tl;dw on "Families":
It seems like Ethan's parents might actually be the permanent cohosts of this new podcast series, but Ethan's Mum is in the hot seat this episode. Ethan mentions that the audience warmed to her when she phoned in a while back, and then awkwardly tries to explain what "boomer" means. Then he plugs his shitty clothing brand, and brings his Dad out as well to show off some more outfits (his Dad has just had a new shoulder installed). He makes a penis joke about his Mum's microphone, and then cracks some more jokes about his non functional penis. His Mum laughs it off. His Mum talks about Father's Day, and relates an anecdote about Ethan as a little boy (when she was trying to get a picture of him and his siblings, he pulled his pants down and spread his cheeks to show off his butthole, ruining the picture) and relates how Ethan's son has his naughty sense of humour.
They then play a segment called "How Well Do You Know Your Son". Ethan makes a joke about how he talks about her in therapy. She gets a bunch of questions right and relates some nice stories and gushes over him. Ethan reveals to her that he smoked crack one time (she seems taken aback and he clarifies he "just hit it lightly"). Ethan's Mum said "we never smoked anything like that" and then Ethan's Dad reveals he smoked crack one time while they were separated, and she seems slightly taken aback again. She says she tried LSD and cocaine when she was a young student (she doesn't like doing drugs), and mentions she watched something about Cary Grant taking LSD for therapy (Ethan does not know who Cary Grant is, and when it's mentioned he was an actor in Hitchcock films, Ethan says that's "boomer"). She mentions experiencing an acid flashback and tells the production crew "this is a good reason not to do this". Ethan explains a story to her when he shit himself as an adult.
He then asks her questions about himself. She mentions how Ethan stole money off her when he was a kid, and she would have just given him money if he'd asked, and he stole his Dad's Playboy magazine and kept phoning the number for a chatline and racked up a phone bill of $800. Ethan brings up that she slapped him one time because he called her a "b-word", and then guilt trips her for not being home enough because she was working. He gives her grief for not taking his YouTube career seriously when he started out, and she said she'd just wanted him to have a fall back career and not do YouTube full time. She admits being embarrassed by Ethan's "shake that dick" video (Ethan acknowledges Hila's Dad "disowned me, pretty much" after he saw it). Ethan's Mum talks about how he and his siblings were all very intelligent, and then Ethan complains that he was held back in Kindergarden and she made a bad call (she defends herself and says it was because the kindergarden teacher was concerned about how immature he was, and wanted to make sure he'd develop properly). She talks about being amazed by his artistic abilities as a kid, and he complains she threw out all the art he'd made in high school (it got lost in a house move). Ethan talks about masturbating as a child. His Mum rambles on about how after Ethan's elder sister left it was a house of all boys, and Ethan rolls his eyes and says "pretty interesting".
That's the half way mark. Ethan's Mum seems like a nice lady, and if I met her as a friend's parent I would enjoy talking to her. But it alternates between being dull and being awkward because Ethan's trying to get a reaction out of her. He comes across as pretty unlikeable while she comes across as being a really loving and supportive Mum.
I hope someone manages to watch the rest and it gives us something else to talk about besides Seder/Crowder. Neither of them are lolcows, they're just dull.
