before, when I was going through absolute like brainrot, I knew that it was all generated by people. And that if it was a real-life looking video, then it was coming from someplace on Earth. Yeah. But when it’s coming from a computer somewhere, now I just feel, it feels like it has collapsed something, it’s short circuited something between me and what I’m experiencing. Mm-hmm. And I’m finding myself not very interested. Now, there’s a lot of people who are saying that these real-world experiences, like putting your phone down, having a face-to-face conversation, certain clubs and establishments that are gonna require people to turn their phone off or put their phone into some kind of container in order to have an interaction, that these things are really gonna start taking off because people crave that connection. I’m sure there’s gonna still be people who are like, “I’m going to rely on all this and I’m gonna use ChatGPT to have conversations with people I’m trying to date” and all this stuff. Good luck with that, but- Well, let’s just stay on the social media of it all. I do think it, the punitive experience of my heart leaping, “Oh my God, there’s a cute deer trying to find his spot on the dog bed in between the two old golden retrievers, and his little spindly legs are poking in the fur and trying to figure out the place to lay down.” That’s probably already AI. Is he gonna find it? Did you believe that was real to begin with? Yeah, and then I’m like, “Hold on, is this AI?” And I actually don’t know if it was or wasn’t, but I scrolled away. And I was sad. And it does matter! I was sad. And it does matter! Yeah. I scrolled away. I didn’t even see if the deer was able to successfully snuggle in between the two golden retrievers. But it’s not even a deer. Well, it looked so real. And it didn’t say anything down there. I think it was real. That’s the thing. I actually think it was real. But there was a sliver of doubt that made me scroll on. But maybe the deer- Let’s say the deer is real and the golden retrievers are real. Shouldn’t that experience be for the deer, the golden retrievers, and any person who is witnessing it? Why does it have to be, why did it ever have to be something that was filmed? You’re calling into account all of social- Yeah, that’s what I’m saying! Internet video, dude. Nothing should be filmed! Nothing should be recorded! We should go back to just in-person experiences! Well, listen. It got one less view. GMM is going on the road and that’s the only place it’s gonna be, is on the road! Roadside! Not true. But we’re not going AI. Maybe eventually! I think we could turn GMM into something that you had to show up to watch. I think that this is hurting the cute deer monetization. The cute deer needed a little of that dough, and now it’s not getting it because I think it might be AI. Was that a joke? And then I scroll- It just happens automatically with me. That little deer does need a doe. That’s the whole point. It’s mama’s not there anymore. Two golden retrievers. It’s got two dogs. It’s got two dogs. That’s a confused little deer. So I just scrolled onto the next thing, which by the way, , I got sucked into this Bob Ross thread. You can’t see it. When you see Bob Ross, like- Oh my God. Talking to Eazy-E, you gotta walk. No, listen. You got to walk away. No, no, no. No, no, no. I know that. Okay. That that wasn’t this. Okay. This wasn’t Mr. Rogers talking to Tupac. Okay. Yeah. I scroll past that shit. This was Bob Ross just painting. And then I never knew that there was a cat. Sometimes there was apparently a cat on set, and this cat got up on his painting and scared the shit out of Bob Ross! And you would not believe the colorful language he used. But that’s probably AI! And then I go move on to something else, and then it’s like Bob Ross again, a different painting. Beautiful painting. What you would expect. And this cat is back! And now the cat is on top of the painting again and he’s coughing up a hairball or something! And I am just dying laughing because I can’t help it. It’s so funny. And then the cat proceeds to vomit over the top of the painting and it sticks to the top of the painting. And then it starts to slowly slide down the painting. And then what does Bob Ross do? He takes his paintbrush and he starts trying to paint it off. And as he’s painting the cat vomit down the canvas, it’s messing up everything that he’s painting. Every little tree. And then you would not believe the colorful language that uses at the end! So when did you realize that this was AI, at what point? The first cat video or the second cat video? What? The first one. But I had to show- I mean, I’m sitting here, I was like, I was dying laughing, like, I was crying laughing. Oh, listen! And then I’m turning my phone, I’m showing Christy and she’s like, she made a face at the cat vomit. And then it started coming down the canvas and she like made the “this is AI” face. And she felt completely jilted. I mean, listen, I got into a little, I mean, I sat and watched chiropractor videos. Of people, like, old people’s backs getting broken and getting thrown out windows and buildings and stuff. They can sling an old person! It’s like, I know it’s AI and I was watching it and I said to myself, I was like, “I can’t-” And I just put my phone down, I was like, “Get behind me, Satan.” Cooked. Cooked. We are cooked. We are cooked. We can’t have that! You put your phone down? Yes! I’m gonna send you some of these Bob Ross paintings. the one with the vomit, especially. I watched that… ‘Cause the first one was believable, kinda. You know that movie “The Life of Chuck,” which I, it’s a Stephen King novel, every once in a while he writes a novel that’s not a horror novel, and it was a movie and we kind of find a movie that everyone could enjoy and we watched it the other day, and it’s a little too saccharine from my taste, which I have a pretty high tolerance for that. So anyway. Saccharine. But there was a moment in the movie where the guy’s phone stopped working in kind of a “everyone’s phone stopped working,” and he just like looked at it and then he just threw it in the yard. And I just looked at Jessie, and I’d be like, “That’d be nice.” I was like, “That would be nice.” Throw your phone in the yard? If your phone no longer worked and you were like, “I can’t get in touch with anybody. I can’t do anything with this.” There would be this like feeling of like, “This isn’t…” Just put it- We don’t have that. Just put it away for a whole day if you want to. Well, I am putting it away from- In fact, last night, because I have my watch, if somebody needs to get in touch with me, they can call, I’ll get a text or I’ll get a phone call. So it’s not like I need the phone. I only need the phone for me to access things, ’cause you can’t do any social media on this. So I’ve been practicing, when I can, like if I’m gonna sit down at night to, like, I sat down and watched a baseball game last night and I left my phone in the other room. And now there were moments, especially when commercials come up. Oh, yeah, ’cause you’re having to watch commercials. And I’m just sitting there like a person from the ’80s, just thinking about- Isn’t it worse to watch a commercial than it is to look at your phone? I don’t believe so. In a sense. In the sense that you’re interested in it. I mean, it would be better if when the commercials came on, I just did something like body weight squats. Squats. Or just one of the low squats and just sit there and got advertised to. Or had a book! And be like- You did a low squat. I like to squat low when I’m being advertised to. I turn to my book during the commercials. “Oh, this is the man who reads while he’s advertised to.” He mutes it and then books it. And then, “Oh, the game’s back on!” But even during the game. Baseball, let’s be real, it’s not- I mean, obviously during the World Series, which is what I was watching, much more engaging than it is. I don’t watch regular season baseball. I’m not crazy. I mean, but at what point are you gonna be watching the baseball and then you’re gonna realize, “Hold on, that batter has six fingers on his right hand.” Oh, somebody right now is going around- You realize that you were- Some Harvard grad, 22-year-old dipshit is going around right now trying to get people to invest in AI sports. I guarantee you. Like, “It’s gonna be great! It’s sporting, is sports-” Sporting. “It all takes place in AI, and all of the limitations that you experience watching humans are gone! It’s absolutely crazy. But it’s real, you can bet on it!” You know, you’re gonna see that happen. And it’s probably already happening, I just don’t pay close enough attention to know. It’s like and then they bring back the dials, where it’s like, “I’m watching the MLB network on 94.7,” but then if you’re just at 94.6, you don’t realize that you’re watching the AI version of the same match. Yeah, and there’s gonna be like- Until you see the number of fingers. I’m watching this league, everyone has this particular power. “This is baseball, but everybody is 800 pounds,” or something like that, you know? That’s a power? Yeah, I mean, it would be fun to watch! Okay. You know? All right. So, you know that stuff- Obese Ball? Is that what we’re talking about? You know that stuff is already happening. This is already happening. And the question is, are y’all gonna stay- Are you gonna let it happen? I’m not gonna let it happen! I’m not participating! You don’t have to participate in it! We don’t have to participate in it! You don’t have to! I mean, we may be cooked. Either way we are cooked. Let’s just face it, we’re cooked. But we don’t have to cook ourselves! Yeah. You know? We don’t have to participate in the cooking. I’m confused by this because- Okay. They also say, “Let ’em cook!” Different. And that’s different. Different. It’s like somebody’s doing something at the top of the game or you don’t need to be messed with. You don’t need to be influencing this. Let ’em cook. But being cooked. Should you let ’em cook if they’re cooking you? If we are cooked, no, you shouldn’t let ’em cook if they’re cooking you. Don’t let ’em cook you. That’s it. Next voicemail. Hey, Rhett and Link, this is Jackie calling from Boston. Longtime listener and watcher. And I had a random question for you guys. I was wondering, a lot of actors and actresses, they get their famous lines quoted at them on the street when they’re noticed by fans. I was wondering if something similar ever happened to you guys, and if so, what is quoted at you? I know famously Link has the “You want some of this on your that” that’s gone out. I’m wondering if people yell things like that at you, and what’s the most common one you find? Thanks guys. Love you. I was watching a video of, what actor was it? Who was known for saying something very particular, and I saw somebody saying, “Could you just say so and so? Could you just say so and so?” And I felt so, you know… I was like, “Oh, shit, this guy has to deal with this all the time.” People don’t ask me to say the things I’ve said, but they will say them at me. Or it’ll come up conversationally. I mean, the “Would you like some of this on your that” went so big that, yeah, there were people. There were people who recognized you from that. I remember it was a year ago that I was walking around Halloween Horror Nights and people were saying that to me. So it apparently happened just over about a year ago. And then I went to that, I told the story of I had to try to get reception on my phone ’cause I couldn’t get it from when we were eating at this katsu restaurant in San Francisco. So I had to go stand beside the, like, between the bathrooms and the bartender area. And then there was someone who was cleaning the glasses who didn’t speak English. I tried to have a conversation, but I could tell that there was a language barrier. But then when I came back out, or just a few minutes later, she was like, “Would you like some of this on your that?” And that was very thrilling. But I don’t know if it’s happened since then, man. We need another “this on your that” I guess. Well, I mean, I’m not looking for this to happen. My take is I feel blessed that this isn’t what happens. I’ll tell you what happens, and I was out with friends on Saturday night in Koreatown, which, shout out to Koreatown. Dude, shout ’em out! Because it is the only place in Los Angeles that feels like New York City. If you go out at night, there’s people doing things! Everybody thinks that there’s a lot of stuff going on in LA, and I guess there is ultimately a lot of stuff going on in LA, but not nightlife unless you go to a specific club or something like that, which I don’t do. But is there a place, like, if you walk around New York City, there’s stuff going on everywhere. People eating in restaurants, people having a good time, people shopping, people at coffee shops. There’s things happening into the evening hours. Yeah, you’re talking approaching midnight. Foot massage. In Koreatown, they do it like they do in New York, and that’s why it’s my favorite part of town. Bustling around? And I was down there and I got some Korean barbecue, and then we went to the shaved ice place, and then we went into another place with our friends just to show them the desserts in there, and it was just to show them where we could have eaten dessert, and then the staff in there were fans. This is the, it’s called… Excuse me. Bless you. Bless you. The Dessert Spot or something like that? And they were all fans. And so they forced us to eat a second dessert, so it was a double dessert night, which I’m not complaining about. But my friend who I was with, Ward and his wife Annie, Ward who played Dino in episode two of season- It’s episode one of season two of “Wonderhole.” Yeah. He made the observation, he’s like, “Everyone is saying the same thing. Everyone is saying, ‘You were my childhood.’” “My childhood!” Like, literally people see me and say, “My childhood!” Yeah, we do get that a lot. “My childhood.” “You were my childhood.” “You raised me,” some people will say. “You raised me up.” Well, we’re still doing it. And I just take it as a… Some people will say, “I’ll get back in.” Of course I’m gonna take that as a compliment. I’m not gonna say, “Well, what about now? You still watch now?” Many of them still do, it’s just, they’ve either been watching for so long or they did watch and they don’t anymore. You got a free dessert out of it, right? I did, I was like, “I didn’t-” But he’s like, “I insist,” and so… I do think that I’ve gotta start- That’s the main thing that I get. The free desserts happens a lot. Christy and I went out and there’s a restaurant at Descanso Gardens up there, and it’s a good restaurant. There used to be a great restaurant up there and then it closed down at the pandemic. I need to go to the new one. They got a new one and it’s back. They’re doing a good thing. And the chef came out and talked to us, ’cause he knew about “Mythical Kitchen” and Josh. Got a cheeseboard we didn’t order. And then at the end, we got a dessert. And never turn down a dessert. Nope. ‘Cause I don’t like to order desserts. We order so much food, like, real- Dessert’s real food! I mean, dessert’s not real food to me. If I look at a menu and I’m tempted by all these things, I’m gonna get one more thing to go, like another side or another main or another app. I’m gonna go with another something from the non-dessert part of menu. How about that and dessert? And then I’m like, “We’re not getting dessert” and Christy and I agree we’re gonna get these carrots instead. Yeah, that’s great. That’s fun. Well, I like a good roasted carrot. Especially if it has some yogurt and some pomegranates and a little sauce on it. But you’re just saying as part of the meal. “We’re not getting dessert, so right now-” You made it sound like, “We’re not getting dessert. Let’s end our meal with carrots.” Yeah, I didn’t end my meal with carrots. Okay, good. But it is happening to the point where I need to start, I think need to start taking into account that I’m likely to get a dessert. Oh, poor you. It’s like Charles Barkley said, what Charles Barkley was talking about the free stuff that he gets and he- And he was complaining? No, he’s just like, “I don’t need free stuff.” It’s like, “I’m successful. I have plenty of money. It’s not right that the people who are doing well are the ones who get the free food.” It’s like privilege on top of privilege. But I’m never gonna say no! People know me especially, they’re like, “He’s going to eat it. Even if he just had dessert.” And this has happened several times where I’ve ordered dessert and they’re like, “Well, the chef wanted you to also have this dessert.” And I’m like, “Well, the chef knows me because I do want double dessert.” And I can’t say no to it. I mean, it is a big perk of what we got going. Dessert, dude? Meeting chefs? I’ll take it every time. Like creative people in culinary situations? Yeah, I’m very, very appreciative of it. And I’ve come to believe I deserve it. Okay. It sounds that way. And I’m applying that in my life. I’m no longer- I’m not gonna order the carrots ’cause I’m like, “You know what? I might get the free dessert.” I’m just glad that it’s not… First of all, that it’s not a level of fame that is problematic. Like, it doesn’t create problems for me. I can walk down the street. Right. And the vast majority of people have no idea. But enough people are like, “Oh yeah, whatever.” “Whatever. You’re my childhood, whatever.” A throng will not be formed. I might wear a thong, but I can’t make a throng. You know what I’m saying? Oh, yeah. So it’s just like, I am incapable of a throng. And I do not want to be capable of throngs because throngs are hard to deal with! Any panties can become a thong. Yeah, that’s what I meant. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It’s just you if you yank and shimmy in the right way. And also, we should be thankful that it’s not a particular instance or a line or one thing that happened, or a character. Yeah. That you then have to fulfill the expectations that people have. Yeah. “Say that thing.” Like, that would be, you know? Yeah, we don’t get the “Say that thing.” It’s great, it means that somebody, you were successful enough for people to care. But like, I’m glad that that’s not how it works because I would get annoyed with that. I just would, I would get annoyed. I would be like, “I’m not gonna be an asshole, but I am annoyed by that.” That’s how I would feel. I tip. I leave big tip. And if I get free dessert, I’ll leave even bigger tip. And then it goes to the people who receive the tips. And I think that’s understood. And that’s kind of a nice- It’s probably understood. Yeah. You know? You do end up paying for it anyway. Yeah. I end up paying for it. I end up paying it forward. The wait staff. And then actually it goes more to the staff than just paying for the product that you got for free. Yeah. That’s a good way to think about it. There you go. There you go. We also have, if you wanna buy stuff from us and don’t do it out pity. Do it because you want it. If we made that clear. ‘Cause we don’t need it, we’re getting free desserts all the time. But if you want a sizable mug with a wintery, snowy theme on it that has me skiing, you in a snow thing, Stevie snowboarding, you on skis. Chase behind a mound. Cotton Candy Ran- Oh, I thought that was you. That’s Chase buried in a mound. I’m skiing as well. We’re both skiing. Cotton Candy Randy in a tube. This is the biggest mug that we sell. It’s great for it hot chocolate or hibachi. Legally you can’t get a bigger mug than this. Mythical.com. We tried, but they said the tariffs. Get the almost-illegally too large mug from mythical.com. They said the tariffs, and we were like, “Don’t understand how it works, but okay. Guess this is as big as we’re gonna get.” Let’s hear anoth’. Hey Rhett and Link, my name’s Kyla and I am from Tennessee. And I was wondering, since you’ve lived in the South and in California, do you feel like Southern hospitality is a real thing? Because I see people complaining online all the time about how chivalry is dead and nobody cares about other people anymore. And living in Tennessee, I just don’t feel that at all. And I feel like everybody here is really kind. And anytime I’ve ever needed some help, there’s always been somebody willing to help me out. So do you find that it really is true that Southern states are more hospitable? Or do you think that that’s just a stereotype? Anyway, thank you so much. Bye. Southern hospitality. Do you have an immediate answer on this? Yeah, I spend a lot of time in North Carolina. You’ve spent a lot more time than me. I think you have more recent data on this. I think my mind immediately goes to there being this rurality to it, that country folk are different than city folk in terms of, if you’re as part of a small community, I think that’s a factor when you’re seeing people in the grocery store versus in the city if you see somebody you know. I just think it’s different. Close-knit, small community. There’s a different type. If you enter that type of subculture, I do think that you experience Southern hospitality. But you’ve been there. You’ve been back and forth a lot more. Well, one thing that is very evident and is very different here is waving at people that you don’t know. Yeah, that doesn’t happen here. Once you kind of get into the back roads, if you’re driving slowly on a road and there’s somebody walking or vice versa, there’s always a wave. It’s weird to not wave. And that’s something that was the truth as we were kids, and it’s still true, at least- Like a hitchhiker? You know, it’s just like there’s somebody walking on the road and you are- They’re not down and out? Like pulling into a neighborhood and it’s somebody in the neighborhood. Oh, okay. Yeah. You wave. And that does not happen in California. Maybe it happens in Northern California or farm country or whatever. But the person- I do spend a lot of time in this cities in North Carolina, whether it’s like Raleigh or Durham or Chapel Hill. I do think that there is a, most of my experience is the way that you are treated by a waiter. Right. Somebody who’s providing a service. I don’t think that there’s that big of a difference. And I would say that there is a general hospitality that exists in every other state and every other place in the world. Well, at least my experience in the States is that people are very nice in California as well. There’s also a lot of assholes. Uh-huh. Right. But I would say that there’s not this definitive difference. It’s like, one person has an accent, Southern accent, and one person doesn’t. But the way that I’m being interacted with right now feels like I’m being engaged with on the same level. I don’t think that there’s that big of a difference. I think that Southern accent might make it feel more pronounced, because the, “Hey, honey. What you want, honey?” I’ve definitely gotten some “darlin’”s and “babies” and stuff like that that still happens in the South. It’s all fair game. It’s more fair game. And if it happens here, it’s weird. Right. That’s weird. Especially when it’s a 27-year-old waitress and she’s calling me darlin’? I’m like, “What?” If that happens anywhere, it’s weird. But that’s happened a couple times in LA and I’m like, “What are you trying to do? I know you do this with everyone, but like…” Well, if you’re gonna be that suspicious about it, you’re not gonna keep getting the friendliness. It’s not friendly though, it’s an act. Yeah. Okay. Well, that’s ’cause they’re an outta work actor. Yeah, if you call somebody darlin’? I think it’s okay. I just think you gotta be a certain age to call somebody “darlin’,” to call a man you don’t know “darlin’.” If you’re not in the South? Anywhere. I think you gotta be at least old enough to be the president, which is 35. I think you gotta be- You gotta be in your 40s or you have to look like you’re in your 40s. You know? You gotta look like you’re in your 40s to say darlin’ and honey. To call somebody darlin’. If you’re waiting on ’em. Yeah. Okay. This is my personal opinion. “Hey, honey. I’m 39. You were my childhood. Here’s a free dessert.” Yeah. That works for me. As long as she looked 40, I could do that. “I look 40.” No, but I think that it’s overstated that people outside of the South are not nice. I think it’s more of a country folk versus city folk thing. Because when you’re in a city, you see so many people you don’t know, you just don’t have the energy to spark up a potential little banter. But when you’re just encountering people that, again, in a rural but close-knit community, you know, “Well, if I don’t wave at this person who’s walking, they’re probably gonna show up at the deli that I’m at in a few minutes anyway, so don’t need to make it awkward. I’m gonna see this person again, and I’m gonna see this person again. Even if I don’t know you, I probably should know you, so I’m gonna give you a little wave.” It’s probably based in that. I think it’s the proximity of people, your tolerance for friendliness. And I think that- To give it. I think that if you just take a small step in the direction of… Like, I’m not a naturally, “Hey, Mr. Trader Joe’s cashier.” You’re asking me what I got going on the rest of the day, I’m like… “Nothing much.” I’m not ready for this. I’m not ready for this. I’m ready for the kung pao chicken that’s in my cart right now. But in most other scenario, I’m not like just naturally just waiting to have that conversation. But in certain circumstances, if somebody begins a conversation with me, I will then engage. Especially if, hey, we’re gonna be next to each other. Like, Jessie and I went to the 4th of July celebration in Boston with Shepherd, and it was like, we did it on the waterfront and you had assigned seats. And so we had a table with this older couple. Okay. And they- The wife was from Virginia and she sort of started a conversation with us. Southern hospitality. And I wasn’t like, “Oh no, I don’t wanna talk to these people.” I was like, “Oh!” and so we had a great conversation. “I’m here, you’re here.” But she wasn’t putting my kung pao chicken in the thing. Right. You were stuck with her, you might as well be friendly. Right, and I’ll be very friendly in those scenarios. Unless it’s on the plane. No, don’t need to do that. Mm-mm. There’s no Southern airlines there. Southwest, but that’s different. I haven’t sat next to somebody in a while that really, really wanted to have a conversation. But every once in a while, whew! That can be rough. That can be rough. And you know, I’m planning a trip to Japan at the end of the year and I’m starting to learn how to not be a pariah over there, and they’re quiet in public. Everybody’s quiet. Yeah. Public transportation, silent. Yeah. Gotta be quiet. So you’re not even supposed to talk. Certainly not talk on your phone, but also- And not talk to strangers. But also not talk to- The person you’re with. Anybody you’re with. Yeah. Or yourself. Yeah. I mean hell, I can’t even talk to myself out loud over there? Definitely not that. Yeah. And I gotta carry my trash with me. I know some people that will remain unnamed who went to Japan and there was someone with them who disregarded all of the rules and was talking very, very loudly on the train and everywhere else, and the person that I know that was with this person was like, “It was-” Embarrassing. “I mean, it was crazy, the looks that we got.” And I was like, “Well, yeah, ’cause you…” You disrespect. You disregarded the cultural norms. I mean, we’ll have to talk more about this, but yeah. This is the type of TikToks that I’m getting when I start searching, “What should I do in Tokyo and Kyoto?” It’s like, “Well, you should keep your mouth shut, Link. And you should carry your trash.” It’s like, it knows. “Well, before I tell you anything that you can get excited about, let me give you the ground rules.” Right. It’s all I’ve been getting. My algorithm is just AI Bob Ross and “Don’t offend anyone in Japan.” And you don’t even know if those “don’t offend” videos are AI. They could be AI. They could be making up a whole narrative for you and you don’t know. Right. Right. You’re gonna have to ask ChatGPT if it’s true or not. Jamie, what’s a real strong closer for this episode? A real strong closer? ‘Cause here we are again, I don’t think we phoned it in. No, this- I mean, okay. And can I say, did I talk about the mug? I did that. You talked about the mug. Did I say, speaking of phoning it, phone it in! 1-888-EARPOD1! EARPOD1! We’re still taking your voicemails. We know that we’re getting the ones where you’re talking about the show going on indefinite hiatus and how you’re dealing with that. We welcome those if they’re very short. But we also welcome the challenging or hilarious normal voicemails we’ve come to expect from you, like this one. Yeah, this one’s totally normal. Hey, Rhett and Link. My name is Audrey and I’m from Indiana, and basically I have this problem where I am desperately in love with my ex. He and I have been broken up for two months and he and I both connected over watching your videos, and I just really want him back. And if you guys want more information on the breakup, I can give that to you in a separate voicemail. But since you’re both guys, I wanna know what you think that a girl could do to get you back? Or also, his name is Colin, if you guys wanted to tell him get back with me, then that might help my case too! But thank you, I love you guys so much. You guys have been helping me through this breakup a lot. I listen to “Ear Biscuits” every single day while I’m at school and at work, and when I get home I turn you on the TV and I just use you to get my mind off of things. So thank you so much. I’ve been watching you since I was a little kid. That’s code for we were your childhood. Yeah. Right. Yeah, we raised her. How are we gonna do this? Because we don’t have the information, so maybe, should we talk to Colin? I think we should just talk directly to Colin. Well, how about you do whatever you want to do. I don’t know if this is a “we” situation. Colin, we just heard from your ex and she seems to have tremendously positive and discerning taste when it comes to who she’s fans of, and who she dates! Because I understand that you were dating her and that you were both, that we were what was holding it together. I think might be what was going on. We don’t know why you broke up, but it’s only been a couple of months and… You know… I think y’all should get back together. Because I really like both of you because you like me, and I think that you can build an entire relationship around that. I don’t know what kind of problems you had, I don’t know who initiated the breakup, but I just feel like you had a strong foundation in being fans of us and you can build a life on that, and you can ignore everything else! So give that a thought, Colin. But you’re not going to hear from, what’s her name? Audrey. You’re not gonna hear from Audrey for six months because Rhett’s about to give her advice to not get back together with you. That’s not true. And I agree with that. The reality of the situation is that young people, you sound young, young people, they’re just, they’re not really dating as much anymore, you know? They’re kind of going into, they’re being so reclusive because of all the AI and all of the, the things that they can get online, and they’re just not really making those actual real world connections anymore. And just what I would tell Colin, if you have the opportunity for a real world connection, you should just make it, you know what I’m saying? And not necessarily with new people because we need to take Audrey into account here, and that’s really what this is about. Trying to get Colin to date other people? No, what I’m saying is that a relationship in this world, we’re cooked, you know? We’re cooked, we’ve established that. We’re cooked. And so you might as well be in a relationship, even if, I mean… Yeah. Even if you didn’t think it was the greatest thing in the world. You know what I’m saying? Because we’re cooked! Yeah. Okay. We should be in relationships, you know? Let’s get cooked together, get in the pot together. Yeah, right. Exactly. Have somebody to hold onto as this world falls apart. Six months from now. Because Audrey, I know it’s- I didn’t say that. I know it’s painful. A breakup is painful and it sounds like, I mean, you said it, you want a complete reversal, you wanna get back together. But two months is not a long time to try to see if you can get over the breakup. And I just think you gotta take X amount of time to say, “Maybe this is for the best” before you start. I think you gotta look for more separation. Two months is not long enough to be broken up to have, I think, a clear mind if you should be back in it, right? What’s an actual… I’m trying to actually provide something of service here. Oh, you thought I was gonna do that? I thought you were gonna do that. Okay. But isn’t there, like, a conventional wisdom to how much time you should be broken up before you really put on the table even the possibility of getting back together? And, of course, it depends on why you broke up. But you just I just think you gotta… Sometimes the difficult things are worth moving forward through, and you don’t wanna short circuit that by just looking backwards. And I just think you can get more clarity with a little more time, and then see how you feel. Maybe date somebody else in the meantime, just with, you know? I don’t know. What do y’all think? I mean, dating somebody- Again, dating somebody is good because the world’s falling apart. That’s all I’m saying. So maybe both of you should date other people. And then if you get back together, you’ll be even more mature. And maybe both of you should date someone who doesn’t like us. Maybe somebody who actively dislikes one or both of us. Oh! Which is really, based on my research, not hard to find. Right. So… What’s the minimum amount of time? Jenna, come on. Ah! I just need a number. What’s a minimum amount of time? What’s conventional wisdom on how long you should be broken up before you start trying to get back together? At least half the amount of time you were dating. Oh, there we go. Oh, it’s like letting our steak rest! Yeah. Mm-hmm. If you were together two years, you need a year to chill out and get over that person. Whoa! A year? That’s a long time. You asked on the spot and that’s where I went with it. I mean. I have a longer answer. I feel like the only relationships that work out when you get back together is they were broken up and then you broke up because you had to go to different colleges or different things. Then later in life, you reconnected. To me, that’s the only time it works. I never have seen someone get back together and it works out. Getting back in the midst of unresolved turmoil, yeah, it probably doesn’t work. I feel like that’s the only time. So for for me, I’m like, decades. I don’t know. Yeah. I’ve done that before. The only time I’ve gone back together with an ex, it was very toxic and very tumultuous and should not have happened. So I’m not the person to ask advice for on this. Do you think there might be some good advice that we could never actually come up with, but maybe it’s somewhere hidden in here, where the reason that you broke up needs to be, something about that, there has to be a change. There has to be, whatever the reason for the breakup is needs to be addressed or resolved maybe independently. You gotta come back with something different. Self-reflection. If you broke up, right? If you broke up for a reason, whatever the root cause of those reasons are, I think you gotta have reason to believe that things will be different this time in the reasons that you broke up. And so I think it’s a one-two punch, of you gotta know why you broke up. Like, really. And then you gotta know what you and your ex as a person, like, what’s the relationship with that reason now. I think you gotta have good answers there. And if you’re trying- And you gotta have the golden ratio of 1:2. And if you’re trying to get over somebody, here’s the thing, I think that… Okay, so when you are in a relationship with someone for a long period of time, we’ve been married 25, 26 years, and so the natural tendency in a long-term relationship, you go through phases. You go through phases where you might find something annoying about your partner, something’s getting on your nerves, and you have to actively move through that and be like, “Okay.” The natural tendency in a relationship is for there to be things that get old or resentment that builds, and if you’re just a selfish person and you’re not committed to the relationship and the thing that the two of you have together, you can let those resentments build to a breaking point. Yeah. But if you nurture the bond and the relationship and there’s communication, then the romance can stay alive and you can want to be with the person. Like, I want to be with Jessie a lot, and when she leaves and goes outta town, I miss her and I want her to get back. But if I actively wanted to, if I was like, “I’m gonna focus on all the negative stuff and I’m gonna let resentment build,” I feel like this could be a recipe for somebody getting over somebody they broke up with. Because hypothetical here, let’s get back to Link’s hypothetical. Yeah, focus on the negative. Listen, Audrey. I wish the best for you, but if you’re having trouble getting over Colin, Colin, he’s no saint. Let’s just be real about this. I’m not saying he’s a bad person, I’m not saying he’s capable of murder or anything like that. I don’t know Colin. But I know that Colin is a human and I know that if you really pushed yourself to come up with seven to 10 things about Colin that you really didn’t like, you’d be able to do it. Just take an afternoon. Take an afternoon and be like, “I am going to come up with a list of seven to 10 things that I did not like about him.” Okay? And then take those seven, take the top seven, and then next week starting on a Sunday, each day of that week you marinate on that one thing about Colin that you didn’t like. Wow. You think about all the times he exhibited it, you think about the way that it hurt you, you think about the way that it annoyed you, got on your nerves. Take a week, an anti-Colin week where you really focus on these things. And then if you need to rinse and repeat and do it again, you need some clarity about this situation. You gotta balance the scales. And it’s just like, he’s a person, so you can find seven to 10 things that you didn’t like about him. You could! Yeah. Focus on those things right now. Don’t focus on what you miss about him. Don’t focus on his impeccable entertainment taste. Focus on the things about him that annoy you. Because you need to get over him. And that doesn’t mean that you won’t get back together at some point. Yeah, even if you’re gonna get back together with him, you need to get over him first. Yeah. I like that. That sounded like a good ending of this episode. We’ll talk at you next week. Rhett and link. This is Joel from Greensboro, North Carolina listening to the most recent episode is “Our Thoughts on Jealousy and Attraction,” y’all are talking about opening up a gravy restaurant, Rhett’s spitballing names. Good Gravy was right there. It was right there! Anyway, y’all have a good one. Shop the mythical snow day mug and a re-release of our sweater weather mug set at mythical.com now.