Is This Pinball?

This week, we've got it all for you: actual real pinball news and reviews, film hot takes, and (of course) the final week of *~*dark carnival*~* celebrations! So, put on your gear-hat and tune in, my ghouls. Topics discussed this week include: Dr. Dude Pinball Machine, Blue Velvet vs. Showgirls, we're just Nancy Pelosi's idiot children, the Paul Verhoeven appreciation wagon, They Live, My Winnipeg...

In this week's episode, we continue our month-long dive into spoopy-dom, starting with a *~body switch~* wherein Willie and Amy scream about things that annoyed them while Dylan actually wholeheartedly likes a thing! Topics include: The Haunting of Bly Manor take 2, Emily in Paris is a pile of sexy rocks, Call My Agent!, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, reading Wikipedia articles on scary movies, ghos...

After a digital ghost ate our first recording attempt (true story), your hosts are back with special guest Ezra Reaves to discuss all things horror movies! Tune in to hear us discuss spoopy topics including the 90s big-animal-horror-movie renaissance, two versions of the same haunting, Patrick Wilson's big forehead, an Dylan's Bong Joon-Ho hot takes. And, uh, also pinball? Did we talk about pinbal...

This week, all three of your hosts watched the documentary "Things That Go Bump in the Night: The Spooky Pinball Story" which, as the name implies, is about Spooky Pinball. That's right, we talk about actual, literal pinball and pinball history... as well as small-town socialism, why there are only three pinball companies, Rob Zombie, the Noid, the overlap between the steampunk and pinball communi...

Hold on to your hats folks, because this week we've returned to our roots and are discussing video games! We may have discovered that pinball is God, but there are still video games to play and by gum we're gonna figure out if they're pinball (or not). Topics discussed this week include: actual pinball, Hades, Dark Souls (natch), Super Meat Boy, The Binding of Isaac, Zelda hot takes, Earthbound, U...

Get out your giant mug of coffee and put on some Carol King because we're TALKIN' GILMORE GIRLS, that crown jewel of 2000s-era WB programming. Joining your hosts this week is Shaina Wagner, Gilmore Girls expert. Together, we try to figure out 1) if Gilmore Girls is good and 2) how pinball is it all? In this episode, we discuss Emily Gilmore, Dean Forester: pile of rocks, the forbidden 7th season,...

This week, your hosts discuss writer, director, and snake-eating-its-own-tail tale eater, Charlie Kaufman. We dive right into that meta surrealist lake and see what idiot fish we can dredge up from its depths. Topics discussed include: Plato, everything is triangles, I'm Thinking of Ending Things , Adaptation , Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind , misogyny by way of narcissism, Michaela Coel's...

The all-Cats episode awakened something in your hosts, and this week they're dishing up a deeper dive into musical theatre. Joining us this week are special guests Bea Miranda and Ezra Reaves. Will they be able to figure out how pinball they are (and also how musicals are pinball)? Maybe! Topics discussed include: Little Shop of Horrors, Evil Dead: the Musical, Gypsy, Jesus Christ Superstar, the p...

This week, your hosts start by talking about SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom, and use it to springboard into conversations about tie-in games, "the medium is the message," the sweet spectacle of musical theater, when (and why) pinball is better than the original game, and the eternal meme-ability of that good square-pants'd sponge. Topics discussed include: Super Mario Sunshine, Ru...

**CONTENT ADVISORY: Brief discussion of spousal abuse (re: Hemingway) at 40:15** This episode, your hosts decided to get a little loosey-goosey and come in and just.... chat. And, perhaps surprising no one, when given the opportunity to discuss literally anything, we ended up talking about LITERATURE (and Death to Smoochy). Topics include: The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz, the time Willie was a...

You might be tempted to think: "Ah, yes, another regular ol' episode with these three dummies."  But in this episode, we talk about Cats the musical. Buckle up: all three of your hosts have lots of opinions about those horny singing felines, Andrew Lloyd Webber's feelings about God, the unholy abomination that is Cats the musical: the movie, and how pinball it all is. Also in this episode: Skyrim...

**Content advisory: This episode has two brief discussions of gun violence. If you prefer to skip those, they're at 8:30-12:00 and 35:50 to 36:15** This week, your hosts ask "what is friendship?" "what is life?" and, most importantly, "what is pinball?" Do they have answers for any of those questions? Absolutely not. Topics of discussion: itch.io, Detroit: Become Human, Betrayal at House on the Hi...

This episode, I think it's fair to say that your hosts actually learned something about pinball! Like, actual facts! Will this help them rate things on how pinball they are? There's only one way for you to find out. Topics of discussion: "Pinball Wizards: Jackpots, Drains, and the Cult of the Silver Ball" by Adam Ruben, Taskmaster, Beyond: Two Souls, the Bible, Funspot Family Fun Center, the Frenc...

THREE THINGS: 1. This week, we welcome the incredible Olivia Kinglsey as a guest host! What a get! 2. Amy's recording went off the rails, blew out, and slowed itself down. Willie did some audio magic to line things up, but if you're wondering why Amy sounds like she's floating on a different wavelength, it's because she is. 3. Also discussed this episode: Something Something Soup Something, therap...

What can we say? We were chatty this week! So, we're bringing you a fully double-stuffed episode of "Is This Pinball?" Hang out at the top for discussions of Hollow Knight, Dark Souls, David Cronenberg, and uhhhhhhh The Twilight Saga. Then, stick around for part 2, wherein we discuss (naturally) The Last of Us Pt. II (finally), an-eye-for-an-eye, and the screaming id of men on the internet.

*Content warning: brief mention of childhood sexual assault at 1:09:40* This week, we're bringing you something that literally no one asked for: an episode dedicated to the music of Frank Zappa. Dylan and Willie have listened to lots of Zappa. Amy has (before now) listened to absolutely none. In this episode, we figure out just how pinball Zappa is and discuss the purpose of music, can/should one...

Your hosts Amy, Dylan, and Willie take your hand and lead you on a trip down memory lane with an accidental themed episode about games from our past. Games discussed include: The Last of Us Part II (no spoilers), Logical Journey of the Zoombinis, Oregon Trail IV, Amazon Trail, Death Stranding, Myst, Obduction, The Witness, and Divinity: Original Sin. Other things discussed include: public access t...

AND WE'RE BACK. In this episode, your intrepid co-hosts are here and trying their very best to ask: is this Pinball? Amy is sleep deprived. Willie just quit smoking, but THANK GOD Dylan and our horny Japanese correspondent, Bea Miranda Torres, are here to help with a discussion of the sexiest Q*Bert game that ever was! Pinball tables discussed include The X-Files for PS1, Catherine, and Elite Beat...

We had a bit of an audio whoopsie this week. So, to tide you over until the next full episode, here's Willie's full review of the CW television show, Riverdale.  Finally, we'll know how pinball those sexy adults-pretending-to-be-teens are.

In this week's episode, your hosts do what needed to be done: dedicating an entire episode to Sonic and how pinball that fast lil' blue boi is (or is not).  In this episode, we discuss Sonic CD, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Sonic Spinball, and Sonic Mania, all with the light and guidance of resident Sonic expert, Willie Caldwell.

This week, Amy, Dylan, and Willie welcome special guest Anthony Marefat who takes your sweet idiot hosts to task in actually considering what pinball is (and is not). This week, we discuss Reigns, Portal, Breakout, and the CW hit show Riverdale. And, in case you had any question at all as to where our politics lie: Black lives matter, defund the police, and see you in the streets. 

Amy, Dylan, and Willie get a lil extra spicy this week in their going attempt to figure out what is pinball and how much are all things pinball. In this episode, they rate Outer Wilds, Dazed and Confused (both the movie AND the soundtrack), and German stock character Hanswurst.

Amy, Dylan, and Willie are still rating things on how pinball they are, and it's GOING GREAT, thank you. This week, they rate Kentucky Route Zero, The Histories by Cornelius Tacitus, and Pinball Arcade for the Switch. Additional topics discussed include the debates sweeping the pinball forums, papa's got a brand-new mailbag, Moesha, antipopes, and the Max Headroom Incident.

Amy, Dylan, and Willie continue to dive into what exactly makes something pinball (and still don't really have any answers, but they're TRYING). In this episode, we discuss FX Pinball 3's Star Wars tables, Backbone, and Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed. We also welcome our new correspondent on horny Japanese games, Bea Miranda Torres. (cw: discussions of racism, in a fantasy context)

This week, Amy, Dylan, and Willie start to confront the existential question of what pinball truly is by rating Pokemon Pinball, Dragon Ball, and 1975 West German film, Fox and his Friends. Are they pinball? We're here to find out. Also, Amy sounds like she's on the moon and Willie sounds like he's inside a literal tin can. It's because we made some audio recording oopsies. Dylan was fine though....