Ski BASE Jumper JT Holmes
Ski BASE Jumping is a blend of speed, danger, adrenaline and spectacularly beautiful views. And a Professional Ski BASE Jumper JT Holmes isn’t afraid to go right off a 6,000 foot cliff. We talk Ski BASE Jumping, the growing sport of Speedriding and James Bond. Then, it’s Star Wars and the Godfather vs. Dumb and Dumber and Forest Gump as we countdown the Top 5 Most Quotable Movies.
JT Holmes: 01:15
Pointless: 23:41
Top 5 Most Quotable Movies: 42:21
Interview with Ski BASE Jumper and Speedrider JT Holmes
Nick VinZant 0:12
Nick, welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant Coming up in this episode, ski BASE jumping and quotable movies
JT Holmes 0:21
with ski BASE jumping, you're going out so it's like getting shot out of a cannon. Sometimes your worst fears are just a figment of your imagination. You're like, Oh, that wasn't that bad. And sometimes your worst fears are spot on. There's, there's no place for a conflicted mind at the edge of a cliff in a wing suit.
Nick VinZant 0:49
I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance subscribe, leave us a rating or review. We really appreciate. It really helps us out. If you're a new listener, welcome to the show. If you're a long time listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So I want to get right to our first guest. This is professional ski BASE jumper. JT Holmes, looking at Ski BASE jumping from the outside. I'm kind of like, what is this like, what's the appeal of it?
JT Holmes 1:23
Well, as skiers, we like to go fast and we like to catch air, and ski BASE jumping allows you to go way bigger than you ever could with just skis. Um, it also opens up terrain that you couldn't otherwise ski. And a normal BASE jump, you're falling. You jump out, you fall down. I you get that elevator shaft, fall, feeling kind of the same one if you're at the top of the roller Stokes coaster, it's that feeling, um, but with ski BASE jumping, you're going out. So it's like getting shot out of a cannon.
Nick VinZant 2:00
Was this something that when you first saw it, you were all about it, or did you kind of have to be convinced into it?
JT Holmes 2:06
Yes, I was all about it, but I also thought that it was out of reach. I didn't think that, you know, it would be very easy to learn how to skydive BASE jump and, you know, eventually get to the point of ski BASE jumping, but eventually, actually quite quickly, after my 22nd birthday, I learned that airborne sports are quite easy. Gravity is the most predictable element that you can play with, and so, because of its reliable qualities, any equation that you insert gravity into gets a predictable outcome. In general, airborne sports, after I got a little taste of it, I realized they're a lot easier than than I thought, and from when I made my first base jump, which was before learning how to skydive, to when I was ski BASE jumping was only just over six months. Oh,
Nick VinZant 3:12
that fast, Yeah, which one of those is kind of more important the skiing or the BASE jumping aspect of it?
JT Holmes 3:21
Well, the skiing is very important, because you you're skiing yourself off a cliff. And if you ski off the cliff out of control, or if the jump the take off ramp bucks you out of control, then you're off to a really bad start with your transition into becoming an in control parachutist. That's the thing about ski BASE jumping is when you ski off that cliff, you've left behind the option of skiing yourself back to safety. You're putting all your eggs in the basket of transitioning yourself into a parachutist that can land that parachute safely. So, yeah, you need to. You need to be a damn good skier. And the thing about skiing is you don't rotate like a you don't rotate has a skier. You You don't rotate like a ball, right? You rotate like a hatchet,
Nick VinZant 4:33
yeah, yeah, because of the the
JT Holmes 4:35
weight of your skis and boots are so much so it's, uh, it's different. It's different than like a high diver might not do well with a ski BASE jump, because you got all this weight and you're, yeah, you rotate like a tomahawk,
Nick VinZant 4:49
is it? So when you're going to do one, like you're going to go do a ski BASE jump, what kind of factors are you looking at to make sure that a. I can do this safely, and B, this is going to be worth the experience of it. So, like, what are you looking for? One
JT Holmes 5:06
thing that's really important is the takeoff needs to be predictable. Um, let's just say that that this is your mountain and this is your cliff, right? You're going to ski off and open your parachute over here, I've seen guys, you know, hit rocks at the takeoff, and then they're crashing out of control, tumbling and, you know, they're only lucky if their parachute opens properly without snagging on their skis and whatnot. So you want a good take off, you want a nice cliff. Doesn't have to be a huge cliff, because with ski BASE jumping, you're carrying speed. So a normal cliff, let's say this is your cliff, right? You jump off, you're going to fall down, open your parachute here, with ski BASE jumping, you're jumping out so you're gaining all this elevation, right? You're you're gaining the elevation of the hillside. And, you know, mountains kind of call to you. They're they just kind of catch your eye, and you think to yourself, ooh, wouldn't it be cool to do that?
Nick VinZant 6:10
So on a scale of one to 1010, being the highest, how far towards your limit Do you think that you pushed it or have pushed it
JT Holmes 6:21
can all the way, huh? Oh, yeah, 100%
Nick VinZant 6:26
what was the, what were some of the ones you'd be like, that was my limit.
JT Holmes 6:30
I went to the Iger. I actually did several ski base jumps from the Iger. Um, the first was with my friend Jane McConkie in 2014 and we had this huge mountain, and it's 6000 more than 6000 feet from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain. And Shane and I got dropped off by helicopter about two thirds of the way up, and we skied several turns, went off of a 1000 foot cliff section, but we opened our parachutes right away. So if you look at where we took off to where we opened our parachutes, we really only used seven, 800 maybe 1000 vertical feet of this huge, 6000 foot mountain. And I went back 11 years later with some new skills. I had learned how to speed ride, and also I'd refined the process of disconnecting skis and then flying my body after disconnecting the skis in the middle of the base jump, so I was able to go from the top of the mountain speed ride down land, And then disconnect the speed riding parachute at speed, make a bunch of turns, straight line off the same take off that Shane and I had done, and then double back, flip, release the skis, and then still free fall for another almost 3000 vertical feet. That was, for sure, the gnarliest ski BASE jump that that I've ever done.
Nick VinZant 8:22
I guess maybe I'm not someone who's super comfortable with risk, you know, like, if it's something that like, Oh, I could potentially not survive this. It'd be really difficult for me to get to do it. Have you always been that way? Or is that something that you kind of developed?
JT Holmes 8:40
I've always been drawn to high stimulus environments. I function really well under pressure and when stakes are high, it's just it's a good zone for me. My track record is very good when my life is on the line and I so I think I do have a natural tendency towards these things, but I don't want to die either, and I'm rather motivated individual, so I train really hard to be able to minimize the risk each step of The way in a complex time. And I dissect everything down to the most minuscule detail, and I rehearse good and bad scenarios beforehand. And so I have in my mind already. I have the preliminary plan, an alternate plan, a contingency plan, and then a full on emergency plan, and and I've rehearsed them all in my mind, so then when or if something goes wrong, I don't have to think as much. I can just react and go to my next plan. I. When
Nick VinZant 10:00
things do kind of go wrong in those circumstances. Is it usually the thing that you thought would go wrong, or is it something totally unexpected?
JT Holmes 10:10
That's a good that's a very good question. And it's both, yeah, I understand what you mean by really. I'd say it is not the thing that you were that was keeping you up at night. It's that thing that you kind of took for granted or you're complacent about, that sneaks up on you. But there's plenty of times when it's the thing that you really focused on, and then you're very glad that you are prepared. So I'd say it's both, yeah,
Nick VinZant 10:41
right. And I would imagine that sometimes it's the thing that you thought about, but maybe it was worse than you thought it was going to be.
JT Holmes 10:53
Sometimes your worst fears are just a figment of your imagination. You're like, Oh, that wasn't that bad. And sometimes your worst fears are spot on.
Nick VinZant 11:05
But this is a sport that people have passed doing, I would imagine, sure,
JT Holmes 11:09
yeah, but there not a lot of people that ski based jump. Um, it's a very unusual combination of sports.
Nick VinZant 11:18
When, when that happens, like, does that make you step back? Or is that just look that was that's part of it. Everybody understood it. Like, do you step back and reevaluate? Or just absolutely,
JT Holmes 11:31
yeah, any incident, good or bad, should be debriefed and really evaluated. What led what decisions led to this horrible outcome, and by really facing it, and even, you know, to the point of evaluating footage, frame by frame, figuring out exactly what went wrong, and then thinking about even that morning or the day before, All the little decisions that led up to that outcome, what you do is you, you become a more experienced, albeit scarred, mountain man or mountain woman, and you move on making decisions with an increased level of experience and wisdom and knowledge. But sure, I, you know, I lost my best friend. In fact, I've lost two best friends. And I, for sure, reevaluate, you know, have introspection and think about, Do I want to continue doing this, and at what point is it not fun anymore? And you know, is it worth it? And for me personally, it's not. It's not something deep, right? I'm not out thinking like, this is how I want to live my life, and want to prove to something someone, and this is how they would have wanted it. No, it's just a it's just my own choice in having fun and my risk willingness and and that fluctuates. Sometimes you're more risk, risk risk willing, and sometimes you're less risk willing. Can
Nick VinZant 13:24
you have fun doing it even when the stakes are kind of that high?
JT Holmes 13:30
Yes, you can have fun doing it when the stakes are high. And you should be having fun doing it when the stakes are high. You know, I think that when you're doing really high risk stuff with your life, you need to be enthusiastic, excited and optimistic. Of course, you know. You gotta be in a mindset where you're thinking, there is no better place to be right. The equivalent of a surfer that goes to a point break and sees perfect, glassy barrel waves coming in, and the only people there to surf them are him and his buddies. Right? Like, you need to be psyched. And part of that that that brings a real level of of optimism and you're kind of projecting yourself towards success. You can't I mean, there's, there's no place for a conflicted mind at the edge of a cliff in a wingsuit when
Nick VinZant 14:38
you go to that high level. And the only thing I can kind of compare it to is, like, stuff that, that I know, right? Like, when you do the black, so to speak, can you still have fun on the blue and the green?
JT Holmes 14:50
Yeah, yeah, you still have fun on the blue or the green. But you, you know you, you've tasted the um. You've tasted something else. So it is, there is that kind of addictive quality where you kind of start chasing the next big one, right, and trying to get back to that really intense dopamine hit that you get when you do something that's really hardcore and high speed and it's fun, it's a wild, emotional ride. To Do you know, to pioneer something, or to you know to do something that's never been done before, combining your favorite sports, um, high risk, high reward, beautiful scenery, you know, doing things like that. Um, you know, it's a major, the major dopamine rush. So
Nick VinZant 15:55
wait, speed not. Sorry, sorry. Ski, BASE jumping, did that come before speed riding? No
JT Holmes 16:03
speed riding for me, came after. So speed riding is opening, is flying is, excuse me, speed riding is skiing with an open parachute, right? So you lay the parachute on the ground and start skiing. Boom, it pops up. Now you have an inflated parachute, and you can fly down the mountain side, or you can ski with the parachute, and it is extremely fun, and it's both more efficient and much safer than ski BASE jumping. And it is you're able to do it on a heck of a lot more mountains than your speed than your ski BASE jumping because you're because you don't need a cliff, right? You can just do it down mountainside. But ski BASE jumping came first, and part of that was watching James Bond movie where bond goes off mount Asgard in Baffin Island, and opens his parachute, Yukon Jack parachute, and flies down to the glacier below. And you know it was, we were just drawn to it. And speed riding really wasn't even a thing till about 2008 and we were ski BASE jumping in 2003
Nick VinZant 17:25
Are you ready for some harder slash? Listeners submitted questions. Sure for ski BASE jumping. Best place to do it,
JT Holmes 17:33
Baffin Island, Canada. It's to the west of Greenland, and it's just amazing, big, sheer granite monoliths coming out of a frozen ocean. And that's the place to do it, Baffin Island,
Nick VinZant 17:51
for speed riding, best place to do it.
JT Holmes 17:55
France is hard to beat. France is very good. And I would say
Nick VinZant 18:05
I'm just gonna go with France for both BASE jump ski BASE jumping and speed riding. What do you think is the next evolution?
JT Holmes 18:14
That's a good question for speed riding. There was a guy named Antoine montant, and he was really skiing. He was really focused on the skiing part of speed riding, you know, skiing really extreme lines with the eyes of a skier, by using the parachute to lay down these incredible tracks. And the sport didn't evolve that direction. It evolved more towards high performance flying, which I was kind of bummed out about. I would rather if it evolved towards the towards the hardcore skiing, but there are still people doing incredible skiing with their parachutes. Check out Valentin de Luke and Hugo gorola ski BASE jumping. I don't know. There's a young contingent of kids opening up new cliffs. They're doing ski base jumps in new places, and they're doing nice skiing into them, but I don't think they're doing much that's different than what Shane and I and others were doing back when I was the most active with that sport. Um, it's not, it hasn't fundamentally taken a step forward. I don't know that it will anytime soon, but I look forward to watching it. Can you see
Nick VinZant 19:44
your Instagram? Yeah, so this is
JT Holmes 19:49
yes writing. And you know, we were just out there. It was actually August, I think, on Glee.
Nick VinZant 19:59
Sures How big are those crevasses that you're going across?
JT Holmes 20:04
I don't know. I sure don't want to find out. You do not want to end up in one of those things.
You really it'd be really bad. And, yeah, I wiped out pretty good here. I recall, you know, oh my
Nick VinZant 20:18
when you fall like that. Are you actively trying to stop yourself? Like, can you do anything about it? Or you just gotta? You're just, yeah, you
JT Holmes 20:27
want it. I wanted to stop in that case, because I didn't want to fall into one of those crevasses. Yeah, and I actually broke a tendon in my one of my fingers. Where
Nick VinZant 20:37
is this? At
JT Holmes 20:38
that ski BASE jumping in La cluza, France, near Annecy, France, and that's my friend Tim, and we're going off a jump we call the cross, because there's a cross on top of that little mountain. And
Nick VinZant 20:55
pretty fun. That's all the space you need to do it, huh? Yeah,
JT Holmes 20:58
and the the chair lift is coming up pretty quick. Um, looks like my GoPro got totally got a little sideways on it, Yeah, but see there's that chair if you make it over, in case, sometimes on that jump you I have had to turn left and not cross over the chairlift. Um, just land on the hillside. And they have, actually, I think, since requested that any ski BASE jumpers don't do it when the chair looks open. Yeah, that's what I was going to ask you. Is this legal? In Europe, there's a much more open mindset to, airborne activities, right? The default is yes, so you can speed ride in general at ski resorts, but you're there's certain rules. You're typically not supposed to fly over chair lifts unless you're really high above them, and you're not supposed to land on the piece the groom drums. But here in the United States, ski resorts don't welcome it. Sometimes you can go out of the boundaries of the ski resort. So you've used the ski resort for access, but in general, it's a no go, which is a bummer, because I hike to do my speed riding here, and I love hiking. It's great. I value being fit and all that. But, you know, I might hike two speed riding runs in a day, and that's a good day, right? I hiked 4000 vertical feet, good for me, but that's the only two runs. Whereas in France, I can go do 30 runs easily, and they're 2500 foot runs. Sometimes they're bigger runs. So you know, you're getting really good at the sport really quickly because of the iterations you're able to do.
Nick VinZant 22:48
You think that is that a potential reason why maybe it's not as popular in the United
JT Holmes 22:53
States as it is? Yeah, and that's why the Frenchies are the best at it. That's pretty
Nick VinZant 22:57
much all the questions I got. Man, what's kind of coming up next for you, where can people learn more all that kind of
JT Holmes 23:03
stuff? Well, we're off to a great start ski season here at Palisades, Tahoe, and I'm actually going to go skiing right now with my buddy slambo. I want to
Nick VinZant 23:13
thank JT so much for joining us. If you want to connect with him, we have linked to him on our social media sites. We're Profoundly Pointless on Tiktok, Instagram and YouTube, and we've also included his information in the episode description, and if you want to see him ski based off some of these mountains, the YouTube version of this episode will be live on january 23 at 12:30pm Pacific. Okay, now let's bring in John Shaw and get to the pointless part of the show. What do you put on first? Your pants or a shirt? My shirt, see, I put on pants first. I think that's the normal. I think that's norm. I think more people would put on pants first, because my idea is, like, cover up the sensitive parts as quickly as possible, because I'm always prepared, right? Like, what if I'm getting out of the shower? Somebody breaks into my house and I wasted time putting on my shirt, and then I gotta run out there with no pants on and just my thing hanging out there. I've
John Shull 24:13
actually thought about that. I think it would be scarier if I come running down my hallway with my day hanging out. I think that would get someone to stop a lot faster if I didn't have a shirt on.
Nick VinZant 24:23
That's actually a really good point. I guess. If I was a robber and I saw somebody like, come running out of the shower, coming around a corner and they didn't have a shirt on, I wouldn't think too much about that unless they were, like, jacked. But if they came out of the shower running out and they didn't have any pants on, oh, your strategy might be better, actually,
John Shull 24:44
because, I mean, in my case, it's the person, whoever it is, or whatever sex they are, is going to go, what is that thing? And that that split moment is going to be able to allow me to tackle them, and then, though they may establish, shoot me, at least I have the. Uh, you know, availability to do so,
Nick VinZant 25:02
okay, if you find yourself in a men's locker room, can you completely avoid looking at anybody else's equipment, or do you accidentally see it? Can you maintain nothing but eye contact, or do you accidentally catch a glimpse at other people's stuff? Kind of question is that it's a legitimate question, like, how good are you at just Nope, I can see a naked man right in front of him, and I won't look at his thing whatsoever.
John Shull 25:28
Gotten a lot better throughout the years. I will say, when I was younger, you know, you're a Tina, you're a kid, right? So, I mean, and then there was one time a long time ago, when I went to a Gold's Gym, shout out, gold gym, uh, where a guy had, apparently, elephant Titus in one of his testicles. So I had to look like there was like, How can you not look at that? You have to take a look if
Nick VinZant 25:50
you were in a male locker room, if you were in the men's side of a male locker room, and another guy just perfectly, like, it wasn't a sexual thing. Wasn't sexual in any way. He was just like, hey, man,
JT Holmes 25:59
great package.
Nick VinZant 26:03
How would you react to that? It was like he was complimenting your car, just like, hey, man, nice car. And he said he was just like, hey,
John Shull 26:11
nice one. I mean, I never have to worry about that. But if that ever did happen, I mean, I think, I think the first reaction would be, you'd probably be a little thrown off by it. Maybe, but let's just say that I wasn't thrown off by it. I would be great, man, thanks. You want to touch I mean, you want to hang out? Thank you. I mean, okay, let's just go. No, I don't know I I will never be in that situation. Nobody in a locker room is going to look and be like, I'm gonna compliment. I'm just
Nick VinZant 26:41
gonna compliment that guys Johnson, nobody like made a great dig. Great dig.
John Shull 26:49
Look at the freaking a hook on that thing. Okay, well,
Nick VinZant 26:52
going back to our initial question, pulled the audience. 54% of people say they put on pants first, which I think is probably the more prevalent. I think most people would start at the bottom and work their way to the top. 46% of people say shirts first. Okay, what's this story that you want to tell me?
John Shull 27:10
Our new president, by the way, says I can be anything I want. So I'm going to be a doctor from no one. Well,
Nick VinZant 27:17
biggest lie in America, this doesn't have to do with the President, current president, but like, No, you can't be anything you want. You can't be anything you want, and you never could be anything you want. You can grow up to be whatever you want to be. No, you can't, because if you're five foot six, you're not going to be in the NBA. So you can't grow up in the NBA. We need to stop lying to children and to tell them the truth.
John Shull 27:37
There has been one or two NBA players that were below five six.
Nick VinZant 27:41
I think that right? That is the exception, not the rule. That is the exception that proves the rule.
John Shull 27:48
I actually have two stories one, and we kind of talked about this a little bit last week, and I think it's a it's a question no one's really thought about. So we don't really have to spend a lot of time on it, but I wanted to get out there. What's the most you've ever spent for a drink at a restaurant or bar?
Nick VinZant 28:03
Oh, I'm cheap, probably not more than $15
John Shull 28:08
well, I don't know how I got conned into this, but I got conned into paying for a $60 glass last shot of pappy van winkles, which is apparently a very nice bourbon. I think,
Nick VinZant 28:22
how did you get con did I'm not susceptible to peer pressure.
John Shull 28:26
I also don't know, like, so I drink a lot of alcohol, but I don't, I'm not, like, up on Scotch whiskey, bourbon, really. So when this came out, like, I was just like, Oh, that's great. I shot it like a in the one of the people at the table that was with me. I mean, I thought he was gonna punch me. He's like, you don't shoot it. You're supposed to sip it. Yeah, you
Nick VinZant 28:49
don't shoot a $60 glass of whiskey. Well,
John Shull 28:54
I didn't really want to drink it, but, like I said, I got conned into it, thinking it may taste good, and then it became this whole thing, because then one of the guys at the table said that it wasn't pappy's and, like, it just, it became this whole thing.
Nick VinZant 29:07
Okay, well, I thought that's not going to be interested in this. Was that here interesting story, or was it here's the
John Shull 29:12
interesting story, all right? I went to McDonald's with my children, okay? And apparently they don't have like, people at the counter anymore that take your order, unless it's, like an emergency. So I take my kids, you know, and of course, they want, like, they're like, their fucking mom, like, they just can't get a like, a burger. Like, they have to get a burger minus this, minus that, right? So I order all this shit, and not all this shit, but the food. And I press, you know, complete order, and I go to stick my card in there, or tap my card to pay for it, and it's like, no, you can't do this. You have to go through our app to pay for it. Oh, that's
Nick VinZant 29:49
ridiculous. But first of all, that they're just trying to trick you. You're not looking at the screen, right enough, I think. But basically I can, if I can jump ahead of the story a little bit. I think the basic problem is, is that you're not reading. Actually taking time to learn how to do something and you don't like it because you have to learn how to do something new, and you don't want to put in the effort and the time that it takes to learn how to do something new. You need to evolve in life, right? You need to learn how to do new things and adjust to the way that society is going. Society doesn't revolve around you, John, you need to adjust to society, and this is the future of society. You can complain about it as much as you want, but this is what you're going to have to do if you going to have to do if you want to
John Shull 30:23
exist. Nope, not doing it. Long story short, I walked out of there pissed off his all hell because they embarrassed me, and then I left and I just went home. So how
Nick VinZant 30:33
did they embarrass you? McDonald's, you wrote of how did McDonald's embarrass you?
John Shull 30:38
Well, it said, Okay, if you want to pay for it at the counter, press receipt and it gives you, supposed to give you a receipt to have the counter. You pay, right? Yeah, I did that once. Nothing came out. I'm like, okay, maybe, maybe I didn't do something right. Went through the entire thing again, downloaded the app. The app thing wasn't working on any of the four kiosks. So I'm like, You know what? I'll press receipt again. Doesn't give me a receipt. So then I go up to the to the counter, and I'm pressing the stupid little bell. They have their ring bell for service. Finally, after five minutes, I get somebody. And the young man comes up to me, and we're kind of having a chat. He seems a little annoyed with me, whatever.
Nick VinZant 31:14
Yeah, because he's we're probably the 50th person he's had to help this out. Sure. Well, I
John Shull 31:19
was annoyed too, you know. I But who cares about customer service anymore? He tells me that he can't look up my order unless I have a receipt. And I'm like, I can't print the receipt because you don't have any paper in there. Well, then he says, Sir, I don't know how to help you. And I said, Okay, can I just order here then? And then he's like, I have to go get somebody else for that. I'm working the drive through. And I said, I said, I understand you're working the drive through, but I what am I supposed to do as the customer? So then I waited for another five minutes. Nobody came up, and I just left,
Nick VinZant 31:48
nice. I mean, I went to a McDonald's, and it took me about two minutes to get my food, and I went through one of those order screens and didn't have any problems. The problem is, it's like, okay, you have to this is, this is my thing. You have to adjust to the way that society is moving on, because the progress is not going to stop. This is always that. It's going to be we're not going back to the old days. We're not going back to like McDonald's greeting you at the thing, holding your little baby hand, helping you out, picking the pickles off for you. You're going to have to be a man and do things on your own, and you're going to have to learn how to order food at McDonald's. Okay, here's the thing, you can't if you're having trouble with this, you're going to have a lot bigger problems moving forward. You got to learn how to use the iPhone so you can understand the computer.
John Shull 32:31
I clearly, I'm not, I'm not the issue, because I operate in general on on things that are moving forward, on progressive issues. What scares me is the the generation below us that don't want to problem solve at all that. I mean, they might know how to work a computer screen, but, like, you know, it's just scary. It was a scary moment. Yes, it was probably my fault, even though their stupid thing wasn't like the app, the app reader wasn't working, and they didn't have paper in any of their machines. And then, you know, knucklehead apparently didn't know how to operate a, you know, counter, but it's fine. It's my fault. So anyways, it doesn't matter. Let's just move on. Look.
Nick VinZant 33:09
This just admits to the fact that you are a 3537 ish year old man with the mentality of a 77 year old.
John Shull 33:19
I all I wanted to do was try to do something nice for my children. I don't even like McDonald's. I don't like walking instead. I don't even like walking into fast food places. I don't even I don't like it.
Nick VinZant 33:32
I just think that, like you are ultimately the determiner of how a situation goes and how you respond to that you could have had a nice, pleasant day. Maybe you don't get McDonald's, so maybe you go into the field and pick blueberries or whatever, right? Like you have to make the situation what the situation is. You can't have everybody hand you things all your life, right? You can't expect to just go to McDonald's and say, Hey, everybody, make my day better. They're just gonna give you some
John Shull 33:56
food. Not at all. Get machines that fucking work. Anyways, they probably do. I'm gonna, I'm just gonna go and
Nick VinZant 34:04
say 90% chance that's operator error is involved in that. I didn't want to take the time to read
John Shull 34:09
it. I felt like I was on a, like, an episode of punk. I thought someone's gonna walk out of the blue and be like, oh, like, but No, instead, I got, it doesn't matter. Can we just move on to shout outs, yeah, I'm getting heated. Like, okay, Cranky face is getting red. Like, I'm just, I'm just, why don't you have service
Nick VinZant 34:27
anymore? Back in my day, you used to have somebody greet you as soon as you walk in the door and they took your order and they bring it out to you. You didn't even have to leave a tip. Now, you got to leave a tip and you gotta press the button, ding, and electronics, and I don't know where my data is going. And like, God, dude, like you can't go down this road. You are too young to go down this road of complaining about technology and not being able to exist in society. You are at the you are at a crossroads right now, my friend, you can turn around and you can go on a new path, or you can go Cranky Kong, and you can spend 11. Rest of your life bitching about every single thing that happens to you. What I
John Shull 35:03
wanted was some service. You're a customer service representative. That's what you are. Help me. That's all I wanted.
Nick VinZant 35:11
Okay, well, change society. Then, dude, take over. These are
John Shull 35:15
going to be the most angry, and I apologize for that good so I'm going to try to be happy. I'm going to try to do in a very pleasant tone. So okay, let's see. We'll start with David Franks, Jamie Phelan, Maria lawless, needed some law at that McDonald's yesterday. Here
Nick VinZant 35:34
we go. That didn't go long. Got three things see now you got to bring it back. You always bring it back to the complaints about society and the kids today,
John Shull 35:41
I'm good, uh, Frank Gill, Brandon, Blakely, Jordan, liardon, uh, Ayub aluy, Ken Smith, Jonathan HO and Denise Holzer.
Speaker 1 35:55
Why didn't everybody just have the same name and pronounce the way that it was supposed to be spelled in the Bible, and then I wouldn't have to read all these things.
Nick VinZant 36:03
Why can't all of society just exist in a way that makes my life easier?
John Shull 36:10
Yeah, that's why we pay people who are customer service representatives. Yeah,
Nick VinZant 36:14
dude, they work at McDonald's. Look that that's never going to happen again. It is never going to happen again because we have reached the stage in society in which you were no longer able to make money by providing people a service you have to now make money by getting into the other person's pocket. So all of that stuff is just over with, and you might as well adjust to it,
John Shull 36:33
right? I'm not, yeah, whatever. I'm just half of it's me fighting with technology, and then my kids were that, you know, just, it's always one big stressor. You know what? I mean? It's just life. So as you make it, man, life is what you make it anyways, um, I don't know. I had some stuff to talk about. I'm just, I'm still my flustered, I'm flushed, I'm angry, I I'm just gonna try to take a second just to come back. Okay, you want
Nick VinZant 37:00
to talk about the Detroit Lions for the first time ever that they had a good team and they completely blew it. It looks like everybody else, besides the people in Detroit, knew that they were does that make you feel better, the fact that they had their best season in years, and they still lost and gave the game away, and it was entirely their fault, and now they're trying to probably just like you, like everybody else in Detroit always got some excuse, trying
John Shull 37:19
to blame somebody else. No, you know, I mean, I can give you the, here's my 30 seconds on them. One they had the best season ever in their franchise history, still lost. But, I mean, you know, the first round playoffs, any test second, anytime that you, you know, you commit five turnovers. I mean, they still put up 31 points. I mean, but if your defense can't hold a team to under 31 points in the playoffs, it's going to be really hard to win. So it's, you know, it's, it's, you can say they, I mean, they lost their best defensive player earlier in the year. They lost other they lost their best cornerback due to a broken elbow, like on the second play. But lions gonna lions man, at the end of the day, you know, unfortunately, lions are gonna lions are gonna
Nick VinZant 38:05
lions. Maybe they should bring the kids. Maybe they should blame the kids of today.
Speaker 2 38:14
Yeah, I could. I would jump through this monitor. I know I
John Shull 38:18
was so hot. Oh, my wife agreed with you, and it made me even more angry. Yeah, dude, I don't know why
Nick VinZant 38:23
you ever got your hopes up, like they always lions, gonna lions. Oh,
John Shull 38:29
the lion. Oh, I'm not. I'm trying to talk about McDonald's. Oh, wow, yeah. Like I just, anyways, ended up working out. I took my anger, I turned into positivity, and it was a good evening. So there you go. That's
Nick VinZant 38:41
all you gotta do, man.
John Shull 38:41
Uh, all right, uh, let's see, out of all the movies in the world that you don't want to make a sequel to, I feel like this is number one. Here
Nick VinZant 38:51
we go. It's with you. And always complaining about movie sequels.
John Shull 38:55
Cameron Diaz said that she is in to make a sequel to the mask. If Jim Carrey is,
Nick VinZant 39:04
I mean, I'm not gonna watch it do what you want. Like, I could care. Like, I don't know. Why do you get upset about these things? I
John Shull 39:10
just want originality. You know? I want someone to help me at McDonald's. You know what? I mean, I want someone. I just want. I want. I want original ideas. I want people to use their brains and think, not just rely on technology and overused ideas to stimulate our already unstimulated brains. That's
Nick VinZant 39:27
what's really difficult though, for me, is that ultimately, like it's blaming the people who produce things for the thing that you consume. Right? Like you can hate the Kardashians, they're kind of over now, but you can hate the Kardashians, but you're watching it. So like you have to be the change that you want in the world. I think that this comes back to the things that we talked about. You are in control of your situation. You have to be the change. If you want things to change, then change them. You don't want them to stop. They keep making too many people stop. Walking. Stop watching movie sequels. I just like you have control in this world. You don't like the way McDonald's is headed, the way that they're doing things. Don't go there. Like you have a voice. Use it.
John Shull 40:11
But we, but we don't have control. That's all because everybody gives
Nick VinZant 40:15
up right before. But you do have control. You have far more control than you realize. It's just really difficult for us to exert it, but you have to do it on a daily basis and continue to do it. You have to make choices based on what you want the outcome to be, rather than the immediate need that you're facing.
John Shull 40:35
I think we should just end the episode there. Okay,
Nick VinZant 40:38
all right. Do you have anything else you want to complain about? Uh, no, somebody else would do something. No, you got to do it.
John Shull 40:46
I'd be the change. John. I I do plenty. I do play. I don't got You don't gotta worry about me. Just not going to McDonald's.
Nick VinZant 40:53
Okay, good. Be the change. Complain to McDonald's.
John Shull 40:58
Grass fed hamburgers. My ass. Oh, I don't believe that
Nick VinZant 41:02
stuff. I mean, probably grass fed at some point. They probably had glass at some point. So,
John Shull 41:06
yeah, maybe when they were babies. All right, let's just go on to the our top five. We're
Nick VinZant 41:12
going all the way there, huh? You giving up on everything. I like it, yeah, I like it
Unknown Speaker 41:17
all in Okay, go.
Nick VinZant 41:19
I'm gonna be much better all of my life.
John Shull 41:21
Okay, and much more fun than anything. I'm gonna bring up this episode. Do you want to
Nick VinZant 41:26
talk about the weather? We're not talking about the weather. I mean, it's
John Shull 41:32
for the next four days in Michigan, at least, where I live in Southeast Michigan, it's, it's in single digits, and the wind is going to make it in the negatives pretty much all day, every day. But I don't find it that cold. Like, I still go outside in, like, a sweatshirt, blue, like jeans. Like, I mean, I'll dress up if I'm going to be outside for 10, 510, minutes, but like, it's cold. Like, get over it. It happens.
Nick VinZant 41:57
Yeah, I agree. The only time that I would ever say that I have changed my life due to cold weather. Was when I went to Canada and was negative 50, and I was like, Oh, I can't go outside in this that was way too much. We're not talking about the weather. We're going over to movies. You did that. I didn't do it. You did it. I did it as a joke. And then you went and went on about it for five minutes, like you always do about the weather and about the kids today, and about anyway, God dang. Uh, okay, so our top five is top five most quotable movies. What's your number five?
John Shull 42:28
This was this a hard this was a hard list to kind of narrow it down to five movies to be honest with you, yeah, I think it's pretty
Nick VinZant 42:33
difficult, because there's a lot that you could put in there, and it kind of depends on, like, the state of mind that you're in and what's going on. So it's a little bit like time dependent. But anyway,
John Shull 42:43
so my my number five, and I think it's quotable. It's, for sure, quotable if you've seen it. I just never realized how many people have actually seen it until they tell you that they've seen it. And that's The Big Lebowski,
Nick VinZant 42:56
oh, that's, yeah, that's a very quotable movie. The dude abides. Donnie, you're out of your element.
John Shull 43:02
Fuck you, Donny, I love it. I love Steve Buscemi and John Goodman's roles in that movie.
Nick VinZant 43:09
Yeah, I can see that. I don't I don't have it on my top five, but I had it pretty I've thought about it a lot. I thought that it could go into my top five. My number five is Dumb and Dumber.
John Shull 43:23
That's a good one too. I don't have that on my list, but that's big gulp. Say it, fellas, Big Gulp. See you. Later, see you later. That's a that's a
Nick VinZant 43:32
dumb and dumber is way up there in terms of good quotes.
John Shull 43:36
That's number four. Man, that's a good that's a really good one. This is probably the boring one on my list, but I feel like I had to, and that's just the godfather. Oh, I
Nick VinZant 43:50
have the Godfather on my list too little bit higher. There's
John Shull 43:53
so many quotes from that that you know had, like, transcended cinema, that you know we still use today. And it's just yeah, but it's like, it's like, the boring one, like, I'm not excited about it. I just feel like it had to be on there.
Nick VinZant 44:06
Mm, okay, my number four is Step Brothers.
John Shull 44:10
Yes, another great one. Man, I was
Nick VinZant 44:13
watching cops anytime I'm sweaty, and my wife asked me why I'm sweaty. I'll just say I was watching cops.
John Shull 44:21
Love when he said, Brandon, get your nuts on my drum set.
Nick VinZant 44:24
I can't have nuts on drum set. Man,
John Shull 44:28
have you ever been that upset from somebody touching something of yours that you would fight them? No, no, that's fair.
Nick VinZant 44:36
I think one of the most upset that I've ever been in my life was when my sister turned off my Mario game right as I was getting to a certain level that I was really working on. That's probably the most upset I've ever been in my life. But I'm not a person who gets really upset about things. Yeah,
John Shull 44:53
you don't. You've never really been much of a emotional guy. Really, no,
Nick VinZant 44:58
I. Sentimental, but not. I don't usually let my emotions get the better of me, especially not at McDonald's, because I can't figure out how to work out the counter, which probably just press the button and you're gonna be okay. Okay, you're number three. Just so
John Shull 45:12
you know, I've been kicked out of multiple fast food restaurants in my history. So maybe it's,
Nick VinZant 45:16
of course, excuse me, like you've been kicked somebody actually kicked you out of a fast food restaurant. You were told to leave a fast food restaurant, not for drunken behavior. Sober, you've been kicked out of a restaurant, yeah,
John Shull 45:28
but it's always because I just, I just expect, like you to do your job. Like, that's it. Like, if someone was to come to my job and I didn't do my job, I get called out every hour like an adult.
Nick VinZant 45:43
These are like 16 year old kids, nah.
John Shull 45:47
I mean that don't work there once again. And I'm not saying this because it's fast food, like, you know, I would do this anywhere. So don't take Don't say that. Don't think I'm like rail railroading fast food workers. But just saying, How are we back on this because
Nick VinZant 46:00
it's ridiculous, and because the more that your story evolves, the more ridiculous it ultimately becomes. Because here's another example of you getting mad at a fast food restaurant. It's not an oscillated incident. You've been kicked out of multiple fast food restaurants for your behavior, and then you still are like, oh, somebody else is the problem. Like, No, dude, it's you have to admit to yourself. You have to admit to yourself. And after this episode, I hope that you will have a moment of personal growth, and you will look in the mirror, and you will think about the situations that you were in and think to yourself, you know what? Maybe it's my fault. Maybe I need to make changes,
John Shull 46:39
or in like, five years, we'll look back when I'm in prison, and right anyways, prison
Nick VinZant 46:45
for, like, getting mad and like, that's you're just gonna snap. Do you think you're gonna snap someday? Do you feel like you're gonna snap someday?
John Shull 46:52
No, I don't think so. Not, not at this age. Because what are the chances
Nick VinZant 46:55
that you snap on a scale of, like, 0% to 100% like, give me the Give Me perspective on the chances that you will snap in the next five years. I
John Shull 47:06
say less than 10% I mean, my kids always come into my mind. You know what? I mean, I'm not going to do anything dumb enough to where I'd actually go to prison for a long time, because I don't, you know, I don't want to miss them growing up. So okay,
Nick VinZant 47:17
I feel like my chances of snapping are 10% so yours have to be, you gotta be 25 to 30.
John Shull 47:24
Fine. I'll say 30. Sure. I'll get a third. I have a third of a chance of snapping
Nick VinZant 47:28
in the next five years.
JT Holmes 47:32
Yeah, I could see it coming.
Nick VinZant 47:34
I think for you, it'll be a gradual build up before you snap. Like, there'll be signs, kind of, for me, it's just going to be like, boom. I mean, there'll be no signs. I'll just one day just lose it. I
John Shull 47:47
definitely hold things in Anyways, my number three is Anchorman. Oh, okay,
Nick VinZant 47:53
yeah, I could see that I don't have it on my list, just because I personally don't like that movie, because I used to be in the news industry and got kind of tired of it, but that's definitely way up there. That's what's your number three. My number three is the godfather. But I think the Godfather not in terms of me quoting it out loud to other people, but in terms of, like, life advice, I quote The Godfather internally to myself.
John Shull 48:22
You just sit there and you're just you're just rehashing, what
Nick VinZant 48:26
would you do? What should you do in this situation? I internally quote The Godfather, not externally. I think that's what makes the Godfather unique.
John Shull 48:36
My number two is not really just a specific movie of the franchise, but more or less just the franchise itself, and that's Star Wars.
Nick VinZant 48:44
Oh, you're like, jumping each level. I have Star Wars as number one, and I would agree with you, like Star Wars is my number one, but it's more the franchise as a whole than it is an individual movie. If I had to pick an individual movie, though, I think that
JT Holmes 49:02
revenge of that. No, wait, what's that one called
Nick VinZant 49:06
Revenge of the Sith, nope.
John Shull 49:08
Well, I mean, which, which one are you doing? 1-234-567-8910,
Nick VinZant 49:14
first of all, everybody knows that you go in chronological order, return. What's the second one called The Empire Strikes Back. Yeah, God blanked on. Empire Strikes Back is probably the most quotable. It's simply because I am your father.
John Shull 49:30
Yeah. I mean, I would probably pick jar, Jar Binks probably, he's probably the most quotable. I hate you so much. Um, that's fair, uh, but my number one, number two is my number two. Oh, alright, I find that you're number two. My number two is
Nick VinZant 49:46
Caddy Shack. You'll get nothing and like it. As a father I've been using you'll get lucky and you'll get nothing, and like it a lot. So it's it jumped up my ranks. But Caddy Shack, very quotable movie to me. Yeah,
John Shull 50:00
okay, all right. I mean, once again, you can't go wrong. My number one is Rocky. You know, the rock, more or less the Rocky franchise, but nevertheless, rocky itself.
Nick VinZant 50:11
I don't really see rocky as a quotable movie, to be honest with you. Oh, man, there's a surprising pick to me. There
John Shull 50:18
is a scene I think, at number five, where he talks about like I used to hold you right here. Remember that scene, and every day I look at you and be so excited for you to grow up and now look at you. Look what you've begun. You can't let them beat you there. They'll keep you on your knees if you let them.
Nick VinZant 50:38
I don't Is that rocky five. I think this one anyway, yeah, anyways,
John Shull 50:42
so, but, I mean, once again, I feel like you could interchange. I mean, I left Die Hard off the list, which I wanted to put on there, forest comp, fuel, Ferris Bueller, Ghostbusters, Fight Club, there's, you know, I mean, I we probably just could have done, like, most quotable sports movies for us. Oh yeah, Remember the Titans, Major League
Nick VinZant 51:09
you know, ever seen either of those movies to be honest with you? Um, other ones that I have on my list, as you didn't mention Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Okay, it's a merely a flesh wound, Wizard of Oz, okay? Space balls. Space balls, I would say as one singular Space Star Wars theme movie is more quotable than any of the Star Wars movies. But as a whole, uh, princess, bride, also,
John Shull 51:42
okay, I mean Prince. I mean, they're all, you know, like, when you go back to the Wizard of Oz, I thought about putting, like, Gone With the Wind, right? Like, that's probably one of the most quotable lines ever. But do they do kids even say it anymore? Does the McDonald's ordering machine even know what that is.
JT Holmes 52:03
Still mad about it, aren't you? Oh,
Nick VinZant 52:05
okay, that's gonna go ahead and do it for this episode of Profoundly Pointless. I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, leave us a quick review. We really appreciate it really helps us out. And if you want to support the show even more, a huge thank you to all of our our Patreon subscribers. We really appreciate it. It really helps us out and let us know what you think are the most quotable movies. I think that the ones that John and I put forward are at the top, but you can make an argument for a lot of movies, for a lot of movies you.