Loud fandom arguments with real bite.
Geeks Under the Influence runs on fast panel chemistry, messy jokes, and sharp fandom opinions. Episodes bounce from Wakanda Forever and Andor to Halloween picks, old CGI, House of the Dragon, Barry, and GUI Network updates.
PRESS PLAY
Geeks Under the Influence is a chaotic panel comedy show for people who process pop culture by arguing about it with friends. It favors momentum over neatness. Episodes move through Wakanda Forever, Andor, Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, House of the Dragon, Barry, The Midnight Club, Halloween viewing lists, and the strange afterlife of 90s and early-2000s special effects. The panel can be ridiculous, but it is not empty noise. A throwaway joke about a smoke-monster effect can open into a real preference for practical horror staging. A complaint about green-screen filmmaking can become a comparison between MCU spectacle and Andor's grittier physical world. The Wakanda Forever discussion lingers on grief, family conflict, Killmonger, Queen Ramonda, and whether certain franchise hooks feel emotionally earned. The Andor episode spends time on fanatics, fascism, rebel compromise, Luthen, Saw Gerrera, and the moral cost of resistance. That is the show's lane: jokes first, actual critique close behind. GUI Nights adds a shorter, more sideways companion format, often spinning from a main episode into tangents about holiday specials, network history, music scenes, and running too many shows at once. The feed also carries a strong house style of self-aware network chatter, recurring sign-offs, mock threats, and sponsor disclaimers. It can feel like arriving mid-conversation. That is part of the texture. Mike the Hobbit and Lowdown appear as recurring voices in the excerpts, with Scotty P and others turning up in panel and network contexts. The rhythm is interruption-heavy, reference-dense, and often very adult. Listeners get spoilers early, jokes often, and clean analytical transitions almost never. The best moments come when the panel keeps overextending a bit until a sharper observation finally clicks into place. It is a fandom show with scuffed edges, a horror-comedy streak, and enough genuine media literacy to keep the mess useful.
Made for: For listeners who like geek-culture criticism delivered as rowdy panel banter, with spoilers, jokes, and fast reference stacking. It fits horror fans, MCU and Star Wars watchers, and anyone who prefers messy conversation to tidy recap.
What sets it apart: The show stands out by letting comedy, network lore, and actual media criticism occupy the same breath. It can swing from crude tangent to pointed craft note without changing rooms.
GUI Podcast is the flagship show for the Geeks Under the Influence. A panel features a different geek fandom or obsession every episode! Complete with booze pairings to the subject, script readings, recommendations, and plenty of laughs! Every other week is GUI Nights instead, which is a short bonus series exploring the more tangential topics from the previous episode. Every Monday is our trailer for the week with GUI Pre-Cap; The Bruce calls in from the future to fill us in on the coming week's geek news, and what's coming out on the GUI Network.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Fandom criticism becomes combustible panel comedy as Mike the Hobbit, Lowdown, and their company chase sharp observations into gleefully unruly riffs.
Geeks Under the Influence turns fandom criticism into a rowdy panel conversation, with Mike the Hobbit and Lowdown guiding debates that leave plenty of room for jokes, impressions, and sudden detours.
House of the Dragon enthusiasm can hand you Barry homework and a swear jar problem.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A year-end pop-culture roundup where recent years refuse to stay in order.
Geeks Under the Influence frames a year-end pop-culture roundup as a funny argument with time itself. The panel keeps trying to sort January 6, the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, and the last few years into a usable calendar, then drifts through House of the Dragon,…
A Guardians holiday special sends the panel from retro animation praise into a wildly unearned theory about Bucky's arm.
The Guardians of the Galaxy holiday special gives GUI Nights an easy festive hook, and the panel makes its fondness for the special's retro animation and sentimental surprises feel loose rather than polished.
A rough-edged Andor discussion ties practical effects to the rebellion's hardest moral choices.
Andor gives the panel a useful way into a bigger argument about why practical effects can make a galaxy far away feel strangely tangible. The conversation sets Wakanda Forever's visible green-screen edges and the MCU's brighter, effects-heavy polish against Andor's dulled…
A vulgar GUI Nights detour turns into a sharper argument about artistic change and selling out.
GUI Nights turns a loose argument about selling out into a sideways pop-culture review of rap metal, Limp Bizkit, and the murky difference between artistic growth and chasing a bigger audience.
A rowdy Wakanda Forever discussion turns grief, cynical world-building, and one detached cameo into sharp comic analysis.
Geeks Under the Influence frames Wakanda Forever as a spirited debate over tonal whiplash, unresolved Wakandan grief, and the uneasy pull of future franchise setup.
A loud Richmond benefit-story tour, carried by cover-band lore, loose jokes, and mic-passing community energy.
Geeks Under the Influence gives Punks for Presence the kind of noisy, affectionate spotlight that fits a Richmond benefit-show scene built on volume, jokes, and people willing to grab a mic for a cause.
Mike Muncer and a different guest dissect two horror films per episode, by subgenre.
Panelists discuss ASMR videos and speculate about hidden sexual motivations behind them, mixing crude humor with geek culture references.
A panel discusses and contrasts the superhero TV shows Ms.
A comedic panel show where hosts and guests discuss geek fandoms while pairing them with alcoholic drinks.
A comedic panel show where hosts and guests engage in raunchy, humorous banter about geek culture, complete with mood lighting and playful innuendo.
A comedic panel podcast celebrating geek culture with booze pairings, script readings, and Halloween-themed banter.
Bruce hosts the GUI Pre-Cap, previewing entertainment releases for the week of May 30, 2022.
This special GUInterview episode features Chad Painter discussing Punks for Presents, a Richmond-based nonprofit that has raised money for children's hospitals for 16 years through cover band concerts.
Geeks Under the Influence uses its 2022 year-end episode to rank Top Gun Maverick, The Batman, Everything Everywhere All at Once, RRR, and Prey against each other.
GUI Nights features F.U.
The Geeks Under the Influence panel, Fuck You Hunter and Lowdown Brown, discuss Andor's slow-burn structure, arguing the show rewards binge-watching over its early word-of-mouth-driven weekly release.
Tondi says Rage Against the Machine were political, while “Limp Bizkit was an engineered band” by The Firm in Florida.
The Geeks Under the Influence panel, Tondi, Scotty P, and Lowdown Brown MacGyver, dissect Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's nearly three-hour runtime, arguing the film needed the length to handle T'Challa's death, Namor's introduction, and setup for Marvel's Phase Five.
A panel of geeks humorously critiques horror movies, focusing on special effects and the evolution of CGI versus practical effects.
A panel of geeks discusses the second half of their Halloween movie recommendations, with banter about a band's upcoming show.
A comedic panel show where hosts discuss geek fandoms with booze pairings, script readings, and humorous banter.