Who doesn’t love stickers? Colorful, cool, funny, shiny, informative and occasionally stinky little pictures or messages that can be used to decorate objects and surfaces, giving a personal possession (or public property) a little more personality. We run down some of the more novel places stickers have come from and where they’ve wound up, from Ray Avery’s original “Kum Kleen Price Stickers” in 1940, to the earliest political bumper stickers, to the origins of using “Hello My Name Is” labels to introduce oneself to strangers and mailboxes and of course the sudden sticker explosion in the 1970s and 80s of brands like Lisa Frank, Mrs. Grossman and Sandylion. Plus, some of our personal favorite stickers from throughout our lives and where we put them. Special thanks to Thijis Van Sise, longtime patreon supporter and friend of the show, for suggesting this week’s topic.

Also, friendly reminder you can help support the show on Patreon at patreon.com/thisthingrules, follow us on Bluesky and Twitter @ThisThingRules, or find our little corner of our old podcast’s Discord at discord.comedybutton.com - and of course, we’re always happy to get email from listeners at thisthingruleshow@gmail.com

Intro contains a bunch of sound effects and clips from Eminem’s “My Name Is,” a 1996 Lisa Frank commercial starring Mila Kunis, a Circle K commercial for scratch-and-sniff mother’s day stickers starring a bunch of live skunks, and The Simpsons.

Schwing! This episode is all about the S-word: SWORDS. Over the course of the next hour, you may learn a thing or two about the history of bladed weapons, but we spend most of our time goofing off and talking about our favorite swords in popular culture, from iconic movie blades in films like Lord of the Rings, Highlander, Kill Bill, and uh, Blade and also Brian’s favorite video game swords, from Ocarina of Time’s second-coolest sword to the Elden Ring sword that does bleed damage like they do on the Discovery Channel. Despite the topic at hand, we might not be the sharpest tools in the shed when it comes to rational analysis of melee weapons, but we still had a lot of fun this week.

Also, friendly reminder you can help support the show on Patreon at patreon.com/thisthingrules, follow us on Bluesky and Twitter @ThisThingRules, or find our little corner of our old podcast’s Discord at discord.comedybutton.com - and of course, we’re always happy to get email from listeners at thisthingruleshow@gmail.com

Intro contains clips from Highlander, Home Movies, a disastrous QVC sword infomercial and Kill Bill Vol. 1.

In space, no one can hear you scream, but in this episode, you can definitely hear us get real excited about Alien, the original 1979 film that started it all. Enough has been said about how it’s an undeniable classic that revolutionized cinema, etc, but it’s also a miracle it ever got made. Did you know that bringing the various forms of the iconic Xenomorph to life required actual human bones, a pile of rancid shellfish, and an industrial size oil drum full of KY Jelly - and only one of these things was at the request of H.R. Giger. Join us as we frantically gush like malfunctioning synthetic science officers about how much we adore this movie, and really try not to talk about the sequels too much (but it’s hard, because they rule too.) We also discuss our first exposure to this series, how our perspectives have changed since growing up. Also, Max would like to apologize for blanking on the names of Veronica Cartwright, who plays Lambert and falls backwards off a couch, and John Hurt, who plays chestburster victim Kane in Alien AND Spaceballs.

Intro contains clips from an H.R. Giger in a DVD special feature, Alien (duh) and “Hello! Ma Baby” by Howard & Emerson as featured in Spaceballs.