Episode 144 · The GaS Digital / Ray Kump Era
Francis Ellis
with Francis Ellis
Apr 21, 2019 · 1:29:23 · 30 segments, 189 moments indexed
- 1 min
Cold Open: Infowars, Ron White, and Francis Ellis Intro
#Tim opens talking about tour dates and considering going on Infowars, then brings on Francis Ellis from Barstool Sports and immediately asks if he'd go on Infowars.
1moment
- 0:56Ron White is fucking amazing.
- 2 min
Tim and Francis debate whether Alex Jones is sane, whether it's a character, and Francis discusses his long history following Infowars and wanting to visit the compound in Austin.
7moments
- 1:16Tim says he wouldn't go on Infowars because he doesn't see it ending well.
- 1:29He changes his mind and says of course he would do it, then immediately qualifies it as a contrarian move.
- 1:56Tim agrees with some of Alex Jones's points, which he identifies as the problem.
- 2:16Alex Jones is an exaggerated version of himself, kind of like Tim is, kind of like a lot of people are.
- 2:28Tim has always wanted to visit the Infowars compound in Austin—watching Alex for almost twenty years makes the experience hilarious to him.
- 2:51Going on Infowars would be hilarious, though Tim's agent wouldn't approve; his manager doesn't even know who Alex is.
- 3:17Tim decides against it anyway because it would open up a can of worms.
- 2 min
Francis discusses Barstool's reputation, being a white Harvard guy at the company, the female CEO Erika Nardini, and his blog defending Christine Blasey Ford that got him death threats.
8moments
- 3:37Barstool has old sound bites and lines from its 14-year history that haven't aged well and live on the internet.
- 3:58Tim notes Barstool is a punching bag partly because it's for dudes and about sports.
- 4:09Guest is tall, white, went to Harvard—already public enemy number one to many people.
- 4:23Guest claims he's not one of the bad ones at Barstool and tends to get credit from the progressive system.
- 4:36Guest wrote a blog praising Christine Blasey Ford's testimony during Kavanaugh hearings, which triggered death threats from Barstool's audience.
- 5:02Tim says he couldn't get past Kavanaugh's calendars and found humor in them.
- 5:15Barstool now has a female CEO, Erika Nardini, and female staff, reading like corporate disclaimers.
- 5:27Tim jokes he hopes the female CEO is actually a dude and "gets it."
Christine Blasey FordBarstool SportsErika Nardini
- 1 min
The Cat Williams Woke Line
#Tim declares that if Cat Williams ever 'goes woke' like a Hannah Gadsby Nanette special, he's quitting comedy entirely.
1moment
- 5:38Tim draws a line: if Cat Williams or Barstool Sports goes woke, he's quitting the business entirely.
- 2 min
Francis tells the story of a commenter who falsely accused him of rape as a prank to demonstrate mob mentality, and how it shook him despite being fabricated.
3moments
- 6:15Tim writes essays about Christine Blasey Ford on Barstool's platform.
- 6:51Tim was genuinely shaken by the fake accusation despite being told it wasn't credible, questioning whether he actually did it.
- 7:21The troll's goal was to show Tim how mob mentality can dictate someone's fate through unverified claims.
Barstool SportsChristine BlaseyLuis J Gomez
- 4 min
'Saturdays Are For The Boys' Rant and Harvard Lacrosse Origins
#Tim rants about the Barstool slogan and the losers who live with their moms using it as a personality, then pivots into Francis's background: Harvard lacrosse recruit from Maine, parents from Amherst and Princeton, and a bizarre story about his mother being a mermaid performer in Florida.
8moments
- 7:55Tim sees people posting "Saturdays are for the boys" while living with their mother on Long Island, and he gets angry because every day should be about getting a job and moving out.
- 8:26The slogan becomes people's entire personality, like they're just repeating a Nike ad instead of developing their own identity.
- 9:33In this day and age, it's important not to forget the importance of straight white males.
- 9:47Tim clarifies he got into Harvard as a true blue-collar lacrosse player, not like the horrible parents who game the system.
- 10:20His father managed a color tile store, so the jump from Amherst to Harvard isn't exactly a dynasty.
- 10:35His mother was in the first class of women at Princeton, but Tim's real story: she was a mermaid in a tank in Florida where men would jerk off in the parking lot before the strip club opened.
- 11:00The mermaid thing gets worse—she wasn't even holding her breath on scuba gear, she was actually holding her breath, which "really undoes the whole mermaid."
- 11:14If society divides up air soon and Jeff Bezos gets to decide, the mermaids in South Florida shouldn't get a huge portion of it.
HarvardPrincetonJeff BezosAmherst CollegeMaineYale
- 4 min
They joke about the Long Island Lizards being a humiliating pro lacrosse league, then Francis reveals rumored group sexual activity among younger lacrosse teammates at Harvard.
6moments
- 12:03Tim jokes that the Long Island Lizards lacrosse team is so embarrassing that admitting your son plays for them is worse than saying he overdosed on heroin.
- 12:55Guest notes that unlike football or basketball, professional lacrosse offers virtually no career prospects, so college was just a means to an elite education like Harvard.
- 13:11Tim asks directly whether the Harvard lacrosse team had closeted gay activity going on.
- 14:07Guest describes younger team members having wild nights with group sex activities and rumors they were engaging with each other sexually.
- 14:36Tim observes that this behavior went unchallenged because the timeline of the world had progressed far enough that nobody attacked them for it.
- 15:13Nobody on the team ever confronted them about the rumors; they were left alone and bragged about sleeping with girls while omitting the rest.
- 2 min
Discussion of Harvard's bribery and legitimacy scandals, Francis's Nassau Community College joke, and how Francis enjoys when people underestimate him as a frat bro.
5moments
- 15:39Tim attended Harvard before the admissions scandals engulfed the school.
- 15:53Nassau Community College gains credibility by comparison, since he presumably got in without bribery.
- 16:07People want to delegitimize elite academic institutions using the scandal as evidence.
- 16:29Tim is smarter than people who talk down to him because of his work at Barstool or in entertainment.
- 16:59Tim enjoys when people underestimate him based on incomplete knowledge of his background and resume.
- 4 min
Francis explains his path into comedy from a Harvard/finance background, then tells a story about being warned of gang violence while walking around Springfield, Massachusetts before a gig, and Tim riffs about looking like a corrupt cop.
8moments
- 17:38Tim got into comedy through always loving performance and listening to comedy on Napster, including Eddie Murphy illegally.
- 18:02His family used Seinfeld in the car as a way to keep the peace instead of screaming at each other.
- 18:29Tim tried going into finance and did a junior internship at Royal Bank of Scotland in Stamford, Connecticut, but hated it.
- 18:52Tim performed in Springfield, Massachusetts and was shocked to learn the town has serious gang violence when a woman casually mentioned it.
- 19:29He walked through Springfield and found boarded-up houses, people in the street, drug deals happening openly—confirmed the gang violence was real.
- 19:50Tim jokes he looks like a corrupt cop on the take, which helped him walk safely through dangerous neighborhoods.
- 20:34Tim advises his guest not to limit his career options by avoiding edgy material just to get network TV meetings.
- 20:54Tim tells him he already has his own audience and should focus on building his own independent platform rather than chasing Hollywood meetings.
Eddie MurphySpringfield, MassachusettsSeinfeldRoyal Bank of ScotlandRed Rose pizzeriaChris and Lacey Ford
- 3 min
Tim advises Francis that building an independent audience is the future over waiting for network deals, citing Sebastian Maniscalco, and Francis explains his reluctance to fully commit to controversial material for career reasons.
5moments
- 21:16Networks pass on comedians who become huge stars—Sebastian Meniscalco sells out arenas but CBS didn't pick up his show.
- 21:29Tim explains he hasn't earned the ability to work without compromise because people outside his circle don't know who he is.
- 22:02After the Covington Catholic incident, Tim made a joke about shooting kids, then deleted it when full footage showed the kids did nothing wrong.
- 22:34His LA colleagues doubled down on attacking the kids even after the truth came out, despite Tim considering that a line he won't cross.
- 23:12The Hollywood mob demands conformity, but Tim has always refused to work on their terms and prefers doing things his own way.
Sebastian MeniscalcoCovington
- 2 min
Francis describes backing off a joke about the Covington Catholic kids once the full video came out, while his LA comedian colleagues doubled down on doxxing and harassing them, and his refusal to go along with the mob mentality.
5moments
- 24:07Tim explains why he refuses to join the Hollywood mob despite acknowledging they're not always wrong.
- 24:37Independent thinking is not allowed in mainstream entertainment, only in his corner of the business.
- 25:05Tim has learned that discussing politics or reviewing his stance on issues directly costs him ticket sales.
- 25:30Certain topics like satanic pedophile cults guarantee extreme reactions regardless of whether he addresses them or not.
- 25:55Three specific topics have caused chaos: the Blasey Ford trial, one other incident, and dressing as Clarence Thomas for Halloween.
- 2 min
Francis recounts the three topics that caused him the most blowback: the Blasey Ford blog, a Halloween costume as Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill, and a blog criticizing pit bulls that brought out the 'pitbull lobby.'
5moments
- 26:02Someone dressed as Christine Blasey Ford in blackface and a fat suit, then as Anita Hill the next day with an Anita Hill doll.
- 26:26Tim wrote a blog about pitbulls being violent killers and the pitbull lobby came after him.
- 26:42The show 'Pitbulls and Parolees' rehabilitated pitbull image by pairing them with criminals and hardened killers instead of law-abiding citizens.
- 27:11Tim likes pitbulls specifically because they're murderous and vicious, and he observes white women in Brooklyn walking them with ridiculous names.
- 27:56Tim opened the previous episode saying he might genuinely go on InfoWars in two weeks to eat barbecue and text with Alex Jones—not a bit, an actual possibility.
pitbullsPitbulls and ParolesAlex JonesJoel PaulRoy Cohn
- 3 min
Tim and Francis discuss how elite institutions like Harvard streamline people into mainstream thought, comparing it to Trump's outsider appeal, and Francis reflects on being at Harvard just before campus political correctness took hold.
7moments
- 28:41Harvard and Yale take brilliant people and corral them into the mainstream of American thought.
- 29:17Government officials from these institutions share similar points of view, which made Trump's outsider appearance appealing.
- 29:51Tim graduated in 2011, just before campus protests, sexual assault scandals, and microphone-cutting started.
- 30:14Louis C.K. performed at Harvard when Tim was a senior and wasn't pulling punches.
- 30:32Asian American students are suing Harvard over admissions discrimination because they're being held to a quota.
- 30:54Tim declares himself a Chinese supremacist, noting that Asians dominate when judged by facts and numbers.
- 31:07Tim asks where his Charlottesville is—where he can express appreciation for a group doing better than him.
- 4 min
Discussion of the Asian-American discrimination lawsuit against Harvard, the Stuyvesant High School admissions makeup, and the tension between merit-based and diversity-based hiring in writers' rooms.
10moments
- 31:24Stuyvesant High School admitted four Black children while reaching 80% Asian and 23% white enrollment.
- 31:48Tim describes four talented Black students in a band spotting each other across a sea of smaller Asian heads.
- 32:01Writers' rooms predominantly filled with talentless hacks, according to Tim, who has never wanted to work in one.
- 32:12Blind submission packets for hiring should theoretically work on merit alone, but diversity enforcement complicates the approach.
- 32:27The counterargument: unequal background and opportunity means merit-based selection alone won't produce diverse outcomes.
- 32:53Idealist position that plenty of talented minority writers exist to staff rooms on merit and achieve diversity naturally.
- 33:18Systemic advantage for white applicants with existing connections and knowledge of industry expectations makes merit-based hiring unequal.
- 33:58Tim watches most shows and questions whether a writers' room even exists behind them, remaining agnostic on the problem.
- 34:10Society splits between those demanding diversity at all costs and those insisting on raw numbers and data alone.
- 34:43Tim's audience consists of insane people, which he supports because crazy people are more fun—except when they're family or business partners.
Stuyvesant High SchoolBetterHelpLou Pearlman
- 3 min
Tim reads a sponsored ad for BetterHelp online counseling, joking about his schizophrenic mother and pitching the convenience and affordability of online therapy.
5moments
- 35:40Tim jokes that he would tweet out and meme his clients' problems on Instagram, unlike actual trained therapists.
- 36:04If you're afraid of light and can't leave your apartment, you can get therapy from home without ever opening the door.
- 36:46Tim explains why in-person therapy doesn't make financial sense: Ubers cost too much, trains don't work, and traveling isn't worth it.
- 37:20Tim tried BetterHelp himself to verify the service actually works and confirms the therapists are real professionals.
- 38:00Tim gives his personal endorsement of BetterHelp and urges listeners to go get help.
- 2 min
Francis discusses being told he won't get hired because of how he looks, and Tim advises him to build his own indie brand rather than chase institutional respect, riffing on white comedians performing extreme wokeness to survive.
6moments
- 38:27Tim's solution for not getting hired: the pirate ship — being entertaining, which he's already doing.
- 38:38The real issue is wanting Hollywood's respect, wanting to sit at the Emmy next to Jimmy Kimmel and Fallon.
- 38:52Tim loves Patricia Neal and Bill Burr because they had opinions and said what they wanted, never needing those rooms.
- 39:22Looking the way he does combined with working in sports makes getting that respect from Hollywood tougher.
- 39:40Harvard guy wanting the respect of other Harvard guys who write for the Tonight Show or SNL — that's genuinely tough.
- 40:03Tim's satirical take on how to play the game: express self-hatred and anti-colonial guilt at every family dinner instead.
Patricia Neil BillHollywoodHarvardSaturday Night LiveJimmy FallonJimmy KimmelEmmy
- 4 min
Francis describes volunteering at a last-chance charter school in Brooklyn where he taught geometry to a class with several pregnant 16-year-olds and their teenage boyfriends, leading into Tim's rant about lazy teachers being 'summer enthusiasts.'
8moments
- 40:27Tim volunteered at a Brooklyn charter school for students expelled from public schools.
- 41:41They immediately assigned him a full geometry class without warning despite understaffing.
- 41:56Four of his eight girls in the class were 16-year-old pregnant students, some with the fathers also attending.
- 42:23Teaching isosceles triangles to pregnant girls experiencing prenatal stress struck him as absurd.
- 42:52Despite 60% of students having an incarcerated parent, they still wanted to learn but lacked foundational study skills.
- 43:19Tim's takeaway: teachers are public enemy number one—lazy, overpaid, and obsessed with summer vacation.
- 43:45He demands teachers get back to work while the world falls apart and schools fill with pregnant teenagers.
- 44:00Tim clarifies he's actually only half-joking about his contempt for teachers.
- 2 min
Joking About Abortion Vans for Pregnant Students
#Tim riffs darkly about driving pregnant teens to Planned Parenthood instead of teaching them geometry, with Francis pushing back gently.
6moments
- 44:07Tim's grandmother was a great teacher, but every generation after her has been fucking work.
- 44:21His friend's wife is a teacher who has no idea where she is at any given moment.
- 44:53Tim suggests making children get abortions before they go into school.
- 45:06He questions whether the dads are excited about being fathers.
- 45:19Instead of presenting literature, drive the kids to Planned Parenthood in a van.
- 45:30Tim clarifies these are his guest's words, not his own.
teachersPlanned Parenthoodcharter schools
- 2 min
Tim diagnoses Francis's core conflict as wanting respect from Hollywood elites/institutions that might reject him for his material, contrasting brand loyalty versus audience loyalty.
4moments
- 45:55Tim describes women posting graphic abortion threads on Twitter to provoke and bother everyone.
- 46:28Manager doesn't want the episode released and Tim expresses longing for the freedom the other person has.
- 46:56Being attached to a brand is different from just having an audience and creates restrictions.
- 47:31Tim identifies the core issue as elitism—wanting institutional respect from people who might disagree with you.
abortion
- 5 min
Francis explains how he leaned into playing the entitled Harvard douchebag character for Barstool's blue-collar audience, and how being honest and raw builds trust with fans despite controversy.
10moments
- 47:52Tim explains the pressure of wanting respect from institutions that might one day offer money, which could make them pull up the podcast and object to something he said.
- 48:26Guest asks why it's worth being censored and nervous all the time when there are so many other ways to make money now.
- 49:01Tim mentions learning the guest went to Harvard and finds it interesting because their worldview is completely different from his own.
- 49:19Tim contrasts their backgrounds: he was doing cocaine at 13 while the guest was coming from elite circles.
- 49:44Guest describes having meetings with people in the industry for two years before someone told him to just be himself.
- 50:09Guest clarifies he's not trying to be a neo-Nazi, just funny—he doesn't think teachers are the biggest problem but finds it funny to hear.
- 50:33Tim identifies the gap between testing the waters to see what you can get away with versus reaching terminal velocity of individuality.
- 51:12Guest went on a real rant about his family's Christmas, saying his stepmother and father failed in the stewardship of the holiday, which angered people.
- 51:51Tim argues that attending Harvard puts someone at the apex of society, where the natural instinct is to retain that position, making them more cautious than someone from his background.
- 52:20Someone from elite circles is naturally going to be more cautious than Tim is, and there's nothing wrong with that.
- 4 min
Francis talks about how his colleagues don't always know if he's serious given his character, profiles Barstool personalities like Robbie Fox, and discusses Colin Jost as a rare Harvard-to-comedy success story.
7moments
- 52:25Tim argues that someone like him shouldn't be working at the State Department—there's a need for different kinds of people in different roles.
- 52:57His Barstool coworkers don't really like him, and he suspects they view him objectively as not someone they enjoy.
- 53:52When you constantly maintain that tone, your coworkers and friends who aren't part of that audience struggle to know if you're being serious, creating a disconnect.
- 54:28Robbie Fox represents the typical Barstool employee—a 20-year-old from a New Jersey community college who started as an intern on a golf podcast.
- 54:57At 19, Robbie went to his boss and said he wanted to write about wrestling and mixed martial arts instead, and they let him try.
- 55:10He and Robbie don't have much in common—Tim is a decade older, has a full college degree, did stand-up and tutoring, and had a completely different life story.
- 55:28Stand-up comedians' opinions of him improve once they spend time with him and realize he's not as bad as expected.
Robbie FoxGeraldo RiveraBarstool SportsColin Jost
- 2 min
Francis discusses whether he'll stay at Barstool forever, being financially independent through tutoring, and his parents' surprise at his growing recognition.
5moments
- 56:13Tim contrasts the traditional Harvard Lampoon-to-writing-job route with his own unconventional path to comedy.
- 56:35Uncertainty about whether there will be a permanent place for him at Barstool indefinitely.
- 56:46Tim jokes about wanting to get to LA with a big house in Santa Monica Canyon where no one can hear the screams.
- 57:08His parents are supportive now that he's supporting himself, having never asked them for money through tutoring.
- 57:21His parents are surprised when strangers recognize him and mention his work.
- 5 min
Francis draws the line at Alex Jones's Sandy Hook crisis actor claims, discussing government lies like the Boston Marathon bombing and Abu Ghraib as context for conspiratorial thinking, while condemning the harassment of Sandy Hook families.
8moments
- 58:00Tim describes how being in the conspiracy world can make credible-sounding claims that would get you exiled in polite society.
- 58:39He doesn't believe Sandy Hook had crisis actors, but points to historical cases like Gulf of Tonkin and Boston Marathon bombing where authorities advanced false narratives first.
- 59:26Tim theorizes that Alex Jones's role became questioning official stories by advancing opposite possibilities, some of which sound insane but occasionally turn out true.
- 59:48Torture program example: if you'd claimed the day after Abu Ghraib that the Defense Department designed a coordinated torture and rendition program, you'd have been laughed off major news outlets—yet that's exactly what happened.
- 1:00:39Tim says Alex Jones made a grave error with Sandy Hook and the harassment of families that followed was completely disgusting and inexcusable.
- 1:01:13Alex made sloppy, reckless statements, but Tim questions whether we should live in a world where people get exiled from society for saying things they regret.
- 1:01:32On Joe Rogan's podcast, Alex did apologize for twenty minutes out of a five-hour conversation, though the apology doesn't undo the harm to families.
- 1:02:00Tim's final stance: the alternative—blindly believing government narratives—seems equally wrong given historical examples of repeated lies to the public.
Alex JonesBoston Marathon bombingAbu GhraibSandy HookDefense DepartmentJoe RoganDick CheneyDonald Rumsfeld+8 more
- 4 min
Tim delivers a sponsored ad for Wix.com, joking that people's failures stem from not having a website and comparing website-building success to Kylie Jenner's empire.
8moments
- 1:02:20Tim lists the reasons people fail: drug addiction, lack of talent, neurological problems, bad parenting — then claims the real problem is not having a website.
- 1:02:58Wix allows you to start from scratch or use templates to build a professional site, with drag-and-drop customization or AI design.
- 1:03:34Tim points to his own site, TimDhillon'sGoinToHell.com, as proof that Wix produces killer websites.
- 1:04:00Building a website is how you become a brand like Kylie Jenner, who's worth a billion dollars by selling jeans.
- 1:04:35Tim insists the best plan is to start, telling the audience they don't need Kylie Jenner's expensive setup — they're just a goon with a dream.
- 1:05:05Wix.com is free to build on, with 10% off premium plans through the link at TimDhillon'sGoinToHell.com.
- 1:05:25Whether you're a photographer, comedian, musician, real estate agent, or any other profession, Wix is inexpensive and gets your content in front of people.
- 1:05:49Starting with Wix leads to building income and eventually becoming Kylie Jenner — all from one website.
- 6 min
Deep dive into how Francis vets conspiracy claims responsibly, differentiating between government mishandling of information (Boston Marathon bombing, 9/11 intelligence failures) and Alex Jones's Sandy Hook claims, plus discussion of CIA/FBI accountability.
10moments
- 1:06:28Tim explains his approach to examining conspiracy theories: reading credible sources with extensive documentation, checking their work, and verifying their claims himself.
- 1:07:24Alex Jones as a showman gets caught up in his own theatrical delivery and momentum before realizing where he's headed.
- 1:07:42Tim raises the Boston Marathon bombing as an example of people not caring whether the FBI lies to them, which he sees as a significant problem.
- 1:08:27Government lying about prior knowledge of attack perpetrators is fundamentally wrong, even if it doesn't justify conspiracy theories that deny the events happened.
- 1:09:04FBI and CIA are unelected institutions with little accountability, and their history includes destroying interrogation tapes and spying on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
- 1:10:00Tim argues a live-streaming guy in Austin should be held to a higher standard of truth than the FBI, not a lower one.
- 1:10:26The Looming Tower taught him the FBI and CIA's refusal to share information about 9-11 may have prevented the attack.
- 1:11:11The government has repeatedly lied across multiple administrations and decades, not just once.
- 1:11:26The CIA has sponsored coups and assassinated foreign leaders—these are documented facts, not theories, so skepticism about the agency isn't inherently crazy.
- 1:12:01Tim and his interlocutor may disagree on whether ordinary people should have access to classified information that intelligence agencies possess.
CIAAlex JonesFBIBoston Marathon bombingThe Looming Tower
- 7 min
Tim probes why Francis needs to have faith in government institutions to avoid anxiety, contrasting it with his own cynical, question-everything wiring, and discussing rogue elements within intelligence agencies.
9moments
- 1:12:40Francis argues he must have faith in the government system or he'd lose his mind to anxiety.
- 1:13:42Tim mentions he applied to the CIA while in college.
- 1:14:44Institutional injustice and police brutality on the South Side of Chicago depend on where you are in society's hierarchy.
- 1:15:32Tim credits his suspicious and cynical humor to his natural DNA, contrasting with Francis's hopeful disposition.
- 1:15:43As a child in Catholic Church, Tim felt instinctively that the priest was full of shit because of his robe and position.
- 1:16:42Tim doesn't believe the government orchestrated 9/11 directly but was lied to about Saudi Arabia's role and the reasons for invading Iraq and Afghanistan.
- 1:17:44Bush and Cheney refused to testify before the 9/11 Commission without sitting next to each other, a sign of a society that's fundamentally broken.
- 1:18:27The Dick Cheney movie was heavy-handed with propaganda despite Christian Bale's phenomenal performance.
- 1:18:59Operation Northwoods revealed that CIA elements considered false-flag operations to justify military action.
9/11Operation NorthwoodsChristian BaleGeorge W. BushAfghanistanSaudi ArabiaCatholic ChurchBarstool Sports+6 more
- 1 min
Quick exchange about the Christian Bale Dick Cheney biopic Vice, agreeing the performance was great but the movie's politics were heavy-handed.
2moments
- 1:19:06Tim describes the false flag operation involving American tourists on a ship, blamed on Castro and Cuba.
- 1:19:27Tim emphasizes the Gulf of Tonkin was complete bullshit in a world where such deceptions have consequences.
- 4 min
Francis brings up Operation Northwoods, the fabricated Gulf of Tonkin incident, Saudi involvement in 9/11, the Vigilant Guardian war game coincidence, and the suspicious death of journalist Michael Hastings.
9moments
- 1:19:32Tim explains he's not claiming the government did 9/11, but questions why it's crazy to examine what happened afterward: the surveillance state, wars, and who got rich.
- 1:20:17Senator Bob Graham from Florida pushed to know why the U.S. covered up Saudi Arabia's role when 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi.
- 1:20:47On 9/11 itself, government officials claimed nobody could have imagined a plane hitting a building—yet that day NORAD was running a war game called Vigilant Guardian simulating exactly that scenario.
- 1:21:49In 9/11 tapes, people repeatedly ask 'Is this real world or exercise?' because the drill was simulating the exact attack happening in real time.
- 1:22:19Investigative reporter Michael Hastings, who got Stanley McChrystal fired, said he was being followed and his car was being tampered with; three days later he crashed into a tree and exploded.
- 1:22:47Tim notes that if Michael Hastings' car crash happened in Russia, everyone would immediately blame Putin, but in America people shrug and move on.
- 1:23:05Tim admits he naively believed Watergate changed things and that government oversight was ratcheted up afterward.
- 1:23:19Yale and Harvard students are taught the system works and holds itself accountable—because those institutions need them to believe it so they'll run the company competently.
- 1:23:33As a clown, Tim doesn't need to believe the official story, but people working at companies have the bullshit shoved down their throat.
Bob GrahamMichael HastingsStanley McChrystalVigilant GuardianWatergate
- 2 min
Tim argues that elite institutions like Harvard indoctrinate students to believe in government accountability post-Watergate, comparing it to corporate propaganda, while Francis notes his Harvard friend group actually disagrees on plenty.
6moments
- 1:23:39Tim's friend works at Bay Alarm, where the company enforces conformity with the phrase 'the Bay way.'
- 1:24:07There are no propaganda classes taught; instead, students are corralled into asking only acceptable questions or risk ostracism.
- 1:24:37In other countries, people are more open to CIA criticism because the agency has done horrific things.
- 1:24:58Tim studied Middle Eastern politics and the Arab-Israeli conflict at Harvard and got in trouble for it.
- 1:25:26His Harvard friend group studied different fields — economics, philosophy, classics, math — and have wildly divergent views in their group chat.
- 1:25:41Tim argues that while the disagreements seem broad, there are likely unstated premises that go unquestioned across the group.
- 3 min
Francis gives his social media handles and upcoming tour dates including his first special at the Wilbur Theater, and Tim runs through his own extensive list of tour dates before thanking Francis and closing the show.
7moments
- 1:26:22Francis Ellis's social media handles: Twitter @FrancisCLS, Instagram @FrancisBarstool.
- 1:27:09Ellis announces tour dates: Roar MGM Springfield April 25-27, Providence Comedy Connection May 15, and his first special shooting at the Wilbur Theater in Boston on May 17.
- 1:27:30Tim plugs his own tour dates, including Moon Tower on April 26 and multiple club dates through the fall at venues nationwide.
- 1:28:08Tim mentions returning to LA in a few weeks to hit podcasts with Segura and potentially do shows with Rogan at the Improv.
- 1:28:30Social media reminder: TimJDillonDILON on Instagram and Twitter, with more content coming to YouTube.
- 1:28:44Tim teases Meghan McCain might make another appearance and praises Ellis's Instagram video in front of the pink wall as one of the best pieces of work this year.
- 1:29:12Closing thanks to Francis Ellis, whom Tim describes as the purveyor of the 9-11 official story, which Tim says he mostly believes.