Can you judge a frozen meal by its cover? – Let’s talk about that. (upbeat electronic music) Good Mythical Morning. – You know, I just had a quick thought. Can you imagine what an episode of Good Mythical Morning would like at night, and maybe not even on YouTube? – That’s interesting, but if it was on at night and it wasn’t on YouTube, it’d probably end up being pretty wild, right? – Yeah. – Like, it’d be uncensored and unrestricted? With all kinds of adult games and adult segments and adult conversations that you’d never expect on a normal episode of this show? – Right, uh-huh, right. – Right? – Yeah, like a mature audience only type thing, and we’d probably have to call it. – [Both] Good Mythical Evening. – Should we do it? – Nah. Yeah, we should. Right? – Yes, great. Announcing Good Mythical Evening, a one night only ticketed live streaming event on October 28th. Are you mature enough to handle it? – Probably. Are we? – Probably not, but we’re doing it anyways. Tickets go on sale for everybody September 30th, but Second and Third Degree Mythical Society Members get early access to tickets beginning on September 24th, so sign up at Mythical, Mythical (babbles). – Mythical Society? – MythicalSociety.com to get them before anybody else. – Uh-huh for all the details, check out GoodMythicalEvening.com. It’s gonna be live and it’s gonna be wild. Yes, now, speaking of wild, let’s talk about the wildest thing that I know of, frozen meals. – Oh, gosh! So wild! – And when you’re dealing with frozen meals, expectations aren’t really that high, but sometimes the picture on the box is so far from what you actually get inside, the disappointment is just too much to handle. – And we are not the only ones who have observed this. Over on the Reddit community, r/frozendinners, users rate meals based on how well the box photos stack up against the actual food. And let me tell you, there are some truly heinous-looking microwave meals out there. – So, with that in mind, we’re about to drop some truth bombs on the freezer section. It’s time for On the Box, Food Looks So Pretty and Composed. You Can’t Hide the Truth, Though. Get Ready to Be Exposed. – Straight from the bowels of the r/frozendinners subReddit, we’ll be presented with a series of frozen foods, which we will first analyze the box photos of, and then we’ll each get our own cooked version of that frozen meal to analyze as well. – We’ll compare the dish with the photo on the box and, as if they were a collection of spray tanned toddlers at an Alabama beauty pageant, which I’ve been to many of those, we’ll both give each meal a score of one to 10 based on how well they meet the visual expectation set by the box. And if the taste of the meal exceeds our expectations, we’ll tack on a bonus point. – Okay. – And if it doesn’t meet our microwave meal expectations, we’ll subtract a point. – All right. (inquisitive music) – [Stevie] I hope you boys are hungry, because your first delicious meal is Stouffer’s fried chicken and mashed potatoes bowl. – Yeah, I’m hungry. – [Stevie] This bowl is filled with breaded white meat chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and corn. – It looks so good, dang! – 1300 milligrams of sodium, too. – Look at that. Look at it, the meat just sitting on the top with the corn poking out, the gravy. You know it’s gonna look. – [Both] Just like that! – Let’s open her. Sha-bam. (Rhett laughs) – It’s like a… – Oh my gosh. No, well look at mine. It’s got nothing poking out. – [Link] I don’t even see any evidence- – [Rhett] It’s swimming. – There’s no chicken evidence. – Is that chicken? Let me get the evidence. – [Link] It’s like a swamp. – [Rhett] Okay, we can’t eat it yet, ’cause this is just the visual evaluation. – Well, I mean, I at least see a couple of chicken mounds coming out of mine. – Man. – [Link] It’s buried treasure. – It’s so different than what is on the, I mean, how could it be any worse? I guess if I couldn’t see any corn at all. – Yeah, you’re seeing some corn. – On a scale of one to 10, I’m gonna give this a two. – You know what? I see some chicken, I’ma give it a three. – [Rhett] All right, chicken gets a three. – And now, for a potential bonus point or another negative point, let’s get one bowl-ful bite here. Yeah, it’s not bad. – [Rhett] You know what? – A lot of, lot of pepper in that. I’m a pepper man. – It’s very peppery. I’m giving it, I’m giving it a point. It was so bad, and it tastes better than it looks, not as good as that looks. – I’ll also give it a point, ’cause I kind of like it and I’m a little embarrassed about that. – Okay, so that gives us a total score of seven. (inquisitive music) – [Stevie] Next on today’s frozen food menu, you’ve got Banquet’s classic Salisbury steak meal. This meal features gravy over Salisbury steak made with chicken, pork, and beef, cream mashed potatoes, cinnamon apple dessert, and sweet corn. – Chicken, pork, and beef in this thing? – This thing is gonna have to have compartments for all that goodness, right? – I would hope so. I mean, I don’t expect it to have the. – No bowl. – The cup for the apples, but yeah, everything’s got to be at least on its own. – Separated. – And I would like to see a little steam coming off of that chicken, pork, and beef steak. – Well, you’re not. – It’s chicken, pork, and beef together? – Yeah, man. – That’s not what Salisbury steak. Well, let’s just see. – Salisbury. Whoo, that is fancy. Look at, I mean, the corn is shriveled. – [Rhett] But it is intact. – The steak has this, like, it slid off. It’s like a mudslide is happening. – Well, first of all. – This is a catastrophe. – Look at the shape of the steak on the box. It’s oblong. This is almost a perfect square, like they just took it out of a loaf. There’s no, there’s grill marks on this picture. No grill marks. – Oh, no, no, no, I see some grill marks on yours. – [Rhett] No, that’s not grill marks, son. That’s just nasty striations. – [Link] Oh my gosh, you have just raked off… – [Stevie] Ugh, cover it back up. – Yeah, let me paint that back in. – Put the blanket back on. – Paint that back down. – So, they replaced grill marks with actual divots. – They just, I think, right before they put it in the package, the worker reaches down and scratches it with a special glove. – Mine doesn’t have- – Oh, I forgot to scratch the steak, damnit! – [Link] Mine are on the bottom side. – [Rhett] Oh, yeah. – So, mine was even upside down, so that’s a demerit. I mean, what is this, jelly? Gravy jelly? – It’s gravy jelly. – [Stevie] Is that, like, a normal? I just didn’t think about what a Salisbury steak was. – Well, have you ever had steak in Salisbury? You’ve been to Salisbury, North Carolina, right? – Probably. – You had steak there? – I don’t think so. I would eat this type of stuff as a kid. It’s okay. I’m trying to figure out, is this worse than the last one? ‘Cause I can see all of the components. – It’s not worse. That bowl was just like something you pull out of a manhole. I mean, this is better than that. – Yeah, I’m gonna give it a four. – I was gonna say three. – Oh? – I went from one to three. – Okay. – So, I went up. Now let’s taste it. – Let’s taste it. I mean, look at how desiccated that corn is. Biting the corn is like eating a dried up tick. – That is really, really bad. The apples were pretty good. Apples are pretty good. – The steak tastes scary. – The steak is awful. – Once you know all the different animals that are involved. – I think I’m gonna have to give it a negative one. I’m taking a, I’m taking a point off for the taste, ’cause, y’all. – Me, too. – Y’all have offended the whole city of Salisbury. – [Link] That brings us to a total score of five. (inquisitive music) – [Stevie] This next dish comes to you from Amy’s. This is palak paneer, which is creamed spinach and cheese with Raj Mah Dal, organic red kidney beans in a ginger garlic sauce, and basmati rice. – Now, I mean, this is quite a presentation on the box. You’ve got a nice, dark plate. – Yeah. – [Link] I love a dark plate. – [Rhett] Do a dark plate. – And if Amy meets my standards. – Amy, first of all, Amy does a good job. Amy’s like, it’s kind of a Whole Foods type of situation. Like, you’ll see Amy in the Whole Foods. – Let’s see what she’s done. – Oh, Amy. Amy, Amy, Amy. – It’s got a bit of a shell over it. – Well, first of all, it’s not a dark plate. Let me just say that right now. I mean, I wouldn’t have thought about it. – I’m a little afraid of this, the spinach stuff here, creamed spinach. I feel like, if you break through the surface, there’s a totally different color underneath. – Well, you’re gonna, I think if you break through this surface, you’re gonna get to the paneer. – [Link] Let’s do it. – [Rhett] So, it’s in there, and you really can’t expect it to defy gravity and just float on top like it is in the picture. – Now, I do notice there is a strategically placed piece of parsley right there in the middle. – [Rhett] Did you get that? – [Link] I am not locating the parsley, are you? – You know what, I’m taking one point off on my overall score because of that, because that’s definitely implying that that was in there. This doesn’t look horrible to me. It looks almost as good as you could get in a frozen situation, but still nothing like the plate. I’m going all the way to five. – And I will say, if you look at the configuration, you’ve got the rice all the way across the top. You’ve got the spinach on the lower left. – [Rhett] It stayed together. – The beans in the lower right, so they stayed with the box configuration, and maybe someone would have convinced them they didn’t have to do that. – Yeah. – I’m gonna give them a six, because I’m not holding the parsley. – No, I did give them a six, but I took the five away for the parsley. – I’m not. – The one away, so I’m down to. – So let’s give it a tasty taste. – And I’m not gonna mix these, ’cause that’s not really what you would do. I’m gonna eat that individually. – Mm, spinach not bad. – That is really tasty. – [Link] The rice is kind of like in a whole section, but it’s just rice. – That definitely gets a point. – Yeah. – I’d like to give it more. It tastes very good, Amy. – It’s more than decent, girl. That’s a total score of- – Probably shouldn’t call her girl. – Woman, lady? – 13. – Amy, I’ll just call you Amy. – Just call her Amy. – 13. (inquisitive music) – [Stevie] Get ready for a Hungry Man’s Double Meat Bowl, two slices of savory Angus beef meatloaf with bourbon gravy, cheddar grits, red peppers and onions, mm. – Are we hungry men or double meat? Let’s be double meat. – Yeah, okay. – Come see double meat tonight. – Good Mythical Evening. – Now, this is setting some really, really high expectations with just what’s happening with this double meat, the way it’s like criss-crossing. – [Link] First of all, there is a bowl. – Gravy pouring down. – Yeah, and the the meat slices are almost vertical. – Yeah, well it’s gonna look just like that in there, I’m sure, you know? – Let’s see. – [Rhett] And this has got grits. You know how I feel about grits. – I’m interested. Oh! – Well, hey, hey, hey, this could be way worse. – This is crazy looking. – But think about it. – I mean… – Think about how much worse that could be, like you can see them. I mean, they’re not doing a little dance for me like they are on the box, but they’re there. – [Link] It’s almost like you can see through the meat. Like, it’s not, I like the fact that it’s- – It looks like volcanic rock, like a pumice stone. – Yeah, it’s like a pumice. – Are you sure this didn’t get changed out for the double pumice? – And look at mine. I mean, you can definitely tell by the edges that mine could come out like a disc. – I would love to put that on a dark plate, just like that. – You could Frisbee golf this thing, I think. – Could you push that right onto a dark plate? I’m actually not displeased with this. – I’m a bit scared, but it’s only one type of meat source in this thing, Angus beef. – But it’s not a bowl. Is this a bowl? – [Link] Sure, yeah, it’s a bowl. – I mean, if you go to Chipotle and you get a bowl. – It’s deeper. – It kinda, it sorta does look like this. I’m giving this a six, y’all. – I mean there’s no gravy over top of anything. It’s still pretty sad. – I mean it’s sad, yeah. – [Link] Five. – [Rhett] Okay, let’s taste it. – Maybe it’ll taste great. – [Rhett] The pumice comes right apart. I like grits. – Grits and gravy. There’s a film over my grits. The pepper is very peppery. – I like that. – [Link] It’s rather bland. – [Rhett] Did you get a pepper in the grits? – The pepper is the only thing that actually has taste. The meat itself and the gravy, it has a consistency of mash, mush. – But think about how much better it is than the one that was scratched by the employee. – Oh, it’s better than that. But the meat, the meat is like ground mush and it doesn’t taste good. I am, I’m definitely not giving it a point. – Well, I am. – You like it? – Yeah. – But actually taste it. – I did. – I’m not gonna give it a negative point. – I don’t actively hate it. – It’s just right in the middle. – I actively like it, I’m eating it. – No more scores from me. – So no additional point from you, one from me. That brings us to a total of 12. (inquisitive music) – [Stevie] And last but not least, we have Stouffer’s Cheese Lovers Lasagna, lasagna with low fat ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, Romano, and Asiago cheeses and seasoned tomato sauce. – That’s a nice, cute little box here. – It’s very cute, very, very small. – You know, the thing that occurs to me now, that I think may apply to everything that we’ve tasted and analyzed, you see, there’s like a plate here and you put the, you know, we know there’s not gonna be a plate under here. – Correct. – I think for all of these, they’re thinking, hey, you cook this thing into microwave. You take it out, you plate it, and then you use our box as inspiration for how to dress the plate before you serve it to yourself or your partner, your loved ones, whatever. So, I just feel like we’re being a little too hard on them, because it’s up to the person to plate it and dress it. – Have you ever done that? – But I’ve never done that. – I agree with you, that I do think that they’re trying to give you something to aspire to, but you can’t help but be a human and see something and make a decision to buy it based on what it looks like, so you got to compare it with the real thing. – Okay, well, let’s keep it going. But I mean, that is why, at the end, we aren’t just gonna crap on all this stuff. – Oh, no, wouldn’t do that. – We’re gonna pick the worst one, and maybe this is it, and we’re gonna give them some constructive criticism, ways that they can make it better, you know? Like give them a fresh coat of paint. – Totally agreed. – All right. That is a rude awakening. Oh, yep. A second rude awakening. – How long can we make noise with the cloche? – [Link] What, I mean, first of all, the color, this is a vibrant orange red. It’s close. – Just to kind of go with what you were saying, I mean, it was like. (Rhett slaps box) – What are you spanking it for? Okay, this is your version of plating? – Look, it says Pete on the bottom. – [Link] Pete? – [Rhett] It says Pete. – [Link] It does say Pete. – It says, I think I got Pete’s lasagna. ‘Cause it says Pete on the packaging. – P-E-T-E. – Pete A-17. I think I got Pete’s, I’m in Pete’s seat, A-17. – All right, so I’m gonna compare the box. I can’t even see the box now, to mine, like this, and you’re gonna compare it like that. – Yep. – We got another box here. – Okay. I just wanted to give it a chance. – Do you see any of the ricotta layers? First of all, you did it upside down, so there’s no cheese. I see no cheese, no white cheese on the top of mine. – [Rhett] Yeah, it’s just completely red on top. – This is, it’s like a cauldron of nightmares. – The fact that it doesn’t have any cheese on top, and that was like the one thing they could have gotten right, and also the number of squigglies that are on the box, like I’m counting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, squigglies on the top. And look how big the squigglies are on that thing. There’s three. – I got three squigglies. – Three squigglies, eight squigglies, we got five squigglies. Where’d they go? I guess Pete has them. – I’m gonna give it a four. When you take it out, you can see the cross section. I see a little ricotta. – I’ll go with four. I mean, you know. – I think it’s gonna taste amazing. – Nobody tell Pete I’m eating this. I’m gonna put it right back in there. – I remember this. – Maybe he didn’t notice. – [Link] I mean, I feel like I’m performing surgery on something. – Taste profile is pretty good. The fact that it was microwaved and what that does to the edge of a lasagna, I mean, maybe Pete would be into it, but I don’t really like it. – It’s good. It’s about as good as I thought. I’m not adding or subtracting a score. I’m sticking with mine. – I think I’m staying neutral as well. I’m gonna stick with my four. Four and four, for a total of eight, which means that, with a total of five points, Banquet’s. – Oh. – Salisbury steak meal is the lowest scoring dish of the bunch. – You are the loser, Banquet Salisbury steak, but we’re not gonna leave you without that fresh coat of paint, you know, just try to make things better for you. You know, I think, I think the main thing that you might want to think about doing to make this thing better is just kind of, you know, dip it slowly. – Into actual paint, and just cover up all evidence of what that steak part looks like. If you can only get one side, I definitely recommend the steak side. – Cover the steak side up. – Yeah. – Fool everybody. – Thanks for subscribing and clicking that bell. – You know what time it is. – Hey, Mythical Beasts, I’m Matt. I’m about to spin this record, but first, it’s time to spin the Wheel of Mythicality. – Click the top link to watch us discover the world’s weirdest Popsicle flavors as made by the mythical crew in Good Mythical More. – And to find out where the Wheel of Mythicality’s gonna land. Join us on October 28th for the big one night only and mature audience only event, Good Mythical Evening. Get tickets at GoodMythicalEvening.com.