As a trans woman, con confirm that this movie isn’t offensive. It’s actually so comedically off base that it feels more like a meta joke about how little people understand what trans experience is like

“Trans women become women to have it easier in life” is just so… offensive coming from the crowd that tries very, very hard to make trans women’s lives hell

They didn't give Jordan Peterson lines because it would cost them a fortune to pay Jim Henson's estate to licence Kermit's voice.

I feel like by coach straight up telling Alex they're wrong, and then physically assaulting them, he kind of validated Alex as a woman. Because what is the female experience if not a man telling her she's wrong and hitting her if she talks back?

The reminder that more than half of the Daily Wire crew's supervillain stories involve them being rejected by Hollywood is funnier than anything in Lady Ballers.

Jordan Peterson on “Lady Ballers”: “You ask me, ‘Do you think that “Lady Ballers” is funny?’ Well, before I answer that I have to ask, What do you mean by ‘do’? What do you mean by ‘you’? What do you mean by ‘think’? What do you mean by ‘that’? What do you mean by ‘lady’? What do you mean by ‘ballers’? What do you mean by ‘is’? And what do you mean by ‘funny’?”

Every progressive commentator can realistically imitate a conservative. There isn’t a single conservative commentator who can realistically imitate a progressive.

I'm not entirely sure why no one's pointing out that getting rejected from Hollywood is essentially the modern equivalent of getting rejected from art school.

As a trans woman who has zero interest in watching Ladyballers, I made it over an hour into this episode before anything actually offended me. No physical courage. Sure guys. It takes no physical courage to walk down the street alone at night as a woman. Nevermind being trans - being ANY woman requires acts of physical bravery these "people" never will understand. And it's far more dangerous for trans women than cisgender women.

For a man who decries Hollywood movies for pushing “agendas,” all of Shapiro’s conservative films are ham-fisted political statement first, semi-cohesive story second. Comedy… never.

Can I point out that a gag revolving around the idea that squirrel is so gross to eat that you spit it out even when you thought it was delicious is an *incredibly* soft-handed city boy take? Make it roadkill or at least like armadillo or something, squirrel is such a normal thing to eat if you live in an even remotely rural area.

finding out Ben Shapiro is basically a stay at home dad really took me out

Even when Jeremy Boreing is cast as the lead protagonist, in a screenplay he wrote and directed, he still comes off as the villain of the movie.

"Conservatism has only ever consisted of a single proposition: That there should be an in-group, whom the law protects but does not bind, and an out-group, whom the law binds but does not protect. It has never meant anything more or less, in any time or place." - Frank Wilhoit

"This movie committed the worst crime a movie can commit. It's not that it was bad, bad can be fun - *it was **_boring."_*

Every time I see that scene where he tells his daughter she’s supposed to be better at having nebulously “feminine” traits I hear the voice of Beatrice Horseman going “Now why don’t you sprinkle some sugar on a lemon? That’s a nice tasty Girl Snack.”

So the inciting premise of the film is "The whole world has moved on from me and left me behind" and the resolution is "The whole world should regress until I am comfortable again" Which really just is the plot of any of these right wing or christian movies.

The liberal lady leaning in and whispering "I'll cancel you" is kinda funny since it's a conservative's biggest fear. I'm sure the audience shrieked or shuddered.

Thinking about how even in a movie explicitly “about” woman athletes, they still didn’t bother to call up Gina Carano, an MMA fighter.

To be fair. In RoboCop. It does take a long time for RoboCop to appear. But until that moment... we have giant robots blowing people away in boardrooms. High speed high octane cop-car chases, fun and engaging banter between all characters, and more gun violence than most gun nuts can handle. So when he finally does appear, we're rooting and hollering for him to kick butts and not chew any bubble gum. Because he's all out of gum and I might have misplaced this movie reference.

This movie: "Women civilize men." Also this movie: "Women can't civilization."

Props for showing the real WNBA players vs regular fit men. The number of dudes honestly thinking they'd stand a chance against a professional female athlete is too damn high.

“More strawman than an atheist in a Kirk Cameron movie.” is such a bar.

"We all get confused sometimes" giving "Everybody's gay once in a while!" energy.

The funniest part of "Lady Ballers" is that the realistic outcome of average men competing against professional athlete women was highlighted years ago in an episode of "South Park" where Cartman competes in the Special Olympics and comes in last in every event.

Lady Ballers did have one good running joke: The idea that the media actually talks about trans rights.

I teach a film class to high school students Eye-line is literally one of the first things I teach to demonstrate that “some films are objectively better than others, it’s not all entirely opinion”, showing them examples of clumsy formal technique of different kinds

The sheer spite of Cody's "I carved it into your car" had me howling. Those six words are funnier than Daily Wire's entire catalog.

I truly can’t stand how the daughter’s claim that men are better at “most STEM fields” goes unchallenged. What kind of father would be like “Well, that’s true, you can never be as smart or successful as a man no matter how much work you put in” ??? Most STEM fields are about innovation and inventions, of which millions come from women and other folks with marginalized identities. It’s not a “ranking” system where we’re competing based on IQ or some bull… but nvm, I’ll go trade my degree in for a diaper changing station or something

I think their issue is that they are so steeped in their echo chamber that they don’t see their political views as being political. So when you point out how much of the movie is just political grievances, they say, “That’s not political, it’s just common sense.”

This movie: "women congratulate eachother on tasks that require no physical bravery" Women: pain and bleeding every month, organs being displaced during pregnancy, casually being ripped apart during birth. Taking on most of the emotional and physical labor in their relationships, etc. 🤨

It's interesting that @The Critical Drinker criticizes a lot of Hollywood movies for female characters not having much of an arc or needing to change because the world changes for them, yet it's apparently not such a big deal when the male protagonist in Lady Ballers is exactly this.

It hit me after the “Jeremy sure loves winning“ segment that his daughter’s name is “Winnie.“

Its always funny how these people think that five ex-high school basketball players now around 30 years old going against a professional women's team would not be absolutely humiliated on the court.

As someone named Koty, who constantly got called Katy, your ads sometimes feel like a fever dream I had once.

The funniest part of this whole video was seeing Matt Walsh claim they would appreciate criticism. Nobody at the Daily Wire will listen to any of this criticism and just brush it off as "triggering the libs" or some bullshit despite all the precise points on why the movie is objectively bad.

As a cis-het woman, I've been kicked in the groin at age 14 by my 7 year old cousin, about 7 years ago. Hurt like hell, the worst pain in all my life. So, no Ben, a woman getting hit down there actually really hurts as well.

I have a theory that "Mr. Birchum" was specifically written with Nic Offerman in mind because they didn't understand Ron Swanson was a caricature and were surprised when their libertarian hero turned out to be a "big gay lib" in The Last of Us

A character arc means admitting you were somehow wrong. The creators do not want that.

Ben Shapiro: “The play was awful, Godot isnt even in it!”

And the lesson we learned today: The Vienna Art School shouldn't have rejected the Daily Wire staff

Can't get over how the "murse" is a fanny pack instead of a purse. They couldn't even do a bad recycled joke right!

I'm glad you touched on the fact that the team in the movie would absolutely get wrecked by a professional women's team. I don't particularly enjoy watching women's basketball but it is a simple and completely undeniable fact that the worst player in the WNBA would absolutely smoke me at basketball. A team of the five worst players in the WNBA would completely decimate a team of former high school men's basketball standouts. I think average people don't fully understand how much better professional athletes (men and women) are at their respective sports than the average person.

I am unreasonably excited to spend my shift listening to a 1-star review of Nazi Grown-Ups.

One of the weirdest things about this movie is that it’s clearly unfunny, and they made it believing that people who think it was unfunny were instead “triggered” by it, so that’s a win in their book. Imagine making *a full length movie* to troll the libs? That’s completely insane.

So, let me get this straight... It's a movie about a bunch of former high school sports idiots who are bitter that they don't have what it takes to succeed further then that and blame it on other people... Written and "acted" out by a bunch of people that never grew past their high school years mentally, who are very obviously bitter that they can't succeed the way they wanted to and that they don't matter as much as they thought they did, and who are convinced that the problem is other people because they were fine to begin with?

"[Men are better at] most of the STEM fields!" _What?_ This is some real segregated chess league braining.

The Alex character coming out, who was presented as a very kind and relatable guy, is so heartfelt and honest that I think it had the exact opposite effect on the audience to the one DW intended. I guess they wanted to say that no matter how they feel trans women aren't women, and accidentally just showed how despicable that idea is.

Also during the section on Character Arcs, I had a major revelation: South Park more or less already did this story 20 years ago with the Special Olympics episode. Cartman fakes being disabled to get into the Special Olympics (in the most offensive way possible) thinking he’ll clean house and win every event, but gets absolutely floored by the other competitors who, despite being physically or mentally handicapped, are STILL ATHLETES that trained for the competition. Maybe if Lady Ballers went in a similar direction it would actually be a fully baked movie beyond trying to “trigger the Left” or something

Cody... You missed one huge fact. These people think their views aren't political. They think their views are the world default the way things should be or are. So while people who think critically can see that they are guilty of the same thing they complain about, their viewers won't care because it doesn't challenge them. It is only "political" if it is something you don't believe. Ben and his fellows believe their way is the right and only way, so to them it isn't political. They are wrong because society is made up of more people than just them, but I am surprised you didn't mention this. If you did and you see this, 1) thank you for reading my comment Cody. You are awesome. 2) let me know where, so I can review and check. Love the show! Please continue

We on the left get our science from scientists. You on the right get your science from failed actors and other Hollywood rejects. This debate is so done.

I don't even need the audio for this episode, just watching Cody having a meltdown on mute already represents how I feel about Shapiro Boy.

my favorite thing is that they tried very hard, repeatedly, to get their team to compete in women's sports to prove a point to help promote the movie. Tragically they couldn't find a single place where it worked.... Because sports organizations require at least three full years of HRT first. They're literally making up problems they imagined in their head.

The scene where the our lead explains to his daughter that, sure, men get to do all of the stuff that is cool, fulfilling, financially rewarding, world changing, powerful, ect, but honey! You get to take care of us, and "tame" us (aka be a mommy maid and help us drain our balls), is just...fucking wild.

33:25 This genuinely breaks my heart. Because it shows that they really can see the perspective of trans people, of us feeling comfortable with ourselves for the first time, and they just do not give a shit. No attempt at a middle ground, at understanding, at recognizing that maybe someone has different life experiences (though, that "everyone gets confused" line...). They truly don't see us as people. We're charicatures to them. Our happiness doesn't matter to them.

It's funny how the Critical Drinker despite being obsessed with "bad writing" didn't pick up on any of the character arc flaws in his review.

i feel like this has made me really appreciate the craftsmanship and creative sensitivities of Adam Sandler films for the first time

The part where Jeremy's character hits Alex was so disgusting, the fact they feel they can frame this moment as a joke just hurts so much

I have to say, I really appreciate the easy Cody described, basically the fake chivalry of the right. I was raised in a very conservative family and community. There was always a lot of talk about protecting women and treating them with respect. The 3 roles or tropes I was raised to believe women fulfill, always in relation to men: 1) pure and innocent, and to be protected by men, first their father and brothers, then by a gentleman/husband, 2) flirty, fun, and basically for entertainment, too much though is slutty and de-valued, but not flirty enough means not feminine or desirable, so find the right balance so a man will actually want you, and be happy enough to protect, provide, and not cheat on or abuse you, 3) the ball and chain. The wife/mother figure conservative men love to treat as crazy, to be feared, or force to reckon with, and yet, somehow, this pseudo powerful woman is still someone to be dismissed if she is too crazy/unreasonable, and really, the men are just humoring her to keep the peace. I always vehemently hated all of those positions. I saw my mom fit into all of them, and I didn't want any of it. She was not actually valued or respected, and she would change to try and elicit certain treatment, being flirty, it playing the helpless woman, or occasionally making some bills claim about how men should treat women with respect... But I never actually saw anything that felt like respect. It's still hard to articulate how it felt, but I liked how Cody put it. It's a vaneer of protecting women and women's spaces while actually excluding them from their spaces. It's infantalizing. It's not real respect, and it doesn't actually protect women from anything. These are the kinds of men we typically need protection from.

"Her lines are more strawman than an atheist in a Kirk Cameron film," almost made me spit my water. Well done.

I like how the movie casually states that women are bad at parking and it's glossed straight over. I'm not even sure it's supposed to be a misogynistic joke, it's just stated as a casual fact.

Historically, the most common reason for creating a women's category in a sport is literally women beating men and men getting upset about it, then claiming women can't compete. Women's Chess is one example (and no longer strictly segregated -- women still mostly play women's chess, but aren't *required* to), but it's actually one of *many.*

It's crazy (but not surprising) that they discovered the premise was fake in the course of making this, and it didn't register as important.

I had a comment about the film, but I was so shocked by the news that Ben Shapiro is a high-powered hard-working mother who doesn't get enough sleep that I deleted it all.

Matt Walsh going after John Oliver...He's punching way above his weight class. If John ever does a segment on Walsh he'd rip him to shreds. 🧏🏿‍♂️🙆🏻‍♀️

I enjoyed that they couldn't even get the "real love interest is won back over because she was secretly listening to the heartfelt message the whole time!" trope right. She walks into the shot halfway through and sure, she probably realized what he was saying but the acting suggest she somehow was hearing it the whole time, even though she CLEARLY was not hearing it until she stopped. Just show her being there the whole time, you dolts! Or show her walk up and suddenly realize what she's accidentally overheard earlier in the damn speech. Holy shit is it badly done.

I recently saw the Bill Burr movie on Netflix because I thought it would be funny. For most of the runtime it was the same “Bill is angry at soft people” joke over and over again, but even it recognized that the main character needs to grow and change. Early in the movie Burr cusses out a guy on Bird scooter, then at the emotional climax of the film, in one of the few parts that actually made me laugh, Burr is trying to make to the birth of his daughter, but his Uber is stuck in traffic, and he realizes he’s going to have to take a Bird to get there on time. At which point he realizes it’s actually a lot of fun and proceeds to do everything he previously criticized. His emotional growth by the end is that he learns to control his outbursts for the sake of his family and just cusses at people under his breath, which actually feels pretty realistic. I guess my point is that it’s not a particularly good movie, but even so it’s leaps and bounds better than lady ballers

The scene where the Jeremy Boring character rebukes Daniel Considines’ character’s realization that they are trans is really telling. Jeremy Boring justify’s his rejection uttering “we all get confused sometime”. Implying that every straight cis male has trans intrusive thoughts. No Jeremy, everyone does not have trans intrusive thoughts. A lot of people know who they are. Some are confused. And that’s ok. Just be what makes you happy. But it sounds like you, Jeremy, are the one who is confused.

I find it bizarre that less than a year ago they were annoyed at the Basketball player Brittany Griner who is 6ft 10 and now they are claiming the average man who in the US is 5ft 9 will just boss women's Basketball.

I find it telling that in the ads they use violence to convey their disapproval - buring the razors, burning the barbie, and at the peak of the trans player's arc the coach just ball taps the player - I'd argue it's not simply to make a point about having balls makes you a man, because they are juveniles that react petulantly to what they disagree with. This movie is a fascinating piece of projection about failed basketball people made by failed entertainers, both who pretend to be something they're not for their selfish profit at the expense of others.

"""no physical courage""" meanwhile nurses working around the clock through plagues and wars and dying in droves yet still pressing on

Now feels like a good time to bring up "we need women to civilize men" is strikingly similar to the 'moderate' position that "slavery was necessary to civilize black people" in the confederacy.

The fact that they bleeped out the curse words in a comedy, and didn't even have the creativity of having the game horn, or a fan with an air horn, or some other kind of noise interrupt... Just regular bleeping. Because why lampshade the fact that you're skirting around the censorship, when you can break immersion? That might actually resemble comedy. And we can't have that!

This video made me realize the one thing I think I find funny about this movie, which is that Jeremy Coachman is so obsessed with winning he literally named his daughter Winnie

I think every discussion on this movie should start with the clip of the Daily Wire staff talking about the movie, and they admit (without realising how this discredits them completely) that this was originally going to be a documentary, but that the amount of work they would have to go through (CRT, living socially as a woman, etc.) to actually get into womens sports in America was too much. This single point invalidates everything they say about trans women in sports. I think the reason conservatives think this is a comedy as they think this could actually happen, and they are laughing at how weird and silly the world has become, despite being based on a false premise...

I like that Jeremy Boring writes a movie where he's the main character and using his complete creative freedom has his fictional wife getting down with someone else. Just really a thing he wrote for himself there.

I'm a little surprised nobody is talking about how the monster that is this film's main character (Rob) shows drippingly insincere "compassion" to Alex when (s)he confesses that (s)he's trans, telling Alex that (s)he "needs help" when (s)he does (I literally growled to myself "this is the only time I've *ever* seen a right-wing pundit bring up/imply therapy in a context where they're not denigrating it or mocking it, how telling), followed by Rob ASSAULTING Alex, the very person he was JUST disingenuously and "compassionately" saying he wanted to help. Sums up these people pretty perfectly, I think; instead of compassion or empathy, they just have authoritarianism, sadism, and cruelty.

Know what other jobs require multitasking, taking care of multiple other people, and communicating? Being a manager, any manager, in any industry, ever. You know leadership roles. Jeremy is obviously saying that women are better in leadership roles.

Seeing Dead Domain in this video regarding the copyright strike makes me heart scream with joy lmao. Dead Domain fans unite!

Imagine buying a bunch of expensive film equipment and making a movie without any experience. Who do these people think they are, Tommy Wiseau?

My main takeaway from this is conservatives actually have a fetish for getting cancelled. You know they had to retake that scene where she whispers "I'll cancel you" in his ear so many times

I really did actually love the badger joke that had trey parker energy

The fact that this video is getting more views than a lot of Ben’s most recent videos makes me chuckle.

Having every clip of the movie with SLOTS JIZZ (POOL BALL) NET in the corner was absolutely inspired. Incredible work.

I know "every accusation is a confession" is a worn cliche, but good lord. I seem to remember so many conservatives complaining that Millennials believe that they should just get everything they want in the end because of who they are, then they turn around and make a movie where their "hero" does exactly that

"Lady Ballers is mostly made up of non-actors robotically speaking right wing grievances that have been halfheartedly reshaped to sound vaguely like dialogue" perfectly sums up this movie -- wouldn't know haven't seen it (TM).

Well done Cody and friends. This was dense. Ending with Ben admitting he’s doing what he says moms are supposed to do was mighty rich. Well played.

Amazing that they wrote, proofread, and then shot the scenes of them dismissing the trans friend and not encouraging his daughter, and thought "Yes! Surely this is something a hero who is right would say! Not an unfeeling unlikeable villain!"

The essence of satire is examining truth in a new and unexpected way. When your "truth" is a convenient fiction you craft to justify your prejudices (and deep down, they KNOW this), what you get isn't satire. It's an applause sign for all the people trying to convince themselves that their prejudices are true.

Lotta talk about what direction people are standing on the screen, but it looks to me like every character is always on the far right

calling that song at 10:55 an iDVD menu theme caught me so off guard, god damn that's so funny. extremely high quality slam

If you add all of Ben Shapiro's producer credits up, they make up half of the experience you need to STILL get your screenplay rejected!

I think you might have hit the nail on the head on why conservative media so often sucks. They make the mistake of saying "well, the hero shouldn't change- conservatives don't change. Everyone else should bend to meet them." And that's not a compelling story. It's silly, because they could make it about a liberal-leaning person who learns conservative values, but they won't do that, either. That would require them to empathize with people who have different views, understand their views, and make an argument that would actually change someone's mind, and if they could do that, they wouldn't need to be two-bit talking heads spewing pathetic propaganda.

That Eye Line fuckup is extra fucked up because I literally learned that shit in HIGH SCHOOL and I wasn't even taking film-specific classes

Hell yeah, dropping Dead Domain! First _Ladyballers_ review I watched, and heckin' solid.

I thought this video was going to start off with some kind of critique of the film’s insipid messaging, but a 5 minute lecture on proper eyeline usage is honestly so much more brutal.

36:02 This "movie" claiming that women aren't as good as men at Rock & Roll just proves that no one involved in it has ever heard any female rockers, possibly not any female musicians, period!

Thanks for the dissection. It's a good proxy to help me understand the content without directly supporting production of more.

28:11 "Winning matters! It's the key ingredient to becoming a winner!" This is such a bad line. lmao

I still can't get over the fact that the head of a content-creating media "empire" is named Boreing.