Tyga Bites with John Hodgman & David Rees

"Tyga Bites with John Hodgman & David Rees" is Episode 338 of *Doughboys*, hosted by Mike Mitchell and Nick Wiger. "Tyga Bites with John Hodgman & David Rees" was released on February 24, 2022.

## Synopsis

The creators and stars of *Dicktown* on FXX, John Hodgman and David Rees, join the boys to discuss pimento cheese and Mitch's window installation before a review of Tyga Bites. Plus, another edition of Slop Quiz.

## Nick's intro

In 1997, *Time* magazine published its annual list of the twenty-five most influential Americans. Read through a modern lens, it's a quaint late-'90s time capsule; among the honorees are comedian Rosie O'Donnell, dead racist radio-host Don Imus, and comic-strip character Dilbert. (No, not Scott Adams, the creator of *Dilbert*, but Dilbert himself.) While few of the names mentioned on the list remain in the public consciousness (notable exceptions are Senator John McCain, golfer Tiger Woods, and musician Trent Reznor, as well as for different, horrific reasons, Harvey Weinstein), one lesser-known individual has continued to wield his influence twenty-five years later: restaurateur Robert Earl.

The founder of Planet Hollywood, and owner of such chains as Hard Rock Cafe, Buca di Beppo, and his eponymous Earl of Sandwich, Robert Earl perfected the formula of a theme park disguised as a dining experience, a sort of Chuck E. Cheese's for adults. Back in 1997, with action stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Bruce Willis as investors/endorsers, Planet Hollywood seemed primed to take over planet Earth with its restaurants centered in tourist hotspots like Time Square, Las Vegas, and Orlando drawing huge lines.

Earl hubristically hatched additional concepts to cash in on his own trend - like the sports-themed Official All Star Café and the perhaps ahead-of-its-time Marvel Mania. But Earl's eyes were bigger than the market's stomach and Planet Hollywood wildly over-expanded. By 2000, just three short years after his glowing *Time* profile, the company had filed for bankruptcy protection. Today, it's decline from a peak of sixty restaurants to just six worldwide.

But the fall of Planet Hollywood would prove only to be Earl's "dark night of the soul" (in Hollywood movie terms), and in 2018, he reconfigured the concept of celebrity-oriented dining for the app era, launching virtual dining concepts in partnership with his son, Robby Earl. And while COVID lockdowns proved ruinous for many dine-in restaurants, it proved lucrative for the ghost-kitchen trend, and for the Earls, in particular, using the quarantine delivery boom to launch an array of virtual celebrity eateries, using unoccupied space in existing restaurants.

Among its many brands include Mariah Carey's Mariah's Cookies, Marios Tortas Lopez, Steve Harvey's Family Food, and breakout hit, MrBeast Burger named for the popular Youtuber. And, as of July 2020, the Earls have added a chicken-nugget-and-tater-tot concept, launched in partnership with the acronymical name "Thank You God Always."

As Earl said in the 1997 *Time* article, "I've always felt that movies and sport and music transcend every barrier. We take them to the people."

Now, via celebrity-fronted ghost kitchens, Earl takes them to the people, literally.

This week on *Doughboys*, Tyga Bites.

## Fork rating

* Diet Coke
* two Sprites
* four Rolling Solo Packs
	+ Black Garlic Dust
	+ Lemon Black Pepper Dust
	+ Peri-Peri Dust
	+ no dust
* every single Dip
* Tyga Tots (Black Garlic Dust)
* Sweet Potato Tyga Tots (Peri-Peri Dust)
* Cookie Bites
 Mike Mitchell
 John Hodgman
	+ Peri-Peri Dust
	+ Black Garlic Dust
	+ no dust
* Garlic Parm Dip
* Tamarind Chipotle Dip
* Caribbean Dip
 David Rees
	+ Lemon Black Pepper Dust
	+ Chunky Bleu Cheese Dip
	+ Homestyle Ranch Dip
* Cookie Bites

Nick and Mitch ordered their meal together, trying just about everything on the menu. Similarly, David mentions his order, and notes that John got everything else.

(Nick states the math wrong. He claims it was 3.5 tines (and thus, less than one fork total), but Mitch gave it 3 tines, and John gave it 1 tine, so the total score was just just over four tines (i.e., one fork).)

Either way, with the scores, Tyga Bites joins the Broken Plate Club.

## Slop Quiz 🍷🧴

In Slop Quiz, Nick presents a food-related exam (pop quiz) and Mitch and the guest compete for superiority.

For this episode, Nick started deducting points for wrong guesses.

The topic is "wine or shampoo" where Nick reads a description and they have to decide if it is wine or shampoo.

Mitch and John tie!

## Quotes

(More like, a dying ember of a comet slowly falling into a black hole of irrelevancy and oblivion.)

## The Feedbag

 Mike Mitchell
 John Hodgman
 David Rees

## Photos

Rolling Solo PackSweet Potato Tots with Peri-Peri DustChicken Bites with Lemon Black Pepper DustChicken Bites with Black Garlic DustTyga Tots with Black Garlic DustDipsCookie Bites