Aw yeah, another week another Frotcast. Matt is sick so we call in our backup token non-Goy, Aaron Kleinman (aka Bobby Bigwheel online), head of reseach at Heartland Media. If his appearance is popular enough, he could push Matt for podding-time. A potential Jew-B controversy, if you will. 

We start on a high note by discussing our country’s ongoing murder campaign against people who may or not be drug traffickers. If love is a drug, doesn’t that mean that all of us are narco-terrorist traffickers and therefore eligible for extrajudicial murder by the United States of America with no due process? Really makes you think.

Moving along, Kate Beckinsale revealed on Jimmy Kimmel that her daughter’s boyfriend has laid two eggs. That’s about all I can tell you, I know about as much as you do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1etA-kA7nbw

For the second Frotcast in a row, the Nuzz is Luzz and fucking up our lives with her Cüzz. The reviews on her book American Canto are out, and they’re spreading faster than Measles in a country where it used to be eradicated but some star-fucking tart that dated Keith Olbermann when she was 18 and he was 50 interfered with a national election in order to get a 70 year old guy who once strapped a whale’s head to the top of his car a position as Secretary of Health and Human Services. The deaths are preventable but the thrills are not! 

Next, The Chair Company. What’s it about? Does it matter? We have a spirited discussion about a show that only Tim Robinson could pull off. Maybe the real conspiracy was the guys with dents in their heads that we fought along the way.

Finally, we all watched Caught Stealing, a fantasy film in which a bartender on the Lower East Side lives on the Lower East Side. Real movie magic! We all agree that Darren Aronofsky needs to direct more action movies, and that he did a great job of filming a classic NYC flick. The capers abound in this one, check it out on Netflix. Solid B+.

Follow Aaron on Bluesky @kleinman.bsky.social and Frot on!

-Description by Brendan

This past week (actually, the week before Thanksgiving, if we want to get technical) I got to interview Mike Makowsky, creator of Netflix’s Death By Lightning, for GQ. You can check out that GQ piece here.

I was a big fan of the show, and it seems like I’m not alone in this (it is the beau ideal of a “dad show”). When I read the book a few years back (Candice Millard’s Destiny of the Republic) it seemed like the kind I’d love to see as a movie or show, even though those kinds of adaptations often don’t turn out that well. To my surprise, Makowsky’s adaptation seemed to capture most of what I loved about the book, without trying to cover everything in it. It had a take on the book, which is what any great adaptation needs. And then, of course, the cast brought a little something special and surprising to every role. In fact, I this bluesky post by Klungar kind of sums it up.

Anyway, check out the GQ piece (in which I go into much greater detail about the historical background of the show and its parallels), listen to the interview here, and stay tuned for your regularly-scheduled Frotcast.

This Thanksgiving, we at Frotcast HQ would like to collectively give thanks to you, our listeners. And also to RFK Jr for answering all the questions we have about what it’s like for a 70 year old guy to text you demanding you drink his cum. The question we’d still like to have answered is, “is it weirder to be the aforementioned 70 year old, or a 30 year old who’s totally into it?” This marks two straight episodes of Nuzzi discussion, let’s hope Ryan Lizza drops even more disgusting revelations over the holiday so we can shoot for three. Chuck Grassley POV video? Lauren Boebert interracial gangbang? Mitch McConnell Goatse?

Next, thanks to Elon Musk of all people, we now know that the last decade of American politics has mostly been about literally making up a guy to be mad about. Yep, it turns out that the platform that Elon tried to back out of buying due to the bot problem has a bot problem. We’re sorry you had to find out all those hot patriotic fefos of yours are actually a Macedonian guy. 

In this week’s big news, our Big Beautiful President has successfully bullied Paramount into making Rush Hour 4. No word yet on how exactly 71 year old Jackie Chan is going to be able to make that happen, but surely this will be the feat that finally earns the big man his Nobel Peace Prize. Brett Ratner redemption arc, here we come (while eating shrimp cocktail)!

Have a great holiday everyone, Happy Thanksgiving to you and your new life partner Dragomir.

A Christmas Miracle for the Guys who Invented the Concept of Christmas Miracles

Shut the door. Have a seat. We have some bad news. This is the last episode of this season of the pod. We also have some good news. Comedian Katrina Davis returns to talk to Matt & Vince about Mad Men season three episode thirteen, “Shut the Door. Have a Seat.”

It’s nearly Christmas ‘63 and those bastards at McCann Erickson are buying Putnam, Powell, Lowe, Sterling & Cooper. Why? So they can be McCann, Erickson, Putnam, Powell, Lowe, Sterling, & Cooper? Sounds more like a lacrosse roster than an advertising agency. Don has no choice but to make Lane fire him so he can round up an alcoholic ad man superteam and poach as many clients as possible on the way out. It’s like Ocean’s Eleven, but with more paperwork.

What can’t the guy do? Maintain a marriage. While all that’s going on, Betty prepares to fly Reno with Henry because the only grounds for divorce in New York at the time were absence of a spouse, incurable insanity, life imprisonment, or adultery. She could have caught him on that last one but whoopsy, she’s an adulterer too. 

What’s your home address and social security number? Tell us in a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. 

Email us at frotcast@gmail.com; leave us a voicemail at 415-275-0030

Support the Pod: become a patron at patreon.com/Frotcast and get more bonus content than you could ever want. Sign up for the Pod Yourself a Shoutout tier to hear Vince give you a shout out on the show, like this week's shoutouts for Zed, The Executioner, Iceland, The Riazzler, Lair, Dredd, Watersports, & The Consonant.

The Frotboiis are back after a bye week, and what a week it was! The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released 20,000 pages of documents from Financier/Relationship Adviser/Child Molester Jeffery Epstein’s estate, and we bring back Senator Lemon Gogurt (Ind, Online), who does not serve on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, to discuss. Jeffrey’s brother Mark would like everyone to know that the Bubba in question who was allegedly photographed being blown by Trump, is NOT Bill Clinton, thank you very much, and will not be commenting any further. Smart move. You wouldn’t want to make the people clamoring for the release of the Epstein Files to go crazy and wildly speculate.

But first, we switch it up by kicking off with a couple of ditties about anilingus. Get your hanky!

Next, is “Dasha fired by Gersh” the new “multiple slurp juices on a single ape”? We’ll ask the guy whose wife fell off a cliff and his large adult sons how babby is formed to find out.

[After that, we've got competing versions of how Olivia Nuzzi left Ryan Lizza for a much older man/men, courtesy of Nuzzi and Lizza themselves. Brendan must've gone into a fugue state during this part of the pod, since he left it out of the description.]

Finally, we all got around to watching WEAPONS (2025), so we discuss The Naruto Run, being distracted by the Naruto Run, how we actually know about the Naruto Run, then the tragedy of a bunch of hyper-online Zoomers not being killed en masse by doing the Naruto Run at a top-secret government facility. Solid B+ of a movie.

Follow Charles on Bluesky, listen to his podcast City Saint/Country Saint wherever you get your podcasts, and try to find his secret OnlyFans account.

Everyone Remembers Where They Were When Duck Had Sex with Peggy

Pour one out for Jack Kennedy and throw on this week’s episode of the pod. Host of the Hyperfixed podcast, Alex Goldman joins Matt and Vince to discuss Mad Men season three episode twelve, “The Grown Ups.”

They killed Kennedy and now Don’s marriage, and Margaret’s wedding, are ruined. Betty watches a Lee Harvey Oswald die on live tv and presumably wishes it were Don instead, so she goes to her side piece to admit she wants out. The Draper’s still have to go to Roger’s daughter’s wedding, but there’s a real who died? kind of vibe.  

The only person who isn’t going to let the president’s splattered brains spoil his good time is Duck Phillips. He unplugs the television before Peggy comes over so he can give her another go-around like she’s never had before. Unless it’s like the go-around he gave her a few episodes back. You have to imagine it’s basically the same. We’ve seen nothing to indicate that Duck is a creative guy. He probably thinks woman-on-top is scandalous. 

What’s the farthest you’ve gone to avoid washing a bowl? Tell us in a five-star review on  Apple Podcasts. 

Email us at frotcast@gmail.com; leave us a voicemail at 415-275-0030

Support the Pod: become a patron at patreon.com/Frotcast and get more bonus content than you could ever want. Sign up for the Pod Yourself a Shoutout tier to hear Vince give you a shout out on the show, like this week's shoutouts for Radiohead, The Fop, & The Scythe.

-Description by Brent Flyberg  

The Mistress and the Car

Retrieve your horsemeat gabbagool, you’ll want something to nosh on while you listen to this week’s episode with David J. Roth from Defector, The Distraction, and It’s Christmastown podcasts, joining Matt and Vince to talk about Mad Men season three episode eleven, “The Gypsy and the Hobo.”

In America, horses are our friends. At least that’s what David told some nice Italian folks who tried to serve him cured horse meat. In 1962, horses were both our friends, and our dog’s food, and Americans were struggling with this dichotomy. Enter Annabelle Mathis, CEO of a horsemeaty dog food company, and Roger’s old flame. She wants Sterling Cooper’s help to convince people that it’s fine for Lassie to eat Secretariat. She also wants one more roll in the hay with Roger, but he’s more interested in telling her she’s an ugly old hag who blew it when she left him. In his defense, when he drinks, he gets really funny. 

Back at the Draper residence, Betty confronts Don about his box full of secrets, and spills the beans. He admits everything. Everything other than the fact that he left his daughter’s teacher in the car down the street to sit and wait while he finally gets (mostly) honest with his wife. In his defense, the teacher is really pretty. 

Where did you think Sam Elliot was from? Tell us in a five star review on Apple Podcasts.

Email us at frotcast@gmail.com; leave us a voicemail at 415-275-0030

Support the Pod: become a patron at patreon.com/Frotcast and get more bonus content than you could ever want. Sign up for the Pod Yourself a Shoutout tier to hear Vince give you a shout out on the show, like this week's shoutout The Admiral & King Meidas.

-Description by Brent Flyberg  

BRENDAN USE THIS INTRO IF CUOMO WINS AND DON’T FORGET TO DELETE THIS PART

Heyyyyyyyy guess who’s back in da New York groove? RIP Ace Frehley, a true New Yorkah and close personal friend of Mario, Andrew, Chris, and Giuseppe Cuomo! Free meatballs fa everyone!* First ordah ah business is making Zohran personally demolish the Ground Zero Mosque. USA! USA! USA! (unintelligible Staten Island sounds punctuated by crotch grabs)

*Offer valid only for former Cuomo staffers who have signed an NDA 

OK AND IF ZOHRAN WINS, USE THIS INTRO. ONCE AGAIN, I CANNOT EMPHASIZE ENOUGH THAT YOU SHOULD DELETE THIS PART AS WE DO NOT WANT RELEVANT LAW ENFORCEMENT ORGANIZATIONS TO BECOME AWARE OF OUR SECRET CONVERSION TO ISLAM. 

As-salamu alaykum my brothers and sisters, the blessed Zohran has ascended to the holy throne of Mayor of New Mecca, Alhamdulillah and all blessings to Allah. Starting tomorrow, the new city run grocery stores will open, followed by the takeover of all bodegas. The third stage, aka Sharia Law, which outlaws all grocery stores nationwide so that only our fine city may have places with food for purchase, will commence after Ramadan, Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem. Rollout dates on forced trans conversions and ISIS draft card assignments TBD.

Thanks for listening this week, be sure to like, subscribe, and praise Allah/Bruce Springsteen.

What’s Blue to You?

Lock up your old dog tags and divorce papers before you listen to the latest episode. Comedian and co-host of the Roundball Rock podcast, Sean Keane, returns to the podcast to talk to Matt & Vince about Mad Men season three episode 10, “The Color Blue.”

In the office, Don smiles for once. What is it that makes him smile? The love of his family? A job well done? A new hot mistress? No, it’s his healthy bonus. Money is the only thing that makes this guy smile, and it’s the most boring thing that would definitely make someone smile. For such a mysterious guy he really is simple as hell. 

Paul and Peggy engage in a pissing contest to see who is more creative, and you would have to be simple as hell to bet on Paul. Unless it was a prop bet that he would get drunk, jork off in the office, and treat a maintenance guy like he’s less a person, and more a plot point. Then you might have enough money to make Don smile again. 

What was Paul’s brilliant but forgotten idea? Tell us in a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. 

Email us at frotcast@gmail.com; leave us a voicemail at 415-275-0030

Support the Pod: become a patron at patreon.com/Frotcast and get more bonus content than you could ever want. Sign up for the Pod Yourself a Shoutout tier to hear Vince give you a shout out on the show, like this week's shoutout for Duvet. 

-Description by Brent Flyberg  

It’s another week in our slow, inexorable march towards death, which means more sweet content for you piggies! This week, we at Frotcast, LLC regret to inform you that A House of Dynamite was… not so dynamite. It’s supposed to be about a nuclear missile strike on America, but it’s really about people looking at computers and talking to other people on Zoom. If you think about it, it’s really wish fulfillment for what it feels like to be on Zoom. I guess it’s also wish fulfillment for people who are really into “what if Rashomon but shitty” and “my brain stopped accepting new information after Obama’s second inauguration”. 

Slightly related, we share the Washington Post’s review of Karine Jean-Pierre’s new book about why she’s leaving the Democratic Party. Let’s just say her book is just as idea-free as the party she’s leaving, so we’d really like to see these crazy kids put aside their differences so they can have pretend HR meetings in a desperate attempt to feel like they’re doing something.

Also, Vince gets horny on main and Matt thinks he’s not nearly freaky enough. Do you know what sissy-hypno is? Don’t worry, Matt will break it down for you. You’re feeling verrrrry fruity…

(This is Brendan and Matt reacting in real time to Olivia Reingold's John Oliver parody).

How Do You Say “On the DL” in Italian?

Wake up, Conrad Hilton is calling and he wants to hear this week’s episode of the podcast right now. TV writer, comedian, and host of the TV, I Say podcast Ashley Ray returns to talk to Matt & Vince about Mad Men season three episode nine, “Wee Small Hours.”

Don’s not sleeping because he’s up all night trying to please a client. Connie Hilton wants the moon and Don presumably only wants to stay up late if he gets to cheat on his wife, so neither of them are happy. 

Lee from Lucky Strike makes a pass at Sal, because game recognize gay, but Sal shoots him down because he’s… married? The widdle tobacco scion’s feewings are hurt, so he demands Sal get the boot. Don is way too sweepy to be nice about it, so he slut shames Sal and shows him the door. In a way, it’s refreshing to see all of this sexual impropriety without any specific women getting caught in crossfire. 

Which cruising spots would you go to if you wanted to find Sal? Tell us in a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. 

Email us at frotcast@gmail.com; leave us a voicemail at 415-275-0030

Support the Pod: become a patron at patreon.com/Frotcast and get more bonus content than you could ever want. Sign up for the Pod Yourself a Shoutout tier to hear Vince give you a shout out on the show, like this week's shoutouts for Billy Ray & Snorentino.

-Description by Brent Flyberg  

If you're a paid subscriber, you've already seen this week's episode, with Chad Powers creator Michael Waldron. Apologies to the good piggies for the double email. If you're not a paid subscriber, consider the full interview segment posted here your official subscriber tease. Waldron, an old school FilmDrunk-head, if you can believe it, tells us all about taking a sort of throwaway sketch starring Eli Manning and turning it into a shockingly funny show starring Glen Powell (who also co-created). Powell plays a disgraced former college football standout who sort of accidentally restarts his career with the help of some makeup. As fun as it is to watch actors play actors, it's even funner watching an actor like Glen Powell play a character who is really bad at acting and improv. It's a joke that hits every time for me. Plus, Steve Zahn! All of which makes Chad Powers the best football show... ever? Not a lot of great competition there, so I'm willing to say it.

With the Chad Powers finale airing on Hulu next Tuesday, Waldron tells us all about the process, and also about some of his past work on Heels, Loki, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. It's Chad Powers in the Multiverse of Frotness! Please to enjoy and subscribe. Accept the trough. Become a piggy. Be free.

This week’s Frotcast guest: Michael Waldron, co-creator of Chad Powers on Hulu! (Previously: Heels and Loki). Don't miss the Chad Powers season finale, Tuesday, October 28. Michael is dishing the dirt and legitimizing us with his presence this week, so I thought we owed him this plug up top. Now here's the regular episode description Brendan wrote.

--

Hey! Hi. It’s another episode of the Frotcast, pretty much the same as the last 652 times. Yep. Anyyyywayyyy, what’s in the news???

AI parties are in the news, that’s what! It’s a perfect descriptor because it’s an unnecessary, shoddy, low-effort facsimile of an original idea. The short version is, a group of besties in San Francisco have gotten together to show us that you can’t spell “alienated from your friends and family” without AI. Listen to the whole segment if you want to feel really sad, though.

We then hear the harrowing tales of discrimination and harassment that our poor Cybertruck owners have to endure. We hear from several, none of whom seem to say anything about the truck itself, and instead focus on the reactions it elicits. There’s probably a lesson there but this podcast is about the doo doo, brother. Anyway, it absolutely cements the Cybertruck’s status as America’s Most Divorced Car. You know what they say, being a Cybertruck owner means never having to put the seat down.

Finally, long time Frotfan/first time Frotguest Michael Waldron joins us to discuss his new show, Chad Powers starring Glen Powers. Powell! Glen Powell. He walks us through how he and Powell turned a ten-minute prank sketch into a hit TV show (through a mutual deep and unabiding love of the 1998 action blockbuster Armageddon, of course), the challenges of writing a show based around time travel (For his other show Loki, Chad doesn’t have those kind of powers), and the majestic soaring height of the Manning Brothers. It’s kinda nice because short kings Vince and Michael get to commiserate over having tall colleagues. Must be rough.

Everything's computer, including Vince’s smart TV, which is working out great for him, so stream Chad Powers now on Hulu.

Roman Ball-a-day

Get your suitcase because we’re headed to Italy. On the plane, you can listen to this week’s episode of the podcast with co-host of the Hollywood Crime Scene podcast, and returning guest, Rachel Fisher joining Matt & Vince to discuss Mad Men season 3 episode eight, “Souvenir.”

Betty and Don go to Rome so they can hang out with Connie Hilton at a cafe that looks like it’s in The Grove, and then hump each other’s brains out. It’s nice when the married people stop cheating on each other long enough to bone giorno. 

Trudy Campbell is also going on a little trip without her husband, and you know what they say, while the Trudy is away, the Pete will do SA. Pete’s victim’s boss, a neighbor down the hall, really takes Pete to task for his sex pestery. Just kidding, he reminds Pete that there are au pairs in other people’s buildings that he could harass. 

Tell us what you think Pete smells like in a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. 

Email us at frotcast@gmail.com; leave us a voicemail at 415-275-0030

Support the Pod: become a patron at patreon.com/Frotcast and get more bonus content than you could ever want. Sign up for the Pod Yourself a Shoutout tier to hear Vince give you a shout out on the show, like this week's shoutouts for Nordy’s & The Barrister.

-Description by Brent Flyberg  

(doing an a capella version of the two-part guitar harmony in Thin Lizzy’s classic track “The Boys Are Back in Town) Matt’s back from New York. He tells us about walkin’ ova theah and other adventures that you can only have in da Big Apple babay! Cabs! Restaurants! Dimwitted Italians! Man’s blind indifference to fellow man! It’s got it all!!!

"I'm gonna listen to Gershwin and stare at a guy taking a shit!" -Matt Lieb.

Matt goes on to lament having his thunder stolen by some wine moms who really give our dumbest politicians the ol’ what for on Israel. Step aside Matt, make way for Bad Hersbara! Seriously though, listen to the clip of Cory Booker glitching the fuck out when asked if Netanyahu is a war criminal. The Moscato Mommies will be our salvation.

Next up, Bari Weiss did some uhh bullshit or something. I wasn’t really paying attention to her boring ass. Oh, and Matt talks about the time he ate his own poop as a child out of sheer curiosity.

"What if the only reason you don't eat doo doo is because society says it's not polite?" -Matt Lieb.

Finally, via our friends at Defector, we hear the story of one woman’s tragic ostracization from polite society simply for saying and believing shit that has alienated everyone around her. Cancel culture is out of control! Vote Republican 2028: We Will Make People Have To Be Friends With You. That will be one billion dollars.

Peggy Gets Ducked

Stop staring at the sun for long enough to listen to this week’s episode of the podcast with comedian, co-host of the What a Time to be Alive and Lie Cheat and Steal podcasts, Kath Barbadoro joining Matt and Vince to talk about Mad Men season three episode seven, “Seven Twenty Three.”

Everyone wants Don to sign a contract. Connie Hilton, Roger & Burt are all nagging at him like they’re his nagging wife, who is also nagging at him to sign the damn contract! She, of all people, should know that just because he signs a piece of paper, that doesn’t mean he’ll honor it. Look at his marriage license, and then watch how he talks to Sally’s teacher. Paper and ink mean nothing to this slut. 

Also horny, Duck! Duck threatens to give Peggy “a go-around” like she’s never had before. A “go-around.” Had they not figured out how to do dirty talk in the 60s or is Duck just corny as hell? Maybe that was standard issue boudoir conversation, because it works on Peggy. She has sex with Duck. Duck! The guy looks like he fucks to a metronome.

Is Betty autistic? Tell us your thoughts in a five star review on Apple Podcasts. 

Email us at frotcast@gmail.com; leave us a voicemail at 415-275-0030

Support the Pod: become a patron at patreon.com/Frotcast and get more bonus content than you could ever want. Sign up for the Pod Yourself a Shoutout tier to hear Vince give you a shout out on the show, like this week's shoutouts for  The Carpenter, Baku, & Flock of Seagulls.

-Description by Brent Flyberg  

This week, the Matt's are away, so the mice will play--the mice between Vince, Brendan, and our guest, Sean Keane from the Roundball Rock podcast. What do mice love? Cheese, of course! But also talking about movie. Specifically, 'One Battle After Another.' We all get to discuss it thanks to Matt not being around, because, as we all know, Matt hates art.

But before that, we're discussing Sean's trip to Vegas where he accidentally stayed in the UFC hotel and saw Jason Statham, who is very hard to distinguish from the many guys in Vegas who just look like Jason Statham. We're also talking Pete Hegseth's weird pep rally, in which he made the nation's many generals fly home from the Philippines or wherever so they could all hear one of Trump's many podcaster cabinet members call them fat. To all the nation's enemies, let it be known that if you frick around, you will find out how many pushups we can do. We also talk about Donald Trump and his many thoughts about paper, and how good his signature is, and how America is not the hottest nightclub in the world.

We finish things off talking about, you guessed it, One Battle After Another. So have a few small beers and gather all the terrorists, haters, and punk trash in your life to hear us discuss whether PTA's latest is an all-time masterpiece, whether it would've been better if Sean Penn had hung dong, and try to remember when Penns are Sean Penn's actual brothers. Enjoy, and remember, no refunds.

Guy Carried Out of an Advertising Agency

Everyone get in the conference room, the podcast has a new org chart. Producer Brent is at the top, directly beneath him are hosts Matt & Vince, and right below them is this week’s guest, host of Dopey podcast, Dave Manheim, who is here to talk about Mad Men season three episode six, “Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency.”

The big swinging knobs from Putnam, Powell, and Lowe show are shaking things up in the Sterling Cooper office. First, they have a pretty new org chart that commits an act of Roger Sterling erasure, then they prank Lane with a promotion that would move him to Bombay, and and as a coup de grace, a guy named Guy gets his foot mangled by a brand new John Deere lawn mower that someone let Lois drive in the office.

It’s also supposed to be Joan’s last day at the office, but it turns out her handsome doctor husband is not only an r-wordist, he’s also not a great doctor. Not good enough to get the promotion they were counting on to get her out of the workforce. 

Tell us where you belong in the new org chart in a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. 

Email us at frotcast@gmail.com; leave us a voicemail at 415-275-0030

Support the Pod: become a patron at patreon.com/Frotcast and get more bonus content than you could ever want. Sign up for the Pod Yourself a Shoutout tier to hear Vince give you a shout out on the show, like this week's shoutouts for Rafael, Gas, The Greek, & Rockabilly.

-Description by Brent Flyberg  

Before it was a presumed Oscar contender starring Dwayne The Rock Johnson, The Smashing Machine was a documentary about MMA pioneer Mark Kerr, directed by John Hyams. Arguably one of the most influential documentaries of the 21st century, I was so obsessed with it that the first time I tracked down John Hyams to pepper him with questions about it was 13 damned years ago. That's right, before my retrospective about The Smashing Machine documentary was a GQ feature, it was a FilmDrunk Frotcast. I haven't seen the upcoming scripted A24 version starring The Rock, but knowing that Benny Safdie was at least as obsessed with John Hyams' documentary with I am, obsessed enough to recreate certain scenes right down to getting the hats and trunks right, makes me think it's going to be pretty good. Point is, this has no spoilers for The Smashing Machine (2025), because I haven't seen it yet.

What this is is the most comprehensive behind-the-scenes interview about The Smashing Machine (2002) that I could conduct. Did you know it was originally supposed to be called "The Specimen?" That HBO considered calling it "The Bloody Punch?" That Hyams wrote his own scripted version of it that was once intended as a vehicle for Mark Wahlberg? That in a roundabout way, it would go on to evolve into what became Warrior? All of these things are true, and we know them because John Hyams was cool enough to sit in for an hour-plus interview. A handful of quotes made it into my GQ retrospective (up there with my Freddy Got Fingered oral history in terms of things I'm most proud of having written) but I always intended to post the whole conversation. Feel like I owed it to posterity.

Funny that Dana White and the UFC are now gung ho on Dwayne Johnson playing Mark Kerr. As Hyams recalls it, Zuffa used to try to scrub every mention of the documentary back when the UFC was still fighting for legitimacy (perhaps understandably so). The original came from a different time, when MMA fighters were far more concerned with convincing the public that they were legitimate athletes and not scary monsters (let alone trying to do rightwing demagoguery or whatever). That's what makes it such an incredible time capsule, and Hyams was more than game to let yours truly Remember Some MMA Guys, specifically from the PRIDE days. Not always successfully, by the way, but that's why editing exists. Hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I did, and don't forget to check out some of John's other great movies like Universal Soldier: Regeneration and Sick while you're at it.

Don’s Hot for Teacher

Get the overnight bag, Betty’s in labor. While she goes through the terrifying, awe-inspiring experience of giving birth, you can sit in a special waiting room for dudes and listen to a new episode of your favorite podcast. Producer of the pod, comedian, co-host of the Oh Hell Yeah podcast, AL West Champion Seattle Mariners supporter, episode description writer, and now parody song writer, Brent Flyberg joins Matt & Vince to talk about Mad Men season three episode five, “The Fog.”

You read that right, there’s a new Draper D-story swinging d-word in town. I wrote it, I sang it, I tacked it on at the end of the episode. I learned in the process that singing is hard, especially trying to sing like David Lee Roth. 

Much like this podcast’s second favorite guy named David Roth, Don is hot for Sally’s teacher, but more obviously in this episode, Miss Farrell is hot for Don. She’s calling him at home, talking all breathy with a glass of wine like damn we get it, we know what Jon Hamm looks like too, but get it together, lady. Probably the only thing that stops Don from driving over and taking her to philandertown in that exact moment is his shrieking wife who needs a ride to the hospital to deliver another one of his little snotty kids. At that moment, he likely thought it had never been harder to be a white man in America. 

Tell us what you would name Don and Betty’s third kid in a five five-star review on Apple Podcasts. 

Email us at frotcast@gmail.com; leave us a voicemail at 415-275-0030

Support the Pod: become a patron at patreon.com/Frotcast and get more bonus content than you could ever want. Sign up for the Pod Yourself a Shoutout tier to hear Vince give you a shout out on the show, like this week's shoutouts for The Knife, Pete the Meat, & Guinness.

-Description by Brent Flyberg