Thank you, this show is normally great and this might have been the funniest one.
The Bill Simmons Thread
- Thread starter RedOctober3829
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Nothing will beat Drunk House after his Christmas dinner a year or 2 ago but yesterday's guess the lines was great.
Simmons isn't exactly renowned for his knowledge of music (and generally, rightly so) but he held his own with Klosterman in their discussion about the Beatles in a recent pod episode. I was expecting it to be either Bill-plays-contrarian or he just lists a bunch of songs he kind of likes while Klosterman did the heavy lifting about Beatles history and significance and all that, but Simmons actually pushed back a couple of times and brought up some good points. He knew his Beatles, I was fairly impressed.
Things did threaten to get off the rails when he wanted to list all the "geniuses" in rock music because, as CK kind of started getting at, what the fuck does *that* mean, but it was a short-lived digression.
Things did threaten to get off the rails when he wanted to list all the "geniuses" in rock music because, as CK kind of started getting at, what the fuck does *that* mean, but it was a short-lived digression.
The Ringer social media will usually pull a two minute or so video from a podcast and use it as kind of a trailer or advertisement for whatever podcast just came out, so I assume when he says "Turn the camera on" it is that he wants the next bit to be filmed so they could use it in for social media purposes.
I liked Collinsworth being in The Beatles documentary. "You know, we talked to Paul he said that he really likes Yoko being around the band!"
When you’re right you’re right and in this instance you’re right and I have recency bias
Do we discuss The Rewatchables here? Or another thread? I can't keep all the Simmons content straight. Anyway, I had one of the few disappointing experiences with that pod recently, in the Saturday Night Fever episode. Jimmy Kimmel brings nothing to the table. I don't watch his late night show, so maybe he's better in that setting, but on the pod he was just there -- no insight, nothing particularly funny. I turned it off about halfway through, which I never, ever do for that pod.
At least the JFK ep was top notch.
At least the JFK ep was top notch.
Kimmel sucks. There is an old JFK Simmons pod from years ago that is pretty good too. Klosterman is on it. It is pre-Ringer but Spotify still has it
With a one-game regular season sample size that Embiid is clearly in a tier above Tatum. And Tatum is the one that is tough to play with, while the former is perfectly willing to push Ben Simmons out the door. I think Embiid is one or two places above Tatum, but quite an exaggeration Bill made after a 41-point game when his season average is 25 ppg on a .487 eFG.
I unabashedly love the Sports Repodders, especially when Jason Gay does the wrap up thing at the end.
Simmons reposted this and it’s pretty good
View: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CX0N-_OpUPF/?utm_medium=copy_link
View: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CX0N-_OpUPF/?utm_medium=copy_link
I mean, Kimmel grew up in an Italian family in Brooklyn so he had a bit of insight into that dynamic. I laughed several times and there were several anecdotes I wasn't aware of , actually thought it was a pretty good pod.
Fair enough. To each their own. I guess I just like the traditional format.
Speaking of which: Father of the Bride? On Christmas week? With Amanda Dobbins and nobody else?
*shrug*
Also I had no idea Simmons' daughter was 16 ish. Time flies.
It's better than the SNF one, but still has the same problem: it can't be a 2 person pod when one of them is Simmons.
I think that’s right.
Curtis is great when he’s got Gay or someone else with firmer opinions riding shotgun. Also is a great interviewer who puts in real prep.
3 is better than two but there are many that are 2 with Simmons that I like, YMMV.
Yes, that was incredible. I could swear that was William C. Rhoden with a side of Lupica and Albom thrown in. Loved every second.
It's still crazy to me that they haven't done any of the Vacation movies yet. I was hoping they'd finally bust out Christmas Vacation this week but no dice. You'd think with Simmons' open affection for Fletch and Caddyshack, they'd have done at least one of what are probably Chase's signature movies.
They do love their random anniversaries way too much, but it seems a stretch to wait until 2023 for the 40th of Vacation (never mind 2024 for the 35th for Christmas Vacation).
In before I could make the obvious pun. In some ways Shoemaker lets Curtis cook, but in others he starts on his 2 minute soliloquy where he says a lot of words without saying anything, and leaves me channeling Billy Madison saying "T-t-t-today junior!"
There is no one else I would more want to guess a strained pun headline, so I don't mind David, but Curtis is the reason to listen. I do miss the edited audio endings, though. And Sports Repodders is one of my top 3 must listen ASAP recurring BS Pods - Klosterman and Zach Lowe/Jackie Mac are the others.
he’s been doing that for twenty years.I find it incredibly telling about his intelligence, self awareness, narcissism, and almost pathological need to think he’s the coolest guy in the room.
Another perfect recent example of that is some commercial read he was recently doing for his podcasts (I think it was Progressive or some insurance company) where he's reading the copy about the different kind of football fans, and says (paraphrasing) "whether you are the type of fan sitting on your couch right until gametime getting your fantasy roster perfect (that's me) or the one getting all the food for the tailgate (that used to be me)" He has to let us know it's always about him. He's like Michael Scott in the Office.
He made the same type of comments in the Swingers Rewatchable. And I remember saying the same thing to myself. Like he and his friends were the first group of guys to do Vegas trips.
I also get the same sense when he talks about fantasy football.
I really hope I die before he does, because I'd hate to be alive when the world blinks out of existence.
Can I defend Simmons a bit on the Vegas thing and say that his recaps of buddy trips to Vegas were basically my guide to going on buddy trips to Vegas in my 20s? I am sure there were other guys doing similar things, and there may have even been other places to read similar stories, but I know we would not have been referring to blackjack dealers as Mariano Rivera or a dozen other references if not for BS.
I can’t believe I am defending Simmons but I do think he was ahead of the curve for fantasy football when it comes to the mainstream media.
Now I am guessing that he thinks he was into fantasy before everyone else so that negates some of what I said but he should get some credit
To be fair, I also do the same thing! My fantasy football career went from the 90s to around 2010, before realizing how much of an absolute crapshoot it was (took me awhile) and my peer group had no interest in auction drafts. I just make picks now, which is a crapshoot but not in a "my #1 pick tore an ACL on the first play of the year" kind of way...
I’m ashamed to admit I’ve used his joke about 12s and 13s - maybe it wasn’t his originally, but I believe he relayed it in one of his articles. I think part of the magic of Vegas is everyone feels like they’re doing the coolest most unique shit when they’re there and compiling the craziest stories. In a vacuum I like that Simmons was so good at capturing that rush. Given his overall attitude, yeah there’s probably a bit more than the general hubris in his Vegas stuff.
You shouldn't be ashamed, those Vegas columns were top notch quality and entertainment. And hilarious. There is a difference between writing about your Vegas trip with friends and it being awesome and saying, decades later, "I discovered Vegas before it started turning Disney. because I'm the man."
My first Vegas Trip with friends was in October of 1998. But I was a degenerate. I don't think I discovered Vegas. And it was already turning Hollywood by then. The New York NY opened in early 1997.
Well, I just meant I probably wouldn’t make that R. Kelly joke in 2021. Well, maybe lit at a 3am blackjack table. But I’d feel a little guilt about it, unless everyone really laughed a lot.
As for discovering Vegas, unless your name is Meyer or Bugsy or you flew into that desert city before there were gigantic hotels and high-end restaurants and stores and packed nightclubs, well then you probably didn’t discover shit.
Even as a Simmons sycophant, I am shocked by how reasonable his Covid discussion with the Plain English guy is. I figured it would go sideways.
edit: Guy’s name is Derek Thompson
I did appreciate how Simmons introduced Thompson. He was trying to give him a compliment about how well he hit the ground running with his podcast. So he said, "You've been like a fish out of water." That is really strong stuff.
The best title is and always will be “A Truly Sad Week in America, plus the 2005 Redraftables”
Derek Thompson makes a point about how Omicron is affecting data. Bill Simmons says "none of this data makes sense." Derek Thompson makes additional relevant points about vaccinations and how they are affecting lower levels of hospitalizations during this latest spike. Bill Simmons says "I wish some of this data made sense." Lather, rinse, repeat.
Listening to Simmons go over bets with Schrags is just bad content. I like Peter S, he's great on Good Morning Football. But talking about the teasers Simmons has decided are guaranteed to win is just boring. It would be so much better if there was even a little self awareness about it.
Zoe on this podcast was bad and I usually love her pop ins. Just talking about how the words "flop" and "clout" are some kind of slang. Bill's like, "Flop, yeah, I know what that means, it's a word."
Zoe on this podcast was bad and I usually love her pop ins. Just talking about how the words "flop" and "clout" are some kind of slang. Bill's like, "Flop, yeah, I know what that means, it's a word."