Oh my gosh, hi. I'm Dave Holmes. Welcome to Troubled Waters. The show that treats popular culture is the most important kind of culture because it is. Now, back in the before times, Troubled Waters would pit two teams of comedians against one another in a pop culture battle royale. But now, teaming up with another person who is not in your quarantine pod without a, you know, a vaccination record and a clean bill of health is possibly lethal.

It's definitely more frowned upon than going on TV and saying people are giving away edibles as candy for trick or treating.

No, they're not.

That shit is expensive.

Anyway, for now, it's one comic against another.

To win this battle, each comic will be called upon to use their smarts, their rhetorical skills,

the great comebacks that they've been saving in the back of their mind.

You're listening to Trouled Waters. Let's meet our players.

Our first contestant is a writer and comic.

Any co-hosts the podcast, Asian, not Asian.

It's Fumi Abe.

Hello.

Hi, what's up?

Thanks for having me.

Thank you so much for being here.

How are you?

I am so good, so ready to talk pop culture, baby. That's right, baby. You're against a brick wall

as though we're in a comedy club that would seem to give you a slight advantage. Yes,

you can tell who's true stand-up comedian or not by how close he is to a brick wall. I always

have one behind me. I think that's really important. Thank you so much

for being here. Our second contestant is a writer and comedian and coincidentally also co-hosts Asian,

not Asian. What incredible timing. It's Mike Nguyen. Hello. Hey, hey, yeah. It would be great if

...