Wow. Hi there. I am Dave Holmes. Welcome to Troubled Waters. This is the show that treats popular culture as the most important kind of culture, because it is the most important kind of culture. Just the other day, we got up at 5am to watch the Academy Award nominees. That's important. You don't do that for any other kind of culture, do you? I don't. I also didn't really actually do it for the Oscar. But whatever, anyway. 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 is still somehow in early 2023. Still frowned upon. Still lethal.

Worse than trying to rally influential Academy voters to nominate you for a movie that

literally nobody has ever seen and ever will. So for now, it is one comic against another.

As a matter of fact, I mean, well, you'll hear in a moment, but these two comedians are very,

very close, physically, emotionally, we'll get there.

To win this battle, each of our contestants will be called upon to use their smarts, their

rhetorical skills, the great comebacks they have been saving in their notes out and just

waiting for the right moment to earn the coveted troubled waters title, Punditamertes,

which will automatically give their opinion on Meyer Rudolph replacing the Eminem spokes candies

in what is absolutely a setup for a Super Bowl ad, more weight than a civilian.

Even Tucker Crossins, you're listening to Troubled Waters. Now let us meet our contestants.

Our first contestant is the head of creative at multitude, the creator and host of such podcasts as joining the party.

Next stop.

What's your favorite Pokemon?

It's Eric Silver.

That's me.

Hello.

Welcome, Eric Silver.

How are you?

I'm good. I'm happy to be here for a second. I was like, do I not know enough about pop culture?

And then you said those things. I'm like, oh, yeah, no, I saw that on the internet. And I'm like, oh, no, I'm set.

I am so on the internet. I'm plugged in. I do have takes about whether or not I thought Megan should just bust in at 530 Pacific

...