In #4, the boys end up talking about what part of the human body would taste best, and end up having to say they don’t support cannibalism.
In #9, a mix of jetlag and no Shane around to complete the “bit”, leaves Ryan looking completely unhinged. Complete with cameo from Ricky Goldsworth when there’s noise outside and he says he’ll just kill them.
In #10, talking about being pranked, Shane retaliated against his brother pranking him when they were kids by “slapping him like an angry southern belle”.
In #11, Steven compliments Shane’s soothing voice on the commentaries, and Shane purrs in response.
In #27, Shane acting like a mouse climbing over his phone. Ryan and Steven crack up laughing.
Spooky Small Talk
Zach responding to a scary nun with the fact that he’s Jewish and “doesn’t believe in her”.
When they get to the lady with white eyes, Zach stays behind to ask her if she’s a demon. Offscreen Ryan is saying he’s a demon expert.
Top 5
Ryan’s imploding breakdown at Shane putting Cars on his Top 5 Pixar Movies, and Shane’s sad puppy act in response, which Ryan tells guest Hoai-Tran Bui not to fall for. Also their Cat Fight over it that spread through twitter, the youtube comments and the Patreon discord.
The pin-drop silence when Shane announced that his #1 spot in Top 5 Cereals was oatmeal, followed by their Michelin Star chef guest letting out a very scared and confused, "what?...".
Ryan's discussion of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace in Top 5 Best Worst Movies culminates in him singing "Duel of the Fates" with furious intensity.
Tourist Trapped
Thanks to winning a bowling match, Ryan gets to go on a huge rollercoaster that delights him and terrifies Shane. Afterwards Shane runs to a giant Snoopy and gets a comforting cuddle.
Here's What You Do
The first thing they argue about in HWYD’s first episode (and show off their respective viewpoints) is the celeb “Imagine” video, Shane of course doesn’t regret dunking on them, while Steven and Ryan agree that it was dumb and egotistical but harmless.
Ryan and Shane make up a scenario about two people meeting up again at a nursing home, and in Ryan’s terms “boning until they die”.
In HWYD 15, Shane joining Ryan “hair grows from the brain” Bergara in the himbo hall of fame by thinking sharks are mammals.
Are You Scared?
* In " Are You Scared of the Voice in the Walls?" the wife starts screaming "Man in the mirror!" as the house gets more haunted. It's genuinely unnerving...until the narrator specifies she wasn't talking about the Micheal Jackson song, much to Shane and Ryan's bemusement.
"She just comes out and screams 'M-man in the mirror! It's a fucking banger!'"
When Ryan mentions that he keeps a katana by his bedside in case of home intruders in "Are You Scared of Being Home Alone?", Shane says he keeps several Burt's Bee's chapsticks on his night stand. Which he will throw at you. Very hard.
Shane's ridiculously cartoonish impressions of what he would sound like as a cabbie in "Are You Scared of the Lady in White?".
When the cabbie in the story makes mention of finally seeing the woman's facial scarring, Shane calls him rude for reacting to a (potentially) injured person with horror.
Shane: She's probably like, "boy I can't wait to get home and get some triple antibiotic on my face" or something, and he's turning around going "AAAAUUUGH...AAAUUGHH!"
Ryan: Well I don't think he did that.
*Cue Ryan returning to the story to read, "I couldn't stop myself from letting out a horrified gasp".
Shane tries to think of a waterslide-themed variant of "sweet dreams" to sign off and ends up saying, "Wet dreams."
In "Are You Scared of the Missing", the narrator comments with annoyance that the after the disappearances, the town is besieged by journalists, out of towners and... mystery solving youtubers. Shane and Ryan take great offense.
At the end of "Are You Scared of Mannequins?", a psychological horror story about a man whose wife becomes dangerously obsessed with a collection of creepy mannequins she found in the woods, Ryan muses that it could be a metaphor for how relationships break down when partners don't clearly communicate. Shane muses that it could also be a metaphor for how relationships break down when one partner goes insane and begins filling the house with mannequins.
Too Many Spirits
The premise of the show is already quite funny: Ryan and Shane reading spirit stories while drinking spirits (alchoholic drinks) provided by Steven. Each season was recorded in one night, so each episode will feature the boys more drunk than the previous one.
The inevitable chaos of the show is compounded by the fact that Steven has no experience mixing cocktails and isn't overly familiar with the general units of various spirits, meaning he regularly adds massive quantities of alcohol to the drinks he makes. His bartending style is extra funny in and of itself when contrasted with how his other shows on Watcher revolve around the fact that he's a foodie and actually pretty great at both cooking and concocting drinks when he's given the time to plan and test-run his experiments.
In the first episode, the drink Steven comes up with is named the "Boozy Beer-gar-ita". Shane and Ryan are delighted by it.
Shane's explanation of his and Ryan's dynamic:
Shane: Ryan is a believer, I'm a skeptic, yada yada, you know the horse shit, you've seen it a thousand times.
In the second episode, Shane claims his first words were "Papaw, give me milk".
Ryan:[As Shane's father.] "Goddamn Shane keeps sucking on my nipples! Ain’t no milk gonna come out of that, boy!" Shane: …"But it do feel all right…" [Ryan loses it as a crewmember has a "No. Just… No" Reaction in the background.]
Shane's impression of a spirit box allegedly saying "no".
Shane:[unintelligible spirit box noises] There was a "NO" in there, did you hear it? Ryan: I didn't hear it. Shane: Oh really? Because you usually do.
Ryan and Shane getting progressively more and more drunk as the episodes go on, eventually by the final episode of the season almost being unable to form a sentence without wheezing or laughing. Steven, despite being the only sober one, gets plenty of humor out of it too.
A Twitter user sending in a story with the name "@boobs_69_420". Nothing else needs saying. The same user sent in another story for the June 2021 Spring Break season, much to the Ghoul Boys' delight.
From the December 2020 season:
Towards the end of the first episode, the boys try to come up with a jingle to sing when they pull a story from the mailbox. They start with “ho ho, a letter, from our mailbox/ho ho, a letter”, and Ryan's first suggestion for completing the rhyme is “I hope we don’t get doxxed”.
At one point in the third episode, Steven swings by Shane and Ryan's chairs to top off their drinks. Ryan forgets who he's talking to for a moment and, picturing his partner Mari, responds with a cheerful "Oh, thank you, baby!", only to instantly realize that he just said it to Steven in an elf costume.
While Steven adds honey to the cocktail he's preparing at the start of the final episode, there's a sudden cut away from his spiel to a completely blank-faced Ryan saying the word "honey" in a strange, deadpan, overenunciated manner like he's an alien unfamiliar with the food, which no one reacts to before the camera cuts right back to Steven.
The summer 2021 season ends with a tipsy Shane unfortunately mangling the chant he and Ryan have been reciting before pulling stories from the pool.
Shane:Father, father, make it wet! Ryan: Don't say that.
For the December 2021 season, the crew bring on professional bartender friend Ricky for higher quality drinks. As a result, each episode features Steven getting increasingly jealous and unhinged as he attempts to compete with Ricky. It culminates in a Rage Breaking PointFreak Out that sends the others into hysterics.
Steven: WHY ARE YOU SO GOOD AT THIS?! WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME?!
At one point in the "Elegantly Reading" round, Shane prepares to give his score for a story, donning a fake Boston accent as he says that "I feel it in my bones and my heart". Ryan seems confused… before a moment of realization hits him and he admits he misheard him as saying, "I feel it in my bones, and I'm hard".
Ryan and Shane play a bingo game throughout the season, and are out of it enough by the final episode that they at one point squabble over whether Shane can "double bimbo" Ryan. They also finish off the episode by eating whole lemons and enjoying it.
Shane: I'm in love, I'm in love, and I don't care who knows it!
When Ryan reads the story regarding Robert the Doll and needing permission to photograph him, the sheer absurdity of the final line leaves him a giggling mess, causing him to take three attempts to even finish the tale.
Ryan: "Long story short, my grandma did not ask permission." Oh my God. [Ryan throws the card down in laughter] Shane: And then she died? Is that what happened? Did Robert the Doll k-word her ass? Did she get IBS? What happened? Ryan: "Long story sho-" [Ryan again begins to uncontrollably laugh] Shane: Lot of "long story shorts" and "needless to say" in these, but... Ryan: "Long story short, my grandma did not ask permission to take his picture, and the next day..." Shane: What?! Ryan:"Hurricane Katrina hit."
"Look. I don't respect Robert the Doll. I'll happily drag his name through the mud. But he was not responsible for Hurricane Katrina! You can't pin that on him!"
In the final episode of the 2023 travel-themed season:
When Steven (finally) made a delicious drink on par with Ricky's, he bids farewell and happily runs into the darkness, away from the filming location and doesn't come back for the rest of the episode.
If you think the Robert the Doll story is the funniest story, think again. The final story takes the cake for making Ryan and Shane laugh the hardest and longest in this show, as the former struggle very hard to finish the story without wheezing and giggling. It all starts with the opening line...
Ryan: "When I was a wee child I have the the ability to swallow meatballs." [Both instantly laugh, with Shane clapping] Ryan: (While still laughing) I want to make it clear. I didn't mispronounce that.
Dish Granted
At the end of Ryan's episode, he's absolutely delighted by the souped-up homemade Cheesy Gordita Crunches that Steven makes him... and decides he can't contain it.
Ryan:[Yelling off of Steven's balcony.] Hey, everybody! I'm eating an amazing taco! This is the best day of my life! [Beat.] Random Unseen Pedestrian Below: ...Okay! Ryan:Thank you!
Steven wants to make a side of hand-pulled noodles for Keith in the fourth episode. He enlists chef Kiano Moju's help getting his dough to cooperate, and once they've gotten into a roll in getting the noodles pulled...
Steven: Oh, no - mine folded... Kiano: It's because we were slapping them around like schoolchildren. [Gilligan Cut to a beaming Steven and Kiano slapping their noodle dough around on the counter like schoolchildren.]
Steven drifts off into some interesting musing while prepping the marinade for his chicken.
Steven:[Jaw Drop.] ..."Marry"... is when two people join together and get married. "Marinade" is when you bring flavors together and join them — is that a coincidence...?! Do you, marinade, take this chicken to be the... person that you marry... nade...
Keith loves his chicken meal and remarks after Steven sits down to join him that he's upset he's already eaten half of it. Steven affirms, saying they should probably save some for the crew.
While Steven's serving Simu Liu the boba drink he's concocted for him, he tells him that he made the ice cubes for it out of tea so they won't water down the drink when they melt. Simu, whose entire demeanor has been laid-back and upbeat up to this point, practically snaps back, "You son of a bitch, that's genius!" in a tone like he's genuinely offended he hasn't thought of putting frozen tea in a drink before.
Steven makes guest Ronny Chieng a cocktail to go with his meal using the beverage Milo, which is popular in Malaysia. He asks, just to be sure, if he's familiar with the drink, leading to this bit of banter between courses.
Ronny winds up having some rather frank criticism of the non-drink portion of the lunch Steven makes him, praising his creativity and presentation but pulling no punches in pointing out the ways in which the lack of authenticity and experience behind it result in a lackluster taste for a Malaysian street food connoisseur. It's a Downer Ending by the standards of the show, given every other guest up to here has been happy with their meal or dish... but the mood's softened by a credits outro that sees Steven sitting on his stoop by dusk, eating a sandwich and staring wistfully off into the distance as very fake-looking rainstarts splashing against his back.
Zach Kornfeld requests a cake shaped like his face. When Steven and Tony eventually show him the final result, which is modeled after his entire head and which is kind of hilarious and terrifying to look at in and of itself even though it's actually not that bad of a likeness from two first-time food sculptors, he cracks up and throws a few good-natured roasts out at the most obvious aspects of it that aren't exactly lifelike... but then leans in and slowly kisses it on the mouth. And then he kisses it again to take a bite and start everyone off on chowing down, which devolves into all three men full-on attacking the cake with cleavers and hammers.
Zach:[Cutting a slice of the cake's face.] They say that eyes are the windows to the soul, and I've always wondered what my soul tastes like!
In the Eric Nam episode, Melody mentions she often confuses the Korean words for "tasty" ("masisseo") and "handsome" ("mosisseo"). When Steven asks if one can't be both tasty and handsome, a grinning Tony turns the camera on himself and quips, "That's me," with an impromptu subtitle that even ends in a little ":)".
Steven and Melody's Phone a Friend tip session with chef Deuki Hong winds up involving Deuki waving what appears to be a knife at Steven as he chastises him for joking about burning truffles.
Steven: Is that a fake knife?! Melody: That's a real knife, huh… Deuki: I don't know why I have this with me. I'm sorry.
The Ghost Files
There's something darkly humorous about Shane and Ryan humming "Yankee Doodle Dandy" at Waverly Hills to prompt the ghost to join in, complete with Ryan dramatically pointing and yelling "Take it away!"—only to freeze up in absolute terror when their EVP recorder picks up a low humming right afterwards.
This little gem from the solo investigation segment in the episode about Alcatraz:
Shane: I think Ryan is probably muttering to himself—what's the thing he says? It's like, "I am not my fear, I'm not my fear, I will not let my fear define me, fear is not my middle name."
Cue Gilligan Cut to Ryan going, "I'm not my fear, I am stronger than my fear..."
From St. Ignatius:
Ryan's explanation for why he and Shane will be exploring the building alone.
Ryan: A fortune-teller once told me I'd die on camera, and she seemed like she needed a win.
Ryan and Shane discuss how cool it would be if the Ovilus said their names in dictionary mode. The first word to come out in dictionary mode is "nerd".
A later Ovilus session during an attempt to talk to a ghost dubbed Bill gives them the words "him" and "kill", and when Ryan and Shane ask who it means by "him", the Ovilus gives them "God". It's equal parts spooky and amusingly over-the-top, especially given that for a moment and much more unnervingly, they were trying to figure out if it meant one of them - and they keep diffusing the tension with an impromptu Jurassic Park reference as they change rooms.
Ryan: God creates Bill. Bill kills God. Shane: Woman inherits the Earth.
Yet another Ovilus session during an attempt to contact the ghost of one Sister Joanna gives them "Mark" (the name of the director and cameraman), and, when Ryan asks what she wants to do with Mark, "position" and "inside". In an area of the facility that, as Shane underscores as they're leaving, has "Coom Zone" spraypainted on the wall.
Shane decapitates a ventriloquist dummy and holds the head up to the security camera Ryan is looking at on the monitor.
Hull-House Museum:
Shane attempts to actually fight a ghost in the Hull-House Museum. He even punches the air and the Spirit Box proceeds to have moans and a voice saying "stop" and "back away", implying it worked.
After almost an entire episode trying to contact the so-called "Devil Baby," Ryan begins his solo adventure into the house. He hears a baby crying sound, and almost runs out of the house...until he realizes it's just Shane on the walkie he hid.
The Hobo Hill House investigation's Estes session gives the Ghoul Boys gems of results (reported by Ryan) such as "Tell you what... I'm dead" and, after a momentary devolution into repetitive "oh-oh, oh-oh"s, responding to "Why are you grunting like Tim Allen?" with "I want to."
The Haunted Home of the Duyck Family
House has a chicken coop with living chickens, which distracts Shane greatly
Ryan: Could you put your chicken boner away and focus on investigating some ghosts?
The Haunting of the Hinsdale House
The 3D overview of the house has a brief appearance from the Professor, roasting a marshmallow at a campfire in the back yard.
Mystery Files Debrief
Decoding the Devilish Chupacabra: Ryan and Shane discuss which cryptid they would want to hang out with and the possibility of riding Mothman.
Shane: Mothman is on my list.
Ryan: Mothman's gonna get you horizontal one way or another, either on the bed or in the air.
