Podcast / Friends In Your Head

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to...

"We're professionals, but not at this."

— Brian Finifter

Out of the ashes of a podcast called Geekza, four refugees from TheForce.net's message boards, all members of the film industry, began a weekly podcast in which they recorded commentaries for numerous films. Six years later, Friends in Your Head (formerly known as Down in Front) has expanded into a multifaceted program with a growing fanbase and an increasing scope. Its current lineup of splinter shows consists of:

• What Are You Doing, Movie?—film commentaries
• The Intermission—discusses current nerd events, filmmaking, and whatever else springs to mind
• Documentality—discusses documentaries and film journalism specifically; brainchild of Eddie
• Uncomposed—discusses film scores and music in general; brainchild of Teague

Website can be found here. Thanks for creating the page.

The show is regularly chaired by

• Teague "Fig" Chrystie (The Host)
• Brian William Finifter (The Science)
• Michael "Dorkman" Scott (The Fixer)
• Trey "The Amazing" Stokes (The Man Who Knew Too Much)

Along with semi-regular

• Eddie "The Eddie" Doty (The Fighting Editor)

And frequent guest stars

• Ryan "The Fucking" Wieber (The Emmy Winner)
• Chris "The Formula" Hanel (The Powernerd)
• Jake "Not the One from The Phantom Menace" Lloyd (The Cut Up)
• Cloe "Cloe Z." Zimmerman (The Sarcasm)

Numerous others have also guest-starred occasionally or semi-frequently over the show's run, including but not limited to Miki Marsala, Anthony Alba, Alex Ruger, Derek "Zarban" Jensen, and Paul Santagada.

Matt "Fayda" Vayda (The Fact Department) does show notes and chapter breaks for the iTunes feed (when Teague remembers to ask), and Holden Hill (The Webmaster) designed and maintains the podcast's website and message boards.

Starting in October 2014, Dorkman is taking an extended leave of absence after he was hit by a car and suffered severe injuries. There's a GoFundMe to help with his medical bills.

As of February 27 2015, the show is taking an indefinite hiatus while the hosts pursue other projects. It'll still come back when they feel like doing an episode *coughStarWarsEpisodeVIIcough*, but regular episodes are until further notice terminated. Details here. Thanks for everything, guys.

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Provides Examples Of:

• Acceptable Breaks from Reality: They will allow any movie to have one break from reality, a phenomenon they've dubbed the "magic bean" theory of screenwriting.
• All of Them: They occasionally quote this trope verbatim.
  Teague: John Rhys-Davies is so British...
  (beat)
  Brian: Umm...how British is he?
  Teague: All of it. He is all the British.
• Berserk Button: Do not insult Star Trek in front of Brian. Just don't. Unless it's Star Trek (2009).
  • Also, don't mention the Star Wars prequels or The Matrix sequels in front of Dorkman. Or the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels. Or Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Actually, best just to not mention any follow-up films at all unless they're The Empire Strikes Back.
    • For that matter, no lightsabers, either.
      Dorkman: Look! Look! You can't see the sabers because the background is bright! Goddammit, why don't people understand?!
  • Teague really doesn't like Spider-Man 2.
    Teague: I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T FUCKING KNOW! I DON'T KNOW HOW ANYONE IN THIS MOVIE EVER GOT INTO THE PICTURE BUSINESS!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! TOBEY MAGUIRE AND KIRSTEN DUNST ARE BOTH NOT PEOPLE!
• Brick Joke: The most prominent occurs during the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix commentary, in which Kyle (who has been awake for fifty hours and is rather incoherent) accidentally makes racist comments in an attempt to apologize...for accidentally making a racist comment an hour earlier. He continues to make increasingly ill-timed apologies throughout the rest of the commentary; it's both uncomfortable and hilarious.
• Cluster F-Bomb: All of the cast is pretty free with their language, particularly if they're commentating on a film they collectively despise.
  Teague: (on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) Aww, God, fuck, damn. 'They wanted treasure. Their treasure was knowledge. Knowledge was their treasure.'
• Commander Contrarian: Everyone at one point or another; Teague has claimed "I don't do anything for the approval of others" to justify why The Phantom Menace is his favorite of the Star Wars prequels, Dorkman is not a die-hard fan of The Princess Bride, Brian utterly loathes Star Trek (2009), and Trey hates Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
• Conversational Troping: The show started off as a more VFX-oriented project, but they've turned increasingly to discussing story structure, which has inevitably led to some of this being employed.

• Cure Your Gays: Invoked briefly—sorta—in the Batman Returns commentary, in which Dorkman confesses that if he had been pulled back in time and if it were the only way to get back to his own time, he'd sleep with Michelle Pfeiffer.
• Deadpan Snarker: Everyone at some point, almost appears to be a requirement to work in the film industry.
• Devil's Advocate: Brian tends to take on this role.
  • Dorkman will occasionally play "Stupid's Advocate" or, in the case of the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, "George's Advocate".
• Drinking Game: Their commentary on The Core featured one of these, resulting in many entertaining shenanigans.
• Drinking on Duty: An early staple of the show—particularly with Dorkman (Drunkman on these instances) and Teague—that has become less frequent in later years.
• Drunken Master: Give Dorkman a six-pack of hard lemonade and a microphone and he will rewrite any disappointing franchise in existence.
• Dye Hard: Teague, in the early years, sported a head of screaming-red hair.
• Fan Film: Nearly all of the main cast has made at least one.
  • Ryan and Dorkman have choreographed, performed, and done the visual effects for a very popular, long-running series of lightsaber duels.
  • Brian has written and performed in the Star Wars fanfilms "The Injured Stormtrooper" and "A Lost Hope", Apollo 13 spoof "Thanksgiving with the Kranzes", and Indiana Jones / Batman crossover Indiana Jones and the Relic of Gotham.
  • Trey wrote and directed George Lucas's favorite series of Star Wars fanfilms, the Pink Five Saga. Teague, Eddie and Brian have all helped with shooting, stunt choreography/performances, editing and VFX.
  • Chris co-wrote, co-directed and starred in one of the most critically acclaimed fan films of all time, The Formula, which is in itself a Deconstruction of fan filmmaking and the post-Prequel Trilogy Star Wars fandom in general. Ryan and Dorkman did the visual effects for the fight scenes.
• Flat "What": Cloe on Legion: "I believe its international release title was What?"
  • Attack of the Clones:
    Brian: "So The Phantom Menace came out and everyone went—'What?'"

• A Good Name for a Rock Band: Dorkman comes up with Thrashing Mound of Jesus in The Thing's commentary.
  • Teague suggests The Dagobah System in The Empire Strikes Back's commentary. Brian and Trey recommend that the band's first single be titled "Chewie in a Space Suit (Rockin' Out)".
  • On Return of the Jedi, they like the idea of a ska band called Faster and the More Intense.
• Heartbroken Badass: Redubbed "The Sadass" in the Cowboys & Aliens commentary.
• I'll Tell You When I've Had Enough!: Dorkman tends to do this on earlier episodes after a few drinks.
  • On The Core's commentary:
    Trey: Okay, no more drinking game for Michael.
    Dorkman: IT IS NO LONGER A GAME!
• It Makes Sense in Context: Spider-Man 2: "9/11, fuck yeah!"
  • In the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade commentary, they agree that the Nazi eugenic attempts at making more of the Aryan race might have been a good idea.
  • Cowboys & Aliens: "Harrison Ford hates gold and Daniel Craig kills women!"
  • Pan's Labyrinth: "All right, so we're gonna watch this movie right here, right now, with the bent of—is it in fact a giant cinematic vagina?"
    • "I like the Spanish ones more than the Jew ones."
  • Blade Runner: "Han Solo doesn't fuck the merman, and the guy from Deadwood has a little dildo monster! It's the best movie ever!!!"
• Lampshade Hanging: They never let a lampshade go unhung.
• Libation for the Dead: Part of The Core's Drinking Game.
• The Musical: Teague wrote, directed, edited, and starred in the little doomsday musical Sad Max.
• Non Sequitur: Usually courtesy of Teague.
  Teague: David Fincher's semen is made out of candy and brilliance.
  (beat)
  Dorkman: Okay, anyway...
  Teague: I've had three Mike's [Hard Lemonades].
  Dorkman: I've had four and I'm not even at that stage yet.
  • In The Princess Bride:
    Teague: Trey, talk to me about nipple torture.
    (beat)
    Teague: I'm trying to throw you segues you cannot recover from.
  • Lampshaded later on in that same episode:
    Teague: Okay, Act Two, Han Solo doesn't end up with the Princess, Dorkman, how do you feel about The Princess Bride?
    (beat)
    Brian: Now you're just devolving into non sequiturs.
    Trey: Answer the question!
• Noodle Incident: An incident involving a certain imageboard that will not be named has been referenced in several episodes. Later un-Noodled when Teague described the whole ordeal, in a pretty nifty audiobook available for download on the forum.
• Old Shame: Trey directed an Asylum movie; he doesn't appear to care all that much, but the other hosts will rib him about it occasionally.
  • Brian will sometimes threaten physical violence if his old short film "The Injured Stormtrooper" is quoted on air.
• Piss-Take Rap: In the Twilight commentary.
  Teague: So you're at the point where the Summit logo has faded to black, as I am here—so get your mouse on the finger on the button of the thingy with the...
  (beat)
  Teague: 3, 2, 1, unpause.
  Ryan: That was the worst rap I've ever heard.
• Pop-Cultured Badass: And how. Special bonus points to Dorkman and Ryan for being urban Jedi Knights and Eddie for being the crew's martial arts expert.
• Quote Mine: They've feared this happening a couple times.
  • On Legion:
    Dorkman: Legion: that makes sense.
  • On Twilight:
    Eddie: Perfect movie.
• Pungeon Master: Usually Teague.
  Dorkman: The great thing about Indiana Jones is that he's such a fallible character—
  Teague: I'd phall the hell out of him.
  • From their A New Hope commentary:
    Brian: Google 'Mimas moon', and you'll see an actual moon in our galaxy that looks exactly like the Death Star.
    Dorkman: (resignedly) That's no moon, it's a space station. Hey, somebody had to do it.
  • From Return of the Jedi:
    Teague: ...let's get choked up...while Carrie Fisher's coked up.
  • From Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone:
    Dorkman: Yeah, I'm not particularly impressed with the scar.
    Teague: I loved it in The Lion King. (bursts into "Be Prepared")
• Running Gag: Every sci-fi movie in history stole from Surrogates.
  • Adding the suffix -ing to the end of a movie title to form the title of the movie's sequel. For example, Pirates of the Caribbean II: The Pirating, The Passion of the Christ II: The Christening, The Ring II: The Ring-A-Ding-Ding.
    • On their forum, the thread for recommending movies to commentate on is labelled "Suggest a Movie 2.0: The Suggestioning".
  • In their Studio Audience commentary on Raiders of the Lost Ark, complete with a messenger boy running questions from the audience up to the podium:
    Teague/Dorkman/Brian: Message from the chat room...such as it is!
  • In response to a minor error: "I hope someone lost their job over that one!"
  • Whenever The Wizard of Oz is mentioned:
    Teague: (bellows from off mic) IT'S ABOUT POPULISM!
• Sentimental Drunk: A particularly infamous instance of this is Teague's waxing nostalgic at the end of The Princess Bride's commentary; he later labelled the outpouring as "the sonic equivalent of a guy stumbling down the sidewalk."
  Dorkman: I really wish this movie was a person so you guys could just get drunk and bang. 'Cos you need to sort this out. I mean, this movie is never gonna love you back as much as you love it, I'm just telling you that right now.
  Trey: Dude, she's cute, but goddamn.
  Teague: This movie has eyes the color of the sea after a storm... Frankly, this movie, and this is my personal opinion—
  Brian: Teague, repeat after me: 'I love it very much. The End.'
• Shout-Out: Numerous instances.
  • The Lord of the Rings:
    Dorkman: (bursts into song) Ithilien—fuck yeah!
• Signing-Off Catchphrase: Each episode ends with Teague reiterating info on the show's website and community, followed by the cast of that episode signing off. Sometimes followed by a Stinger joke.
• Signing On Catch Phrase: On every commentary episode.
  Teague: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Down in Front/What Are You Doing, Movie? Our movie this week is ______. Put your DVD or Blu-Ray in, press play, then press pause when the ______ logo fades to black. In a few minutes I'll say '3, 2, 1, unpause,' at which point I'll press play, you'll press play, and we'll watch the movie together in perfect sync. It'll be like any other commentary, except of course this time with four friends in your head. Those friends this week are myself, as always, Teague Chrystie, my friend Brian William Finifter—
  Brian: Greetings!
  Teague: Mr. Michael "Dorkman" Scott—
  Dorkman: Hello.
  Teague: And Mr. Trey "The Amazing" Stokes.
  Trey (insert joke here)
• Singer-Songwriter: Teague, who also plays piano and guitar. Now has an album being released.
• Spin-Off: Both The Intermission and Documentality are spinoffs of the original Down in Front, since renamed.
• The Stinger: Happens fairly frequently on commentary episodes.
• Studio Audience: All of their episodes are recorded with a live webcam and online chat room, but special mention goes to their Raiders of the Lost Ark commentary for being their only episode recorded in front of a physical audience.
• Sword Fight: Ryan and Dorkman are rightly famous for their series of lightsaber duels on YouTube.
• Take That!: Too many instances to number.
  • From their Raiders of the Lost Ark commentary, after Teague does an off-key rendition of Sallah's "Monarch of the Sea":
    Dorkman: What is this, My Chemical Romance?
    Teague: Why you gotta hate?
  • From The Lord of the Rings:
    Eddie: ...these books are the bestselling genre fiction of all time.
    Trey: Unless you count The Bible.
    Eddie: Well, obviously that whole question is up for debate.
    Trey: I think I've made my point.
  • Olivia Wilde is referred to as "Lantern Jaw" throughout the Cowboys & Aliens commentary.
  • On The Sixth Sense:
    Trey: And we do have to give The Artist Formerly Known as Shyamalan credit—
    Dorkman: I think you mean The Shyamalan Formerly Known as an Artist.
    • Earlier in the same commentary:
      Dorkman: If you look at his career backwards, he starts as a hack filmmaker who learns how to write characters and eventually shows some promise.
• The Team Benefactor: In general, Teague is the one who provides the location and the equipment that makes the show happen.
  • As an example for a specific episode, Eddie cooked a whole day's worth of Middle-earth-themed food for the The Lord of the Rings filibuster.
• Telethon: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Extended Edition commentary. Lasted all day, with every cast member in the show's history on mic.
  Eddie: There is a weird filibuster feel to what we're doing today.
  Dorkman: If we take a break, we'll lose momentum and who knows what the damn Republicans will do to us.
  • Soon to be topped with their twenty-four hour Harry Potter telethon.
• Unpleasable Fanbase: Not their fanbase—the Joss Whedon fanbase.
  • See their episode "Ten Things We Hate About You".

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