0:16

Hi, this is Rachel McElroy. Hello, this

0:18

is Griffin McElroy. And this is wonderful.

0:21

This is my little episode. This

0:23

is going to be a little one.

0:25

Just teensy, teensy. Look at the

0:27

little cute episode. This is wonderful. Girthy,

0:29

though. Girthy is important.

0:32

Hefty. But... on small. Focused

0:34

mostly on small. This show, we're talking

0:36

about things we like that's good that

0:38

we're into. And a lot of

0:40

time, every time, we do a segment

0:43

called Small Wonders at the beginning

0:45

of the show. Today, we're taking the

0:47

format and we are shaping it

0:49

to our will. Okay.

0:51

We're manipulating it. Griffin

0:53

and I have often talked about how the

0:56

format of our show is that the content

0:58

changes every week. Which is great. No one

1:00

else is doing this stuff. And

1:02

so we don't have like an easy

1:04

go to when we want to like,

1:06

you know, I don't know, go go

1:08

less hard. Go a little less hard

1:10

or also when we recorded another

1:12

episode like two days ago. And

1:15

because of our schedules, we got

1:17

the boys spring break coming up,

1:19

going to be AFK for a

1:21

minute. We figured that this

1:23

would be a fun time to

1:25

bust out an all Wondies episode.

1:28

And I'm glad for it because

1:30

I love. The small Wendy's.

1:32

I know that it oftentimes feels like

1:34

you're being put on the spot

1:36

with a small Wendy and it takes

1:38

a little bit of extra, a little

1:40

extra juice. But this episode is

1:42

just all small Wendy's. So it's, we're

1:44

ready for it. This stuff is

1:46

for me, at least timely. I could

1:49

talk at length about all this

1:51

stuff for a long time. Yeah. It's

1:53

real day to day shit. Yeah.

1:56

And I. I will say like it

1:58

got me back to when we first

2:00

started the show. Sure. Because a

2:02

lot of times we have to kind

2:04

of discard a lot of topics

2:07

because there just really isn't enough to

2:09

say for like 10 to 15

2:11

minutes. Yeah. But.

2:14

With this, like it reminded me when

2:16

we first started and we just had

2:18

endless opportunities in front of us, you

2:20

know? Yeah. What a beautiful time that

2:22

was. Now we got to

2:24

go deep down in the salt

2:26

mines to fucking grind it out.

2:28

You churn and churn and churn

2:30

for hours until finally through a

2:33

cleft in the rock, you see

2:35

automatic car wash and you're like,

2:37

oh yeah. So

2:39

this week, all small

2:41

wonders. Do you have

2:44

a small wonder to start us

2:46

off? Before we get to the

2:48

small wonders, do you have a

2:50

small wonder for this small wonder -based

2:52

episode? Okay, great. I was talking

2:54

to you about this the other

2:56

day. I have had Las Culturistas

2:58

recommended to me several times. Okay,

3:00

yes. It's Bowen Yang and his

3:02

friend Matt Rogers. Man, I should

3:04

really confirm that. You should confirm

3:06

Matt's surname for sure. Bowen Yang,

3:08

I love. Love all the clips

3:10

I've seen out of this. This

3:12

show. Very funny stuff.

3:14

Yeah, it is. It

3:17

is Matt Rogers. It's

3:19

just like they're buds. They've known

3:21

each other for a very long

3:23

time. The show is very positive.

3:25

They invite on celebrities that they're

3:27

like genuinely enthusiastic about. Sure. And

3:29

then spend a lot of time

3:32

kind of like gassing them up

3:34

and like just getting really excited

3:36

about. Things they have in

3:38

common. And it's just like

3:40

it is like a nice

3:42

shower in the middle of

3:44

the day. I saw I've

3:46

seen clips of the episode

3:48

with Gabby. Yeah. Windy. Windy

3:50

from. Well, I know her

3:52

from Traitors. I don't think we

3:55

watched her season of The Bachelorette.

3:57

No, and she has her own

3:59

podcast now too. Amazing. Can't get

4:01

enough Gabby Wendy content. But yeah,

4:03

I really enjoy everything I've seen

4:05

out of this show. There's like

4:07

a familiarity. It's like the thing

4:09

I'm most interested in in like

4:11

the whole SNL universe is like

4:13

the familiarity that you get with

4:15

other comedians and celebs when you're

4:17

like in the shit for a

4:19

little bit. Yeah. I saw some

4:21

stuff from the episode. with Tina

4:23

Fey uh that was just like

4:25

I don't know just like old

4:27

old sailors just trading trading sea

4:29

stories yeah um yeah yeah I

4:31

mean I genuinely tend to like

4:33

a lot of podcasts where the

4:35

hosts have been friends for a

4:37

very very long time yeah um

4:39

but this one like is like

4:41

exclusively joyous uh and funny and

4:43

um i have really enjoyed it

4:45

lately yeah i gotta check it

4:47

out do you mostly watch the

4:49

video because it's a video podcast

4:51

as well right yeah i'll usually

4:53

i'll usually have like the video

4:55

on while i'm doing something else

4:57

so i can kind of like

4:59

glance over if something crazy happens

5:01

do they do like stunts and

5:03

tricks and stuff no there's gestures

5:05

though there's there's wild you know

5:07

broad like Excited gestures. Yeah.

5:09

Since we've started doing video content,

5:11

I've noticed that I've just sort of

5:13

organically started doing more gestures. Yeah.

5:15

Well, and I've seen you kind of

5:17

barrel the camera sometimes too, which

5:19

is fun. lot gym style mugging. A

5:21

lot of gym mugs right to

5:23

camera one for sure. I'm

5:26

going to hit this one

5:28

and I'm going to hit it

5:30

good. Hoodie weather. We're in

5:32

it, folks. It's happening. Crazy swings

5:34

here in our nation's capital.

5:37

The pollen sucks. It's very bad

5:39

and it's like killing us

5:41

quickly. But. There

5:43

is we have had a really

5:46

prolonged hoodie season and I'm living

5:48

for it. That's really true. I

5:50

mean, I am continuously amazed by

5:52

how long the seasons are here.

5:54

Sure. Because in Texas, you get

5:57

a couple days, like never more

5:59

than a week of the transitional

6:01

seasons. Yes. It's like

6:03

that Ray Bradbury short story.

6:05

But instead of rain on Venus,

6:07

it's, you know, triple digit

6:09

weather for. Nine months out of

6:12

the year. I love a

6:14

hoodie. I love a

6:16

light option for the day.

6:18

And when it's 53

6:20

degrees outside, 54. That's

6:23

hoodie weather. Now we're talking. I

6:25

got this new one. Got

6:27

this new hoodie. It's true classic.

6:29

It fits my frame just

6:31

wonderfully. You're exceptionally long torso. Classic

6:33

long torso. Got just classic

6:35

black hoodie. And it looks

6:38

great. And I just feel great being

6:40

in it. you laid out all the hoodies

6:42

next to each other and done like

6:44

a Marie Kondo kind of? I need to.

6:46

I have probably six or seven hoodies.

6:48

And I maybe really only like two of

6:50

them. Yeah. Got that burgundy beauty. that

6:52

you know and love. Yeah. I've been rocking

6:54

with that road dog for Big Sun

6:56

references that a lot because there were a

6:58

lot of photos you had taken at

7:00

a certain point in your life with that

7:02

hoodie. With that hoodie, yeah. It's sort

7:04

of my Doug. But

7:07

then I got a lot of stuff

7:09

I'll wear in there on laundry day.

7:11

But not this one. This one I

7:13

like. And I like a light jacket.

7:15

And this is the time for it.

7:18

It is wild that it's still that

7:20

chilly mid -April. Yeah, no kidding. But

7:22

I'm not fully complaining. Ooh, I go

7:24

first this week. Oh, wait, was that

7:26

not the first one of the small

7:28

wonders? Oh, for me, that was like

7:30

our... Like a bonus? Oh, I just

7:32

burned one of my real ones. I

7:35

was like joking. Oh, fuck. Well, no,

7:37

for me, that was like our traditional

7:39

small wonder. Okay, well, then I'll think

7:41

up something else. And then now we're

7:43

in the all small wonder episode. I

7:45

love it. What's your first official small

7:47

wonder? My first official small wonder. I'm

7:50

going to say when snacks come

7:52

with little scoops or sticks. Oh,

7:56

yeah. Yes.

7:58

Growing up, I loved a handy snack.

8:00

I loved that bright red stick and

8:02

the bright yellow cheese. You should explain

8:04

what handy snacks are. I do not

8:06

know if this brand is still extant.

8:09

I don't know. It was just like...

8:12

It was maybe like four or five

8:14

inches long. And it was like

8:16

a little tub of cheese and then

8:18

like five or six long crackers.

8:20

Spreadable sort of. It was like before

8:22

the Lunchable. And yeah, it

8:24

was like a spreadable cheese. And like

8:26

it was really satisfying for people who

8:28

like to exactly portion. Sure. So that

8:30

like when you finish the snack, you

8:32

had finished both sides at the same

8:35

time. I mean, that requires quite a

8:37

bit of. you know um planning yeah

8:39

and forethought uh i there's no feeling

8:41

worse in the world than cashing out

8:43

the cheese and you still got one

8:45

cracker left i also like the little

8:47

ice cream cups that had the little

8:49

wooden spoon on the top that you

8:52

get like at school oh yeah um

8:54

i like philly philly swirl will hit

8:56

you with that too which i know

8:58

i love philly swirl uh The

9:00

Kinder Eggs, our kids are really into

9:02

Kinder Eggs now. And it doesn't really come

9:04

with a utensil as it just comes

9:07

with a like pre -folded piece of cardboard.

9:09

I mean, that's a utensil, babe. You can

9:11

use that. not shaped like a typical

9:13

utensil. No, but I mean, if you throw

9:15

a spoon, if you throw anything with

9:17

any kind of like curvature or depth in

9:19

there, you're going to sort of disrupt

9:21

the egg shape of the Kinder Egg. There's

9:23

just something really delightful about that for

9:25

me. Yeah. It's

9:27

a self -contained snacking, like

9:29

elevated, sort

9:32

of like intelligent

9:34

snacking. I do

9:36

like that a lot. Kinder eggs are

9:38

weird, huh? Because it's like the toy's

9:40

not very good at all. I think

9:42

that may just be an America thing

9:44

because we keep eating toys. Whereas

9:47

like in other countries, the Kinder egg will have

9:49

like, you know, cool stuff in it, like a

9:51

tech deck. That'd

9:53

be a big. But then you also get

9:55

like two Ferrero Rochers floating in a field

9:57

of creamy cream. I never grew up with

9:59

these things. Nor I. This is, I don't

10:01

know how new this phenomenon is, but our

10:03

children love them. I swear on a stack

10:05

of Bibles, we grew up with the Kinder

10:08

Eggs where it was just one big chocolate

10:10

egg with some shit inside of it, like

10:12

a toy or whatever. Oh, yeah, that sounds

10:14

right. And that is definitely like, I get

10:16

that, not. I get not doing it that

10:18

way no more. Well, and it also suggests

10:20

that the manufacturer was not hemmed in by

10:22

this idea that you needed a utensil to

10:24

eat the snack. Yes. You know, at some

10:27

point they all sat around and were like,

10:29

oh, but we can't do that because somebody

10:31

will have to go get a knife. And

10:33

they're like, you know what we could do?

10:35

What's that? Put it right in

10:37

there. Get a small stick and attach it somehow.

10:40

I have one here. At

10:43

first blush, it's going to sound

10:46

weird, but communal online sleuthing or

10:48

puzzle solving, not in the vein

10:50

of like, hey, Reddit,

10:52

I bet we can solve

10:54

this murder and in doing

10:56

so ruin some person's life

10:58

based on specious evidence. More

11:01

in the more benign, usually

11:03

game related sense. Yeah. This has

11:05

happened a lot. I've talked

11:07

a lot about like the rise

11:09

of these like first. person, super

11:12

deep sort of mystery games,

11:14

Blueprints being the one that

11:16

I'm obsessed with right now.

11:20

And that lends itself to

11:22

opportunities where the developer of

11:24

a game can create the

11:26

most obscure, the most cryptic

11:28

and challenging puzzles, and then

11:30

just kind of trust that

11:32

the combined brain power of

11:34

a community of people working

11:36

on that thing can eventually

11:38

like solve anything yeah i

11:40

really enjoy being a part

11:42

of that process and it

11:45

goes all the way i

11:47

mean like When Halo

11:49

2, I believe, was coming out

11:51

or maybe Halo 3, there was this

11:53

very early ARG or alternate reality

11:55

game where there was like a website

11:57

called I Love Bees that you

11:59

would go to and there were like

12:01

interviews with like test subjects and

12:03

like all this different shit. But if

12:05

you like got into the gully

12:08

works of it, it would teach you

12:10

about the Halo 3 plot or

12:12

whatever. That is

12:14

like, I think, a very early version

12:16

of it. But now, I don't know.

12:18

so many of these types of games

12:20

that have that are just so dense

12:22

and so mysterious and being a part

12:24

of a group of people who are

12:26

actively working on like cracking the code

12:28

and being the first ones to kind

12:30

of crack the code uh is always

12:32

like really exciting and always a process

12:34

i really enjoy being a part of

12:36

yeah well in a similar way it's

12:38

been really helpful for like when henry

12:40

is playing a game oh yeah and

12:43

he gets stuck Like there were

12:45

so many games that I never finished as a kid

12:47

because I would get stuck and I would just

12:49

give up and that was it. Right. But

12:51

now to be able to like search

12:53

things for him and like help get him

12:55

through like a challenging spot has been

12:57

really nice. Yeah. He doesn't require that help

12:59

as much. like as often these days

13:01

um but it is it is reassuring that

13:04

like i don't know there is no

13:06

puzzle that you can't solve uh if you

13:08

just if you just work with other

13:10

people and then like if you can be

13:12

part of like the contribution towards like

13:14

a breakthrough like the satisfaction you get from

13:16

that is always really so you actually

13:18

like contribute to these things um yeah for

13:21

for this one uh there was another

13:23

game that came out a couple years ago

13:25

or maybe last year called animal well

13:27

which was like this big platformer

13:29

game in this huge kind of mysterious

13:31

world with all this insane cryptic shit

13:33

everywhere in it. And I was part

13:36

of the like early press kind of,

13:38

uh, review cycle for it. We got

13:40

like an early code for it and

13:42

there was a discord channel started so

13:44

that people reviewing the game could kind

13:46

of like bounce ideas and stuff off

13:48

each other because it was so difficult

13:51

and weird. Um, and like being a

13:53

part of that and being like, Oh

13:55

shit guys, I think I found a,

13:58

I'm not going to spoil anything from Animal Well

14:00

because that's still a fairly new game and

14:02

it kicks ass. But finding stuff was always so,

14:04

so, so exciting because you knew, like, I

14:06

can share this with the team. I

14:09

find that very satisfying. What do

14:11

you got next? I

14:13

am going to

14:15

say Parachute Day in

14:17

gym class. Iconic.

14:21

iconic experience i was i went through

14:23

this thing recently i don't remember why

14:25

i was thinking about it maybe we

14:27

watched some video with the kids and

14:29

i was blown away that you could

14:32

just buy one of those parachutes online

14:34

because to me it was this magical

14:36

thing that only gym classes had right

14:38

um and it didn't align with any

14:40

other activity really or skill that

14:42

you were doing in gym class but

14:44

occasionally they break that big parachute out

14:46

right and you'd like your whole class

14:48

of like 25 kids would like kind

14:50

of help lift it up and then

14:52

you would sit on the edge of

14:54

it so that you'd have this little

14:56

dome yeah uh and it was just

14:58

magical we we had a game where

15:00

you would like float it up and

15:02

then they would like call a number

15:04

as it goes up and then you'd

15:06

have to like run underneath it to

15:08

the other side before the parachute fell

15:10

or you'd like bounce balls in it

15:12

like yeah and hold the edge for

15:14

sure for sure not i don't know

15:16

what i am being physically educated on

15:18

exactly when i do when i do

15:20

this yeah um but it certainly is

15:22

novel uh and i do i do

15:24

enjoy that i wonder if this is

15:26

still a thing I haven't

15:28

heard Henry talk about Parachute Day. I mean,

15:31

part of the reason I thought of

15:33

it was that when our son, before he

15:35

was in school and would go to

15:37

those little activity gym, like Gymboree kind of

15:39

places, he would participate in Parachute Day.

15:41

So I don't know if it still happens

15:43

at the elementary school level, but people

15:45

are definitely still doing it. I think that

15:47

there is, when you feel a certain

15:50

way about... there is something sort of exciting

15:52

about anytime any shit is different ever

15:54

at all and parachute day was like that

15:56

for gym class particularly in gym class

15:58

the thing that used to be really hard

16:00

for me is the like heightened emotion

16:02

about like people performing at the level that

16:04

you wanted them to perform at like

16:06

i did not grow up in a family

16:09

that was really like aggressive about sports

16:11

so it was very confusing to me to

16:13

go to gym class and have people

16:15

get really angry during kickball And

16:17

so it felt nice to do something that I

16:19

knew, like, no one's going to get mad at

16:21

me or somebody else for this activity. It's a

16:23

parachute. What are you going to do? You didn't

16:25

fluff it high enough, Toby. I

16:28

want to talk about a book.

16:30

It's a book that I recommended

16:33

to our friend Daiklin. And

16:35

I read it last year and it

16:37

really blew my mind, really loved it. It's

16:39

called Piranesi. It is written by

16:41

Susanna Clark, who wrote, I always get the

16:43

title of this book mixed up because I

16:45

haven't read it. I actually

16:47

have bought it to read it because

16:49

I really like Piranesi a lot. But

16:51

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell. We have

16:53

a hard copy of this book somewhere.

16:55

It feels like every house has one

16:58

of these. A book came out in,

17:00

I want to say 2004. And then

17:02

Susanna Clark didn't write, didn't publish a

17:04

book for like 16 years. And then

17:06

Pier and Easy just came out in

17:08

2020. And it fucking

17:10

rules. It is a real page

17:12

turner and just a really great

17:15

mystery that once it kind of

17:17

starts to unfold. It's one of

17:19

those books where once you start

17:21

to understand what the book is

17:23

doing, you... to then see it

17:25

through like you have to you

17:27

can't put it down you because

17:30

all of a sudden the critical

17:32

path has revealed itself uh but

17:34

it is a a wild book

17:36

about this man uh who lives

17:38

in a giant house and the

17:40

house is made up of hundreds

17:42

of rooms and antechambers uh and

17:45

uh there is so much bizarre

17:47

shit about this house it's three

17:49

stories and the top story is

17:51

all clouds and the bottom stories

17:53

the ocean and sometimes the ocean

17:55

swells and fills up the middle

17:58

level of the house and so

18:00

he has to keep track of

18:02

the tides so that he doesn't

18:04

drown and there's statues uh there's

18:06

statues everywhere and as far as

18:08

he knows he is one of

18:10

two living people in this house

18:13

and then there's like 15 skeletons

18:15

of people that he's found throughout

18:17

this house uh and there's obviously

18:19

something wrong with his memories uh

18:21

but the book is written in

18:23

a journal format and so it

18:26

is written from the perspective of

18:28

this person who has lived in

18:30

this insane otherworldly house for so

18:32

long that like the rules of

18:34

the real world are gone are

18:36

like abandoned to him and so

18:38

he writes in this way that

18:41

really is so intriguing because it's

18:43

like an alien's journal it's like

18:45

reading the journal of a person

18:47

who does not have any kind

18:49

of like context of what life

18:51

is like and that is like

18:53

in and of itself like really

18:56

neat and as you start to

18:58

learn like what is this fucking

19:00

house what does this mean who's

19:02

this other person what do all

19:04

these little clues mean uh while

19:06

you start to figure that out

19:09

he does too and that is

19:11

like a really really really satisfying

19:13

experience that lends itself to like

19:16

Once big stuff kind of clicks into

19:18

place, that is the moment where

19:20

it's like, oh shit, okay, I got

19:22

to see where this thing's going.

19:24

Just a really interesting book that is

19:26

very, I don't know, I don't

19:28

read a lot of books like that,

19:30

that are just sort of like

19:33

otherworldly sort of diaries. I haven't read

19:35

House of Leaves. I understand

19:37

maybe it's a little bit like that,

19:39

but more interactive maybe in a sense.

19:41

But yeah, it's called Piranesi. It kicks

19:43

ass. And I've been – Justin turned

19:45

me on to it. And I've been

19:47

recommending it to anyone who will listen.

19:50

Do you want to do one more before we go

19:52

to a break? Sure. That

19:54

eyelash thing where you get an

19:56

eyelash on your face and then you

19:58

put it on your finger and

20:00

you blow it and make a wish.

20:03

Very intimate. Isn't it? I've

20:06

only ever thought of like anytime anyone

20:08

has ever done that to me, it's

20:10

been like that was pretty intimate. First

20:12

of all, the fact that we touched

20:14

fingers or whatever. Oh, I wasn't even

20:16

thinking of it as like a paired

20:18

activity. Like I think usually somebody has

20:20

to tell you, but I don't know

20:22

that they always like. interact

20:24

with you. I don't know. There's some movie

20:27

or TV show where like someone's like,

20:29

oh, you have an eyelash. Let me get

20:31

it for you. Oh, make a wish.

20:33

And then they like kiss or whatever. Like

20:35

for me, that's the image in my

20:37

mind. I don't want anyone to do that

20:39

to me, but you. No, I don't

20:41

really understand how this could be a thing

20:43

or why it's a thing. I feel

20:45

like I had this vague memory of finding

20:47

out about it and being really confused.

20:49

Like, how is this a thing? Yeah. But

20:53

it's just one

20:55

of those like undefinable,

20:57

is it undefinable

20:59

or indefinable? The fact

21:01

that you can't figure that out is

21:03

in itself pretty great. I like that

21:06

a lot. Anyway, it's like one

21:08

of those traditions that I wouldn't even know

21:10

how to figure out how it started,

21:12

but everyone seems to know about it. Yeah.

21:14

I mean, it's a core memory when

21:16

someone does that to you for the first

21:18

time because of how intimate it is. I

21:21

also just love the

21:23

opportunity to make wishes. I

21:26

love a little wish. Like when the time

21:28

is the same, like in the front and

21:30

the back half of the colon, and everyone's

21:32

like, make a wish. You know, when it's

21:34

like. Babe, I don't think people do that

21:36

for anything other than 1111, do they? I

21:38

always thought it was like. 404.

21:40

1212. Yeah. Like it didn't matter

21:43

as long if it was doubles. I've

21:45

only ever heard 1111 make a wish.

21:47

But if you want to make a

21:49

wish every hour, I think that's that's

21:51

you should feel empowered to do that.

21:53

Well, it's just if you happen to look,

21:56

you can't like sit. Bummer if you

21:58

live. Not in America

22:00

where they do 24 -hour time, huh?

22:02

Because then you're only getting half

22:04

the wishes. True. No, you're not.

22:06

Wait, that doesn't make any sense

22:08

because it can be 23 -23.

22:10

So what I just said doesn't

22:12

make any sense. Well, but it's

22:14

more satisfying when it's like 13 -13

22:16

instead of like 1 -1. Yeah,

22:19

I agree. I agree with that. I'd

22:21

like to make a little wish for us to

22:23

take a break and let me steal you away.

22:25

Yes. I

22:37

got one. There's so much buzz happening.

22:39

What's the word? Tell me what's happening. There's

22:41

a new video game console coming out

22:43

called the Switch 2, and I feel lukewarm

22:45

about it, but it's still exciting. is

22:48

it coming out? June 5th, I believe. Okay,

22:50

so it's not that far away. Not

22:52

at all. I didn't know if this was

22:54

one of those, like, this Christmas season.

22:56

I was expecting that. We didn't know like

22:58

what the timetable was looking like. And

23:00

then there was this big Nintendo Direct on

23:02

April 2nd where they announced the release

23:05

date. They also announced the pre -order date

23:07

and price. And then that got sort of

23:09

canceled out immediately when the tariff hijinks

23:11

started. Sorry to classify that

23:13

as hijinks. It's obviously way more dire than that.

23:15

But at the time we were recording this, I

23:17

still don't know when we're going to be able

23:19

to buy one of these things. But it is

23:21

going to be out on June 5th. And

23:24

man, I just I love. I love

23:26

games and I love tech so much

23:28

and this shit doesn't happen that often

23:30

anymore where there's like a new game

23:32

console that comes out. What

23:34

does it look like? Look like the same one? Look like

23:37

the same one. I

23:39

believe, yeah, that's how they did it.

23:41

They came out the first day. It's not

23:43

like a thing where they show it

23:45

in an angle and you realize one side

23:48

is a little bit smoother than it

23:50

used to be. So, I mean, okay, they

23:52

do the deep CG render product shot

23:54

shit when they announced it. The

23:56

screen is quite a bit

23:59

larger. Okay. The Joy -Cons, it

24:01

has the same depth, so it's

24:03

not bigger and bulkier to

24:05

kind of hold. The Joy -Cons.

24:07

like magnetically attached so they kind of

24:09

like pull straight out and the big thing

24:11

I mean there's a few big things

24:13

there's like a chat button that you press

24:15

and it opens up like a basically

24:18

discord window where you can chat with your

24:20

buddies at any point that's interesting yeah

24:22

which is like of limited use to me

24:24

but I think for kids who want

24:26

to play you know, Minecraft or whatever with

24:28

their friends and have like an instant

24:30

chat room. That is neat. The

24:32

other thing is that you can take

24:34

a Joy -Con and turn it on

24:36

its side and put it on a

24:39

table. And then basically it's an optical

24:41

mouse. And so that's clever. Sort of

24:43

like mouse based games. So like the

24:45

new civilizations coming out. Anyway, like I

24:47

don't care about most of that, but

24:49

I am excited to. I don't know,

24:51

have a new piece of gaming hardware

24:53

to like get excited about. And those

24:55

new games coming out are pretty exciting

24:57

too. Yeah, man. That new Donkey Kong

24:59

looks great. New Mario Kart that is

25:01

like open world. So you like drive

25:03

between the different tracks between races, which

25:06

is very fun. Like new Kirby updates.

25:08

New Kirby updates. The big sun is

25:10

over the moon about that stuff. So

25:13

yeah, this used to happen a lot

25:15

more often. And when I was like...

25:17

the games industry proper i'm on the

25:19

outskirts of it still i guess technically

25:21

with besties but like in it uh

25:23

covering these like game console launches every

25:25

like couple years uh it was really

25:27

exciting and it was always something that

25:30

that got me really fired up and

25:32

now like i don't know between the

25:34

collapse of e3 and the the elongation

25:36

of like console life cycles like you

25:38

don't get that hit as much anymore

25:40

so it's fun to be sort of

25:42

like I don't know, on the awaiting

25:45

end of one of those. What do

25:47

you got next? I was

25:49

going to talk about being

25:51

a room parent. Yes. Which

25:53

is when your children typically

25:55

are in elementary school. And

25:58

they need a few extra

26:00

parent volunteers to help coordinate

26:02

some of the activities like

26:04

holiday parties and teacher appreciation.

26:07

And if your school has

26:09

a yearbook, they need some

26:11

parent volunteer to kind of

26:13

send out emails and rally

26:15

the parent community. And I

26:17

started doing it when Henry

26:19

entered kindergarten. And I was

26:21

very deliberate about it and strategic. I was

26:23

like, I want to know more of what's

26:25

happening in the classroom. Right. I want to

26:28

have like more access to the teacher. We

26:30

were also, I mean. We

26:32

were new. We were new to DC,

26:34

right? And so like new to this school

26:36

system and new to this neighborhood. And

26:38

like, I think that. That's the other thing

26:40

is that you instantly like get connected

26:42

with like, I mean. We've been lucky in

26:45

that in our classrooms, it's never just

26:47

like one or two people. Yeah. So you're

26:49

like instantly connected to at least like

26:51

two or three other people, which is nice

26:53

when your kid is starting in a

26:55

new class to kind of build that relationship,

26:57

especially in the younger grades like Henry

26:59

is in second. So like he

27:02

hasn't been there necessarily long enough for

27:04

me to feel like I know a

27:06

significant number of parents. Yeah. Anyway,

27:08

I feel like I'll probably keep. doing

27:10

it it's not a huge commitment for

27:12

usually like the stuff i sign up

27:14

for is more like i'm gonna send

27:16

the emails and yeah no it's not

27:18

like pta president create the signups yeah

27:20

like i don't have to be there

27:22

for every party or plan every like

27:24

little thing like we divide it up

27:26

um but it's just like it just

27:28

feels like i have a little backstage

27:30

pass yeah for sure room um and

27:32

and i don't know and you get

27:34

a better sense of kind of how

27:36

the teacher operates um And

27:38

it makes it easier for me to

27:40

if I like have a question or feel

27:42

like I need, you know, to like

27:44

connect on something to already have kind of

27:46

my foot in the door. Yeah, baby,

27:49

your biceps are. Absolutely popping. No, don't put

27:51

them away. I feel like this is

27:53

the second time you've talked about it on

27:55

the show. Well, you do this pose

27:57

sometimes where you kind of rest your arms

27:59

on your top of your head and

28:01

then the biceps are just bumping and it's

28:03

like, damn, I got a strong wife. Strong

28:06

wife, strong life. You know what I

28:08

mean? Anyway, sorry to talk

28:10

about your muscles like that. But don't

28:12

hide your light under a bushel. Your

28:14

light is so, so strong. So,

28:17

so much girth. Tinned

28:20

fish. Tinned fish.

28:22

Whoa, really? Yeah, so I somehow

28:24

found myself... was perusing tinned fish

28:26

TikTok while I was... Is this

28:28

exactly what I think it is?

28:31

Or is this a slang? Or

28:33

like sardines. Okay, okay. So it's

28:35

a real thing. There's like a

28:37

community of people who are very

28:39

into tinned fish. I got into

28:41

sardines for like a minute a

28:43

while ago when I was trying

28:45

to get a little healthier and

28:48

wanted to mix up my lunchtime

28:50

routine. And I found a couple

28:52

different brands that I was like

28:54

into, but... want to return to

28:56

this lifestyle i kind of do

28:58

i kind of do and it's

29:00

because i've been exposed to it

29:02

so much through tinfish tiktok some

29:05

of it is irony a lot

29:07

of it is like bulk

29:09

influencers who are like, I eat

29:11

five cans of sardines every morning

29:13

at 4 a .m. That's

29:15

not my jam, but I found this

29:17

TikTok channel where it's just two

29:19

dudes, look like they're probably college students,

29:21

and they have a little candlelit

29:23

session where they eat a few different

29:25

types of tinned fish and do

29:27

reviews, and it feels very... That's so

29:29

nice. It's very charming, and it's

29:31

very erudite, and like, mmm. See, that's

29:34

what's nice about TikTok. Like I

29:36

wouldn't ever intentionally look for something like

29:38

that. Yeah. But if I do

29:40

see it, then I will go so

29:42

deep and so hard in the

29:44

paint forever on it. I was hoping

29:46

that I could find them. I

29:48

think I started following them. I follow

29:50

58 people, and one of them

29:52

is a Tinfish TikTok reviewer. Yeah, Kyrik,

29:54

K -Y -R -I -K, just reviews Tinfish

29:56

with his friend. And I do like

29:58

it, and I do like, you

30:00

know, there are health benefits and stuff

30:02

to it, but I find it

30:04

still neat that you can get fish

30:06

in a can. Yeah. And it's...

30:08

And they look like fish. And they

30:10

look like fish. And they taste

30:12

a lot like fish. And you can

30:14

get them in hot sauce or

30:16

olive oil or whatever the fuck. There's

30:18

lots of different ways you can

30:20

get tinned fish. And then it's fish

30:22

that you eat out of a

30:24

can. And it always seems so, I

30:26

don't know, satisfying, I guess.

30:28

I will feel like. uh well i

30:30

feel like sushi was kind of a

30:32

gateway into the like unusual fish vehicle

30:35

world sure i think that makes sense

30:37

like i don't know that i would

30:39

have eaten tin fish before having sushi

30:41

but then it's like you start to

30:43

feel a little more experimental yeah like

30:45

i don't know maybe i'll do that

30:47

too well these guys are usually cooked

30:49

too so yeah yeah but just the

30:51

idea of of picking something up that

30:53

looks like a fish like it's still

30:55

a fish yeah because it is still

30:57

a fish well now we're grown we're

31:00

fully grown We can enjoy,

31:02

you know, adult things like

31:04

10 fish and 10 fish TikTok. It really went

31:06

down a rabbit hole. I was on tour

31:08

and I couldn't sleep and it was like 11

31:10

o 'clock at night and I was just watching

31:12

people reviewing 10 fish. It's

31:15

the rock and roll lifestyle. It

31:17

fucking isn't. If people only knew.

31:20

Let's call it there. That's a lot of

31:22

small wonders. We've given our friends at home.

31:24

That's a lot of. Holy

31:27

shit. I've never

31:29

seen you. Like

31:31

sprint at something and then like

31:33

try to skid to a

31:35

halt before going over the precipice

31:37

of it. Like I've never seen

31:39

you realize what you were doing

31:41

is not awesome and then like

31:44

do it so quickly and

31:46

then like bail from it so

31:48

quickly. Sometimes when

31:50

you have been in a relationship

31:52

for a long time. Yes. I

31:55

can look at you. Yes. And

31:57

judge from your expression like. Oh, you're

31:59

getting very close to the edge

32:01

right now. Yeah. And recognize that

32:03

this is a joke that is not

32:05

worth getting close to the edge. Yeah. And

32:08

recognizing your face like. After

32:10

I say it, you'll probably have

32:12

some feelings about it. Yes. That's

32:15

what happened. This conversation reminds me

32:17

of another TikTok I saw yesterday

32:19

that I can't stop thinking about.

32:21

And it's somebody who drew a

32:23

diagram of the Creed song where

32:25

he's like, hold me now. I'm

32:27

six feet from the edge and

32:29

I'm thinking maybe six feet ain't

32:32

so far down. And he drew

32:34

a diagram and he's like, yeah.

32:37

If you're standing six feet from

32:39

the edge of something that

32:41

then has a sheer six foot

32:43

drop, that's not so far

32:45

down. That's not a lot. Why

32:47

are you singing a song

32:49

about that? That just makes sense.

32:52

Got one here from Hannah who says, my

32:54

small wonder is Costco Puma socks. Am

32:56

I wearing them now? No, I'm not. Costco

32:58

always has these super soft socks made

33:01

by Puma for a great price, obviously. And

33:03

they are so comfy and hold up

33:05

well after being washed. It's also fun when

33:07

I and a bunch of my friends

33:09

are all wearing them. Highly recommend. Absolutely.

33:12

I follow multiple Costco related

33:14

accounts on Instagram to just

33:16

see what like the new

33:18

items are and like what

33:20

is on super sale. And I

33:22

haven't been inside a Costco.

33:25

in several years now because it's

33:27

not particularly convenient to us. But

33:29

I'm still thrilled by it. Yeah,

33:32

absolutely. Julie says, this may

33:34

not be a small wonder, but

33:36

the first episode of Wonderful I ever

33:38

listened to, you talked about sitcoms.

33:40

I assumed the sound you play when

33:42

transitioning to the ad break was

33:44

specifically chosen for the topic. I was

33:46

very confused on the next episode.

33:49

It still makes me laugh every time.

33:51

Yeah, I mean. I think

33:53

about I remember thinking about that

33:56

sometimes of like we are so far.

33:59

from when we started doing that. I mean,

34:01

I guess it's not that different than like

34:03

kiss your dad square on the lips. Yeah.

34:05

This idea of like you continue to do

34:07

something that makes absolutely no contextual sense anymore.

34:09

No, but that's podcast. Thanks so much for

34:12

listening. Thanks to Bowen and Augustus for the

34:14

use for our theme song. Money won't pay.

34:16

a link to that in the episode description.

34:18

Thanks to Maximum Fun for having us on

34:20

the network. We have a bunch of shows

34:22

from a Bim Bam and Taz announced we

34:24

are coming to the great state of Michigan.

34:26

We're going to. We're going

34:28

to a bunch of cons. We're coming

34:31

all over the place. You can find all

34:33

the tour dates and get tickets over

34:35

at bit .ly slash McElroy Tours. We got

34:37

some new merch over at McElroyMerch.com. We have

34:39

a Miggy spinner pin for fans of

34:41

the McElroy Family Clubhouse. And

34:44

you can check all that out over

34:46

at McElroyMerch.com. Oh, by the way, if

34:48

you missed a recent McElroy Family Clubhouse,

34:50

particularly one that maybe looked a little

34:52

different than the other ones, I would

34:55

recommend you go check that out. I

34:57

don't know what you're talking about. I'm

34:59

talking about the one that was this

35:01

week as we were recording it. I

35:03

don't remember. Oh, well, I guess you

35:05

probably wouldn't, would you? Nothing sticks out.

35:07

Thank you so much for listening. And

35:09

we'll be back next week with another

35:11

episode of Wonderful. but this one's gonna

35:14

be big one. Jumbo

35:16

Wondos. Next week. Next

35:18

week. Nothing but Jumbo

35:20

Wondos in our nine

35:22

hour long series finale. Bye.

35:24

Bye. Maximum

36:02

Fun, a worker

36:04

network of artist -owned

36:06

shows, supported directly by

36:08

you.