June 22, 2025 • 33 mins
If you have a fun fact you’d like us to share, send us an email to: funfactsandsidetracks@gmail.com or leave us a comment online at our social pages on Facebook or Instagram Thanks for listening and never be afraid to get sidetracked.
The boring disclaimer: We do try to double-check all of the facts we talk about. If something isn’t quite correct, we humbly apologise. Credit to our many sources including, A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs, Tim from Kicking Harold, Mental Floss, Wikipedia and so many more.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Al and Marty (00:17):
Hello and welcome to Fun Facts and Sidetracks.
Fun Facts and Sidetracks.
That is the one Mart.
This is a podcast where we takea pretty lighthearted look at
all those things that interestus.
Coincidences, movies, popculture in general.
Yeah, yeah.
Bit of history.
My name's Al and this is Mark.
How are you mate?
Yeah, I'm great.
What a about you.
Oh, terrific.
(00:38):
Yep.
Good.
Loving life.
A quick disclaimer before westart.
Yes, we do a lot of,researching on the internet.
We, trawl through our memorybanks for stories and, try to
remember things from the past.
But if things aren't quite ahundred percent, please don't
hold us to it.
Yeah.
We mean no harm Earthlings.
We come in peace.
Send us an email and tell uswe're wrong.
(01:00):
Yeah.
Send us an email to Fun Factsand sidetracks@gmail.com.
Or if there's a topic that youwant us to talk about Yeah.
Then we can certainly do that.
Or check us out on, Facebookand Instagram.
Yeah.
At Fun Facts and Sidetracks.
Okay.
On with the show.
Okay, mark.
(01:24):
Now first up, we always talkabout those ones that got away.
Well, we have been so that'sgood.
Yeah, we have been, and thisis, this is normally songs that,
were recorded by anotherartist, but this time around, I
thought it might be good to talkabout well-known albums that
nearly didn't make it okay.
(01:44):
For whatever reason.
Here you go.
Really good example of this isthe Green Day album.
American Idiot.
Yeah.
from 2004, they were actuallyrobbed and all of the master
tapes were stolen, so theyreally just had to start over.
They rerecorded the wholething.
And it became a bit morepolitically laden.
(02:06):
It's fair to say.
Okay.
In their lyrics.
But pretty well out there.
There's, there's sort of mastertapes for, uh.
Different version of, I wonderif the liver a turn up.
Yeah.
Well they'll probably turn upfor sale and like, they'd be
worth a fortune.
Yeah.
Really?
Yeah, because it'd beinteresting to hear it.
Yeah.
(02:27):
How, how different it would beand it probably just a bigger
hit.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
Might turn up on marketplace,you know, pick up only.
Anyway, so, any scammers call,I dunno if you've heard, Green
Day lately, but, on stage it'sfair to say that they're fairly
(02:48):
scathing about the currentAmerican president.
Wow.
So, anyway, we'll leave thatwhere it is.
I have to be careful.
Probably.
Yeah.
Okay.
Another one, and this is, we'resort of unashamedly Beatles
fans.
Mm-hmm.
Here at Fun Facts Sidetracks.
Yeah.
And so this one is banned onthe Run, which was the most
successful album for PaulMcCartney in a post Beatle era.
(03:11):
Mm.
And he and Linda and the bandactually went to, Lagos in
Nigeria.
Yeah.
To record it.
Which a lot of people said,well, that's a funny thing to do
because it's not the safestpart of the world.
But he wanted a sort of adifferent sound.
And sure enough, they actuallygot robbed.
(03:32):
So they, they lost all of the,master tapes, all the lyrics.
Wow.
All the demo tapes at least.
So yeah, they had to go backto, that's another one you'd
like to get your hands on.
Oh, man.
Yeah.
And.
Evidently the guys that heldthem up didn't really know who
he was.
No.
Until Linda said he's a Beatle.
Like, don't shoot him, please.
(03:53):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
This is Beatle Paul.
Yeah, so they were mugged andlost the lyrics and the demo
tapes on top of that, two of theguys from the band actually got
teased off with it andresigned.
So ultimately there was Pauland Linda and Denny Laine, there
in Nigeria, and they basicallyrerecorded everything.
(04:15):
Wow.
Yeah.
So, so Paul would've paid mostof the instrument.
Yeah.
Well I think that was maybepart of the reason for the guys
sort of leaving, 'cause he wassuch a perfectionist and, you
know, jumped on the drums andwhatever Paul does.
Yeah.
Who's that?
Who's that other person?
Denny Laine.
Denny Laine.
Yeah.
So he was from the Moody Blues.
Oh, okay.
Initially, yeah, so there yougo.
And I guess some other funfacts around this album.
(04:39):
So, Picasso's last Words, whichis one of the very excellent
songs on Yeah.
Band on the Run.
Yeah.
Came about because Paul andLinda were on, on holidays in
Jamaica, and that's where themovie Papillon was being filmed.
They had dinner with DustinHoffman, who was one of the
stars.
Wow.
Yeah, I remember.
That's a great movie.
The Queen.
(05:00):
And, yeah.
And Hoffman challenged PaulMcCartney to write a song about
anything that was happening.
So he saw in a magazine.
This article about PabloPicasso dying.
Yeah.
And challenged Paul to write asong and fair enough, Paul, Paul
picked up a guitar and startedwriting that song, and
(05:20):
apparently Dustin Hoffman'sshouting to his wife, look, he's
doing it.
He's doing it.
So that's how that song cameabout.
Wow.
Yeah.
So apparently, it was recordedat Ginger Baker Studio.
Ginger Baker was the drummerfrom Cream.
Mm-hmm.
He had a studio in Nigeria too.
but he didn't play drums on it.
He actually played percussionwith a tin full of gravel, which
(05:42):
was the sound they wanted.
Wow.
What a great song had to go.
It was like grand old Painterdied last night.
Yeah, that's what a great song.
Yeah.
And just because he waschallenged to write it.
Wow.
We're gonna listen to that.
Yeah.
Apparently the title band onthe run is a reference to the
(06:03):
Beatles splitting up.
Yeah.
And in fact, even that line outof the song, if we ever Get out
of here.
That's actually down to George.
'cause George was just saying,you know, in these meetings that
they had at Apple headquartersall the time.
Yeah, he would.
He would just say, oh God, ifwe ever get outta here, sort of
thing.
So yeah.
Wow.
(06:23):
Great band, great song.
Oh, awesome album.
And some pretty cool characterson the front.
Yeah.
On the album cover.
Yeah.
What was the hell all about?
It was like how many?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6 guys fromand And the three band members.
Yeah, Michael Parkinson.
Yeah, he was one.
Yeah.
And the Dracula guy.
Christopher Lee.
Christopher Lee, yeah.
(06:44):
He had an interesting life.
That guy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He'd done a lot of stuff.
Even wrote a heavy metal album.
Oh wow.
So he served in the SecondWorld War.
It was a desert rat.
And wrote a heavy metal album.
Goodness.
And was Dracula and Benightedand Yeah.
Interesting life.
And he was in the Bond filmtoo, right?
(07:04):
He was, but he was also in Lordof the Rings.
Yeah.
Wow.
And he was in Star Wars.
Wow.
Yeah, he's done nothing.
Gone nowhere.
He was the best Dracula.
Right.
He was always the best.
He was.
'cause he was so serious,wasn't he?
Yeah.
That serious face.
Yeah.
Oh God.
And watch those moves.
I didn't like the scary ones.
So anyway, that is banned onthe run and that was without
(07:28):
doubt, McCartney's, mostsuccessful album Post Beatles.
And Wow.
With good reason.
It's, it's just an awesomealbum.
It was, when you hear it, ittakes you just to the seventies.
Yeah, it does.
Yeah.
And my brother had a VW combiwagon, had an eight track in it.
No one would know what an eighttrack is now, but it was a
dirty, big cassette and he hadthe whole album.
He had, David Bowie and uh, Ithink it was Spiders from Mars
(07:52):
or something.
And uh, it was the same time.
Yeah, yeah.
And, and band on the run.
Yeah.
Right.
And he used to, I was only 16.
They used to, he used to let medrive, take it away.
And, but it was just like funny'cause the steering wheel was
up really high and it bounce,they bounce, you know, combi
wagons, they sort of bounce.
And this song was, and italways reminds me when I hear
band with the run.
(08:13):
Yeah.
It always takes you back tothat time.
It's a lovely, lovely time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Good.
Well, speaking of driving Combivans, yeah.
Here's another song, boys ofSummer.
Okay.
Yeah.
So this one's got a prettyinteresting background.
'cause it was written by MikeCampbell, or at least the music
was written by Mike Campbell,who's the guitarist for Tom
(08:34):
Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Right?
Yeah.
And it was offered to Tom Pettyand he said no, and.
it was sort of kicked aroundfor a while and Mike Campbell
was one of the first people toget a, a drum and synth machine.
Yeah.
And had this friend calledRoger Lin, who actually, as you
(08:54):
do, was at Leon Russell's house.
Yeah.
Good old Leon.
Yeah.
And, was building a drummachine.
And Mike Campbell got hold ofit and sort of put down this
drum track.
Yeah.
And anyway, long story short,it found its way to, Don Henley,
and he wrote the lyrics for it,pretty quickly.
Even, once they had the songdown, the master tapes for it
(09:17):
got chewed up by a machine.
Yeah.
And, even when, Mike Campbellwas playing it to them, he had
it in this new groovy synthmachine that had a, like a
cassette player in it.
Yeah.
Every time a hit play, itwouldn't play.
Oh wow.
And it took like six times andhe was just about to go, oh,
well this thing's not gonnawork, and no one's gonna hear
(09:38):
this song the seventh time.
It wowed out.
Yep.
It, it played And it had areally unusual sound, didn't it?
Yeah, it did.
It did it to me.
That's the sound of summer andYeah.
But I mean, Henley wrote it'cause it was all about excess
and all of those things thatwere happening on the west coast
Yeah.
When the Eagles had just beenkings of the world.
(09:58):
Yes.
Yeah.
So there you go.
I can still hear that guitarleak in it.
Yeah.
Well, mike Campbell's anawesome guitarist.
Yes.
And I mean, he filled inFleetwood Mac, didn't he?
Yes, he did.
With, Neil Finn.
He's got a band now called TheDirty Knobs, which is a great
name for a band.
It'd be a great way to make aliving, wouldn't it?
(10:19):
Oh, yeah.
And it's hard.
It's hard.
And there's so many people thatdon't make it, but the ones
that do, they do, if they playtheir cards right, they have a
good life.
Yeah, absolutely.
What's next, Al?
Alright, next up we'll have abit of a change of pace and
we'll talk about some very smartpeople who did some very odd
(10:39):
things.
Okay.
You're not gonna start talkingabout me are Yeah.
Maybe well, mark, it seems likesome of the smartest people to
have lived might also be some ofthe weirdest.
Mm-hmm.
A really good example of thatis Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the
(11:01):
creator of Sherlock Holmes.
Yes.
While he was very clever, itseems he was very gullible as
well.
Evidently a couple of younggirls doctored some photos,
within a house.
Yeah.
And using a, I guess a crudeversion of Photoshop mm-hmm.
To include fairies Okay.
Within the pictures.
(11:21):
And he of course said, well,these girls could never create
anything like that.
Mm-hmm.
Therefore, fairies must betrue.
And he described these photosas the most astounding
photographs ever published.
Imagine if he lived today.
Al.
Well, I mean, for someone whoused Logic in his books.
Yeah.
Elementary, Yeah.
It seems like he was a bit of awacko when it came to being
(11:45):
suckered, so Yeah.
He'd be getting scam calls allover the place.
If he was alive today, I'd eventry it.
I think it'd be an easy mark,wouldn't he?
On Facebook?
Marketplace.
Yeah.
That's it.
Okay, another one.
Yes.
Sigmund Freud, old Sigmund, oldsig, the father of talk
(12:05):
therapy.
Apparently he was a major userof cocaine and in fact he, he
actually administered cocaine toa friend to cure morphine
addiction.
He was injecting it three timesa day and six months later, his
friend's addiction to bothmorphine and cocaine led to him
(12:27):
dying.
Great.
Spread that Sigmund scratchingat imaginary bugs and all those
things that happened.
Oh my goodness.
But the weirdest thing of allis that Sigmund Freud.
Believed that the number 62 wasafter him.
So a really good example ofthis was when he was given room
31 at a hotel, he freaked andsaid, oh, 31 is half of 62.
(12:50):
That's even worse.
Wow.
And, went completely balmy.
So, I don't know if that wasdown to the cocaine or.
If it was just because thenumber 62 had some significance
for him, but yeah, that's prettysad.
Yeah.
I believe maybe the cocaine hada bit of, it might have been,
I've never had cocaine, but No,I, based on that, I don't wanna,
(13:13):
yeah, I think when you had thatmarch, yeah.
I don't wanna have a fear ofany numbers, I'm afraid.
No.
Got enough problems withoutdigits chasing me.
He couldn't work on SesameStreet.
Imagine if you met the count.
Ah, that would be a nightmare.
Uh, 62.
(13:34):
Oh, I'm coming to get you.
Oh dear.
Yeah.
Okay.
What have we got now?
Now, probably the weirdest andmost eccentric of all geniuses.
Is Nikola Tesla?
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Yeah.
Now, this, this guy is amazing,apparently he was born during
(13:55):
an electrical storm.
Yeah.
And that led to his obsessionwith electricity born 165 years
ago.
But this guy, was fascinatedwith things like wifi.
He predicted wifi.
He predicted mobile phoneswhere people could communicate
with each other no matter wherethey are through a device that
fits in their vest pocket.
(14:16):
Yeah.
How many years ago?
65 years ago.
65 years ago.
It's just crazy.
Yeah.
He was working on X-ray.
He was working on a death ray.
A laser.
A laser being, he was talkingabout self-driving cars.
Self-driving cars, yeah.
(14:37):
Yeah.
And he even talked about thepossible rise of artificial
intelligence.
So talk about born at the wrongtime.
Right.
Wow.
So, so attaching the name Teslato a vehicle that supposedly
futuristic is absolutelybrilliant, brilliant.
But there were also some reallyweird things about this guy, I
(14:57):
could imagine he was agermaphobe.
He was obsessed with cleaning.
Yes.
He was scared of doctors.
Yeah.
And wouldn't go to a doctoreven if he was very unwell.
He loved pigeons.
Apparently he had a pigeon thathe called by name.
And was so close to it that hewould've married it if he could.
Okay.
Okay.
(15:18):
Okay.
He hated pearls.
No one knows why, but, he hatedpearls and apparently for the
last 30 years of his life, hewas kind of homeless.
Really?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So kind of these sort of peoplecan be like that.
Yeah.
So 'cause they just don't seemto function.
(15:39):
Well I think like they've burntout.
If your, if your head is, ifthinking of such big, expansive
thoughts and you're living in anera where it's really, course
you can't, well they're justgetting industrialization
happening.
Yeah.
And he's thinking about mobilephones.
Yeah.
It'd be pretty hard to fit inlive in the now, wouldn't it?
(15:59):
Yeah.
To fit in and just talk normalto someone.
Hey, how you doing Jack?
Apparently he was working on athought camera and an earthquake
machine.
Wow.
So, you know, yeah.
Lots of unrealized dreams.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh dear.
Another weird one is AlbertEinstein.
Old Albert.
(16:19):
Old Albert.
So mega brain and crazy hair.
Right.
And apparently despite beingthe mega brain that he was, he
loved being out on his boat, buthe was hopeless.
In the water.
Yeah.
It was a sailboat, so I guess,but he'd crash into people all
the time.
Oh wow.
He loved sailing.
He would run into people, buthe never learned to swim, so he
(16:42):
was, yeah.
Yeah.
I dunno how you get away withthat.
No.
Nor do I go out in a boat.
Well, yeah.
So if you fell in, nothingcould save him.
That's it.
Yeah.
So, you know, nobody's perfect,no.
Yeah.
It seems to be the way thesepeople are, that are like just
beyond, you know, thinking theythink, you know, their, their
(17:03):
minds are just, they're justmade differently.
Yeah.
Definitely differently.
We look at those people.
They're all, yeah.
Kooky.
Yeah.
Mm.
Okay.
Where are we going now, Alan?
We are going to kids tv, so, sowe're going from Albert
Einstein Yes.
(17:24):
To HR Pufnstuf Oh, wow.
Which is a bit of a leap.
Yeah, no, it's great.
It's great.
But that's how we like it.
Yeah.
It's nice and random.
I think they're both oncocaine.
I think they might've been.
Now for people who are notfamiliar with HR Puf nstuf, and
it's quite okay if you're not,because this is a very random
topic.
It was a kids TV show producedin 1969, by two brothers, Sid
(17:49):
and Marty Croft.
They did a lot of stuff.
Yeah, they did.
They even made puppets for theDean Martin show.
Did they?
Wow.
Yeah.
They were clever guys.
Yeah.
They were, I watched a clip onYouTube, that's why I've sort of
included it here.
Yeah.
I was watching a clip that justrandomly came up of this show,
and it looks so drug inspired.
(18:10):
It's like nothing you seeanymore.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But, they'd actually createdthis thing for the World's Fair
in 1968.
There's, yes.
A Dragon and somebody said, weshould actually produced a TV
show based around this dragon.
And at the time there was a hitsong called Puff the Magic
Dragon.
Yeah.
So there's a bit of an appappetite for Yeah.
(18:31):
There was a bit of an appetitefor Dragon stuff, right?
Yeah.
And so, so, uh, yeah.
Well, the weird thing is thisshow for people who've not seen
it again.
Please Google it because, gosh,how do I explain the premise of
this thing?
It was about a, it's about goodversus evil and I guess it's,
(18:52):
it's based on the idea of astranger in a strange land.
So it sent us on this littlekid called Jimmy who has a magic
flute.
Okay.
So it's a bit like there's noplace like home.
It was very much inspired bythe Wizard of Oz.
Yeah.
And so you've got all thesecrazy characters.
So the kid, Jimmy.
Turns up with Freddy, his magicflute.
(19:14):
Yes.
But there's a wicked witchwho's trying to steal the flute.
Yeah, I remember this fluteused to talk.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The the flute talks.
Yeah.
All of the sets talk.
So the trees talk.
The mushrooms talk.
Yeah.
There's all these weird littlecharacters getting around in it.
Yeah.
And HR Pufnstuf is the mayor ofthe town, so he steps in and
(19:36):
saves Jimmy from the WickedWitch.
And so Jimmy stays in this cavewith puffin stuff and all these
weird ass characters.
I don't what to say, but HRpufn stuf.
Well, and that, and that's whateveryone says.
Right.
Could it, could it be moreobviously drug related, but Sit
Marty Croft say No, it hadnothing to do with drugs.
(19:56):
Wow.
But honestly, bit like puff themajor dragon a little bit.
Yeah.
Wow.
So anyway, living the Mayor ofLiving Island, that's what HR
Huff and stuff was.
Anyway, the funny thing aboutthe show is all these
characters, whether they'retrees or rocks or mushrooms or
talking anything.
Yeah.
(20:17):
They were all using charactervoices from people at the time.
Yeah.
So HR Pufnstuf is actuallytaking off Gomer Pyle.
Oh really?
That was a Yes.
It's a real sort of friendlySouthern accent.
Yeah.
One of them, there's a lionthat was WC Fields.
There's a grandmother clockthat was Zsa Zsa Gabo.
Oh, wow.
(20:37):
I, yeah.
Okay.
There's Judy Frog was JudyGarland.
There's evil trees, BellaLagosi and Peter Laurie.
You know, there's all thisstuff A talking skull was Boris
Karloff, the West Wind is JohnWayne.
Like there's all this crazystuff.
Wow.
I didn't realize that.
Yeah.
(20:57):
It's only when you watch it andyou go, oh wow.
I mean most people haveforgotten about all those
characters, but it's when you,when you watch it, you just go,
what?
But anyway, when they werecasting for the show, they'd
seen Jack Wild who was doing,Oliver at the time.
Yeah.
And they went, this is the kidwe need.
Yeah.
He was, playing a 12-year-old,but apparently he was 16.
(21:18):
And, Marty Croft said he'd takeguardianship of him to let him
live in America.
Yeah.
'cause he was an English kidand he had two, teenage
daughters.
And apparently Jack Wild causedhim a few nightmares.
It's fair to say.
But the neat thing is theCrofts sued McDonald's because.
When you see the McDonald'scharacters, mare Cheese and Big
(21:42):
Mac.
Yeah.
They look remarkably like Wow.
HR Pufn stuf.
Characters.
Aren't they amazing?
The Americans?
Yeah.
It just, another neat thinglike you, do you remember the
theme song?
It's HR Puff and stuff.
Yeah.
No, I don't.
Well, it, it's kind of got thisbreezy bouncy thing.
Yeah.
And when Paul Simon heard it,he went, now you are ripping off
(22:03):
59th Street Bridge song, youknow?
Yeah, yeah.
Feeling groovy.
Yeah.
Really?
Yeah.
So he gets a writing credit forit, because otherwise they were
going to court and apparentlythey made loads of merch for
this stuff as they did in thesixties and seventies.
So there's Kellogg cereal.
I was gonna say probablyselling it through Kellogg
Cereal.
Kellogg Cereal.
There's stickers and rings, andthere's Freddie and Puppets,
(22:26):
Freddie the flutes, and there's,oh goodness.
There's records.
Yeah, there's all this stuff.
Wow.
That went through cereal.
Yeah.
But the weird thing, the thingthat blows me away is they shot
it on film.
So it was a financial disasterbecause instead of shooting it
on tape, they shot it on film.
'cause it's like the mostcolourful show you'll ever see.
(22:46):
Yeah.
They wanted this lush colourthat you get by using film, but
that costs a fortune and takes along time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I think they only made oneor two series and otherwise it
would go broke.
Wow.
Yeah.
Wow.
Incredible.
Isn't it pretty psychedelic?
It was.
So that wasn't the only show.
These guys did.
I know They did a thing calledSigmund, the Sea Monster and
(23:09):
Banana Splits.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Banana splits.
They were a band, but they werebig puppets.
Like people, you know, puppetsin, they climb inside the
costumes.
Yeah.
The, uh, what's it, um, la lala la la la la la la la la.
Well, banana.
Do banana.
(23:29):
Three banana.
There was, there was a dog, alion.
An elephant and a monkey.
Yep.
And, it was a great show.
It was very fast and funny.
Great music.
And, you know, some of themusicians that were writing the
(23:49):
stuff, four of them people like,Gene Pitney.
Oh yeah, yeah.
And Barry White.
Yeah.
I love you.
Boob Barry.
No, he was doing the, he wrotea banana split song or
something, right?
It wasn't the banana splitsong.
The theme song.
Yeah.
The theme song actually got twonumber 96 on the billboard hits
(24:13):
or something.
Oh wow.
Yeah.
Between Tiny Tim and someoneelse.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
Again, Kellogg's being asponsor got on board and they
had the name Banana Bunch Ithink it was, but it was already
a kids book and they couldn'tget the copyright on it.
Oh, okay.
So they went banana splits, butKellogg's had already printed
(24:34):
out Over a million cerealpackets.
Wow.
Yeah.
Oh wow.
Of cereal packets with handpuppets in with that name.
No, that had to be thrown.
Oh yeah.
So, whoops.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
Big money in kids.
Yeah.
Especially then.
Yeah.
Serial.
(24:55):
Yeah.
Unreal.
Just to indulge our, trip downchildhood TV memory lane for one
more moment.
I can't go to HR Puff n Stuffwithout mentioning Lancelot
Link.
Oh, the Secret Chimp.
Secret Chimp, yes.
Hang Lance.
So, this was a, spyorganization.
That's right.
Yeah.
(25:15):
The agency to prevent evil,which was ape.
Yeah.
And they were up against theirarch nemesis, chump, the
criminal headquarters for theUnderworld Master plan.
Wow.
This used chimpanzees as themain characters and the
producers would give them gum tochew so their mouths would move
to imitate the speech of thevoiceover actors.
(25:38):
It was so good.
So good.
And again, there was an albumproduced by the band.
Yeah.
Goodness.
Called the EvolutionRevolution.
Wow.
Yeah.
But the neat thing was, thewriters on this show, they'd
worked on pretty good comedyshows like Carol Burnett and
they were writers on Get Smart,which of course had control Yes.
(25:59):
And chaos.
Yeah.
And now you've got.
Ape and chump.
Wow.
So, you know, they weren'tmoving a hundred miles from
where they were.
No.
Yeah.
But so good.
And it's very clever andeverything's on YouTube now, so
you can, should revisit that.
I think.
Well, you know, it's kind ofcruddy, but good.
If it seemed very good.
I wonder if he's elated to, uh,Wally Wallpamur.
(26:21):
Oh, Wally Wallpamur, anotherreference.
Everyone rule relate.
Too much selling paint.
It's a different era.
Alright, mark.
Now time for some, fast tracks.
(26:41):
I thought since we were talkingabout dragons and chimpanzees.
Yes.
We might do some animal relatedfast tracks this time around.
So, you know when dogs tilttheir head when you speak to
them.
Yeah.
They're actually trying topinpoint familiar words when
they're looking at you, they'relooking for where the noises are
(27:03):
coming from, blah, blah, blah,blah, blah, food, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah.
That's it.
Yes.
That's it.
Walkies.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They're so smart.
Yeah.
I'm a bit like that.
I tilt my head to the side, sothat's what that is.
Wow.
Yeah.
Here's another one.
A blue whale has a heart thatweighs roughly 180 kilograms.
(27:30):
Oh, so when they're in thewater with you?
Yeah.
You can hear the heartbeat fromover two miles away.
Oh, wow.
Isn't that amazing?
Wow.
Yeah.
They weigh an average between130,000 and 150,000 kilograms.
Wow.
It's a big, big lump of whaleto be in the water, isn't it?
(27:50):
That's huge.
But to hear a heartbeat fromtwo miles away Oh yeah.
Shark could hear him frombloody a hundred miles away.
Yeah.
Well that's right.
Yeah.
Wow.
So there you go.
Geez.
I wouldn't wanna be a whale.
No.
Evidently, and I say this, Isay evidently because I have no
(28:11):
empirical evidence to supportthis.
Okay.
Dolphins name each other.
Do they?
Apparently, so Dolphins are sohighly socialized, that they
travel in pods of two to 30 andthey have names for each other.
Wow.
So, uh oh, yeah.
Yeah.
You're gonna do the flippersound, don't you?
Yeah.
(28:33):
How do they know that?
Well, I, yeah, I dunno.
So someone's down there.
Hey Russell, send Stan over.
Would you?
Yeah.
Want some more fish?
Pto.
Aussie dolphins.
Anyway, here's another one.
Now this is weird.
King Charles technically ownsall the dolphins in UK waters.
(28:56):
King Charles.
Mm-hmm.
Get out.
How can he own them?
I some strange birthright.
Oh, through the royal familymostly.
I dunno.
But you, you won't, you're notaccepting that one.
Not accepting that one.
Well, I don't know.
Gone.
I'm just saying.
Yeah, I know you are.
And it's probably true.
Okay.
(29:16):
Here's another one for you.
What?
And ostrich's eye is biggerthan its brain.
Mm.
Wow.
So that could be why.
They run around in circles whenthey're trying to escape
predators.
Oh.
Despite their fast speed.
Okay.
There you go.
Not, not the sharpest tool inthe shed.
The ostrich by the sound of it.
No, no.
(29:37):
Hmm.
Ugly looking thing too.
Yeah.
Uh, okay.
Another, the unicorn is theNational Animal of Scotland.
Ah, yeah.
So the unicorn.
Yeah.
So evidently again, it waschosen because of its connection
with dominance and chivalry aswell as purity and innocence in
(29:59):
mythology.
But it didn't get on the arcWell, no, that's right.
'cause there were twoalligators, long thickies, a
hump cam, and a chimpanzee.
Another reference that everyoneis getting into right now.
One last fun fact related toanimals.
(30:21):
Sure.
Yeah.
No, this is good.
A hippo's jaw can open wideenough to fit in a sports car.
Wow.
Now I need to know that one.
Next time I see a sports car, Imean, there's some sports car
drivers that I like to see fitinto a hippo's jaw, but, that's
pretty freaky.
Wow.
(30:41):
Yeah.
Wonder who did that.
Yeah.
How did they find out?
Okay.
We've proven it.
You can open the drawers upagain now.
Yeah.
Anyway, there you go.
There should be some, fun factsthere to annoy your friends and
work colleagues with.
Yeah.
Let's hope.
(31:02):
Yeah, Let's do one last thing,Martin.
And I know this is a topicthat's quite close to your heart
and that is that there's atheory that human noses and ears
get bigger as we age.
I know going, but apparentlyour nose and our ears stopped
growing.
Along with the rest of ourbody.
But thanks to the weight ofgravity, both parts continue to
(31:24):
lengthen over time.
Wow.
That's, and my source for thatis the Discovery Channel, so, so
yeah.
But mine hasn't grown well, Ithink ever since the Monty
Python's life of Brian fromlaunched, we have called each
other Big Nose.
Yeah.
We've got a big nose.
Oh, you have got, come on Bignose.
(31:44):
and for the last, when did thatcome out?
That another Big Nose and, EricIdols.
Mr.
Cheeky character.
Yeah.
who plays, he plays Stan andLoretta and all sorts of
characters in there.
Yeah.
But when we hear about, youknow, shut up Big Nose.
Yeah.
It's sort of, we have calledeach other Big nose ever since.
(32:05):
Yeah.
So I know that's got a specialplace in your life.
And in fact, when um, Eric Idleand John Cleese toured, we went
to see, we did it was great.
Them in concert and it wasgreat.
They were both brilliant.
They were both good fun andyeah, you know, naturally
blessed are the big nose endingthe concert with, always look on
the bright side of life.
Yeah.
And I guess that's probably agood note to end this podcast
(32:29):
on.
Yeah.
Big nose, look on the big, comeon, come on.
Big Noses Hale.
I'm just going to have one morefun fact here, which is that
you can't hum if you hold yournose.
No.
Mm.
No, you can't.
There you go.
So, as we leave everyone.
(32:50):
Trying to hum and holding theirnose.
I'll be doing it for a while.
You, you will.
That's about it for thisepisode.
Don't forget, if you want toget in touch with us, drop us a
line if you've got any topicsyou want us to cover off, get in
touch and we will catch younext time.
We certainly will.
It's been good.
Yes, see you next time.
Hello and welcome to Fun Facts and Sidetracks.
Fun Facts and Sidetracks.
That is the one Mart.
This is a podcast where we takea pretty lighthearted look at
all those things that interestus.
Coincidences, movies, popculture in general.
Yeah, yeah.
Bit of history.
My name's Al and this is Mark.
How are you mate?
Yeah, I'm great.
What a about you.
Oh, terrific.
(00:38):
Yep.
Good.
Loving life.
A quick disclaimer before westart.
Yes, we do a lot of,researching on the internet.
We, trawl through our memorybanks for stories and, try to
remember things from the past.
But if things aren't quite ahundred percent, please don't
hold us to it.
Yeah.
We mean no harm Earthlings.
We come in peace.
Send us an email and tell uswe're wrong.
(01:00):
Yeah.
Send us an email to Fun Factsand sidetracks@gmail.com.
Or if there's a topic that youwant us to talk about Yeah.
Then we can certainly do that.
Or check us out on, Facebookand Instagram.
Yeah.
At Fun Facts and Sidetracks.
Okay.
On with the show.
Okay, mark.
(01:24):
Now first up, we always talkabout those ones that got away.
Well, we have been so that'sgood.
Yeah, we have been, and thisis, this is normally songs that,
were recorded by anotherartist, but this time around, I
thought it might be good to talkabout well-known albums that
nearly didn't make it okay.
(01:44):
For whatever reason.
Here you go.
Really good example of this isthe Green Day album.
American Idiot.
Yeah.
from 2004, they were actuallyrobbed and all of the master
tapes were stolen, so theyreally just had to start over.
They rerecorded the wholething.
And it became a bit morepolitically laden.
(02:06):
It's fair to say.
Okay.
In their lyrics.
But pretty well out there.
There's, there's sort of mastertapes for, uh.
Different version of, I wonderif the liver a turn up.
Yeah.
Well they'll probably turn upfor sale and like, they'd be
worth a fortune.
Yeah.
Really?
Yeah, because it'd beinteresting to hear it.
Yeah.
(02:27):
How, how different it would beand it probably just a bigger
hit.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
Might turn up on marketplace,you know, pick up only.
Anyway, so, any scammers call,I dunno if you've heard, Green
Day lately, but, on stage it'sfair to say that they're fairly
(02:48):
scathing about the currentAmerican president.
Wow.
So, anyway, we'll leave thatwhere it is.
I have to be careful.
Probably.
Yeah.
Okay.
Another one, and this is, we'resort of unashamedly Beatles
fans.
Mm-hmm.
Here at Fun Facts Sidetracks.
Yeah.
And so this one is banned onthe Run, which was the most
successful album for PaulMcCartney in a post Beatle era.
(03:11):
Mm.
And he and Linda and the bandactually went to, Lagos in
Nigeria.
Yeah.
To record it.
Which a lot of people said,well, that's a funny thing to do
because it's not the safestpart of the world.
But he wanted a sort of adifferent sound.
And sure enough, they actuallygot robbed.
(03:32):
So they, they lost all of the,master tapes, all the lyrics.
Wow.
All the demo tapes at least.
So yeah, they had to go backto, that's another one you'd
like to get your hands on.
Oh, man.
Yeah.
And.
Evidently the guys that heldthem up didn't really know who
he was.
No.
Until Linda said he's a Beatle.
Like, don't shoot him, please.
(03:53):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
This is Beatle Paul.
Yeah, so they were mugged andlost the lyrics and the demo
tapes on top of that, two of theguys from the band actually got
teased off with it andresigned.
So ultimately there was Pauland Linda and Denny Laine, there
in Nigeria, and they basicallyrerecorded everything.
(04:15):
Wow.
Yeah.
So, so Paul would've paid mostof the instrument.
Yeah.
Well I think that was maybepart of the reason for the guys
sort of leaving, 'cause he wassuch a perfectionist and, you
know, jumped on the drums andwhatever Paul does.
Yeah.
Who's that?
Who's that other person?
Denny Laine.
Denny Laine.
Yeah.
So he was from the Moody Blues.
Oh, okay.
Initially, yeah, so there yougo.
And I guess some other funfacts around this album.
(04:39):
So, Picasso's last Words, whichis one of the very excellent
songs on Yeah.
Band on the Run.
Yeah.
Came about because Paul andLinda were on, on holidays in
Jamaica, and that's where themovie Papillon was being filmed.
They had dinner with DustinHoffman, who was one of the
stars.
Wow.
Yeah, I remember.
That's a great movie.
The Queen.
(05:00):
And, yeah.
And Hoffman challenged PaulMcCartney to write a song about
anything that was happening.
So he saw in a magazine.
This article about PabloPicasso dying.
Yeah.
And challenged Paul to write asong and fair enough, Paul, Paul
picked up a guitar and startedwriting that song, and
(05:20):
apparently Dustin Hoffman'sshouting to his wife, look, he's
doing it.
He's doing it.
So that's how that song cameabout.
Wow.
Yeah.
So apparently, it was recordedat Ginger Baker Studio.
Ginger Baker was the drummerfrom Cream.
Mm-hmm.
He had a studio in Nigeria too.
but he didn't play drums on it.
He actually played percussionwith a tin full of gravel, which
(05:42):
was the sound they wanted.
Wow.
What a great song had to go.
It was like grand old Painterdied last night.
Yeah, that's what a great song.
Yeah.
And just because he waschallenged to write it.
Wow.
We're gonna listen to that.
Yeah.
Apparently the title band onthe run is a reference to the
(06:03):
Beatles splitting up.
Yeah.
And in fact, even that line outof the song, if we ever Get out
of here.
That's actually down to George.
'cause George was just saying,you know, in these meetings that
they had at Apple headquartersall the time.
Yeah, he would.
He would just say, oh God, ifwe ever get outta here, sort of
thing.
So yeah.
Wow.
(06:23):
Great band, great song.
Oh, awesome album.
And some pretty cool characterson the front.
Yeah.
On the album cover.
Yeah.
What was the hell all about?
It was like how many?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6 guys fromand And the three band members.
Yeah, Michael Parkinson.
Yeah, he was one.
Yeah.
And the Dracula guy.
Christopher Lee.
Christopher Lee, yeah.
(06:44):
He had an interesting life.
That guy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He'd done a lot of stuff.
Even wrote a heavy metal album.
Oh wow.
So he served in the SecondWorld War.
It was a desert rat.
And wrote a heavy metal album.
Goodness.
And was Dracula and Benightedand Yeah.
Interesting life.
And he was in the Bond filmtoo, right?
(07:04):
He was, but he was also in Lordof the Rings.
Yeah.
Wow.
And he was in Star Wars.
Wow.
Yeah, he's done nothing.
Gone nowhere.
He was the best Dracula.
Right.
He was always the best.
He was.
'cause he was so serious,wasn't he?
Yeah.
That serious face.
Yeah.
Oh God.
And watch those moves.
I didn't like the scary ones.
So anyway, that is banned onthe run and that was without
(07:28):
doubt, McCartney's, mostsuccessful album Post Beatles.
And Wow.
With good reason.
It's, it's just an awesomealbum.
It was, when you hear it, ittakes you just to the seventies.
Yeah, it does.
Yeah.
And my brother had a VW combiwagon, had an eight track in it.
No one would know what an eighttrack is now, but it was a
dirty, big cassette and he hadthe whole album.
He had, David Bowie and uh, Ithink it was Spiders from Mars
(07:52):
or something.
And uh, it was the same time.
Yeah, yeah.
And, and band on the run.
Yeah.
Right.
And he used to, I was only 16.
They used to, he used to let medrive, take it away.
And, but it was just like funny'cause the steering wheel was
up really high and it bounce,they bounce, you know, combi
wagons, they sort of bounce.
And this song was, and italways reminds me when I hear
band with the run.
(08:13):
Yeah.
It always takes you back tothat time.
It's a lovely, lovely time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Good.
Well, speaking of driving Combivans, yeah.
Here's another song, boys ofSummer.
Okay.
Yeah.
So this one's got a prettyinteresting background.
'cause it was written by MikeCampbell, or at least the music
was written by Mike Campbell,who's the guitarist for Tom
(08:34):
Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Right?
Yeah.
And it was offered to Tom Pettyand he said no, and.
it was sort of kicked aroundfor a while and Mike Campbell
was one of the first people toget a, a drum and synth machine.
Yeah.
And had this friend calledRoger Lin, who actually, as you
(08:54):
do, was at Leon Russell's house.
Yeah.
Good old Leon.
Yeah.
And, was building a drummachine.
And Mike Campbell got hold ofit and sort of put down this
drum track.
Yeah.
And anyway, long story short,it found its way to, Don Henley,
and he wrote the lyrics for it,pretty quickly.
Even, once they had the songdown, the master tapes for it
(09:17):
got chewed up by a machine.
Yeah.
And, even when, Mike Campbellwas playing it to them, he had
it in this new groovy synthmachine that had a, like a
cassette player in it.
Yeah.
Every time a hit play, itwouldn't play.
Oh wow.
And it took like six times andhe was just about to go, oh,
well this thing's not gonnawork, and no one's gonna hear
(09:38):
this song the seventh time.
It wowed out.
Yep.
It, it played And it had areally unusual sound, didn't it?
Yeah, it did.
It did it to me.
That's the sound of summer andYeah.
But I mean, Henley wrote it'cause it was all about excess
and all of those things thatwere happening on the west coast
Yeah.
When the Eagles had just beenkings of the world.
(09:58):
Yes.
Yeah.
So there you go.
I can still hear that guitarleak in it.
Yeah.
Well, mike Campbell's anawesome guitarist.
Yes.
And I mean, he filled inFleetwood Mac, didn't he?
Yes, he did.
With, Neil Finn.
He's got a band now called TheDirty Knobs, which is a great
name for a band.
It'd be a great way to make aliving, wouldn't it?
(10:19):
Oh, yeah.
And it's hard.
It's hard.
And there's so many people thatdon't make it, but the ones
that do, they do, if they playtheir cards right, they have a
good life.
Yeah, absolutely.
What's next, Al?
Alright, next up we'll have abit of a change of pace and
we'll talk about some very smartpeople who did some very odd
(10:39):
things.
Okay.
You're not gonna start talkingabout me are Yeah.
Maybe well, mark, it seems likesome of the smartest people to
have lived might also be some ofthe weirdest.
Mm-hmm.
A really good example of thatis Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the
(11:01):
creator of Sherlock Holmes.
Yes.
While he was very clever, itseems he was very gullible as
well.
Evidently a couple of younggirls doctored some photos,
within a house.
Yeah.
And using a, I guess a crudeversion of Photoshop mm-hmm.
To include fairies Okay.
Within the pictures.
(11:21):
And he of course said, well,these girls could never create
anything like that.
Mm-hmm.
Therefore, fairies must betrue.
And he described these photosas the most astounding
photographs ever published.
Imagine if he lived today.
Al.
Well, I mean, for someone whoused Logic in his books.
Yeah.
Elementary, Yeah.
It seems like he was a bit of awacko when it came to being
(11:45):
suckered, so Yeah.
He'd be getting scam calls allover the place.
If he was alive today, I'd eventry it.
I think it'd be an easy mark,wouldn't he?
On Facebook?
Marketplace.
Yeah.
That's it.
Okay, another one.
Yes.
Sigmund Freud, old Sigmund, oldsig, the father of talk
(12:05):
therapy.
Apparently he was a major userof cocaine and in fact he, he
actually administered cocaine toa friend to cure morphine
addiction.
He was injecting it three timesa day and six months later, his
friend's addiction to bothmorphine and cocaine led to him
(12:27):
dying.
Great.
Spread that Sigmund scratchingat imaginary bugs and all those
things that happened.
Oh my goodness.
But the weirdest thing of allis that Sigmund Freud.
Believed that the number 62 wasafter him.
So a really good example ofthis was when he was given room
31 at a hotel, he freaked andsaid, oh, 31 is half of 62.
(12:50):
That's even worse.
Wow.
And, went completely balmy.
So, I don't know if that wasdown to the cocaine or.
If it was just because thenumber 62 had some significance
for him, but yeah, that's prettysad.
Yeah.
I believe maybe the cocaine hada bit of, it might have been,
I've never had cocaine, but No,I, based on that, I don't wanna,
(13:13):
yeah, I think when you had thatmarch, yeah.
I don't wanna have a fear ofany numbers, I'm afraid.
No.
Got enough problems withoutdigits chasing me.
He couldn't work on SesameStreet.
Imagine if you met the count.
Ah, that would be a nightmare.
Uh, 62.
(13:34):
Oh, I'm coming to get you.
Oh dear.
Yeah.
Okay.
What have we got now?
Now, probably the weirdest andmost eccentric of all geniuses.
Is Nikola Tesla?
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Yeah.
Now, this, this guy is amazing,apparently he was born during
(13:55):
an electrical storm.
Yeah.
And that led to his obsessionwith electricity born 165 years
ago.
But this guy, was fascinatedwith things like wifi.
He predicted wifi.
He predicted mobile phoneswhere people could communicate
with each other no matter wherethey are through a device that
fits in their vest pocket.
(14:16):
Yeah.
How many years ago?
65 years ago.
65 years ago.
It's just crazy.
Yeah.
He was working on X-ray.
He was working on a death ray.
A laser.
A laser being, he was talkingabout self-driving cars.
Self-driving cars, yeah.
(14:37):
Yeah.
And he even talked about thepossible rise of artificial
intelligence.
So talk about born at the wrongtime.
Right.
Wow.
So, so attaching the name Teslato a vehicle that supposedly
futuristic is absolutelybrilliant, brilliant.
But there were also some reallyweird things about this guy, I
(14:57):
could imagine he was agermaphobe.
He was obsessed with cleaning.
Yes.
He was scared of doctors.
Yeah.
And wouldn't go to a doctoreven if he was very unwell.
He loved pigeons.
Apparently he had a pigeon thathe called by name.
And was so close to it that hewould've married it if he could.
Okay.
Okay.
(15:18):
Okay.
He hated pearls.
No one knows why, but, he hatedpearls and apparently for the
last 30 years of his life, hewas kind of homeless.
Really?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So kind of these sort of peoplecan be like that.
Yeah.
So 'cause they just don't seemto function.
(15:39):
Well I think like they've burntout.
If your, if your head is, ifthinking of such big, expansive
thoughts and you're living in anera where it's really, course
you can't, well they're justgetting industrialization
happening.
Yeah.
And he's thinking about mobilephones.
Yeah.
It'd be pretty hard to fit inlive in the now, wouldn't it?
(15:59):
Yeah.
To fit in and just talk normalto someone.
Hey, how you doing Jack?
Apparently he was working on athought camera and an earthquake
machine.
Wow.
So, you know, yeah.
Lots of unrealized dreams.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh dear.
Another weird one is AlbertEinstein.
Old Albert.
(16:19):
Old Albert.
So mega brain and crazy hair.
Right.
And apparently despite beingthe mega brain that he was, he
loved being out on his boat, buthe was hopeless.
In the water.
Yeah.
It was a sailboat, so I guess,but he'd crash into people all
the time.
Oh wow.
He loved sailing.
He would run into people, buthe never learned to swim, so he
(16:42):
was, yeah.
Yeah.
I dunno how you get away withthat.
No.
Nor do I go out in a boat.
Well, yeah.
So if you fell in, nothingcould save him.
That's it.
Yeah.
So, you know, nobody's perfect,no.
Yeah.
It seems to be the way thesepeople are, that are like just
beyond, you know, thinking theythink, you know, their, their
(17:03):
minds are just, they're justmade differently.
Yeah.
Definitely differently.
We look at those people.
They're all, yeah.
Kooky.
Yeah.
Mm.
Okay.
Where are we going now, Alan?
We are going to kids tv, so, sowe're going from Albert
Einstein Yes.
(17:24):
To HR Pufnstuf Oh, wow.
Which is a bit of a leap.
Yeah, no, it's great.
It's great.
But that's how we like it.
Yeah.
It's nice and random.
I think they're both oncocaine.
I think they might've been.
Now for people who are notfamiliar with HR Puf nstuf, and
it's quite okay if you're not,because this is a very random
topic.
It was a kids TV show producedin 1969, by two brothers, Sid
(17:49):
and Marty Croft.
They did a lot of stuff.
Yeah, they did.
They even made puppets for theDean Martin show.
Did they?
Wow.
Yeah.
They were clever guys.
Yeah.
They were, I watched a clip onYouTube, that's why I've sort of
included it here.
Yeah.
I was watching a clip that justrandomly came up of this show,
and it looks so drug inspired.
(18:10):
It's like nothing you seeanymore.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But, they'd actually createdthis thing for the World's Fair
in 1968.
There's, yes.
A Dragon and somebody said, weshould actually produced a TV
show based around this dragon.
And at the time there was a hitsong called Puff the Magic
Dragon.
Yeah.
So there's a bit of an appappetite for Yeah.
(18:31):
There was a bit of an appetitefor Dragon stuff, right?
Yeah.
And so, so, uh, yeah.
Well, the weird thing is thisshow for people who've not seen
it again.
Please Google it because, gosh,how do I explain the premise of
this thing?
It was about a, it's about goodversus evil and I guess it's,
(18:52):
it's based on the idea of astranger in a strange land.
So it sent us on this littlekid called Jimmy who has a magic
flute.
Okay.
So it's a bit like there's noplace like home.
It was very much inspired bythe Wizard of Oz.
Yeah.
And so you've got all thesecrazy characters.
So the kid, Jimmy.
Turns up with Freddy, his magicflute.
(19:14):
Yes.
But there's a wicked witchwho's trying to steal the flute.
Yeah, I remember this fluteused to talk.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The the flute talks.
Yeah.
All of the sets talk.
So the trees talk.
The mushrooms talk.
Yeah.
There's all these weird littlecharacters getting around in it.
Yeah.
And HR Pufnstuf is the mayor ofthe town, so he steps in and
(19:36):
saves Jimmy from the WickedWitch.
And so Jimmy stays in this cavewith puffin stuff and all these
weird ass characters.
I don't what to say, but HRpufn stuf.
Well, and that, and that's whateveryone says.
Right.
Could it, could it be moreobviously drug related, but Sit
Marty Croft say No, it hadnothing to do with drugs.
(19:56):
Wow.
But honestly, bit like puff themajor dragon a little bit.
Yeah.
Wow.
So anyway, living the Mayor ofLiving Island, that's what HR
Huff and stuff was.
Anyway, the funny thing aboutthe show is all these
characters, whether they'retrees or rocks or mushrooms or
talking anything.
Yeah.
(20:17):
They were all using charactervoices from people at the time.
Yeah.
So HR Pufnstuf is actuallytaking off Gomer Pyle.
Oh really?
That was a Yes.
It's a real sort of friendlySouthern accent.
Yeah.
One of them, there's a lionthat was WC Fields.
There's a grandmother clockthat was Zsa Zsa Gabo.
Oh, wow.
(20:37):
I, yeah.
Okay.
There's Judy Frog was JudyGarland.
There's evil trees, BellaLagosi and Peter Laurie.
You know, there's all thisstuff A talking skull was Boris
Karloff, the West Wind is JohnWayne.
Like there's all this crazystuff.
Wow.
I didn't realize that.
Yeah.
(20:57):
It's only when you watch it andyou go, oh wow.
I mean most people haveforgotten about all those
characters, but it's when you,when you watch it, you just go,
what?
But anyway, when they werecasting for the show, they'd
seen Jack Wild who was doing,Oliver at the time.
Yeah.
And they went, this is the kidwe need.
Yeah.
He was, playing a 12-year-old,but apparently he was 16.
(21:18):
And, Marty Croft said he'd takeguardianship of him to let him
live in America.
Yeah.
'cause he was an English kidand he had two, teenage
daughters.
And apparently Jack Wild causedhim a few nightmares.
It's fair to say.
But the neat thing is theCrofts sued McDonald's because.
When you see the McDonald'scharacters, mare Cheese and Big
(21:42):
Mac.
Yeah.
They look remarkably like Wow.
HR Pufn stuf.
Characters.
Aren't they amazing?
The Americans?
Yeah.
It just, another neat thinglike you, do you remember the
theme song?
It's HR Puff and stuff.
Yeah.
No, I don't.
Well, it, it's kind of got thisbreezy bouncy thing.
Yeah.
And when Paul Simon heard it,he went, now you are ripping off
(22:03):
59th Street Bridge song, youknow?
Yeah, yeah.
Feeling groovy.
Yeah.
Really?
Yeah.
So he gets a writing credit forit, because otherwise they were
going to court and apparentlythey made loads of merch for
this stuff as they did in thesixties and seventies.
So there's Kellogg cereal.
I was gonna say probablyselling it through Kellogg
Cereal.
Kellogg Cereal.
There's stickers and rings, andthere's Freddie and Puppets,
(22:26):
Freddie the flutes, and there's,oh goodness.
There's records.
Yeah, there's all this stuff.
Wow.
That went through cereal.
Yeah.
But the weird thing, the thingthat blows me away is they shot
it on film.
So it was a financial disasterbecause instead of shooting it
on tape, they shot it on film.
'cause it's like the mostcolourful show you'll ever see.
(22:46):
Yeah.
They wanted this lush colourthat you get by using film, but
that costs a fortune and takes along time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I think they only made oneor two series and otherwise it
would go broke.
Wow.
Yeah.
Wow.
Incredible.
Isn't it pretty psychedelic?
It was.
So that wasn't the only show.
These guys did.
I know They did a thing calledSigmund, the Sea Monster and
(23:09):
Banana Splits.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Banana splits.
They were a band, but they werebig puppets.
Like people, you know, puppetsin, they climb inside the
costumes.
Yeah.
The, uh, what's it, um, la lala la la la la la la la la.
Well, banana.
Do banana.
(23:29):
Three banana.
There was, there was a dog, alion.
An elephant and a monkey.
Yep.
And, it was a great show.
It was very fast and funny.
Great music.
And, you know, some of themusicians that were writing the
(23:49):
stuff, four of them people like,Gene Pitney.
Oh yeah, yeah.
And Barry White.
Yeah.
I love you.
Boob Barry.
No, he was doing the, he wrotea banana split song or
something, right?
It wasn't the banana splitsong.
The theme song.
Yeah.
The theme song actually got twonumber 96 on the billboard hits
(24:13):
or something.
Oh wow.
Yeah.
Between Tiny Tim and someoneelse.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
Again, Kellogg's being asponsor got on board and they
had the name Banana Bunch Ithink it was, but it was already
a kids book and they couldn'tget the copyright on it.
Oh, okay.
So they went banana splits, butKellogg's had already printed
(24:34):
out Over a million cerealpackets.
Wow.
Yeah.
Oh wow.
Of cereal packets with handpuppets in with that name.
No, that had to be thrown.
Oh yeah.
So, whoops.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
Big money in kids.
Yeah.
Especially then.
Yeah.
Serial.
(24:55):
Yeah.
Unreal.
Just to indulge our, trip downchildhood TV memory lane for one
more moment.
I can't go to HR Puff n Stuffwithout mentioning Lancelot
Link.
Oh, the Secret Chimp.
Secret Chimp, yes.
Hang Lance.
So, this was a, spyorganization.
That's right.
Yeah.
(25:15):
The agency to prevent evil,which was ape.
Yeah.
And they were up against theirarch nemesis, chump, the
criminal headquarters for theUnderworld Master plan.
Wow.
This used chimpanzees as themain characters and the
producers would give them gum tochew so their mouths would move
to imitate the speech of thevoiceover actors.
(25:38):
It was so good.
So good.
And again, there was an albumproduced by the band.
Yeah.
Goodness.
Called the EvolutionRevolution.
Wow.
Yeah.
But the neat thing was, thewriters on this show, they'd
worked on pretty good comedyshows like Carol Burnett and
they were writers on Get Smart,which of course had control Yes.
(25:59):
And chaos.
Yeah.
And now you've got.
Ape and chump.
Wow.
So, you know, they weren'tmoving a hundred miles from
where they were.
No.
Yeah.
But so good.
And it's very clever andeverything's on YouTube now, so
you can, should revisit that.
I think.
Well, you know, it's kind ofcruddy, but good.
If it seemed very good.
I wonder if he's elated to, uh,Wally Wallpamur.
(26:21):
Oh, Wally Wallpamur, anotherreference.
Everyone rule relate.
Too much selling paint.
It's a different era.
Alright, mark.
Now time for some, fast tracks.
(26:41):
I thought since we were talkingabout dragons and chimpanzees.
Yes.
We might do some animal relatedfast tracks this time around.
So, you know when dogs tilttheir head when you speak to
them.
Yeah.
They're actually trying topinpoint familiar words when
they're looking at you, they'relooking for where the noises are
(27:03):
coming from, blah, blah, blah,blah, blah, food, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah.
That's it.
Yes.
That's it.
Walkies.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They're so smart.
Yeah.
I'm a bit like that.
I tilt my head to the side, sothat's what that is.
Wow.
Yeah.
Here's another one.
A blue whale has a heart thatweighs roughly 180 kilograms.
(27:30):
Oh, so when they're in thewater with you?
Yeah.
You can hear the heartbeat fromover two miles away.
Oh, wow.
Isn't that amazing?
Wow.
Yeah.
They weigh an average between130,000 and 150,000 kilograms.
Wow.
It's a big, big lump of whaleto be in the water, isn't it?
(27:50):
That's huge.
But to hear a heartbeat fromtwo miles away Oh yeah.
Shark could hear him frombloody a hundred miles away.
Yeah.
Well that's right.
Yeah.
Wow.
So there you go.
Geez.
I wouldn't wanna be a whale.
No.
Evidently, and I say this, Isay evidently because I have no
(28:11):
empirical evidence to supportthis.
Okay.
Dolphins name each other.
Do they?
Apparently, so Dolphins are sohighly socialized, that they
travel in pods of two to 30 andthey have names for each other.
Wow.
So, uh oh, yeah.
Yeah.
You're gonna do the flippersound, don't you?
Yeah.
(28:33):
How do they know that?
Well, I, yeah, I dunno.
So someone's down there.
Hey Russell, send Stan over.
Would you?
Yeah.
Want some more fish?
Pto.
Aussie dolphins.
Anyway, here's another one.
Now this is weird.
King Charles technically ownsall the dolphins in UK waters.
(28:56):
King Charles.
Mm-hmm.
Get out.
How can he own them?
I some strange birthright.
Oh, through the royal familymostly.
I dunno.
But you, you won't, you're notaccepting that one.
Not accepting that one.
Well, I don't know.
Gone.
I'm just saying.
Yeah, I know you are.
And it's probably true.
Okay.
(29:16):
Here's another one for you.
What?
And ostrich's eye is biggerthan its brain.
Mm.
Wow.
So that could be why.
They run around in circles whenthey're trying to escape
predators.
Oh.
Despite their fast speed.
Okay.
There you go.
Not, not the sharpest tool inthe shed.
The ostrich by the sound of it.
No, no.
(29:37):
Hmm.
Ugly looking thing too.
Yeah.
Uh, okay.
Another, the unicorn is theNational Animal of Scotland.
Ah, yeah.
So the unicorn.
Yeah.
So evidently again, it waschosen because of its connection
with dominance and chivalry aswell as purity and innocence in
(29:59):
mythology.
But it didn't get on the arcWell, no, that's right.
'cause there were twoalligators, long thickies, a
hump cam, and a chimpanzee.
Another reference that everyoneis getting into right now.
One last fun fact related toanimals.
(30:21):
Sure.
Yeah.
No, this is good.
A hippo's jaw can open wideenough to fit in a sports car.
Wow.
Now I need to know that one.
Next time I see a sports car, Imean, there's some sports car
drivers that I like to see fitinto a hippo's jaw, but, that's
pretty freaky.
Wow.
(30:41):
Yeah.
Wonder who did that.
Yeah.
How did they find out?
Okay.
We've proven it.
You can open the drawers upagain now.
Yeah.
Anyway, there you go.
There should be some, fun factsthere to annoy your friends and
work colleagues with.
Yeah.
Let's hope.
(31:02):
Yeah, Let's do one last thing,Martin.
And I know this is a topicthat's quite close to your heart
and that is that there's atheory that human noses and ears
get bigger as we age.
I know going, but apparentlyour nose and our ears stopped
growing.
Along with the rest of ourbody.
But thanks to the weight ofgravity, both parts continue to
(31:24):
lengthen over time.
Wow.
That's, and my source for thatis the Discovery Channel, so, so
yeah.
But mine hasn't grown well, Ithink ever since the Monty
Python's life of Brian fromlaunched, we have called each
other Big Nose.
Yeah.
We've got a big nose.
Oh, you have got, come on Bignose.
(31:44):
and for the last, when did thatcome out?
That another Big Nose and, EricIdols.
Mr.
Cheeky character.
Yeah.
who plays, he plays Stan andLoretta and all sorts of
characters in there.
Yeah.
But when we hear about, youknow, shut up Big Nose.
Yeah.
It's sort of, we have calledeach other Big nose ever since.
(32:05):
Yeah.
So I know that's got a specialplace in your life.
And in fact, when um, Eric Idleand John Cleese toured, we went
to see, we did it was great.
Them in concert and it wasgreat.
They were both brilliant.
They were both good fun andyeah, you know, naturally
blessed are the big nose endingthe concert with, always look on
the bright side of life.
Yeah.
And I guess that's probably agood note to end this podcast
(32:29):
on.
Yeah.
Big nose, look on the big, comeon, come on.
Big Noses Hale.
I'm just going to have one morefun fact here, which is that
you can't hum if you hold yournose.
No.
Mm.
No, you can't.
There you go.
So, as we leave everyone.
(32:50):
Trying to hum and holding theirnose.
I'll be doing it for a while.
You, you will.
That's about it for thisepisode.
Don't forget, if you want toget in touch with us, drop us a
line if you've got any topicsyou want us to cover off, get in
touch and we will catch younext time.
We certainly will.
It's been good.
Yes, see you next time.
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!
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.