What’s Your Favorite Pokemon? And Then I Say Something Nice About You
Today is Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Day, so I’m taking the occasion to do something Pokemon-themed and introduce a lot of you to a precursor of G&F that I am very proud of: What’s Your Favorite Pokemon and then I Say Something Nice About You, or WYFPATISSNAY, for short. Let me know if you like it, there could be more on the horizon in 2023!
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Find Us Online
- ask questions: gamesandfeelings.com/questions
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Credits
- Host, Producer, & Question Keeper: Eric Silver
- Editor & Mixer: Mischa Stanton
- Music by: Jeff Brice
- Art by: Jessica Boyd
- Multitude: multitude.productions
About Us
Games and Feelings is an advice podcast about being human and loving all types of games: video games, tabletop games, party games, laser tag, escape rooms, game streams, and anything else that we play for fun. Join Question Keeper Eric Silver and a revolving cast of guests as they answer your questions at the intersection of fun and humanity, since, you know, you gotta play games with other people. Whether you need a game recommendation, need to sort out a dispute at the table, or decide whether an activity is good for a date, we’re your instruction manual. New episodes drop every other Friday.
Transcript
Eric: Hello gamers, it's Eric, for a different kind of episode, in your Games and Feelings feed. Today is Pokémon: Scarlet and Violet release day. So I wanted to run something Pokémon themed, and introduce a lot of you to something that had the seeds of Games and Feelings in it. I'm very proud of it. But it's kind of like a little, a little project that I did on the side. That is the show: "What's your favorite Pokémon, And then I say something nice about you," or WIYFPATISSNAY for short. This was an interview show that I ran for a few months in 2020. I call it like my Victory Garden projects. I don't know if you remember this, but because like all the food was going towards soldiers and in World War 2 people would grow Victory Gardens, so they would have their own produce. And at the time in 2020, it truly felt like something on the scale of World War Two, like a big, a big world event. So I'm like, I don't know what I can do. Maybe I'll make a podcast to make people feel better in these times. So it felt like my little victory garden. We're looking to do new things with Games and Feelings in 2023. So I wanted to show this to you. If this is something you'd like me to bring back. If you liked this episode, please let me know. We're trying to something a little bit new. But before we get to WIYFPATISSNAY, I wanted to share some great Games and Feelings news: Games and Feelings is coming to PAX Unplugged! If you're going to be in Philly, December 2 to the fourth, please come through multitude he's going to be having a little booth and I'm going to be there and Amanda is going to be there. Mischa is going to be there, Roux is going to be there. But best of all, there's going to be a Games and Feelings live show all with questions about tabletop games. On Saturday, December 3 at 7pm in the crab God room. Shout out to past guests Jeremy Cobb of Three Black Halflings and Amanda Sieberling, aka Raltz of TechCrunch. Past guests, we're so excited to have them back to do this in person. I really really want to see all of you. I really want you all to come through. I'm representing on behalf of Games and Feelings and Join the Party, all tabletop all the time. It's gonna be wonderful. If you're in the Philly area come to PAX Unplugged. If you're gonna be at PAX Unplugged, come see me come see Games and Feelings live. Okay, so now here are two episodes of WIYFPATISSNAY back to back. These are short, short episodes. First with editor Mischa Stanton loving on Bulbasaur. And then the next episode, voice actor extraordinaire Josh Rubino showing his love for Croagunk.
[Chiptune Chirp]
Eric: Hello trainers, it's Poké time. This is "What's your favorite Pokémon, And then I say something nice about you." Hashtag WIYFPATISSNAY, a podcast where we all get to think about Pokémon for a little while and then we don't think about anything else. I'm Eric silver, and I like my candies well done. Get it? That's the joke.
Mischa: Because it's the opposite of rare, I get it. [Eric laughs]
Eric: Oh no. You just jumped in! And we're here with Misha Stanton, who really wanted to talk to me about Pokémon. Hi, Mischa.
Mischa: Hi. [Eric laughs] Sorry, was I not supposed to jump in while you were doing the intro thing?
Eric: No, this is very stupid. And you can do whatever you want.
Mischa: Cool.
Eric: So this is a very dumb thing that we're all just doing together. Like I said, it's a relief podcast for the people listening and the people making it.
Mischa: Yep.
Eric: Aah. Mischa, how you doing, bud?
Mischa: Um, you know, I'm getting there. I've been, I've been in my house a lot and playing a lot of video games.
Eric: What are you playing?
Mischa: Right now? I'm playing Hollow Knight, which is not a game I'm good enough at video games to play.
Eric: Oh, good. I bought Hollow Knight because I'm like, "Oh, this really popular game is really cheap, wild." And then I played it for like 20 minutes. And I'm like, "I'm not good at this game."
Mischa: No, I'm so bad at it. But I don't - like I can't quit and leave. I just have to sit on my couch. So I'm slowly, slowly getting better at it.
Eric: I hear that's how you get better at things, is you do it for longer periods. Can you confirm?
Mischa: If you play Hollow Knight for 10,000 hours, with constant feedback, then you - how much money have you given to Nintendo really?
Eric: Obviously, you know, if you just play Hollow Knight for 10,000 hours, you can make anything buy your shit. They'll just do it.
Mischa: Yep, that's -
Eric: That's it!
Mischa: If you can play all night for 10,000 hours. That's it. You've done it. You're an entrepreneur.
Eric: You get to go on Bill Simmons and just say whatever wild shit comes in your head.
Mischa: [Laughs] Now I'm just imagining the guy from Mad Money like getting super angry at Hollow Knight and dying in the same place over and over again and just not being able to beat it. It'd be great. I'd watched that.
Eric: "This is Jim Cramer's Total Buy, this is, just buy Hollow Knight, because if I can do it You can do it!"
Mischa: Does that guy have a Twitch stream? Can I follow it?
Eric: No way, absolutely not, that would require he actually is connected to what's happening in the real world.
Mischa: Fair.
Eric: Amazing. Well, Misha we're already running over time. So let's get into the meat of the podcast. [Laughs] First I want to know, Hey, Mischa, what's your favorite Pokémon?
Mischa: Bulbasaur.
Eric: Now, if I - hold on, let me check my notes. I've been told that Bulbasaur is not actually your favorite podcast, but you're posturing for the masses.
Mischa: Okay, listen. So here's here's actually where I came down about this. You asked me what my favorite Pokémon is. And since gold version, it has been Umbreon. Okay? But as time has gone on, I realized that it's not that I was posturing that I'm just like, because I, the reason I started loving Bulbasaur was really because of the Bulbasaur fandom on the online. It's very wholesome. Bulbasaur fandom is so wholesome. And it means, like, as I was thinking about your question, I realized it's not that I was posturing and just trying to front because I want to be part of that community. I am part of that community, because I think my favorite Pokémon has changed. So I do think it's Bulbasaur.
Eric: I'm glad that you're growing like Bulbasaur does.
Mischa: That's what he's all about. He's just about, like, trying his best and eventually getting to the place where you can have personal growth, and give back to your community.
Eric: I like that, and I really appreciate it.
Mischa: Sure.
Eric: Okay, hold on. Let me I need to just change.
Mischa: Oh, I'm sorry.
Eric: No, I just had, I wanted to look up my fun fact. I wanted to have a fun fact to give back to you. So let me just look up...
Mischa: Oh, oh, so you looked up on about Umbreuh, huh?
Eric: Mmhmm. Yeah.
Mischa: What was it? Tell me though.
Eric: Umbreon had some really wild like entries in the Pokémon games. And they all revolve around it's poisonous sweat.
Mischa: I also read a bunch of stuff about the poisonous sweat! I did not know Umbreon had poisoned sweat.
Eric: I don't really understand because the whole thing is like, "Oh, look at this dark Pokémon. It has the rings on its body like Egyptian death gods. But it's like also when it sweats it's poison."
Mischa: And sometimes it can aerosolize the sweat? I don't know if you just have that as a defense mechanism in your own body, Eric, but like, I can't make my poison sweat into a cloud around me so I can run away. That's not a thing I can do.
Eric: No, I just sweat and get really uncomfortable.
Mischa: Yeah, me too. Same, same, same.
Eric: It doesn't keep - well, I guess it does keep other people away, but not in the way that you mean.
Mischa: [Sadly] Ooooh.
Eric: That wouldn't be sad. I just thought that would be a pretty funny thing to say. I'm a 28 year old man and podcast full time. My self esteem is okay. Like you don't need to feel bad.
Mischa: It also gets so hot in the booth! You can't have air conditioning in recording booths! The first person who invents silent air conditioning for recording booths, I will give - Well, I don't have that much money because I haven't been working in a couple of weeks, but... we'll figure it out.
Eric: How many Poké-dollars would you give to them?
Mischa: I would give them probably 2000 Poké-dollars.
Eric: That's a lot of Poké-dollars.
Mischa: Yeah.
Eric: That's almost enough to buy an Abra in Saffron City.
Mischa: It's it's like halfway towards a full restore, I think.
Eric: Oh, this is amazing. [Mischa laughs] Oh my god. Okay. All right, wonderful. Well, we're gonna keep all that so I'm totally fine with that. All right, well, then here's, well, here's my next question. When did you decide that Bulbasaur was in fact your favorite? Let's go into this a little bit more.
Mischa: Well, I mean... today, kinda.
Eric: Oh, exclusive!
Mischa: No, but, but, I mean, when did I start like really repping Bulbasaur? Um, well, last year, year or two ago, I think in the lead up to, not - like after Pokémon Go was already a thing. So after 2016 but before Let's Go Eevee and Pikachu came out. So sometime in the last couple of years. And it's just a matter of like, I think it was as like, Let's Go was ramping up to come out. Everybody was again, like, who's your favorite? Charmander or Squirtle? Which is always the question, Who's your favorite, Charmander - who's the best starter Charmander or Squirtle? And Charmander stans go so hard. And Squirtle stans go so hard. And Bulbasaur fans are just like, why can't we all have our favorites and just have a nice time?
Eric: As someone who argued so hard for Bulbasaur on a -
Mischa: Yessssss!
Eric: Podcast, and then blatantly disrespected by Brandon Grugle. By just - he just, he didn't even acknowledge anything that I said. He's just like, "you're gonna lose." I'm like, Great, thank you.
Mischa: Which one was he supporting?
Eric: He was the judge and he was Squirtle gang till he died.
Mischa: Ugh, classic Squirtle gang.
Eric: I know what a Squirtle Gang asshole, Brandon Grugle. Well, podcasting is an audio medium. Can you describe what a Bulbasaur looks like to me?
Mischa: Yeah, so Bulbasaur is like a big ol frog with kind of rhino legs, little bitty rhino legs and on his back he has a big old bulb, which looks like a big garlic but it's actually made of green leaves hiding a flower within. He's got big red eyes and two little tiny things.
Eric: What a lad!
Mischa: It does - if he's got fangs is that, that's for tearing right? Fangs are for tearing, canines are for tearing meat and stuff? Does that - Does that make Bulbasaur a carnivorous plant?
Eric: I think so. It just Bulbasaur and Venus flytraps are the only ones.
Mischa: That's it.
Eric: Well, that explains why Bulbasaurs are so sleepy because I learned that Venus Fly - Venus flytraps use a lot of energy opening up their mouths.
Mischa: That's true
Eric: And you shouldn't like temp them.
Mischa: Bulbasaur does have the power to draw in extra sunlight and then also unleash it in a fiery blast, though, so...
Eric: Exactly. And that's why he's so sleepy because he's doing all these things to hunt.
Mischa: Bulbasaur must recharge.
Eric: Okay, let's go to the next question. Hey, do you want to know what inspired your Pokémon?
Mischa: Absolutely I do.
Eric: Bulbasaur is in fact based on a frog. According to the creators of Bulbasaur, they designed Bulbasaur working backwards from Venusaur meaning that Bulbasaur was actually the last of its evolutionary family to have been designed. It also is directly based on Venusaur which is why Ivysaur it looks like such a weird teen.
Mischa: Well, I mean, don't they all look like kind of weird teens? Wartortle is definitely a weird team. Chameleons definitely a weird teen.
Eric: I feel like out of all of them Ivysaur felt like the most weird teen. Like they're, they're - It's more like in Animorphs when you're stuck between human and animal. That's how I always felt about Charmeleon and Wartortle. Like Ivysaur was like, "Hey, I'm gonna go loiter behind the 7-11."
Mischa: I definitely get that vibe from Ivysaur. You're right. I mean, it also makes sense that like Venusaur is definitely the most frog looking dude. And then to get backwards to ballbuster they had to be like, "Okay, how do we take this warty frog thing and make it *really* cute."
Eric: I think it's also confusing because the actual name of Bulbasaur is the English of, Englishicization of - you know, there's a word for that. From Japanese to English, they just added the 'saur' on the end, but it's not supposed to be a lizard, it is a frog. The name origin of the Japanese one is Fushigidane, which is a combination of Fushigi which means mysterious and dane, which means seed. So it literally means "isn't it strange?" Which is the phrase, put together, it's like, "look at this weird shit."
Mischa: "Isn't this a weird little guy."
Eric: "Look at this lad. He's so weird. He so strange."
Mischa: That's why part like part of Bulbasaur fandom is also like, what's inside the bulb? Like, what kind of plant is it, because my favorite part of being in Bulbasaur fandom is like, so many artists are like, "this one has a succulent and this one has like seasonal flowers. And this one has specifically like Northern plants or Southern plants" and seeing all the different like regional and seasonal variations on Bulbasaur is so fantastic. Because anything could be in that little backpack.
Eric: Just like anything, maybe he has a little snack in there.
Mischa: Maybe -
Eric: Maybe gummi bears.
Mischa: Maybe it's a sunflower and it comes out and, in the summer and it's just very vibrant.
Eric: I would love that. That sounds great. Actually, that comes to my next one. I have a fun fact for you about Bulbasaur. Everything about Bulbasaur revolves around the weird seed on its back, all of its entries in PokéDexes.
Mischa: It's almost like, like the frog part doesn't even matter. It's really just the plant.
Eric: It's just the actual plant. In the red and blue one is like no one really knew what's happening. The red and blue entry was "a strange seed was planted on its back at birth. The plant sprouts and grows with this Pokémon," so you don't even know where the seed comes from on this Pokémon?! [Both laugh]
Mischa: Well, so the Pokédex in Red and Blue was actually super incomplete. Like the way the entries were written are like, "this is our best guess! But we're pretty new at this." There's a couple others that's like, like - really the one that gets me is Cubone, right? Because every Cubone is wearing its mother's skull. What if the Marrowak has more than one kid, who gets it?
Eric: Right.
Mischa: Like and then the the other Cubones don't look like that and how can you even tell they're the same species if they don't have the same face?
Eric: Right. That was a weird thing but I think that they do posit that a little bit later, that it's like other Pokémon become different Pokémon depending on what happens to them. Like this is a real Slowbro getting bit by a Shellder turning into a Slowking.
Mischa: Right, so, so, some, so, what? Like another Pokémon has a kid and then dies and the kid is sad and it turns into a Cubone?
Eric: No, I thought that like a Kenghiskhan's child could put on -
Mischa: Oh, I also remember that rumor from third grade.
Eric: Yeah, yeah, exactly. [Both laugh] But I don't know, like, I don't think they thought about it. And often I think we're thinking about it too much.
Mischa: Well. What else do I have to do Eric, you asked me on your Pokéymon "think too much about it" podcast.
Eric: [Laughing] That's a good - That's a very good point. That one's on me. Do you have a fun fact about Bulbasaur? Or was it just Cubone?
Mischa: Well, I think that my favorite fun fact about Bulbasaur is that, though it can be prickly to like new peers that it meets, it actually has a really caring nature, which plays into the pun of plants growing in a nursery. It's very nurturing. If you watch the anime Bulbasaur is constantly like, saving Togepei from walking off ledges and kind of caring for it when the other Pokémon are like trying to figure out solutions to the current problem. Bulbasaur is always kind of taking care of the little ones.
Eric: Well, I like that a lot. And finally, my final question to you is, hey, if you and your favorite Pokémon were hanging out in real life, and were super good buddies, what would you do together?
Mischa: Oh my god, if Bulbasaur and I were good buddies, we'd go on nature hikes and like bring books and comic books and find a good place to camp out in the middle of the hike trail for the afternoon and read books and then come home.
Eric: Fuck yeah dude, that sounds great. I love it.
Mischa: It's very soothing. And it's just me and my Bulbasaur pal will find like, I don't know, nice views because he can vine whip up to canopies and stuff. I dont know.
Eric: Fuck yeah dude, you said Vine Whip.
Mischa: That's - one thing that like, in the video games, it's just like Vine Whip, [Whip sound] attack. And in the anime, it's like no, these - It just has some extra arms. You want some extra arms on your Bulbasaur here's the vine whip.
Eric: I was always wishing for that. If there was going to be like an open world Pokémon RPG.
Mischa: Have you played Mystery Dungeon?
Eric: No.
Mischa: Mystery Dungeon is like... I mean, I say it's like a JRPG. Except that Pokémon is like a JRPG. It centers on the Pokémon. And it's like you build a Final Fantasy party out of different Pokémon friends and you are a Pokémon and you go into a dungeon and like rescue people.
Eric: That is cool.
Mischa: That is, I feel like that and the anime gives so much more character and life to individual Pokémon. Because in the game, it's all just about like catch fucking 40 of them.
Eric: But I guess that makes me feel a little bit like the real relationship between trainer and Pokéyman. I guess I always wanted to explore. It's not like, "oh, let's go make some food." It's like how do your pets help you achieve problems? Like you're a ranger or beast master in Dungeons and Dragons?
Mischa: Sure. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of I mean, you could think very, very hard about the Pokémon world almost too easily and be like, "Okay, how does the society function?" But it's not supposed to be that, it's just supposed to be a little simpler. But I do like that in trying to portray it as a simple world it's like, "Yep, and your dog can be like... people say, you know, your dog is your best friend. But like, can your dog really give a truly emotionally intelligent response to a complex social problem you're having? Because Pokémon can do that." And, and -
Eric: Exactly. And also it can spit fire.
Mischa: Right and all - but also your best friend who helps you with your friendship problems and like, makes you believe in the power of friendship can also actually spit fire!
Eric: Ah! That sounds great!
Mischa: And well, that makes me think like, there are definite - so trainers definitely are trying to evolve their Pokémon, right? Like if you're setting out to be a Pokémon trainer, and you start with a Charmander you're gonna go for Charizard, but I want to definitely meet the people who were like, No, I desperately do not like - Bulbasaur is peak, like Charmander is peak, like I want the small one because they have the most emotional intelligence and like raising them on a diet of fighting all the time to get stronger is maybe not the healthiest. I would like to meet that trainer. I would like to *be* that trainer, I think.
Eric: Listen, you know him, his name is Ash Ketchum.
Mischa: It's absolutely true. Ash Ketchum has never evolved a Pokémon on purpose in his life.
Eric: It's always been on accident because he's a dumb 12 year old. [Mischa laughs] Alright, well now we've come to the end of this podcast and since this podcast is called, "What's your favorite Pokémon, and then I say something nice about you," we do need to get to the end where I say something nice about you.
Mischa: Oh! That's so nice!
Eric: It's the name of the show, Mischa, I'm kinda locked in.
Mischa: [Laughs] Okay, so, you know -
Eric: I - [Laughs] I'm not doing this out of the kindness of my heart. I have to do it.
Mischa: You did set up almost like a Chekov's "and then you say something nice about your guest."
Eric: [Laughs] If you see the compliment in the first act, it has to go off in the final act.
Mischa: Exactly.
Eric: Mischa I think that you are a very easy person to be friends with. I think that you have a very fun combination of like, being like an iconaclastic person, like being very unique and standing out. But then also you're just like, you're, you're friendly and you're also there and I think that a lot of times you think those two things are separate. But really when you combine the two do it just like "look at this cool, strange person who is my very good friend and will tell me all about like, deep anime that only came out for like two weeks in the 70s."
Mischa: [Laughs] That's so nice! Thank you so much.
Eric: There you go.
Mischa: I - can I, can I say nice things about you?
Eric: If you want! I didn't, this - the way that this was set up was not to say nice things about me. But if you feel compelled, I'm not going to say no.
Mischa: I just think that like, I don't know, you have very strong opinions about a great many things. [Eric laughs] And I'm just honored that like one of those opinions is that I'm nice. So thank you, and I'm honored to be your friend.
Eric: Aww! Thanks Mischa. That's very nice.
Mischa: Yeah!
Eric: Well, there you go. All right. Well, that's another episode of "What's your favorite Pokémon, And then I say something nice about you." You should just follow us on Twitter because it's a hellscape.
Mischa: Yeah, like it's not, it's not like you can see my face anywhere in public. [Both laugh]
Eric: No, don't do that. Definitely. Don't do that. You're can file, you can find me on the Twitter @el_silvero. That's my name if I was a Lucha Libre wrestler. And Mischa, just, you can plug yourself or just say a fun fact.
Mischa: Oh, sure. My, well, I'm on Twitter @mischaetc, M-I-S-C-H-A-E-T-C. You can find a lot of my work at mischastanton.com. Hey, Eric, you should tell me which episodes of Join the Party I was in so I can put them on my website. [Eric laughs] And like, please come talk to me because I get very lonely.
Eric: That sounds great. All right. See you, See you later, Poké-Trainers!
Mischa: And now we do the whole PokéRap! Ready? G- no.
Eric: "All right, stop, collaborate and listen. Ice is back with a brand new edition -" Oh, no, that was Ice Ice Baby! I got it confused in my brain!
Mischa: Ice Ice Baby is the PokéRap if it's about Articuno
[Segment Transition Music]
Eric: Hey, it's Eric. I picked up some snacks for Games and Feelings. It's a Persimmon Berry, which cures confusion! You should use it. It's important.
Once again, Games and Feelings is going to be at PAX Unplugged December 2nd through 4th in Philly. There's going to be Games and Feelings live show on Saturday, December 3 at 7pm in the Crab God room. I really hope to see you there. And I also really think if you're going to be in Philly or not, you should still be a part of our Patreon at patreon.com/gamesandfeelings just like our newest patron Nadia! If you want a whole new podcast, The Replay where Amanda and I replay and reply to advice columnists advice on games, just alongside this one, you just gotta give me $5. That's like a - not a great iced coffee. But it's still expensive. You could just do that once a month and you get all this content. It's gonna be wonderful. Shout out again to producer level patron Polly Burridge. Who knows all the Poké Gabon, even those weird later generation ones where they're like items or they're objects at the same time as Pokémon. What - it's like keys, but also a fairy, I guess? I don't know. Shout it again. patreon.com/gamesandfeelings.
I think you should check out the other shows that are part of the Multitude collective, and you're really gonna like Pale Blue Pod, which is our newest podcast! Pale Blue Pod is an astronomy show for people who are overwhelmed by the universe but want to be its friend. Anyone looking for the newest best science show out there? Get ready for Pale Blue Pod. Astrophysicist Dr. Moiya McTier of Exolore and her wonderful book The Milky Way, and comedian Corinne Caputo, who is hilarious, but also has some sciency background of her own right, they both demystifies space, one topic at a time, with open eyes, open arms and open mouths because they're laughing so much and their jaws are dropped by all the things they're learning about space. At the end of each episode, the cosmos will feel a little less "ah too scary!" And a lot more "Oh, so cool." New episodes every Monday. It's a weekly show right from the jump wherever you get your podcasts. I want to say this myself. This is what Star Talk and so many space education pods and YouTube channels wish it was. It's not condescending, it's not pedantic. It's really smart and wants you to learn alongside them because both of them are really really really good at what they do. Pale Blue Pod, wherever you get your podcasts.
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[Chiptune Chirp]
Eric: Hello trainers! It's Poké time. This is "What is your favorite Pokémon, and then I say something nice about you." Hashtag WIYFPATISSNAY, a podcast where we all get to think about Pokémon for a little while and then nothing else. I'm Eric Silver. And I like my candies like fucking burnt, man. Roasted. Put it, put it on broil and just roast it. [Josh laughs] And I - I'm here with professional voice actor and all around Ditto, Josh Rubino! Hello, Josh.
Josh: Hey, how are you? I am a small little smiling slime. That is correct. Yes.
Eric: That's true. I'm so glad you swallowed - [Laughs] Glad you swallowed a human so you could communicate with me, that was really nice of you.
Josh: It's true. I use Kirby rules. That's how it works.
Eric: Kirby and Ditto are the same, which is good. [Josh laughs] I'm so glad, so glad for that. That Kirby and Ditto are the same. Because I like the idea that Kirby's like inherent DNA changes like Ditto does.
Josh: Yeah. I mean, it's better than him just like producing a hat out of... something. You know?
Eric: It's like, oh, this sword? It comes from my body.
Josh: Eww! Like, I mean, I normally don't want to get hit with a sword. But I want to get hit by a sword made out of Kirby less.
Eric: [Laughs] Yep, that's um, that is some like hentai-ass shit that I'm just not here for. [Josh laughs] You know Body Sword 5? This is a bad podcast. No one should listen to it.
Josh: Oh, no, I love it.
Eric: So, wow, we're already running out of time. [Josh laughs] So I think we have to get to the meat of the podcast. Hey, Josh, who's your favorite Pokémon?
Josh: My favorite Pokémon is Croagunk.
Eric: Interesting.
Josh: Yes. He's a poison type, which is always the best. I love poison types. And he's like a two foot tall little frog man. Which the concept of having like one of those, like walk around with me is great. And he also, he looks like a Pokémon that I could like exchange a knowing look with, which I really enjoy.
Eric: Yeah, he definitely has like, what are the most humanoid faces, I think the most articulated faces out of a lot of the Pokémon. Not in an uncanny way like Mr. Mime. It's like what we always hope from Pokémon is like they are animals, but they also have human intelligence.
Josh: Yeah, he looks like a Pokémon that I can plan a heist with. And that's very important to me.
Eric: Okay, so - [Laughs] All right, pause. Well, I don't know who else is doing this heist with you. So who are you in the heist? And who was Croagunk in the heist?
Josh: Okay, so I feel like I would have to be the Danny Ocean of this thing.
Eric: Sure, sure.
Josh: And he would therefore be my Brad Pitt. He's always just sort of eating and then like, somebody will say something and then Croagunk and I will look at each other. And then he'll maybe like eat a berry or a candy or something. And I'll quip and that's, that's where we're at.
Eric: That's very good. Amanda and I are watching as many heist movies as we can. So we just watched Ocean's 11, 12 and 13. So I feel that in my bones so hard right now.
Josh: Yeah, right? Those are, those are great.
Eric: It's like why - [Laughs] It's like you say, it's like, we're going to Las Vegas. And then everyone's like, "why are we going to Las Vegas?" And then Croagunk looks at you. And you're like, "I don't want to talk about it." And then you walk out of the room.
Josh: Yeah, exactly. And like "we're going to Vegas" and then "why?" and then I look at Croagunk and he like, inflates those like cheek pouches that he's got, and then that's the end of the scene.
Eric: And then Bernie Mac's like, "I'm not going to no Vegas!"
Josh: Cut to Bernie Mac in Vegas. And [Laughs] "you're gonna need 10 Pokémon. Okay."
Eric: We're gonna need 10 Pokémon and Julia Roberts to pull this off.
Josh: Yep, there we go.
Eric: That would be a much better plot for Ocean's 12, truly.
Josh: I feel like more movies would be improved by just adding a bunch of Pokémon to it.
Eric: That's like the - there was a Twitter joke that was going around a little while ago. That was like take a movie and make everyone except for one character Muppets, what would be the best movie? But I feel like this is even better if you changed all of them to Pokémon.
Josh: Oh yeah, absolutely. What's another good one that will work with Pokémon?
Eric: Um, Let me think.
Josh: There Will Be Blood would be great.
Eric: You can have just Daniel Day Lewis is, is a person.
Josh: No no, Daniel Day Lewis is a Dugtrio and - [Eric laughs] and then everyone else is in person.
Eric: Oh, that's good. I like the I like the inversion of that.
Josh: Yeah.
Eric: I also like that one if it's Paul Dano is a human but everyone else is a Pokémon.
Josh: Also good. Yeah.
Eric: So it's just a Dugtrio like running at him at a bowling alley.
Josh: [Laughs] [Daniel Day Lewis impression] "Dugg-trio!" And, there you go. That's the end.
Eric: "Dad no, no dad No!" "Dugtrio!" That's very good. [Josh laughs] Oh, my God. Alright um - [Laughs] so fucking stupid. So ordinarily, I would ask, when did you decide this is your favorite, but I'm going to amend this and say you're the first person on this podcast to recommend a Pokémon that is not generation one. We did have an Alolan version of Vulpix. But everyone else did take a, a generation one Pokémon. So how do you respond?
Josh: Well, I will say first off, I am Kanto trash until I die. And my first Pokémon game was Pokémon Blue. But, you know, as much as I love them, the best poison types that we've gotten in those games are the Nidoking and Nidoqueen. And while they're great, they just don't hold a candle to my awesome little frog poison type.
Eric: So then here's my question, because it's not generation one. And I think Croagunk is like Black and White? When it was first introduced?
Josh: Yeah.
Eric: So when did you fall in love with Croagunk?
Josh: Well, I went from Pokémon Blue to Black and White, and then Sword and Shield.
Eric: Ah, mhm.
Josh: Honestly, it was love at first sight when I saw that frog. I was like, "Yes, I am going - I wish I could start with him."
Eric: That would be an interesting facilitation, is like, you can start with any Pokémon that's like common, quote unquote, common, but they have to start at like level four or level five.
Josh: Yeah, I would definitely play that game with Croagunk. And then it would evolve once. And that would be it. I wouldn't have to be put through the evolutionary turmoil of that weird middle phase that all the starters go through. I just immediately get Toxicroak, which is awesome.
Eric: I always say for all of the starters that the middle tier is their like weird teenage phase, but Croagunk already looks like he's like doing Whippets behind the 7-11. [Laughs]
Josh: Mine certainly is.
Eric: "Croagunk stop doing Whippets, we have to do a gym battle!"
Josh: We've got to gym battles, but then he's got his off time. You know?
Eric: I how you're partners with your Croagunk.
Josh: Yeah!
Eric: That's great. I love that. You already started this. But since this is a podcast, not a video podcast, which doesn't exist -
Josh: Yet.
Eric: Can you describe to the audience what a Croagunk looks like?
Josh: So they're like about a two foot tall frog that stands on two legs. And it's not like a lizard frog like Bulbasaur it's more like a cartoony like, it errs on the side of Kermit, sort of frog. And it also kind of looks like, like a 1930s caricature of a robber?
Eric: Because it's got - Oh, yeah,
Josh: It's got like a black and white stripe across its tummy. And its eyes have sort of like a black ring around it. And it has this like, very almost sarcastic smile on its face all the time. And on its hands it has three fingers to the, like outer ones are black, and the middle fingers are orange. And that is where poison comes from on it.
Eric: Yes, we are definitely going to get get to that later because I need to talk about that.
Josh: I think we have the same fun fact, because it's so outlandish. And I - [Laughs]
Eric: I prepare a bunch of fun facts, but I always find like there's always one outstanding one that it's like, hey, Gamefreak Why did you do this?
Josh: Yeah, did you, did you go with the pharmaceutical one?
Eric: I do have that one prepared, yes.
Josh: Yeah, that's my favorite.
Eric: That's what we the business call a tease. [Josh laughs] All right. Hey, Josh, do you want to know what inspired your Pokémon?
Josh: Oh, yes, please.
Eric: So this one is unfortunately, the least interesting one out of all the ones that I came up with. Croagunk may have been based on the poison dart frog because it's a poison frog that is colorful. Meh. The name origins are kind of silly though. Croagunk is probably a combination of croak and gunk. Duh.
Josh: Mhm.
Eric: But the other languages are actually really funny. The Japanese version, the Japanese name for Croagunk is Gureggru, which may be a combination of two repeating words in Japanese, which is 'gerogero' which is how frogs croak in Japanese and 'gureru' which means disgusting.
Josh: [Laughs] Well, that works because apparently their croaking sounds are very disarming and upset people.
Eric: Nasty croak.
Josh: Yeah. [Laughs]
Eric: I also love it in Mandarin. The Mandarin versions of Pokémon names are my favorite because they never like translate really well to English because it's like a totally different type of language. But in Mandarin, it's Bùliángwā, which literally means 'bad frog.'
Josh: [Laughs] Yes, yes. Okay. I love that though. I want bad frog to be my Pokémon partner.
Eric: Bad frog is definitely your heist partner, like 100%
Josh: Oh, yeah.
Eric: He's like, Hey, I don't go anywhere without Bad Frog by my side.
Josh: Bad Frog is definitely a criminal that leaves a calling card. "You've just been burgled by Bad Frog."
Eric: It's just one of those little plastic frogs that you get at like a Dave and Busters for four tickets.
Josh: Perfect. Yeah. [Laughs]
Eric: Then it flips and explodes! Oh, good. Josh. I'm so glad you're having fun with this. This is very fun for me.
Josh: Yeah, this is great.
Eric: I'm making great jokes about Pokémon to Josh, this is so nice. [Josh laughs] Okay, so let's talk about the fun fact. Hit us with this medicinal fun fact.
Josh: Okay, so my favorite fun fact about the Croagunk is that while it is very poisonous, the toxins that it excrete are apparently an ingredient in a drug that eases lower back pain.
Eric: So stupid.
Josh: [Laughs] But like, that's great. Like, not only can I train it to fight and you know, I can be a good trainer that way, but also, like, if I need some of that... P-money or Pokémoney or whatever it's called. They've never said. Then I can just like, you know -
Eric: Sell out to Big Pharma.
Josh: Yeah, exactly.
Eric: He's - just in case you didn't do this. I looked into the progression of all of these entries about Croagunk. So in Platinum, which was the Diamond and Pearl, like synthesis one, it just says that it's popular as a mascot. And I'm like, huh, Japanese culture has that tradition of like, lots of things having mascots, like prefects and businesses and stuff like that. So okay, that's kind of cool. Like I get it, it has a funny face, it's colorful, whatever. And then the HeartGold and SoulSilver one came out and that's directly the Pokémon entry that you were talking about. We're now adding to the lore that it is used for back pain, but then Shield just pulls it all together and says it's poison becomes medicinal. The Pokémon came into popularity after a pharmaceutical company chose it as a mascot. And I'm like GameFreak. You can't just spend games thinking about the lore, you have to stick with something!
Josh: [Laughs] No, I like it. I definitely want like Tylenol's mascot to be this little frog that is poisonous.
Eric: It does look creepy, though.
Josh: Oh, yeah.
Eric: Like he has that like the - I think it's from the eye black, it has that very like, costume to look, which is scary for medicine.
Josh: It doesn't not look sinister. But if you think about it, that is great for like a pain medication. Like it's like, oh, it's a cute little frog. But if I keep it sticking around, could be bad. So I think it's like a really deep pharma mascot right there.
Eric: "A little bit of poison is good for you. A lot of poison is bad for you." Croagunk!
Josh: Mhm.
Eric: I don't like the amount of influence that a pharmaceutical company has on like popular culture.
Josh: Yeah, that is a little troubling.
Eric: [Laughs] Don't you love this new show all about Advil.
Josh: It's almost like a Joe Camel sort of scenario.
Eric: But that's bad.
Josh: Yeah, I know! That's what I'm saying. It's not great. But I mean, I still kind of like him because of this.
Eric: No, it's like the Poké entries, like the Pokédex is so divorced from how we interact with Pokémon? That's why I always be like "hey, can you not like ruin my buzz gamefreak?"
Josh: Yeah, all of the ones for the ghost types are either depressing or terrifying.
Eric: Oh, yeah. The one with the, the balloon one. I can't remember the name of the Pokémon. You know the balloon one with like the X on the face.
Josh: Oh, yeah, Driftloon, I think.
Eric: Yeah, it's like "children will grab this Pokémon and it will float it away. It'd be never seen again." I'm like, did you really need to tell me that?
Josh: Great. Excellent. You saw *It*, that's wonderful.
Eric: I just want this job because like it is I can just make up wild shit whenever I want. I like yeah, "no one really likes Magmar because it burns all the marshmallows," like everyone knows that.
Josh: Yeah. Do any of the Pokédex entries explain why it has like a butt for a face?
Eric: Magmar?
Josh: Yeah, it's got a buttface.
Eric: You know, I haven't looked into it, but I don't think the Pokédex specifies, I'll look into that.
Josh: You know what, I think I'm going to do some independent research on this one.
Eric: Please come back, come back and tell me why Magmar has a buttface, please. Stupid. Here's my fun fact. In the anime, Brock caught a Croagunk in the Diamond and Pearl anime series. The episode was - the premise of the episode where he caught the Croagunk was Team Rocket pretended to be a gym. [Laughs] And like, and Jesse was Princess Power Zone, who was the leader of the gym and had a Croagunk.
Josh: Okay?
Eric: But then after they beat the Croagunk, like all the Pokémon didn't know what to do. So Brock was like, "hey, Croagunk Do you want to be on my team?" And Croagunk's like, "yes, I was part of a racket."
Josh: First of all, I have to see that episode. And second, I don't appreciate them stealing my name, Princess Power Zone. That was trademarked by me!
Eric: Exactly. But the funny thing about Croagunk is Croagunk then stays around as like Brock's main Pokémon throughout the Diamond and Pearl series. So as we know about Brock in the anime, he loves women a lot. And he's like a wife guy without a wife. [Josh laughs] But the Croagunk then - so going from like your personification of Croagunk. Croagunk then pulls Brock away when he is being creepy to women.
Josh: Oh, he's like the Sylvester Jr. sort of scenario.
Eric: Yeah, like, and he's since he's taking over for the joke that Missy had done, like all the way back there. I think that's very funny from the anime people.
Josh: Yeah, I like that.
Eric: Josh, I have a very important question for you. If you and your favorite Pokémon were in real life and super good buddies, what would you do together?
Josh: Oh, okay. So do we want different from heists? Because I did already say heist, but...
Eric: Heist, we have heist, but what's a different thing?
Josh: Okay, so I've thought about like, what kind of a gym I would have. And I think this applies, because I would definitely poison type all the way. But what sort of gym would be a poison type gym? It's a bar.
Eric: Ooooh!
Josh: So we're making antidotes. We're fermenting things, you know, that sort of thing? Croagunk definitely tends bar at my gym.
Eric: That's very good.
Josh: Right? Yeah.
Eric: I like that. And then like all the other bartenders are the trainers you need to go through to get to you.
Josh: Exactly, yeah. And it's great. Because none of the kids can come in to challenge me and beat me because you know, they're all 10. And it's a bar. So - [Laughs]
Eric: Iit's like, alright, you could do like seven out of the eight. But when do you turn 21? Then you need to go in there.
Josh: And my badge is just like a little martini glass. But with like, a toothpick and like a little Pokéball on there instead of an olive.
Eric: Ooh, I like that.
Josh: Right?
Eric: Well, Josh, I want to have you on because you are very good at doing different voices.
Josh: Oh, thank you.
Eric: That is not the nice thing that I'm going to say later. This is more of a fact, as shown by something we're going to do. I did come up with some gym leaders that I wanted you to do some voices for.
Josh: Oh, Okay. All right.
Eric: So now that we're exploring different parts of the world, I'm hoping that the next Pokémon game does something in the United States. So I have some names and types of gym leaders and I would love for you to just like pull into your bag of USA accents and like give me some in return here.
Josh: Oh, okay, let's do this. I'm ready.
Eric: We'll start with fighting. "Oh man, it's Punches Darby, the fighting gym leader!"
Josh: [Laughs] Sorry, ok, so you got to give me a second. Okay.... [Laughs] Punches Darby.
Eric: Punches Darby. Prepare yourself. The names will be like this.
Josh: Punches Dar- okay. I feel like Punches Darby. Okay, I think this is like a Southern guy.
Eric: Yeah, like just do whatever you want. Don't necessarily feel like you have to go off the names because the names were just like dumb things that I came up with. This is like the localization team is trying to figure something out from the Japanese anime.
Josh: Oh yeah, no, no, this guy's got like a giant hat. He looks like Doug Dimmadome. And he's just - [Deep Texan accent] "Well hey there Ash. It's time for you to put up your dukes."
Eric: [Laughs] Oh, this whole podcast is worth it for this situation. Oh fuck. Okay, let's do fire. "Oh wow, I gotta go up against Hot Hot Jones, the fire type leader!" [Josh laughs] I told you all the names would be like this.
Josh: I know and I'm never going to be prepared for them. [Nasal Mid-Western Accent] "Dat's right, I'm Hot Hot Jones and I'm here to serve you up the spiciest kielbasa of a battle you've ever encountered."
Eric: Oh fuck, I wasn't ready for him to be from Pittsburgh!
Josh: No one is! No one's ready for Hot Hot Jones.
Eric: "You'ns ready to fight?"
Josh: Oh, in his high pants.
Eric: I could do this forever. But let's just do one more. "In the sky! Is that a bird or a plane? No, it's Eleanor Yaw!" This is the flying type.
Josh: [Stiff, Posh British Accent] "All right, everyone. Wings up!"
Eric: I like that. That one's - Eleanor Yaw is 100% of drag queen. That's very good.
Josh: Oh, yeah.
Eric: Very good. Oh, Josh, thank you so much for that. [Josh laughs] Oh Man, well, I indulged myself too much. And we are fully running out of time. So now I gotta go to the final part of the show. Where I Say something nice about you.
Josh: Oh, I wasn't prepared for this either. I know, it's a part of the show, but I wasn't prepared. [Laughs]
Eric: That's fine. That's definitely fine. Um, and of all the people that I've had on this so far, I've had a lot of people that I see all the time and a lot of like my longtime friends, but I think that you're definitely the person who I know the least or I've known the soonest. It's cool having you around. Like I really wanted to just reach out and do this because I felt that we would have a lot of fun together. And I do think you're very talented, which is also part of the reason why I reached out. But yeah, I just think it's a very cool thing to like have a thing that you're good at and then trying really hard to do that as much as possible. And I appreciate that, that about you. And I also like that you live in Bushwick even though I don't live there anymore. I'm like, "Oh, good. Josh is still there. Go into like, Booby Trap when I'm not there." Which is a boob themed bar for everybody who doesn't know about it.
Josh: I'm gonna have to check that out at some point.
Eric: Oh, it's very good. There are like there's this boobs everywhere. It's very good.
Josh: Oh, neat.
Eric: But like, in a cool way, not in a gross way.
Josh: Yeah, I figured it wouldn't be like weird. It'd be more like "Oh!" you know?
Eric: Like "I'm at a bar and like, look at all these boobs. Nice!"
Josh: Yeah. [Laughs] Well, thank you very much. Thanks for having me on here.
Eric: No problem. Well, that's all the time that we have. I'm just kind of doing this for fun while things are weird. So you can just listen to all of my other shows - Join the Party and Next stop and Horse, and you can follow me on Twitter @el_Silvero, that's silver with an O, that's my name if I was a lucha libre wrestler, and Josh, what would you like to plug?
Josh: Well you can follow me on Twitter at @Profcoppermane. Definitely listen to Valence, that's out there, as well as Caravan and Windfall, are three shows that I'm in right now. In addition to Next Stop! So keep an ear out for that when, when that one hits.
Eric: I don't think it's a spoiler. Josh is in episode three, I just listened to, Brandon just sent out like a first draft of it. And it was like, "Oh, that's right. Josh is both of these characters." [Josh laughs] There's a part, your part just has like a very performative part and then like, "Hey, buddy, like can you just like fucking chill out" part and the fact that you did both so differently? It's just - you're a very talented guy.
Josh: Thank you!
Eric: All right. Well, as we say in my hometown, "I choose you, Friendship! Use Blizzard!" [Josh laughs] I got it from a TM, from the Ice-type trainer.
Josh: Okay. All right. I wasn't sure if we were doing a Wonder Twins thing. And I was supposed to make like a shape.
Eric: I mean, you can.
Josh: Okay, um, you know what, we'll just go with the ice bucket. That's always nice. Yeah.
Eric: My favorite one actually comes from Scrubs where JD says -
Josh: Ice menorah?
Eric: Ice menorah, yes!
Josh: Yep. [Laughs] You, okay, I won't lie. That's what I had in my head. But it was like -
Eric: We can both be ice menorahs, that's fine!
Josh: We'll both be ice menorahs. There we go.
[End Music]
Eric: Games and Feelings is produced by Eric Silver and edited and mixed by Mischa Stanton. The theme music is "Return to French Toast Castle" by Jeff Bryce, and the art was created by Jessica Boyd. Find transcripts for this episode, and all episodes at our website, gamesandfeelings.com. Until next time, press X to enjoy the podcast.