Few knew what to expect when Daily Wire podcast host Matt Walsh announced he was ascending the bench to hand down legally binding decisions in small claims court. But no one could have predicted the curious case of exploding lips.
Episode one set the stage for a hilariously unpredictable season of “JUDGED by Matt Walsh.” One of the first cases on the docket involved Daphne Lewis, who brought a suit against Tam Taylor regarding a payment dispute over cosmetic products they agreed to purchase together.
Lewis told Judge Walsh that she is owed $1,500 for Korean lip filler she ordered for both of them. But Taylor opted to countersue, claiming that her lips literally exploded during a flight at 30,000 feet after getting the injections. Taylor insisted she was owed $5,000 for the medical expenses related to reconstructing her mangled lips.
The episode features some graphic photos of Taylor’s lips post-explosion. Judge Walsh responded by noting that while he has “a lot of fears and anxieties” about flying on planes, he “never stopped to worry that maybe part of my body will explode.”
Walsh chastised both women for opting for cosmetic surgery in the first place. He ultimately ruled that both women were at fault for “refusing to age gracefully,” but rejected Taylor’s countersuit and ordered that she pay Lewis the original $1,500.
Judge Walsh delivered the verdict with a brutally funny dose of extreme honesty.
“Ms. Taylor, you asked Ms. Lewis to purchase some more botulism for you. She did,” the wise judge began. “You said you would pay her and you didn’t. It is unfortunate that your lips exploded, but that’s not a fact germane to this case. Your lips exploded because you’ve been stabbing them with unknown substances for years. They finally had enough. Your lips did. They couldn’t take it anymore.”
Walsh added, “You have been inflating those things like helium balloons for too long and then they burst. And that is why they exploded. In fact, you need to take responsibility for that. You both need to take responsibility for the fact that you’re middle-aged women, not teenagers. There’s nothing wrong with being older women. There’s dignity and beauty that comes with that, or should or would, if not for the botulism.”
The first episode brings sanity back to the legal system like never before. In Walsh’s “JUDGED” courtroom, pleading for mercy leads to harsher punishments and flimsy excuses only serve to hurt your case. Real-life litigants bring Walsh their small claims with the hope of earning his sympathy. Anyone who’s listened to his daily podcast or follows Walsh on Twitter knows they’re bound to leave disappointed.
There’s a whole season ahead filled with unbelievable cases, wild situations, and the ever-constant presence of Judge Walsh to hand down his judgment calls for all of it. As he says in the show’s opening, if you don’t enjoy it, it’s because there’s something wrong with you.
The new series premiered last night with the first episode now streaming for free on DailyWire+, X, Facebook, and YouTube.
New episodes of “JUDGED” will drop weekly on Tuesdays, exclusively on DailyWire+.
