March 19, 2024 • 34 mins
This week, Ellie and Scott share what they love from 1989. There is lots of singing, lots of reflecting on their favorite childhood games and a deep discussion on what “the fire” means in Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Bond to love. That was soulful, but it was also
like too cheerful. It should be bun too.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
That was more soulful. Still, Ellie, how are.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
You good, Scott? How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'm good? Welcome to our podcast, the podcast where we
talk about things that we love.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
I'm Ellie Kemper, and the male voice you hear is
Scott Eckert.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Normally we have a guest, Ellie, but today we don't.
It's just you and me.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
We will be our own guest. Oh good guess.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Today it's also a musical episode. Welle's gonna sing a lot,
lucky for you, lucky for me. That's what I was
born to love. The melliphalous voice of Ellie Kemper. What
we are talking about is the year nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
What a year, Scott, What a year?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
What a year? I mean, so much was happening follow
the Soviet Union, Tieneman Square, new president, George hw Bush.
I mean I personally eight years old.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Oh oh yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I was a rising third grader in the summer of
nineteen eighty nine, and.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
The same for me, except I was at nine years
old in nineteen eighty nine. So you see, we all
had our ages back in nineteen eighty eighty nine.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Well those of us who were born, many of our listeners,
it's a distant I mean, it may as well be
the stone age nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
All these little babies who don't even know what year
that is. It's exactly right, it's before they were born.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
We're doing three each countdown. What was something you loved
about nineteen eighty nine, Ellie.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Scott, I loved so much about nineteen eighty nine it
was hard for me to choose, So I'm going to
start with number six in the countdown.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
What I love in nineteen eighty nine is a board
game called Dateline.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
What I'm a big board game guy here. Yeah, I
know you are never heard of Dateline? What is I
need to know?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
This was back when they really marketed girly type toys
to girls like me. And this was from the franchise
Girl Talk. Okay, and what you did was you matched
up boys and girls and it was just boys and
girls and you put them in I don't want to
get bogged down in the logistics of how this game.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Wait a minute, so I'm sorry, sorry to interrupt Ellie.
So this is date line like like a date like
a phone line. Now you're listening line like dateline NBC.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
It's not stone fillips. That's not what I loved about
nineteen eighty nine. This is a board game where you
had a cassette tape recording of boys and girls talking
about whether they would date.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
What you, the player would do?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Would you would take two tabs, a boy tab and
a girl tab.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
The boys had names like John and Luke.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Girls had names like Jenny and Amber. That's it.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
And Amber might love sleepovers and popcorn, but she hates
nerds and zits, okay, and that you know, well, who doesn't.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
You just explained why nineteen eighty nine was a nightmare
for me.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Oh, Scott, Scott, you were a zitty nerd.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
I was a zitty nerd. Although in fairness, I was
probably a zitty nerd a few years after nineteen eighty nine, right.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
I think that's before the hormones start raging in all
of us. In any case, Jason might like football and frisbee,
but he doesn't like smelly socks and chores. Okay, So
you insert the two tabs into a little I don't
know what, you would call it a module, and then
if you overhear the cassette tape having a successful conversation
(03:53):
between a boy and a girl, then you get to
advance on the game. Okay, to me, it's like a
very strange idea. They came up because it's like hard
to explain, and I was rereading the instructions in preparation
to talk about it, and you can see that it's
like a tad, like high tech for the time.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I mean, you're talking about cassette tapes. I can't recall
many of my board games with cassette tapes. This is
like the Space age board game about falling in love.
It really was. I looked up Ellie and I see
some photos from this game, including I don't know, a
card or something that says your date is grounded, go stag.
(04:29):
That's the kind of stuff that happens as you travel
around the board in the girl Talk date line.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Dateline.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Also, you guessed some names. I've got some real ones
for you. Here are the four that I see, Brad, Tina, Jamie,
and Homer.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Oh, I remember Homer. Homer was such an unusual name
for the time.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
This is a hysterical hysterical game.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Else this game, I mean, this game is so wrong
in so many Here's Homer.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Homer was the dork. He loves computer club and collecting bugs,
and he hates sports and school dances. Oh, Homer, this
is crazy. An I think I don't like this game.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
He said, no, no, no, listen to why I loved it.
I was not a mean girl, and I am not
a mean girl. In fact, I'm like one of the
nicest people I know. But the reason I loved this
game is that I was finally allowed to spend the
night at my best friend Katie Pearcell's house, and we
would play this game late into the night. And so
(05:37):
I associate this game with the freedom.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Of the I just spat.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
I was so excited my mouth was drool like thinking
of staying up until nine o'clock at Katie Parcell's house.
It was the freedom, the independence, the exhilaration of being
able to spend the night at a friend's house.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
It still wasn't allowed to go to multi person sleepovers,
but I was able to like spend the night or
it was so much fun.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
I love, love, love that about nineteen eighty nine, and
if I'll be darned if Girl Talk Dateline wasn't a
definitive piece of that experience.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
I love it. I want to move on to my
item in the countdown, Ellie, I would love to. I
love a little film. You might have seen it called
Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. I could have guessed. Yes,
one of the greatest blockbusters ever made, Ellie, have you
seen it? No? Have you ever seen an Indiana Jones movie?
Speaker 1 (06:37):
I just answered, no, I haven't seen anything.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Well, they're a handful of them. Oh my gosh. This
is one of the few movies in my life that
I want to stop my day. Yeah, and sit you
down and just watch it. Because I am one hundred
percent convinced, Ellie. I know that your taste in cinema
and minor differ slightly. You would love it. You would
(07:03):
love it. It's gonna charm you from beginning to end.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
I do think you're right.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
It's great. Indiana Jones. He's an adventurer. And guess what, Ellie,
it turns out he's got some issues with his dad,
laid by Sean Connery. They don't get along. His dad
is a dork, and he's like, I don't want to
call India Jock. He's not. He's kind of a boy Scott.
But over the course of the movie, Ellie, they not
only find the lost grail that imparts immortality, but more importantly,
(07:33):
they find each other, the Dad and.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
The Sun in the journey.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Along the journey, yes.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Absolutely, they didn't know they were going.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
To be on They do actually literally physically find each other,
but in a grander emotional way, they find one another.
It's about connecting with a parent, you know, with whom
you've had a sort of fraught relationship with him. And
there's also cool with a tank in the desert. It's
got both of those things.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Did you see this movie when it came out in
nineteen eighty nine?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I saw this movie when it came.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Out, and you is it a PG thirteen?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
I think it's a PG thirteen spoiler alert. At one point,
Indiana Jones is fighting a Nazi on a tank and
it rolls off a canyon and it seems like Indiana
Jones has died. And then there's this tremendously moving scene
where his father looks over the precipice at the wreckage
(08:28):
that he assumes his dead son is in. You know,
hundreds of meters below, and it's with Indy's friends and
they're all looking and they cry because they think he's dead.
And then the dad says, oh, I never said it
to him. He basically he doesn't say I never told
him I loved him, but that's what he means. And
he tears up and you feel for him. And then
Indiana Jones crawls up and he climbs up and he
(08:53):
joins Sean Connery and Indiana Jones doesn't realize that his
dad's just said this, and then his dad real his
son is a lie. Wow, gives him the biggest hug
in the world. Ellie. But see, here's the thing. There's
still like a little stoic. So they have this great
bonding moment and then they're both like, oh, okay, well
we gotta go defeat the Nazis. It's fantastic. It's fantastic
(09:16):
from beginning to end.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
So this sounds like the type of movie.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I don't want to waste my first time seeing it
on a couch. I want to go to a theater
and see this often. I say this to you, you
must feel like you're talking to an alien or a
dog when you speak to me about such iconic films.
So I know I sound a little strange saying, oh,
I will see this movie you speak of in a theater,
(09:39):
but it sounds like that's the only.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Way to see it.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Well, here's the thing, Ellie. It came out in nineteen
eighty nine. Obviously, it's thirty fifth anniversary is in twenty
twenty four. If they release it in theaters, you gotta
come see it. We'll go see it.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Oh that makes me really happy. Yeah, Scott. Listen, if
Michael said to me, oh, Indiana Jones is, do you
want to watch it? I'd say no.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
You have piqued my interest so greatly that all I
want to do is see that movie.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
I'm so happy. We're going to see it. We're going
to see it together.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Now we're going to take a sharp right turn from
Indiana Jones right now, Scott, that wasn't the only thing
that started with an I in nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
The other thing I want to talk about is number
four on the list, Indigo Girls. Scott. Did you like
Indigo Girls?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
You gotta lay it on me here. I don't really
know much about the Indigo Girls.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
I'll tell you one thing, there's no the It's just
Indigo Girls. And I'll tell you how I know that.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
It's because you're an Indigo Girls super fan.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
I what's weird is that I'm not even I just
love the effect a couple of their songs had on
my life as a nine, ten eleven year old. And
I know we're in nineteen eighty nine right now, but
the reaches far.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
So what is the song that What are the songs
that changed your life?
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Closer to Fine? In nineteen eighty nine, a song called
Closer to Fine came out and I think you would
recognize it for us, Elly the Doctor, I went to
the mountain that I think I might be conflating the
two songs.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
No, I'm singing closer to Fine.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
If there were a camera on my face, the camera
would show complete and total confusion. A face, you know,
just a straight line, a smile.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
A straight line. Closer to Fine, Scott. It's not because
I didn't sing it well, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Oh, I know, it's you sang it beautifully. It's honestly
hard for me to imagine Indigo Girls singing it better.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Everybody who is my friend out there, you know, we
all take side on the Scott and Nelly podcast. There's
like the Scott fans and the Ellie fans. So everyone
who's my fan knows what I'm talking.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
About, and everybody who's my fan is totally mystified.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
They're like Indiana, Joe. I'm like strumming a guitar and
chastising you for calling.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Them the Indigo Girls. That song made it closer to find,
made it on so many of my.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Mixtapes throughout the late eighties and nineties. This is like
folk song.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
They came out of Atlanta. I don't know how that's relevant,
but that's where the came from. I mean, they were
touring with R. E. M. In nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
I wasn't hip enough for the Indigo for Indigo Girls.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Point about Indigo Girls is that I would lie wherever
I was, you know, in bed, listening to my mixtape.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Sometimes I went for a walk to my mixtapes.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
And I got intensely introspective. Whenever Indigo Girls came on.
It wasn't sad. It was making me feel like there
was something more than just me. All that came out
in nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Wow, that's a real lesson. My next item on the
countdown Ellie, Things I Love about nineteen eight gave me
a similar emotional experience. In fact, it's also a song
(13:04):
Billy joels, we didn't start the fire. We didn't start
the fire. It was always burned. Since the world then turning, weeded.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Yes, Scott is he was so annoyed with us.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
For the songs. We warned them that it was going
to be a music We did.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
We did warn them. We explicit content, all musical, Scott.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
I love that song.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
It's everyone loves that song. I have an interesting and
complicated relationship with this song because the first cassette tape
I ever bought was Billy Joel's storm Front. That was
the album that we Didn't Start the Fire was, And
the reason that I bought it is because like a
childhood friend of mine who was a year older than me,
he was really into music, and he was like, Billy
(13:47):
Joel's cool. And I didn't know anything about music. I'm
not a music guy. No listeners a podcast made, No,
I don't know anything about music. So I went on
and I bought storm Front and just listened to We
Didn't Start the Fire over and over and over again.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Did you remember the lyrics.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
I have a lot of them if it were playing.
But here's the thing, What the fuck is the fire? Ellie?
He's talking about we didn't start the fire, and there's
lots of bad stuff, like he's talking about Stalin and
the H bomb, But then he also talks about stuff
like Joe DiMaggio, I know, and television, and like, I
don't know, man, Joe DiMaggio is not part of the fire.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
No television, sure isn't.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
I mean, there's all kinds of nice things in here.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
I see what you're saying.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
I'm looking at the lyrics now, he says Dylan for
Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan's cool. Berlin. I guess it's bad
because you know, Berlin and stuff, and surrounded by communists,
they have pigs invasion. Okay, that's bad. Lawrence of Arabia,
that's a good movie. British Beatlemania, that's good. So why
is he trying to stop this fire that includes all
(14:50):
the good stuff?
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I have a guess, And I don't know because I
give aware of that song much later on, and I'm
wondering if the fire is just like the fire of life.
Is it possible Joel was going that deep with it.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I think that's what he was. But here the thing
is that he they've been fighting it. He always he
always says, we didn't start the fire, we didn't light it,
but we tried to fight it. By why would we
be fighting Joe DiMaggio and British pmania. So whatever, I mean,
I guess that's what art is. It challenges us. I
(15:24):
hope that somebody out there is listening to our podcast
in the same way that that eight year old Scott
was listening. We didn't start the fire having his mind blown.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Oh, I mean, I don't doubt it for a second.
And I do think we're going to get some responses,
some music files out there telling us exactly what that
song is about. To be honest with you, Scott, I
bet a quick Google search would clear up what he's
talking about. I don't want to do it.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
I asked the Google. I asked Ai what he was.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Talking about and what was he talking about?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
A I had some same guesses as us, like the
march of historical events, but.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Our guest was our guest ultimately was confused because I
don't understand why you would be trying to fight nice things.
But that's just my temperament. I guess I enjoy nice
things that I fight bad things. But regardless of what
he meant, it is one of the best songs ever written.
(16:18):
He's still playing at Madison Square Garden every month. He's
in residence there.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
That's not true, of course, it's true. And you know
who went.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
I'll tell you offline who went to see it, not me,
a friend. We both know, so anyway, Scott, I love
that song. You know, it's an onion. The more layers
it doesn't stink the more you take off.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
But it makes me cry. Cry. It is a song
that makes me cry, but not.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
As much as Closer to find Scott. We're down to
my final item.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
This is the best thing, the thing you love most
about nineteen eighty nine? What was it?
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Something that holds up to this day? I think, as
with many of the things we've discussed, the Babysitters Club
book series.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Oh my God, Babysitters Club.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Yes, I don't know if your kids are interested in it.
Mine are a little too young to know what it is.
It's still influencing a new generation of young readers and viewers,
and I am proud to say that I was of
the original I was JENBSC, which is to say, Generation
Babysitters Club.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
What is the Babysitters Club? Just so if anyone who's
not familiar with, well, the Babysitters.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Club series is about a group of young girls in Stonybrook,
Connecticut who start an agency of babysitting.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Okay, and it.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Starts with four girls and then it expands to six
and then seven, and it's all about coming of age
whilst babysitting.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
You know, babysitting is just the convenient thing that bonds them.
But it's saying goodbye to your grandparents.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
I'm seeing Claudia and the sad Goodbye came out in
nineteen eighty nine Welcome Back Stacy. Stacy had moved away
to New York and then spoiler moves back to Stonybrook.
It's all about dealing with crushes, parents, divorce, boyfriends.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Girls friends series. It's fun. They do this, They do
this thankless job for not much money, their parents don't
love each other anymore, and then there's death.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
It tackles all of those with a loving hand.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
And I just remember thinking that the characters were all
very cool and aspirational and I love that book. And
what another thing that it reminds me of is the
Scholastic Book Fair, which was like the most fun event
of the school year. And the Scholastic Book Fair was
once a year. Obviously, it's what it sounds like. It
was a book fair where you went and got books,
(18:36):
but you also had a Scholastic book Order where you
could order books every month. And the little fine newspaper.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Yeah, the trash. Trash is like think of in your
mind of a piece of paper and then the worst
version of it, like, yeah, it's yes, exactly right in
the line between a Kleenex and a piece of paper.
That's what that was. Elastic book orders and Ellie, I
don't think your kids are old enough. Guess what still exists?
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2 (19:07):
My kids occasionally bring back Sclasstic book orders and they're
printed on the same paper, the paper that seems like
it could ignite spontaneously.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Yes, yeah, that's it.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
You just made Christmas come early for me, because when
my kids bring that home, I'm gonna have a real
nice time.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
I want to bring it back to the babysitters Club
real quick. Who is your favorite babysitter and.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Why it's hard it probably was Stacy McGill, because she
was so Stacy.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
The one who left in New York and came back.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
She had diabetes. Two interesting things about Stacy. You know,
when you read a word but you don't hear it
out loud, they always describe Stacy as sophisticated.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
That was like her adjective.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
That was in every book when like every when they're
introducing each character in every book, because they don't know
who's like a new reader. She was always described as sophisticated,
and I always thought it was sophisticated. So I for
years said sophisticated.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Can I ask you another question? When you said that
as like a nine year old who starts showing off
that she knows such a big word, would you say
it with a sort of smug attitude. It's like, oh,
well I'm sophisticated.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah, yeah, she's not quite as sophisticated as it. Yeah,
that's everything you just said is correct. The other thing
I thought was diabites, which makes it like a little
more glamorous.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
I think diabetes diabites. So I thought sophisticated. Stacey had diabetes.
But she was probably my favorite just because she had.
I don't know. She was just so. She's from New York.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
She was cool, and she's probably what I aspired to
be like the most. But anyway, what a great book series.
What a great memory of being nine years old, Scott,
take it away, Take us home, Scott.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Last one, the thing that I most loved about nineteen
ten eighty nine was a little thing called the Nintendo
game Boy, Scott.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
We almost overlapped.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
It was my favorite thing for like most of the years,
in for the next several. I mean, if i'd have
ranked my things I love most about nineteen ninety, ninety one,
ninety two, ninety three, game Boy is going to be
high on all of those lists. Yes, yeap, and specifically
a little video game called Tetris.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Tetris, Scott.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
At last, you and I see eye to eye on
nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Oh my god, Ellie, were you just a whiz? I
was okay back then. I have since I have since
become a world class Tetris player. Listeners, I believe listeners
won't believe me. I hesitate to brag. I'm definitely the
top point one percent of Tetris players. There's only one
thing in the world that if I meet a stranger,
I'm confident that I could best them, and it's Tetris. Well,
(21:53):
so hold on.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
I have things like that too, where it's like, overall,
I'm not a confident person. I'm not saying that's about you,
but there's certain things where there's no hesitation.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
In my mind.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Is singing one of them? Elie?
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Well, yes for you, well, absolutely yes, and I could
outsing any I'm in the top point would you say
one percent point one?
Speaker 2 (22:13):
I said, point like one in a thousand. If there
are a thousand people the best Tetris player, Well.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
I'm probably going to be one in a thousand. I'm
going to be the best. I'm going to be the
top one of the thousand singers, just like you're going
to be.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
But do you you sincerely believe that, right, Scott? I mean,
that's not even.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
I played an hour of Tetris this morning.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Oh my, oh my gosh, and.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Not because I was like planning to to, you know,
talk about it. I've played an average of an hour
of Tetris a day for the last three years.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
At least, are you doing something else while you're doing that?
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Listening to podcasts? Often listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
You do do that.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
You always have something else going on. I mean back
in the day, I feel like you were always like
doing a puzzle.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Am I making this up?
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Is this is like a Doku phase I'm not proud of.
But yeah, I like distractions. The most obnoxious thing I've
ever done is I read War and Peace only on
the subway, and I read Warren Piece in order to
show off that I was reading War and Piece on
the subway.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Scott, I don't say this lightly.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
That is so obnoxious.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
I agree, I'm sharing this story.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
I understand what you're saying. But an hour a day
of Tetris for three years straight, but more than that, Yes,
you're going to be pretty.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Good at Tetris.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Pretty good at Tetris. Yeah yeah, but boy, now you
can play Tetris on the Nintendo Switch. You can play
the original game Boy Tetris and it's still slaps elly.
That's the thing that young people say. It slaps.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Well, hold on, let me ask you something else I
don't know about the switch.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Is it the same?
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Are you using your thumbs in the same way, because
all I remember is that the B to the A
on the nintent on the game Boy was so easy
because you've used the top of your thumb for the
bee and then you would just use the bottom of
your for the A. At least that's what I did.
Is it the same layout on the switch?
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Same exact layout? Oh, they got it right the first
time around. Yeah, but that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
That's something I'm pretty confident in what I can still
read French.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Are you in the top point one percent of people
when it comes to French reader?
Speaker 1 (24:20):
What? No, I'm not, and I'm not afraid to see.
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
I can assess myself pretty fairly and pretty accurately. Not
in the top point one percent of French readers.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Yeah, I would say that the entire population of France
probably better.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
I don't know that we're going to go that far.
So anyway, it is such an addictive game. Oh yeah,
can answer another question. How do you become really good.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
At one word? Elie? Practice? Practice, it's like most things.
It's like most things, practice it which you fit the blocks? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
When you guys stop over on our way to Indiana,
Jones Lascrus say, what will happen? Is all four you
to play? A game of tetris.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
You want to have to force me, I'll like.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
To and then I'll play a game of tetris, and
then you will. You'll see the difference. It's a phase change.
It's a difference between liquid water and ice. Something different happens.
I understand.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Yeah, it's just a different Did you say a phase change?
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Phase change? That was the city dork all right.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Scott likes phase changes, states of matter, dislikes talking on
the phone, interacting with girls.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Sorry girl talk date night. I would have been one
of the ones left out.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
You would have been left out.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Well, Ellie, those are the things that we lef from
nineteen eighty nine. Of course, there's a lot more from
nineteen eighty nine that we didn't get to touch on.
I think that we're going to play a round of
love It or Low that where we're firing some stuff
from nineteen eighty nine at each other unexpectedly. So stick
around for that.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Welcome back to Born to Love, Scott. I've been talking
about our greatest loves of nineteen eighty nine. Now we're
gonna play one of our favorite games, one of the
only games we play on our show called love it
or loathe it? Scott and I are gonna lob different
items pertaining to nineteen eighty nine back and forth to
each other, and we're gonna answer whether we love or
loath that thing. There can be no in between. It's
(26:27):
all hot, all cold, Scott.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
I'm gonna go first, laying on me Elle.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Love it or loathe it? Jack Nicholson's joker in Tim Burton's.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Batman love It? I knew for sure Jack Nicholson Great,
I mean that movie great. I love it. Yeah he's crazy.
He's really just playing Jack Nicholson with paint on. But yeah,
it works. I'll say, have you seen that, Phil Mellie?
Have you seen the Tim Burton Batman? No?
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Well, I'll say it works. I will say it works.
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
All right, Ellie, love it or loathe it? Sony Walkman,
Oh I love just Sony.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Where do you think I was playing my mixtapes?
Speaker 2 (27:09):
You were taking those lonely walks and listening to Indigo girls.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
What I did?
Speaker 3 (27:13):
And this is just the symptom of like how crazy
teen magazines wore back then. My mom had a treadmill
and I would walk on that thinking I had to
walk at four point one miles an hour for twenty
minutes to have like a healthy lifestyle. Anyway, I would
listen to my Sony Walkman while walking. Maybe not in
nineteen eighty nine, maybe like when I was twelve and
I would lose myself in Indigo girls, like you said,
(27:37):
loved a Sony Walkman.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Loved Yeah, fantastic. I mean I don't have much else
to add. I mean we all know.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
What it is, well, some of our babies don't.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
It's like an iPod, but with tapes?
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Do people still have iPod?
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Scott, I guess you know. Oh, I just really comparing
to an iod. I went to the America in History
Museum at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, and they had
the iPod like in the case, and I was like, oh,
that makes me feel old.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
That makes you feel really old. But yeah, I loved
a Sony Walkman. Okay, Scott, love it or log It,
Sega Genesis.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Loaded Loath the Saga. I was a Nintendo guy all
the way. Also, like I don't know, I was not
really familiar with like economic class back in my childhood,
but there were certain things that if you owned them.
In my little child brain, I was like, you're a
rich person and I do not like you, and anybody
(28:37):
who had a Sega Genesis fit into that category.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Ok.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Chip on my shoulder.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Was Sega Genesis.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Sonic Sonic Yeah, yeah, yeah, and it was colored.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
You and I didn't know each other when we were young,
because I had one.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
I would have hated you and your genesis would Wait,
did you also have Nintendo? Did you have Maria? We
had both?
Speaker 1 (29:05):
We had both.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
We had both, and I loved Sonic, so Scott, we
wouldn't have been friends.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
If you'd asked me love it alone that Sonic, I
would begrudgingly say love. I mean, oh, it was born
out of jealousy. I wanted that genesis, but I just
didn't have one. All right, Ellie, love it or loa?
That's Madonna?
Speaker 3 (29:24):
Okay, come on, I feel like I'm getting easy ones.
I love Madonna.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Am I alive?
Speaker 3 (29:29):
I love Madonna like a prayer. It took the universe
by storm. I remember in my PSR class Parish School
of Religion, it was a hot topic because we weren't
sure if it was sacrilegi or not.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Well, I didn't even understand what it was about. Didn't
like well, into the two thousands.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
I'm not sure I still understand what it's about.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
I think it's about right.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2 (29:56):
What is the other sacrilegious alternative to this?
Speaker 3 (29:58):
I think in the video there are crosses burning. Oh,
I have to go back and watch, but I remember
that being the thing. But it's about that you just
googled it.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
I don't want to even you know what it's like.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Don't meet your heroes. I don't want to know what
that song is about. And you can call me like
putting my hand in the sand a little Ostrochelly.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Did you just say putting your hand in the sand?
Speaker 1 (30:20):
I think I said hand in the sand, but I
mean I'm.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Gonna put my hand in the sand.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
I don't want to know, Scott, I just put my
hand in the sand on this one, your honor, I'd
like to put my hand in the sand. Why am
I from the South on the witness stand? Okay, Scott,
the ultimate love it or low that? Back to the
future Part two.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
I'm probably gonna surprise you, Alley by saying loads.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Didn't surprise me. I knew it all along.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
You've never seen any of the Back to the Future movies,
is that correct.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
I've seen the first one, but so long ago. I
don't remember it.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
This all ups, Is it back to the Future for us?
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Right?
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Yeah? No, I mean the problem with Back to the
Future too is that it really sets up Back to
the Future three, which is a real fart. It's a
little bit like Matrix reloaded. But I like Michael J. Fox,
I like Christopher Lloyd, I like the time Traveling Car.
So I mean it holds a dear little place in
my heart. But I'm gonna say low number two.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
All right, Well, I'm sorry to end on a loath note.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
I got one last one.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Oh sorry, Well, let's see.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
We're gonna end on one. I mean you said that
you were worried you're gonna getting some easy ones. I'm
gonna test that theory. Saved by the Bell.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Well, sorry, I loved Saved by the Bell.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
I was lying. Of course you loved it. Of course
you did. Who doesn't love Saved by the Bell? Saved
by the Bell is so fantastic. They tried to make
more of them.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Very interestingly. Everybody loves it.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
I mean everything I'm gonna name or referred to is obvious,
so I won't go through them all.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
I loved Zach.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Morris Principle Belding hilarious. Yeah, and then Ac Slater's so cool.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Jesse Spano, Kelly Gebowski.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Zack Morris, I named him first.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Go back and listen, go to the tape. But anyway,
Love Saved by the Bell. You know what it was.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
It was The Innocent Man's nine to two one oh,
except for the caffeine episode where Jesse overdoses. I don't
feel that there were any real PG thirteen EPs. It
was like fun for the whole family, and I loved it.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
I loved it, Okay, I mean I look back in
nineteen eighty nine, it was a once a week kind
of thing. I think it was a Saturday morning because
later in our lives it was like reruns almost every day.
I remember OG Saved by the Bell. You're like waiting
all week long, excited for it to come out on
I think Saturday morning.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Yeah. I think you're right too.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Oh boy, great show, great great shows.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Got so much much to love about nineteen eighty nine,
so much to love about this podcasting. I like ending
on a self congratulatory note.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Well, The thing is people come for the singing and
then they stay take.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Out for the singing, they stay for the well I love. Yeah, yeah,
that's exactly right. And on that note, I'm going to
take us out.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
It's all right.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Because I'm say Baba bed.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Thanks for listening to Born to Love. We'll be back
next week with brand new things that we love.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
We want to hear from you.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
Leave us a review in Apple Podcasts and tell us
what you love. We might even ask one of our
guests in an upcoming love it or Load It.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Born to Love is hosted and created by Elli Kemper
and Scott Ecker.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
Our executive producer is Aaron Coffman. Our producers are Sheena
Ozaki and Zoe Danklab.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Born to Love is part of Will Ferrell's Big Money
Players Network in collaboration with iHeart Podcasts. Special thanks to
Hans Sonni.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Rachel Kaplan and Adrianna Cassiano
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Michael Fails, Alex Korl and Baheied Frazier
Bond to love. That was soulful, but it was also
like too cheerful. It should be bun too.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
That was more soulful. Still, Ellie, how are.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
You good, Scott? How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'm good? Welcome to our podcast, the podcast where we
talk about things that we love.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
I'm Ellie Kemper, and the male voice you hear is
Scott Eckert.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Normally we have a guest, Ellie, but today we don't.
It's just you and me.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
We will be our own guest. Oh good guess.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Today it's also a musical episode. Welle's gonna sing a lot,
lucky for you, lucky for me. That's what I was
born to love. The melliphalous voice of Ellie Kemper. What
we are talking about is the year nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
What a year, Scott, What a year?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
What a year? I mean, so much was happening follow
the Soviet Union, Tieneman Square, new president, George hw Bush.
I mean I personally eight years old.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Oh oh yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I was a rising third grader in the summer of
nineteen eighty nine, and.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
The same for me, except I was at nine years
old in nineteen eighty nine. So you see, we all
had our ages back in nineteen eighty eighty nine.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Well those of us who were born, many of our listeners,
it's a distant I mean, it may as well be
the stone age nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
All these little babies who don't even know what year
that is. It's exactly right, it's before they were born.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
We're doing three each countdown. What was something you loved
about nineteen eighty nine, Ellie.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Scott, I loved so much about nineteen eighty nine it
was hard for me to choose, So I'm going to
start with number six in the countdown.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
What I love in nineteen eighty nine is a board
game called Dateline.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
What I'm a big board game guy here. Yeah, I
know you are never heard of Dateline? What is I
need to know?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
This was back when they really marketed girly type toys
to girls like me. And this was from the franchise
Girl Talk. Okay, and what you did was you matched
up boys and girls and it was just boys and
girls and you put them in I don't want to
get bogged down in the logistics of how this game.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Wait a minute, so I'm sorry, sorry to interrupt Ellie.
So this is date line like like a date like
a phone line. Now you're listening line like dateline NBC.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
It's not stone fillips. That's not what I loved about
nineteen eighty nine. This is a board game where you
had a cassette tape recording of boys and girls talking
about whether they would date.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
What you, the player would do?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Would you would take two tabs, a boy tab and
a girl tab.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
The boys had names like John and Luke.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Girls had names like Jenny and Amber. That's it.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
And Amber might love sleepovers and popcorn, but she hates
nerds and zits, okay, and that you know, well, who doesn't.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
You just explained why nineteen eighty nine was a nightmare
for me.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Oh, Scott, Scott, you were a zitty nerd.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
I was a zitty nerd. Although in fairness, I was
probably a zitty nerd a few years after nineteen eighty nine, right.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
I think that's before the hormones start raging in all
of us. In any case, Jason might like football and frisbee,
but he doesn't like smelly socks and chores. Okay, So
you insert the two tabs into a little I don't
know what, you would call it a module, and then
if you overhear the cassette tape having a successful conversation
(03:53):
between a boy and a girl, then you get to
advance on the game. Okay, to me, it's like a
very strange idea. They came up because it's like hard
to explain, and I was rereading the instructions in preparation
to talk about it, and you can see that it's
like a tad, like high tech for the time.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I mean, you're talking about cassette tapes. I can't recall
many of my board games with cassette tapes. This is
like the Space age board game about falling in love.
It really was. I looked up Ellie and I see
some photos from this game, including I don't know, a
card or something that says your date is grounded, go stag.
(04:29):
That's the kind of stuff that happens as you travel
around the board in the girl Talk date line.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Dateline.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Also, you guessed some names. I've got some real ones
for you. Here are the four that I see, Brad, Tina, Jamie,
and Homer.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Oh, I remember Homer. Homer was such an unusual name
for the time.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
This is a hysterical hysterical game.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Else this game, I mean, this game is so wrong
in so many Here's Homer.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Homer was the dork. He loves computer club and collecting bugs,
and he hates sports and school dances. Oh, Homer, this
is crazy. An I think I don't like this game.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
He said, no, no, no, listen to why I loved it.
I was not a mean girl, and I am not
a mean girl. In fact, I'm like one of the
nicest people I know. But the reason I loved this
game is that I was finally allowed to spend the
night at my best friend Katie Pearcell's house, and we
would play this game late into the night. And so
(05:37):
I associate this game with the freedom.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Of the I just spat.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
I was so excited my mouth was drool like thinking
of staying up until nine o'clock at Katie Parcell's house.
It was the freedom, the independence, the exhilaration of being
able to spend the night at a friend's house.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
It still wasn't allowed to go to multi person sleepovers,
but I was able to like spend the night or
it was so much fun.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
I love, love, love that about nineteen eighty nine, and
if I'll be darned if Girl Talk Dateline wasn't a
definitive piece of that experience.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
I love it. I want to move on to my
item in the countdown, Ellie, I would love to. I
love a little film. You might have seen it called
Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. I could have guessed. Yes,
one of the greatest blockbusters ever made, Ellie, have you
seen it? No? Have you ever seen an Indiana Jones movie?
Speaker 1 (06:37):
I just answered, no, I haven't seen anything.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Well, they're a handful of them. Oh my gosh. This
is one of the few movies in my life that
I want to stop my day. Yeah, and sit you
down and just watch it. Because I am one hundred
percent convinced, Ellie. I know that your taste in cinema
and minor differ slightly. You would love it. You would
(07:03):
love it. It's gonna charm you from beginning to end.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
I do think you're right.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
It's great. Indiana Jones. He's an adventurer. And guess what, Ellie,
it turns out he's got some issues with his dad,
laid by Sean Connery. They don't get along. His dad
is a dork, and he's like, I don't want to
call India Jock. He's not. He's kind of a boy Scott.
But over the course of the movie, Ellie, they not
only find the lost grail that imparts immortality, but more importantly,
(07:33):
they find each other, the Dad and.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
The Sun in the journey.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Along the journey, yes.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Absolutely, they didn't know they were going.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
To be on They do actually literally physically find each other,
but in a grander emotional way, they find one another.
It's about connecting with a parent, you know, with whom
you've had a sort of fraught relationship with him. And
there's also cool with a tank in the desert. It's
got both of those things.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Did you see this movie when it came out in
nineteen eighty nine?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I saw this movie when it came.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Out, and you is it a PG thirteen?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
I think it's a PG thirteen spoiler alert. At one point,
Indiana Jones is fighting a Nazi on a tank and
it rolls off a canyon and it seems like Indiana
Jones has died. And then there's this tremendously moving scene
where his father looks over the precipice at the wreckage
(08:28):
that he assumes his dead son is in. You know,
hundreds of meters below, and it's with Indy's friends and
they're all looking and they cry because they think he's dead.
And then the dad says, oh, I never said it
to him. He basically he doesn't say I never told
him I loved him, but that's what he means. And
he tears up and you feel for him. And then
Indiana Jones crawls up and he climbs up and he
(08:53):
joins Sean Connery and Indiana Jones doesn't realize that his
dad's just said this, and then his dad real his
son is a lie. Wow, gives him the biggest hug
in the world. Ellie. But see, here's the thing. There's
still like a little stoic. So they have this great
bonding moment and then they're both like, oh, okay, well
we gotta go defeat the Nazis. It's fantastic. It's fantastic
(09:16):
from beginning to end.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
So this sounds like the type of movie.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I don't want to waste my first time seeing it
on a couch. I want to go to a theater
and see this often. I say this to you, you
must feel like you're talking to an alien or a
dog when you speak to me about such iconic films.
So I know I sound a little strange saying, oh,
I will see this movie you speak of in a theater,
(09:39):
but it sounds like that's the only.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Way to see it.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Well, here's the thing, Ellie. It came out in nineteen
eighty nine. Obviously, it's thirty fifth anniversary is in twenty
twenty four. If they release it in theaters, you gotta
come see it. We'll go see it.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Oh that makes me really happy. Yeah, Scott. Listen, if
Michael said to me, oh, Indiana Jones is, do you
want to watch it? I'd say no.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
You have piqued my interest so greatly that all I
want to do is see that movie.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
I'm so happy. We're going to see it. We're going
to see it together.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Now we're going to take a sharp right turn from
Indiana Jones right now, Scott, that wasn't the only thing
that started with an I in nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
The other thing I want to talk about is number
four on the list, Indigo Girls. Scott. Did you like
Indigo Girls?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
You gotta lay it on me here. I don't really
know much about the Indigo Girls.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
I'll tell you one thing, there's no the It's just
Indigo Girls. And I'll tell you how I know that.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
It's because you're an Indigo Girls super fan.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
I what's weird is that I'm not even I just
love the effect a couple of their songs had on
my life as a nine, ten eleven year old. And
I know we're in nineteen eighty nine right now, but
the reaches far.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
So what is the song that What are the songs
that changed your life?
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Closer to Fine? In nineteen eighty nine, a song called
Closer to Fine came out and I think you would
recognize it for us, Elly the Doctor, I went to
the mountain that I think I might be conflating the
two songs.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
No, I'm singing closer to Fine.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
If there were a camera on my face, the camera
would show complete and total confusion. A face, you know,
just a straight line, a smile.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
A straight line. Closer to Fine, Scott. It's not because
I didn't sing it well, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Oh, I know, it's you sang it beautifully. It's honestly
hard for me to imagine Indigo Girls singing it better.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Everybody who is my friend out there, you know, we
all take side on the Scott and Nelly podcast. There's
like the Scott fans and the Ellie fans. So everyone
who's my fan knows what I'm talking.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
About, and everybody who's my fan is totally mystified.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
They're like Indiana, Joe. I'm like strumming a guitar and
chastising you for calling.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Them the Indigo Girls. That song made it closer to find,
made it on so many of my.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Mixtapes throughout the late eighties and nineties. This is like
folk song.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
They came out of Atlanta. I don't know how that's relevant,
but that's where the came from. I mean, they were
touring with R. E. M. In nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
I wasn't hip enough for the Indigo for Indigo Girls.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Point about Indigo Girls is that I would lie wherever
I was, you know, in bed, listening to my mixtape.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Sometimes I went for a walk to my mixtapes.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
And I got intensely introspective. Whenever Indigo Girls came on.
It wasn't sad. It was making me feel like there
was something more than just me. All that came out
in nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Wow, that's a real lesson. My next item on the
countdown Ellie, Things I Love about nineteen eight gave me
a similar emotional experience. In fact, it's also a song
(13:04):
Billy joels, we didn't start the fire. We didn't start
the fire. It was always burned. Since the world then turning, weeded.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Yes, Scott is he was so annoyed with us.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
For the songs. We warned them that it was going
to be a music We did.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
We did warn them. We explicit content, all musical, Scott.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
I love that song.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
It's everyone loves that song. I have an interesting and
complicated relationship with this song because the first cassette tape
I ever bought was Billy Joel's storm Front. That was
the album that we Didn't Start the Fire was, And
the reason that I bought it is because like a
childhood friend of mine who was a year older than me,
he was really into music, and he was like, Billy
(13:47):
Joel's cool. And I didn't know anything about music. I'm
not a music guy. No listeners a podcast made, No,
I don't know anything about music. So I went on
and I bought storm Front and just listened to We
Didn't Start the Fire over and over and over again.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Did you remember the lyrics.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
I have a lot of them if it were playing.
But here's the thing, What the fuck is the fire? Ellie?
He's talking about we didn't start the fire, and there's
lots of bad stuff, like he's talking about Stalin and
the H bomb, But then he also talks about stuff
like Joe DiMaggio, I know, and television, and like, I
don't know, man, Joe DiMaggio is not part of the fire.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
No television, sure isn't.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
I mean, there's all kinds of nice things in here.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
I see what you're saying.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
I'm looking at the lyrics now, he says Dylan for
Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan's cool. Berlin. I guess it's bad
because you know, Berlin and stuff, and surrounded by communists,
they have pigs invasion. Okay, that's bad. Lawrence of Arabia,
that's a good movie. British Beatlemania, that's good. So why
is he trying to stop this fire that includes all
(14:50):
the good stuff?
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I have a guess, And I don't know because I
give aware of that song much later on, and I'm
wondering if the fire is just like the fire of life.
Is it possible Joel was going that deep with it.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I think that's what he was. But here the thing
is that he they've been fighting it. He always he
always says, we didn't start the fire, we didn't light it,
but we tried to fight it. By why would we
be fighting Joe DiMaggio and British pmania. So whatever, I mean,
I guess that's what art is. It challenges us. I
(15:24):
hope that somebody out there is listening to our podcast
in the same way that that eight year old Scott
was listening. We didn't start the fire having his mind blown.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Oh, I mean, I don't doubt it for a second.
And I do think we're going to get some responses,
some music files out there telling us exactly what that
song is about. To be honest with you, Scott, I
bet a quick Google search would clear up what he's
talking about. I don't want to do it.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
I asked the Google. I asked Ai what he was.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Talking about and what was he talking about?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
A I had some same guesses as us, like the
march of historical events, but.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Our guest was our guest ultimately was confused because I
don't understand why you would be trying to fight nice things.
But that's just my temperament. I guess I enjoy nice
things that I fight bad things. But regardless of what
he meant, it is one of the best songs ever written.
(16:18):
He's still playing at Madison Square Garden every month. He's
in residence there.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
That's not true, of course, it's true. And you know
who went.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
I'll tell you offline who went to see it, not me,
a friend. We both know, so anyway, Scott, I love
that song. You know, it's an onion. The more layers
it doesn't stink the more you take off.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
But it makes me cry. Cry. It is a song
that makes me cry, but not.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
As much as Closer to find Scott. We're down to
my final item.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
This is the best thing, the thing you love most
about nineteen eighty nine? What was it?
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Something that holds up to this day? I think, as
with many of the things we've discussed, the Babysitters Club
book series.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Oh my God, Babysitters Club.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Yes, I don't know if your kids are interested in it.
Mine are a little too young to know what it is.
It's still influencing a new generation of young readers and viewers,
and I am proud to say that I was of
the original I was JENBSC, which is to say, Generation
Babysitters Club.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
What is the Babysitters Club? Just so if anyone who's
not familiar with, well, the Babysitters.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Club series is about a group of young girls in Stonybrook,
Connecticut who start an agency of babysitting.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Okay, and it.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Starts with four girls and then it expands to six
and then seven, and it's all about coming of age
whilst babysitting.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
You know, babysitting is just the convenient thing that bonds them.
But it's saying goodbye to your grandparents.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
I'm seeing Claudia and the sad Goodbye came out in
nineteen eighty nine Welcome Back Stacy. Stacy had moved away
to New York and then spoiler moves back to Stonybrook.
It's all about dealing with crushes, parents, divorce, boyfriends.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Girls friends series. It's fun. They do this, They do
this thankless job for not much money, their parents don't
love each other anymore, and then there's death.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
It tackles all of those with a loving hand.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
And I just remember thinking that the characters were all
very cool and aspirational and I love that book. And
what another thing that it reminds me of is the
Scholastic Book Fair, which was like the most fun event
of the school year. And the Scholastic Book Fair was
once a year. Obviously, it's what it sounds like. It
was a book fair where you went and got books,
(18:36):
but you also had a Scholastic book Order where you
could order books every month. And the little fine newspaper.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Yeah, the trash. Trash is like think of in your
mind of a piece of paper and then the worst
version of it, like, yeah, it's yes, exactly right in
the line between a Kleenex and a piece of paper.
That's what that was. Elastic book orders and Ellie, I
don't think your kids are old enough. Guess what still exists?
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2 (19:07):
My kids occasionally bring back Sclasstic book orders and they're
printed on the same paper, the paper that seems like
it could ignite spontaneously.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Yes, yeah, that's it.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
You just made Christmas come early for me, because when
my kids bring that home, I'm gonna have a real
nice time.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
I want to bring it back to the babysitters Club
real quick. Who is your favorite babysitter and.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Why it's hard it probably was Stacy McGill, because she
was so Stacy.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
The one who left in New York and came back.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
She had diabetes. Two interesting things about Stacy. You know,
when you read a word but you don't hear it
out loud, they always describe Stacy as sophisticated.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
That was like her adjective.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
That was in every book when like every when they're
introducing each character in every book, because they don't know
who's like a new reader. She was always described as sophisticated,
and I always thought it was sophisticated. So I for
years said sophisticated.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Can I ask you another question? When you said that
as like a nine year old who starts showing off
that she knows such a big word, would you say
it with a sort of smug attitude. It's like, oh,
well I'm sophisticated.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah, yeah, she's not quite as sophisticated as it. Yeah,
that's everything you just said is correct. The other thing
I thought was diabites, which makes it like a little
more glamorous.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
I think diabetes diabites. So I thought sophisticated. Stacey had diabetes.
But she was probably my favorite just because she had.
I don't know. She was just so. She's from New York.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
She was cool, and she's probably what I aspired to
be like the most. But anyway, what a great book series.
What a great memory of being nine years old, Scott,
take it away, Take us home, Scott.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Last one, the thing that I most loved about nineteen
ten eighty nine was a little thing called the Nintendo
game Boy, Scott.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
We almost overlapped.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
It was my favorite thing for like most of the years,
in for the next several. I mean, if i'd have
ranked my things I love most about nineteen ninety, ninety one,
ninety two, ninety three, game Boy is going to be
high on all of those lists. Yes, yeap, and specifically
a little video game called Tetris.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Tetris, Scott.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
At last, you and I see eye to eye on
nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Oh my god, Ellie, were you just a whiz? I
was okay back then. I have since I have since
become a world class Tetris player. Listeners, I believe listeners
won't believe me. I hesitate to brag. I'm definitely the
top point one percent of Tetris players. There's only one
thing in the world that if I meet a stranger,
I'm confident that I could best them, and it's Tetris. Well,
(21:53):
so hold on.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
I have things like that too, where it's like, overall,
I'm not a confident person. I'm not saying that's about you,
but there's certain things where there's no hesitation.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
In my mind.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Is singing one of them? Elie?
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Well, yes for you, well, absolutely yes, and I could
outsing any I'm in the top point would you say
one percent point one?
Speaker 2 (22:13):
I said, point like one in a thousand. If there
are a thousand people the best Tetris player, Well.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
I'm probably going to be one in a thousand. I'm
going to be the best. I'm going to be the
top one of the thousand singers, just like you're going
to be.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
But do you you sincerely believe that, right, Scott? I mean,
that's not even.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
I played an hour of Tetris this morning.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Oh my, oh my gosh, and.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Not because I was like planning to to, you know,
talk about it. I've played an average of an hour
of Tetris a day for the last three years.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
At least, are you doing something else while you're doing that?
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Listening to podcasts? Often listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
You do do that.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
You always have something else going on. I mean back
in the day, I feel like you were always like
doing a puzzle.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Am I making this up?
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Is this is like a Doku phase I'm not proud of.
But yeah, I like distractions. The most obnoxious thing I've
ever done is I read War and Peace only on
the subway, and I read Warren Piece in order to
show off that I was reading War and Piece on
the subway.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Scott, I don't say this lightly.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
That is so obnoxious.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
I agree, I'm sharing this story.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
I understand what you're saying. But an hour a day
of Tetris for three years straight, but more than that, Yes,
you're going to be pretty.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Good at Tetris.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Pretty good at Tetris. Yeah yeah, but boy, now you
can play Tetris on the Nintendo Switch. You can play
the original game Boy Tetris and it's still slaps elly.
That's the thing that young people say. It slaps.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Well, hold on, let me ask you something else I
don't know about the switch.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Is it the same?
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Are you using your thumbs in the same way, because
all I remember is that the B to the A
on the nintent on the game Boy was so easy
because you've used the top of your thumb for the
bee and then you would just use the bottom of
your for the A. At least that's what I did.
Is it the same layout on the switch?
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Same exact layout? Oh, they got it right the first
time around. Yeah, but that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
That's something I'm pretty confident in what I can still
read French.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Are you in the top point one percent of people
when it comes to French reader?
Speaker 1 (24:20):
What? No, I'm not, and I'm not afraid to see.
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
I can assess myself pretty fairly and pretty accurately. Not
in the top point one percent of French readers.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Yeah, I would say that the entire population of France
probably better.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
I don't know that we're going to go that far.
So anyway, it is such an addictive game. Oh yeah,
can answer another question. How do you become really good.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
At one word? Elie? Practice? Practice, it's like most things.
It's like most things, practice it which you fit the blocks? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
When you guys stop over on our way to Indiana,
Jones Lascrus say, what will happen? Is all four you
to play? A game of tetris.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
You want to have to force me, I'll like.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
To and then I'll play a game of tetris, and
then you will. You'll see the difference. It's a phase change.
It's a difference between liquid water and ice. Something different happens.
I understand.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Yeah, it's just a different Did you say a phase change?
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Phase change? That was the city dork all right.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Scott likes phase changes, states of matter, dislikes talking on
the phone, interacting with girls.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Sorry girl talk date night. I would have been one
of the ones left out.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
You would have been left out.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Well, Ellie, those are the things that we lef from
nineteen eighty nine. Of course, there's a lot more from
nineteen eighty nine that we didn't get to touch on.
I think that we're going to play a round of
love It or Low that where we're firing some stuff
from nineteen eighty nine at each other unexpectedly. So stick
around for that.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Welcome back to Born to Love, Scott. I've been talking
about our greatest loves of nineteen eighty nine. Now we're
gonna play one of our favorite games, one of the
only games we play on our show called love it
or loathe it? Scott and I are gonna lob different
items pertaining to nineteen eighty nine back and forth to
each other, and we're gonna answer whether we love or
loath that thing. There can be no in between. It's
(26:27):
all hot, all cold, Scott.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
I'm gonna go first, laying on me Elle.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Love it or loathe it? Jack Nicholson's joker in Tim Burton's.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Batman love It? I knew for sure Jack Nicholson Great,
I mean that movie great. I love it. Yeah he's crazy.
He's really just playing Jack Nicholson with paint on. But yeah,
it works. I'll say, have you seen that, Phil Mellie?
Have you seen the Tim Burton Batman? No?
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Well, I'll say it works. I will say it works.
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
All right, Ellie, love it or loathe it? Sony Walkman,
Oh I love just Sony.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Where do you think I was playing my mixtapes?
Speaker 2 (27:09):
You were taking those lonely walks and listening to Indigo girls.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
What I did?
Speaker 3 (27:13):
And this is just the symptom of like how crazy
teen magazines wore back then. My mom had a treadmill
and I would walk on that thinking I had to
walk at four point one miles an hour for twenty
minutes to have like a healthy lifestyle. Anyway, I would
listen to my Sony Walkman while walking. Maybe not in
nineteen eighty nine, maybe like when I was twelve and
I would lose myself in Indigo girls, like you said,
(27:37):
loved a Sony Walkman.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Loved Yeah, fantastic. I mean I don't have much else
to add. I mean we all know.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
What it is, well, some of our babies don't.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
It's like an iPod, but with tapes?
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Do people still have iPod?
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Scott, I guess you know. Oh, I just really comparing
to an iod. I went to the America in History
Museum at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, and they had
the iPod like in the case, and I was like, oh,
that makes me feel old.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
That makes you feel really old. But yeah, I loved
a Sony Walkman. Okay, Scott, love it or log It,
Sega Genesis.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Loaded Loath the Saga. I was a Nintendo guy all
the way. Also, like I don't know, I was not
really familiar with like economic class back in my childhood,
but there were certain things that if you owned them.
In my little child brain, I was like, you're a
rich person and I do not like you, and anybody
(28:37):
who had a Sega Genesis fit into that category.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Ok.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Chip on my shoulder.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Was Sega Genesis.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Sonic Sonic Yeah, yeah, yeah, and it was colored.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
You and I didn't know each other when we were young,
because I had one.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
I would have hated you and your genesis would Wait,
did you also have Nintendo? Did you have Maria? We
had both?
Speaker 1 (29:05):
We had both.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
We had both, and I loved Sonic, so Scott, we
wouldn't have been friends.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
If you'd asked me love it alone that Sonic, I
would begrudgingly say love. I mean, oh, it was born
out of jealousy. I wanted that genesis, but I just
didn't have one. All right, Ellie, love it or loa?
That's Madonna?
Speaker 3 (29:24):
Okay, come on, I feel like I'm getting easy ones.
I love Madonna.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Am I alive?
Speaker 3 (29:29):
I love Madonna like a prayer. It took the universe
by storm. I remember in my PSR class Parish School
of Religion, it was a hot topic because we weren't
sure if it was sacrilegi or not.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Well, I didn't even understand what it was about. Didn't
like well, into the two thousands.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
I'm not sure I still understand what it's about.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
I think it's about right.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2 (29:56):
What is the other sacrilegious alternative to this?
Speaker 3 (29:58):
I think in the video there are crosses burning. Oh,
I have to go back and watch, but I remember
that being the thing. But it's about that you just
googled it.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
I don't want to even you know what it's like.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Don't meet your heroes. I don't want to know what
that song is about. And you can call me like
putting my hand in the sand a little Ostrochelly.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Did you just say putting your hand in the sand?
Speaker 1 (30:20):
I think I said hand in the sand, but I
mean I'm.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Gonna put my hand in the sand.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
I don't want to know, Scott, I just put my
hand in the sand on this one, your honor, I'd
like to put my hand in the sand. Why am
I from the South on the witness stand? Okay, Scott,
the ultimate love it or low that? Back to the
future Part two.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
I'm probably gonna surprise you, Alley by saying loads.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Didn't surprise me. I knew it all along.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
You've never seen any of the Back to the Future movies,
is that correct.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
I've seen the first one, but so long ago. I
don't remember it.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
This all ups, Is it back to the Future for us?
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Right?
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Yeah? No, I mean the problem with Back to the
Future too is that it really sets up Back to
the Future three, which is a real fart. It's a
little bit like Matrix reloaded. But I like Michael J. Fox,
I like Christopher Lloyd, I like the time Traveling Car.
So I mean it holds a dear little place in
my heart. But I'm gonna say low number two.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
All right, Well, I'm sorry to end on a loath note.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
I got one last one.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Oh sorry, Well, let's see.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
We're gonna end on one. I mean you said that
you were worried you're gonna getting some easy ones. I'm
gonna test that theory. Saved by the Bell.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Well, sorry, I loved Saved by the Bell.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
I was lying. Of course you loved it. Of course
you did. Who doesn't love Saved by the Bell? Saved
by the Bell is so fantastic. They tried to make
more of them.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Very interestingly. Everybody loves it.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
I mean everything I'm gonna name or referred to is obvious,
so I won't go through them all.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
I loved Zach.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Morris Principle Belding hilarious. Yeah, and then Ac Slater's so cool.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Jesse Spano, Kelly Gebowski.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Zack Morris, I named him first.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Go back and listen, go to the tape. But anyway,
Love Saved by the Bell. You know what it was.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
It was The Innocent Man's nine to two one oh,
except for the caffeine episode where Jesse overdoses. I don't
feel that there were any real PG thirteen EPs. It
was like fun for the whole family, and I loved it.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
I loved it, Okay, I mean I look back in
nineteen eighty nine, it was a once a week kind
of thing. I think it was a Saturday morning because
later in our lives it was like reruns almost every day.
I remember OG Saved by the Bell. You're like waiting
all week long, excited for it to come out on
I think Saturday morning.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Yeah. I think you're right too.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Oh boy, great show, great great shows.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Got so much much to love about nineteen eighty nine,
so much to love about this podcasting. I like ending
on a self congratulatory note.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Well, The thing is people come for the singing and
then they stay take.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Out for the singing, they stay for the well I love. Yeah, yeah,
that's exactly right. And on that note, I'm going to
take us out.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
It's all right.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Because I'm say Baba bed.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Thanks for listening to Born to Love. We'll be back
next week with brand new things that we love.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
We want to hear from you.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
Leave us a review in Apple Podcasts and tell us
what you love. We might even ask one of our
guests in an upcoming love it or Load It.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Born to Love is hosted and created by Elli Kemper
and Scott Ecker.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
Our executive producer is Aaron Coffman. Our producers are Sheena
Ozaki and Zoe Danklab.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Born to Love is part of Will Ferrell's Big Money
Players Network in collaboration with iHeart Podcasts. Special thanks to
Hans Sonni.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Rachel Kaplan and Adrianna Cassiano
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Michael Fails, Alex Korl and Baheied Frazier
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