Did you want my notes on Strike Force Five episode one? No? TOO BAD! YOU'RE GETTING THEM!
(Heavy spoilers for episode 1 if you plan on listening soon!)
- I love the show's overall vibe and the "roles" that all of the guys play. It's definitely a free-wheeling, off the rails kind of show, where everyone is rambling over each other; the personalities involved can make or break this kind of podcast, and everyone thankfully is playing to their strengths.
Kimmel serves as the overall show runner and is seemingly the only one endeavoring to keep anything on track, which is a slightly thankless job with this group, but he's got a soundboard and all his radio experience guiding him. Colbert also leans into being the other "elder statesman", as it were, but is much easier to derail (and provides his own episode eclipsing derail I'll talk about later). Fallon is surprisingly reserved and a bit awkward - I'm not the hugest fan of Fallon, but in this podcast, that energy serves him pretty well. Kimmel introduces Seth as "the cute one" and he seems the most neutral so far, just there to ask questions and crack jokes. And John is their super sarcastic "evil teammate" who occasionally interjects to just destroy everyone. Perfect dynamics, 10/10, no notes.
- Seth qualifies his eyes as ocean blue. John says they're Gatorade blue. I don't think I've ever laughed harder at a description of someone's eyes.
- There's a point where I assume there must have been a really blunt edit, because Fallon changes the topic abruptly to having a doctorate. Otherwise, I love the image of Fallon just sitting on that revelation and WAITING, BURSTING to talk about how he has a doctorate, while everyone else talks about Kimmel getting paid summers off.
- Everyone mention multiple times that they have sponsors and are doing this show to help pay their staff during the strikes, which is lovely. This does not mean they aren't taking the piss out of their sponsors. I never thought I'd hear worse ad copy reading than I do on The Jeff Gerstmann Show (I love Jeff, don't get me wrong, but his ad copy screaming is hilariously bad), but the Casamigos ad in this is something else. John spends most of his reading time shitting on a bleeped-out competitor that he calls "not fit for human consumption", Stephen says "you're gonna wanna wipe your ass with it" and likens it to the smoothness of sheets you make love on, there's a disembodied "woo" at some point, Seth stumbles all over a few Spanish words, and Fallon delivers his lines in his awful fake French Timothee Chalamet puppet voice. It's pure chaos and I love it so much.
- Kimmel referring to "the despicable Matt Damon" made me so happy.
- John has never done a deposition. Kimmel saying "I'm surprised you're not in prison" gets lost which is sad, that's a fucking hilarious joke.
- Fallon tells an amazing story about his mom being a nun for a week. She left after being reprimanded for taking Lifesavers into the nunnery and then left. My late aunt and best friend, who was also a nun, probably would have loved Jimmy's mom, as she was always going on wine tastings and picked the order she joined entirely based on who would let her continue to drink after taking her vows. Jimmy also has a picture of his mom dressed as a nun holding a doll dressed as a nun, which is absurd and adorable.
- This leads to everyone but Seth confessing that they'd all thought about becoming priests at some point. That doesn't shock me about Stephen at all, tbf, knowing how religious he is.
- I have to shamefully admit that when John mentioned that he told his father he wanted to be a vicar, my brain went to an extremely Fleabag place and I had to rewind the podcast once I snapped out of it and realized I'd missed like 3 minutes of jokes (including a fantastic one from Seth about John having a doll of himself as a child, like Fallon's mom's nun doll).
- "Don't you want a whole new crop of relatives to visit and entertain?" "Do you wanna get cancelled?! :D" The two Jimmys everyone.
- Stephen reveals who he has everyone saved as in his phone, to prevent people from figuring out who his contacts are if his phone gets stolen. John's is Joliver, which 1) was his name as written on TDS scripts to differentiate him from Jon Stewart, and 2) as everyone points out, is a VERY easy code to crack. Don't really need Sherlock for that one.
- ONE OF US ALERT: Stephen collects weird late night shit, like a hat from The Chevy Chase Show (John literally goes "WOW") and a silk jacket from The Pat Sajak Show. I am very jealous of this collection.
- Next episode everyone will talk about first episodes. I cannot wait to hear John talk about how all over the place his first episode is.
- The big story, running joke, and completely wild admission from this episode - Stephen Colbert has a pair of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza's pants. Fallon asks how no one outbid him, and it turns out his MOTHER had them BECAUSE SHE DATED HIM. His uncle went to LaSalle Military Academy with Somoza, and Somoza stayed with them during holiday breaks. Everyone else in the room picks up on the idea that Stephen's mom probably slept with a dictator (or as Kimmel says, "made love to a murderer"), Seth claims his mom drinks coffee out of Ferdinand Marcos' skull, and every other male figure Stephen brings up for the rest of the episode is assumed to be someone his mom slept with.
If you asked me before listening to this podcast if I thought there were going to be a pile of elevated "your mom" jokes holding it together, I would have pretty strongly said "no". Surprises at every turn in this pod.
The beginning of this story also captures John SO STRONGLY, and he wants to hear everything about it. Definite Bugle vibes there, this man will never not want to hear about weird dictator facts. He also manages to completely kill Seth by saying "Anastasio Somoza's pants, brought to you by Casamigos".
- Finally, I have already sent an email to the show asking about Planet of the Bass, to make up for my complete failure to ask at the Q&A. I got y'all, we'll get this answer some day.
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Vegas called Pete a pet that he was dragging along to the safe house for his own amusement, but I think we all know he just doesn't want to be alone. Vegas seems to almost always be composed, or able to compose himself in a moment, but all it takes is a scolding from his father and his walls crumble instantly. It shows that he cares what his father thinks, that he isn't apathetic to any of it, and every slap hits just as hard because he does believe that he sucks, that it's all his fault.
Without a clear goal to distract himself with, Vegas knows he'll be alone with his thoughts, and his thoughts are awful, they're damaging, so he wants something to distract him. He wants an outlet, and Pete is just that. First thing he does after his father scolds him is run off to Pete's room, hit things, and then immediately pick a fight. He tells Pete to laugh at him, because then he can pretend Pete's the source of his anger instead of his father, and he can put his frustrations there. He can't stand up to his father, but he can stand up to Pete.
But Pete is unconscious, he's not responding, and suddenly, Vegas is experiencing the very real fear that he's about to be alone again.
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&&. HAKUNO REVERSE CARD @astrxl-finale ♡
oh. that's a new one, sunshine. soon realizing the irony of such a descriptor, however, her face— doesn't shift from its usual stoic, though lips end up pursing slightly in a pout. ❛ i'll consider it, ❜ there was nothing wrong with being openminded, after all. chin lifts, caramel hues meeting striking gold. head cants innocently. ❛ if you consider tightening the screws on your priorities. ❜ ... he should've expected this kind of response, really. little miss quiet here wasn't the sort to back down from a challenge.
❛ so insistent on being a bad boy ... ❜ the exhale like a sigh is done on purpose, and the dainty digit tapping his nose is a non - verbal form of admonishment — liken it to a boop on a small animal's snout, if you will. ❛ reflect on that behavior a bit, and you might come to realize that not every rule is meant to be broken. ❜
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