Reflections on A Garbage Bag Full of Cocaine, Chillis, The Lion Sleeps Tonight Baby Back Ribs| Dopey Greatest Hits 39Reflections on A Garbage Bag Full of Cocaine, Chillis, The Lion Sleeps Tonight Baby Back Ribs| Dopey Greatest Hits 39
Dopey: On the Dark Comedy of Drug Addiction
Timestamps 00:00 – Surrealismo’s “Hey Bulldog” remix 00:23 – Welcome to Total Dopey Replay Episode 39 01:24 – Dave’s latest fitness push and the possible Dopey Fitness Challenge 02:50 – DopeyCon October 3 update and Patreon ticket access 05:15 – Catching up on Patreon and Spotify comments 07:34 – Dave’s new limited-edition Dopey merch idea 08:00 – Listener reactions to Modi, kosher weed and the blue-cheese speedball 12:19 – Trouble editing the Dopey Film Festival recording 13:33 – What replaying Episode 39 taught Dave about himself and Chris 17:03 – How “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” rescued the episode 18:18 – Chris was a ray of sunshine: the Bert and Ernie of Dopey 19:00 – Original Dopey Episode 39 begins 21:23 – Chris’s caffeinated seltzer discovery 22:27 – The great Häagen-Dazs ice-cream consultation 23:47 – Recovering from the disastrous Modi interview 26:13 – Vietnamese food, fish sauce and Chris playing dumb 28:26 – Is Chris more fun on Dopey than in real life? 30:41 – The spicy-chili chocolate bar leads to Chili’s 31:25 – Dave and Chris attempt the baby-back-ribs jingle 32:48 – Chris’s epileptic Portuguese water dog 35:12 – Chris tries to train the terrified dog to swim 36:03 – The baby-back-ribs performance continues 39:40 – Modi’s podcast equipment and combined luxury apartments 41:54 – Dopey’s tiny audience and desperate search for a sponsor 43:04 – Jailhouse sign language and sex with a deaf woman 46:44 – Cormac’s song impresses Dave and Chris 48:08 – Why Dopey is such a “meta” podcast 49:16 – Chris’s accidentally stolen Chinese-restaurant prank 51:27 – The original Howard Stern version 55:00 – A chaotic trip to Miami for a young people’s AA conference 57:19 – “This might be the worst episode of Dopey ever” 58:33 – Email from Sepulong in South Africa 01:00:26 – Jailhouse goodnight rituals and questionable Swahili 01:02:37 – Dave and Chris taste the disgusting chili chocolate 01:04:20 – The garbage bag full of cocaine story begins 01:06:44 – An abandoned Caribbean house filled with candles and cocaine 01:07:45 – Chris lights his hair on fire doing someone else’s line 01:09:43 – Drug slang: blow, junk, diesel, rigs and binkies 01:11:08 – Recovery, fellowship and calling another sober person 01:13:36 – Laughing about the past without repeating it 01:14:30 – Music as medicine for depression 01:15:58 – Dave and Chris attempt “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” 01:18:06 – Was the singing brilliant or completely terrible? 01:19:17 – Closing out “the worst Dopey episode ever” 01:20:28 – Cormac’s complete song
1:21:17•3 Aug 2026
Baby Back Ribs, Cocaine Stories and Remembering Chris on Dopey
Episode Overview
- Humour and shared laughter can help carry people through insecurity, bad days and painful memories in recovery.
- Looking back at old behaviour with time and distance can reveal control issues and patterns that weren’t obvious before.
- Staying connected by calling other sober people is presented as a simple but effective tool when you feel low or tempted.
- Friendships built in addiction can survive conflict when both people keep returning to honesty and mutual support.
- Community feedback, whether praise or criticism, shapes the show and reminds the host how much the podcast means to others.
“"What it came down to is no matter what, we had each other, and we loved each other, and we could make each other laugh."”
Get ready to be moved by real-life accounts of addiction, recovery, and some very silly singing. This replay of Dopey’s Episode 39 finds Dave looking back at a hugely influential early show where he and Chris somehow turn chaos, insecurity, and a garbage bag full of cocaine into comedy and connection.
You’ll hear Dave set the scene from a later, more reflective point in his recovery, explaining how re-listening showed him patterns in himself and in his friendship with Chris: the control freak moments, the insecurity after a rough interview with comedian Modi, and the way he sometimes "start attacking Chris" when he loses confidence. He contrasts that with Chris being "a fucking ray of sunshine" and the effortless way they could always get back on the beam together.
The episode leans heavily on dark humour: obsessive debates about ice cream, a disastrous chilli-flavoured chocolate bar, and the now-legendary Chili’s "baby back ribs" and "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" duets that had listeners "intermittently laughed for 15 minutes". Beneath the silliness, Dave keeps circling back to recovery basics – calling other sober people, staying connected, and making simple decisions that change your actions.
You’ll also catch the show’s DIY community vibe: Patreon tiers muddled in the most honest way possible, merch ideas like "Worst episode ever" shirts, and shout-outs to listeners’ comments from around the world, including South Africa’s request for the "garbage bag full of coke" story.
For anyone who likes their recovery talk with equal parts honesty and ridiculousness, this greatest-hits replay captures why Dopey means so much to people: two friends using humour to survive addiction, and one of them now being remembered with real love. Could laughing at the worst of it be the thing that helps you keep going?
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