Dragon Page Wingin’ It #31: Evo on Trial
What’s on this week: Evo On Trial!
- Evo’s father-in-law Max joins us in studio to lend moral support for Evo’s trial for spoiler violations
- Mur Lafferty (Geek Fu Action Grip): Gaming Therapy
- Explicit Serenity
- TD0013’s A Different Point of View
- Contest for free copies of The Traveler
- Michael R. Mennenga: Deep Thoughts
- Fantasy Firefly (from our friends of The Signal)
- Skittle Brau beer experiment
- Listener emails!
- More on the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas podcast
October 14th, 2005 at 12:37 pm
Evo, while knowing about the death wouldn’t have spoiled the movie for me, I would have spent the whole time waiting for it to happen. That waiting would have diminished my appreciation of the movie.
October 14th, 2005 at 12:44 pm
Glad you enjoyed the beer guys.
Not sure what problem you were having with the web address:
http://www.liquorama.net/
I have just tried it again and it is still available. (I have no association with the company but I’m glad to learn the beer was delivered well packed). By the way what did you think of the Speedway Stout, at 12%abv that was as close as I could get to Summers request to see you doing the show with the 13%abv Beelzebub she was after.
As far as Evo’s punishment for his Serenity spoiler. I would suggest that for Halloween his fancydress should be as Kaylee in her fluffiest pretties from the firefly episode Shindig. I’m sure Summer can help him with the make-up and hairstyling.
On second thoughts, if his fancydress last year was as a tooth fairy in a Tutu, my suggestion is probably far to tame.
October 14th, 2005 at 12:59 pm
Man, those Browncoats need to get a grip. Court? Tribunal? Pshaw. Hey, I loved the movie, and I’m a huge SciFi fan, but I think some people were taking the spoiler thing a little toooo seriously (even if they were feigning tongue-in-cheek). Perhaps they should call themselves…Brownshorts.
Just a thought.
Keep doing what you’re doing. You’re my favorite podcast.
October 14th, 2005 at 1:04 pm
Man, those Browncoats need to get a grip. Court? Tribunal? Pshaw. Hey, I loved the movie, and I’m a huge SciFi fan, but I think some people were taking the spoiler thing a little toooo seriously (even if they were feigning tongue-in-cheek). Perhaps they should call themselves…Brownshorts.
Just a thought.
Keep doing what you’re doing. You’re my favorite podcast.
October 14th, 2005 at 5:45 pm
Great episode. I’m liking the Keanu idea. And yes Mike, you DO laugh like Scooby Doo.
October 16th, 2005 at 9:56 pm
While I would dearly love to give Evo the rubber truncheon treatment for that assholish display of disregard for the listeners, lets not forget it is Mike who puts the show up for download and did so in this case without bleeping out the offending audio.
Both are GUILTY!
October 17th, 2005 at 10:02 am
A Signal Christmas Special?!? WOW! How can someone audition for that?!?
Hey, I’m late to the Firefly party and I will be willing to take Mike and Evo’s punishment for the spoiler violation…sans the Keanu Festival.
Evo, Evo, Evo — you silly, silly bastard…but this “Explicit Serenity” segment is a *bleep*-ing hoot!!! Well done, guys!!!
October 17th, 2005 at 5:34 pm
Instead of Bleeps for spoilers, how about some elevator music?
October 18th, 2005 at 6:12 am
David’s on to something here…
EVO: So, in the latest Batman Christian Bale faces off with…
*elevator music* (Don Pardo voiceover) We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please stand by…
October 18th, 2005 at 11:20 am
Michael, my beloved dog did the exact same thing (run into a chain link fence at full speed). Once we were sure she was okay, it was the funniest thing we had ever seen.
October 18th, 2005 at 1:53 pm
My dog was a Doberman and ran into stuff on a regular basis. Fences, cars, bushes, you name it. There was many a time that we would have people over and they would watch that dog plow headlong into stuff. It never phased him, and he would get right back up and continue the pursuit.
Ya gotta love that kind of dedication.
October 18th, 2005 at 8:00 pm
Mike, the Deep Thoughts thing was awesome…you definitely need to do one every week!
October 19th, 2005 at 5:12 pm
Evo and Mike,
With the bleeped episodes you find so terribly funny, and your un-bleeped spoilers (nothing like working hard to build a global audience, huh?) you two are forgetting a very basic rule of putting on a show. You are here to entertain your audience, your audience is not here to entertain you.
Evo, you fucked up. You shouldn’t have blurted it out, and you know you fucked up. Mike, you fucked up. You should have bleeped it, and you know you fucked up. Why the two of you have done it, however, is what gets my goat.
The two of you seem to behave as if your audience owes you something. Some sort of indulgence as your due for putting out such wonderful shows. While it’s more often than not true that your shows are indeed wonderful, your recent actions of releasing painfully irritating episodes of bleeped (ever try to listen to that shit in earphones?) content, and this most recent spoiler incident, only go to make the case that you forget that without your audience, you’re just a a couple of guys in a front of microphones speaking to no one.
Why do you think your voice mails have dwindled to almost nothing? Is it because you’re so funny? Is it because you have contests and give neat stuff (or, at least promise a looming Mirror Mask contest) away? Is it because you laugh like Scooby Doo? Or, is it because you’ve been taking your audience for granted, and abusing (while in admittedly minor ways) us for your own selfish amusements?
October 19th, 2005 at 7:54 pm
What I truly find offensive is how Mike and Evo forces their audience to lis–
Oh, wait a sec, that’s right. Mike and Evo don’t force you to listen. As it is with podcasting (and pretty much any bit of audio entertainment out there), you choose to listen.
Now, here’s where I’ll playing Devil’s Advocate. If I hadn’t seen Serenity and heard Evo’s spoiler, I would have been pretty miffed. No, I think I would have been so ticked that I would have walked away from Wingin’ It for a while. I’ve been dodging bullets harder than Keanu in order to avoid any Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Princespoilers because I don’t want to know anything beyond the fact that this is Year Six for Harry. If someone gave me the ending of it, I’d be pretty upset. Considering the amount of hype and anticipation for Serenity, I can’t even imagine how upset the international listeners were. It could have been bleeped out. It could have been avoided. It wasn’t. And I think Joe Murphy nailed it on the head during Evo’s trial from The Signal podcast. Evo avoided all spoilers at all costs and at all extremes because out of the entire DP crew, he hadn’t seen it. Apparently, after he saw Serenity, all bets were off. Yeah, a bit of a double standard.
I’m also worried how this would reflect on Mike and Evo when the next Serenity film comes out. While the chances of someone from Whedon’s camp running into the official Firefly offices with reports of this spoiler are remote, the possibility is there and may come back to haunt the guys. That would suck.
Now, all that being said and acknowledging that it was a bit of a shot in the jimmies when WI dropped that H-bomb of a spoiler, here’s my gripe: Evo’s spoiler, even with its quick reveal, could have been avoided. How? On hearing the word “spoiler,” hitting a pause button on your mp3 player or just removing the earbuds from your person would have worked. Hitting the space bar stops most audio players on your computer. If you’re listening to your player through the car radio, turn the radio volume down or turn the radio off. Even if you have the headphones strapped on your head, speaking nonsense loudly should drown out the playback. Stopping the podcast in mid-play is not impossible. Some methods are easier than others, and some are more comfortable than others.
This brings me to the point of this double-sided rant: None of us are forced to listen. If you don’t care for the self-indulgence of WI, then don’t listen. If you are not into the interviews of C2C or SoSF, then don’t listen. Personally, I do think Mike and Evo have earned the flippant, reckless, and out-of-control attitude of WI. These guys bust their humps to get the best guests for C2C and SoSF. We have heard just in this past year interviews with Greg Keyes, Karl Schroeder, Wil Wheaton, Bruce Campbell, Kevin J. Anderson, Robert J. Sawyer, Gigi Edgely, Richard Hatch, and Walter Koening. And would you like to know how much the guys make on producing three podcasts, one of them award-winning?
$0,000,000.00 per podcast.
Do we owe Mike and Evo? I would argue we do. They deliver on a consistent basis and occasionally get a pat on the back from us, the listening audience, and maybe some free beer. At the level they are delivering, “Thank you” just doesn’t come close.
Perhaps WI lost a few listeners after this incident, and maybe Mike and Evo are a little bummed about that. It’s okay. There are other podcasts out there that are safer than WI, and they are waiting for you. Podcasting provides the freedom of choice. A beautiful thing. So when the next bleeped episode comes up, it might be a good idea to skip past it or just avoid the episode altogether. With podcasting, you’re in control. So the next time you are outraged or annoyed by the antics of Mike, Evo, and the KAMNs, just remember that no one has glued your headphones into your ears, covered your iPod with duct tape, removed the volume control from your car radio, or rigged your podcastching client with dynamite so if you stop downloading the Mondo Feed, the bomb detonates. (What do you do?)
None of us are forced to listen. The final choice is ours.
(POSTSCRIPT: The two references to Keanu Reeves were intentional, in order to make the mighty E flinch. Thank you.)
October 20th, 2005 at 2:43 am
Less than five seconds from spoiler warning to the actual spoiler does not provide a sufficient amount of time for such actions, Tee. Furthermore, why should the audience, with only five days of a U.S. release, be placed into such an adversarial relationship with Mike and Evo? If I don’t want my movies spoiled I must rely upon my lightning-fast reflexes to save myself from the show hosts’ lack of consideration?
You also failed to consider the broader scope of my comments in that Mike and Evo appear to be of the opinion that their audience is here for their own amusement, and not the other way around. The bleeped episodes being a prime example.
Being free of charge isn’t a blank check for being shitty.
October 20th, 2005 at 7:26 am
Thanks for the comments, J. It doesn’t take a lot of reading between the lines to realize you make these comments for a simple reason: you want a better show. That’s understandable. Admirable, even.
There is, however, one major misconception which lies at the root of your argument. It lies in your “basic rule”. You see, I’ve always felt that rules apply to people other than myself. Egotistical? Sure. Have you listened to WI lately? That should come as no surprise.
When I (notice I’m talking about me and not the rest of the crew) sit down to to a Wingin’ It!, or insist that Mike put out a bleeped episode, I do it strictly for my own enjoyment. I know others enjoy it as well. Likewise, I know some don’t.
J, I’m pretty sure you enjoy Cover to Cover. You’ve commented on some previous shows. I don’t know if you like Slice of Scifi or not, and it’s certain now that you’re not getting a level of enjoyment out of Wingin’ It!. Know this: you never will. It’s not your bag, baby.
I don’t want you to go away as a listener, it’s just that the Pain-to-Enjoyment level of Wingin’ It! is too great for you. So unsubscribe from the Mondo feed and pick up C2C. SoSF as well, if you like. That’s why we have multiple feeds, rather than trying to be all things to all people.
Your fears are now confirmed. I do WI! for my own enjoyment and get much amusement from audience reaction to WI! episodes. That reaction, by the way, is largely positive. Too many folks come from far an wide to sit in with us, send us stuff, write side-splitting anecdotes in emails, and suffer through our inability to keep the voice mail system working for me to think otherwise.
October 21st, 2005 at 7:10 am
Joe…
Thanks a bunch for the “I swear it will be done” comment about modifying the original show. I was drinking coffee at the time - yeah, that’s a stupid thing to do while listening to any of the Dragonpages podcasts, but I was - and it ended up sprayed on my monitor. Does everyone who is into Sci-Fi / Fantasy also love The Princess Bride?
By the way… I am not left handed.