Men in Gorilla Suits
Men in Gorilla Suits Ep. 113: Last Seen…Pooping

While it is April first (at least somewhere in the world at the time of posting), this is no joke. We have speculated that we can talk about anything for an hour: even an hour dedicated to poop! We recently mentioned that ability again and got challenged to finally prove that we can keep a talk about feces interesting for an hour.

We have accepted that challenge!

In fact, we not only talk about poop for an hour...at 1:05:09 into this week's show, Christopher interviews his mom about pooping when he was a baby...and many other things. Yep, for the first time ever, there is another person featured on Men in Gorilla Suits -- the person who brought Gorilla Christopher into the world! (It's one of Christopher's favorite moments in any podcast he's ever done.)

But before the chat with Christopher's mom, we begin with this important question: when is the last time you shit yourself?

With one half of the podcast solidly into middle age and another climbing that direction, we chat about whether or not we're more concerned with regularity than we've been in the past.

But we never make a show all about us...

There's no classy way to address the turd in the urinal seen by most men in a restroom while on a road trip. It's one of life's greatest mysteries -- and we devote some time to talking about how and why this phenomenon exists! After that, we stick around public restrooms and talk about whether or not we are people who fear pooping in public. (Also, whether we're fond of the courtesy flush when pooping.) Then it's all about the worst public restrooms we've ever seen. (And a tale of an open cesspit in Canada into which campers were expected to defecate.)

Poop has smeared its way into pop culture; we spend a bit of time discussing our favorite songs about poop before talking about our favorite poop scenes in television and film. After that, we take a wild guess at how many words we've read in our lifetimes while pooping.

Find out why we think poop is used so often in humor...as well as naming our favorite euphemisms for pooping.

We all have favorite poop stories, right? Well, even if you don't, we do...and we're not afraid to share them.

We wrap it all up by having what might be the only serious moment in this week's show...when we talk about...THE FUTURE OF POOP!!!

We almost fear saying, "Share your best poop stories in the comments below," but if you make it through this episode (and the interview with Christopher's mom after the usual outro music), you've earned the right to write on our online bathroom stall wall...

Direct download: migs113.mp3
Category:Pop Culture -- posted at: 1:27pm CDT

Men in Gorilla Suits Ep. 112: Last Seen…Talking about Self-Image

How do you feel about who you are? Are you pleased with the person you've become, or do you think there's so much room for improvement that it affects the way you look at yourself? How do others view you -- and how do those you meet shape who you are and how you look at yourself? There are just a few things we're talking about this week on Men in Gorilla Suits.

We begin by talking about how the concept of self-image was introduced to us. (Shawn shares a particular devastating story, here.) After that, we discuss how accurate our perceptions of ourselves are.

Next, we talk about how we arrived at our current self-images.

Others shape who we are in so many ways. We chat about others making observations about us that, while true, went against the way we looked at ourselves. After that, we talk about who has the most accurate image of us: ourselves or our wives.

Find out if we ever project images of ourselves that is different in any way of what we feel are our "true" selves. Then we move onto other people: if we polled those closest to us, would their images of us match the way we look at ourselves? Would it be more positive, negative, or a bit of both?

Then we talk about other people. Find out if those we know view themselves better (or worse) than the people we see. After that, it's back to us. Do we have a positive or negative (or even aggrandized) image of ourselves?

We wrap it up with two questions:

  • If you had to describe yourself -- your personality, your actions, your character -- in one word, what would you choose?
  • What one word do you think others would choose?

Tell us who you are in the comments below...

Direct download: migs112.mp3
Category:Pop Culture -- posted at: 10:11pm CDT

Men in Gorilla Suits Ep. 111: Last Seen...Talking about White Privilege

Why did two white guys from the suburbs decide to talk about white privilege for an hour? You'll have to listen to find out.

Maybe you want a hint about what we talked about? Fair enough...

We begin by talking about when we first heard the term white privilege. From there, we move on to discussing if either of us have been accused of being privileged in any way...and how we reacted to it.

After that, we chat about if anyone's actually leveled the term "white privilege" at us...of if we've ever been told to check our privilege in any way.

Then, the question that made Shawn think about this episode: does the idea of white privilege hold any weight for us?

Next, we talk about where the idea of white privilege originated, before moving on to the last two questions:

  • Do we think we are guilty of any sort of privilege?
  • Is "white privilege" a subtle (or not-so-subtle) form of racism?

If you're a regular listener, you've probably noticed this episode contains about half the usual talking points we shoot for. It's a much more conversational episode, and we hope you like it and take a moment to comment about the episode below...

Direct download: migs111.mp3
Category:Pop Culture -- posted at: 9:03pm CDT

Men in Gorilla Suits Ep. 110: Last Seen…Talking about Rap and Hip Hop

"Four and three and two and one, and when I'm on the mic, the suckas run..."

Hip hop and rap -- styles of music that seem to be either loved or hated. We're on the love side, and it's entirely possible that if you're on the hate side, we might win you over by the end of this episode.

We kick it off talking about the first rap or hip hop we remember hearing. After that, we move on to what we say to those who tell us they can't stand rap and hip hop (even going as far as saying it's inferior to all other music). Want to know what songs we play for those who say they hate all rap and hip hop? We tell ya!

Rap gets a bad...rap for being sexist and homophobic. While it's not something exclusive to the style of music, it's definitely prevalent enough that we spend a little bit of time to talk about that. And while we're on that roll, we discuss the use of "nigger" and "nigga" in rap and hip hop. (Hint about our feelings: just typing that seems sooooooo wrong. This part of the show devolved into talking about the awkwardness and desperation of Quentin Tarantino.)

Rap and hip hop have been influential enough to have offshoots like nerdcore and trip hop. We discuss that for a bit before jumping to how rap and hip hop have influenced music in general.

We take a little detour and talk about the best live rap or hip hop shows we've seen, and then it's on to a one-minute lightning round where we rattle off all the rap and hip hop we like as fast as we can.

We'll be the first to admit that not all rap and hip hop is good. We devote some time to the worst tunes before wrapping it all up by discussing what the future holds for rap and hip hop.

We'd love to know how you feel about the music; feel free to comment below.

Direct download: migs110.mp3
Category:Pop Culture -- posted at: 10:24pm CDT

Men in Gorilla Suits Ep. 109: Last Seen…Committing Crimes

As you read this, we're stealing your wallet or purse. Now...we're breaking into your car. Shawn just might assault you for the sheer joy of committing a crime. Christopher just stole your identity...

Okay, so we're not criminals, but crime is a fascinating topic to us; we're surprised it took us 109 weeks to finally get to it.

We begin the episode talking about the first time we remember hearing about crime; then we jump to whether or not we've been victims of violent crimes or any property crimes.

We couldn't do a show about crime without coming clean and talking about anything we've done that can be deemed criminal activity...or things we've done that -- without a doubt -- were criminal. After that, we talk about the worst crimes we've committed (at least, according to the law).

It's easy to jump online and convince yourself that you will be a victim of crime on any given day, but...is crime more or less of a problem today than when we were young? And what do we think contributes to the perception that crime is running rampant right now?

Criminals can be stupid and, sometimes, outright hilarious. We discuss the craziest crime stories we've heard and then put on our poorly-made super hero outfits and talk about if we've ever had a desire to fight crime. (Oddly enough, it wasn't, "Oh, yes...I always wanted to be a cop." Nope, we go straight to vigilantism.)

Crime in America is on the downswing, and has been for quite some time. We talk about what we believe has led to the overall decrease, and then we discuss where we believe the most crime-ridden places in the first world are when it comes to violent crime.

We wrap up the episode -- as always -- looking toward the future. Will humanity ever wipe out crime, or is it something that will always be around?

As always, confess any of your criminal activities, or share your thoughts on crime, in the comments below.

Direct download: migs109.mp3
Category:Pop Culture -- posted at: 7:45am CDT

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