May 22, 2026 • 15 mins
Tony Danza. Tony the Tiger. The Tonys. What do they have in common? (Look closely and you'll get it.) Today Will and Mango are sharing nine facts about people named Tony!
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Guess what Mango? What's up? Will?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
So, I've been waiting for days to ask you this question,
But have you ever heard of the Tony danzas syndrome?
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Is that where you just walk around a house yelling Angelo.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I think it's one variation of it both, but not
the one I'm talking about here. So this is something
that our friend Ken Jennings came up with. He coined
this term, and it's when an actor plays a character
with their same name, or at least their same first
name in movies or TV shows. Hu and so Ken
gave it that name because Tony Danza is, you know,
kind of the king of this and I know you
could probably think of a couple examples, but he actually
(00:35):
starred as a fictional Tony in no less than ten
movies and five separate TV shows.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Yeah, I mean, I guess who's the boss? Good cough
Like It's true. I didn't even think about that.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Lots of other shows too, But it actually started when
he was playing the role of Tony Banta on Taxi
and So the character was supposed to be named Phil Banta.
But because Danza had actually been working as a professional
boxer at the time of his casting and this was
kind of his first big acting gig. The producers changed
his character's name because they were worried that he wouldn't
remember to respond to any name but his own, So
(01:08):
Tony Dan's a syndrome. But anyway, it's a pretty fitting
way to kick off the episode because today's show is
all about Tony's. Let's dive in, Hey their podcast listeners,
(01:39):
welcome the part time genius. I'm Will Pearson and as
always I'm joined by my good friend manguesh Hot Ticketer
and sitting behind the soundproof glass holding up a boombox
as he blasts Tony Tony, Tony, and it's actually on
a cassette tape. I don't know if you've noticed this
right outside the window. That's our Palain producer, Tristan McNeil,
and he's always so prepared for these shows, but I
(01:59):
have it I was a little surprised when I saw
him show up with the boombox. But anyway, I kicked
this off with a fact about Tony Danzel and today's
episode is of course filled with Tony's. But where do
you want to go with it here?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Well, how about a fact about Anthony Hopkins, who isn't
generally my go to Tony, but I stumbled into some
really fun research about Sounds of the Lambs this week,
and there's some strange things about how he got into
that movie. So apparently Hopkins got the script, but he
almost didn't read it because he thought it was a
kid's movie. He assumed Sounds of the Lambs just had
to do something with like puppets or animals.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Or something, which is kind of funny.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
But I guess his agent or whoever put some pressure
on him to read it, and he fell in love
with the Hannibal lectric character. So this is actually what
he told Empire Magazine quote. I read the script and boom,
I knew intuitively how to play him. I thought of
him as a combination of Catherine Hepburn, Kruman Capodi and
How from two thousand and.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
One Katherine Hepburn and how trying to figure that one out.
I don't quite understand that mashup, but okay.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yeah, I mean it is super weird, but it obviously worked.
And the most interesting thing to me that I actually
never picked up on is that the whole movie, he's
only on screen for about sixteen minutes.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I mean, the character is.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Super memorable, but apparently it's only fourteen percent of the
movie's run time. Wow, And apparently it's one of the
shortest lead performances to ever win an Oscar. It's probably
something that bugs Sean Connery because he was actually the
top pick for the role until he turned it down
because he said it was too revolting.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Really, he just.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Give it they offered him that role.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
That's pretty interesting.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Wait, so can I tell you how excited I am
to have Nord VPN sponsoring our little show part time genius.
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I'm going to tell you why NORD is so great
in listical form. First off, VPNs make the Internet a safer,
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(03:58):
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which is especially good for people like me who use
the free Internet on trains or planes or wherever. And
this is basically like an invisibility cloak that keeps you
out of sight from hackers, which is incredible. It is
also why I'm going to use this discount code seriously
(04:18):
to get my Mama subscription. Right after this ad read
two It is great for sports fans. If you listen
to the show, you know that Will and I met
as college freshmen and we went to Duke. And also
I secretly watch as many college basketball games as my
wife and family will allow me to. Please don't remind
me how this season ended for us. But that isn't it.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I also love watching soccer and tennis.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
But when I travel for work, like when I went
to India this winter, I got blocked out of all
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Speaker 1 (04:58):
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(05:23):
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Speaker 1 (05:28):
Is pretty amazing.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
It is premium cybersecurity for the price of a cup
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and you want to support a show and you need
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(05:51):
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Speaker 1 (06:21):
All right.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Well, speaking of actors who've turned down roles, one of
Tony Shaloub's most beloved roles is that of Adrian Monk.
And if you've watched the show Monk, you know that
this character is this kind of quirky private detective. He's
got OCD. But Shaloub wasn't the first choice for the role.
ABC actually wanted to hire Michael Richards, which is it's
kind of weird when like, when you hear who turns
(06:42):
down these roles, it's hard to picture them. But you know,
Seinfeld had just ended and they thought pulling Kramer for
the role would be huge. But after this long song
and dance, Richard passed on the project because he felt
that the character wouldn't allow for enough comedic possibilities. But
here's the funny part. So once Michael Richards wasn't attached
to it, ABC lost interest. They decided to pass, and
(07:03):
thankfully the USA Network swooped in to take a chance
on the show with Shaloub and the starring role. But
here's what makes the story extra satisfying. So Tony Shaloub
had actually auditioned to play Kramer on Seinfeld years.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Before the part went to Richard.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
So in a weird way, the actors have been passing
roles back and forth for a decade.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
That's so weird.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
And they're such different actors you don't really imagine them
replacing one.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
You'd imagine either in the other's role.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
But you know what else is funny is that I
feel like Kramer or Michael Richards after Seinfeld, his first
show was a detective show. I don't know why Monk
in particular wasn't funny enough for him, But there's this
great story I read this week about Tony Braxton, and
it's really about how Tony Braxton was discovered. So this
(07:49):
is years before she recorded on Break My Heart. She
was attending Bowie State University for a teaching degree, and
then one day on her way to school, she stopped
to gas up her car and she started singing to herself,
and the gas station attendant heard her and he broached
her and apparently he was this aspiring songwriter. This guy's
name was William Petaway Junior, and he asked if he
(08:09):
could work with her on some demos, and I guess
she agreed, and within a few months, Braxton had actually
decided to set aside teaching and became a professional singer instead.
And it's just such an unbelievable story, but this is
how she explained it to NPR. Quote, I got five
dollars I borrowed from my dad, and I went to
the gas station in Annapolis, Maryland, and I had a plan.
I was going to put three dollars in my gas
(08:30):
tank and keep two dollars for lunch. And this gas
attendant comes up to me and he's staring at me,
and I'm thinking, okay, a little weird but then he says,
all of a sudden, are you a singer? And he says, no, really,
I've seen you sing around the city. I'm a producer
and I would love to do some demos for you.
And of course I'm thinking this is a line. He
might be crazy. He works at a gas station. But
sometimes in life, you're at the right place at the
(08:51):
right time. You have to take risks. And it turned
out to be legitimate. He was the guy who co
wrote the songs that Millie Vanilli were just starting to
get some attention. Yeah, isn't that crazy? Like it goes
from this gas station story somehow, like he gets this
song picked up by Millie Vanilli and it's just all
amazing to me.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Enough set, I mean, at that point in my life,
I was a huge Millie Vanilli fan. I had bought
the singles, you know all that. That's uh, that's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
All right.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Well, here's a story that's equally unbelievable to me, and
it's about Tony Collett, who's been in everything from The
Sixth Simpse to Little Miss Sunshine to you know, several
other hits. And you might wonder how good an actress
she is, But she's actually such a good actress that
when she was a kid she faked appendicitis to get
out of going to school or something like that, and
the doctor actually operated on herself. I mean, she might
(09:42):
be a good actress, but you do have to question
that a little bit. And of course nowadays she thinks
of this as this total embarrassment. But still that's impressive.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I mean, that is a big commitment.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
It really is.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
And apparently after the surgery, the doctor came out sort of,
you know, sheepishly, and said that they'd removed it, but
that it was only slightly infected.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
That's ridiculous and I actually pretty hard to top. I
don't know if I have a fact that's better than
that one. But here's a super, super weird one that
I only found out about through Gabe. But it's about
Tony the Tiger, who is apparently plagued by leude demands
from the free community. And there's lots of evidence of
this on Twitter. So basically, if you look at just
(10:20):
about any tweet from the official Tony the Tiger Twitter
account in the last three or four years, you'll find
like dozens of replies from this fan base. And you know,
some of them are pretty benign. They say things like Tony,
I want to smooth you, right, But then they're a
whole lot more that are less family friendly and we
can't wear this episode. But in twenty sixteen, Tony started
(10:42):
blocking the accounts from anyone who was hitting on him,
but this only enraged the free community, and suddenly they
started flooding the account. And then on January twenty seven,
twenty sixteen, Tony tweeted, I'm all for showing your stripes, feathers,
et cetera, but let's keep things great and family friendly.
Cubs could be watching. So Unfortunately, many commentators didn't really
(11:04):
honor this request, and eventually the real Tony Tiger Twitter
account was taken down. It was relaunched as a more
generic Frosted Flakes account, right and whe where the tweets
aren't actually written from the mascot's perspective, So gave actually
acent me this story.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
He had this great line about it.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
He wrote, Apparently we're just not mature enough as a
species to handle a Twitter page that's hosted by a
buff cartoon.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Tiger's not ready for that. Maybe one day, some day.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
We're not there yet, all right, Well, here's something I'd
never realized, But did you know that the Tony Awards
were actually named for a woman? So it's this actress,
Antoinette Perry. She was born in Colorado in eighteen eighty eight.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
And actually I.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Learned this from our pale, Aaron over at Mental Flaws.
But Tony, who spelled her name with an eye, which
is of course not how the award is spelled. She
always knew that she wanted to be an actress, and
she wrote about this. So here's what she says. She says,
when I was six, I didn't say I'd become an actress.
I felt like one. No one could convince me I wasn't.
So she joined her uncle's true and over the years
(12:01):
worked as a director and a producer, you know, roles
really only men were getting at the time. She founded
the American Theater Wing, so when she passed away, the
award was created in her honor so that she would
always be remembered. And while the original Tony Awards were
these giant scrolls that they'd hand out to winners, they
later got swapped out for the medals that we're used
to now.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
I'd love to see those scrolls that's crazy. Yeah, well, we've.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Got two more Tony facts to go, but before that,
let's take a quick break. Welcome back to Part Time Genius.
(12:44):
We we're talking facts about Tony's so we only realized
this during our break, but I guess you and I
both chose to do our final fact on Anthony Bourdain.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Did you actually read that oral history that GQ put together?
I did. It was pretty incredible.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
It was amazing, you know, the whole thing, like how
shy he was, that he was clumsy, Like, I love
the fact that, like they got this detailed, that he
shows up to meetings twenty to twenty five minutes early,
you know, and his friends always would try to show
up earlier to beat him, but he'd just be there
in the lounge with like a cup of coffee in
the newspaper. It's pretty great. But you know, I was
(13:18):
curious how he got into food, and apparently it came
from this encounter with a French oyster of fisherman when
he was a kid. And I guess his family had
gone to France and they wound up staying at a
house right next door to the fisherman. So one day
during their stay, the gentleman takes the Boordains out on
his boat, and after sailing for a while, he offers
them some fresh caught oysters for lunch and something I
guess just clicked with bourdaines. So this is how he
(13:41):
describes it in his book Kitchen Confidential. I, in the
proudest moment of my young life, stood up smartly, grinning
with defiance, and volunteered to be the first. I took
it in my hand, tilted the shell back into my mouth,
as instructed by the now beaming Missur Saint Jure, and
with one bite and a slurp, wolfed it down. It
tasted of seawater, of brine and flesh, and somehow of
(14:04):
the future.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
I just love that.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I was also reading about the other meal he loved
besides oysters, and that was the breakfast he ate whenever
he was home in New York City. I apparently he
loved going to Barney Greengrass, and he ordered what he
called the best breakfast in the universe, which was eggs
scrambled with nova Scotia locks and a bagel with cream cheese.
And on the day he passed away, the staff of
the deli set out his usual breakfast at the table.
(14:26):
It was as a tribute, and the deli's owner told
CNN it's a sad day. He touched a lot of lives.
TV makes you famous, but he never acted that way.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Wow, that's heartbreaking. That's really sweet that they did that.
But all right, well, after talking about two things Tony
Burdain loved, maybe we should end on a food that
he really hated. So, I mean, this guy had tried
all kinds of things and you know, some things that
he acknowledged not loving, including the lightly grilled wart hog
rectum in Namibia, but he claimed that one of the
most stomach churning foods he had ever eaten was the
(14:57):
chicken McNugget.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
What I feel like, that's outrageous. Maybe you didn't have
it with Sweeden Sowers.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
That's what it's gonna say. Changes everything.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Ye Well, here's what he told the Avy Club about
his experience. He said, given the choice between reliving the
war Hoog experience and eating a McNugget, I'm surely eating
the McNugget. But at least I knew what the wart
hog was, whereas with the McNugget, I think it's still
an open question. Scientists are still one.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Well, I guess you can't fault him for that, but
you know, I'm still blown away by your story of
Tony Collette taking her appendicitis you know, and fooling the doctors.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
I do think you get the trophy for that.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Today really was impressive. Well, thank you and from Gabe, Tristan,
Mango and me, thanks so much for listening
Guess what Mango? What's up? Will?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
So, I've been waiting for days to ask you this question,
But have you ever heard of the Tony danzas syndrome?
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Is that where you just walk around a house yelling Angelo.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I think it's one variation of it both, but not
the one I'm talking about here. So this is something
that our friend Ken Jennings came up with. He coined
this term, and it's when an actor plays a character
with their same name, or at least their same first
name in movies or TV shows. Hu and so Ken
gave it that name because Tony Danza is, you know,
kind of the king of this and I know you
could probably think of a couple examples, but he actually
(00:35):
starred as a fictional Tony in no less than ten
movies and five separate TV shows.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Yeah, I mean, I guess who's the boss? Good cough
Like It's true. I didn't even think about that.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Lots of other shows too, But it actually started when
he was playing the role of Tony Banta on Taxi
and So the character was supposed to be named Phil Banta.
But because Danza had actually been working as a professional
boxer at the time of his casting and this was
kind of his first big acting gig. The producers changed
his character's name because they were worried that he wouldn't
remember to respond to any name but his own, So
(01:08):
Tony Dan's a syndrome. But anyway, it's a pretty fitting
way to kick off the episode because today's show is
all about Tony's. Let's dive in, Hey their podcast listeners,
(01:39):
welcome the part time genius. I'm Will Pearson and as
always I'm joined by my good friend manguesh Hot Ticketer
and sitting behind the soundproof glass holding up a boombox
as he blasts Tony Tony, Tony, and it's actually on
a cassette tape. I don't know if you've noticed this
right outside the window. That's our Palain producer, Tristan McNeil,
and he's always so prepared for these shows, but I
(01:59):
have it I was a little surprised when I saw
him show up with the boombox. But anyway, I kicked
this off with a fact about Tony Danzel and today's
episode is of course filled with Tony's. But where do
you want to go with it here?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Well, how about a fact about Anthony Hopkins, who isn't
generally my go to Tony, but I stumbled into some
really fun research about Sounds of the Lambs this week,
and there's some strange things about how he got into
that movie. So apparently Hopkins got the script, but he
almost didn't read it because he thought it was a
kid's movie. He assumed Sounds of the Lambs just had
to do something with like puppets or animals.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Or something, which is kind of funny.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
But I guess his agent or whoever put some pressure
on him to read it, and he fell in love
with the Hannibal lectric character. So this is actually what
he told Empire Magazine quote. I read the script and boom,
I knew intuitively how to play him. I thought of
him as a combination of Catherine Hepburn, Kruman Capodi and
How from two thousand and.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
One Katherine Hepburn and how trying to figure that one out.
I don't quite understand that mashup, but okay.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yeah, I mean it is super weird, but it obviously worked.
And the most interesting thing to me that I actually
never picked up on is that the whole movie, he's
only on screen for about sixteen minutes.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I mean, the character is.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Super memorable, but apparently it's only fourteen percent of the
movie's run time. Wow, And apparently it's one of the
shortest lead performances to ever win an Oscar. It's probably
something that bugs Sean Connery because he was actually the
top pick for the role until he turned it down
because he said it was too revolting.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Really, he just.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Give it they offered him that role.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
That's pretty interesting.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Wait, so can I tell you how excited I am
to have Nord VPN sponsoring our little show part time genius.
You know, when I get excited, I make lists, and
I'm going to tell you why NORD is so great
in listical form. First off, VPNs make the Internet a safer,
cozier place. VPN stand for virtual Private network. Basically, they
(03:58):
hide your IP address and protect your online identity and data,
which is especially good for people like me who use
the free Internet on trains or planes or wherever. And
this is basically like an invisibility cloak that keeps you
out of sight from hackers, which is incredible. It is
also why I'm going to use this discount code seriously
(04:18):
to get my Mama subscription. Right after this ad read
two It is great for sports fans. If you listen
to the show, you know that Will and I met
as college freshmen and we went to Duke. And also
I secretly watch as many college basketball games as my
wife and family will allow me to. Please don't remind
me how this season ended for us. But that isn't it.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I also love watching soccer and tennis.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
But when I travel for work, like when I went
to India this winter, I got blocked out of all
my games. It was the total worst, except because NordVPN
lets you change your location, you can actually access all
those games from anywhere.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
It is magic. And three.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
One NordVPN subscription can be used on up to ten devices,
which is incredible. I mean, I don't want to do
the math for you, but whether you use ten cell
phones or you have like nine desktop computers and one
laptop or six iPads, three phones and one personal computer,
there are a lot of ways to stretch this deal.
(05:23):
I mean, I'm joking, but also I have like a
million devices, so the idea of spreading this across ten devices.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Is pretty amazing.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
It is premium cybersecurity for the price of a cup
of coffee every month. Anyway, if you love our show
and you want to support a show and you need
a VPN, this is absolutely the deal for you. To
get the best discount off your NordVPN plan, go to
nord vpn dot com slash ptg. That's NordVPN dot com
(05:51):
slash ptg. Our link will also give you four extra
months on the two year plan and there is no
risk no risk with Nords thirty day money back guarantee.
That is NordVPN dot com slash ptg. Or you can
find the link in the podcast episode description. So if
you want to not get hacked, watch lots of sports
(06:13):
and do it on multiple devices, nordvpns for you.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
All right.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Well, speaking of actors who've turned down roles, one of
Tony Shaloub's most beloved roles is that of Adrian Monk.
And if you've watched the show Monk, you know that
this character is this kind of quirky private detective. He's
got OCD. But Shaloub wasn't the first choice for the role.
ABC actually wanted to hire Michael Richards, which is it's
kind of weird when like, when you hear who turns
(06:42):
down these roles, it's hard to picture them. But you know,
Seinfeld had just ended and they thought pulling Kramer for
the role would be huge. But after this long song
and dance, Richard passed on the project because he felt
that the character wouldn't allow for enough comedic possibilities. But
here's the funny part. So once Michael Richards wasn't attached
to it, ABC lost interest. They decided to pass, and
(07:03):
thankfully the USA Network swooped in to take a chance
on the show with Shaloub and the starring role. But
here's what makes the story extra satisfying. So Tony Shaloub
had actually auditioned to play Kramer on Seinfeld years.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Before the part went to Richard.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
So in a weird way, the actors have been passing
roles back and forth for a decade.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
That's so weird.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
And they're such different actors you don't really imagine them
replacing one.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
You'd imagine either in the other's role.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
But you know what else is funny is that I
feel like Kramer or Michael Richards after Seinfeld, his first
show was a detective show. I don't know why Monk
in particular wasn't funny enough for him, But there's this
great story I read this week about Tony Braxton, and
it's really about how Tony Braxton was discovered. So this
(07:49):
is years before she recorded on Break My Heart. She
was attending Bowie State University for a teaching degree, and
then one day on her way to school, she stopped
to gas up her car and she started singing to herself,
and the gas station attendant heard her and he broached
her and apparently he was this aspiring songwriter. This guy's
name was William Petaway Junior, and he asked if he
(08:09):
could work with her on some demos, and I guess
she agreed, and within a few months, Braxton had actually
decided to set aside teaching and became a professional singer instead.
And it's just such an unbelievable story, but this is
how she explained it to NPR. Quote, I got five
dollars I borrowed from my dad, and I went to
the gas station in Annapolis, Maryland, and I had a plan.
I was going to put three dollars in my gas
(08:30):
tank and keep two dollars for lunch. And this gas
attendant comes up to me and he's staring at me,
and I'm thinking, okay, a little weird but then he says,
all of a sudden, are you a singer? And he says, no, really,
I've seen you sing around the city. I'm a producer
and I would love to do some demos for you.
And of course I'm thinking this is a line. He
might be crazy. He works at a gas station. But
sometimes in life, you're at the right place at the
(08:51):
right time. You have to take risks. And it turned
out to be legitimate. He was the guy who co
wrote the songs that Millie Vanilli were just starting to
get some attention. Yeah, isn't that crazy? Like it goes
from this gas station story somehow, like he gets this
song picked up by Millie Vanilli and it's just all
amazing to me.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Enough set, I mean, at that point in my life,
I was a huge Millie Vanilli fan. I had bought
the singles, you know all that. That's uh, that's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
All right.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Well, here's a story that's equally unbelievable to me, and
it's about Tony Collett, who's been in everything from The
Sixth Simpse to Little Miss Sunshine to you know, several
other hits. And you might wonder how good an actress
she is, But she's actually such a good actress that
when she was a kid she faked appendicitis to get
out of going to school or something like that, and
the doctor actually operated on herself. I mean, she might
(09:42):
be a good actress, but you do have to question
that a little bit. And of course nowadays she thinks
of this as this total embarrassment. But still that's impressive.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I mean, that is a big commitment.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
It really is.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
And apparently after the surgery, the doctor came out sort of,
you know, sheepishly, and said that they'd removed it, but
that it was only slightly infected.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
That's ridiculous and I actually pretty hard to top. I
don't know if I have a fact that's better than
that one. But here's a super, super weird one that
I only found out about through Gabe. But it's about
Tony the Tiger, who is apparently plagued by leude demands
from the free community. And there's lots of evidence of
this on Twitter. So basically, if you look at just
(10:20):
about any tweet from the official Tony the Tiger Twitter
account in the last three or four years, you'll find
like dozens of replies from this fan base. And you know,
some of them are pretty benign. They say things like Tony,
I want to smooth you, right, But then they're a
whole lot more that are less family friendly and we
can't wear this episode. But in twenty sixteen, Tony started
(10:42):
blocking the accounts from anyone who was hitting on him,
but this only enraged the free community, and suddenly they
started flooding the account. And then on January twenty seven,
twenty sixteen, Tony tweeted, I'm all for showing your stripes, feathers,
et cetera, but let's keep things great and family friendly.
Cubs could be watching. So Unfortunately, many commentators didn't really
(11:04):
honor this request, and eventually the real Tony Tiger Twitter
account was taken down. It was relaunched as a more
generic Frosted Flakes account, right and whe where the tweets
aren't actually written from the mascot's perspective, So gave actually
acent me this story.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
He had this great line about it.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
He wrote, Apparently we're just not mature enough as a
species to handle a Twitter page that's hosted by a
buff cartoon.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Tiger's not ready for that. Maybe one day, some day.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
We're not there yet, all right, Well, here's something I'd
never realized, But did you know that the Tony Awards
were actually named for a woman? So it's this actress,
Antoinette Perry. She was born in Colorado in eighteen eighty eight.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
And actually I.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Learned this from our pale, Aaron over at Mental Flaws.
But Tony, who spelled her name with an eye, which
is of course not how the award is spelled. She
always knew that she wanted to be an actress, and
she wrote about this. So here's what she says. She says,
when I was six, I didn't say I'd become an actress.
I felt like one. No one could convince me I wasn't.
So she joined her uncle's true and over the years
(12:01):
worked as a director and a producer, you know, roles
really only men were getting at the time. She founded
the American Theater Wing, so when she passed away, the
award was created in her honor so that she would
always be remembered. And while the original Tony Awards were
these giant scrolls that they'd hand out to winners, they
later got swapped out for the medals that we're used
to now.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
I'd love to see those scrolls that's crazy. Yeah, well, we've.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Got two more Tony facts to go, but before that,
let's take a quick break. Welcome back to Part Time Genius.
(12:44):
We we're talking facts about Tony's so we only realized
this during our break, but I guess you and I
both chose to do our final fact on Anthony Bourdain.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Did you actually read that oral history that GQ put together?
I did. It was pretty incredible.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
It was amazing, you know, the whole thing, like how
shy he was, that he was clumsy, Like, I love
the fact that, like they got this detailed, that he
shows up to meetings twenty to twenty five minutes early,
you know, and his friends always would try to show
up earlier to beat him, but he'd just be there
in the lounge with like a cup of coffee in
the newspaper. It's pretty great. But you know, I was
(13:18):
curious how he got into food, and apparently it came
from this encounter with a French oyster of fisherman when
he was a kid. And I guess his family had
gone to France and they wound up staying at a
house right next door to the fisherman. So one day
during their stay, the gentleman takes the Boordains out on
his boat, and after sailing for a while, he offers
them some fresh caught oysters for lunch and something I
guess just clicked with bourdaines. So this is how he
(13:41):
describes it in his book Kitchen Confidential. I, in the
proudest moment of my young life, stood up smartly, grinning
with defiance, and volunteered to be the first. I took
it in my hand, tilted the shell back into my mouth,
as instructed by the now beaming Missur Saint Jure, and
with one bite and a slurp, wolfed it down. It
tasted of seawater, of brine and flesh, and somehow of
(14:04):
the future.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
I just love that.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I was also reading about the other meal he loved
besides oysters, and that was the breakfast he ate whenever
he was home in New York City. I apparently he
loved going to Barney Greengrass, and he ordered what he
called the best breakfast in the universe, which was eggs
scrambled with nova Scotia locks and a bagel with cream cheese.
And on the day he passed away, the staff of
the deli set out his usual breakfast at the table.
(14:26):
It was as a tribute, and the deli's owner told
CNN it's a sad day. He touched a lot of lives.
TV makes you famous, but he never acted that way.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Wow, that's heartbreaking. That's really sweet that they did that.
But all right, well, after talking about two things Tony
Burdain loved, maybe we should end on a food that
he really hated. So, I mean, this guy had tried
all kinds of things and you know, some things that
he acknowledged not loving, including the lightly grilled wart hog
rectum in Namibia, but he claimed that one of the
most stomach churning foods he had ever eaten was the
(14:57):
chicken McNugget.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
What I feel like, that's outrageous. Maybe you didn't have
it with Sweeden Sowers.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
That's what it's gonna say. Changes everything.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Ye Well, here's what he told the Avy Club about
his experience. He said, given the choice between reliving the
war Hoog experience and eating a McNugget, I'm surely eating
the McNugget. But at least I knew what the wart
hog was, whereas with the McNugget, I think it's still
an open question. Scientists are still one.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Well, I guess you can't fault him for that, but
you know, I'm still blown away by your story of
Tony Collette taking her appendicitis you know, and fooling the doctors.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
I do think you get the trophy for that.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Today really was impressive. Well, thank you and from Gabe, Tristan,
Mango and me, thanks so much for listening
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
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