- From J. R. R. Tolkien to George R. R. Martin,
nerds are passionate about a lot of things.
But there's something they love above all else,
and that is correcting people.
This is Um, Actually.
(playful music)
Joining us today, we have Ally Beardsley.
- Hello.
- [Host] Zach Sherwin.
And Siobhan Thompson.
- Guys, I'm reading the Broken Earth Trilogy right now,'
and you have to get on this.
They're really good.
- We're gonna edit that out.
Edit out all recommendations of good books.
- [Ally] If you check online, you can use my discount code,
which is Siobahn 2018.
- If they just send me more copies of the same books
and I'm in it.
- Go to Amazon.com/Siobahn.
I get a little kickback every time we go there.
So, you're not familiar with how the game works,
it's very simple.
I have here a stack of statements.
These are false statements about the
franchises that are nearest and dearest to your hearts,
or if not your hearts, someone's hearts.
It's up to you to find the thing
that I've said that is wrong.
Buzz in and correct me.
There's only two rules.
You precede your all your corrections with the phrase
"Um, actually."
If you don't, you won't get a point.
The other is that you can interrupt me at any time.
You don't need to wait to hear the point I'm making.
You can just interrupt me
and prove that you that I am wrong.
Let's jump right in.
This first question is about Harry Potter.
The Hippogriff Buckbeak is saved in The Prisoner of Azkaban
when Harry and Hermione steal a time-turner from Professor-
(bell chimes)
Yes, Siobahn.
- Um, actually, they do not steal the time-turner,
Dumbledore gives it to them.
- That's correct. They don't steal it.
Hermione is given a time-turner so she can take
extra classes. - Extra classes.
- Dude, she just wants to take those arithmancy classes.
- [Host] Yeah.
- Gotta do magic math.
- She's so cool and I'm so proud of her.
- [Siobahn] I love her.
- Do they say 'maths?'
- They do. They say maths.
- They. - Those wizards.
- It's a crazy wizard word. It's called maths.
We should drive on the other side of the road.
- (laughs)
- It's easy to joke about that,
but I know so many who would've used a time machine
just so that they could take extra math classes.
- I would a time-turner solely for procrastination.
It would be like, I have to get this thing done,
eh, alright.
- Could you fast forward to when you had somehow
already done it without ever actually doing it?
- That sounds like the kind of - [Ally] That I would do.
time machine that I would want to use.
- 'Cause there's definitely been times where I've been like
"I know I'm gonna meet this deadline,
I know I'll finish it and it will be fine.
And it's just gonna be a real slog to get there."
- Could you jump forward to the point in the future
where you already traveled back and killed Hitler,
and everything is great?
But you didn't actually have to
do the unpleasant job of killing Hitler?
- I'm going to skip ahead 15 minutes
and in that 15 minute span, that's the span
where I would have jumped back in time
and taken care of all the stuff.
So, 15 minutes from now,
is when I will have already corrected the timeline.
- It's just like, killing Hitler is such a slog.
I know I'm gonna kill Hitler - in know I'm gonna do it.
And I'm dragging my feet.
- Gotta find the right costume.
- Why are you wearing a costume when you kill Hitler?
- Because you're gonna be back in time,
you wanna be incognito.
- Oh, like a uniform?
- No, Siobahn's just cosplaying.
- She's in a ladybug outfit.
"Die Hitler!"
- I'd be a minion to kill Hitler.
- One of the craziest parts of history.
Hitler was killed by a woman in a ladybug costume
with a luger.
This is about Animorphs.
Tobias Santorelli becomes a nothlit,
and Andalite word for one who is
trapped in their current body,
when he is turned into a red-tailed hawk by
a fearsome piece of Yeerk technology
known as the morph gun.
(bell chimes)
Zach.
- That Yeerk technology wasn't fierce.
- Nope. Nope, I'm sorry.
I like that you're focusing on the adjective, but no.
(bell chimes)
Siobahn.
- Um, actually, he's not stuck in a red-tail hawk thing,
he can change back and forth.
- No, he is stuck.
(bell chimes)
Ally.
- Um, actually, he's not forced to stay like
because of a morph gun.
It's something else.
- That's correct. Can you be more specific?
- It's called a morph trigger.
- You're correct in what is wrong.
You're way wrong on what it is.
But, I'm feeling generous, you have a point.
- [Ally] Ah, scrooge! - [Siobahn] King of points.
- He's not trapped when he's hit by a morph gun.
All the animorphs were given the ability to morph
by Andalites, the aliens who give them this technology.
But there's a boon.
But if you stay in one form for more than two hours
you get stuck in that form.
So, it wasn't a weapon that stopped him.
- It was the very nature of the morph power.
- The very nature of the morph power that he disobeyed.
- Every time we play this game, I wish, as a child,
I had listened more to the shit
that my sister was obsessed with.
- Was she into animorphs, and you weren't?
- 'Cause I just was like a little bit too old,
by the time that animorphs came out,
that I was like "Those books are for children,
and I read the adult fantasy books. Thank you so much.
There's some very light heavy petting
in the books that I read, that makes them
more for grown ups."
- You can almost divide it by year.
Like that is appropriate for eight year olds,
this is for 10 year olds!
(laughs)
This is about Lord of the Rings.
- Ooh.
- [Host] With the exception of several featured hobbits
such Rosie Cotton, women are few and between in
The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
From the missing Entwives to the dwarf women
hidden away under mountains,
only three named female characters feature prominently
in the film trilogy:
Galadriel, Arwen, and Eowyn.
(bell chimes)
Ally.
- Um, actually, Golem is a woman.
- I don't know how Golem is identifying these days.
(bell chimes)
- Um, actually, that spider, Shelob, is a female.
- That's correct.
That is 100% correct!
- No way, really?
- That's amazing!
- That's was supposed to be a feeble joke answer.
- No, no.
Shelob was 100% woman,
and she features prominently in the film.
- Wait, she's a spider.
- Oh, sure she's spider, but she's still a she.
I like how you're arguing your own point away.
"That's bullshit. I shouldn't get a point for this."
- I mean, gender's a construct,
but I feel like she's a female.
But is she a woman really?
- I also said only three named female characters.
- Oh, did you did say female characters?
- [Host] Three named female characters
featured prominently. - Send those points on over.
Nag that joke point and treat as your own child.
- On the board. - [Host] On the board.
Feels great.
- Here come the Men in Black, galaxy defenders.
The story of the Men in Black,
Earth's clandestine defense against a galaxy
full of strange civilizations and species,
stared Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith
and feature Smith's first solo single post Jazzy Jeff,
called Men in Black, which earn him
a Golden Raspberry at the Razzies.
(bell chimes)
Ally.
- Um, actually, he didn't receive a Golden Raspberry.
That's crazy.
- That's correct.
There was no Golden Raspberry for that song.
In fact, that song won a Grammy.
(laughs)
- It's a great song.
I miss the time when there were
fun rap songs about what happened
in the movie. - [Ally] Wild, Wild West.
- Wild, Wild west won the Golden Raspberry.
(laughs)
That's it for this preview of Um, Actually.
If you enjoyed it, I have good news.
There's a lot more of it over on Dropout.
Go to Dropout.tv and start your free trial today.
And fun fact, I'm not wearing any pant right now.
Now an enormous portion of science fiction stories
take place in a dystopian future.
Either in Arctic wastelands, or tyrannical autocracies.
Place the following dystopias in chronological order.
And, go.