October 8, 2025 • 36 mins
Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey really miss shooting The Office. So, Ed tells them the story of a lost nuke off the coast of Japan, which ends up eerily reminiscent of a workplace comedy. Except we're trading cubicles for a thousand foot warship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and paper jams for hydrogen bombs.
Subscribe to the SNAFU YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@SNAFUPod
Buy the SNAFU book: www.snafu-book.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, guys at Helms here, I'm so glad to be
back for season four of Snaffo. Real quick before we
start this season, we're tackling even more snaffoos than ever before.
How are we doing that? Well, it's one new Snaffo
per episode, to be precise, and we're doing it along
with some of the funniest and or most interesting people
(00:23):
I know in a new weekly format, and you can
also watch it on YouTube. You are not gonna want
to miss what we've got in store, so stay tuned.
Here's episode one. Now.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I know why they call it broken arrows, because when
you say, you know what, we have thirty two broken arrows,
you're like, oh, if you say we have thirty two
lost nuclear weapons, wait, stop.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yes, say again. Euphemisms make hard things a lot easier. Hey,
I'm at Helm's host of Snaffo, a show about history's
greatest screw ups. Today I am joined by two of
my all time favorite humans on the planet, Angela Kinzie
(01:10):
and Jenna Fisher. Of course, you know them as Angela
Martin and Pam Beasley from the office where we spent
many years making each other chuckle both on and off camera.
These days, they co host the wildly beloved Office Ladies podcast,
where they deep dive into every episode, every single episode
(01:31):
of the Office with their very own distinct brand of insight, warmth,
heart and hilarity. Angela and Jenna. I am so psyched
you're here, Hi, Ed Hi, Yeah, it's so good to
see you.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I'm giving jazz hands right now because we've got video going. Yes,
I want to jazz it up a little alight here.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Let me ask abe a very I think, very pressing
question that all of our listeners and viewers are probably
wondering right now, which is how much do you miss
working with me on a daily basis?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
My gosh, I miss the office a lot. I mean
we spend our days. Our job now is watching the
show and it always just brings up so many memories
of working together.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
And you know.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
How many bloopers there are. Oh yeah, there's so many
because we would just laugh all day together. That's what
we did.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Ed.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
I just miss I miss being silly with you, Like
we would.
Speaker 5 (02:33):
Get so silly, like I would walk past you and
we would just make up a new noise like peeling by.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Oh my god. It's like all the stuff off camera,
the life experience of that whole time period, which was
just had this kind of larger umbrella feeling of like, Wow,
we're all part of something really great and that's like
super special. But then we're also having these really mundane,
lovely mode moments on the set, just talking about each
(03:03):
other's lives and families, and like, I don't know, just
the little those little quiet moments are sitting at our
trailers like waiting for a camera setup or it's like that.
That's I think something that like fans don't always understand
is that like our experience of making the show is
actually this whole tapestry of mundane small moments of just
(03:25):
experiencing each other.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
I mean it's an intimacy, yeah, you know, of togetherness,
of constant togetherness.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
And I think if I could go back and relive
a moment, like if you know, I got a genie
in a bottle and I could use a wish, it
would be to go back and shoot a conference room
scene all day, because when we would see those on
the script or on the call sheet and we would
be like, oh god, we have in the conference room.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
Going day all day.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
But those were the days that created the moments you
were talking about Ed totally, those little laughs, the shares,
the sweatiness together, all of it.
Speaker 5 (04:07):
And because we weren't on a huge lot, you know,
there was no distraction.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
You know, people didn't walk off to a commissary.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
We were just all in this little bubble, this tiny
space where we got to be creative together. It kind
of reminded me a little bit of that energy you
have in your early days with your improv group or
your one act play. Because there was no one else,
there was no shiny object to go off and look at.
It was just us, Like, yeah, I loved it when
you would play your banjo and Creed would bring in
(04:36):
his guitar and we'd hang out in the parking lot.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yeah. And it's funny you bring up those conference from
scenes because those were particularly special because most of the
time we're not all together, right, most of the time
we're just doing little scenes with like one or two
other characters, and and that's that's the bulk of our work.
But then the table read was always a special moment.
(05:01):
Every Tuesday morning was a table read of next week's
script and or two weeks I forget the timing, but
then it was one week, there was one week. One week.
It was less than a week's notice. Yeah, but those
are the moments. Those and some of those conference room
scenes were like where everybody's together, like everybody's and those
(05:22):
had a really special energy, like like a just a
little buzz to them. And when and like you said,
when they when they were all day long, that's and
they get a little dull and they start to slow down.
Everybody's trying to just hang in there. It's like some
of the just most human hangout.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
And you had a really unique experience joining the show
because you actually joined in Stamford, so you didn't start
off in the dunder Mifflin bullpen of the scrant and
dunder Mifflin bullpen, and then you came over. What was
that like for you to kind of like soft launch
into the show show like you worked with John, you
worked with Rashida, you worked with Chip.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Yeah, well sorry, Jenna, I'll be asking the questions today.
We were doing No. I love the question. I always
tell people like that was such a gentle entry for
us because of exactly what you're saying, Like, you know,
(06:24):
Rashida and I started at a time when the show
was hot. It was season three, and and you guys
had already just kind of like created this incredible thing,
and so we were intimidated but also felt kind of
so warmly welcomed, both by the writers and and all
(06:46):
of you. Everyone's energy was so lovely. That's so sweet.
It really could have gone the other way. I'm sure
a lot of other shows there's like more it's more cutthroat,
or it feels more like the new people like let's
let them, they have to prove themselves. But I just
felt so like all of my butterflies and anxiety just
washed out so quickly because everyone, all of you were
(07:08):
so lovely right out of the gate, and which is
a testament to all of you and the vibe that
got created.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
It was collaborative. It was not competitive totally. There was
not like a weird like ego competitiveness going on on
that set, which was so great.
Speaker 5 (07:26):
Absolutely, Yeah, it was always you know, we always say
it was a real creative collaboration. From the writer's room
to the crew to the cast, we're all working together
to create a product that we were proud of. And
I think, I mean, I think you feel that when
you watch it, and I think that's why people keep
enjoying it is you're seeing a group of people having
a great time.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
There's a warmth there that's real, and I think that
comes through the camera. All right, Well, first, this is
something I ask all of my guests. Is there a
moment in your own life, a mishap, a misunderstanding, a
full blown meltdown that would qualify as a snapo.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
I when I have one that immediately comes to mind,
what is it?
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Lady?
Speaker 5 (08:10):
I had just moved from Indonesia to Dallas, Texas in
the eighties, okay, nineteen eighty four. I had lived in
Jakarta for twelve years. I didn't know what the heck
an American high school vibe was. And I was also
a grade ahead and half my subjects. So I would
(08:31):
go to the junior high for the first four classes.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
That my mom would pick me up.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
I'd eat lunch in the car driving to the high school.
And I was like, this tiny little thing and this
big high school. I was such an outsider and I
really wanted.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
To fit in. And I'm a freshman who's moved from Indonesia,
who doesn't know like I'm supposed to get a perm
and wear a bunch of eyeliner. I don't know that.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yeah, Texas has a real, real specific high school vibe,
especially in the eighties.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Yeah, eighties Dallas, that's a vibe.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
Okay, First class of the day, English class. Super hot
dude behind me, like athletic dude. And I'm at my
desk and my pencil on the desk rolls off to
the right on the ground. I lean over to get it.
I don't calibrate my weight versus the wrap around desk weight.
(09:30):
The whole thing flipped over on me, pinned me to
the ground with my feet a kimbo. And the hottie
dude behind me's like, oh my gosh, go up, And
they were like your arm and I'm like, oh fine,
I'm fine.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I'm fine, and my arm.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
I thought I broke my arm.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Does this story end with the hottie asking you out?
Because you've also just described like every meat cute and
a teen movie from the eighties.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
I'm going to tell you right now those meat cutes
are a lie.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
All right, I do so.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
It's it's not a school uh snafu, but it's a
teenage snapo. I had a big crush on one of
the guys who lived in my neighborhood, and I kind
of wanted to like just impress him, you know, like
in that way where you want to peacock a little,
maybe catch their eyes. So I had gotten this like
(10:28):
new a spree top. Do you remember a spree I
loved okay, yeah, and loved very proud of it. And
I had like this special like matching ribbon for my hair.
So I put this on. And my my idea was
that I'd go out and get the mail so it
would be a reason for me to like walk out.
So I timed it out. I like sat and like
(10:50):
watched him arrive home. And I proudly walked out in
my spree top and I went, I looked in the
mailbox like, oh, there's nothing there, but you know, I'm
really looking as if you know, it's okay, and he is.
He is watching me right like it's I caught his eye.
I get inside. My mom says, what are you doing?
(11:11):
And I said, oh, nothing, I was just I was
just going to get the mail. And she said, sweetie,
you're not wearing any pants.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Oh no, no, that's right, what that's right? I forgot.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
I was so into my spree top that I forgot
to put on the bottoms of the outfit, y'all.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Like any bottoms.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
I mean I had on like on these, but I
didn't have on pants on this like long. It was
not like an Oxford shirt, you know, so it hung
down even past my underwear.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Oh this is.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
No.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I was like, I was like Tom Cruise in Risky Business,
just walking out in my big Oxford with no pants on.
And then I hid in my house for the next
four years and never spoke to him again. Oh boy,
that was so embarrassed.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Those are some major snaffoos, you guys. That's uh, that's
that's yeah, that's big stuff. This one might be bigger,
I hope. So Angela and Jenna, are you ready to
dive into today's snaffoo.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
I'm so excited, so excited, having a sip of my
iced TM right, get ready to get your bad.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
I love a snaffoo, I love you. I love this pod.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
So three of my favorite things are about to happen
all at once, and I love Angela might bfs four things.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Just an abundance of riches.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Right here it is.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Today Snaffo takes us aboard the uss Taekwonderoga, a massive
aircraft carrier stationed off the coast of Japan in nineteen
sixty five. This thing was built like it was auditioning
for a Cold War action movie. Tough exterior fighter jets everywhere,
total mid century badass picture of Don Draper and Maverick
(13:01):
from Top Gun had a baby and the baby was
a boat and it like chain smoked all the time,
Like that's what this, That's what this aircraft carrier was like,
pure American military swagger. Unfortunately that swagger was about to
trip into a colossal face plant. So what happened was
(13:22):
what is what is known in military circles as a
broken arrow incident. Do either of you know what that
term means.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
There was a movie called Broken.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Erow, Yes there was. Do you know what the movie
was about? It might get it might help. Okay.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
I feel like a guy jumped off the train.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Maybe that happened in that movie. But a broken arrow
incident is that's when we lose a nuclear device. Oh
my god, has happened? Clear device was on the train. Yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Okay, whatever, let go, let it go. And I feel
like John Travolta was in that movie. I can't remember
anything else about it. But anyway, the term broken arrow
that refers to any time we lose a nuclear missile
or a bomb or device of some sort and it happens.
It has happened throughout history numerous like way more than
you want.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
To know, I mean, enough times they had to have
a code name for it.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Well, losing a nuclear weapon sounds completely insane, and it is.
But part of why I wanted to bring this story
to you guys in particular, is that it has kind
of a familiar flavor. Clashing personalities, baffling miscommunication, questionable leadership choices. Basically,
this is a classic workplace comedy, except.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
That Michael Scott was in charge.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yeah yeah, And instead of cubicles were on one thousand
foot warship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Instead
of paper jams, we're dealing with hydrogen bombs. On December fifth,
nineteen sixty five, just off the coast of Japan's Reyuku Islands,
US naval officers were running through a routine training exercise
called the crew cut on the USS taekwonder Roga. An
(15:08):
A four E Skyhawk, an attack fighter jet, was being
wheeled into the elevator to be taken up to the
flight deck, so quick pause, Are you guys nervous flyers?
I am not, but I will say that for some reason,
the idea of landing or taking off on an aircraft
carrier scares the Bejesus out of me. It's like, I
(15:29):
don't know if it's the tiny runway or just the
fact that it's surrounded by water, or that it's constantly moving,
or that there's like thirty people on deck just casually
waving around glow sticks like it's a rave for fighter jets.
This is very unchill vibes for me.
Speaker 5 (15:45):
Also, like with the short runway, don't they have like
a like a cable that catches the plane and jerks
it back.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
I mean, if you need a cable to catch your
plane on a landing, I don't.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Know what if you missed the cable.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
I got invited to do something like that. There was
like they invited me to be like in a cockpit
for like a special flying mission thing oo, and I
was like, I don't need to read anymore. Like this
is not going to go well for anyone. You're just
gonna have a lady throwing.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Up on everyone for this crew cut exercise. The pilot
Lieutenant Douglas Webster was simply supposed to take off, fly
around for a bit, and then land again, a routine
drill to practice loading and unloading cargo. But almost immediately
things went off the rails. As the Skyhawk was being
(16:36):
positioned on the elevator, it suddenly began rolling backward. The
crew on the deck started waving frantically, shouting for Webster
to hit the brakes. A few even ran behind the
aircraft trying to stop it from rolling. Heroic but not
exactly realistic. The Skyhawk was one of the Navy's lighter planes,
but it still had a take off weight of twenty
(16:58):
four thousand, five hundred pounds, so this was not a
rogue shopping cart. This is like a tank with wings, basically. Somehow,
Webster didn't catch on to all the chaos going on
around him, and in a split second, the Skyhawk rolled
off the side of the carrier, tore through the safety netting,
and vanished into the ocean. Uh what would you do
(17:24):
if you're a crew member on this flight deck and
you're just like standing there watching.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
This expletives some cursing who's getting fired? Someone's getting fired?
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Yeah, for sure I would be like, we got to
tell somebody.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Have you ever gone to sit down on the toilet
and your phone's in your pocket and then it falls
in the toilet?
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Oh my god, version of that. That's never happened to me.
Thank god, that's never You've never dropped your phone in
the toilet. No, I never have.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Oh my gosh, I've done this before. I've never dropped
your phone in a swimming pool or something in a
pool of water.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
But that's different than okay, but every time I go
into an airport bath like the urinals and an airport,
I'm just like, I pocket my phone for that exact reason.
I'm so terrible because if like my phone goes into
like a public urinal, it's staying there like no, I
ain't getting it out. It is done, goodbye phone. I
wonder if if it was, because like when it when
(18:20):
it falls into the ocean, like it's gone, like it
ain't you can't see anything. And I just wonder if
it went through anyone's head to just pull one of
those like like the the crew on the deck is like,
where's the plane. Somebody's like what plane? What plane? There
was no plane. I don't know, there was no plane.
(18:41):
I'm not sure there's other planes, but there was no
plane here here.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
Here's the other play. How dare you the confidence?
Speaker 1 (18:51):
You just got to come in with like full the
confident rebuttal what how dare you? There was a plane
here two minutes ago?
Speaker 2 (18:58):
No?
Speaker 1 (18:58):
There? What what I would know? I was to stop.
So the crew sprang into action, calling nearby ships to
launch a full search and rescue operation. But it wasn't
just about finding the beloved Lieutenant Douglas Webster, who was
still inside the plane. As it's sang, there was, Yeah,
(19:21):
there's a guy in the plane.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
We didn't he was still in the plane, in the plane.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Thought he was Oh oh no, yeah, oh no, I
know spoiler alert. He did not make it. Oh he
was not recovered. That's terrible.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Is he the only was he the only crew member
in the person in the plane.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Yes, he's the only one who perished. There was also
something else on board, a one megaton nuclear bomb. Yeah.
For reference, that's seventy times more powerful than the bomb
dropped on Hiroshima, which, to put it in under Mifflin terms,
is like someone misplacing a really important post it note.
(20:00):
If that post it note could also vaporize the city.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
So this whole enormous plane with the super duper nuke
and this poor man just go over the edge.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Yes, they just go right over the edge. And I
love the term you just said super duper nuke. It
feels like it. I think that. I believe that's the
technical s. Yeah, do you guys load the super duper nuke? Oh? Yeah,
that's ready to go. So a frantic search followed, but tragically,
(20:35):
neither the pilot nor the aircraft was ever recovered. The
only thing they found was his helmet, bobbing alone on
the surface of the ocean, which really sends chills down
your spine. So here's the thing. This was not just
a casual cruise that the Taekwonder Rogo was on. It
had just wrapped up combat duty in Vietnam and was
en route to Japan for some much needed rest and refueling.
(20:59):
And that's when the inevitable cover up begins. So let's
break down the optics for a second. The US aircraft
carrier fresh for war accidentally drops a nuclear bomb just
off the coast of Japan, a country with let's say,
a very specific set of feelings about nuclear bombs. This
(21:19):
is Again, it's nineteen sixty five, so not too much
time has passed. Oh and just for some added detail,
we had signed a treaty promising we wouldn't bring nukes
anywhere near Japanese shore. So yeah, this was not going
to go over.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
Well, was the ship more than two hundred nautical miles
off the coastline of Japan?
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (21:40):
My god, who are you? What kind of is a
very specific question.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Well, I had just read that.
Speaker 5 (21:47):
I just read that every country is responsible and has
ownership of the first two hundred nautical miles off their shoreline.
So if this was within Japan's two hundred nautical miles,
that is a very big breach because you're not an
open ocean.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Yeah, I believe it was well within Japanese jurisdiction. It
was a very bad look, and so, of course, to
avoid the bad look, the Navy tried to cover it up.
They zipped it up, tight lipped. But as we all know,
military secrets have a way of slinking into the public zeitgeist. Eventually,
(22:28):
you guys, are you guys good secret keepers? Are you trustworthy?
It up? Walk it up? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
But not, this is not a secret I could keep. Yeah,
I would be a whistleblower. I'm good at keeping your
secrets or Angela's secrets, or friends and family secrets, my
own secrets, but.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
I'm not going to keep.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Your we lost a nuclear weapon in the ocean secret
for you if you're the military, like I'm going to
be the lady who is writing a report on that.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
The Navy was spectacularly or perhaps frighteningly able to conceal
this incident for over fifteen years. It wasn't until nineteen
eighty one that the Pentagon disclosed the incident. The Washington
Post reported about it in a mere three sentences buried
in a nuclear accidents report. However, the folks at the
Pentagon also did not bother explaining the details of where
(23:27):
exactly the bomb was. They first stated that the bomb
was more than five hundred miles from land, vague much.
They also assured everyone that the bomb posed no danger
since it was sixteen thousand feet underwater. But in nineteen
eighty nine, the environmental group green Peace, alongside naval expert
(23:50):
William Arkin, exposed more naval documents revealing that the bomb
was dropped only seventy miles off the coast of the
Ryuku islands as a posed to the five hundred they
had said before. They also pointed out that this incident
violated Japan's strict anti nuclear policies and exposed some serious
(24:10):
Navy secrets about nuclear weapons in Vietnam. With no other choice,
the Pentagon finally admitted the whole truth about this gigantic
snafu in a statement that same year, in nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Did this create a diplomatic issue for the United States
and the Japanese government?
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Yeah, in nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Yeah, for sure. It feels like these international incidents are
there's always some measure of just sort of posturing of
like we have to respond this way because protocol demands
it of us, and so we must make these statements,
and we must say these things, and we must say
that we're outraged, and then the US must respond with
their diplomatic explanation and acceptance of responsibility. It's like it's
(24:57):
so choreographed, all these things. It's very wild how it
all were out. And then I always wonder, like does
anyone actually take this personally? If like Japan is expressing outrage,
Like how dare they? Is there any like Japanese official
who's like genuinely pissed, like at a personal level, or
is it just sort of like grand institutional emotion.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
I'm also curious what happens to a nuclear a super.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Dupe nuke, super duper nuke, a.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
Super duper nuke. Does it get pressurized? How deep was
the water seventy miles off?
Speaker 1 (25:29):
This is a great question, and Greenpeace had a lot
to say about this, Okay, So when the Pentagon admitted
this in nineteen eighty nine, they were actually responding to
an article in Newsweek, and then Japanese papers picked up
the story, which of course caused quite a stir throughout
Japan itself. Rightfully so, though the Pentagon confirmed that the
bomb would not be harmful, it hadn't been armed, and
(25:50):
you have to go through a whole bevy of procedural
elements to actually arm it. It was still sixteen thousand
feet underwater decaying, which meant it might eventually break down
and start to emit serious pollutants. Yet US spokespersons claimed
this wouldn't cause any harm to the natural world. Either way,
(26:10):
it was safe to say they were in the hot seat,
at least as hot as the nuclear material inside that bomb.
Shall we say so. While many were rightfully mad about
the big KerPlunk more or outraged because in fact the
ship shouldn't have had the bomb on it in the
first place. Yes, at the time of the incident, Japan
(26:33):
had a ban on nuclear weapons, and there was apparently
an unspoken agreement between the two world powers. Japanese officials
would intentionally not ask the US ships what they were carrying,
and the US wouldn't volunteer any info either. It was
one of those sort of like don't ask, don't tell
kinds of situations. So what happened exactly? The incident fueled
further questions about the use of nuclear weaponry and US
(26:56):
combat via diplomatic inquiry from Japan. It also called into
question how we adhere to certain protocols and standards for safety,
especially when it involves high powered weapons and moving planes
around aircraft carriers. Plus, you know, it solidified the long
standing tradition of lying to the American public. Since nineteen
fifty there have somehow been a whopping thirty two broken
(27:19):
arrow incidents. This includes theft wait wait yeah, raising one.
Speaker 4 (27:24):
Thirty two, Super Dupe Nookes.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Super Gone, super Duper Knookers thirty two nuclear weapons.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
Oi Oi.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Now I know why they call it broken arrows, because
when you say, you know what, we have thirty two
broken arrows, you're like, oh, if you say we have
thirty two lost nuclear weapons?
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Wait stop, what say again? Euphemisms make hard things a
lot easier? Oh man, yeah, yeah, yeah, thirty two.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
That's why Greg called all of our talking heads candy bags.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
You know, I forgot that.
Speaker 5 (27:59):
He said that he all always felt bad giving us
pages and pages of extra monologues, so he was like,
I'll name them something fun, So we named them candy bags.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
I loved those. I loved doing those talking heads and
like coming up with like new rifts and like the
candy bag alts, like all the different versions of our
talking heads, Like just it was like getting a window
into the writer's brains. I just remember loving the math
of those jokes and like always trying to think about
how to heighten them and they'd have to kick me
(28:27):
out of those talking heads.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
But to your point, naming all the extra work a
candy bag, it's a trick, definitely made it go down easier.
And also calling all our screw ups bloopers makes them
sound fun too, Like, Oh that was a blooper, Like,
that's just a broken arrow. I mean even the word
snaffoo is kind of fun.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Snaffoooo guys, it's just a snaffoos see whoopsie boozy.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
So these thirty two broken arrow incidents include theft, accidental debt, nation,
and just straight up loss like the one that rolled
off the back of the tekonder Roga.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Yeah, I don't know like which one bothers me the most.
I don't know if it's that we lost some that
they were stolen or accidentally detonated, like they're all three
of those.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
I don't know which ones worse. I feel like theft
is the scariest. Theft, Yeah I do too. But the
next time you're feeling clumsy for dropping something, just remember
that the US Navy dropped an entire hydrogen bomb into
the ocean and then kicked sand over it for fifteen
years and they got away with it. So the lesson here,
guys is lie, if you mess up, lie about it,
(29:45):
because then fifteen years will go by. That's the lesson,
that's the take away, and fifteen years will go by,
and then it's like nobody really gets in trouble. There's
a little bit of saber rattling and like people get
like the like governments get mad and exchange sort of
diplomatic you know, zingers at each other, but it's not
really like a thing. So yeah, I guess that's the lesson.
(30:05):
Do you think there are any other valuable lessons here? Guys?
Speaker 5 (30:08):
I think there's a second part to that. It would
be lie plus time, give it time.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Lie for a long with your life. What you're saying
is hold your lives deep inside of you for for
a really long time. Hold those secrets, not other people's secrets,
your secrets, Hold them deep, let them devour you from
the inside. Such a positive message, I know, But in
(30:39):
all serious is there any like positive takeaway here? Like,
is there is there a way to frame this or
look at this that gives us a good lesson? Yeah?
Thank you, greenpeace, Amen, thank you. I love it.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Way to stand for something and hold people accountable. Like,
thank goodness you're around, because maybe we would have never known,
right because they seem like they were really sounding the
alarm on this.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Yep, they were pissed, yeah about all this stuff.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah, we were pissed. They were not going to let
this just be swept under the rug.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
It is hard to believe, Like, despite what the Pentagon said,
It's like, it's hard to believe that a nuclear missile
just decaying on the bottom of the ocean is like
completely harmless. It's kind of hard to believe. It doesn't
make any logical sense.
Speaker 5 (31:29):
I mean, what is that going to do to the
ocean and the ecosystem around it.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
It's probably gonna kill a couple of starfish.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
It's going to take out a few coral reefs. I
would also say that what is leaking there. I'm not
saying it's this one nuke, but there are all these
studies about what's in our fish.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
There's like all kinds of scary heavy metals in the fish.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
I mean, would you take a dirty penny and put
it in a glass of water and let it sit
overnight and then drink that glass of water the next day?
Speaker 1 (32:04):
You wouldn't? You wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
I mean, come on, it's doing something down there for sure.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Can I just bring us back, bring us back.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
Our little callback here.
Speaker 5 (32:15):
I think instead of broke instead of broken arrow, they
should be called a dirty penny, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Gel, I like you got some dirty pennies to account for,
you guys. Yeah, that's right. Now, tell me what you
guys are up to and what we need to look
out for you. What's next on Office, Ladies? How many
episodes have you done and how many are left?
Speaker 2 (32:37):
By the way, Well, we have watched every episode of
the Office, and we have given you all the behind
the scenes details and trivia that we have collected from
cast and crew members for every single episode. And we
still have new episodes coming out every Wednesday.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Amazing.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
We have our whole Office rewatch library that is playing
on and on Wednesdays. We have all new material, all
new fun stuff, diving deeper into the world of the
Office and our best friendship. It's super fun. Come hang
out with us.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yeah, I love to you kidding me, Jenna, Tell them
about your playte tell me about your play.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
I am doing a play at the Goodman Theater in
Chicago called Ashland Avenue. It's a world premiere written by
Lee Kirk.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
You might have heard of it.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Oh yeah, my husband married to the writer.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
No big one.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
That's sooch and starts previews on September sixth, and it
opens on September fifteenth, And you can get tickets at
Goodmantheater dot org. I'm really excited. This will be my
first time back on stage in about eight years, and
you know, theater is my first love, so I'm really excited.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
That is so cool, Jenna, I'm so excited for you
and Lee. That is just awesome. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
And this is the Goodman Theater's one hundredth year, so
this is their centennial season and we'll be kicking it.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Off with Ashland Avenue. No big deal.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
No big deal though, And Angella Angela's got some fun
news as well.
Speaker 4 (34:03):
I do. So you know ed.
Speaker 5 (34:05):
My husband's a chef and a baker and he's self
taught and he's really big about getting the family in
the kitchen and cooking together and baking together, and that
the kitchen is the heart of our home. And he's
been making recipes and we've been cooking together for years now,
and he's finally put all of our favorite family recipes
(34:26):
into a cookbook. It's called you Can Make This, because
that's what he says to me and the kids all
the time. He's like, you guys can make this, and
you really can. And so we have that coming out
in October of this year, and.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
It's really great. It's a great, great cookbook.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Congratulations, that's so so cool. Thank you. I'm excited to
tell you about my book coming out in another year
called Supernooper Noker not true. Hey, you guys are the
best and I am just so so high happy to
see you and hang out with you a little bit.
(35:03):
Every time I get a chance to see you. It's
just the best. Thanks for coming on. Ah, Thanks you
You're awesome. We love you. Snappho is a production of
iHeart Podcasts and Snapoo Media, a partnership between Film Nation
Entertainment and Pacific Electric Picture Company. Our post production studio
is Gilded Audio. Our executive producers are me Ed Helms,
(35:26):
Mike Falbo, Glenn Basner, Andy Kim Whitney, Donaldson, and Dylan Fagan.
This episode was produced by Alyssa Martino and Tory Smith.
Our video editor is Jared Smith. Technical direction and engineering
from Nick Dooley. Our creative executive is Brett Harris. Logo
and branding by The Collected Works. Legal review from Dan Welsh,
(35:47):
Meghan Halson and Caroline Johnson. Special thanks to Isaac Dunham,
Adam Horn, Lane Klein, and everyone at iHeart Podcasts, but
especially Will Pearson, Kerry Lieberman, Nicki Etoor, Nathan Otassi, and
Alex Corral. While I have you, don't forget to pick
up a copy of my book, Snafoo, The Definitive Guide
(36:07):
to History's Greatest screw Ups. It's available now from any
book retailer. Just go to Snaffoo dashbook dot com. Thanks
for listening, and see you next week.
Hey, guys at Helms here, I'm so glad to be
back for season four of Snaffo. Real quick before we
start this season, we're tackling even more snaffoos than ever before.
How are we doing that? Well, it's one new Snaffo
per episode, to be precise, and we're doing it along
with some of the funniest and or most interesting people
(00:23):
I know in a new weekly format, and you can
also watch it on YouTube. You are not gonna want
to miss what we've got in store, so stay tuned.
Here's episode one. Now.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I know why they call it broken arrows, because when
you say, you know what, we have thirty two broken arrows,
you're like, oh, if you say we have thirty two
lost nuclear weapons, wait, stop.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yes, say again. Euphemisms make hard things a lot easier. Hey,
I'm at Helm's host of Snaffo, a show about history's
greatest screw ups. Today I am joined by two of
my all time favorite humans on the planet, Angela Kinzie
(01:10):
and Jenna Fisher. Of course, you know them as Angela
Martin and Pam Beasley from the office where we spent
many years making each other chuckle both on and off camera.
These days, they co host the wildly beloved Office Ladies podcast,
where they deep dive into every episode, every single episode
(01:31):
of the Office with their very own distinct brand of insight, warmth,
heart and hilarity. Angela and Jenna. I am so psyched
you're here, Hi, Ed Hi, Yeah, it's so good to
see you.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I'm giving jazz hands right now because we've got video going. Yes,
I want to jazz it up a little alight here.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Let me ask abe a very I think, very pressing
question that all of our listeners and viewers are probably
wondering right now, which is how much do you miss
working with me on a daily basis?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
My gosh, I miss the office a lot. I mean
we spend our days. Our job now is watching the
show and it always just brings up so many memories
of working together.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
And you know.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
How many bloopers there are. Oh yeah, there's so many
because we would just laugh all day together. That's what
we did.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Ed.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
I just miss I miss being silly with you, Like
we would.
Speaker 5 (02:33):
Get so silly, like I would walk past you and
we would just make up a new noise like peeling by.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Oh my god. It's like all the stuff off camera,
the life experience of that whole time period, which was
just had this kind of larger umbrella feeling of like, Wow,
we're all part of something really great and that's like
super special. But then we're also having these really mundane,
lovely mode moments on the set, just talking about each
(03:03):
other's lives and families, and like, I don't know, just
the little those little quiet moments are sitting at our
trailers like waiting for a camera setup or it's like that.
That's I think something that like fans don't always understand
is that like our experience of making the show is
actually this whole tapestry of mundane small moments of just
(03:25):
experiencing each other.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
I mean it's an intimacy, yeah, you know, of togetherness,
of constant togetherness.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
And I think if I could go back and relive
a moment, like if you know, I got a genie
in a bottle and I could use a wish, it
would be to go back and shoot a conference room
scene all day, because when we would see those on
the script or on the call sheet and we would
be like, oh god, we have in the conference room.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
Going day all day.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
But those were the days that created the moments you
were talking about Ed totally, those little laughs, the shares,
the sweatiness together, all of it.
Speaker 5 (04:07):
And because we weren't on a huge lot, you know,
there was no distraction.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
You know, people didn't walk off to a commissary.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
We were just all in this little bubble, this tiny
space where we got to be creative together. It kind
of reminded me a little bit of that energy you
have in your early days with your improv group or
your one act play. Because there was no one else,
there was no shiny object to go off and look at.
It was just us, Like, yeah, I loved it when
you would play your banjo and Creed would bring in
(04:36):
his guitar and we'd hang out in the parking lot.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yeah. And it's funny you bring up those conference from
scenes because those were particularly special because most of the
time we're not all together, right, most of the time
we're just doing little scenes with like one or two
other characters, and and that's that's the bulk of our work.
But then the table read was always a special moment.
(05:01):
Every Tuesday morning was a table read of next week's
script and or two weeks I forget the timing, but
then it was one week, there was one week. One week.
It was less than a week's notice. Yeah, but those
are the moments. Those and some of those conference room
scenes were like where everybody's together, like everybody's and those
(05:22):
had a really special energy, like like a just a
little buzz to them. And when and like you said,
when they when they were all day long, that's and
they get a little dull and they start to slow down.
Everybody's trying to just hang in there. It's like some
of the just most human hangout.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
And you had a really unique experience joining the show
because you actually joined in Stamford, so you didn't start
off in the dunder Mifflin bullpen of the scrant and
dunder Mifflin bullpen, and then you came over. What was
that like for you to kind of like soft launch
into the show show like you worked with John, you
worked with Rashida, you worked with Chip.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Yeah, well sorry, Jenna, I'll be asking the questions today.
We were doing No. I love the question. I always
tell people like that was such a gentle entry for
us because of exactly what you're saying, Like, you know,
(06:24):
Rashida and I started at a time when the show
was hot. It was season three, and and you guys
had already just kind of like created this incredible thing,
and so we were intimidated but also felt kind of
so warmly welcomed, both by the writers and and all
(06:46):
of you. Everyone's energy was so lovely. That's so sweet.
It really could have gone the other way. I'm sure
a lot of other shows there's like more it's more cutthroat,
or it feels more like the new people like let's
let them, they have to prove themselves. But I just
felt so like all of my butterflies and anxiety just
washed out so quickly because everyone, all of you were
(07:08):
so lovely right out of the gate, and which is
a testament to all of you and the vibe that
got created.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
It was collaborative. It was not competitive totally. There was
not like a weird like ego competitiveness going on on
that set, which was so great.
Speaker 5 (07:26):
Absolutely, Yeah, it was always you know, we always say
it was a real creative collaboration. From the writer's room
to the crew to the cast, we're all working together
to create a product that we were proud of. And
I think, I mean, I think you feel that when
you watch it, and I think that's why people keep
enjoying it is you're seeing a group of people having
a great time.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
There's a warmth there that's real, and I think that
comes through the camera. All right, Well, first, this is
something I ask all of my guests. Is there a
moment in your own life, a mishap, a misunderstanding, a
full blown meltdown that would qualify as a snapo.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
I when I have one that immediately comes to mind,
what is it?
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Lady?
Speaker 5 (08:10):
I had just moved from Indonesia to Dallas, Texas in
the eighties, okay, nineteen eighty four. I had lived in
Jakarta for twelve years. I didn't know what the heck
an American high school vibe was. And I was also
a grade ahead and half my subjects. So I would
(08:31):
go to the junior high for the first four classes.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
That my mom would pick me up.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
I'd eat lunch in the car driving to the high school.
And I was like, this tiny little thing and this
big high school. I was such an outsider and I
really wanted.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
To fit in. And I'm a freshman who's moved from Indonesia,
who doesn't know like I'm supposed to get a perm
and wear a bunch of eyeliner. I don't know that.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yeah, Texas has a real, real specific high school vibe,
especially in the eighties.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Yeah, eighties Dallas, that's a vibe.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
Okay, First class of the day, English class. Super hot
dude behind me, like athletic dude. And I'm at my
desk and my pencil on the desk rolls off to
the right on the ground. I lean over to get it.
I don't calibrate my weight versus the wrap around desk weight.
(09:30):
The whole thing flipped over on me, pinned me to
the ground with my feet a kimbo. And the hottie
dude behind me's like, oh my gosh, go up, And
they were like your arm and I'm like, oh fine,
I'm fine.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I'm fine, and my arm.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
I thought I broke my arm.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Does this story end with the hottie asking you out?
Because you've also just described like every meat cute and
a teen movie from the eighties.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
I'm going to tell you right now those meat cutes
are a lie.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
All right, I do so.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
It's it's not a school uh snafu, but it's a
teenage snapo. I had a big crush on one of
the guys who lived in my neighborhood, and I kind
of wanted to like just impress him, you know, like
in that way where you want to peacock a little,
maybe catch their eyes. So I had gotten this like
(10:28):
new a spree top. Do you remember a spree I
loved okay, yeah, and loved very proud of it. And
I had like this special like matching ribbon for my hair.
So I put this on. And my my idea was
that I'd go out and get the mail so it
would be a reason for me to like walk out.
So I timed it out. I like sat and like
(10:50):
watched him arrive home. And I proudly walked out in
my spree top and I went, I looked in the
mailbox like, oh, there's nothing there, but you know, I'm
really looking as if you know, it's okay, and he is.
He is watching me right like it's I caught his eye.
I get inside. My mom says, what are you doing?
(11:11):
And I said, oh, nothing, I was just I was
just going to get the mail. And she said, sweetie,
you're not wearing any pants.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Oh no, no, that's right, what that's right? I forgot.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
I was so into my spree top that I forgot
to put on the bottoms of the outfit, y'all.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Like any bottoms.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
I mean I had on like on these, but I
didn't have on pants on this like long. It was
not like an Oxford shirt, you know, so it hung
down even past my underwear.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Oh this is.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
No.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I was like, I was like Tom Cruise in Risky Business,
just walking out in my big Oxford with no pants on.
And then I hid in my house for the next
four years and never spoke to him again. Oh boy,
that was so embarrassed.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Those are some major snaffoos, you guys. That's uh, that's
that's yeah, that's big stuff. This one might be bigger,
I hope. So Angela and Jenna, are you ready to
dive into today's snaffoo.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
I'm so excited, so excited, having a sip of my
iced TM right, get ready to get your bad.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
I love a snaffoo, I love you. I love this pod.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
So three of my favorite things are about to happen
all at once, and I love Angela might bfs four things.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Just an abundance of riches.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Right here it is.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Today Snaffo takes us aboard the uss Taekwonderoga, a massive
aircraft carrier stationed off the coast of Japan in nineteen
sixty five. This thing was built like it was auditioning
for a Cold War action movie. Tough exterior fighter jets everywhere,
total mid century badass picture of Don Draper and Maverick
(13:01):
from Top Gun had a baby and the baby was
a boat and it like chain smoked all the time,
Like that's what this, That's what this aircraft carrier was like,
pure American military swagger. Unfortunately that swagger was about to
trip into a colossal face plant. So what happened was
(13:22):
what is what is known in military circles as a
broken arrow incident. Do either of you know what that
term means.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
There was a movie called Broken.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Erow, Yes there was. Do you know what the movie
was about? It might get it might help. Okay.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
I feel like a guy jumped off the train.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Maybe that happened in that movie. But a broken arrow
incident is that's when we lose a nuclear device. Oh
my god, has happened? Clear device was on the train. Yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Okay, whatever, let go, let it go. And I feel
like John Travolta was in that movie. I can't remember
anything else about it. But anyway, the term broken arrow
that refers to any time we lose a nuclear missile
or a bomb or device of some sort and it happens.
It has happened throughout history numerous like way more than
you want.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
To know, I mean, enough times they had to have
a code name for it.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Well, losing a nuclear weapon sounds completely insane, and it is.
But part of why I wanted to bring this story
to you guys in particular, is that it has kind
of a familiar flavor. Clashing personalities, baffling miscommunication, questionable leadership choices. Basically,
this is a classic workplace comedy, except.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
That Michael Scott was in charge.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yeah yeah, And instead of cubicles were on one thousand
foot warship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Instead
of paper jams, we're dealing with hydrogen bombs. On December fifth,
nineteen sixty five, just off the coast of Japan's Reyuku Islands,
US naval officers were running through a routine training exercise
called the crew cut on the USS taekwonder Roga. An
(15:08):
A four E Skyhawk, an attack fighter jet, was being
wheeled into the elevator to be taken up to the
flight deck, so quick pause, Are you guys nervous flyers?
I am not, but I will say that for some reason,
the idea of landing or taking off on an aircraft
carrier scares the Bejesus out of me. It's like, I
(15:29):
don't know if it's the tiny runway or just the
fact that it's surrounded by water, or that it's constantly moving,
or that there's like thirty people on deck just casually
waving around glow sticks like it's a rave for fighter jets.
This is very unchill vibes for me.
Speaker 5 (15:45):
Also, like with the short runway, don't they have like
a like a cable that catches the plane and jerks
it back.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
I mean, if you need a cable to catch your
plane on a landing, I don't.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Know what if you missed the cable.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
I got invited to do something like that. There was
like they invited me to be like in a cockpit
for like a special flying mission thing oo, and I
was like, I don't need to read anymore. Like this
is not going to go well for anyone. You're just
gonna have a lady throwing.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Up on everyone for this crew cut exercise. The pilot
Lieutenant Douglas Webster was simply supposed to take off, fly
around for a bit, and then land again, a routine
drill to practice loading and unloading cargo. But almost immediately
things went off the rails. As the Skyhawk was being
(16:36):
positioned on the elevator, it suddenly began rolling backward. The
crew on the deck started waving frantically, shouting for Webster
to hit the brakes. A few even ran behind the
aircraft trying to stop it from rolling. Heroic but not
exactly realistic. The Skyhawk was one of the Navy's lighter planes,
but it still had a take off weight of twenty
(16:58):
four thousand, five hundred pounds, so this was not a
rogue shopping cart. This is like a tank with wings, basically. Somehow,
Webster didn't catch on to all the chaos going on
around him, and in a split second, the Skyhawk rolled
off the side of the carrier, tore through the safety netting,
and vanished into the ocean. Uh what would you do
(17:24):
if you're a crew member on this flight deck and
you're just like standing there watching.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
This expletives some cursing who's getting fired? Someone's getting fired?
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Yeah, for sure I would be like, we got to
tell somebody.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Have you ever gone to sit down on the toilet
and your phone's in your pocket and then it falls
in the toilet?
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Oh my god, version of that. That's never happened to me.
Thank god, that's never You've never dropped your phone in
the toilet. No, I never have.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Oh my gosh, I've done this before. I've never dropped
your phone in a swimming pool or something in a
pool of water.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
But that's different than okay, but every time I go
into an airport bath like the urinals and an airport,
I'm just like, I pocket my phone for that exact reason.
I'm so terrible because if like my phone goes into
like a public urinal, it's staying there like no, I
ain't getting it out. It is done, goodbye phone. I
wonder if if it was, because like when it when
(18:20):
it falls into the ocean, like it's gone, like it
ain't you can't see anything. And I just wonder if
it went through anyone's head to just pull one of
those like like the the crew on the deck is like,
where's the plane. Somebody's like what plane? What plane? There
was no plane. I don't know, there was no plane.
(18:41):
I'm not sure there's other planes, but there was no
plane here here.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
Here's the other play. How dare you the confidence?
Speaker 1 (18:51):
You just got to come in with like full the
confident rebuttal what how dare you? There was a plane
here two minutes ago?
Speaker 2 (18:58):
No?
Speaker 1 (18:58):
There? What what I would know? I was to stop.
So the crew sprang into action, calling nearby ships to
launch a full search and rescue operation. But it wasn't
just about finding the beloved Lieutenant Douglas Webster, who was
still inside the plane. As it's sang, there was, Yeah,
(19:21):
there's a guy in the plane.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
We didn't he was still in the plane, in the plane.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Thought he was Oh oh no, yeah, oh no, I
know spoiler alert. He did not make it. Oh he
was not recovered. That's terrible.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Is he the only was he the only crew member
in the person in the plane.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Yes, he's the only one who perished. There was also
something else on board, a one megaton nuclear bomb. Yeah.
For reference, that's seventy times more powerful than the bomb
dropped on Hiroshima, which, to put it in under Mifflin terms,
is like someone misplacing a really important post it note.
(20:00):
If that post it note could also vaporize the city.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
So this whole enormous plane with the super duper nuke
and this poor man just go over the edge.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Yes, they just go right over the edge. And I
love the term you just said super duper nuke. It
feels like it. I think that. I believe that's the
technical s. Yeah, do you guys load the super duper nuke? Oh? Yeah,
that's ready to go. So a frantic search followed, but tragically,
(20:35):
neither the pilot nor the aircraft was ever recovered. The
only thing they found was his helmet, bobbing alone on
the surface of the ocean, which really sends chills down
your spine. So here's the thing. This was not just
a casual cruise that the Taekwonder Rogo was on. It
had just wrapped up combat duty in Vietnam and was
en route to Japan for some much needed rest and refueling.
(20:59):
And that's when the inevitable cover up begins. So let's
break down the optics for a second. The US aircraft
carrier fresh for war accidentally drops a nuclear bomb just
off the coast of Japan, a country with let's say,
a very specific set of feelings about nuclear bombs. This
(21:19):
is Again, it's nineteen sixty five, so not too much
time has passed. Oh and just for some added detail,
we had signed a treaty promising we wouldn't bring nukes
anywhere near Japanese shore. So yeah, this was not going
to go over.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
Well, was the ship more than two hundred nautical miles
off the coastline of Japan?
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (21:40):
My god, who are you? What kind of is a
very specific question.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Well, I had just read that.
Speaker 5 (21:47):
I just read that every country is responsible and has
ownership of the first two hundred nautical miles off their shoreline.
So if this was within Japan's two hundred nautical miles,
that is a very big breach because you're not an
open ocean.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Yeah, I believe it was well within Japanese jurisdiction. It
was a very bad look, and so, of course, to
avoid the bad look, the Navy tried to cover it up.
They zipped it up, tight lipped. But as we all know,
military secrets have a way of slinking into the public zeitgeist. Eventually,
(22:28):
you guys, are you guys good secret keepers? Are you trustworthy?
It up? Walk it up? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
But not, this is not a secret I could keep. Yeah,
I would be a whistleblower. I'm good at keeping your
secrets or Angela's secrets, or friends and family secrets, my
own secrets, but.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
I'm not going to keep.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Your we lost a nuclear weapon in the ocean secret
for you if you're the military, like I'm going to
be the lady who is writing a report on that.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
The Navy was spectacularly or perhaps frighteningly able to conceal
this incident for over fifteen years. It wasn't until nineteen
eighty one that the Pentagon disclosed the incident. The Washington
Post reported about it in a mere three sentences buried
in a nuclear accidents report. However, the folks at the
Pentagon also did not bother explaining the details of where
(23:27):
exactly the bomb was. They first stated that the bomb
was more than five hundred miles from land, vague much.
They also assured everyone that the bomb posed no danger
since it was sixteen thousand feet underwater. But in nineteen
eighty nine, the environmental group green Peace, alongside naval expert
(23:50):
William Arkin, exposed more naval documents revealing that the bomb
was dropped only seventy miles off the coast of the
Ryuku islands as a posed to the five hundred they
had said before. They also pointed out that this incident
violated Japan's strict anti nuclear policies and exposed some serious
(24:10):
Navy secrets about nuclear weapons in Vietnam. With no other choice,
the Pentagon finally admitted the whole truth about this gigantic
snafu in a statement that same year, in nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Did this create a diplomatic issue for the United States
and the Japanese government?
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Yeah, in nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Yeah, for sure. It feels like these international incidents are
there's always some measure of just sort of posturing of
like we have to respond this way because protocol demands
it of us, and so we must make these statements,
and we must say these things, and we must say
that we're outraged, and then the US must respond with
their diplomatic explanation and acceptance of responsibility. It's like it's
(24:57):
so choreographed, all these things. It's very wild how it
all were out. And then I always wonder, like does
anyone actually take this personally? If like Japan is expressing outrage,
Like how dare they? Is there any like Japanese official
who's like genuinely pissed, like at a personal level, or
is it just sort of like grand institutional emotion.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
I'm also curious what happens to a nuclear a super.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Dupe nuke, super duper nuke, a.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
Super duper nuke. Does it get pressurized? How deep was
the water seventy miles off?
Speaker 1 (25:29):
This is a great question, and Greenpeace had a lot
to say about this, Okay, So when the Pentagon admitted
this in nineteen eighty nine, they were actually responding to
an article in Newsweek, and then Japanese papers picked up
the story, which of course caused quite a stir throughout
Japan itself. Rightfully so, though the Pentagon confirmed that the
bomb would not be harmful, it hadn't been armed, and
(25:50):
you have to go through a whole bevy of procedural
elements to actually arm it. It was still sixteen thousand
feet underwater decaying, which meant it might eventually break down
and start to emit serious pollutants. Yet US spokespersons claimed
this wouldn't cause any harm to the natural world. Either way,
(26:10):
it was safe to say they were in the hot seat,
at least as hot as the nuclear material inside that bomb.
Shall we say so. While many were rightfully mad about
the big KerPlunk more or outraged because in fact the
ship shouldn't have had the bomb on it in the
first place. Yes, at the time of the incident, Japan
(26:33):
had a ban on nuclear weapons, and there was apparently
an unspoken agreement between the two world powers. Japanese officials
would intentionally not ask the US ships what they were carrying,
and the US wouldn't volunteer any info either. It was
one of those sort of like don't ask, don't tell
kinds of situations. So what happened exactly? The incident fueled
further questions about the use of nuclear weaponry and US
(26:56):
combat via diplomatic inquiry from Japan. It also called into
question how we adhere to certain protocols and standards for safety,
especially when it involves high powered weapons and moving planes
around aircraft carriers. Plus, you know, it solidified the long
standing tradition of lying to the American public. Since nineteen
fifty there have somehow been a whopping thirty two broken
(27:19):
arrow incidents. This includes theft wait wait yeah, raising one.
Speaker 4 (27:24):
Thirty two, Super Dupe Nookes.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Super Gone, super Duper Knookers thirty two nuclear weapons.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
Oi Oi.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Now I know why they call it broken arrows, because
when you say, you know what, we have thirty two
broken arrows, you're like, oh, if you say we have
thirty two lost nuclear weapons?
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Wait stop, what say again? Euphemisms make hard things a
lot easier? Oh man, yeah, yeah, yeah, thirty two.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
That's why Greg called all of our talking heads candy bags.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
You know, I forgot that.
Speaker 5 (27:59):
He said that he all always felt bad giving us
pages and pages of extra monologues, so he was like,
I'll name them something fun, So we named them candy bags.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
I loved those. I loved doing those talking heads and
like coming up with like new rifts and like the
candy bag alts, like all the different versions of our
talking heads, Like just it was like getting a window
into the writer's brains. I just remember loving the math
of those jokes and like always trying to think about
how to heighten them and they'd have to kick me
(28:27):
out of those talking heads.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
But to your point, naming all the extra work a
candy bag, it's a trick, definitely made it go down easier.
And also calling all our screw ups bloopers makes them
sound fun too, Like, Oh that was a blooper, Like,
that's just a broken arrow. I mean even the word
snaffoo is kind of fun.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Snaffoooo guys, it's just a snaffoos see whoopsie boozy.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
So these thirty two broken arrow incidents include theft, accidental debt, nation,
and just straight up loss like the one that rolled
off the back of the tekonder Roga.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Yeah, I don't know like which one bothers me the most.
I don't know if it's that we lost some that
they were stolen or accidentally detonated, like they're all three
of those.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
I don't know which ones worse. I feel like theft
is the scariest. Theft, Yeah I do too. But the
next time you're feeling clumsy for dropping something, just remember
that the US Navy dropped an entire hydrogen bomb into
the ocean and then kicked sand over it for fifteen
years and they got away with it. So the lesson here,
guys is lie, if you mess up, lie about it,
(29:45):
because then fifteen years will go by. That's the lesson,
that's the take away, and fifteen years will go by,
and then it's like nobody really gets in trouble. There's
a little bit of saber rattling and like people get
like the like governments get mad and exchange sort of
diplomatic you know, zingers at each other, but it's not
really like a thing. So yeah, I guess that's the lesson.
(30:05):
Do you think there are any other valuable lessons here? Guys?
Speaker 5 (30:08):
I think there's a second part to that. It would
be lie plus time, give it time.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Lie for a long with your life. What you're saying
is hold your lives deep inside of you for for
a really long time. Hold those secrets, not other people's secrets,
your secrets, Hold them deep, let them devour you from
the inside. Such a positive message, I know, But in
(30:39):
all serious is there any like positive takeaway here? Like,
is there is there a way to frame this or
look at this that gives us a good lesson? Yeah?
Thank you, greenpeace, Amen, thank you. I love it.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Way to stand for something and hold people accountable. Like,
thank goodness you're around, because maybe we would have never known,
right because they seem like they were really sounding the
alarm on this.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Yep, they were pissed, yeah about all this stuff.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah, we were pissed. They were not going to let
this just be swept under the rug.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
It is hard to believe, Like, despite what the Pentagon said,
It's like, it's hard to believe that a nuclear missile
just decaying on the bottom of the ocean is like
completely harmless. It's kind of hard to believe. It doesn't
make any logical sense.
Speaker 5 (31:29):
I mean, what is that going to do to the
ocean and the ecosystem around it.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
It's probably gonna kill a couple of starfish.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
It's going to take out a few coral reefs. I
would also say that what is leaking there. I'm not
saying it's this one nuke, but there are all these
studies about what's in our fish.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
There's like all kinds of scary heavy metals in the fish.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
I mean, would you take a dirty penny and put
it in a glass of water and let it sit
overnight and then drink that glass of water the next day?
Speaker 1 (32:04):
You wouldn't? You wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
I mean, come on, it's doing something down there for sure.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Can I just bring us back, bring us back.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
Our little callback here.
Speaker 5 (32:15):
I think instead of broke instead of broken arrow, they
should be called a dirty penny, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Gel, I like you got some dirty pennies to account for,
you guys. Yeah, that's right. Now, tell me what you
guys are up to and what we need to look
out for you. What's next on Office, Ladies? How many
episodes have you done and how many are left?
Speaker 2 (32:37):
By the way, Well, we have watched every episode of
the Office, and we have given you all the behind
the scenes details and trivia that we have collected from
cast and crew members for every single episode. And we
still have new episodes coming out every Wednesday.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Amazing.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
We have our whole Office rewatch library that is playing
on and on Wednesdays. We have all new material, all
new fun stuff, diving deeper into the world of the
Office and our best friendship. It's super fun. Come hang
out with us.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yeah, I love to you kidding me, Jenna, Tell them
about your playte tell me about your play.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
I am doing a play at the Goodman Theater in
Chicago called Ashland Avenue. It's a world premiere written by
Lee Kirk.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
You might have heard of it.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Oh yeah, my husband married to the writer.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
No big one.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
That's sooch and starts previews on September sixth, and it
opens on September fifteenth, And you can get tickets at
Goodmantheater dot org. I'm really excited. This will be my
first time back on stage in about eight years, and
you know, theater is my first love, so I'm really excited.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
That is so cool, Jenna, I'm so excited for you
and Lee. That is just awesome. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
And this is the Goodman Theater's one hundredth year, so
this is their centennial season and we'll be kicking it.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Off with Ashland Avenue. No big deal.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
No big deal though, And Angella Angela's got some fun
news as well.
Speaker 4 (34:03):
I do. So you know ed.
Speaker 5 (34:05):
My husband's a chef and a baker and he's self
taught and he's really big about getting the family in
the kitchen and cooking together and baking together, and that
the kitchen is the heart of our home. And he's
been making recipes and we've been cooking together for years now,
and he's finally put all of our favorite family recipes
(34:26):
into a cookbook. It's called you Can Make This, because
that's what he says to me and the kids all
the time. He's like, you guys can make this, and
you really can. And so we have that coming out
in October of this year, and.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
It's really great. It's a great, great cookbook.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Congratulations, that's so so cool. Thank you. I'm excited to
tell you about my book coming out in another year
called Supernooper Noker not true. Hey, you guys are the
best and I am just so so high happy to
see you and hang out with you a little bit.
(35:03):
Every time I get a chance to see you. It's
just the best. Thanks for coming on. Ah, Thanks you
You're awesome. We love you. Snappho is a production of
iHeart Podcasts and Snapoo Media, a partnership between Film Nation
Entertainment and Pacific Electric Picture Company. Our post production studio
is Gilded Audio. Our executive producers are me Ed Helms,
(35:26):
Mike Falbo, Glenn Basner, Andy Kim Whitney, Donaldson, and Dylan Fagan.
This episode was produced by Alyssa Martino and Tory Smith.
Our video editor is Jared Smith. Technical direction and engineering
from Nick Dooley. Our creative executive is Brett Harris. Logo
and branding by The Collected Works. Legal review from Dan Welsh,
(35:47):
Meghan Halson and Caroline Johnson. Special thanks to Isaac Dunham,
Adam Horn, Lane Klein, and everyone at iHeart Podcasts, but
especially Will Pearson, Kerry Lieberman, Nicki Etoor, Nathan Otassi, and
Alex Corral. While I have you, don't forget to pick
up a copy of my book, Snafoo, The Definitive Guide
(36:07):
to History's Greatest screw Ups. It's available now from any
book retailer. Just go to Snaffoo dashbook dot com. Thanks
for listening, and see you next week.
Host
Ed Helms
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com