Baconsale

Ventas servitas! On this episode of Baconsale, we’re discussing a character from a popular book series whose name is Harry—a dark-haired orphan who’s also a wizard…but it’s probably not the magical Harry you’re thinking of. We’re talking about Harry Dresden. Steven Ross is a big fan of The Dresden Files and he’s joining us today to raise awareness about the novels. Steven has read (or listened) to all of the books, Joel has read a handful, Kent read the first one just for this episode, and we’ve intentionally left Zack in the dark so he can be the everyman and make sure we don’t get too far into the Nevernever.

Toot-Toot! Press play!

Hi-ho, listener! It’s time to play the music and light the lights, because on this episode of Baconsale, we’re talking about the Muppet films. We’ve watched ten Muppetational movies and we’re going to rank them from worst to best. Joel is still a kid at heart and loves almost everything the Muppets have done, whereas Kent has grown a little more cynical as he’s gotten older, and Zack thinks that all the films (and this episode) are about 20 minutes too long.

Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection—the lovers, the dreamers, press play.

Last time Baconsale talked about romantic comedies, it went off without a Hitch, so we (Love) Actually decided to do it again! We’ve come up with just under 13 (Going on 30) categories to showcase some of the most popular rom coms of all time. Plus, Zack, our personal Wedding Singer, is also going to quiz Kent and Joel on their knowledge of these movies. And with romantic steak street tacos on the line, the stakes have never been higher. We’ll discuss Julia Roberts (to see if She’s All That), which films left us Sleepless (in Seattle), and which actors look Pretty (in Pink).

CORAL! Press play to help us determine what is “peak Streep.”

A lot has changed since our last Sundance film festival recap, including the festival itself. This year, film geeks around the world streamed (strom?) indie movies from the comfort of their own home, making snide remarks to an empty room. Kent watched 26 of these films in six days! His brain is fried, but he’s ready to give us some highlights (and lowlights) of what he saw, including reviews of Prisoners of the Ghostland, CODA, Eight for Silver, On the Count of Three, Mass, In the Earth, The Sparks Brothers, Cryptozoo, and John and the Hole.

Press play to hear about the college draft for film buffs.

Baconsale is ready to pop a lot of trouble because, once again, we’re going to rank popular tabletop games. From ancient Mesopotamia to the 2000s, we’re including such favorites as Uno, Chutes & Ladders, Boggle, Taboo, Chess, Checkers, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Ticket to Ride, Cranium, and Blokus. As we move along the board, we’ll talk about the history of these games, discuss unusual versions (Body Boggle, anyone?), and we’re surprised by a musical number that makes the tough guys tumble. Kent and Joel agree way too much, Zack isn’t sorry about going his own way, and we just hope you roll the dice and tier each party game along with us.

Press play to turn the crank, and snap the plank, and boot the marble right down the chute!

Wow. Who could have predicted everything that happened last year? Baconsale tried and, believe it or not, we actually got a few things right! So, once again, we are going to attempt to read the tea leaves for the coming year. We’ll forecast celebrity breakups, predict “sexy” Halloween costumes, discuss new fast food meat alternatives, guess sporting event winners, warn of reptilian takeovers and, of course, predict box office flops & talk about movies we’re looking forward to this year (if they actually come out). Plus, with so many lunch bets on the line, the stakes have never been higher.

Press play start a wi-fight!

Baconsale is kicking off our seventh season by talking about our top five & bottom five films from last year. Joel is a little drunk with power because his method of picking movies is quite suitable for this situation, whereas Kent was actually able to scrap together a list of favorites from the dearth of movies released in 2020—even if he had to grade on a curve. Along the way, Zack attempts a FOUL pun, Hans Zimmer gets called out as a hack, and we try our darndest not to give anything away about our top picks (but we don’t mind spoiling the worst ones).

Press play to initiate the temporal pincer.

On this, our sixth season finale, Baconsale is looking back at our shows from this past year and talking about some of our favorite moments, both on the air and behind the scenes. Our schedule was destroyed by the pandemic (which Zack may have caused), but we still managed to create some memorable episodes, including when Kent promoted Helga Sinclair, Joel offended the cult of stuffing, we impersonated southern ants (who HATE grits), we safely invited guests into the Baconcave, we created the Parents Guide Game (which swept the nation!), and we sang….a LOT. Plus, we even dare to bring up the terrifying Scream Queen. 2020 has been a trying time for all of us, but we hope that the weekly episodes have helped lift your spirits in some way—they certainly lifted ours.

Press play to hear our sincere thanks to our listener and to our patrons for helping us get through season six of Baconsale!

You’d better watch out, you’d better not cry, you’d better not pout, I’m telling you why… because some of these creepy Christmas creatures will beat you, kill you, or eat you. On this episode of Baconsale, we’re sharing unusual holiday folklore from around the world, but primarily from Germany, Iceland, Austria, and France (because Europe is weird). It’s dangerous to go alone on this perilous path, so we’ve invited Chris Draudt, a Krampus expert/enthusiast to join us. Listen as we butcher the names of Knecht Ruprecht, Père Fouettard, Mari Lwyd, Kallikantzaros and other companions of Saint Nicholas. But beware, some of these traditional yuletide tales can get pretty grim.

Grab a bundle of birch branches, pull that potato out of your shoe, and press play!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Baconsale is going to do another Christmas song category show! It’s been five years since our last holiday music episode, but Joel is more than happy to do another one. Kent, on the other hand, is a bit of a Scrooge when it comes to yuletide tunes. Nevertheless, we’ve come up with twelve categories—including Best Duet/Collaboration, the One You Can’t Resist Singing, Most Underrated, and Worst Acapella Cover—and Kent, Joel & Zack are going to each pick a winner for each one.

Come on, it’s lovely weather for a podcast together with you! Press play!

You can find the official Spotify playlist of songs we discussed on this episode at Baconsale.com.