Episode 177 - Mean Gregs by Tina Fey

Episode Features

 * Carmen, Tyler, and Gordie all introduced themselves as "WhisperBiscuit"
 * Episode sponsored by Karima
 * Related: Ramblecast 177.5

Featured Story
The featured story is People Getting Rich from the book Best of Polish Fairytales by Serges Nowacow/Novikof, which were recorded from the oral tradition between 1992 and 2012. This was suggested by Goose on twitter.

Overall Plot

 * There was a man in a village who worked hard but stayed very poor. One day, St. Peter came to visit, and the man asked him to ask God why he was still poor. St. Peter was too busy, but finally relented, giving the man his gold saddle, so that when he noticed it was missing, he would remember the question, and go ask God.
 * Sure enough, St. Peter went to ride his horse, remembered why he didn't have his saddle, and went to ask God why the man was so poor. God was too busy and tried to shoo him off, but eventually told St. Peter he was poor because he wasn't a deceitful fraud.
 * Reluctantly, St. Peter goes to get his saddle back and tries to avoid telling the man what God's answer was. However, when he eventually does, the man decides to start now, and pretends he doesn't know what saddle St. Peter is talking about. Eventually, St. Peter decides he's too busy to argue and leaves the man with the saddle.
 * He then sells the saddle to a dealer, who pays him up front 100 gold pieces, and later, sends a cow by the house to pick it up. When he gets there, the man pretends to be indignant that the dealer would offer such a low price as a cow for a gold saddle, pretends he never got the gold pieces, and eventually, the dealer leaves with the cow and the man keeps the saddle and the gold pieces.
 * The dealer sues the man for the gold pieces, and being in a small town, everyone knows that it's court date, and sees the man sitting in a tavern. They ask him why he's not at court, and he says "well, I can't go to court without a coat," so a kind patron lets him borrow a coat.
 * He still doesn't leave, so they ask again, and he says he can't go without boots, so someone lets him borrow their boots. He says the same about the hat, and the same thing happens.
 * He walks to the courthouse, and all three of the lenders follow him to see what happens. When he gets there, the judge hears the claims against him, and gives him a chance to defend himself. He says he's not sure what he did wrong, but everyone in the town is out to get him. "In fact," he says, "that man over there would probably claim this coat is his," to which the man of course responded that yeah, it is. He does the same for the other two.
 * The judge decides that he's clearly being prosecuted, so he gets to keep the saddle, the gold, the coat, the boots, and the hat.

Discussion Points

 * Whisperbiscuit takeover
 * How accurate this is
 * There are three ways to get rich
 * easy: inherit
 * doable: be an asshole
 * coin-flip, and maybe you'll get there: work really hard
 * Does the society take responsibility for creating the Gregs (which somehow became the name for this character)? Do they do things to fix income inequality or make it so you're able to get rich through hard work?
 * Authority is overworked - God, St. Peter, Judge
 * everyone else is overworked and doesn't have the bandwidth to actually do anything about Mean Poverty Greg
 * in Ye Olde McDonalds, they clearly butchered on-site
 * some sort of niche restaurant where you pay $40 to be given a menu, which is really a picture of which mushrooms are poisonous and which are edible, and then you forage, and find a fire pit if you want to, and make your own meal (and of course tip your waiter)

Notable Quotes

 * Carmen: Thank you, sponsors. The many WhisperBiscuits out there.
 * Tyler: Some things happened on the discord this week.
 * Gordie: This is what you wanted. I had nothing to do with this. (before reading the thanks)
 * This episode's thanks:
 * WhisperBiscuit
 * Sarah
 * Robert
 * Jeremiah
 * WhisperBiscuit
 * WhisperBiscuit
 * Seven WhisperBiscuits, ah, ah, ah
 * Dom
 * WhisperBiscuit
 * WhisperBiscuit
 * Jenna
 * Jen
 * WhisperBiscuit