Polka Party: A Polka Party Party - Here's Johnny

The Polka Party rages on—and we’re flipping the record to Side 2! This week, we're diving into “Here’s Johnny,” Weird Al’s tribute to The Tonight Show’s iconic Ed McMahon... or is it just a catchy jam about late-night obsession? Either way, we’ve got a first-time guest (and first-time podcaster!) joining us: our friend Kevin!

Tune in as we talk 80s TV, weird childhood memories, and whether this track deserves more love. There’s laughter, a few tangents, and maybe even a McMahon impression or two. It’s the perfect way to welcome Kevin to the podcasting world—with beer, Al, and a whole lotta fun.

So say it with us: HEEEERE’S JOHNNY!

Beer'd Al is a fantastic member of the OddPods Media Network.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/beer-d-al-podcast--5439475/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Welcome to yet another episode of the beard Out Podcast,
the podcast about two of the greatest things in the world,
beer and weird ow. Oh that one was active. I
splashed my face a little bit. I'm Lauren, I am
always here, and my delightful husband Russ has deigned to
roll his chair in from the other room.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Hello.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Hello, and we have not only a beard Olt podcast newcomer,
but I believe a podcast in general newcomer in our
friend and music al Facionado Kevin Taylor, Hello, Kevin, how
are you?

Speaker 3 (01:10):
I am flattered and doing well. I'm on Cloud night
Cloud twenty seven. I'm I'm feeling okay yay.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
So for those of you listening and you hear Kevin's voice,
you're like, this man has never done a podcast before.
I assure you, this man has never done a podcast before.
You popped on and I was like, oh, I knew
what your voice sounded like, but there's something about hearing
it like in headphones when you're getting ready to do
a podcast that goes, oh, people are gonna enjoy listening
to this. Everybody here is very smooth. My voices are

(01:39):
also smooth.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
I'm hoping they dig the voice because I know when
I hear it, no, thank you, Well, it.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Sounds different than inside your own hand.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
I think everybody's that way with her own voice.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yeah, it's true. So we all know why I am here,
and we all know why why Russ is here. But
as you know, just because you've never been here before, Kevin,
we know why you should be here. Let's tell the
listeners of the beard Al podcast, Kevin, what makes you
the guy that is going to sit and talk about
Here's Johnny with us today as we kick off side

(02:11):
Doo of Poka Party.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
Well, weird Al is quite literally my introduction to music.

Speaker 4 (02:21):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
His music, like with many listeners, I'm sure, extremely influential
on not just like getting me interested in music, but
also broadening my horizons with music. I recall, you know,
back in my elementary school days, we weren't the best

(02:43):
off school system in the country, but we did have
mister Crowner's music appreciation class, which didn't involve us playing
any instruments by any means, but we would you know,
pile into this room and he would have an overhead
projector with a you know, clear sheet that had lyrics

(03:05):
on it. So he would just pretty much play Weird
Al music. We would you know, sing along to what
was projected on the wall. And then later we actually
got a little bit of an upgrade because he had
a television in the classroom and he would play the
occasional Weird Al music video along with the music, so

(03:27):
we had some visuals that weren't just type lyrics, so
that that really opened up a lot of doors. I mean,
of course I was familiar with Michael Jackson and you
know other you know, pop artists, but you know, Weird
Al made me excited about music. The very first cassette
tape I ever bought was his even worst cassette. First

(03:50):
CD I ever bought, before I even had a CD
player was Bad Hair Day and yeah, and as far
as Here's Johnny, I will admit I don't own Polka Party,
but I got the Permanent Record box set back in
the day and that was my introduction to to yeah,

(04:14):
a huge array of Al's library.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Oh yeah, that Permanent Record is something else. It's a
really good Al in the box. You know, nobody really
knows which way which one to call it.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Right, I don't know why, but I always call it
Permanent Record.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
When I was good, well, there's a not to dig
too deeply into a thing that is not even close
to where we are at the moment. But there's a
whole thing with the nomenclature of the Permanent Record slash
Alan the Box situation, which I think is kind of
interesting and I'm just trying to I'm trying to come

(04:53):
up upon it. I'm on the internet as one ought
to be most of the time. It is officially titled
Permanent Record colon Alan the Box.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah, but the bigger stamp at the top is what to.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
Me, right, But I knew that there was something involved
with it, and I feel like this is a funny
little thing to derail on because, like right here at
the beginning, like why not, you know, because both Permanent
Record and Alan the Box were titles proposed by Weird Out. However,
he favored Permanent Record whereas his label preferred Alan the Box,
and both parties, being unwilling to yield, eventually decided to

(05:32):
call it Permanent Record colon Alan the Box.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
The best of both worlds. Instead of calling it soda
or pop, they're calling it Soda pop.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
Right, So that's that's that. Yeah, I like that, you know,
I can't even you know, I know, I know, Russ
that your introduction to Here' Johnny was clearly on Polka Party.
I'm trying to remember if I first heard it on
this album or in a compilation, and I truly don't know.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
I can't well, I'm sure I've talked about this on
your show before. And there's sometimes when you get a
weird al album, some of them are obvious when you well,
at least when I was a kid, when you got
like even Worse or Off the Deep End or any
any weird al album in the heyday of when you
would walk into a store and be able to pick
up the CD or the album or whatever and flip

(06:24):
it over and look at the track listing right pre internet, right,
some songs you would look at the track listing automatically
and know for sure what it was going to be,
so like, well, I mean obviously like whatever the lead
single was, so like smells like Nirvana. You just look
at it and go like, well, obviously that's the one, right.
But then there were other things. But this was part

(06:45):
of the fun we I don't think we've ever talked
about this in your show before. This was part of
the fun with buying a weird Al album for me
back in the day was you would see song titles
that were similar to other things and be like, oh,
please let that be a parody of that thing, And
sometimes it was and sometimes it wasn't. And I'm very
poorly prepared for this argument, but I guarantee if I like,

(07:07):
we could bring it up again sometime on the show
after I've looked, I could tell you, like, I know
for a fact, I've looked at Whirred Al albums and
been like, oh, I hope that's a parody of and
then listening to the album and like, that's not even
remotely that style of that artist, you know. But I
remember clearly because I love the movie Shorts like it
so much, and I loved the band DeBarge so much.

(07:28):
I remember, and we know that I have a traumatic
story of buying a Polka party. I remember looking at
the track listing and literally being like, please please please
let that be a parody of Here's Johnny. And I
was so stoked what it was. And in no one
history has been very unkind to this song Here's Johnny,

(07:49):
Like it was a much bigger hit than people remember.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
That.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
It was, like the song Here' Johnny was a much
much bigger hit. I'm sorry, Who's Johnny was a much
bigger hit than people remember that. It was like if
people barely remember Rhythm of the Night now, but that
song was enormous, for the for the for the no
not that song see you are wrong wrong?

Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah, oh shoot, I am wrong.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
Yeah. The Rhythm of the Night by the by the
band DeBarge was fantastic, Like if I put if I
put it on right now, you'd be like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
it's just a wonderful song. They also had a great
ballad hit called Who's Holding Down Now? That was wonderful.
But anyways, but anyways, Who' Johnny was a solo hit

(08:34):
by by El DeBarge and they're they're a Detroit band
or Michigan band anyways, so there was like it was
like a perfect storm of like, hey, I really hope
that that's that song, you know, but history has been
like really really really unkind of DeBarge, Like even Rhythm
of the Night was ever reware. It was a huge
hit and barely anyone remembers that some people even sing
the wrong so I do, and then but like no

(08:57):
one remembers Who's Johnny? And the song charted way, way, way,
way higher than anybody would would assume. Now, uh to
the point where it was parodied by al because it
was a big hit.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
It was number three here on the Billboard Hot one hundred.
There was number one in Canada.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
Yeah, but like number three, that's a huge it's when
this came out. That's a huge, huge placement.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
It was a sixty seven year end chart for nineteen
eighty six. So yeah, it was a big song.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
Yeah, it was a very big song, and no one
remembers it, which is gross. But anyways, so for all
those things, Oh, that's fun. I'm seeing Siat the Garretty.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
She's sang backing vocals. I was just about to tell
you that it was Michael McDonald also sang backing vocals.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Well yeah, but then again he's in fairness, Michael McDonald's
sanging backing val I think he's singing back and vocals,
Like right now while I'm talking, I think he's doing backs.
But anyways, so I know this is a very long
way to say this, but like I literally remember looking
at the back of Poltar Party and being like, please be,
who's Johnny, Please be? Who's Johnny? Please be Who's Johnny?
Because it could have gone anyway. And then as soon

(09:53):
as it started, I was just like yes because I
just I love that movie so much when I was
a kid.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
Chart so get never seen Short Circuit? Kevin, have you
seen Short Circuit?

Speaker 3 (10:03):
It has been a while, but yes, I saw Short
Circuit and the sequel as well back in the day
on like Comedy Central reruns.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
I like the sequel as well. Seaquel is completely different.
They couldn't oh yeah, they couldn't get okay, so now
the hair goes our first real tangent.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
But this is what we were allowed to do this, so.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
You see, kids. Short Circuit was this movie that was
supposed to be serious, but then a bunch of label
execs got involved and they were like, but what if
it's a slapstick though, So they hired Steve Gutenberg and
Ali Shady and they brought him in. They were like,
and what if it's a romantic comedy about this killer
robot hired by the government or made by the government
to destroy everything that becomes alive. So it became surprisingly charming,

(10:50):
and they made the I'm trying to decide the right
words to use, so Fish or Stevens is a Caucasian actor.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
Sure, Oh, do.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
You want to say the name of his character there?

Speaker 1 (11:08):
Ben jaba Tooya.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
Okay? And what what race do you think.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
Ben Jabatoya Japanese? Try again, ben Jabbatoya Indian? Yes, okay.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
And do you think that they left Fisher Stevens and
his white skin for that?

Speaker 1 (11:24):
H no, he, Mickey Rooney didn't he?

Speaker 2 (11:27):
And oh and so much worse? Like I mean they
like literally did the skin color literally and then he
is like doing you know how there was like the
uproar over the Simpsons character. Yes, okay, this is like
real life on the screen. Okay, Now we're gonna go

(11:49):
a step further because, as with all things that are
greenlit and make money, the studio goes decides they're going
to go ahead with a sequel without having signed Steve
Gutenberg and Ali sheety you are like the main point
of the first movie, oh dear, And who's left to
have be this focus of the sequel?

Speaker 1 (12:09):
Oh no, yeah, oh no.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
Yeah, And uh, let me say this. There's no way
to do this without being offensive. Most of what you
remember from the second movie is mister number jowinety five
is like what he says tough like most of the film.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
Oh my goodness. So here's a whole section on the
Wikipedia article called whitewashing criticism. Yeah, oh dear, but.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
Okay, this is how bad it is. And I'm not
being like, I'm not standing on any sort of soapbox
about this stuff at all. Like I had no idea
that Fisher Stevens was a white person until like nineteen
ninety eight or something, uh huh, because I saw him
like yet an award show or something, and I was like, oh,

(12:54):
isn't that It wasn't no, but I it was like
a god, I'm remembering wrong. I totally thought that seems
like the same name of the guy that was in
Short Circuit, you know, like that's how like dumb and
innocent I was about it, right, And then like somewhere
somebody was like, yeah, there just the guy that was
I was like, no, because that guy, you know, like
it was one of those things.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
So wow.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah. But I mean the first one of the Charming
and Ben Ben is not in it all that much,
and the second one is very funny, except that how
do I, like I said, for the first like ten
years that I watched the second one, I thought It
was hilarious because I thought he was an Indian actor,
and then it kind of got ruined for me when

(13:36):
I realized, like, like, I didn't know that he wasn't
an Indian actor. So and I haven't seen it since then.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
Okay, I've never seen it.

Speaker 3 (13:44):
If it makes you feel any better. Jurassic Park The
Lost World. I didn't realize that the character of a
Jay was also in brown Face and after Harvey Jason. Yeah,
it took me a solid decade or so before I
sat across that it happens to the best of us.

Speaker 2 (14:01):
And to God, I thought you I thought you were
doing a bit. I thought you were going to say
that you didn't realize the dinosaurs weren't real. Yeah, I
thought you were setting up a bit, and.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
So they didn't really use that Dan.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
Yeah, okay, oh my goodness. But yeah. So what's funny
is it's so weird because I saw that. I saw
the sequel so many times when I was a kid.
Because I the sequel, He's trying to take this woman
who loves music and it it you're never going to
believe this, But that appealed to me, like the whole
like she loves music, there's a whole thing in the
finale of the movie held like the only way that

(14:35):
they find each other through all these songs that they love.
And I love that. So I watched the sequel a
lot when I was a kid, and then I didn't,
and then I have never watched it since I found
that out, So you know, it's it's a bummer. I
had that whole thing taken away from me because they
did that instead of just casting an Indian actor, yeah,
or writing the character different, not based on a true story,

(14:56):
they could have just named him different and given him
a different nationality and everything would be okay. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
There is an episode of The Master of Non TV
show that actually discusses the Short Circuits character, and as
these apparently did call up Fisher Stevens, not on the show,
but you know around the show, and Fisher said, hey,

(15:22):
it was a job I spoke with a dialect coach.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
So no, that's true. Yeah, yeah, no, Fisher Stevens. I
don't have an issue with it, especially that like I've
learned that about Like I think, yeah, first of all,
you get hired and you know you're doing what they
tell you to do. And and yes, he absolutely did
like if the character is far different than the second
one than the first one, like the first one he
is trying to do like this is how an Indian

(15:47):
person in this position would act, right, But yeah, it's
more Hollywood was just like, isn't it hilarious those guys,
like those people are funny, and it's like, no, those
are just human beings though, Hollywood, you know, so anyways,
to bring it back to something positive, though, the thing
is like I was so enamored with the whole short

(16:07):
circuit thing at the time that this was one of
those like perfect storm things for me where it was
like rarely was I ever up late enough to like
watch Carson, But of course I knew who McMahon was,
because I mean that was it's part of the pop
culture that the whole here's Johnny thing and then we're

(16:30):
we're now makes references in the song to all the
other reasons why people my age would know who he is,
the Alpo dog commercials and the the sweep Steaks checks
and all that. So it was just like a perfect
storm for a kid my age at that time of like,
here's this short circuit thing you love to barge. They're
a Michigan band and all this Ed McMahon stuff that's

(16:53):
part of the pop culture all mixed into one. You know,
it's just like it was. It was a very big
for such a I would imagine most weird Al fans
think of this as like a throwaway track of best
and I couldn't disagree more.

Speaker 3 (17:06):
I have not made it to the Bigger and Weirder
concert yet. That's coming up later in August for me,
but I'm assuming this is either the opener or the encore.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
Ye. Yeah, well, at the risk of spoiling the experience
for you, he did open with it, and then he
did an acoustic version to close the mainset, and then
there was a remixed rap version that he opened the
encore with that was pretty sweet.

Speaker 4 (17:30):
Yeah it.

Speaker 3 (17:30):
Johnny was everywhere, well, Russ, when you were talking about like, oh,
I knew about Ed McMahon and my story was a
complete one pint eighty almost. I when I was originally
exposed to this song for some reason, even with the

(17:51):
shining and the hears Johnny and all that, I for
some reason, in my young brain thought this was kind
of in the same in vain as that boy could dance,
where Al just made up this character, and I don't
know how I didn't make any kind of connection to it.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
That's great.

Speaker 3 (18:13):
And around that time there was the No Going Home
concert in nineteen ninety six, was about when I bought
the box set and Ed McMahon is in that special,
and I never made the connection. Also, I didn't initially
make the connection that was Ed McMahon, even though they

(18:33):
even called him by name in that special. I thought
it was Leslie Nielsen because you're al was in the
Naked Gun movies.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
This is delightful and fantastic.

Speaker 2 (18:43):
You know that that meme or gift of I think
it's from It's Always So Sunny with Charlie whoever, Silva
whatever is. Yeah, like that's what I'm about to do.
For like the way that Kevin gets to Ed McMahon
being in this song, Holy cow, Like I just did
like a ten minute straight dietribe about like Fisher Stevens

(19:06):
and everything and all that, and then Kevin's like, oh no,
I got you beat, Okay. So here's what I was
physically looking at epic man, And yeah.

Speaker 3 (19:15):
I was watching it on like Free Disney Channel weekend
with my parents, and I'm like, oh, man, I'm like
laughing a point at the guy. I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
it's epic Mahon. I'm like, yeah, yeah, it's because Weird
ELL's in the Naked Gun movies. Oh man, Just elementary
school Kevin.

Speaker 1 (19:32):
That's great. That elementary school Kevin.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yeah, classic Kevin.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
I feel like elementary school Kevin is going to be
a saying in our house now when one of us
like makes a gaff of some sort Oh elementary school Kevin, Well.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
You know how I am. I'm always like we watch
I'm such an old now, like when we watch Saturday
Night Live these days, Like about probably about ten years ago,
I started going, uh, with host, maybe a watch their
night Live this week where I'm the host and so
and so's the musical guest. And I would be like, who,
I have no idea what is she from the not

(20:07):
not the artist, but the host. About ten years ago
I started going I don't what do what do I
even know her? And whoever was Romney would be like, yeah,
she's on that hit show and I'd be like, well,
I don't what is that? Right? So I started doing
that and then within about the past what about four years,
about three or four years I have started watch Ry
Night Live this week where I'm hosting and so and
so's a musical guests, And I said, turned to Lauren,

(20:29):
and I'm like, I don't know who either of those
people are. Like, so I'm from now, I'll be like
classic elementary Kevin.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
Elementary school Kevin. That's great. I love it. Yeah, So
I feel like this is a good spot to talk about,
you know, famously with weird al fans, the Polka Party
album is like it's so incredibly underrated. You know, it

(20:56):
didn't do super at the time, but like if you're
in the Alos Fear not like Alo the plant like
but the al Dash oh Dash sphere, the weird Alo sphere,
you you appreciate this album so much more, I think,
and I look at it now, and especially since we're
talking about Short Circuit with here's Johnny, You've got a

(21:20):
rocky with Living with a Hernia, and then like two
episodes from now, we're gonna be talking about Toruthless People,
which is a parody of Ruthless People. Right. There are
three songs directly connected to movies on this album, and
I wonder was this like a well look at not

(21:43):
only is the song a big deal. The movie is
a big deal, so all of this is gonna be
a big deal. Let's throw it all into one spot
and like it didn't work out the way everybody expected
or what. I'm not entirely sure. I feel like we'll
have a bigger conversation about that two episodes from now,
because my friend and fellow podcaster Robert Yannis Junior, who

(22:04):
has a movie podcast, is going to be on with
us to talk about Toruthless People, and we will, in
advance of that watch Ruthless People the movie. So we'll
be having that whole big conversation. But it's just like,
I can't think of another weird al album with this
many songs that closely related to film that aren't parodying
the film. Yeah, Kevin's making a Kevin thinking face now.

Speaker 2 (22:32):
Elementary elementary school, Kevin. I bet he made that face
a lot in elementary school.

Speaker 3 (22:38):
Well. I was thinking, like, okay, like soundtrack even just
yeah soundtrack songs. I was like, Bad hair Day, had
ye know from Dangerous Minds, you know Gangst's Paradise Recipeace Coolio,
it had you know from Batman Forever. But I don't
know about I don't know about a third one.

Speaker 1 (22:57):
Yeah, yeah, that's that was close with too, but yeah,
this one just you know, and so I just think
that's kind of interesting, and yeah, like what's also just
kind of I've got that like the entire album set
list up on the screen over here, and so I'm
just like looking at this swath of songs and of
all of the things that he parodied on this, you know,

(23:23):
he was banking on something being more timeless than it
ended up being, you know, like as obviously in three
D had had Eat It, which you know, you've got
your timelessness going for it right there. You know, Dare
to be Stupid has like the Yoda, which was already
timeless when he did it, you know, and stuff like that.
But then you get to to to poke a party

(23:45):
and it's like there's nothing that he parodied on here
that that like screams I'm going to stand the test
of time.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
The only thing I disagree with is I would argue
that addicted love is still people still know addicted to love.

Speaker 1 (23:59):
Sure, that would be the one that I would have.

Speaker 2 (24:01):
Pulled, But I personally like, I mean, well, there's a lot,
there's a lot more to Robert Palmer than two damn songs.
But I personally like simply irresistible quite a bit more
than addicted to love. However, I am. I have made
my peace with the fact that the rest of the
world knows addicted to love far more than simply irresistible,
or as my mother used to call it, and I

(24:22):
don't know why, strictly irresistible. She also constantly referred to
Hulk Cogan versus the Alternate Warrior. So I don't know
what was going on with those two, but it happened
all the time, and I always have to stop myself
from saying like just now. The reason why I remember
that is because I had to constantly stop myself from
saying strictly irresistible because she used to say it so much.

(24:45):
But anyways, so, like here's the thing, time should have
been way more kind to all of these songs than
they are. Like like, Okay, yes, James Brown is a
led and lived for at least I think another decade
and a half after this, But like living in America,

(25:08):
as far as I'm aware, is by far the last
big hit that he had, you know, and did he
have a much much bigger hits in the thirty years
before that? Yes, but this was a huge hit for
him Addicted love huge hit again Who's Johnny. I'm sure
a lot of people listening to this episode who are
very learned music, Oh weird Al fans are probably just

(25:30):
learning that Who's Johnny was a thing and it was
a It was a number three hit, you know to
those people, like everything about that was supposed to be
bigger than it was at the time, Like the movie
was supposed to be bigger than it was, and you
know what I mean. So it is what it is.
But time should be much kinder to all of these songs.
And what bums me out is the weird Al's work

(25:54):
on this record is top notch, even if the songs,
the original songs, don't stand the test of time.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
I agree. I couldn't agree more like, we just listened
to Here's Johnny, like right before we sat down, because
that's what you gotta do, you know, when you do this,
So it's like super fresh in the old doggin And
I was so impressed by Al's vocal on this and
also the production around his vocal to make it sound
appropriate for the track. I'm like, I'm sitting there listening
to this and like I'm bopping to it because I

(26:22):
know it. I know it super well, and I'm like,
this is fantastic.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
Well. I have always said this record for me is
one of the ones where they really comes into him
and his band making a very large effort to make
every song sound the same as the original production wise,
like I will actually no, gor ahead, go right ahead.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
Oh, I was just gonna say, I actually think that
Here's Johnny is a better song than Who's Johnny? Ooh,
you know what, I think.

Speaker 1 (26:52):
I'm good. I'm gonna I think this is a great
place for an ad break because I want people to like,
hold on and listen to the ads and like, listen
to you make that point. Okay, So folks, hang on.
We've got some ads coming at you, and then we'll
come back on the other side with Kevin's argument, which
I'm sure we'll all agree with, but I want to
let you wait to hear it. So hold on, people.

Speaker 4 (27:12):
Hey, Jeff, yeah, Jeff, Remember yesterday I was telling you
how I wished I could have seen one of Billy
Joel's sold out shows at Madison Square Garden.

Speaker 5 (27:20):
I said you should go see Taylor Swift instead. She's
the modern day Billy Joel.

Speaker 4 (27:24):
Well, today my phone said I should read an interview
with Billy Joel where he talks about both retirement and
Taylor Swift.

Speaker 5 (27:31):
Oh man, it's always so creepy when that happens.

Speaker 4 (27:34):
We should do a podcast about how our devices are
always listening to us.

Speaker 5 (27:38):
We already do. It's called Suggested Articles, a podcast we
talk about how technology is always spying on us and
how those tech corporations are such big buttholes.

Speaker 4 (27:46):
Dude, you can't say buttholes on a podcast.

Speaker 5 (27:48):
Promo, Dude, we already did twice.

Speaker 4 (27:51):
Join us every other Monday on Suggested Articles the podcast
on your favorite podcast app.

Speaker 5 (27:57):
Part of the Odd Pods Media Network.

Speaker 6 (28:00):
Each of us identify with one of the Golden Girls.
I'm Sophia, Aaron is Dorothy, Kristen is sweet Rose, and
each week we'll have a guest sit in the Blanche.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
Spot, the Naughty Seat. Come join us on the Lunai
for some cheesecake. Part of the Odd Pods Media.

Speaker 7 (28:17):
Network is your popcorn Ready? Then pull up a chair
and joined me. Robert Ghannis Junior at Crooked Table Production,
where we discuss the world of film from a fresh
angle on two exciting shows On close Watch, we get
to know our guests sweep the movies they love, from
current hits to timeless classics. And on Franchise d Tours,
we believe no movie series troubles in a straight line

(28:38):
as we explore the journey of the series and Lackey
X Men and Child's Play. Both close Watch and Franchise
d Tours are proud members of the Odd Pods media Network.
Find them wherever you get your podcasts, and on crookedtable
dot com. We'll see at the movies.

Speaker 2 (28:54):
And we're back.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
Yeah. So I know you've been waiting on pins and
needle through all of those delightful.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
Ads, which are your fault, by the way.

Speaker 1 (29:02):
Yeah, because it's based on what you google or what
you listen to or what you click on all that stuff.
Not my fault. I didn't do it all. My answer
for winnd Dixie.

Speaker 3 (29:10):
So I just heard a bunch of stuff for furry costumes.

Speaker 1 (29:15):
Oh well that's see, that'll do it now.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
Elementary school Kevin.

Speaker 3 (29:21):
Classic, forty year old Kevin and all right right, I
love it.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
Oh my goodness. Okay, So Kevin, before we went to break,
you made the point that you think that here's Johnny
is a better song than Who's Johnny? So the floor
is yours. Please make that point that I'm sure I'll
agree with.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
Okay, And there is no way that the fact that
I am more familiar with Here's Johnny and yeah being
a strong part of my childhood has any impact on
the fact that it is a better song. But I
just think that, like even the instrumental is the little
synth like do do which I did the chickable?

Speaker 1 (30:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (30:01):
Perfect, Yeah, not right there.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
I'm gonna get st copyright on that.

Speaker 3 (30:07):
I just think it sounds richer. I think Al's vocals
match the instrumentals a little bit better, and the the
Ed McMahon or incredible like yeah, seamless Ed McMahon impersonated
sound bites.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
That's a man by the name of John Rourke who
does the voice of Ed McMahon.

Speaker 3 (30:30):
Thank you for that. I actually researched that over the weekend,
but I didn't write it down, so I forgot it.
And thank you Lauren. You are you are on the ball.
But I think that well one Al's Here's Johnny just
starts with the boom boom boom you are in the song,
whereas Who's Johnny takes like thirty seconds to kind of

(30:52):
build up before you really get into the groove. But yeah,
once again, the laugh the hao i've it takes the
song to a higher plateau. I think that Al's version
is superior and also like it's not you know that
different lyric wise. When I was listening to Who's Johnny

(31:15):
to try to refresh my you know, memory on that
Al changed the lyrics to his being there has made
my worth life worth living and a very special guy,
versus her being there has made my life worth living
and a very special girl. I'm just lyricism like that

(31:36):
really took Here's Johnny into the stratosphere.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
That's that's for sure. Like this is one of those
times where I love kind of the juxtaposition with what
Al did lyrically compared to the original, right, And you
absolutely make that point that there are some uh, there
are some lines in the in and of themselves that
are almost direct parallels. Uh. I think what's interesting is

(32:04):
the the like the spirit of the song in a
lot of ways though has similarities, but in a way
that only weird Al could do. Meaning the Who's Johnny?
I just pulled the lyrics up here, right and Essentially,
the thesis of this is like she doesn't recognize who
I am and that's crushing me, right, and like I

(32:27):
am in love with her, she doesn't know who I am, right,
Whereas here is Johnny by weird al It's like Ed
McMahon doesn't know who he is either, you know, but
it's still like he's a very special guy and I
can't change the channel when he's sitting on the panel.

Speaker 6 (32:43):
You know.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
And it's it's they're both songs of unrequited love in
their own weird way.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
Yeah, no, I agree, Yeah, And for the record, I do.
What's what's so funny is that I do. From the
moment I heard this, I was like, this is a
better song, Like I I like it is. It is
a better version of sites produced better and I like
the lyrics better. But again, like I don't as a kid,
I didn't identify with anything to do with the lyrics

(33:11):
of Who's Johnny. The only reason I liked the song
was because it was in short Circuit and I like
DeBarge right, and I know it's I know it's an
Algebard's solo song, but when he's singing on the DeBarge material,
to me, it was the same thing as a ten
year old. So yeah. Anyways, So but other than it

(33:31):
being DeBarge and it being in short circuit, I didn't
have like any super affinity to it for the lyrics
or anything. And then here comes where it now and
takes it and makes it about this thing that I
do know what's that about? And there's just like you
were saying little things like that was the That was
the line that was famous from his from the the

(33:52):
Publishers clearing House commercials that he did was the you
may already be a winner. That was like his thing.
It was, and the commercials would you know, they'd show
up at people's houses at McMahon and whatever else and
he'd have this check and they would you know, all
these people would would would pooh pooh themselves and and

(34:12):
uh and McMahon would give him these things and then
he'd you know, make shure to fill out the Publisher's
clearing house. You know, you may already be a winner.
And so like whatever. I'm sure I was drinking the
finest of kool aid the first time that I drank
the first time I listened to the song. But but
it was like, uh, you know, when he was like
he said, you may already be a winner. I just like,

(34:34):
like he said the thing you know, he said, you know,
and then I forget what the exact lyric is, but
he makes the reference to the dog food commercial. Well,
and of course we had a dog and his name
was Crimson, and of course we he had to have
Alpo dog food because I don't know where Alpo dog
food disappeared too, But it was like the thing in
the eighties that everyone fed their big dogs, and because

(34:56):
Ed McMahon was the spokesperson for it, so again it
was all the stuff tied in. But for me to
circle back to something earlier, there's a lot of good
production on Dre to be stupid, but Polka Party for
me is where he really turns the corner and everything

(35:17):
is like I think every track on the record is
the closest that he got to the original production of everything,
and in this case coming close to and in many
ways out doing the production. I've never looked at the
credits for who worked on Who's Johnny, but I guarantee
you it's a Who's who? You know what I mean
like as far as productions, but I mean when you

(35:38):
have backup singers like Siya Garrett and Michael McDonald just
milling around on the track. Then, Yeah, I'm certain there
was some wild professionals involved.

Speaker 1 (35:50):
It was produced by Peter Wolf, who produced Night Shift
by the Commodore's produced We Built the City and Sarah
for Starship. He produced Everybody Had Fun and Night and
Who's Johnny?

Speaker 2 (36:01):
Well, there you go.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
You also composed music, composed music for Weekend at Bernie's two.

Speaker 2 (36:06):
Oh boy, Part two is not the best.

Speaker 1 (36:10):
And never ending stories.

Speaker 3 (36:12):
Disagree with you on that one, Russ.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
Yeah, you're a big You're a big Weekend of Bernie's
Part two? Apologists are you?

Speaker 3 (36:18):
When Netflix ended their disc system, I was still a
subscriber and I got to keep the last disc. Oh
it was Weekend Bernie's at two.

Speaker 2 (36:30):
So that's great.

Speaker 3 (36:31):
Copy of it in a tidy little sleeve. Have a
special part in my life.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
That's delightful.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
There's a lot of sequels that I like better than
the original though that people don't like. I think Mannequin
two is better than the first one. I quite enjoy
Wayne's World two better than the first one. Yeah, I agree,
there's a lot of sequels that I like better than
the first one. Actually, it's been so long since I
saw Wayne's World two or I'm sorry Wayne's World two
weekend at Bernie's two, I have to give it a
shot again. But but yeah, it just you know, it

(36:59):
was such a fun track for me and for the
people who would have worked on that track, for Weirdel
and his team to come close to or to exceed
that I didn't you and I were just talking about this,
not on the show of Lauren, but like recently, people

(37:19):
one of the many things people don't wrap their heads
around about exactly what it is that weirdl Like, I
think there's people, there's probably many, many, many, many, many,
many many many people out in the world who think
that Weirdel just takes like a karaoke track and writes
silly lyrics over it. And I am so like, and
I'm certain every person listening who adores Weirdel probably just

(37:42):
made the cringe face. And and I hate it too,
Like just know that I hate it. But I assure
you there are people in the world who think that
that's a thing, that they think that like that's all
he does, and it's so wrong, like it could not
be more wrong. And the fact that they were you
know able to recreate all of this production is really

(38:04):
something in my opinion. I mean, it's such an This
is like a really aggressive thing for the time to
like be like, oh no, we're gonna We're going to recreate.
There's so many synths and things, and this is not
like to now you Like, now, I could just go
on the internet and get a bunch of these sounds
like synth sounds and stuff and like make this on

(38:24):
my laptop. Then you had to have the synse or
access to them in a very expensive studio. And then
what's the other thing that you needed. Oh the talent,
you know to be able to play that stuff, you know,
two things severely lacking today. So I don't know, it's

(38:45):
just things like this. I like this track. I will
I think I think within whirredal fans, I think they
wildly take this track for granted and it's upsetting. Not
the three, not the three of us here.

Speaker 1 (38:57):
No, that's why we're here.

Speaker 6 (38:58):
Kevin.

Speaker 1 (38:58):
You picked this, I sent you. I send you, you know,
would you like to talk about a song on pokea party?
And I was like, well, here's Johnny.

Speaker 3 (39:06):
Oh yeah, I mean once going back to elementary Kevin,
But I would have my friends come over to the
house and I would play this song on the stereo,
and I bet I can remember like, wait for it,
wait for it, wait for it, and then I get
to the h we just ate it up. We would

(39:32):
rewind the last like third of this song over and
over again. But yeah, it it was a big part
of my childhood for some odd reason. I mean it
was that permanent record. Al in the Box is four
discs of music, and this and probably Jurassic Park were

(39:53):
the two that, for some odd reason got played the most.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
That's fantastic. Yeah, I know, only Jurassic Park is also
great too, And I would be remiss if I didn't
bring up this amusing little anecdote. So RUSSI were mentioning
DeBarge being a Michigan group an El DeBarge, who is
the Who's Johnny Fellow? He was actually born in Detroit?

(40:20):
And do you know who else was born in Detroit?

Speaker 2 (40:22):
Many, many people, myself included Ed McMahon. Oh yeah, yeah,
I think I did know that at some point.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
I just think that's a fun little thing to like,
I'm there's you know, obviously it's the Here's Johnny and
the Who's Johnny of it. All that made this happen,
not the fact that hmm they're both from Detroit, like
that wouldn't have anything to do with it. That's just
one of life's little happy accidents that I enjoy.

Speaker 3 (40:42):
Stars aligned star.

Speaker 1 (40:44):
I am stars. I've been searching for those stars to
align light broke Kevin.

Speaker 3 (40:58):
So being my first podcast oh appearance at first and
maybe only, I was like, oh, I'm in good hands.
You two will be able to run the show. And
what a perfect song, because worst case scenario, you guys
are Johnny Carson and then I just sit here and
laugh along. Perfect.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
It's great, it's great. No, you're doing awesome. And I
will tell you this right now, and this is recorded
that people can hear. You're welcome back here whenever you'd like.
So if there's a track on even worse you'd like
to talk about, let me know, we can make it happen.
I only have a handful of them claim so far,
So you know, I'm just saying.

Speaker 3 (41:37):
I am shocked people didn't just snatch up every single
track on that CD.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
I know.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
I think that going forward, it's gonna get harder to
You're gonna have a lot more volunteers for records going forward,
because you're gonna get into the like I think after
even worse is where you get into that phase of
everyone our age has a weird out album that is
their weird al album, you know what I mean. Yeah,

(42:04):
I was here for the whole damn show, but like
a lot of people like from UHF on is where
they really got into weird al.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:15):
I am curious how you guys are going to be
handling the UHF album if you're like, all right, here's
our guests. We're going to talk about Gandhi Too.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
Yeah, that's it. So that's a good question. And you
know what we did on there to be stupid with
George of the Jungle was we lumped that with the
track right after because it's like, I can't do a
whole episode about George's the Jungle, but we might be
able to do have a whole episode about Gandhi Too,
or we can extrapolate Gandhi Too and Spatualist City and

(42:45):
all you know the little things like that.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
Probably do a one episode for all the commercials, yea,
because wait, there's just the two on the album, right.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
Yeah, Well, if we're.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
Going to do that then we can include the librarian
and do it, and.

Speaker 1 (42:55):
We could just do yeah, we could. We'll figure that out.
But yeah, what, we've got a whole lot.

Speaker 3 (42:58):
Like three installments or let me Beard, let me be
your Hog.

Speaker 1 (43:02):
Yeah, that's that's Oh my gosh, that's probably whole that
whole episode. He's right that let Me be Your Hog
is going to take like three episodes at least, So yeah,
to unpack all the lyrics on that.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:15):
Yeah, So that's a good point, Kevin.

Speaker 3 (43:19):
But that's in the future. That's in the future. We've
got Here's Johnny.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
We've got the rest of Polka Party and all of
even worse to get through before I even have to
think about this. So this is this is this is good.
We're in a good place. We're in a really good place. So, Kevin,
did you have any points in particular you wanted to
make about Here's Johnny that we didn't hit on yet.

(43:43):
I'm not sure how prepared you were with notes or this,
that and the other. And I didn't want you to
walk out of here, you know, and go no, I
wish I had said the thing. So this is your
opportunity to say any of the things that you wish you.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
Had said, Well, the one thing that speaking about speaking
was Okay, how is my voice going to be on
a podcast? Am I going to get too excited and
I start like w NBC and like start picking it up?
Am I going to try to play it cool and
like lower it a whole uh you know, chunk of octaves?

(44:20):
And then I told myself, no matter how I sound,
I will not sound like Fisher Stevens in Short Circuit.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
Right, Yeah, that's fantastic, I.

Speaker 3 (44:30):
Thought, Yeah that was that was me pacing around eating
my breakfast this morning.

Speaker 1 (44:34):
Yeah, thought, how am I going to be on this
podcast where you're gonna be like, am I going to
be a roo? Am I going to be down here
talking about what am I.

Speaker 3 (44:41):
Going to do? Because yeah, I did. Used to work
in a very small market radio graveyard shift and stuff
like that, and this was not the voice that was
on the airwaves. It was it was the the the
on air puking as they say.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
Oh we do like Ever, we're back, Can I get
back that exactly?

Speaker 3 (45:04):
But six hours so we're back.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
The two examples of that, ever is the one that
we always do, which is from the SNL sketch about
Jimmy Fallon and Ben Affleck having their their in the morning,
would that And then I I don't think anyone's ever
done a better example than And we referenced this earlier

(45:30):
on Wayne's World two Harry Shearer where they're doing the
interview with him and he's not even paying attention at
all and he's been by the which hopefully this isn't
too old of a reference for people to know. But
when they go into the studio because in radio back
in the day, no one ever knew what anyone looked like.
And they go in and they're going to meet this guy,
handsome Dan, and Ted McGinley walks out and they're like,

(45:54):
oh my god, handsome Dan, you know what it was.
And he's like, I'm not handsome Dan. And they turn
around and handsome Dan is hairy, sure, and his hair
is like as tight as it can be and he's
like sweating, you know, and whatever, and they're just like, oh, high,
handsome Dan. You know. But anyways, the whole time he's
Wayne and Garth are talking hair. She was just going
uh huh yeah, oh yeah, oh well that is good.

(46:16):
You know, He's like doing his whole thing. They're just like, oh,
so we could see anything we want and you wouldn't listen.
Uh uh huh, you know, like, oh well yeah, yeah,
oh no, no, yeah, he's just not even listening at all.
And then ever since I saw that anything in the
nineties that I listened to, like actual shock jock Radio
and like Detroit, I was just anytime I listened to something,
I was like, that is totally what they're doing right now.

(46:37):
They're like not paying attention to the people at all. Like,
I bet these are the ugliest people to ever walk
the earth, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, like
I could say your total tool, uh huh. So, but yeah,
anytime I think of the morning and stuff, it's always that.
And then when fallon and uh, maybe a beneflect came

(46:59):
along and affected the whole sketch.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
She works for the station, guy.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
Come on, you guys, what Andrea, she works for the station.

Speaker 1 (47:07):
It's so funny.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
And also and also there's inappropriate Indian humor in that
sketch too, uh huh. But at least they're they're in
on the joke with that one.

Speaker 3 (47:18):
Yeah, Russ. If that was too old of a reference
for some people, I wouldn't think so, I think you
just got a whole bunch of people to rent Wayne's
World too.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
I sure hope.

Speaker 1 (47:27):
So we were talking about a song from nineteen eighty six, so.

Speaker 2 (47:31):
I feel like I got at least sell the one
other thing from Wayne's World too that I love because
no one appreciates the joke when they first meet the
roady guy in Wayne's World two and they're going through
his photo albums and he's like, tell him his whole
He's been on the road for forty years and he's
seen everyone and they're looking at their like He's like, yeah,
it was me, my old Lady and the road. And

(47:52):
they look at these pictures and they're like, whoa, that's
you with led Zeppelin and he's like yep. He's like
that's you with the Doors and he's like yep. They're like,
who's that old lady. He's like, that's my old Like
the best joke.

Speaker 1 (48:05):
It's too funny. It's too funny. Before we get to
our did you have a.

Speaker 3 (48:10):
Point, Kevin, I was just going to also give credit
to someone who I don't know who it is. Actually,
you might have to edit this part out because I'm
going to be talking and rambling in circles. But when
I was telling my folks about being on this podcast,
they were like, oh, and what are you going to
be talking about? And I mentioned the song. They have

(48:33):
no recollection of me playing this song back in the
nineties on loop. But I tracked down an incredible fan
video on YouTube that's just chalk full of Ed McMahon clips,
and it really if people are unfamiliar with how these
lyrics are associated with the man that that video, it

(48:55):
will be search result number two. I think on YouTube
it is. Yeah, you get to see yeah, the Alpo.
It's a whole lot of dog eating dog food. If
that's people's thing.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
Yeah, I guess it's also on a haphazard Stuff dot
com is where it is. That's the thing. Yeah, that is.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
Such a nineties like late nineties, early two thousands website,
like a bombs world.

Speaker 1 (49:23):
Yeah, well, you don't want.

Speaker 2 (49:24):
To get cut.

Speaker 1 (49:24):
I don't want to get copyright struck. I just want
to see that. Well no, I'm not even gonna bother
with this now I'm clicking on it. But yeah, yeah,
haphazard stuff dot com.

Speaker 3 (49:33):
Yeah, if you want to watch videos of a dog
eating really moist dog food.

Speaker 2 (49:38):
That's why that's why we all fed our dogs alpoh b.
Ed McMahon told us how good it was, how much
dogs loved it. That's what you would tell us about
what happened to a l P O. I remember the logo.
It was like a like an oval with a yeah
blue and red wing blue and it of course because Marca.

Speaker 1 (49:58):
Right, albow wet dog food has been discontinued.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
Well, yeah, we know that. Well no not, I'm not you.
I'm talking to the internet. Wow, it was all the
way until twenty two.

Speaker 3 (50:15):
I didn't survive the pandemic.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
There was no uh yeah, it just there was no recall.
It was just, uh, there was a decline in sales.
So basically because Ed McMahon was no longer chilling for a.

Speaker 2 (50:29):
Far probably, I kid you not. Probably, that's like the
number one reason why everyone bought it.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
Yeah, sposal.

Speaker 3 (50:38):
They couldn't have got Andy Richter.

Speaker 1 (50:41):
Right, Oh my goodness, that would have that tooche well done.
Oh my gosh. It was founded in Allentown, Pennsylvania. There
you go by Robert F. Hunsicker. Anyway, I think that's
important to know. That was very good information. Thank you,
very mull.

Speaker 3 (51:00):
Now I'm wondering why they came up with Alpo, because
I assumed it was like, oh, yeah, it was created
by John Alpo.

Speaker 1 (51:08):
So Alpo Robert. Where did they get the name Alpo Marketing?
Where did they get the name Alpo? Garfield was a
spokes cat for the brand in the nineties. I do
remember that that doesn't help. Alpo an abbreviation of alan Products.
There you go, because it was from Allantown, Pennsylvania.

Speaker 2 (51:30):
There you go.

Speaker 3 (51:32):
Yeah, I'm glad you went down that rabbit hole. Thank you, Laura.

Speaker 1 (51:37):
No worries. I'm happy to do it. This is what
I do.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
The first time in my life I ever had one
of those moments where I was like, oh, that's neat.
That's something that I never thought of before. Was obviously
when I was a kid, I played a whole bunch
of Nintendo and Sega, right, and I never wondered what
or either name came from. But for some reason, it
just never crossed my mind to wonder where the word
Sega comes from, and it is from. They were originally

(52:05):
made coin operated games for the military, so they were
service games, and then they shortened that to s e g. A. Okay,
just the first two letters of each word, so they
became Sega.

Speaker 3 (52:20):
That makes sense because we like the hedgehog, they have
to live life in the fast lane.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
Yes, they can't say it's too much.

Speaker 2 (52:26):
Yeah, I know you. You just can't take all those syllables.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
So yeah. But it's funny that you mentioned that, like
where they got their name from, because I do that.
I mean, you know that I said on the couch.
A lot of times, I'm like, where did that come from?

Speaker 1 (52:36):
What happened here?

Speaker 2 (52:37):
I do that with sayings a lot, I'm like, what,
who even? Where's that? Why do we say that?

Speaker 3 (52:41):
For?

Speaker 1 (52:42):
You know, Alpo, it's it's Warren Green was a spokesman
for them as well, and he created the concept of
eating one's own dog food by claiming that Alpo is
so good he feeds it to his dogs. And Alpo
was also known for its marketing marketing campaigns that targeted
the owners of quote real dogs, making light of consumers

(53:05):
who pamper their dogs.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
Yep, we had a big Siberian husky and that's why
he had Alpo. Because my dad was the world's most
I'm not one of those non man manly men type guys,
so he had to feed the basically the marketing that
was meant for people with fragile egos. My dad was like,
that's me and bought it.

Speaker 1 (53:25):
A real dog.

Speaker 2 (53:26):
Yeah. That's why we had a huge husky, because my
dad was like, big dog, because you know, I'm trying
to prove that I'm a man.

Speaker 3 (53:32):
Yeah, exactly should That makes sense because I did not
have Alpo, but I had an imaginary dog, very nice,
not a real dog.

Speaker 1 (53:44):
Not a real dog.

Speaker 3 (53:46):
This is the way you bring me on podcasts, right.

Speaker 1 (53:48):
This is what we're doing. This is what we're doing.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
It's not so much that you had an imaginary dog
that I'm upset over. It's that you still couldn't teach
the tricks. Like that's a bit much. Come on, man,
you should be able to at least get that thing
to at least stay.

Speaker 1 (54:01):
Come on, I love it. I love it all right.
So before we go into giving the song a rating
on a scale of one to twenty seven, I would
be remiss if I didn't shout out the beer that
I've been drinking for this entire episode. It is from
swamp Ed Brewery in Gainesville, Florida, which is not far
from where Russ and I are currently and The whole
reason that this beer is in my house is because
my friend Tricia left it here one time that she

(54:23):
showed up and she left it in my beer fridge.
And as I said before it.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
Well, roll that back. You said. You didn't say the
one time she showed up, but you kind of indicated
that she's only been here once.

Speaker 1 (54:32):
Okay, one time she showed up and left this here.
And I don't remember which time it was she left
it here.

Speaker 2 (54:37):
She's here a lot. Yeah, one of those one of.

Speaker 1 (54:39):
Those times she left it here. And it is a milkshake.
Is a raspberry cream sickle milkshake IPA with raspberry vanilla
and lactose, And gosh darn it, has this been delightful?

Speaker 2 (54:55):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (54:55):
Yeah, it's a sneaky eight point one percent and I've
had enjoyed the whole thing. So I just wanted to
check that out.

Speaker 3 (55:03):
Drop an alcoholic that you sure can, all right, So
I am a major lightweight, and I have a five
percent alcohol by volume. But it's from a cider company,
and I've got the pumpkin one from last October. But
a cider. Their pumpkin is delicious. Their pineapple is nectar

(55:26):
of the gods. In my opinion, I've got a sweet tooth.
But yeah, before I, you know, promote them too much,
I would avoid all of their other siders. Just stick
with the pumpkin and the pineapple.

Speaker 2 (55:39):
There's a couple of brands out there that have like
one thing that they do well, and it's like, you
know what, just stick with.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
That, stick with that. Yeah, I've never I think we've
been to Swamped. Honestly, I wouldn't.

Speaker 2 (55:50):
Yeah, that's for sure. We did. Yeah, we did a
whole day where we went to a bunch of places.

Speaker 1 (55:56):
In I got I got wet, swampy water all up
in my hay dude at Swamped. But that's when I
realized that there were holes in the bottom of Hey
Dude show And it's.

Speaker 2 (56:07):
Like, oh no, there was Gamezel is a fun place,
though there were still there were still other places we
wanted to go back to next time.

Speaker 1 (56:13):
Yeah. So I have this brewery from them.

Speaker 2 (56:15):
There's a good record Well I'm sure there's more, but
there's at least one really good record store over there too.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
Yeah, so we did that.

Speaker 2 (56:22):
I bet they wouldn't make fun of people for buying
Polton Party.

Speaker 1 (56:25):
No, And now I'm really curious about trying a pumpkin cider.

Speaker 3 (56:29):
I don't think it is seasonal, but yes, it is fantastic.
I am very basic though. I love my pumpkin spice.

Speaker 1 (56:38):
That's fine, come fall, but you do.

Speaker 3 (56:41):
Yeah, I highly recommend it. Okay, I love it.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
I'm so over that, like in that this isn't direct
to you, but like, you know, we have the thing
where like the internet for years loves pumpkin spice and
then a bunch of people now have to like bag
and it. Oh it's so basic. Nope, it's just the
thing some people like and you don't. And that's okay,
you know what I mean, Like, it's it's fine you
you like what you like, and that's okay.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
Ye I think that's true.

Speaker 3 (57:03):
Well, at my office, so the whole basic thing actually
has helped me in life because at my office there
is another person with the exact same initials. It's another
Kevin Taylor, and our email addresses. I'm just Kevin Taylor.
They have Kevin their middle initial tailor, and so I

(57:27):
refer to like when they're like, which, what are you
in the system? I say, I am basic Kevin Taylor
because I love pumpkin spice and it sticks in their head.

Speaker 2 (57:38):
Yeah, you know what, then that's fair.

Speaker 1 (57:40):
That's your mnemonic, Pumpkin demice.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
I think it's a way to own it.

Speaker 1 (57:43):
Yeah, that's the way to do it. Okay, So I'll
go first with the rating on the scale of one
to twenty seven. I like, here's Johnny. I'm trying not
to like over exert myself with my ratings and stuff,
as far as you know, you know, I do get
excited this comes on. I'm gonna give it a twenty

(58:05):
six out of twenty seven. I got no reason for
not giving it twenty seven other than the fact that
I need to make sure that I give myself some
wiggle room for stuff that I like better, because I'm
sure that there's things that I like better. Okay, So
you going, Kevin, you can go next, and then Russ
will ended up all right.

Speaker 3 (58:23):
Well, I feel like, even though it's not in my
top ten favorite al songs of all time, since you
gave it a twenty six out of twenty seven, I
feel like I need to also give it a twenty
six out of twenty seven because when I do put together,
when I did put together my mixed seed of where now,
it did make it into the Yeah, top eighty minutes

(58:45):
of alb material. So I'd say that's a twenty six
out of twenty seven.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
I like that.

Speaker 2 (58:50):
Yeah. I also was absolutely coming in strong with a
twenty sex Like if you call me ahead, me go
first out, give me twenty six. Furthermore, I have a
reason why it's a twenty six. I have a reason
why I deducted one point. Okay, it's my second favorite
song on the album. Oh, Hernia is number one with
a bullet.

Speaker 4 (59:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:07):
Like if you shake me away in the middle of
the night and you're like, what's your favorite song on
Polka Party, I'll be like living with Hernia? Why, Like
and you know that to be true? By the way,
like if for real you know this to be true?
Like that that I like when I say stuff like that,
I'm not kidding you know how My conviction is with
like these things that I say about, Like you can
try it, do it. I'm not kidding you do it.

Speaker 1 (59:28):
Like phone record, you might.

Speaker 2 (59:33):
As long as you don't run video. You can run audio.
I don't care. Okay, but this is like, hands down
my second favorite song on the record, Like like I
mean by a country mile, like I don't even like
like like Spuds is not even in the discussion with
the song. And I like to like a great deal,
but it's not even in the discussion with the song.

Speaker 1 (59:49):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
So that's the only reason why it doesn't get a
perfect twenty seven. It's because Hernia is Hernia for me,
is in like the weird Al Hall of Fame. Like
that song should be like the It's jersey should be
hanging in the rafters of like the weird Al Arena.

Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
Oh yeah, I should respire that number here.

Speaker 2 (01:00:06):
Yeah, So like that's the only reason this is not
getting a twenty And like if anybody's listening and they're like, yeah,
but I don't know that song, well, well that's like
use your error does not factor into my rating. Yep,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
I agree, I agree. This has been wonderful. Gentlemen, Kevin,
I'm putting you on the spot a little bit. But
if there's anything that you'd like to shout out or
promote or like say hey to here at the end,
you totally can. If not, you can say no, I
do I love my dog, though what you.

Speaker 3 (01:00:36):
Want, I do love my dog an awful lot, So yes,
shout out to Tan and yo. But but no, I
don't really have anything to promote aside from just be
kind to one another. Yeah, oh wait, spay and new
to your animals and I love you.

Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
Oh thanks for the Drew care Are you there for me? Like? Yeah, right?
Did he Drew carried me? That's great?

Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
Classic elementary school.

Speaker 3 (01:01:07):
Elementary school Kevin, you know, elementary school Kevin wouldn't have
dropped the L word there, he was too insecure. Oh yeah,
there you go, And so everybody knows Lauren did put
the L on her forehead.

Speaker 1 (01:01:25):
That's fantastic. Well, you know what, this seems as good
a time and as any to wrap up this episode
of the beard Ol Podcast. We're gonna come at you
again next week with I think what's up next is
don't wear those shoes and uh, all of the folks
that are in my weird al fandom. This person has

(01:01:46):
never been on the show before, but you're sure as
heck gonna know who he is. I'm sure. So that's
all I'll say about that. And in the meantime, stay weird,
stay awesome, and have a great day. Goodbye.