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Deep Space and Dragons
Episode 88: Night of the Living Karl
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Prepare to embark on a thrilling journey through the worlds of horror and sci-fi as we unravel the cultural impact of "Night of the Living Dead," and discover what makes this iconic 1968 film a timeless classic. Ever wondered how black-and-white cinematography and chocolate sauce came together to create the perfect zombie apocalypse? We promise you'll gain insight into how these unique production choices paved the way for modern cinematic techniques, influencing groundbreaking films like "Sin City" and "Spider-Verse." We'll also explore the double-edged sword of CGI's creative potential and its overuse in today’s movies, pondering how "Night of the Living Dead's" ending still resonates with contemporary audiences.
But the fun doesn't stop there. Get ready for a rollicking exploration of zombie lore as we examine the evolution of the undead in films and anime. We'll celebrate the British humor of "Shaun of the Dead," dive into the campy charm of "Evil Dead," and raise an eyebrow at the tropes in "28 Days Later" and "The Walking Dead." Marvel at the emotional core found in "The Last of Us," where the undead serve as a backdrop for profound human stories. With references to games like Telltale's "The Walking Dead" and anime such as "Tokyo Ghoul," we'll highlight how different media approach the zombie narrative, from mindless hordes to hybrids with a hint of humanity.
As our discussion reaches new creative heights, we'll brainstorm innovative ideas for setting zombie stories in unexpected historical contexts, imagining tech-savvy zombies or even martial arts-infused undead battles. We'll also have a whimsical chat about the art of safe teleportation, using cardboard cutouts to add a magical touch. And for a grand finale, expect some pun-filled fun as we ponder a world where humor reigns supreme, and even the undead are urged to exercise their voting rights. Join us for an entertaining and thought-provoking episode filled with laughter and unexpected insights!
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Happy festive season of falling leaves and gourds, maybe or August. You can watch this whenever you want. I'm Richard, not telling you what to do.
Speaker 2:I am Carl. I mean, I'm also not going to tell you what to do. That's not my job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, between us we have a net total leadership stat of zero, which is ironic considering what we've done for careers. And welcome to Deep Space and Dragons. We're hosts. I think to possible zombie viruses, but likely not.
Speaker 2:Ooh, yeah, we could be patient zero, you know let's be honest, panda's patient zero.
Speaker 1:We know this already Through everything he says and does. I'm 90% sure he's already a zombie. So what's new in the Carlverse? Probably zombies.
Speaker 2:Oh well, it's not Well. I mean, yes, zombies are in the Carlverse, but yeah. So I watched Night of the Living Dead for my tradition of watching horror movies with my girlfriend, Fiancé Person.
Speaker 1:Nice, good save. I enjoy the idea that your fiancé person who's special will listen to this episode like 10 years from now and be like Fiancé person who's special. Huh, and you're like that's a compliment.
Speaker 2:A pretty good one, anyways. So Night of the Living Dead, released in 1968, by 1966 most North American films were shot in color so might have been a misplay so Night of the Living Dead. It was an artistic choice slash, budget constraint choice to. Apparently they used chocolate sauce for blood and ham donated from a local butcher for like body parts and makeup and stuff so before we go deeper into this, I want to dissect that a bit.
Speaker 1:I love that. So part of my job in my department is people have been shooting videos right of doing redacted and IP protected and redacted shoots about redacting topic.
Speaker 1:And there's like stock footage. One of my teammates is making backgrounds, I'm helping edit scripts and I'm like you know what If these were in black and white? You're right, in black and white, special effects are much easier. But maybe being bright and colorful and energetic is wrong. Maybe students would be like, hey, we're here to help you with your anxiety, but is it like black and white? People would be like what? Or if it was black and white and red and that was it. It's like you need to take a moment to notice nature to distress, and it was like just in, like a sin city color palette. I don't know that might that might cause enough dissonance to get the second look oh, as a side note, um, sin city, um, is it the entire film?
Speaker 2:the entire film is actually shot on green screen, um, and so then, uh, like the background light and the foreground light aren't, obviously aren't the same, and it helps give you those like super nice angular lines that, like you generally see in actual comic books, uh, but then if you're actually like, if you actually want realistic lighting, that's not the movie for you, but it's a very awesome stylistic choice to be in black and white and against the green screen.
Speaker 1:Well, it's black and white with very specific color choices, like gold shows up once in a while and red shows up once in a while, and the thing is CGI. We love to throw shade at CGI here in Deep Space and Dragons, like the Expendables changing a helicopter from black to white instead of just using paint.
Speaker 2:Right right.
Speaker 1:If you choose to do CGI and and go fun with it. I'm not talking ant-man, where they just shot it in front of a green, the entire movie in front of a green screen for ant-man 3. I'm talking like fun mind bendy stuff like spider-verse, using different frame rates for different characters. I support use of like fun cgi. I don't support use of cloning robert downey jr digitally with ai so they can resurrect him as a digital zombie, but that's a story for another day. Today is not a Marvel episode. Although that was my entire Friday shift, it was just me ranting about Marvel movies.
Speaker 2:But so Night of the Living Dead is a landmark cinema film for horror movies. So many many directors that came afterwards cite Night of the Living Dead as one of their inspirations for why they got into filmmaking. And I will say I've mentioned a couple times that there's movies that are old and then the twist is that there is no twist. Yep, spoiler alert for a 50-year-old movie, almost 60-year-old movie, you know.
Speaker 1:I love our inconsistencies for spoilers, because we'll literally open an episode with and then JJK Gojo died, and then spoiler warning Nosferatu.
Speaker 2:Well, no, I mean, night of the Living Dead isn't that old. Like I said, it came out in 1968, but and actually having never seen it before, it actually had a genuine twist at the end, because the main, the main character, he's a black guy and he makes it through the night. He's the only person in this house that makes it through the night. The main character, he's a black guy and he makes it through the night. He's the only person in this house that makes it through the night. And then the military and police forces, or whatever they're working together, they're hunting the zombies the next day and he hears them coming, because he hears their dogs and he hears the guns. And so he cautiously goes out of the cellar to double check what's going on. And the police officer sees him in the window and it's not clear, uh, if they shot him in the head because they thought he was a zombie or it's because he was black.
Speaker 1:so one of my favorite ironic dragon ball z abridged memes, uh, dragon ball super memes is. There's just a line where trunk says to the future cops in the future, don't shoot. This man's not black as a reference to goku black, and I just see that meme once in a while and it's uh, but for the record, disclaimer I want on the record to go Deep Space and Dragons does not endorse racism.
Speaker 2:But the point I'm trying to make is actually it's like I I thought at least some people would survive to the end and in the end nobody survived. Like there's they try to make an escape attempt and end up blowing up a truck with two people inside, uh, or like they're. They're just trying to survive the night and zombies are busting down doors and stuff. And then, yeah, like the, the token black guy, instead of dying first, he dies last. Um, and it's so many layers.
Speaker 1:To that I mean Deep Space and Dragons. Disclaimer does not have the power to solve racism. If we did, we would have done so.
Speaker 2:But anyways the TLDR. There are some odd choices and the pacing is a little bit slow compared to modern movies, Except for the Batman.
Speaker 1:Have you watched?
Speaker 2:The Batman, but Night of the Living Dead.
Speaker 1:Have you watched the Batman like the newest one? Because that is paced slow oh.
Speaker 2:But the point is that I would actually still recommend Night of the Living Dead, apparently not the first zombie movie. According to Wikipedia, that's a movie called White Zombie. That's not even dead In 1932. But yeah, night of the Living Dead, decent movie.
Speaker 1:All right. So instead of going with the what's new with either of us, I want to talk zombies. So now we've talked Night of the Living Dead, let's talk the best movie ever made Shaun of the Dead. Night of the Living Dead, let's talk the best movie ever made?
Speaker 2:Shaun of the Dead. Okay, shaun of the Dead is an excellent Zomcom, as Wikipedia says.
Speaker 1:The only good. Zomcom.
Speaker 2:The only good, zomcom, I mean. I don't really have that many other examples, but like.
Speaker 1:It's hard to make a good Zomcom. The only reason it worked was it had the driest, most British's sense of humor I'd ever seen and very good cinematography, because it's like you watch her do his mundane walk and then do a zombie walk, and they did both of those in one take each right right it's like they tried really hard to make a bad movie which resulted in an amazing movie. Well, I mean, that's definitely one really hard to make a bad movie which resulted in an amazing movie.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, that's definitely one of those examples where the director makes a huge impact on the cinematography, like you say, like how the scenes are shot and those long sort of symmetrical shots, like it's let's go parallel, parallel shots. Yeah, because? Because he does the the same thing before the zombies as he does when the zombies come, and he he ironically is such a zombie he doesn't even notice the actual zombies that's the joke of the movie is sean was dead inside.
Speaker 1:It's such a zombie that he doesn't even notice the actual zombies. That's the joke of the movie is Sean was dead inside.
Speaker 2:It's great, right, right. And yeah, the director I don't remember who it was, but the director of the the Sean of the Dead movie really like Hammered that home in so many subtle ways. Edgar.
Speaker 1:Wright, that's great Edgar.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that guy definitely an excellent director.
Speaker 1:So, like Shaun of the Dead is one direction zombie shows can go, that was good, so, dawn of the Dead serious zombie movie good. Shaun of the Dead serious comedy good. Like I've said this about Dragon Ball Z Abridged before too, a good comedy is shot like a movie that's taking itself seriously, because it's like comedies will often be like well, since we're just doing a comedy, we don't have to care. I'm like no, no care. When you care it is a better comedy. So you know what movie way, I didn't care.
Speaker 1:Zombieland ooh yeah, zombieland was ridiculous and then it's like I look up the director for shot of the dead, they're like are they making a shot of the dead too? It's like no, never, they refuse, they'd rather the Dead 2?. It's like no, never, they refuse, they'd rather die. I'm like that's correct. Every part of that is correct.
Speaker 2:I didn't realize that Dawn of the Dead was actually a sequel to Night of the Living Dead.
Speaker 1:Now you know what movie, though, to go on? The trifecta of zombies. So we have serious zombies, we have comedy zombies and we have evil dead. Evil dead in all its cheesy goodness, with its chainsaw hands, its army of darkness, its evil dead. That is a great two in the morning while eating McNuggets movie yeah is it a good movie? No, I'm not going to pretend it is. Is it a great movie? Absolutely. That's one of those things that's probably been parodied more than I've seen it Like I've seen.
Speaker 2:Army of Darkness.
Speaker 1:I've watched it once and I've seen Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2. And they're great movies, but they've definitely been like lampooned so many times that the original might have been like absorbed into pop culture.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's true. Watching these older movies and then the twist is that there is no twist Because they've been parodied and contorted so many times, because people already know them Right. The real question about zombies To me Is like how much can you actually do with zombies?
Speaker 1:So To go into a mini monologue about the difference Between zombies and the infected so zombies, so to go into a mini monologue about the difference between zombies and the infected so zombies, aka magical zombies, don't need to be explained, they're just zombies. Has become the more interesting variant Because 28 days later made the infected a thing. Sure, it was technically Resident Evil that probably ripped that off and that was probably ripped off by something else before it.
Speaker 1:But the infected is boring, it's just ooh, it's super rabies, we're going to explain it. And those movies became the same movie, like 28 Days Later and the Walking Dead are the same basic concept, right, and I find those less interesting because, like the whole, ooh, we all have the zombie virus. It's kind of been done to death at this point. Right, right I don't know How'd you feel about 28 days later. Slash resident evil wannabe.
Speaker 1:I'm calling it right now, and if they pretend they didn't see resident evil before they had a chimp infected with the rage virus, I call bullshit.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I mean, that's definitely one of my least favorite ways of quote unquote. Creating zombies is the infection. Like Walking Dead in particular, I found it's like the first two seasons there's hope that they might find a cure, and then it's like, oh no, everyone's infected and you turn into a zombie as soon as you die. And it was. It's like, why am I still watching this? And every season ends up being the same thing, where they find a place to hunker down and then shit goes south so my issue with the walking dead is actually from a narrative point of view, not a zombie point of view.
Speaker 1:So mutant rage zombie, sure, why not? You can do everything from high school of the dead to attack on titan, if you really think about it. So the concept of of the viral zombie, you can do that, sure. The problem with the Walking Dead is there was no win condition and we knew that. Because there's one season where.
Speaker 1:I'm a scientist, I need to get there. Well, I was just lying. I'm like that wasn't a twist. We knew that. What would have been the twist is there was actually a solution to this, because they do the big cryptic reveal at the end of season one and the big reveal is like, yeah, we're all screwed.
Speaker 2:That's not a big reveal, that's nothing.
Speaker 1:Where, at least Resident Evil, you could punch a boulder. At least there was a win con in those as cheesy and cliche as it was.
Speaker 2:Also I enjoyed that it just low-key declared Attack on Titan a zombie movie.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean it kind of is I don't know, Kind of sort of it's a bit of a stretch. Oh, the worst trope, though, in anime is, when you have the zombie person, just bring back dead characters. If you do it poorly, it can be fun, and it can also fail miserably.
Speaker 2:So I mean okay. So in terms of anime, there are two big examples of zombies right off the bat, the first one being Naruto, which we talked about last week, but we didn't really focus much on the zombie aspect.
Speaker 1:That's because that's the part they screwed up Like. I'm not even going to dignify that with a follow-up. They weren't zombies. They used magic ninja magic to resurrect them as a mortal fan service.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay. And then the other one that's a little more interesting is Bleach. The one starring writer has that blood power where she, like, when she bleeds on people, she turns them into zombies. What's?
Speaker 1:funny is bleach. Body mechanics make no sense, so everyone in bleach is a ghost already, right, and you're making ghosts into zombies. Repeat that out loud, please. What were they doing in bleach, carl?
Speaker 1:They were making ghosts into zombies so I'm not going to dignify that with an explanation. But the worst part is they're like literally used to circumvent characters dying in a series where there's already healing magic and it was hard to kill people. I'm like, okay, you did not need a zombie person to resurrect the captain to have another person hit them with a different zombie virus. When you have a character who rewinds injuries, so, unnecessary.
Speaker 2:So did you know.
Speaker 1:So High School of the Dead and Kabardy of the Iron Force, chris, were two straight up zombie animes. But I look up the list of zombie animes and they're like Zombieland Saga and I'm like I don't think I watched Zombieland Saga. But then they're like Hellsing and I're like Zombieland Saga and I'm like I don't think I watched Zombieland Saga. But then they're like Helsing and I'm like, alright, let's talk about like the problem with Helsing, either the anime or like Underworld and Vampires, werewolf, zombies zombies are the putty troopers of horror movies when they're mixed with other more horrifying things right because, like vampire, thrall is such an archetype but it's so much less.
Speaker 1:I don't know. It's like if you have other better evil things, zombies become woefully punchable well, yeah, I mean so a lot of supposedly like zombie animes.
Speaker 2:It's like, are they? Are they really zombies or are they like ghouls?
Speaker 1:it's perfect pivot. I think tokyo ghoul season one really fits the zombie feel a lot better it definitely looks like a zombie movie right, because it's like they're not technically zombies at all. They're regular living life forms that just happen to be cannibals.
Speaker 1:But they're zombie-esque, but it has the zombie energy of like I'm forced to buy people against my will and I just there's a lot of energy it has, especially when it's more coffee shoppy at the start. I'm not going to say the Tokyo Ghoul manga or the future seat later seasons after he gets amnesia and becomes a ghost buster, but the first season definitely had good zombie energy.
Speaker 2:Like I respected it, it was quite zombie yeah, but I mean then it's like yeah, technically they are more ghouls than zombies, hence the name.
Speaker 1:I suppose like suppose, like even like Soul Eater's, like yeah, we have a character who's a zombie, just the one character, but we just are putting in all the horror movie homages we can get and I'm shocked in retrospect that Soul Eater never had a vampire. It had witches, ghosts, a werewolf, zombies, a creepy laughing moon, venom, but no vampire. Weird line for them to not cross.
Speaker 2:But so then, obviously, neither of us are a huge fan of the people who are infected, Like I am legend with Will Smith.
Speaker 1:He certainly is a legend these days.
Speaker 2:Oh, man, has he lost my respect.
Speaker 1:But that's not what we're going to go into today, but if you want to Google it, just Google. Will Smith lost my respect and I'll probably explain it for you.
Speaker 2:Interestingly enough, a little side note Apparently he is one of three movie stars. That's still a draw to the theaters.
Speaker 1:Bah.
Speaker 2:Bah, bah. Anyways, so infected zombies, so back to Night of the Living Dead. They weren't exactly infected with a virus, but the explanation in in universe is that, uh, they sent a probe to venus and it came back with some sort of weird radiation infecting it and that radiation reactivates the brains of the recently deceased and turned some into cannibals, you know I don't like that, less or more like I feel like it.
Speaker 1:If they re-rate that movie today, they would have went with the virus instead, because it fits our current science more. And I don't think it would have changed anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, but like what other kinds of zombies? Like there's magically resurrected zombies?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so at this point zombies have just become the infected right. Like other than literally Evil Dead or D&D. Zombies aren't magic anymore. Magic zombies really only works if you have like a more historical setting going on. Right showers for but never watch for. It's like I'm a medical student who's a zombie who eats the brains of victims to experience their memories. I'm like, wow, you guys really really are trying so hard to make your police procedurals interesting and I give you some credit.
Speaker 2:It was interesting well, you know, I'm uh, my roommate actually rather enjoyed I zombie. I found it got a little bit tired after a while. But basically it's exactly as you say the medical student. She works for the morgue and or, yeah, she's like doing her practicum at the morgue or something, and then she goes and she has a party on a houseboat where she gets bitten by and infected by a zombie and then most of the series she solves crimes by eating people's brains and she takes on their personality and their memories to try and solve their crimes, like eating the victim's brains so that she can regain their memories and try and solve their murders, while the through plot is her trying to solve what's going on with this zombie virus and and all the other zombies that are doing their political zombie shenanigans. So what's interesting?
Speaker 1:I'm sorry, go ahead oh no, finish that up well, I just I.
Speaker 2:I did actually find the premise to be fairly interesting. Just a problem with TV shows in general is that they often overstay their welcome and they just kind of keep rehashing the same thing over and over.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's kind of like the joke in the Walking Dead is it's not the zombies, they're the walking dead Because they're doomed. No matter what. I'm like okay, should have ended you at four seasons, then shouldn't you have? Yeah, what I'm like okay, should have ended you at four seasons, then shouldn't you have. Well, what's interesting is, I think, part of what makes particularly the retro ones versus some other zombie things feel more zombie is at this point we can kind of accept that we're just going to use rage viruses instead of magic. But horror, right. Good horror writing is you only show like 10 of the monster, right?
Speaker 1:So, when you explain your zombies and then have an antidote to your zombies, you lose value of the zombies Like.
Speaker 2:Night of the.
Speaker 1:Living Dead probably didn't actually need to explain the zombies right, like sure you could go radiation, mutate brains, whatever you want. But quite frankly it's the unknown that makes it kind of interesting. The reason Tokyo Ghoul's first season felt more zombie is it felt more horror in general Because it had this more methodic pace of like oh, this is just a bunch of Hannibal Lecters in this story.
Speaker 2:Trying to out Hannibal.
Speaker 1:Lecter each other, but like completely brainless zombies, are you know, actually? So recently I watched a resident evil live action show on netflix and it was interesting because like they had cliche resident evil things, like we got our scientists, we got a range virus, we got an off-brand wesker clone and I enjoyed it, even though it was extremely predictable, because it's resident evil, of course it is. But then you got the last of us and decide to go with fungus zombies, the fungus, oh yeah, I was gonna ask you when you thought about the last of us and the show so for the show.
Speaker 1:As I said before, emotional through lines are what make your zombie show right. And using a zombie show as your setting for your Grogu Mandalorian, reluctant old soldier, young daughter archetype trying to survive against a cruel world where you have to sacrifice your daughter to save the world or screw over the world to save your daughter. Great use of zombies Because zombies make a great existential threat. You don't have to feel bad, for you can kill them. They could be as scary as they need to be right but last of us.
Speaker 1:Its emotional core was solid. One of the best hours of tv and recent memories is we just followed a side character who, him and his husband, went through their awkward falling in love during a zombie apocalypse days, where one was a doomsday prepper and the other one was just trying to live his best life.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:It was beautiful. It was poignant because the idea was the zombies are leading to isolation, becoming close with the people you care about against the ever-present threat, not trusting humanity and knowing when to open up and try. And basically the key zombie trope is dying is like choosing to do something good and it possibly costing you your life. Right, like choosing optimism at the cost of your life. Is kind of a cliche zombie movie trope, but I think it's an important zombie movie trope important zombie movie trope.
Speaker 2:Hmm. So yeah, you are right that almost, if not all, zombie movies have at least one character who sacrifices themselves to the horde so that someone else can escape.
Speaker 1:And a key point too, is that the first humans you run across in a zombie movie. The humans are always going to be more dangerous than the zombies in a zombie movie, and that becomes the ethical dilemma is helping out other survivors at the risk of yourself? That's kind of the core concept that zombie movies thrive on, and Shaun of the Dead nailed it Like it was. Like okay, I'm going to use this as an excuse to get back with my ex.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Okay, we're just going to go to the bar till this whole thing blows over. But like it had all the key actual dramatic, zombie, self-sacrifice, heroic moments, so I went through one of those Telltale Walking Dead games as part of a class I was doing last semester and the interactive game was probably more interesting than the actual show Because it gives you those moral choices of who do you save and when, which is really good for a choose-your-own-adventure novel and it was kind of a ghost-trained choose-your-own-adventure novel, like none of the choices really changed the overall plot so much, but the premise of zombie survival.
Speaker 1:But you get to choose. They also gave you a more interesting character where you're an ex-convict who got out during a zombie apocalypse and had to lie to people because you're an ex-convict. It's interesting the social dynamics of the zombie apocalypse destroys all existing power structures and then you have to rebuild it. And are you going to be optimistic or pessimistic? The worst zombie movies are the ones where you just release the zombie cure and the zombies go away at the end. But equally bad is if you don't have a character arc, so the zombies kill everybody and there's no hope at the end Because what your actual arc is is does the grizzled old man who's lost his daughter bond with the young child and escape?
Speaker 1:That was the actual through line. They weren't going to hear the zombie problem. Nor were they going to die accomplishing nothing, to nihilism. The Last of Us had a very clear objective. Also, you know what has zombies? That's not really a zombie series Fallout. See, we kind of talked about mutants very briefly because technically that's how they made the zombies in Night of the Living Dead Nuclear fallout is the other thing that makes zombies Rage virus magic and nuclear fallout.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but like you say, most modern series or examples of zombies have basically given up on the magic aspect, Like it's pretty much non-existent.
Speaker 1:That's a perfect example, even though we spend way too much of Deep Space and Dragons talking about Bleach In a show with literal magic, with ghosts in the afterlife who have magic like actual magic. They used a rage virus still to make their zombies. It was literally if my blood splashes on them and I feed them my blood, they turn to zombies and I'm like you, make arrows of spirit energy. Why is there a biological component to this? And then Naruto's like oh, we just use magic to bring them back, but they're not mindless. So if they're not mindless, so if they're?
Speaker 2:not mindless, then they're also not really zombies, are they? Yeah, I mean, that's a good point. Just part of being a zombie is being mindless.
Speaker 1:Because if you're not mindless, then, Like the thing is, I like the hybrid zombies, I'll let the Tokyo Ghoul ones get away with it where it's like, okay, they're not mindless, but they go feral when they get hungry, Like that's kind of fun. And they're like a lot of metrics show that they're technically dead. Like if you're slowly becoming more zombie-like and if you start devouring people you just go actual, outright zombie. That's great, like you basically turned into a centipede monster by the end of it, which is horrifying.
Speaker 2:But it had the energy I was looking for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true. So then you have things like Zombieland, which there's a lot of things that just wanted to be Shaun of the Dead but forgot to Because Shaun of the Dead was a comedy set in an actual zombie movie, where a lot of the time they set their zombie comedies in a comedy movie.
Speaker 2:And then they add zombies to try and make things funny or interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the difference between being set in a zombie movie and being a comedy that has zombies. It's how serious the zombie part is, which it really wasn't for Shaun of the Dead, but it kind of was, and yeah 28 Days. Later had fast zombies, which the joke is, fast zombies are more dangerous. If we look for Left 4 Dead and your classic zombie video games fast zombies they go geometrically opposed to the horror plot because, as I mentioned, the unseen threat is 90% of horror. The thing barely ever showed the thing.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So the reason I point that out is if your zombies are fast and you see them running at you, that's less scary than it being silent with a little bit of rustling and then brah zombie out of nowhere.
Speaker 2:Going back to the Night of the Living dead, uh, one of the strange choices they made. Okay, so firstly, a little side tangent, um, I mentioned that many directors um cite night of the living dead as as one of their inspirations, and I don't know if this is direct inspiration or not, but night of the Living Dead opens with several fairly long shots of a car driving out into the country, and it immediately made me think of the Shining.
Speaker 1:Oh, the Shining.
Speaker 2:But then because the Shining has even longer shots of the car driving out into the country and it's just like it's that they're both the opening credit scene and the dramatic, scary music of just this car driving out into the country. But anyways, the point I actually wanted to make was the other strange thing, that one of the strange things that Night of the Living Dead did is there's a five, ten minute chase scene and the zombie's just hobbling after the character named Barbara.
Speaker 1:Barbara, I don't know why that's funny, it just kind of is.
Speaker 2:But yeah, the zombie's just hobbling after her and she's just running and running and running and she gets into a car and the zombie follows her car and the zombie. She ends up into a car and the zombie follows her car and the zombie she, like, ends up crashing the car and the zombie is still chasing her. And it's just like why is this super slow zombie like so dedicated to getting this one girl?
Speaker 2:where if you have many zombies, then you can fix that error right, like you deal with one zombie and, ah, another zombie, shisha, but I mean, then she goes to the can fix that error right, Like you deal with one zombie and, ah, another zombie, Shasha Well, I mean, then she goes to the abandoned farmhouse where she meets all the other characters, and the farmhouse is steadily surrounded by zombies. So I mean it does solve some of the issue I just mentioned by having people hole up in a house. But I just thought it was so funny how, like, like you say, say fast zombies aren't really as scary as zombies popping out of nowhere.
Speaker 1:uh, but I guess back in 1968, being chased by a zombie for you know minutes on end is was a terrifying prospect because the thing is or you can mix it up too, like if% of your zombies are slow and then one of them just lunges at you, walking against Resident Evil style it'll get you.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Because it's funny, Last of Us as a game is definitely modeled after the Resident Evil Silent Hill vibes of you're given janky controls intentionally because the situation is tense. But then you go the other direction with things like Dead Rising or Zombies U, where it's like no, we just want to beat the easily smookable mooks.
Speaker 2:Oh ZombiU.
Speaker 1:ZombiU is interesting.
Speaker 2:It's one of those interesting concepts at wii u well, see, I'm pretty sure zombie you did better when it was just zombie uh. They re-released it on ps4, I believe, maybe ps3, uh, but the the prepper, they just basically did away with it. I love the Wii U architecture, but not many people knew how to use it. But Zombie Eagle is an interesting game.
Speaker 1:I'm so excited that Xenoblade Chronicle X is getting remastered. I don't think they'll ever fix the multiplayer, but it was a really cool game.
Speaker 2:It was a really cool game.
Speaker 1:A friend of mine was telling me I should watch Kingdom, which is a Korean historical filler about zombies.
Speaker 2:Wow, and it's like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's all I know about it. I just wanted to say this out loud to listeners, because at least one person will be like especially if it's that same friend like, yeah, you should watch Kingdom.
Speaker 2:So if we go on to witchcraft, slash magic used to resurrect zombies. So you've seen what's available for what we do in the shadows. Yes, um yeah, they're one zombie joke well, I mean, they kind of had, they kind of had two, because the the one guy becomes a zombie, uh, and then he learns how to speak again, and so then he has to teach the other guy how to be a zombie that can speak.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was the same joke. They just used it twice.
Speaker 2:I suppose so.
Speaker 1:Surprisingly, continuing returns. So what's interesting is something I haven't seen explored much. I'm curious your thoughts Should more zombie movies take place in the past? Because I've literally watched a movie and I do not remember what it was called or where I watched it, and it was subtitled Late at Night, but it was literally about a Nazi zombie experiment and then they had to blow up this nuclear plant that was making Nazi zombies.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it's the movie I'm thinking of, but for when D-Day happened to World War II, there was apparently scouts that went ahead to try and destroy radar towers, and so this movie is called Overlord, and it's about the scouts that go ahead and destroy the radio towers.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes, yes, this is the movie. This is the movie.
Speaker 2:One of the radio towers is just like filled with zombie experiments.
Speaker 1:Overlord 2018, that's the one that's wild.
Speaker 2:Yeah, me and my buddy went to go see it in theaters. We thought we were in for just a World War II movie and then suddenly it was about zombies you know that's the best way you could have experienced that, that's like the intended strategy is you're not aware, because, like Nazi, zombies are just a great thing to kill and also one of the more likely groups to make zombies.
Speaker 2:Definitely, but I did google it and there's at least 10 Nazi and also one of the more likely groups to make zombies definitely but I did google it and there's at least 10 Nazi zombie movies.
Speaker 1:Apparently they're a popular subgenre.
Speaker 2:I mean. So zombies are already, you know, mookable mooks, but if you have them being Nazis A it gives a reason for them to exist, and and B it makes them even more killable. It's like oh yeah, everyone agrees that Nazis were bad.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, no ethical dilemma here. But I was kind of thinking if you were to make a zombie movie. Now part of me wants to be like, oh man, do I just set a zombie movie in colonial England or something? Do I go Victorian zombies just to make them harder to kill? Because you watch Resident Evil or World War Z and you're like, yeah, now we have planes that are going at Mach 7, dropping iron magnesium dust to create heat lasers across the land to scorch them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, zombies are a little scary when you can send in drones to kill them.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:You know what? Let's make this interesting. Pitch to me your zombie movie. You have five minutes Right now. Just pitch me a zombie movie for a million dollars, Go. Pitch you a zombie movie, yeah right off the top of your head. When is Carl's zombie movie? You can get the money here. Let's Shark Tank this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right off the top of your head. What is Carl's zombie movie? You, uh, but the idea of, like, there's like zombie children and then, like you know, you're going around killing zombies and then it's like a child but then like zombie, like, uh, I, I think that would be I'm just kind of a fan of the zombies to get more intelligent, uh, and learn over time. And then the idea that, uh, like, maybe a zombie takes over the very drones you've been talking about and starts torching the humans.
Speaker 1:See, that's pretty great. Like slowly developing zombies is a pretty good twist. Like I was alluding to, I'd probably go like Ip man period peace, martial arts movie, but zombies.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love all of the Ip man movies.
Speaker 1:The idea like you have to, like jackie chan, fight these zombies. Know how much harder zombies are to fight when your weapon is a flintlock pistol in your fists and if they bite you, you're a zombie because, like, I'd be going so far to those b-movie vibes. It's insane because, like you could do a good horror zombie movie but part of me is like, oh man, I would go so pulp with these movies. It'd be insane. Or just go 1-1.
Speaker 2:Zombie magic cards 1-1 zombie magic cards.
Speaker 1:Well, it's like in D&D and magic zombies are just your 1-1 mooks. But like one thing I enjoy doing in D&D is weird things to zombies like zombie beholders. I really enjoy having the doofy zombie like the zombie beholder poking the ground with a stick and then just collapsing when they're hit, like I enjoy zombies being laughably bad in D&D. Right, right, until there's like an ocean of of them. And then suddenly the zombie T-Rex is vomiting more zombies at you.
Speaker 2:The zombie T-Rex.
Speaker 1:The zombie T-Rex vomits more zombies.
Speaker 2:As a little aside, I was playing a campaign once One of our players. They became undead.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:I did that too in my current campaign.
Speaker 1:They made a deal with a hag, and the hag just killed them, so they'd be immortal.
Speaker 2:But the undead T-Rex that vomits more zombies. He doesn't gain health by eating zombies, he gains health by eating undead and there is no save against the undead T-Rex eating an undead to regain health.
Speaker 1:But I can't help it. I have to give them a savings throw. Like I feel bad. Insta-killing players, I'd have to be like you get disadvantage because it Insta-kills zombies and I tell them it Insta-kills zombies so I'm giving them disadvantage. So I look like I'm a benevolent overlord who isn't sicking a zombie.
Speaker 2:T-Rex on them. Well, I mean, fortunately we've had to escape before the zombie T-Rex was able to devour our ally. But this is like Wow, zombie T-Rex, You're definitely right, the humanoid zombies are Well. Well, they're kind of boring uh, but like uh pet cemetery, yep, the pet cemetery, like the pet zombies or just weird zombies of different uh species. It's like, well, it's like.
Speaker 1:Well, it's like. Resident Evil is like yeah, any animal becomes horrifying super mutant. Last of Us is like oh yeah anything becomes horrifying clicker, tentacle, murder, monster, but like I don't know. What do you think? So the interesting thing about zombies to me is that there's just so many humans that your zombie army is huge. I make the joke.
Speaker 1:humans, that your zombie army is huge, I make the joke that in a zombie apocalypse I'd go back to saskatchewan because the population some of those small towns are small enough I could actually feasibly kill all the zombies and they ain't moving in minus 50. It's physically impossible, right, right. So that's my strategy is to go to the worst place I can think of northern Northern Canada and just pick them off like one at a time. But like I don't know, like when you start doing zombie animals, it's ironic because it's like you don't have those numbers anymore, unless it's like zombie pigeons or zombie raccoons.
Speaker 2:It's like a zombie tiger, isn't?
Speaker 1:actually that much scarier than a regular tiger, because it's still a tiger.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I've seen any zombie pigeons. Alfred Hitchcock's the Birds, that's just a peak movie in general. Or a pack movie, but they're literally just birds. Yeah, I mean, obviously they're infected with some sort of rage virus, but it doesn't really make them zombies.
Speaker 1:That's fair. But to drop this up our zombie discussion a bit, because we've went over zombie movies, comedy, serious, we've gone over affected magic. My pitch to you is because I enjoy throwing you on the spot this episode. What is your new idea of how to make a new kind of zombie?
Speaker 2:How are you making your zombies?
Speaker 1:Yeah, some new idea to make zombies.
Speaker 2:Oof, I mean that's, that's rough, okay, so obviously they have to be dead, and I mean so. The zombie virus is kind of science, but if you resurrect someone or something through science, they become more of a Frankenstein's monster and not actually a zombie per se.
Speaker 1:Well, it's interesting, the last of us spores were a really good one because they're like oh you look to scary nature.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it was in the wheat. So anybody who ate the wheat and then like, ended up getting infected, and that's definitely a good one, I mean.
Speaker 1:One Piece did the a guy steals your shadow and now you're a zombie and like I want to go like. It's like nanomachine is functionally the same as as infected like the borger zombies for all intents and purposes, which should be fair. I kind of like techno zombies I'm gonna be real like the idea that, like some robot, hive mind is just mechanically putting parts into you until you're literally a drone well, okay.
Speaker 2:So have you ever seen, uh or read the story cell? Uh, sounds vague. Uh, john cusack starred in the movie. I don't remember exactly when the movie came out. Uh had really bad cgi. But basically, uh, some sort of event happens and anybody who is on their cell phone, uh they. There's a, a frequency that cell phone plays and it turns them into mindless zombies.
Speaker 1:Accurate to real life.
Speaker 2:Well, not exactly mindless zombies. They're like ravenous zombies, so they just like go around like ripping people apart.
Speaker 1:Does the same thing.
Speaker 2:Right, um. And then it's the story about this father, played by john cusack uh, who's trying to? Who believes, uh, against all odds, that his son made it to a safe space. And so then he's trying to get to the safe space and he ends up actually becoming one of the zombies, because the zombies evolved to be able to emit the, the sound, themselves, to infect more people.
Speaker 1:So is this a zombie? Where in the Gundam NT movie they just kind of took a new type, disassembled them, pulled their brain out and put it as a black box in a mobile suit, like you're a zombie if your soul gets ripped out and you're put in a suit of armor Edward Alphonse style. I know the Barry the Chopper one where they did the reverse was Barry the Chopper's human body was absolutely a zombie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if that animated, animating an inanimate object is not really a zombie.
Speaker 1:Well it's more like a person's dead, and then you force them to fight for you anyway and they don't have a personality left and they just kind of go feral because. I think the feralization is part of the zombie nature.
Speaker 1:I definitely agree, like you say, the idea of zombies that grow in intelligence is interesting, but the majority of them would be more feral than intelligence it's like hollows are actually pretty close to zombies when they were at the start of Bleach, or they just attacked other ghosts to make like hollows are actually pretty close to zombies when they were at the start of bleach, or they just attacked other ghosts to make more hollows, but it's like they got too intelligent. And he's like you know what? I need more swords, people. I'm like. But cool lizard tuning fork squid monster, no, no, we need more swordsmen and it's like jjk, like the flesh puppet things he was making were pretty zombies.
Speaker 1:Like most curses weren't zombies, but the one that dude guy Makito was making were definitely zombies. There's so much like would-be horror manga out there where it's like yeah, there's going to be some kind of zombie in this. You need your zombies by federal law out there where it's like yeah, there's going to be some kind of zombie in this.
Speaker 2:You need your zombies by federal law.
Speaker 1:Hmm Well, I'm also partial to like capitalism's debt zombies where, like you, die and your body's reanimated until your debt's paid off.
Speaker 2:Ooh, yeah, okay, I mean, that's pretty out there. I don't know how do you create a zombie in a new way? I don't know. But the idea of a zombie workforce, you know, it's like you send people to the gulag to work until they die, and then, after they die, it's like well, they can gulag to work until they die, and then, after they die, it's like well, they can just keep working as a zombie until they actually rot and fall apart, which seems legit and I think with that are we ready to move on to our random question or do you have any closing meandering zombie thoughts uh, no, I don't have any closing meandering zombie thoughts.
Speaker 2:What I do have while you look for your random question I have a list of them today, but you can ask your question. Okay, okay, I actually sent you a timed message to show up when we were supposed to start talking and then you never read it, which makes me a little sad, but anyways, I'm going to read it verbatim.
Speaker 1:It's a little bit wordy, but the text goes like this you know why we might want to do our podcast right Like specifically.
Speaker 2:So it doesn't make background noise.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying your accusation that, oh, I set this time message to go exactly while we were talking. Why didn't you see?
Speaker 2:it. Not while we were talking, not while we were talking, it was 7.30 my time, which is when we usually meet up.
Speaker 1:At 7.30 my time. I put mute on my phone Like two minutes before it started.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay. Anyways, the question goes like this you have the ability to teleport without restriction Parentheses. If there is a safe space at the destination, your power will put you there, but you can kill yourself if there are no safe spaces at the destination. But you leave behind a cardboard cutout of yourself, posed exactly how you were when you teleported straight on relative to your face. Does this change how you were when you teleported straight on relative to your face? Does this change?
Speaker 1:how you use your powers. Yes, so first off the cardboard cutout part. Perfect, wouldn't change that. Glad that's part of my power. I'm happy for that. That's just great. The main thing is setting up those safe spaces where it's like there has to be a safe space at the destination. But I basically need to create guaranteed safe spaces and the way I see it, there's certain like rooms and buildings that will pretty much always have the spare space to accommodate a person Because there's no reason.
Speaker 1:the entire thing would be dangerous. So I teleport to so many rooftops.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, rooftops are pretty safe.
Speaker 1:And like gardens and things. If I'm teleporting behind the school to get there early to skip my commute, that's it. My destination is behind the school, which means if it puts me 10 minutes away from my goal, that's great. So for my teleport I'm deliberately aiming for parks and things.
Speaker 1:Wide open spaces yeah so I'm never teleporting inside a building. That's just a gamble, for no reason. I'm definitely like soccer fields. There's no version of reality where the entire soccer field doesn't have a human-shaped space in it. So that's my main thing is I'm going on reality where the entire soccer field doesn't have a human-shaped space in it. So like that's my main thing is I'm like going on walks to map my teleport safe spaces. So it's like, yeah, no matter what happens, like it could be a lightning storm, but there'll be at least five square feet of Richard space, but never inside a building, never in a plane, and the amount of commute and money it saves me is amazing. Never in a plane, and the amount of commute and money it saves me is amazing. Okay, but I mean like the cardboard cutout.
Speaker 2:No one will ever believe me you teleport from home to school, right and now there's just a cardboard cutout of you standing there yeah, if you met my apartment, it just blends in with the other cardboard.
Speaker 1:It's fine, I just break it down and put it out of you standing there. Yeah, if you met my apartment, it just blends in with the other cardboard.
Speaker 2:It's fine, I just break it down and put it out, so I'll throw your cardboard cutouts into recycling. Yeah, every time. What about when you teleport home from school? Now you have a cardboard cutout of yourself standing in the school, wherever you were when you teleported?
Speaker 1:No, I have a cardboard cutout standing in this open field Deeply confusing people. Like that's the thing is. No one's going to think Richard teleported. People are going to think who is making these giant cardboard cutouts of Richard and putting them in the fields? And no one sees me printing them or making them or bringing them with me. And there's just cardboard cutouts and the thing about them being in a field the wind will knock them over the rain and they're biodegradable, so eventually, like Ooh fair, fair.
Speaker 2:I did design an eco-friendly power.
Speaker 1:So it works out in such an elegant way that I'm just leaving cardboard cutouts places to go with the recycling or, better yet, being crafted into Miko scratchers, like if I can find a good way to break down that cardboard and roll it up into Miko scratchers. But it just makes my power better Because people are thinking I'm doing a dumb magic trick, right, like if I just teleport, eventually the CIA will catch on to me. But if there's just a Richard-shaped cardboard cutout in my exact pose in the middle of the field and then the wind blows and it falls over and I'm gone, people are like he is such a good magician, no one's gonna think I'm actually teleporting home and that's the thing is I'm like teleporting to like the park two blocks from my house.
Speaker 1:So people would just be like, oh, richard's in a park and the one person who would like see me operate out of nowhere because it's such a large empty space. They'd be like what, where the hell did you come from? And then, if I see someone see me. I do it again and then just see a cardboard cuddle where I was and they're just impressed.
Speaker 2:Where did this cardboard cuddle come from? I swear it was a real person a minute ago, yeah like it just messes with people.
Speaker 1:better Like no. I think that's a better version of teleport, because regular teleport you can still teleport and get a rebar stuck through your foot. But since I know this is how it works and it always finds me a safe space at my destination, as long as I'm vague about my destination, I have hacked your system, sir. Like, if I'm like North Brampton, find me a safe space in North Brampton, 20 minutes within range of my house. I'm good.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I mean. The main thing is that the idea is that there's no restrictions, not even restrictions on letting you kill yourself by teleporting to five feet under the ground, and then you apparate and you're just completely crushed by dirt.
Speaker 1:Right. But I'm like no, no, I've made these safe spaces specifically, or I'm just super vague. I'm going to just teleport to Saskatoon. And you get a call and it's like where are you? I'm like somewhere safe in Saskatoon, which is weird because I don't know if it let me in the city proper. The setup for that joke was worth it, but same question back to you.
Speaker 2:Would it change how I use my powers?
Speaker 1:I'm like free cardboard infinite wealth.
Speaker 2:The biggest thing about it is that it kind of stops you from using it for something stealthy. You can't teleport into a bank vault and then take all the money and teleport out, because they'll be like you absolutely can't.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to give my Death Note rant. So I've probably given this on stream before, I don't know. Stop me if I've talked about the Death Note rant. The only thing that's got him caught using the Death Note is that he was paranoid about being caught using the death note. Is that he was paranoid about being caught using the death note? Because if he just blatantly used a magic notebook to kill people, no one would ever realize it, right, like?
Speaker 1:There's a bit where he's like I got a secret drawer with a false bottom that if you open the drawer without putting the pen in the false bottom to break the circuit, my apartment breaks into flames. That's super suspicious, right, super suspicious. Now, flames that's super suspicious, right, super suspicious. Now if you're a forensics student and you just on your desk have a book labeled death note and you look at the writing you've been writing down when people are dying, that's less suspicious. You're not gonna think this notebook is magic. And if you put like a regular book jacket on it and it just says lights notebook, it's just a notebook where you're writing down names of people who died and you're just some random person like the.
Speaker 1:Thing that made him suspicious was doing things like being suspicious like he's like oh, I need to make sure everyone dies, so they know they're doing it. No, never use the same death twice. If you just put bees and someone stung to death, you're fine. So if I just teleport into a bank vault right, steal the money and then teleport out and leave a cardboard cutout of myself, what are the police going to do? They don't know what I look like. This is just some random person. I'm pretty famous too.
Speaker 2:Like no one's going to. Maybe they're going to Google, search your face and they'll actually find you.
Speaker 1:Our facial recognition technology isn't actually real, like we don't actually live in CIA, right? You can't actually just have the bank run an image search to see who ran into the bank, to find who robbed it, like?
Speaker 2:I beg to differ. You can definitely Google Lens a person.
Speaker 1:You could try but like okay, this cardboard cutout shows that it looks like indie author Richard Kivas. What are you accusing me of? Putting a cardboard cutout in your bank vault how? Last time I checked our legal systems, you have to prove I did it. I don't have to prove I didn't do it.
Speaker 2:That's, that's true, and I, to prove I didn't do it, that's true, and I don't know if that would be grounds to get your fingerprints or not. Hopefully you didn't leave behind any hairs or any other evidence.
Speaker 1:Even if I did, it'd be like proving I'm the one who did. It would be nearly impossible because I have a magic teleport pattern that makes cardboard cutouts apparate. Good luck. Also because it's an exact cardboard cutout of me and it's cardboard. If I'm wearing a costume, they can't take the costume off the cutout, can they Fair? Enough, I just teleport in as a stormtrooper grab a brick of gold, teleport out and there's just this cardboard cutout of a stormtrooper in there and they're down a gold bar. What are you going to do?
Speaker 2:Which is so much funnier if I'm in a Yeti conversation. Sorry, you want to change topics because this is fun no, no, no, I'm just trying to think about if, like, because the main thing is I'm not really, I wouldn't really want to just like go to a park to teleport home. I just want to teleport home wherever I happen to be.
Speaker 1:That's because you don't commute. If you commuted, everywhere you went, you'd be grateful to teleport to a park. I spend an hour and a half to two hours each way in transit every day. Yeah, no, if I can get within a 30-minute walk of my destination. Amazing it every day. Yeah, no, if I can get within a 30-minute walk of my destination.
Speaker 2:amazing, I think I would actually use my teleportation power to recreate the Last Supper. I would just pose in different ways and then put all my cardboard cutouts together as a tableau.
Speaker 1:I'm just trying to figure out how I can like infinite money. This because, like, if I pose right, I can just assemble cardboard boxes by teleporting four times and just make infinite cardboard, like I've just solved the softwood lumber crisis. Unless every time I teleport it's like assembling the cardboard from somewhere and I'm just like molecularly rearranging nearby matter into cardboard, in which case that can get scary.
Speaker 2:But then I can kill my enemy by teleporting away and turning them into cardboard. There's no restriction on the teleporting power, so I assume it just conjures the cardboard out of a parallel dimension or something.
Speaker 1:I love the idea that it's literally disassembling the grass I'm standing on, so it's just dead grass and a cardboard cutout.
Speaker 2:Anyways on to the actual random question. Or did you get too involved in my question to actually find one.
Speaker 1:No, we got an actual, random one. This one is weird. Sometimes our fans communicate with one specific type of fruit. What fruit would it be, and what deep philosophical question would you ask it? Root and you have to ask it a deep philosophical question a deep philosophical question what sheesh?
Speaker 1:I didn't write this random question, so for me it'd be pomegranate and I would ask it with complete seriousness. I didn't write this random question, so for me it'd be pomegranate and I would ask it with complete seriousness. If someone takes a bite of the outside of a pomegranate and tries to eat the round of the skin, are you still a fruit?
Speaker 2:It's like if the seed is an edible part of the pomegranate.
Speaker 1:Are you still a fruit?
Speaker 2:I was trying to work this into like a ship of theseus question are you the sum of your parts, or pretty much, is that?
Speaker 1:if, basically, is a single pomegranate seed its own being?
Speaker 2:that would be a deep philosophical question. I mean, I was going to go with the durian fruit like the super smelly one and then just like, straightforward, what's the point of your life?
Speaker 1:That's rough, buddy. I do think the fruit would be like. The stench helps me survive. But the humans have adapted Like vermin. The number of things we've eaten out of stubbornness, like spicy. The fact that we like spicy is just nature being mad at us. But with that, thank you everyone for tuning in to Deep Space and Dragons Talk Zombies. Thank you for submitting your weird theme drive-in question. We also got a couple other weird questions, but I'm going to save those for a later date.
Speaker 2:Alright.
Speaker 1:Try not to become a zombie or the infected or a spore monster, unless you really want to.
Speaker 2:We're not the bosses yeah, if you want to become a spore monster, power to you, but please, please, don't eat me.
Speaker 1:But do make sure to go out and vote. Bye, Bye. That's all the politics you got to talk because you picked an interesting topic and got right into it. You got denied. You got denied your boring politics talk, which is super topical giving America's busy coup d'etat right now.
Speaker 2:Well, I think I still have one more episode before they actually go to vote.
Speaker 1:I mean, they're zombies, so hopefully they can be coaxed in the correct direction. So one of the random questions we got was if you discover a portal to a world where puns are the only form of communication, what's the first pun you would use to introduce yourself? Mystery friend. One of my friends who got really into our podcast sent me a couple of these and I'm like these are good.
Speaker 2:Mystery friend. Like you don't know who they are, or I don't know who they are.
Speaker 1:I have no idea who sent this in, but they must know me if they're asking me about pun.