Thank you

For those who celebrate the holiday season (and many who don’t, whose work is still pegged to the calendar year) this is a very busy period. You probably have as much spare time for another newsletter as I do to write one. We’ll check in between Xmas and New Years, but it’ll just be the shortest of notes.

So — since this will be the last full newsletter until mid-January, I wanted to take the opportunity before the year’s great odometer rolls over to say thanks.

Thank you for being dedicated listeners. Longevity as a podcast is both a blessing and a curse. We’re so happy to still be here, but it can be hard to attract new ears when there’s an ever-expanding pool of younger, bright, shiny shows out there. We’re blessed with our share of attention (again, we were very honored to appear in The Podcast Pantheon this year), but at this point we feel like the old guard. Thanks to everyone who’s stuck with us. We still love making the show, and we’re glad folks still love to listen.

Thanks for watching our FlopTV streams! We’re not fans of the pressure to “pivot to video,” a pressure many podcasts have succumbed to. We think The Flop House exists best in the form it’s in — but we’ve loved expanding that into a slightly different show, one that’s still got the chatty hangout vibe of the podcast but is built for streaming, with short video segments and animations. We love dipping our toes into other media and adding fun production value, and we couldn’t do that without your viewership. Thank you for getting tickets.

Thank you for coming to our live shows (more on that later!) — we weren’t able to do as many as in previous years due to schedule conflicts, but we were so happy to do a pair of shows in Chicago in November. Listeners are unfailingly some of the sweetest, kindest, friendliest folks we’ve been lucky enough to meet, and we’re proud that folks as nice as you are the audience we’ve managed to attract.

Lastly, an extra portion of thanks to members of Maximum Fun, who support us and make the show happen. There’s that old saw that “there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism,” but I truly believe that Max Fun has come the closest (perhaps because it’s the least capitalistic) — it’s a company entirely made up of artist-owned shows (we have a handshake deal with MF and they exert no editorial or other control over us) that makes its product FREE to the listeners, with the faith that if they find value in it, they’ll join as a member. Most of that money gets distributed directly to the shows the listener chooses, and the rest goes toward overhead at the company — a company that’s a worker-owned co-op, with decisions made by the worker-owners.

I think that’s all pretty great, and (without getting too grandiose about a silly bad movie podcast and its sister shows) I think it’s EXTRA important to have media that’s beholden to no big corporate interests at a time of unprecedented consolidation, contraction, and government interference. So THANK YOU to the listeners out there who agree. It’s your funding that allows us to keep going.

But mostly, thank you for letting us make a show where we can joke about David Lynch suggesting that a movie add a giant-testicled exploding rat.

Special Holiday Event/Plug!

In the spirit of the season, please join Dan and Stu on Stuart’s Twitch channel on Tuesday, December 30th, from 8 to 10 pm ET, for a between-the-holidays edition of “The Slop House!” What’s that? It’s our occasional Flop House-adjacent cooking show, where Dan cooks Stu a meal and Stuart makes some fancy cocktails while we talk to folks in the chat!

Next on the Podcast

12/20 - What’s more festive than a LIVE SHOW? It’s the late show from our Chicago double-shot of Jim Belushi! We discuss K-9, the movie where the Belush is out-charmed by a dog at every turn! (For those who miss it, we’ll get back to Cagemas someday — we just wanted to take a break due to the excessive memefication of Saint Nic.)

12/27 - Stu heads this mini, where he bravely describes the lore of Elden Ring to his co-hosts, despite their actively hostile lack of interest. We salute you!

Plugging Away

In two weeks, on January 3, we’ll be doing the first FlopTV of the new year! We’ll be discussing the 60’s musical DOCTOR DOLITTLE, the movie that almost sank a studio! We hope you can join us! Individual tickets and season passes are both available!

Also, the Flop House will be back at San Francisco Sketchfest this year! We’ll be discussing MASTER OF DISGUISE, the film that spawned the (true!) anecdote about Dana Carvey taking part in a group prayer about 9/11 while dressed as a giant turtle man!

Elliott’s book, Joke Farming: How to Write Comedy and Other Nonsense is probably the perfect holiday gift for the joke farmer in your life. Or maybe you know someone who prefers Harley Quinn. Or maybe you have a kid, who wants to learn how Sadie Mouse Wrecks the House. Honestly, it seems like Elliott’s pretty much got your Flop House-adjacent gift-giving covered this year.

Dan just appeared on a members only episode of The Greatest Generation podcast, discussing John Carpenter’s horror masterpiece, The Thing. If you’re a Max Fun member, check your bonus feed! Also, he has a humor piece in McSweeney’s, titled “It’s a Wonderful Life, Guy from It’s a Wonderful Life Who Convinces Another Guy to Open the Gym Floor So Everyone Falls in the Pool.” Check it out!

Stuart paints Warhammer models/chats with viewers most Fridays on his Twitch channel. Stop by one of his bars in Brooklyn, or take a class at Jiggle Studio!

You Made it to the End!

Here’s a little taste of A Cassettis Carol, from the Zardoz episode of Flop TV!