Ep. 131-Christmas at Ground Zero (Weird Al Yankovic)

To celebrate the New Year, we are doing the Xmas episode! Ryan, Louie & Al breakout their caroling gas masks to discuss Weird Al Yankovic and his Chirstmas classic, "Christmas at Ground Zero."

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
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Speaker 3 (00:32):
Hello and welcome to episode one hundred and thirty one
throwback music video review podcast. And finally we are doing
our Cristmas episode.

Speaker 4 (00:47):
In Happy new hear everybody right.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Away, Happy New Year, Happy Halloween, Happy Halloween.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
We miss all the holidays and again our sincerious apologies
for that. So we gut here tonight we got Ryan
and new and we're gonna discuss the music video for
weird Al Yankovic's Christmas at Ground.

Speaker 5 (01:06):
Zero Christmas episode in the year Huh.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
Christmas at Ground Zero is an original song by weird
Al Yankovic, the tenth and final track of his nineteen
a six album Poka Party, and this music video is
directed by weird Al Yankovic and currently has five million
views on YouTube. So, guys, what is your experience with
weird Al Yankovic.

Speaker 5 (01:30):
Yeah, I've always had a fascination for weird Al. Never
a major fan where I'm like, oh, I need to
get his record, nothing like that. But I love the
stuff he does because one, it's fucking funny, right, it's
really it's hilarious. I love his good nature, just kind
of like he you were in on the joke, And
I appreciate that with artists that he didn't try to

(01:51):
alienate everybody, especially it wasn't so highbrow. He was really
more of an everday artist musician who kind of like
he wanted to have of he wanted to invite everybody
in on it, right, But more so in the last
ten years or so when I got into podcasting and
podcasting got a lot bigger. I didn't know that he
was such a funny, improv kind of guy. So he

(02:12):
would be he would always be on on the comedy
Bang Bang all the day. Yeah, and he's he's brilliant, man,
he's funny, he's quick, you know, he's and he's a
good guy. He's a very good guy in no straight edge,
no swearing, no alcohol and drugs, and you know, a
really good role model for all the weirdos out there, right,
And I thought that kind of outed another layer of

(02:32):
like respecting his his craft because I thought, you know,
that's kind of cool as now as an older person,
as a parent, you lack those kinds of role models
and figures in your lives. And then you see him
that he's been doing this, you know, since the seventies,
and it's like you appreciate him a lot more. But
I'm very interested in the way, you know, watching a
couple of documentaries, he's how consistent he's been. That's cool, man.

(02:54):
I mean, you know, like he's always traversed that line
of just like you know, respect to other artists and
the parodies, and then when he does parody something, he
does it with craft. You know. Musically, he's great. He's
got a great singing voice. And again the role model
part of it. I totally tell Kidy Man, listen to him.
He's he's a really cool guy, you know, and has
good music. But that's pretty much it. I mean, I've

(03:14):
always known him since eighties. I didn't know all the
other background, all his history, but we can talk about
that a little later. I'll pass it on to you, I.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Think for me when he got on the radio, I
was at the probably perfect age playing with Gidio's and
he Man, and I was like, whoa, this guy's a genius.
I think fat what was it? Eat it?

Speaker 3 (03:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (03:35):
I think that like actually like put him over the edge.
He was like a rock star to me after that song.
But before that, it was like, oh, yeah, he's really
cool and funny. And then that would just like blew up.
And then I kind of knew a little bit of
like those kind of weird songs that they would play
on like Doctor Demento and some of that, because they
would play him sometimes like on old cartoons. It had

(03:55):
a lot to do with like a lot of those
kind of like very very early black and white cartoons,
and I remember I would watch those with my grandfather
and it just had that whole It was like this
weird scene that I was kind of It was kind
of scary, but it was also very funny and cool.

Speaker 4 (04:12):
It was scary because you didn't know where he came from.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, that and it was it was like you know,
weird clowns and stuff like that, and like scary cartoons
with like account Basie singing at the time.

Speaker 5 (04:23):
Yeah, I saw these novelty kind of like yeah music, Yeah,
so it was.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
And then it kind of a lot of that stuff
came out of that, and like weird, weird songs even
from like this, Like I don't know, I just I
just kind of gravitated to a lot of those weirdo songs.

Speaker 5 (04:37):
Like, oh, they're very underground. Yeah, that's what we would
consider now is underground. Yeah, you know, like really deep
cuts of like you know, certain artists or even like
a scene that you're not really familiar with, but yeah,
you're right, it's something exciting about it and kind of
like oh it's weird.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah, And a lot of them would like they would
be on like compilation records, like the last song would
be some weirdo song like hot Popcorn that's like an
electrical song, that's one of the first electronic songs. It's
just like weird things that And then when I found
out like, oh, like there's people that are really into this.
And then it's also like the Ongle Bongo factor and

(05:10):
the Devo factor and all these kind of like weird
musicians that were kind of pulling from this weird time.

Speaker 5 (05:16):
They grew up in that era.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
But you could see a lot of it. When you
watch old cartoons from like Betty Boob cartoons and lots
of you see some of that kind of stuff. So
it was kind of scary to me, but I would
see it a lot, especially because I would watch a
lot of Channel five, which showed a lot of old
cartoons and different like that. Our hangout with my grandfather,
who just watched TV all day and watched a lot
of old stuff. So when he came around, I was like, oh, well,
this guy rocks. He's kind of scary, but he's really

(05:42):
funny and it seems kind of nice. Yeah, exactly. And
then he's parroting like a Michael Jackson song, which is
like the most popular song in the world right now,
you know. So, I mean it was like an automatic
for someone my age to be really into him, right,
I guess for me.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
I remember in nineteen eight four, like this was the
time where like I just played a lot outside and
eat It just came out, and one of my cousins
telling me, Hey, there's this new song by the Beatles
called eat It, and I'm like I heard it, Like
I know what kind of the Beatles sounds like?

Speaker 4 (06:16):
Back then?

Speaker 3 (06:17):
Nine year old self. But I'm just like thinking, like,
it's not the Beatles. I think she honestly believed it
was the Beatles because it kind of sounds it would
sound like Paul McCartney, you know, if he injected some
helium or something. You know, the way ed it was
was vocally delivered. But you know, like and then eventually
I found it was weird. Al Yankovic and I'm like, hey,
we're named we have the same name. That's kind of cool,

(06:39):
you know. So he's like he's like the first famous Al.
I think that kind of hit the mainstream in my lifetime,
at least in my generation. So totally missed out at
Al Jolson. Yeah, way before Al Bundy, so he was
the only one I got. So so you know, like, yeah,
I saw the video for for Eat It and this,

(07:00):
like it's hilarious, just especially that scene where the guitar
solo makes a guy explode and that's that bit was
just so fun. Yeah, I still like laugh when I
think about it. And then you know, he came up
with like a Surgeon that same time. Oh, I'm a
huge fan of UHF in his his movie that came

(07:20):
out in the Oh my god, like I inhaled that movie.

Speaker 4 (07:24):
I don't know why, but you know, it just resonated
with me. The humor.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
It's just like, you know, we bombed, but you know
I was like first in line to get the VHS
when it came out and all that, and I rememberize
so many of the one liners from that from that thing.

Speaker 5 (07:37):
So and you know, knowing al for more than thirty years,
it's right up his alley. That style of humor, that
style of comedy, which don't get me wrong, I love it, man,
but it's so you like that.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
On get Twinkie Wiener Sandwich and the opening scene of
Indiana Jones, the parody of that.

Speaker 5 (07:55):
And get the ridiculous thing off, and you think it's
a hand elliant that.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah, it has a great cast on it too, as
a as a pre Nazi Michael Richards in there you
got a friend dresser for pre nanny days.

Speaker 4 (08:09):
Where first you got.

Speaker 5 (08:12):
A great so good and then it.

Speaker 3 (08:17):
Was his place, Billy Barty Billy Party before became guildor
it's post Wildor from Masater's universe. And Kevin McCarthy too
of Twilight Zon and he wasing body Snatchers. Yeah, so yeah,
it was I don't know that was such an eclectic cast.
But anyway, like say, any line from there, Oh, of course,

(08:39):
you know Cooney and the Japanese martial arts guy, right, yeah,
sixteen candles, you know, yes, so yeah, huge, huge weird
ol fan. Then and then you know, it kind of
came and went again, and then it smells like Nirvana happened, right,
and then I'm like it kind of me back into

(09:00):
the weird aliverse again, and like that music video was
just hilarious.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
Do you remember did you hear my bologna before I have? Yeah?
I mean too, I'm trying to remember where I heard it.
I must have heard it like on some morning show
or something like that when.

Speaker 5 (09:13):
They Yeah, like I was really early things.

Speaker 3 (09:15):
Yeah, and it's weird because yeah, like someone who you know,
like me who loves weird Alice's humor, but I never
bought an It was outcomes, you know, and I love
a satire.

Speaker 4 (09:23):
I love his satire, but you know I have.

Speaker 5 (09:26):
His merch, but you don't have I have his merched though,
tell us about the merch.

Speaker 3 (09:31):
Oh well, yeah, first time I actually sought out and
met weird All in person through one of the LA
comic cons and from like where was this fourteen years
ago or some convention center or something in La and
Ella convention Center. Okay, so they had I think it
was the La Comic on one of the first years
of Eli Comic Con, and he was definitely one of
the guests there for like for forty dollars, you get
to meet and get weird out and he'll you know,

(09:52):
he'll sign up there. It is behind me in this
podcasting studio is a portrait of weird Al and is
eat it outfit. And he asked me, a you know, so,
what's your name? My name is Al, So he's he
wrote my name high Al and then he signed his
name where it's one of my treasured autographics in my collection.

Speaker 4 (10:11):
So I got that. I have a picture of being
weird Al together too, and.

Speaker 5 (10:15):
I've never seen that.

Speaker 4 (10:16):
You never seen it?

Speaker 5 (10:17):
Oh, I will see that?

Speaker 4 (10:18):
Okay. Well, yeah, like I'll show it to you later.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
But it's also in my Instagram Account's cool if you
want to check it out, I'll share it. I'll share
it in the t m v R I G account.

Speaker 4 (10:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
So that's the first time I met weird Al and
then somehow like a couple more times he just kind
of crossed my paths as well. In reality, that is
the second time my company paid for me to go
to an Adobe Max event. What it is it's a
huge again a telely convention center, a huge gathering of

(10:50):
graphic artists all across the country. Yeah, it's a graphic convention.
It's a convention for graphic design nerds who use Adobe software.
So basic Adobe's event every year they put that on.
It costs about back then that was like eight hundred
dollars for you to show in there for a three
day event, and they would throw and then they throw
in the Kings of Leon Concerto.

Speaker 5 (11:11):
You didn't get a sight.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
I did get a print from the Kings of Leon,
a poster of you know, like a nice lithograph. But
Ill provided everything's yeah, wow, was it good. Let's to
your food, you know, Okay roach Coach ron.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
A little better than Broach Coach for sure, But yeah,
you didn't have breakfast for lunch through there, No.

Speaker 4 (11:31):
Not not.

Speaker 3 (11:32):
So basically what it is an Adobe Max event is
it's like applying for college again. Right, there's these courses
that you might want to go to, you know, so
you've got a three day or you can take a
course for oh, you want to learn how to design
a web page, you can go here before it gets.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Full, you know, or you to sign up on that
for the different places.

Speaker 5 (11:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
Yeah, So there's parts of the convention center just a
class They set up as classrooms there, so you go
in there and hang out and you know, learn and
got hot people.

Speaker 4 (12:00):
You know. I literally saw a woman who looked like
me in there, really weird.

Speaker 5 (12:05):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (12:06):
I was walking pastor in the caffet heir and like,
just like, whoa, she's fucking not just like me. Anyways,
that was like my one of my prevailing memories from there.
With the thing with Adobe Max too, is that they
have keynote speakers in every morning you go do a
key little keynote thing, and they had weird hel that's
one of the keynote speakers in there.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
What did you talk about?

Speaker 3 (12:26):
At that time, he was promoting his new album, so
that the album that went number one, the Mandatory Fun album. Right,
didn't perform, No, he didn't perform, but he he There
was a host on this thing and they would just
have a little, you know, chairside conversation about I don't know,
stuff that has something to do with designing, designing stuff
or music because also you know Adobe also does music

(12:49):
music software with audition and so things like that. So
like basically, yeah, it's a showcase two of what upcoming
new features that though we would have in their future
software things like that. So I don't know they contracted
weird Out to show up in one of these things.
And I'm like, hey, there's Weirdel again.

Speaker 5 (13:04):
You know him?

Speaker 4 (13:06):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (13:06):
This was after I met him originally at that comic on.
This is like a couple of years later. And then
the last time I saw him in person, I was
just an Oliver Street shopping around and I saw this woman,
very striking woman. She had like a rogue, you know,
rogue from X Men, right, she had the dark hair
with the white streaks on it. I'm like, wow, what
a dignified looking woman. And then behind her was fucking weird.

Speaker 4 (13:29):
Yeah. And I was like, wait, is that is that
weird Out?

Speaker 3 (13:32):
I'm like, and I'm looking at his wife, and I'm
like like, okay, let me google weird Al's wife. Okay,
So I googled on my phone Weird's wife in Jurich.

Speaker 4 (13:40):
Ship that was her. I'm like, yeah, the streak and everything.
I'm like, and that is weird. Like my girlfriend, you know,
I was telling me like, hey, you should.

Speaker 5 (13:47):
Say I know.

Speaker 3 (13:47):
I'm like, I'm gonna bother on Yeah, uh no. You
didn't have an entourage or anything or bodyguards.

Speaker 4 (13:55):
He was just like got re open.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
You know.

Speaker 4 (13:57):
I'm like, he was as supposed to be as Louis
is for me right now. It was that close. I
mean this picture of me fucking like roping him in
the in the comic con but you know, but.

Speaker 3 (14:06):
Saying like it was just that close casually in the
kind of situation, didn't even look stressed or anything. You're
just walking past with his wife. You know, his wife
was walking, you know, a few steps ahead of him.
Maybe he had his daughter too.

Speaker 4 (14:15):
I didn't.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
I didn't see her, but I would have been jazz
if you said, what's up?

Speaker 4 (14:18):
I would have.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
But I'm just like, I don't know. When I get
starstruck with nies, I do not want to bother them.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
I never got I never want to bother celebrities.

Speaker 5 (14:27):
Yeah, so you know, I like, how cool he's just
walking around walking around like like it's like seeing you know,
a unicorn, just walking around like, hey, guys, you just want.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
To buy some like like threaded crosses or something or
something Cove Smith's parody shirt.

Speaker 4 (14:49):
Yeah, that's the last time I saw weird al a
few years ago.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
Yeah, if you see him again, you got to say
what's up? Because that's too many.

Speaker 5 (14:55):
Like, yeah, you had a lot of experience, a lot
of Russians, I mean what he paid for.

Speaker 2 (14:59):
But the other one are really like, yeah, that was cool.

Speaker 5 (15:03):
That was opening could be. Hey, I saw you at
the Adobe, you know, like paristry.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
I've been following.

Speaker 4 (15:09):
I'm been stopping you.

Speaker 5 (15:10):
You's gonna write a song about you?

Speaker 2 (15:12):
Hey, man, how's theta?

Speaker 4 (15:14):
Was your vision getting blurry?

Speaker 5 (15:15):
He got lazy too, right he did?

Speaker 4 (15:18):
It was like the same as me.

Speaker 5 (15:20):
You guys are like dred spirits.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
We're both we both suffered from near sighted this and
he got his lazy I wonder if it's rubbing off
away from him now though the effects of it.

Speaker 5 (15:28):
He got the two million dollars now, yeah, that's a
three thousand dollars.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
Yeah, maybe that's the thing. Maybe you need to start
making parody industrial music and you'll just blow up.

Speaker 4 (15:39):
I have made one, but it was the production was horrible.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
It was a parody.

Speaker 5 (15:45):
Was it funny? The lyrics are funny.

Speaker 4 (15:46):
The lyrics were funny.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
Wow, it was?

Speaker 5 (15:48):
It was.

Speaker 3 (15:49):
It was a parody of a song called Savage Logic
by Deform, which I don't know if you guys have
ever heard of it, but I called it Starbucks Logic.

Speaker 4 (15:56):
It's a song about Starbucks.

Speaker 5 (15:59):
If it's if we're down, I would do a charity
song about eBay. Yeah, I don't see why you wouldn't
do one about star but so so.

Speaker 4 (16:05):
Yeah, you know, I didn't make one.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
I don't know twenty years like fifteen years ago, but
I'm just saying I do have a recording with somewhere.

Speaker 4 (16:11):
It's bad. So I let you guys listen to my shit,
like my crap shit. I will not let anybody else.
Man it's bad.

Speaker 3 (16:21):
But anyway, so yeah, we'd, you know, weird how to
contribute a lot to my appreciation of parody and satire
and all that, because he was my first experience with
that kind of art, that kind of media, you know.

Speaker 5 (16:32):
So yeah, it's it's kind of a thing. It's a
very niche thing, like people who make you know, comedy music,
very specific thing. As a younger person, it's hard to
get that, you know, right, I mean like you don't
know what what are they trying to do? I mean
the song sounds familiar, it's very poppy, but at the
same time, it's like they're not being serious, so it's
kind of like, you know, it makes you kind of
think twice. But yeah, that's one of my first experiences

(16:53):
of comedy type music, you know where it's like and
then now that you have the Internet at your disposal,
you can go back and listen to that Dirty Blue
you know, all these different parody music from like the
fifties and forties and ye exactly crazy dirty lyrics and
it's funny, but you know, like people actually like it
was popular music.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
No, there's like a whole thing, like there's this scene. Yeah,
Johnny Chingas he makes like weird funny songs too. It's
like all these I mean then also Cheatamaran, Yeah, that
kind of song. You know, like there's all this kind
of comedy music.

Speaker 5 (17:22):
And then you got your political ones. Yeah, they're funny
in that sense of social kind of like you know,
securing like the topics of the time.

Speaker 3 (17:30):
Remember like in the LimeWire Days two, where a lot
of parody songs were just credit to weird Out, even
though you had nothing to do with it. Yeah, you know,
like I remember a Rice Rice Baby was somehow it
was huge right nineties.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
Like Cachable Penis. There's all these like weird just.

Speaker 4 (17:46):
This funny songs. Your funny song.

Speaker 3 (17:48):
Oh it's did weird I'll do it because apparently he's
just synonymous with with funny music, you know, funny songs.

Speaker 5 (17:54):
Have you guys ever heard of Blowfly?

Speaker 2 (17:56):
No, that's sounds familiar.

Speaker 5 (17:57):
Blowfly was a he passed away, like in twenty sixteen.
But he's a guitarist. But he's considered one of the
earliest rappers, probably if not the one that invented rap.
But a lot of his music is dirty. It's like
dirty music, but it's in that rapping kind of form.

Speaker 3 (18:12):
You know.

Speaker 5 (18:12):
He started like in the late sixties, early seventies, man,
and he was still performing in the two thousand, two
thousand and they made a documentary.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
But yeah, yeah, that's where yeah he's man, it's that
rhyming pimps exactly.

Speaker 5 (18:24):
Yeah, that you know, but it's it's rap, you know,
as you would consider not you're you're not now that
that type. But he was making this really early on
in the days and he had a really like strong
cult following.

Speaker 4 (18:36):
Oh no, never heard of it.

Speaker 5 (18:37):
Yeah, man, check it out. But again, very dirty, you know,
like stemming from those early dirty blues from like the
thirties and forties. So I mean I had to like
do my my research on this stuff. But yeah, that's
cool stuff, that's cool.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
You know, there's a lot of like weird who's doing
that now? Seventy eight?

Speaker 5 (18:53):
That a flight of the concord?

Speaker 3 (18:55):
Yeah, that's one, right, But I mean there's many people
who are making pairs the music now. It's just that
they're in like TikTok and stuff and kind of under
our radar because just because it's such a niche and
a niche.

Speaker 4 (19:07):
Now, I guess the Muppets did, yes, true, and Muppets
do it all the time. I can't belive.

Speaker 3 (19:12):
I still can't believe they made a I think I
told you guys the last time we met, I watched
a very Muppets Christmas or something like that, A very
Merry Muppets Christmas, where like Kurm of the Krag goes
to a two thousands goth club. Alright, he goes there
and they have a knockoff song of Closer Nine Inch
Nails is Closer, and it's like, I can't believe they
actually produces the Muppets, and it's you know, it's closer,

(19:34):
but it's like slightly different notes but still using it.
And so he goes in there and like you know
the Eagle character in the Muppets, Sam the Eagle, he
had like two fucking glow sticks and he's like doing
it on Kermit's face, you know, because if you're if
you're like tripping, right, that's like the most beautiful thing
you'll ever see.

Speaker 4 (19:52):
And I was doing it on Kermit's face and I
I just roll in.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
Man.

Speaker 4 (19:58):
Anyways, long story start le's get back to weird.

Speaker 5 (20:00):
But wait a minute, like like today, like Bob's Burgers,
all their music it's parodies of really cool music actually,
you know, and it's like and the lyrics are funny.
So a lot of people are still doing it, and
so it was a it's a fun genre to you
get into.

Speaker 4 (20:11):
You got to you gotta be smart too, you know.

Speaker 5 (20:13):
That's the thing.

Speaker 4 (20:14):
Because it's a good funny song.

Speaker 5 (20:15):
Okay, there's the music part of it, but then you
do if you want to stand out, then the lyrics
really have to be saying something, because otherwise it'd be
just dumb. You're just changing the lyrics nonsense. Yeah, exactly,
So you really it does take some craft, and.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
Also you need to be brave enough. Like if you're
just doing like a song that's like surf Bird or
something like that that's like from the sixties that you
know people heard a billion times. But if you're weird
out and you're doing a number one hit, you're pairing it,
you really need to come and have that confidence that yes,
I'm gonna do this. I think this is funny, I

(20:48):
think this is good. And that's hard to do.

Speaker 5 (20:50):
Man.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
You gotta have some humongous ball Yeah, sure, like it's crazy.

Speaker 5 (20:54):
But also you have to convince the original artist like yeah,
you know exactly, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (20:58):
I mean, like in theory, he he can just come up,
he can just come up. He's protected by law. But
out of out of respect and integrity, you know, he
does ask for your permission, which is amazing.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
Does he only go with because I didn't he like
not get Coolio's permission, But then.

Speaker 5 (21:15):
He got a couple of people who but yes they
made up later.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
Yeah, but Coolio like like it's he got wrong.

Speaker 5 (21:23):
His management got permission. When he released it. COOLi was like,
what's going on? This is not you know, I never
signed up. And then later on they made up and
then COOLi was like, oh, you know, I think I
was just being too cocky and you know, like it
was really good. I should just let it happen.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
It was.

Speaker 5 (21:39):
Yeah, that was great, man, that's good. The way he
the way he delivers. We're out, like, I mean, he
could rap, he could do rock, he could you know,
I mean any genres.

Speaker 2 (21:48):
That I'm saying a paradise off the smells like, no, no, no,
that's that's the after the one, after that, after that one. Okay,
after that one, because that was big too, that's huge.

Speaker 3 (21:58):
Okay, all right, well be right back for some pop
quiz on Christmas at ground zero.

Speaker 4 (22:06):
Alright, guys, time for some pop quiz.

Speaker 5 (22:09):
Hop al right, before I start, I just want to
say I'm sorry I didn't do any lightning round oh.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
Year.

Speaker 5 (22:17):
I'm sorry. It was it was a rough week. You know,
we're on break, so you know, I'm a little natural island.
But here's number one if you guys are ready to go.
All right, so weird al Madonna and Michael Jackson Max
for Jackson have the distinction of being the being three
out of four artists with top forty hits in the
last four decades. So that's the eighties, nineties, two thousands,

(22:38):
and twenty tens, right, crazy, Which of the following artists
is the fourth member of this elite group? All right?
Top forty in the last four decades? All right? A
U two B Rolling Stones, Ce, Bob Dylan or d
the Eagles. Who is the fourth member of this elite group?

Speaker 2 (22:57):
I'll say the Stones. I guess you you too?

Speaker 5 (23:01):
Final answer, Louis, you are wrong, al you nailed it,
you too? Yeah, top forty in every single one of
those decades. You think the other ones too.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
But they started yeah the seventies, right you too, seventy nine?

Speaker 5 (23:16):
I mean late, but probably like sevent ninety eighty.

Speaker 4 (23:19):
Yeah, but no, but they got their start in the eighties.
They got a lot of nineties.

Speaker 3 (23:22):
It's definitely in the two thousand and two and they
eat then something in the twenty ten.

Speaker 5 (23:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
Oh they made it.

Speaker 5 (23:28):
Yeah, they give it to it's that one that they
put on your phone.

Speaker 4 (23:31):
Yeah, that's stupid. ID I remember buying that iPod doing
what the fuck is this?

Speaker 3 (23:36):
Like, you know, because I wanted to buy it too,
because that was the time when I ACTU had money
to spare and all that. You just ate up your
memory and yeah, like I know, Bono's picture was on
the cover of the of the of the box arts
for the iPad, but I didn't give a ship open
it like nope, delete.

Speaker 5 (23:52):
Sorry.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
The gorillas were actually on one of them too, and yeah,
talk up the gorillas house.

Speaker 4 (23:57):
But they're not there.

Speaker 5 (23:58):
Ye, it's fun, all right, here's number two guys. Obviously
we're obviously we're at al. Of course he's he's always
been considered a nerd, but that name didn't stick until college, right, So,
but he started at he started Kindreds four years old,
really skipped second grade, so when he graduated he was
two years younger than most people, right.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (24:17):
He was an interested in sports of social events, but
was very active in very in a lot of extracurricular programs,
such as a squirrel club, observing and interacting with local
friendly squirrels on campus, the club the JAM Club, which
is stands for Jesus and Me I explains Everything, or

(24:37):
c Volcano Worshippers Club, studying historical and geographical volcanic activities
or d the Bread Club simply put, you see bread, which.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
That's not a part of the Jesus Club.

Speaker 5 (24:50):
That's different, I know, right, wine and bread. Which extracurricular
activity was he involved in Squirrel Club, Jam Club, Volcano
Worship's Club or the Bread Club.

Speaker 4 (25:01):
Since I'm very attuned to weird Al and me and
him are like one to one, I.

Speaker 3 (25:06):
Don't really know what he chose. But if I wear Al,
I'm definitely in on the Scroll Club.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
I want to say the Jam Club, but I'm going
because just of the time, but I'm going with the
Volcano Club.

Speaker 5 (25:19):
All right. First of all, weird Al is very religious,
as he grew up as a Catholic whose parents drink.
But Louis, you are correct. Now this is the interesting
part in uahf in uh. When they were doing the programming,
I don't know if you remember this, there is the
Volcano Worshippers Club. He has that as one of the

(25:40):
programs and the I just watch it, yeah, yeah, go
check it out.

Speaker 4 (25:44):
Yeah you'll see it. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (25:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (25:45):
That when he was proposing the episode, correct the timeline.

Speaker 5 (25:50):
Up, the scheduling, and there is that's a little Fun
with Dirt exactly, so that that's actually one of the
little easter egg right there, just for you guys. But yes,
very good, Louis. He was involved in he only because
he wanted to be. He wanted an extra picture in
the yearbook. That's the written why he participated. So that's
a pretty cool club though, right, it sounds pretty fun.
Squirrel club, by the way, all the clubs are all real.

Speaker 4 (26:11):
Did he join the lesbian Nazi hooker subduct Loss Programs
Club or what?

Speaker 5 (26:16):
I didn't do that? No? Man, alright, that's good, All right,
here's number three. He's always a respectful artist, right and
asked permission to use other songs. But who is the
only artist to consistently turned him down to parody one
of his songs? Oh, you guys probably already know this.
A Weezer, B Prince or artist formerly known as c

(26:38):
led Zeppelin or d Lady Gaga Prince. It's Prince now,
he guys already know that's an easy one. That's correct.
I'm surprised. Huh, he's a surprise.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
Prince. Old Prince is very very very ta with with
his music. But he also seems like he has a
humor streak, but maybe only undercover, you know, Like, yeah.

Speaker 4 (26:57):
Princess, like I think he has an image of portray
be this sex.

Speaker 5 (27:00):
You think, yeah, you know, but he's too he's too
sexy to be parodied, probably right, that's something that hold on?

Speaker 2 (27:07):
What song if you were weird? Now, would you parody
of Princess? And how what was?

Speaker 4 (27:13):
What is it when doves cry?

Speaker 5 (27:14):
Man? What would it be?

Speaker 2 (27:16):
When cubs cry? Little baby bears?

Speaker 4 (27:20):
Little baby bears? Are the Chicago cubs cry when.

Speaker 5 (27:24):
Something?

Speaker 4 (27:24):
Yeah, maybe something like that when the cubs cry?

Speaker 2 (27:27):
So we got a Purple Rain care parody?

Speaker 4 (27:30):
It's no, he did say that he was.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
He had a song yellow Snow for a Purple Rain
like he had a parody, but Prince denied him about
Yeah that's what he's like.

Speaker 5 (27:42):
No, I mean he got denied a couple of times,
not necessarily because they didn't want that, like for example,
Paul McCartney Live and Let Die, but the song he
was going to do was something with eating meat, and
Paul McCartney is, you know, vegetarians, Like, no, I didn't
want that. You know that was a vegetarian too, Yeah, exactly.
So there were other ones too. Who was gonna do
another Michael Jackson one, but he Michael Jackson said this

(28:04):
song is too just too meaningful. He didn't want black
and white, black and white. Yeah, so there was a
couple of they kind of they said, you know, maybe, but.

Speaker 3 (28:11):
I think he would still perform those songs on live
live shows yet, but he won't do it, not recording
that record and profit off of it.

Speaker 5 (28:19):
All right, you guys probably know this as well. But
before we're now became a successful musician, comedian, and all
around lovable goofball. He actually got his degree at cal
Pauly San Luis Obispo and majored in what a music theory,
B Architecture, CE interior design or D Liberal Arts.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
I don't know this song, but I'm gonna say liberal arts.

Speaker 4 (28:40):
I say architecture.

Speaker 5 (28:41):
All knows it. Architect Pretty cool. Huh, that's pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
I thought he just wanted to get to college to
do liberal arts real quick.

Speaker 5 (28:49):
That's what I thought too, that he would get into
that stuff, get back.

Speaker 4 (28:52):
To the doing liberal arts. Hell no, they want.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
To do that, it's the easiest degree. I just thought
he just wanted to jam out of their cordion, like
we're a hard.

Speaker 4 (29:01):
Worder he's not gonna do anything happen.

Speaker 2 (29:04):
Let's get this degree in, let's start jamming.

Speaker 5 (29:06):
Ah and my final question, guy is here we go
weird ol Believe it or Not has won five Grammys
and has been nominated eleven more times. Which of the
following artists have won less than him? Okay, all right?
A Foo, Fighters, B, Cheryl Crow, C Diana Ross or
D Coldplay. I'd say Cheryl cro I would say Shycrow

(29:27):
to you, you're both wrong. What. Yeah, she's got thirteen
nominations number one one, Fighters eleven times one, Cheryl Crow
nine and Cold Place seven. Wow, surprising, right, that's what
I said.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
That makes no sense.

Speaker 5 (29:43):
It doesn't make any sense. Even with the Supremes. They
lost when they got nominated, they still lost these, right,
nothing come on the Supreme.

Speaker 4 (29:53):
So I know there's no dignity integrity.

Speaker 5 (29:57):
Man, he's got five that's crazy, right. But it's mostly
like the comedy albums of course.

Speaker 4 (30:02):
Oh yeah, every album is an automatic one.

Speaker 3 (30:05):
Yeah, it's like it's like pick Star on that and
that generational run they did winning Best Animated Feature all
the time.

Speaker 5 (30:12):
But that's it. That's all I've got, guys. I'm sorry
that was good.

Speaker 4 (30:15):
That was fun. That was fun. Actually won something. As
long as you win, does I win?

Speaker 5 (30:21):
I'm good as long as you did.

Speaker 3 (30:23):
Well, Okay, we'll talk about Christmas at ground zero after
these messages. Okay, let's talk about the music video for
Christmas A grown zero. So you know, if you've seen them, Oppenheimer,
this is nothing.

Speaker 5 (30:39):
Also, first of all, you did mention that this was directed,
of course by where it now, And you know he's
directed a lot of other He's like sought after by
other musicians to do videos. You know, that's his music director,
music video director.

Speaker 4 (30:50):
So it's a badge of honor, Yeah, by his presidence,
I mean.

Speaker 5 (30:54):
And the same with being parodied because they feel like
they've made it because obviously you're part of part of
the popclture phenomenon. So yeah, but most of this, obviously
is the footage from I don't know if you guys
look that up. It's from a nineteen fifties, nineteen it's
called Duck and Cover and American Civil Defense animated and
live action social guidance film. You know, so if you guys,

(31:15):
it was like a PSA, right, yeah, pretty much, especially
during that era of the Cold War. Of course, did
you guys ever watch any of the other drug ones.
There's so many of those, right, They're always fun to
watch and like how ridiculous they are. But so he
got it from this particular one. There's like a second
one right there. You know you usually tie together, you

(31:35):
do drugs and you go crazy with sex, right, which
has never happened. Yes, exactly.

Speaker 4 (31:41):
Now, well later on we can laugh at it because
it was nothing happened.

Speaker 5 (31:45):
But we didn't really get those as much. Huh.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
We didn't get them in school. But you would see
them like on VHS, right, or you would see it
like on a weird parody.

Speaker 5 (31:56):
Show like or it's been short into like the more
you know, you know, like that kind of stuff where
it's like the p s as right, but these are
like full length, you know, where like they tell you
what to do when this you know, situation happened.

Speaker 3 (32:09):
Exactly if you're having a picnic, that's what you got
to do, cover yourself with your picnic.

Speaker 5 (32:13):
That definitely helps things like that.

Speaker 3 (32:16):
It's trippy because you know, like your your grandparents should
have to growth, you know, I had to live through that,
and just that the constant fear of nuclear annihilation.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
Like hopefully your your parents have a bomb shelter.

Speaker 5 (32:28):
If not, you're you're you're asked out and you're busting
Twilight trying to break down your your bomb shelter. I
was just watching that episode Shore.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
You go into a refrigerator like Indiana Jones did the.

Speaker 4 (32:43):
Fridge old fridge.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
You just lock yourself in there.

Speaker 5 (32:47):
But the video starts off with beautiful silver bells. Right
you got, And I'm so that's my soul. I saw
the silver bells, I heard it chiming, and now I'm
in all right.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
So I do love sleigh bells. Man, Oh my gosh.
Whenever I go to Guitar Center, I picked.

Speaker 5 (33:01):
Up the slaves beautiful.

Speaker 2 (33:02):
They're so pretty, and I look at the price, I'm like, oh,
I can't how much your slave belts. They're expensive, like
fifty bucks for cheap ones, but for a good sounding one,
one hundred bucks.

Speaker 5 (33:12):
Like a Santa quality one.

Speaker 4 (33:14):
Else Santa so beautiful, Santa level.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
Yeah, so nice?

Speaker 5 (33:19):
Oh man, I mean you could.

Speaker 4 (33:21):
Just ring it all years always Christmas.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
Even if I buy it for fifty bucks, what don't
make it to use for the rest of the year.
You know, I'm not like percussionists and Pacho Sanchez.

Speaker 4 (33:32):
Or stress relief when you know it's like when you're stressed.
I just actually is very nice, said how pleasant it sounds.
And the fact that you paid one hundred dollars for
this that you know, like you better justify it.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
I should started only fans and just do slave belts
like people calm down his feet doing and hey, just
let me play some slave bels smr slave.

Speaker 5 (33:56):
This is bare thighs and slave else playing. Wait a minute,
did you have you guys heard the song before I
ever heard this? I have not. It's very Christmas, very Christmas.
There's no problem with with the effect of the Christmas
element into it. It's definitely hands what year and album
eighty six poke a party? Okay, that's like his peak, right.

Speaker 4 (34:18):
I think his peak was like even Worse or smells
like Nirvana?

Speaker 5 (34:22):
Right, you know?

Speaker 4 (34:22):
But but yeah, like even Worse Will had the Fat
song on it.

Speaker 3 (34:26):
I don't know, Like to me, it's like I think
he really peaked though when he did the Smells Like Nirvana,
because that that really got him back and got him
going from a slump of the failure of UHF the
movie and things like that.

Speaker 5 (34:36):
I watched the documentary on him. They were interviewing. He
always said every album he released was always a comeback.
He considered as a comeback because he would he won't
do it for three four years, you know, there's these
gaps and when he would come back, and then he
would have one or two songs that are huge. But
really it's just you know, he's he takes his time,
you know, like he's he's very careful and then of course,

(34:56):
like he gets all the permissions and stuff like that.

Speaker 4 (34:58):
So and nowadays he doesn't release albums anymore.

Speaker 5 (35:01):
Yeah, they ended in twenty fourteen. Yeah, he's mostly just
doing singles, which is a smart move, especially that you
know it's the YouTube age, and.

Speaker 3 (35:08):
Age is like nobody buys, nobody buys, you know, he's
a Sam Goodie anymore.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
On the British model. That's what they did.

Speaker 4 (35:14):
That's right there, you he adopted.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
It makes sense.

Speaker 4 (35:19):
But yeah, yeah, good for him.

Speaker 5 (35:20):
So it starts off the plane, I think, right, very
kind of like uh doctor strange, yes of courr.

Speaker 3 (35:27):
Yeah, ready to lead some payload on some unsuspecting Detroit
country or something.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
I didn't even notice the plane. Did the plane have
any like imagery on it? It's just a blacked out plane.
You know. They didn't have like Russian, no like on
it or no, it wasn't that. It wasn't that Japanese.

Speaker 5 (35:42):
It didn't allude to any specific.

Speaker 4 (35:43):
But it eluded a lot on ICBMs though.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
Yeah, of course it's so crazy, right when you think
about it, like we were so scared of the nuclear bomb.

Speaker 5 (35:52):
First of all, louis you growing up here being born here?
Did you? Was that a thing? Like? You know, I
didn't come here till eighty six, right, so it's still
very heated during that era. But was that a thing
even before that? Like that was that in people's consciousness socially?
In my conscience?

Speaker 2 (36:07):
Probably not? I think my probably my mom's probably because
my mom grew up with parents that watched these videos
where my dad's my dad's parents are from Mexico, so
I'm not sure what his take was on it and
their take on it. But no, it was like I
would see it, but I didn't. I didn't worry about
it because I was I was a kid. I didn't care,

(36:29):
and like you know, I had toys that told me
not to worry about it. I had fucking g I
Joe I had. I had heen Man, the buffest guy
in the world.

Speaker 5 (36:38):
You know.

Speaker 2 (36:39):
I grew up in the in in America at the
time when everything is telling you don't worry about this
because you have Arnold Schwarzenegger on TV fighting communists and
so that's still rocking best American you know. Like, so
like I didn't.

Speaker 5 (36:55):
It's like can change, you can out of the Superman
movies exact Superman.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
I didn't worry about that stuff. I'm more worried about
the I was more scared at that time of mass
murderers that were killing people. Stock and night Stocker, you know,
and stuff like that, you know, because he was in
our area killing people. So but no, I didn't. But
when I reflect on it, I'm like, wait, why were
we so scared about it? We were the ones that

(37:21):
were bombing people. Yeah, but I guess it's that that
kind of remorse where you're doing it and you're afraid
it's going to come back to you, I don't know,
or maybe you make the people in the country fearful
of it, so when you do do it to other people,
it doesn't normalize normalized to them.

Speaker 5 (37:39):
Now in contrast to you and probably all can have
the same sentiment. Well, it was a tumultuous time the eighties.
There's a lot of things happening politically, socially, but at
the same time it was in the forefront. I remember
thinking a lot about because living there, growing up there
and starting to kind of like realize what's happening g politically,
It's like, oh, like there's a lot of conflicts happening. Yeah,

(37:59):
it's like we were kind of because that's the kind
of news you would get that the news feeds of
like these countries that are at war and the nuclear
threat was just around the corner. It happened a lot,
I mean to be honest with you, when I got here,
it was actually like a constant worry for me. Not
in a sense where it was affecting my daily living
situations in my life, but it was something that I
had thought about a lot, you know, because it's a

(38:21):
big transition, right Like you're living you live in one country,
you move into another country, and during that whole you
know like are happening at So as you're growing up,
you're you're starting to realize, oh that that's a possibility
that stuff could really happen, and you.

Speaker 2 (38:33):
Guys are hearing news that I'm not hearing. I mean,
your parents are feeling more anxiety than my parents. My
parents were like below middle class, we were super poor.
So my parents, I'm sure they worried about that stuff,
but they really couldn't. They had to worry more about
Puto surviving right and paying rent and like, because you

(38:56):
guys were in an island that's you know that has
a tie to the US exactly, but it's very close
to that conference, you know. You you guys are right there,
you know, like Russia, the China, all that is right there,
and you guys are in the middle of it. I
could see how that could be terrifying, not not only
for you but your parents who have to worry about it.

(39:19):
And you guys are feeling that vibe, you know, like
that's you know, that's.

Speaker 5 (39:22):
Did you ever feel that out at all? Not really really,
even when.

Speaker 3 (39:26):
You got here, even when I got here, No, not
really to me. At that time, I was just like thinking, Oh,
nuclear explosions, how cool. Imagine if Superhero had nuclear powers
and stuff. That that was like what my imagination went to.
I wasn't worried about a holocaust or things like.

Speaker 5 (39:41):
That, but you know, movies like Red Dawn, Manhattan Project,
all those.

Speaker 4 (39:45):
Movies from the eighties, those those skipped because that really
affected me.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
Man Red Don like scared. Yeah, I swear, but that
I always in my nerd head. As a kid who
was always in his head, I always thought like, I mean,
there's also a chance I could become an incredible hole.
There's always a tidy as maybe I'm going to become
an incredible hole. That might be.

Speaker 5 (40:12):
This incredibilism you never know.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
That's good, And I'm like that made me kind of cool.
I'm playing with my like, hey a chance.

Speaker 5 (40:22):
You know. Growing up during that time, I remember very
distinctly there were times where you know, I was very
I guess it's not not very religious, but more of
like believing in something bigger than me. And I remember
praying like, oh, I hope like the the world doesn't
end or any like major wars or because the term
is always world War three, World War that was like

(40:44):
embedded in world.

Speaker 3 (40:45):
A lot of music we listened to also exactly, Yes,
somehow I was so dense that it didn't the message
get through me.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
Well, that's the same thing. Like, I mean, I was
constantly watching MTV. I mean, that's why we do this podcast.

Speaker 5 (41:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (41:01):
Oh by the way, MTV officially ended this twenty four
with what song.

Speaker 2 (41:07):
Today on this Really? Yeah, I didn't even know that
ex ugly at least the music video department, but every
video was about this, and there was always a Reagan
puppet with some kind of you know thing going on.
You know, And I know that I didn't like I

(41:28):
know that I didn't like Ronald Reagan because my dad
didn't like Ronald Reagan, and because my dad would tell me, oh, well,
this is why this guy is doing these things and
this is not good for my dad's always been in
the Teamsters union and so it's always been kind of
a source of pride. And he killed a lot of
the unions and did a lot of really bad stuff.
And then now in like when I got older, I

(41:49):
started like reading more about what he did and and
and watching documentaries about him, like, wow, this guy destroyed America,
you know. I mean, he he's the one who orchestrated
where we're at now. He brought in the you know,
the everything you know. So but I was at that time,
I was just a kid and playing with toys and
listening to weird al and wasn't you know, smart enough

(42:12):
to get it. I was still like, oh, I'm just
gonna like listen to my Teddy Rouck spent you know,
are like our I think when I did get like
existential on things, it was like watching like weird Disney
movies or something like that, you know, and like the
Black Cauldron or something Black Cauldron, like getting like well
Ship or like the Black Crystal or like the Rats

(42:35):
of nim This is like freaking me out, you know,
like oh yeah, yeah, exactly. So I think it hit
me differently where I wasn't worried about that kind of stuff.
And then also my uncle was in the military pretty
when I was really really young, Like he went to
the military and he was like super tough, like he's
like one of the toughest guys I know. And I

(42:57):
was like, well, you know, like I got Uncle Steve
out there, you know, like we're gonna be good, you know,
like he's pretty tough dude.

Speaker 5 (43:04):
Like.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
So, like I think I was able to probably because
of my parents, because they were such good parents. I
was able to really like live a good, pretty good childhood,
you know, even though we were we were pretty poor,
but you know, I really like you guys leveled up.
I mean no, I mean it's comfortable now, but like

(43:26):
I was able to not have to really think about
that kind of that.

Speaker 5 (43:29):
You've had enough distractions where you're kind of like not really.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
And also too, I grew up, you know, I was
as a kid, I was diagnosed with depression, and I
didn't really I never worried about dying. I never worried
about I'm like, I was always like, if I die,
like it's like a yeah, it's like a sleep forever,
you know. It's like why would I be afraid of that?
You know, Like I was never afraid of of of death.

(43:54):
I was always maybe it's like my Mexican culture, you know,
like I was never afraid of death. So I was like,
if I die, I'm just not here anymore. And the
cocover yeah yeah, And I'm like, well, you know, like
and I was never one of those kids who were like, oh,
I won't see my toys again or anything. I was
just like I just yeah. I mean they say I'm
going to go to a better place, which is like Nirvana,
Like why not die and go to Nirvana instead? That

(44:17):
sounds so I think I think it was my parents.
It was like my Mexican Chicano culture of Catholicism. All
that stuff kind of was just like cool if I die,
Like that's good, I'm going to be cool.

Speaker 5 (44:33):
You know.

Speaker 2 (44:33):
It wasn't until like later was like oh shit, yeah
that's gonna hurt.

Speaker 4 (44:37):
Well, yeah, it.

Speaker 3 (44:38):
Would suck when you have something more at stake as
a kid, you don't really have a lot, right, Yeah,
but now you know, but I could see the fear.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
I could see the fear of.

Speaker 5 (44:46):
Well, I think a big part of it was the
transition from living in one country and then immigrating to
another country. It's like it's a fresh start, right, and
then when you think that could be like dashed like
in mere seconds because of a conflict of the you
have nothing to do with it. And of course that's
in some way. I'm just thinking back now. I'm just
saying back then, you know, as like a nine ten

(45:07):
year old mine, it's like I don't want to lose that.
I just I'm just starting Yeah, I just got here. Yeah,
so it's one of those things.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
I can see it. And then I had to be
pulled into what this country is bringing me into.

Speaker 5 (45:17):
Yeah, yeah, you know, it's funny. And I'll just mention
this real quick like before coming here. I remember like
you know, like my my older brother's friends and just
neighborhood people. Like the one thing they were warning about
was aids. Yeah, right, was a big where like you
can get anywhere, like you go to a public toilet
and you would get it. It was that that kind
of like uneducated. Yeah, just kind of like you know,

(45:39):
hearsay from all sorts of different sources. That's like, you know,
not reputable, and everybody was then yeah, exactly, it's the
same exactly.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
It was probably also like like a government thing trying
to treat you guys.

Speaker 5 (45:51):
Not to leave, you know y a big part of
it too, Yeah, yeah, ag yeah, don't go there, very
catholic agenda, you know where it's like a lot of that.

Speaker 3 (46:00):
Yeah, there's there's you know, sinister sub meanings behind them,
But we didn't really you know, we just took it
for face value as an uneducated and blissful, ignorant populace.

Speaker 5 (46:13):
And that not to take away from the video. That
is what we're reviewing, because that really he's trying to
say the same thing. Yeah, he's trying to say the
same thing in that historical context of you know, like
i'd say, from nineteen eighty all over nineteen eighty nine,
nineteen ninety you know, it was all of these things
that were happening and changing like throughout the whole world, right,
and he's just you know, he's just poking fun at it,

(46:34):
and then but using something that's kind of archaic at
that point, right like nineteen fifty two, you know, like
when everybody was like the silliness of like, oh, there's
a bomb exploiting, let me hide under my what are
your daily news paper? Was reading While he's drinking his
coffee from Duncan Donna's, he's.

Speaker 2 (46:53):
Also showing the way that this is how Reagan got
elected and got put into power was with fear. Sure
has these fearful videos in order to bring the Republican
Right into power, especially in the eighties, you know, and
that that's good political, but you know it was it's
fear mongering. You know, he's poking fun at the fear mongering.

Speaker 4 (47:15):
It worked because he had two terms out of it, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (47:17):
And you know who could afford a bomb shelter.

Speaker 4 (47:21):
Guy Twilight Zone?

Speaker 5 (47:23):
Right? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (47:23):
And how could going under your table and your school
save you from anything. I mean, there's a ton of
lead paid on schools because.

Speaker 5 (47:32):
Did you ever do that there in schools? Did they
ever teach you that stuff? Or at least but for
nuclear bombs, clear bomb, for earthquakes, earthquake.

Speaker 2 (47:40):
To look back at my earliest time, if we had
no I think it was all.

Speaker 5 (47:42):
For earthquake, most earthquake California.

Speaker 2 (47:45):
Prist stop with like around my mom's age. I bet
you for the nuclear bombs or maybe my grandparents, but
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (47:52):
And back then too, you know, like kind of just
time of trends of music videos back in when this
video came out nineteen eighty six, did you Kill.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
The Radio Star? It's all atomic doubt too, right sort of?

Speaker 3 (48:04):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And you know there's many there's many
songs that that dealt with nuclear explosions, like Forever Young,
I Think too, or Dancing with Tears in my Eyes
yeah by Ultrabox, totally nuclear bombs.

Speaker 5 (48:16):
Party at ground Zero, ground zero, one of the greatest
nine balloons, yeah nine, State of the Nation, oh by Industry, Yeah,
Industry Nation. Yeah, that's a good one. And it's all
about that stuff.

Speaker 4 (48:27):
Yeah, you know, there's a lot of pop music that
was dealing with this and then.

Speaker 3 (48:31):
But but what I was saying though, is that back then,
like when this music vide came out, like a lot
of music videos started doing this theme of using old
footage for their music videos. You know that the nineteen
music video by US a lot of archive footage as well.

Speaker 5 (48:46):
It's a different way of sampling right right in that audio.
But now now it's visual because music video MTV came out, Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 (48:54):
So back then it was like a little more fast
and loose with at least copyright of that thing, you know,
and you know, weird al and then the right thing.
I'm sure he's pretty savvy at that.

Speaker 2 (49:02):
Yeah. So that's what the eighties was, was like a
reflection on the fifties.

Speaker 5 (49:06):
And that's why, Yeah, we talked about that many times.

Speaker 3 (49:09):
The thirty year the thirty year hiatus gap, or so
to speak, that kind of guess recycled it like.

Speaker 5 (49:14):
The seventies came back in the nineties, you know. Yeah,
you're right, the fifties was very much reflected in the eighties.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
That's where we had like Fonsie la Vernon surely, Yeah,
we had a lot of that kind of stuff.

Speaker 5 (49:25):
But rockabilly bands.

Speaker 2 (49:27):
Yeah, Mexican radio, you know, there's all Yeah, there's a
lot of videos and things that harken back to the fifties.

Speaker 4 (49:34):
That's true. That's true. Yeah, straight cats, you know. Okay,
so these are actor kids, right well, I mean like
these these from these footages.

Speaker 5 (49:42):
Yes or not, it's not really happening. A lot of
it is a juxtaposed of like family gatherings, but then
you see but.

Speaker 3 (49:50):
It's it's pretty fascinating though to get the logistics of
hiring these people to do that and then and then
splice the music the footage together, you know.

Speaker 4 (49:58):
And then get paid for it. We think about it,
you know, just just assembling that kind of thing together.

Speaker 3 (50:03):
And to show to show in what like in schools
or did they show they show him in schools.

Speaker 4 (50:08):
That probably schools I wouldn't before movies maybe.

Speaker 5 (50:12):
You know, things like that, maybe like a little special
event kind of thing program because they.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
Want show that like after I Love Lucy No no, no, no,
So I don't I don't know, but but to me,
it's just like always find that era very fascinating because
I was I was very much shielded from a lot
of this, you know, nuclear scare. My family never talked
about it, you know, even in the Philippines and they
never talked about it. You know, like everyone was talking
about either aids or hunger in Africa. You know, it's

(50:38):
the biggest issues around that time.

Speaker 5 (50:40):
Yeah, definitely those two in World War three, not necessarily
a nuclear brom but World War three was very prominent.
You know, it was always like a topic, you know,
because so much in the Young Ones.

Speaker 3 (50:51):
You know, there was an episode where there was a
literal nuclear bomb that boys on the boys apartment, right,
but it was like a dud there trying to sell
the nuclear thing.

Speaker 4 (51:01):
But yeah, things like that.

Speaker 3 (51:02):
They I was worried about world War three breaking out
because someone fired the first shot, yes, you know, and
we're still at that fucking standstill, you know, Are we
gonna get world War three this year because China decide
in time one?

Speaker 5 (51:12):
Who knows? I think the next episode.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
I think the way I saw all these videos was
from watching Atomic Cafe. Do you remember that?

Speaker 5 (51:21):
Yes, that one?

Speaker 2 (51:22):
Yeah, yeah, That's where I saw it. From Atomic Cafe.

Speaker 5 (51:25):
It was kind of the same propaganic is it atom
It's like a.

Speaker 2 (51:28):
Kind of documentary is it documentary about the about that
or is it just shows just a compilation of all
the videos.

Speaker 5 (51:34):
It's the same ideas as this is a collection of
all the Yeah, it's a propaganda, you know, like they
compiled all of these different footages that they came up
during the forties, fifties, you know, and it's really just
to scare people. Yeah, it's based on that. Yeah, you know,
like ree for Madness, all of those other ones are
really good. Grass was another good one that came out
in nineties. I love the document.

Speaker 2 (51:55):
I love Grass.

Speaker 5 (51:55):
Yeah, it's a good Weed.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
And then you like Dismastered.

Speaker 5 (51:58):
Yeah, But just just how the way people's perspectives on
these subculture counterculture kind of ideals, and then how throughout
the years how it's changed and how it's been kind
of bastardized by all these different you know, is there.

Speaker 2 (52:13):
Any information on why he picked this up?

Speaker 5 (52:17):
He just well the music video was kind of forced
on him, like he didn't really or the song particularly,
like they the record label wanted him to do Christmas songs,
and so he decided to do this, you know, being
out weird al and his style of you know, it's perfect,
it works work for him.

Speaker 4 (52:31):
Well, I mean, I don't think this is one of
his better songs.

Speaker 5 (52:33):
Granted, well it's a Christmas song.

Speaker 3 (52:35):
I mean, granted, the production of the making the song
does sound like the songs from the fifties sixties.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
Yeah, that sounds great.

Speaker 5 (52:42):
Yeah, like a novelty like a real fifties novelty song.
That's that's the best part about it. Like the way
he like his high pitch sound.

Speaker 4 (52:48):
Yeah, I'd imagine like Alvin and Chipmunky.

Speaker 5 (52:51):
Yeah like that. That would be somebody would buy the
record for it.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
No, it sounds like it's like a Phil Spector produced, yeah,
Christmas song. So it's it's in that vain and that's
that's hard to do.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
And I guess yeah, they stop using kind of playing
the song after nine to eleven, right, because ground zero
took on a whole different.

Speaker 5 (53:08):
Meaning, right, A lot of people well after nine to eleven,
of course, you you people kept in the news, you know,
and in media they use the term ground zero as
in where the bombings, right, that happened, But really ground
zero is a term that's been used for many years
and just meaning where a specific event, specifically a nuclear event,

(53:28):
right or or bombing of some sort of disaster, a
disaster where it's the main source where he comes from.
So look, you've got these new kids who were born
in the last twenty thirty years. They immediately call it. Yeah,
so he plays it live. It's not something that he
I think he promotes very often because he doesn't want
to deal with all that nonsense.

Speaker 4 (53:45):
There's a lot of nonsense that's all hits these days.

Speaker 5 (53:49):
Some kind of like zero comment Party of Ground zero. Yeah,
well that's a little bit more indie. You know, that's
why that's good.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
You know, you get all conspiracy theory, like the government
call it. So they stopped playing all these songs exactly. Man,
it's all a shop for it's all to take money
out of We're all his pockets.

Speaker 5 (54:08):
Right, that's all there is twenty million dollars fortune.

Speaker 4 (54:11):
That's why you had to so you had to resort
to shopping in old varies.

Speaker 5 (54:17):
Couldn't just get it.

Speaker 4 (54:18):
Okay, we'll be right.

Speaker 3 (54:20):
Back for some notable YouTube comments. Okay, Stanford's some notable
YouTube comments.

Speaker 5 (54:29):
I all right, I have a couple fore you get
this one. Yeah no, this is like this is COVID
times when everything was cheap. Man, that's when I bought
That's when I reaped the benefits. And this one is
by E. A. D. E. Camp I Don't Eat Camp
maybe from five years ago. It says, funny story when
this song came out. My husband was stationed in a
nuclear warhead division in Greece. You have to have a

(54:51):
secret clearance just to come on to base. He played
the song and his speakers out the window. The troops
thought it was hilarious, but the bass commander came over
and told him to never t that.

Speaker 2 (55:01):
That's cool.

Speaker 4 (55:02):
Yeah, yeah, Howard, never do that again.

Speaker 5 (55:05):
That's right. He play's probably in the what do you
call those in the next two months or something. This
one is by Juliana Domina from ten years ago. Ten
years ago. The fifties had the perfect blend of optimism
and pessimism, like quotes the death blast is coming, but

(55:26):
we'll be fine if we get underneath the picnic blanket.
That's great.

Speaker 4 (55:33):
Those picnic blankets are lead lines.

Speaker 5 (55:35):
It's so funny. It's like the newspaper. He just put
it over his head. All right, I strap on, boys,
this was a long one here. I'm sorry, all right.
This one is by J. M. J. Mo Reader nine
five five five, six years ago, and they say you
can't graduate from Army Basic Trading until you pass an
end of course test. When I was in they called

(55:55):
it soldier steaks. They either march or truck the whole
company to the huge building and you from sergeant to
sergeant doing hands on evaluations. One of my troops was
going through with the guy from way the hell down South.
This guy gets up to the sergeant. The sergeant asks him, private,
how would you react if you saw a nuclear blast
in front of you? And the correct answer is sergeant,
I would immediately dive to the ground on top of

(56:17):
my weapon, cover all exposed skin, and tuck my hands
under my body. Then my sergeant would ask why you
laid on top of your weapon, and you were supposed
to answer, Sergeant, I would lay on top of your
weapons so it doesn't blow away. Then he would ask
cover all Why you would cover all your skin and
you were supposed to say, Sergeant, I would cover my
exposed skin so it doesn't get burned. But not this guy.

(56:37):
This guy's a private. How would you react if you
saw a nuclear blast in front of you? And he
would say, Sergeant, I would bend over and kiss my
ask goodbye. He passed on grounds that it would work
about as well as what you learn in basic training.
He actually passed because of that line. So that's it.
That's all I have.

Speaker 3 (56:55):
Guys, Oh, you just revealed a cheat code for a
lot of the potential right basic training people we listen
to our podcast.

Speaker 5 (57:03):
They're gonna ad me then a good thing that exists online.

Speaker 3 (57:06):
So okay, guys, Christmas at ground Zero by Weird al
would you keep it or would you throw it?

Speaker 5 (57:12):
That?

Speaker 2 (57:13):
For me? I would keep it because this is a
I think a lot of these videos that we watch
when we're kids in like the eighties, are the nineties
on like weird VHS's. People aren't going to watch those anymore.
They're not going to come up on people's algorithms. So
I think if people, if there's some weird kids that
are into weird al and they watch this video because
it's a part of their weirdl algorithm on on YouTube,

(57:34):
they'll at least be able to see this and see
how the world was and absurd it was.

Speaker 5 (57:38):
It's called weird algorithm.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
I think we'd Yeah. I think this is something that
could keep it still in the culture without having to find,
you know, a VHS tape of it, and you can't
even find that anymore, you know. I'm sure you could
find these videos online someplace.

Speaker 5 (57:54):
Yeah, there's plenty of them around, but.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
It's not going to come up on your algorithm unless
you look for it, you know. So so it could
come up on someone who's looking at weird Else stuff
and it'll be like, oh wow, what is this from,
and then maybe go deeper. So I think it's it's
a good piece of history to keep, you know, even
though it's coming from, you know, a weird el song,
and maybe people might not think it's real, but maybe
they'll do some research on it and find something.

Speaker 5 (58:18):
You know, yeah, it is.

Speaker 3 (58:19):
It is, especially for a gen z who never understood
how the implications of a nuclear holocaust. Even though we
always feel threatned nowadays, we always feel like we're unders
thread of something.

Speaker 5 (58:29):
There's always something, a lot of anxiety going on right
around the band. There's something happening right Yeah, first of all,
I'm going to keep it. And for the reasons. Yes,
it's not very original in the sense that you know,
it's not original footage and stuff like that, but well
it's perfectly fine because it's right up weird Al's Alley
because you know, most of his stuff is parodies of

(58:51):
other things, so he's using something that's already been made
and turning it into in this case, I believe, a
very like a social statement of the time. And you know,
growing up in that time that we've discussed, man, I
was deeply affected by it. So listening to it and
knowing it now, it's like it kind of actually gives
me a little flashback of that time of like having

(59:12):
that fear, but using his humor and you know, and
the way he presents the video. It's it's pretty cool,
actually because it always makes me want to see those
old videos and kind of like realize how things were
a little dicey back and it still is today. But
I actually liked the song. I think it's very christmasy.
I love the bells in the beginning and just one

(59:33):
one final note. The ending is actually shot in an
area in the Bronx where it was really like it
seemed like it's war torn kind of neighborhood. Yeah, so
they really shot it there, and you know, and for
that little tidbit of like you know what, may add
that my own little flavor Wheredell's flavor. I think that
was pretty commendable of him and putting that at the end.
So yeah, it's a key for me.

Speaker 2 (59:54):
I like word, he's parroting video images as much as
these music.

Speaker 5 (59:59):
Yeah, exactly right.

Speaker 3 (01:00:00):
Okay, Like I'll keep this video too, of course, because
he's my man. But but you know, I do think
this is one of his weaker videos as far as
like what it is, because yeah, it's like ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:00:13):
Footage original song.

Speaker 4 (01:00:15):
That's why it's an original song.

Speaker 3 (01:00:17):
I wish though that he if I'm going to go
film a tour on this, I would have busted a
Mark Romanek or something where I would have used actual
film stock from the fifties to film my shot my
scene in in or in the Bronx or whatever wherever
he was because to get that because you can tell
they just black and white? Did it you like turning

(01:00:38):
on a switch on this scene there? Granted though, all
the smoke and the fogginess and then the kids in
gas masks.

Speaker 4 (01:00:44):
That is that is kind of creepy. But anyway, yeah,
much to keep. I'll keep this video because it did.

Speaker 3 (01:00:49):
I saw some footage in there that's pretty messed up,
you know, like some things that will stay with me
because like, god damn, these were like our grandparents lived
lived through as a as a constant fear, you know, and.

Speaker 5 (01:00:59):
Only advice they got, you know, as a whole, as
a whole society, like this is what you should be doing?

Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
Yeah, because oh, you know, we unleashed these bombs in
World War Two, so we're now living in its you know,
consequence and like during and like what was like in
the sixties during the stupid Rosenberg's Secret during like the.

Speaker 2 (01:01:16):
Cuban missile crisis go pretty close?

Speaker 5 (01:01:18):
Yeah, that too, So that is even in nineteen eighty
there was a Russian he was an officer, I believe,
and oh yeah, right, that whole thing where.

Speaker 4 (01:01:27):
He got a message that we had launched missiles, so.

Speaker 5 (01:01:29):
That he was supposed to launch back, but he decided
not to against his veteran Joe the h for October. Yeah,
and he's like, you know what I need to I'm
not really sure. I don't want to do this, he said.
I think he's still live, even this guy, I think
so he was like this this he became like a hero,
like you know, underground hero because he had he pressed
the button, he wouldn't be doing this podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
You know, we might have with like four eyes. Maybe
I would have been a hulk.

Speaker 5 (01:01:51):
Right, that's true, Lewis Gamma ricks exposion could have been
a hulk.

Speaker 3 (01:01:56):
Probably, you know, like ashes on the ground as weird
how things in front of caroling, right in front with
but with kids' gas masks. If he did release that button,
I press that button. But yeah, I'll keep saying, sure
we all is the best man.

Speaker 5 (01:02:10):
Seriously, we need more people like him. He's just one
of those guys that gives good energy and positivity.

Speaker 4 (01:02:15):
Yeah, he's you know, he's one of the few people
can say that made the world a better place.

Speaker 5 (01:02:18):
Seriously, seriously.

Speaker 4 (01:02:20):
All right, guys, So louis what you got for us
in our next episode?

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
For the next episode, this is something that I've been
putting off for a while, but I'll be wanting to
do it for a long time. So I'm going to
do the nineteen eighty three world hit Karma Chamelle.

Speaker 4 (01:02:32):
Oh ultipl Yes, So yeah, all right, that takes me back.

Speaker 2 (01:02:38):
I want to go back to the eighties, so we're.

Speaker 5 (01:02:44):
Go further back.

Speaker 4 (01:02:47):
It is a throwback music video, and it's.

Speaker 2 (01:02:50):
An interesting, pretty well funded videos. There's a lot of
stuff in there.

Speaker 4 (01:02:54):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, they're you know, they're in a steamboat.

Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
Yeah, exactly, a little bit of a piece.

Speaker 4 (01:03:00):
Yes, it is period piece for sure. All right, Okay,
thank you for listening.

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
Guys.

Speaker 4 (01:03:05):
We'll see you next time for Karma Chamelia.

Speaker 2 (01:03:08):
Thank you for making it to the end of the show.

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
Please subscribe to us through your favorite podcast feed, and
if you have any comments, requests, or suggestions, hit us
up at Instagram at TMBR podcast. If you would like
to support our show, please rate us a five star
review on Apple Podcasts or buy us a coffee at
buy Me a Coffee dot com slash TMBR podcast.

Speaker 5 (01:03:29):
See you soon. This is like breakfast for lunch back
in the elementary school day. Hell, you know what breakfast
for lunches about? This? Back in our elementary school days,
a special treat is for lunch. They would be serving
breakfast and everybody love you, right, everybody love it. So
you get the sausage and the little pancakes or waffle,
but it was always.

Speaker 2 (01:03:50):
A little thing of eggs and where they make it
in a big pod.

Speaker 5 (01:03:52):
You're doing something that you shouldn't be. Just like today,
we'll do a Christmas episode on a weird January second
New Year's beautiful.

Speaker 4 (01:04:00):
But it was weird, rainy.

Speaker 2 (01:04:01):
So even the kids that wouldn't eat, because like when
you're in elementary school, well back then, a lot of
kids wouldn't even you're gonna go play better, you're not
gonna eat, So like the lines wouldn't be that, but
for breakfast, for lunch, the lions would be out the door.

Speaker 5 (01:04:15):
Man, everybody's there. Yeah, you only got a half.

Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
An hour, man, so you got to get there, eat
your food, and try to get some kickball in. Man.

Speaker 3 (01:04:21):
I never got that memory saying because my my private
school days were kind of weird.

Speaker 2 (01:04:26):
So for your private school, it's maybe it's like Philograph
for lunch lunch.

Speaker 5 (01:04:32):
No, no, it was.

Speaker 3 (01:04:33):
I mean, I'd love to have that kind of billionaire
elite lunch thing. But no, we had a food truck. Okay,
when I first started going to my high school, we
had a food truck that was our lunch thing. But
my first two years in high school in that private school,
we didn't have a cafeteria. They started doing the cafeteria
thing in my junior year and an actual proper cafeteria

(01:04:54):
where you can get you know, somewhat proper food.

Speaker 5 (01:04:56):
But I don't know, man, I I love the families
houses of dollars, and there's no cafetera proper cafeteria.

Speaker 4 (01:05:03):
There's no proper cafeteria.

Speaker 2 (01:05:04):
So did you have to pay the food truck or.

Speaker 4 (01:05:06):
Yes, of course you paid the food truck. We paid,
We paid for the food truck and all that.

Speaker 5 (01:05:10):
What did they serve?

Speaker 4 (01:05:11):
Like burgers and yes, burgers, burritos, whatever you want from.

Speaker 5 (01:05:14):
And you know what's funny, al you mentioned you use
the term roach coach right, which we also use because
we went to a local community college here and we
all partook in the roach coach scene. But the thing
is now they're all fancy, and uh.

Speaker 3 (01:05:29):
They're fancy with the prices still the same fun So
I'm like, no, I'm not paying restaurant prices for your
pro paint tank cooked food.

Speaker 5 (01:05:41):
That's true, man, that's true.

Speaker 3 (01:05:43):
That you know, just again, it's the incertification of everything
like they you know, like back then there were some
worthy roach coaches because they served you very niche foods
that are very presentable and are very good. But now
it's like, oh everything passes now for it.

Speaker 5 (01:05:57):
But I never had a problem back then. I always
enjoyed the food yeah, it's great.

Speaker 4 (01:06:00):
Yeah, but if you're gonna charge me eighteen dollars for
a fucking.

Speaker 5 (01:06:02):
Sandwich, hell no. So back then it's like chips, right, Yeah,
I mean, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:06:08):
Charge me fine, charge me nine dollars for a card
inside of Brito, no problem. But eighteen dollars, sixteen dollars
for things like that, nah,