History Podcast / PlumbingTheDeathStar

* InfoDump: After listening to an excessive debate about the afterlife of ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'', Michael Williams vocalizes his hope that the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales 2017 film]] starts with a forty-minute speech directly to the audience explaining the afterlife and discrediting all the theories in the episode.

** In "What if Spider-Man Had Stayed a Wrestler?", they conclude that Peter Parker staying in wrestling after the death of Uncle Ben in ''Film/SpiderMan'' ends with something close to RealityEnsues. Green Goblin gets shot by the NYPD and Harry doesn't go crazy (although he bears a grudge against cops), Dr. Octopus simply dies in a freak lab accident without committing any crimes, and Sandman defeats Venom and is exonerated, while the wrestling world gets shaken up by powered wrestlers. Essentially, instead of watching Spider-Man movies you'd be watching scripted Man-Spider wrestling matches.

-->'''Zammit''': Now they're all gathered there on the lawn of the White House. There's evil Superman coming down like 'I'm going to kill the President.' They're there in a line; what happens?
-->'''George Dimarelos''': Okay. Firstly, is Superman concerned?
-->'''All''': *cackle wildly*

** Sadly, he doesn't get any slack from the others even when he's at least talking about the ''anthropomorphic'' animals of ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}''.

* TheWormThatWalks: Part of Jackson's ultimate crime fighting power involves becoming a sentient colony of bacteria in the shape of a man. It's pointed out just how deeply in the UncannyValley that would be.

* ARareSentence: Regarding the trains of ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'', it's remarked on how odd and disturbing this particular remark is:
-->''I don't know how they come to life, but they do; and I don't know how they die, but they must.''

-->'''Duscher''': Why in every hypothetical you just...commit some form of mass genocidal mass--

-->I don't know how they come to life, but they do; and I don't know how they die, but they must.

* OffTheRails: Any time they imagine putting themselves into a canon scenario, such as [[Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory touring Willy Wonka's factory]], they immediately detail the plot, usually by their own stupidity.

* GrandTheftMe: The Boys hypothesize that if every disagreement in the ''Freaky Friday'' universe resulted in people switching bodies, people would come to abuse this by having children and forcing them to perform a body switch, allowing immortality for anyone willing to having children with sole purpose of letting them die.

** In "What if Spider-Man Had Stayed a Wrestler?", they conclude that Peter Parker staying in wrestling after the death of Uncle Ben in ''Film/SpiderMan'' ends with something close to RealityEnsues. Green Goblin gets shot by the NYPD and Harry doesn't go crazy (although he bears a grudge against cops), Dr. Octopus simply dies a freak lab accident without committing any crimes, and Sandman defeats Venom and is exonerated, while the wrestling world gets shaken up by powered wrestlers. Essentially, instead of watching Spider-Man movies you'd be watching scripted Man-Spider wrestling matches.

** In "What if Spider-Man Had Stayed a Wrestler?", they conclude that Peter Parker staying in wrestling after the death of Uncle Ben in ''Film/SpiderMan2002'' ends with something close to RealityEnsues. Green Goblin gets shot by the NYPD and Harry doesn't go crazy (although he bears a grudge against cops), Dr. Octopus simply dies a freak lab accident without committing any crimes, and Sandman defeats Venom and is exonerated, while the wrestling world gets shaken up by powered wrestlers. Essentially, instead of watching Spider-Man movies you'd be watching scripted Man-Spider wrestling matches.

* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: An nine minute discussion on the economics of ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}'' leads George Dimarelous to believe that by attempting to buy an elephant-sized ice cream cone, the fox played by the "[[Creator/JasonBateman Arrested Development lad]]" was destroying the economy and tearing apart the trust-based systems that kept Zootopia together. Jackson tries to argue that the fox was merely exploiting and unjust system that discriminating against him, only to realize "it depends on whether you see him as a freedom fighter or a terrorist."

* {{Polyamory}}: Discussed in "Which Super Smash Bro would Make the Best Step-Dad All-Stars Edition." Zammit's second pick for step-dad is VideoGame/IceClimbers, a pair of mountain climbers. Ice Climbers stable relationship and competency in groups make them perfect as a potential step-dad, since the mother has come off a string of unstable marriages and could use the Climbers synchronicity.

* DeadlyGame: The guys jump off the slippery slope in "What Would You Use The Film/SuicideSquad For?" and decide to just throw them in ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' to fight to the death with one victor. The more Squad members you kill, the more you get off your sentence if you win, but there's no equipment given except boots, putting guntotters like Deadshot at a disadvantage. Meanwhile, Captain Boomerang would enter the arena feeling natural in his Australian thong and win the Hunger Games while Deadshot is distracted by the Captain's ridiculous getup.

* JokerImmunity: It comes up in "How Would You Use The Film/SuicideSquad?" that Batman, as he appears in the film, should have no [[RoguesGallery recurring enemies like the Joker]] because this Batman is okay with killing criminals.

* KillEmAll: In the final judgement of "How Effective is the Film/SuicideSquad?", Zammit presents a scenario where the nine-man squad[[note]]Deadshot, Harley Quinn, El Diablo, Killer Croc, Rick Flagg, the Enchantress, Slipknot, Captain Boomerang, and Katana[[/note]] is lined up on the White House lawn facing an evil ComicBook/Superman on the opposite side. He reckons Superman's opening salvo of laser vision would immediately decapitate five members of the team, leaving Superman to fly like a speeding bullet at and through Harley Quinn, blow out the flames of El Diablo and calmly squash the Enchantress's head like a grape before moving on to kill the President.

** Zammit decides the best use of the Film/SuicideSquad is to rent out the members for menial labor suited to their skills, like having Captain Boomerang cut grass with his boomerangs or sending Killer Croc to swim through pipes to clean the plumbing.

** Parodied in "How Would You Use The Film/SuicideSquad?", where apparently ComicBook/{{Deadshot}}'s first action upon being put in a gladiator death match would be to help out the audience and ask "What are we, some kind of [[Film/TheHungerGames Hunger Games]]?". While distracted by his own wit, he would then be murdered by the competition.

* WeHaveReserves: Zammit hopes to put the suicide back in ''Film/SuicideSquad'' in "How Would You Use The Suicide Squad" by sending a squad of fifty or so criminals into intense, low-survival areas that scientists can't explore because of how dangerous they are. The logic is that eventually one criminal will survive and tell us what the areas are like, and if the first fifty die, Batman will just capture some more criminals to send in!

* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: "How Effective is the Film/SuicideSquad?" tests the motivation for forming the Squad, to defeat villains with incredible superpowers, by grading how each individual member would fare against ComicBook/{{Superman}}. Of the nine members, seven get less than a one out of ten, because their incredible powers of [[ImprobableAimingSkills shooting]], boomerangs enthusiasm, sword enthusiasm, acrobatics, climbing, [[{{Muggle}} humanity]], and ordinary cannibalism don't really mean much against an [[LightningBruiser unkillable flying bullet]] that can vaporize you with a glare.

* GreenChristmas: The main objection to letting Ronald [=McDonald=] become Santa Claus is that he'd ruin Christmas by turning it into [=McDonalds's=] Day and only giving children Happy Meals instead of actual presents.

* HuntingTheMostDangerousGame: One of the suggestions in "How Would You Use The Suicide Squad?" is to execute them by putting them in the wild, giving them some sort of handicap, and allowing eager citizens and big game hunters to hunt them to death. James compares it to ''Literature/TheMostDangerousGame'', although the whole thing falls apart when magical members like Enchantress and El Diablo come up. They conclude that the best member of the Suicide Squad to hunt would obviously [[Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor]], despite not being a member of the team, because he's the more annoying than any of them.

* GenocideDilemma: The cast did an episode on the InUniverse CharacterAlignment ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', only to end up arguing about whether it's okay to commit genocide on populations of objectively evil people. Zammit and Adam both think the genocide itself is evil, but Jackson decides (in a ''Dungeons and Dragons'' world) he would to go with a genocide and then commit suicide once he's the only evil person left.

* {{Brainwashed}}: The cast of ''Plumbing the Death Star'' frequently portray ''ComicBook/XMen'''s Professor Xavier as a unapologetic villain who uses his {{Telepathy}} to make his students to whatever he wants. Whenever they describe his abuse of power, they make sure to accompany it with beeping sounds, showing he's treating people just like a computer program.

* AlternateHistory: Jackson is adamant that evidence ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'' like the poverty of Charlie's town, Wonka's incredible technology, and the fact that the winner of Wonka's context is a blonde, white child all prove that the Roal Dahl film is set after a Nazi victory of UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo which Wonka contributed to as a Nazi scientist.

The show is hosted by the affable and silly Jackson Baly, editor-in-house Joel Zammit, and the loud and aptly named Joel Duscher, who have taken the not-so-elegant name "The Plumbing Boys." The Boys frequently make use of guest stars to add some variety, most frequently the ''Tabletop/DungeonsAndDragons'' expert and the nerdiest of the bunch, Adam, Sanspants regular Zoe Bilotta, ''WesternAnimation/{{Ducktales}}''-podcaster Michael Williams, and others.

* AlmightyIdiot: [[Literature/LordOfTheRings Sauron, the Dark Lord of Middle Earth]], is portrayed as senile in "Are There Better Ways to Invade Middle Earth?", having become so broken and delusional without his Ring of Power that even Saruman can't talk him into an actual strategy. Instead, the darkest force in Middle-Earth is reduced to simply screaming about throwing armies straight at his enemies.

The podcast can be found [[http://www.sanspantsradio.com/plumbing-the-death-star/ here]], alongside a YouTube channel called "[[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbN8u4XzYwXQ-hLn-wgo3Jw Sanspants Cinemascope]]."