The Occasionalists Podcast
Examining the human condition. Sometimes. Mostly jawing about pop culture and other nerdy pursuits.
Episodes
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 Narratives (aka stories-within-stories). ...
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: Michael Jackson and R. Kelly.
And...
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...this movie has it all!
Take a hi...
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 of film and music this month, and w...
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 some shows that either flip the trop...
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!
Volume 2 of The Luigi Tapes, and our final minisode of the month, finds us tackling what the trial could be like and how the people will react to the quagmire as it unfolds in real time. Certainly, this will be a normal, non-insane trial. Right?!
We wrap up the episode by delving deep into the new media studies classes we'll be teaching this coming fall semester. Our first media subject that we analyze through film and tv? Well...t...
Our final episodes of In The March of Minisodes are here, and what better way to unwind a great month than with a totally chill and noncontroversial piece of news that concluded the tumultuous year of 2024?
Chemma rejoins the pod as we go elbow-deep into one Luigi Mangione and the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. We tackle the fallout of the murder and the ripple effect it's already having throughout America.
O...
Greg Cherry returns to talk about comedy's not-so-funny side and things that do not tickle our collective funny bones.
Also, I got a lead on a hot new family band that everyone simply MUST check out!
Greg Cherry rejoins the program as we dig into the world of standup comedy, navigating tricky subjects and what makes us laugh.
Also, Greg fills us in on this hot new act he saw out in Colorado. They sound like a talented troupe!
Our final ten-minute episode is a challenge of sorts: change my mind that you CANNOT have singular favorites of anything or let me change yours.
Good luck!
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