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” (SVU - S9E11) like a blanket on a mattress--or a high society douchebag, 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, serial killing, cult leader dad who isn’t afraid to go big. True Munchies will enjoy the divergent rides 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.

The most beautiful thing about Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is that it’s provided a truly insane platform for some of the most inspired stunt-casting in television history. Not only is “Slaves” (Season 1, Episode 22) a sterling example of what SVU can do in this arena; it’s the first foray into that arena for the show and blazed a helluva trail for any who followed this ‘80s Brat Packer. If you didn’t know you needed to see your beloved star of Mannequin and Weekend at Bernie’s Andrew McCarthy portray an exacting maniacal sadistic sexual psychopath, take our word for it, you need to see it here. Come and check out Andy Mac’s Crash-parry in the McCarthy/Spader kink-off because this is some next level insanity. This is MUST-WATCH SVU.

Law & Order: SVU is often salacious and upsetting and certainly problematic, but rarely does an episode—”Brotherhood” S5E12—reference foreign object anal penetration a whopping 22(!) times. Obviously, for the love of all things good, please be warned that we will be talking A LOT about that triggering subject. Of course we will also be discussing exotic woods, waste water treatment facilities, Lutheran traffic patterns, Josh's COVID scare (he's negative), and Adam's salad days. You're not going to forget this one anytime soon, and you will NEVER look at a wooden handle the same way again.

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.

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. They also finally chat about the 1980 exploitation chase flick, Night of the Juggler.

Another week another problematic turn from the heinous minds at Law & Order: SVU. This time we are watching "Rockabye" (S7E9), an episode which upsets Max, poses numerous questions about the cutlery skills of a mid-Atlantic runaway sex worker, and forces Josh to make highly problematic threats against Billy Chenowith's awful Dad.

After Adam tells of his travails in the recent Texas winter storm and ensuing power outages, the Munchie Boys get down to business, reckoning with the ghosts of series past while persevering through an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit featuring a robot child mimicking human emotion stuck in the strangest of custody battles in “Stolen” (S3E3). While dealing with a bonafide Cragenisode courtesy of his former partner Max Greevey’s cold case getting tossed in the microwave, Adam and Josh also dive into post-9/11 SVU credits, do some height detective work, walk the Appalachian Trail with Mark Sanford, and unearth a fictional Juris Doctor degree. They also follow up on last week’s promise to watch and talk about the late ‘90s truckin’ Swayze gem, Black Dog.

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). Needless to say, we had a whole lot to talk about. Enjoy!

With a melange of Ripped from the Headlines story points peppering the subject of this week’s installment, Season 5, Episode 8 “Abomination,” there is A TON for Adam and Josh to talk about, including Matthew Shepard, Lawrence v. Texas, the odious Westboro Baptist Church, the sham that is conversion therapy, and Oscar-nominated actor George Segal. But don’t worry, there’s plenty of talk about what really matters to you: hypotheses on the possibly sketchy operations of East Village gay bars, the evolution of acceptable language in television and film, how insanely problematic the movies of our youth are, in-depth analysis of characters’ eating habits, and the warped mindset created by the repeated ingestion of the general insanity of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

The Randomizer doled out an episode well-suited for the pandemic in which we find ourselves with this week’s installment, “Retro” (S10E5). Martin Mull guest stars as a quack doc who pied pipes his followers to their AIDS-denying deaths. Along their dimwitted death march, we learn about a Gambian dictator who “cured” HIV/AIDS with a secret blend of herbs, revel in dunking on Christian Scientists, and explore how to avoid getting toxoplasmosis, all while dodging the cries of infants contained both within this episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and in real life.

Contrary to Freud, sometimes a sandwich is just a sandwich. The sandwich that Olivia Benson eats at the denouement of "Risk" (Season 4 Episode 12), a rollicking tale a of yuppie coke king who improbably turns to wholesale mom slaughter, however, carries a heaping pile of lost innocence and love turned sour within its soggy buns. Join the Munch crew as we break down this truly bizarre gem. If you are curious about fall foliage, the John Cusack classic One Crazy Summer, or Tutuola scion Ken Randle's ability to drive the basketball, you have found the correct Law & Order: SVU podcast. 

What happens when an accent choice derails an SVU where the initial crime is wrapped up in an open-and-shut murder at minute 19 and becomes a bizarre cold-case-cum-morality-play sans benefit of flashback? Well, the Randomizer selected “Persona” (Season 10, Episode 8), so Adam and Josh found out the hard way. For far from the first time in the run of Munch My Benson, a foreign-born actor plays fast and loose with a wavering accent. This time, the offender was two-time Oscar-nominee Brenda Blethyn, whose presence pulls a certain big gun down from the bench to settle a 34-year-old score. Along the way, the question as to whether this feminist text passes the Bechdel test, the greater concerns raised by Liv’s proclivity towards inappropriate actions, an exploration of just what “vile thing” meant in 1974-speak, and an alternate reality in which Benson DuBois chases down perps are all discussed.

Law And Order: SVU frequently takes the viewer to uncomfortable places, and co-hosts Josh and Adam are no strangers to the depths of the criminal imagination. Still, they were not fully prepared for this vertiginous decent into the tawdry wrinkled world of swinging elder sex. If you want an in-depth discussion of the ethics of mercy killing, the NYPD’s somewhat lax emergency first aid standards, and whether or not one should speak to the police while wearing nothing but a fully open robe and a smirk, then you've come to the right podcast. Benson, Stabler and the rest of the squad are joined by stars Jane Krakowski and Anthony Rapp for "Bound" (Season 5, Episode 23). This will definitely leave you "satisfied." Enjoy!

Thomas Jefferson once declared coffee “the favorite drink of the civilized world,” but the wild world of coffee trading on display in Season 9, Episode 18, “Trade” would seem to imply that it’s also the favorite drink of loaded scumbag fathers who look eerily like the pater familias in the Christian-propaganda family dramedy 7th Heaven. In the O’Halloraniest SVU in Munchstory, Adam and Josh hit the mother lode. When a father knocking up his son's fianceé is far from the most shocking aspect of the episode, you know you've struck gold. This glorious, wildly inappropriate pun fest delivers the goods and then some. Along the way, we examine the dodgy tax haven that is Liechtenstein, marvel at the suspension of the laws of physics, wish we were on the second unit shooting this installment, and get incensed about the show's misunderstanding as to how the coffee trade actually works. Strap yourselves in, and get ready for a jolt because Reverend Camden was let loose, and the ensuing havoc knows no bounds.

It is a wonder that "Underbelly" Season 8, Episode 7 passed NBC's Standards and Practices Department for any number of reasons. It sexually objectifies real-life 14-year-olds, it is extremely racist, it makes offhand references to piss play, and it takes us on a mind-bending Pynchonian journey to an interzone where The Wire both exists and does not exist depending on the exact placement of John Munch on the Eastern Seaboard. Join Josh and Adam as they unravel a bizarre case involving Stabler, Munch, Sister Peg, Beck (wait who?), and the cast of Season 4 of The Wire and learn about vintage Ferrari pricing, chemical spills in Nunavut, and the mating behaviors of 40-something divorced Dads.

Between raging infernos, rank corruption, riotous anger, and rampant stupidity, the world is a challenging place, but co-hosts Josh and Adam have "been to the mountaintop" and aren't concerned about any of that right now. Folks, we just watched a pantheon tier Law & Order: SVU, "Hooked" Episode 15 from Season 6. Hayden Panettiere and her dead friend Lisa cut a swath of sexual devastation leading from a Queens clothing boutique straight into hearts and minds of Munch Heads everywhere. From horned-up stargazers and rage-crying dads to sex bracelets and "a little girl-on-girl action," this episode has something for everyone.

It's a postmodern joyride for our hosts this week, as Adam and Josh confront one of the stranger episodes of Law & Order: SVU, "Pretend" episode 21 from season 8. Storylines are layered on top of each other like a fresh spanakopita, and various meta-narratives are exposed: Is casting a 25-year-old who can pass as a teenager to play a 28-year-old who passes for 16 a function of the plot or an indictment of the entire entertainment industry? Can luchador and extreme wrestling mix? Will Adam ever get a quiet moment again? Add in gimp masks, grief nuts moms, and sex offenders rights activists ,and you'll begin to appreciate the level of madness that awaits within.

In an alleyway on the Upper West Side, there is a portal to realms that lie beyond human comprehension. Of course, the dedicated detectives of the Special Victims Unit do nothing to investigate this mystery. They also neglect to investigate the sudden, shocking death of a mostly innocent man. In fact, it’s not clear that there is a proper investigation going on here at all. Still, Adam and Josh do their level best to reckon with “this insane fever dream of an episode” called “Blast,” Episode 13 from Season 7.

Adam and Josh wrestle with GHB, a reality in which Benson was in a sorority, the continued mistreatment of the homeless, super rapey college bars staffed by enabling deviants, theorize the genesis of Christopher Meloni's entrée into Wet Hot American Summer, and apocryphal baseball lore which can only mean one thing: they watched "Consent," Episode 10 from Season 2 of Law & Order: SVU.

The Randomizer gave the world "Ridicule" (Season 3, Episode 10) this week, and it's a magnificent gift. Featuring guest stars Paige Turco and Diane Neal as not Casey Novak, this one delves into the spicy world of male strippers and autoerotic asphyxiation while asking the age-old question: can a woman rape a man? What about three women, commonly called a rape troika? It's an episode for the whole family to enjoy, so do yourself a solid and watch and listen!