Do By Friday · Merlin Mann and Alex Cox

Lemon Difficult

April 8, 2026·1 hr 20 min·6 clips

Merlin recounts Gore Vidal calling William F. Buckley a 'crypto fascist' on live ABC television in 1968 — and Buckley responding 'I'll sock you in the face so hard you'll stay plastered.'

1. Do By Friday hosts Merlin Mann and Alex Cox spend this episode on a wide-ranging conversation touching on Canadian comedy, language precision, marketing absurdity, and historical TV moments. 2. No guests appear; both Merlin and Alex are the episode's only voices. 3. The episode is structured loosely around Merlin's evangelical desire for Alex to watch Nirvana: The Band, The Show, The Movie and Alex's qualified but growing interest. 4. The opening exchange features Merlin using the word 'decorous' to criticize Alex's answering style, followed by both hosts admitting they are not sure what the word means and attempting to define it through a discussion of word formation. 5. This Week's Challenge is announced as watching Video Heaven, a 2025 film by director Alex Ross Perry. 6. The Nirvana discussion covers the format of the Canadian TV series — two friends, Jay and Doug, attempting each week to play a small Toronto club called the Rivoli — and then the 2025 film, which reunites them 17 years later. 7. Merlin praises Jay McCarroll as primarily a composer and describes his piano playing in the film's score as a particular highlight. 8. Merlin connects the appeal of Doug's character to the David Brent/Basil Fawlty archetype: watching a person try to be high-status while everyone can see they are failing. 9. Merlin notes he brought three people to see the film for the third time: his spouse, who had been subjected to his Nirvana bits for years, and someone who had never seen the show at all. 10. A sidebar discusses whether watching the TV series is required to appreciate the film, with Merlin arguing the film's payoffs multiply with show knowledge but are appreciable without it. 11. Alex recounts receiving a BullStrap promotional text on Good Friday advertising 40% off trackable wallets — a company he ordered from in 2012 and never received his case. 12. Both hosts speculate about what marketing ideas BullStrap rejected before settling on a Good Friday sale, and note the text used caps and exclamation points. 13. A discussion of Spotlight and the film Doubt (starring Meryl Streep, with Amy Adams) as Good Friday viewing follows. 14. Merlin makes a digression about the 1968 ABC debate series between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley, held against the backdrop of Chicago convention-era protests. 15. The set piece culminates in Merlin quoting Buckley's live on-air threat to Gore Vidal: 'Call me a crypto fascist one more time and I'll sock you in the face so hard you'll stay plastered.' 16. A subsequent discussion of aging gay men's verbal culture leads to Truman Capote's response to Vidal's insults — suing him rather than trading barbs. 17. The episode's final extended segment begins with Merlin starting an annual story about a 1988 Tuesday new wave night at a gay bar, where he and a friend named Michael went for what he describes as 'the sisters of mercy and the smiths of it all.' 18. The tone is high-speed, digressive, and deeply referential, with both hosts frequently talking past each other before reconnecting. 19. Listeners who enjoy dense pop-culture triangulation, film recommendation culture, and conversational comedy will find a rewarding density of material. 20. Anyone unfamiliar with the Canadian comedy Nirvana: The Band, The Show, or the 1968 Vidal-Buckley debates may feel left behind for significant stretches.

As heard by us

A Good Friday sale becomes a debate about wording, etiquette, and the weird poetry of gadgets.

Do By Friday turns a simple yes-or-no exchange into a running joke about decorum, bad naming, and the odd intimacy of a remote control, which one friend insists on calling a robot.

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Why you'd press play

You want tech talk that turns a Good Friday wallet promo into a comic argument about timing and taste.

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