SubwayTakes
"Men are by far the more emotional and hysterical gender!!" with Abdullah Saeed
Thu, 17 Apr 2025
From their homes, Kareem and Abdullah also discuss NYC smelling like worms, slugs are unhoused snails, Abdullah's alt take that was "we should make farting socially acceptable" but it had already done, two cat households, Kareem needing a bodyguard, brown guys at Vice, what it felt like when Abdullah got the phone call greenlighting his show Deli Boys, eating shit sandwiches in Hollywood, deciding to being the mysterious strong silent type at 34, America rewarding assholes, Abdullah's take was mansplaining, when your therapist is also your couple’s therapist, debuting the new sting for our weekly segment TAKES ON TAKES, no shoes households, Kareem getting cast for Deli Boys Season 2 and other stuff. Host: Kareem Rahma Creators: Kareem Rahma and Andrew Kuo Editor and Sound Producer: Dale Eisinger Artwork: Andrew Lawandus Theme Music: Tyler McCauley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
What the hell is up, y'all? It is Kareem Rahma back with another episode of Subway Takes the Damn podcast. Today I'm joined by Abdullah Saeed, writer and creator of the new show of Deli Boys, now streaming on Hulu. Abdullah came on the show a couple of weeks ago and brought a very intellectually stimulating hot take to the platform.
One that is very popular, which is that men are by far the more emotional and hysterical gender. So what's your take?
Chapter 2: Why are men considered the more emotional gender?
Men are by far the more emotional and hysterical gender. 100% agree.
100% agree, yeah.
No, men are always enraged. Yeah, I think everyone experiences emotions and the emotional triggers, but men manage their emotions much more poorly. You know, and I think that historically people would say like, oh, women are more emotional because they're expressing their emotions and crying or whatever, right? But they're getting past it. They're processing it in a healthy way. We do not do that.
No, no, we don't. We punch walls, punch doors, punch each other. Yeah, when we're sad or angry and we're like, ah! As a man, what is the worst emotion that you feel?
Sadness because it's really hard to actually, like, feel it without just getting angry, you know, and being like, oh, like, I'm stupid for being sad. You know what I mean? And then, like, you know, it's stuff that men have essentially set up society. That's a big bad thing. That's a big bad thing because look at where we're at today, right? We're not in a good place.
And I think it's mostly because a lot of men with power are driven by their anger.
It's OK. It's going to turn around, right? Or do we have to get off? Oh, sorry, ladies. OK. I'm so sorry. Thank you.
I mean, I'm a little bit pissed off that we got kicked off the train. But you're really sad that we got kicked off the train. No, I'm frustrated. But frustration is a two-pronged thing. And you're more in touch with the angry part of yourself. So when you get frustrated, you're sad for a second. But then you blow right past it. And you're like, you, Abdullah. You this off me.
How do you think men should cope? Men should go to therapy, first of all, right? 100% disagree. Men should exercise. 100% disagree. And men should talk to other men about their feelings. 100% agree. Maybe have a sleepover with your boys. No, you lost me. I really need that last couple hours at the end of the night for me, you know?
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Chapter 3: How should men cope with their emotions?
What the hell is up, Abdullah?
Well, it's good, Kareem. How are you? Nice to see you, brother.
I'm great. We were just discussing how it's a wonderful day in Manhattan. I'm posted up. The birds are out.
I know. I can see them behind you. It's a beautiful day in L.A. as well, but that's always the case. Pretty much. In New York, you appreciate the good days because there's all the shitty weather days.
Right.
Here, you just take good things for granted.
We just had probably seven days of shit. It was absolute shit. Rain. You know when it's not even raining? It's not even sprinkling. It's just wet.
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Chapter 4: What are the challenges of discussing emotions in therapy?
dude i do not miss that at all like that is as you're talking about it and it's wetness is such a part of life because like as you know in the winter it's like you wear that heavy jacket when it's cold and you get on the subway and then you sweat and then you go back out and the sweat freezes on your like that cycle of things is so hellish to me it's disgusting Yeah, it really is.
And all I kept saying is, I just kept saying, why does it smell like worms? But the worm smell, the problem was the worm smell, dude, the worm smell was in my house. And it was also in a restaurant. I kept saying, it smells like worms.
So you mean that pre, kind of when it's wet out, that smell, that New York smell, it's like tinged with urine, right? I was smelling worms, my guy. That's it's so descriptive. I feel like I can smell the worms right now.
Well, when I was a young man, I used to play with worms. I know exactly what they fucking smell like. Also, I'm I'm kind of I'm kind of mashed up. I mean, I don't mash them up. But when I was young, I mean, it was cool that you could literally cut one in half and then it would just be two worms.
Yeah, yeah. But were you doing it to make two worms or were you like being cruel to the worms?
No, no, no, no. I was doing it like... It was for science. Yeah, it was just so cool that you make two worms.
And then did the smell emanate like when you split the worm that there's a burst of worm smell?
Yeah, of course. I mean, worms are disgusting. I haven't seen a worm in a long time. Like when's the last time you saw a worm?
I have not seen a worm in a while, actually, come to think of it. I see slugs fairly frequently, but you're right. I haven't seen a worm in a long time. Well, you live in New York City, and maybe they don't have worms in California.
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Chapter 5: How do societal norms affect male emotional expression?
I don't know if they have worms in California or not, but what you just said, a slug is kind of just like a landlord worm.
Yeah, well, but they're so much more porous, right? Like, a worm has segments, it's organized, right? Like, it's like a train, right? A slug is just, it's just a free-for-all. That's because it has its house on its back, bro.
No, but that's a snail. Oh, a slug is a houseless, it's an unhoused snail.
Basically, I don't know if that's how they like being identified. I think they don't want to be identified as the negative, as something else minus something is them.
It's unhoused. It's not negative. It just is the way it is. It just is the way it is. And the hierarchy of capitalism within insects, the snail is the landlord, the slug is the unhoused, and a worm is just literally a mole human living underground in a train station.
I don't think these are even insects. In my mind, I'm not totally sure. Mollusks? Are they mollusks?
No, don't. Like an octopus? No, don't put them in the fucking oyster category. Worm. Yeah, why not?
Is there something wrong with that category?
I indulge in the oyster category all the time. Yeah, but worms are not in the oyster category. I don't think. Yeah, I guess so. In Thailand, they ate worms.
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Chapter 6: What is the significance of farting in social contexts?
Yeah, this guy, John Ryan, that I know. He's a friend of mine. Shout out, John Ryan. Same wavelength, bro. Maybe we should play that take.
So what's your take? I think we should normalize farting really loud in public whenever you need to. 100% agree. If anything, it just gets a laugh from the people around you, and people love laughing. Like, it just makes you feel good. Well, everybody farts, but we act like they don't. Yeah, it's like we can sneeze, we can yawn, we can like... Burp?
Burping is probably grosser than farting, actually. A burp is like a fart out of your mouth. Well, there's no filter. There's no pants. You don't have any mouth pants. Well, you have ass pants. You do! And so you can fart. It just kind of stays in there, and then you get to wash your underwear later. It's a filtered fart. It's a filtered fart, yeah.
Here's what I like about it.
Everyone's holding in a fart. On this train, I bet 40 people have to fart. Just let it go. 20% of the time, they smell bad. 80% of the time, farts are silent. Or even they do smell bad, but you're like, whatever, it's New York City. You like them loud, though. When they're louder, they feel better. That's just true.
But no, I've been doing this, I've been campaigning for this, and my way of doing it is I just fart whenever I need to. No, no you don't. When you fart in public, people are like, oh this guy doesn't give a . Like, we're not gonna with him. So you actually do this? Oh, just all the time. Yeah, CVS, Chipotle, those are the main two places. Has anyone ever shamed you for doing this? Um, uh, no.
No, no, no. Not really. I mean, babies fart. Babies fart? Everybody. My dog farts. It's like when you're a baby, you have permission to fart. When you're old, you have permission to fart. But in the middle, you can't fart. Wow, that's great. That's genius. That's really good. Yeah. I just want middle-aged farting. I'm in. Yeah. Let's do it.
Yeah, so John Ryan said we got to just make it more socially acceptable, which I think I agree with that.
Yeah, yeah. Farting is a real, like, it's a bummer. You know what I mean? It's the constant, like, you know, it's universal, and it'll never go away. If you're married to someone, if you spend a lot of time with someone, you're going to smell their fart eventually, right? But, I mean, you know, I think that... You know, just to elaborate on the take that I didn't end up doing. Right.
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Chapter 7: How do creative professionals navigate their careers?
But back then, like, you know, horizontal ain't shit compared to vertical. Come on, man. Look at the amount of people who watch vertical.
Now, did you have a fun time when we were doing the shoot? Did you feel stressed at all? I mean, you guys had something which I really like, which is a damn bodyguard.
Dude, I couldn't believe I didn't know who that guy was. Right. It's interesting to me because it was so it was myself, Sagar Sheikh, Asif Ali, the two very talented and handsome leads of Deli Boys. Right. We all shot in succession. And so I guess I think the bodyguard is for them. They're like, oh, yeah, also this asshole is coming, but nobody's going to look at him twice.
But if you look at Sagar or Asif, you're going to want to touch them or rob them or whatever. So there's this bodyguard there. I like that guy.
It made me feel safe because sometimes I'm like, I should probably at this point, I actually should have one.
Yeah, yeah, dude, you definitely need one. Are you kidding me? You are a very, very public figure. Like, I sort of, you know, look, I had a very niche audience, you know, of stoners, the least harmful people in the world. They just come up and they're like, what's up, homie? Or whatever, right? You are like, you're very public in New York stuff.
And you live in New York and you walk around and you take the train. You need a bodyguard. I'm a nice guy.
I'm a nice guy.
Yeah, but that doesn't mean that people aren't going to try to hassle you. Because while we were shooting, actually, a guy came up during Sagar or Asif's take and kicked the phone. Yeah, it was during Sagar's take. Out of his hand. Like, violently. And I was like, you know what I thought immediately? I was like, well, it's true what they've been saying about New York.
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Chapter 8: What does the future hold for Deli Boys?
And then this other guy did not like that that guy was filming us. And he went up to the guy that was filming us and slammed the phone out of his hand, stomped on it, and then exited the train car. And then the guy whose phone was stomped on looks at us and he goes, oh, I'm so sorry I pissed your bodyguard off. Did you catch that part? Yes.
So he thought that this stranger who just, you know, fucking violated his phone, a crazy guy. I will say that I do think it's a little weird for your show specifically to be like, oh, I'm a fan. I'm going to film them filming it. Like, it's one thing to take a photo or take a selfie, but to be sitting there filming it, I think that's wacky. Personally, I wouldn't do that.
He deserved it.
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So a funny thing happened, actually. Tell me if you remember this. So everybody, when the guy was like, I'm so sorry, everyone sort of, you know, in a chorus was like, that wasn't our bodyguard. It's all good. You're good. Don't worry. It's not your fault. Right. And then everyone got quiet. And I just said to the guy, well, I blame you. Right.
and we all sort of had like a little chuckle but you know now i'm realizing there was probably some truth to that i think that you know it's like i don't know what upset the other guy but you know i think he just he was looking out for us he was like don't fucking film them while they're making this great short form unscripted vertical video entertainment for you
Yeah, he's like, New York's going through a lot, and this show is like, it's a South for the city, okay? So don't, you know, go another angle and ruin it.
You know, I knew when you were going to do the take, I knew that take. I wanted to put you in the best light. I really like you. We've known each other for 12, 15 years, whatever. Long time. You got the shows out. The show's great. Deli Boys. Thank you. And I remember you talking about it six, seven, eight years ago. And I was like, oh, that's a great concept.
And I was like, good luck in the way that like a good luck in Hollywood is a genuine like I'm like literally like I hope you fucking do it because it's so hard.
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