The Occasionalists Podcast

Our final episode for Sports September has arrived, and we are discussing how a good sports movie and a good sports TV show differ in many ways. Plus, the hierarchy of power in the sports entertainment universe is about to be ranked. (<--Deep cut jokes, if you're into that kinda stuff.) We introduce our definitive hierarchy of which sports are the best to make movies about.  Finally, we end wit...

No new episode this week. Sorry folks. HOWEVA! We are cranking up the wayback machine to an episode from 2022 in which the infamous sports talk radio duo Smoke and The Big Freeze brought their hosting flair to our humble podcast with the first-ever installment of Over The Line. Enjoy it, loosahs!

We move into our next Sports September episode and are heading to the bullpen for a little help from a tall, lanky right-hander. That's right...Chemma is back! We are experimenting with the format by seeing who is the most knowledgeable by playing extraordinarily random sports trivia. May the best man win!

We are jumping feet first into Sports September by cranking the temperature DOWN on a few hot takes that have been making the rounds in the sports discourse. Naturally, we had to have our own hot take, which you can also pick apart. You're welcome!

Game Show Month is coming to an end with our final movie review, this time a look at the dramatization of the real-life Press Your Luck scandal, The Luckiest Man in America! We discuss how scheming, unemployed ice cream truck driver Michael Larson took the Press Your Luck producers and CBS executives for the largest single-day winnings haul in game show history in 1984. We also investigate the rea...

We are bouncing through Game Show Month like a Plinko chip and landing squarely on...our first movie review of the month! We are heating up the trivia game with Awkwafina, Sandra Oh, Will Ferrell and more as we dive into the world of introverts and trivia game shows as we review Quiz Lady (2023). Honestly, this would be a perfect circle if it were a Venn Diagram. Don't give your dog a stupid name...

We're taking a closer look at the scandals that shaped game show history—from minor controversies that caused a stir to explosive revelations that completely transformed the industry. These pivotal moments didn't just make headlines; they rewrote the rules and gave birth to the modern game show format we know today. Also, there's a serial killer in this episode! Didn't see that one coming, did you...

Hello everybody and welcome to...The $64,000 Podcast! That's right all you fabulous folks out there in TV land, we are doing a month-long celebration of a staple in American households for over 70 years: the game show! We start with some trivia for all of you out there and then dive right into some game show firsts, some personal experiences, and even a bit of game theory and probability problems...

Our final Summer Break episode has arrived. Chemma is back on board to help us determine which episodes need a continuation. Which of our incredibly deep and insightful episodes was bursting with so much information that there was no way we could not make a sequel? Probably none of them, but we sure as heck won't let that stop us from coming up with a pair of solid top-four lists for you anyway.

Chemma returns for the third installment of our Summer Break Top 4s. This time, we are discussing exactly what the title says: The most important pieces of pop culture in our lifetimes. With only a few ideas to guide us, we determine what is most important to us and what is most important to the pop culture zeitgeist. Join us as we take you into some pretty surprising pop culture properties.  

We are back with another Top 4, this time we'll be looking at some classic songs that owe a major debt to...other classic songs.  We're charting four songs that sampled other songs across genres and decades to create unique modern classics, some of which might be considered all-time greats in their respective genres. Jump in and count down with us! 

We are back! And it's summer break! We usually take some time off and play a few classic episodes, but instead, we're giving the people what they want: money fresh new episodes! We are doing a month of listicle minisodes and ranking our choices. The number crunchers say people love it when you rank stuff, so we're ranking stuff! First up: Media properties that should have been TV shows.

Our final episode for Half-Baked June is coming at you piping hot! We made it just under the wire on the final day of June. For this month's finale, we are talking about Artificial Intelligence and its growing influence in the more "human" aspects of humanity: personal relationships, art, and entertainment, among others. We also let AI run wild and create some stories for us based on Nested Narrat...

Do you think our entertainment media is getting worse? Does it feel like you're seeing the same thing over and over and over again? Do you think AI might be controlling the internet? The answer is yes to all of it! Jump in and explore the uniquely terrible system that rewards minimal effort and creativity: The Derivatocracy!

Howdy cowpolks! The second episode of Half-Baked June explores how our shortening attention spans have irrevocably reshaped the pop culture we consume.  Will you Doom Scroll with us? 

We are back, albeit a day late, but no matter! We have a great episode on tap for a brand new theme month. This month, all of the wandering ideas that were cooked up in a brainstorming session but could not sustain a whole show are being smashed together, rolled up, and smoked for a month we're calling Half-Baked June. First, we start by pissing off young people. Always a good idea.  

We are wrapping up this year's Movie May with a musical set hundreds of feet underground in a giant salt mine, amidst an ongoing apocalypse ravaging the Earth. What better to do at The End than sing about it?!  Easily one of the most interesting, confounding, gorgeous, and weird movie reviews we've had in quite a while. Put on your tap shoes, grab some salt, and let's get to it!  

We march further into Musical Movie May with a long look at how Music Videos evolved from simple moving illustrations on a nickelodeon into an essential short-form storytelling mechanism for musicians of all types. We discuss the masters of the craft and break down a few select music videos, including two short film-length music videos from two completely and totally scandal-free, normal musicians...

We are back with our first movie review of the month, tackling the 2005 spoof musical Reefer Madness! For those of you who said spoofing an anti-marijuana propaganda film from the 1930s and turning it into an irreverent musical couldn't be done, well, I am very pleased to tell you that you were dead wrong, buddy! From maniacal dope fiends, to William Shakespeare, to anthropomorphic edibles and FDR...

Our first full episode of Musical Movie May finds us diving into Scores & Soundtracks! We break down some of the history of how music and film have been intertwined forever and dig into some of the terminology as well. Is there a little acting? Maybe! Singing?! Definitely not. There is a section of favorites that I can promise you. Let's get to it!

We are jumping (or perhaps dancing?!) into a new month with one of our classic themes: it's Movie May! HOWEVA, we have a fun twist for this month. This month will be Musical Movie May. Oh yeah, that's right, folks! We are dedicating a whole month to the scores and soundtracks of movies and diving into actual musicals. We're even including the Movie Music Video! We are gorging on the cross-section...

Due to a few unforeseen circumstances, we had to adjust the final episode for this month. We are doing a wrap-up minisode instead of a full-blown episode. No big deal! This episode is still chock-full of good stuff. Including a vigorous defense of the theme song rankings, and a peek at some of the stuff we would do for the full episode.  It's good and if you don't listen, you're a bad person!

We are back with the companion piece to our Classic TV Tropes episode that covers, you guessed it, Modern TV Tropes! As the visual language of TV has changed over the years, so too has the storytelling shorthand for the medium. Thus, we have a whole new set of tropes emerging on television, and many that are going extinct. Tune in this week to find out more!

We are back with a piping hot, fresh new episode for Boob Tube April. This time, we are diving into the shorthand storytelling methods TV creatives have been using for decades to get a story across quickly: AKA TV Tropes! We are starting with the classic tropes many of you might be familiar with. These tropes are still used or called out today in many cases. We dig into their origins and discuss s...

Welcome to a brand new month, suckas! It's Boob Tube April, a full month dedicated to all things television. What better way to start this month out than to lean directly back into our year-long music theme with an episode dedicated to TV theme songs. But wait! What if those theme songs were all ranked?! Even better! Disagree? Bring it on, dude!