EP. S2E55 — The Great Pee Conspiracy w/ Anna Drezen

Anna Drezen [00:00:06] I’m a Bluey adult. Have you watched Bluey at all?

Ashley Ray [00:00:09] I have watched Bluey because a lot of people with children have been like, “No, I’m telling you, it is good stuff.”

Anna Drezen [00:00:17] I know a lot of people with children who are like, “I can’t get my kid to watch Bluey.” But all of my friends who don’t have kids are like, “It’s so good.”, We’re, like, all reparenting ourselves through–

Ashley Ray [00:00:25] Yeah. I feel like I’m feeding my inner child in a way that’s like, “Oh my gosh. Right.” What’s up, TV Club? Welcome to TV, I Say–your go-to podcast for when you’ve hit rock bottom on every streaming platform. I’m Ashley Ray. And as you just heard today, I’m chatting with comedian Anna Drezen. Anna’s written on TV shows that I can’t mention because we support the strike here. But you know this resume, okay? Anna Drezen–you’ve seen her name in the credits of things you love for things on NBC. Is that ringing a bell? Maybe some Peacock shows you love, some Netflix shows you love. Doesn’t matter because she’s so incredibly talented. Also, an incredibly talented stand-up comedian who I’ve been blessed to work with here in LA. But today we are talking about Anna’s new animated comedy series, Praise Petey, which is so funny. It is the weirdest little comedy show about a cult. It’s one of my favorite new animated shows that has come out. Strong female P.O.V. You’re going to want to hear us talk about it. There’s an amazing actor who plays a human dog. You want to know what actor it is. Plus, we get into My Strange Addiction and the couple that drinks their own urine. We get into that a lot because they don’t just snort the urine, they use urine eye drops. We had to talk about it. We had to get into it. So, you’re going to want to listen to this episode. It’s a lot of fun. I love Anna. She’s absolutely hilarious. So, if you also need to process My Strange Addiction, we’re here for you. And of course, we talk about some of the animated shows we love–BoJack Horseman, South Park–that, you know, inspired us both as animated writers to do the work we do today. But before we dive in, my producers have served me up a Hot TV Take. You know, I love doing this. Now we’re doing these Hot TV Takes. I don’t want to share my watchlist with you because I don’t want to promote you to watch anything right now that’s not a reality show because, again, I support the strike. So instead, we’re going to be doing these Hot TV Takes that they’ve promised will make my blood boil. So, let’s see what we’ve got today. Today’s Hot TV Take comes from OstietheGnome on Twitter. In response to someone highlighting the fact that reality TV stars are also underpaid and exploited like regular actors, OstietheGnome replied, “‘Reality TV,’” in quotes, as though it’s not real… “‘Reality TV’ is literally the lowest common denominator programing, absolute garbage, trashy nonsense.” Obviously, this is going to make my blood boil because this is the house that TLC built in so many ways. My 90 Day Fiancé reviews got so many people interested in my writing. So many people still come up to me and say, “Your guide to the 90 Day Fiancé Universe is one of the most important pieces of television writing I’ve ever read, and it just helped, like, lay the whole show out for me and why I like it.” I think that people love to look down on reality TV because they look at some of the more popular shows that are kind of the default. You know, people look at the Kardashians, American Idol–the shows that defined the genre forever ago–and they think it’s still that way. They think it’s still people who are famous for no reason. You know, they don’t understand that at this point, reality shows have gotten so much deeper. You know, now reality shows are like, “Hey, let’s take these two people, put them on the ultimatum, see if they actually want to get married by having them date other people.” It’s actually more, I guess, just a lot of psychological trauma that’s being inflicted on reality TV stars who make this stuff. So, whether or not you think it is trashy programming or the lowest common denominator, you can’t deny the fact that we are watching it. People are watching it. They are entertained by it. We are talking about it. It’s in the zeitgeist. And because of that, these people should get paid fairly. Whether you think it’s bad programming or trashy nonsense–which, you know, sure, maybe for you watching a couple drink their own pee is trashy nonsense. For me, it is art. It is on the level of–probably–how they must have felt watching Shakespeare for the first time at the Globe Theater. That’s how I felt watching that couple drink their own pee. So, thank you, OstietheGnome, for your Twitter hot take. It definitely got me upset. This is what we’re looking for here, okay? I want the Hot TV Takes. Make me angry. I want to yell about it. So, if you have a Hot TV Take that you want me to respond to, tweet it to me @theashleyray. Use #tvclubhottake. Or you can even leave me a voicemail if you need to yell at me about your TV opinions. If you’re like, “I need to yell into a phone what I think about the newest episode of Hoarders,” well, speakpipe.com/tvisay. But don’t get upset if I call out your awful opinion, okay? That’s what we’re doing this for. You want the Ashley Ray Hot TV Take; that’s what I’m going to give you. Okay, that’s all the housekeeping I got. Enjoy my chat with Anna Drezen. So, you know this person is so funny, so amazing, so talented. And they have a new show that just premiered on Freeform Hulu that I’m obsessed with called Praise Petey. Anna Drezen, welcome to TV Club.

Anna Drezen [00:06:07] Thank you, Ashley.

Ashley Ray [00:06:09] Please… Can you tell us about Praise Petey because every time I try to describe it to someone, I don’t know how to…? I’m just like, “So it’s a cult. But, like, also imagine, The Devil Wears Prada… but with a cult.”

Anna Drezen [00:06:26] Yeah, it’s inspired by shows–like Hart of Dixie on CW–about, like, a girlie in high heels who walks directly through a mud patch. And, like, that is the plot of the show.

Ashley Ray [00:06:36] Yes.

Anna Drezen [00:06:38] Yeah. I also… The only things that amuse me are things that are too hard to describe, which I do think is a problem for my long-term financial abilities.

Ashley Ray [00:06:48] Yeah, I think the studio executives are always like, “We love things that are hard to explain and understand.”

Anna Drezen [00:06:53] It’s brand new. It’s not IP. It is animated. It’s from a female P.O.V. But, like, I guess just watch a couple episodes and you’ll get into it, as they, like, put me into debtor’s prison. Yeah, it’s a fish out of water romcom about a girl who inherits her dad’s cult.

Ashley Ray [00:07:07] Exactly. There you go. Well, see, you just did it so quickly and perfectly right there.

Anna Drezen [00:07:12] It’s tried… “It’s tried hard” is what I was going to say. I’m talking about my brain. It has tried very hard.

Ashley Ray [00:07:16] “It’s tried very hard to write.

Anna Drezen [00:07:20] I am nailing this.

Ashley Ray [00:07:22] It’s so funny. I feel like I haven’t seen anything like this on Freeform especially. But I am just so happy there’s an adult animated show that is this female P.O.V. that is so aware of just romcom tropes in a really funny way. There’s an amazing scene in the barn between, like, the main girl and her love interest, where just, like, everything is so sexualized. Like, the breeze is ripping their shirts off. And of course, it is John Cho who is voicing this sexy, sexy man.

Anna Drezen [00:07:53] He has brought a voice to the cartoon that makes the cartoon good.

Ashley Ray [00:07:58] It’s like his rule–his directive–was: “Be as sexy as you can, John Cho.” And he was like, “Using only my voice, I will be the sexiest that I can be.”

Anna Drezen [00:08:09] Amanda Lake–our art director–she understood the assignment of, like, “We want people to feel weird about cartoon. We want cartoon to feel like boyfriend.”

Ashley Ray [00:08:22] It does.

Anna Drezen [00:08:22] She would do a pass and be like, “I feel like… Can I just do another one?” And then his shirt would be unbuttoned a little further. Like, “Great.”

Ashley Ray [00:08:27] That does it.

Anna Drezen [00:08:28] We’re doing this for fanart and fanfiction only. That was our goal from the beginning.

Ashley Ray [00:08:33] I mean, I’m into it. You also have Annie Murphy who voices the lead, Petey.

Anna Drezen [00:08:38] She’s the best.

Ashley Ray [00:08:41] Just amazing. She’s just doing the exact same thing that I loved from Schitt’s Creek where just everything she says–I’m just like, “How do you make it so funny?” Everything she says I need to be a ringtone or something that I just hear like a catchphrase.

Anna Drezen [00:08:57] She’s truly so funny in a way that, like, I don’t think she would have to be because she’s also such a good actor. It’s pretty jarring.

Ashley Ray [00:09:04] Oh, I thought you were going to say “hot.”

Anna Drezen [00:09:06] Also hot. Yeah, I have to stop calling people hot, I think. The older and weirder looking I get, I’m like, “I just have to pretend I don’t have a body.”

Ashley Ray [00:09:20] That’s how I feel. I’m like, “I don’t want to exist. Don’t perceive me, okay?”

Anna Drezen [00:09:25] I want to be Siri.

Ashley Ray [00:09:26] Yeah, I just want to be the funny words. Don’t look at me.

Anna Drezen [00:09:31] She’s so funny and, like, would adlib really fun stuff and, like, have the craziest takes of stuff and, like, was just so patient. Like, recording over Zoom is really vulnerable. I did a couple of voice acting parts and other things and, like, the four second delay that can happen sometimes… I don’t know. She just was such a trooper. We really wanted someone who would be a capable comedian who also had a great appealing voice and, like, would commit super hard to the role. And she’s perfect.

Ashley Ray [00:10:05] Yeah. She’s so, so funny. And then she, like, has this adorable character who’s so sweet. And her mother is played or voiced by Christine Baranski in one of the meanest roles. She plays the most evil mom that is just so fun. And I love everything about every scene when she pops up.

Anna Drezen [00:10:28] She is pure candy. And she would say a line and then turn to the camera and be like, “Are you guys okay? Like, who raised you? This person is bad, huh?” We’re like, “Yeah. Do you want to do it, like, paced up a little bit?”

Ashley Ray [00:10:41] “Could you just say it a little meaner?”

Anna Drezen [00:10:42] Yeah, she’s, like, the sweetest. She’s so great. She came in. She could have done one take, and just everything was so funny. And she was like, “That’s it? Well, thanks for the car service.” And, like, swanned out. It was like, “This is Hollywood.”

Ashley Ray [00:10:58] Yeah, I mean you have some big Hollywood names here. You have her, Stephen Root… Oh my gosh. Who is the guy who plays the human Shih Tzu?

Anna Drezen [00:11:06] Alfred Molina. Doc Ock.

Ashley Ray [00:11:07] Yes. Alfred Molina. Yes.

Anna Drezen [00:11:09] He was in Frida.

Ashley Ray [00:11:10] Yeah.

Anna Drezen [00:11:11] And then he did the cartoon.

Ashley Ray [00:11:12] And now he’s the cartoon where he plays a human dog.

Anna Drezen [00:11:17] Life is so weird.

Ashley Ray [00:11:18] How did you get–? Did you picture the role for him? Were you like, “We gotta get Alfred”?

Anna Drezen [00:11:24] We were basing it on… Someone in my room flagged the speech in Downton Abbey, where it’s, like, one of the younger, more progressive family members is like, “We have to get rid of the staff. It’s terrible that we have staff.” And then, like, the orchestra kicks up and this butler turns to him and talks about why being a butler is a noble profession and, like, “Allow me to serve you.” And so, I think we were picturing British because of that. And yeah, John Levenstein, who’s Co-EP on my show was like, “I’ll reach out to Alfred Molina. I feel like he’d be good.” I was like, “Excuse me?”

Ashley Ray [00:12:00] “I just have Alfred Molina on speed dial. I’ll hit him up.”

Anna Drezen [00:12:03] “What is going on? You have his AOL email? My God, this is Hollywood.”

Ashley Ray [00:12:08] You know it’s Hollywood when they still have the AOL email.

Anna Drezen [00:12:10] Oh my God. Power.

Ashley Ray [00:12:11] That’s power. You don’t have to get with the times.

Anna Drezen [00:12:14] I’m a Gmail coward, so I’ll do what it takes.

Ashley Ray [00:12:16] Same. Where the people are–that’s where I am. I’m not standing firm in my Yahoo! email address.

Anna Drezen [00:12:21] No, certainly not.

Ashley Ray [00:12:23] So people may be wondering why we can talk about this show even though there’s all these strikes happening.

Anna Drezen [00:12:29] Yeah.

Ashley Ray [00:12:30] So do you want to explain that?

Anna Drezen [00:12:33] Oh my God. My nightmares. Yeah. Like, I initially was like, “Well, I don’t want to talk about it.” And then the Guild clarified that you can do it as long as it’s not at the request of the studios because that’s essentially walking on struck ground. They clarified with the social media aspect that it’s like you can promote your own projects just as long as you’re not… Essentially, it’s a work stoppage, so you’re not working because the studio says, “Go over there.” I really fear being a rule breaker, and I fear being in trouble and having people not like me. But I also fear having to, like, do a Season One of a show again more.

Ashley Ray [00:13:19] We got to get people to watch it.

Anna Drezen [00:13:24] That’s the thing. I was like, “All I want to do is just stay in Burbank and, like, poke at my garden.” But, like, this show is not IP, it’s from a female P.O.V., and, like, it’s on Freeform

Ashley Ray [00:13:42] That Freeform thing does make it very confusing. It’s kind of like that FX thing where people are like, “Wait, it’s a channel but it’s Hulu?”

Anna Drezen [00:13:49] It’s got the green “H,” but it’s TV.

Ashley Ray [00:13:52] But it’s Freeform.

Anna Drezen [00:13:53] And, like, for me this show was such a testament to what you get when you hire union talent and treat people well and pay them fairly. Don’t get me wrong, everyone still worked themselves sick but it’s important to me that this show gets to meet the audience.

Ashley Ray [00:14:13] Yeah, and from the SAG side, people can still do voice animation and talk about those things. So, I think this is a moment for adult animated comedies because we can talk about them.

Anna Drezen [00:14:25] Yeah. Yeah. And if anyone does hate me, then please find me on Gmail, and just send it right to me.

Ashley Ray [00:14:34] Yeah, just talk to us.

Anna Drezen [00:14:35] Print it out, and just lay on it.

Ashley Ray [00:14:36] You know, it’s A-OK. But, you know, I started in adult animated comedies, and a lot of people don’t realize that a lot of those shows are in TAG, which is the Animation Guild. They’re not covered by WGA. So that’s another reason you might see a lot of animated shows still working, still going forward, and coming out. It’s just a whole little, complicated, fun universe unto itself–adult animated shows.

Anna Drezen [00:15:03] Yeah. And it’s crazy. Like, a lot of the board artists and designers are used to going months and months without work, but it shouldn’t be that way. They’ve had such a crazy roller coaster between, during COVID, every studio’s doing animation and then suddenly cutting everything and firing everyone and then coming back.

Ashley Ray [00:15:20] Fully removing animated shows. That’s been the worst of just them saying, “Let’s just disappear stuff like Close Enough.”

Anna Drezen [00:15:29] It’s crazy. So, yeah, when their contract comes up, we’ll be joining them as well.

Ashley Ray [00:15:34] Yes, absolutely.

Anna Drezen [00:15:35] We love to hold a sign.

Ashley Ray [00:15:37] Yeah. So, what did it mean to you to make an adult animated show? Was this kind of always the medium you envisioned for this show?

Anna Drezen [00:15:44] I initially had written this for live action and then Greg Daniels–the script came across his desk. And we briefly met up–it was super sweet–and, like, noted that if it were live action, maybe the plank of wood boyfriend is tough for audiences to, like, wrap their heads around. You know, just for, like, something that’s supposed to be they care about the characters. If it’s a thing, maybe they won’t. And then him and Mike Judge started Bandera shortly after that, which is an animation studio or a production company. And they were like, “Oh no, actually this would be good animated. Don’t ground it. We’ll just do that.” But it’s so cool. I love learning complicated processes that I don’t understand. So, it was perfect to go into animation and just, like, be on their turf and learn how to do it. But I also think, like, the sketch comedy energy is very similar to animation where timing is just so much of it and it’s a group of people working so collaboratively to make a joke work.

Ashley Ray [00:16:49] Yeah. And I also feel like it’s… What I love about animation is, like, you have to think of the jokes in 4D kind of. Like, you’re thinking of what are funny sounds we can make? What are funny gags we can put in the background of this animated scene? Which you don’t often have to do with live action. So yeah, I just think it’s the best. I love doing adult animation.

Anna Drezen [00:17:11] It’s so cool. Yeah, like, that you can change when their eyeballs shift to, like, land the joke better. It’s like,” Oh my God, I’m going to be a nightmare when I go back to live action.”

Ashley Ray [00:17:20] Yeah. You know, just poking at actors like, “Do it different.”

Anna Drezen [00:17:24] “Can we change their face?”

Ashley Ray [00:17:26] “Can you get me an eraser? Just get it out of here.”

Anna Drezen [00:17:28] “Just fix it.”

Ashley Ray [00:17:29] So, growing up, did you have, like, favorite animated shows? Were there shows that you watched to kind of inspire you while you were working on Praise Petey?

Anna Drezen [00:17:37] I really love Hey Arnold! I don’t know if you’re into that at all.

Ashley Ray [00:17:41] Absolutely I’m into Hey Arnold!

Anna Drezen [00:17:45] It is so good and funny and loving. And, like, the design of the characters is so sweet and…

Ashley Ray [00:17:52] Yeah, and those episodes hold up.

Anna Drezen [00:17:54] They really do.

Ashley Ray [00:17:55] They are still good today.

Anna Drezen [00:17:56] I went back and watched it and was like, “Oh, I actually think I have to stop watching this because I’m beating myself up about how good they are.”

Ashley Ray [00:18:02] I truly was like, “Oh, this is truly timeless television that’s so smart.” I was watching the one where he frees the turtle with his grandma.

Anna Drezen [00:18:12] Oh, God. His activist grandma?

Ashley Ray [00:18:14] Yeah, his activist grandma. And it’s like everyone is abusing this turtle and spray painting him, and they, like, free him into the ocean. And the turtle, like, looks back. And I was like, “I can’t be crying over this.”

Anna Drezen [00:18:24] I have to lay down for the rest of the day because of a cartoon.

Ashley Ray [00:18:27] Yeah, because of Nickelodeon? I can’t.

Anna Drezen [00:18:30] It’s too much.

Ashley Ray [00:18:31] Is too much.

Anna Drezen [00:18:32] Similar to lying down because of a cartoon, I’m a Bluey adult. Have you watched Bluey at all?

Ashley Ray [00:18:38] I have watched Bluey because a lot of people with children have been like, “No, I’m telling you, it is good stuff.”

Anna Drezen [00:18:46] I know a lot of people with children who are like, “I can’t get my kid to watch Bluey.” But all of my friends who don’t have kids are like, “It’s so good.” We’re, like, all reparenting ourselves.

Ashley Ray [00:18:54] Yeah. I feel like I’m feeding my inner child in a way that’s like, “Oh my gosh. Right.” It’s just opening things to the universe to me that I’m like, “Yeah, why am I making it so complicated?”

Anna Drezen [00:19:06] It’s just 7 minutes of dogs having, like, really emotionally intelligent conversations. And the jokes are so funny.

Ashley Ray [00:19:13] It’s a funny show. People overlook how funny kids animation can be.

Anna Drezen [00:19:19] Yeah. When the little sister says, “Of course, I’m sure. I’m suring my little head off.” I can’t stop thinking about that.

Ashley Ray [00:19:25] That’s brilliant writing.

Anna Drezen [00:19:27] It’s really good. Thank you, Australia. It was really funny, I just saw [CENSORED] in theaters, and they had the same, like, Australian government title card before it that is at the end of every Bluey episode. I was like, “Oh God!” It’s so jarring.

Ashley Ray [00:19:43] Yeah, these shouldn’t be related to each other. The same agencies just kind of giving the okay on both of these.

Anna Drezen [00:19:48] I know. I had a Pavlovian response of, like, “Now I will watch a family of Blue Heelers play Freeze Dance or whatever. ” But I also love South Park. My brother and I would love cartoons so much that our parents would ban them because we would be shoving each other.

Ashley Ray [00:20:05] I mean, South Park’s going to teach you some naughty behavior.

Anna Drezen [00:20:08] It was incredible. It was Bush’s first term. The cartoons were foul.

Ashley Ray [00:20:13] Yeah. You’re taking me back. You’re taking me back.

Anna Drezen [00:20:15] Oh my God.

Ashley Ray [00:20:15] Yelling at my Republican history teacher in eighth grade.

Anna Drezen [00:20:23] Say more.

Ashley Ray [00:20:23] I would just be like, you know, “Bush sucks. It should have been Gore.” I was a big Ani DiFranco fan, and she had a lot of spoken word songs that were just like, “Capitalism is the Devil’s wet dream!” One time in a study hall he was teaching, I just went up to him, put the headphone in his ear–the little EarPod for my iPod shuffle–and I was like, “You need to hear this. This is going to blow your mind.” And I made him listen to a nine-minute Ani DiFranco poem. And he just sat there and did. And then at the end, he just put it down and was like. “Yeah. Okay. Yeah. No, I didn’t like that.”

Anna Drezen [00:21:01] It, like, actually is the meanest thing he could have done to actually listen to all of it. It would have been nicer for him to be like, “No.”

Ashley Ray [00:21:08] Yeah, it would have been better to be like, “That’s inappropriate. I don’t wanna listen to– No, you’re a kid. I’m not going to.” But he sat there and listened to the whole thing.

Anna Drezen [00:21:14] That’s the most devastating thing he could have done to you.

Ashley Ray [00:21:23] I just had my brother in town. He’s 21. And he put on South Park–new episodes. And I was just shocked. Like, I didn’t know that the show still worked for that demo. Like, they are still into it.

Anna Drezen [00:21:37] The teens like it?

Ashley Ray [00:21:37] The teens still like it. They’re still just like, “It’s the only show that’s willing to really take it all on and, like, handle both sides.” And I’m just like, “Oh, okay because I thought that when I was in seventh grade, so…”

Anna Drezen [00:21:49] They’re staying fresh. The teens are picking up what they’re putting down.

Ashley Ray [00:21:52] Yeah, they have the rizz.

Anna Drezen [00:21:57] I just learned what rizz is. I felt so embarrassing to be the only 30-year-old at Bob’s Big Boy who didn’t know what it meant.

Ashley Ray [00:22:02] You didn’t know what rizz was?

Anna Drezen [00:22:04] I didn’t know what it was until, like, two weeks ago.

Ashley Ray [00:22:06] Wow. I had to explain it to everyone at my college reunion, which was very embarrassing. I was like, “It’s rizz. It’s kind of like steez. It’s, like, your energy–your vibe.” And someone was like. “Ashley, you used to study Kierkegaard.”

Anna Drezen [00:22:22] “Yeah, I made myself dumber.”

Ashley Ray [00:22:24] I was like, “Yeah. And now I write poop jokes, and I don’t. I’m happier.”

Anna Drezen [00:22:29] “I fought it off.”

Ashley Ray [00:22:30] “This is freedom now.”

Anna Drezen [00:22:32] “I also listen to people scatting about George Bush. Like, people change.”

Ashley Ray [00:22:37] People change.

Anna Drezen [00:22:38] Oh my God. Yeah, we had a couple people on my show who had worked on South Park. And it was super exciting. Like, we did the tease. We did a sizzle reel two years ago as proof of concept for the network. And our director for that was this guy, Jack Shih, who was the voice of I Ike Broflovski until very recently. And it was like, “Oh my God, it’s like.” It was so exciting.

Ashley Ray [00:23:00] That’s amazing. I stand by so many of those old South Park episodes. I rewatch them constantly.

Anna Drezen [00:23:05] I just think they’re funny.

Ashley Ray [00:23:07] They’re funny. I don’t know about today. I couldn’t tell you what’s happening in the new season or what the politics of South Park are now. Not my issue. Not my worry. But back in the day–my prime?

Anna Drezen [00:23:18] I’m very interested in art made by people who are so successful that they no longer relate to anything.

Ashley Ray [00:23:24] And they just get these episodes out in, like, five days and it’s all made in a computer and they’re just like, “Beep, boop. Okay, it’s a show.”

Anna Drezen [00:23:31] “Beep, boop.”

Ashley Ray [00:23:32] “Beep, boop.” That’s how they do it these days.

Anna Drezen [00:23:34] My understanding is “beep, boop.”

Ashley Ray [00:23:37] So what are your… Do you have, say, a top-five of adult animated shows? I once did a tweet about this. It caused a lot of controversy. People were very angry with my choices. So just know those are the consequences. That’s what’s at stake here. People may get mad at you.

Anna Drezen [00:23:57] I wake up in the morning and reach for, like, a red paint bucket with a paint brush and then try to paint a target on my own… Every day. I’m a born and bred victim, so, like, I’m going to say what I’m going to say. And, like, if people don’t like it, that’s what I want. I want to be heard.

Ashley Ray [00:24:15] “I wanted it.”

Anna Drezen [00:24:17] Yeah. I mean, obviously BoJack Horseman is super inspirational. Pete Merryman–who was our supervising director–was a director on that. But just so funny and, like, the joke pacing and the background jokes. Also loved Tuca & Bertie. Big Lisa Hanawalt fan.

Ashley Ray [00:24:37] Loved Tuca & Bertie. R.I.P.

Anna Drezen [00:24:39] It was too pure for this world.

Ashley Ray [00:24:41] It really was. People weren’t ready for an animated show with a female P.O.V.

Anna Drezen [00:24:46] They weren’t.

Ashley Ray [00:24:46] They weren’t. And it was getting so good with, like, the chef baking plotline and her finally stepping into her power. And then they ripped it away from us.

Anna Drezen [00:24:56] They did. I really love… I think it’s the pilot where she talks about the yellow square of the window when she comes home at night and knows that Speckle is in there.  I don’t know. That show influenced how I see my own relationships.

Ashley Ray [00:25:09] Same. It was the show that made me go, “Oh, I can date and not be, like, a cold person who never lets my walls down.”

Anna Drezen [00:25:15] Oh yeah. I also love seeing TV visibility on, like, extreme female friendship where, like, the boyfriend is also over there. Like that is so real.

Ashley Ray [00:25:25] That’s how it is. That’s just some guy.

Anna Drezen [00:25:29] And, like, the performances are so good. And the design is amazing. A lot of butts

Ashley Ray [00:25:33] A lot of butts.

Anna Drezen [00:25:35] I have a Lisa Hanawalt print in my home that’s Dick Tit Birds, which is exactly what it sounds like.

Ashley Ray [00:25:40] Yeah.

Anna Drezen [00:25:42] I just started watching My Adventures with Superman. It’s a new show.

Ashley Ray [00:25:46] Oh, yeah. I saw this on Max.

Anna Drezen [00:25:48] Yeah, it’s beautiful. This anime studio did it. Jack Quaid voices Superman. He’s so good.

Ashley Ray [00:25:55] Oh, I love Jack Quaid!

Anna Drezen [00:25:55] I know. He’s having a real moment.

Ashley Ray [00:25:57] He’s having a moment.

Anna Drezen [00:25:58] He’s Chalameting.

Ashley Ray [00:26:00] We can’t say the things he has coming, but he’s having a moment.

Anna Drezen [00:26:03] You know what he does.

Ashley Ray [00:26:04] You know what he does. I love all those shows.

Anna Drezen [00:26:08] You have a central knowledge of what Jack Quaid does downloaded into our brains. I love rom coms so much, and I love that Superman is about a love triangle between two people.

Ashley Ray [00:26:24] Who.

Anna Drezen [00:26:25] “I like Superman but also Clark. And also, I’m flirting with Superman, but it’s, like…” There’s just something so fun about that.

Ashley Ray [00:26:31] I think some clips from this went viral on Twitter last week where people really got mad at Lois Lane. And they were like, “She’s the worst.” And then some people are like, “You’re all misogynists.”

Anna Drezen [00:26:40] That’s crazy. No, she’s, like, excited. I love a plucky female heroine who’s like, “Let’s go! I need the story!”

Ashley Ray [00:26:47] Yeah, and they were like, “She should just shut up and be thankful that, like, Superman wants to touch her.” And everyone’s like, “That’s not how a female character works. She’s a fully realized person.”

Anna Drezen [00:26:58] Lois Lane has been bossy and, like, invasive and weird.

Ashley Ray [00:27:01] Yeah, for as long as they’ve made Superman movies, so…

Anna Drezen [00:27:04] If she weren’t–if she were just like, “Yeah, I guess It’ll be fine–then she could just date Clark.

Ashley Ray [00:27:11] Yeah. I think if I did it, I would just have an affair with Superman.

Anna Drezen [00:27:18] That would be really hard for Clark, though, because then he’d know.

Ashley Ray [00:27:20] Well, yeah. But that’s just how it goes. If you’re going to keep a secret from me, I’m going to keep this secret from you. But deep down, like, what are you going to do?

Anna Drezen [00:27:31] I do want to be the first one to write a Superman smut movie that’s just Clark Kent is a cuck. There’s no tension. He’s just like, “Cool.”

Ashley Ray [00:27:43] “Yes, it’s totally fine. No, I’m totally… I’ll watch you guys even. ”

Anna Drezen [00:27:46] I’m actually Superman. Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that, but… Anyways.” I love that. I also really love Great North.

Ashley Ray [00:27:53] Oh, I love Great North.

Anna Drezen [00:27:55] It’s just so… I mean, Aparna Nancherla being on a network sitcom is my heaven.

Ashley Ray [00:28:01] They have so many amazing voice actors they brought in–so many just amazing young stand-ups who write on the show–Brian Bahe… I think Grace Thomas did a character on the show. They’re just so about bringing in young, fresh voices. And I think it’s a pretty nice… I don’t want to say “replacement” for Bob’s Burgers, but it fits in perfectly where Bob’s Burgers is, like, in its twentieth-something season. And you’re like, “Okay, I love watching this family. I could watch them do anything. But, like, Great North feels fresh.”

Anna Drezen [00:28:33] I have a thing where I like to watch a cartoon while I eat my meals– While I take my meals. I’m going to say, “I take my meals,” instead of “Eating.” That’s my goal for the year.

Ashley Ray [00:28:43] I also… When I take my breakfast, I have to watch cartoons.

Anna Drezen [00:28:48] It’s beaten into us.

Ashley Ray [00:28:49] Yeah.

Anna Drezen [00:28:50] And Bob’s Burgers is a little too gross to watch while eating. There are just gross things that happen. It’s like you can’t watch Hoarders while eating because they’re going to find, like, a pile of diapers or something.

Ashley Ray [00:28:59] Okay. I do often watch Hoarders when I eat.

Anna Drezen [00:29:03] It doesn’t gross you out?

Ashley Ray [00:29:05] It doesn’t. I think I’m just so hard into the show at this point. I did a whole episode Season One just about Hoarders and Hoarders: Buried Alive. There are two different shows. People often get them confused. But we did a really just in-depth look at both, and it’s one of my favorite shows. Like, I am obsessed with all the doctors. I follow them online.

Anna Drezen [00:29:26] Do you have a favorite one?

Ashley Ray [00:29:27] Dr. David Tolin.

Anna Drezen [00:29:29] Oh, is he sort of the one who looks like he works with the zoo animals?

Ashley Ray [00:29:32] He’s bald. I know who you’re talking about. That’s Dr. Jeff.

Anna Drezen [00:29:37] He looks like he goes on late night shows to be like, “Now, this is Beatrice.”

Ashley Ray [00:29:43] He’s often the one they send in to be, like, “Go clear all the cat carcasses.”

Anna Drezen [00:29:47] The amount of flat cat mummies.

Ashley Ray [00:29:50] Oh.

Anna Drezen [00:29:51] It’s just hard.

Ashley Ray [00:29:51] It’s hard. And there’s something about watching that and My Strange Addiction while I’m eating where I feel stronger if I can get through it. Last night, I got a wrap from Zankou, and then I watched the My Strange Addiction with a couple that is addicted to drinking their own pee.

Anna Drezen [00:30:09] Do they blur the pee?

Ashley Ray [00:30:10] No. And it was so… I got lightheaded and dizzy watching this because they don’t just drink it. They shower with it. They snort it. They snort the pee.

Anna Drezen [00:30:21] What do you mean they shower with it?

Ashley Ray [00:30:23] They stand out and they take the bucket and then they douse themselves with it. The guy just pees in, like, a bucket thing.

Anna Drezen [00:30:31] Are there holes poked in the bottom of the bucket or…?

Ashley Ray [00:30:34] No, they just dump.

Anna Drezen [00:30:35] so it’s, like, a quick pee shower?

Ashley Ray [00:30:38] Yeah, a quick pee shower. But this is, like, after getting out of a real shower. They finish it by covering themselves in pee.

Anna Drezen [00:30:43] Oh, they shouldn’t do that. And then… Sorry, so snorting pee?

Ashley Ray [00:30:46] Yeah. And so, then they also snort it. So, you know how you would say, like, “Use a Neti pot with salt water”?

Anna Drezen [00:30:51] No!

Ashley Ray [00:30:52] They’re doing it with urine.

Anna Drezen [00:30:54] I don’t think they are. I think they’re doing that for the show.

Ashley Ray [00:30:57] No, they did it right then and there. And then the guy’s parents were like, “He lives with us. He’s truly been doing this for four years, and it’s the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened in our lives.”

Anna Drezen [00:31:06] I think they should just let him do it.

Ashley Ray [00:31:08] They do.

Anna Drezen [00:31:09] Is the show, My Strange Addiction, about “We’re going to help you stop doing this”?

Ashley Ray [00:31:14] It’s really just like, “We’re going to highlight your addiction.” And then sometimes they take them to a doctor and have the doctor be like, “Hey, what you’re doing is really bad for you.”

Anna Drezen [00:31:23] And they’re like, “Uh-huh.”

Ashley Ray [00:31:24] Yeah. There was a girl in the first episode who ate toilet paper, which… Not good for you.

Anna Drezen [00:31:30] It’s not?

Ashley Ray [00:31:31] Yeah. No, there’s bleach. There are all kinds of chemicals in toilet paper that shouldn’t be in your body. She also liked to marinate it in laundry detergent, so she would, like, sit the toilet paper, like, in detergent and dryer sheets–so it would, like, get that flavor–and then eat it. And the doctor was like, “Yeah, this is going to kill you. You’re going to get cancer. Like, you already have blockages in your stomach. You need to stop if you want to have children.” And the lady was just like, “Oh yeah, no. I’m not going to do that. No, I’ll never give it up.”

Anna Drezen [00:32:01] Why would you need children when you have toilet paper?

Ashley Ray [00:32:03] Toilet paper and detergent. Yeah.

Anna Drezen [00:32:06] It doesn’t sound good. But it’s what she wants.

Ashley Ray [00:32:09] It’s what she wants. And she’s like, “It’s like a cotton candy.”

Anna Drezen [00:32:14] Texture-wise?

Ashley Ray [00:32:15] What she described–I could almost envision the roughness and, like, how that would be appealing. But I mean, yeah.

Anna Drezen [00:32:23] So she soaks the toilet paper with detergent and a dryer sheet? Or she eats the dryer sheet?

Ashley Ray [00:32:28] So she takes the plate. And it’s, like, the powder detergent.

Anna Drezen [00:32:31] Oh, okay.

Ashley Ray [00:32:32] Yeah. So, she puts that on the plate–sprinkles it–and then she puts the dryer sheet…

Anna Drezen [00:32:37] I gotta write this down. Sorry. One second.

Ashley Ray [00:32:38] You’re going to want to write this down. And then she takes the toilet paper and then she puts a dryer sheet on top of that and then a paper towel on top of all of it–lets it sit for two to three days–and then she eats it because the toilet paper will taste like the dryer sheets in detergent.

Anna Drezen [00:32:50] Does she shake off the detergent or–?

Ashley Ray [00:32:53] No.

Anna Drezen [00:32:53] Okay, so it’s like an avocado toast.

Ashley Ray [00:32:54] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Anna Drezen [00:32:56] I think people are amazing. Not to quote the whale, people are amazing.

Ashley Ray [00:33:00] People are amazing. I watch My Strange Addiction, and I’m just… The people couple–they’re a couple. Like, these people found each other, and they’re like, “Oh, wow, you do pee eyedrops? I love you.” He does pee eye drops. And she’s just sitting there like, “That’s my man.”

Anna Drezen [00:33:17] Wow.

Ashley Ray [00:33:17] And I am still single and trying to figure a life out.

Anna Drezen [00:33:20] Maybe that’s the key? Pee eye drops? Was it on Wife Swap where they did the coffee enemas–the couple that did that? This is reminding me of the coffee couple.

Ashley Ray [00:33:30] Yeah, I think it was.

Anna Drezen [00:33:32] Yeah. Good for them. It just showed them, like, laying down next to the bathtub. I’m like, “This is love.”

Ashley Ray [00:33:36] That really is love. And at one point she was like, “On our first date, we just knew right away because we didn’t even eat a meal. It was just so natural for us to drink urine. And that’s how I knew he was the one.”

Anna Drezen [00:33:48] Are they thin people?

Ashley Ray [00:33:50] They are. They’re very like, “We only, you know… Like, raw vegan.”

Anna Drezen [00:33:54] Oh, that’s worse.

Ashley Ray [00:33:56] Yeah.

Anna Drezen [00:33:57] Vegan pee?

Ashley Ray [00:33:57] Yeah, they’re raw vegan, and they also were like, “We don’t drink water.” Like, the guy said he hadn’t had water in five years, which is like, “Where’s the pee coming from?”

Anna Drezen [00:34:05] Where’s the pee coming from?

Ashley Ray [00:34:06] From the pee he’s drinking.

Anna Drezen [00:34:08] No, but I feel like we all learned this knowledge at the same time in 2011 that you can drink your pee seven times before you become toxic.

Ashley Ray [00:34:15] Yes.

Anna Drezen [00:34:16] Where did we learn that?

Ashley Ray [00:34:18] I don’t know.

Anna Drezen [00:34:19] It’s just in there.

Ashley Ray [00:34:19] Yeah. I think maybe it’s Barney.

Anna Drezen [00:34:22] Maybe they’re getting IVs. Maybe they pay that, like, nurse IV service.

Ashley Ray [00:34:26] I don’t know. He truly was just like, “I just keep drinking the pee.” And they do force him to go to a doctor. And the doctor is like, “Your creatinine is so high. Your kidneys could fail.” And he just goes, “I don’t believe you. You’re a Western doctor. You’re probably just making this up.”

Anna Drezen [00:34:39] I actually do need to leave this podcast right now to watch it.

Ashley Ray [00:34:43] Yeah.

Anna Drezen [00:34:43] My heart is racing. I’m so excited.

Ashley Ray [00:34:46] Yeah, I sat right there, eating that wrap while they were drinking the pee. And at one point they cook cucumbers in the pee and feed it to their family. He feeds the pee cucumbers to his mom and dad, and that’s when I was just…

Anna Drezen [00:34:59] Do they know what the cucumbers were?

Ashley Ray [00:35:00] They do. They know because they know what he does. And they’re like, “Did you wash the cucumbers?” And he’s like, “Yeah, I washed it with me.” And the dad goes for it. The dad is just happily munching away on these cucumbers. And the mom and sister are just like, “This is disgusting. Get it away from the table. We don’t want you here.” And at one point the son is like, “Does anyone want anything else to drink?” And the sister’s like, “Can I get another water?” And he just gets up, turns from the table, starts peeing in a mason glass, and just turns back around to drink it.

Anna Drezen [00:35:34] That’s awful.

Ashley Ray [00:35:36] Yeah.

Anna Drezen [00:35:36] Wait. I just heard what sounded like a kitten in the walls, and it was your mixer and producer just screaming.

Ashley Ray [00:35:41] Cackling.

Anna Drezen [00:35:46] I’m like, “Okay, and where does the pee go?”

Ashley Ray [00:36:10] I’m going to bring this up. I feel that there is a conspiracy in television right now to normalize pee-play.

Anna Drezen [00:36:17] Say more. What?

Ashley Ray [00:36:17] I feel there’s a conspiracy to make us all feel like this is normal. I don’t know if it’s because the rich people want us drinking our pee while they hoard the last of the water. But, like, between My Strange Addiction and going, “Hey, it’s normal to drink pee,” I was just reading this, like, hip kid’s Substack where someone was like, “Oh, I was at a party. And these two guys started making out, and then one of them got on his knee and just started drinking the guy’s pee.” And this was just, like, a popular reading thing. It wasn’t represented like a kink. And then in 90 Day Fiancé this past weekend, there’s this main couple that is describing just this disgusting sex. They’ve been dating for forever, but the guy has never come when they have sex. And this is the first time that he has orgasmed. And they’re talking about it. And the girl is like, “Yeah, we were in the jacuzzi in the room, and he asked me to pee on him.” And she goes into so much detail that it was the first time I had to turn off 90 Day Fiancé because I couldn’t believe someone was just openly talking about a golden shower.

Anna Drezen [00:37:33] That is shocking.

Ashley Ray [00:37:34] It’s shocking.

Anna Drezen [00:37:36] It’s kind of a sexless show.

Ashley Ray [00:37:38] Yeah! There’s, at most, kissing. But this was the first time someone was blatantly like, “Here is my kink. I’m going to talk about it and just act like it’s totally normal. And I think this is some sort of conspiracy to normalize it on a big global level.”

Anna Drezen [00:37:53] This is a water wars thing. The end of the [CENSORED], where it says that the guy is investing in water.

Ashley Ray [00:37:59] And it’s like they have all the water, and we’re sitting here going, “Oh, I saw a Real Housewife drink her pee. So, I guess it’s okay.”

Anna Drezen [00:38:10] I am the craziest one. I haven’t had a glass of water recently. And I think that that is, like, a plan to make people more pliable.

Ashley Ray [00:38:18] Yeah.

Anna Drezen [00:38:18] If they’re just drinking pee.

Ashley Ray [00:38:20] If they’re just drinking pee.

Anna Drezen [00:38:21] I’ve thought about it, and I don’t think I’m going to drink my pee. I just want to say that on your podcast. I don’t think it’s for me.

Ashley Ray [00:38:30] Yeah. Personally, I don’t think I will do it either. The guy in the My Strange Addiction episode was like, “Hey, if it’s for you, it’s for you. If not…” The story of how he started it was also pretty funny. He was, I guess, traveling. He had a panic attack. He was like, “My arms tensed up. My hands were shaking. I decided to call a friend and get advice on what I should do.” And the friend just started saying, “You got to drink your piss, man.” And he’s like, “My friend just kept repeating it. And I was like, ‘You’re joking with me.’ And the friend just kept going. ‘You got to drink your piss. You gotta drink your piss, man. You gotta drink your piss.’ And he just kept saying it until finally I did.”

Anna Drezen [00:39:07] No, that didn’t happen.

Ashley Ray [00:39:08] I think his friend was pranking him so hard.

Anna Drezen [00:39:12] It is. I guess that is a good, like, grounding exercise for when you’re having a panic.

Ashley Ray [00:39:17] Yeah. He was like, “The second the urine touched my tongue, my hand just, like, loosened up, and I was fine.” And it’s probably because your body was like, “What the fuck?”

Anna Drezen [00:39:26] Yeah, you’re grounding. “Five things I can hear. Four things I can smell. I’m drinking my pee. Two things I can touch.”

Ashley Ray [00:39:35] You can smell it.

Anna Drezen [00:39:38] You can. All five senses are working. Yeah.

Ashley Ray [00:39:40] They go into so much detail about the smell.

Anna Drezen [00:39:43] That is amazing. That does sound like a made-up story, and I know that because the first website I went to regularly was a [CENSORED] message board. And I did post a false story about how Whose Line Is It Anyway? literally saved my life–that I was in about to kill myself, then I heard the TV come on downstairs, I heard Greg Proop’s voice, and then I put down the knife and went down and watched it. It didn’t happen.

Ashley Ray [00:40:12] Yeah.

Anna Drezen [00:40:14] Three or four people responded, which was a lot. I fully just made up a story. I mean, I was very depressed and wanted to kill myself, and I loved Whose Line, but the story didn’t happen.

Ashley Ray [00:40:26] I mean, we make things up at that age. I used to run a live journal for the [CENSORED], like, sketch group.

Anna Drezen [00:40:32] Aw, baby.

Ashley Ray [00:40:35] I was obsessed with them, and I ran a little LiveJournal group, and I would just make up crazy things. I think one time I was like, “I saw Michael Ian Black in Chicago, and he was so nice. And he was going to kiss me, but then…” I’m fully, like, a 15-year-old just being like, “And we ran into each other at the Second City.” And I’m like, “No one can ever fact check this and see if he was in Chicago on this day in 2002.”

Anna Drezen [00:41:03] It was the early internet; it was beautiful. I read a lot of John Rzeznik from the Goo Goo Dolls fanfiction, which is a similar thing where it’s like… You’re just accusing him of crimes basically.

Ashley Ray [00:41:19] I used to write some fanfic about Blink-182.

Anna Drezen [00:41:24] Yeah. Now we’re in.

Ashley Ray [00:41:25] I used to dream about their tour bus breaking down in front of my house and they come into my place and they’re like, “We have to date this 14-year-old girl who lives here and bring her on the road with us. She is the key to our art.”

Anna Drezen [00:41:42] Oh my God. You wrote it?

Ashley Ray [00:41:45] Oh, yeah. I wrote it.

Anna Drezen [00:41:47] Do you have access to these–?

Ashley Ray [00:41:48] Oh, it’s in a diary. Like, I handwrote it. I would cut out pictures of them from magazines–glue them in this journal. There were photos, animated parts… It was a full handwritten diary that I filled up with mostly stories about Travis Barker. I was very into Travis.

Anna Drezen [00:42:06] Wondering who.

Ashley Ray [00:42:06] You had. Yeah, Travis was my guy.

Anna Drezen [00:42:08] I feel like “Travis, I’m Pregnant” would be a great name for a Travis Barker fanfiction.

Ashley Ray [00:42:12] It really would. Yeah, I should’ve thought of that one.

Anna Drezen [00:42:17] It’s not too late.

Ashley Ray [00:42:19] Yeah, I could get back into it.

Anna Drezen [00:42:21] I check fanfiction.net every day to see if there’s Praise Petey fanfiction.

Ashley Ray [00:42:25] Oh, is there anything yet?

Anna Drezen [00:42:27] No, it goes right from [CENSORED] to [CENSORED].

Ashley Ray [00:42:32] [CENSORED]?

Anna Drezen [00:42:32] It’s in alphabetical order.

Ashley Ray [00:42:33] Yeah. Yeah. I’m just shocked that people are doing [CENSORED]. I mean, I guess the show had some sexual tension.

Anna Drezen [00:42:44] Any show can be sexual tension.

Ashley Ray [00:42:46] That’s true. I mean, the last time I looked at fanfic, it was James Corden. I was working on the packet for his show, and for some reason I was like, “I think reading fanfic about him will help me.”

Anna Drezen [00:43:03] What did they make him do in the fanfic? Who is he kissing? Or no one?

Ashley Ray [00:43:06] It’s usually just, like, the person wants to kiss. It’s like, “I got on a plane, and they moved me to first class. And I look over and I happen to be sitting with James Corden.”

Anna Drezen [00:43:18] “His TV studio broke down in front of my house.”

Ashley Ray [00:43:21] And they’re just like, “And he was so nice to me. And he noticed I was cold. And he gives me my scarf.” And I think mostly the fantasy is that James Corden is nice.

Anna Drezen [00:43:30] This is all we want. We want an adult, nice man.

Ashley Ray [00:43:35] Yeah.

Anna Drezen [00:43:37] Oh my God. They’re so funny. There is [CENSORED] fanfiction. That is a huge stress relief. It’s very funny.

Ashley Ray [00:43:45] How do…? I feel like… Okay. I used to be a big [CENSORED] nerd in, like, middle school and high school. I would print out, like, Weekend Update scripts and perform them and force my friends to perform them.

Anna Drezen [00:43:56] Aww. Small baby.

Ashley Ray [00:43:58] And I feel like [CENSORED] nerds can get so personal, like, about the writers on the show. Did you ever enter the fanfic?

Anna Drezen [00:44:08] I don’t remember. I think I was so happy. They just… It’s, like… It’s what you’d think. They just make everyone kiss in different ways. It’s a lot of the elevator breaking down.

Ashley Ray [00:44:16] “The elevator breaks down and Pete Davidson has to kiss Ego.”

Anna Drezen [00:44:20] “Oh my God, I’m just trying to get to the bathrooms so I can drink my pee.” I think the people who write the fanfiction are the same people who don’t know that, like, Jon Stewart has writers.

Ashley Ray [00:44:34] They’re the people who think, “Oh my gosh. That [CENSORED] cast comes up with this on the spot every week.”

Anna Drezen [00:44:38] Yeah, it’s a lot of, like, the cast staying up late, being like, “I can’t think of a joke…” Like, “You should relax for a second.” I think it’s so funny.

Ashley Ray [00:44:47] I would imagine Colin Jost would be a popular choice.

Anna Drezen [00:44:51] Yeah, you’d be correct. I don’t know if he knows about it.

Ashley Ray [00:44:55] I hope he does. It’s so funny.

Anna Drezen [00:44:57] I was really into Lord of the Rings fanfiction. I printed out the fanfiction.net header and, like, glued it into my– We would have been friends.

Ashley Ray [00:45:06] We would have been friends.

Anna Drezen [00:45:08] Absolutely friends.

Ashley Ray [00:45:08] Absolutely.

Anna Drezen [00:45:10] Yeah, I don’t know that I could ever work with someone who’s been in it because of the truly depraved–

Ashley Ray [00:45:16] Yeah. I mean, like I said, I was in a… I ran a group for [CENSORED] on LiveJournal. And eventually [CENSORED] came out. And we did have [CENSORED] fanfic because, of course, it’s so hot and sexy. And…

Anna Drezen [00:45:33] The shirt comes off.

Ashley Ray [00:45:33] Yeah.

Anna Drezen [00:45:35] Wait, the shirt coming off, and smelling the shirt?

Ashley Ray [00:45:37] Yeah. I mean, come on. Michael Showalter–so young and sexy. Paul Rudd. I wrote so much about it. I was so into it. And then I met Michael Showalter, and I felt so weird. I mean, this is, like, a decade later, and I still was just like, “I wrote the weirdest thing about being at summer camp and kissing you.”

Anna Drezen [00:46:00] Did you think that or say it?

Ashley Ray [00:46:02] I said it.

Anna Drezen [00:46:02] How did that go?

Ashley Ray [00:46:05] He was just kind of like, “Wait, what is fanfiction, exactly?” And I realized I had to explain a whole concept. And this was, like, at a For Your Consideration event, so we did not have a lot of time. And so, I’m sure he’s like, “There’s a weird girl out there who said she used to dream about, like, kissing me or something in stories.”

Anna Drezen [00:46:21] The amount of weird kissing happening online to people who don’t know what the genre is at all.

Ashley Ray [00:46:25] Don’t know. And again, I was, like, 15 writing these. I didn’t know what sex really was–what, like, romance was.

Anna Drezen [00:46:34] Yeah, no, it’s just a safe way to make things kiss. Making your dolls kiss.

Ashley Ray [00:46:40] And mine was all just really nerdy. Lord of the Rings is cool in comparison.

Anna Drezen [00:46:46] That is true. I’m not going to argue with you.

Ashley Ray [00:46:49] That’s a lot cooler than members of [CENSORED]. I was writing a fanfiction about Michael Ian Black.

Anna Drezen [00:46:56] I do think that would be ripe for a crossover fic of, like, a member of [CENSORED] falling into Middle Earth and then having to think of a joke again at night and then needing to relax.

Ashley Ray [00:47:08] Yeah. And then slowly they sleep with an elf?

Anna Drezen [00:47:12] “I have to get back to my world.” It’s like, “Well, we need to rest for the night.”

Ashley Ray [00:47:15] “Yeah, we need to rest for the night. You may as well get comfortable and learn about our ways.” Oh my God. This is amazing. I don’t know how we got really into urine and fanfiction.

Anna Drezen [00:47:27] I don’t care.

Ashley Ray [00:47:28] Yeah, because I truly did want to break down that My Strange Addiction episode.

Anna Drezen [00:47:33] You got it out. You needed to get it.

Ashley Ray [00:47:35] It made me physically dizzy.

Anna Drezen [00:47:38] I’m going to, like, speed home.

Ashley Ray [00:47:40] Yeah. Please watch it because they do so many things with urine that I didn’t know were possible.

Anna Drezen [00:47:48] I can’t wait to find out.

Ashley Ray [00:47:50] Yeah. Yeah. So, we’re coming up on the end here.

Anna Drezen [00:47:54] I need to go home. I need to go home.

Ashley Ray [00:47:57] You need to get home, okay? We need to get into the urine shows. I am really curious about some of your thoughts on modern adult animated shows. We have, like, a King of the Hill reboot that’s coming. Big Mouth just ended. Human Resources. And then we have all of these networks that are just taking animated shows off the air, like Close Enough. Max just seems to have ordered a bunch of shows, and then they were like, “Cancel it.” How do you kind of see the industry taking on animated shows as we move forward, particularly, like, after the strike? We’re still going to be fighting for TAG. Do you think it will be more stable? Is it just kind of a rocky industry right now?

Anna Drezen [00:48:40] God, I think there are people more informed than I am just on industry things. But, yeah, like, it’s been such a whiplash for the whole industry–the, like, feast or famine. When we were hiring people for my show, everybody was working on something. And then a month later, Netflix fired 70 people or something like that. I don’t know. I do know that adult animation is, I think, the number one most profitable genre on most streaming services.

Ashley Ray [00:49:14] Yeah, there was some study. And I saw the tweet about the study.

Anna Drezen [00:49:17] Yeah. And that actually is the same as science.

Ashley Ray [00:49:20] And that is the same as reading it. I saw the tweet about the study. And yeah, they were basically like, “Animated shows make you so much money. They get way more audiences in.” And then the networks are just kind of like, “Oh… Okay.”

Anna Drezen [00:49:33] Yeah, I think it’s a thing that happens in live action, too, but to a further extent, which is that the people on the development and the exec side haven’t worked in production. And then the people on the production side haven’t gone to the private film schools. And it’s just like there’s a huge divide. And I think it comes from people not understanding animation, too. My team was so patient with me and my team learning the steps of what’s easy to change and what’s not. I think the industry tends to do what makes money, and I see that being a good thing for animation.

Ashley Ray [00:50:13] Yeah, and it makes money. And maybe people don’t always respect it. Like, I have friends who are just like, “I’ll watch your stuff when you write a show with real adults.”

Anna Drezen [00:50:22] It’s just, like, what you’re used to watching. Like, I had to develop an eye for watching cartoon.

Ashley Ray [00:50:27] Yeah.

Anna Drezen [00:50:28] And yeah, once you get a base layer…

Ashley Ray [00:50:30] Once you get it, you’re in forever.

Anna Drezen [00:50:34] Urine.

Ashley Ray [00:50:34] That’s good.

Anna Drezen [00:50:39] Thank you.

Ashley Ray [00:50:43] I remember, like, when I finally got into King of the Hill… And it took me a while. I thought it was, like, a boring white people show. And finally, I just stayed up one day after–I don’t know–The Simpsons or whatever came on. And I was like, “Oh, this is amazing. I didn’t know cartoons could be, like, adult shows.”

Anna Drezen [00:51:00] It’s so good. It’s so good.

Ashley Ray [00:51:03] It’s incredible.

Anna Drezen [00:51:04] I will watch the Bobby Hill “That’s my purse, I don’t know you” just for self-soothing.

Ashley Ray [00:51:09] Any time it’s on, I just let it play. I think it’s incredible. I’ve probably rewatched it three or four times. I just feel like those shows have a rewatchability that a lot of other shows don’t. Like, I can watch [CENSORED] over and over and over. But it does hit a point where I gotta step away. It doesn’t matter–if you put on a BoJack Horseman episode right now, I would sit and watch the whole season.

Anna Drezen [00:51:30] Effortlessly. Yeah, I heard they had, I think, one table read of the new King of the Hill before the strike. And it just sounded like everyone couldn’t put into words how joyful and funny and great it was.

Ashley Ray [00:51:43] And it’ll still be good hopefully when we all come back from our dual strike summer. But other than that, you’re working on Praise Petey. It’s an amazing, amazing show.

Anna Drezen [00:51:53] Everybody watch my show, please.

Ashley Ray [00:51:55] Watch the show! Watch it on Freeform Hulu. Praise Petey. It’s amazing. Anything else you want to plug?

Anna Drezen [00:52:01] Watch My Strange Addiction starring Ashley Ray.

Ashley Ray [00:52:07] Please. If they made me the host of that show, that would be the job I would have for the rest of my life. I would Pat Sajak that.

Anna Drezen [00:52:17] You would be Keith Morrison.

Ashley Ray [00:52:18] I would just host My Strange Addiction forever and never need another job.

Anna Drezen [00:52:22] That’s perfect.

Ashley Ray [00:52:23] That’s my goal in this industry.

Anna Drezen [00:52:26] God bless.

Ashley Ray [00:52:27] Yeah. And thank you so much for joining us.

Anna Drezen [00:52:29] Oh my God. Thanks for having me.

Ashley Ray [00:52:31] Should the people follow you anywhere? Social media?

Anna Drezen [00:52:34] Yeah. Anna Drezen on… I guess Twitter is gone. Right in time for my show to come out they were like, “And actors won’t talk about it. And no one can talk about it. Twitter is a joke. And it’s actually not called Twitter. And good luck.”

Ashley Ray [00:52:48] “Best of luck with promotion.”

Anna Drezen [00:52:50] I’m just going to go scream.

Ashley Ray [00:52:52] You’ve been posting so many cool Instagram posts about the process of creating the art. So go check that out because how you made a human dog… I loved looking at those drawings.

Anna Drezen [00:53:03] Oh my God. It’s so fun. Yeah, it’s with a lot of BTS stuff from our crew.

Ashley Ray [00:53:08] That was the moment that sold me on the show and made me go, “This is going to be my Saturday morning breakfast watch.”

Anna Drezen [00:53:13] That’s good!

Ashley Ray [00:53:14] When I take my Saturday breakfast, I do it with Praise Petey. Thank you so much for joining us. TV Club, I have a lot of reality stuff coming up. I need you to make sure you’re caught up on 90 Day Fiancé. Over on the newsletter, we did a huge post ranking every couple who is currently on 90 Day Fiancé, 90 Day UK, Before the 90 Days, and 90 Day: The Other Way from best to worst. By “we” I mean I did that by myself. I just sat and ranked all, like, 20 couples because that’s what I like to do in my free time. So, we’re going to have some 90 Day people coming on. Make sure you’re caught up on the show. Also, Below Deck and Project Runway did a beautiful mashup episode that I need to process with so many people. So, we’re going to talk about that, top. Get caught up on your reality TV because that’s all I’m telling you to watch right now, except for Praise Petey and other animated shows that you also can watch and that I can talk about. Thank you so much for listening. We’ll be back next week with another episode. TV, I Say with Ashley Ray is an Earwolf production made by me, Ashley Ray-Harris. It’s engineered by Abby Aguilar, produced by Scott Sonne, executive produced by Amelia Chappelow. And our original theme song is by RaFia. It means so much to me if you go rate, review, subscribe. Follow TV, I Say. Let us know what you think and tell your friends. Share with your Golden Girls. Tell your Boys. If you love my TV recommendations, let everyone you know know. For special TV Club members, join my Patreon.