Brainmelter, Pantheon, Novak, Peak, Classic Josh Duggan Brainmelter, Pantheon, Novak, Peak, Classic Josh Duggan

Episode 42: Whenever I Get Touched In An Unsafe Way, I Say Yes, Then I Make A Mess (S7E21 Web)

Another Paternity Leave Installment, and, yes, we're grabbing another wildly problematic episode pulled from the back catalog. As mentioned over the past couple of months, this has been behind the Patreon paywall for a while.

Where to begin with “Web” (S7E21)? Benson isn’t Stabler’s partner and is working in Computer Crimes. You’ve got the most aggressive sexualizing of a minor yet covered in the annals of Munch My Benson with Connor Paolo returning in one of the most insane episodes of SVU imaginable. There’s a shocking bout of TARU brutality. Kids are making mid-six-figures on their tween twink porn sites. Pedos are catfished. And the cold open's got the Molesto Muppets. This very episode was one of the handful Adam had in mind when the pod was a zygote in our hive-womb, and it DOES. NOT. DISAPPOINT.

Utter insanity abounds. Hold onto your butts, kiddos.

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Episode 52: It's Gonna Be Really Hard for Her to Find More Afterbirth for Her Voracious Angel (S7E14 Taboo)

Another Paternity Leave Installment, and we're grabbing another wildly problematic episode pulled from the back catalog. As mentioned over the past couple of months, this has been behind the Patreon paywall for a while. Patreon payments are frozen for the time being. A few resourceful new Munchies have figured out a work-around where you can join as a free member and upgrade from there to a paid account which charges you for one month and unlocks the back catalog behind the respective tier of the paywall. After that first payment, you won't be charged again until we're dropping new content (which we'll warn everyone is coming), so if you want more of this it can be had, along with access to the fully uncut episodes from 100 to present and Movie Club episodes.

When proceedings kick off with a pooch gleefully dragging discarded afterbirth down the sidewalk, you know you’re in for something special. “Taboo” (S7E14) delivers on that opening promise, proffering some of the wildest, most disgusting things seen in the Munchie annals. As Adam and Josh frolic through the filth, they talk pseudocyesis, the history of Bellevue, bus fight Twitter, and the epidemic of incest in the U.S. And speaking of incest, wow, does this installment of SVU find a way to make something already SUPER disturbing mindblowingly revolting. This episode is so nuts, you’ll feel the Unit needs to interview you afterwards. Hold onto your butts coz this one is BONKERS.

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Episode 38: That Is the Weirdest Wonk Boner I've Ever Heard Of (S15E6 October Surprise)

Another Paternity Leave Installment, and we're whipping one out that was ripped from the headlines...

Well, kids, we’ve got ourselves a very special Barbasode, complete with a super fun headline rip. This week’s episode of SVU? Season 15, Episode 8, “October Surprise.” The inspiration? Anthony Damn Weiner. Needless to say, there is TONS to talk about, like how likely is it that a mayoral candidate’s foot-jobbing side-piece would get shipped off to work for the Israeli Labor Party and how likely is it that said side-piece killed said political party? What would your Anthony Weiner alter ego name be? What should have won Best Picture in 1938? The answers to these and so many more burning questions can be had within the run of this installment.

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Episode 28: Winters Is Coming (S19E14 Chasing Demons)

Another Paternity Leave Installment, and we we're digging into the back catalog for one we really didn't like... As mentioned over the past couple of months, this is content that's been behind the Patreon paywall for a while.

For the 28th installment of Munch My Benson, the Randomizer forced Josh and Adam to watch an SVU that featured very little in the way of Law or Order but a whole lot of Mayhem. That's right folks, this episode, "Chasing Demons" (S19E14) brings SVU's favorite liability insurance pitchman, Dean Winters, back into the fold for 45 minutes of questionable acting choices. As ever, we digress. Does your mom's favorite SVU podcast feature spicy hot melon takes, comparative studies of European legal systems' wardrobes, or ruminations on the divine nature of the trinity? Didn't think so.

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Pantheon, Brainmelter, Peak, Late Classic Josh Duggan Pantheon, Brainmelter, Peak, Late Classic Josh Duggan

Episode 95: They Dropped It Like Lindsey Dropped Her Tampon to Be Eaten by Killer (S12E5 Wet)

Did you know that Liv tells a suspect that she knows he “stabbed the Captain with a pickle?” That’s no typo. It’s in this beautiful episode of SVU. S12E5 “Wet” is truly one of the most balls-to-the-wall, front-to-back utterly insane episodes the Munchie Boys have embarked upon in a podcast brimming to the top with insane installments. Moving past its fantastic name, this one is centrally concerned with:

  • SexProwl, a professionally conceived “YouTube of sex” wherein true douchebros have a following

  • Soda being little more than poison for our youth

  • Corporations trying to buy up our water supply and the dastardly tactics they’ll employ to meet their goals

  • Fungi, which should never be used to hurt anyone

  • The true horrors that inherited wealth wreak upon the rest of the world, namely bad performance art, unwarranted cocksurety, jewelry-related guilting, unloving guardianship, drug addiction, and the framing of innocent mycologists for murder

Seriously. Mushrooms, soda being poison, water rights, and horrible rich people. And it gives David Krumholtz a truly Krumholtzian role to jazz rant his way through. This is all a gift to humankind, and we’re glad to be here for it.

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Episode 83: We’re Burning Through Pedos (S4E15 Pandora)

When proffered the box of “Pandora” (S4E15)—phrasing?—Josh and Adam were forced to deal with yet another episode of SVU wherein many children fell victim to an international cabal of pedos, complete with one getting to proudly espouse his party platform to the detectives of SVU and a network television audience. This one hurtles forward at breakneck speed, taking Elliot from New York to Prague and back before the final act has even started. Along the way, Adam and Josh marvel at the way that early SVU writers had no real concept of how computers and the internet worked, the defenestrations of Prague, the endless stream of actors who REALLY pass for pedos in the SVU stable, and the emergence of Zero Dark Stabler. We’ve said it many times previously, but the label definitely fits here—this one is wild.

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Episode 50: That's an Upper East Side Slave Auction If I've Ever Seen One (S5E14 Ritual)

Strap in for a wild ride, Munchies. This episode of SVU—”Ritual” (S5E14), featuring Emmy-winner Michael Emerson—starts in a park with an apparent ritual sacrifice and dives head first into the world of child slavery, complete with a Fin undercover op and possible Upper East Side blue-hair slave auctions. Along the way, Adam and Josh practice Santeria, lament the stolen Elgin Marbles, assess what jewelry screams slave owner, and wonder what Adam’s glasses being donned by a gruesome murderer means for him.

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Episode 30: We Don’t Even Care About the Teenage Orgy (S11E1 Unstable)

Another Paternity Leave Installment, and this time, we went with a super problematic episode. As mentioned over the past few weeks, this is content that's been behind the Patreon paywall for a while. Patreon payments are frozen for the time being. New Munchies can't join as paying members until that's unpaused, but you can join as a free member and at least be kept abreast of pod news...

Well, we went a little long discussing "Unstable" the Season 11 premiere. Strap in for a wild ride through one of the most problematic episodes of SVU that the Munchie boys have covered. There are magical autistics, jaunty pimps, the worst of all bad cops who are bad, and plenty of weepy victims populating this insane romp which features quite possibly the best guest performance we've seen (Mahershala Ali)--at least as of 30 episodes in. Needless to say, we had a whole lot to talk about. Enjoy!

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Brainmelter, Pre-classic, Pre-history Josh Duggan Brainmelter, Pre-classic, Pre-history Josh Duggan

Episode 47: The Great Granny Panty Hustle (S1E18 Chat Room)

We've got another Paternity Leave Installment, and this time, we went with a fever dream of an ep from before the show knew what it was and definitely from before the show knew what the internet could do. As mentioned over the past few weeks, this is content that's been behind the Patreon paywall for a while. Patreon payments are frozen for the time being. New Munchies can't join as paying members until that's unpaused, but you can join as a free member and at least be kept abreast of pod news...

Look, we don't expect Season 1 episodes of SVU to get all the details exactly right, but in “Chat Room” (S1E18) the show gets the basics of the internet so gloriously wrong that it actually conjures many, many things into existence that didn't exist yet. Catfishing? Yeah, SVU invented that. Revenge porn? That too, sadly. Bitcoin, ffs?! Yes, Dickwolf is/was/will be Satoshi Nakamoto. Along the way to all these discoveries, we learn that SVU is a baseball show, that there is no wiggle room on chicken, and discerning listeners will be enchanted by Josh's deliriously deep dive on celebrity ocelots. Folks, we always recommend that you watch the episode in question before you listen, but this time we mean it. Enjoy!

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Cabot, Brainmelter, Pantheon, Classic, Peak, Stunt-casting Josh Duggan Cabot, Brainmelter, Pantheon, Classic, Peak, Stunt-casting Josh Duggan

Episode 88: Kevin Arnold Is a Power Reassurance Rapist (S4E22 Futility)

Another Paternity Leave Installment is here, and this one could ruin your childhood.

When The Wonder Years ended almost 30 years ago, no one could have imagined the incredibly dark turn that Kevin Arnold's life would take. Yes, Mr. Arnold's death, Paul's going to Harvard, and Winnie to a long and successful career on the Hallmark Channel were all disturbing outcomes, but this is much worse. This SVU shows little Kevin Arnold beating, raping, and then re-victimizing women across the Upper West Side. This obviously provides tons of fodder for the Munch mill as we dig into a really great episode of television. We talk Jeopardy! prep, our favorite lawyer lover plot twists, and Josh takes us on a particularly unexpected trip through the shenanigans of the Warwick R.I. city council. Enjoy!

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Episode 56: She Just Wanted to Get Sticky Fingered (S9E11 Streetwise)

Another week, another Adam's Paternity Leave release, this time we've got the one, the only Patricia Charbonneau, about whom this podcast is centrally concerned. As mentioned last week, this is content that's been behind the Patreon paywall for a while. Patreon payments are frozen for the time being. New Munchies can't join as paying members until that's unpaused, but you can join as a free member and at least be kept abreast of pod news...

When questions like “If I die, and there’s a hot tub, can I be made a saint?” get posed, you know things got weird. This installment in Munchstory has Adam and Josh covering “Streetwise” (S9E11) like a blanket on a mattress—or a society doucher, apparently. This episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has it all. Mae Whitman going from glitz to gutter and back again. STUNTS! Adam Beach. A bum family complete with a pretty messianic cult leader dad who isn’t afraid to go big. True Munchies will enjoy the diversions through high society, defunct Swedish automotive companies, the conditions necessary for beatification and the Christianization of the Welsh, defunct NYC music institutions, the nature of paintball, and much, much more.

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Pantheon, Classic, Peak, Brainmelter, Paxton Josh Duggan Pantheon, Classic, Peak, Brainmelter, Paxton Josh Duggan

Episode 62: He Got Down with an Arthropod (S11E3 Solitary)

Another week, another Adam's Paternity Leave release, this time we've got some of the best acting we've seen in MMB history...

The Munchie Boys watched a helluva SVU featuring Oscar-nominee Stephen Rea in a truly spectacular guest performance in an episode featuring a slew of great acting and seriously interesting direction. This week’s installment was “Solitary” (S11E3), and it’s one of the most existentially introspective and unique shows that has fallen into our laps. And of course, judging by the title of this week’s episode, other weirder stuff also got discussed, including Elliot’s extramarital dip into formicophilia, a roach and its wrangler getting jobbed out of residuals, tide charts and greater New York water temperatures, and narrowly averted wartime disasters. If we’re talking about how lots of people should have won Emmys for this episode, it’s a special one.

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Episode 236: We’re a Long Way from Bayside High (S3E7 Sacrifice)

What happens when Zack Morris turns up gut-shot in an alley behind a gay bar with multitudinous loads found in his person when he's examined at the hospital? Utter insanity, that's what. Not to be outdone, a young Elizabeth Banks pops up as his adult film star wife, and we go to set where she's about to treat some workmen pretty well. This is a wild one. What a time to be alive.

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Episode 235: A Helicopter Parent of the Most Self-Defeating Order (S3E22 Competence)

In an unprecedented turn in the annals of Munch My Benson history, this installment of SVU from Season 3 is simultaneously the standard bearer for representation of a marginalized and underrepresented subset of our population and one of the starkest examples of why it's always best to choose an actor who's a representative of that segment of the population. When given the choice to cast two characters with Down syndrome, they chose an accomplished actress with Down syndrome and an actor who'd later be the top-billed star of prestige dramas for her love interest. The results were something that needs to be seen to be believed.

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Episode 233: Nips Out and a Necktie (S20E9 Mea Culpa)

This week, ADA Peter Stone's fast and loose lifestyle during his younger days when he was still a baseball player comes screaming into the world of our SVUs. What happens when a main cast member is the lead suspect in the case the SVUs are investigating? Well, that largely depends on the showrunner and the according professionalism with which they execute the production of a television show. In this case, we're watching an episode from Season 20, and the results are... NOT GREAT, BOB.

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Episode 232: She Banged Carlos Baldarama After A Long Day At The Office (S4E14 Mercy)

The discovery of a dead baby found in a cooler floating on the Hudson inspires SVU to JD Vance levels of state aggression towards pregnant people. They cast aspersions at every customer of a beloved uptown health food store then wantonly ruin the lives of every family member of every Hudson U student they can find. Sadly, after a fast-paced first act, this settles into a paint-by-numbers Tay-Sachs morality play for the second half.

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Episode 231: Fashion Equals Bad (S1E3 …Or Just Look Like One)

When the dedicated detectives of Season 1 SVU wander into the world of fashion, you can't help but assume the worst is coming. And it is. Fashion is scary, children, and it's especially scary if you're a minor, as our vics find out. There's a ton of peripheral weirdness in this ep, and we discover yet another TV show that's in the larger SVUniverse.

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Episode 230: Ace Ventura Level Transphobia (S4E21 Fallacy)

I know all there is to know about the SVU. I've had my share of the SVU. First there's a body, then there are slurs. And then, before you know where you are, you're saying Dick Wolf.

Once again, we meet a trans character who is placed in the middle of a brutal scene, and the usual ham-fisted SVU shenanigans ensue. Buckle up, kids!

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Cabot, Brainmelter, Classic, Peak, Stunt-casting Josh Duggan Cabot, Brainmelter, Classic, Peak, Stunt-casting Josh Duggan

Episode 229: It’s More of a Stain in Heaven (S3E23 Silence)

This one gets all up in the confessional, culminating in a no-holds-barred Catholic-off between Stabler and Father Michael Sweeney (Eric Stoltz--or is it Stolitz?). Red herrings and misdirects abound, and since we're watching an SVU dealing with the Catholic Church, you can assume that some priest were taking some liberties with parishioners of an underage variety. While this one might kick off with some jarring early-season transphobia, it also has a lot of wild fun stuff, and if you weren't paying attention to the priest's name, don't worry, Josh caught it.

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Episode 227: No Good Has Ever Come from Snapping with a Chase (S20E20 The Good Girl)

A teen girl in a domestic disturbance call ends up being pregnant and unwilling to divulge much information about who provided the batter for the bun in her oven. While fighting off the urge to vomit, the Munchie Boys dive into the disgusting reality of what stepkid smut would have you believe is titillating but ABSOLUTELY is not. They also take up arms in a fight that must be waged, defending the honor of a state being unjustly impugned by a writers staff with wanton disregard for actual laws on the books.

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