I might be horribly late to the table on this one but over the last few months, I have become simply obsessed with the podcast My Brother, My Brother and Me. I can’t stop. I’m greedily listening to new episodes every week as they drop and filling the time in-between by combing back through the archives to listen to the show’s (very early 2010s) origins.
The three McElroy brothers — oldest Justin, middlest Travis and sweet baby Griffin — have been putting out their weekly “advice” podcast for over a decade. In 2017 they turned it into a short-lived, six-episode TV series for NBC’s just-as-short-lived comedy platform, Seeso, which was simply not enough.
Now I want it to come back for a second season.
After realising that VRV — the free streaming service that hosts the show — doesn’t work in Australia, I found myself desperately trying to track down an accessible version. I eventually found it on iTunes (after trying to watch shitty knockoff streams), handed over my precious $15 and proceeded to binge-watch all six episodes in record time.
Seeing these brothers three go full loose cannon in their hometown of Huntington, Virginia as they attempted to solve peoples’ problems and give (never to be followed) advice continues to give me such a deep feeling of joy.
Sure, Melbourne might have just emerged from two long years of lockdowns and I may have been laid out flat by COVID over Christmas but knowing these three wonderfully idiot men were consistently cracking ridiculous jokes every week made things a bit easier.
I am unflinching in this parasocial relationship with the McElroy family and I’m not ashamed to admit it.
Season one of the MBMBaM Show gave us a total takeover of Safety Town, the Clown Box, haunted dolls, jump scares, grown men dabbing, an unhealthy obsession with bottle flipping, and a fully-fledged tarantula rancho parade. Every pure intention of trying to help out a fan descended into utter chaos.
It gave me my teen name (favourite soda and least favourite soda) and has made me realise there’s no greater comedy than an adult in a teeny tiny car. The clowns knew what they were doing.
If, no wait, when the MBMBaM gang gets picked up for a second season I could see it going large. Take the advice to the masses. Film episodes while on tour. I want to see the boys bickering over a single microphone on a red carpet for Jimmy Buffet‘s next Broadway production with my own two eyes. (Seriously, just turn pod ep 400 into an episode.)
I want to see them trying to play an actual game of cricket at the MCG in a bonus Monster Factory crossover episode. I want a Montaigne feature. I just want another season, please, for the love of Christ.
I realise this is a deeply selfish request and the reality is that the fellas have kids and families now, making everything much more difficult.
Maybe we’ll have to wait a couple of years until they have more time and freedom to be total ferals in each other’s presence for weeks on end. But it must be recognised that there’s an unending well of inspiration and content just primed to be packaged up into another run at the MBMBaM Show.
So consider this my pitch on a very long scroll of paper to the TV production gods, Wizard of the Cloud, Richard Stink and literally whoever has clout in getting things greenlit: all I would really like for Candlenights is another offering of the very silly show that I love so dearly.
