June 21, 2025 • 25 mins
What animals do you like that other people don’t like? What animal is covered in spots and makes a whooping sound? Laura and Rob chat about misunderstood animals that make them happy, plus you’ll hear a song about hyenas and vultures, a game show about animal sounds, awesome animal clues from fan Jack and an interview with special guest, comedian Alex Falcone. What animal is making Alex happy? It’s an animal that throws up its food when it gets scared.
The Happiest Animal Show (on Planet Earth) is a comedy podcast for kids and families who love wildlife, with original animal songs, stories, jokes and special guests from comedians to scientists to kids. If you like spotted hyenas, roaches or vultures, you might really like this episode!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
And now for an animal joke.
How do you get a skunk to stop smelling?
I repeat.
How do you get a skunk to stop smelling?
The answer is going to be revealed
at the end of the episode.
(00:32):
But first,get your ears ready Because it’s
the Happiest Animal Show on Planet Earth.The Happiest Animal Show on Planet Earth.
You want to be sad?No! Do you want to be glad? No.
Wait. Yes.
Well, it’sthe Happiest Animal Show on Planet Earth.
Hello and welcome
to the Happiest AnimalShow on Planet Earth, the podcast
that asks the very important question: What animal is making you happy today? (00:50):
undefined
I'm Laura, and I'm Roband we are a sister brother
pair of zoologists,filmmakers and songwriters.
We are here to explore the wonderful world
of wildlife and discoverwhy animals make us happy.
Today we are celebrating misunderstood
(01:10):
animals with stories, a new song,and with special guest comedian
and a person who makes very funny videosabout misunderstood animals.
Alex Falcone Here we go.
What animal is making you happy today?
I want to know.
The themewe have given ourselves for this episode
(01:32):
is Misunderstood Animals.
I feel like it's animals that people
don't understand or animalsthat people don't like.
Basically, an animal I think ispretty cool and deserves some recognition.
Yeah, it's time that these animalsget a little bit of respect
and in the spirit of respect, Laura,how about you go first?
(01:53):
What misunderstood animal is making youhappy today?
Oh my goodness.
It's an animal that I love.
It lives in Africa.
It's a really good hunter.
It has spots.
It. I know Rob's laughing because he knowsthat he knows what I'm doing.
(02:14):
For those of you listening.
Here are some more clues.
They live in clans.
The females are all in charge
and they make some cool sounds.
Sometimes they make what sort ofsounds like a giggle, and a lot of times
they make a soundthat sounds like a whoop, like ooh
(02:34):
ooh.
What animal am I thinking of here?
I wondered if you were gonna kind of strayand pick pick something else.
But you went with the spotted hyena.
Spotted hyena,
spotted hyena.
(02:56):
Spotted hyenas are so awesome,
and I feel like they may be one ofthe most misunderstood animals of all.
So why are hyenas making you happy?
Well, they make me happybecause when I was in college
at Michigan State University,I got to go study hyenas in Africa.
I spent my whole undergrad career
studying hyenas with,professor named Doctor Kay.
(03:18):
Holekamp.
And I loved it. And honestly.
So when I think of hyenas,I just get good feelings
because I had such a fun timegoing to Africa and studying them.
Well, what makes them so misunderstood?
People think of hyenas as gross,dirty scavengers
who are only stealing food from othersinstead of hunting for themselves.
(03:39):
And it's just not true, right?
Hyenas are more successfulhunters than lions,
are they catch foodway more than lions do.
Lions are more likely to steal foodfrom hyenas than the other way around.
I was just thinking about this one timewe actually came across.
There's a whole group of hyenas
they had just killed, somethingthey were all eating,
(04:00):
and there was a big group of them,probably like ten hyenas.
And the hyenas were so excitedand their tails were bristled
and they were all eating.
And it's pretty coolbecause all the girls get to eat first.
Girls are in charge in hyena world,and so the top girls would eat,
then the next girls would eatand they'd all be darting in.
And then there were these boy hyenaswho were hanging around the sides,
(04:23):
and they would try to sneak inand grab a little bit of food.
They'd be walking on eggshells,come in and be like, oh, okay, can I,
can I eat now? No. Okay, okay. Come back.I'll come back later.
And then they'd try again
and they'd come past the carfrom behind us
and like dart in and be like, what's up?Hey girl.
So can I eat yet? No. Okay.You're still eating.
Okay. I'll go, I'll go away.
And that kept happening.
One time I thought there was another boyhyena, coming in
(04:45):
to try to see if they could eat yet, andI turned my head to look out the window.
And this. It was not a hyena.
It was a giant male lion that came running
right past my window, wind in his mane.
It was so closeand I was like, oh, I kind of recoiled.
(05:06):
The lion ran into the middleof all these hyenas, roared super loud.
A lion roar feels like a motorcyclegoing through your body.
It vibrates super loud.
So this lion roars.
All the hyenas
scatter immediately,and the lion totally stole their food.
(05:28):
And then the hyenas are smallcompared to the lion.
So they knew that they probably couldn'twin it back.
And then they just had to give upand walk away.
And the lion stayed on that foodwith its ladies for days eating it.
So hyenas, it makes sense.
A hyena would try to eat really fastbefore a lion can steal their food.
Yeah, they eat so fast.
I've watched.
(05:49):
I watched one hyena eat a gazelleone time in minutes and their
their stomachs get so bigand they're trying to walk around,
but they gotta eat fastbefore anybody else steals our food.
So I've. I've done that with French fries.
So yeah, my,my family wouldn't eat my French fries.
You hyenas down your French fries. Yep.
(06:11):
I can relate to the hyenas in that way.
What does it mean when they laugh?
Yeah.
So hyenas do giggle, but when they giggle,they're not laughing.
They make that sound when they're nervousor they're scared and.
Oh, okay.
It's kind of a submissive sound.
It's hyenas really deserve another look.
(06:33):
And so I declare themas the most misunderstood animal.
Wow. Bold statement, but probably true.
Take that Lion Kingand I like the Lion King.
Next up, we'll hear my pickright after this.
It's time for everybody'sfavorite game show.
Raise the Sound.
(06:58):
What is making this sound?
Ooh, whoa
whoa.
What?
Is it a) cows b) spotted hyenas?
Or c) your uncle's stomach
(07:22):
after realizing he's already eatenall the little Debbies in your pantry.
Oh, the answer is B
they're spotted hyenas calling at night.
Thanks for playing everybody'sfavorite game show.
Great. That sound.
Hey, Rob,
(07:43):
what misunderstood animal is making youhappy today?
My misunderstoodanimal is actually made up
of 4500 different species.
What? But.
But categorically, everybody just sort of
clumps them into one thing.
(08:05):
Oh, there's 4500 kinds of this animal.
Yeah. Oh, wow.
Okay, that's,
My animal is usually considered a pest.
Okay. And they are. I'll say this.
They are one of the most successfulanimals on the entire planet.
Oh, and they are usually associated
(08:28):
with darkness and dirty places.
Unclean, please.
Any guesses? Okay.
Is it kind of like a bug or is it.
It is. Yeah. It's a type of insect. Okay.
Is it something we could see in our house?
A lot of people encounterthem in their home. Okay. Yeah.
(08:48):
Is it a roach?
It is a roach. It.
Cockroach.
Whoa.
Yeah.
Just saying the name Roachprobably creeps a lot of people out.
But why?
They're basically harmless. Why?
(09:08):
Why are roaches making you happy today?
I it's making me happybecause I think it's one of the most
amazing survivaliststhat nature has ever created.
It can squeeze into tight places.
It can eat thingsthat other things don't eat.
They can eat paper.
(09:29):
Yeah,they can survive off of eating paper.
Wow. I mean, how crazy is that?
Yeah, it can survivelong periods of time without food,
and it can multiply really fastif there's enough food around.
So it's it'sjust really good at surviving.
Yeah.
I mean, in the Pixar movie Wall-E,it was the last living creature on Earth.
(09:50):
Oh, right. Cockroach. Yeah.
And they don't they don't bite,they don't sting, and they won't hurt you.
They just eat our leftover scraps of food.
That's a really good point.
So they eat dead things and litterand things on the ground.
They help recycle itand put nutrients back into the soil.
So they're actually really good.
Yeah, they are nature's recyclers.
(10:11):
Also, I read that they'reone of the fastest animals in the world.
When you compare them to their size,they are extraordinarily fast.
They can run something like 50
body lengths in one second.
And so that's hardto understand what that means.
But let's put it this way.
(10:33):
If you as a human could do that,you could run over 186 miles an hour.
Whoa.
I had no idea they were that fast.
From now on, instead of sayingyou're going to run as fast as a cheetah,
you should say, I'm going to runas fast as a cockroach. Yes.
So at your next soccer practiceor your next school field day,
(10:54):
you all can just run like cockroaches.
Start a trend. You can do it.
I got to say,I was not expecting you to pick a roach.
That really threw me.
Good work. Yeah. Thanks.
And now for a song.
I wrote a songfor the Misunderstood Animals.
And this one is just me and the piano.
Someday I hope to record cellos
(11:16):
and a string quartet because I hear thatin my head with the song.
But for now, here it is.
And this song goes out to anybodywho has been feeling like they've been
left out lately, or like other peoplejust don't quite understand them.
Enjoy.
This is for the misunderstood animals.
(11:37):
The ones that people think are weird.
This is for the misunderstood animals.
Just know I'm glad that you are here.
Oh iick, ew
, no, bleegg or gross.
(11:59):
Is what some people say about you.
But I say, Cool.
Oh, awesome.
Whoa.
And I hope that others feel that too.
Hyenas are really good hunters.
(12:21):
The lions steal their foodmore than the other way around.
Hyenas are really good mothers,
playing with their cubsand cuddling on the ground.
And vultures are not really dirty.
(12:41):
They deeply preen their feathersand take baths in waterways.
And vultures are not really lazy.
They'll fly 60 whole miles to find food
in a day.
This is for the misunderstood animals,
(13:04):
the ones that people think are weird.
This is for the mis understood in humans.
Just know I'm glad that you are here.
Oh iick, ew , no, bleegg or gross.
(13:26):
Is what some people say about you..
But I ain't say.
Cool. Whoa!
Amazing.
Oh. What?
And I hope that others feel that, too.
In sports,
you hear the same old animal names a lot.
(13:49):
Go, Lions!
Go, bears!
Go, tigers!
But what about the overlooked sportsmascots?
Go, skunks!
Go, possums!
Go spiders!
This is for the misunderstood animals.
(14:10):
The ones that people think are weird.
This is for the mis understood animals.
Just know.
I'm glad that you are here.
Before we get to our special guest,
a quick message for the grownups.
(14:32):
And we're back.
It's that time in the showfor the happiest fanimal.
Where a fan like you gives us cluesto an animal that is making them happy.
Today's submission comes from six yearold Jack from Portland, Oregon.
Clue number one.
There are two typesBactrian and Dromedary.
Clue number two.
(14:53):
Its footlooks like a pancake with two toes.
Clue number three.
It has long eyelashes.
Clue number four.
It can close its nose holes.
The answer is a camel.
Camels make Jack happybecause their humps are bumpy.
Thanks for your submission,Jack. Grown ups.
(15:13):
If you or your family would like to submita happiest
animal, visitour website at Happiest Animal Show. Com.
Today's special
guest is comedian Alex Falcone,
who makes lots of very funny videosabout animals and all kinds of things.
We are very excited that he is here.
Alex, thank you for joining us.
(15:35):
Hello.
I'm excited about this.
I'm excited about this as well.
And I know you know this,but you have an animal in your last name.
I do, and,
I have an extra letter, but that'sjust because it means falcon in Italian.
So it's just the bird.
Oh, and growing up, my best friend was.
His last name was Peregrine,and it was adorable. No.
(15:56):
Oh, wow. We were we were raptor buddies.
You you you were destined to be friends.
Were then the.
For those of you listening,peregrine falcons are the fastest birds.
Fastest animal in the world.
Yeah. Yeah, I love them.
Everyone loves to talk about a cheetah,but, they forget the peregrines.
I mean, they use gravity a little bit.
(16:17):
Cheetahs go left and right, but,you got a falcon on a dive.
Nothing faster in the world.
Yeah.
So, Alex,what animal is making you happy today?
And. Yeah,go ahead and give us some hints.
Well, so one of the things that I amreally interested in is a lot of animals
seem like they have too goodof a marketing campaign already.
You hear too much about lions.
You know, you hear cheetahs stuffall the time.
(16:39):
Horses are very cool.
And all of those are fine, but I'm.
I'm really, like, trying to lift upsome of the lesser celebrated.
So I, you know, I love pigeons,I love rats, I love especially stuff
that's in an urban environment.
But the thing that I have beenreally interested in lately is a bird.
Incredibly sensitive smell.
Okay. Yeah,I can smell very, very long distances.
(17:00):
Can flyfor a very long time without flapping.
Ooh, that's a good hint.
Creepy heads.
I think that's it.
Right.
Okay, so we're thinking, like,
maybe I'm thinking somethingin the vulture budget category.
I was going to go broader.I was going to go all vultures.
(17:21):
That's what I want.I just want to talk about vultures.
Let's do it.
Vultures.
I'm so into vultures recently, and I.
It's it's one of those, like.
Because everybody loves a hawk.
Everyone loves an eagle.
And vultures just look like.
Like their heads look bad
and that's the reason everyone hatesthem, is their heads are all.
They got this creepy skin and so.
(17:42):
And they hunch over when they walk,which is actually really an interesting,
more interesting thingthan I realized originally.
But they can soar
for extremely long periods of timebecause they go to where the wind hits
the edge of a forest, blows the,when wind turns up because it's the trees,
and the vultureswill just catch that thermal
and they will just rideone flap for hours at a time.
They have the strongest sense of smell.
(18:02):
Some some vultures with strong senseof smell of any animal.
And they just chill up theresmelling for stuff.
And I think that is amazing.
It is amazing.
And I was actuallyjust reading about vultures
because I was writing a songthat included vultures.
Yeah. Well,
they I was reading that they can fly
like, some people think they're lazyand they're not lazy.
Not at all.
(18:22):
They can fly up to 60 miles a dayin search of food.
Yeah. Well, I think so.
One of the things that I think peopleare in general biased against scavengers.
Yeah.
And I think, I like and I, I understandcockroaches are a little creepy.
People don't like rats, whatever.
But we also like them, especiallythe vultures there are going to be.
(18:44):
There'sgoing to be some carrion out there.
There's going to be some animalsthat have sadly departed.
Yeah. And do we want themto just pile up and sit there?
Is that better for anybody? No.
We need a crew to come in and clean it up.
Yeah.
Also, by the way, the creepy heads,the thing that everybody is worried about
is they're they got like, a lot of weird skin on their head.
Yeah.
And the reason is because they have togo into, a carcass and get food in there.
(19:08):
And if you had feathers on your head,it would get stuck.
It would get covered in stuff.
And so,
yeah, that's that's a sleek functionfor getting in there, doing your business.
That's right.
It's sort of like having a bibat a crab feast.
It's like trying to make it easierfor later.
And I like that.
So now you see the creepy head,you know, like, well, yeah, it's worth it.
That's like if I put my hair in a ponytailto go eat wings.
Exactly.You have to do plastic wings, pony tail.
(19:32):
Do you guys
know, do you know the, king vulture?
No. Tell me.
Teach me about the king.You have the king.
But this is worth a quick right. Googleright away, because you have to see.
Is this the king, the colorful head? Yes.
They look like.
They look like parrotswho have had a tough life, but they have
bright purple orange heads,weird pieces of extra orange skin on them.
(19:57):
Just incredibly colorful and interesting.
Looking for birds?
Yeah.
King vultures are beautiful.
Holy cow.
Yes, they are purple and orange and red.
And there's some, like, blue blue tones.
Yeah, it's so many colors. Yeah.
And just think it's a maximalist choiceof any animal.
(20:20):
It is all of the colors all at once.
Yeah. Just.
And I don't know why
this is like,
this is what I'm sayingabout the marketing is I just feel like
I never heard about King Vultures untilI was working on this a couple weeks ago,
and I, I don't know how people aren'ttalking about king vultures every day.
It's the craziest looking animal
I've ever seen, and I don't know whythat's not getting top billing more often.
(20:40):
Yeah, you think about
you think about all the workthat people do to make themselves
look good, and all all of the makeupand hairstyles and everything.
And the king vulture just wakes up and is.
Look at that animal.
Look at that animal.
This is I also like the waythat they defend themselves.
(21:03):
You know that story? Of course.
Of course.
Yeah.
They just get scaredand then they throw up.
I find that very relatable as well.
Yeah,I think that is a charming activity to do.
I don't I was looking into thisbecause I think people will say
that they are like
vomiting on a creature to get away,but mostly it's just empty in the tank.
So, you know,because they don't take off well.
So so they can get in there whiterso I can skedaddle.
(21:26):
And, it's so it's not aggressive at you.
It's just like,I'm sorry, this is gross for me to.
And then they take off.
That very, very cute thing to do, I think.
Not in the moment, but in theory.
That's such a good choice of an animal.
I didn't expect that.
You know, I was like, wondering,is he going to go Falcon?
But I thought, yeah, no, I mean, I do like a Falcon two, obviously.
(21:48):
I, I've been on this kick of just, like,underappreciated animals.
And how exactly how we sort of choose.
And it is so much of it is marketing.
So much of it is like the baldeagle is a cool animal, right?
They say every time you've ever seena bald eagle on television,
it makes a scream sound.
And that scream is not a bald eagle sound.
That's a red hawk.
Yes, they a red tailed hawk.
(22:08):
Because what actual bald eaglesound like is they sound like seagulls
because they're mostly seabirds.
And so if you hear them,they sound bright and annoying.
Rob, you can do a pretty good eagle call.
I've heard, you know,I've heard him talk to Eagles before.
Yeah.
There were a pair of baldeagles out that landed in the tree
across the streetone time, and I opened the window, and I.
I just sort ofwhistle like a like a select.
(22:32):
Yeah, sure sure sure, sure.
But I actually got themto talk back to me.
And we had a little conversation at night.
And then I was sort of just like,oh, did not say anything offensive.
You know,I know they did leave the next morning,
but yeah, yeah, yeah, I,you probably were very offensive.
You got to be carefulspeaking other languages.
(22:53):
But that's like, why have we justI mean obviously America right.
We picked thisand it is a cool looking for it.
And I love a bald eagle.
But we just we wanted them to be somethingthey're not.
So whenever they're on TVwe do this fake thing. We fake it out.
Let them sound like this sound.
Let's use the real let's let's celebratethis and let us.
And so because of all that marketing,I just feel like I need to keep getting
the word out there about animalsthat are underappreciated.
(23:16):
And so vulture is was mywas my first push.
Well, Alex, thank you for helping usthink about vultures today
and the misunderstood animals.
Well, it'sgreat to talk to you both. Yeah.
Thanks for joining us on the HappiestAnimal Show. Yes.
And now the time we've all been waitingfor the answer to the joke of the day.
(23:36):
How do you get a skunk to stop smelling?
Do you have a guess?
The answer is
you plug its nose.
Thanks so much for listening.
And before we go, remember,we live on a beautiful planet.
So go out and findwhat makes you happy today. Oh.
(24:02):
Hey, Grown-Ups, we know you're busy,but if you like
our show, we'd love for youto tell your friends and family about it.
It is the best way for our podcastto grow and Grown-Ups.
(24:24):
You can also follow uson our social media accounts at Happiest
Animal Show, or check outother fun things on our website
like how to submit an animal or how to getmerch. Visit Happiestanimalshow.com.
The Happiest Animal Show is createdby Laura Sams, Robert
Sams, and Dave Cainproduced by Sisbro Studios, hosted
and directed by Laura Sams and RobertSams, and written by Laura Sams.
Robert Sams with story editor Dave Cain.
And with only a little help from our catwalking across the keyboard.
Now let’s talk music.
Original music is writtenand performed by zero time
Grammy Award winning songwritersLaura Sams and Robert Sams,
(24:45):
except for the end credits musicwhich was written by Laura and Rob’s
Grandma Max, and the joke answer suspensemusic was written by David Schultz. .
The theme song was written and performed
by Laura and Roband mixed by Jason Wells of Audiowells.
(25:09):
Thanks for listening. You are the best.
And now for an animal joke.
How do you get a skunk to stop smelling?
I repeat.
How do you get a skunk to stop smelling?
The answer is going to be revealed
at the end of the episode.
(00:32):
But first,get your ears ready Because it’s
the Happiest Animal Show on Planet Earth.The Happiest Animal Show on Planet Earth.
You want to be sad?No! Do you want to be glad? No.
Wait. Yes.
Well, it’sthe Happiest Animal Show on Planet Earth.
Hello and welcome
to the Happiest AnimalShow on Planet Earth, the podcast
that asks the very important question: What animal is making you happy today? (00:50):
undefined
I'm Laura, and I'm Roband we are a sister brother
pair of zoologists,filmmakers and songwriters.
We are here to explore the wonderful world
of wildlife and discoverwhy animals make us happy.
Today we are celebrating misunderstood
(01:10):
animals with stories, a new song,and with special guest comedian
and a person who makes very funny videosabout misunderstood animals.
Alex Falcone Here we go.
What animal is making you happy today?
I want to know.
The themewe have given ourselves for this episode
(01:32):
is Misunderstood Animals.
I feel like it's animals that people
don't understand or animalsthat people don't like.
Basically, an animal I think ispretty cool and deserves some recognition.
Yeah, it's time that these animalsget a little bit of respect
and in the spirit of respect, Laura,how about you go first?
(01:53):
What misunderstood animal is making youhappy today?
Oh my goodness.
It's an animal that I love.
It lives in Africa.
It's a really good hunter.
It has spots.
It. I know Rob's laughing because he knowsthat he knows what I'm doing.
(02:14):
For those of you listening.
Here are some more clues.
They live in clans.
The females are all in charge
and they make some cool sounds.
Sometimes they make what sort ofsounds like a giggle, and a lot of times
they make a soundthat sounds like a whoop, like ooh
(02:34):
ooh.
What animal am I thinking of here?
I wondered if you were gonna kind of strayand pick pick something else.
But you went with the spotted hyena.
Spotted hyena,
spotted hyena.
(02:56):
Spotted hyenas are so awesome,
and I feel like they may be one ofthe most misunderstood animals of all.
So why are hyenas making you happy?
Well, they make me happybecause when I was in college
at Michigan State University,I got to go study hyenas in Africa.
I spent my whole undergrad career
studying hyenas with,professor named Doctor Kay.
(03:18):
Holekamp.
And I loved it. And honestly.
So when I think of hyenas,I just get good feelings
because I had such a fun timegoing to Africa and studying them.
Well, what makes them so misunderstood?
People think of hyenas as gross,dirty scavengers
who are only stealing food from othersinstead of hunting for themselves.
(03:39):
And it's just not true, right?
Hyenas are more successfulhunters than lions,
are they catch foodway more than lions do.
Lions are more likely to steal foodfrom hyenas than the other way around.
I was just thinking about this one timewe actually came across.
There's a whole group of hyenas
they had just killed, somethingthey were all eating,
(04:00):
and there was a big group of them,probably like ten hyenas.
And the hyenas were so excitedand their tails were bristled
and they were all eating.
And it's pretty coolbecause all the girls get to eat first.
Girls are in charge in hyena world,and so the top girls would eat,
then the next girls would eatand they'd all be darting in.
And then there were these boy hyenaswho were hanging around the sides,
(04:23):
and they would try to sneak inand grab a little bit of food.
They'd be walking on eggshells,come in and be like, oh, okay, can I,
can I eat now? No. Okay, okay. Come back.I'll come back later.
And then they'd try again
and they'd come past the carfrom behind us
and like dart in and be like, what's up?Hey girl.
So can I eat yet? No. Okay.You're still eating.
Okay. I'll go, I'll go away.
And that kept happening.
One time I thought there was another boyhyena, coming in
(04:45):
to try to see if they could eat yet, andI turned my head to look out the window.
And this. It was not a hyena.
It was a giant male lion that came running
right past my window, wind in his mane.
It was so closeand I was like, oh, I kind of recoiled.
(05:06):
The lion ran into the middleof all these hyenas, roared super loud.
A lion roar feels like a motorcyclegoing through your body.
It vibrates super loud.
So this lion roars.
All the hyenas
scatter immediately,and the lion totally stole their food.
(05:28):
And then the hyenas are smallcompared to the lion.
So they knew that they probably couldn'twin it back.
And then they just had to give upand walk away.
And the lion stayed on that foodwith its ladies for days eating it.
So hyenas, it makes sense.
A hyena would try to eat really fastbefore a lion can steal their food.
Yeah, they eat so fast.
I've watched.
(05:49):
I watched one hyena eat a gazelleone time in minutes and their
their stomachs get so bigand they're trying to walk around,
but they gotta eat fastbefore anybody else steals our food.
So I've. I've done that with French fries.
So yeah, my,my family wouldn't eat my French fries.
You hyenas down your French fries. Yep.
(06:11):
I can relate to the hyenas in that way.
What does it mean when they laugh?
Yeah.
So hyenas do giggle, but when they giggle,they're not laughing.
They make that sound when they're nervousor they're scared and.
Oh, okay.
It's kind of a submissive sound.
It's hyenas really deserve another look.
(06:33):
And so I declare themas the most misunderstood animal.
Wow. Bold statement, but probably true.
Take that Lion Kingand I like the Lion King.
Next up, we'll hear my pickright after this.
It's time for everybody'sfavorite game show.
Raise the Sound.
(06:58):
What is making this sound?
Ooh, whoa
whoa.
What?
Is it a) cows b) spotted hyenas?
Or c) your uncle's stomach
(07:22):
after realizing he's already eatenall the little Debbies in your pantry.
Oh, the answer is B
they're spotted hyenas calling at night.
Thanks for playing everybody'sfavorite game show.
Great. That sound.
Hey, Rob,
(07:43):
what misunderstood animal is making youhappy today?
My misunderstoodanimal is actually made up
of 4500 different species.
What? But.
But categorically, everybody just sort of
clumps them into one thing.
(08:05):
Oh, there's 4500 kinds of this animal.
Yeah. Oh, wow.
Okay, that's,
My animal is usually considered a pest.
Okay. And they are. I'll say this.
They are one of the most successfulanimals on the entire planet.
Oh, and they are usually associated
(08:28):
with darkness and dirty places.
Unclean, please.
Any guesses? Okay.
Is it kind of like a bug or is it.
It is. Yeah. It's a type of insect. Okay.
Is it something we could see in our house?
A lot of people encounterthem in their home. Okay. Yeah.
(08:48):
Is it a roach?
It is a roach. It.
Cockroach.
Whoa.
Yeah.
Just saying the name Roachprobably creeps a lot of people out.
But why?
They're basically harmless. Why?
(09:08):
Why are roaches making you happy today?
I it's making me happybecause I think it's one of the most
amazing survivaliststhat nature has ever created.
It can squeeze into tight places.
It can eat thingsthat other things don't eat.
They can eat paper.
(09:29):
Yeah,they can survive off of eating paper.
Wow. I mean, how crazy is that?
Yeah, it can survivelong periods of time without food,
and it can multiply really fastif there's enough food around.
So it's it'sjust really good at surviving.
Yeah.
I mean, in the Pixar movie Wall-E,it was the last living creature on Earth.
(09:50):
Oh, right. Cockroach. Yeah.
And they don't they don't bite,they don't sting, and they won't hurt you.
They just eat our leftover scraps of food.
That's a really good point.
So they eat dead things and litterand things on the ground.
They help recycle itand put nutrients back into the soil.
So they're actually really good.
Yeah, they are nature's recyclers.
(10:11):
Also, I read that they'reone of the fastest animals in the world.
When you compare them to their size,they are extraordinarily fast.
They can run something like 50
body lengths in one second.
And so that's hardto understand what that means.
But let's put it this way.
(10:33):
If you as a human could do that,you could run over 186 miles an hour.
Whoa.
I had no idea they were that fast.
From now on, instead of sayingyou're going to run as fast as a cheetah,
you should say, I'm going to runas fast as a cockroach. Yes.
So at your next soccer practiceor your next school field day,
(10:54):
you all can just run like cockroaches.
Start a trend. You can do it.
I got to say,I was not expecting you to pick a roach.
That really threw me.
Good work. Yeah. Thanks.
And now for a song.
I wrote a songfor the Misunderstood Animals.
And this one is just me and the piano.
Someday I hope to record cellos
(11:16):
and a string quartet because I hear thatin my head with the song.
But for now, here it is.
And this song goes out to anybodywho has been feeling like they've been
left out lately, or like other peoplejust don't quite understand them.
Enjoy.
This is for the misunderstood animals.
(11:37):
The ones that people think are weird.
This is for the misunderstood animals.
Just know I'm glad that you are here.
Oh iick, ew
, no, bleegg or gross.
(11:59):
Is what some people say about you.
But I say, Cool.
Oh, awesome.
Whoa.
And I hope that others feel that too.
Hyenas are really good hunters.
(12:21):
The lions steal their foodmore than the other way around.
Hyenas are really good mothers,
playing with their cubsand cuddling on the ground.
And vultures are not really dirty.
(12:41):
They deeply preen their feathersand take baths in waterways.
And vultures are not really lazy.
They'll fly 60 whole miles to find food
in a day.
This is for the misunderstood animals,
(13:04):
the ones that people think are weird.
This is for the mis understood in humans.
Just know I'm glad that you are here.
Oh iick, ew , no, bleegg or gross.
(13:26):
Is what some people say about you..
But I ain't say.
Cool. Whoa!
Amazing.
Oh. What?
And I hope that others feel that, too.
In sports,
you hear the same old animal names a lot.
(13:49):
Go, Lions!
Go, bears!
Go, tigers!
But what about the overlooked sportsmascots?
Go, skunks!
Go, possums!
Go spiders!
This is for the misunderstood animals.
(14:10):
The ones that people think are weird.
This is for the mis understood animals.
Just know.
I'm glad that you are here.
Before we get to our special guest,
a quick message for the grownups.
(14:32):
And we're back.
It's that time in the showfor the happiest fanimal.
Where a fan like you gives us cluesto an animal that is making them happy.
Today's submission comes from six yearold Jack from Portland, Oregon.
Clue number one.
There are two typesBactrian and Dromedary.
Clue number two.
(14:53):
Its footlooks like a pancake with two toes.
Clue number three.
It has long eyelashes.
Clue number four.
It can close its nose holes.
The answer is a camel.
Camels make Jack happybecause their humps are bumpy.
Thanks for your submission,Jack. Grown ups.
(15:13):
If you or your family would like to submita happiest
animal, visitour website at Happiest Animal Show. Com.
Today's special
guest is comedian Alex Falcone,
who makes lots of very funny videosabout animals and all kinds of things.
We are very excited that he is here.
Alex, thank you for joining us.
(15:35):
Hello.
I'm excited about this.
I'm excited about this as well.
And I know you know this,but you have an animal in your last name.
I do, and,
I have an extra letter, but that'sjust because it means falcon in Italian.
So it's just the bird.
Oh, and growing up, my best friend was.
His last name was Peregrine,and it was adorable. No.
(15:56):
Oh, wow. We were we were raptor buddies.
You you you were destined to be friends.
Were then the.
For those of you listening,peregrine falcons are the fastest birds.
Fastest animal in the world.
Yeah. Yeah, I love them.
Everyone loves to talk about a cheetah,but, they forget the peregrines.
I mean, they use gravity a little bit.
(16:17):
Cheetahs go left and right, but,you got a falcon on a dive.
Nothing faster in the world.
Yeah.
So, Alex,what animal is making you happy today?
And. Yeah,go ahead and give us some hints.
Well, so one of the things that I amreally interested in is a lot of animals
seem like they have too goodof a marketing campaign already.
You hear too much about lions.
You know, you hear cheetahs stuffall the time.
(16:39):
Horses are very cool.
And all of those are fine, but I'm.
I'm really, like, trying to lift upsome of the lesser celebrated.
So I, you know, I love pigeons,I love rats, I love especially stuff
that's in an urban environment.
But the thing that I have beenreally interested in lately is a bird.
Incredibly sensitive smell.
Okay. Yeah,I can smell very, very long distances.
(17:00):
Can flyfor a very long time without flapping.
Ooh, that's a good hint.
Creepy heads.
I think that's it.
Right.
Okay, so we're thinking, like,
maybe I'm thinking somethingin the vulture budget category.
I was going to go broader.I was going to go all vultures.
(17:21):
That's what I want.I just want to talk about vultures.
Let's do it.
Vultures.
I'm so into vultures recently, and I.
It's it's one of those, like.
Because everybody loves a hawk.
Everyone loves an eagle.
And vultures just look like.
Like their heads look bad
and that's the reason everyone hatesthem, is their heads are all.
They got this creepy skin and so.
(17:42):
And they hunch over when they walk,which is actually really an interesting,
more interesting thingthan I realized originally.
But they can soar
for extremely long periods of timebecause they go to where the wind hits
the edge of a forest, blows the,when wind turns up because it's the trees,
and the vultureswill just catch that thermal
and they will just rideone flap for hours at a time.
They have the strongest sense of smell.
(18:02):
Some some vultures with strong senseof smell of any animal.
And they just chill up theresmelling for stuff.
And I think that is amazing.
It is amazing.
And I was actuallyjust reading about vultures
because I was writing a songthat included vultures.
Yeah. Well,
they I was reading that they can fly
like, some people think they're lazyand they're not lazy.
Not at all.
(18:22):
They can fly up to 60 miles a dayin search of food.
Yeah. Well, I think so.
One of the things that I think peopleare in general biased against scavengers.
Yeah.
And I think, I like and I, I understandcockroaches are a little creepy.
People don't like rats, whatever.
But we also like them, especiallythe vultures there are going to be.
(18:44):
There'sgoing to be some carrion out there.
There's going to be some animalsthat have sadly departed.
Yeah. And do we want themto just pile up and sit there?
Is that better for anybody? No.
We need a crew to come in and clean it up.
Yeah.
Also, by the way, the creepy heads,the thing that everybody is worried about
is they're they got like, a lot of weird skin on their head.
Yeah.
And the reason is because they have togo into, a carcass and get food in there.
(19:08):
And if you had feathers on your head,it would get stuck.
It would get covered in stuff.
And so,
yeah, that's that's a sleek functionfor getting in there, doing your business.
That's right.
It's sort of like having a bibat a crab feast.
It's like trying to make it easierfor later.
And I like that.
So now you see the creepy head,you know, like, well, yeah, it's worth it.
That's like if I put my hair in a ponytailto go eat wings.
Exactly.You have to do plastic wings, pony tail.
(19:32):
Do you guys
know, do you know the, king vulture?
No. Tell me.
Teach me about the king.You have the king.
But this is worth a quick right. Googleright away, because you have to see.
Is this the king, the colorful head? Yes.
They look like.
They look like parrotswho have had a tough life, but they have
bright purple orange heads,weird pieces of extra orange skin on them.
(19:57):
Just incredibly colorful and interesting.
Looking for birds?
Yeah.
King vultures are beautiful.
Holy cow.
Yes, they are purple and orange and red.
And there's some, like, blue blue tones.
Yeah, it's so many colors. Yeah.
And just think it's a maximalist choiceof any animal.
(20:20):
It is all of the colors all at once.
Yeah. Just.
And I don't know why
this is like,
this is what I'm sayingabout the marketing is I just feel like
I never heard about King Vultures untilI was working on this a couple weeks ago,
and I, I don't know how people aren'ttalking about king vultures every day.
It's the craziest looking animal
I've ever seen, and I don't know whythat's not getting top billing more often.
(20:40):
Yeah, you think about
you think about all the workthat people do to make themselves
look good, and all all of the makeupand hairstyles and everything.
And the king vulture just wakes up and is.
Look at that animal.
Look at that animal.
This is I also like the waythat they defend themselves.
(21:03):
You know that story? Of course.
Of course.
Yeah.
They just get scaredand then they throw up.
I find that very relatable as well.
Yeah,I think that is a charming activity to do.
I don't I was looking into thisbecause I think people will say
that they are like
vomiting on a creature to get away,but mostly it's just empty in the tank.
So, you know,because they don't take off well.
So so they can get in there whiterso I can skedaddle.
(21:26):
And, it's so it's not aggressive at you.
It's just like,I'm sorry, this is gross for me to.
And then they take off.
That very, very cute thing to do, I think.
Not in the moment, but in theory.
That's such a good choice of an animal.
I didn't expect that.
You know, I was like, wondering,is he going to go Falcon?
But I thought, yeah, no, I mean, I do like a Falcon two, obviously.
(21:48):
I, I've been on this kick of just, like,underappreciated animals.
And how exactly how we sort of choose.
And it is so much of it is marketing.
So much of it is like the baldeagle is a cool animal, right?
They say every time you've ever seena bald eagle on television,
it makes a scream sound.
And that scream is not a bald eagle sound.
That's a red hawk.
Yes, they a red tailed hawk.
(22:08):
Because what actual bald eaglesound like is they sound like seagulls
because they're mostly seabirds.
And so if you hear them,they sound bright and annoying.
Rob, you can do a pretty good eagle call.
I've heard, you know,I've heard him talk to Eagles before.
Yeah.
There were a pair of baldeagles out that landed in the tree
across the streetone time, and I opened the window, and I.
I just sort ofwhistle like a like a select.
(22:32):
Yeah, sure sure sure, sure.
But I actually got themto talk back to me.
And we had a little conversation at night.
And then I was sort of just like,oh, did not say anything offensive.
You know,I know they did leave the next morning,
but yeah, yeah, yeah, I,you probably were very offensive.
You got to be carefulspeaking other languages.
(22:53):
But that's like, why have we justI mean obviously America right.
We picked thisand it is a cool looking for it.
And I love a bald eagle.
But we just we wanted them to be somethingthey're not.
So whenever they're on TVwe do this fake thing. We fake it out.
Let them sound like this sound.
Let's use the real let's let's celebratethis and let us.
And so because of all that marketing,I just feel like I need to keep getting
the word out there about animalsthat are underappreciated.
(23:16):
And so vulture is was mywas my first push.
Well, Alex, thank you for helping usthink about vultures today
and the misunderstood animals.
Well, it'sgreat to talk to you both. Yeah.
Thanks for joining us on the HappiestAnimal Show. Yes.
And now the time we've all been waitingfor the answer to the joke of the day.
(23:36):
How do you get a skunk to stop smelling?
Do you have a guess?
The answer is
you plug its nose.
Thanks so much for listening.
And before we go, remember,we live on a beautiful planet.
So go out and findwhat makes you happy today. Oh.
(24:02):
Hey, Grown-Ups, we know you're busy,but if you like
our show, we'd love for youto tell your friends and family about it.
It is the best way for our podcastto grow and Grown-Ups.
(24:24):
You can also follow uson our social media accounts at Happiest
Animal Show, or check outother fun things on our website
like how to submit an animal or how to getmerch. Visit Happiestanimalshow.com.
The Happiest Animal Show is createdby Laura Sams, Robert
Sams, and Dave Cainproduced by Sisbro Studios, hosted
and directed by Laura Sams and RobertSams, and written by Laura Sams.
Robert Sams with story editor Dave Cain.
And with only a little help from our catwalking across the keyboard.
Now let’s talk music.
Original music is writtenand performed by zero time
Grammy Award winning songwritersLaura Sams and Robert Sams,
(24:45):
except for the end credits musicwhich was written by Laura and Rob’s
Grandma Max, and the joke answer suspensemusic was written by David Schultz. .
The theme song was written and performed
by Laura and Roband mixed by Jason Wells of Audiowells.
(25:09):
Thanks for listening. You are the best.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.