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

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 85: The Whole Second Half of This Episode Basically Is Stabler Can’t Give Everyone a Ticket to the Gun Show (S12E13 Mask)

Super famous Oscar-, Emmy-, and Tony-winning actor Jeremy Irons sashays through this week’s wonderfully messed up episode of SVU, attempting to reckon with his out-of-control Cape Cod Summer o’ Sex two decades prior. Of course, if it comes up in the course of an investigation on this program, you know the effects are still being felt of his indiscriminate adulterous boning of everything that moved in Falmouth, and this time, they’ve gotten his daughter and her lover attacked.

This gleeful voyage into the world of sexual addiction is fertile ground for plenty of discussion about such subjects as: parsing the paradoxical simultaneous adoration of Tony Blair and loathing of George W. Bush, tattoo critique, teen boys having pervdar, the strange ol’ days of Spice, summers on the Cape (and the corresponding nighttime water temps), the Kamadeva, and the broad, beautiful spectrum of paraphilias. Turns out, there’s tons of fun to be had when Jeremy Irons is a recovering sex addict trying to get his addiction codified in the DSM-5.

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Episode 78: She Has Ears That Lend Themselves To Elfing (S13E22 Strange Beauty)

People, this episode of Law & Order SVU ("Strange Beauty" S13E22) is why we do this podcast. Steve from Sex And The City pays women for the pleasure of removing their left legs so that he can "appreciate" their "improved" bodies. If this doesn't make you stop what you're doing and ask, "WTF?", I don't know what will. This show manages to impugn dentistry, cab drivers, Sikhism, car services, pigeon handlers, bike mechanics and especially (like especially especially) psychiatry, and yet it treats the potentially fraught subject of extreme body modification with a reasoned and compassionate touch. We, of course, dive into a variety of strange diversions including superfund site freeganism, what Melinda Warner is truly "into," and what you can—and cannot—get away with in a storage unit. This one is for the ages, folks. Enjoy!

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Episode 77: Given the Genital Geometry, We Don’t Know That It Wasn’t the Poop Chute (S18E10 Motherly Love)

When the Randomizer selects a late-season SVU, there is often a concern that sets in that we might not be getting the best of the insanity that SVU has to offer. That concern was UNFOUNDED with regards to “Motherly Love” (S18E10)—which is a banger in every sense of the word. After having seen nearly 500 episodes of SVU and recorded 77 episodes of a podcast about the show, it’s safe to say that the Munchie Boys have been subjected to some unimaginably shocking things, yet this one still dropped their jaws with its brazen impropriety.

So listen as Adam and Josh revel in a truly disturbing exploration of motherhood in its darkest form. This episode is as good an exemplar as any when trying to describe why this podcast exists.

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Episode 76: We’ve Already Used Detachable Penis (S7E18 Venom)

When The Randomizer chose the week's episode—Venom (S7E18)—listeners would be forgiven for thinking they might be embarking on an hour's worth of sub-par television, but they'd be wrong. This—the first half of Ludacris's voyage through SVU (we covered part 2 in Episode 51 of Munch My Benson, "You Can't Eat Ethan Hawke")—features some standout performances and wildly inappropriate content. The Munchie Boys obviously break it down in lurid detail and answer an assortment of essential questions: How to dig a shallow grave? Why are they still making courtroom dramas? What are Liam Neeson's most underrated films? And of course, how many times is too many times to say "nips out on a gurney?" This one will make you wish Tej Parker would open up an East Coast branch of his car-modding, bro-hugging crime syndicate. Enjoy!

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Episode 68: Close Enough to See Dick Mole (S9E15 Undercover)

We got to watch an all-time Law And Order SVU ("Undercover" Season 9, Episode 15) which sees Olivia Benson go undercover in a notorious women's prison in order to catch a serial rapist corrections officer. Along the way, we discuss the proper way to light an upskirt be-ankled panties shot, '90s nepotism star Barry Van Dyke, and the meaning of the phrase "iron kitten." We also talk about a few of the more famous residents of New York State's Bedford Hills Correctional Facility For Women. This is one of the standout episodes of the entire series, and though it mostly deals in shocking trauma, the writers and producers of this wonderful show found ways to sprinkle in lighthearted dick jokes throughout this heart-pounding hour of television. Enjoy!

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

Coming off back-to-back Bad Dad eps, the Randomizer gifted the Munchie Boys with 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 56: She Just Wanted to Get Sticky Fingered (S9E11 Streetwise)

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.

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Episode 54: I Really Have Do a Rectal, So… (S1E22 Slaves)

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.

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Episode 53: Nips Out on a Gurney (S5E12 Brotherhood)

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.

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

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

Where to begin? 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 31: It’s a Bad Way To Wake Up If You’re a Recovering Alcoholic (S13E23 Rhodium Nights)

The cliffhanging Season 13 Finale “Rhodium Nights” is an episode that belongs in the pantheon of SVU entries, featuring what has to be the most memorable ending in the entire series. This wild ride takes us down a slew of odd paths, including discoveries of Rollins’s economic beliefs, explorations into load volume, lamenting meddlesome US foreign policy, and travel recommendations for border towns. There’s TONS to talk about in this one, which is a truly shocking installment of television.

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Episode 16: The Birmingham Callback Is Too Mundane (S6E15 Hooked)

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.

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