Bad and Sad: Daniel’s Homeowner Maintenance Checklist | Ep. 306

Daniel and Soren spiral from a question about fatherly virtue into the unglamorous rituals of homeownership: cleaning dishwasher filters, testing fire extinguishers, inspecting crawlspaces, and worrying about phantom basement leaks. Daniel confesses to following a Redditor’s “psychotic” home maintenance spreadsheet, while Soren admits he’s never once tested a smoke detector. Along the way they cover the delicate art of writing jokes for Last Week Tonight, a formative childhood fire incident, and the existential dread of discovering a wasp nest the size (but not shape) of a dog. Support The Understudy on indiegogo: https://www.indiegogo.com/en/projects/nataliefrost/the-understudy-a-feature-film/rewardsThanks to Shopify for sponsoring this episode. Sign up for a $1/month trial period at shopify.com/qqFollow the guys on Bluesky!https://bsky.app/profile/danielobrien.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/sorenbowie.bsky.socialBonus episodes 2x/month at patreon.com/quickquestion OR Apple Podcasts

Daniel's going to be a dad, and as you can guess he's being very normal about the whole thing, which means Soren gets to be the wise elder dispensing hard-earned advice about nap discipline, phantom drowning babies, and the forbidden art of sleeping anywhere.Thanks to ASPCA Pet Health Insurance for sponsoring this episode. To explore coverage, visit ASPCApetinsurance.com/QUESTION. The ASPCA is not an insurer and is not engaged in the business of insurance.Follow the guys on Bluesky!https://bsky.app/profile/danielobrien.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/sorenbowie.bsky.socialBonus episodes 2x/month at patreon.com/quickquestion OR Apple Podcasts

Daniel and Soren wade into the Riyadh Comedy Festival mess: who showed up, who stayed home, and how much moral flexibility three million dollars buys. Then a hard pivot to domestic policy (when to wash a dish and when to call it art) before wrapping up with wasp warfare and the case for seeing what everyone on the internet actually looks like.Thanks to Shopify for sponsoring this episode. Sign up for a $1/month trial period at shopify.com/qqFollow the guys on Bluesky!https://bsky.app/profile/danielobrien.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/sorenbowie.bsky.socialBonus episodes 2x/month at patreon.com/quickquestion OR Apple Podcasts

The guys solve sleeve thumb-holes earlier than expected, then move on to songs that slap-- specifically cover songs that slap-or at least did slap at one point in the mid-aughts.---- SHOW NOTES??Hey Ya (Outkast cover) by Obadiah Parker (Matt Weddle):    • Obadiah Parker - Hey Ya Cover  I Think I Love You (The Partridge Family cover) by Tenacious D:    • I Think I Love You  Baby Got Back (Sir Mix-A-Lot cover) by Jonathan Coulton:    • Baby Got Back  Read "I Didn't Need To Know All of That About Travis Kelce", article by Rachel Handler (h/t @Vulture ): https://www.vulture.com/article/taylo...Read Murder on Sex Island by Jo Firestone: https://bookshop.org/p/books/murder-o...Daniel's substack: https://danielobrien.substack.com/ ----Thanks to ASPCA Pet Health Insurance for sponsoring this episode. To explore coverage, visit ASPCApetinsurance.com/QUESTION. The ASPCA is not an insurer and is not engaged in the business of insurance.Follow the guys on Bluesky!https://bsky.app/profile/danielobrien.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/sorenbowie.bsky.socialBonus episodes 2x/month at patreon.com/quickquestion OR Apple Podcasts

Daniel talks through the post-Emmy afterglow that never arrived: a clean cut to Kimmel, a week of headlines, and then absolutely no industry knock at the door—no agents, no meetings, not even a polite threat. Soren matches him with his own long relationship to being un-represented on a very represented show. Plus the private logic of phones and closets: color-gradient app grids, folders labeled “Who Cares,” bottom-row dock politics, and the eternal “useful” pile. Finally, a full throated endorsement for Writing Things Down.Follow the guys on Bluesky!https://bsky.app/profile/danielobrien.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/sorenbowie.bsky.socialBonus episodes 2x/month at patreon.com/quickquestion OR Apple Podcasts

Forgive us if this is getting predictable, but Daniel's back from another Emmys weekend in Los Angeles — his seventh award, but the first time he’s actually given the speech. He and Soren talk through the stress of timing jokes against Nate Bargatze’s running bit, how John Oliver beat him to the shortest-speech gag, and what it feels like to have too many trophies in a small apartment. Plus detours into plane movies (Mickey 17 and, controversially, Oblivion), fake dicks in White Lotus, and why some celebrities are simply more naked than others.To explore coverage, visit ASPCApetinsurance.com/QUESTION.  The ASPCA is not an insurer and is not engaged in the business of insuranceFollow the guys on Bluesky!https://bsky.app/profile/danielobrien.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/sorenbowie.bsky.socialBonus episodes 2x/month at patreon.com/quickquestion OR Apple Podcasts

Daniel and Soren celebrate their 300th episode by not celebrating at all. Instead, they try to find a modern equivalent for the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game. Their journey of naming working actors takes them on a wild ride of channel numbers, 90s baseball players, and the secret lives of character actors. The question is, can they come up with a new game without getting sidetracked by more lists of names?Follow the guys on Bluesky!https://bsky.app/profile/danielobrien.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/sorenbowie.bsky.socialBonus episodes 2x/month at patreon.com/quickquestion OR Apple Podcasts

Soren and Daniel spiral from NFL training camp envy to the existential dread of improv comedy. Along the way: childhood coaches who never found the magic words, the dream of living in dorms again, why “maximum capacity” should be on a tombstone, and recurring nightmares about being forced onto  @dropout  Game Changer.Thanks to Shopify for sponsoring this episode. Sign up for a $1/month trial period at shopify.com/qq Follow the guys on Bluesky!https://bsky.app/profile/danielobrien.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/sorenbowie.bsky.socialBonus episodes 2x/month at patreon.com/quickquestion OR Apple Podcasts

Soren and Daniel once again find themselves in the middle of a podcast about home maintenance, as Daniel reckons with sabotaging his own washer and almost taking credit for fixing it. He also tries to make sense of driveway contractors who negotiate against themselves. Soren, meanwhile, explains efflorescence, revisits the joys of attics and crawl spaces, and describes the particular misery of hauling out a possum that’s been dead too long. Stay damp out there, folks.Thanks for ASPCA for sponsoring this episode. To explore coverage, visit ASPCApetinsurance.com/QUESTION.  The ASPCA is not an insurer and is not engaged in the business of insurance.Follow the guys on Bluesky!https://bsky.app/profile/danielobrien.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/sorenbowie.bsky.socialBonus episodes 2x/month at patreon.com/quickquestion OR Apple Podcasts

Daniel and Soren split their time between two topics: voice acting for animation, where Soren takes us behind the scenes of American Dad for some interesting observations about talent and skill, and then a titular Quick Question from titular Daniel about starting franchise businesses. The first half covers everything from Homer Simpson’s changing sound to Seth MacFarlane’s least favorite voice to why impressions can’t replace original delivery. The second half imagines what kind of franchises they’d bring to their own towns — from Daniel’s deliberately short-term fitness studio to Soren’s dream of importing Tucson’s beloved Beyond Bread to Los Angeles.Follow the guys on Bluesky!https://bsky.app/profile/danielobrien.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/sorenbowie.bsky.socialBonus episodes 2x/month at patreon.com/quickquestion OR Apple Podcasts