Episode 53: Stacey's Ex-Best Friend

The episode for "Stacey's Ex-Best Friend" was originally released on February 27, 2017. **You can listen to it here.** This episode is 59:44 long.This week's ghostwriter: none.

*Previous:* Episode 52: Dawn’s Big Date | *Next:* Episode 54: Mary Anne + 2 Many Babies | *Or,* see all episodes.

## Official Episode Description

Hello and welcome to Blackheads! A hit new show from your friends Jack and Tanner, of the Pete Black Appreciation Society. Today we're diving deep into the mysterious case of Pete's misguided infatuation with Laine Cummings, Stacey McGill's surprisingly awful ex-best friend. Join us for a wide-ranging convo about love, loss, the future of the BSC and, of course, the nightmare haunted dolls who control our every thought and action.

## Music Credits

* “Easy Things,” by Gee
* “Stepping Along the Sky,” by Teknoaxe
* Original Intro by Scott Lamb
* Superbrat Outro by Superbrat

## Book Description

Jack’s description makes it sound like the book was from Laine’s POV. Tanner gets hung up on the names in the B-plot and runs out of time at the end.

## Segments

###  Burn Of The Week

Tanner: J-U-N-Q-U-E and the clapback L-I-Q-U-E-S

Jack: Will the guest please be quiet?

###  Pete Black (Back in Black)

Their spin-off podcast will be the Blackheads.

Pete Black says “Your hair looks like gossamer”.

Pete wears sneakers with his suit to the dance.

###  Soileau You Into the Dark

Tanner describes the cover that does actually happen: a rowdy time making molecules. Hodges read one chapter very closely.

###  Tearful Moment

Jack: when Laine takes off her BFF necklace

## Theories

###  Doll Theory

Claudia hides her doll Lenny; in an extended roleplay, Tanner would also hide his (Star Wars) dolls if a friend visited from out of town.

## Jack's References

* The dialectic of how Tanner pays attention to Jack
* Babe, Pig in the City
* Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird
* Ann is trying to create a Pleasantville society
* ”Have you read Tom Jones?” Coleridge called it the best-constructed narrative ever. “It’s like M. Night Shyamalan, except not bad.” (Tanner interjects: “It’s like Lost, but actually works.”) “So maybe this is what Ann is doing?”
* The Sphinx
* In the stinger, Tanner mocks Jack’s use of the word “deontological”

“Not interested.”
“—that is relevant to this novel.”

## Tanner's References

* Tanner Sings a parody of We Built This City
* Big Blue Ox
* Tanner explains Zephram Cochrane from Star Trek; the actor who plays Zephram Cochrane is also in Babe, Pig in the City. Tanner Sings a song from that movie too.
* To Kill a Mockingbird is on. “That is not a fun movie, not even in 1986.”
* Hotel Rwanda
* Other 60s courtroom dramas: 12 Angry Men, Devil and Daniel Webster
* Tom Jones is a music singer. He sings (and Tanner Sings) “What’s new, pussycat?”
* Mage Wars

## Notes

* Another reason to hate Stacey: she’s a climate-change denier. Jack adds that she’ll bring a snowball onto the Senate floor in twenty years, a reference to Senator Jim Inhofes
* Laine goes to Stacey’s English class. Tanner says that Jack would like that, and then names off some topics: Romantic poets, Keats: “Ode to a Greek Urn”. Jack says “You know that you’re wrong and you’re trying to f\*\*\* it up.”
* Jessi’s not into jokes, Stacey’s not into pigs.
* First reveal of Jack’s jorts thing.
* The boys make a lot of overt references to how tragic it would be if one of them didn’t live in NYC any more. (An article in a Texas paper about Major Media Company opening a Texas branch was published on March 28, a month later.)
* Tanner Sings “End of the Road” by Boyz II Men
* What are the girls doing now?
	+ Claudia: exhibitions at the MoMA, a floor at the Whitney
	+ Dawn: in Cali, teaching surfing, smoking weed
	+ Kristy: in a relationship with a nice woman named Cynthia (Jack: “this is getting pretty fanfic-y”)
	+ Mallory: is interesting now. (“No, probably not” says Tanner; “a bridge too far” says Jack.)
	+ Jessi: a ballet teacher at the Paris Ballet Academy
	+ Mary Anne: SAHM in Stoneybrook with 8 kids
	+ Stacey: moved back to NY, made amends with Laine Cummings; they go on a crime rampage through the American southwest and drive a car off a cliff

## References & Links

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To\_Kill\_a\_Mockingbird\_(film)
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleasantville\_(film)
3. ↑ Tom Jones by Henry Fielding: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_History\_of\_Tom\_Jones,\_a\_Foundling
4. ↑ Coleridge: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel\_Taylor\_Coleridge
5. ↑ M. Night Shyamalan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.\_Night\_Shyamalan
6. ↑ Lost: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost\_(TV\_series)
7. ↑ The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Four\_Loves
8. ↑ Big Blue Ox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul\_Bunyan
9. ↑ Zephram Cochrane:
10. ↑ Babe: Pig in the City: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babe:\_Pig\_in\_the\_City
11. ↑ Hotel Rwanda: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel\_Rwanda
12. ↑ 12 Angry Men: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12\_Angry\_Men\_(1957\_film)
13. ↑ Devil and Daniel Webster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Devil\_and\_Daniel\_Webster\_(film)
14. ↑ Tom Jones, the singer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom\_Jones\_(singer)
15. ↑ Mage Wars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mage\_Wars\_Arena
16. ↑ Snowball on the Senate floor: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/02/26/jim-inhofes-snowball-has-disproven-climate-change-once-and-for-all/?utm\_term=.6a119a5aa23e
17. ↑ End of the Road: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDKO6XYXioc
18. ↑ MoMA: https://www.moma.org/
19. ↑ Whitney: https://whitney.org/
20. ↑ Opéra national de Paris: https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/artists/ballet-school
21. ↑ Thelma and Louise: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelma\_%26\_Louise

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