February 13, 2023 • 56 mins
Crawfish, corncobs, biscuits, and s’mores – we’re not putting together a menu; these are all sports teams’ mascots. Anney and Lauren explore the fabulous, surreal, silly world of anthropomorphic food-themed sports mascots.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, and what come to savor protection of I Heart Radio,
I'm any reason and I'm more in foc obam And
today we have an episode for you about sports related
food mascots. Yes, just let that sink in. This has
been a long time coming. Oh yeah. We have wanted
(00:30):
to do this for a while. I was so excited
when you suggested it. And it has been a terrifying,
wonderful journey. Oh yeah. And and this is one of
those things that we could The outline is only the
length that it is because I ran out of time.
(00:51):
I could have kept going. I'm not sure how long
it could have kept going for. Is one of many
terrifying things that I'm going to say throughout the cost
of this episode. It it's just that people love food
and they love sports teams, and they really combine the
two in fascinating ways. They really do, They really do.
(01:14):
The other thing is I was thinking about this because
I know some of you have written in over the
years about very specific, smaller ones. Um So if we
don't mention one because I know somebody wrote in about
a prett soul mascot and I'm just more about that.
Um yeah, there's there's a whole thing about paroguis yea, yes, yes,
(01:36):
so it is. It's a whole It's a whole world,
and we couldn't cover them all, so please please let
us know if we missed missed an important one. And
this was partly inspired because we have they have come
up in past outlines, like recently with Gooey Ducks. We
(01:56):
talked about that one. Um already the Artich joke some
people pointed out to us a sour dough Sam, we
kind of talked about, which is the forty niners? Yeah? Um?
And and also the super Bowl is ni upon us
and so I know I said it, I dare uttered
(02:18):
the name. Yeah, it's that, it's not it's a fact.
It's a fact that it's happening. This is not a
promotional episode about the super Bowl or super Bowl related things. Um.
So yeah, as far as I know, none of none
of these teams. Most are the ones I'm talking about
our minor league baseball, so I'm pretty sure they're not
(02:40):
going to be in the super Bowl. I don't know
a lot about sports, but me either, which makes us
all the more fun. But right that that was why
I was thinking about this episode. And yeah, between between
you and super Producer Dylan. There's been a lot of
excitement about this one over the years, so it's true.
(03:02):
Randomly Superproducer Dylan will just text us or send as
a picture of like food mascot. Yeah, no further explanation.
They usually speak for themselves, is the thing, and a
lot of sit Well. I guess this brings us to
(03:23):
your question. I guess it does food related sports mascots.
What are they? Well? All right, A sports team mascot
is a fictional character that teams management will develop in
order to inspire participation in the team's fans. Um and
(03:47):
sometimes those matt scots are are food based. Um. You know.
Mascots are often anthropomorphized animals or inanimate objects of some kind,
so this is not unusual in its scope, but it
can get delightfully weird. Uh. Mascots are represented by illustrations,
which may range an attitude from like good natured to intimidating,
(04:09):
but are are generally humorous in style um or tongue
in cheek at the very least. Uh. These illustrations are
often then adapted into full body costumes, which a performer
will wear to promote the team and inspire participation in
fans during games and other public events. Mascots are nonverbal,
(04:31):
generally speaking and engage with fans through gesticulation um simple
instruments like horns, maybe some form of puppetry used in
the mask um and uh, and or escorts or handlers
or announcers who will like speak on their behalf. Yeah,
they are walking publicity stunts. They are like the fever
(04:55):
dream of Edward Burnet's come to life and so calling
you hot dogs. Yes, and one of my very favorite
things is a lot of them. They've gotten wackier and wackier, um,
at least in my experience, because again I don't. I
enjoy sports well enough when I'm like hanging out with friends,
but in general it's not my thing. Um. And for
(05:17):
in my experience, they've got wack here in whack here.
And I love how they have like backstories. Oh yeah,
like a whole back store you can read about how
when they emerged from the earth. You all know who
I'm talking about. Yeah, Yeah, they're varying lye intricate in
their in their creation myth and yes, that's great. Yes,
(05:43):
And I know, at least at my university, Buzz the
Yellow jacket was our mascot, and it was like a
big like a rumor of who which student is it
because you're not supposed to tell anybody it's you, but
it was like a big kind of game to try
to guess like who might be buzz It's it's a
(06:11):
wacky world out there, y'all. Um. I will note here
we are not talking about the mascots of food companies
much today. That is like a separate episode, two episodes
to mini series to to uh full other podcast. Yes, yeah,
And I kind of got frustrated because I'm so excited
(06:33):
about like creepy food based sports mascots and I kept
getting these company mascots. That's not what I was looking
for this time. But I did stumble on some that
I was like, wow, come back and talk about this absolutely.
Oh yeah, And I will say, you know, like like right,
like like I'm about on the same page as you
(06:53):
are with most sports, but like sports fandom is a
really fascinating type of fandom to me. And I again,
like I just love that local pride in particular dishes
or foods um overlaps with local pride in particular types
of competitions and teams in this way. Yeah, yeah, I
(07:16):
love how people embrace it so hard, huge fans of
the mascot, so cool. It's it's like it's just like
a very to me, like niche kind of nursery. And
I'm like, heck, yeah, that's great, go for it. That
makes you that happy, that's amazing. People have strong opinions
(07:39):
for sure, like especially if they try to change the design. Whoa,
oh yeah yeah, And there have been a number of
like team name changes or like team transfers. There's always
team transfers, but like there have been a number of
team name changes, especially in recent years, as teams are
trying to distance themselves from previous super racist mascots that
(08:03):
they had, which is great. I really approve of that.
But occasionally, yeah, I can like ruffle some feathers about
whenever there's change. And I understand like Wikipedia changed its
layout about a week and a half ago, and I
really flipped out. I was like, I cannot handle this today, Wikipedia,
Why would you do this to me anyway? So I
(08:27):
get it, I get it, I get it, Yes, I
do as well, Um, well, what about the nutrition? Definitely
donate a sports mascot. I mean we're talking about a
lot of edible things today, But don't eat the mascot itself.
That's a costume with a human person inside. Don't do that.
That's that's wrong on a number of levels, nutritional and moral.
(08:48):
Mm hmm, yeah, even if they look like food exactly,
food exactly. Well, we don't really have any numbers for
you because kind of the whole outline is just a
sampling of some numbers. Yeah, yeah, it's it's just a sampling.
Um and and right, there's no like collective knowledge about this.
(09:12):
I you know, we're we're trying, we're breaking we're breaking
some ground here with the help of a few other
resources online. But it's a lot. It's a lot, and
we are only two human maybe podcasters. We're just trying
(09:33):
to wrap our heads around some of these these mascots
which we are going to try to describe. It's gonna
be this is gonna be fun. Yeah, yeah, and I
and I can I only hope that y'all come out
of this feeling as delighted and sort of crazy as
(09:54):
I do right now. A little on edge, A little
on edge. Well, with that note, we should get into
some of the history and the examples. But first we
have a quick break for a word from our sponsor,
(10:18):
and we're back, thank you sponsoring, Yes, thank you. Okay.
So ostensibly a food show, this one was kind of
hard to separate out because I do get really into
these like research topics, and then I just want to
know everything about it. But very, very briefly, the history
of sports mascots allegedly goes back to the eight hundreds,
(10:40):
when teams might have a person or an animal that
they believed to be a good luck charm. Often it
was something this kind of thing still happens to this day.
But I read a story of an early mascot that
was just a goat that would like wander onto the
field a lot um and he became the mascot, Like
all right, yeah, that kind of idea. Um. The word
(11:01):
itself is believed to be derived from the French word
for lucky charm mascots um. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests
that the first known English usage of the word took
place in one Some of the earliest records of sports
mascots started popping up in the eighteen nineties. And yeah,
over time, a mascot design grew into something bigger, and
(11:23):
I would say wilder because again the persone was just
like this goat or this kid. Yeah, right, and then
over time, oh oh my, especially during the nineteen sixties
and seventies, really took off and they became more of Yeah,
these characters, these icons that usually but not always were
(11:46):
symbols of the region that they were from or the school,
um specific school, perhaps something that was supposed to inspire,
something that people could get behind, and ultimately a marketing
tool you generate excitement and revenue. And sometimes that thing
is food, as you said, kind of those regional foods
(12:09):
or things that people are proud of, our our love
in that area. And yes, also as you said, sometimes
they are we're are extremely problematic. Um okay, but as
you also also said, less of what we're talking about today.
I did want to include a note about food mascots
for food brands, so like Mr Peanut is a big
(12:31):
one that kept coming up when I was doing this research. Um,
there are a perhaps surprising amount of articles looking into
why companies use mascots, including sports teams um as opposed
to just logos, and why mascots work. Yeah, and one
of the biggest reasons is that anthropomorphism essentially giving human
(12:54):
characteristics and behaviors on something that usually isn't human. I
guess some of them are, it usually is not. Um.
Studies have found that people respond more favorably to images
of animals with more quote human attributes than those without.
Study found that a smiling mascot makes people feel less
conflicted about snacking on the products the mascot represents. Um,
(13:18):
it's not. It doesn't actually increase their desire for the product.
It just makes them feel like less guilty about it,
all right, Okay, Yes, some mascots sell a lot of merchandise,
like not just the thing they're representing, like the mascot itself,
Like the Eminem Store that that's a whole store that's
(13:40):
dedicated to these human like Eminem's oh, which also like
speaking of it calls a lot of controversies, some of
these gosh heavy sigh indeed. Um, but it is fascinating, uh,
And I know there's also some people it's kind of
a running joke, like when you're watching that old timey
(14:04):
like let's all go to the lobby commercial for the
movies and it's totally popcorn eating popcorn, and you you
don't know how to feel about that, but which speaking of,
in some cases these mascots have gone on to inspire
horror movies or games, some of them that I didn't
even realize, but I immediately thought of Five Nights at Freddy's,
(14:26):
which is obviously Chuckie Cheese inspired. Um, but there are
a lot of clowns that have inspired a lot of
clown media. Um. That's a that's also a whole other
podcast again ostensibly a food show. Yes, which all right,
that note aside, we did want to go over some
(14:50):
examples of these food mascots for sports. Um, we're gonna
try to paint some mental pictures, but some of them
are just gonna have to look up like I saw them.
I don't think I can capture. I couldn't give them
all the worth the weight. Yeah yeah, so I yeah,
and and like and like we're gonna kind of like
like trade off back and forth. Um. And so some
(15:13):
some of the ones that you don't have descriptions for,
like I might try to live like Google and and
live cast. Well, well we'll see, we'll see what happens. Yeah, yeah, Oh,
it's gonna be fun. Um. And I will say I
there were a couple of that really helped me out.
I think thrill List and Buzfee had a good one.
They weren't food specifically, um, food mascot specific, but a
(15:38):
lot of them would appear on like the I don't know,
nineteen creepy ist mascots. So I appreciated that there there
are a lot of lists out there, and like, I
like again yeah, like I could have kept going for
like apparently quite a long time, Like it's just the
rabbit hole doesn't stop. Um so yeah mm hmm and
(15:59):
yeah again. Also super producer Dylan, thank you or for
bringing this to our attention over the years. Um and uh.
And I did want to include a note. I don't
know about you, Annie, but for for most of these,
like in the interest of brevity, I've only included mascots
(16:19):
that are actually anthropomorphic foods, not teams that are named
for foods, who have a food themed logo, but not
a working food mascot. Yeah. Well, we had to draw
some lines somewhere, right, Okay, So let's get started. Yeah,
(16:44):
and let's start with the Montgomery Biscuits out of Montgomery, Alabama.
One of the reasons I love this one is because
it has like I love the very silly, you know,
in between like halftime shows, halftimes off the right word. Again,
I'm not super sports, but you know when they have
like the races or the little games they do in
(17:04):
between innings or something. Um. So for the Montgomery Biscuits,
there's a biscuit bunch run. Uh, there's biscuit cannon. There's
a biscuit cannon, and it's all led by an anthropomorphic
biscuit named Monty. But also Big Mo, who is this
like giant ant eater thing who loves biscuits. At one point,
(17:26):
Big Mo was put on a diet in order to
promote health. You're eating. Okay, I say, leave Big Mo alone,
but you know he is an adult monster and he
can make his own life choices. Um. But but yeah, okay,
so some Monty. Monty is like head is a biscuit
like split open where the mouth would be okay, and
(17:49):
and it has like a pad of butter as a tongue. Um.
It has hands and feet nobody, um, And it has
googly eyes on top of the biscuit that that look
a little bit like eggs. Maybe. Uh yeah, that's what's
that's what's going on to Monty. Yeah, yes, uh and
I love this. They apparently gave cell biscuits and gravy
(18:13):
from carts, so well, yeah, I mean it only makes sense,
of course to write. All right, then we've got Colonel
cobb Um and this is the mascot um out of
Concordia College in Minnesota, Minnesota being a corn growing state,
and this is, yes, an anthropomorphic corn coub mascot. Um.
(18:37):
The mascot has its roots apparently and arrival schools fans
attempting to insult Concordia by calling them corn cobs and
like the late eighteen hundreds like like, oh, you have
a corn cob out back behind like the boys dorm,
like what you corn cobs? Um? But Concordia leaned in
and by the early nineteen hundreds was using corn imagery
(18:58):
in their marketing. Um. The mascot developed over the course
of time from the more anonymous Cobber into Colonel cobb Um,
who is a ferocious, anthropomorphic corn cub, usually wearing a
team jersey or maybe a college sweater. Mm hmmm uh.
(19:20):
The n c double A named them the number one
meatless mascot in college sports. Okay, accolades, yeah um. And
there there is also a baby faced corn cob named
Niblet that has gained fame in plush form because you
can really, you can really take them anywhere. It's very
instagram mouble. That's true. That's true. It's important all right.
(19:48):
That brings us to making bacon out of making Georgia. Um.
This one was the results of the always Risky online
voting contest. It is a piece of bacon with a face.
It's got kind of like it's got kind of like
a skillet. I think on its head, I think it's
(20:13):
a cast iron skillet. Yeah, no, that's a it's like
a combination baseball cap cast iron skillet. I think. I
think is the concept. Yeah, I think I think so too.
His face to me does look a little like it's
the mix between surprised and like I'm going to terrify
(20:35):
you in your sleep. You know that mix. Oh yeah,
that's what's going on. I'm deeply familiar with it. Yeah,
it's sort of like it's sort of like if Gumby
was going was a piece of bacon and he was
thinking about eating you, but he got he stopped and
played a baseball game first. He does look like Gumby. Right. Well,
(20:58):
they had yeah, his official name is given as I said,
so they could have gotten a lot of worse names.
That is what I can say, um, from an online
voting contest. But m Kevin, sir, sure, thank you for
your service, Kevin. Mm hmmm. Well that brings us to
the Savannah Bananas. Also out of Georgia, Savannah, Georgia. This
(21:21):
is mostly from what I can gather. A name that's
based on writing, and that's it. Yeah, yeah, because they're
there aren't really banana's grown in Savannah, but but it
is very catchy to say Savannah Banana. Um. And this
is okay, this is like, this is like if Johnny Bravo,
we're a baseball playing banana. Um uh, like like big sunglasses,
(21:45):
big grin, kind of open shirt, um sort of yeah
yeah yeah yeah and the and the stem at the
top is sort of like a flat top. So yeah, yeah,
he's a real He seems like a real cool dude.
He doesn't. I guess I should specify the six pack
of apps would if he had a six pack of
(22:07):
beer to be honest. Oh goodness, um uh huh uh huh.
Also out of Florida, we have, um, the Jacksonville Jumbo shrimp.
Oh my gosh. Okay, so in the minor league baseball
team formerly known as the Jacksonville Sons switched to this
(22:28):
new mascot slash team name. Um, the illustrations. Actually, I
don't know if I googled to see whether there was
like a person in a costume that looks like this,
but but the illustrations look like if trog door were
a shrimp, because it's it's like a shrimp, but it's
got like these big beefy arms. Um, and it's pretty.
(22:51):
It's like fearsome. It's like a really like fearsome beefy
arm shrimp. See, I'm a little on edge. I'm a
little on edge. Yeah, need to be beat up on
my shroom. I think it's fighting for you or like
with like yeah, okay, yeah right, well that's all right then.
Um the next one are the Chicago Dogs. Okay, Um,
(23:17):
so I'm a little perplexed by this one for multiple reasons. Um, okay,
well how to explain this? So they had this thing
called the Wieners Circle. Oh my gosh, yes, and it's
like a really smug looking catchup squeeze ketchup bottle who's
(23:41):
got like he looks like he's he's gonna he's wearing
like a sleuth, like a detective jacket. Said, well, a
detective jacket as well. Um, and then I believe related
as Squeeze whose mustard mustard based Yeah, Scott, who looks
a lot more. He looks kind of like a Yoshi
with the little mustard head on. Yeah. Yeah, it's in
(24:02):
the kind of Muppet category of of mascots. But but
he's got a musty, he's mustard colored, and he has
a mustard uh Squeeze bottle shaped hat. Right, Yeah, I'm
definitely getting like a spive versus spive I from this
where I'm supposed to trust mustard and not trust ketchup.
And in fact, there is a rumor. So the article
(24:23):
I found this from was from Takeout and at the
time they were only I think also only in drawings
hadn't come out yet, but it said that the team
allegedly had a strict no ketchup policy and that if
you had catchup on your hot dog, it's not like
you would be bent, you would be kicked out of
the team, like serious. So if they've really taken firm
(24:46):
stance on the mustard versus getting debate when it comes
to hot dog Well, I mean right, I mean, people
are very serious about their Chicago dogs. I still can't
entirely identify what is supposed to be on it. But
but I but I understand that ketchup is not supposed
to be on it. So right, I have not been
(25:06):
to there. I need to visit. Oh it's lovely, um,
lots of good hot dog places there, and they do
have I guess I'm eating greet with Chicago's most famous
hot Doggervors. That involves cheerleaders at these games, or at
least it was an event that happens because they do
(25:26):
take their hot dogs very seriously Chica. But that sounds nice. Yeah,
all right, I've got another one for you. Um, toasty, toasty,
this somemores Okay, I'm interested. Okay. So there's this independent
baseball team in the Pioneer League out of Colorado called
(25:48):
the Rocky Mountain Vibes, which is already pretty aces um
and their mascot is a giant flaming s'mores. Um Like,
his main body is it out of marshmallow, his arms
are made out of marshmallow. He's wearing this like cool,
like Graham Cracker jacket and sunglasses. His hair is made
(26:08):
of flames um and according to like the team's website,
I quote, Toasty was born a healthy some more on Monday,
November nineteen in beautiful Colorado Springs, Colorado. Toasty was born
big for a some more at two and eighty four
pounds and nine ounces. A proud Colorado Springs native, Toasty
(26:32):
enjoys spending his free time watching baseball, hiking Pike's Peak
and Garden of the Gods with his best friend Socks
the Fox, and just going with the vibe. I'm hean again.
I love these descriptions rich in stories. He does look
like he's going with the vibe. He does. He does,
this is a this is a vibe positive more. I mean,
(26:55):
his head is definitely on fire. But yeah, that big deal. Yeah,
Oh they're comparing with the guy here. Oh no, just
my hair kind of stuff. Share. I don't know, I
see it, I see it, I understand. Yeah, that's pretty good.
That's pretty good. I like it. Uh. This one I
(27:16):
found since the Fresno Tacos. Since the Fresno Grizzlies transformed
to the Fresno Tacos. Every Tuesday home game because Taco Tuesday. Yeah, yes,
And I will say, of the mascots on this list,
I feel like he doesn't look threatening to me. He
(27:38):
looks well, the close ups a little threatening, but the
other like a farm of distance. He looks like a
happy taco with a hat on. I mean, hey, that's
that's all right, you know, but I do like that
it's Taco Tuesday. That's a fun little a fun little gimmick. Yeah. Yeah,
he looks a little bit like he looks a little
(28:00):
bit like, um, he might be a Toy Story character,
like he's he's giving me like his eyes and like
face shape are giving me strong like Jesse the cowgirl
from Toy Story vibes. But but like on a taco shell.
M M. I wonder if they got any blowback or
(28:20):
flak about because you can kind of see what's on
the inside. Oh the increasing. Yeah, and there's there's some
like there's like some shredded lettuce contentious. Well listeners, let
us know. Oh heck, alright, this next one, um, next up,
(28:42):
we've got Al the almond, Wally the walnut, and Shelly
the pistachio. All right, and these are the three mascots
of the California Minor League baseball team, the Modesto Nuts.
Um Al the Almond appears to be a baseball player,
Wally a catcher, and Shelly a cheerleader. I'm gonna go
(29:08):
ahead and say that Al's current incarnation looks like a
Santarin from Doctor Who. Yeah, and my their plastic grins
will haunt my waking dreams. Yeah, yeah, I definitely recoiled
(29:32):
a moment when I Lauren got to Witnesses. When I
first looked at these, yeah, I had to take a
breath before I could like jump into this one. And
in the meanwhile, Annie googled it and I knew when
it had come up because she just goes, wow, oh wow.
(29:53):
I mean, what can we say? I I don't know,
And I like, there's some that have a different facial expression. Yeah, yeah,
there's a few, like iterations and stuff. A new rabbit hole,
a terrifying one. Also, the Modesto Nuts. We've just got
(30:15):
to say, that's pretty funny. That's a good that's a
real good team name. That's a real good team name.
I like it. WHOA. This brings us to the Fighting
Okrah of Delta State. And in this Fighting Okra's backstory.
They gave it like its own botanical name. Yes, vegetable
(30:39):
meanness um quote, a large, prickly bipedal vegetable with an
inherently bad temperament. I mean, so at first you'd be like, well,
I love Okrah. I feel like it's had a bad
rap for a long time. It's not mean. But then
you see the picture. I wouldn't mess with the fighting No,
(31:01):
no terrifying. And this is one Dillan put on our
radar um. But essentially like it's a it's a okraw
but mean. Yeah, this Oakra means business. It's like, oh gosh,
every picture it's like hands on hips, fierce stance. It's
(31:23):
got this kind of scowl, yeah, like a glower and
a frown. Yeah yeah, Oh gosh, Oh some of these
are kind of freaking me out. Back from the oak
come back from oh god. And here's a quote I
found from Times Higher Education dot com and it was
(31:45):
all about like these very mascots were talking about his
old list um famous thanks to his TV appearance on
the Food Network channel. The Fighting Okra was voted in
as Delta States unofficial mascot by students in the nineteen nineties.
The Okra has a fierce expression and is equipped with
boxing gloves, adding to its formidable exterior. Popular myth claims
that the fighting Ochra was inspired by a stubborn Opra
(32:08):
plant your first base on the baseball pitch that kept
growing back despite continually being cut. Um. Which, if that's true,
that's a that's a great reason. That reason to have
a mascot absolutely good, A good of a reason as any. Yeah, yeah, no,
I all right, So that to be honest, I did
(32:30):
not watch this video. There are days when I cannot
handle my computer making noises at me. Um. But but
there is a video that I saw called Fear the
Okra and and the the preview says nine national championships,
one overly aggressive Okra, and I, from what I can gather,
(32:53):
it's a video of the Okra tackling people. Got it? Yeah,
As mentioned, I would not mess with it. No, no, um.
This brings us to otto the orange Um. Syracuse University
in New York has as its mascot an anthropomorphic orange.
(33:15):
It is an orange, It has arms and legs, sometimes
a nose, and it is wearing a baseball cap. I
mean that makes sense? Yeah? Yeah, does it? Well? Makes sense?
Maybe it's a stretch, but oh he looks like a
(33:37):
happy orange. Yeah, he's an affable, young orange, I think. Yeah. Indeed,
if you haven't looked at pictures of this one, Lauren,
you've got to um, okay, alright, alright on it. Okay.
This is the fighting pickle out of University of North
Carolina School of the Arts. Um. So Yeah, When deciding
(33:58):
on a mascot for their intramural football team in nine two,
the school went with a pickle. I believe there's nobody else.
There's like no other team in their league or something,
so that the running joke is that he's undefeated. Um,
this pickle, you listeners, It was not what I thought
it was going to be because I think I was
(34:18):
like coming from the you know, Fighting Okra. In my head,
this is a decidedly This is like if the Fighting
Okrah had a cousin who went to France. Yeah, this
is an art school pickle. This is a decidedly art
school pickle. Dodeed. He's got some cool facial hair. Um,
he's got like a little two two uh huh, or
(34:41):
a keyboard. He's got like a little keyboard keyboard to two. Um,
and a cool a cool hat. Um the feather. Yeah, yeah,
accepter like a like a film clapboard. Yes, like he
he accessorizes, you know, based on the day, which I appreciate,
(35:02):
you know, that's important. Yeah, and he he's just got
a very like I don't know, he's giving me kind
of a Three Musketeers. Oh yeah, because he's got a
little mask. I forgot to mention the mask. He's got
a little mask. And then on the on the movie
clapper board it says, uh, fighting pickle. So and he's
(35:26):
kind of wielding this paint brush. Oh that's a paint brush,
not a scepter. I guess, okay, kind of like a
fencing Yeah, it's quite the site I really recommended. Oh yeah,
oh yeah. Um, speaking of I need to talk about
Muddy the mud cat, please um. Mud cat being another
(35:49):
term for catfish. Um. This is the mascot of a
currently North Carolina minor league baseball team. It's like it's
like the body, the body of a baseball player in
to form and then just the head of a catfish. Um.
Like honestly reminds me a whole lot. If y'all ever
watched the show Far Escape of the character call Dargo.
(36:12):
Oh wow, this is so funny because we're like giving
you all the nerdiest like sci fi yea for these sports.
That's that's where my brain goes. And I that it
just is what it is. Yeah, it is, um it is.
But yeah, he seems he seems he seems like a
(36:34):
he seems like a cool fish. He kind of gives
me the sense that he's like a fish who stumbled
into some radioactive stuff and it's trying to pretend he's
a human, um, trying to pass off ye kind of
like when the Ninja Turtles go out, but they're like
literally just wearing like a trench coat and you're like, buddy,
(36:57):
your head is green, Like yeah, that's yeah, that's the
vibe I'm getting here. Yeah. Um okay, I I actually
have a whole series of North Carolina seafood related mascots here. Alright.
So the second one in the series are Um, Sam
and pay them the clam Oh I love it already. Hum.
(37:20):
These are the mascots of a collegiate summer baseball team
out of North Carolina, the Eddington Edenton Steamers. Uh. Their
their heads are clams with the shell opening like kind
of where a smile would be oh wow, oh wow.
They've got a lot of outfits that look like they're
just vacationing, you know, all right, they're clams that like
(37:43):
to have a good times, right, the steamers and the steamers. Right,
it's so good, I love it. Uh. And then rounding
out the trio, we have another duo, Um Conrad the
craw Dad and his now wife, Candy the Crawdad. Okay,
(38:04):
so um they're from this this minor league baseball team
also out of North Carolina, that the Hickory Crawdads. And
yes they have these two crawfish crayfish crawdad, however you
want to say it. Mascots, Um Conrad and Candy. Um.
She has like little bows on her antenna and like
a more pronounced tail um. Uh no pun intended. I'm sorry. Uh.
(38:29):
They got married um in an on field ceremony attended
by other mascots, and they held up like little signs
that said I do it was I didn't know the
mascot world. Of course they would invite each other, but
it seems like they'd have so much competition there. There
was a moment where I think that maybe Candy like
(38:50):
like hit one of the other mascots with her sign
I think, yeah anyway, well, oh yeah, yeah, okay, well
this brings me to one of my very favorite ones
(39:10):
I found. Um Wichita states woo shock wou shock shock,
all right, and this is like I wouldn't have guessed
this until I read it. It's a bundle of wheat,
but it's the most terrifying bundle of wheat you've ever seen. Yeah.
It was chosen at nine to No. Four to reference
(39:31):
the fact that many of the players worked in the
wheat fields and again like the importance of wheat to
that area. But this is the one Lauren, Like, I
don't I don't know how to describe this in a
way that's going to give you the full effect, to
be honest, alright. So, so if you're familiar with the
image of a of a of a bundle of we
(39:52):
I might be using the wrong term of like a
bundle of wheat standing in a field. Um to wear
it has like a like a pinched like waste of
and then like a flat top. Yeah, that's that's the
basis of this form. Um but but yeah, but like
it's just like the face is very over emphasized, and
(40:12):
I it's really giving me like Neil Patrick Harris is
dr horrible vibes. Yeah. Um, it's menacing, but it's a
very menacing like it's got right, it's it's got this
very deeply furrowed brow, mum. And this smile that says
(40:33):
I might have killed someone you care about I don't know.
S Yeah. The smile is like the oh we're at
the fine out stage? Are we cool? A side show bob? Oh. Yeah,
that's a good one. That's a good one. Yeah, like
(40:54):
he he revels in the chaos and mayhem. M mm hmm.
So boy, you gotta look it up, you do, you do? Um,
I've got one for you that's apparently defunct right now. Um.
Cayenne previously the mascot of the University of Louisiana's Raging
(41:16):
Cagents Um. And this is like the body of a
football player in uniform, the head of a Cayenne pepper
and like that, the stem and cap are its hair,
and it has like little flame wings coming off of
its sleeves. Apparently we lost Cayenne due to budget cuts
in and I do not believe that they have returned yet. Yeah.
(41:42):
It also feels like the plot of a movie where
you know all the defunct mascots. No one will hire
me out of the job. I like his flame sleeves.
Yeah right, he's got his ass, he does. It is
a little cap Yeah well, oh dear. This brings us
(42:07):
to another one out of Louisiana. This is a it's
not necessarily food, but it's food related enough, and I
just had to conclude it is it is. I think
we've talked about this one before, yes, because I believe
this has inspired some horror movies. For um, we're talking
about the New Orleans Pelicans. The New Orleans Pelicans. Kincake
(42:29):
baby mascot. All right, um, okay, where to begin? Okay, well,
all right, So, so, if you're unfamiliar with kincakes, they
frequently come with a token, such as a tiny plastic
baby that you put into the cake somewhere and then
whoever finds it, um, either wins or loses whatever you want. Um,
(42:50):
it's sort of part of the tradition. Yeah, so so
tiny so tiny plastic baby is the genesis of the
concept here, right, which, from what I gather as semi recent,
I feel like I remember when this was happening in
like twenty twelve is or something I could be wrong,
But here's a quote from Yahoo Sports before we attempt
(43:10):
to explain it. But everything about Kincake Baby, the always
watching eyes, the airbushed bib, the scooter enabled mobility, and
perhaps most especially the evidently ready to come off at
a moment's not as diaper is deeply, deeply unsettling. I
would add to it. It's at least in the pictures
I've seen, it's tall, it's big, and it's like, coming
(43:34):
back to Toy Story again, it's like the baby who
turned out to be super nice. Yeah, but like the
baby doll from the first Toy Story. But he's just
the look on the baby's faces unsettling. It's, to say
the least, it's thinking like I'm gonna eat your head
and I'm gonna enjoy it. Like yeah, it's kind of
(43:54):
that creepy like you know, dead doll eye. Yeah, like
a little vacant that the bibs says I heard King Cakes,
which is for some reason unsettling in this context. The
arms are much smaller than the rest of the body,
much smaller, uh, And that diaper is only loosely affixed.
(44:17):
It's it's true, it's the same. It's the same kind
of thing. I think a lot of people experienced with
um when Burger king and he just had that kind
of like creepy smiling face that would pop around a corner.
Same thing, and that like plastic sheen. Yeah, it really
(44:39):
sends you into like an uncanny valley kind of territory. Indeed,
and I could be wrong, but I believe Happy to
Day that mascot in that movie is inspired by this.
N it looks like that's what it looks like. So yeah, well,
(44:59):
um uh this I'm going to close us out with
a relatively innocuous one. Um, except for the slightly confusing name. Okay,
So the name of this mascot is Barley, and it
is in fact a hop Okay, like an anthropomorphic hop
um like you would use in beer brewing. Yeah, just
(45:20):
like a big, fresh green hoop wearing a baseball cap.
It's the mascot of an Oregon minor league baseball team
called the Hillsboro Hops. Yeah, name is Barley. That's funny.
I like it. Yeah, I do too. It looks cute. Yeah,
(45:42):
kind of your warm, friendly turtle face, I would say
in cartoons, because turtles can look real mean and real life. Oh,
turtles are real mean in real life sometimes, yeah, sometimes
can be for sure. Um, I like it. He's got
a picture where he's wearing like a COVID mask. I
appreciate solidarity. Thank you, Thank you, Barley. Yeah, hops don't
(46:04):
get COVID, but I appreciate it. Oh, this has been
such a delight to do. I can only hope listeners
that we've painted some fixtures and you'll go look them up. Yeah,
oh please, please, please please, because right like words, words
do not do justice to the like like like what
(46:26):
sites we have to show you? Yes? And what what
things did we miss? Because I'm sure there are plenty
out there that we need to know about. So absolutely, yeah,
I again I had to stop. So so you tell us, yes,
we're counting on you. Yes, Well that's what we have
(46:47):
to say for now. Um. We do already have some
listener mail for you, and we are going to get
into that as soon as we get back from one
more quick break for a word from our sponsors. And
(47:09):
we're back. Thank you, censor, Yes, thank you, and we're
back with yeah cheering at the sports games. Oh my,
oh my, oh my. Um, Valerie wrote in the Lettuce episode,
(47:31):
you were talking about whether kale has a strong taste.
My answers that I think kale is a very different
taste to different people, depending on their genetics. Back when
I was in high school, I had a biology elective
class where one day the teacher handed everybody a strip
of paper with chemical on it. I think it was
called P P P. She had us all chew in
our piece of paper. Mine tasted like I was chewing
on an ordinary piece of paper. It had no taste
(47:52):
at all. Most of our class reacted the same way
as me, but a couple of students started rolling around
on the floor because the paper had such a horrible
taste to them. The teacher explained that three fours of
people have genes to be able to taste this chemical,
and one fourth of people don't. She said that her
class was an anomaly, and then on average, there would
have been more of us who could taste it. She
(48:12):
said that it's thought that supertasters have two copies of
the gene to taste this chemical, and so for them,
foods like kal and broccoli have an extremely strong taste
that is different from what other people experience. I was
not convinced and thought that my glassmates were rolling on
the floor were being outrageously melodramatic. My home room was
in the same room right after this class, so I
(48:33):
gave a strip at the paper to a guy who
I liked. He chewed it and ended up rolling on
the floor from the incredibly bad days. It's probably not
the best way to express appreciation for a guy, but
I did end up going to prom with him, so
there's that. Anyway. I think there are probably a number
of genes that make things taste very different to different people,
and that would explain a lot about people's widely varying
(48:55):
reactions to the same foods. Yes, this is something that
fascinates me. Um. I know we've talked about this before
and it's been on our list for a long time.
I also did this in high school. I thought it
was the other way around, but it's a very like
vague memory my brain. But I thought there's less supertasters
as opposed to more um But yeah, I don't I'd
(49:17):
have to look into it. Uh. I tasted it, but
to me, I think it's kind of similar to what
you've said, Lauren, like I don't hate that taste. Yeah,
it was very very show. It was kind of like
the most soapy bitter taste. But I didn't hate it, um,
but people there were some people who certainly certainly did.
And I'm very glad that it's worked out with this
fellow and you got that's a wonderful story. Yeah, yeah,
(49:41):
taste is such an interesting thing. Oh side story, when
we originally started doing like field trips and interviews and
changed the show name from food Stuff to Savor um,
our boss really wanted us to go with taste and
um and because right, it's so interesting, just like what
makes up a person's set of tastes and all of
(50:04):
the um like like history and psychology and all of
that that can go into it, combined with probably genetics
and stuff like that. So yeah, it blows my mind
that people can eat the same thing and have such
a different experience with well. Um, My cousin Elizabeth wrote
(50:27):
thoughts on a whole bunch of episodes. I told Grandma
Lou that you mentioned her in your Cream of Tartar episode,
so now she's riding high on her internet fame. I
was cutting baby Brussels sprouts and cooking bacon for them
when Lauren mentioned needing a good roasted sprout recipe. Here's
the one I use. They received near universal acclaim at Thanksgiving,
and we're requested again at Christmas. Even my dad, who
(50:49):
describes trail mix as eminem's with obstacles, ate his portion
without complaint. Uh, for my mother and your uncle Bruce's happiness.
I up the crushed red pepper for your Aunt Kathy
and my dad. I can tie trate that down. I
like it spicy. Um. Here's that recipe. Apologies for the handwriting.
The recipe has morphed a long way since I ripped
(51:09):
it off the internet. The splatters on the recipe indicate
its repeatability. You'd also mentioned roast potatoes a k a.
Roast ease, and here's my heavily annotated version of what
can be best described as the best roast ease ever.
That's a quote from my brother, who is a connoisseur.
You may notice that I indicated that this wild feed
six to eight amateurs. I doubled it for nine and
(51:31):
a half of us, and we only had a few leftovers. Also,
I don't think that I told you that you were unwilling,
unknowing participants in an ongoing present war between Stephen and
your aunt's Sandy. It started before I married Stephen, but
I have very much collaborated since then. I think it
started with Stephen giving Sandy a zam Fear The Master
(51:54):
of Pan Flute c D. Then Sandy ripped a CD
that said Christmas were turned out up that every single
track of fifteen was I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.
We've countered over the years with a life sized frog statue.
As Uncle Tom calls her the frog Whistler, they come
visit her when she calls. The next year, it was
(52:14):
Snoop Dogg's Crook to cook Platinum Recipes from the Boss
Dog's Kitchen, which was well received. So short story long,
this was last year's gift with a customized cover. Um
and uh. It was like a that Bob's Burger's cookbook
but um but like family customized Yeah yeah, um okay.
Continuing your panatone episode gave me the feels. Um. This
(52:38):
was one tradition that I brought back from my years
living in Italy. It also reminded me that I had
bought one previous day. I'd also brought Teddy around to
visit his grandma's and then spent several minutes where Kathy
and I tried to explain it to your grandma. I
should have just played your description, Lauren. I don't have
your talent for multi sensor sensorial food descriptions. I gave
(52:58):
some to both my husband and my baby. The baby
licked it, put it in his mouth, took it back
out and put it in my hand, and my husband
fake wretched his into the bin. So not for everyone.
I played your Christmas ham episode after I made hours.
I had sort of vaguely looked up basting liquid and
then sort of mixed a few bits of stuff together
(53:21):
for a very technical recipe. But it was well received.
I found that it pulled the over salty taste out.
All of these measurements have a wide margin of error.
You'd want to use your own best judgment. I mixed
about a cup of Lauren's Famili's maple syrup, two cups
of apple cider, half a cup of cream d balsamicco,
(53:41):
and about a table spoon of Dijon mustard in a pan,
warmed it to emulsify and mix, then baste it over.
It made a deliciously calmely tangy tart kind of glaze
on the meat. I've been enjoying your repartee and D
and D updates. Um just mentioned half Elf Silt Siliqui,
(54:02):
Silackwi Smith, my first character who was pretty brutally and
descriptively decapitated by a bugbear. And I still feel like
a real Housewives of New Jersey style flipping tables. And
it's been like seven years. I get you, I think.
I mean, we've talked about it before, but there have
been certain sessions in our campaign that I'm not sure
(54:23):
I'll ever let go. Oh yeah, no, you hold onto
that forever. And I can't tell you not to. No. No,
it's a serious business. Um, it's too bad decapitation as well,
and by a bugbear. Yeah yeah, But thank you for
sharing all of these recipes, handwritten recipes, listeners that we
(54:46):
always feel bad when we're like telling you about these
images people have saying we're like, well, the recipe looks great,
yeah yeah, and I have one sounds good. Um. I
also we used to have I had a friend group
that did something similar with the gift exchange. It's kind
of like a prank gift exchange. Um, and I love it.
I support it, so oh yeah, oh yes, all the time.
(55:10):
Mm hmmm. And yeah, not everybody can love panatone, but
that's okay, that's all right. You know, I think I
think I think there's time maybe not maybe not for Steven,
but but for but for little bubs. I think that,
you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think so. Maybe check
back in, keep trying every now and then and let
(55:33):
us know. Well, thanks to you both of those listeners
who are writing to us. If you would like to
write to us that you can our emails hello at
savor pod dot com. We're also on social media. You
can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at saver pod,
and we do hope to hear from you. Savor is
a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my
(55:54):
heart Radio, you can visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thanks as always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and
Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we hope
that lots more good things are coming your way. H
Hello, and what come to savor protection of I Heart Radio,
I'm any reason and I'm more in foc obam And
today we have an episode for you about sports related
food mascots. Yes, just let that sink in. This has
been a long time coming. Oh yeah. We have wanted
(00:30):
to do this for a while. I was so excited
when you suggested it. And it has been a terrifying,
wonderful journey. Oh yeah. And and this is one of
those things that we could The outline is only the
length that it is because I ran out of time.
(00:51):
I could have kept going. I'm not sure how long
it could have kept going for. Is one of many
terrifying things that I'm going to say throughout the cost
of this episode. It it's just that people love food
and they love sports teams, and they really combine the
two in fascinating ways. They really do, They really do.
(01:14):
The other thing is I was thinking about this because
I know some of you have written in over the
years about very specific, smaller ones. Um So if we
don't mention one because I know somebody wrote in about
a prett soul mascot and I'm just more about that.
Um yeah, there's there's a whole thing about paroguis yea, yes, yes,
(01:36):
so it is. It's a whole It's a whole world,
and we couldn't cover them all, so please please let
us know if we missed missed an important one. And
this was partly inspired because we have they have come
up in past outlines, like recently with Gooey Ducks. We
(01:56):
talked about that one. Um already the Artich joke some
people pointed out to us a sour dough Sam, we
kind of talked about, which is the forty niners? Yeah? Um?
And and also the super Bowl is ni upon us
and so I know I said it, I dare uttered
(02:18):
the name. Yeah, it's that, it's not it's a fact.
It's a fact that it's happening. This is not a
promotional episode about the super Bowl or super Bowl related things. Um.
So yeah, as far as I know, none of none
of these teams. Most are the ones I'm talking about
our minor league baseball, so I'm pretty sure they're not
(02:40):
going to be in the super Bowl. I don't know
a lot about sports, but me either, which makes us
all the more fun. But right that that was why
I was thinking about this episode. And yeah, between between
you and super Producer Dylan. There's been a lot of
excitement about this one over the years, so it's true.
(03:02):
Randomly Superproducer Dylan will just text us or send as
a picture of like food mascot. Yeah, no further explanation.
They usually speak for themselves, is the thing, and a
lot of sit Well. I guess this brings us to
(03:23):
your question. I guess it does food related sports mascots.
What are they? Well? All right, A sports team mascot
is a fictional character that teams management will develop in
order to inspire participation in the team's fans. Um and
(03:47):
sometimes those matt scots are are food based. Um. You know.
Mascots are often anthropomorphized animals or inanimate objects of some kind,
so this is not unusual in its scope, but it
can get delightfully weird. Uh. Mascots are represented by illustrations,
which may range an attitude from like good natured to intimidating,
(04:09):
but are are generally humorous in style um or tongue
in cheek at the very least. Uh. These illustrations are
often then adapted into full body costumes, which a performer
will wear to promote the team and inspire participation in
fans during games and other public events. Mascots are nonverbal,
(04:31):
generally speaking and engage with fans through gesticulation um simple
instruments like horns, maybe some form of puppetry used in
the mask um and uh, and or escorts or handlers
or announcers who will like speak on their behalf. Yeah,
they are walking publicity stunts. They are like the fever
(04:55):
dream of Edward Burnet's come to life and so calling
you hot dogs. Yes, and one of my very favorite
things is a lot of them. They've gotten wackier and wackier, um,
at least in my experience, because again I don't. I
enjoy sports well enough when I'm like hanging out with friends,
but in general it's not my thing. Um. And for
(05:17):
in my experience, they've got wack here in whack here.
And I love how they have like backstories. Oh yeah,
like a whole back store you can read about how
when they emerged from the earth. You all know who
I'm talking about. Yeah, Yeah, they're varying lye intricate in
their in their creation myth and yes, that's great. Yes,
(05:43):
And I know, at least at my university, Buzz the
Yellow jacket was our mascot, and it was like a
big like a rumor of who which student is it
because you're not supposed to tell anybody it's you, but
it was like a big kind of game to try
to guess like who might be buzz It's it's a
(06:11):
wacky world out there, y'all. Um. I will note here
we are not talking about the mascots of food companies
much today. That is like a separate episode, two episodes
to mini series to to uh full other podcast. Yes, yeah,
And I kind of got frustrated because I'm so excited
(06:33):
about like creepy food based sports mascots and I kept
getting these company mascots. That's not what I was looking
for this time. But I did stumble on some that
I was like, wow, come back and talk about this absolutely.
Oh yeah, And I will say, you know, like like right,
like like I'm about on the same page as you
(06:53):
are with most sports, but like sports fandom is a
really fascinating type of fandom to me. And I again,
like I just love that local pride in particular dishes
or foods um overlaps with local pride in particular types
of competitions and teams in this way. Yeah, yeah, I
(07:16):
love how people embrace it so hard, huge fans of
the mascot, so cool. It's it's like it's just like
a very to me, like niche kind of nursery. And
I'm like, heck, yeah, that's great, go for it. That
makes you that happy, that's amazing. People have strong opinions
(07:39):
for sure, like especially if they try to change the design. Whoa,
oh yeah yeah, And there have been a number of
like team name changes or like team transfers. There's always
team transfers, but like there have been a number of
team name changes, especially in recent years, as teams are
trying to distance themselves from previous super racist mascots that
(08:03):
they had, which is great. I really approve of that.
But occasionally, yeah, I can like ruffle some feathers about
whenever there's change. And I understand like Wikipedia changed its
layout about a week and a half ago, and I
really flipped out. I was like, I cannot handle this today, Wikipedia,
Why would you do this to me anyway? So I
(08:27):
get it, I get it, I get it, Yes, I
do as well, Um, well, what about the nutrition? Definitely
donate a sports mascot. I mean we're talking about a
lot of edible things today, But don't eat the mascot itself.
That's a costume with a human person inside. Don't do that.
That's that's wrong on a number of levels, nutritional and moral.
(08:48):
Mm hmm, yeah, even if they look like food exactly,
food exactly. Well, we don't really have any numbers for
you because kind of the whole outline is just a
sampling of some numbers. Yeah, yeah, it's it's just a sampling.
Um and and right, there's no like collective knowledge about this.
(09:12):
I you know, we're we're trying, we're breaking we're breaking
some ground here with the help of a few other
resources online. But it's a lot. It's a lot, and
we are only two human maybe podcasters. We're just trying
(09:33):
to wrap our heads around some of these these mascots
which we are going to try to describe. It's gonna
be this is gonna be fun. Yeah, yeah, and I
and I can I only hope that y'all come out
of this feeling as delighted and sort of crazy as
(09:54):
I do right now. A little on edge, A little
on edge. Well, with that note, we should get into
some of the history and the examples. But first we
have a quick break for a word from our sponsor,
(10:18):
and we're back, thank you sponsoring, Yes, thank you. Okay.
So ostensibly a food show, this one was kind of
hard to separate out because I do get really into
these like research topics, and then I just want to
know everything about it. But very, very briefly, the history
of sports mascots allegedly goes back to the eight hundreds,
(10:40):
when teams might have a person or an animal that
they believed to be a good luck charm. Often it
was something this kind of thing still happens to this day.
But I read a story of an early mascot that
was just a goat that would like wander onto the
field a lot um and he became the mascot, Like
all right, yeah, that kind of idea. Um. The word
(11:01):
itself is believed to be derived from the French word
for lucky charm mascots um. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests
that the first known English usage of the word took
place in one Some of the earliest records of sports
mascots started popping up in the eighteen nineties. And yeah,
over time, a mascot design grew into something bigger, and
(11:23):
I would say wilder because again the persone was just
like this goat or this kid. Yeah, right, and then
over time, oh oh my, especially during the nineteen sixties
and seventies, really took off and they became more of Yeah,
these characters, these icons that usually but not always were
(11:46):
symbols of the region that they were from or the school,
um specific school, perhaps something that was supposed to inspire,
something that people could get behind, and ultimately a marketing
tool you generate excitement and revenue. And sometimes that thing
is food, as you said, kind of those regional foods
(12:09):
or things that people are proud of, our our love
in that area. And yes, also as you said, sometimes
they are we're are extremely problematic. Um okay, but as
you also also said, less of what we're talking about today.
I did want to include a note about food mascots
for food brands, so like Mr Peanut is a big
(12:31):
one that kept coming up when I was doing this research. Um,
there are a perhaps surprising amount of articles looking into
why companies use mascots, including sports teams um as opposed
to just logos, and why mascots work. Yeah, and one
of the biggest reasons is that anthropomorphism essentially giving human
(12:54):
characteristics and behaviors on something that usually isn't human. I
guess some of them are, it usually is not. Um.
Studies have found that people respond more favorably to images
of animals with more quote human attributes than those without.
Study found that a smiling mascot makes people feel less
conflicted about snacking on the products the mascot represents. Um,
(13:18):
it's not. It doesn't actually increase their desire for the product.
It just makes them feel like less guilty about it,
all right, Okay, Yes, some mascots sell a lot of merchandise,
like not just the thing they're representing, like the mascot itself,
Like the Eminem Store that that's a whole store that's
(13:40):
dedicated to these human like Eminem's oh, which also like
speaking of it calls a lot of controversies, some of
these gosh heavy sigh indeed. Um, but it is fascinating, uh,
And I know there's also some people it's kind of
a running joke, like when you're watching that old timey
(14:04):
like let's all go to the lobby commercial for the
movies and it's totally popcorn eating popcorn, and you you
don't know how to feel about that, but which speaking of,
in some cases these mascots have gone on to inspire
horror movies or games, some of them that I didn't
even realize, but I immediately thought of Five Nights at Freddy's,
(14:26):
which is obviously Chuckie Cheese inspired. Um, but there are
a lot of clowns that have inspired a lot of
clown media. Um. That's a that's also a whole other
podcast again ostensibly a food show. Yes, which all right,
that note aside, we did want to go over some
(14:50):
examples of these food mascots for sports. Um, we're gonna
try to paint some mental pictures, but some of them
are just gonna have to look up like I saw them.
I don't think I can capture. I couldn't give them
all the worth the weight. Yeah yeah, so I yeah,
and and like and like we're gonna kind of like
like trade off back and forth. Um. And so some
(15:13):
some of the ones that you don't have descriptions for,
like I might try to live like Google and and
live cast. Well, well we'll see, we'll see what happens. Yeah, yeah, Oh,
it's gonna be fun. Um. And I will say I
there were a couple of that really helped me out.
I think thrill List and Buzfee had a good one.
They weren't food specifically, um, food mascot specific, but a
(15:38):
lot of them would appear on like the I don't know,
nineteen creepy ist mascots. So I appreciated that there there
are a lot of lists out there, and like, I
like again yeah, like I could have kept going for
like apparently quite a long time, Like it's just the
rabbit hole doesn't stop. Um so yeah mm hmm and
(15:59):
yeah again. Also super producer Dylan, thank you or for
bringing this to our attention over the years. Um and uh.
And I did want to include a note. I don't
know about you, Annie, but for for most of these,
like in the interest of brevity, I've only included mascots
(16:19):
that are actually anthropomorphic foods, not teams that are named
for foods, who have a food themed logo, but not
a working food mascot. Yeah. Well, we had to draw
some lines somewhere, right, Okay, So let's get started. Yeah,
(16:44):
and let's start with the Montgomery Biscuits out of Montgomery, Alabama.
One of the reasons I love this one is because
it has like I love the very silly, you know,
in between like halftime shows, halftimes off the right word. Again,
I'm not super sports, but you know when they have
like the races or the little games they do in
(17:04):
between innings or something. Um. So for the Montgomery Biscuits,
there's a biscuit bunch run. Uh, there's biscuit cannon. There's
a biscuit cannon, and it's all led by an anthropomorphic
biscuit named Monty. But also Big Mo, who is this
like giant ant eater thing who loves biscuits. At one point,
(17:26):
Big Mo was put on a diet in order to
promote health. You're eating. Okay, I say, leave Big Mo alone,
but you know he is an adult monster and he
can make his own life choices. Um. But but yeah, okay,
so some Monty. Monty is like head is a biscuit
like split open where the mouth would be okay, and
(17:49):
and it has like a pad of butter as a tongue. Um.
It has hands and feet nobody, um, And it has
googly eyes on top of the biscuit that that look
a little bit like eggs. Maybe. Uh yeah, that's what's
that's what's going on to Monty. Yeah, yes, uh and
I love this. They apparently gave cell biscuits and gravy
(18:13):
from carts, so well, yeah, I mean it only makes sense,
of course to write. All right, then we've got Colonel
cobb Um and this is the mascot um out of
Concordia College in Minnesota, Minnesota being a corn growing state,
and this is, yes, an anthropomorphic corn coub mascot. Um.
(18:37):
The mascot has its roots apparently and arrival schools fans
attempting to insult Concordia by calling them corn cobs and
like the late eighteen hundreds like like, oh, you have
a corn cob out back behind like the boys dorm,
like what you corn cobs? Um? But Concordia leaned in
and by the early nineteen hundreds was using corn imagery
(18:58):
in their marketing. Um. The mascot developed over the course
of time from the more anonymous Cobber into Colonel cobb Um,
who is a ferocious, anthropomorphic corn cub, usually wearing a
team jersey or maybe a college sweater. Mm hmmm uh.
(19:20):
The n c double A named them the number one
meatless mascot in college sports. Okay, accolades, yeah um. And
there there is also a baby faced corn cob named
Niblet that has gained fame in plush form because you
can really, you can really take them anywhere. It's very
instagram mouble. That's true. That's true. It's important all right.
(19:48):
That brings us to making bacon out of making Georgia. Um.
This one was the results of the always Risky online
voting contest. It is a piece of bacon with a face.
It's got kind of like it's got kind of like
a skillet. I think on its head, I think it's
(20:13):
a cast iron skillet. Yeah, no, that's a it's like
a combination baseball cap cast iron skillet. I think. I
think is the concept. Yeah, I think I think so too.
His face to me does look a little like it's
the mix between surprised and like I'm going to terrify
(20:35):
you in your sleep. You know that mix. Oh yeah,
that's what's going on. I'm deeply familiar with it. Yeah,
it's sort of like it's sort of like if Gumby
was going was a piece of bacon and he was
thinking about eating you, but he got he stopped and
played a baseball game first. He does look like Gumby. Right. Well,
(20:58):
they had yeah, his official name is given as I said,
so they could have gotten a lot of worse names.
That is what I can say, um, from an online
voting contest. But m Kevin, sir, sure, thank you for
your service, Kevin. Mm hmmm. Well that brings us to
the Savannah Bananas. Also out of Georgia, Savannah, Georgia. This
(21:21):
is mostly from what I can gather. A name that's
based on writing, and that's it. Yeah, yeah, because they're
there aren't really banana's grown in Savannah, but but it
is very catchy to say Savannah Banana. Um. And this
is okay, this is like, this is like if Johnny Bravo,
we're a baseball playing banana. Um uh, like like big sunglasses,
(21:45):
big grin, kind of open shirt, um sort of yeah
yeah yeah yeah and the and the stem at the
top is sort of like a flat top. So yeah, yeah,
he's a real He seems like a real cool dude.
He doesn't. I guess I should specify the six pack
of apps would if he had a six pack of
(22:07):
beer to be honest. Oh goodness, um uh huh uh huh.
Also out of Florida, we have, um, the Jacksonville Jumbo shrimp.
Oh my gosh. Okay, so in the minor league baseball
team formerly known as the Jacksonville Sons switched to this
(22:28):
new mascot slash team name. Um, the illustrations. Actually, I
don't know if I googled to see whether there was
like a person in a costume that looks like this,
but but the illustrations look like if trog door were
a shrimp, because it's it's like a shrimp, but it's
got like these big beefy arms. Um, and it's pretty.
(22:51):
It's like fearsome. It's like a really like fearsome beefy
arm shrimp. See, I'm a little on edge. I'm a
little on edge. Yeah, need to be beat up on
my shroom. I think it's fighting for you or like
with like yeah, okay, yeah right, well that's all right then.
Um the next one are the Chicago Dogs. Okay, Um,
(23:17):
so I'm a little perplexed by this one for multiple reasons. Um, okay,
well how to explain this? So they had this thing
called the Wieners Circle. Oh my gosh, yes, and it's
like a really smug looking catchup squeeze ketchup bottle who's
(23:41):
got like he looks like he's he's gonna he's wearing
like a sleuth, like a detective jacket. Said, well, a
detective jacket as well. Um, and then I believe related
as Squeeze whose mustard mustard based Yeah, Scott, who looks
a lot more. He looks kind of like a Yoshi
with the little mustard head on. Yeah. Yeah, it's in
(24:02):
the kind of Muppet category of of mascots. But but
he's got a musty, he's mustard colored, and he has
a mustard uh Squeeze bottle shaped hat. Right, Yeah, I'm
definitely getting like a spive versus spive I from this
where I'm supposed to trust mustard and not trust ketchup.
And in fact, there is a rumor. So the article
(24:23):
I found this from was from Takeout and at the
time they were only I think also only in drawings
hadn't come out yet, but it said that the team
allegedly had a strict no ketchup policy and that if
you had catchup on your hot dog, it's not like
you would be bent, you would be kicked out of
the team, like serious. So if they've really taken firm
(24:46):
stance on the mustard versus getting debate when it comes
to hot dog Well, I mean right, I mean, people
are very serious about their Chicago dogs. I still can't
entirely identify what is supposed to be on it. But
but I but I understand that ketchup is not supposed
to be on it. So right, I have not been
(25:06):
to there. I need to visit. Oh it's lovely, um,
lots of good hot dog places there, and they do
have I guess I'm eating greet with Chicago's most famous
hot Doggervors. That involves cheerleaders at these games, or at
least it was an event that happens because they do
(25:26):
take their hot dogs very seriously Chica. But that sounds nice. Yeah,
all right, I've got another one for you. Um, toasty, toasty,
this somemores Okay, I'm interested. Okay. So there's this independent
baseball team in the Pioneer League out of Colorado called
(25:48):
the Rocky Mountain Vibes, which is already pretty aces um
and their mascot is a giant flaming s'mores. Um Like,
his main body is it out of marshmallow, his arms
are made out of marshmallow. He's wearing this like cool,
like Graham Cracker jacket and sunglasses. His hair is made
(26:08):
of flames um and according to like the team's website,
I quote, Toasty was born a healthy some more on Monday,
November nineteen in beautiful Colorado Springs, Colorado. Toasty was born
big for a some more at two and eighty four
pounds and nine ounces. A proud Colorado Springs native, Toasty
(26:32):
enjoys spending his free time watching baseball, hiking Pike's Peak
and Garden of the Gods with his best friend Socks
the Fox, and just going with the vibe. I'm hean again.
I love these descriptions rich in stories. He does look
like he's going with the vibe. He does. He does,
this is a this is a vibe positive more. I mean,
(26:55):
his head is definitely on fire. But yeah, that big deal. Yeah,
Oh they're comparing with the guy here. Oh no, just
my hair kind of stuff. Share. I don't know, I
see it, I see it, I understand. Yeah, that's pretty good.
That's pretty good. I like it. Uh. This one I
(27:16):
found since the Fresno Tacos. Since the Fresno Grizzlies transformed
to the Fresno Tacos. Every Tuesday home game because Taco Tuesday. Yeah, yes,
And I will say, of the mascots on this list,
I feel like he doesn't look threatening to me. He
(27:38):
looks well, the close ups a little threatening, but the
other like a farm of distance. He looks like a
happy taco with a hat on. I mean, hey, that's
that's all right, you know, but I do like that
it's Taco Tuesday. That's a fun little a fun little gimmick. Yeah. Yeah,
he looks a little bit like he looks a little
(28:00):
bit like, um, he might be a Toy Story character,
like he's he's giving me like his eyes and like
face shape are giving me strong like Jesse the cowgirl
from Toy Story vibes. But but like on a taco shell.
M M. I wonder if they got any blowback or
(28:20):
flak about because you can kind of see what's on
the inside. Oh the increasing. Yeah, and there's there's some
like there's like some shredded lettuce contentious. Well listeners, let
us know. Oh heck, alright, this next one, um, next up,
(28:42):
we've got Al the almond, Wally the walnut, and Shelly
the pistachio. All right, and these are the three mascots
of the California Minor League baseball team, the Modesto Nuts.
Um Al the Almond appears to be a baseball player,
Wally a catcher, and Shelly a cheerleader. I'm gonna go
(29:08):
ahead and say that Al's current incarnation looks like a
Santarin from Doctor Who. Yeah, and my their plastic grins
will haunt my waking dreams. Yeah, yeah, I definitely recoiled
(29:32):
a moment when I Lauren got to Witnesses. When I
first looked at these, yeah, I had to take a
breath before I could like jump into this one. And
in the meanwhile, Annie googled it and I knew when
it had come up because she just goes, wow, oh wow.
(29:53):
I mean, what can we say? I I don't know,
And I like, there's some that have a different facial expression. Yeah, yeah,
there's a few, like iterations and stuff. A new rabbit hole,
a terrifying one. Also, the Modesto Nuts. We've just got
(30:15):
to say, that's pretty funny. That's a good that's a
real good team name. That's a real good team name.
I like it. WHOA. This brings us to the Fighting
Okrah of Delta State. And in this Fighting Okra's backstory.
They gave it like its own botanical name. Yes, vegetable
(30:39):
meanness um quote, a large, prickly bipedal vegetable with an
inherently bad temperament. I mean, so at first you'd be like, well,
I love Okrah. I feel like it's had a bad
rap for a long time. It's not mean. But then
you see the picture. I wouldn't mess with the fighting No,
(31:01):
no terrifying. And this is one Dillan put on our
radar um. But essentially like it's a it's a okraw
but mean. Yeah, this Oakra means business. It's like, oh gosh,
every picture it's like hands on hips, fierce stance. It's
(31:23):
got this kind of scowl, yeah, like a glower and
a frown. Yeah yeah, Oh gosh, Oh some of these
are kind of freaking me out. Back from the oak
come back from oh god. And here's a quote I
found from Times Higher Education dot com and it was
(31:45):
all about like these very mascots were talking about his
old list um famous thanks to his TV appearance on
the Food Network channel. The Fighting Okra was voted in
as Delta States unofficial mascot by students in the nineteen nineties.
The Okra has a fierce expression and is equipped with
boxing gloves, adding to its formidable exterior. Popular myth claims
that the fighting Ochra was inspired by a stubborn Opra
(32:08):
plant your first base on the baseball pitch that kept
growing back despite continually being cut. Um. Which, if that's true,
that's a that's a great reason. That reason to have
a mascot absolutely good, A good of a reason as any. Yeah, yeah, no,
I all right, So that to be honest, I did
(32:30):
not watch this video. There are days when I cannot
handle my computer making noises at me. Um. But but
there is a video that I saw called Fear the
Okra and and the the preview says nine national championships,
one overly aggressive Okra, and I, from what I can gather,
(32:53):
it's a video of the Okra tackling people. Got it? Yeah,
As mentioned, I would not mess with it. No, no, um.
This brings us to otto the orange Um. Syracuse University
in New York has as its mascot an anthropomorphic orange.
(33:15):
It is an orange, It has arms and legs, sometimes
a nose, and it is wearing a baseball cap. I
mean that makes sense? Yeah? Yeah, does it? Well? Makes sense?
Maybe it's a stretch, but oh he looks like a
(33:37):
happy orange. Yeah, he's an affable, young orange, I think. Yeah. Indeed,
if you haven't looked at pictures of this one, Lauren,
you've got to um, okay, alright, alright on it. Okay.
This is the fighting pickle out of University of North
Carolina School of the Arts. Um. So Yeah, When deciding
(33:58):
on a mascot for their intramural football team in nine two,
the school went with a pickle. I believe there's nobody else.
There's like no other team in their league or something,
so that the running joke is that he's undefeated. Um,
this pickle, you listeners, It was not what I thought
it was going to be because I think I was
(34:18):
like coming from the you know, Fighting Okra. In my head,
this is a decidedly This is like if the Fighting
Okrah had a cousin who went to France. Yeah, this
is an art school pickle. This is a decidedly art
school pickle. Dodeed. He's got some cool facial hair. Um,
he's got like a little two two uh huh, or
(34:41):
a keyboard. He's got like a little keyboard keyboard to two. Um,
and a cool a cool hat. Um the feather. Yeah, yeah,
accepter like a like a film clapboard. Yes, like he
he accessorizes, you know, based on the day, which I appreciate,
(35:02):
you know, that's important. Yeah, and he he's just got
a very like I don't know, he's giving me kind
of a Three Musketeers. Oh yeah, because he's got a
little mask. I forgot to mention the mask. He's got
a little mask. And then on the on the movie
clapper board it says, uh, fighting pickle. So and he's
(35:26):
kind of wielding this paint brush. Oh that's a paint brush,
not a scepter. I guess, okay, kind of like a
fencing Yeah, it's quite the site I really recommended. Oh yeah,
oh yeah. Um, speaking of I need to talk about
Muddy the mud cat, please um. Mud cat being another
(35:49):
term for catfish. Um. This is the mascot of a
currently North Carolina minor league baseball team. It's like it's
like the body, the body of a baseball player in
to form and then just the head of a catfish. Um.
Like honestly reminds me a whole lot. If y'all ever
watched the show Far Escape of the character call Dargo.
(36:12):
Oh wow, this is so funny because we're like giving
you all the nerdiest like sci fi yea for these sports.
That's that's where my brain goes. And I that it
just is what it is. Yeah, it is, um it is.
But yeah, he seems he seems he seems like a
(36:34):
he seems like a cool fish. He kind of gives
me the sense that he's like a fish who stumbled
into some radioactive stuff and it's trying to pretend he's
a human, um, trying to pass off ye kind of
like when the Ninja Turtles go out, but they're like
literally just wearing like a trench coat and you're like, buddy,
(36:57):
your head is green, Like yeah, that's yeah, that's the
vibe I'm getting here. Yeah. Um okay, I I actually
have a whole series of North Carolina seafood related mascots here. Alright.
So the second one in the series are Um, Sam
and pay them the clam Oh I love it already. Hum.
(37:20):
These are the mascots of a collegiate summer baseball team
out of North Carolina, the Eddington Edenton Steamers. Uh. Their
their heads are clams with the shell opening like kind
of where a smile would be oh wow, oh wow.
They've got a lot of outfits that look like they're
just vacationing, you know, all right, they're clams that like
(37:43):
to have a good times, right, the steamers and the steamers. Right,
it's so good, I love it. Uh. And then rounding
out the trio, we have another duo, Um Conrad the
craw Dad and his now wife, Candy the Crawdad. Okay,
(38:04):
so um they're from this this minor league baseball team
also out of North Carolina, that the Hickory Crawdads. And
yes they have these two crawfish crayfish crawdad, however you
want to say it. Mascots, Um Conrad and Candy. Um.
She has like little bows on her antenna and like
a more pronounced tail um. Uh no pun intended. I'm sorry. Uh.
(38:29):
They got married um in an on field ceremony attended
by other mascots, and they held up like little signs
that said I do it was I didn't know the
mascot world. Of course they would invite each other, but
it seems like they'd have so much competition there. There
was a moment where I think that maybe Candy like
(38:50):
like hit one of the other mascots with her sign
I think, yeah anyway, well, oh yeah, yeah, okay, well
this brings me to one of my very favorite ones
(39:10):
I found. Um Wichita states woo shock wou shock shock,
all right, and this is like I wouldn't have guessed
this until I read it. It's a bundle of wheat,
but it's the most terrifying bundle of wheat you've ever seen. Yeah.
It was chosen at nine to No. Four to reference
(39:31):
the fact that many of the players worked in the
wheat fields and again like the importance of wheat to
that area. But this is the one Lauren, Like, I
don't I don't know how to describe this in a
way that's going to give you the full effect, to
be honest, alright. So, so if you're familiar with the
image of a of a of a bundle of we
(39:52):
I might be using the wrong term of like a
bundle of wheat standing in a field. Um to wear
it has like a like a pinched like waste of
and then like a flat top. Yeah, that's that's the
basis of this form. Um but but yeah, but like
it's just like the face is very over emphasized, and
(40:12):
I it's really giving me like Neil Patrick Harris is
dr horrible vibes. Yeah. Um, it's menacing, but it's a
very menacing like it's got right, it's it's got this
very deeply furrowed brow, mum. And this smile that says
(40:33):
I might have killed someone you care about I don't know.
S Yeah. The smile is like the oh we're at
the fine out stage? Are we cool? A side show bob? Oh. Yeah,
that's a good one. That's a good one. Yeah, like
(40:54):
he he revels in the chaos and mayhem. M mm hmm.
So boy, you gotta look it up, you do, you do? Um,
I've got one for you that's apparently defunct right now. Um.
Cayenne previously the mascot of the University of Louisiana's Raging
(41:16):
Cagents Um. And this is like the body of a
football player in uniform, the head of a Cayenne pepper
and like that, the stem and cap are its hair,
and it has like little flame wings coming off of
its sleeves. Apparently we lost Cayenne due to budget cuts
in and I do not believe that they have returned yet. Yeah.
(41:42):
It also feels like the plot of a movie where
you know all the defunct mascots. No one will hire
me out of the job. I like his flame sleeves.
Yeah right, he's got his ass, he does. It is
a little cap Yeah well, oh dear. This brings us
(42:07):
to another one out of Louisiana. This is a it's
not necessarily food, but it's food related enough, and I
just had to conclude it is it is. I think
we've talked about this one before, yes, because I believe
this has inspired some horror movies. For um, we're talking
about the New Orleans Pelicans. The New Orleans Pelicans. Kincake
(42:29):
baby mascot. All right, um, okay, where to begin? Okay, well,
all right, So, so, if you're unfamiliar with kincakes, they
frequently come with a token, such as a tiny plastic
baby that you put into the cake somewhere and then
whoever finds it, um, either wins or loses whatever you want. Um,
(42:50):
it's sort of part of the tradition. Yeah, so so
tiny so tiny plastic baby is the genesis of the
concept here, right, which, from what I gather as semi recent,
I feel like I remember when this was happening in
like twenty twelve is or something I could be wrong,
But here's a quote from Yahoo Sports before we attempt
(43:10):
to explain it. But everything about Kincake Baby, the always
watching eyes, the airbushed bib, the scooter enabled mobility, and
perhaps most especially the evidently ready to come off at
a moment's not as diaper is deeply, deeply unsettling. I
would add to it. It's at least in the pictures
I've seen, it's tall, it's big, and it's like, coming
(43:34):
back to Toy Story again, it's like the baby who
turned out to be super nice. Yeah, but like the
baby doll from the first Toy Story. But he's just
the look on the baby's faces unsettling. It's, to say
the least, it's thinking like I'm gonna eat your head
and I'm gonna enjoy it. Like yeah, it's kind of
(43:54):
that creepy like you know, dead doll eye. Yeah, like
a little vacant that the bibs says I heard King Cakes,
which is for some reason unsettling in this context. The
arms are much smaller than the rest of the body,
much smaller, uh, And that diaper is only loosely affixed.
(44:17):
It's it's true, it's the same. It's the same kind
of thing. I think a lot of people experienced with
um when Burger king and he just had that kind
of like creepy smiling face that would pop around a corner.
Same thing, and that like plastic sheen. Yeah, it really
(44:39):
sends you into like an uncanny valley kind of territory. Indeed,
and I could be wrong, but I believe Happy to
Day that mascot in that movie is inspired by this.
N it looks like that's what it looks like. So yeah, well,
(44:59):
um uh this I'm going to close us out with
a relatively innocuous one. Um, except for the slightly confusing name. Okay,
So the name of this mascot is Barley, and it
is in fact a hop Okay, like an anthropomorphic hop
um like you would use in beer brewing. Yeah, just
(45:20):
like a big, fresh green hoop wearing a baseball cap.
It's the mascot of an Oregon minor league baseball team
called the Hillsboro Hops. Yeah, name is Barley. That's funny.
I like it. Yeah, I do too. It looks cute. Yeah,
(45:42):
kind of your warm, friendly turtle face, I would say
in cartoons, because turtles can look real mean and real life. Oh,
turtles are real mean in real life sometimes, yeah, sometimes
can be for sure. Um, I like it. He's got
a picture where he's wearing like a COVID mask. I
appreciate solidarity. Thank you, Thank you, Barley. Yeah, hops don't
(46:04):
get COVID, but I appreciate it. Oh, this has been
such a delight to do. I can only hope listeners
that we've painted some fixtures and you'll go look them up. Yeah,
oh please, please, please please, because right like words, words
do not do justice to the like like like what
(46:26):
sites we have to show you? Yes? And what what
things did we miss? Because I'm sure there are plenty
out there that we need to know about. So absolutely, yeah,
I again I had to stop. So so you tell us, yes,
we're counting on you. Yes, Well that's what we have
(46:47):
to say for now. Um. We do already have some
listener mail for you, and we are going to get
into that as soon as we get back from one
more quick break for a word from our sponsors. And
(47:09):
we're back. Thank you, censor, Yes, thank you, and we're
back with yeah cheering at the sports games. Oh my,
oh my, oh my. Um, Valerie wrote in the Lettuce episode,
(47:31):
you were talking about whether kale has a strong taste.
My answers that I think kale is a very different
taste to different people, depending on their genetics. Back when
I was in high school, I had a biology elective
class where one day the teacher handed everybody a strip
of paper with chemical on it. I think it was
called P P P. She had us all chew in
our piece of paper. Mine tasted like I was chewing
on an ordinary piece of paper. It had no taste
(47:52):
at all. Most of our class reacted the same way
as me, but a couple of students started rolling around
on the floor because the paper had such a horrible
taste to them. The teacher explained that three fours of
people have genes to be able to taste this chemical,
and one fourth of people don't. She said that her
class was an anomaly, and then on average, there would
have been more of us who could taste it. She
(48:12):
said that it's thought that supertasters have two copies of
the gene to taste this chemical, and so for them,
foods like kal and broccoli have an extremely strong taste
that is different from what other people experience. I was
not convinced and thought that my glassmates were rolling on
the floor were being outrageously melodramatic. My home room was
in the same room right after this class, so I
(48:33):
gave a strip at the paper to a guy who
I liked. He chewed it and ended up rolling on
the floor from the incredibly bad days. It's probably not
the best way to express appreciation for a guy, but
I did end up going to prom with him, so
there's that. Anyway. I think there are probably a number
of genes that make things taste very different to different people,
and that would explain a lot about people's widely varying
(48:55):
reactions to the same foods. Yes, this is something that
fascinates me. Um. I know we've talked about this before
and it's been on our list for a long time.
I also did this in high school. I thought it
was the other way around, but it's a very like
vague memory my brain. But I thought there's less supertasters
as opposed to more um But yeah, I don't I'd
(49:17):
have to look into it. Uh. I tasted it, but
to me, I think it's kind of similar to what
you've said, Lauren, like I don't hate that taste. Yeah,
it was very very show. It was kind of like
the most soapy bitter taste. But I didn't hate it, um,
but people there were some people who certainly certainly did.
And I'm very glad that it's worked out with this
fellow and you got that's a wonderful story. Yeah, yeah,
(49:41):
taste is such an interesting thing. Oh side story, when
we originally started doing like field trips and interviews and
changed the show name from food Stuff to Savor um,
our boss really wanted us to go with taste and
um and because right, it's so interesting, just like what
makes up a person's set of tastes and all of
(50:04):
the um like like history and psychology and all of
that that can go into it, combined with probably genetics
and stuff like that. So yeah, it blows my mind
that people can eat the same thing and have such
a different experience with well. Um, My cousin Elizabeth wrote
(50:27):
thoughts on a whole bunch of episodes. I told Grandma
Lou that you mentioned her in your Cream of Tartar episode,
so now she's riding high on her internet fame. I
was cutting baby Brussels sprouts and cooking bacon for them
when Lauren mentioned needing a good roasted sprout recipe. Here's
the one I use. They received near universal acclaim at Thanksgiving,
and we're requested again at Christmas. Even my dad, who
(50:49):
describes trail mix as eminem's with obstacles, ate his portion
without complaint. Uh, for my mother and your uncle Bruce's happiness.
I up the crushed red pepper for your Aunt Kathy
and my dad. I can tie trate that down. I
like it spicy. Um. Here's that recipe. Apologies for the handwriting.
The recipe has morphed a long way since I ripped
(51:09):
it off the internet. The splatters on the recipe indicate
its repeatability. You'd also mentioned roast potatoes a k a.
Roast ease, and here's my heavily annotated version of what
can be best described as the best roast ease ever.
That's a quote from my brother, who is a connoisseur.
You may notice that I indicated that this wild feed
six to eight amateurs. I doubled it for nine and
(51:31):
a half of us, and we only had a few leftovers. Also,
I don't think that I told you that you were unwilling,
unknowing participants in an ongoing present war between Stephen and
your aunt's Sandy. It started before I married Stephen, but
I have very much collaborated since then. I think it
started with Stephen giving Sandy a zam Fear The Master
(51:54):
of Pan Flute c D. Then Sandy ripped a CD
that said Christmas were turned out up that every single
track of fifteen was I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.
We've countered over the years with a life sized frog statue.
As Uncle Tom calls her the frog Whistler, they come
visit her when she calls. The next year, it was
(52:14):
Snoop Dogg's Crook to cook Platinum Recipes from the Boss
Dog's Kitchen, which was well received. So short story long,
this was last year's gift with a customized cover. Um
and uh. It was like a that Bob's Burger's cookbook
but um but like family customized Yeah yeah, um okay.
Continuing your panatone episode gave me the feels. Um. This
(52:38):
was one tradition that I brought back from my years
living in Italy. It also reminded me that I had
bought one previous day. I'd also brought Teddy around to
visit his grandma's and then spent several minutes where Kathy
and I tried to explain it to your grandma. I
should have just played your description, Lauren. I don't have
your talent for multi sensor sensorial food descriptions. I gave
(52:58):
some to both my husband and my baby. The baby
licked it, put it in his mouth, took it back
out and put it in my hand, and my husband
fake wretched his into the bin. So not for everyone.
I played your Christmas ham episode after I made hours.
I had sort of vaguely looked up basting liquid and
then sort of mixed a few bits of stuff together
(53:21):
for a very technical recipe. But it was well received.
I found that it pulled the over salty taste out.
All of these measurements have a wide margin of error.
You'd want to use your own best judgment. I mixed
about a cup of Lauren's Famili's maple syrup, two cups
of apple cider, half a cup of cream d balsamicco,
(53:41):
and about a table spoon of Dijon mustard in a pan,
warmed it to emulsify and mix, then baste it over.
It made a deliciously calmely tangy tart kind of glaze
on the meat. I've been enjoying your repartee and D
and D updates. Um just mentioned half Elf Silt Siliqui,
(54:02):
Silackwi Smith, my first character who was pretty brutally and
descriptively decapitated by a bugbear. And I still feel like
a real Housewives of New Jersey style flipping tables. And
it's been like seven years. I get you, I think.
I mean, we've talked about it before, but there have
been certain sessions in our campaign that I'm not sure
(54:23):
I'll ever let go. Oh yeah, no, you hold onto
that forever. And I can't tell you not to. No. No,
it's a serious business. Um, it's too bad decapitation as well,
and by a bugbear. Yeah yeah, But thank you for
sharing all of these recipes, handwritten recipes, listeners that we
(54:46):
always feel bad when we're like telling you about these
images people have saying we're like, well, the recipe looks great,
yeah yeah, and I have one sounds good. Um. I
also we used to have I had a friend group
that did something similar with the gift exchange. It's kind
of like a prank gift exchange. Um, and I love it.
I support it, so oh yeah, oh yes, all the time.
(55:10):
Mm hmmm. And yeah, not everybody can love panatone, but
that's okay, that's all right. You know, I think I
think I think there's time maybe not maybe not for Steven,
but but for but for little bubs. I think that,
you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think so. Maybe check
back in, keep trying every now and then and let
(55:33):
us know. Well, thanks to you both of those listeners
who are writing to us. If you would like to
write to us that you can our emails hello at
savor pod dot com. We're also on social media. You
can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at saver pod,
and we do hope to hear from you. Savor is
a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my
(55:54):
heart Radio, you can visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thanks as always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and
Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we hope
that lots more good things are coming your way. H
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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