War of the Words

Activity description: You're going to try to spell it and guess if I hate it or can't spell it. Activity premise: I've got 25 words that I either can't spell or I don't agree with the spelling. Method: I gave each word two rankings. I ranked on how frequently I misspell it or how much I disagree with the spelling. And I went with the higher of the two numbers. Scoring method: And then we'll get the points relative to how high on the ranking it is. Scoring mechanism: She gets half of the points that she would have been awarded. Round sequence: Unresolved: [['One continuing task-level opportunity domain with local prompt groups.', 'Each named word-taking turn is a round.', 'A round is a paired opportunity for Hannah and Curt.'], [[1338], [1385], [1416], [1444], [1563], [1708], [1709], [1710], [1743], [1783], [1787], [1812], [1821]], 'Named turns and cumulative standings preserve the game. First round, two to go and last round do not resolve whether local word or pair groups are independently bounded rounds rather than groups within one standing domain. No round wrappers are committed.'] Scores: atRow: 1444; Hannah: 25; Curt: 8 atRow: 1524; Curt: 19 atRow: 1563; Hannah: 29; Curt: 25 atRow: 1651; Hannah: 39; Curt: 32 atRow: 1708; Hannah: 46; Curt: 40 atRow: 1821; Hannah: 87; Curt: 65 Final adjudication: You've already won. Final state summary: Unresolved: ["Hannah's victory is explicit; no final numerical scoreboard follows the last ordinary item and bonus.", [[1821], [1836], [1850], [1863], [1864]]] Numeric record acceptance: item awards and final total are unstated; retain announced scores only; no inferred values

Welcome to Reverse Psychology, the Fraser Rewash podcast where we go backwards through every episode of the show. Tonight, we are covering Season 9, Episode 18, War of the Words, which originally aired on March 12, 2002. Can we use this episode in a sentence? We'll find out. I'm your host, Curtis Schack. Joining me as always, it's our resident upside downer. It's Ryan Santone. Curtis! Hello! Here we go again! Also with us is our anomaly, Bradley Kirkston. Thank you, thank you, thank you, and I can't wait to spell and show all of you up later today. Woo woo. I'll be so excited if you spell. Like, the audience only has got like a little bit of taste of this. You have no ability to spell like at all. Well, you know, I know how to spell most things, so I'm just going to prove it to you. Genuinely not confident you can spell your full name. Well, you know, there is an X in there somewhere. Um, so, so we got that. Real quick, I'm just going to put it out there. I am a pretty good speller, um, in the written word. Like, if you do the thing with a child or a pet where you like spell out the name of the, the thing you're, you're taking them to that they don't want to go to, that will work on me. I can't, if somebody spells something verbally, I will, like, a spelling bee would be the worst thing for me. If somebody spells champagne, you won't be lost. Set that aside, because we have a very special guest with us today. It's our belated Valentine. It's Hannah Shaq. It is. There was, that's what Ryan did, so I thought I'd jump on this. You were very surfer dude with that. You did go very surfer dude. I liked it. I liked the surfer energy. It was great. Why, why is, why is Brad here if we got Hannah? I'm gonna understand. Uh, it's a great question. Uh, Brad, you want to hop off? Uh, yep. You will barely hear from me tonight. Uh, you'll just, you'll just feel my vibrations. Ew, what? Oh my God. You may go. Well, I don't know what to, what to do with that. That's so uncomfortable. You're back to surfer dude Hannah. I think that was fun. Hannah, you're a super cool California surfer dude. Can you surf? Can I surf? Yes, are you a surfer? Do you have the skill set that matches your cool accent? No, I respect the ocean and keep my distance. Oh, interesting. Okay. Well, I want to know if any of us, including you Hannah do have any kind of unusual or strange things, something that you are crazy good at something, some talent, some hidden talent of yours. Not, it doesn't have to be like piano or something like, I don't know, mainstream, just something unusual, but you happen to be really good at and maybe proud of this being a mainstream talent. Nothing is more mainstream than Elton Jones. That's true. I can do it first, Curt. So I can't cook very many things, which I know is the opposite of the question, but I am very good at cooking exactly three things. One of them is I can make crepes for you at the drop of a hat from scratch. Well, okay. Now, wait a minute. Uh, are you using a hat to make the crepes or what are we talking about? I could use a hat to make the crepes if you need me to, assuming it's sturdy enough. What is the minimum equipment required for you to be able to pull this off? For me to, I need, I need stainless steel measuring cups and a bowl and a pan. Okay. That's pretty minimal. All right. But they do have to be stainless steel. I refuse to use anything else. I would think stainless steel would really stick. They don't. They don't at all. It's one of the beauties of stainless steel measuring cups. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you wanted the pan to be stainless steel as well. I do, but, uh, the court says that I would burn all the food if I tried to use it. So she refuses to get some for me. And as the main chef, it feels fair that she can own that space. Does seem fair. Cause again, all I do is crepes and eggs. Are these like just like thin pancakes? Are you, what are you, what are you putting in these crepes? Are you asking what a crepe is? Well, no, usually they're stuffed with something. I, you can do the stuffing. I make the, I make the canvas. You can paint on it. Oh, you really can only do the, I mean, I can put things into the crepe and roll it up, but that's not the stillsnet of the crepe. Okay. But the, I would of course put Nutella in it every time. Cause Nutella's Rod's gift. Something about your, uh, apparent talent at making crepes just makes me really think that any of us could do it. Like I've never tried to make a crepe, but I feel like I could, because you can't. I know. Well, I can tell you this. It doesn't translate to thicker pancakes. Cause I tried to make pancakes this break and I, it went horribly. Okay. Well, mine is also related to, to cooking. I also am not much of a cook and Hannah will attest to this, but my great, I think we'll all attest that you're bad at cooking. We can all, sure. But I, I have very few real talents in life. Truly. Apparently the, the thing that I'm truly, uh, uh, is it talking? Please say it's talking. Trying to think of a word for somebody who's great at a thing, but literally none of those words came to me. You're a savant. I'm, I'm a real savant of carving a turkey. Oh my God. It's true. It's true. Okay. Wait. So my parents came to our house for, for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. And, uh, it was just the four of us and twice separately. My parents both commented on how perfectly hurt our of the Turkey. And my mom asked my dad to do it. And he was like, I can't make it perfect. Like Curtis does. So yes, a thousand percent. That is very true. For context, your parents joined our family for our, our big Thanksgiving feast the previous year, which is why they saw my, my cutting skills. And they have not stopped talking about it since. There's so much to take away from this. I mean, this is the most Curt answer ever. The one thing we've built up through this podcast is that Curt loves Turkey. It's so funny that this is your skill. Yeah. I mean, what can I say? It's true. It's on brand. I can go next. So, so this one was tough for me because there's not a lot of things I'm really good at in life there. You know, I, I, I know. I feel like this question is easy for us because we, as a collective three people, we have very little skills. Correct. Um, I could say like knowing random facts about the most random things, but like, yeah, I mean, everyone has that. And you are not very good at that to be honest. No, mine is something that I am happened to be very good at. Uh, and I don't really know why I'm very good at it. And Ryan has seen me be very good at it, but I am, I happen to be a pretty good gambler. You know, it's something that I thankfully can, can make a good amount of money doing it. Um, and it's something that I, I, I have succeeded at in life is, is gambling. What is your game or do you have multiple? When I was younger, I used to play a lot more poker, but right now I play a lot of blackjack and, and some Asian table games are like my two, like go to. You can't just, you have to give us the Asian table games. Oh, okay. Or give me generics. That would be PyGal. That would be PyGal tiles. And that would be Baccarat. Ah, PyGal. I'm, the only thing I know about is that you can lose money very quickly. Yes. And I, I, I don't do as well in PyGal as I do in some of the other ones, but. What is PyGal tiles? Is that just Mahjong? Essentially. Okay. Fun. I don't know any of these games. Blackjack? I do know blackjack. Sorry. I meant the Asian table games. Yes. Someone was just telling me I should learn how to play Baccarat. Baccarat has like 74 different, this is getting really inside baseball, uh, has 75 different ways you can gamble. Is that a random throwout number? Is that like a real, is there a real seven librarians? I could probably name at least 15. I think there's more that I don't even understand. Um, because usually they will just talk in Mandarin and I don't really understand what's going on. But the most common one is essentially you're betting on if it's going to be red or black. You can, you can bet on that. Oh, Curt, you can do that. Yeah. That is my level of gambling is just putting it all on red or black. Yeah. And then losing promptly. Hannah, I want to know about you. Do you have any hidden talents? Any, anything you're crazy good at? Have you guys ever done one of those like team building exercises where each member of the team has a specific role and things that they're allowed to do and not allowed to do? I literally facilitate that half the time. This is Brad's, this is Brad's true topic. Yeah, this is, this is what I do. I facilitate these things. I don't remember if this was high school or college, but each person in our group, there was one, only one person was allowed to speak. One person could use their hands. Like there was all sorts of rules. So I couldn't speak. And I, I had a blindfold on and I could only do what someone asked of me. I'm sorry. Is this, is this a normal icebreaker or whatever we're doing? This is, this is a team builder. This is sounds super intense. Team building. Yeah. Cause we had to, we had to build a tower out of paper and I was blindfolded. And so people would hand me paper. There was like a pile of paper and I think I had to like roll up tubes or something. But the person whose job it was to communicate with the rest of us wasn't telling me anything specific to do. And I couldn't speak. So I sat there making little paper hats, blindfolded. And when I took my blindfold off, they were all pretty perfect. And I felt really good. Wow. Are we talking about like the sailor hat thing you can make out of paper? Yeah. Yeah. That's great. No idea how to do that. That is a good fact. And a good job. Thank you. Line folded origami is intense. You're much better at this game than the four of us are. So great job. How many of you are there? There's only three. You're much better than the three of us are at this game. Counting not one of Brad's skills. No, tonight's going to be a night for me guys. Oof. I don't know that I've ever attempted to make origami blindfolded. But I have on occasion tried to do other things blindfolded. And I feel like usually it starts off really strong and I feel really good about it. And then you very quickly see that I've like gone off the edge of the paper or whatever. And I'm like, it falls apart quick. So that you were able to do this for an extended period is doubly impressive. I can make exactly one thing in origami. I can make an origami frog that actually jumps. It was the only thing I learned from CCD, which is like after school Christian class. I don't know what we're supposed to learn, but that's what I learned. I thought you were going to say the only thing you can make in origami is a crepe. Just a flat circle. I wish I could do that. I feel like if we could combine these two talents, Ryan and Hannah's, like you could open up an origami crepe store. Crepe and hat for every customer. Would that be like you've got this, like the fillings on top of the hat and like you get, instead of eating the crepe, you just wear the crepe and then you eat the toppings. We'll figure it out. We should probably get into this episode. What do you say? You probably should have got us out of here a while ago. I think that's a great idea. Why are you dilly dallying, Curt? Why are you talking about skills that we don't have? We open with a lightning strike over Seattle. Roz asks Frazier to give Freddie her lucky penny for his impending National Spelling Bee Championship. We start with Frazier at work. Unusual. He almost does some work. But then he gets caught up with this stupid phrase, so. On brand. He was fixating on this one sentence and would not move past it as everyone else was trying to get him to move past it, including the caller and Roz. Oh, and that's the joke, right? Because the quote was like, excellence does not require perfection. And then he just proceeds to try to make it perfect and screws everything up, which is really, it is funny. And like you said, it's on brand. He did have it right the first time. It is excellence does not require perfection, not demand or mandate. That's even funnier. Yeah. That is what I would do is I would I would get it right the first time and then my eventual answer on the task would be wrong because I have talked myself out of it. We do find out in the scene that obviously that Freddie is coming to town for the Spelling Bee competition and Lilith is not going to be joining him. Yeah, which I think is good because we get we got Lilith and Freddie. I think the next two seasons together, it's nice to separate them. I feel like any time they are together, it just becomes about Frasier and Lilith and it becomes even less about Freddie. Right. I don't know if any of that's true because we've gotten three Freddie episodes. The first one, no Lilith. High holiday. That was a hit episode. The second time was the Bar Mitzvah episode, which did have both of them, but that really was not about Lilith at all. Wasn't it? There was a Lilith. Frasier scrap in that one, wasn't there? There was. But it wasn't the focus of the episode at that point. It really takes the attention away from Freddie, I feel like, when she's there too. Okay. Ross is doing this nice gesture for Freddie. It's just a little token of luck. And Frasier's being a dick about it. Such a dick about it. And she calls him out. She's like, hey, like, why are you being, why are you turning this into a creepy thing or like a sexual thing? Like, this is a weird little son. Like, what is the deal? Like, she calls him out, but that does not stop Frasier from continuing to be creepy about it. What is his deal? I mean, from what we've seen, it's not creepy, right? This is the relationship they have. He'll prod her like this sometimes. And that just seems fine with the relationship. Well, actually, I had a question for Ryan about this. He makes a lot of jokes in this episode, a lot of them, about her being this, like, sexual deviant. Do you have that perception of Roz? I wouldn't call her a sexual deviant. I would just say she's definitely willing to hook up. That's been pretty evident. Okay. I was just curious how you felt about it. The only thing that's really weird to me is the proximity to those two getting it on, right? We're like, what, three episodes away from that happening? Two episodes? Like, that's crazy. This is a weird lead-in to that. Yes, it is. Yeah. Once again, the spark of chemistry between them is just not there. Yeah. It's very, like, friend banter. I was going to say, it's very, like, brother-sister banter. Yeah, even that, sure. Yeah. Do you guys notice Roz was dressed like she was a tribute in the Hunger Games or something? Yeah. What was that brooch? It was a weird outfit. Okay. Big old flower on her shoulder that had feathers sticking out of it. Yeah. It was- Yeah, it was crazy. This was 2002, so I understand. But at the same time, I don't- Did she wear a jacket? Like, hat- I feel like it would get caught on things, having a giant thing. This was above board in 2002. This was a thing people were doing to work. Yeah. Wow, okay. In typical Frasier fashion, it's not like we're going to see a lot more of Roz in this episode. So, you know, let's take what we can get. Is this it? Oh, she is in the- She's in later. She's in one more, yeah. Yeah. She's no butthurt about the coin. But we're not going to see a lot more of her, is the point. It's not like she's going to dominate this episode. The bridge doesn't come back, I'll tell you that. I did not notice at all her wardrobe. She's wearing a flower that's like as big as her head. I believe you, but I'm just saying like, it is wild to hear that this is like an outrageous, like, eye-catching outfit. And I'm like, I am glad to know that she was wearing clothes. Didn't come up for me. It's exactly what you wore to your wedding. Who wore it better? Honestly, Roz. Frasier helps Freddy practice for the bee. Marty reminds Frasier that it should be a fun competition and not taken too seriously. We learn that Niles was an amazing spelling competitor, but choked on his final word. What is the start of this? What are we doing with Eddie? And why are we doing it? You mean you've never asked your dog to spell a word? I don't get what we're going for at all. Who's pushing for this? Why is this happening? It's practicing. I feel like Freddy's even annoyed by it. Like, at one point you see him roll his eyes. Like, he's even like, this is so stupid. I think Frasier's just being a pageant dad. Guys, we gotta put on a show! I thought you were professionals! I see amateurs. I see trash. I'm good with all that. Frasier's involved in the preparation. When Martin is talking about all the, you know, extreme measures that he's going to, one of the things he mentions is a spelling diet. So I wanted to ask if there are any foods beyond alphabet soup that would be part of the spelling diet. That's funny because I can't imagine Frasier, of all people, serving an alphabet soup to anybody. Trader Joe's has animal crackers that are in the shape of letters. I've got those before. So, to practice my own spelling. What do you mean you've got those? Why did you get those? To practice my own spelling. You know. That tracks their mind. Let the man eat his snacks. I mean, he got it from the toddler section. It's not true. You know, the spelling diet is great. I was really impressed that they were spending time practicing his spelling knees. So his knees were ready for the intensity of a spelling competition. I don't want to move past the alphabet soup thing. Curt, here's how he would do it. He would drain the sauce from the alphabet soup or broth, whatever. And then he would make his own broth and throw back in the letters. That is exactly what he would do. I love it. Yeah. Elevated alphabet soup. Yes. Let me also just say, in defense of Brad, I'm defending you. Waste of time. It's never a good move. It never pays off. But go ahead. Just because I also enjoy a children's snack, which is a snack that smiles back. Goldfish. I love goldfish. I bring them with me places. And I was at a concert front row, decided to share some of my snacks. And one of the people I was sharing with said, do you have kids? And I said, why? And he was like, why else would you have goldfish? Because I like that. That's interesting. I never really thought of goldfish as a child snack. But I guess you're right. I don't either. Yeah. I get why they're especially appealing to children. But I think they're one of those sort of snacks that sort of, it's kind of like a Pixar movie. It kind of is for the whole family. I would love to attack you, Hannah, but a goldfish is definitely above board. Did you see when they renamed their name to sea bass? Because they're like, yeah, adults like us too. So we don't want you to feel like you're getting a little kid's snack. So sophisticated. Yeah, that guy was an asshole. I don't like goldfish. Not because I don't like the taste. I, of course, like the taste. The problem is one time I ate it when I was very full. And I had a handful of goldfish despite being grossly full. And by the end of the handful, I needed another. And I did like nine handfuls in a row. And then I was like starving. So I don't know what's in them, but it's concerning. It will not solve your hunger. So going back to this scene, you know, as much as we'd love to talk about Ryan's hunger all day long. Yes, please. What did you think, Ryan, of the whole Niles part of this scene? And really Niles and Daphne, because Daphne is wacky in this scene. Well, tell us why Daphne is wacky while I think about my Niles thoughts. Daphne's telling this like ridiculous story. There's a little girl who thinks that by doing well, she can grow up, purchase the local pub, and turn it into a circus so her father can keep his promise. Hannah, you wouldn't, you weren't here for this. But there was an episode we watched where her dad was brought into the show. And it was kind of all about how much she, you know, loves her dad and wants him to be part of the wedding and wants him to be in her life. But this scene, I didn't know if it made that sadder or if it was like an inconsistency that she's this sort of down on her dad. Most of the like background stories with her, she's, she's a bit psychic. I don't take anything she says super seriously. So I wouldn't, I don't know. I don't think it's necessarily panic. That's very interesting. That's not the vibe I have from her at the moment. I don't know what to do with that. I think it does make it sadder. And I think it tracks like if your dad ignored you, you would, and you still have somewhat of a relationship with him. You would want him at the wedding, I think. Yeah. Probably even more so. Like you would be willing to go to, let's call it England. And even her story is very much about wanting the dad to pay attention to her, but he doesn't. Right. So I think it totally tracks. I don't know if it's like the best writing, but it's, it's fine. It gets the job done. Well, getting back to Niles, I think when he tells Freddy, Don't get sidetracked by all the glitz and glamour of the bee. I did love that. I love the way this episode treats the bee as this thing nobody else thinks of it as. Like they're all treating it like it's an Olympic sport. Like it's a high honor. Like it's like it's winning an Academy Award or something. They treat it like it's the most amazing thing. And it's just spelling words. I love that aspect of this. Curtis, let me say the same thing. Would you use actual sports analogy since you struggle with that? Please. Please. Get us the ESPN breakdown, Brad. You know, they're really treating this like it's the Super Bowl. Like it's the World Series. Like it's the Stanley Cup. Like it's really like the culmination of a season ending victory for a 12 year old boy in a spelling bee essentially is what they're comparing it to. Why are you guys saying that? Like that's not, of course it would be. He's a national champion. Why? That is the exact equivalent for a 12 year old. What do you mean? I think any parent, any child would be this excited about an event like this and this proud of it. It's the language they're using. Glitz and glamour of the bee that makes it sound like something that it isn't. We get Frasier giving Niles a nod in a way I don't think we've ever seen. He's never acknowledged Niles being better than him at any point. Yes. Yes. I'm surprised it didn't come up more in this episode and it was really only a throwaway lie. It was striking. No one balked at it either, which was really weird. Yeah. You know that he's an amazing speller because for Frasier to genuinely praise Niles in that way without any sense of superiority is... Or any undercut of any kind either. Just said, yeah, he's better than me. It was wild. When they were talking about other winners, like that Niles was as good as William Carrick of Akron. Shout out to Akron. Shout out to Akron. William Carrick was a real winner of the script spelling bee in 1964. That's amazing. His final word that he won on was sycophant. Wow. Can you guys spell sycophant? Bradley, I'd like you to take that first. Yeah, I got it. Sycophant. S-I-C-K. No, stop. No. I think in a real spelling bee, they let you finish, but we're not going to do that, Brad. My whole point was I was going to start naming random letters and make it funny at that, but okay. You just spelling is funny, but you don't have to punch it up. Ryan, where do you go? I assume it's S-Y-C-O-P-H-A-N-T. Sycophant. Yay. Good for you. What do I win? The pride of beating Brad at something. I thought it was going to be a Nissan Rogue. All right, continue. Martin has a sandwich on his table, his side table. It's like three inches thick. It has at least a pound of meat on it. And I found it really funny that it was just in the background, giant sandwich. Okay. I was going to say, is three inches of sandwich a lot or little? It's a big sandwich because it's mostly meat. You're saying three inches tall. Yes, three inches tall. If you go to like a sandwich, get like a sub-shaped sandwich and get a three-incher, that's like a baby sandwich. No one's talking subway metrics. Obviously, she meant thick. What do you, stop it. Okay. I used to get $5 footlongs at the mall. Shut up, Curt. What would you say a standard sandwich is? Like an inch? Would you say this was triple the amount of a normal sandwich? Like, again, I didn't see it. Yes, because the bread to meat ratio was so wildly off. You mean on, and you need to step your sandwich game up. It should be mostly meat, bread's garbage. Oprah would have words for you, sir. What is Oprah's sandwich opinion? She loves bread. She loves bread. Come on. I love bread. Does she? Yes. I don't deny myself bread. I have bread every day. I'm learning a lot. I am too. Yeah, I don't know anything about Oprah's bread opinions. What's her favorite bread? Oh. My favorite bread? Well, let's hear yours, and then let's hear Oprah's. Garlic naan. Oh, that's a good one. I love naan, but partly because it's barely bread, right? Like, it's barely risen at all. It doesn't have to be risen to be bread. I misheard you, because I thought you said a garlic naan, which is also good. Those are good, too. Yes. Dramatically worse than a garlic naan. Naan is almost the perfect bread. As you know, I love crepes. Similar. The thinner we get, the more I'm on board. Well, at the end of the scene, I really enjoy their description of how, you know, Niles choked, and he stopped competing, and when Martin says, Sure, he'd spell now and again. But only to help you out, and you had to really need it, because he could spot a setup a mile away. I did like that, because it really felt like Marty has really thought about this. I thought Marty's relationship to the bee was interesting as well. Like, how they talked about calling him up right out of elementary school, and he was really into it. And he seemed like he was really disappointed that Niles walked away. Well, again, this is his chance at having an athletic kid. Like, this was the closest he was going to get. I have respect him for getting into it. This is film for me. You know it only, Marty. Oh! Yeah, I'm excited to see there's some Marty stuff in this episode that is really going to Royal Ryan, and why don't you transition to the next scene, then? Because the next scene isn't. No, let's not yet. Wait, I have more. Okay. Because, first of all, I forgot about that stuff, and it's bad, but... I had sent a Reddit thread to Curtis earlier this week, because it just so happened that somebody posted about this very episode in the Fraser subreddit, and asked... Yeah, it was Curt. It was not. It turns out I don't post about episodes we're about to record and release monthly. The question was whether or not Niles actually choked. Did he choke and just told himself, I didn't choke, I just became one with the universe or whatever? I think we should wait till that part. That was a really good question. All right, fine. We'll come back. Yeah, I feel like we should wait for that scene. Anything else, Hannah, for this scene? No. You should talk to Marty, because it's all downhill from there. No, no, I'm not going to do it. I can't. I can't defend him in this episode. Because he's going to have a hard fall later, I'm going to talk him up a little. I think all of the Fraser boys get some kudos in this scene, because you've got Marty noticing how stage dad Fraser's being, and takes him aside and is like, hey, this should be fun. Like, don't put too much pressure on your kid about this. And Fraser, to his credit, takes it to heart and has a real heart to heart with Freddie. Like, hey, I don't feel pressured about any of this. It's, you know, we're proud of you even just for getting this far. And Freddie is the one who says, no, no, no. Like, I want to kick butt. Like, I want to do all this. I want to prepare. And I want to do well. Like, I like how all of these characters, none of them are being shitty about this in any way. Yeah. That was a long way of saying that this Freddie is much better than the future Freddie. Yeah, we get it. I hear what you're saying, Curt. There's a lot of people listening to each other, which is not all that common on this show. True. At the B, it's down to three contestants. They take a break, and Fraser meets Warren Clayton's cutthroat father. I hate that man. Marty. No! Hey, got him, Curt. The Cutler boy's father. Are you talking about the actor or the character on this show? I guess both. The character was awful, of course, but that man also plays a character on Grey's Anatomy. It is like a whiny, spineless, very annoying character. And so to see him pop up again and also be really annoying, he's very good at that. I'll give him that. I give him props. I think he's a good actor. He's on a lot of the Shondaland stuff. Yeah! He's one of those actors, and there's a lot on this show, that has just peaked up in so many 2000s and 2010 shows that, like, as soon as you see him, you know something he was in, so. Yeah, I definitely recognized him. He seemed familiar, but I couldn't place him. But I just looked into it. Oh, he's the guy from Scandal. I am a monster, and I am much more terrifying than you can ever imagine. Yes. Before it got really terrible, which was early. I was going to say, how long did it last? I think I watched five seasons. It was bad after, like, the third. Yeah, I think I gave up on three. Did it end up going, like, seven or eight? I don't know. I tapped out of five. We start off with a spelling bee, right? It starts off with a kid's spelling, and then there's, like, a break. And then the break is where they meet the dad. They hit us with, like, loggeria. That's how someone gets eliminated? Yes. Yes. That's not a word, is it? Well, it's when you are a logger who has to cut down trees, but you're suffering from diarrhea and nowhere near a good bathroom. Oh, I thought it was a logger who also drank margaritas. That is also a valid definition. I mean, the two could go together. You're drinking too many margaritas on the job while you're logging, and then, you know, can't find a bathroom. Yeah, one leads to the other. Loggeria leads to Loggeria. At one point, Freddie says hi to the one female competitor, and Fraser goes, don't be distracted by her wilds. I did like that line. Yeah. Her wilds, and also, there will be plenty of women after. Oh, that's right. Yeah. After you win, yeah. That's funny. I missed that. Okay, I think we got to talk about Marty. So Marty has this sort of, there's like four or five jokes sprinkled throughout the episode about him and stereotyping. Just stereotyping the Asians, to be fair. Just, yeah, mostly just Asians. I will say this. There is one good joke in the whole bunch that I enjoyed, and that is when he comes back and Fraser is explaining the Greek root of words, and he mishears it and thinks Fraser is stereotyping Greek people. Oh, so it's okay for you to stereotype. Oh. I thought that was funny. All the others just hurt his character and weren't really adding anything. Don't hurt his character at all, Curt. All the others wouldn't even be allowed to be on TV nowadays. I love Marty. I cannot defend his behavior in this episode. It was racist and insensitive and not good. I very much enjoyed this first one. The first one's where he goes, I can't even do the positive stereotypes. Is that here? Yeah. Yeah. I like that. And that's to set up your thing, Curt, which is the whole point. Right. Like, we're going to introduce the racism bit so you can do the Greek root word joke. And that's decent. Yeah. If it has stopped there, I think they could have got away with it. It's that they keep returning to it throughout the episode that just really ruins it. I also think it's helpful to remember it's 2002. That's true. It's hard to hear him say the words he's saying and the way he's saying them without it feeling like somebody, just some grandpa screaming woke. You know, that's what it brings up today in today's context. But I feel like this was probably a more tame joke in 2002. Yeah. We get a title card. 41 words later. Freddie wins. This was the first title card I've respected in a long time. Well, it's the first one that the joke is understandable at the time you get the title card. Most of them, the title card doesn't make sense until you've seen the scene and forgotten what the title card was. It's both a joke and you get to move forward, right? Like, it's like, okay, they didn't just, the next word didn't end it because that would be weird, right? So we do build some sort of storyline with it while telling a joke. I don't know, is 41 a lot in spelling bees? I don't know if that's a lot or little. That seems like it would be at least 30 minutes. For the final two, that is, I've watched a lot of the script spelling bees when it's on. Usually the final round's about 20 to 24 words. Oof. You're so weird. I want to ask more, but I'm afraid to find out. I mean, you got to remember, these guys aren't asking for definitions. They're not asking for country of origin because they know their words. We panic when Freddy asks about the last word, hereticum, or whatever the heck it is. I'm sorry, say that again? Heretism. I don't remember. I didn't write it down. I didn't write it either. Was it heretics? Is that what you're trying to say? Maybe. Is that a word? I don't think that's what it was. Hermeneutic. Yeah, Curt, idiot. So at the end of the scene, we get Frasier running up. Now, I didn't think it was wholly inappropriate that Frasier, the father, is running up to be with his kid who gets the trophy. I think maybe it was. I'm not sure if that's inappropriate or not, if you should just let Freddy have his moment. But the way he, like, weirdly grabs the woman giving the trophy. Yes. What the fuck was that? That woman comes up to Freddy from behind and gives him a weird kiss on the cheek. Did you guys clock that one? I saw that too. As much as Frasier is being weird, the whole, like, woman being there was very confusing to me as well. Because I thought she was just going to hand him. But you're right. They take, like, a family picture after she kisses Freddy. She's gone the rest of the episode. This is it for her. Yes, this is it. Just shows up, gives this little boy a kiss, and then takes a picture. Takes a family photo. Yeah. So I agree. It was weird that Frasier, like, grabbed her, but I also don't know why she was there. It's the glitz and glamour of the bee. It's the glitz and glamour of the bee. Yeah, it is. She's right. The aforementioned glitz and glamour. Well, and the aforementioned women that would be present. Yes, that too. I didn't realize Frasier meant adult women. That was not what I was expecting. I think maybe Frasier thought, well, women for Freddy, that little girl over there, and women for me. This strange woman giving my son a trophy. We get another title card. Actually, the letter Y isn't that friendly. During Freddy's celebrations, a bee official accuses Frasier of mouthing the spellings to Freddy. His evidence of cheating is an unplayed VHS tape. He revokes Freddy's trophy and awards it to the other kid. Interesting. We saw him mouth the words. We know this happened. I went back and checked. You're right. He does mouth them. He very clearly does. He does mouth them. My concern is, why is this man at their house? Why did he hunt them down? It was true. It's going to have been a phone call. Yeah. Absolutely. Yes. You start with a phone call. Definitely. They do sort of justify it in that he's not just there to deliver the news, but also to collect the trophy. He could have called first. Well, you know, to make sure they're home. Yeah. Well, not only that, but also that this has all been adjudicated. They've figured all this out. There was no opportunity for Freddy or Frazier to plead their case or to defend themselves in any way. It was just happening behind their back, which is wild. I think there's some TV show magic. I think in real life, Frazier would have demanded to see it. And then he sees himself mouthing the words. I think they just kind of fast forwarded through that a little bit because it's very clear that he does do that. I did think he was going to be like, do you guys want to watch the tape? Show them some sort of evidence besides just taking it? I wondered about that, too, because does he take the tape with him when he leaves, too? Probably. I understand they don't want to stop the episode to watch something we've already seen. But I could understand, like, it might have made it make more sense if they're like, look, we have to do this. We're really sorry. But, you know, this is pretty conclusive. And here's the tape. Here's a copy you can have. Like, you can watch it and you will see that, like, we have no choice. Like, you clearly mouthing these letters. I feel like that at least would have made more sense. But he just, like, brings it as a prop. We shouldn't have watched Frasier mouth it live. We should have watched it after the fact. And Frasier could have had this horrified reaction. That's a great point. Or even the video bit could have been the salad and scrambled eggs. Like, they could have even done it there. Well, that would be stupid, but sure. I did enjoy the way that Frasier is, like, blown back across his apartment when he's accused of cheating. Yeah. It was a really great physical shock. And I also really enjoy the way he shouted the song that he was kicked out of some orchestra because he was singing along. Das lieb von der Erde. Das lieb von der Erde. Nice. Thank you. That's a Mahler song. And apparently it's played with a large orchestra and two singers. So if one person in the audience started singing along, it would definitely be disrupted. That's so funny. That's really fun. We never really delve deep into the cultural references this show makes. And it's always fun having someone like you on who does bother to do that because that adds a layer to the joke that we did not know was there. I think this does fit Frasier's character, too, though. That's from from I mean, if you remember early on, we see him doing the I don't remember all the words for this. He does the Vivaldi. What's the person that leads an orchestra? Conductor. Conductor. He air conducts. So, like, he gets into things and he can't help himself, even when it doesn't make sense. I do want to jump back to sort of the beginning of the scene when they're trying to watch. You're like, you lost your chance. OK. It's not that important. This is, I think, the end of the Roz storyline, and it's pretty clearly just shoehorned in to give her something to do in the episode. As those types of storylines go, this one's fine. I don't have a problem with this one. I feel like the penny thing works. It's not the best, but it's fine. I like that they closed it. I do like that. It's such a shoehorn. It feels like a bigger shoehorn here than it does at the front of the episode. Yeah. It's like, oh, you really just didn't have a payoff for this. I kind of like the way she's like, will you relax? Like, stop being a dick about this penny. And then, because he was a dick, she's like, should I give him in the penny? I love that in his low moment, she's digging him. I just really enjoyed that she said, I mean, I found it at the railroad tracks, not in some enchanted wood. She knows it's not a big deal, but I just liked that she got to, you know, burn Frasier as he walked away. Definitely. Freddy is sulking, and Frasier worries this has ruined their relationship. Marty tries to console him by reminding Frasier that bad fathering runs in the family. Those are good. Were you in the kitchen for this? No. This is pre-kitchen. Oh, so this is racist Marty? Pretty much. It's racist Marty, and it's Marty talking about a time that he sat on Frasier's science project. Yeah, I didn't have anything here. This all fit. Nothing was off base for Marty here. Just totally tracked. Frasier, too. Like, Frasier is worried that he's ruined his relationship with his son. Which is true. When Marty tries to relate, like, hey, like, just like you forgave me, Frasier, he'll forgive you. And Frasier's like, I didn't forgive you for that. I'm still pissed about it. Well, no, I think Frasier is even worse. I think he said he forgave him and then added on all the stuff he was still pissed about after he said he forgave him. Yeah. That felt honest. That felt like some of, you know, we all harbor weird things about our parents, whether we should try to or not. I thought that part was fine. I thought all of it was fine. All of the track. Well, and it's a chance for Frasier, a narcissist that he is, to take this moment all about his son and once again turn it on himself. And there's a reason him and his son don't have a good relationship. In the kitchen, Niles confesses to Freddy that he didn't choke at his bee. He simply experienced the spelling singularity and no longer needed to compete. Freddy is convinced to attend the bee banquet. Before we get into the stuff that is talked about here, did you guys see how the sloppy ice cream work Freddy's doing in this scene? Yeah. I mean, he's doing a best half scoops. This is also an ice cream that's been sitting out. This is not hard, cold ice cream. It's just terrible work out of him. I would love to see 12-year-old Ryan try to act in a scene while doing a playing with a prop. Ice scoop ice cream equally as terribly, but I'm not a spelling bee champion, so I don't have to. Well, I guess he wasn't either at that point. You know what? Rescinded me. I really love this scene. It's my second favorite moment. From whom for whom? What? That was a terrible question. Who do you like in this scene? Do you like Freddy or Niles or both of them interacting? Mostly Niles. I think Freddy is fine, but Niles... As I said, we're giving props for that terrible ice cream work. Yeah. He got demotions for his ice cream work. It's such a great Niles episode. And the way that he was saying, you know... People said a lot of things that weren't true. He didn't know the word. He was scared. Mafia this. That is so funny. That... Just picturing, like, how would the mafia be involved in the spelling bee? Why? Was his life threatened? You know, like, just throwing that in so casually. And also the way that Niles was like, I've never spoken about this before. But sharing it with you because you also have the gift. It was just a really sweet, funny scene. And for me, watching this scene and thinking about, did he choke? I don't think he did. I believe Niles' side of this story. So, yeah, sports gambling. Hannah? That's why the mob was involved. People were betting on 12-year-olds spelling stuff. Comes up all the time. I gotta say, Hannah, if anything, I feel like you're underselling it here. Because this is one of the great scenes. This is a fantastic scene. Niles knocks it out of the park. The things you've mentioned are all amazing. And as to whether this is some kind of elaborate excuse he's kind of concocted for himself, I'm with you. I think this is genuine. The way this episode treats and discusses these things, the spelling bee, spelling in general, it's treated with such reverence that I just don't think the joke is that Niles is coming up with an excuse. I think he really did, in that moment, feel like he didn't need to compete and just walked away. I didn't consider it in the episode, but once you brought up the Reddit post, got me thinking. I don't know. I don't know if it does. I mean, he talks about, as we said, he talks about the glitz and glamour of the bee. What, he couldn't spell one more word because he mastered English? I'm not buying that. I think he got a word he couldn't spell. I'm totally on board with Reddit. But I think he got, like, spellers high. And that's what happened. And, like, he was, like, so high off of the spelling mentality that he couldn't even focus to get the last word. Yeah, you know, famously, runner's high is when you stop running in the middle of a race. He got spellers high. Ryan, I think if this is Niles as a grown man looking back at his youth and saying, I shouldn't, Niles, have been distracted by the glitz and glamour of the bee, then your take makes more sense. I kind of honestly thought it was like even young Niles saw the glitz and glamour was like, no, this is about the spelling. Like, I really feel like he already knew not to get distracted by it. Even the way he said, don't forget the 26 little friends who helped you get here. So earnest and it's so genuine. I believe him. The only thing that was a little confusing at the end of the scene is, how did any of him speaking convince Freddie that he should go to the banquet? That is a good question. I don't think, I don't think he's trying to do that. And I don't think it makes sense. I will go to the banquet now and I totally won't get in a fight with anyone. And the only thing, and maybe I missed it. Did we know he was considering not going to this banquet before the scene? Before he said that? Well, why would you? I definitely wouldn't go. I think it was a matter of, you know, being absolutely humiliated that your win is being taken away from you. Do you want to get in front of that group of people who watched it all happen? Probably not. And then having your wise Uncle Niles come say, like, it's not about all of that. It's not about them. It's about the spelling. And that's what matters and whatever. I feel like it was encouragement for him to sort of confront this awkward, uncomfortable situation. I agree. I think you're right. I think that it's not written or described as Niles explicitly saying, no, you've got to go to this banquet and here's why. But I do think that Freddy goes into this. He's mad at his dad for fucking him over. He's mad at the bee for taking away his prize. And here's his uncle telling him, like, I could have had the prize and I let it go because I saw something bigger and greater than some silly prize. And I think that allows Freddy to see like, oh, this prize really didn't matter. It's OK that I lost. And my relationship with my father for at least the next few days matters more than this. So he knows he could spell. He knows he won. He doesn't need the banquet to honor him. And so he can go just be part of the thing. Yeah, but this was Niles after he besmirched the bee by not living up to the end of the end of it. So I don't know. I don't know if those two are in conjunction with each other. Like Niles basically took a dump on the bee by not finishing it just because he mastered spelling or some crap. I suppose. Secretly, we know that he couldn't spell that word, whatever it was. Well, whatever got them there, we are going to jump now to the banquet. There you go. Look at Transition MasterCard. At the bee banquet, Fraser is condescended to by the smug father. Freddy gets into a fistfight with Warren over name calling, and they decide to settle this once and for all with a spell off. Yeah, that girl's not interested in Freddy. It's because she thinks he cheated and he disrespected the bee. I think if he got second place, I think she still might be interested. We know Freddy's really good with women in general, so that makes sense. Has that come up? We know he'll turn goth for a girl. That didn't work either. No, he got rejected by his goth friend. Yeah, that's like two years from now. The highlight of this scene for me is when a cop just happens to walk into the men's room and find children fighting. This is very weird. Weird setup. Was he a cop? I thought he was a security guard. I thought he was a security guard. He's definitely a cop. I mean, he had a badge. I don't know if he had a gun. He was in a cop uniform. He wasn't in your standard security uniform. He was in a cop uniform. Yeah, definitely had a badge. I agree with you, Curtis. I assumed he was like a security guard for the venue. I mean, I think he might have been like a cop that was... Well, it doesn't make sense. Why would he have been hired for the venue? For the spelling bee? It's the glitz and the glamour of the bee, Ryan. I keep underselling that. I really got to... I got to change my brain around the bee. So the highlight for me is when Niall says... Where's your blazer? It's in the bathroom. Oh dear, if it's touched the floor, we'll have to destroy it. That is so good. I was also a line I was going to highlight. It's terrific. It's so casual, throwaway line. But it says like so much about who he is and what a germaphobe he is. It's also a literal throwaway line because it's about throwing away the coat. I think this is really stellar writing because effectively this is an excuse to get Niles out of the way so he can show up in the next scene surprised that this is all going down and trying to talk everybody out of it, right? So it's a structural choice to get him out, but it fits his character perfectly. It's genuinely funny. And of course he's obsessed. He has to go like find the jacket because that's what matters right now. It's not that he has to throw it away. It's that it must be destroyed. And who knows if that's like... Does he have dynamite for this? I think in the same way that somebody destroys like a... Retires like a flag. Like it's old. It's ratty. It's got to be respectfully retired. I think that's what he's planning to do with the suit. Just like... He would fold that jacket into a triangle and then bury it. No, you burn it. That's not destroying it. Yeah, I don't think that's what would be happening. I like... I don't know, Hannah. Are you a... Do you work for Acme? Work... I mean, dynamite. Well, destruction, destroying it sounds so much more active and violent than just throwing something away. So, destruction of either, you know, shredding it, blowing it up. I think burning it is where he's going with it. Melting it in acid. Oh, that would be cool. That'd be real cool. Melting it in acid. I like this. It's touching the bathroom floor. It's serious. So, there's that. Why do you think he took it off? It's a fight. Yeah, what are you talking about? Well, because the other kid has his jacket on. I think it's a pansy. He's ready to spell it in the streets, but he wasn't willing to throw hands in the bathroom. Freddy's from Boston. He's probably a scrappler. It's a kind of weak move from Freddy to take off his jacket and then sucker punch this kid who's still got his jacket on. That also may be what happened. We didn't see what happened in the bathroom. Real quick, I really enjoy when Freddy says to his dad, Dad, I want a spell. I did. I loved that. Loved that line. I loved it only because Frasier's face lit up like it was the greatest thing you ever heard. Ooh. Want to try that one more time? Or should we move on? Frasier's face lit up like it was the best thing you ever heard. It was a real sports movie moment, wasn't it? It was. Exactly. It was. Yes. Dad, I want to spell. This is brilliant. It was the perfect cherry on top of the spell-abration. Yes. Niles convinces Freddy to take the high road. That is, until their honor is impeached with the accusation Freddy is destined for state school. The only thing I'm mad about is that we didn't get the spell off outside. It was such a, it was, I was such a fun time. Why are you mad about this? People are hype. Why do you think that would be entertaining in real life? I love that they really played it up like you would play up a fight scene in a TV show or movie, but it really was just a spelling competition that doesn't happen. But the buildup, it was like classic fight buildup. The fighting words and just that, the very worst thing they could say about the Crane family is not, you know, it's synonymous with loser, et cetera. It's that he'll probably go to a state school. It's so scandalous to them that they couldn't let it go. And all three of them. The sharp look all three of them give. Yes. I think, I think that's the most impressive part that it's not just Niles. It's not just Niles and Frasier, but it's all three of them turn around to give the glare. It was a, it was a good, amazing line. Can you take him? Yeah. Then spell his ass off. The absolute venom with which Niles practically screams, pull his ass off, is the greatest thing. Like that is the, the earlier scene of him, you know, becoming one with spelling and whatnot. Really great scene. But this was a highlight for me. The way that he drops the whole act of like, we're better than this. Let's take the high road. Absolutely best part of the episode for me. Something weird happens with his voice when he does like an angry yell. We've seen this a couple of times before too. He just becomes like his voice changes so dramatically when he does that spell his ass off. Like it becomes real like bar fighty in a way that's very strange for David Hyde Pierce. And just delightful. Literally in an alley, change the spell off to a literal fight and it would make total sense. But they're doing all of this over onomatopoeia. Okay. Oh. Here's my real beef with the scene. This is the end of it. Someone pulls out a book of, I assume, words. And they hand it to Frasier. Like Frasier's going to start administering. Well, he's a talk show host. I mean, a radio host. So he knows what he's doing. He's soon to be a talk show host. Yeah, that's true. Frasier plays this out with Freddy and Niles throwing away their hard won trophy. Frasier, however, slinks back to collect it from the trash. This is one of the better ones. I enjoy the callback to the coat that Niles has in his hands. He's holding Freddy's coat. Oh, I missed that. He drakes it over Freddy's shoulders. And so this tells us either it got him a new coat or it did not touch the bathroom floor because it was not destroyed. Which world are you living in? I think it because there probably wasn't enough time for them to get a separate coat. I think it was not on the floor. I think before Freddy threw that first punch, he probably hung it on a hook on the wall so it was safe and clean. Here's how I know that's what happened. Because the whole reason he's at this banquet is because his uncle Niles gave him all this wisdom. He is so respectful of his uncle Niles. He knows there is nothing that would disrespect my uncle more than leaving this jacket on the ground. He is channeling Niles. There's no way that is a new coat. I don't think that's what happened. I think in a fit of passion, he threw it to the ground so Niles knew he had to destroy it probably with dynamite. So Niles, in the middle of a spell off, he calls Daphne who has nothing to do this night and she brings over one of his coats. Or buys him a new one. I don't know. I don't know how long the spell off took. And Ben is asked to leave before the end of the episode. She knows she's not welcome. This is a place of spelling. This is the bee. Oh, well, Brad, what did you think of this one? After watching this episode, it really is all around a really good episode. You know, there's some funny one-liners. The storyline is pretty good. There's not really, I mean, there's like a small B and C plot kind of, but it's really just about Freddy in this episode. I think, to me, it's clearly the best one of the season that we've watched so far. So I'm going to give it the first A of the season for me. Ooh. Hannah, what about you? Are we doing letter grades? So, okay. So Brad always does letter grades. We probably should tell guests this in the beginning. Well, she's been on multiple times, so I thought it was unmistakable. It's been a while. Brad always does letter grades. Ryan does a one out of ten ranking. I do it. I rank every episode against every other episode. So there have been 65 episodes, I think, so far. So it is your choice. You can, I think with Kenny, we honestly didn't even ask him to give a specific rating. He just kind of vaguely described whether he liked it or not. So you can do whatever you want. I like the ten point system. I'm going to give this, ooh, nine out of ten spelling trophies. There you go. I think last time you used cigars. Yeah, you always pick something specific to the episode. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, it's an excellent Niles episode. Niles is my favorite character. And I feel like he really shines in this one, where in High Holidays, that's a Marty episode, really. And it's not the best Niles episode, even though I love the episode as a whole. This one is where Niles really gets to shine. And it's just the lore, all the effort they put into the lore of the bee. I loved that, making it seem like this, you know, the glitz and the glamour. It was such a great episode overall. Are you giving it nine out of ten as a Niles episode? Are you factoring all of the other stuff? You know, like the Marty Wilson. I'm burying that deep down. We didn't talk about it very much, probably for the best. I mean, that's definitely why, at least part of the reason why it's not a ten out of ten. Okay. But it is such a strong episode for my favorite character. So, of course, that's going to factor in. But, yeah, I'm not ranking it among Niles episodes. They just happen to be my favorite episodes. So, coincidence. Well, for me, I would say that there are some episodes that I've been looking forward to re-watching, and they don't quite live up. Enemy at the Gate was one that was good, but it was not as amazing as I recalled it being. The Bar Mitz episode is one that I was really stoked for, and it was genuinely not good. I did not like that episode. Enemy at the Gate was pretty good, though. Well, Enemy at the Gate was good, but I thought it was even better than it turned out to be. Is that the one where they're just sitting in the car for a long time? Yes. It's still a great episode, but I thought it was like a number one ep, and it was not quite that high. This just so happens to be a nostalgic ep for me that also completely and utterly holds up. It is delightfully silly. It touches on the sentimental without becoming saccharine. This, my friends, is one out of 65 best ep we've watched so far. Stop doing this just because Hannah's on episodes. Quit it. This is not because of Hannah. This is, I thought about it really hard. How you did it? I really did. This, this one, it really speaks to me. I get such a kick out of this type of thing. Like, like, it's one of the reasons I love the show Parks and Rec, because they, they have like such a specific lord of that. Like, things that don't seem like they should be a big deal are a huge deal in Pawnee, Indiana. So what am I missing? What's the deal with this pony? He's not a pony, Ben. He's a mini horse. There's a big difference. I just got to be honest. I don't know what the big deal is. Get out. And I love that. And so this is right up my alley. I love this episode. I'm not saying that it will remain at number one as we keep watching, but nothing we've seen would I want to revisit more than this. Ryan, tell me why I'm wrong. Okay, just to address you real quick. Like, I know you didn't have it as number one incorrectly, but this is definitely not as good as the horny Metcalf episode, you psychopath. But I understand why that is your high watermark. I get it. But we've already established that that has never in our rewatch been my high watermark. I have long put it second or third. I also just wanted to ask, Curt, could you spell saccharine? Oh, please. Here's the thing. I'm staring at it because I wrote it down. That was not an impromptu thought. That was written. You write down your thoughts? I write down everything. Nothing I do is not scripted. Oh, my God. It was a really good vocab word. So that it stuck out to me and I wanted to ask. But you can cut that all out. You want me to try to spell it? I don't have it in front of me. Yeah. All right. S-A-C-H-A-R-E-N. Saccharine. Nope. I'm going to say I-N at the end. It was close. It's I-N-E at the end. Also, there are two Cs in the middle. Oh, fuck off, Saccharine. All right. Anyway. I don't have it as high as you guys do. I gave it a 6.9, which for this season is really good. I think it was probably the second highest episode at this point. And I enjoyed quite a bit of it. I really enjoyed Niles was great. I will give you that, Hannah. And I enjoyed a lot of the Frasier, Freddy, Niles interactions. There's other stuff that happens. And I feel like you guys are discounting that. You know, there's like not much of a B plot, but we still have it. There's not much of a C plot. There might, I guess Daphne's the C plot. I don't know. I'm with you. I hear you. I think the Raw's runner, I already said, like, it's not great. It's not amazing. But I think it does its job fine. And I enjoyed it. Sometimes they get those like pointless episode C plots that I wish weren't even there. This one I was fine with. The Marty stuff's pretty awful. So I probably should have knocked it down a little bit. But you don't discount Horny Metcalf's having to see a naked Kelsey Grammer. So I just don't think the highs are there. I think the overall episode's pretty fun, pretty funny. I don't think it's some of the elite Frasier stuff we've seen, though. Okay. There's a lot of room. There's not a ton of negative. As someone who doesn't like Marty, there's almost no negatives in this episode. Well, as we love to say, it is always fun on this show when we disagree about the ending. So. All right. Ryan, take it away. I've got 25 words that I either can't spell or I don't agree with the spelling. And so it's going to be your job to figure out which ones I have high up. You've ranked them. I've power ranked them. That's correct. You've decided which ones you are most egregious and which ones are least egregious. Is egregious on there? No. Okay. Spoiler. I gave each word two rankings. I ranked on how frequently I misspell it or how much I disagree with the spelling. And I went with the higher of the two numbers. What is the gameplay here? So you guys are going to take turns picking words that you think I either can't spell or I disagree with. And I'll give you points. But this is free form. We have to come up with something. We can't. There's not like a list we can work from. No, there's no. I mean, the dictionary, I guess, or words you've heard of. Narrow sit down. You know how many words there are? Do I know how many words there are? No. Yeah. Do I know how many words I disagree with or can't spell? There's at least 31. Because it would be impossible to guess these things when it's literally all of the words that exist. Like, there's no way we're possibly going to hit that target. The thought process I had was you would give us the words and we would have to guess whether it's one you can spell or whether it's one that you just disagree with the spelling. We could definitely do that. Try to spell it. Oh, try to spell it. Yeah. That's a good point. All right. So you want me to give you a random word. You're going to try to spell it and guess if I hate it or can't spell it. Is that correct? And then we'll get the points relative to how high on the ranking it is. All right. That would give us at least something to work with instead of every word that exists. I'm not your end of problem at all. Hannah, you can take the first round. I accept. Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania. Okay. Pennsylvania. P-E-N-N-S-Y-L-V-A-N-I-A. Pennsylvania. You nailed it. Okay. And I think this is just a disagreement about the spelling. Before you answer Ryan, this is very funny because he is from Pennsylvania. So if it is that he can't spell it, that will be hilarious. So you think I don't agree with the spelling now that I can't spell it? Oh, yes. That's what I'm saying. You spelled it correctly. Incorrect. I, as a young kid, to learn the name Pennsylvania. I don't know who the hell came up with this name. It's nonsense. But as a young kid, it's very difficult to spell. Not like people from Ohio, where I currently live, which has four letters and is easy. Pennsylvania is impossible as a child. So I gave it a... You did not present this as child Ryan. You presented this as current Ryan. Can current Ryan spell Pennsylvania? This is how much it's affected me in my life. I will say I can spell it, but I'm glad autocorrect stepped in as I was spelling it. I'll say that. It's not thrilling to spell every time. I'm sorry. I think if you eventually learn to spell it, but you struggled with it and therefore think it's a bad spelling, I feel like that counts as you disagree with the spelling. I don't know. I gave it a zero on that one. I gave it a two out of how much I misspelled it in my life. Trying to help you, Hannah. Thank you. So what does that mean for points? Incorrect, but she spelled it correctly. She gets half of the points that she would have been awarded. You would have got six points. You get three points, Hannah. All right. I'll take it. Curt. Yes. Gnocchi. Ooh, okay. Gnocchi. G-N-O-C-C-H-I-N-Y-O-K-Y. Okay. You've nailed the spelling. Yes. And I think you can't spell this. I don't think you can spell Gnocchi. You're incorrect. I disagree with it. I can spell it fine. I'm Italian. Of course I can spell it. That was number nine on my list. So you would have got 17. Instead, you get half. You get eight. Okay. Again, I feel like Hannah had the harder spell. Much longer word. More letters she had to spit out. Yeah. I didn't prepare for the format to be like this, Curt. I'm sorry they're not all even and ready to go for it. I don't know what to tell you. All right. Okay. Hit me. Hannah. Dessert. Dessert. Dessert. D-E-S-S-E-R-T. Dessert. You've nailed the spelling. I'm going to guess that this is something you probably confuse with desert with one S. So it's a spelling thing, not a disagreement. You've nailed it. I almost said dessert as I presented it. I was going to say he made that exact mistake as he was presenting it to you. And not possibly tell it apart. Happens way more than it should. I know dessert's stress spelled backwards now, but that was after a meme. That comes up number four on my list. Nine out of ten. I can't spell it. I get it confused with desert all the time. You get 22 points for that. Well, you can also think of it as, you know, two S's because you want more dessert. Very good. Very helpful. I don't know where you were four years ago. What happened four years ago? I just kept ordering desert sand at restaurants. It was a nightmare. Anyway, you're killing it now. You have 25 to Curt's eight. Curt, you got to step it up. Clearly. Michael. Michael. M-I-C-H-A-E-L. Michael. You've nailed the spelling. Good job. You disagree with this. I wish. I wish. It's throughout my life. One of my best friends has been named Michael. And I never feel confident spelling it, even now. Came in 15th on the list. So you get 11 points for that. You know how I learned how to spell Michael was eventually I realized it was just spelled incorrectly. And the A comes first because it wouldn't. It shouldn't. But it does. I said it's one I spell wrong. I should also disagree with it. It's nonsense, isn't it? Well, I think if you're looking at it as, you know, being derived from Michael, the spelling makes sense in that way. You're right. People often misspell just swapping the A and the E, which then makes me read it as my chill. So it just doesn't like that always sticks out to me as like I can't even read it as Michael. Yeah, but none of it should be there. None of it should be there. It's just nonsense. How would you spell it if you could like- I would build off Mike. I think I would do M-I-C-O-L-E, Michael. I think I would use a U. M-I-K-U-L. I'm mad I asked you that. There's a Weezer, Blue Album, B-Side song, Michael and Carly. They were two fans that started their fan club and then died in a car accident. Anyway, they wrote a song about Michael and Carly. Oh, it's popping in and out of that. Okay. Took my friends away. Now I'm left alone at home. Sit and think all day. That Michael's name was spelled M-Y-K-E-L, Michael. I kind of like that. It took so long to realize it was Michael. I always think it's going to be Mikkel or something different. Yeah, it was a female Michael's spelling was feminizing it. Hannah, you're dominating. Good. Derriere. Ooh, okay. Okay, Derriere. I'm going to tell you now, you don't have to get the accent. Just spell as is. I will. D-E-R-R-I-E. Accent pointing left. R-E. Derriere. You've nailed the spelling. Accent included. Whoa. I could not have done that. It was very impressive. Thank you. I'm going to guess that this is a you can't spell it situation. You nailed it. It's a French word. I have no problem with how it's spelled. I just can't spell it. It doesn't come up a lot either. So this showed up 22nd on the list, which means you get four total points. All right. Curt, you need to step up. You're shitty 19. Proceed. Sorry, proceed? Proceed. Oh, like, okay, comes before. Proceed. Proceed. P-R-E-C-E-D-E. Proceed. And since you've mentioned it, why don't you spell proceed as well? Okay. Proceed. P-R-O-C-E-E-D. Proceed. All right. You've nailed the spelling of both, I guess. Okay. I think this must be a you can't spell because I don't know what you would disagree with. Well, I definitely disagree with it, you idiots. How are the two different? Why would the two be spelled differently? It makes no sense. They're different words. They're different words. Yeah, but they're structured very similarly. I actually did look up words that are hard to spell after coming up on the list. And this one showed up and I was like, oh, this is spelled crazy when you look at proceed, which makes tons of sense. You know what homonyms are, right? No, not on the list, though. They sound the same, but they're spelled differently. This one is structured similarly and just spelled differently just to be annoying. So it showed up 13th on my list. Curt, you got it wrong, but you spelled it right. So you get a six. Great. Flogging along. I'm a real tortoise in this race. It's fairly close now. Hannah's ahead with 29 to Curt's 25. So it's pretty cool. Okay. Okay. Hannah, Christmas. What? Christmas. This is a wild list. Christmas. C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S. Christmas. Nailed the spelling. And this is a disagreement about the spelling. Nailed it. Why would I disagree with it? Um, because... Which technically, you already get the points. I'll tell you that now. You get 10 points. I just want to hear why you disagree with it. Is it because of the T that people don't pronounce the T? Yeah, absolutely. I want to take the Christ out of Christmas or call it something else. I don't know what we're doing. Why are we pretending like this is called Christmas? Why do we have a silent T? I don't get it at all. You do. But wait, real question. Is it that you don't understand where it comes from? Or you just think now that we say it Christmas, we shouldn't have the T anymore? I guess. Did we just slowly stop pronouncing the T over time? Is that what happened? Yeah, it stands for Christ Mass. We seem to have dropped that second S, Curt. Yeah, and Halloween comes from All Hallows' Eve. Okay. But all the letters make sense in Halloween. Good point. Great point. Honestly, unimpeachable point. Christmas. You know, X-M-A-S. Oh, you mean X-mas. All right, Curt, you're up. Yeah. I'm giving you this one specifically. My wife's maiden name. Oh, man. This is brutal. Oh, no. Okay. This is, this is, first of all, I completely understand why this is on the list. I also, as one of my closest friends. Oh, I apologize in advance, Courtney. Oh, Weedrick. W-I-E-D-R-I-C-K, Weedrick. Oh, you're wrong off the rip. It was, yeah, it's like, it's like weird. It's W-E-I-I. W-E-I. But, yeah. It's, I question it every time. I know she listens to this show. I'm going to be honest with you, Courtney. I've never been able to spell your maiden name. I only knew it because I had it written down in my phone. And every, like, I literally right now is like, well, the I before E except after C. Maybe, maybe that holds true. Nope. Apparently not. Nope. I mean, I'm going to say you can't spell it. Yeah, I think that's a freebie at this point. That showed up 11 on the list. So, you would have got 15 if you get it all right. We'll give you seven. Because you did not spell it correctly. No, I did not. Oh, boy. That's, that one hurts. Yeah. Sorry, I was my wife. It's hard. You know? It's a weird word. All right. The score is 39 to 32. Hannah, back to you. Yeah. Whale. Can you use it in a sentence, please? That's a very good question. There is a whale swimming in the ocean. Oh, okay. Whale. W-H-A-L-E. Whale. Nailed it. It seems like a disagreement in spelling for you. And you have absolutely nailed it. Why is there an H in there? We already have whales. They spell it correctly. What is this? Well, sometimes when you're in the ocean, you hope to catch a glimpse of a whale. I tell you what. If we pronounced it whale, I would be on board. I mean, we'd spell it differently, obviously, but I like that. Yeah. If you pronounced it like that, you'd take the H out. All right, Curt. Back to you. Brian. This is the name. Is there any other version of it? Well, the problem is there's multiple valid spellings, so I'm not really sure. I'll accept it. If you spell one, I'll accept it. Okay. Yeah, I wasn't prepared for this version of the game, but I think that's fine. Okay. Brian. B-R-Y-A-N. Brian. Also, there's Brian. B-R-I-A-N. You've spelled both versions correctly. Congratulations. Okay. I think this is one where you can't spell it because you mistake Brian for brain. Incorrect. I can spell just fine. It's stupid. Why? Get this I out of here. It does. It looks like- You want it to be Bran? I want it to be like Ryan, but with a B on the end. It's already stupid if you do that, but don't do this I business. Where's that coming from? So that was 10th on my list. You get eight points for that because you could have got 16 if you did it proper. 46-40. Two to go. Hannah. Yes. We go to you. Liaison. Ooh. Okay. Ooh. We're French. Liaison. L-I-A-I-S-O-N. You have nailed it. I think that's a can't spell. You are correct. That second I is bullshit. Well, I disagree with it now. It's mostly because I can't spell it. Yeah, that one's always been tough. Hannah, do you have a background in French in any way? I can't. I took French in high school. Okay. Because you are doing so well with the French where I, if he was giving a hint, Ryan, if you want to stump me, I don't think I do very well with the French at all. I mean, just because you took French doesn't mean you're good at it. I took three years of French. I can't speak it for anything. I certainly dropped out of it, but you know, there's a reason. But it doesn't mean you can automatically smell it. I agree with you, Ryan, but I'm saying it'd be even weirder if she was really good at these French derived words, but had no background in French. It would be insane. Yeah. It would be very wild. All right, Curt. Let's get to it. Um, how far behind are you? A lot. Okay. Deschanel. Oh. Oh, fuck. Okay. I know, Curt. You didn't take French. What did you just do? Deschanel. D-E-S-C-H-A-N-E-L. Deschanel. You nailed it. And that is the number one? I think. Oh, this is tough. I know that you probably disagree with Deschanel, but do you also not know how to spell it? I feel like you at this point have internalized the spelling. You know that she spells it in a way that you do not like. And I think you disagree with it. You've nailed it. I say Deschanel just so I know how to spell it. I've never misspelled it. It's just stupid. I just disagree with it. 25 points for you, Curt. You're back in it. You're actually in the lead. Boom. With one point. With a French of all things. With a French of all things. It turns out you're not useless in that space. Good job. In fairness, you did give me the easiest of French ones. But the stupidest. So there's that. I think this is the last round, right? All right. We're going to have to go big. Okay. Hannah. Yeah. Meyer. As in the grocery store. Meyer. M-E-I-J-E-R Meyer. You've nailed it. I think this is a disagreement because it could be Meyer M-E-Y-E-R. Like an Oscar Meyer, if you will. It's M-E-Y-E-R. Or Meyer M-Y-E-R. Like, oh no, that was also spelled that way. I don't know. Some people are spelled their last name M-Y-E-R. Seth Meyers, maybe? No. He's also M-E-Y-E-R. Anyway, I think it's a disagreement. I think the point you're making is this one has a J for some reason. Yeah. You absolutely nailed it, Hannah. A hundred percent. Why is there a J? What are we doing? What is this? So, Curt. Take us home. Mm-hmm. Can you give me a sense of the stakes here? What's the score at? You are either going to win or lose here. Okay. Not helpful, but sure. I don't know if the stakes matter that much. It's 87 to 65, but I'll give you a shot, all right? Chamomile. Congratulations, Hannah. Chamomile. It's French in the house. C-H-A-M-O. I don't know if that's right. M-I-A-L. Chamomile. That's not right. Jesus. You threw it away at the end. You were doing fine until you panicked. You had to fill the mill. You can't spell this either. You're incorrect on both counts, so fair enough. But let's see if you can do the bonus. I can't spell it, but I ate it more. The bonus. Can you spell Timothee Chalamet? Yes. I want to hear Curt's tongue. Timothee. T-I-M-O-T-H-E-E. Nailed it. We will have more accents, so you've nailed it. Chalamet. C-H-A-M-A-L-E-T? Chalamet? Didn't even get close, Curt. Okay. Chalamet. C-H-A-L-A-M-E-T. I like to steal. Okay. You spelled it anyway. Sorry. Sorry, Hannah. Sorry. You could have... That's okay. There's no need. You've already won. There's no reason for you to steal. Oh, boy. Well, this was something. Was it good? We'll find out once it gets edited. But what we're going to find out now is what's going to happen next week when we cover the previous episode. It's Season 9, Episode 17, Three Blind Dates. Yeah, Marty, Frazier, and Roz go on the worst grouper date ever. Roz meets Roger. But you think we're going to jump six months? Well, what? You said she's going to meet Roger. Yeah. Did they establish the... They established she was with him for six months. We don't know how long the period is. Because this episode, we didn't talk about Roger. Right. So you're saying that between the next episode we're going to watch and, like, three or four episodes from then was six months of real time? Yeah, that feels fine. Is that not above board? I mean, it feels a little time travel-y, but... Let's say it's four episodes. That's like a month in Frazier time. Why do you think that? Because there are four weeks in a month? And these were released weekly? You think every episode's weekly? We're watching it as they're experiencing their life. I think for the most part. Sometimes they do little things with time shifts, but in these old shows that spanned from fall to spring, usually they'd have a Christmas episode, a Halloween episode, a Valentine's Day episode. None of those happen in the Frazier world. We only have Christmas episodes. We have a Christmas episode every time. Just a Christmas episode. We have no other holidays that I can recall. Am I allowed to talk about Thanksgiving episodes? No. Okay. No, because I haven't seen any, so I don't think they exist. But if they showed up, like, the first episode of the season, it wouldn't surprise me. Okay. Well, that's gonna do it for us. Extra special thanks to Hannah. Thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me. Thank you for killing Brad at the end of the episode, so we don't have to deal with him going forward. Anytime. Thanks to Kevin MacLeod for our theme music, and thank you for listening. I suppose you don't really care if this podcast is successful. You would never take five minutes out of your precious day to go to Apple Podcasts and leave us a review. You don't use Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram, or TikTok. You aren't curious what happens if you search for Reverse Psych Pod. Lord knows you can't be bothered to shoot us an email at reversepsychpod at gmail.com. For myself, for Ryan, for Brad, and for Hannah, Curtis has left his room. I'm gonna say Q as in getting in a line. A Q. Oh, I actually love the word Q. I think it's so funny. I did think about this. Because Q is one of those words where every letter that's added is just extraneous, right? Like, it's just the first letter is the word, but then we continue to add letters. But E-U-E-U, the Q's up for some, or U-E, Q's up for some reason. It's a really funny word. I love it. I hate this game. There you go. Look at Transition MasterCard. At the banquet. Be- Not a great talker, but a pretty good transitioner. All the effort in the transitions