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[0:00] Andrew: Hello, my sweet glisteners. Um, I wanted to share some glove dates with y'all. Lots of glut dates. This is breaking glues um sort of vibe. Starting off, very excited to announce that we're going to be doing monthly live stream Glacket episodes. I feel like I've announced this like a number of times. Maybe I have, maybe I haven't. Maybe I'm just like talking to myself and not to y'all. But if this is news to you, very exciting. It may become more than once a month, but for right now, expect at least one live stream episode of the podcast, where each time three Cheerio patrons will come onto the pod to help with Glacket decisions. So exciting. I am obsessed with these episodes. I'm looking forward to them.

Um, in doing more live stream episodes, it's been made clear that Zoom maybe isn't the best platform for that, and that it's best to move over to a service called Riverside. Um, it has higher audio quality, um video functionality, all the things with easier and better video. Um episodes and clips will be faster and easier to edit, and it creates the potential for full-length video versions of future episodes. Mmm. Um, in order to afford a service like Riverside, make the podcast better, to give you the glisteners more, and to account for the amount of time and work that goes into keeping the Glackett going. I'm humbly asking you to help support the podcast, the Glackett, all of the things by supporting us on Patreon, Patreon.com slash Gleek of the Week Pod. Of course, all of the funds from Patreon will go toward improvements in quality, including a Riverside subscription.

[1:44] Andrew: So listen closely. Um, I'm gonna walk you through the new tiers and all the perks as they currently stand. Starting with the McKinley Titan tier, for three dollars a month, you have access to an additional bonus episode each month, as well as our entire backlog of over 30 bonus episodes exclusive to the Patreon. And then there's the Warbler tier for $5 a month. Warblers get that edited bonus episode each month, but also get to attend the live stream recording of those monthly bonus episodes. Um, this tier will also receive guest announcements with the opportunity to ask our more high-profile guests questions when they come onto the pod. And it's looking like we may have a few fun guests from the hit show Glee coming on soon.

Uh-oh. And I feel like the biggest perk, of course, with this tier is that Warblers will also get early released ad-free episodes on Friday. And so this last tier is technically brand new, the Cheerio tier. For $9 each month, Cheerios get everything I just listed that includes monthly bonus episodes and the live streams for those episodes. Guest announcements, early released ad-free episodes, as well as the opportunity to attend live stream Glackett episodes and the chance to be involved in Glackett decisions.

[3:12] Andrew: Whether you want your voice to be on the podcast or not, uh patrons in this tier will also be able to sound off in the live stream chat about their opinions and who knows. Maybe your chat will inspire the Gleeks making the decision to vote in your favor. Also exclusive to this tier, Cheerios will be able to vote on which song to bring back after every seven episodes in round two. And we have another vote coming up in just a few weeks. So if you are feeling a type of way about a song that was eliminated recently and want to campaign and rally for that song to have another day on the Glackett, you know what to do. Become a Cheerio. The Glackett is entirely in the Cheerios' hands. Um, Cheerio is technically a brand new tier.

So if you were part of the Cheerios before and would like to increase your chances of being selected for our next live stream, go to your settings, upgrade to Cheerio. Um, very easy way to support the podcast, of course, you already know that, and to be involved in Glackett decisions. Um, speaking of our next live stream, um, it's happening on Sunday, April 21st at 3 p.m. Eastern. I hope to see you all there. And we will be adjusting those times. I know that we have Gleeks all around the damn earth um to account for that we would love to hear all of your perspectives, and so we will continue to fluctuate those times to hopefully get as many of you on as possible.

[4:46] Andrew: But in summation, um, this entire podcast as fantastic and fun as it is to work on. Um, it is frankly uh a lot for one person especially to harbor all of the things that go into making week to week content. So I've listed all of those um tiers for y'all. Um, if you're interested in supporting the podcast, I would really, really, really, really appreciate it. Um, it would mean the world to me. Uh, and if you're not able to support on a monthly basis on Patreon, there is also a link in um our beacons. If we go to our Instagram, um, if you want to just throw a few dollars in the direction of the podcast, it would go toward improving the quality of all things Glackett and all things Glodcast. And I just want to continue to put out uh a great product for y'all because y'all deserve it.

Gleeks deserve it. But in full honesty, I just want to share it, it's just so it's it's very hard for me to ask any more of y'all that you have already given because the past three years have doing this podcast and everything that has come with it. You have given me so much that I cannot even begin to describe the change that you all have effectively made in my life, and I hope uh it's reciprocated in some regard. I just love this community that we've created all together. It's stupid, it's fun, it's silly. Um, and I'm so so very, very fortunate um for each and every last one of you.

[6:34] Andrew: I really don't why do I want to cry in a breaking glue segment? Um, so yeah, you've given me so much. I just I did not want to ask for any more. Yeah, I I I I don't know. I I love you all so much more than words. Um, more than words, Glycast version by Gleakast, of course. Uh thank you all for you for listening. Thank you for your patronage. I love you and um appreciate each and every last one of you. And if you have any questions about literally anything, you know where to reach me. This Gleech, this glee speech is now over. Thank you all for listening. Um I hope you enjoy listening to this three-hour-long episode. It is truly one of my favorites. Okay, bye. We've got a mission to find the best song that's ever been on Glee. There's no rhyme or reason to it. So don't get mad at me.

[8:12] Andrew: The Gleek of the Week, who's the head on show. Glack it by Glacket. We'll rank everyone to see which someone move closer to spot number one. Gleek of the Week. Gleek, click, click of the week. It's click, click of the week. Oh my god. Wow, wow, wow, wow. Meeting of the minds for real. I feel as though this is going to be a really um introspective, really gay uh episode of Gleek of the Week. Um starting off with he was on a few episodes ago, Matt from the Choir Room. How are you doing?

[8:28] Matt Ligouri: I am so good. Um, this podcast isn't necessarily gonna be such a gay episode because there might be three gay hosts. It has a lot more to do with I think the story that you're about to get into, um, which is truly just the experience of a gay man in New York City who watched seven years of Glee, six years of Glee. So I'm excited to get to all of that, not to completely jump the gun, but I think that that is what's going to put us into that next level on this podcast.

[8:54] Andrew: What if I just explained my entire Dianna Agron Café Carlyle story before even introducing the other person, making them essentially mute until Do you know what? So so deserved, so deserved. Um the other person returning back, fan favorite guest host, um, Conor, how are you doing?

[9:17] Conor Burke: I am doing so well. I am over here being a Gleek as per usual, which is I need to tell you actually before we jump into the main story that on Friday, as of recording, so two days ago, I was at a friend's birthday in their home, and three people came up to me to talk about this podcast, Andrew.

[9:37] Andrew: Yeah, the impact that that has.

[9:39] Conor Burke: Yes. Wow, across across the pond, as they say.

[9:42] Andrew: Across the pond.

[9:44] Conor Burke: Um, all theater people in their 20s, so that kind of makes sense. However, um, it was great. I felt like a micro celeb, a micro influencer.

[9:53] Andrew: No, that's exactly what you are.

[9:54] Conor Burke: Um as as we should, a niche, a niche micro influencer talking about Glee well into her twenties.

[10:01] Andrew: Wait, in all these all these people are Glee Gleeks, uh they would identify as such.

[10:06] Conor Burke: No, but that's the great thing. They're not necessarily, you know, they kind of are like, oh, this is a bit of embarrassing, but it's kind of cool that you are into this.

[10:15] Andrew: So um yeah, I really appreciated it at the moment.

[10:20] Conor Burke: Yeah, exactly. And of course, I was stone cold sober and everyone else was drunk. And so don't you know when everyone else is drunk and you're like the only sober person in the room, they're just talking absolute shit for like 17 years, and there's a lot of nodding, and there's a lot of smiling, and there's a lot of smizing.

[10:36] Andrew: What is and I feel like you're you're doing like the Jamie Lee Curtis, you're making a reference to Jamie Lee Curtis, and I don't think that you're doing it on purpose right now, but there's like I remember when she was like uh Oscar campaign last year that she was like talking about all these like award parties and everything, and she was like, um what was the thing that she kept on saying on the red carpet? She was like, high pitched talking and wine breath is like the essentially the vibe of all of these like Oscar parties, and so that's that's like Jamie Lee Curtis.

[11:07] Conor Burke: We don't talk about it as a society, she's a little bit of a meme. Obviously, we had the trauma of it all now. This what other content are we gonna get from her in the coming years? Who knows?

[11:23] Andrew: Oh no, that was that was entirely me. Yeah, because uh there was um an earthquake earthquake. It was just like a the slight rumbling that I was like that might have been a strong draft. Um, I'm so desperate to ask her about this, actually, because there's a few people I know and I know that live in New York, but I was so excited to ask someone about this because obviously I've never experienced a fucking earthquake in my life. It's kind of camp. FOMO kicked in. Like I'm supposed I I live in New York, I lived in New York for my whole life. All of a sudden I move. Uh we had that earthquake. I'm sure you uh, you know, remember fondly the earthquake from like a decade ago.

[12:02] Conor Burke: Uh okay. So that one, yes.

[12:04] Andrew: Yes, because they talk about this like on the when when covering this story on the news, they're like, obviously, we had this famous famous earthquake and two famous earthquake in 2011 that maybe like knocked over a lawn chair. And um, and I remember I was on the Wildwood boardwalk at the time of the earthquake, so I didn't feel a single thing.

[12:24] Conor Burke: And I see I was in the shower.

[12:26] Andrew: Oh, and you felt it.

[12:28] Conor Burke: I did I did well, yeah. I didn't fall.

[12:29] Andrew: I think you're gonna say you fell.

[12:31] Conor Burke: Um I didn't I didn't fall, but I definitely like slipped a little bit in the shower. I got out of the shower. Check Twitter, Twitter very much a thing still, you know, in like 2011, whatever it was. Um, and that was my experience then. So now there's a new earthquake and an aftershock, and I I get to experience none of it because I moved away.

[12:46] Andrew: I know it was uh subtle as you're just we did a trade-off. You got the 2011 one, and I got this one.

[12:53] Conor Burke: Um and to circle back to the Jamie Lee Curtis reference of it all. The reference that I made was that wasn't an earthquake, that was just Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis switching bodies.

[13:02] Andrew: Um I was yeah, I was just like at home, I was editing a Glee podcast, if you can imagine, um, during the time that the earthquake hit, and I was like, Oh, what was that? Walked out into the living room, Elias was like, Oh, you felt that too. Um, and yeah, it could have also just been Dianna Agron rehearsing, which I think maybe lends itself as a segue. Are we ready to unpack that entire?

[13:26] Conor Burke: I mean, this is like you've done this before.

[13:30] Andrew: Yes, right. I did it, but this one seemed to feel different from an outsider's perspective.

[13:34] Conor Burke: In which way? I'm curious.

[13:36] Andrew: It seemed like maybe you got more out of this one. Uh, not only just a selfie. I don't know if you got that the first time.

[13:41] Conor Burke: No, I did not. If you did ever okay, so there's that. Um, and I don't know. I just maybe it's just just genuinely just the selfie.

[13:47] Andrew: Oh yeah, it did feel you know what? I could just call me just call me that so raven, just call me Mystic Meg. Because when I saw that you were going, and then there was like a couple hours of silence on the Instagram, I was like, hey. Something happened.

[14:03] Conor Burke: Something he he he has either met her or he has literally died.

[14:07] Matt Ligouri: Oh.

[14:07] Conor Burke: There's no both.

[14:09] Matt Ligouri: But she sat down at his table for a cup of coffee.

[14:12] Conor Burke: No, literally, when I tell you, I think I have never felt like my body was in pain yesterday.

[14:12] Conor Burke: I have never felt more hungover than all day yesterday.

[14:24] Matt Ligouri: Like, oh my god, were you drunk in the photo?

[14:27] Conor Burke: Oh yeah. I was I was zooted. I was zooted as fuck.

[14:30] Matt Ligouri: Yes.

[14:30] Conor Burke: I was absolutely gone because like here's the thing with Café Carlyle. If you are thinking about going, she didn't do it last year, but it seems to be like a yearly thing that she'll do like a week residency there.

[14:41] Conor Burke: Um, just be prepared to spend a good sum of money because the ticket itself is pricey.

[14:47] Conor Burke: And then you also, it's the type of place where it's like you need to buy the entree, buy an entree, and like, uh, there's like a drink minimum.

[14:54] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, and it's like I forget what the drink was called, but it was like it was like the tiniest little drink, like in like a little martini glass.

[15:00] Conor Burke: You're like, that's not gonna come to New York. That's not gonna do anything to me.

[15:04] Conor Burke: Had two of those literally was like no one talked to me right now. Anything that comes out of my mouth right now, it tastes like this.

[15:12] Conor Burke: I'm just like, I don't even want to think about what I sound like right now.

[15:16] Conor Burke: So um, okay, so yeah, um, Elias and I uh got ready um to go to Café Carlyle by watching the season one episode I believe 10, "Ballad."

[15:27] Conor Burke: Um, I think that's a great Quinn um, uh for your consideration episode.

[15:33] Matt Ligouri: Yes.

[15:34] Conor Burke: Um, so we went, um, had the dinner. She was like very late.

[15:39] Conor Burke: Um, uh honestly, whatever. I would have still been waiting there if you know if she yeah, exactly.

[15:46] Conor Burke: I'd be like, sorry, this recording needs to be cancelled.

[15:49] Conor Burke: Um, but uh she did she did come out and she does this like cute thing, and I was like, in it was the last slide of the carousel video that I um posted where she did like this like over the speaker where she was just like um like if you if you take a video of me like make sure it's good, don't post it.

[16:06] Conor Burke: And she's just like very cheeky and very fun, just like all around great gal.

[16:10] Matt Ligouri: Can you describe to me more about the one where you screamed?

[16:13] Conor Burke: Oh, so that's not so um that wasn't me. Um Claudia, who was on uh uh uh she was in the live stream episode a few episodes ago.

[16:25] Conor Burke: Um, Queen Claudia.

[16:27] Matt Ligouri: Queen Claudia.

[16:28] Conor Burke: Um, she bought two tickets because I feel like it was like cheaper or something, and she was like, I need someone to go with.

[16:33] Conor Burke: And so I posted on her behalf. I was like, hey, she needs someone to go with, I'll also be there.

[16:38] Conor Burke: Um, as if that's any incentive at all.

[16:40] Conor Burke: Um, and then um and so and then Cassie, who was on, I believe maybe like the second live stream episode of the second round.

[16:50] Conor Burke: Um, she picked up those tickets, and so uh we were tagging along the entire evening.

[16:55] Conor Burke: So one of them screamed. One of that was one of their screams.

[16:58] Matt Ligouri: And was it because what my guess was was that it looked like Dianna kind of looked in your guys' direction.

[17:04] Conor Burke: Well, yeah, we were sitting on opposite sides of the room, and we reconvened after.

[17:09] Conor Burke: But um, yes, Dianna Agron does this great thing called eye contact, and she makes sure to do it with as many people in the room as possible.

[17:17] Matt Ligouri: Oh my god. The way I would just fall in love right away.

[17:21] Conor Burke: Oh, like it's like really making and I think how big is this place? Because this is the first time I've ever heard of this venue obviously not being it's tiny, it's it's very tiny.

[17:31] Conor Burke: It's part of a it's like this, yeah, it's very intimate.

[17:35] Conor Burke: Um, it's very posh. Café Carlyle, it's like famous. Not really sure the extent.

[17:42] Conor Burke: I just remembered it was like mentioned in Maestro when I went to go see that in a theater and like it landed with everybody in the in the theater. They were like, okay, got it.

[17:50] Conor Burke: Um, so yeah. Uh yeah, she was making eye contact with everybody on the topic of eye contact. Did go to the bathroom during the wrong song.

[18:00] Conor Burke: The I'm sure you've seen it. The video of her screaming. Have you seen this?

[18:05] Matt Ligouri: No.

[18:05] Conor Burke: There's like a she does this guttural yell that she is like um I forget what the the title of the song is, but like it's like boom, boom, smash or something.

[18:14] Conor Burke: I think it's like us in it. Boom boom. I think yeah, it was boom boom cow by the Black Eyed Peas.

[18:18] Conor Burke: Um, really outside of the genre that she was she was doing.

[18:22] Conor Burke: Um, it was it was a big swing. Um, and so I went to the bathroom during that song, which a major mistake on my and I that's my cross of air, but I came back and she did make direct eye contact with me when I entered the room back and I was like, Oh did she sing she did did or didn't sing anything from Glee?

[18:40] Conor Burke: Um last time that was two years ago, and I that was the last time that she did the show.

[18:44] Conor Burke: Um, she did "Our Day Will Come," which wasn't a Quinn song.

[18:48] Matt Ligouri: That hurts even more because you weren't even there for the goddamn wedding.

[18:52] Conor Burke: You weren't there for the wedding, right? But that's her like kind of like being like uh no, she's not doing this on like the hey, I wasn't there for the wedding, but in my mind, that's why she's doing it.

[19:00] Conor Burke: Uh but yeah, no, icon icon icon. She did go in in and out of this British accent, which I'm just like, you know, if anybody else was doing this, I would be like funny.

[19:13] Conor Burke: Is it wrong with you? But I'm just like, this is more of a reason to fall up in the city.

[19:16] Matt Ligouri: Was there a selfie o'clock, or did you just somehow find a way?

[19:20] Conor Burke: For the picture?

[19:21] Matt Ligouri: Yeah.

[19:21] Conor Burke: Okay. So anything else about the performance before we get to the picture?

[19:25] Conor Burke: Um just obsessed with the British accent of it all. Like, can you imagine? Can you can you remember anything specifically that she said that was not?

[19:32] Matt Ligouri: No, I'm like, I'm like notoriously bad at accents.

[19:35] Conor Burke: And so like I don't even like oh god. I will say that she made like she made like if it didn't feel like there were a lot of Swifties in the room.

[19:44] Conor Burke: But if there were, oh my god, I just remembered one thing.

[19:48] Conor Burke: And let me get through the Swift thing, the Swifty thing first. Because obviously there's the Swift Gron of it all.

[19:53] Matt Ligouri: Yeah.

[19:53] Conor Burke: Um so she first she made a lot of references, and this will come back later in the story, to Kansas City, which you know it uh it's Swifties, everybody knows.

[20:04] Conor Burke: Um, the the correlation there, and but then there was one that was like very on the nose, and I understand that like 1989 is like the Diana Agron.

[20:13] Conor Burke: If there were any Taylor Swift albums about Diana Agron, it's 1989.

[20:17] Conor Burke: And Diana, she talked intermittently through her set, and she was talking about moving to New York and everything, and um the reason that she loves the city, and she was like, uh, you know, like boys are with boys, girls are with girl girls, like whoever's with whoever.

[20:33] Conor Burke: And I was like, wait a minute, that's a lyric from "Welcome to New York" by Taylor Swift, boys and boys and girls and girls.

[20:40] Conor Burke: And I'm like, I don't know. But the part that made me and Elias scream, um, muffled, not actually screamed, but it's screaming my mind in my mind, absolutely.

[20:52] Conor Burke: And I talked to Cassie and Claudia after, and this was also a scream moment for them.

[20:58] Conor Burke: Was she was like talking about like having this connection with this girl that was like um very close to the stage, and she was like, Oh my god, like what is your name?

[21:07] Conor Burke: Her name? Beth.

[21:10] Conor Burke: I was like, oh what?

[21:16] Conor Burke: What now? For 100, uh, would Diana Agron be able to recall the name of her baby from the television show Glee?

[21:28] Matt Ligouri: I don't think so.

[21:29] Conor Burke: Gosh. I don't think so either.

[21:31] Conor Burke: I don't think so. I think it's kind of comp to assume that she couldn't, but I do think she could.

[21:38] Conor Burke: I feel like she would sooner like if you have people like Kevin McHale out here doing a weekly podcast about the show Glee that forgets so much shit from the show, um, you know, respectfully, uh, and you know, he says it himself.

[21:49] Conor Burke: Uh, why would Diana remember things when she was off the show longer, uh, has pushed you farther out of her life.

[21:56] Conor Burke: I just feel like it's something she could have forgotten.

[21:57] Matt Ligouri: I feel like she might say, oh, what was it like Shelby or something?

[22:01] Conor Burke: Right, like, yeah.

[22:02] Conor Burke: I feel like she would sooner recall.

[22:04] Conor Burke: Was there any visceral reaction from the crowd at all?

[22:07] Matt Ligouri: No.

[22:08] Conor Burke: Well, because like I I think like a a large from what I understood just like um from looking around the the room, it was just a lot of people that are just like, this is this is the place to go, and especially like um older folks.

[22:22] Conor Burke: Yes, that's a guess.

[22:24] Conor Burke: That I was like, I don't, I would not imagine that this Beth thing is is landing with you.

[22:30] Conor Burke: I don't think that the Glee really brought you to this room in a way that it brought Elias and I.

[22:35] Conor Burke: But um, yeah, no, iconic, iconic, iconic.

[22:39] Conor Burke: Um, she also does this thing that I think that I do find annoying in every other person, but when she does it, it's fine, where she's just like, oh, a lot of my songs are from like the 1920s.

[22:49] Conor Burke: I'm kind of an old soul, and I'm like, I hate when anybody else says that, but she absolutely gets a pass.

[22:53] Matt Ligouri: Um, that's Darren's vibe too of just like I'm not singing anything that you guys know.

[22:57] Conor Burke: All these songs are from people that I grew up with that my dad's dad's dad grew up with.

[23:02] Conor Burke: She talked about like Glee. Did she even like say Glee by name?

[23:07] Matt Ligouri: She was like talking about being like um part of a series.

[23:11] Conor Burke: I don't even know what's going on.

[23:12] Conor Burke: Yeah, she's talking about like the White House thing.

[23:13] Conor Burke: Uh I just watched the carousel stuff back before we got on here.

[23:17] Conor Burke: Um but yeah, I'm not sure.

[23:19] Conor Burke: You know what? I've been thinking a lot about Diana since this lore entered our lives, and I everyone's always like, where is this girly? What's she doing?

[23:26] Conor Burke: And I was thinking about it last night, and I was I was saying to myself, if I ever landed on a TV show that became an international phenomenon and I made a lot of money out of it, and I was an artist, I would think I would kind of just fuck off and just live off my money and just do the projects that I'm interested in for the rest of my life too.

[23:46] Conor Burke: I think and and then I think other people kind of approach it from a how do I win the awards? How do I become more famous?

[23:51] Conor Burke: That's kind of what I'm interested in, kind of thing, which is absolutely fine too.

[23:55] Conor Burke: But I think I would lean towards the Diana way.

[23:58] Conor Burke: She she seems to be having the time of her fucking life.

[24:02] Conor Burke: I am so here for it.

[24:03] Conor Burke: And she's like choosing these projects, which I think admittedly, how many Diana films have we seen?

[24:09] Matt Ligouri: Do we watch the films?

[24:11] Conor Burke: One here.

[24:12] Matt Ligouri: Two?

[24:13] Conor Burke: Uh I've seen one.

[24:14] Matt Ligouri: Which one did you watch?

[24:16] Conor Burke: Shiva Baby.

[24:19] Matt Ligouri: Oh, Shiva Baby.

[24:20] Conor Burke: I love Shiva Baby.

[24:21] Matt Ligouri: Yes.

[24:22] Conor Burke: I've never seen Shiva Baby.

[24:23] Conor Burke: I saw the one with her and fucking Alex Petifer.

[24:29] Matt Ligouri: Wait.

[24:30] Conor Burke: No, I'm thinking of another actor.

[24:32] Conor Burke: Wait, I need to Google this.

[24:34] Conor Burke: Um, but I love Shiva Baby.

[24:36] Conor Burke: I think for the most part like last year.

[24:38] Conor Burke: Like the clock.

[24:40] Matt Ligouri: Clock was it.

[24:41] Conor Burke: Oh, I watched that too.

[24:41] Matt Ligouri: Oh my god, I forgot.

[24:43] Conor Burke: What did you think about clock?

[24:44] Matt Ligouri: Um, wild as shit.

[24:46] Conor Burke: Um sorry, they just they just dated.

[24:52] Conor Burke: They weren't in a movie together. I'm talking about the one with her and Robert De Niro, whatever that's called.

[24:55] Matt Ligouri: Oh, that's The Family.

[24:57] Conor Burke: The Family, yeah.

[24:58] Matt Ligouri: Yes.

[24:59] Conor Burke: Um she did that while like Glee was still in the on the air.

[25:02] Conor Burke: Um but yeah, I don't know.

[25:05] Conor Burke: She she does these movies and like I watch them all.

[25:07] Conor Burke: I don't think that they're great, but she's doing them and she's having fun.

[25:11] Matt Ligouri: Yeah.

[25:12] Conor Burke: Um, but to get to uh I guess the the meeting.

[25:17] Conor Burke: The selfie.

[25:18] Matt Ligouri: Um the selfie of it all.

[25:19] Conor Burke: Okay, so I misunderstood what Diana Agron updates on Twitter shared as information.

[25:26] Matt Ligouri: Yes.

[25:26] Conor Burke: Um it was maybe it was another Twitter.

[25:29] Conor Burke: But like the the tweet is essentially like dates or Terry shows your update.

[25:34] Conor Burke: No. It was like it was information on like this but like really weird information when I was like receiving it on my feed that it was like where to find Diana after the show, and I'm like, I feel weird.

[25:46] Conor Burke: It's the part you say out loud that usually it's just up in there.

[25:52] Conor Burke: Like, uh I definitely kind of like would like this information, um, but I feel weird receiving I don't know.

[25:59] Conor Burke: Um but uh I misinterpreted the information because I'm seeing pictures that people got.

[26:05] Conor Burke: Um, Alexa, friend of the podcast, she got went last night, and she was in an entirely different room, which I think is what Diana Agron updates or whatever Twitter shared as like this is the meeting room.

[26:17] Conor Burke: So we went to a bar that's right next to the uh performance space, and we waited there for a while.

[26:26] Conor Burke: This was the full gag was um seeing Scarlett Johansson walk in, sit two tables next and then her her uh her equally as famous I don't know her husband uh Colin Jost also coming in and they were they were sitting on the same side of a booth and they were being very lovey dovey I'll say that um so good for that story's so layered oh there's so many layers here and like also the drinks are keeping coming too so like I'm getting more and more um big time mess and so wait was Beth here at this point I never Beth to me was uh a uh a a faceless entity I never saw Beth's face it could have been an infant that was actually okay bath bath Beth is a faceless entity is some piece of the car itself.

[27:21] Conor Burke: I yeah I was I was already ahead of you I was like how do I make that um so yeah Scarjo and and Colin are there um and I'm like okay they're great and I know that they're they're absolutely A-list and Diana is not however I care more about this other person.

[27:37] Conor Burke: Um and so the um the bar is getting close to closing and then um and then they like give us the bill as Diana walks in with her friend Margot.

[27:51] Conor Burke: I won't say anything but her and Margot I don't know.

[27:55] Conor Burke: Um, but they walk in and immediately when we see her we're like, oh no, we need to actually order another round of drinks because we need a reason to stay here.

[28:05] Conor Burke: Um, we we got the other round of drinks, um, polished them off, and then they kicked us out of the bar.

[28:12] Matt Ligouri: They didn't kick Diana out. Diana and Margo were safe from this um purge.

[28:18] Conor Burke: Uh, and and so Cassie, who we were all together at this point, Cassie and Claudia. Cassie went up and was like, love tonight, love you queen, um, all the things, and she was the one that asked for the for the selfie.

[28:31] Matt Ligouri: And would you have I don't know. I was like thinking if it was just like Elias and I, I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I like to think that you would have, but something tells me you might not have because you're just successful.

[28:43] Conor Burke: It is so it is so hard, it is so hard in those situations. You have to go for it. I mean, you when you're in those moments, like Cassie was the one who had the uh like I know I have to do this because this is my one shot. This is this is my chance to get this picture. So, you know, very good for all of you that that she was there to get that to happen. And I'm sure Diana was very, you know, happy to do the picture.

[29:08] Matt Ligouri: You were there to see her. Well, she so Cassie asked for the picture, and Diana without like missing a beat was like, Give me your phone. Like, I'm we're I'm I'm taking the picture. And she was like, So sorry, like that was so mean and assertive. We were like, please be meaningful. Take my phone forever. Actually, never give it back.

[29:26] Conor Burke: Right, yeah. Um, she took the picture, and then Elias did a whole like sneak attack, which I didn't we did not discuss this beforehand, but then Elias stuck around to continue. No, Elias talked to Diana about like, oh, you mentioned you mentioned Kansas City tonight. Like, I'm from Kansas City, and like had like a whole conversation with Diana, was like very receptive. Um, too, and they they chatted about Kansas City for like a minute or two. And um, and then we were we were on our way, and so yeah, really wild.

[29:58] Matt Ligouri: I am so thrilled for you. That is so lovely. That's really cool. And uh yeah. You need to we we need to we all of us we need to do it next time she uh she literally announced that I was like I like I still think to myself that I live in New York, I don't um so in my head when she announced that I was like hmm, maybe I'll no I can't like not there, but I would love to.

[30:20] Conor Burke: Um it does seem like you said like it's a yearly type of thing or every, you know, yeah so often yeah she said like um so the Friday show is her 28th night, not just a consecutive consecutively I uh obviously, but just like over however many years that she's been doing it. And so I think like with last night it's been 29. So like she'll she'll keep on doing it, you know. So you'll have a your chance.

[30:48] Matt Ligouri: Look, Diana Agron updates, they know where to find her, it's usually in the same spot. You just have to uh be in the right state.

[30:56] Conor Burke: Really, yeah. Um any any further questions or comments at this time. Now imagine you were at the Diana Agron experience when the earthquake happened.

[31:08] Matt Ligouri: Imagine those things were combined. I don't know, just uh my fantasy for real.

[31:14] Conor Burke: Yeah, yeah. Oh my gosh. Really just a jam-packed day of earth, earth shattering uh things that were happening. I'm looking at the uh Instagram and I'm seeing like the likes coming in, like Kevin McHale's liking it, the pot like his podcast. I'm like, I think you've seen Diana now probably twice in the past couple of years, more than his cast members have.

[31:36] Matt Ligouri: Oh my god. Hey, guys, so now Kevin and other cast members that follow you under the account are getting their updates from their lifelong friend from uh the Andrew McGuire and Blick of the Week Pod accounts.

[31:50] Conor Burke: Well, I think that like when not that this sounds like stalkery, I promise promise that it isn't, but like I feel like um when like Diana was like promoting she was promoting something and she was promoting a movie. I just remember it was like at the same time that like a movie was coming out of hers, and Kevin was like in the city and then they hung out.

[32:07] Matt Ligouri: Oh yeah, I remember that.

[32:08] Conor Burke: Oh yes, I remember. So yeah. I feel like I'm destined to not run into Diana Agron. When I was at drama school, there was a class called London Performance Now, in which the entire class entailed of bringing the BA acting students to a different performance in London every week, and then the next day talking about it in class.

[32:29] Matt Ligouri: Yeah.

[32:30] Conor Burke: It was really cool. We were seeing everything from Western musicals to really obscure avant-garde shit or whatever. But one week I had to fly home to Ireland due to a family matter, and I had to miss a week of class. And I remember being at home and my phone popping off because this bitch Diana Agron was at the show.

[32:50] Matt Ligouri: No with uh this was 2017-2018. So it was I think she was dating the guy from Mumford and Sons.

[33:02] Conor Burke: Is that him? Mumford and Sons. Not Taylor. Is that Matt's saying Taylor Swift?

[33:08] Matt Ligouri: Oh yeah.

[33:10] Conor Burke: Sorry to use it. And so she was spending a lot of time in London, which I feel like has got a whole thing out of if I think she's a bit of an Anglophile as well. No. But um, yeah, and I like just of course it's Connor Brick's luck out of all of those fucking classes. The one that I'm not at, they left at the interval. I got all the goss. But they left at the interval. Um they weren't that impressed with the show, but apparently very lovely. So compensation for that.

[33:37] Matt Ligouri: She really does.

[33:38] Conor Burke: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, you know, she's she's she's edging the um the interaction at this point. I think she it will happen. She's like, Connor, I'm coming for you, baby.

[33:51] Matt Ligouri: Okay. No, you've got it. We are not 15 minutes into this podcast, or already talking about Diana Agron edging me. That's that's exactly okay. Like that's exactly what you pay for when you when you go to Captain Carlisle. You're that's what's happening.

[34:06] Conor Burke: I I thought you were I thought you were glowing, Andrew. I thought you were glowing.

[34:10] Matt Ligouri: Um anything else to add about that that evening.

[34:14] Conor Burke: Yeah, no, it was just really incredible, incredible, incredible, incredible. I love her. Um so how far in advance did she announce this gig that you were just at?

[34:25] Matt Ligouri: I don't even remember when we bought tickets. I feel like it must have been like over a month ago. I don't I don't know, but like we just like immediately bought it, and I it did I think it sold out like it didn't sell out like extremely quickly, but like within a 24 hour period, I want to say.

[34:41] Conor Burke: So cool. And how how long how long was the gig like?

[34:45] Matt Ligouri: Oh I wanna say remember when Andrew said that he was uh zooted?

[34:52] Conor Burke: Zooed, zooted, yeah, yeah.

[34:56] Matt Ligouri: Um yeah, probably like two hours, maybe three. I don't know. Okay, it was like it felt really long, and she was on stage having fun. Her band is very, very fun as well. She's just very personable, and she's just like she's she she's a person that wants to engage with other other people. And um, yeah, she just loves. She loves to perform.

[35:19] Conor Burke: Loves her perform. As she should. Anyway, as we enjoy, you know, many of the uh Diana Agron performances on the hit television show, Hit Fox.

[35:28] Matt Ligouri: A few and the few and far between.

[35:30] Conor Burke: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I'm really projecting something Diana Heavy too. I mean, if we don't, like, what are we doing?

[35:37] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, honestly, fucking let's all go die.

[35:40] Conor Burke: Um go ahead.

[35:43] Matt Ligouri: Oh no, you go ahead. Speaking of Glackett, I understand that there have been some competitions um as of recently that you both would like to shed light on. Does anybody feel like they would like to start this this conversation?

[35:59] Conor Burke: Um Connor, you go ahead if you have.

[35:59] Matt Ligouri: Okay. Well, I don't really have any thoughts on competitions per se, but I do have some some notes. It has been only like I've only been absent really for like three or four episodes, so it's not right, right. Back from maternity leave, yes.

[36:16] Conor Burke: Exactly, exactly. We all have to take a break, you guys. We all have to take a break. Um Razor Glass season two being voted back in. Let's talk about it. I could I could hear when Andrew was talking about that. Because I just I'm so obsessed with you. I could hear, like I could see your face as you were talking about it.

[36:40] Matt Ligouri: And yeah, very strange for especially you and I and Ian, who were the ones that voted that out. Obvious choice, especially like against like Trouty Mouth, that it was like, wait, I don't know. I really I have questions in the in the least mean way possible. I'm like, what's what's the allure here? I don't get it.

[36:58] Conor Burke: Wait, what what was what what were the other like hard hitters and returning? Love song was second place, right?

[37:06] Matt Ligouri: Or so okay, so this was the set so every seven episodes, um one song of the 21 songs can come back. So love song was part of that first batch, so is officially done.

[37:21] Conor Burke: Wait, so what's oh I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm Love Song is just so in my heart because you know I complained about it last time that it was gone.

[37:28] Matt Ligouri: Yeah.

[37:28] Conor Burke: I meant how to be a heartbreaker was the one that was so close, right?

[37:31] Matt Ligouri: How to be a heartbreaker um was in this second batch and it did lose to um Raise Your Glass. Personally, I would have voted for um Diamonds are a girl's best friend Material Girl. I think that kind of deserved a second chance. But yeah.

[37:47] Conor Burke: What was that up against originally?

[37:49] Matt Ligouri: That was against um Hell to the No.

[37:52] Conor Burke: Hmm. Okay. I probably would have voted to bring back how to be a heartbreaker.

[37:57] Matt Ligouri: I know I voted that out.

[37:58] Conor Burke: Thank you, Connor. I feel personally like helping hands. I've been doing a lot of thinking about that with yeah, me and uh Alison Alamode has really sunk her claws into me in a most beautiful way, you know.

[38:12] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, I was so close for you guys all pushing that one through. It was a heartbreaker for me when it didn't happen.

[38:18] Conor Burke: Um beautiful. But but was it hard? Was it w when you were listening to that episode with Andrew and I and Alison Alamode, could you could you relate? Could could you understand why it was a tough no competition for us?

[38:32] Matt Ligouri: Not even in the slightest.

[38:33] Conor Burke: Um okay. Well, listen, I was trying I was trying to relation somewhere. So I think it was against where did it go? It was against shout, and I mean, I I love Shout. Shout is adorable. Shout is fun, shout is a door. But there's a difference between like, you know, the the group numbers that they do where it's like, okay, there's so many of these, like, you know, we can pick and choose. There's a reason why like 20 Rachel, so why 20 Rolos, excuse me, did not go through to the next round because there's still 20 more that are just as great. So group numbers as well. Like there's still so many more. So like we have to pick and choose the best ones to send through. And if it's up against a really you know glowing beautiful girl, like how to be a heartbreaker, you send her through and leave shout behind. So it was not hard for me, but I respect all of your opinions.

[39:23] Matt Ligouri: Um I Matt, I feel like did you not have an episode? Not to be like like this, but like, did you not have an episode already where you brought this competition up?

[39:35] Conor Burke: Yes. Like you're allowed to like wait a minute. We had this exact conversation.

[39:40] Matt Ligouri: I wasn't sure. This wasn't one of my things, but we were talking about the fact that Razor Glass came back, and it was in the same round of voting as how to be a heartbreaker. So I have to uh acknowledge that yet again, how to be a heartbreaker was.

[39:52] Conor Burke: Oh, okay, okay, okay. Right. So every so like anytime anywhere like near that song territory is like reference, then it's like, oh, here he goes again. Let's get you to bed.

[40:06] Matt Ligouri: Yeah. Um wait, what other things would you like to shed light on?

[40:12] Conor Burke: Sure. Um, I'm just gonna say I'm glad people is gone.

[40:16] Matt Ligouri: Wow.

[40:17] Conor Burke: Um people eradicate.

[40:19] Matt Ligouri: I'm also Yeah, bye.

[40:20] Conor Burke: Um I'm also glad that people ever since I I brought up Saturday Night Gleaver, it's kind of come up again. And I'm kind of glad that people have mine back because I was really scared saying that out loud on Mike. But you like it. Zach last week was kind of like, I really like Saturday Night Gleaver. Although I do agree with you, Andrew, Asian F is the Fire Superior episode. 100%.

[40:45] Matt Ligouri: But Saturday Night Cleaver is still iconic in my opinion. So really glad about that.

[40:51] Conor Burke: Um blow me. One last kiss. Thank you so much to Claudia for representing us as a people.

[41:01] Matt Ligouri: Why? Why do so many people really dislike blow me one last kiss? Get a job.

[41:08] Conor Burke: What's that? The um Whoopi Goldberg. I don't even know what she's talking about on the view. She's like, you get a damn job.

[41:12] Matt Ligouri: Carousel, carousel, carousel.

[41:20] Conor Burke: Right, exactly. I'm saying it for the sake of adding it to think. Um, no, I don't what do you find in that? Please unpack that more with me, Andrew, because I would love to.

[41:30] Matt Ligouri: You talked about it briefly, but I'd love to learn more about you and your psyche.

[41:33] Conor Burke: Um, I'm more interested in hearing what you like about it first.

[41:39] Matt Ligouri: Sure, okay. Well, Alex Nil sounds amazing, and Melissa sounds amazing. Um, I love them both. I love both of their their tones individually. I love them both together. I think I love a good walking down the corridor moment. Um, I think it's a bit of a questionable choice to audition for for Greece. However, they ate it up. Alex's vocal in particular towards the end is unfucking believable. And um Marley, she was trying to give that attitude.

[42:08] Conor Burke: She was trying to give that attitude. It didn't, it didn't always hit, uh-huh, but it hit enough, and it is a great MP3. It gets me going. I need to give this another chance.

[42:23] Matt Ligouri: When it first aired in all the years that it just existed as like a song on my phone, I was like, okay, this is great. But then like as you get back into like, okay, all of these 600 plus songs that there are in this catalog, it falls down and it falls closer to the bottom. Um, especially because I am much more a the song that is so escaping my mind. How uh uh holding out for a hero uh girl. Okay. So when I'm thinking of like Marley Loud type of like, you know, like like a strong performance with one of the Glee Girlies, it's uh Kitty in that one, and they both look so good. They're both, you know, there's power behind that one. So um that one just kind of like rose for me as uh Blow Me One Last Kiss fell, I guess.

Um but I mean, it's like kind of there's a lot of songs I think that are coming up. I mean, when we're talking about Razor Glass, I'll I'll I'll even give you how to be a heartbreaker. Um just like other ones that we're talking about in this round, it's like really making clear for me what should be going through to round three of like sure and yeah, fair point. It's like okay, a lot of these like good. They if they made it to round two, that's a good spot for them to go. Uh but as like round three, Andrew is gonna get intense. You know this already.

[43:34] Andrew: Oh, yeah. And if we have some of these, like, you know, the the middle kind of songs around still, is it as uh impactful? I mean, you're gonna have your heavy hitters, such as Crush uh going through, and you need to have strong contenders there alongside it.

[43:48] Matt Ligouri: Right. Wait, what do you what do you think? Not to completely No, I'll talk about Blow Me One Last Kiss before we talk about Crush.

[43:55] Conor Burke: Um, but Blow Me One Last Kiss for me. I don't know, I feel like I kind of like group it in the same camp as when we talked about this last episode, Start Me Up Living on a Prayer, where I'm like, I don't actually know what to do with you. I don't know. I'm looking, I'm listening, I'm watching, I'm observing. I understand that people do like it.

[44:13] Matt Ligouri: Um I understand that's so strange. This is so strange because I would say 98.2% of the time I agree with literally everything you say. I feel like we share a brain. However, the places where we differ is just slow, yeah. I just I I'm trying to understand. I don't know. I feel like maybe like I for Blow Me One Less Kiss specifically, I feel like when that episode came out, I feel like I was like very swayed by a certain person's opinion, like just like online. I was like chronically online, like the Glee Wiki and just like reading everything that play people are sharing about episodes about songs, whatever. And I just feel like someone pointed out that it was like it it's like it's Alex Noel screaming in a way that like it's not like a it's not like a mmm, this is good, Alex Noel.

[45:00] Conor Burke: Yeah in a way a lot of other songs are. And I think also one thing that that song has against it is that I've noticed as time has gone on. I have a real knock. Um that's a bad thing, right? Uh a real like I I I don't I don't love a lot of the covers that they did that were so in that time and in that place. We had next to me in the last episode that I was on, and like that's the perfect example of it of songs that just were so in that moment, and it was like, well, of course Glee's gonna cover it because this is the hottest song right now, so like we have to put it into our show.

[45:28] Matt Ligouri: Those hit Fox Show Glee. Of course we're gonna sing next to me. Those songs, like they were great at the time, and we were bopping along at the time, but we are now a decade and change later. It's not hitting the same as a lot of the others are.

[45:42] Conor Burke: Thank you. Thank you so much for saying that. Not an opinion that I knew that I had, but an opinion that I'm absolutely agreeing with.

[45:48] Matt Ligouri: Yeah. So um on the topic of crush, though, do we have any opinions on on that? Because I feel as though it apparently ruffled some feathers.

[45:58] Conor Burke: Like on one hand, it's like the clear wrong decision that you made there. Um, as far as like, you know, objectively speaking, what is a better song? What is a better uh visual of everything that goes into both of those? Uh crush, also like is is Christmas left? Is there any Christmas left?

[46:15] Matt Ligouri: Like uh there's a there's a Christmas in round three, actually.

[46:18] Conor Burke: There's Christmas rapping.

[46:19] Matt Ligouri: Oh okay. Well, I mean that makes sense. Um so Felice Navidad, you know, would have should have won that battle.

[46:26] Conor Burke: Um, but I also agree with you so much, Andrew, last week, of saying this is sometimes just gonna be silly, and we're just gonna have fun and and do things. And if that means that crush goes through, I have to agree with the philosophy. I have to allow the decision. It's an in the moment sort of decision and feeling a little silly wacky. So that's the silly wacky one for me.

[46:51] Matt Ligouri: Connor, you don't like what I would I I I wa I am I would have voted for crush. What I will say is the the run of episodes in which I was on, I like we voted through Let's Have a Kiki, really silly and quirky. We voted through Run Joey Run, really silly and quirky. I'm really feeling really bad for the really silly and quirky songs as we get later into round two, because I feel like subconsciously we tell ourselves we're after sending so many silly and quirky songs on to round three, yeah, that we can't because I feel like the silly and quirky songs we're gonna be seeing less and less of them as we as we move through.

[47:30] Conor Burke: That's an interesting point because I'm like thinking about like how are they going to fare as like round two continued? I it can continues.

[47:39] Matt Ligouri: Um I'm like it's over. Um I have the list of songs that made it.

[47:46] Conor Burke: Um I find that like I feel as though when we were in round one, we thought round two would be harder than it actually sh claims to be in the moment. That it's like that it's round two is like we have these clear, like good songs, but then there's still a better song, and a lot of these competitions are kind of like we all are in agreement, and which is why I'm afraid for round three, because then it's like okay, now we have all of these actually like they've been vetted twice now.

[48:24] Matt Ligouri: Like, what are we gonna do now?

[48:26] Conor Burke: And I the silly songs and the topic of silly songs. So we have Run Joey Run, we have Let's Have a Kiki, we also have I Still Believe Super Bass, which I feel like without looking at a list, probably like the silliest songs, right?

[48:39] Matt Ligouri: I don't think that's the same category.

[48:40] Conor Burke: I don't know that we're talking about crush in the same category there, because crush is a 17-second glee cover, while those are actual art. Uh the other ones that you just mentioned, like a lot of those I could see in the final 16 uh or so, and non-ironically, like let's have a kicking really who's sending that one out.

[48:58] Matt Ligouri: I don't care that it's like not uh the only exception. Like uh I'm just looking at it.

[49:02] Conor Burke: No, don't do that.

[49:05] Matt Ligouri: But I think that there may be a battle for a lot of those. I mean, who is willingly letting Run Joey Run go? Like you you just picked a lot of examples that are like, you know, have some passionate support behind them.

[49:15] Conor Burke: Right, right. That's true.

[49:16] Matt Ligouri: Yeah. Those are not the 17 seconds in the back of Will Schuster's car.

[49:20] Conor Burke: Yeah. I think there's a difference between the biggest.

[49:22] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, but I just hatefully snappy dad.

[49:24] Conor Burke: I'm sorry.

[49:25] Matt Ligouri: I just hate it. I mean, I'm not the Christmas advocate. That's my uh usual co-host, but um I just think uh yeah, it's it's 17 seconds. I I I'm making that number up.

[49:38] Conor Burke: Yeah, you've you're your mind.

[49:40] Matt Ligouri: Yeah. Um yeah, I think that Crush is yeah, there's a difference. Because I think Crush is Glackett silly, whereas all these other songs are glee-silly.

[49:51] Conor Burke: Yeah.

[49:52] Matt Ligouri: Glily.

[49:53] Conor Burke: Um anything else that we want to discuss before we pull our first song?

[49:58] Matt Ligouri: When when I the backlash I got after telling everyone on this podcast how much I love glitter in the air. Not one person came to my defense.

[50:10] Conor Burke: Connor, not one person to come to your defense on that.

[50:12] Matt Ligouri: I'm not one person.

[50:13] Conor Burke: And for Andrew so openly to talk about then last week.

[50:18] Matt Ligouri: Oh.

[50:18] Conor Burke: And for no one to say a word.

[50:21] Matt Ligouri: It's hypocrisy.

[50:22] Conor Burke: Okay, to be fair.

[50:26] Matt Ligouri: And people laugh at me when I say how I like glitter in the air.

[50:31] Conor Burke: I completely forgot about yeah.

[50:33] Matt Ligouri: No, well, to be fair, the episode with Ben in it hasn't properly come out yet.

[50:38] Conor Burke: It is live on the Patreon right now on the show.

[50:40] Matt Ligouri: This is true. This is true.

[50:42] Conor Burke: So then the masses have not been made aware of

[50:42] Matt Ligouri: No, they already know from the first round. I like, I I love it. It's really good. Like, I will go out of my way to stream it. It's like I want everyone to get over themselves when they're like, Ben's bad, it's about a rat. And it's like, okay, come up with something new.

[50:58] Conor Burke: It also just suffers from being the least exciting song in that episode for obvious, you know, reasons.

[51:03] Matt Ligouri: It doesn't need to be exciting.

[51:05] Conor Burke: Um, I just always, whenever I watch it, I just always think, why didn't they just change it to blame? It was right there.

[51:11] Matt Ligouri: I yeah, but I think it's that's part of the enjoyment for me, that it's like they are completely just ignoring this character's actual name.

[51:21] Conor Burke: You know?

[51:22] Matt Ligouri: It's like, oh yeah. Insult to injury, your eye is already in like in shambles, and we're also improperly naming you.

[51:30] Conor Burke: So um okay, before we get to the uh first poll.

[51:35] Matt Ligouri: Um, I told you earlier I wanted to find a way to make everything all about me. Um, and that was by me pulling up my top 25. I referenced this on previous episodes, and I just thought I'd like to give you guys an update as to where I'm at with my top 25.

[51:50] Conor Burke: I don't even want to get to Amon's top 25 because you guys butchered his in the first round.

[51:50] Matt Ligouri: In the first round of this black it, one, two, three, four, five, six of his favorite top 25 songs are gone.

[52:02] Conor Burke: That's not in the grand scheme of things.

[52:04] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, that is not terrible at all. I mean, mine's a lot better. Only you guys only got rid of two uh of my top uh in the first round.

[52:11] Conor Burke: Six still isn't even that bad.

[52:13] Matt Ligouri: Out of 25 of like what he's saying is like his most elite of like so like out of the 333, I don't know, uh, 340 uh people songs gave me the amount of songs that you know did move on that six of his top 25, it just feels like a lot.

[52:29] Conor Burke: Um and you've then further gotten rid of two more uh in.

[52:33] Matt Ligouri: I would wager, I would wager that six.

[52:35] Conor Burke: Oh no wait, would be an average.

[52:37] Matt Ligouri: I'm sorry. That's an I think too.

[52:39] Conor Burke: It's seven, it's seven.

[52:41] Matt Ligouri: Another song. I I thought Alfie I thought Alfie might have gone in round two.

[52:45] Conor Burke: I just remembered I think it was in round one.

[52:47] Matt Ligouri: Um so yeah, you got rid of seven of his in the first round.

[52:51] Conor Burke: Uh only one so far in the second round when you said goodbye to Bellanote.

[52:55] Matt Ligouri: Um and then Blake the one song that

[52:58] Conor Burke: What?

[52:58] Matt Ligouri: You think that you could just skip over that?

[53:00] Conor Burke: Well this is not my opinion, so I can't type on it.

[53:03] Matt Ligouri: But I know, I know.

[53:05] Conor Burke: And I I thought I was the Disney boy.

[53:08] Matt Ligouri: He he's uh is Let It Go also on this list?

[53:11] Conor Burke: Uh no.

[53:13] Matt Ligouri: Okay. I mean, I know we were at the end of our podcast run at that point, but I think it might have just ended it on the spot if it was there.

[53:18] Conor Burke: Um the one song that has gone through, I I put in another color of what like literally round two have have gone through so so far for him is uh one of the songs that uh you could probably name it.

[53:29] Matt Ligouri: Name that Glee song, uh name that Glackett song that has not won a competition but is still in the competition.

[53:34] Conor Burke: Oh, it's um Blame and LA Alcohol.

[53:36] Matt Ligouri: Yes. So that is that is still in for his list.

[53:39] Conor Burke: Um on mine, again, uh only two were eliminated in the first round.

[53:43] Matt Ligouri: So some nights and give your heart a break.

[53:44] Conor Burke: I'm uh sad to see them go, but that's okay.

[53:48] Matt Ligouri: Um and so far in this round, you've eliminated my number eight. It's like it's like a board. You're just like, you know, knocking off as we go.

[53:54] Conor Burke: Um eliminated my number eight, which is somebody that I used to know, and of course, my number 24 love song.

[54:01] Matt Ligouri: Okay.

[54:02] Conor Burke: Is uh is this list constantly changing?

[54:04] Matt Ligouri: No.

[54:04] Conor Burke: This I locked this in uh when we did we both did a podcast, Glock this in.

[54:09] Matt Ligouri: Uh that's a different word.

[54:10] Conor Burke: Um you said somebody I used to know somebody that I used to know is number eight.

[54:14] Matt Ligouri: It's number eight.

[54:16] Conor Burke: Let's just sit with that for a moment.

[54:18] Matt Ligouri: You can sit with that as long as you need.

[54:19] Conor Burke: Um I'm a Blaine and Cooper boy.

[54:21] Matt Ligouri: I Hungry Like the Wolf Rio did not make it into my top twenty five, but it's probably in a comfortable like top, I don't know 35.

[54:30] Conor Burke: Like I think that's a far superior duet.

[54:33] Matt Ligouri: No.

[54:34] Conor Burke: No, I'm a dramatic.

[54:39] Matt Ligouri: I I mean, you know, we're talking about the same top eight that has uh uh cough syrup.

[54:44] Conor Burke: I mean put the lights on those Anderson boys on the stage and give them a song that's full of dramatics and that's where I jump in to glee.

[54:52] Matt Ligouri: Okay.

[54:52] Conor Burke: Okay. Wait, my what is your number one?

[54:55] Matt Ligouri: Uh it is Cough syrup.

[54:57] Conor Burke: Okay.

[54:58] Matt Ligouri: Okay, good choice.

[54:59] Conor Burke: So um yeah you've so far uh passed through to round three uh cough syrup uh the scientist and faithfully all that are on my list here so uh you know feels promising I am manifesting at least one more of these songs so I can continue the fight for my faves to get through uh because I again I have it in such a solidified form in front of me um so that's what do you feel is the is the most controversial um one of this 25 good question um I mean for the sake of this podcast um I know your feelings about songs in the quarterback and we I think have different opinions when it comes to that I know your uh thought of just like maybe they exist in their own world and not in this glacket world I still am of the mindset of like if this was just solely the Matt Clacket um I'm probably still pushing a lot of them through because they sit so well for me uh you know context and whatnot like included aside however you want to look at it a lot of them are just so good so I have if I die young here um I don't know if any of these are super controversial.

[56:01] Matt Ligouri: That's why mine aren't like I don't have the Bellinotes here that are um so surprising.

[56:06] Conor Burke: I mean, you talked about this last week, Teenage Dream, uh, the battle between the two.

[56:11] Andrew: Um I'm with you on that battle. Um I'm I'm hoping that comes up soon. Uh Teenage Dream uh acoustic version versus versus Start Me Up Living On a Prayer.

[56:20] Conor Burke: Oh no, no, no, sorry. Just the uh four versus season four versus season two.

[56:23] Matt Ligouri: Oh season four.

[56:23] Andrew: Okay, gotta gotta get it, yeah.

[56:25] Conor Burke: Yeah.

[56:25] Andrew: Um so season four, uh Teenage Dream is my number five top song.

[56:30] Matt Ligouri: Oh, season two is nowhere on this list.

[56:32] Conor Burke: Good.

[56:33] Andrew: Yeah. Um is that controversial?

[56:35] Conor Burke: Is that to me?

[56:36] Matt Ligouri: No, not to us.

[56:37] Andrew: It's it's a little high.

[56:41] Conor Burke: I hope that doesn't mean what I think of you that we're all gonna we're all gonna be like, okay, pass in these three songs in but yeah, incredible.

[56:51] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, no, I want I want I would love, please.

[56:54] Andrew: And these are the final things that I say before we don't fight, but I would love to fight.

[56:58] Conor Burke: I just want to fight.

[56:59] Andrew: Can we just like all three of us grab inside of ourselves the most crazy outlandish opinions and just like maybe just like work from that motivation for the next hour or so?

[57:13] Matt Ligouri: I can feel that we will do this.

[57:15] Conor Burke: I can feel that.

[57:16] Andrew: Okay. I okay I feel like something big is coming.

[57:20] Conor Burke: Okay.

[57:20] Andrew: I will take that energy that uh Scarlet Johansson and Colin Jost had in their uh bodies that night of just whatever the hell was going on.

[57:28] Matt Ligouri: And that's my energy today.

[57:30] Conor Burke: They were in love.

[57:31] Andrew: Is that what you're you made it sound like more was going on at that table?

[57:35] Matt Ligouri: Oh no, they uh they were just they were just being like they were being cutesy.

[57:38] Conor Burke: It was like giving like kind of like that I'll be cutesy today.

[57:40] Andrew: I mean, I can't just shift gears now. I've already manifested it.

[57:44] Conor Burke: Um okay.

[57:45] Andrew: So there I have there's there's two songs that want to come out. Do you want A or B?

[57:50] Conor Burke: B.

[57:52] Matt Ligouri: B.

[57:52] Andrew: Yeah. B it is B.

[57:54] Conor Burke: Okay.

[57:56] Andrew: Oh, this is a fun one.

[57:57] Matt Ligouri: This is a fun one.

[57:58] Andrew: It's a good one.

[58:00] Conor Burke: Yes.

[58:01] Andrew: This feels do you like having the context?

[58:04] Matt Ligouri: Before.

[58:05] Conor Burke: I don't.

[58:06] Andrew: No?

[58:07] Conor Burke: I do.

[58:08] Matt Ligouri: I do, but I'm easy.

[58:09] Andrew: I mean Um, okay, I have it, so there is no more context to be had.

[58:14] Conor Burke: Do we know what it is?

[58:16] Andrew: We're looking at Rachel in the choir room.

[58:18] Conor Burke: Yes!

[58:19] Andrew: I know I can I can see that expression from a mile away.

[58:23] Conor Burke: This is express yourself.

[58:25] Andrew: Great.

[58:25] Conor Burke: Come on, girls.

[58:27] Andrew: Do you believe in love?

[58:29] Conor Burke: Cause I got something to say about it.

[58:31] Andrew: And it goes something like this.

[58:34] ♪ Musical number: "Express Yourself" — performed by Glee Cast ♪

[1:00:14] Andrew: You got to make him express any self.

[1:00:18] Conor Burke: Hey, hey, hey, hey, run now.

[1:00:23] Matt Ligouri: Make him show you how it feels what he's got.

[1:00:27] Andrew: Oh baby ready and now express yourself.

[1:00:33] Conor Burke: Oh god.

[1:00:36] Matt Ligouri: Ooh.

[1:00:37] Conor Burke: Tina for a second kind of looked like just I don't know, like her hair must have just been back so much that like it looked like she had the buzz cut that I have for half a second.

[1:00:47] Andrew: And I was like, I like that.

[1:00:51] Conor Burke: I don't like I if they had nothing else to do with her, they could have gone for the buzz cut.

[1:00:55] Matt Ligouri: I think that would I was gonna say Jenna ate this up.

[1:00:59] Conor Burke: Did anyone was talking about Jenna during those?

[1:01:02] Matt Ligouri: She was eating this all.

[1:01:03] Conor Burke: I admittedly was not looking at Jenna.

[1:01:05] Andrew: I was like, Oh, whenever I watch this performance, all eyes on Naya and Diana.

[1:01:09] Conor Burke: The the nine at Mercedes and Tina.

[1:01:12] Andrew: Oh, this performance has everything.

[1:01:14] Conor Burke: Uh though when when they have like their their like coats or jackets or whatever on the on the floor, and then Naya does like the windmill backwards to pick up the coat and put it back on.

[1:01:26] Andrew: I'm just like, was that even the direction, or was that just you?

[1:01:29] Conor Burke: Just having a good time making the A plus move like you always do.

[1:01:33] Matt Ligouri: I'm obsessed with this.

[1:01:35] Conor Burke: I always think that I like this.

[1:01:37] Andrew: But I am like, no, it's it's really it's S tier for me.

[1:01:41] Conor Burke: It's really great.

[1:01:42] Matt Ligouri: Kurt what Kurt watching the girls is Andrew and I watching this performance.

[1:01:47] Andrew: Um is this both of your favorite episode or no?

[1:01:51] Conor Burke: Uh tribute episode or no.

[1:01:53] Matt Ligouri: Um the music in Michael is just what kind of keeps me locked in over there most of the time.

[1:02:00] Andrew: Yeah.

[1:02:02] Matt Ligouri: I would say, oh, let's well, let's go through them.

[1:02:05] Conor Burke: We have Madonna, Brittany, are we saying Rocky Horror?

[1:02:10] Matt Ligouri: No.

[1:02:10] Andrew: Um I mean, I I'm I'm thinking like to an artist.

[1:02:13] Conor Burke: To an artist, okay Madonna, Brittany, Fleetwood Mac, Fleetwood Mac, Michael Jackson, Whitney, Saturday Fever, Whitney, um Stevie Wonder.

[1:02:27] Matt Ligouri: Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, and oh, you know what?

[1:02:30] Conor Burke: I do really like I like that one, but I think considering all of them, it's Madonna number one for me.

[1:02:39] Andrew: Um is this your favorite song from that episode?

[1:02:42] Conor Burke: Oh, no, I think that they there's just so many good ones.

[1:02:45] Matt Ligouri: And I also think four minutes is the one that is great, yes.

[1:02:50] Conor Burke: Like a virgin finally gets either those Naya vocals.

[1:02:53] Andrew: Yeah, oh, so good.

[1:02:55] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, so good.

[1:02:57] Conor Burke: Uh I think mine is Madonna too.

[1:02:59] Matt Ligouri: I will go out on the limb and say that, but closely followed by rumors, I would say.

[1:03:04] Andrew: You pointed out uh Kurt's facial expressions.

[1:03:06] Conor Burke: Um, I was looking at Artie's, just knowing how much the actor Kevin McHale was not feeling the way that Artie was feeling in that moment, um, and having to just pretend like he was just uh repulsed by the girls up on stage.

[1:03:18] Matt Ligouri: So true.

[1:03:18] Conor Burke: He truly had the worst job.

[1:03:19] Andrew: Imagine being a gay man and watching this and having to look repulsed.

[1:03:22] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, it could never be me.

[1:03:24] Conor Burke: Yeah, and just like Artie as a character, just like I ever watch an episode, and I'm just like Artie is the vehicle for so many just like terrible opinions that like need to be said, but it's like, oh you're really just like I want to see Allies.

[1:03:46] Andrew: Oh, yeah.

[1:03:47] Conor Burke: Yeah, don't we know it?

[1:03:49] Matt Ligouri: Like so scary to talk about heading too.

[1:03:51] Conor Burke: Yeah, yeah, huh.

[1:03:53] Andrew: Yeah, and Brittany would come to him with like much better opinions in life, and he would be like, You don't know what you're talking about.

[1:04:00] Conor Burke: Yeah, um, and I also love Kurt's fit in this performance.

[1:04:06] Andrew: I'm um, you know, I'm vibing with Kurt, just uh his reaction to this, and I just love this is this is a cute Kurt fit with the the up hoodie, it's sweet.

[1:04:15] Matt Ligouri: I like it.

[1:04:16] Conor Burke: I agree, I agree.

[1:04:17] Andrew: Also, this is just also Ryan Murphy's wet dream.

[1:04:20] Conor Burke: And the thing about me is that like I love love, you know.

[1:04:23] Andrew: So I love when other people love things, and you can really tell when Ryan Murphy loves what he makes, and I think that that that's why this episode is such a strong like he's wanted to do this all his entire life.

[1:04:39] Conor Burke: He talks about Madonna the way we talk about Glee.

[1:04:42] Andrew: I if you could remember if you told him that I think he would I think he would take it all off Disney Plus and say, go watch Madonna.

[1:04:51] Conor Burke: But he's so he so does though.

[1:04:53] Andrew: He loves Madonna.

[1:04:55] Conor Burke: Um he spent a good like 17 and a half minutes talking about her on Kevin Ajana's podcast back in the day.

[1:05:01] Andrew: So I just yeah that that episode I'm just like I just like I was thinking about like this scene like between Sue and Emma in the Madonna episode that I'm like this has to be one of my all-time favorite scenes from this the series where Sue comes in and then like Emma's like well I couldn't help but notice that like Madonna music is like playing everywhere else except for my office and then she says that like you you remind me of the pandas at the zoo that like refuse to have sex or something and I'm just like isn't that when she says as well well it's simple Arlene is that the scene where like she she talks about like no that's a different episode where she's like talking about like killing herself but then like hanging herself and then and then they're talking about going into the rafters and but there's like as best is up there and that could kill somebody that is isn't that season two that is one of the best Sue moments ever I think that's season two Oh my god what episode is that has to be like an annoying well there's the episode where she's Sue a sidal and not really like standing the test of time but um yeah it has to be the comeback yeah obviously we have the Sue scene with Kurt Mercedes that has stood the test of like is an iconic TV moment and Mercedes turns around is like would that would make you like 30 29 Oh great.

[1:06:35] Andrew: Um, bringing it back to the perfor wait, go ahead.

[1:06:38] Conor Burke: What is it?

[1:06:39] Andrew: No, no, no.

[1:06:40] Conor Burke: The performance.

[1:06:41] Andrew: I feel like if this is just, you know, Matt, you said that this isn't inherently like a gay episode of the podcast.

[1:06:45] Matt Ligouri: I think we're starting off with this number.

[1:06:47] Conor Burke: I think it is.

[1:06:49] Andrew: Um, you know, this is this is what they're they're giving us.

[1:06:52] Conor Burke: Um I always am so distracted by uh Quinn in this performance.

[1:06:59] Andrew: We do not know how many how many months pregnant is she at the time.

[1:07:06] Conor Burke: I know how many episodes in she is or how many episodes away from giving birth she is.

[1:07:12] Andrew: We can give it that kind of context.

[1:07:13] Conor Burke: Right.

[1:07:14] Andrew: Okay, so she's six episodes away from no, she's seven episodes away from giving birth, right?

[1:07:19] Matt Ligouri: This is so this is episode 15.

[1:07:21] Conor Burke: I think it's 15.

[1:07:21] Andrew: She gives birth in 22.

[1:07:23] Conor Burke: So she's seven episodes away away from from giving birth.

[1:07:27] Matt Ligouri: Yeah.

[1:07:28] Conor Burke: And you can find out that she is pregnant in Pragers, which is episode four, so that's nine episodes or eleven episodes previously.

[1:07:37] Andrew: But there is like a okay.

[1:07:39] Conor Burke: Look, I mean, she's doing much more flips and tricks in like give up the funk, uh, you know, uh one episode of the case.

[1:07:39] Andrew: Give up the funk.

[1:07:45] Conor Burke: She's really give up the funk, she's really taken a bit.

[1:07:48] Andrew: Do you know what give up the funk reminds me of?

[1:07:50] Conor Burke: Do you know when someone do you know when someone is claiming like government uh benefits for being like really ill and then they're caught on a someone's CC TV camera like doing backflips in their front yard when they said that when they said that they couldn't walk.

[1:08:04] Andrew: That is what Quinn is giving.

[1:08:06] Conor Burke: Girl, you said you're pregnant.

[1:08:07] Andrew: You're doing backflips.

[1:08:08] Matt Ligouri: Well, I feel like it's it the in the very next episode after that one, she does give birth.

[1:08:12] Conor Burke: I think that give up the funk did induce labor.

[1:08:14] Andrew: Yes.

[1:08:14] Conor Burke: I think so.

[1:08:16] Andrew: That's a kind of amount.

[1:08:17] Conor Burke: I don't know how pregnancy works.

[1:08:19] Andrew: But a full week later it did happen.

[1:08:22] Conor Burke: Um, but I I feel like I remember like I feel like it was at Comic-Con or something that like Brad Falchuk was like talking about Beth and was talking about like how someone tweeted at him was like it's Beth's birthday, but it was like um it was okay because the episode Journey to Regionals had to have like aired in like May or June.

[1:08:45] Andrew: Um and the person tweeting said that she gave birth in like March or something, and then like Brad was like, No, it was May or June.

[1:08:53] Conor Burke: I was like, no, no, no.

[1:08:55] Andrew: Regionals, this is what this is what obviously takes up the space in my mind.

[1:08:59] Conor Burke: Yes.

[1:08:59] Andrew: Regionals, to my knowledge, takes place during the winter.

[1:09:04] Conor Burke: And if they uh don't win.

[1:09:07] Andrew: Yes, yes, because at the you know, this first season, they're giving us the idea that you know this last competition for them is at the end of the school year.

[1:09:07] Conor Burke: End of the school.

[1:09:15] Andrew: Right.

[1:09:16] Conor Burke: Um which brings up the question what what would uh what's the rest of season one look like between regionals and nationals?

[1:09:24] Andrew: Should it have happened?

[1:09:26] Conor Burke: Well, like I think that well, like what Matt just said, the school year is over after that, right?

[1:09:33] Matt Ligouri: Ooh, ooh, summer of the rainbow, like good luck to have a good summer.

[1:09:37] Andrew: So uh but it's like Mr. Schuster, it's it's quite literally March.

[1:09:44] Conor Burke: Yeah, I don't know.

[1:09:45] Andrew: I mean, they probably hoped we wouldn't notice.

[1:09:47] Conor Burke: To be fair, I would say it doesn't come across my mind even uh this deep into the fandom that I am in.

[1:09:53] Matt Ligouri: Um so they kind of got away with it.

[1:09:55] Andrew: They do get away with it, even though we kind of remind everybody of this, but yeah.

[1:10:00] Conor Burke: This is very much like that question when does the Glee Club happen every week after school?

[1:10:04] Andrew: Like when when is it?

[1:10:04] Conor Burke: Like this is will there ever be an answer?

[1:10:06] Andrew: We don't know.

[1:10:07] Conor Burke: No, we might think you fall on that match.

[1:10:09] Andrew: Yeah.

[1:10:09] Conor Burke: Um it's I think well, I mean, the the my go-to answer would be that it's after school because that makes more sense, but then there's just so many scenes that are uh like the bell rings or something like that, and it seems like it's like sixth period or something.

[1:10:22] Andrew: So it's just very confusing. Um, we'll never have an answer. And we I I think it's like confirmed that we'll never have an answer.

[1:10:28] Conor Burke: Yeah.

[1:10:28] Andrew: Because of the way that Kevin and Jenna have talked about it with did they talk to like Ian about it?

[1:10:34] Conor Burke: They talked to like Ian Brennan.

[1:10:36] Andrew: I think they did.

[1:10:36] Conor Burke: And like Ian's like I don't know.

[1:10:38] Andrew: Like if yeah.

[1:10:43] Conor Burke: Also, legal note, legal note, legal note about this performance in the extended um iTunes release version of this song. There is a part where Naya goes, you know, you know, you know, you know. And it is that is the um brain scratching moment for me. Um, you you gotta check it out. It might be in a carousel. I feel like this carousel is gonna be packed already to the brim, so I don't know if it's gonna make it, but I will share it elsewhere.

[1:11:09] Andrew: It was why was this a was this a tough competition in round one or a very easy one?

[1:11:14] Conor Burke: This was actually a tough one. I feel like it was in um Emily's first episode in round one. Um, and it was against hit me hit me with your best shot.

[1:11:24] Matt Ligouri: Um one way or another.

[1:11:27] Conor Burke: Love some volleyball. It is hard, I think.

[1:11:31] Matt Ligouri: Mm-hmm.

[1:11:31] Conor Burke: Was it was it did all parties agree? Can you remember?

[1:11:36] Matt Ligouri: I feel like maybe that was like a 2v1.

[1:11:41] Conor Burke: I definitely voted for this. Not sure.

[1:11:43] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, I definitely probably would have voted for this, but that is that is a tough competition. I'm sad to see hit me with your best shotgun, but oh.

[1:11:53] Conor Burke: There's something a little bit too like inherently like Disney Channel about that performance to me.

[1:11:57] Matt Ligouri: Right?

[1:11:58] Conor Burke: It is really giving Disney Channel, isn't it?

[1:12:00] Matt Ligouri: That's so strange that you say that because that's so true.

[1:12:04] Conor Burke: Yeah.

[1:12:05] Matt Ligouri: The dodgeball marketing the marketing campaign, the dodgeball marketing campaign for season three was very bizarre, in my opinion.

[1:12:16] Conor Burke: That was that was all over. There were dodgeballs everywhere. It was like uh like we're we're leading into the season with a storyline of like, hey, look, like our one of our biggest members, uh, Quinn is like not with the Glee Club anymore. There's a lot going on. The Glee Club is gonna split into two.

[1:12:31] Matt Ligouri: Um, and then it's like, but there's dodgeballs everywhere.

[1:12:33] Conor Burke: We're playing dodge balls.

[1:12:34] Matt Ligouri: Which suggests to me that did weren't there, the writers were quite a bit ahead, weren't they then?

[1:12:41] Conor Burke: Because the if the season three marketing campaign to start in the somewhere between season two and season three, I mean the the the dodgeball of it all didn't come in until episode six of that season. I mean that seems like I feel like they were a little bit further ahead than they sometimes let on.

[1:12:57] Matt Ligouri: Or maybe that they were like, hmm, this promotional campaign actually has legs. Let's uh let's do something here.

[1:13:02] Conor Burke: Um because I I feel like I the thing that stands out to me from that um that like commercial, I think that like they're it's we got the beat over it. Um and then like they show all the characters and um Jamie Mays is sweeping away the the dodgeballs, and I'm like Do you know what my favorite fucking are we really at the point where we have a favorite Glee promo?

[1:13:25] Matt Ligouri: Because I I feel like this is a safe space.

[1:13:29] Conor Burke: My favorite glee promo of all time. Not like an episodic one, but just a general one, is the slushy one where they're throwing the slushy into the camera, and as the slushy like explodes, you see like critical quotes, like critical reviews.

[1:13:46] Matt Ligouri: What's that? What is that song?

[1:13:47] Conor Burke: What's that classical song?

[1:13:48] Matt Ligouri: That that music.

[1:13:53] Conor Burke: No.

[1:13:57] Matt Ligouri: Do do do do.

[1:13:59] Conor Burke: Does no one remember?

[1:14:00] Matt Ligouri: Your guess is I do remember this.

[1:14:02] Conor Burke: Your guess is as good as mine, though.

[1:14:04] Matt Ligouri: You have the link, I'll watch it.

[1:14:06] Conor Burke: Yeah.

[1:14:06] Matt Ligouri: Okay.

[1:14:07] Conor Burke: I will I will.

[1:14:09] Matt Ligouri: It's in the running to be added to the carousel.

[1:14:12] Andrew: Um, okay, so we're feeling good about the song. Any any final words?

[1:14:18] Conor Burke: I don't know. I mean, just to throw it out there, I feel like two of the three on this panel may be feeling better about it. Not to say I'm not feeling good about it, but like I'm excited for the possibility of maybe something else also going through.

[1:14:30] Andrew: We'll see.

[1:14:31] Conor Burke: Okay.

[1:14:32] Andrew: We'll see.

[1:14:32] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, this has all of the mannequins to be a tough competition.

[1:14:39] Conor Burke: Um, yeah.

[1:14:40] Conor Burke: Uh so I have, I have, I have it. I have no there's a lot to talk about here. And I actually don't know how either of you feel about this performance, or um, one of the characters that is is on this duet. Reveal that it's a duet.

[1:14:55] Matt Ligouri: Um, there is a lot to talk about here.

[1:15:00] Andrew: Okay. Here we go.

[1:15:09] ♪ Musical number: "Here Comes the Sun" — performed by Demi Lovato and Naya Rivera ♪

[1:17:30] Matt Ligouri: I need a minute.

[1:17:32] Conor Burke: What'd you say?

[1:17:36] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, Matt, you have the floor.

[1:17:38] Matt Ligouri: May I my heart skipped a beat when this started. Um when I realized what it was at the beginning. Uh I I was my breath was taken away. Um I have such warm and fuzzy feelings for Demi Lovato and Naya Rivera coming together for this cover of Here Comes the Sun.

[1:18:01] Matt Ligouri: It is uh two of my favorite all-time female vocalists in Demi Lovato and Naya Rivera. Just like never, and like I didn't truly appreciate what like song making magic they had uh between the two of them until I was older at the time. I was like, I love Demi Lovato. Oh my god, she's on Glee. Oh my god, she's singing with Santana. This is great.

[1:18:24] Matt Ligouri: Um, but as I've gotten older, I've just grown to appreciate it so much more because I get I'm I'm a big Demi Lovato boy. I've seen her in concert like three or four times by now.

[1:18:33] Conor Burke: Okay.

[1:18:33] Matt Ligouri: Uh the more you know. Um, so that plus again, just the way that their voices blend together on this is incredible. I know you're probably gonna want to talk about the storyline because there is a lot there.

[1:18:47] Conor Burke: Uh there's a a little there.

[1:18:48] Matt Ligouri: There's very little, which but it's giving a lot.

[1:18:48] Conor Burke: It's giving a lot.

[1:18:52] Matt Ligouri: It's beginning of season five. We have uh gone into this new era of Santana, like season four, like, where were you? Season five, okay, you're back, you're here, you're with uh Kurt and Rachel, and you're exploring this possibility of moving forward in life without Brittany by your side.

[1:19:09] Matt Ligouri: And this is the first time this the scene where she is talking about going up to Danny uh and and maybe trying to have some kind of conversation where she is so nervous. When does Santana Lopez get nervous? Never.

[1:19:20] Conor Burke: Uh but she is so nervous to talk to Danny, and uh I don't know, Rachel or Kurt, they encourage her to go and just you know, whatever. They sing together.

[1:19:30] Matt Ligouri: Uh they end up walking back to Danny's apartment, which is so conveniently right around the damn corner from the diner. Why incredible, you know, distance there.

[1:19:38] Conor Burke: Uh and that's it.

[1:19:39] Matt Ligouri: And and you know, it's it's still a bit of a cliffhanger. Like, what's going to happen next with these two?

[1:19:44] Matt Ligouri: Where Santana does have this spark for the first time since Brittany, and they just sounded so damn good together. It makes my heart so happy.

[1:19:54] Andrew: Um I'm glad that you started off first because I would have started the conversation a little bit differently.

[1:20:00] Matt Ligouri: I know, I know where this is going.

[1:20:02] Conor Burke: I know where this is going too.

[1:20:03] Matt Ligouri: I might take my headphones out.

[1:20:05] Conor Burke: No, no, no, no.

[1:20:05] Matt Ligouri: Oh my god, no, because I'm I'm I'm doing it.

[1:20:07] Conor Burke: Um what what is what is Rachel say in the quarterback that she's like uh treating treating me with kid gloves or something?

[1:20:14] Matt Ligouri: Yeah.

[1:20:14] Conor Burke: Yeah.

[1:20:15] Matt Ligouri: I'm like, I'll I'll treat the conversation like that.

[1:20:17] Conor Burke: Um wait, but wait, Connor, do you want to do you want to step in first?

[1:20:23] Conor Burke: Well uh you you can go ahead because I feel like you both both people on the Zoom chat feel more passionately about this performance for different reasons than I do.

[1:20:35] Matt Ligouri: So you go ahead.

[1:20:36] Conor Burke: Okay.

[1:20:37] Conor Burke: Um, so I liked this a lot more than I thought that I did. Uh, I think that I kind of like resent even giving at any time of day just because of the uh the context of it all.

[1:20:50] Conor Burke: I think like from what I recall, like watching the series at this point, the way that they kind of like referenced Brittany in her absence was like, no, she was a main character for four full seasons, and you made us care about this relationship, and the way that you're talking about her and this relationship in hindsight makes me sick to my stomach.

[1:21:15] Conor Burke: Like the way that they completely erase erase like any like um, you know, like Glee doesn't really handle bisexuality uh good or at all at all.

[1:21:26] Matt Ligouri: Um, but like and it's uh, you know, it's a victim and blame it on the alcohol, and it's also a a big victim in this episode.

[1:21:32] Conor Burke: The way that like Demi Lovato's like, you deserve a full lesbian if if you want if you want like a successful relationship.

[1:21:41] Matt Ligouri: And Santana's like, you're right.

[1:21:43] Conor Burke: And I'm like, who the fuck are you?

[1:21:45] Conor Burke: Like, I like are you kidding me? Like you this wasn't even like a a point of discussion um for the past four seasons, but here we are, season five, episode two, and you're completely being like, Yeah, Brittany like strayed for penis, and I'm like, shut up, I'm sick.

[1:22:04] Matt Ligouri: Um, but I still do think that it's a beautiful number and they sound really, really great.

[1:22:10] Conor Burke: I did start like laughing toward the end of the performance because I'm just like imagining walking down the street and just seeing these these two gorgeous women and just like walking toward me, looking wistfully into each other's eyes, um, singing, Here Comes the Sun.

[1:22:29] Matt Ligouri: Um there's the guy that like jogs by and it's it's you know it's another day.

[1:22:34] Conor Burke: Um but uh I wouldn't point for before Connor gets like deep into like thoughts on the song.

[1:22:40] Matt Ligouri: Do you guys like the start uh start light start help?

[1:22:44] Conor Burke: Stardust?

[1:22:45] Matt Ligouri: Spider?

[1:22:46] Conor Burke: Spotlight.

[1:22:47] Matt Ligouri: Oh Stardust is the real one.

[1:22:48] Conor Burke: Yes.

[1:22:49] Matt Ligouri: Spotlight Diner is the is the glee one.

[1:22:51] Conor Burke: Um do we like the uniforms?

[1:22:53] Matt Ligouri: I think it's cute.

[1:22:54] Conor Burke: I think they're really cute.

[1:22:56] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, I do like the uniforms.

[1:22:57] Conor Burke: I think nobody looks bad in the uniforms.

[1:22:59] Matt Ligouri: Alright, nobody looks bad.

[1:23:01] Conor Burke: The uniforms are moving on to round three.

[1:23:03] Matt Ligouri: Anyway.

[1:23:05] Conor Burke: Oh yeah, Leah and Naya both they both ate those uniforms up.

[1:23:10] Matt Ligouri: Yes.

[1:23:10] Conor Burke: Leah with the bangs in front with the pony in the back. Like I love Rachel Berry with a bang.

[1:23:16] Matt Ligouri: Is that an awkward take?

[1:23:19] Conor Burke: I love a bang.

[1:23:20] Matt Ligouri: No.

[1:23:21] Conor Burke: No, I'd like that.

[1:23:21] Matt Ligouri: I'd like the I think I would prefer the bangs over over the no bangs.

[1:23:24] Conor Burke: I think I am totally down.

[1:23:26] Matt Ligouri: Sure.

[1:23:27] Conor Burke: Yeah.

[1:23:27] Conor Burke: I do want to point out, this is an editor note, um, that around 10 seconds into this musical performance, I audibly laughed into the microphone, not because I think that the musical performance is in any way hilarious. In fact, it's gorgeous.

[1:23:41] Conor Burke: It's just because literally 30 minutes prior to recording this episode, a Demi Lovato meme came up on my feed.

[1:23:41] Matt Ligouri: Leave that woman alone.

[1:23:50] Conor Burke: Hey Fatty.

[1:23:56] Matt Ligouri: What is he fatty?

[1:23:57] Conor Burke: What is the context of hey fatty?

[1:23:57] Conor Burke: I really do not know.

[1:24:00] Matt Ligouri: I think I don't know what the context is, but but hey fatty was a moment.

[1:24:05] Conor Burke: And um it was in one of those. I don't know if you guys have ever seen them on TikTok, Pop Culture Moments we don't talk about enough videos.

[1:24:14] Andrew: And I love the way everyone just has these really long, gorgeous, like egregiously beautiful takes on this performance, and I'm just like, hey Fatty.

[1:24:26] Conor Burke: I was thinking the same thing that I'm like Demi Lovato has graced us with so many memes.

[1:24:31] Matt Ligouri: So many memes. What is that about? Like her and Jamie Lee Curtis.

[1:24:33] Conor Burke: Yes. Do you think that these celebrities do it on purpose eventually? Because how can you be like the one about genes?

[1:24:40] Matt Ligouri: Do you remember that?

[1:24:41] Conor Burke: Oh, yeah, there's the genes where she was like, um, like I she that was intentional. She th because like she was talking about like jeans she was like driving.

[1:24:52] Matt Ligouri: My favorite dish is a mug.

[1:24:54] Conor Burke: The mug.

[1:24:55] Matt Ligouri: Yeah. She is like funny, but I don't I don't think that I don't think that's it's always intentional. Um but because like there's even some that are like and then I remember thinking to myself, I'm about to fuck this bitch up.

[1:25:09] Conor Burke: Um that's great. And then also like the frozen yogurt thing was that that is the moment.

[1:25:15] Matt Ligouri: That was a moment.

[1:25:16] Conor Burke: Yeah. That was a moment, that was a moment. How can she go about the rest of her weekend after that experience?

[1:25:22] Matt Ligouri: Um dude, the funniest thing about it is the way she just thought she ate that up.

[1:25:26] Conor Burke: She thought she ate that up.

[1:25:29] Matt Ligouri: Not the ogre, but you know what I mean.

[1:25:31] Conor Burke: Right. Well she cut it.

[1:25:32] Matt Ligouri: Yeah. Yeah, she got okay. Here's the thing with me. If you are a regular listener to this podcast, you might remember that like ships aren't necessarily my thing. They don't bear any emotional resonance on me.

[1:25:46] Conor Burke: So I but but I do find this song to be absolutely beautiful to unbelievable uh vocalists, as Matt has alluded to, gorgeous voices like would bring you to tears. Um I can imagine that this is going to be very divisive in some ways.

[1:26:09] Matt Ligouri: I don't know about you guys, but that's what I'm feeling at the moment.

[1:26:12] Conor Burke: I would say so.

[1:26:13] Matt Ligouri: Yeah. I think that's pretty uh pretty fair. It's like I asked for this, and here it is.

[1:26:19] Andrew: You wanted a fight.

[1:26:20] Conor Burke: I can't really like fight.

[1:26:22] Matt Ligouri: I mean, I could fight.

[1:26:23] Conor Burke: Uh well, I can't fight.

[1:26:24] Matt Ligouri: Um I could like try but like imagine fighting over such beauty here.

[1:26:28] Andrew: Like, am I gonna be like, you know, like I don't know.

[1:26:31] Conor Burke: But I mean, I know where I'm voting.

[1:26:33] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, I also do want to make reference to the fact that we were talking about um the dodgeball scene giving Disney Channel, and this is exactly what this performance is.

[1:26:44] Conor Burke: Yeah, the actual the exterior New York shots, except it's in LA.

[1:26:50] Matt Ligouri: I hate them. It's like it's giving Sesame Street. I cannot cope.

[1:26:55] Conor Burke: And then also, I mean, like talking about the um the Beth uh the Quinn pregnancy like um schedule, what a calendar year. Um uh because this is famously right after regionals, and so should be March, and they are just they're uh they're in those skimpy little uniforms just walking down the street, nobody's business.

[1:27:22] Matt Ligouri: I don't know. I I had pause, I had pause.

[1:27:26] Andrew: So um anything else? I do want to bring up the initial convers uh uh competition in round one.

[1:27:36] Conor Burke: This one against season three, America. It wasn't a good day for me.

[1:27:43] Matt Ligouri: Um but you voted for America.

[1:27:45] Conor Burke: I voted for America and then Alice in our Gleek of the Week. Um, Julian, who is also a huge um Demi fan, you know, obviously, had to go in favor of Demi.

[1:27:58] Matt Ligouri: It's good you've gotten, you know, the Demi stands on for uh the episodes where where her songs come up because there aren't many, um especially one where she's like featured not only just like in the background of like you know, hold on or something, but uh as prominently as she is in this this beautiful duet between two gorgeous people and singers, and it's just so great.

[1:28:16] Andrew: I don't know, Connor, where you're voting, but I just uh in case you need a last minute pitch. Uh it's so beautiful.

[1:28:22] Conor Burke: Um placing my vote on the record for Here Comes the Sun.

[1:28:25] Matt Ligouri: And I'll be doing Express Yourself.

[1:28:27] Conor Burke: Oh fuck all. I hate this. Now I'm gonna look like the evil one either way, Andrew. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

[1:28:36] Andrew: Okay. Um my god. Wait, just talk us through everything that's going on.

[1:28:48] Conor Burke: Okay. Okay, yeah. So here's what Okay, so here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna vote for Here Comes the Sun.

[1:28:56] Matt Ligouri: Okay.

[1:28:56] Conor Burke: Wow. And literally 30 seconds ago, I'm gonna go. I think I felt my heart just pop again. We all know I love the girlies. We all know I love the women on this show. There are so many Madonna songs that are gonna go a lot further.

[1:29:13] Matt Ligouri: There's so many Madonna songs, there's so many of the girly songs.

[1:29:17] Conor Burke: Exactly. We're not gonna get a lot of Demi representation. Throw into that with the Naya of it all, with the emotionality connected to it. One of the most gorgeous songs ever written.

[1:29:29] Matt Ligouri: The bisexuality erasure, yes.

[1:29:33] Conor Burke: Um you're not wrong, but no, no, no. Okay, no, it's fine. I um really appreciate that. Yeah, I feel like I'm maybe justifying it to myself as I keep talking, but that is you know, someone had a gun to my head right now, I'd be I'd be going for Here Comes the Sun.

[1:29:48] Matt Ligouri: I have to. I do love Express Yourself. I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.

[1:29:54] Conor Burke: I don't love you enough.

[1:29:57] Matt Ligouri: I will say, I know that you're not gonna I'm not this is not to rescind your vote or anything or to sway you in a decision that you've already made. I will say um a legal note about Express Yourself is I found out like a week or two ago that like Express Yourself is the Glee number with the most of the main six girls actually on the vocals.

[1:30:20] Conor Burke: Oh no, I just thought that was really interesting information.

[1:30:23] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, it was it was five of the six. Britney's the only one not on the track.

[1:30:29] Conor Burke: I still don't feel bad about it because I've done so much on this podcast, maybe not bigging up the women, but definitely dissing the men. So, and my last thing about it, which I didn't want to bring up earlier, and like feel like I was using this to persuade votes because that's not what I was going for, uh, for obvious reasons. What I'm about to say is after Naya passed, um Demi like tweeted uh or like put out like on social media just posts about like how great of an experience and the great of a time that she had in filming uh this and being uh Santana's girlfriend and whatnot, and just like I was not expecting that.

[1:31:00] Andrew: I mean, you you think of like when you have celebrities on the show, um, not to say that like they wouldn't pay attention to like a real life tragedy kind of thing, but just to hear or just to have like Demi post and likes it just a short period of time that she was on the show, but she seemed to have such a great experience with it, and I think that that even further sits in my heart when I watch this.

[1:31:17] Conor Burke: Uh, and I was just talking about the quarterback and like some of the songs that have real life things that like I still it it makes me feel certain types of way. Like this is uh a similar type of vibe, but yeah, yeah. I remember feeling the same way about like even these like huge celebrities like Ricky Martin and like Gwyneth Paltrow, like like taking the time out of their day to write these beautiful tributes to Naya that it's like imagine like a co-worker that you had for like a week or two, you know, 10 years ago.

[1:31:46] Matt Ligouri: That it's like that to to put that out there.

[1:31:49] Conor Burke: I think it's just like I don't know, it speaks very high of who she was as a person and the effect that she had on people.

[1:31:55] Andrew: So amen.

[1:31:56] Conor Burke: Amen. Amen. I'm okay with the decision.

[1:31:59] Matt Ligouri: It's okay, it's okay.

[1:32:00] Conor Burke: Thank you, um this yeah.

[1:32:02] Andrew: Oh my god, you were you're so welcome. That was that was tough for me, but I I feel I feel I feel so happy about it to be honest.

[1:32:12] Matt Ligouri: Like, I this is I I I think that we deserve that representation, and I know that like the shippers would be coming for my ass had I voted for Express Yourself.

[1:32:22] Conor Burke: So and then I'm uh I'm a Britanna girly till the day I die.

[1:32:27] Matt Ligouri: But like come on.

[1:32:29] Andrew: Um I feel like Andrew, I I also want to put on the record this is like the happiest I've been with the decision that I've been involved with on the oh, I'm so glad.

[1:32:38] Conor Burke: I need to put my feelings out there and express myself.

[1:32:41] Matt Ligouri: Express yourself.

[1:32:43] Andrew: Getting into competition number two. Maybe we can keep these fights going. Who knows?

[1:32:48] Conor Burke: That was like low key stressful, no?

[1:32:51] Matt Ligouri: It was not stressful in the sense of like, you know, like gloves were off for the most part, but wait, yeah, because I feel like I need to clarify, Andrew. Was that a tough competition for you?

[1:33:01] Andrew: No, I'm just glad that we didn't wait. I feel like there was a there was a string of episodes where we were all agreeing on every single competition, which I don't particularly think is like fantastic content, entertaining.

[1:33:14] Conor Burke: Um, I mean we can have the conversation around it, but like I it's just like every once in a while if the to have two versus three, two versus one, I think is fun.

[1:33:24] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, sure. I want someone crying at some point 100%.

[1:33:28] Andrew: Okay, so we agree. I have this is like I think it could make for a um a fun competition.

[1:33:37] Conor Burke: I sure hope so. If they have the the proper competitor, you're gonna know exactly what it is.

[1:33:45] Matt Ligouri: Two, three, four.

[1:33:47] Conor Burke: I know what boys like, I know what guys want.

[1:33:52] Matt Ligouri: I see them look key.

[1:33:55] Conor Burke: I make them want me.

[1:33:58] Matt Ligouri: I like to tease them.

[1:34:00] Conor Burke: I know what boys buy, boys like boys like I see you're sad now.

[1:34:16] Matt Ligouri: Sorry, I teased you.

[1:34:21] Conor Burke: This time I mean it.

[1:34:26] Matt Ligouri: Anything you want to chest me.

[1:34:30] Conor Burke: I really want to chess.

[1:34:35] Matt Ligouri: How would you like it?

[1:34:41] Conor Burke: Sucker.

[1:34:44] Matt Ligouri: I got my cat move.

[1:34:47] Conor Burke: That's so upset them.

[1:34:49] Matt Ligouri: Zippers and buttons.

[1:34:54] Conor Burke: They get so angry.

[1:34:56] Matt Ligouri: Like pouty children.

[1:34:58] Conor Burke: Deny their candy.

[1:35:01] Matt Ligouri: I'll have fry at them.

[1:35:03] Conor Burke: I know what boys like.

[1:35:06] Matt Ligouri: Boys like.

[1:35:08] Conor Burke: Boys like me.

[1:35:14] Matt Ligouri: Absolutely iconic.

[1:35:16] Conor Burke: Absolutely iconic.

[1:35:19] Matt Ligouri: The way she just the way she just fucks Brittany and Tina onto the floor at the very end of the performance.

[1:35:26] Conor Burke: I remember like watching that live and being like, oh, I may this is gonna become like a major plot point that like she stopped the violence.

[1:35:36] Matt Ligouri: But they don't even address it, that they like she pushes both of them to the ground. Incredible.

[1:35:42] Conor Burke: This is so good. I love this.

[1:35:45] Matt Ligouri: I love a bit of Ashley, I love a bit of Lauren. One of the best scenes in Glee history ever is the Lauren and Santana Friday in the corridor. We love it.

[1:35:55] Conor Burke: Um is a dominatrix confirmed.

[1:35:58] Matt Ligouri: So is a dominatrix confirmed.

[1:36:00] Conor Burke: Yes, I love. I I love that the those all of those underwear um choices were so inspired. I felt that it was like really telling of all the characters.

[1:36:11] Matt Ligouri: I love sure. Are these uh the sweaters that you had uh put in that post lately?

[1:36:17] Conor Burke: There's a horse, there's a horse, there's a was that those two?

[1:36:19] Matt Ligouri: Oh yeah, that's um from Sweet Honey Bucking from Cowboy Carter. Um that part.

[1:36:24] Conor Burke: I just was wondering if those are the sweaters. I thought those are the sweaters.

[1:36:26] Matt Ligouri: Look at that horse, look at that horse, look at that horse.

[1:36:28] Conor Burke: Yes.

[1:36:29] Matt Ligouri: Um that's great. I mean, the outfits are obviously a standalone in this. I was just sitting here talking about like how's crush going through that's kind of wild, and then I'm like, yeah, no, I could I could put a vote on this uh to go through for round uh three.

[1:36:43] Conor Burke: So I mean it's there's so many things happening here all at once. There's the very obvious, like, okay, Lauren Zises, like crushing a performance, you know, who would have expected um slay.

[1:36:55] Matt Ligouri: Um and then you also like you know, your gay attention shifts to like okay, Cordover Street, like the things that I used to think as I was watching Court over Street uh without a shirt on Glee.

[1:37:04] Conor Burke: Um yeah, so and then I'm having that conversation in my head, while then you cut to Harry Schum Jr. in the same breath, uh the same uh uh mind process uh thought process of like I I can't think straight.

[1:37:19] Matt Ligouri: Um quite literally.

[1:37:21] Conor Burke: Wait, why?

[1:37:22] Matt Ligouri: They were both shirtless.

[1:37:24] Conor Burke: Yeah.

[1:37:25] Matt Ligouri: Connor really needs this spelled out.

[1:37:28] Conor Burke: And it was very distracting in the best way possible.

[1:37:31] Matt Ligouri: Um, and then Lauren's Ice's killing it. It's just there's a lot going on here.

[1:37:35] Conor Burke: The outfits beyond just the two of them.

[1:37:37] Matt Ligouri: Uh yeah, it's no, I'm also camp.

[1:37:40] Conor Burke: Yeah, it is very fun, and also I love that we see, and I love that you cut it that we see right before this musical performance begins. We see Lauren go two, three, four.

[1:37:54] Matt Ligouri: Literally, literally me coming on this podcast.

[1:37:58] Conor Burke: Um again, just to circle back, I love and I'm in love, Tina and Brittany as a little duo. Anyone remember AJNF spotlight?

[1:38:10] Matt Ligouri: A spotlight. Is that you? Isn't that please? We need more of them.

[1:38:16] Andrew: Come back.

[1:38:17] Conor Burke: They're the single ladies dancers.

[1:38:18] Matt Ligouri: They're the single ladies dancing.

[1:38:19] Conor Burke: They do be backing up.

[1:38:22] Matt Ligouri: They do be backing up and they do be doing it with style.

[1:38:25] Conor Burke: And then one of them did it for six seasons.

[1:38:29] Matt Ligouri: That's true.

[1:38:32] Andrew: This is a lot of fun. I don't know if you the best thing I've ever learned by listening to this podcast is how is how Lauren and Rory just do not interact.

[1:38:48] Conor Burke: See, like that's how like my like that really is a glimpse into my mind, the way that like that was figured out. I was like, wait a minute. What were they talking about?

[1:38:56] Matt Ligouri: No, the fact that like so they're not in the same seasons. Are they?

[1:39:02] Conor Burke: No.

[1:39:02] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, they are.

[1:39:03] Conor Burke: No, they're not.

[1:39:04] Matt Ligouri: They are.

[1:39:04] Conor Burke: So here's the here's what Connor is referencing. Okay, sorry. That like I figured it out that, like, okay, so obviously um Lauren makes her first appearance in season one wheels, and then um continues to make appearances uh throughout season two, and then her final appearances is um during Run the World Girls in Asian F.

[1:39:21] Matt Ligouri: The next episode, Rory appears, and then he is um he is throughout season three, obviously, and then he makes his final appearance in Glee actually and isn't there for the rest of the series.

[1:39:32] Conor Burke: The episode after Glee actually is City Hawkins, and so Lauren's Izee takes back the torch. There isn't there is no same room.

[1:39:41] Matt Ligouri: They no, they just like they don't even like they can't occupy it's like oh it's Rory's time, like Lauren can't be here anymore, which I think is so it's obviously not even.

[1:39:50] Conor Burke: No, it was giving like Leah and Naya in like you know, just a different sense. Like they couldn't be working on the same set.

[1:39:53] Matt Ligouri: There just had to be so many.

[1:39:56] Conor Burke: Why is there certainly precautions put into place.

[1:40:00] Andrew: I just noticed Audio Medium that for whatever reason I am one of 663 people that Ashley Fink follows on Twitter.

[1:40:07] Conor Burke: Okay.

[1:40:09] Matt Ligouri: I swear on my mother's life, and I swear on my fucking life, I do not know why.

[1:40:14] Conor Burke: Well, it's so funny because like in the last episode, um Nicole. She I I meant to ask her this in the recording, but it it's fine.

[1:40:23] Andrew: I asked her after. I was like, hey, Nicole, I've had this question for the longest time. I see that Ashley Fink follows you on Instagram. Like, what is that even about?

[1:40:28] Conor Burke: And um, she was like, I think that it was like you that posted about like how Lauren was supposed to sing a song with Kurt in the rumors episode, but then didn't.

[1:40:40] Andrew: And so then, like, she and then Nicole posted something and tagged Ashley, and then Ashley followed.

[1:40:46] Conor Burke: And I'm like, Oh, so Ashley?

[1:40:49] Andrew: Oh no, you're not following the person that initially shared the information, but um, whatever.

[1:40:54] Conor Burke: I love this for for you, Connor. I love this for for Nicole as well.

[1:40:58] Matt Ligouri: That they see greatness.

[1:41:00] Conor Burke: Um they really did sorry, can you just say that again? I didn't quite catch up.

[1:41:03] Andrew: That Ashley Fink knows greatness when she sees it.

[1:41:09] Conor Burke: And she saw it in in your Twitter account in Nicole's Instagram.

[1:41:13] Matt Ligouri: I've had one interaction with Ashley Fink, um, where due to timing and you can put the pieces together, it was mid 2020.

[1:41:20] Conor Burke: Um, she unfortunately had to deny a cameo request uh that I really sent like a very long nice message of just like because it was uh it was a cameo that was supposed to be for the choir room.

[1:41:29] Matt Ligouri: Amon and I had both pulled the 50 bucks maybe together to uh you know to purchase this, and we were like, Hey, this is like for the podcast.

[1:41:38] Conor Burke: We like told our listeners that we wanted to, you know, get a cameo from you.

[1:41:42] Matt Ligouri: Um and she was she responded, being like, for obvious reasons she's not really you know in the mood at the moment to do that, but she appreciates the podcast, and I think she was like, I'll have to check it out sometime.

[1:41:52] Conor Burke: And I was like, you won't, but it would be so nice.

[1:41:55] Matt Ligouri: No, that is very sweet.

[1:41:56] Conor Burke: Yeah, no, I love her so much.

[1:41:58] Matt Ligouri: She I made that like that Connor, what you were referencing, the the Damien and Ashley no overlap.

[1:42:05] Conor Burke: I made that into a graphic like over a year ago.

[1:42:07] Matt Ligouri: Oh my god, I know, I know how how one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

[1:42:12] Conor Burke: Oh, I but Ashley engaged with it.

[1:42:16] Matt Ligouri: Um, and she was like, the reason being is your guess is as good as mine or something.

[1:42:22] Conor Burke: And so she played into it.

[1:42:24] Matt Ligouri: Um but I love her so much, and she has like literally been her and Vanessa Lengies are two people that I understand I have a very parasocial relationship with both of them that I'm like, I know that we would vibe.

[1:42:36] Conor Burke: I know I'm yeah, oh my god, one billion percent.

[1:42:38] Matt Ligouri: I get that too.

[1:42:40] Conor Burke: Can we have the time of their lives on uh two hours?

[1:42:44] Matt Ligouri: Ashley and Vanessa the thing about Ashley and Vanessa is that it just seems like neither of them give a fuck, and I'm so here for it.

[1:42:50] Conor Burke: You know what I mean? They just really do not give a fuck.

[1:42:53] Matt Ligouri: I don't know like when her friendship with Chris Colfer started, if it was on Glee or beforehand, but like it just seems like in in my head I'm gonna say that they became friends on set and that you know, years after this is where they are.

[1:43:03] Conor Burke: So like she showed up, she made her bestie for life, and like she walked away, like, okay, I got what I needed out of this. That's my thought.

[1:43:09] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, no, I think that it's such a cute relationship.

[1:43:12] Conor Burke: And typically, I would only say this in the company of um two other gay men.

[1:43:16] Matt Ligouri: Typically, I'm not really that crazy about women that like surround themselves with gay men, that it's like that that's kind of their shtick.

[1:43:22] Conor Burke: But Ashley Fink is the ex uh exception here.

[1:43:25] Matt Ligouri: I'm okay with you just paling around with gay men um as much as as you'd like.

[1:43:31] Conor Burke: You are your you're one of us as far as I should be able to do.

[1:43:34] Andrew: Join this podcast recording as well. We have three more songs to play.

[1:43:38] Conor Burke: I will DM this to her on Twitter.

[1:43:42] Matt Ligouri: I don't the context, I don't know.

[1:43:43] Conor Burke: I don't know actually if she would appreciate like, hey, Andrew Andrew's saying like he doesn't really like it usually like.

[1:43:52] Matt Ligouri: But it's the same thing as like Diana saying, like, I'm an old soul, which is like, okay, like it gag me with a a spoon, you know, if anybody else said it.

[1:43:58] Conor Burke: But like when Diana says that I'm like, that is yeah, yeah, I know exactly.

[1:44:01] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, that is so I will I will co-sign off on all of that.

[1:44:04] Conor Burke: And also Ashley Fink is just a wonderful, wonderful comedic actress.

[1:44:10] Matt Ligouri: I think she is my brilliant show, yeah.

[1:44:14] Conor Burke: I mean, to be clear, like from what Andrew was just saying, by the way, the first line in her bio on Instagram is a rainbow flag, and then it says the word ally.

[1:44:24] Matt Ligouri: Oh, that's so cute.

[1:44:27] Conor Burke: And I know she means it too.

[1:44:29] Matt Ligouri: I think that okay, to to further put context on that, I think that they're obviously so we all know them where it's like they're they want to be surrounded by gay men for the gag of being around gay men, but um when it's authentic and they actually like give a fuck about who you are besides you know who you're attracted to, then I can vibe.

[1:44:46] Conor Burke: So one of my favorite Christmas one of my favorite um Lauren lines is when Sue stops around the hallway and goes, Why are you wearing that Christmas hat?

[1:44:55] Matt Ligouri: Because it's Christmas and it's fun.

[1:44:57] Conor Burke: It's Christmas, it's fun.

[1:44:58] Matt Ligouri: There's like the whole like there's like a string of episodes in season two where like Puck and Lauren like have like they have like the continuous like C or like D pot like it's like sprinkled through.

[1:45:09] Conor Burke: Like they have things to do.

[1:45:12] Matt Ligouri: And I think I love season two for someone uh so much for Zen.

[1:45:16] Conor Burke: Does anyone remember the cultural discourse around that relationship as Glee was airing?

[1:45:20] Matt Ligouri: And it was fucking horrendous.

[1:45:22] Conor Burke: It was literally like, why would he be with someone like her? Does anyone remember this?

[1:45:26] Matt Ligouri: And she was being uh Ashley was being asked this in interviews, as was Mark Salling.

[1:45:31] Conor Burke: Like there were interviewers were asking them this question.

[1:45:34] Matt Ligouri: I don't remember, but I believe it.

[1:45:36] Conor Burke: I remember specifically Rosie O'Donnell did not like the character the character of Lauren Zizes.

[1:45:41] Matt Ligouri: I do remember that.

[1:45:42] Conor Burke: And I remember like getting that information, knowing who Rosie O'Donnell was, going to my mom to share that information because I had nobody else to share that information with, and her looking at me like not sure what you want me to do with this.

[1:45:54] Matt Ligouri: Um wait, why didn't Rosie because I love Rosie O'Donnell?

[1:45:58] Conor Burke: Why didn't Rosie like I wouldn't there has to be tapes somewhere still?

[1:46:03] Matt Ligouri: Oh god, I don't even know if it was like a tape.

[1:46:05] Conor Burke: I feel like it was like on like you know how like on like a Wikipedia page you can like see like um reception.

[1:46:13] Matt Ligouri: There's like a tab of like on a um yeah a fictional character where it's like how the character was received, and I feel like one of the things, and it wasn't probably it wasn't a sprawling list by any means, but um but Rosie did at one point I don't know where it is, but she did not like Lauren.

[1:46:31] Conor Burke: So maybe what she meant was I don't like Lauren's relationship because why would she settle for a guy like Puck who doesn't know what he's doing with his life, is not the the the nicest kid, so maybe she meant that.

[1:46:45] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, probably not.

[1:46:47] Conor Burke: I'm gonna go out in a limb here.

[1:46:49] Matt Ligouri: I didn't I didn't I didn't hate Lauren and Puck at all.

[1:46:53] Conor Burke: I didn't hate it either.

[1:46:55] Matt Ligouri: I thought it was funny.

[1:46:57] Conor Burke: Rosie O'Donnell. You haven't lived a day in her shoes.

[1:46:59] Matt Ligouri: That's true.

[1:47:00] Conor Burke: I feel like I feel like Elizabeth Hasselbeck on the view right now.

[1:47:05] Matt Ligouri: Um that's a dangerous territory.

[1:47:08] Conor Burke: Suddenly there's a split screen and we're fine.

[1:47:11] Matt Ligouri: Carousel carrots on the car itself.

[1:47:14] Conor Burke: Um but I yeah, I didn't hate um Puck and Lauren together.

[1:47:19] Matt Ligouri: I thought there was something really enigmatic about it.

[1:47:21] Conor Burke: I don't know whether that's because both actors maybe got along really well in real life and that played off on screen.

[1:47:28] Matt Ligouri: There was something really well, I think nice about them.

[1:47:31] Conor Burke: For me, which I uh what I thought was really fascinating was that it it and similarly to like uh Matt, how you were referencing like Santana getting nervous, that it was like we were seeing Puck through a lens that we are not familiar to seeing him in, that it's like, oh, like this girl that we would typically think is like uh beneath him or like not his type or anything, is suddenly she's the one with l the the torch that she's holding the power here, and I think that that was like really fascinating dynamic for the two of them.

[1:48:02] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, especially as he would like offend her singing fat bottom girls and whatnot, and then like actually be like, oh shit, like I didn't mean to make you upset because I actually do really like you.

[1:48:10] Conor Burke: So yeah.

[1:48:11] Matt Ligouri: It was interesting.

[1:48:12] Conor Burke: Lest we lest we forget, lest we forget the Lauren Zyces was the gal that instigated the Lucy Caboosey of it all.

[1:48:21] Matt Ligouri: Oh yeah, she was.

[1:48:25] Conor Burke: Lucy Cabusy.

[1:48:26] Matt Ligouri: Lucy Cabusi, who famously, and I have checked the tapes, Lucy Cabusey, who was never referenced ever again after going this way.

[1:48:34] Conor Burke: Why would she just be?

[1:48:35] Matt Ligouri: Oh, and don't don't you remember, don't you remember when Quinn was like, oh, they used to they used to really make my life hurt and call me names Juicy Lucy?

[1:48:43] Conor Burke: Juicy Lucy Which also, okay.

[1:48:48] Matt Ligouri: But like this is the I I know this like bothers other cliques as well because they've shared this.

[1:48:52] Conor Burke: The fact that she does say she was like, what do they call you, Juicy Lucy?

[1:48:56] Matt Ligouri: And then and then at the end of that scene, she's like, you might want to go check the hallway.

[1:49:00] Conor Burke: And then it says Lucy Caboosey.

[1:49:02] Matt Ligouri: And it's like, wait a minute, but you thought it was Juicy Lucy.

[1:49:05] Conor Burke: So I don't know.

[1:49:06] Matt Ligouri: She was two steps ahead.

[1:49:07] Conor Burke: People could people can say whatever they want about the writers of Glee. One thing they're really good at are naming things.

[1:49:15] Matt Ligouri: Anyone remember anyone remember the iconic Sue line?

[1:49:18] Conor Burke: Your sister's name is Denise Beast.

[1:49:21] Matt Ligouri: Does she live under a bridge?

[1:49:23] Conor Burke: Is that it?

[1:49:26] Matt Ligouri: Not Denise Beast.

[1:49:28] Conor Burke: So somewhere in an alternate universe, Denise Beast and Lucy Cabusey are fucking it up together, you know.

[1:49:34] Matt Ligouri: I know.

[1:49:35] Conor Burke: I feel like we we're going a little bit over over more over time than usual.

[1:49:41] Matt Ligouri: Um, does anybody want to put a stamp at the end of this I know what boys like conversation before we see what it's against?

[1:49:47] Conor Burke: We get the idea.

[1:49:48] Matt Ligouri: We're good.

[1:49:48] Conor Burke: We get the idea.

[1:49:49] Andrew: I feel like Lauren knows what these three boys like and I do.

[1:49:55] Conor Burke: That's great.

[1:49:56] Andrew: Especially one of them who she follows, but not the other two as much.

[1:50:00] Conor Burke: Yeah.

[1:50:03] Andrew: Okay.

[1:50:06] Conor Burke: I wish we could go back to the A B.

[1:50:08] Andrew: That was kind of fun.

[1:50:08] Conor Burke: Controlling our own destiny.

[1:50:10] Matt Ligouri: Not this guy.

[1:50:11] Andrew: If every audio medium, if everyone could see Andrew's face, I suppose.

[1:50:16] Conor Burke: It is so do you know what the best one of the best things about being on this podcast is?

[1:50:20] Andrew: Is when you're on the podcast, you can obviously see the people that you're talking to.

[1:50:25] Conor Burke: But what that means when you're listening to another episode of the podcast that you were not on, you can literally see Andrew's face.

[1:50:33] Matt Ligouri: Even though all you're doing is listening.

[1:50:35] Andrew: Listen.

[1:50:36] Conor Burke: Video uh video podcasts uh we'd love to release them on Patreon otherwise, like at some point.

[1:50:43] Andrew: I would like people to be able to witness these recordings because I I think they're they're they're fun.

[1:50:50] Conor Burke: Okay, here we go.

[1:50:53] Matt Ligouri: Oh, I see the color.

[1:50:55] Conor Burke: We see it's uh it's a purple piano.

[1:50:58] Matt Ligouri: Oh any ideas?

[1:51:00] Conor Burke: Oh, I thought you were just gonna play.

[1:51:02] Matt Ligouri: Um I don't know.

[1:51:03] Conor Burke: Wait a sec, let me think.

[1:51:06] Matt Ligouri: I mean, did one of those here comes the beat, we got the beat go through.

[1:51:10] Conor Burke: I don't remember.

[1:51:11] Matt Ligouri: It's it's neither of those.

[1:51:12] Conor Burke: Oh, really?

[1:51:13] Matt Ligouri: Um wait, are we in the house?

[1:51:14] Conor Burke: Is it Ding Dong the Witch is dead?

[1:51:16] Matt Ligouri: It is Ding Dong the Witch is dead.

[1:51:55] ♪ Musical number: "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" — performed by Glee Cast ♪

[1:52:08] Matt Ligouri: Oh Ding dong, the wicked witch is dead.

[1:52:49] Andrew: Why everyone's glad she took such a crowd in. Getting hit by a house is even wise than drowning. Let them know the wicked old witch is dead.

[1:53:04] Matt Ligouri: Those kids are never even gonna know it hit them. Oh my god, the delusion.

[1:53:08] Conor Burke: The delusion. I feel like I need to start the discourse here. Because I feel like context is very important for potentially why the song is here in round two today.

[1:53:19] Andrew: Yes.

[1:53:19] Conor Burke: I do like it for the record, but it wasn't until Patrick came on in his first appearance in round one of the Glacket. And his singular competition for that episode was "A Thousand Years," the Charlie Duet versus this song. And me and Allison were like, obviously, "A Thousand Years" is gonna go through. It's like that gives the better Glee song, you would imagine. But then Patrick really made me understand the full camp and gag of this performance. And I think that when I look away from this song, and I'm not actively listening or watching it, I'm like, oh, that's not a good one. I don't really know her. I don't like that's not for me. But until I'm actually listening to it or watching it, I'm like, oh, I understand her. She makes sense to me. Uh, what's the there's like the um Wella, the Wicked Witch. I love that. And then get out of that bed. Like, it's so stupid. And I love it. It actually makes for a much harder competition now than I initially thought.

[1:54:25] Matt Ligouri: But kind of wishing you didn't bring up "A Thousand Years" because forgetting that that was not in the Glacket anymore was the better path for me to not be upset. Um, sorry.

[1:54:37] Conor Burke: It's okay. But I'm the same exact way as you when it comes to this song of just like if I'm not thinking about it, I'm just like, I'm really not thinking about it. Like it's not gonna come up in my head, it's not gonna, it's gonna probably get a little skippy-doo on my phone when I'm playing some Glee music. And like watching it, I'm like, okay, this is fun. This is camp. This is good. Some notes are hit, some gags are gagged. But it's still like, I mean, no matter how much I can sit here and appreciate it, like, I'm still not like holding it deep within my you know, little Glee heart of like things that I hold on to tightly. And I'm not saying that the other song exactly is that. It's two songs that are kind of on that same tier for me. I feel like my vote could go either way.

[1:55:20] Andrew: Oh, interesting. Connor, what are you thinking?

[1:55:23] Conor Burke: Um, you know, what I will say is I love this episode. I am down bad for the Purple Piano Project. It is everything to me that Glee is about these kids following these dreams. Um, this song when Glee was airing, I used to think they ate this up. I was like, this is the best thing since sliced bread. Because me and a really good friend of mine, Cloda, were literally Rachel and Kurt. We would duet "Happy Days Are Here Again," "Get Happy" for other people against their will. Um, it's your right. It's my right. It's gay rights. Um, it's okay. This is an interesting one to me because I feel like Hummelberry, whilst I love them, kind of piss me off in this scenario. Because why is it that up until this point they think that Juilliard has a musical theatre program?

Now, for one of them to not notice it, fair enough, but for both collective delusion. This is exactly one episode after Rachel Berry doesn't realize that "Cats" has been closed on Broadway for 17 billion years. So I'm starting to think that this bitch never deserved her place at NYADA.

[1:56:49] Matt Ligouri: Which I think actually might be the more interesting character choice. That it's like this girl that really is a self-proclaimed like Broadway theater aficionado. Um, she actually is not delivering. I don't I that's definitely not the case, but I it's the more interesting character to me.

[1:57:07] Conor Burke: It also does give um it yields to one of my favourite Hummelberry scenes of all time when they're in the car talking at the end. I love that.

[1:57:14] Matt Ligouri: It's got my favourite like Glee um like quote unquote mistake in that scene, too, where it uh on Rachel's side of the car, it is like literally pissing rain, and on the other side, it's just completely dry.

[1:57:30] Conor Burke: And also if you watch back that scene, it's like not even they're not even pretending to make it look like rain either. It's just like kind of like dribbling down. And it's like we got this right one time with Quinn and Terry, and it's never gonna be correct again.

[1:57:46] Matt Ligouri: If you're in if you're in a car on Glee, it it gonna be if a parked car on Glee, then it's gonna be it's gonna be raining.

[1:57:55] Conor Burke: Was it uh was it raining for Mercedes and Rachel?

[1:57:58] Matt Ligouri: It was in "Night of Neglect."

[1:58:00] Conor Burke: Yeah, yes, it was. Because like Rachel's like, let me into the car, let me in, it's raining. But if you're by yourself, it doesn't rain and you do crash. And then Terry Terry being in Quinn's car. Oh my god, absolutely iconic. Oh, all the love to Dianna, obviously.

[1:58:21] Andrew: Wait, oh sorry, go ahead.

[1:58:22] Conor Burke: What is the only exception? Are you talking about Tina and Rachel?

[1:58:25] Matt Ligouri: No, um, no, that's a moving car.

[1:58:28] Conor Burke: That's oh, that's a movie.

[1:58:29] Matt Ligouri: No, but Finn and Quinn at the end of season three.

[1:58:32] Conor Burke: Oh, oh yeah, and Rachel and Finn.

[1:58:35] Matt Ligouri: Right, right. But I think when you're breaking up with someone, then it that affects the weather pattern.

[1:58:39] Conor Burke: There should have been rain.

[1:58:40] Matt Ligouri: Yeah. And then yeah, then Finn and Rachel, exactly.

[1:58:44] Conor Burke: I would personally love to see a version of "Roots Before Branches" where it's pissing rain. It's like all of them are like waiting and they're like they're just drenched.

[1:58:57] Andrew: Speaking of transportation methods, I'm pretty sure it was uh Kevin and Jenna's podcast. Apologies if I'm confusing it for uh Glee of the Week. But uh I think that they were talking about uh because they're at this point in season three, that uh the that Rachel gets on the train to go to New York. Um tell me why all these years later, all these fucking years later, that now for the first time I realize why did she not take a plane? Like not to like get to like such a yeah whatever, but like I I never even once considered that. Why did she take a train?

[1:59:28] Conor Burke: She was looking after her carbon footprint. She was the Greta Thunberg of her time. She was telling me.

[1:59:35] Matt Ligouri: She was really down with the kit. I mean, she was at Rachel Berry was one of the first one of the world's first vegans. Come on.

[1:59:41] Conor Burke: She was. It depended on the episode.

[1:59:44] Andrew: I that conversation from And That's What You Really Miss made me realize for the first time. I don't know. Like they were like, Jenna, I think brought up that was like, oh, she wouldn't be coming into Grand Central, she would be coming into Penn Station. And I was like, oh, never thought of that before. That obviously.

[2:00:01] Matt Ligouri: But obviously the the cinematica of coming to Grand Central.

[2:00:05] Conor Burke: They said running after the train more sense, of course, in the grand scheme of things. But uh like Finn wouldn't have been able to get past security in the airport. Uh, you know.

[2:00:13] Andrew: Right. I truly just needed to remind myself this is no shade to the conversation because I'm enjoying it. I was like, what song are we talking about here? Um anybody have anything else to add about "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead"? Uh I think I know which way I'll vote.

[2:00:28] Matt Ligouri: Well, so I don't know. I'm not like the one in the passionate spot here. I feel like is Connor.

[2:00:34] Conor Burke: Um I it's so strange because I would be glad with either of these going through. However, I would be fine with both of them going home.

[2:00:48] Andrew: That's that's not how the show works.

[2:00:50] Conor Burke: I I swear to the show works.

[2:00:53] Matt Ligouri: Really? I've said there should be times where both songs get to go through and times where both songs can uh stay back. I don't know how that would work. Um, but uh I would say I mean Andrew, do you feel passionate either way?

[2:01:04] Andrew: Because I think I think I know what you're gonna be doing. I think I'm passionate. I'm more passionate and just like passionate about both. I'm not like lacking passion for either. So it is kind of like a hard decision for me. But I think I'm leaning toward one over the other. I think I'm leaning I think I'm leaning. I think I'm leaning Tower of Pisa at the moment.

[2:01:25] Matt Ligouri: Which and do we want to start it off?

[2:01:28] Conor Burke: Wait, wait, wait. Lauren Leaning Tower of Z no, that doesn't work.

[2:01:33] Matt Ligouri: That's okay. Uh for effort. We take big friends. We take big sisma.

[2:01:41] Andrew: Yeah. Um I am going to vote. Should I? Are we there emotionally?

[2:01:46] Conor Burke: I think well, we're an hour and 56 minutes into the recording, I think.

[2:01:49] Matt Ligouri: Yeah.

[2:01:50] Andrew: Oh my god, time goes back to the box. We're there. Um I am going to vote for "I Know What Boys Like."

[2:01:57] Matt Ligouri: Wow.

[2:01:58] Conor Burke: That's not what I expected. Um, so I kind of want to ask you where you're going, because if I'm a swing vote, I'm open to persuasion because I just am so indifferent.

[2:02:14] Andrew: No, make your vote. Make it.

[2:02:16] Matt Ligouri: Okay, well now I know what Andrew's going for. Um then I feel like I have to go ding dong. Uh really okay, really.

[2:02:33] Conor Burke: Wait, that doesn't make sense.

[2:02:35] Andrew: In which ways did you reach that?

[2:02:39] Matt Ligouri: What do you mean?

[2:02:40] Andrew: Like, just how did I come to that decision?

[2:02:42] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, how did you come to that decision? I'm curious.

[2:02:45] Conor Burke: Um I think it's like that deep down me being like, okay, like crush, it's great you got here, but like let's let, you know, more realistic contenders go forward, and that's where I'm kind of at with "I Know What Boys Like." I mean, again, iconic, it's great, it's fun, but like reaching round two feels like a good enough landing spot for it.

[2:03:07] Andrew: I will be voting for "I Know What Boys Like."

[2:03:10] Conor Burke: Okay.

[2:03:10] Andrew: I think the the solidifying factor for me was that with "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead." I only realize that it's iconic when I'm watching it, and "I Know What Boys Like" is iconic regardless if I'm actually actively consuming it. So I know I'll leave my vote where it is, but like I could have gone either way.

[2:03:33] Matt Ligouri: It's sad because I I do really like I'm gonna stream um "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" later today.

[2:03:40] Conor Burke: And you're gonna say the same thing. You're gonna say, oh, this is fun, and then you're gonna forget that.

[2:03:43] Matt Ligouri: And then I'm gonna immediately my brain is going to be wiped.

[2:03:46] Conor Burke: Yeah. Sing it high, sing it low, and then you're gonna forget that the ding dong which is.

[2:03:51] Andrew: Uh okay. This was uh this has been a fun episode for competition so far. Like very good content. Okay, so I have first song of the final competition.

[2:04:01] Matt Ligouri: Mm-hmm.

[2:04:03] Andrew: It's also from a premiere episode. Um the season two premiere to be exact. We "What I Did for Love."

[2:04:14] Conor Burke: What I did for love it was dead on the site on round in round.

[2:04:18] Andrew: I don't think that that made it through, which is what was that roller.

[2:04:23] Conor Burke: I love her. What I did for love was against God, I know what this is already. Anyway, what was what was it against?

[2:04:31] Andrew: What I did for this two and a half minutes of pain.

[2:04:34] Conor Burke: Was against a house that's not a home. The colo version.

[2:04:38] Andrew: Okay.

[2:04:39] Conor Burke: Wrong, but moving on.

[2:04:40] Andrew: Yeah.

[2:04:41] Conor Burke: Okay, that is the wrong decision.

[2:04:42] Andrew: How did that did you vote for no vote for No, that was the I knew you would be on my side. I just listened to this episode recently because it was um was it John Locke's first episode? And Allison and John.

[2:04:54] Conor Burke: So it was Alison and John against you. I I literally you took the words out of my mouth.

[2:05:01] Andrew: Okay. Anyway, play play a billionaire. Here we go.

[2:05:06] ♪ Musical number: "Billionaire" — performed by Artie and Sam ♪

[2:06:20] ♪ Musical number: "Billionaire" — performed by Glee Cast ♪

[2:07:12] Andrew: I jammed out. Um, I appreciate a lot that I'm, I feel like in my time on this podcast, I'm able to kind of like go all over the course of my Glee fandom. Um, and this one takes me back to like when this episode came out much more than so many other songs do. Cause there's Glee songs that like I remember the time and place being there and like streaming these on those CDs in the car. Uh, and then there's the ones that like upon rewatch, I started to love more, and like vocally, I've fallen in love with over the past couple of years and beyond. But this one is one that just like while it contradicts what I said earlier about not liking songs that were like in the time, like in that moment and whatnot, like uh too much.

This was like so early on that like I don't know if I felt that quite yet. Um, and so it just it delivered what I needed as a young little baby Gleek, you know, keeping myself in the show, this new character who was, you know, uh this young, handsome new Chord Overstreet showing up on scene. Uh, like what is this? Like a couple episodes before he actually then does join the Glee Club. So you have like this little like waiting period, yeah, soft launch of Sam Evans into the club. Um, so it hits that nostalgia for me in a nice way. So it's nice to see it. I just remember because this was before like I was watching Glee live, but I remember like distinctly like the day in school after this episode aired, and people were like buzzing about this performance.

I remember my homeroom teacher, bless her heart, Miss Isler, and like she really missed the mark. She was like, Does did anybody watch Glee last night? And like everybody raised their hand. And they were like, the guy that sang "Billionaire," was that actually the one that sang the original song? He sounded a lot like you can call me Al, already Claus minus the house. Oh my god. Alrighty Claus minus the ho. Like this. Wait, how did this get through? Oh, this is a really interesting competition, actually, because it was against "Torn." Um, you just told me in the same 10 minutes that what I did for Love and "Torn" both didn't make it through. Well, and you already know that like I had nothing to do with that decision.

I know you already know. But um, "Torn," okay, so that was with uh the Time Mal Sheen podcast. Love them so dumb bad. Go check them out. Um, that so that was an episode where we have four people voting on competitions, and so with that competition in particular, we were quite literally torn on the competition, and so that was like one of the few that we actually sent to Instagram and was like vote in this poll, and it actually does check out at the end of the day that people like "Billionaire" more than "Torn." So yeah, but people on Instagram also prefer Glee the Music Volume 4 over volume three, so yeah, Ebbs and Close. Like you said, like it did it, it was it was everywhere. People were talking about it, it was on the charts. Yes, yeah, it was, you know, yeah. This song is on Glee Music Volume 4. Is that why you reference it, Conor?

[2:10:25] Conor Burke: Uh, I just know it just kind of, I just was kind of thinking back to that episode with you and I and Ian and how traumatic that was when I found out that Glee the Music Volume 4 actually won the Instagram poll by like a landslide for your conspiracy by Glee Cast.

[2:10:39] Matt Ligouri: Right.

[2:10:39] Conor Burke: Um, here's the whitest thing of this episode, I'm gonna say that of this episode. Uh, when people talk about discourse around rapping on Glee, I really don't, I don't cringe when Kevin McHale does it. Is that, is that crazy to say? I think he's really good?

[2:10:59] Andrew: Or am I? I think he's good.

[2:11:02] Conor Burke: I think, how do I want to add to this conversation? I think it's like, yeah, I mean, like I like to men blame it on the alcohol. I think that we can like kind of collectively agree. Whenever he rapped and whenever Naira rapped, I was here for it. I'm just gonna say it.

[2:11:20] Matt Ligouri: Yeah.

[2:11:21] Conor Burke: Uh, there are certain like I don't like him in cr doing the Jay-Z part in "Crazy in Love." I don't like him doing, there was like a few, there was a few other ones that I'm like he had plenty of hits. Plenty, plenty more hits than like obviously Will Schuster had, and there were times where it worked.

[2:11:37] Andrew: Yeah.

[2:11:38] Conor Burke: Um, fun fact is that uh this song, not the Gleekast version, came up at Trivia about a couple weeks ago. And the question was, uh it was like in the music round, and it was named the artist. Would you believe we got it wrong?

[2:11:54] Matt Ligouri: Oh, because it's like is it Bruno Mars featuring the other way around?

[2:11:59] Conor Burke: Oh, really? Is it, this is a Travis McCoy song featuring Bruno Mars.

[2:12:04] Matt Ligouri: Oh, that's so interesting.

[2:12:05] Conor Burke: Huh. You don't think of it that way. You think Bruno Mars.

[2:12:08] Andrew: Um, so when the answer was not Bruno Mars, it was Travis McCoy. Uh, that, I mean, you know, they're gonna get technical, those trivia uh answerers or question makers, but that uh threw me off, and I could have just answered Sam Evans, but Miss Isler thoughts.

[2:12:24] Conor Burke: This is, is it, is it offensive to say that this is my favorite era of Sam?

[2:12:30] Matt Ligouri: Uh, his first?

[2:12:30] Conor Burke: Why would it be offensive?

[2:12:33] Matt Ligouri: Offensive, no.

[2:12:36] Conor Burke: Because it suggests that the character just goes downhill from here.

[2:12:40] Andrew: Oh, that like the right that the his first appearance is his peak, and he immediately falls.

[2:12:46] Conor Burke: And then I, I really, I enjoy him in "Duets" too. I think he does a great job in that.

[2:12:53] Matt Ligouri: Because it was quite clear.

[2:12:56] Conor Burke: I don't know. I think the writers had not made up their mind as to what they were going to do with him by that point.

[2:13:01] Andrew: And then when they decided to make him another Britney, I was, I was checked the fuck out.

[2:13:07] Conor Burke: Actually, maybe all of season two. I maybe all of season two I enjoyed him.

[2:13:11] Matt Ligouri: I think maybe all of season two.

[2:13:13] Conor Burke: I think there was something really um like charming about him.

[2:13:16] Matt Ligouri: I really like him.

[2:13:17] Conor Burke: Yeah, there was.

[2:13:18] Matt Ligouri: Yeah.

[2:13:18] Conor Burke: Like in like "Prom Queen" specifically, the fact that like I love him and um Mercedes and Rachel initially going to prom all together. Um, I thought was very, very sweet and like I don't know, true to all their characters.

[2:13:31] Andrew: Season five, Sam is my favorite Sam.

[2:13:33] Matt Ligouri: Oh really?

[2:13:34] Conor Burke: Especially like late game season five. Like that's where you get uh actual Sam Sadies.

[2:13:39] Andrew: Um, so I, I like that era.

[2:13:41] Conor Burke: Um, besides the one episode where he like makes a fool of himself to Mercedes's friends.

[2:13:45] Matt Ligouri: Right.

[2:13:45] Conor Burke: Um, but then season two, pretty close behind. Season three, he's just kind of like there uh-ish.

[2:13:51] Andrew: Uh, and you have like the whole uh, or no, that's season two is actually at the end with uh when we get the storyline about his family and everything, so like you get to like know him a little bit more.

[2:14:01] Conor Burke: Uh, season four, throw it out.

[2:14:03] Matt Ligouri: Yeah.

[2:14:03] Conor Burke: I will say that like season, I guess they, they have this thing with Sam that in the premiere episodes, they're they're good. With season four premiere "New Rachel," I love this scene where he comes up to Marley and I'm like, oh yeah, like yes, what a inspired choice that like I'm so glad that whoever wrote this scene remembered that Sam was at one point poor and like they these two characters can like like sympathize with one another, immediately throw it out the window, and the very next episode um i is the beginning of Sam Bram.

[2:14:42] Andrew: Uh, and so I'm like it, they never interact again, Sam and Marley.

[2:14:46] Conor Burke: But I, I need, I need someone to make a sociological study into how wealthy the Glee Club members are and rank them in order.

[2:14:54] Matt Ligouri: So I feel like, I feel like obviously Quinn, I feel like Rachel is really up there.

[2:15:00] Conor Burke: Well she treats money like that.

[2:15:05] Matt Ligouri: Well, I feel like this is a good question for you, Matt. You're a big Hunger Games fan.

[2:15:11] Matt Ligouri: Sure.

[2:15:12] Conor Burke: I feel as though like at one point in my life, I like tried doing exactly what you're saying, Connor, of like not for the districts.

[2:15:12] Matt Ligouri: For the districts.

[2:15:21] Conor Burke: Who is in dish? I think like Sugar Mata and like Kurt are district one? What do we think?

[2:15:28] Matt Ligouri: I have no possibility.

[2:15:30] Conor Burke: Do you not remember coming on for, oh, this was like fully like maybe like three years ago. Four or five years ago.

[2:15:37] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, we had you and Allison on.

[2:15:38] Conor Burke: We did an ugly Hunger Game simulation.

[2:15:41] Matt Ligouri: Uh, which I'm sure we talked about what districts people were in.

[2:15:43] Conor Burke: But um, I mean, yeah, this could be a project.

[2:15:47] Matt Ligouri: I think it'd be fun.

[2:15:47] Conor Burke: So get a definitive ranking.

[2:15:49] Andrew: Um, I do want to bring up before we pull our last song of the episode. This watch through of this performance just now really made me cringe for uh a reason that I'm embarrassed by.

[2:16:01] Conor Burke: Yeah, Mike Chang.

[2:16:02] Andrew: He really, really was giving me Mike cringe.

[2:16:06] Conor Burke: I could not watch him.

[2:16:07] Andrew: He was doing like it.

[2:16:08] Conor Burke: I feel like I'm not usually like distracted by his dancing, but like here, I don't think it's a good spotlight.

[2:16:13] Matt Ligouri: Is that a bad opinion?

[2:16:16] Conor Burke: I think that's fair.

[2:16:17] Andrew: I think that that's fair.

[2:16:19] Conor Burke: And yeah, I was why was I low key cringing? When he did like I don't like the ho ho, and he just like uh the covers his mouth twice. Like, I'm like, oh, stop.

[2:16:31] Andrew: And it's just like it's weird.

[2:16:32] Conor Burke: It's just like you're all like surrounding each other, and everybody else is like playing an instrument or has something to do.

[2:16:38] Matt Ligouri: This is pretty privilege in action as well.

[2:16:41] Conor Burke: Because the fact that he can, the fact that he can, Harishum can basically get away with it anyway.

[2:16:47] Andrew: It's just that like if it was any of us, we'd be like, people would be talking about that to this day.

[2:16:52] Matt Ligouri: It would just be like, oh my god, that is so we would never get employed.

[2:16:55] Conor Burke: Yeah.

[2:16:56] Andrew: Exactly.

[2:16:56] Conor Burke: Um, I did just Google um, I Googled uh how wealthy are the Glee Club members, and the first link that comes up is from Reddit.

[2:17:07] Andrew: So the question posed is who do you think were the wealthiest were is spelt W E apostrophe R E.

[2:17:07] Conor Burke: Who do you think we are the wealthiest and poorest members of New Directions?

[2:17:20] Andrew: And so the top most upvoted comment is stinking rich slash old money, you have Sugar, Blaine, and Quinn.

[2:17:28] Conor Burke: Upper middle class, you have Rachel, Mercedes, my dad's a dentist, Santana, yes, my my dad's a doctor, not like a tooth doctor, a real one.

[2:17:38] Andrew: Um, Mike, um, uh and then middle class Kirch, then Finn, Artie, Brittany, Tina, and then poor Puck and Sam.

[2:17:46] Conor Burke: Wait, is Puck canonically poor?

[2:17:52] Andrew: What a weird question to be asking.

[2:17:53] Conor Burke: This is, this is well, this is just that person's opinion.

[2:17:58] Andrew: Um, then someone else said upper middle class Kitty and Rory, middle class rider unique Joe, lower middle class Jake and Marley for the new class of people.

[2:18:10] Conor Burke: So I mean, consistency with the Puckermans makes sense, but we still could fact check that in some capacity.

[2:18:16] Andrew: Um, someone out there has to know.

[2:18:19] Conor Burke: Hmm.

[2:18:20] Andrew: And also to put Jake and Marley on the same level when it's like clear that they're trying to paint Marley as like on her own tear.

[2:18:28] Conor Burke: Please spam me some.

[2:18:30] Andrew: Yeah.

[2:18:32] Conor Burke: So I don't, I don't know why the puck being poor gives me such pause in the way that it does because now I'm like thinking about like all the times that we've seen like Puck's home life.

[2:18:44] Andrew: There's like, I feel like there's this scene like when Rachel comes over Puck's house.

[2:18:48] Conor Burke: Yeah.

[2:18:49] Andrew: Right?

[2:18:49] Conor Burke: Like that doesn't look like I feel like they weren't giving us the vibes of like this is some rundown.

[2:18:54] Andrew: Why do I feel like Puck and his mom and his like little sister are eating like a TV dinner?

[2:18:59] Conor Burke: Like that doesn't matter.

[2:19:00] Andrew: That's when Rachel came over.

[2:19:02] Conor Burke: Okay, yeah.

[2:19:03] Andrew: Which doesn't like poor stamp you're you're poor.

[2:19:07] Conor Burke: TV dinner.

[2:19:09] Andrew: But I mean, like that's like almost like the extent that we have of his.

[2:19:14] Conor Burke: I don't know.

[2:19:15] Andrew: Anyway.

[2:19:16] Conor Burke: Look, they couldn't even get the the weir correct.

[2:19:19] Andrew: Let's not give them that much credit.

[2:19:21] Conor Burke: Really true.

[2:19:22] Andrew: Um, okay.

[2:19:24] Conor Burke: Against "Billionaire."

[2:19:25] Andrew: "Billionaire."

[2:19:27] Conor Burke: Speaking of money.

[2:19:28] Andrew: Um, yeah, I totally did that on purpose.

[2:19:32] Conor Burke: Okay.

[2:19:32] Andrew: Okay, we're ending a little bit summer.

[2:19:37] Conor Burke: Oh, fuck.

[2:19:38] Andrew: Um.

[2:19:39] Conor Burke: Okay.

[2:19:40] Andrew: Are we gonna cry?

[2:19:41] Conor Burke: You might cry.

[2:19:42] Andrew: I'm down for a cry.

[2:19:43] Conor Burke: You gotta cry?

[2:19:44] Andrew: Yeah.

[2:19:45] Conor Burke: I did cry on this podcast, but I don't think anyone heard us.

[2:19:50] Andrew: Um, okay, we're looking at a black screen. Anybody know what it is?

[2:19:56] Conor Burke: I saw a guitar before it went dark.

[2:19:58] Andrew: No, that was still from "Billionaire."

[2:20:00] Conor Burke: Oh, oh.

[2:20:01] Andrew: Yeah.

[2:20:01] Conor Burke: Um, alright, well.

[2:20:02] Andrew: Here we go.

[2:20:05] Conor Burke: Oh god.

[2:20:09] ♪ Musical number: "Seasons of Love" — performed by Glee Cast ♪

[2:20:46] Andrew: How about life?

[2:20:51] ♪ Musical number: "Seasons of Love" — performed by Glee Cast ♪

[2:21:24] ♪ Musical number: "Seasons of Love" — performed by Glee Cast ♪

[2:21:35] ♪ Musical number: "Seasons of Love" — performed by Glee Cast ♪

[2:21:48] ♪ Musical number: "Seasons of Love" — performed by Glee Cast ♪

[2:21:51] Andrew: It's time out to sing out those story never ends? Let's sound the right. Remember a year in the life of the race. Remember the cats here, I'm gonna remember that.

[2:22:19] Matt Ligouri: Leisure.

[2:22:24] Andrew: Who wants to start us off as that one? Has your mindset changed in any way, shape, or form from like that thought process of quarterback songs?

[2:22:43] Conor Burke: Yeah.

[2:22:50] Andrew: Um, I my thought process is ever-changing. I have a galaxy brain in that sense. Um, but I will I because I think what I landed on is simply in the moment, I'm okay with doing whatever feels right. Sending "Make You Feel My Love" away in honor of misery going through felt right in that moment. And it sits right with me to this day. Um, right now I feel as though the competition will go in a way. Like I don't want to put a blanket on all quarterback songs and say, like, okay, um, all quarterback songs are immediately losing to whatever their competition is, because I don't think that feels fair. Um, especially considering what it's against and how it was received by this collection of people. So, um yeah I'm comfortable with a quarterback song going through.

Um I'm giving it a fair shot. "If I Die Young" is like a non sequitur though. I I'm like yeah that is just way too many layers. Like that is yeah yeah that's on a different product and I know how you feel about "If I Die Young," Matt, so well how do you feel?

[2:24:00] Matt Ligouri: My number 20 um "If I Die Young" and you got another hit here uh "Seasons of Love" is my number 18. Oh I'm so glad I was manifesting a top 25 I got it. This could end poorly for me. It goes poorly uh I think you know right off the bat you'll kind of get a sense where my vote goes um I feel like so there's a lot here. Um you know not to like bring this podcast from like a fun place to a not fun place, but that's what happens when you're a Glee fan because there's nothing you can do to kind of take back the fact that this show um certainly has had its fair share of tragedies within the actors and as fans of the show we you know even like to the people that are still to this day fans of the show like I think we all probably process our grief related to that in our own ways.

And then you know every so often it's gonna come back up whether it's um you're watching an episode of the show, you're watching a performance from the show um and specifically an episode of the show that is a tribute to one of the actors who passed away. I think that again there's so many layers to this because the cast has been vocal about this episode saying that you know they weren't really ready for it. They weren't ready to film it. They weren't ready to do it. Um, and all of that makes it to a point where like I have no idea how Jenna or Kev uh Jenna and Kevin are gonna handle it when they get to this episode in the rewatch.

[2:25:16] Andrew: Yeah.

[2:25:16] Matt Ligouri: Like I have no idea. I'm I'm sure that they're going to do it because I feel like it'll be helpful. I I don't know. I can't even say. I'm I'm not them. Like they'll, you know, they'll do that how they want to. But um, like for fans, for me, for for me, I'm the only fan that I can speak to, like watching this episode at the time and to this day gives me a sense of comfort and closure in just watching all of these actors that are you know paying tribute to their real life friend and then this character as well, like just watching them all perform the grief. It's so weird, but it it just still provides you with a sense of comfort. Like when I'm when I'm hearing Mercedes belt out some of those notes in "Seasons of Love," I like I didn't cry this time, but I got the chills. I get the chills every time. It's unavoidable.

[2:26:10] Andrew: Yeah, um, so just like that feeling of like, okay, this is more than just like me watching, you know, uh a great cover that makes me happy or something like that. Like this genuinely makes me feel human emotions watching it. And like that's another level of like what the show has provided for me. So that's why it's connected with me so much and why it's in my top 25, because it just makes me truly feel I don't know if you can tell. I uh I don't know if you guys are any grand people, but I'm a four. Um so I feel deeply and often. Um so a song like this lands with me. A lot of the songs from this episode land with me. Um and that's where I'm at.

[2:26:46] Conor Burke: I think very beautifully put. Okay. Thank you. Connor, what do you think? Where are you landing?

[2:26:51] Conor Burke: I think, you know, I think I um I am a big crier too. I love a cry. I uh I do have to say that w when Glee was on, I don't think I've ever talked about this. Uh me and my cousin, Ryan, had a YouTube channel in which we would react to every episode of Glee and put them on YouTube and we would call them Glee actions, and it was a really funny dynamic because obviously one of us was obsessed with them and the other one just wasn't. And I had I we only started this in season four and we did it up until the middle of season five, and I had all of the videos on a memory stick, and the two episodes, all of the files got corrupted apart from two.

[2:27:38] Andrew: Oh no.

[2:27:39] Conor Burke: Yeah, I'm fucking I was livid about it, and one of the two episodes that didn't get corrupted was "The Quarterback."

[2:27:45] Andrew: Oh, really?

[2:27:46] Conor Burke: Live raw reaction from when it aired back when I was like 17 years old. And I only came across it maybe a month or two ago, and I was like, wow, that really gave me perspective on this whole situation because we are now eleven years out, and ever since then a lot of shit, as we all know, has gone down in the world. So to have viewed that episode and this musical performance right now, I did find myself thinking a couple of weeks ago, I wonder if I'll ever be on the pod when a quarterback song is pulled in.

[2:28:20] Andrew: Here you are.

[2:28:21] Conor Burke: Here I am. So I think Matt is completely correct. This is there are so many layers to this, it's kind of ridiculous. And I do think Andrew, you have landed in such a beautiful place because I would tend to agree with you. I was I was kind of in between about where I fell on the quarterback songs of it all for a while, but I think that what you said just a few minutes ago about just seeing how you feel in the moment is a really lovely way to approach it. Because I think every person that you will have on this podcast guesting anyway, as well as yourself, obviously, will approach this with the degree of sensitivity that other podcasts might not, if that makes any sense.

[2:29:03] Andrew: Yeah, I I don't yeah, it's it's odd. I continue to fluctuate with the quarterback songs because like sometimes it's never gonna be fun. It's never like I know we like love to come here and have fun and gleak out and whatnot. But it's just it's an aspect of again of this show that it's unavoidable to say like, you know, it it's just never gonna come up. It's nice to be able to, you know, focus on the parts and whatnot that's gonna be. I think yeah, oh my god, and I think it's fucking super important to talk about it, even though people come here for a laugh and like a giggle and stuff like that. Like w the episode that Andrew and I recorded with Tia, um, we pulled uh "If I Can't Have You," and I was literally crying after the song as I was speaking about that because for whatever reason that the emotionality of that performance hit me. So it can just come from anywhere.

[2:29:48] Matt Ligouri: Yeah.

[2:29:49] Conor Burke: Just for my own like notes, what's the crack with with how quarterback songs are faring at the moment? How many are through to round three? How many are still in round two?

[2:29:59] Andrew: Interesting. Let me just like let me see if I can recall from memory. So we have "Seasons of Love," which I feel comfortable in saying it's gonna see round three today. Um then we have um "I'll Stand By You," um Mercedes version, which is in round two, but it is yet to see what's going to happen next. Um if I if I die young, also in the same boat. Um no surrender. What?

[2:30:26] Conor Burke: I have it up so I can fact check you if you can.

[2:30:28] Andrew: Thank you so much. Um uh no surrender um is done. It like it was it was done in round one. Um "Make You Feel My Love" is also in the in the yet to be pulled in round two. Um yeah, "Fire and Rain" is also in the in the yet to be pulled in round two. Um yeah, "Make You Feel My Love," uh obviously retired, uh living lavishly in Florida, um, as uh as we record this episode. Um so yeah, actually now that I go through it, I feel like they're so good.

[2:31:03] Conor Burke: So that's why I was asking this because I feel like me knowing how many songs are left in round two from the quarterback will influence my decision.

[2:31:11] Andrew: In which way we have every we have well I don't know, but I I'm not sure yet because I'm yet to like viewed up, but we have literally every song from the episode left apart from "Make You Feel My Love" and "No Surrender."

[2:31:24] Conor Burke: Which is four out of six or through.

[2:31:27] Andrew: Which is quite good. Odds, no?

[2:31:30] Conor Burke: No, that's it's I mean, come especially when you consider what season it's from and like how it's like part of the back half of um the series. Like Amelia really opened my eyes with this Glanolytics um sheet. The fact that you can really see like percentage-wise season four, five, and six, how they're doing, and it's not well.

[2:31:51] Andrew: Um yeah.

[2:31:52] Conor Burke: What's your relationship with Rent?

[2:31:54] Andrew: Oh, I truthfully, and maybe I'll get shit for this. I've tried watching it like years ago. I could I didn't finish it.

[2:32:04] Conor Burke: Oh, I mean, are you talking about the movie or the the Broadway recording?

[2:32:08] Andrew: Experience the whatever Rent is to you.

[2:32:11] Conor Burke: Um I know, like, so they're they covered two songs on the Hip Fox Show Glee, and then I know a number of songs beyond that that land for me, but I just like haven't watched all the way through. Maybe I maybe I'm due for a watch again. It just came up a lot.

[2:32:28] Matt Ligouri: I mean I'm high school of experience. I I love Rent. It is a very uh American entity, so it's I I I it's nowhere near as possible over it in Ireland or in the UK. It's kind of like, but that's also applies to things like Into the Woods, for example, like Into the Woods in Ireland and the UK, like no schools or anything performed. That show is just not really well known. I love Rent personally. Um I am really conflicted on this, guys, to be honest.

[2:32:54] Conor Burke: Well, while you work out your conflictions, I have some notes that I want to go through. Um okay, so first thing that I that immediately comes up when I see watch this performance um is there is a YouTube video online. Let me make sure that I'm like getting the YouTube channel correctly. I want to say that it's blue jelly bean on YouTube. Let me check this. I could have done this earlier, and here I am wasting time. Yes, it's blue jelly bean on YouTube that has done the work and they've I know that you'll appreciate this. They've mapped out the amount of time like how many Glee characters have sung at the very same moment and like which characters like so like Kurt like sang like how do I even want to explain this?

It's like has Kurt sang as the at the same time on a song as Rachel, as Finn, as Santana, and they like rank them all. I forget, it's been a while since I've watched this YouTube video. It's a very good watch. Um and I think that the only time that Kurt and Tina have sing like layered on each other is in this performance, and they show like all the times in this song that they do, and so it's a like a smash cut of like "Seasons of, Seasons of, Seasons of, Seasons of." Because that's all Kurt and Tina in that.

[2:34:24] Andrew: I'm just saying it for the sake of adding it to the carousel. I think it's a very fun little moment of this phenomenal video. And even like better channel, they just like do so many great videos, like introspective, stupid, like analytic things around this TV show. That's my first thing. Second thing that comes up to me is that the Dianna Agron of it all in the quarterback. I don't want to like give that too much space, but you know, it is like odd because like my friend Amy is watching Glee for the first time right now, and she just reached the quarterback, and she like immediately clocked. She texted me like very early on into the episode, "Where's Quinn?"

[2:35:00] Conor Burke: Yeah.

[2:35:06] Andrew: And I didn't think that like watching it in 2024 that like, you know, a person that is binging the entire series, is it felt that Quinn is not there? And apparently it is, which I thought was very fascinating.

[2:35:23] Matt Ligouri: It is. It's the first thing I think of when I'm watching it, and I watch it, you know, there's so many things to think of and look at and whatnot and hear. But it's one of the first things that I noticed that like when the alumni come, because they do this so beautifully, like choreographed-wise, for you know, that's such a weird word to use for this style of conversation.

[2:35:38] Andrew: No, and they like walk out like the Avengers, yeah.

[2:35:40] Matt Ligouri: They start with the younger class and then they bring in the alumni who are no longer at the school. So it's like the same kind of thing like with Homeward Bound when like the alumni are back in the auditorium, it just brings this magical vibe back, and this is obviously for very different reasons, it's not the same magic, but it's the same thing that gives me chills to see them all back on that stage together. And when they walk out together and you see everybody but Rachel and Quinn, I mean I know why Rachel's not there because we're gonna see her later. And I just mentally know that. But to know that Quinn's not coming in the episode.

[2:36:10] Conor Burke: Where is Brittany?

[2:36:11] Matt Ligouri: Brittany's pregnant.

[2:36:12] Andrew: Or Heather is.

[2:36:15] Conor Burke: See, but I don't know, but just because you of the Finn and Quinn of it all, like that's why it's so noticeable that Quinn's not there, more so than a Brittany. But um so that does make you feel a certain type of or make me feel a certain type of way. But then just to further my thoughts into the whole thing. I mean, after they do that thing and then they turn around and they're looking at the picture of Finn, you know, at the back of the stage. I just feel like as far as you know what they did with what they were doing here, yeah. The choreography, the lighting, the everybody's outfits were pretty obvious as far as what they were gonna wear, but they did this all right. They opened the episode with this of like they could have closed the episode with it.

[2:37:01] Andrew: Uh yeah.

[2:37:02] Matt Ligouri: That wasn't the last, yeah.

[2:37:03] Andrew: Yeah.

[2:37:04] Matt Ligouri: So they could have easily closed with "Seasons of Love" and like left us bawling on the way out. But I think that "Seasons of Love" makes sense. I mean, given that it's also like the opening number of Rent. And so I think that that was like was that the I think that was the choice.

[2:37:08] Matt Ligouri: What did they close the episode with?

[2:37:09] Andrew: Rachel, right?

[2:37:10] Matt Ligouri: Um and then there was a scene, I think.

[2:37:17] Conor Burke: Probably.

[2:37:18] Andrew: Yeah.

[2:37:18] Matt Ligouri: Um just it's the opening number of the movie.

[2:37:22] Andrew: Yeah.

[2:37:22] Matt Ligouri: Oh, is it not of the stage show?

[2:37:24] Andrew: It's no, it's the opening number of act two.

[2:37:27] Matt Ligouri: Oh, fascinating.

[2:37:29] Conor Burke: Yeah. I just when you're talking about your friend there watching Glee, I for the first time on her immediately texting you. I just thought I just maybe it's besides the point. I just cannot imagine binging the show.

[2:37:51] Andrew: No, but I'm glad that it is like able to like I'm I'm glad that it is still standing the test of time that people are continuing to find it.

[2:37:59] Matt Ligouri: Oh absolutely.

[2:37:59] Andrew: Yeah, must have been a little bit of a few. I mean, I don't get it. I'm on the same boat as you. Then I'm like, how are you watching it like just like back to back to back? Like that brain rot.

[2:38:10] Conor Burke: We're all locked in. We have contracts, we have to do this.

[2:38:12] Matt Ligouri: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[2:38:14] Andrew: But they don't know. You don't need that why are you signing up to the show?

[2:38:20] Conor Burke: That must be just being so.

[2:38:22] Matt Ligouri: Oh my god. I was like when Amy was like approaching "Shooting Star," I was like, well, because it ends with "Guilty Pleasures," "Mamma Mia," and then it goes into the next episode "Shooting Star." And like if you don't know that it's gonna be a school shooting episode, it's crazy.

[2:38:43] Andrew: Um but I do want to also point out, oh Matt, you brought up like the looking at the picture and all that and everything. I do feel like with the Dianna of it all, I do think that they like did a good job at kind of addressing Quinn's absence in this episode in 100. The fact that when she has like a moment in the boys' locker room, why she's in the boys' locker room, not really sure. But she's in the boys' locker room looking at the jersey, and then also like, you know, is they're all I mean they're all getting emo looking at the picture at the end of the episode in 100, and so I feel like that's them sort of acknowledging.

[2:39:25] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, it gave me closure for her not being there, her and Puck having that scene of like, you know, do you think he ever forgave us and all that?

[2:39:32] Andrew: Yeah, which is so beautiful.

[2:39:33] Matt Ligouri: Yeah.

[2:39:34] Conor Burke: Yeah.

[2:39:35] Andrew: Unfortunately, we don't get any kind of closure as to why Quinn's not at the wedding. She just shows back up and starts singing One Republic in the last episode.

[2:39:41] Matt Ligouri: But she's One Republic girly. We know that much.

[2:39:44] Conor Burke: Me too.

[2:39:46] Andrew: We have that in common. My vote's obvious.

[2:39:49] Matt Ligouri: Yep.

[2:39:52] Andrew: Okay. What do you think, Conor?

[2:39:56] Conor Burke: Uh well, I'm gonna vote for "Seasons of Love," but I will say I'm not thrilled about it, but I will.

[2:40:02] Andrew: Wait, why?

[2:40:02] Conor Burke: Okay, talk about it. I'm not thrilled about it because the reason I asked how many quarterback songs are left was because I just wanted to compute in my brain to see if we could do without one, because my fear is that just going into the further rounds, even though I'm not a great stan for "Billionaire" at all, obviously. It's just that I feel like I don't know how affected people are gonna be by the emotionality of it all. And let's just vote this through because it's one that we could do without when we have a lot of things. I don't think "Fire and Rain" is going through.

[2:40:34] Matt Ligouri: I love "Fire and Rain."

[2:40:35] Conor Burke: Not "Fire and Rain."

[2:40:37] Matt Ligouri: I love it. I love "Fire and Rain."

[2:40:39] Conor Burke: I'm just outside the context of everything, I don't think that "Seasons of Love" is necessarily the best clear arrangement of all time. I think the backing vocals feel like they sound very seasoned generalized.

[2:40:39] Matt Ligouri: Seasons of.

[2:40:51] Conor Burke: Yeah. It's giving bland, it's giving vanilla. But that's okay within the context of what's going on in real life. So I will vote "Seasons of Love" through and say goodbye to "Billionaire." But I hope someone out there can understand my.

[2:41:06] Matt Ligouri: No, I mean.

[2:41:07] Conor Burke: No, absolutely. I mean, I could have seen songs that I would have I and this is me knowing that "Seasons of Love" is in my top 25. Songs that I might have voted it through kept "Seasons of Love" behind. Sure. Because in the exact same mindset, I'm like, well, I appreciate or would hope that there could still be representation from this episode going forward, but I exactly like I don't know if it needs to be all four. You know, it doesn't need to be all six, it needs to be four of the songs that are.

[2:41:31] Andrew: Sure, yeah.

[2:41:32] Conor Burke: Yeah, as you were saying, like "If I Die Young," will like I don't I can't see a universe in which that is gonna be going forward to round three personally, unless.

[2:41:32] Matt Ligouri: By the way.

[2:41:44] Conor Burke: Yeah, um "Seasons of Love" made it through the first round. Correct me if I'm wrong, Andrew, against "Alfie."

[2:41:49] Andrew: Against "Alfie," yeah.

[2:41:50] Conor Burke: Ah, brutal.

[2:41:52] Andrew: Yeah, again, you are speaking directly into my wounds.

[2:41:57] Matt Ligouri: Oh I'm sorry. Uh "Alfie," when we when I go back to Amon's list, is his third favorite.

[2:42:03] Conor Burke: I'm familiar that he loves it.

[2:42:04] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, so it didn't make my top twenty five, but like also super close.

[2:42:09] Conor Burke: Wait.

[2:42:09] Matt Ligouri: Um but um Conor, I really I'm so glad that you brought up like the fact that like this arrangement is like kind of like giving something to be desired. But I will say that like the moment that really stands out to me is the Jenna, the fact what is an inspired choice to give Jenna Ushkowitz the way that she died moment when it by all intense impressions.

[2:42:32] Conor Burke: Right.

[2:42:33] Matt Ligouri: But she eats it up and she sounds so.

[2:42:33] Conor Burke: She does eat it the fuck up.

[2:42:37] Matt Ligouri: You're so right.

[2:42:38] Conor Burke: Yeah, but that's so true. It's just the arrangement. I don't know.

[2:42:40] Matt Ligouri: It's maybe even when Amber's singing it, even though obviously sounds fucking amazing. I'm just like, okay, I kind of knew this was I don't know.

[2:42:46] Conor Burke: Yeah, well, you know who I think they did a very good job distributing certain parts. The part that Naya gets her solo line.

[2:42:54] Matt Ligouri: Um, if I'm the.

[2:42:54] Conor Burke: No, finish your thoughts, sorry.

[2:42:59] Matt Ligouri: No, no, no, that's just that I'm just agreeing. Um I think for me it's just yeah, I think the stage, the stage version of that like everyone knows "Seasons of Love." Even people that don't know musical theater, like it is such an anthem, and when you hear it live, it is it's the rawness of it all, and there was something about this that didn't um the emotion I don't know it reminds me of this is gonna sound like a really weird thing comparison to make. It reminds me of when Glee did "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls. There's something there's some kind of the emotionality of their cover of it was taken out when you when compared to the original.

[2:43:34] Conor Burke: The song is similarly compared to "Seasons of Love" in terms of emotionality, yeah.

[2:43:40] Matt Ligouri: No, but but but there was there's some kind of um I can't I I don't know what the word I'm speaking I'm looking for. There's something when when you listen to the original version of "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls and you listen to the Glee version, there is there the there's some kind of um feeling gone out of it. When you listen to the original Spice Girls version, you feel like you wanna go out and fuck shit up and go to a gay bar and have fun.

[2:44:07] Conor Burke: Yes.

[2:44:08] Matt Ligouri: You don't get that with the Glee version, and with the Glee version of "Seasons of Love," when compared to any other recording of this when it's like done by a cast on stage, there's just an e there's a loss of um it sounds bad to say because of the context, but there's a loss of some kind of emotion to it. I don't know. Like it's very soulless to me.

[2:44:28] Conor Burke: I don't know if that makes any sense to anyone listening, but it just doesn't the vocals are thin.

[2:44:33] Matt Ligouri: Do you like this version of "Seasons of Love" more than the cut season three "Seasons of Love"?

[2:44:43] Conor Burke: Are we familiar?

[2:44:45] Matt Ligouri: Yes, I am familiar, but I would have to listen to it again.

[2:44:47] Conor Burke: Because Corey is actually given the Jenna part.

[2:44:50] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, that's so fucked up.

[2:44:52] Conor Burke: Um in this number, and you know, we also get uh I think that Diana and Heather's um vocals are like layered on top of each other. I don't think they have like a specific moment to like themselves in that number, and it's just them singing on top of each other, but we have them in the number. I think that I still prefer the season five version though.

[2:45:16] Matt Ligouri: I probably do, but I never ever I never listened to this ever.

[2:45:21] Conor Burke: Never mind.

[2:45:21] Matt Ligouri: I do what I need a cry.

[2:45:23] Andrew: Oh well.

[2:45:24] Matt Ligouri: That's basically I don't know. There's something more visceral about the stage version of this. I like the Broadway cast record. I don't know what it is. There's just something missing from this for me. Just from but obviously I don't want to sound insensitive. I'm just talking outside the context of the.

[2:45:39] Conor Burke: You exist in the context.

[2:45:44] Matt Ligouri: You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?

[2:45:46] Conor Burke: Yes.

[2:45:47] Matt Ligouri: You exist for all the things behind you, yes.

[2:45:51] Andrew: I do want to say, what is has anyone seen on Twitter this Mr. Brightside, Mr. Schuster and Kurt thing?

[2:45:55] Conor Burke: Oh, I saw that, and I'm like, I don't think that's real.

[2:46:00] Matt Ligouri: Surely it's not.

[2:46:01] Conor Burke: Wait, did you see it as well, Matt?

[2:46:03] Matt Ligouri: No.

[2:46:04] Conor Burke: It's a duet cut from season one, apparently.

[2:46:08] Matt Ligouri: It was so funny when Shoe and Kurt of "Mr. Brightside."

[2:46:11] Conor Burke: Oh it there's something uncanny about it.

[2:46:17] Andrew: I'll find it. I thought you were gonna tell me it was an AI cover. I was like, well, it's sure. It's kind of funny that um Darren Chris on and That's What You Really Miss was talking about um when they would get like the demo version. I would love to hear a demo version or two, would you guys?

[2:46:34] Matt Ligouri: How about you guys?

[2:46:34] Conor Burke: And then it's like a live audience.

[2:46:38] Andrew: Come on, get my way!

[2:46:39] Matt Ligouri: I think I would like to listen to it.

[2:46:43] Conor Burke: I'm sorry, the delirium is really, really kicking in. Um are we?

[2:46:47] Matt Ligouri: But wait, no, I'm being serious, but I'm gonna go.

[2:46:48] Conor Burke: Oh yeah, okay.

[2:46:49] Matt Ligouri: I'm sorry. But I mean, I want to listen to a Glee cover of the song. I don't know if there's a lot of things. I would love to hear like just say the demo version of "Without You," or like the demo version, like just to hear like how different the the vocals on Glee actually like how how similar it was. I would just love to compare and contrast, you know?

[2:47:10] Conor Burke: I feel like it was like when I had um John Locke and Derek Nelson on recently that like John was like talking about, or maybe this was in John's initial episode, that he was like talking about still having all those files. But I'm like if we really want them, I'm sure that I don't I don't know what that uh what contracts that would infringe. But um he has them.

[2:47:34] Matt Ligouri: That's the person you want to talk to, apparently.

[2:47:37] Conor Burke: And Adam Anders, I think we get him in the mood, we butter him up a little bit, we can get some files out of him.

[2:47:46] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, because didn't uh didn't Ryan Murphy relatively recently, i.e. a couple of months maybe a year ago, sign a deal with Disney?

[2:47:54] Conor Burke: I believe so.

[2:47:55] Matt Ligouri: With Disney now.

[2:47:56] Conor Burke: Yes, I think.

[2:47:58] Matt Ligouri: Hmm, very interesting.

[2:48:00] Andrew: Really interesting when you actually interest better the context. What's your thoughts on the Glee boot, Matt?

[2:48:09] Matt Ligouri: Uh the like just in theory of it happening. I mean um I would love to see it happen featuring you know a whole new world, a whole new group. I mean, watching High School Musical, the musical series, the musical the series. I really enjoyed uh they did a lot of I mean the the thing that they did that was so much fun on there was they did so many covers of high school musical songs, so it was like that ver like their versions like more modernized or just with you know cover versions of it so they were fun um with some original music mixed in that was actually b uh not sorry, actually not bad, yeah, but like some of the Glee original music was so um if it were to be somewhere along the lines of that I would be down for it and like totally down for like you know, an RD Tina, cameo, whoever like does want to pop in uh as an adult now.

[2:48:56] Andrew: But um I think that there's no reason why we got to grow up with a show that impacted us this much, and like the next generation shouldn't have that. So I mean they they still are finding it, they're still binging the hell out of it on Disney Plus. It's just like I mean, music doesn't stop. Like we should be getting that's true these Taylor Swift episodes, these Beyonce episodes. I think I forget who is who it was like recently that was maybe it was you, Conor. Was it you that was like once a year the Glee Castle? Was it you, Conor? Who was it? Um once a year the Glee cast should just come together and record in the studio.

[2:49:27] Conor Burke: That was you, yes.

[2:49:28] Andrew: That was me. Okay, again. But genuinely, like literally swear to fuck, they were never in the same room recording these songs anyway, even when they were singing a duet.

[2:49:39] Matt Ligouri: Right.

[2:49:39] Andrew: But but seriously, just have Chris Colfer in LA darn in the New York City. Leading with Chris Colfer, the singing. That's the most likely person to be on that album.

[2:49:50] Conor Burke: Listen, listen, I'm a Chris Colfer vocalist.

[2:49:53] Andrew: I know, I understand.

[2:49:54] Conor Burke: Yeah, he he can put out a bop. However, he's probably the last person that will want to do it, and that's probably even like behind Dianna.

[2:50:01] Matt Ligouri: That's behind Lea.

[2:50:03] Conor Burke: I think Lea would do it.

[2:50:04] Andrew: Lea is a Gleek.

[2:50:05] Conor Burke: Lea? Lea would Lea. Lea is actually campaigning for this, and no one can tell me that she's not. Please.

[2:50:13] Andrew: And you know what? And I'm putting it out onto the ether right now because like what is a dream if you don't say it out loud. Um Lea is going to come on on the pod on she is she will be a Gleek one week and she will be obsessed with the Glacket.

[2:50:26] Matt Ligouri: I think knowing this girl, she will be obsessed with this inheritance.

[2:50:30] Andrew: How are you going to decide who is hosting that episode with you if you got Lea Michele on?

[2:50:34] Conor Burke: Because it's gonna be fucking me. And if not, we we have words.

[2:50:38] Andrew: Um Conor, is this you self-campaigning?

[2:50:41] Conor Burke: Oh my god, one billion percent. I mean, you know.

[2:50:44] Matt Ligouri: This is the person that that their their flatmate in London purchased them a life-size cutout of Lea Michele for his 21st birthday.

[2:50:53] Conor Burke: Well does Alison nothing. Is that the first time I've said that in public?

[2:50:55] Matt Ligouri: Yes, it is.

[2:50:56] Conor Burke: Yes it is. Um I I'm I need to ask her where I mean, okay. We're we're talking about a a reality that is not even remotely. Well, it's fun to live in that world.

[2:51:04] Matt Ligouri: I mean, I'm not sure.

[2:51:06] Conor Burke: I know, but I would do every player of the we should have an entire how about it's just like, hey Lea, there's actually 20 of us that are all gonna be on this episode. Um, hey, and I feel like she doesn't know you won't even notice that you're there.

[2:51:20] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, but I feel like I don't I feel like I don't have that much competition.

[2:51:25] Conor Burke: Wait, what is it? I feel like I don't I don't have I feel like a lot of people would be like, oh, the episode with Lea Michele. I really don't want to co-host that with you, Andrew. Lea can talk to whoever she wants, but not to me.

[2:51:36] Andrew: You know? Putting that into everyone's minds listening to make sure that they feel that way.

[2:51:41] Matt Ligouri: Yeah.

[2:51:41] Andrew: But all that being said, I mean, do you were I sh listen? I I gave Andrew permission to share a video of me at 16 years of age, walking through the hallway of my youth theater, lip syncing to Firework. So I feel like it's it's iconic.

[2:51:56] Conor Burke: I feel like Lea would really appreciate that.

[2:51:56] Matt Ligouri: She would appreciate she would appreciate the commitment to the bit. And this is she would want to know how you would make that about her more than just about you, but I mean beyond the fact that you're lip syncing to quite literally her voice.

[2:52:12] Conor Burke: Um wait, Connor, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Damien McGinty have an interview at one point that was like in Lea Michele in Irish people from Ireland, right?

[2:52:24] Conor Burke: Yes.

[2:52:24] Matt Ligouri: What what was the for context? This is so funny because so I was so the very first time this is really funny that you bring this up. The very first time that I was ever on this podcast, I believe I was like episode six or seven back in the day. Um I don't know how we got talking about it, but I brought up to the guys that when Damien McGinty was on Glee, he flew home to Ireland for Christmas for the Christmas break, and he was on a talk show over here, and the host basically said to him, How is how are the American actors and and crew and stuff, like do they understand you? Because even to the Irish here, and I'm not sure if you can hear this, Matt, like Damien McGinty has a very different voice to so many Irish people, and it's a very specific region, blah blah blah. And Damien McGinty replies with, Oh no, everyone kind of it was a bit of a struggle, everyone kind of understands me, and then he goes, apart from Lea Michele.

[2:53:18] Conor Burke: Let me make a distinction, actually.

[2:53:20] Matt Ligouri: Not everybody, yeah.

[2:53:21] Conor Burke: Yeah, and then he this so what had happened was I came across this video on YouTube of that interview right after the whole thing a couple of years ago. And I was howling laughing to myself. And right before I came back on this podcast for a slew of episodes only a couple of months ago, I was listening back to that episode where I brought that up. And I said in the recording, Andrew, I will link you the video, and I never did. So I'm gonna do that now.

[2:53:47] Andrew: No, I'm pretty sure I found it.

[2:53:48] Conor Burke: Why do you feel?

[2:53:49] Andrew: Oh, do you have it? Have you seen that?

[2:53:51] Conor Burke: Yeah, why do I feel like because I made a clip of that moment of you explaining that? Then I feel like I overlaid that interview on top of it.

[2:53:58] Andrew: Oh, maybe you did. I might be completely misremembering. But all that being said, I think that's a really great contender for this week's carousel.

[2:54:06] Conor Burke: That moment.

[2:54:07] Matt Ligouri: Yes.

[2:54:08] Conor Burke: I was about to say if anyone wants it, hit what anyone wants that link, hit me up. But yes, I will it's gonna be in the damn carousel. Um okay, to to in conclusion of this episode, we are nearing three hours. Um here we go. This it every time at the end of these like long episodes, I see the first song that we pulled, and I'm like, we talked about this. I can't even remember, yeah.

[2:54:29] Andrew: Does anybody remember?

[2:54:30] Conor Burke: It's crazy. Do you ever get that though, Andrew? Genuinely. Sometimes I'm like, oh I'm like, I don't remember what the first song is.

[2:54:39] Matt Ligouri: Do you not remember?

[2:54:40] Andrew: Matt, you remember.

[2:54:41] Matt Ligouri: Oh, I do now because I'm looking at my notes.

[2:54:44] Andrew: Oh, yeah, I remember. Okay. It's Express Yourself.

[2:54:48] Matt Ligouri: Express okay. So Express Yourself. Um, Express Yourself, you express yourself, and uh that's kind of one of the harms of expressing yourself. That's kind of like the gamble that sometimes you express yourself and you lose. Um Here Comes the Sun, and here comes that big fat W. Uh, I Know What Boys Like, and boys like that song. That joke was already made earlier, but um absolutely Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead on site. Um Billionaire. What's Billionaire's joke? I want to be a billionaire. Um so freaking bad, but not bad enough, bitch. But not bad enough, right? You you you you want to be a billionaire, but you you maybe you should set your sights on being a winner. Um winning.

[2:55:38] Andrew: So mean. Imagine saying that to someone.

[2:55:40] Matt Ligouri: Um Seasons of Love. Um yeah, it's the the season. Yeah, it's in season. You're you're dressing for the season. Um wow. What this was great. I got what I wanted. I wanted to fight, and I feel like we did across the board, and we we got a quarterback song out of it.

[2:56:02] Andrew: Um this is the point of the episode where I ask if you have any um heated opinions of uh songs that you would like Glee to be covering, what things Glee would be doing in 2024. Do you have any opinions, Matt? Starting with you.

[2:56:17] Matt Ligouri: Um, well, just like you and just like many of us in the world, um, I have been streaming Cowboy Carter's. And um, I don't have any specific examples uh off the album just yet, but like I'm ruminating on it. Maybe you do, Andrew, um, of specifics there. But like, you know, that's what again, that's what if we have the reboot, that's what we need it for. Cowboy Carter episode. I will say in the next episode in uh next week's episode, um, the three of us in conversation uh that will be on that episode. Our assignment is to come to the episode with or come to the recording with an idea of every single song off the track list. So this is you know, if you're listening to this right now, familiar familiarize yourself with the entire album of Cowboy Carter, and um so you understand what we're talking about.

[2:57:05] Andrew: Are you gonna take the easy way out with Blackbird and Jolene?

[2:57:09] Matt Ligouri: I I I I have what you said last week about River Dance. Was that did I just imagine that?

[2:57:14] Conor Burke: No, yeah, River Dance in my proudest uh headcanon.

[2:57:18] Matt Ligouri: Yes.

[2:57:18] Conor Burke: Yeah, River Dance is a good choice as a unique Rory duet.

[2:57:24] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, I would I was only listening to the album today, and I do need more time to ruminate on it, but I know there's so many Gleeks out there right now who are screaming suggestions at the moment. So that is definitely we should we should put a pin in and come back to. And I understand that uh the Tortured Poets department is just around the corner as well. And so I don't know if I'm gonna actively be listening to that as much as I am Cowboy.

[2:57:51] Andrew: I'm I'm gonna say it me neither, but I'm I'm looking forward to it. I'm shooting at least once all the way through.

[2:57:58] Matt Ligouri: Yeah, yeah, I will. I'm not gonna go down this avenue because I don't want the Swifties to come for me.

[2:58:04] Andrew: Right.

[2:58:05] Matt Ligouri: Um I went to see a production of Legally Blonde on Thursday, and this is gonna sound super fucking basic because it's been talked about on this podcast to death, but I would love to see some Legally Blonde music in So Much Better in Glee, I mean the Harvard variations, the Niada variations come on.

[2:58:26] Conor Burke: Um, so much better.

[2:58:27] Matt Ligouri: But where could that fit into the context of the show?

[2:58:30] Conor Burke: There's so that could fit in anywhere.

[2:58:34] Matt Ligouri: Gary European. Gay Gory, perhaps. Or Blaine.

[2:58:39] Conor Burke: Um.

[2:58:41] Matt Ligouri: Let's see. What other ones are there? Like, oh my god, you guys, is it's too much contextual.

[2:58:47] Conor Burke: Yeah.

[2:58:48] Matt Ligouri: You can't do that. But um if there's what you want maybe could work.

[2:58:49] Conor Burke: What you want.

[2:58:52] Matt Ligouri: Oh, I love what you want. That's also contextual. Anyway. Yeah. Need to wrap up this episode.

[2:58:57] Andrew: Um, Matt, for all the glisteners at home, where can they find all the great work that you're doing?

[2:59:05] Matt Ligouri: Thank you. Uh thank you for having me back, of course. Always a pleasure. Uh one of my favorite podcasts to hop in on, and I'm listening every week, so when I get to actually contribute, it's so much fun. Um I'm on Twitter at Matt Ligouri, where you can sometimes see hit tweets crossing over Beyoncé and Glee uh that were liked by Kevin McHale and Dot Marie Jones. So there was my 15 moments in the in the song.

[2:59:27] Conor Burke: Wow.

[2:59:27] Matt Ligouri: Um yeah, it was great.

[2:59:29] Andrew: Wow.

[2:59:30] Matt Ligouri: Um, it's not as shady as you're making it actually for me. But I do have some likes. Um yeah, on Twitter at Matt Ligouri, and uh I do a regular reality TV podcast about MTV's The Challenge. Uh so any Glee reality TV fans, we we talk about more than just The Challenge, but that's the main gig over there. It's uh the it's called the Free Agents Podcast.

[2:59:55] Conor Burke: And uh anywhere you get your podcast, of course, also the choir room.

[2:59:58] Matt Ligouri: Uh if you want uh another Glee podcast, if you've not yet checked it out, the back history of all of our episodes are up there. I think that you've literally covered every single inch of that damn show.

[3:00:11] Andrew: So yeah.

[3:00:12] Conor Burke: But are you familiar with Big Brother UK? Because you need to get on it, if not.

[3:00:15] Matt Ligouri: I am.

[3:00:17] Conor Burke: Um, I don't regularly watch, but I'm familiar with a lot of things that have happened there, and um yeah.

[3:00:24] Andrew: Okay, we need to talk about this off air because I've got a lot of thoughts.

[3:00:27] Conor Burke: Um Connor, where can I find you?

[3:00:30] Conor Burke: Yeah, you can find me on Instagram and Twitter at IamConnor Burke. That's Connor with one N, uh C-O-N-O-R-K, B-U-R-K-E. I'm I'm I'm seeing people in the comments and they're saying glowing opinions about you, Connor, but I will say that they are they I have not seen it.

[3:00:49] Matt Ligouri: You gotta check check like episodes, like carousels of episodes that you've been on. They they love you don't bad.

[3:00:56] Conor Burke: They uh one thing I will say, they're spelling your name wrong. They're adding a different they're adding another N.

[3:01:02] Matt Ligouri: So the one N is the distinction.

[3:01:06] Conor Burke: Um Maybe they're talking about a different Connor that we're just gonna be. We love We love Connor with two N's on the podcast.

[3:01:14] Matt Ligouri: Some shady bitches out there. They're like, actually, I wasn't actually talking about Conor Burke.

[3:01:21] Conor Burke: Um Thank you so much, Andrew, for having us back on. I this is always just a joy. So fun. Um in terms of things that okay, I was recently on two different podcasts on Oh My Yod, um, with prior Gleek of the Week Adam, who has recently started a podcast where it's like going through um Goosebumps, Make Your Own Decision.

[3:01:42] Matt Ligouri: Um my god, that is what's it called?

[3:01:44] Conor Burke: Oh my god. Oh my god. Um Make Your Own Decision.

[3:01:49] Matt Ligouri: My yard.

[3:01:49] Conor Burke: Yeah, I need to listen to those. Um very, very fun. Uh and then also I recorded an episode two days ago with Breaking the Curtain. Um, another really great uh podcast that talks a lot about musical theater and everything, so go check them out as well. As always, leave a nice review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and go to Patreon.com slash Gleek of the Week Pod. We will be doing more live stream episodes um soon. And yeah, see you next week. Listen to Cowboy Carter. Bye.

[3:02:22] Andrew: Bum bum bum. It's click, click of the week.