Episode 302: Jonestown Part III-Check Please

Broadcast
January 26, 2018

Programme Subject
This episode takes place in the middle of the group's coverage of the rise and fall of The People's Temple and the massacre that happened in Jonestown on November 18th, 1978. Several new characters are featured in this episode including fan-favourite Mr. Muggs, the Jones family's pet chimpanzee, Peter Wotherspoon, Johnny Garbage

This episode also features the announcement of Henry Zebrowski becoming engaged to his long-time girlfriend Natalie Jean.

Summary of the Episode
The episode begins with an advertisement for another Last Podcast Network show, The Story Must be Told before the intro begins.

Right off the bat, Marcus and Ben announced Henry's engagement to Natalie with grim-sounding wedding bells and Ben asks how Henry "put the ring on the bone-marrow." Henry describes how he originally wanted to tell Natalie that Wendy accidentally swallowed the engagement ring and would show he an x-ray of the ring in Wendy's guts. However, he instead says that he tied the ring to Wendy with a ribbon and when Natalie came home, the dog would go up to her and show her the ring. The newly-engaged man claims that he feels very stable and happy, claiming that Natalie cannot leave him legally without a team of lawyers. However, Marcus warns his friend that the "wedding-planning stage" of a relationship is harrowing and difficult.

The group then transitions into discussing Jim Jones beginning to use drugs to augment his performances and help him control everything about the congregation. They talk about how busy he was and how his followers would brag about how little they slept. They mention that Jim Jones had a knack for putting people in the right position to work, including Tim Carter who realized that he was excellent at organizing and keeping things in order (binding his followers closer).

They talk about how Jones would take speed to keep him going and the quaaludes to bring him back down, making his eyes very red which explains why the leader began to wear sunglasses. Of course, he came up with a ridiculous reason to explain this to his followers, claiming that he had reached a holy state so powerful that if he were to remove the sunglasses, the followers would be burned by his God-like power.

Next

The group goes on to discuss how Jim Jones' wife, Marceline, who attempted to leave due to Jim's adulterous affairs and wanted to take all 5 of their children with her. However, when Jim called a family meeting, he outright threatened to kill Marceline with his private army if she left and she sadly did so.

Marcus mentions that while Marceline was having a terrible time, the Jones kids were having a good time due to the family purchasing Mr. Muggs, the family chimp. Jim used this pet as a way to build himself up, claiming that he "saved" the monkey from a laboratory. This leads Henry to create a brand new character, Mr. Muggs with a built-in robotic voice box. The boys also mention that Mr. Muggs was one of the first victims of the massacre in 1978. This leads to the slight off-topic of The Today's Show and their mascot, J. Fred Muggs, who had his own brief spin-off show and live-in girlfriend, Phoebe B. Beebe. They also talk about the Forrest Gump book series and how the character went into space with a chimp and Raquel Welch.

Sources and Further Reading
The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple by Jeff Guinn

Raven: The Untold Story of Rev. Jim Jones and His People by Tim Reiterman

New Comedy Characters Featured

 * Mr. Muggs Jones: a fan-favourite new character created by Henry. Mr. Muggs was the actual pet monkey of Jim Jones' family and while it was claimed that he was saved from a lab, he was actually bought at a pet store. Henry rolls with the laboratory lie and pretends that the monkey has a voice box that makes him sound robotic. He also appears to notice what is happening in the cult and wishes to warn everyone.
 * Masculine People's Temple Nurse: a one-off character who is part of Jim Jones' cancer scam, where the leader claimed that he healed people from their cancer. For this scam, he would use chicken guts as the tumours. This planted nurse forcefully tells Ben that he has cancer and asks if he's like Levon Helm and does podcasts.
 * Johnny Garbage: a fictional People's Temple Member that represented the followers of the People's Temple who would have to eat the chicken guts used in Jones' cancer scam. Johnny Garbage willingly volunteers to eat the stinky leftovers and apparently, everyone hates him giving him the revolting purpose of eating the guts.


 * Nugg Gnomes: possibly cousins of Terry the Gnome, they sneak into people's houses at night where if there is a picture of Henry in a jar, they leave nuggs inside. However, they seem to be bad at their job since they usually smoke the nuggs and forget if they put them in the jar or not.
 * Random People's Temple Member: a fictional person who describes the socialist society that People's Temple was living. The member of the group describes how they are all sharing a bar of soap and Sonia (likely another member) gets the toilet all weekend because she didn't use it for a month.

Returning Comedy Characters Featured

 * Jim Jones: The slurring cult leader
 * Whitey Firestone: the unlucky member of the People's Temple. (a real person who was Jim Jones' whipping boys, the one that he would pick on and bother the most). In this episode, Marcus describes how Whitey was one of the People's Temple Members who had his stories about his personal abuse and mistreatment in the cult published in a magazine. However, his stories were backloaded and were meant to be published later, so by the time the magazine was going to publish it, Jim Jones had made such stink about it that the truth about the cult's abuse was not revealed until much later. Henry makes Whitey into a character who is bad luck all the time; his life is one mishap after another. This includes: getting his feet stuck in a chair, having his sandwich stolen by a bird, being accidentally locked inside a refrigerator (which were supposed to be made so he could get out of them) and as his "interview" ends, he says he's going back to work at the nuclear power plant.

Foodstuffs and Beverages Mentioned

 * Fresh Direct and Uber
 * Fillet o' fish from McDonald's

Cultural References

 * Levon Helm
 * Oprah
 * Mike Judge Presents: Tales from the Road Cinemax experience
 * Vlad the Impaler
 * Cyclops from X-Men
 * Darth Maul
 * The Star Wars Holiday Special and Wookie
 * Charles Manson
 * Phillips Toothpaste and Crest (Jim Jones' random speeches)
 * International Peace Mission Movement
 * Uber
 * Forrest Gump book and Gump & Company book
 * 9 to 5 movie starring Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda
 * Ray Kroc and the McDonald's franchise
 * Raquel Welch
 * Chris Farley
 * Billy Madison movie
 * Atlantic City and slot machines
 * Tom Cruise in disguise trying to go to the mall
 * Sam the Eagle
 * Tony Clifton and George Jones
 * Carl from the movie Up
 * WWE The Miz
 * Raw 25
 * The Bob Newhart Show
 * Dollywood
 * Dolly Parton
 * The Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin
 * The Today's Show
 * Ed McMahon
 * J. Fred Muggs and Phoebe B. Beebe

Quotes/Classic Catchphrases
"Check Please!"

-uttered multiple times throughout the episode

"So when you put the ring on the bone marrow"

-Ben Kissel

"You are a human ladder. You literally have to be used as a land bridge. If there's a big wide creek, you have to lie completely across with your hands and your feet on either side."

- Henry Zebrowski about Ben's role

"Run children run, save yourselves. Save Muggs, save Muggs the monkey. Get monkey into police car!"

-Mr. Muggs

"Why are you wearing sunglasses inside? Do you... you are frightening me. Please stop trying to make love to me!"

-Mr. Muggs

"Please merchandise me, you're leaving money on the table."

-Mr. Muggs

"So you mean to tell me they allowed a chimp to run an entire television show? And was it just cancelled because it ripped Raquel Welch's face off? And they're like... we've got to figure a way to put it back on!"

-Henry about J. Fred Muggs on the Tonight Show

"Ben: Can you just imagine Ed McMahon getting slam wasted with that monkey?

Henry: (impersonating drunk Ed McMahon) I tell you what this chimp makes a lot of sense when he talks about immigration"

- Henry and Ben

"Yeah, of course, everybody's dying and falling... and you got to... don't tell me that the chimp is not going (makes monkey noises). (impersonating PT member) He is disturbing my death-like peace!"

-Henry about how Mr. Muggs would have reacted to the massacre

"Marcus: There were no chimps there, but you know what, those forests in Jonestown were full of monkeys. They said that was actually uh...in the mornings, monkeys were their roosters

Henry: That's terrifying. Monkeys are our roosters (makes monkey noises)

Ben: Time to make the doughnuts."

-Ben, Marcus and Henry doing improv