This episode originally aired as the Patreon bonus episode for April 2018. The original description follows:
It's that time again. Instead of Smash Fiction's usual brand of yelling and making lowbrow dick jokes, Itchy Brains is a time for having deep philosophical conversations about art and making highbrow dick jokes. This time I'm joined by MeganBob and Kit, and we're experimenting with the format a bit: whereas last time we centered our discussion around a single topic, this time we're centering it on a single work of art, "The Shape of Water."
How does "Shape of Water" manage to be erotic without perpetuating the immoral qualities of pornography at its worst? How can you make an accurate period piece without endorsing the pervasive problematic attitudes of that time? What is "coding" and how has fiction used it to associate villains and monsters with certain real world marginalized groups? Would it have been more or less hot if we had seen that fish dick? Damn, didn't even make it to the end of the description this time... I think I have a problem.
-Claire
The music used in the episode is "Blip Stream" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
In the year 20[redacted], the world has fallen into a super-cool but depressingly corporate cyberpunk dystopia, black leather and robot parts are always in fashion, and information is the #1 currency. Which could explain why Hiro Protagonist, the last freelance hacker and greatest swordsman in the world, finds himself in a race against both time and a very worthy opponent -- Overwatch's morally ambiguous hacking specialist, Sombra. Or it could maybe have something to do with the trickster machinations of a certain Smash Fiction Patron, but -- no. No, that's just crazy talk.
After the same info, Hiro and Sombra must infiltrate the corporate megaplex in which it is housed, overcoming guards, security systems, and of course, each other. Will Hiro use his samurai swords and Sumerian language mysteries to show everyone why his name is still at the top of the leaderboard? Or will Sombra, with a muttered "cochino," give him a taste of her own personal brand of Snow Crash?
In an episode churning with references to Second Life, old D&D memes, and of course, Extraordinary League, your hosts toss insults around, ship Overwatch characters, and remember that Snow Crash was, in fact, written in 1992. And in a very special milestone, the podcast receives it's first live Kit You're Welcome!
When Mari McCabe, a.k.a. Vixen, learns of her ancestors' long-lost artifacts, extremely reliable Internet sources lead her to Wakanda. However, the king of Wakanda, Black Panther, holds the safety of his citizens at a paramount, and is there to greet Vixen when she arrives. Though she has claim to the apparently divine artifacts, he has the right to protect them from dishonorable hands. However could they possibly solve this dispute? As it turns out, with mystical claws!
Miles wants you to be aware of Black Panther's cinematic success. Hub, from Titan Up the Defense, joins Dan to argue for all the animal powers you might've learned in Zoobooks as well as the comic animal powers you might not have considered. And MeganBob just wants everyone to be friends (though that might be too much to ask).
Surprise Party is back, and just in time, because it's a period of civil war and somebody needs to blow up that damn Death Star! Of course, it won't be Princess Leia and her friends on any mercy mission this time -- several fictional characters were beamed to this podcast by Smash Fiction hosts. Claire, Kit, and MeganBob have constructed three parties of new New Hopes, and with Dan as their high-minded Force ghost guide, they will compete in a series of scored contests to see who will be the first to shit-talk Grand Moff Tarkin, move along a group of Stormtroopers, and become more powerful than Darth Vader can possibly imagine!
Featuring Claire's never-ending well of Looney Tunes references, Kit and Bob being entirely on the same page during character selection, and the game-wrecking potential of the ignominious Dumpus! As always, Smash Metafiction has a light side and a dark side and binds the universe together, so fire up your astromech droids and let's do a Star War!
Through a complicated series of events that could only have sprung from the sick and convoluted mind of Judge Miles, two of fiction's most adventurous, sex-crazed swashbucklers have found themselves marooned in a seedy criminal port city, and there's only one magical item that can get them out again! Captain Jack Harkness, Torchwood's greatest time agent who is, of course, displaced in time, has discovered that the item lies somewhere inside the local crime lord's tower headquarters, and intends to use it to return to his own time to help fight off yet another alien invasion of London. But his rival, the well-known pirate of the Carribean as well as various mythologies, Captain Jack Sparrow, has also learned the item's location, and believes it can free him from the cursed gold coin that he couldn't help but pocket before leaving the Isla de Muerta. Which immortal Captain Jack can breach the tower walls, take out or sneak past the guards, seduce anyone in the immediate vicinity, and beat the other to the fabulous treasure?
Hannah Pascoe and Sharon Schneiderman return to answer the most important questions of pansexuality and pirating! Also, Miles may have been reading too much of a certain book series recently, Dan tries his hand at a new kind of evolutionary biology, and MeganBob breaks out the dreaded Barrister Voice!
Having safely infiltrated Grimgrim Prison, our heroes must now find a way of freeing the Yoshi inmates from their Koopa captors. How long can they keep their true identities a secret before all hell breaks loose? What secret weapons will the Koopas deploy against them? And what exactly is Nico planning to do away from everyone else?
Vivian hits the jackpot; Luna REALLY wants to make friends; Nico doesn't quite think things through; Stitch tries a new look; and Dante finds his true calling.
Special thanks to Richard Bichler for the action music in this episode! Check out his work at youtube.com/richaadeb.
Happy April Fool's Day, listeners! Worry not, your regularly-scheduled League episode will be up tomorrow (April 2nd), but we decided to give you a little something extra on this most special of days.
So what exactly does an April Fool's League episode sound like? Well, what about a different GM stepping in while Dan becomes a player? What about one of the weirdest League teams this side of Phyrexia? What about a murder mystery... in Candyland?
Additional music this episode is "Take a Chance" and "Killers" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/