Monthly Archives: May 2015

251: San Andreas, Kaseem Bentley Roasts The Frotcast



This week on the Frotcast, aka Comedians With Microphones Talking Movies, I talk about San Andreas (my review),
a film about a very muscular, chesty man’s love for his chesty wife and
their busty daughter in a time of earthquakes. Bret continues his
journey to shilldom (“I get #horny for #brands!”) and Matt Lieb tells us
about his latest commercial, and why Alexandra Daddario is so
attractive it makes him angry. About 30 minutes in, Kaseem Bentley,
(SF Weekly Best of Award Winner for “Racial Humor You Don’t Feel Guilty
Laughing At” and one of the Bay Area’s “Top 5 Comedians to Watch”
according to the San Jose Mercury News) drops by. Kaseem spends the
first 10 minutes or so making fun of me, my friends, and my past
relationships, then dives down the rabbit hole of obscure San Francisco
comedy references. At one point, he and Matt Lieb have a frank
discussion about the existence of God. I dunno, man. Meanwhile, I try to
ask him questions about his parents being in the Nation of Islam and
the Black Panthers, what the deal is with bean pie, and how it was he
came to be San Francisco’s only insult comic/social worker. As always,
Kaseem is really interesting in the brief moments you can get him to
stop being hilarious.


250: Game of Thrones Rape and Mad Max: Fury Road Feminism



Welcome to another episode of what we like to call “Comedians with Microphones Talking Movies.” This week on the Frotcast, our guest is Laremy Legel from Film.Com (and the upcoming movie ‘Lightweight’), and the topics are rape scenes in Game of Thrones and feminism in Mad Max: Fury Road. But before we get to that, we’ve got an update on the “Startup Castle,” which you may remember from last week as the folks behind the world’s most pathos-drenched roommate ad. It turns out, the guy who “founded” (aka rented) the Startup Castle is a former Chippendales dancer and castmember on a pirate reality show. Neat! After that we get to Game of Thrones, and whether departing from the books has made it open season on criticisms of being gratuitous/rapey/predictable. We move onto Mad Max: Fury Road and the great (misguided) “Is It Feminist??” debate. Also, we discuss Armond White’s review. Finally, we finish things off with your emails, including a question about honk shaming and a Smash Mouth story. Enjoy, and please continue Frotting.


249: Montage Of Heck, and ‘The Startup Castle’s Roommate Ad from Hell



This week on the Frotcast, Incompatent Thieves director Tom Dean joins Matt Lieb and myself (Vince Mancini) in the Frotquarters. We begin discussing the epic beef between Third Eye Blind’s Stephan Jenkins and Smash Mouth’s Steve Harwell, the most 90s beef since the Arch Deluxe. After that we discuss 80s sitcom theme songs and how bizarrely similar they all were. They were all somehow about a perfect family, that was an antidote to depression, bad news on the TV, and a general apocalyptic hellscape they implied existing outside the set. Then we get into the Kurt Cobain documentary, Montage of Heck, heroin addicts in general (a subject with which Matt is somewhat familiar), and why Courtney Love is so perfectly hatable. Is Courtney Love everything we accused Yoko of being? Finally, we finish off talking about “The Startup Castle,” and their ad for a roommate who doesn’t wear too much makeup, watch too much TV, drink, smoke, have too many tattoos, listen to songs with explicit lyrics, or drive too much – another perfectly insufferable illustration of everything despicable about the tech industry in Silicon Valley. Fun! Fun! Fun! 


248: Slut-Shaming Black Widow, Where Is Joss Whedon, & A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night



This week, OJ Patterson of Courting Comedy/Super Trashed Bros is in the Frotquarters to discuss the #CONTROVERSY surrounding Jeremy Renner’s alleged slut-shaming of Black Widow. Is it okay to call a fictional character a slut? Did he ruin his original non-apology by trying to explain it? Also, why did Joss Whedon quit Twitter, or rather, where did Patton Oswalt & Co come up with their explanations for Joss Whedon quitting Twitter? After that, we talk about A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night. Underrated? Overrated? Accurately rated? X-Rated? Is the setting supposed to be Iran? Also, BRET FINALLY SELLS OUT! “I want a slice of that idiot pie,” Bret says. “In a world of monsters and shills, I want to be a shill.” “I want you to be a shill with me,” Matt Lieb says. “People always try to make it about Batman and the Joker, but it’s not about Batman and the Joker. It’s about the Joker and Ronald McDonald, and I want to be Ronald McDonald. I want to feed you, but in a clownish sort of way.”