Original subtitles

No.

Thank you so much for joining us. It has been a busy week. Protests continued in

France and India, the USS Abraham Lincoln finally returned home, and a new

scandal hit the Trump administration, and even by their standards, it's a

pretty tacky one.

A major Trump donor is accusing Kimberly Guilfoyle of begging him to pay her

American Express bill.

Eric Dieters, who once ran for governor of Kentucky, says Donald Trump Jr.'s

former fiancé...

begged him to pay off her $100,000 bill just six days before she was confirmed

as the new U.S. ambassador to Greece.

It won't show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express, she wrote him

on the Signal messaging app.

Please, honey, please, she begged in another message. I need you to get this

done for me today.

Okay, first, that text is something. Honey, please, send $100,000 to my

credit card. And sweetie, don't go on the news later to talk about it. And

pumpkin, please also send 100 grand to Sephora. I need a new vat of charcoal

eyeliner. My style icon is a raccoon, prayer hands.

But let's just back up for a second here.

Kimberly Guilfoyle is the current ambassador to Greece, and it was always

an odd job for her to get, given she's probably best known for this moment at

the 2020 RNC.

That is just too much there. Outdoor voice, cocaine eyes, and Evita arms.

Tone it down. She's one step away there from transforming into a flock of crows.

Anyway, Guilfoyle's been accused of using her political influence to make

money from Eric Dieters, an ex-lawyer, radio host, and former co-owner of the

Snappy Tomato Pizza chain.

He apparently wanted a number of favors from Guilfoyle, including connecting him

with the IRS, which was questioning a deduction that he'd made a few years

ago, and having the government help out in a malpractice case against a doctor

who'd fled the country. And Dieters says that he's coming out now because the

government didn't follow through on that last one, or indeed, any of the things

that he asked of Guilfoyle, some of which are truly nuts.

I said, wait a minute, Kimberly.

You've not done anything that you promised me. You haven't got me on

Tucker. You haven't got me on a Fox interview.

You haven't done squat.

You didn't get Kid Rock, the song that I wrote.

Hold on, hold on.

You didn't get Kid Rock, the song I wrote? Do you know how bad a song has to

be for it to be not good enough for Kid Rock?

The guy who wrote a song featured in the children's movie Osmosis Jones, in which

he sang, young ladies, young ladies are like them underage, see? Some say that's

statutory, but I say it's mandatory.

He performed that song in a kid's movie.

You know it is bad when you have the creepiest song on an album that also

features R. Kelly.

Anyway, based on those messages, Guilford seemed worried about all of

this becoming public, as she warned Deeters repeatedly not to commit talk of

money or payments to tech, saying, Eric, I really wish you would stop papering

all these things. It's really dangerous and not helpful to you or me. Why don't

you just simply call me on signal? And when he didn't still take that hint, she

later texted, what a nightmare.

You'll literally cost me my ambassadorship.

Stop writing.

Guilford's lawyer has disputed the authenticity of the messages without

giving any specifics, but it's just the latest concern about her appointment as

ambassador, given there's also been coverage of, among many other things,

her bringing a registered lobbyist to meetings with foreign officials.

And the thing is, she hasn't even been good at the easiest part of her job,

which is basically just doing PR for America overseas.

In fact, just watch this video that her embassy put out featuring a speech that

she gave at a 4th of July event, meant to fire up the assembled crowd, because

it wasn't exactly... electrifying.

As President Trump said, this anniversary is a time to be proud of our

past, but it is also a time to lift our sights, expand our ambitions, and raise

our expectations of what America can be. We will leave our children nothing less

than the richest inheritance, most advanced civilization, and highest

standard of living in human history.

What happened there?

Did the teleprompters just say, do this part like you're a Disney animatronic

whose battery is running out?

Now, the White House seems to be currently trying to distance itself from

Guilford, with administration officials apparently discussing whether she should

be removed from her post. So, there may well be more to say about this going

forward, or I guess, to borrow a phrase... The best is yet to come!

Right, I couldn't have said it louder myself.

But for now, we're actually gonna dive straight in with our main story this

week, which concerns medication.

It's the subject of this 1980s PSA where a group of pills try and discourage kids

from eating them. This is serious.

Serious. We could make you delirious.

Delirious. You should have a healthy fear of us. Fear of us. Too much of us.

Listen, I do appreciate the message there, but unfortunately, I don't think

I've ever wanted to eat a pile of loose pills more.

I mean, there are literally candy commercials that have made me want to

eat their product less than those adorable singing skittles.

Get into my mouth!

Specifically, we're gonna focus on generic medications. You know, drugs

that contain the same active ingredients, dosage form, strength,

safety, quality, and intended use as their brand name counterparts.

Or, as this director of pharmacy services puts it...

The generic is the same as the brand. There's no difference.

The only difference might be in the filler, not the active ingredient.

It's that active ingredient that's the same. What's the important part? Well,

that's the part that does the magic, yes.

Now, I'll be honest, the part that does the magic is a weird enough phrase as is

before you realize they chose to use Viagra as the example there, forcing all

of us to remember that in certain cases, doing the magic could well mean making

Grandpa rock hard.

But generics are by far the most common type of medication people take in the U

.S. They currently make up more than 90% of all U.S. prescriptions. You may even

take them without realizing it. You may have been prescribed Zoloft, but if you

look at your bottle, it might say sertraline.

That's the generic.

Similarly, if you're prescribed Lexapro, your bottle might say esitalopram. Or if

you're prescribed Prozac, it might say fluoxetine. And if you've never taken

any of those meds, then congratulations on being a happy, well-adjusted person,

and kindly go fuck yourself.

But unfortunately, in recent years, there have been eye-catching stories

about sudden drug shortages, often involving some exceptionally common

generics. Mass General has a tough enough job without having to deal with a

drug shortage.

I never thought we would get to a point in the U.S. healthcare system where we

wouldn't have essential medicines to be able to treat patients.

The hospital can't get enough of the blood thinner heparin, crucial for

cardiac surgery.

How surprising was it for you to hear that there was a heparin shortage?

Oh, it was completely surprising.

It's extremely frustrating.

I mean, it's like McDonald's running out of ketchup.

Yeah, that's a pretty apt comparison.

A hospital without heparin is indeed like a McDonald's without ketchup, or a

Subway without bread, or a Chick-fil-A without the pervading undercurrent of

homophobia. We've come to expect certain things at certain places.

And it's not just heparin.

Apparently, there are 227 active drug shortages right now, and that's

including many essential medicines, with some of the worst shortages involving

sterile injectables, drugs often used in IV bags, that are a staple of hospital

treatment. It's now at the point that the AMA has deemed drug shortages to be

an urgent public health crisis and a national security threat.

And for anyone relying on a certain drug, suddenly learning of a shortage

can be terrifying.

Take this woman, whose chemotherapy was delayed for exactly that reason.

It's very frustrating to know that there's a standard of care.

These two generic drugs and I can't get them. Someday I'm going to die.

I really would rather not die because these standard generic drugs weren't

available to me. And I can't imagine my family having that doubt. Was it the

cancer or was it that there was not enough chemotherapy and it got rationed?

Right, that is a question no family should have to ask after a loved one's

passing. It's right up there with, why did Dad store all these old maps of the

San Francisco Bay Area in the attic? And why did he hide this dogged guidebook on

how to make cipher messages? And why did he put this old pair of thick-rimmed

glasses, a handgun and a knife in this shoebox that he marked with a zodiac

symbol? Oh, fuck!

And as you are about to see, sudden shortages are just the beginning of the

issues here. So given that, tonight, let's talk about generic drugs. How

they're made...

where they're made, and what the problems can be. And let's start with

the basics.

Under current law, if a company invents and patents a drug, it's allowed the

exclusive right to sell it for a certain number of years. The idea being, it can

then recoup its cost on research and development, as well as, you know, make

a shit ton in profit.

But once that patent expires, generic manufacturers can make their own version

and usually charge far less.

Take, as it seems to be the go-to example here, Viagra.

Pfizer introduced Viagra onto the market in 1998 and had patent protections for

nearly two decades.

Then, cheaper generic versions like all these started to emerge, which was

frankly great news for thrifty, horny grandpas everywhere.

Similarly, while Ozempic's expensive right now, cheaper generics will

presumably come when its patents expire. And from a consumer cost perspective,

generics have been great, collectively saving patients in the healthcare system

trillions of dollars and often slashing prices by as much as 85%. And that is

mainly because the major buyers that purchase drugs on behalf of hospitals

and pharmacy chains are strongly incentivized to seek out the lowest cost

product. The problem is...

As prices get driven down, companies can suddenly decide that making a generic is

no longer profitable enough for them, which can result in worryingly few

manufacturers making certain drugs, or in extreme cases, only one doing it. And

that can be a big issue.

Take this story from 2019.

Vin Christine is one of the IV drugs used in chemotherapy to treat about 85%

of pediatric cancer cases.

But this summer, Teva, one of two U.S. companies that makes it, announced they

would stop making it, citing a business move. Only now is it starting to catch

up to patients.

Brenna's mom, Christy, fears the worst.

Relapse, or in her case, not ever beating the cancer. The kids who don't

finish their treatment won't get a cure.

I'm completely disheartened that a business decision stands to kill.

15,000 kids a year.

Christy hopes with the help of celebrities like Kevin Bacon, who has

also spoken about the drug shortage, she'll finally start to make some waves

of change for the sake of her daughter.

Look, that is terrible, and it is clearly absurd that it's somehow up to

Kevin Bacon.

to try and fix this, though, and I hate to be a petty bitch. Technically, he

didn't post about that shortage. His wife, Keira Sedgwick, did. Kevin Bacon

just retweeted it, which is just not the same. Still, I'm glad that he did it,

mainly to get the word out, but also because it was a refreshing break from

the unhinged content that filled up his feed, like this photo of him showing off

a giant zucchini.

And this video where he made a necklace out of popcorn so that, and this is

true, a goat could snack on it while he serenaded it with a Harry Styles song.

The man's entire Twitter feed was an LSD fever dream.

The point is, while I am glad that Kevin Bacon, but mostly Keira Sedgwick, helped

get the word out, and that woman's daughter was eventually able to get the

drugs she needed, we should not have to rely on celebrities to ensure adequate

supplies of drugs to treat kids with cancer.

But the broader story there... is not uncommon.

Basically, there were two companies left making the drug, one left the market,

and when the other had a production glitch, suddenly, there was a big

problem. And the thing is, glitches can happen in production. That's true in

drug manufacturing generally, but even more so in the generic space where

companies are in a race to make drugs at the cheapest possible cost.

And things have gotten worse as productions increasingly moved overseas

to chase even more savings. In fact, these days, roughly 60% of prescription

tablets and capsules for the US market are made in India, and it's estimated

nearly a quarter of our generic drug supply contains active ingredients

originated from China. And look, I am not saying manufacturing drugs in other

countries is inherently bad, but being that reliant on them can be a problem.

It's like finding out 80% of America's milk supply comes from cows personally

milked by Javier Barden.

Nothing against the man personally, I love the guy.

But if anything happens to that beautiful Spaniard, our breakfasts going

forward are going to be fucked.

And there's growing evidence that where generics are manufactured can make a

difference. A study last year found the risk of serious adverse events was 54%

higher with generics made in India compared with those made here in the US.

And researchers who've tested them...

have found that they can vary wildly in quality with issues ranging from

contamination to the wrong dosage to problems with how the medication

dissolves. Just listen to this woman, who had a heart transplant and was

reliant on a drug called tacrolimus to stop her body rejecting it. She found

that some generic versions of that drug made by overseas companies didn't work

as well, and that could have had massive consequences.

If you get a one-month supply of an anti-rejection medication that isn't

made right, what's the consequence for you?

Death?

I would die. To prevent her body from rejecting her new heart, her medication

levels are supposed to be between 6.8 and 7.5. On one brand of generic

tacrolimus, she tested at 3.9.

I was open for that whole week for rejection.

I'm like, oh, my God.

She switched to another.

which elevated her blood levels to 9.9, an overdose, leaving her newly

transplanted heart vulnerable to life-threatening complications.

I started shaking again, which is the side effect of being overdosed on

tacrolimus. You shake.

It is a complete crapshoot which one you're going to get when your pharmacy

picks one to give you.

That's frightening.

Yeah, of course it is. You don't want your life-saving medicine to have the

same selling point as an LOL surprise ball.

Because it could be anything in there. It could be Kitty Queen or Coconut QT or

Steve Buscemi. And while obviously some very specific little weird girl will

love that...

When it comes to your medicine bottle, you want a higher degree of certainty

regarding what's inside.

But unfortunately, too often, that is just not the case.

In fact, when the DOD had an independent lab test the military's most critical

drugs, out of the first group that they looked at, 15% of suppliers scored red,

meaning their product had major quality concerns.

And when it came to tacrolimus, the medication that woman was taking to stop

her body hitting eject on her new heart...

one-third of samples tested red, which is not good.

And the harms of poorly made drugs aren't just theoretical. People have

been hurt.

Take what happened a few years back with something as simple as generic over-the

-counter eye drops.

She said, you have an ulcer under your eye, and if we don't get this under

control, you will lose all your vision.

In 2023, four people died, four had to have their eyes removed, 14 lost vision,

and 114 suffered infections from contaminated eyedrops made in India.

Holy shit! Anytime you hear about someone getting their eyes removed and

that someone is not Mr. Potato Head, it is automatically horrifying.

And at this point, you might be thinking, where the fuck is the FDA in

all this?

Aren't they supposed to be making sure that no one has to get their eyeballs

removed?

Well, they are indeed tasked with reviewing generic drugs and inspecting

factories to make sure everything's safe. But unfortunately, the agency

isn't resourced or staffed remotely well enough to inspect factories regularly,

especially given so many are now halfway around the world. And what that means in

practice is years can pass between inspections. And even when the FDA does

show up to a factory overseas, some companies have tried to obscure any

problems. Just take what happened at a factory in India run by a company called

Intus. FDA inspectors found a cascade of failure, including a worker throwing

acid into a trash bin to destroy test records.

Wow, that looks bad.

Because let me be clear here, there's plenty of good uses for acid. You can

use it to neutralize excess alkalinity in a chemical solution, or to increase

hydrogen ion concentration, or to melt all of Manchester City's Premier League

title medals. But destroying critical drug test results is not one of them.

And on top of that, you should know while surprise FDA inspections are

common for US factories...

Most FDA inspections done overseas are actually announced beforehand, allowing

manufacturers to both prepare for them and potentially hide any issues. In

fact, one study found that the odds of a facility receiving the most severe

inspection outcome are over 250% higher for unannounced inspections, which just

makes sense, doesn't it? You clean up when you know people are coming over.

The only reason this studio is so clean is because I knew you were all coming

here today.

Otherwise, this place would be a complete pigsty. And by the way, I mean

that literally.

I run a wet market here the rest of the week.

I'm just trying to get out ahead of any paramount budget cuts.

And when the FDA has actually done unannounced inspections, the results

have sometimes been terrifying.

Investigators cited Hetero, a major maker of HIV, cancer and neurological

drugs, for running an unregistered testing lab and, somewhere in this

village, storing critical ingredients in an undisclosed warehouse.

When FDA inspectors arrived, workers ran and locked the gates, refusing entry for

two hours.

Once inside, inspectors found bird droppings on storage units and lizards

and cats among active... of pharmaceutical ingredients.

Wow, there is so much there.

I don't even have time to get into the fact that the company is called Hetero.

Which sounds like the name of a fitness studio Pete Hegseth will inevitably open

after he leaves the Defense Department, yeah?

Yes, Pete, that is a great logo.

And no, you can't have it.

But clearly, you want to be able to assume your medication's being handled

in pristine conditions.

with high safety standards and not in a lizard and cat infested bird toilet.

And if you are thinking, I didn't even realize that lizards and cats hang out

together, then you are clearly unaware of Junior and Atlas, a real lizard and

cat duo who live together in an apartment and crucially are best

friends. Take a look.

Atlas wants to rub up against him.

Atlas, I don't think he wants to love on you today.

She wants to follow him.

She wants to make sure that he's going where she wants to go. The neatest thing

to see is what they enjoy doing together, and their friendship as they

get older, too. They're in love with each other.

What a beautiful friendship full of love, joy, and a palpable sexual

tension. Is it just me, or are they giving off strong will-they-or-won't

-they vibes?

Anyway, at this point, you might be thinking, well, if things are really

bad... the FDA bans imports from factories that fail inspections, right?

Well, sort of. The problem is, with so few manufacturers making certain drugs,

bans can lead to critical shortages.

So, what the FDA will sometimes do is create carve-outs for certain drugs in

short supply, even if they are coming from a factory with known quality

issues. Take what happened at that Intus factory where workers were pouring acid

on test results.

Production there, understandably, got suspended.

But that had real consequences because that factory made, among other things,

50% of the critical chemotherapy drug cisplatin used in the US.

That is what led...

to the drug shortage that that woman was talking about earlier. And it wasn't

even the only Intus factory with problems that same year.

Another plant failed inspection and the FDA barred both of them from shipping

drugs to the US.

But here is the thing, because it was so worried about creating shortages, the

FDA simultaneously granted those factories more than 50 exemptions,

meaning they could keep sending certain drugs here.

Now, the FDA says those carve-outs came with requirements that Intus hire third

party experts to do additional safety testing, and Intus insists that it did

that. But it's a little weird to happily trust a manufacturer with that level of

responsibility when you've already, you know, caught them dousing test records

with fucking acid.

And all of this is obviously very worrying. Or it would be.

if it was more widely known. But the thing is, the FDA's actually kept its

drug exemptions largely hidden from the public and from Congress, with the

agency's former top drug official justifying that by saying the

information would have caused some kind of frenzy.

But that frenzy would have been for a reason. Because I admit, sometimes what

you don't know really doesn't hurt you, like the fact that the McRib is actually

made out of squirrel meat. But this is not that.

Now, the FDA insists it works to ensure all drugs meet a high standard, and that

they recognize areas where authority could be strengthened and are actively

working to address this. And to be fair to the FDA, right now, this is clearly a

struggle. They're having to play whack-a-mole with a bunch of bad actors,

and they really have no good choices, because certain drugs are critical, so

you don't want there to be a shortage.

And while you obviously don't want drugs coming out of dangerous factories, you

also... don't want to scare people away from taking their meds altogether.

In fact, even a former FDA inspector admitted when testifying to Congress

that there have been times when he's prioritized keeping people calm over

telling them the whole truth.

You don't want to cause unnecessary panic in someone.

And a lot of people ask me before they'll take it, they'll give me a call

or send me an email like, hey, what do you think about this one? And I'll give

them advice.

And to be honest, over the years, sometimes I have to fake that advice

because I know there's no alternative and I'll have to just...

send a positive email when, in fact, inside I know that that's not the truth.

That's not great, is it? And a televised congressional committee is a hell of a

time to come clean about that.

Just spare a thought for any of his friends watching who had sent him one of

those emails. You're relaxing at home, watching a congressional hearing on the

generic drug supply chain, as we all like to do, and you're just about to pop

a pill in your mouth when suddenly he says that shit. What the fuck, Peter?!

You lied to me!

So, what do we do? Well, unfortunately, there is no one big solution here.

Instead, experts point to a lot of partial ones. For instance, for our most

important medicines, we may want to consider onshoring or even friend

-shoring production of those drugs and their active ingredients, meaning that

we choose to produce them ourselves or ensure that allied countries do it. That

might be wise in case we ever have, I don't know...

A crazy president who starts a massive trade war with China for no fucking

reason. But don't worry, I can't see that ever happening.

Meanwhile, when it comes to overseas factories, we should probably be making

sure... that the FDA has enough resources to properly inspect them and

to test drugs from manufacturers of particular concern.

And to its credit, the FDA promised last year to do more surprise inspections

overseas. Although, recent layoffs there will probably complicate those efforts,

especially given dozens of people who help coordinate travel for

investigations like that have been let go, which is both very stupid and

completely unsurprising, given it feels like RFK's ultimate vision for the FDA

is just one small office where a rabid bear does pull-ups all day.

As for what you can do as a consumer, well, the first thing I should say here

is, and I know this is going to sound ridiculous given everything you've seen

so far, if you are taking a drug right now, it is really important for you to

keep doing that. The majority of generics are safe. The last headline

anyone needs right now is soap opera star John Oliver tells audience to stop

taking their meds. Because only the first part of that is true.

That said...

It is worth paying closer attention to what you are taking, and that is advice

that some doctors, like this one, have found themselves giving.

Years ago, I didn't know this and people would come in and they maybe have been

stable on their medication for years and years. And then they come in and they

say, I don't know what's going on. I'm having a lot more anxiety or I'm getting

headaches or stomach aches. Now, years ago, I used to probe with those

questions, what's going on, really asking a bunch of questions to figure

out what's happening. Now, the first question I ask is, does your pill look

the exact same? And I would say probably 75% of the time.

The issue is that there's been a change in manufacture, and that's causing them

to have issues with the way they're responding to the medication.

Right. If you are noticing issues when it comes to how your medication is

working, maybe the first thing to ask yourself is, do your pills look any

different? And the second is, did your new prescription bottle randomly come

with a free lizard inside it?

Or if your past prescriptions always came with a lizard, was your new bottle

suddenly lizard-less?

And if the answer to any of those questions is yes, that might mean your

pill manufacturer has changed. And look...

If you are worried about a drug that you are currently taking, ProPublica

recently built this tool, RX Inspector, which could be useful for you. Very

basically, just look on the packaging that your pills came in and see if you

can find the manufacturer.

Because if you can, and then you then search for that manufacturer on their

site, you should be able to find more on the specific factory where your drugs

were made, its inspection history, and even inspection reports, if they are

available. But obviously, in an ideal world, we shouldn't have to be looking

up international ins... inspection reports just to feel confident in the

drugs that we take. Ideally, we'd have a reliable rating system for drug quality

that everyone could see, and that could be used to incentivize the production of

better generics. But until big changes like that happen, more people should

probably be aware of some of the issues here. And I can frankly think of no

better way to do that than to welcome some of my friends.

Hey, guys.

Hey. Hey.

Good to see you.

We're not candy.

Even though we look so fine and dandy. No, I get it. You're not candy. You've

made that very clear. You are generic drugs and you are all very important.

Yeah, that's right, Jon. And you should be a lot more careful about how you make

us. And inspect our factories more often.

And also, we're not candy. I get that. You've made that emphatically clear.

Is there anything else you guys would like to tell everyone right now? Sure.

OK, go for it.

Oh. Oh. Oh.

This is serious. It is. You don't want your drugs to be mysterious.

Mysterious. Yes, we're cheaper.

That is true. But we shouldn't also cost you a peeper. Use your brains. That's

right. Fix your supply chain.

Why? So we can help you.

Exactly, guys.

Perfectly put.

Yeah, so I can help your heart transplant.

Yeah, that sounds good to me. And I can cure your depression.

Good luck with that. And I can help Grandpa get a boner.

And now, Piers Morgan can't control his fucking guests.

Me and her had a conversation about his case and other things. It wasn't a

secret conversation. It was a private conversation.

But I'm just telling you that I know what you discussed.

Hang on, hang on, hang on. Hang on, hang on, guys.

And you've accused him. And you've accused him.

Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I would like viewers to know.

Please stop talking, Jake. Rihanna.

Rihanna. Rihanna.

Rihanna. Rihanna.

Rhianna? When was it supposed to end?

Please don't all talk at once. We can't hear any of you if you do.

All right, but Alan Baker, just to be clear... Alan Baker, let me ask you

this. No.

Alan Baker, from the... No, kindly stop interrupting and relax.

Before we go, a quick word about brand mascots. You know, like the Honey Nut

Cheerios Bee, or the Pillsbury Doughboy, or Ronald McDonald.

And fun fact, Ronald didn't always look like this.

This is actually how he started out.

I like to do everything boys and girls like to do.

Especially when it comes to eating those delicious McDonald's hamburgers.

A magic tray here keeps me well supplied.

McDonald's hamburgers, french fries, and milkshake.

Watch for me on TV.

We'll have lots of fun.

Oh fu- Fuck no.

That original Ronald is not fun.

That is a divorced dad trying to save a few bucks on hiring birthday party

entertainment by putting together a costume from what he found on the floor

of his car.

No thank you.

But tonight, I want to talk about two recent innovations in the mascot field,

and the first involves this thing.

Hello there. Oh.

I'm sorry, who are you?

I'm Liberty Bibberty.

Liberty fucking Bibbity. You cannot have missed him, as he's currently in

countless ads interrupting sports, Dancing With The Stars, news, or

basically anything that comes with commercial breaks. And while this show

is firmly on the record as being pro-puppet, let me be clear, not this

one, because I hate this thing. That right there is a fuzzy testicle with

teeth.

It looks like Big Bird's sleep paralysis demon. The very name, Liberty Bibbity,

sounds like what the devil would shout in tongues to herald his arrival on

Earth. And while I don't know much about advertising, I don't think it's a great

sign that my first reaction to that ad was less, maybe I should switch

insurance providers, and more, is it technically murder if the thing is

already dead behind the eyes?

And the thing is, I'm not alone in feeling this way.

I've never had beef.

with an object more than I have beef with fucking Liberty Bibberty. Can

somebody please tell Liberty Mutual to let the Liberty Bibberty shit go?

Canceling my Liberty Mutual auto insurance because I can't fucking stand

Liberty Bibberty. I don't know what that thing even is. And honestly, at this

point in time, I don't even know what you sell.

Day one of the playoffs. Get Liberty Bibberty off my screen.

Listen, I don't know what that furry Liberty Bibberty thing is, but I know

that... Neither of us can live while the other survives.

Yeah, I agree with that.

And you know what?

This guy raises a good point. What does a semi-sentient ball of Winnie the

Pooh's butt fuzz have to do with insurance?

Imagine if you were in a car accident and this fucking pellet's rolled up to

the scene to talk to you about your deductible. You'd punt it into the

goddamn sun.

But here is the problem. In the world of marketing, hate like this...

isn't considered a bad thing. If anything, it just makes the brand feel

more relevant.

For companies, basically, any attention is good attention, although there is one

notable exception.

And that brings us to the second mascot that I want to discuss. It's for a

company called Kiwibank, a small state-owned bank in New Zealand.

It rolled out a new campaign featuring a green sheep who leaves the farm for the

big city only to discover the joys of banking with them.

Being my own sheep, it was harder than it looks.

Then I found somewhere that saw things differently.

After that, no fence could hold me back. I arrived alone, but I never would have

made it here on my own.

I just needed a bank that's bucking the system too.

Bank Kiwi.

Kiwi Bank.

Yeah, that seems pretty harmless, doesn't it? Although, personally, I'm

not sure I want my bank to be bucking the system.

If anything, I'd like it to be firmly working within the system.

maintaining all legal requirements for my money and not necessarily giving it

to a sheep who happens to be good at Dance Dance Revolution, but to each his

own. Some people, though, had a very different reaction to that ad campaign,

because about a month after it launched, one user on Twitter posted, and I quote,

A post that quickly gained steam after another user

reposted it and said,

has gone down the drain in one tweet.

That went viral, understandably, and touched off a round of sexualized posts

and drawings of Buck the Sheep. But even that might have quickly died down, were

it not for a key decision that Kiwi Bank then made. Because people soon noticed

that the original post had been censored. It originally featured a GIF.

of the sheep from the ad, but it had been replaced with the message, this

media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner. And other

posts ran into similar issues, with Kiwibank issuing a barrage of takedown

notices, some of which accused users of having taken Kiwibank's distinctive buck

image and used it to make highly sexualized and inappropriate copies,

which infringed the Kiwibank copyright.

A reporter in New Zealand actually spoke to someone whose post was removed, who

said, my tweet was a joke, obviously, I hope.

I do not think the drawing of a sheep is sexy. Put that in the paper.

Which is just an incredible thing to feel the need to clarify.

Though, as that reporter later told a radio interviewer, other people he spoke

to weren't quite so reticent.

I did talk to someone in the furry community and they did say, look, this

is an attractive sheep, as furry culture goes. This is a very good-looking sheep.

And she does have what some have referred to as come hither.

Yeah,

I think that's fair.

And while I know this isn't the point, I do feel a little validated here, because

if I'm honest, that is exactly what I assumed radio in New Zealand was like

every single day.

But the thing is...

Kiwibank's aggressive response was completely counterproductive, as

apparently, for every lustful post killed by a legal threat, another ten

took its place.

In fact, people started posting in solidarity, saying things like, I'm a

Kiwibank customer, and I demand you allow social media users to sexualize

that sheep, or I'll move my money to a bank that will.

And, I'm joining the war on stop saying you wanna fuck its sheep mascot on the

side of, I wanna fuck the sheep mascot.

Basically, a lot of New Zealanders are going full I am Spartacus right now.

If that is Spartacus wanting to fuck the Kiwi bank sheep.

And as a result, the bank seems to have curtailed its sheep content, as in the

first five weeks after that ad campaign launched, out of the ten TikToks they

posted, six featured Buck.

But since then, they posted 18 times and the sheep's in exactly none of them.

Basically, the sheep has gone.

All of which brings us back to Liberty Bibbity.

Because New Zealand may have inadvertently just given us a blueprint

for how to get rid of him forever.

All those people that want to kill Bibity have clearly been coming at this

the wrong way. For one thing, Bibity cannot die. He was created in defiance

of God's will. But for another, as Kiwi Bank has taught us, love can do what

hate cannot.

My point here is...

Companies seem to be endlessly thirsty for consumer engagement, with one very

notable exception.

So, if we want to see the end of Liberty Bibity, and I think we do, it appears we

have a pathway.

What I'm saying is, it may be time to thirst openly and enthusiastically after

this atrocity, because you know what Liberty Mutual probably does not want to

see right now?

Images like this. I'll be honest, I'll be honest, I don't really want to see

that either.

But remember, this is a means to an end.

And the company should know, if this doesn't get the job done, we have other

bullets in the chamber.

Like this one. Or indeed, like this one.

We have someone on staff who does these drawings, by the way. And you should

know, we asked him for a four out of ten.

And this is what he gave us. Liberty Mutual, do not make me ask him to go

higher.

You do not want to know what a six looks like.

Look. The furry community has always had a very particular set of skills.

And it may now be time for them to use those skills for the greater good.

So, everyone might want to mute the word bibity on whichever social media

platform you're on in the next week.

Because I think things are about to get a little spicy.

And to Liberty Mutual, let me just say this.

If you didn't want people online to say you're bibity, you're sexy, you

shouldn't have made such a sexy bibity.

that is our show thank you so much for watching we're off next week back

october 25th i'm thrilled to be part of the skydance family hope you're happy

with what you bought guys we're never gonna change good night never

we're never changing