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PODCAST

Gobbledygeek

Paul Smith and Arlo J. Wiley

A more-or-less weekly podcast dedicated to all things geeky in pop culture and entertainment. We talk about everything from film and television to books, comics, video games, and more.

All Episodes

01:53:21

473 - Dick’s on the Brain

Gobbledygeek ·

2022/06/03

It’s a freestyle episode, boys and girls! You know what that means: the Dragon’s Milk is flowing, the tangents are plentiful, and Paul and Arlo just can’t get enough Dick’s. Now, now, get your mind out of the gutter–we’re talking Dick’s, the iconic Seattle burger chain. In addition to chowing down on their favorite regional burgers (Arlo shouts out Akron’s very own Swenson’s), the boys are very much on their bullshit throughout. Arlo recounts the entire A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, Paul

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01:39:25

472 - FCF: Smile

Gobbledygeek ·

2022/06/01

Sit back and say ‘Aaaahhhh!’ For this month’s Four-Color Flashback, Paul and Arlo take a trip to the dentist with Raina Telgemeier’s 2010 autobiographic novel Smile. Raina looks back on how her orthodontic woes served as a marker for her adolescence, from the loss of her two front teeth in 6th grade circa 1989 through finally ditching those braces in freshman year ‘92. This prompts Paul and Arlo to recount their own dental dramas in dramatic (traumatic?) detail before praising Telgemeier’s skillful

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02:33:09

471 - The Batman (feat. Kenn Edwards)

Gobbledygeek ·

2022/05/22

Riddle me this, riddle me that…who's afraid of Matt Reeves' The Bat(man)? Not Paul and Arlo, that's for sure, at least not with Project Batman vet Kenn Edwards at their side. There's a lot of ground to cover, beginning with: Did we need the 897th Batman movie? Of course not, but since we're here, the gang discusses Robert Pattinson's turn as the Caped Crusader, the film's emphasis on detective work, whether or not the story is served by a three-hour runtime, and much, much more. NEXT: Smile! For

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02:41:28

470 - The Mighty Marvel Movie Catch-Up

Gobbledygeek ·

2022/04/30

And you run, you run to catch up with the sun, but it’s sinking…well, before it sets, Paul and Arlo have a few MCU movies they need to discuss. Due to that pesky pandemic, we’ve gotten behind on the Marvel Cinematic Universe here at Gobbledygeek, but fear not! In this special, super-sized episode, Paul and Arlo discuss three mighty Marvel movies: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which brings Chinese mythology to the MCU; Eternals, which brings a race of immortal god-beings to the MCU; and

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01:40:47

469 - FCF: The Many Deaths of Laila Starr

Gobbledygeek ·

2022/04/25

What happens when a child is born who will invent immortality? According to Ram V and Felipe Andrade's The Many Deaths of Laila Starr, Death is fired from her job, is cast into a mortal body, and attempts to find and murder this child. Oh, she also dies a lot. On this month's Four-Color Flashback, Paul & Arlo discuss the book's unique approach to Indian mythology, Andrade's beautifully distorted figures, V's ability to be self-serious without being pretentious, and more. Plus, Paul gets into

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02:00:36

468 - Geek Challenge: Lady Bird vs. Ladyhawke

Gobbledygeek ·

2022/04/16

It's Ladies' Night on Gobbledygeek! By which we mean we've got a Geek Challenge featuring Richard Donner's 1985 medieval fantasy epic Ladyhawke and Greta Gerwig's 2017 millennial coming-of-age tale Lady Bird. What do these two films have in common? They're both about transformation, of course! In Lady Bird, Saoirse Ronan transforms into a young woman ready to take on the big city; in Ladyhawke, Rutger Hauer and Michelle Pfeiffer quite literally transform into a wolf and a hawk, respectively. Paul

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01:37:42

467 - Whatever Happened to the Geeks of Tomorrow?

Gobbledygeek ·

2022/04/11

For Paul and Arlo, existential crises and comic books often go hand-in-hand. Such is the case for this week’s freestyle, wherein Paul’s rumination on the erosion of his teenage self-confidence leads into a discussion of superhero mags. Paul tells Goblin punks to fuck off as he rocks out to Cody Ziglar and Justin Mason’s Spider-Punk, goes undercover with Kelly Thompson and Elena Casagrande’s recently wrapped run on Black Widow, and cloaks himself in Jed MacKay and Alessandro Cappuccio’s Moon Knight

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01:39:11

466 - Our Flag Means Death

Gobbledygeek ·

2022/04/05

Weigh anchor and hoist the mizzen! Paul and Arlo set sail for a discussion of David Jenkins’ pirate rom-com Our Flag Means Death. The new HBO Max series, a very loose telling of the history between Stede “The Gentleman Pirate” Bonnet and Edward “Blackbeard” Teach, begins as a silly romp very much in the vein of executive producer/star Taika Waititi’s other work. And then…well, it becomes something very much more, depicting a number of queer romances in positive, affirming fashion. The boys discuss

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01:30:26

465 - FCF: Six-Gun Gorilla

Gobbledygeek ·

2022/03/28

Sometimes a gorilla is just a gorilla. Sometimes, though, that gorilla–righteously bearing arms though he may be–is a gateway to a story about the power and fluidity of narrative. For this month’s Four-Color Flashback, Paul and Arlo go ape for Si Spurrier and Jeff Stokely’s Six-Gun Gorilla, a sci-fi Western published by BOOM! Studios in 2013. The boys discuss Stokely’s glorious, hyper-exaggerated art; how the book’s entertainment conglomerate dystopia feels like a logical extension of our present;

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02:18:40

464 - West Side Story (2021)

Gobbledygeek ·

2022/03/20

Somethin’s comin’, somethin’ good: this week, Paul and Arlo pirouette through a discussion of Steven Spielberg’s new take on West Side Story, nominated for Best Picture at this year’s Oscars. Is it a spoiler to say they love it? The boys discuss how Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner’s changes enrich the text, why choreographer Justin Peck’s bold choice to discard Jerome Robbins’ iconic choreography was the right move, what it means for the Sharks to be played by Latinx actors, and the joy of

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01:55:42

463 - The Animatrix & The Matrix Resurrections (feat....

Gobbledygeek ·

2022/03/15

Why use old code to mirror something new? Writer/producer Tilly Bridges is back to continue last week’s discussion of The Matrix series. This time, she joins Paul and Arlo to chat about 2003’s anime anthology The Animatrix, which fits surprisingly well into the series’ trans allegory; and, for the bulk of this episode, The Matrix Resurrections. Lana Wachowski’s triumphant return to her signature co-creation is strikingly similar to the original films…and strikingly different. The gang discusses

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02:00:21

462 - The Matrix Trilogy (feat.Tilly Bridges)

Gobbledygeek ·

2022/03/06

Unfortunately, no one can be told what Gobbledygeek is. You have to listen to it for yourself. Writer-producer Tilly Bridges joins Paul and Arlo for the first of a two-part discussion of Lilly & Lana Wachowski’s revolutionary Matrix franchise. This week, the gang discusses the original Matrix trilogy, which was released from 1999-2003 and shattered moviegoers’ preconceived notions of the world around them. In turn, Tilly shatters Paul and Arlo’s preconceived notions of these films by touching on the

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02:03:48

461 - FCF: Black Panther - The Intergalactic Empire...

Gobbledygeek ·

2022/02/27

Panthers…IN SPAAAAACE! For their first Four-Color Flashback of 2022, Paul and Arlo look to the stars, where they find Black Panther: The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda. The second half of Ta-Nehisi Coates' Black Panther run, these 25 issues--with art by Daniel Acuña, Kev Walker, and Ryan Bodenheim, among others--concern T'Challa's rise from slave to legend in an alien empire that bears his kingdom's name. The boys discuss Coates' bold new direction, the question of expansion vs. imperialism at the

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01:50:06

460 - MCUTV: Hawkeye (feat. Michael Holland)

Gobbledygeek ·

2022/02/16

Clint Barton, draw back your bow and let your arrow go straight to Disney+. Hollywood big shot Michael Holland joins Paul and Arlo for another season of MCUTV. This time, Jeremy Renner returns as the titular Hawkeye for six episodes of street-level crimefighting. He’s joined by Hailee Steinfeld as that other titular Hawkeye, Kate Bishop, to do battle with tracksuit bros, LARPers, and showtunes. The gang praises the show for its relatively small stakes, compares it to Matt Fraction and David Aja’s

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01:40:22

459 - Triskaidekaphobia

Gobbledygeek ·

2022/01/31

You're in luck--season 13 of Gobbledygeek is here. Everyone's favorite more or less (emphasis on less) weekly podcast returns with a look at the horrors 2022 has in store. How are Paul and Arlo feeling, two years into a pandemic? How dissatisfied are they with the goons running this whole show? Would they survive the apocalypse? At a certain point, the boys remember they're supposed to be doing a pop culture show. Paul heads to Station Eleven, while Arlo finds The Lost Daughter and runs to Flee

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01:53:46

458 - The Muppet Christmas Carol

Gobbledygeek ·

2021/12/22

It’s only one more Gobbledygeek ‘til Christmas! This year, instead of discussing the weird or cynical sides of the holidays, Paul and Arlo are embracing sincerity with a look at 1992’s The Muppet Christmas Carol. The first Muppets feature film following the death of Jim Henson is a faithful adaptation of the classic novella, with Gonzo as Charles Dickens himself and none other than Michael Caine as Ebenezer Scrooge. The boys discuss why Caine’s decision to play things straight is key to the film’s

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02:26:05

457 - What If…? (feat. Michael Holland)

Gobbledygeek ·

2021/12/16

What if…you listened to a podcast about What If…? In a universe of infinite possibilities, Michael Holland (currently post-production supervisor on The Peripheral for Amazon) finds himself once again teaming up with Paul and Arlo for a discussion of MCUTV. This time, it’s the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first animated series, the multiversal What If…? Ostensibly an anthology series, the show ponders the ways in which our heroes’ lives could have gone very, very differently. For their part, the gang

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01:40:56

456 - FCF: Outer Darkness

Gobbledygeek ·

2021/12/06

“And cast ye the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” So says Matthew 25:30, and in John Layman and Afu Chan’s Outer Darkness, there is plenty of weeping–and so, so much gnashing of teeth. For their last Four-Color Flashback of the year, Paul and Arlo discuss Layman and Chan’s 2018-19 Image/Skybound series, which imagines a far-flung future where spaceships need exorcists onboard and the dead can be resurrected so long as you cast a net wide

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01:29:42

455 - Reservation Dogs (feat. Nikki Stafford)

Gobbledygeek ·

2021/11/26

The best show on TV is on FX--well, FX on Hulu, that is. It’s called Reservation Dogs, it was created by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi, and it is about four Indigenous kids from Oklahoma dreaming of escape to California. To discuss this funny, heartbreaking show, Paul and Arlo are joined by pop culture writer extraordinaire Nikki Stafford. The gang discusses the show’s subtle storytelling, its incredible cast, the way Harjo and his team thread the needle between tragedy and comedy, and how this

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01:58:20

454 - Gobbledyween: Rockula (feat. Eric Sipple)

Gobbledygeek ·

2021/10/30

Gobbledyween has come to a close for another year--and we’re going out with a fang! To round out our month of frightening films, we’ve chosen a movie most people have probably never heard of: Rockula, a vampiric musical from 1990 starring Dean Cameron as the bloodsucking Ralph, cursed to try and win back the love of his immortal life every 22 years. We have also chosen to torture none other than Mimesis author Eric Sipple, who has been forced to endure this film with Paul and Arlo. The gang

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