When you’re a fan of Phish–or, really, any band–half the fun is nerd-ing out about your musical obsession with fellow enthusiasts. To show that “we are everywhere,” for example, fan art and lot t-shirts are omnipresent both at shows and in the real world, inscrutable to the uninitiated but amusing to those in the know. These references extend beyond beer cozies and into the mainstream with some regularity. Last week, the brand new episode of Criminal Minds featured a barrage of character names referenced Phish and the Grateful Dead thanks to episode writer/Phish fan Dania Bennett.

Today, MSNBC anchor Katy Tur and Politico senior writer Jake Sherman, both of whom are self-proclaimed fans of the Phish from Vermont, slipped a couple seemingly ad-hoc references into a serious discussion on new Intelligence from the White House. When turning the conversation over to Sherman, Tur engaged him with a deadpanned “My friend, my friend” Sherman was visibly amused and taken aback by the reference, smiling as he talked about House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes. But he managed to collect himself and return Tur’s undercover homage before the end of his segment, saying that he was “‘bouncing around the room’ a little bit” in response to the maddening news at hand. You can watch the clip below via Tur’s Twitter page:

 

[h/t – JamBase]