Mike Rugnetta: Friends, hello, and welcome to Never Posts Post
Mortem 2025, a year end quiz show for and about the Internet.
I'm your host, Mike Rugnetta, and this is publishing on the
final day of 2025. A last gasp, a final coup de grace, a look
back, not in anger. I've been told to never do that, but in
reverence and also anger. Today, here, and now, we bid farewell
to the complete clusterfuck that was 2025 by asking our esteemed
panelists organized in three teams of two questions about it.
We do this to celebrate our guests for what they've seen and
mock them for what they've missed, to celebrate the year
for what it brought us, and to damn it for what it did to us.
On our first team, author of Raw Dog, the Naked Truth About Hot
Dogs, host of the Bechtel cast, comedian of jokes, actor of
characters Yeah. Jamie Loftus. Perfect.
Jamie Loftus: Yeah. Yeah. Go, Jamie.
Mike Rugnetta: Alongside, author of, obviously, stories from my
timeline, host of the podcast Rebel Spirit, and Courier's How
Is This Better renowned poster, Akilah Hughes.
Akilah Hughes: Yes. Thank you.
Thank you.
Mike Rugnetta: Next up, team two, journalist, author of the
newsletter Garbage Day, and host of the podcast Panic World, Ryan
Broderick.
Akilah Hughes: Hello.
Mike Rugnetta: Alongside, as always, researcher of the
newsletter Garbage Day and the podcast Panic World, Adam Bumas.
Great to be here.
Jamie Loftus: Hello, Adam.
Mike Rugnetta: It's good to have you.
Georgia Hampton: Classic. Classic.
Mike Rugnetta: And finally, team three, writer, filmmaker,
culture critic, video essayist, host of the podcast TSTV, a Twin
Peaks podcast, Lily Alexander.
Lily Alexandre: I'm even happier to be here.
Akilah Hughes: Wow. Wow.
Mike Rugnetta: Competition begins early this show.
Akilah Hughes: Is. With
Mike Rugnetta: writer, host, video maker, Internet science
communicator at large, and host of our findings show, the
preeminent live staged science communication game show, Tom
Lum.
Tom Lum: I said, oh, no, when you said bio because I thought
you were gonna read, like, our Twitter bio or something like
that. And here's Tom Lum. Please please hire me. Please my live
show. Please go.
Mike Rugnetta: K. We have some changes to make to Tom's bio
here and writer, host, video maker. Please, please, please
hire him. Tom Lom. Welcome, everybody, and welcome back.
This is the exact same panel that we had for last year's
inaugural show. So it's really nice to have you all back here
again to play for a second
Akilah Hughes: time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta: Okay. Here's how this is gonna work. As
mentioned, I'm your Quizmaster, master, Mike Rugnetta. I am
joined behind the scenes by Neverpost's senior producer Hans
Buto, and in front of the scenes by Neverpost's producer, Georgia
Hampton.
Georgia Hampton: I've decided to be really good at math this
time.
Mike Rugnetta: Have you spent the last year training?
Georgia Hampton: I believe last year I called subtraction
reverse math. So, frankly, it can only go up
Akilah Hughes: from here. We'll see if
Mike Rugnetta: we can top that. Georgia is gonna be our
timekeeper, scorekeeper, and adjudicator, so do not get on
her bad side. In the event there are any disputes, informational,
personal, spiritual, Georgia is gonna be here to track down the
truth in a world which has otherwise abandoned it, perhaps
with the assistance of Duck Duck Go and a few crystals.
Georgia Hampton: I'm surrounded by all of my mystical magical
items to help me in this endeavor today.
Mike Rugnetta: Alright. The rules, like last time, are very
simple. We have three rounds of five questions with one bonus
question after each round. At the end of the round, we're
gonna reveal and then score answers one by one. Correct
answers are worth one point unless otherwise stated, and
there are no penalties for wrong answers.
We politely request, as a matter of sportsmanship, you not go
searching the internet for answers as we play. Claude was
not invited to play this game for a reason.
Akilah Hughes: He's a
Mike Rugnetta: piece of shit.
Akilah Hughes: Fuck that, guys.
Mike Rugnetta: Fuck that. Yeah.
Lily Alexandre: I'm so mad right now.
Mike Rugnetta: Before we get to the festivities and the
questions and the answers, we have once again asked these
teams to name themselves. Teams, are you all prepared to
summarize your entire collective identity into one short witty
epithet? We got some looks of fear, some vigorous nodding.
Team one, Akila and Jamie. What would you like to call
yourselves?
Jamie Loftus: I you know
Akilah Hughes: I think we're still
Jamie Loftus: If I recall correctly, we won last year by a
pretty wide margin. So I think we should stick with what
definitely
Akilah Hughes: for us. No. But you guys swept.
Georgia Hampton: It was, like, it
Akilah Hughes: was kind of embarrassing.
Jamie Loftus: It is, like, that everyone had the Internet. It
seemed like Yeah.
Akilah Hughes: It's cheesy.
Jamie Loftus: So, yeah, the doghats are here to say
Akilah Hughes: best of luck to everyone.
Mike Rugnetta: Okay. We got the doghats, Adam and Ryan.
Ryan Broderick: So Adam and I were discussing. He said he
didn't want to be called crooked up white boys.
Adam Bumas: So That's the name I just sent you.
Ryan Broderick: So he he has he has offered he has offered an
alternative that I think is pretty good, which is so we're
gonna be called six seven nights at Freddy's. You
Mike Rugnetta: caused Tom pain. Okay. Six seven nights at
Freddy's. It's very fun.
Akilah Hughes: Oh, I forgot we're gonna have to keep hearing
that also. Oh, over and over again.
Ryan Broderick: Two hours of your life. Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta: You have to
Ryan Broderick: do the hands. It's part of the name, actually.
Mike Rugnetta: The balancing hand motion is part of the name.
Ryan Broderick: Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta: And Tom and Lily.
Akilah Hughes: So I believe last year, we were Nerds of a
Feather. And so for the sequel, we are and once again, we're
doing a a colon name with a sub name. So it is Two Nerds, Too
Furious Yes. Colon.
Lily Alexandre: Lilishin Intomzable? Okay.
Mike Rugnetta: Two nerds too okay. Spelt out or numeral?
Numeral.
Lily Alexandre: Thank you. All one word.
Adam Bumas: Absolutely numeral.
Mike Rugnetta: Two nerds too furious. And then what was the
the subtitle of your
Lily Alexandre: team name? Lilishin Intomzable. Excellent.
Mike Rugnetta: Alright. Amazing. We're gonna take a short break.
We're gonna listen to some ads unless you're on the member
feed. And when we come back, we're gonna play Never Posts
Post Mortem 2025.
Welcome back to postmortem. Which round should we start
with? How about round number one? In this round, you are all
gonna be answering questions about the big moments, the big
stories that broke containment and either leaked from meatspace
to online or from online into physical reality, a border now
so diaphanous, it's basically idiocy to be maintaining that it
even exists. In 2025, we all finally got our wish, and Katy
Perry finally fucked off into space.
Unfortunately, she came right back, and upon landing, declared
that she felt super connected to love. Gayle King, also on the
flight, said, I may now get my ears pierced.
Georgia Hampton: Astronauts don't wanna tell you about the
urge to get your ears pierced after you go to space.
Jamie Loftus: Must be like an altitude thing.
Akilah Hughes: It's ubiquitous.
They talk about overview effect about
Mike Rugnetta: how seeing the entire Earth really makes you
feel connected to everybody, but then what they don't mention is
what that makes you want to do is
Georgia Hampton: Getting your ears pierced.
Akilah Hughes: Yeah. There's, like, quote that astronaut, he,
like, looked into space, and he thought to himself, wow. They
should have brought Claire's employee. Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta: I need more holes. That's what I was
thinking. I like you come back from space, and you're like, I
gotta get another hole. There's just no Yeah.
Jamie Loftus: Get another hole in there.
Mike Rugnetta: Obviously. In a shocking case of announcing the
subtext, Pantone named the color of the year landlord white,
sparking an amount of discourse not easy to paint over. Nice.
Revolutionary protesters brought down the government of Nepal
under the straw hat Pirates Jolly Roger flag from one piece,
and proceeded to elect an interim prime minister via
Discord. Yeah.
Sushi La Kharki is the first woman in Nepal's history serve
as both prime minister and as chief justice of the Supreme
Court of Nepal and was elected in the youths against corruption
Discord server.
Georgia Hampton: Come on, Nick.
Mike Rugnetta: In this round, you're gonna answer questions
about the Internet related components of other big stories.
Let's do it. One, we all helped set a Wikipedia record this
year. Following a major event in May, traffic to all Wikimedia
sites peaked at around 800,000 hits per second. This is
according to the Wikimedia Foundation more than six times
normal levels and an all time high.
What event precipitated this rush of uplooking?
Ryan Broderick: What month was it? Sorry.
Mike Rugnetta: May. May.
Akilah Hughes: Don't know.
Jamie Loftus: I'm just staring into the middle distance.
Please. Stop.
Mike Rugnetta: I'm so excited to hear whatever this answer is.
Tom is Tom cannot keep it together.
Tom Lum: Tom I was laughing at Lily laughing keeping it
together.
Akilah Hughes: Jamie, I I just found wrote.
Jamie Loftus: I have an idea, but I don't remember what month
that happened.
Akilah Hughes: Yeah. Oh. Yes, Jamie. 100%.
Mike Rugnetta: Okay. And time is up. Okay. Question number two,
round one. In 2017, entrepreneur Billy McFarland and rapper Ja
Rule teamed up to launch the luxury live music event Fyre
Festival, which ended up a legendary debacle.
This year, fresh out of prison, McFarlane hosted the Phoenix
Festival with all of the vowels removed, so the Fynex Festival
in Honduras, which according to Jezebel, had both food and
bathrooms.
Akilah Hughes: In this economy? For both holes. For both holes.
Mike Rugnetta: You gotta accommodate all the holes
Ryan Broderick: in and out. Separate toilet.
Georgia Hampton: Separate toilet. Well, of course.
Ryan Broderick: Food go in and food come out.
Akilah Hughes: So you
Ryan Broderick: gotta have both
Akilah Hughes: Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta: It took him about eight years to learn that.
Ryan Broderick: It was both holes.
Mike Rugnetta: So the question here is, why the rebrand? Why
not Fyre Festival two? Because the recognition is massive. In
fact, the Fyre brand was sold in an eBay auction in July for not
quite a quarter of $1,000,000. Players, can you tell us what
aged Internet brand bought and then pivoted the Fire brand?
And for an extra point, could you also name the company's own
pivot after a similar deal where their IP was purchased by an
unrelated group?
Akilah Hughes: All all I'm thinking is hurt brands hurt
brands.
Adam Bumas: There there have been so many of these, like,
things that people vaguely remember, and then they get
bought and relaunched and remodeled.
Mike Rugnetta: Because you're like, oh, I know that and I like
it. And then you go and it's just like, now it's an
investment bank or something.
Jamie Loftus: Yeah. You should okay. Okay.
Georgia Hampton: I'm putting it in.
Jamie Loftus: Guest in old things.
Mike Rugnetta: Yeah. I think that's the thing to do here. The
I will warn you that when we get to it, the answer to this is
enraging. Oh. Number three, round one.
In June, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez got married in Venice,
putting on reportedly the seventh most expensive wedding
in modern history. The couple rented an entire island for the
three day affair, which Venice's Ministry of Tourism estimated
would generate roughly two thirds of the city's annual
tourism take. For all of their cash and panache, there was one
detail that slipped through the cracks. The wedding was
ridiculed online for a specific decor disaster. What was it?
Jamie Loftus: Sorry. No. This isn't right. That's all I got.
Akilah Hughes: That's all I got.
Jamie Loftus: I think it I think it works. I think it works.
Mike Rugnetta: K. Four. Microsoft Satya Nadella said the
biggest problem facing AI isn't computing power, but power
power. Data centers currently account for nearly 5% of The
United States overall peak power usage. Over the next two years,
that need could double, but infrastructure is not growing
fast enough to meet demand.
So Microsoft is taking matters into its own hands. They will
pay $16,000,000,000 with $1,000,000,000 of help from the
Trump administration to do what? To solve the problem of not
enough power to meet AI demand.
Georgia Hampton: I mean
Ryan Broderick: The they're basically the Microsoft is
pressuring the Trump administration to, like, build a
project that Microsoft needs. That that's right?
Mike Rugnetta: They're spending a lot of money to build a
project with the help of of Trump in order to get more
power.
Ryan Broderick: Yeah.
Jamie Loftus: Jamie. I I think what's
Jamie Loftus: gonna become clear about this is like, I think this
has been a year where I've had the healthiest attitude towards
the Internet, and I'm being punished for it. Yes.
Georgia Hampton: Say that.
Jamie Loftus: Say that.
Mike Rugnetta: We said earlier that there are both points
victories and moral victories, and perhaps the shortest way to
a moral victory is to have just logged off.
Akilah Hughes: Last question's gotta be, like, 500 word essay
describe the joy of touching grass. Like
Jamie Loftus: Yeah. And I think that's how we come back
ultimately.
Jamie Loftus: You can't even think of a joke answer. I still
don't understand the question.
Mike Rugnetta: Question five, round one. The November 4
election of Zoran Mamdani as mayor of New York City
apparently had some pretty big impacts. According to the
research and data team at Pornhub, the election affected
viewership numbers that day. Oh. Players, please tell us, do you
think viewership of Pornhub went up or down the day Zoran Mamdani
was elected?
For an additional point, you can guess how much you think it went
up or down. And if you get within 10 percentage points,
we're gonna call it good. And for an additional additional
point, what was the most searched for term in New York
City the day Zoran Mamdani won the mayor race, up a whopping
957%.
Ryan Broderick: I'm trying to think what I was searching that
day.
Akilah Hughes: What was I DDoSing porn up with? Yeah.
Ryan Broderick: You know? I Once you get into the goon or flow
state, it's, like, really hard to keep track of what's going
on. But
Georgia Hampton: Now that's a team name.
Ryan Broderick: Yeah. Once I'm hooked up to my rig, I'm not
really sort of thinking straight.
Jamie Loftus: Yes. Put it, please. I think we got the first
part right. That rules.
Mike Rugnetta: Players, let's score round one.
Ryan Broderick: Okay.
Mike Rugnetta: Question number one. What event precipitated the
rush of uplooking on all Wikimedia sites, which peaked at
around 800,000 hits per second? Team one, the dog hots, what'd
get?
Akilah Hughes: He said Two. Poop. Nailed it.
Jamie Loftus: Like, caught the pope. Yes. Thanks, guys.
Akilah Hughes: That might
Mike Rugnetta: have the
Georgia Hampton: pope. Know that's That
Akilah Hughes: is correct.
Mike Rugnetta: The election of Pope Leo in May is what did it.
Akilah Hughes: Awesome. That's all on Jamie. I had nothing.
Jamie Loftus: Let's let's let's not get used to us having the
right answer. Let's Yeah. Let's You
Mike Rugnetta: were so unsure. You were really daunting
yourself, and you've nailed it.
Jamie Loftus: Well, just keep watching. You know what mean?
No.
Mike Rugnetta: Six seven nights at Freddy's.
Ryan Broderick: We also had new poke.
Georgia Hampton: Nice. As
Mike Rugnetta: we know, nailed it. Two nerds, two furious.
Akilah Hughes: Yeah. We put down queen died again.
Mike Rugnetta: Any specific queen or just, like, a queen in
general?
Akilah Hughes: I I just remember it was so big last year, The the
or the year before prior that the queen died. That was like
the big Wikipedia thing.
Lily Alexandre: It was the whole Jesus thing. I know this year
has been busy, but
Mike Rugnetta: There was just some some queen searching runoff
that just got over into the next year. No. She
Akilah Hughes: died again. No. She did it again.
Lily Alexandre: She was queen Elizabeth the second and third.
Akilah Hughes: Doing the, like, Taylor Swift thing. Well, she
she can't stand not being the first. There's all that we can
do. Oh my god.
Ryan Broderick: They brought her back together again.
Georgia Hampton: It's true. One last job.
Lily Alexandre: Main character syndrome.
Akilah Hughes: One last
Mike Rugnetta: job. Wanted to they wanted
Ryan Broderick: to distract everyone from the Epstein stuff,
so they brought it
Akilah Hughes: back. Yeah. It's like I'll
Ryan Broderick: die again.
Mike Rugnetta: K. Question number two. Please place your
answers to question number two, which was, can you tell us what
aged Internet brand bought and pivoted the fire brand and what
their own pivot was when their IP was purchased? Six seven
nights at Freddy's, what did you write?
Ryan Broderick: It's Limewire, and they're a crypto company
now.
Mike Rugnetta: That is correct. Bummer. That's I
Ryan Broderick: were literally writing about this before we
started recording today.
Georgia Hampton: Well well.
Lily Alexandre: Crypto like the most boring pivot at this point.
What year is it?
Mike Rugnetta: You know? I think are they are do any specialize
in NFTs? NFTs.
Adam Bumas: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was what they were doing
when they purchased LimeWire, and now they're acting as if
that never happened.
Ryan Broderick: Yeah. They're trying to, like, get one to
forget
Mike Rugnetta: about that.
Jamie Loftus: I understand why.
Mike Rugnetta: Two nerds too furious. What was your answer?
Lily Alexandre: The company was Netscape, and the product is
Netcapes.
Jamie Loftus: Wow. And if they do
Lily Alexandre: anything while you're falling or whatever, it's
actually very inefficient.
Mike Rugnetta: Yeah. That doesn't sound like a good
product.
Lily Alexandre: But the fashion might
Akilah Hughes: Oh, but
Adam Bumas: crypto does?
Mike Rugnetta: More useful than an NFT. Sure. Yeah. And the dog
hots?
Jamie Loftus: This is on me. You know? I didn't know. So I said
Napster, and I don't know what they would have pivoted to. Not
music, essentially.
I mean, you were in the neighborhood, though.
Jamie Loftus: That's that's all Akil. I I guessed ask Jeeves.
Wow.
Ryan Broderick: That's cool. Napster did get purchased and
turned into, like, an AI music platform. So
Jamie Loftus: Thanks, Riot. I
Ryan Broderick: got you. Alright.
Mike Rugnetta: Question number three. The wedding of Jeff Bezos
and Lauren Sanchez was ridiculed online for a specific decor
disaster. What was it? We didn't know this one. Two nerds too
furious.
What was your answer?
Lily Alexandre: Well, the the guys on the cake, the figures,
they forgot their pants.
Mike Rugnetta: Naked cake toppers.
Lily Alexandre: Yeah. Butts out.
Ryan Broderick: Is that really what it was?
Georgia Hampton: No. No. It was not. I
Ryan Broderick: would believe that though.
Akilah Hughes: I think that's the closest we have to a
credible answer. I know. Thought it was.
Mike Rugnetta: The dog the dog hots, what was your answer?
Jamie Loftus: I think inviting Sydney Sweeney was just a weird
thing to do.
Georgia Hampton: The first domino that fell.
Jamie Loftus: Yeah. That's you're going to your friend's
wedding, and she's just there. What?
Mike Rugnetta: Interesting to describe Sydney Sweeney as a
decor disaster. She's in the room.
Akilah Hughes: If the shoe fits. Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta: Six seven nights at Freddy's. What was your
answer?
Ryan Broderick: Yeah. So we didn't know this one, but I
guess that Jeff Bez's head was too shiny.
Akilah Hughes: That's always true. Honestly.
Mike Rugnetta: I mean, good pull.
Ryan Broderick: They didn't polish it. They polish it too
much or no?
Akilah Hughes: It's like one of those, like, anti paparazzi
things where it, like, the glare blares at the camera so
Jamie Loftus: you can't see.
Mike Rugnetta: None of the
Akilah Hughes: pictures came out
Adam Bumas: of beautiful Mediterranean sun.
Ryan Broderick: It was
Adam Bumas: just too much.
Akilah Hughes: Too much.
Ryan Broderick: Yeah. It's almost head head too shiny.
Lily Alexandre: It's like a magnifying glass.
Mike Rugnetta: So the answer to this is that at the reception,
there was really ugly office carpeting. Ugly gray squares of
office carpeting at this otherwise immaculately designed
extremely expensive wedding, and it really does draw the eye
down.
Georgia Hampton: It's pretty unforgettable.
Adam Bumas: Except by all of us.
Georgia Hampton: Except by all of you guys.
Akilah Hughes: Right. Yeah. We believe for you.
Jamie Loftus: I think it is radical and beautiful that none
of us cared enough about this wedding to know the answer.
Mike Rugnetta: Question number four.
Akilah Hughes: We've got this one. We've got this one.
Jamie Loftus: This was definitely right.
Mike Rugnetta: Microsoft is gonna pay $16,000,000,000 to
solve the crisis of not enough power for their AI data centers
by doing what? The doghots. Our answer was Xboxes.
Akilah Hughes: Just Xboxes.
Jamie Loftus: But with a little
Jamie Loftus: smile and
Akilah Hughes: with a smiley face. I will say I
Mike Rugnetta: am charmed by the smiley face.
Lily Alexandre: I was
Akilah Hughes: gonna say, maybe we should
Georgia Hampton: have a secret point counter for this.
Jamie Loftus: For just for how cute we can make.
Jamie Loftus: How how charming can we be while being completely
wrong?
Georgia Hampton: Listen.
Jamie Loftus: Guys, we wanna be at least in the conversation at
the end
Akilah Hughes: of this.
Mike Rugnetta: Six seven nights at Freddy's?
Adam Bumas: Yeah. We said that they were gonna build this
program called Stargate, which they said it was gonna be
focused in in the West and just, like, build a bunch of new data
centers with government money.
Mike Rugnetta: It does sound true. It might it might actually
be true. Let's read the last answer, and then we'll have
Georgia adjudicate.
Jamie Loftus: Okay.
Mike Rugnetta: Two nerds too furious, what did you have?
Akilah Hughes: Yeah. Just they just stopped doing AI. They
developed more clarity. Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta: They're gonna pay $16,000,000,000
Akilah Hughes: to just knock it off.
Ryan Broderick: Yeah. They're done. They said they're done.
Akilah Hughes: Similar to Stargate, we almost we almost
put build a The Matrix.
Mike Rugnetta: So the answer that I have here is that they
have recommissioned 3 Mile Island. Woah.
Akilah Hughes: Oh, right. I actually do remember this.
Mike Rugnetta: They will pay $16,000,000,000 to recommission
3 Mile Island and to open it as a power plant. I think 80% of
whose output will go to Microsoft. For anybody in our
audience who doesn't know, 3 Mile Island is a famous power
plant in Pennsylvania in The United States that is the site
of the only domestic nuclear incident in The United States.
One of its reactors went into meltdown for a short amount of
time. No one was injured, and there is no long term health
impacts from that, but it nonetheless is like a really big
sort of, like, cultural touchstone for, Americans'
reticence and hesitance around, nuclear power.
Adam Bumas: It's why Homer Simpson works at a nuclear power
plant because that was a big story in the late eighties. Oh.
Ryan Broderick: So I'm seeing here that that was the first AI
data center under Stargate.
Jamie Loftus: I also just saw that Microsoft makes Xboxes.
Ryan Broderick: That's true. They do. They
Mike Rugnetta: do make Xbox.
Akilah Hughes: So I think we both
Jamie Loftus: get a good version of gonna stop. They never said
they were gonna stop.
Jamie Loftus: A power plant could be anything.
Mike Rugnetta: Okay. Georgia, who's getting points?
Georgia Hampton: Ryan, where did you see the that it's the first
Stargate thing? I'm not seeing that.
Ryan Broderick: Made it up. No. I I saw it in a Bloomberg piece.
Georgia Hampton: So Okay.
Ryan Broderick: This is actually confusing. But I I it seems like
the 3 Mile Island Nuclear plant is part of the Stargate stuff, I
guess. But I'm I don't really understand this. But
Georgia Hampton: I'll give you a point.
Jamie Loftus: Yeah. I'll give you a point.
Georgia Hampton: Yes. We're all having fun.
Mike Rugnetta: For doing original research in the
recording.
Georgia Hampton: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That's actually so true.
Lily Alexandre: It hasn't really occurred to us to get right
answers, so you guys are kinda speeding ahead of us.
Mike Rugnetta: Okay. Question number five for round one. You
can place your answers. Did viewership of Pornhub go up or
down the day Zoran Mamdani was elected? How much did it go up
or down, and what was the number one search term in New York City
that night?
Up over 900%. Six, seven nights at Freddy's. What was your
answer?
Adam Bumas: We said that the that the swing in Pornhub
activity went up the day Zoran Mamdani was elected, and we said
it went up by 90%. And the most popular search term that saw,
like, several times over increase was MELF.
Ryan Broderick: I'm guess I I am sort of half remembering that,
but I I feel like it was something about, like, angry
gooning on Staten Island, and then I was like, well, what's
the funniest thing for people on Staten Island to be angry
gooning about? And it was like milk. That milk's yeah. Because
I I feel like what I read was like it was upset Cuomo
supporters, and I was like, well, Cuomo supporter,
obviously, they're be looking at milk. So that that was the
thinking there.
Georgia Hampton: That is actually true that Staten Island
was an outlier. I don't think I can give you a point, but I do
wanna tell you that.
Ryan Broderick: I want to just have that on the record that I
knew that.
Akilah Hughes: Yes. Do you want that on the record, Ryan? Yeah.
I Jack and Island.
Ryan Broderick: It's how I make my money. Jack and Island. I
know and stuff like that.
Mike Rugnetta: Okay. Two nerds, two furious. What was your
answer?
Akilah Hughes: We thought the opposite. That's smart. My
thought was they were going down because everyone was having a
ball in real life celebrating.
Lily Alexandre: Having sex in real life.
Akilah Hughes: Yeah. And so, yeah, our our most searched was
socialist sex positions. This is our hole.
Mike Rugnetta: From each according to their means, to
each according to their need.
Lily Alexandre: And my knees are huge.
Mike Rugnetta: The dog hots.
Jamie Loftus: We said up, but a modest up. People were busy that
day. Twelve just twelve percent. And the search term is unrelated
to the election. It was step siblings, which is Yeah.
Akilah Hughes: Just every single one. Classic.
Georgia Hampton: Yeah. It's just unrelated.
Jamie Loftus: Some days you want that more than others. Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta: Okay. So for the entire day, viewership was down
over the The biggest dip in traffic across the whole day was
at 10PM. 41%.
Jamie Loftus: Good. Wow.
Mike Rugnetta: And the most searched term was big butts. Big
butts. Okay.
Ryan Broderick: Wow. That's Well,
Georgia Hampton: So I wanna give a point to two nerds too furious
because y'all did get it right that it went down.
Mike Rugnetta: Alright. And finally, in round one, we have
our first bonus question from our friend Morgan Sung, host of
the excellent podcast Close All Tabs. Hans, can you please roll
Morgan's tape?
Morgan Sung: Hello, players. The hottest show on TV right now,
HBO's heated rivalry, which in case you've missed the hype is
about two rivaling hockey stars who fall in love. A multi year
situationship and lots of smut ensue. And even hotter than
that, it's all gay yearning. But Heated Rivalry is actually based
on a sequel to a novel that originally started as a fanfic
on archive of our own.
Players, please tell us, what ship did that original fanfic
revolve around? Hint. It's a Disney property.
Mike Rugnetta: It's a Disney property.
Morgan Sung: For an additional point, what was that couple's
ship name? And for an extra bonus point, women love boys
kissing. This genre of boy on boy romance was largely
popularized by manga and anime. What is the Japanese term for
female fans of this genre? And for one more point, BL is so
popular online now that the Japanese term for female fans of
this genre is now a meme verb.
Players, can you use that name in a sentence? No.
Akilah Hughes: I could. Okay.
Mike Rugnetta: Here I'll
Ryan Broderick: I've never answered any trigger question
faster than this
Akilah Hughes: one. Okay.
Mike Rugnetta: I'll read them all out again. Tell us what ship
did that original fanfic revolve around Okay. Hint it's a Disney
property. What was that couple's ship name? What is the Japanese
term for female fans of the genre of boy romance that was
largely popularized by manga and anime?
And BL is so popular online now that the Japanese term for
female fans of this genre is now its own meme verb. Players, can
you use that name in a sentence?
Adam Bumas: I forget. What's the what's the ship name for Mickey
and Goofy? Help me out.
Mike Rugnetta: I don't think you can say that in polite company.
Ryan Broderick: Are you talking about the geeky thing? Tom. I
love the geeky shit.
Akilah Hughes: Woah. Cool. There's only one bed in the
hotel. Oh my god.
Jamie Loftus: Just put it in.
Mike Rugnetta: Okay. Hans will play us the tape where she
reveals the answers.
Ryan Broderick: I'm gonna I'm gonna use the restroom because I
know this one. I don't even need
Akilah Hughes: a Oh my god. Wow.
Mike Rugnetta: Two nerds two furious, what were your answers
to Morgan's questions?
Lily Alexandre: The ship was a beast and chandelier. The name
is Bandelier. The physic the geometry of it, I don't know how
it works. Yeah. And to
Akilah Hughes: be clear, we're not talking about Lumiere. We're
not misremembering his name. We're talking about the
chandelier. The big
Jamie Loftus: chandelier. The
Lily Alexandre: genre is Yowie, which I feel pretty good about
for no personal reasons. And Tom, do you wanna do you wanna
give us the final component of this?
Akilah Hughes: Vegeta, what you don't know is I'm Fujo ing out
right now.
Mike Rugnetta: That's good. Did you work on your Goku impression
before this?
Akilah Hughes: A little bit. But weren't we all? I I said I was
prepping for this.
Mike Rugnetta: I'm out right now.
Akilah Hughes: Let's fucking go.
Lily Alexandre: We got this, man.
Mike Rugnetta: Alright. The dog hots. What do you have?
Jamie Loftus: Bob Iger and Michael Eisner, also known as
Bisner.
Akilah Hughes: I guess technically
Mike Rugnetta: a Disney property.
Jamie Loftus: Yeah. It's just The fanfic is called earnings
call. And
Jamie Loftus: it's kind of hand trick kind of thing because,
yeah, they're both jacking off furiously on opposite coasts.
That's exactly right.
Adam Bumas: Are they doing it to the shareholders? Are they
listening in?
Jamie Loftus: Yeah. The shareholders are the fans of the
thing.
Georgia Hampton: They're part of it.
They're part
Akilah Hughes: of it. Actually, Hassan, the shareholders are
watching.
Georgia Hampton: I just heard
Jamie Loftus: But then the shareholders are kind of into
it.
Jamie Loftus: And Yeah. They kinda like it. And they're like,
Akilah Hughes: come on guys. Going up?
Jamie Loftus: Yeah. And I can't use it in a sentence. It's
actually it's too explicit for this. Powerful. Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta: Six seven nights at Freddy's.
Ryan Broderick: Well, if you all read garbage day, you would know
that it's based on Captain America the Winter Soldier Yeah.
A Marvel property owned by Disney. The ship is Stucky,
which is Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes. The term for boys love
in Japanese is Yowie, and there are two ways to use the fandom
for Yowie in a sentence. One is I'm straight Fujoshi ing it to
heated rivalry right now, or I'm also Fujoe ing it to Stucky on a
o three as well.
Damn.
Mike Rugnetta: I'm damn
Ryan Broderick: Oh, sorry. The cops just pulled up. I gotta go.
They're arrested.
Mike Rugnetta: Alright. Let's hear the answers from Morgan.
Morgan Sung: The original fic Game Changers is based on Bucky
Barnes and Steve Rogers from Marvel's Captain America. The
couple's ship name is Stucky. Female fans of Yowie, also known
as BL for boys love, are called Fujoshis, fujos for short. Used
in a sentence, babe, he had rivalries on. God forbid a girl
fujou out on a weeknight.
Akilah Hughes: Wow. Ryan
Jamie Loftus: Wow. It looks like he just wrote the exact answer.
That must be really good for you. That's great.
Mike Rugnetta: Alright. That's the end of round one. Georgia,
how are our scores looking?
Georgia Hampton: Wow. Okay. In last place is the dog hots.
Akilah Hughes: Shut up, Bryce. Two points.
Georgia Hampton: In second place, with three points, is two
nerds, two furious. We'll take it. In the top spot, six seven
with a whopping seven
Akilah Hughes: points. Listeners, Ryan's doing the hand
gestures every time. Every single time. That's
Adam Bumas: of the numbers.
Mike Rugnetta: Meme number. Meme number. Congratulations to
everybody. It is still anyone's game. Alright.
We're gonna take a quick break, and then we're gonna go on to
round two. Alright, everybody. Welcome back. Here we are in
round two of Never Posts Post Mortem twenty twenty five. In
round two, we turn our attention to jokes for people without
friends, aka Internet memes.
Nothing beats a jet two holiday except, of course, dopamine
poisoning from your April nothing beats a jet two holiday
video. In 2025, Duolingo killed Duo the Owl. People rushed in
droves to accuse various parties, Luigi Mangione and Ezio
from Assassin's Creed amongst them. Before long, the language
learning company revealed the official cause of death, a hit
and run by a cyber truck. Six seven happened and continues to
happen.
Yeah. And finally, TikTok was banned for fourteen hours,
leading legions of users to mourn the app and celebrate all
it brought into their lives only to have it return the next
morning. A sale has been arranged, but not finalized,
likely putting the app under control of a cadre of president
Trump's cronies. I hope everyone here is looking forward to
posting their federally mandated Charlie Kirk remembrances every
year.
Akilah Hughes: Charlie Kirk. We go. Everybody. Let's let's
Adam Bumas: get on beat. Let's do some
Akilah Hughes: warm ups. In
Mike Rugnetta: this round, dumb questions about dumb jokes.
Everybody ready? One. On 01/06/2024, Chicago based
comedian, Winslow Dumaine posted, had to make a pilgrimage
to the Chicago Rat Hole on a picture of a rain soaked piece
of pavement and in it, a rainwater filled rat shaped
hole. Thus launched the saga of Chicago's most beloved landmark,
which was pilgrimaged to, discourse about, filled, and
then re excavated.
In 2025, an international team of researchers from Tennessee,
North Carolina, New York, and Calgary determined with 98.67%
likelihood Six seven. That the Chicago rat hole was made not by
a rat, but by what?
Lily Alexandre: Yes. I'm dropping subtle hints that it
was a tiny little cat. It was a small not a kitten. That'd be
too sad. It was a tiny little cat.
Everyone remember to write that down.
Mike Rugnetta: Okay. Question number two, round two. Guys,
gents, fellas are having a tough go. From the male loneliness
epidemic to sometimes needing to be a little nicer to women,
straight men everywhere had a real rocky 2025. They can't even
go outside and enjoy their leisurely pastimes without being
mocked and ridiculed online.
For three points, could each team please describe in as much
detail as is possible one performative male?
Ryan Broderick: Do we get points for all of the ones we can do?
Jamie Loftus: I'm just doing a free write.
Mike Rugnetta: No. This is now we're looking for maximum
performative male.
Georgia Hampton: Paint me a beautiful picture.
Akilah Hughes: Okay. Okay.
Georgia Hampton: Feel like this more than any other question,
everyone is so locked in.
Lily Alexandre: We're building worlds here.
Jamie Loftus: Yes. Yes. Oh my gosh. I can see him. Okay.
Georgia Hampton: He's here.
Jamie Loftus: Yes. Yes.
Mike Rugnetta: It's just Ryan.
Georgia Hampton: It's Joe.
Ryan Broderick: Oh, I wish. I wish.
Georgia Hampton: We cut to Ryan that
Mike Rugnetta: he's Yeah. I
Adam Bumas: really wish.
Mike Rugnetta: Oh, got him.
Akilah Hughes: We we have a we have a novella.
Georgia Hampton: Oh, I'm so excited. Excited.
Akilah Hughes: Oh my god.
Mike Rugnetta: Okay. Question number three, round two. This
year, TikTok user lils bowls marabella two has held her
libubu over an open flame. She has assaulted it with a
screwdriver. She has driven over it with a car, pretended to dunk
it in Coca Cola, and mimed washing it with dish soap,
attracting hundreds of thousands to millions of views on various
videos and endless enraged comments for her original claim,
which is that said La boo boo is what?
Akilah Hughes: Yep. Mhmm.
Mike Rugnetta: What quality is she claiming is the case of this
LaBubu that justifies her trying to light it on fire, poking it
with a screwdriver, running over it with a car, etcetera,
etcetera?
Akilah Hughes: Phone's getting so tiny on the performative.
Georgia Hampton: I'm watching this happen.
Akilah Hughes: We're still adding to it. Oh my god. Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta: K. Four. Oh, you think that nonsense is your
ally, but you merely adopted it. I was born into it, molded by
it. I didn't see sense until I was already a man, and by then,
it was nothing to me but confusion.
For every Italian brain rot character you can name, you gain
one point. Spelling does not count. Spelling doesn't count?
Spelling does not count.
Akilah Hughes: Okay. Do you know these?
Lily Alexandre: Yeah. I have a teenage sibling, so I can There
go. Yeah.
Jamie Loftus: Italian brain rat character? Yes.
Jamie Loftus: This is a whole thing. I remember this. Hold on.
Akilah Hughes: Okay. I have, like, one.
Mike Rugnetta: K. Question number five. What is this sound
from?
Akilah Hughes: Woah. Woah. Yes.
Lily Alexandre: I don't know this one. Is it like a Pharrell
beat?
Akilah Hughes: Achilles du Vini?
Jamie Loftus: I do.
Jamie Loftus: I'm just typing in Italian words I think are real.
Jamie Loftus: That's gotta be at least a point.
Mike Rugnetta: Alright. Those are all the questions for round
two. Let's score round two. Question number one. With 98.67%
likelihood, a group of academics have determined that the Chicago
rat hole was not made by a rat, but by a what?
The dog hots. What is your answer?
Akilah Hughes: Is it still Bisner? Still
Jamie Loftus: it's earnings call. Squirrel. You are correct.
Yes.
Akilah Hughes: Yes. Thank you, Jamie.
Jamie Loftus: The one answer I knew.
Mike Rugnetta: 67NightsAt Freddy's. What is your answer?
Ryan Broderick: We weren't totally sure, so I guess
TheBear.
Adam Bumas: Yeah. You know, the star of show. That's what it's
about. Right? Bear?
Mike Rugnetta: I've heard Jeremy Allen White is short, but not
that short.
Lily Alexandre: Is he the bear?
Jamie Loftus: He is
Lily Alexandre: rat hole.
Akilah Hughes: The bear
Georgia Hampton: is the spirit of the city of Chicago.
Jamie Loftus: That's right. Right.
Mike Rugnetta: To nerds too furious, what was your answer?
Lily Alexandre: It was a squirrel, but not just any
squirrel. It was a screen age, scrutin screenger squirrel.
Akilah Hughes: Screen age. Scrutin, screenger squirrel.
Georgia Hampton: Yes. I'm doing an extra point for pizzazz.
Akilah Hughes: Squirrels in the concrete.
Mike Rugnetta: Okay. Question number two. Please describe in
excruciating detail one performative male.
Georgia Hampton: I need to be wowed.
Mike Rugnetta: Six, seven nights at Freddy's. Let's do you first.
Ryan Broderick: Yeah. So I just looked outside my window in Bed
Stuy and just described a man that I saw, and he was listening
to Claro drinking matcha, reading books, also drinking
belt boba and wearing salvage denim.
Georgia Hampton: God. The salvage denim pole.
Lily Alexandre: He's got, like, 50 pounds a gear.
Jamie Loftus: See he was listening to Claro.
Georgia Hampton: Oh, you can see it.
Ryan Broderick: He held he held he held up
Georgia Hampton: his his his iPod. No.
Mike Rugnetta: He he's
Georgia Hampton: holding the the LP.
Ryan Broderick: Yeah. He's retro.
Jamie Loftus: Oh, vinyl. That is
Georgia Hampton: yeah. Alright. Pretty pretty damn good.
Mike Rugnetta: Alright. Two nerds too furious.
Akilah Hughes: Oh, this, I say reading bell hooks by an open
window smoking a cigarette. Yeah. It is the record store day
edition of Claro's first LP. I'm a bit of a Fujoshi. Shout to
Fujoshi.
A Fujoshi comment.
Jamie Loftus: She can Claro mention. Wow.
Lily Alexandre: Got a
Mike Rugnetta: I got a The
Georgia Hampton: POV of this is really selling me, so I'm going
to afford two points.
Lily Alexandre: I like to picture myself down on the
sidewalk. He's like calling out, you know,
Georgia Hampton: from above. Yes.
Jamie Loftus: No one asked.
Akilah Hughes: That's why. Hello?
Mike Rugnetta: Finally, the dog hots.
Jamie Loftus: Tote bag, feminist slash ally t shirt, painted
nails for the first time. Wow. Found to be emotionally abusive
by multiple women. And he's reading a book, probably all
fours by Miranda July. Oh my god.
Wow. Posting about perimenopause on his Instagram story. He's
listening and learning.
Akilah Hughes: Akila and Jamie. Points. Three points. Points.
Three points.
Three Three Three points.
Lily Alexandre: Points. That's a fucking novel. That's the
American
Georgia Hampton: novel. I started sweating
Jamie Loftus: out of fear and anger. Man.
Georgia Hampton: Wow. Okay. I mean, everyone obviously gets
points.
Jamie Loftus: Yeah. He just learned about bread crumbing
because a bunch of girls said he did that.
Jamie Loftus: Oh, yeah. Yeah. He's using he's using therapy
language to yell
Jamie Loftus: at you. That's right. Yeah. He has an older
sister, though, so it's fine. Oh my god.
Georgia Hampton: It's not just that he's avoidant. He's
avoidant dismissive. He does
Jamie Loftus: the attachment style book. That was a crucial
one.
Georgia Hampton: God. Exquisite. The Miranda okay.
Mike Rugnetta: Okay. Next question. What's the deal with
that Lububu? Two nerds too furious. What was your answer?
Akilah Hughes: Well,
Lily Alexandre: she was trying to convince us that it was
alive.
Akilah Hughes: Oh. And
Mike Rugnetta: had to be put down.
Georgia Hampton: Have to delicious libubu till it's free.
Akilah Hughes: Our real answer. I believe am I right that this
is the I have the only 24 carat gold Le Boo Boo.
Jamie Loftus: Yes. Alright.
Georgia Hampton: The one and only. Woah.
Mike Rugnetta: The dog hots, what was your answer?
Jamie Loftus: Yeah. We said Ugly.
Jamie Loftus: He said it deserved
Mike Rugnetta: what happens to Honestly, wrong. Not wrong.
Jamie Loftus: The audience did not agree, but she was adamant
that it was the it was just too ugly.
Akilah Hughes: It was just too ugly to live.
Georgia Hampton: Yeah. That is wrong, but it is also right.
Mike Rugnetta: It is it is a hideous looking object.
Georgia Hampton: God, it really is.
Mike Rugnetta: Six seven nights at Freddy's.
Ryan Broderick: We also said gold.
Georgia Hampton: It is the one and only 24 karat gold. Le bobo.
Le bobo.
Akilah Hughes: But I will I will give it to you.
Mike Rugnetta: Okay. For every Italian brain rock character you
can name, you gain one point. Alright. The doghats.
Jamie Loftus: Alright. I think the first one is a real one and
then it it kind of devolves. We've got Ballerina Cappuccino.
Yes. I've said Mary Manicotti Bugatti.
I feel like boobellini was something.
Lily Alexandre: Yep. Yep.
Jamie Loftus: There was, like, chimpanzini Luigi mama. Luigi
mama.
Georgia Hampton: Luigi mama's pregnant. That was okay. Luigi
mama's pregnant.
Jamie Loftus: Is that an extra point if one of them is
pregnant?
Jamie Loftus: Yes. I'm
Jamie Loftus: gonna keep that. I'm gonna start using that.
Mike Rugnetta: Six seven nights at Freddy's.
Adam Bumas: Here we got Bombardino Crocodillo. We have
Tongue Tongue Sahur. We have Ballerina Cappuccino, just like
the Dog Hots did. Then we have Chimpanzini Bananini, which was
one of several chimpanzinis, actually. And we're ending it
with the OG, Tralla Lero Tralla la.
Mike Rugnetta: Wow. Two nerds too furious.
Lily Alexandre: It must be sad to know these things.
Akilah Hughes: Yeah. Okay.
Lily Alexandre: Let's see. A marinade black cappuccino.
Crocodillo bombardino. Andrew Cuomo.
Georgia Hampton: Andrew Cuomo.
Mike Rugnetta: I mean, I'm inclined to agree.
Akilah Hughes: I'm put I'm putting a point in there.
Georgia Hampton: He'd take the press. Alright. I can confirm
ballerina cappuccino. Mhmm. Crocodillo, bombardino.
Chimpanzini, Bananini. Yes.
Jamie Loftus: Oh, damn. I
Mike Rugnetta: will confirm for you for that that one is real.
Georgia Hampton: Correct. Yes.
Jamie Loftus: Luigi Mama. Luigi Mama's pregnant.
Georgia Hampton: Luigi Mama's pregnant would have gotten you a
point, but I only see Luigi Mama.
Jamie Loftus: That's tough. That's tough. Andrew
Georgia Hampton: Cuomo. Yeah.
Akilah Hughes: Yeah. Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta: The brain the brain rots in several ways
around.
Georgia Hampton: The brain does
Akilah Hughes: rot in many ways. So I'm an Italian. Whose brains
have rotted. Right?
Mike Rugnetta: Question number five in round two. What was that
sound from? Six seven nights at Freddy's.
Ryan Broderick: We guessed on this one because it was brain
rot. So we guessed it was my favorite band of the year, the
Velvet Sundown.
Mike Rugnetta: Interesting. Interesting. Two Nerds Too
Furious.
Akilah Hughes: Steve. Hello. Wow. Wow. Steve.
You say, Laurent. I hate it makes me feel millennial coded
saying it so earnestly, but I like it.
Mike Rugnetta: That is correct. The dog hots?
Jamie Loftus: Me and I was thinking of, like, a dance on
TikTok. It says this dance on TikTok where people do where
they, I wanna say, cover their face or something.
Mike Rugnetta: I feel like I already know the answer to this,
but there's a secret bonus question here, which is anybody
who can sing the entirety of the verse in French that is in most
of the videos can get an extra 10 points.
Akilah Hughes: 10. That's the last one. He has arms and legs.
Mike Rugnetta: Yep. He nailed it. Tom got it. So Tom gets an
extra 10 points.
Lily Alexandre: Tom, we just won the game.
Akilah Hughes: Oh,
Lily Alexandre: this is delightful.
Mike Rugnetta: Good job, Tom.
Georgia Hampton: Very nice.
Akilah Hughes: It's just a little cartoon fish who's orange
and has arms and legs. That's
Jamie Loftus: it. It's a return to form for the Internet. It
Mike Rugnetta: kinda is. That is the end of round two. Georgia,
how's everybody scores looking?
Georgia Hampton: Okay. I've done the impossible. I've added
numbers together.
Mike Rugnetta: She prevailed.
Georgia Hampton: There has been quite an upset, but not in terms
of who's in last place. No. I'm sorry to say, my darlings, the
doghats have seven points.
Jamie Loftus: We've been here before. I just feel like this is
something
Jamie Loftus: where losing is winning. Losing is winning in
many
Akilah Hughes: ways. Yeah.
Jamie Loftus: I saw my friends this year.
Georgia Hampton: Moving on. There's been a dramatic upset
because six seven is in second place with 14 points. And
specifically, I think because of Tom's knowledge of Le Poisson
Steve, two nerds too furious is in first place with 22 points.
Wow.
Akilah Hughes: We are the champions. Now now, Lily, all we
have to do now, we have to stall the clock. Stop the couch.
Jamie Loftus: Stop the couch. That last round. No.
Mike Rugnetta: Okay. Here we are at our second guest bonus
question. What question from Yonder contributor is posed? Tis
a second bonus question, and our friend Kurt White, social worker
and psychotherapist and cohost of the podcast Unraveling is the
sun. Hans, tape, please.
Kurt White: Hello, Never Post. This is Kurt White, friend of
the show. For 10 points, what Gen Alpha defining trend took
the world by storm over the last several months?
Mike Rugnetta: This is a buzz in first sort of scenario. So who
are Buzz.
Jamie Loftus: Six seven.
Mike Rugnetta: Buzz. Okay. I think Akila got it.
Kurt White: If you said six seven, you're correct.
Jamie Loftus: It's the name of your team, Ryan. Get your head
in the game.
Akilah Hughes: Listeners, the look on Ryan's face is as
delicious as you would. Yeah.
Kurt White: Now this is fascinating to me because I
think it's an example of a kind of linguistic accidental
convergence. Because this number, six seven, was already
in the popular culture. In what popular expression for 10 more
points?
Jamie Loftus: Buzz, six foot seven foot Lil Wayne.
Mike Rugnetta: Incorrect.
Adam Bumas: Buzz?
Mike Rugnetta: Adam.
Adam Bumas: Six of one, half a dozen of the other.
Mike Rugnetta: Incorrect. Tom, Lily, do Was
Lily Alexandre: it just, like, six seven? Like, for the the
basketball player who would, like, score points and whatever?
I don't watch sports.
Jamie Loftus: This is
Akilah Hughes: the more advanced version of the 69 position. It's
just is
Ryan Broderick: is he is he referencing the song? Is that
what he's talking about?
Kurt White: If you said to be at sixes and sevens, you would be
right. For a 100 points, what fourteenth century dice game is
the origin of the phrase at sixes and sevens.
Akilah Hughes: 100 points.
Mike Rugnetta: For a 100 points, what's the fourteenth century
dice game at sixes and sevens?
Jamie Loftus: Buzz Schlooples.
Akilah Hughes: It's a
Mike Rugnetta: good guess, unfortunately. Incorrect.
Adam Bumas: Buzz backgammon?
Lily Alexandre: Incorrect. Buzz, old Yahtzee?
Akilah Hughes: They called it that at the time. That's true.
Yeah.
Jamie Loftus: No. Didn't even prove it.
Mike Rugnetta: Yeah. Great guess.
Kurt White: If you said hazard, you're correct. And probably
smarter than most people. No. Who is widely credited for
popularizing the phrase six and seven in Western European
culture?
Mike Rugnetta: Who is widely credited for popularizing the
phrase six and seven in Western European culture?
Jamie Loftus: Was Napoleon. Incorrect.
Lily Alexandre: No. He was really lying about his height.
Akilah Hughes: J Robert Oppenheimer. Incorrect.
Adam Bumas: It sounds like British currency, like 6
shillings or whatever.
Kurt White: If you said William Shakespeare, that's 10 more
points for
Lily Alexandre: you.
Akilah Hughes: Oh, fuck.
Kurt White: So I hope that you have a wonderful New Year, and
thank you for everything.
Mike Rugnetta: Aw, Kurt.
Georgia Hampton: I do have a scoring update, which is that
doghats are not in last place anymore. Six seven is in last
place with 14 points.
Lily Alexandre: Oh. Wow. Reversal.
Georgia Hampton: Doghats are in second place with 17 points.
Jamie Loftus: We're gonna hold on
Akilah Hughes: to it.
Georgia Hampton: Catching up to two nerds two furious with 22
points. So who knows what'll happen?
Mike Rugnetta: We'll find out in round three. See everybody soon.
And we're back. Okay. The last and final and also final round
of Never Post Post Mortem twenty twenty five.
In this round, we are concerned with your safety. 2025 was a
dangerous year with breaches, leaks, risks, and pitfalls
galore. The social network x in an effort to increase
transparency enabled a feature which revealed the primary
location out of which accounts operate, exposing many active
conservative accounts as being located in The Philippines,
Africa, Macedonia, and others. The Department of Homeland
Security was labeled as being based in Israel. The feature was
quickly turned off.
Though they have not made as much news this year, the Orca
attacks continue. Just over the last few months, Orcas have sunk
several yachts mostly off the coast of Portugal. It must be
rough for the super rich having to worry about your well-being
knowing that at any time random circumstances may have
irreversible effects on your life. Perhaps they should
attempt donating to the Orca's super packs. And finally, this
year mister beast announced that he will branch out to offer both
mobile phone and banking services.
The Gen Z Richard Branson has cultivated an image of business
savvy through his YouTube videos where for legal purposes, the
following phrase is satire. He tortures poor people who hope to
be compensated for their turmoil.
Jamie Loftus: Yes.
Mike Rugnetta: That is definitely a guy that I want
watching over my retirement account. In this round,
questions about staying safe in a world indifferent to your
suffering. Is everybody ready?
Jamie Loftus: Oh, yeah. Alright.
Mike Rugnetta: K. Question number one. In July, astronomer
CEO Andy Byron was caught on the Kiss Cam canoodling with the
company's HR chief Kristen Cabot at a Coldplay concert. See what
I did there? Millions of people watched the video.
Millions of high horses were mounted as was a formal
investigation within the company shortly after which Byron handed
in his resignation. Prior to the incident, Astronomer had
recently relocated its headquarters to New York and
raised a $100,000,000 in VC funding. Which celebrity did
Astronomer hire less than two weeks following the cold play
cock up as a temporary spokesperson to do damage
control.
Jamie Loftus: Akhilah, you leaned This is this
Jamie Loftus: is my bread and butter. Right? Excellent. This
is the kind of salacious shit I get into online. I love it.
Lily Alexandre: Trying to think about scammy celebrities, and
it's kind of easier to think of ones that aren't trying to rip
us off.
Mike Rugnetta: It's a real 2025 vibe. K. Question number two.
This year, we saw the biggest crypto heist in history.
$1,500,000,000 was stolen from the Dubai based exchange Bybit.
In order to pull off the heist, hackers needed to secure
approval from multiple high level Bybit employee accounts.
Researchers conclude that the thieves must have spent months
preparing, working both socially and programmatically. They have
yet to be caught, but security experts say these are techniques
often employed by hackers working for whom?
Akilah Hughes: It would be so awesome if
Jamie Loftus: we didn't come in last.
Jamie Loftus: I know.
Jamie Loftus: I didn't think this was gonna be possible.
Mike Rugnetta: Okay. Question number three. In March, Atlantic
editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg was mistakenly added to a signal
group chat by national security adviser Mike Waltz in which JD
Vance, Steven Miller, Pete Hegseth, and others were
strategizing about operation rough rider, a campaign of air
and sea strikes against Houthis in Yemen. In the chat, Hegseth
shared details about the strike. John Ratcliffe revealed the name
of an active undercover CIA operative, and JD Vance engages
in his most favorite pastime, complaining.
In the exchange, what is the massively ironic six word phrase
which Pete Hegseth posted and which in a just world would be
carved on his headstone?
Akilah Hughes: Six letter or six word?
Mike Rugnetta: Six word. Question number four. A popular
text message scam involves the scammer pretending to be a
famous person, interested for some reason in a relationship
with the fan and then asking for some reason for money. Though
they have been named Brad Pitt scams after a particularly
egregious case in France, another male star is reportedly
the most impersonated by far. So much so that this year, the
Hollywood reporter revealed that he spends thousands of dollars
of his own money per month paying a private service to
report scammers using his name to social platforms.
Who is that person?
Akilah Hughes: Oh, fuck.
Jamie Loftus: I know who this is.
Lily Alexandre: Tom, that's so random that it must be true.
Akilah Hughes: Yeah.
Jamie Loftus: Think you should put that full answer, JV.
Lily Alexandre: That's not someone I've thought about in
ten years. I think I think it's gotta be.
Mike Rugnetta: Okay. And final question of the round. On
October 19, thieves stole €88,000,000 worth of crown
jewels from the Louvre. Over the course of eight minutes, the
thieves used a furniture lift to gain access to a second story
balcony where they used a disc cutter to gain access through a
window and which they then used to threaten guards. Laurence
Dakar, the president and director of the Louvre said that
while the Louvre's Louvre's security system was operating as
expected, president the single camera in that gallery was not
facing the aforementioned window.
In the wake of the incident, a 2014 security audit has
resurfaced in which it is revealed that the Louvre's
surveillance system password was, and until this heist
remained, what? And players, this answer, like all passwords,
is case sensitive.
Jamie Loftus: Amazing. I'm almost a 100% certain, Demi.
Georgia Hampton: Oh my god. Incredible.
Mike Rugnetta: Okay. Scoring next. Alright, everybody. Let's
look at some answers for round three about safety and security.
Question number one.
Andy Byron was caught on cam canoodling with the HR person.
What temporary spokesperson was hired to do damage control for
astronomer? The doghats.
Jamie Loftus: Akila knew this immediately.
Jamie Loftus: I'm 99% certain it was Gwyneth Paltrow. You are a
100%
Mike Rugnetta: correct.
Jamie Loftus: Yeah. Yeah. What?
Jamie Loftus: It was like, we gotta hire Coldplay's ex wife.
Yeah. Oh my god. Relationship expert.
Mike Rugnetta: Six seven nights at Freddy's.
Ryan Broderick: We had the same thing. Nice. That's not true.
Mike Rugnetta: Two nerds too furious.
Lily Alexandre: I'm pissed off because, like, the true answer
is almost funnier, but Chris Martin himself.
Georgia Hampton: He is
Jamie Loftus: the one.
Mike Rugnetta: You were close.
Akilah Hughes: Hey, guys. A little adultery is fine every
once in a while. I used to rule.
Mike Rugnetta: Alright. Question number two. The hackers who
stole $1,500,000,000 worth of crypto from a Dubai based
exchange Bybit have not been caught, but security experts say
they very likely work for who? Six Seven Nights at Freddy's.
Ryan Broderick: We guessed on this one, but gonna go with
North Korea.
Mike Rugnetta: That guess pays off because it's right. They
love pig butchering skills. That's that's how
Ryan Broderick: we came up
Jamie Loftus: with them.
Mike Rugnetta: Two nerds too furious.
Akilah Hughes: We said lime wire. Getting their foot in the
door.
Lily Alexandre: Making big moves.
Mike Rugnetta: Close. Close. The dog huts.
Jamie Loftus: We said the government or even Russia. The
government. The government.
Akilah Hughes: To be fair
Mike Rugnetta: I think North Korea is an example of the
government.
Georgia Hampton: Listen. I'll give you a point for duh.
Question
Mike Rugnetta: number three, what is the massively ironic six
word phrase that Pete Hegseth posted in that signal chat? Two
nerds too furious.
Lily Alexandre: More like, yeet, Hesketh. I'm out. And then be
like, incredible.
Mike Rugnetta: Dog hots?
Jamie Loftus: It'd be crazy if this leak. And
Akilah Hughes: then the, like, wacky tongue out emoji, like
Mike Rugnetta: six seven nights at Freddy's.
Adam Bumas: We are clean on op sec. Wow.
Mike Rugnetta: The the actual phrase is we are currently clean
on op sec as one word, but I think that this is close enough.
Georgia Hampton: Okay. Yeah. Right? I think that's fine. I
think that's fine.
Mike Rugnetta: Alright. Question number four, who is the most
impersonated celebrity online by far so much so he spends his own
money to try to do something about it? Two nerds too furious.
Akilah Hughes: I had a hunch just because I think this is the
one I saw first when I first saw this. So my guess
Mike Rugnetta: is Orlando Bloom. That's a really good guess, but
it's not right. Okay. Dog Hots?
Jamie Loftus: This is a guess based on, like, celebrity that's
online but not good at it. So we're we're we're throwing
Jeremy Renner's name back into the conversation.
Adam Bumas: After the year he's had,
Jamie Loftus: I can't be him.
Ryan Broderick: Did you see that somebody called his performance
in Wake Up Deadman the first ever post humus acting
performance?
Akilah Hughes: My god. That's no sense.
Mike Rugnetta: Yeah. Six Seven Nights at Freddy's.
Ryan Broderick: We guessed George Clooney.
Mike Rugnetta: Also a good guess. The actual answer is
Keanu Reeves.
Akilah Hughes: Oh, sure.
Mike Rugnetta: Oh, I see it. Most impersonated by far.
Ryan Broderick: Yeah. Right.
Mike Rugnetta: And finally, what was the Louvre's surveillance
system password? DogHots.
Jamie Loftus: I believe that this is right. I think it was
just Louvre.
Georgia Hampton: How case sensitive are we being?
Mike Rugnetta: We are being extremely case sensitive.
Georgia Hampton: And that is incorrect.
Jamie Loftus: It had a capital.
Georgia Hampton: It's L. I'm sorry. I'm
Jamie Loftus: sorry. It's alright.
Mike Rugnetta: It's alright. It's six seven nights at
Freddy's. We could have
Akilah Hughes: had it all.
Ryan Broderick: Yeah. We lost this one too.
Adam Bumas: We made we made the same mistake. I
Akilah Hughes: can't believe we're the only ones that got it.
Wow.
Lily Alexandre: It's lonely at the top.
Akilah Hughes: We're seeing baguette with a
Mike Rugnetta: three. God.
Georgia Hampton: We do have to be strict with this one, but
that would have had my point in a perfect world.
Akilah Hughes: But we should be strict.
Mike Rugnetta: No takers on this one. Alright.
Georgia Hampton: Alright. I've gathered the points. In last
place is six seven.
Akilah Hughes: Oh my god.
Georgia Hampton: With 17 points.
Adam Bumas: Wow. Shameful.
Georgia Hampton: In second place is the doghouse
Jamie Loftus: Oh my god.
Georgia Hampton: With 19 points.
Jamie Loftus: Well, take it. Respectable.
Georgia Hampton: Which means that in first place is two nerds
too furious with 22 points.
Akilah Hughes: Yay. Woo hoo.
Adam Bumas: Lelishen Intombzable.
Akilah Hughes: Thank you.
Lily Alexandre: Someone says the full name.
Georgia Hampton: I wasn't brave enough to try.
Mike Rugnetta: Folks, that's very exciting, But we do have
one final question to go. That's right. Oh, boy. For the final
course, our third bonus question, this time from Annie
Ruwerda, creator and denizen of the depths of Wikipedia. Annie
was kind enough to send us her question from the airport.
Just like Kurt's bonus questions, the first person to
answer wins it. Hans, give us that tape.
Annie Rauwerda: In 2011, a nine year old named Milo Kress
launched a viral campaign to ban plastic straws. He apparently
conducted a phone survey of straw manufacturers that led him
to declare that Americans used 500,000,000 plastic straws every
single day. The figure has been widely disputed. Anyway, Milo
Kress is a college graduate now and in 2025, he got a job at
which leading AI company best known for developing Claude?
Ryan Broderick: Anthropic. Correct. Look
Jamie Loftus: at him. You guys won.
Annie Rauwerda: Wow. Aren't you glad AI safety is in the hands
of someone with a proven history of pragmatism? The answer for
500,000,000 points is Anthropic. And remember, if you're gonna
consume AI slop, you better suck it through a soggy cardboard
straw.
Ryan Broderick: Wow. I think you just won 500,000,000
Akilah Hughes: points. 500,000,000.
Jamie Loftus: I have to give
Georgia Hampton: it to six seven. So as it stands
Lily Alexandre: This game rules.
Georgia Hampton: With 500,000,017 points, our winners
are six seven nights at Freddy's unless
Akilah Hughes: Oh, wow.
Georgia Hampton: You don't agree with a point system that offers
such an exorbitant, unbelievable amount of points.
Akilah Hughes: That's
Mike Rugnetta: the year we have for you. That is 2025, Mordid
Postly. Congrats to our winners, and thank you to our guests,
Jamie Loftus. Akila Hughes.
Jamie Loftus: Yes. Tom Love.
Mike Rugnetta: Natalie Alexander. Ryan Brunner. And
Adam Humes. We're gonna put links to all the places that
everybody can find all of your work in the show notes. Thank
you to Annie Ruwerda from Depths of Wikipedia, Kurt White of the
podcast Unraveling, and Morgan Sung of the podcast Close All
Tabs.
Happy New Year, everybody, and we'll see you in 2026.
Akilah Hughes: Bye bye. Bye.