Click here to join our Discord! We're planning to continue livestreaming the recordings (once Cameron is back from vacation) at around 8:30pm Pacific Time on Tuesday.

Learnin' Links:

• WAVE trend on tiktok
• John Mayer's response to new wave of hate
• Racial bias for painkiller prescriptions

Listen along to Yum Yum Bedlam here!

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Click here to join our Discord!

Learnin' Links:

• NYT opinion stimulus
• Trump abandons the Kurds in Syria
• Toots and the Maytals West Jamaica
• Black people get super powers on the 21st of December

Listen along to our_TOtBS Xmas 2020 playlist_ here!

You can support us in several ways:

• Kick us a few bux on Patreon! By becoming a supporting member, you'll gain access to special bonus episodes, including a weekly mini-show, What's in the Box Weekly!
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Cameron listens to Insane Clown Bossy, Nathan emails brain@hotmail.com, and ICP are—best case scenario—equal-opportunity murderers.

Click here to join our Discord!

Learnin' Links:

• Bury Your Gays, AKA Kill Your Gays
• Women in Refrigerators
• Dayenu—"It Would Have Been Enough"

Listen along to Fearless Fred Fury here!

You can support us in several ways:

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We've reached the end of history! Er, the end of ICP—and of season 2 of Think Outside the Box Set. Praise the Dark Carnival, we're done!

The Marvelous Missing Link: Found from 2015 is the latest disappointment from ICP. It leans hard in the direction of Contemporary Christian Music, and it's worse than its companion Lost (at least, Nathan thinks so). But then again, Nathan's been getting pretty grumpy at ICP, even before he got into that grumpy weed. 

Up next is Alanis Morrissette! Until then, remember to live the #fifelife. 

Listen along to The Marvelous Missing Link: Found here. 

Learnin' Links

• #fifelife
• "Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you." —an unsourced quote from Sartre
• Twelve steps success rate: "Peer reviewed studies peg the success rate of AA somewhere between five and 10 percent"
• A Salon article about celebrity pseudoscience
• The Peter Principle: people who "rise to the level of their incompetence"
• My Neighbor Toblerone
• Future Corpses of America
• Orientalism
• Flight of the Conchords: "We're Both In Love With A Sexy Lady"

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ICP’s The Marvelous Missing Link: Lost has Nathan raving: “it’s aggressively on the negative end of mediocre”! It’s not super bad, per se, but it’s just so boring… in fact, it’d be better if it were bad. Then there’d be anything to talk about. 

Listen along to The Marvelous Missing Link: Lost here. 

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In 2012, ICP released their album The Mighty Death Poop, the second card in the second hand of Jokers Cards. It's not bad. There are a few good songs on The Mighty Beth Pop, but lots of them are kinda mediocre, and a couple are just straight up bad. Like that one that reminds us of the shitty movie Taken. 

The best song by far is the titular "The Mighty Death Plops," which you can listen to here. "Juggalo Juice" is pretty good, too. But the rest of The Mighty Red Pop is not super compelling, and has us looking forward to the day when we're done with ICP…

Listen along to The Mighty Death Pope here. 

Learnin' Links

• Chris Benoit
• Rihanna forgives Chris Brown 
• Sprechgesang, the German word for talk-singing that Nathan couldn't remember
• Altered Carbon
• MD 20/20
• Rising intonation: "The high rising terminal (HRT), also known as upspeak, uptalk, rising inflection, moronic interrogative, or high rising intonation (HRI), is a feature of some variants of English where declarative sentence clauses end with a rising-pitch intonation, until the end of the sentence where a falling-pitch is applied."
• Acronym vs. initialism: "The distinction is not well-maintained."
• The Monty Hall problem
• Non-ICP songs referenced (Spotify links):
• "I'm Shipping up to Boston"
• "Rock Lobster"
• The Lonely Island's "YOLO"
• "The Safety Dance"
• Die Antwoord's "Enter the Ninja" & "Evil Boy"
• "If I Had a Rocket Launcher"
• "Young Folks"

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Nathan's getting punchy this week, because he didn't really enjoy ICP's many versions of their 2009 album Bang! Pow! Boom!. It's not that it's bad, it's just… the shine is wearing off a little bit. ICP's been releasing these albums over almost 20 years, but we've been mainlining them for three months. Is Nathan finally starting to crack?

Cameron didn't mind Bang! Pow! Boom! so much, though. Maybe it's better than Nathan gives it credit for, and there's at least one really good song. Plus, it inspired a brilliant SNL parody video, so we can credit it with that. 

Listen along to Bang! Pow! Boom! here—or here—or… here. Depending on which Pokéman you prefer, that is. 

Learnin' Links

• The music for "In Yo Face"
• Beyond the Box Set's episode about Amelie, which Nathan guested on
• Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego 
• The friggin' mode
• The different names for people who are called "gypsies," who may be better referred to as "Romani"
• "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allen Poe
• The Philly accent
• An illicit link to the SNL parody for the song "Miracles"
• DickDale.com, which Nathan didn't mention still looks like it did in 2004 (and presumably 1994 too)
• The Central Park Five, who Donald Trump decided should be executed, despite their innocence

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ICP continues a string of more-or-less enjoyable albums with their 10th studio release The Tempest. Nathan had a great time listening to it and maintains that it's ICP's best album yet, while Cameron is unconvinced (and bored). Freed from their first hand of Jokers Cards, ICP cuts loose and has fun with this one. 

Mikey "E" Clark is back, too! It's a veritable Psychopatchic family reunion. But… what is the concept of this concept album, again? It's a hurricane, that's also a roller coaster, but it's also a metaphor, but also it's divine judgment (in a knee-jerk ICP way), but it's really a tornado? Or something? 

Learnin' Links

• Juggalo violence in 2006 in New Bedford, Massachusetts
• The history of the swastika, which was originally a religious symbol for Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism
• The "no true Scotsman" fallacy
• The Very Large Man (VLM) in the new version of The Tick
• Violent J with no makeup goes from Guy Fieri, to sad(der) Louis CK
• Michael Jackson's first moonwalk
• Violence has been going down, but can you draw the graph of its decline? 
• I wanted to link to a mash'em'up of "November Rain" and "Purple Rain," but I couldn't find a good one ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 
• The 1966 UT Austin shooting

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ICP released the second part of their The Wraith Joker's Card, which has… no Wraith in it? That's OK, though, because Cameron and Nathan still have plenty to talk about, including non-funky crows, Dr. Oz®'s patented Drano Cleanse™, and Cameron's highly erotic thigh-unveiling.

We were warned about this album, but it's actually pretty good—especially the beats. The main problem is that ICP have mostly abandoned their social commentary by this point, and instead have become "family values" people (suburbanites?) concerned with "personal responsibility." That's disappointing, because one of the things we liked best about ICP was their social commentary.

Listen along to The Wraith: Hell's Pit on Spotify here.

Learnin' Links

• Grundle, Gooch, Taint
• Straight Edge, and No Fap
• Cockles! And coracles, which is the other word Nathan was thinking of
• The Shaggs 
• Dante's Inferno, Canto 25
• Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron, which features some raunchy anti-church tales
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
• The Last of Us
• Rheum, also known as "sleep," or "eye boogies"
• Night hag
• A mental health and violence meta-study from California DHCS

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Here it is: Insane Clown Posse’s holy testimony 🙏✝️🙏. ICP reveals that they’re secret Christians, the Dark Carnival is God, and that they’re not sorry if they tricked you. Just like that weird kid at school who tried to make friends with you only to ask you to something called “youth group”, ICP has apparently had an ulterior motive all long. But, as they say, “why should the devil get all the good music?”

2002’s The Wraith: Shangri-La is a pretty good album (much less women-hate), but for some reason Nathan and Cameron have a hard time getting into it. Has ICP lost their edge, and their carnivalesque aesthetic? Maybe. Are they capable of keeping to their horrorcore roots while describing their version of heaven? When you have four kids, will you look back on this album as “the shit”? You decide!

Listen along to The Wraith: Shangri-La on Spotify here.

Learnin' Links

• Killer Klowns from Outer Space—see a clip featuring Officer Mooney here
• Commedia dell’arte, which features clowns, and Dante’s La Divina Commedia
• Parallel fifths
• One of the places that published overblown claims about ICP being evangelical Christians

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ICP's 2000 album Bizzar is a return to form, but better! This is their best one so far, which makes it really fun to talk about. But for some reason, Cameron and Nathan still stall and digress into such topics as Amy Grant's slay rides, Digimon (digital monsters), and Archie's full-throated complaint that "JUGHEAD ATE ALL MY PIZZA."

It's a real wild—wicked wild—romp that'll have you saying, "wicked clowns never die!" Whoop, whoop, indeed. 

Listen along to Bizzar on Spotify here.

Learnin’ Links

• Coxswain is a real word, which actually exists
• John Denver's plane crash
• The original version of "Let’s Go All the Way"
• Digimon (are the CHAM-PIONS)
• The Superbowel in 2018 where the Iggles destroyed not only Boston, but Philadelphia too
• Ridi, Pagliacci
• Violent J Does the Moonwalk!
• Pidgin language
• Oingo Boingo
• This Is Us, which features a triplet dying during childbirth

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ICP strikes back! …into our hearts, with their 2000 album Bizaar. Yes, you read that right: not bazaar, and not bizarre, but Biza'ar! It's one part of their album duo Bizaar/Bizzar, which Cameron helpfully points out are neither "correct" spellings of any of those words. 

Cameron and Nathan tackle the difficult questions on this one, like: Is it a good thing to objectify overweight women? How long can you walk around with a heart-on before you need to seek medical attention? And what is a meadow for, anyway? 

(it's not for the cows to graze, because that's what a pasturefor)

You can listen along to Bizaar here. 

Learnin’ Links:

• Nathan Rabin's book, You Don't Know Me but You Don't Like Me
• Michael's Jackson's vitiligo and plastic surgery
• Tropic Thunder: "Don't judge me!!"
• Yo mama jokes in the bible
• Def Leppard's drummer, who's mostly armless
• Lilith Fair, and Lilith 
• The Mountain Goats album Cameron talked about
• Mom's Spaghetti 
• Danielson
• AAVE possessive grammar, which sometimes omits the apostrophe-s formation 

You can support us in several ways:

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• Make like a pikathulhu and write us a review on Apple Podcasts.

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The Amazing Jeckel Brothers dropped in 1999, and dropped our hearts with it. After the success of The Great Milenko, Insane Clown Posse faced a lot more attention in the mainstream media—which brought more scrutiny and much more criticism. ICP struck back with The Amazing Jeckel Brothers, which features a lot more sincere anger and less goofy clowning. 

There are some good songs here, though, that are real standouts in ICP’s catalog. And Nathan manages to liven things up with a new library of sound effects. 

Listen along to The Amazing Jeckel Brothers on Spottify, if you feel like you have to. 

Learnin’ Links:

• Walker MacMurdo’s article about listening to ICP’s albums
• “Give me… sugar. In water.”
• A Reddit post detailing why the pedophilia claims against Michael Jackson were probably fabricated
• Repetition compulsion
• Woodstock 99
• Beyond the Box Set, a podcast about pitching prequels, sequels, and spinoffs to movies that don’t have them

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Cameron and Nathan continue to investigate the music—nay, the phenomenon—of the Insane Clown Posse, with their 1997 album The Great Milenko. Along the way, they digress a lot, ending up talking about mom’s spaghetti and other fine foodstuffs. It's not so much that they don't like the album or anything, it's more that they find it very hard to remain on-topic. 

Learnin’ Links:

• Genmaicha
• Nemo: Heart of Ice, which features Charles Foster Kane (of Citizen Kane fame) as a character
• Edward Said’s book Orientalism
• Faygo
• A forum thread about the phrase “rode hard and put away wet”
• Good Christian Fun podcast
• Steve Taylor
• ICP in the WWF
• Alice Cooper on The Muppet Show
• Weird Al’s Song “Couch Potato”
• “The Streets of Cairo, or the Poor Little Country Maid”

Listen along to The Great Milenko on Spotify here.

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Bonobo societies, Monster Mashes for the 90s, the Jokester of Dark Knight fame, and little juggalinos—it’s all a part of this balanced breakfast Cameron and Nathan’s discussion of Riddle Box, Insane Clown Posse’s third album! 

Join us as we wind the crank and see what kinds of songs play, and as we answer the big questions—like, is ICP the spiritual heir to French poet Charles Baudelaire? Probably not, but maybe!

Listen along to Riddle Box on Spotify. 

Learnin’ Links:

• Armin Meiwes, a German man who killed and ate a willing volunteer—and ended up going to prison for it
• "So mad I could bust a nut!"
• Charles Baudelaire’s 1857 The Flowers of Evil (Les Fleurs du Mal) 
• Bonobo sexual behavior and their society
• Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”, which was adapted into a song by ICP
• The Cleveland Elementary School shooting in Stockton, CA in 1989—one of the first of what we’d come to think as “school shootings,” and which definitely preceded this 1995 album
• Zef
• Juggalos and floobs
• Pronunciations of “clique”

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Nathan and Cameron listen to ICP’s second album, Cameron invents old-time ICP music, George Washington’s teeth fall out, and Theo has a juggalo birthday. It’s all part of the kooky karnival fun of The Ringmaster!

The Ringmaster, Insane Clown Posse’s second album, is a big step up musically from The Carnival of Carnage. It has less misogyny, though there’s still a non-zero amount. It probably could’ve been shorter, though. 

Listen along to The Ringmaster on Spotify. 

Learnin' Links:

• Uncle Joe’s Violent Crime Act—which would be a terrible name for a band
• Washington’s teeth: “he had a set made with real human teeth, likely ones he purchased from "several unnamed 'Negroes,' presumably Mount Vernon slaves" in 1784.”
• The word bitch… its history, and the debate surrounding its usage 
• The New Jim Crow: a book about how America imprisons its minorities in disproportionate rates
• Benjamin Franklin: initially a slaveowner, he eventually became an abolitionist and freed his slaves.
• Zaphod Beeblebrox, man of two heads and one hoopy frood
• Land Shark
• Flow, as defined in hip-hop

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Well, here we are… the first Insane Clown Posse album! It’s… not great. We have a hard time maintaining enthusiasm (or staying awake) through the sheer misogyny and arrhythmic rapping. 

There are a few bright(er) spots, but overall, we’re left wondering: did we make a mistake in picking ICP? Also, will Cameron quit the podcast because Nathan used the word "Crasscinating" for the title of this episode?

Learnin’ Links

• Leck mich im Arsch—which Nathan almost got the title of right
• ICP
• Andy Kaufman, famed wrestler
• Tracie Morris
• Mikhail Bakhtin
• Ship of Theseus
• The Wiz
• MKUltra

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Say it with us, in a real real spoooOOOOoooky voice: "I WANNA PLAY A GAME." That's right! It's time to choose the artist we investigate after Garf, and what better way than with a horrifying, flesh-rending, gruesome carnival of carnage? Just call Nathan "Jigsaw," baby, cuz it's about to get all Saw up in here. 

Learnin' Links:

• Wu Tang Clan Name Generator
• Yacht rock
• Meat Loaf's impressive filmography
• R. Kelly's legal troubles
• Roman Polanski is a piece of human garbage from a toilet
• Queen of the Damned

Bracket visuals:

• The starting bracket positions
• The ending bracket positions

The game we're playing to choose the post-Garf artist is a bracket-style tournament. We're releasing the first one of these brackets to everyone, but in the future they'l just be for supporters—along with other cool, funny, smart, nice bonus episodes! 

You can support us in several ways:

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Support Think Outside the Box Set