Podcast / Word Funk

A podcast created by Renegade Cut creator Leon Thomas and hosted by Leon Thomas, Austin Yorski, and Johnny Maloney, created to replace the Blistered Thumbs podcast. It contains the three hosts talking about games, movies, TV, other news... and very random subject topics that don't really connect with anything, from fork tines to The Loch Ness Monster, and from pulling Big Foot on a jetski to the Racial Police. If you like things that have a coherent formula and actually make sense then this is really not the show for you.

Each episode is named after something someone said in the podcast, often from the topics that are randomly brought up, such as 'Iron Man Vs Bigfoot', 'Muppet Of Death', and 'Swiggity Swag the Nightmare Stag'.

In October 2015 a spin off Dungeons & Dragons campaign under the name Dice Funk began airing. Usually gmed by Austin, with Leon and Johnny in seasons 1-3, Leon came back for season 10.

Click here for a comprehensive list of all their episodes.

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Word Funk provides examples of:

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Karen Prescott, the Skype Bot that contacted Leon during an episode, with Leon following it's randomly generated phrases with threats to throw 'her' out a window, and even quoting the famous 'Tears in the rain' speech at it didn't throw 'Karen' off it's stride . The three presenters then get cross at it for apparently having a 2 month Christmas break.

  Leon: [reading Karen's message] "I'm just back from Christmas break at school. I'm still in university right now so I was enjoying my time off, y'know." Oh, goddammit, this Bot is way too young for me.

  Johnny: How the fuck are they back from Christmas break at the end of fucking February?... What kind of school is this Karen Prescott going to?

• Bait-and-Switch: Johnny favors this approach.
  Johnny: Mojang, of course, is famous for [Beat] its legal battle with Bethesda over the name Scrolls.
• Berserk Button: Just mentioning Zack Snyder to Johnny is enough to bring the show to a vicious, screaming halt.
• Butt-Monkey: Shaun Kronenfeld, the unseen frenemy of the cast.
  Everyone: Please send your hate mail to [e-mail].
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: If anyone goes off on a tangent, yells out anything random and off topic, or just says something that will get the others cracking up, it will be Johnny.
  Austin: [To Johnny] You're like a shitty sitcom character, just bumbling around getting into improbable shenanigans.
• Democracy Is Flawed: This trope is called out by name during one tongue-in-cheek segment.
  Austin: One time in American history we all just decided—democratically!—that slavery was okay... That's why The Shawshank Redemption is #1 on IMDB.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Used for comedy whilst discussing a particularly gruesome looking sex toy.
  Austin: It looks like The Mangler from Stephen King's The Mangler!
• Drinking Game: Take a shot every time:
  • Johnny mentions he does karate
  • You hear police sirens in the background
  • Leon tells a Baltimore story (Take another shot is it's about 'Crime House')
  • They mention Dice Funk
  • They mention "Dank Memes" or another meme
• EXTREME VERSION:
  • Every time Johnny says something weird
  • Every time they make a dick joke
• Eldritch Abomination: Gorfinax, the alien deity created in 'All Hail Gorfinax!'
• Eldritch Location: Leon speaks of Baltimore like this so often that Austin suggests that a Bloodborne sequel be set there.
• Full-Name Basis: Leon introduces everyone by their full name every episode, but Austin frequently insists on referring to the host as Leon "Renegade Cut" Thomas for no discernible reason.
• Greatest Hits Album: A rare podcast version is available for the show's predecessor, simply called The BT Podcast. Part 1 and Part 2 encompass a sizable swath of the trio's depravity.
• Groin Attack: Discussed with alarming frequency.
  Austin: If the three of us ever meet, the one thing to keep in mind is not to leave your groin open. Something will happen.
• Hypothetical Fight Debate: Both an in-show and out-of-show example. Comments disagree about who would win in a three-way fight between Leon, Austin, and Johnny. Some think Johnny's martial arts training would prevail, while others side with Austin's size advantage. No one has faith in Leon, including Leon.
• I'll Kill You!: In episode 167, Leon describes dealing with a thief uploading almost all of his videos on to the persons own account. Annoyed with the sheer quantity, Leon left this gem of a comment:
  Leon: Take down all of the videos you have stolen from my within twenty four hours or I will *obliterate* you.
• Improv: Leon tries to keep the podcast organised by making a list of things to talk about... and fails badly as soon as any of them mentions random things such as Racial Police.
• Left Hanging: Some things we will never know the conclusion of.
  Did the Gravity Boner Full Leon Inafune’s fictional niece?
  Did Austin get much needed therapy after the horror gift from Johnny?
• Left It In: Very often in this show, often with hilarious consequences. In editing, Leon puts them before the theme song, often out of context.
  Johnny: Back massages! Satisfying...! Worthwhile! That, and having the pure, unadulterated truth... in my scantily clad lap, cause that's how close I like to be to the truth... I like to rub it on me in my underwear....
  [background laughter]
  Leon: I'm going to put that in the intro, like, out of context and everything.
• Letters 2 Numbers: Discussed in the appropriately named episode 'Trans4mers - Leprechaun Origins'.
• Makes As Much Sense In Context: The majority of the topics discussed, as well as the out-of-context pre-theme song clips (see above quote). God forbid if you phase out of listening for even a second because guaranteed that it won't make any sense at all.
• Mood Whiplash: Johnny revealing that he used to self-harm in the otherwise hilarious mess of an episode called 'Ridiculously Sexy Legs' brings the mood down slightly, but then they move on back into their usual antics.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: Austin says this when discussing people leaving Channel Awesome.
  Austin: I don't even consider this as a Channel Awesome show. It's just a conversation I have with my friends... and Johnny.
• Myth Arc: 'The Meat Wheel Mythos'. Involving Leon's CRIME HOUSE in Baltimore and Johnny's sinister court-order closed Sausage Place, with Leon's Bag Man and the mysterious 'Bunks', the Anarcyclist (name pending), and the God Gorfinax watching over all.
  Austin: In the beginning there was only the half Leon, but then... through miraculous circumstances there came to be the full Leon and it was good.
  Leon: And the world said NoOOOOoooo!
• Non Sequitur: Johnny specializes in this, especially as his sign-off comment.
  Johnny: Time is a relative concept. Glue is not.
• Noodle Incident: Any time Johnny gives a bit of advise to the audience, you can't help thinking how he knows that and why he feels compelled to warn other people about it...
• Only in Florida: Austin is perhaps the Patron Saint of this trope. Highlights include getting into a fistfight in church, living in a hotel, and finding human remains (!) in the woods. Many of these stories originate from the BT Podcast, but they pop up on Word Funk from time to time.
• Person as Verb: When Johnny comments that he's bought new razors, Austin is immediately concerned for him.
  Austin: Oh no, he's gonna Sweeney Todd himself!
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: For an apparent video game and television based Podcast, only about 1 in 10 episodes actually stays (relatively) focused on these.
• Pun-Based Title: Exemplified by the episode 'Don of Justice'.
• Robosexual: Surprisingly, Leon takes up this mantle, whereas Johnny previously joked about it on the BT Podcast.
  Leon: My sexual relationship with your computer has nothing to do with love.
• Running Gag: "Studio Ghibli's closing down!?" "Studio Ghibli's not closing down!?" "Studio Ghibli's signed a recording contract with Weird Al!?"
  • Leon's "No OOO Ooooo!"
• Separated by a Common Language: Austin gets confused by British currency and calls them Euros.
  Austin: He asked for 30,000 British... cursive capital E... is that a Euro?
  [Leon's dying of laughter in the background]
  Johnny: That's a Euro.
  Austin: He asked for 30,000 of those.
• Spiritual Successor - The show is essentially BT Podcast 2.0. The main difference is Leon's editing, which keeps each episode to an hour's length (instead of 2 or 3 hours).
• Super Hero Origin: Johnny got one in the episode 'Renegades of Funk'.
  Austin: Someday an evil entity will hack that satellite, and when it updates your watch you will become Wave Scepter!
• Tagline: Austin suggests "Word Funk: There's no reason for any of this" in the episode 'Racial Police.'
• The Cameo: Not in the show itself, but Johnny appears as a character in FTL: Faster Than Light, Wasteland 2, Shadowrun Returns, and possibly more. In fact, Austin argues that he is the true villain of Shadowrun's Dead Man's Switch campaign.
• Toilet Humor: Not as common as it was on the BT Podcast, but it crops up with some regularity.
  Leon: This got really fecal all of a sudden.
• Understatement: Johnny saying to Leon, "Do not read into the things that I say, Leon. My opinions do not represent my opinions or anybody else's for that matter."
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Leon was married (he got divorced quite recently) and both Johnny and Austin are in straight relationships. This does nothing to diminish the flirty banter.
  Austin: Our show is way gayer than Lesbian Talk.
• Unusual Euphemism: Leon got creative during the sex toy segment of 'The NSFW Episode'.
  Leon: This is only for... insertion stuff. There's no way for a woman to use this... application.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Apparently Johnny as a teenager, as (apparently) shown in a photo in the episode "Austin Won A Yu-Gi-Oh Tournament."
  Austin: Oh no. Oh no. Johnny's hot....