#4343 Can You Separate The Les From The Nessman?

Summary

Podcast Summary: TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live Episode #4343: Can You Separate The Les From The Nessman? Release Date: November 22, 2024

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Welcome to episode #4343 of TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live, a daily show where longtime friends Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh navigate the world with humor and camaraderie. In this episode, titled "Can You Separate The Les From The Nessman?", the hosts delve into a variety of engaging topics, ranging from media analysis and weather woes to personal anecdotes and commercial critiques.

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1. Exploring Subtext in Media (00:01 - 00:37)

The episode kicks off with Luke and Andrew discussing the concept of subtext in plays, novels, and songs. Luke poses an intriguing question about the overt messages in media:

Luke Burbank [00:12]: "Subtext, which I take to mean a hidden message or import of some kind. So, subtext, we know, but what do you call the message or meaning that's right there on the surface, completely open and obvious?"

Andrew humorously responds:

Andrew Walsh [00:30]: "The text."

The duo laughs over this revelation, highlighting the often-overlooked surface meanings in storytelling.

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2. Internet Rumors and Storm Updates (01:05 - 05:48)

Transitioning from media theory, Luke and Andrew touch upon a persistent Internet rumor about Andrew's neighbors allegedly using his garbage bins. Though the conversation veers off into playful banter, they promise to investigate the claim further.

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to discussing recent storm damage in the Seattle area, referencing an incident involving Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie:

Luke Burbank [04:50]: "Ben Gibbard from Death Cab is a well-known runner now. He's been running for a long time actually. He's very healthy, he's sober, he runs. Everything's going great for Ben Gibbert."

They explore the randomness of media coverage when a celebrity is involved, lamenting the disconnect between Gibbard’s persona and the storm's impact.

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3. Commercial Critiques (08:41 - 22:18)

Luke and Andrew delve into a deep analysis of various commercials, critiquing their creativity and effectiveness. They discuss:

• Range Rover Ads: Surreal and avant-garde, featuring dramatic scenes like driving through deserts or navigating chessboards.

  Andrew Walsh [12:44]: "Have you seen this thing before?"

• Perfume Commercials: Often overly dramatic with brief, unrealistic narratives emphasizing beauty and luxury.

• Prescription Medication Ads: Luke shares his frustration with an eye medication commercial:

  Luke Burbank [15:56]: "It's called My Bow. To me, it is an example of really, really trying too hard to make something work as a kind of a play on word or a sound alike."

They express skepticism about the commercialization of health issues and the over-reliance on consumerism to solve personal problems.

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4. Personal Anecdotes: Luke’s Eye Condition (22:18 - 28:17)

Luke provides a heartfelt update on his eye condition, diagnosed as a sty:

Luke Burbank [22:19]: "I did not get eye surgery yesterday. You were absolutely right, by the way. The doctor, after he took a look at it, said, well, first of all, he said, you have what we call... aka a sty."

He praises Kaiser Permanente for their efficient service:

Luke Burbank [22:58]: "He was very professional and said, let me take a couple pictures of this. And he goes, and then I'm going to send them to our on call eye specialist who's going to look at the photos and then tell me what to do."

Despite the doctor's recommendation for antibiotics and warm compresses, Luke humorously laments the lack of immediate solutions:

Luke Burbank [27:39]: "I bought this bizarro bean bag. It's like sunglasses, but instead of lenses, they have, they're filled with little, you know, plastic something or others that absorb heat. You microwave it and you put it on your eyes."

Andrew expresses concern over antibiotic resistance, blending humor with genuine worry.

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5. Driving frustrations and Road Rage (28:17 - 41:23)

The conversation shifts to driving woes in Seattle, focusing on tailgating and school zone speed limits. Luke shares a tense encounter with an elderly driver:

Luke Burbank [34:02]: *"I hate that that works. But this was like some kind of just sort of, I don't know, standard like let's say, you know, mid size SUV or whatever. But it was just tailgating me so close and I'm like, okay...."`

Andrew adds his own experiences with aggressive drivers, emphasizing the shared frustrations of navigating congested roads:

Andrew Walsh [34:02]: "I’m really good at that. Like, I’ll keep a very close eye on them in my rear view mirror and then just like at the right moment, just like break."

Their stories reflect the underlying anxiety and tension common among urban drivers, highlighting the pressure to maintain safety while dealing with others' aggressive behaviors.

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6. TV Show and Pop Culture References (41:23 - 73:25)

Luke and Andrew engage in a spirited discussion about various TV shows, commercials, and pop culture moments:

• The Simpsons: Listener Eric sends in a clip analyzing the "Knifey Spoonie" joke, which they break down into layers of humor involving absurd gameplay and character reactions.

  Luke Burbank [74:01]: "Layer number one, referencing Crocodile Dundee. Definitely the lowest layer."

• Twisted Sister in Pee Wee's Big Adventure: They explore Dee Snider's cameo in the film, debating its connection to the band's image and the movie's narrative.

• Michael Jackson’s "Black or White": A detailed recounting of the music video, including cameos from various celebrities and its thematic homage to rock and roll.

  Andrew Walsh [50:14]: "This is the story of Michael Jackson's Black or White...we're using some early version of a technology where people were singing along the song."

Through these discussions, the hosts weave in nostalgic elements with critical analysis, offering listeners both entertainment and thoughtful commentary.

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7. Listener Interactions and Emails (73:25 - 79:45)

The hosts express gratitude towards their donors and listeners, highlighting personal connections and support:

Luke Burbank [42:05]: "Annie is our former colleague at APM and a friend...Thank you, Annie."

They also respond to Listener Deb from Redmond, Washington, who discovered the podcast through the Seattle subreddit:

Deb's Message [72:35]: "The Seattle subreddit did in fact make me look for your podcast... I would like to start with episode number one and listen in order."

Andrew and Luke warmly welcome Deb, sharing a sense of community and appreciation for new and returning listeners.

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8. Final Thoughts and Sign-Off (79:45 - 80:14)

Wrapping up the episode, Luke and Andrew reflect on the week's discussions and express anticipation for future content:

Luke Burbank [80:14]: "Thanks for hanging out with us, everybody. We are going to be back here on Monday with more imaginary radio for you, so please join us for that. In the meantime, have a great weekend."

They encourage listeners to navigate the upcoming Pacific Northwest weather with humor, closing the episode on a light-hearted note.

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Notable Quotes:

• Luke Burbank [00:12]: "Subtext, which I take to mean a hidden message or import of some kind."

• Andrew Walsh [34:02]: "I’m really good at that. Like, I’ll keep a very close eye on them in my rear view mirror and then just like at the right moment, just like break."

• Luke Burbank [22:19]: "I did not get eye surgery yesterday. You were absolutely right, by the way."

• Deb's Message [72:35]: "I would like to start with episode number one and listen in order."

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Conclusion

Episode #4343 of TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live offers a rich tapestry of conversations, blending personal stories with cultural critiques and fostering a sense of community among listeners. Luke and Andrew's chemistry and insightful humor make complex topics accessible and entertaining, ensuring that both long-time fans and new listeners find value and enjoyment in tuning in.

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Thank you for reading this summary! If you enjoyed it, consider tuning into the full episode for the complete experience.

Transcript

[Luke Burbank]

Maybe you can clarify something for me. Since I've been, you know, waiting for the fleet to show up, I've read a lot. Really? And one of the things that keeps popping up is this about subtext. Plays, novel songs, they all have a.

[Andrew Walsh]

Subtext, which I take to mean a.

[Luke Burbank]

Hidden message or import of some kind. So, subtext, we know, but what do you call the message or meaning that's right there on the surface, completely open and obvious? They never talk about that. What do you call what's above the subtext?

[Andrew Walsh]

The text.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, that's right. But they never talk about that.

[Andrew Walsh]

TBTL Guess what day it is Guess what day it is. It's Friday Friday Gonna get down on.

[Luke Burbank]

Friday Everybody's looking forward to the weekend Calamine, Calamine. Calamine lotion. Oh, no, no, no. Not the lotion.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, this generation is all hacky sack and video games.

[Luke Burbank]

Ain't that the truth.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, this is a rumor that's out there on the Internet and you think it's nothing. Tell you what, I'm gonna look into it. This could be very interesting indeed. Okay, quick question. The Internet, that's the one with email, right? Yes. Got it. I want it.

[Luke Burbank]

All right. Hello, good morning and welcome, everyone, to a Friday edition of tbtl, the show. It just might be too beautiful to live. I just love hot Cheetos. My name is Luke Burbank. I'm your host. As Jay would say, he got flow. Coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio, perched high above the mighty Columbia, where another wind and rainstorm moving in.

[Andrew Walsh]

You gotta be kidding me.

[Luke Burbank]

I feel like we had about six hours yesterday where it wasn't just actively trying to huff and puff and blow my little house down. And now we're back at it. But so far, the power and Internet, they're holding. So we are ready to bring you episode 4343 in a collector series.

[Andrew Walsh]

Let the fun begin.

[Luke Burbank]

The folks that make Tropicana orange juice are sideways with their fan base, their customer base. I love juice. Turns out people have a lot of very strong feelings about Tropicana juice, and they do not like it when the company messes with the packaging of their juice. So we will talk about that, plus an update on my eye situation as well. And we're going to talk to this guy, longest running cobro of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ship.

[Andrew Walsh]

Call it friendo.

[Luke Burbank]

He's also a close and personal friendo of mine. He's Andrew Walsh, and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[Andrew Walsh]

Good morning, Luke. Are you familiar with the saying, what blows in the south affects the North?

[Luke Burbank]

I don't know if I am, actually. Did you just make that up?

[Andrew Walsh]

I think I just made that up, honestly. It's not even that well crafted, to be honest with you. But I was thinking about you this morning as I was reading the news and I saw that we have more sort of, let's call it exciting weather on the way. But I did see that is coming up through the south and then it will hit us. So you're my. Is bellwether the right word? You are.

[Luke Burbank]

I think so, yeah. Yeah, I'm a leading indicator.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly. You need.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, I'm thought. I'm thought of that often by many people.

[Andrew Walsh]

You're my own personal Waffle House if you close down. I know, I know. So anyway, you could also ask Death.

[Luke Burbank]

Cab for Cuties Ben Gibbert about it because I was cruising this. Did you see this clip on the Sale Times website?

[Andrew Walsh]

No.

[Luke Burbank]

It is so random. It's like Death Cab for Cutie Singer calls storm. Like one of a kind or something. And I was like, please explain. And then I go to the video and clearly what happened was somebody from like the Seattle Times news team was probably dispatched to an area I think over near like, is it Tiger Mountain? I get confused now because you've got a Tigard, Oregon down here, but I think it's. Is it. It's Tiger Mountain, right?

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm actually not sure. I hear it saying every now and.

[Luke Burbank]

Then I think that's where the Chirotransmitter was.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, okay.

[Luke Burbank]

Or the KUOW transmitter. I think there are some transmitters up on Tiger Mountain. But anyway, you know, Ben Gibbard from Death Cab is a well known runner now. He's been running for a long time actually. He's very healthy, he's sober, he runs. Everything's going great for Ben Gibbert. And he clearly was just out trying to go for a run in an area that happened to have a lot of downed trees. And so somebody from the Seattle Times, I think from their video team just started interviewing him and probably brought the tape back. And then someone said, you know, that's the guy from Death Cab. So the whole thing became Death Cab for Cutie. Singer weighs in on the storm as opposed to man on the street says, boy, there's a lot of blown down trees here.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm not, I'm looking, I'm searching the archives by Seattle Times. I'm not seeing. It's not coming Up. It definitely wasn't one of the local TV stations. You're probably not cruising the Como website in the morning.

[Luke Burbank]

Hold on. Jake from State Farm was there.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay.

[Luke Burbank]

Park in between two downed trees. But we have an update on that later.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, let's do that later. Yeah, interesting.

[Luke Burbank]

But anyway, I can't find it. Maybe it wasn't the Seattle Times. It came somehow into my newsfeed. It might have been a local station, but I can. I can say with some confidence that this was just one of those happenstance things where the person they interviewed happens to be the lead singer of a very popular band based out of Seattle. So they decided, probably wisely so, to lead with that aspect of it. But they're sort of unrelated things. The fact that he wrote I will possess your heart and that there are a lot of downed trees are not related concepts.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's so Seattle, though, too. I sort of feel. I feel like, oh, why could I never remember his name? But, you know, babies got back. Might also sir mix a lot. Might also be giving a traffic update later today as well. Having said that, and I don't know if this is a misguided. Or if you'll go along with me here, Luke, but I'm going to give a little. Speaking of Death Cab, a little shout out to Gary and Sue, who sent us a nice little handwritten note. And a little. Speaking of Wallace, this is Chris Wallace, parents. They were. You know, I knew that they were longtime listeners. We used to email. Sue and I used to email back and forth back in the day. But I don't know if they're returning to the fold or. Or whatever. We got a nice little note from them the other day, and I really appreciate. It was great to hear from you guys. Thank you.

[Luke Burbank]

We love the Wallace.

[Andrew Walsh]

We truly do.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I found it. This. It was actually an AP story that I think I saw republished or somehow it came through the Seattle Times. But it's a. Let's see. I'm playing the video now. It's. Of course it's going to make us watch a commercial. I mean, you got to support the media somehow.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I heard the rain. I thought that was.

[Luke Burbank]

This is like a Ford Bronco commercial that you have to watch before you see the video called Death Cab. Seattle area storm damage quote, a sight to behold.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm looking forward to this. I'm glad that there's audio. Oh, yeah, I'm seeing this, too. Oh, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

I cannot skip this Bronco ad, by the way. It's apparently four hours long. Love of Crepes.

[Andrew Walsh]

We actually need to talk about range.

[Luke Burbank]

I came out for kind of a typical weekday run up to the top of Tiger three. And I park here all the time. And yeah, just kind of pulled into this crazy situation and I tried to kind of get up on the trail system kind of by a different. Different route. But the number of blowdowns up there is just unbelievable. I never say anything like that. I've been running here for a decade plus and I'm used to kind of dealing with blowdowns. But this is. This is on another level. Obviously you feel the most for people who that had their homes partially destroyed by this. So I mean, my ability to run or not run on the trail is. Pales in comparison to that. Good perspective. Tunnels to gates of Wide. Just our hands clasped so tight. I was gonna go with I want to live in a place where trees don't blow down.

[Andrew Walsh]

I just grabbed. I did not think I would be able to get through my YouTube commercial and get that playing in time to actually run it underneath your. I grabbed the first song I could possibly find. Are you. I need to keep my powder dry a little bit on this for after these messages, but I know that you like to talk about commercials too, and I do.

[Luke Burbank]

And in fact, I've got two commercials I'd like to discuss with you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, good. And the funny thing is, and if you are not familiar with the commercials I'm about to describe, we will just leave it there and I will encourage listeners to tune in maybe to the next after these messages where I'll discuss them with Genevieve and play them for her. But I told you, I've been watching a lot of Sopranos. I've been watching a lot of the Sopranos. Do you use the article there? Yeah. I've been watching a lot of the television show the Sopranos, but it's not really television into hbo. I might be in my head a little bit on this.

[Luke Burbank]

I wish I could make that sound effect of the static.

[Andrew Walsh]

Wait, that might have been Kit from Knight Rider. I'm not sure what I just did. But anyway, clearly they think the people who are watching. I would even say binging reruns, if that's what you would call a streaming service. Of the Sopranos are people who are well off. I'm seeing ads for high luxury items. A lot of avant garde perfume ads, which, by the way, I'm kind of into. And then like a slate of three or four Range Rover ads. Something specific for the Range Rover Defender. Now one's been running for A long time where it almost looks like D Day, where some sort of a kind of ship comes up to the shore, a big kind of ramp drops down. Some intense music plays in these Range Rovers come running off the ramp. That's been airing for like a year or something, but now there's a couple more. 1. You saw the second season of. God damn it. I wish. The one thing I wish is that I had a goddamn brain. What is. I'm glad nobody's. Glad nobody's pulling clips from this show anymore. What is the.

[Luke Burbank]

Someone should write a song about that.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, you even helped me stall it. I can't think of it. What was the HBO show that was an absolute phenomenon? Two seasons had Jennifer Coolidge in it about the hotel, the White Hotel. Okay. Yeah. Did you watch the second season of White Lotus?

[Luke Burbank]

I did.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, I know there's a lot of attractive people in that show, but do you remember the impossibly handsome white man who is one of the main characters that. That second season follows a two couples, kind of a foursome, and one of them is just like this guy who is incredibly sexy and cool. Can you picture him?

[Luke Burbank]

Well, yes, I think I can. There's the two couples. Aubrey Plaza is in one of the.

[Andrew Walsh]

Couples, and he is the husband.

[Luke Burbank]

Her husband.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, her husband is more like a tech guy who's not unattractive in his own way. But clearly the other couple are just like this incredibly rich. Audrey Plaza and her husband had to, like, kind of work for where they are. Where these other two are just astronomically wealthy and they don't have to worry about anything. And this one guy is just like. He's. He's like. It's.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's hard to get a beat on them because in some way they're despicable the way they just don't care about the world.

[Luke Burbank]

Right.

[Andrew Walsh]

But also he's just so casually beautiful and cool and everything. So anyway, I had not seen him or thought about him. Well, I thought about him sometimes.

[Luke Burbank]

Theo James, all that much, you're thinking.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, that is. Yeah, that. That rings a bell. Maybe from the credits. Anyway, he's in this Range Rover ad. Now, that is almost like a perfume commercial. You see him driving. I don't even know if you see him until the end of the commercial when he gets out of the Range Rover. But you see this Range Rover driving, like. I don't know. I think maybe it starts off some rough terrain, but then it starts driving closer and closer to some sort of mansion somewhere. And then, like, in the mansion is a giant chessboard where he's driving the Range Rover around like a rook and a knight that are, like, huge, and it's, like, surreal. Then he drives the Range Rover up the steps of this impossibly gorgeous mansion somewhere in Europe. And then it turns out this whole time he was just, like, retrieving their dog. And it's like some sort of, like, really expensive breed dog. And he's just retrieving the dog's toy or something while his wife or partner is waiting for him to return by watching him through a spyglass or like some sort of a magnificent.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I'm watching this.

[Andrew Walsh]

Have you seen this thing before?

[Luke Burbank]

I hadn't seen it before, but I just watched it while you were describing.

[Andrew Walsh]

How was my description of it?

[Luke Burbank]

Pretty, pretty accurate. It's got sort of bizarre, almost Alice in Wonderland kind of vibes, like you said. Surreal is the right way to put it because what's happening is surreal. The something about the color of the commercial, like, it's. It's. It's. It's slightly uncanny. Like, it doesn't. It doesn't seem like it's trying to tell you this is a real universe that exists.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's fantastical in some ways. So there's that one. There's the one where they're all coming off the ship D Day style. Then there's another one that has some dj, and I don't know if there's. I don't know. Look this up. If you don't mind, Luke, not to tell you what to do, but look it up. There's another one in the same campaign that. It just shows, like, beautiful shots of the Range Rover Defender. But then, like, this DJ just sort of standing out in his carport, just sort of like, I guess just mixing it up, just djing for himself and his car while we see beauty shots of the car. And it's not a DJ I would. I have heard of, but what DJs have I heard of?

[Luke Burbank]

Defender X Cola. K O L A Cola.

[Andrew Walsh]

Definitely a Defender.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I think. Yeah, I think I'm looking at it. So this. Yeah, this. Yeah, I'm watching it now. I think the DJ is named Cola Bello.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, okay. Yes, yes. Okay. And the. The.

[Luke Burbank]

The Range Rover is driving through the desert. Looks like. Could be like tree or something.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. And this is the soundtrack. This is Cola Bello. And he's just sort of like tapping the. Tapping the. I don't even know what you call.

[Luke Burbank]

The mixers, the ones and twos and.

[Andrew Walsh]

Tapping the ones into the wheels of steel. But he's just sort of out there while his car self parks in the garage. And it's just such a weird thing. He's like, I don't know. If it was a guy by himself with a guitar, would. I think it's odd. Is it odd because it's like an electronic music rig and. Am I being biased? There's something so weird about these commercials. And again, I don't know exactly who they're appealing to, but probably people richer and have more taste than me.

[Luke Burbank]

They're just a vibe, I guess.

[Andrew Walsh]

I guess so.

[Luke Burbank]

And you're like, I want to live in that vibe. And the way I can do that is by getting this car. I guess. I mean, the ultimate example of that which you've already referenced are those perfume commercials, those fragrance commercials, which are historically and consistently bonkers. They're just like, heaven forbid, there's a fragrance commercial where somebody puts on the fragrance and someone goes, hey, that smells nice.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hey, that smells pretty, huh?

[Luke Burbank]

Hey, what you wearing? Like, it has to be like Natalie Portman, you know, like falling backwards into.

[Andrew Walsh]

A pool that ends up being filled with.

[Luke Burbank]

Maybe she's on a hot air balloon with a man, but then she looks at him, but then she says it was all a dream. And then she turns like ash and she tumbles backwards off of the hot air out of the hot air balloon basket or something. They're also. I feel like a lot of these perfume commercials are like eight seconds long.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, that.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't think I've ever seen a minute long perfume commercial. It's always like Johnny Depp for Sauvage digging a hole in the desert, but it's 15 seconds long.

[Andrew Walsh]

Digging, Johnny. That's what I say. Keep digging.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, the commercial that I want to talk to you about is for, I think some kind of a. Like a prescription medication. Well, for your eyes, Andrew, which is a subject near and dear to my heart.

[Andrew Walsh]

You got to get on this weekend.

[Luke Burbank]

It's called My Bow. And to me, it is an example of really, really trying too hard to make something work as a kind of a play on word or a sound alike. I mean, the number one thing you have to hope for, if you're a musician, if you're in a band is the number one thing you have to hope for is you will be interviewed by the Associated Press regarding a storm dance. But the second thing you have to hope hope for is that you have written a song that somehow sort of references some sort of physical issues that people may have Someday that can be addressed through a, you know, a prescription drug. Because I feel like the ad companies for these weird ass prescription drugs, that's their one go to is like, oh, oh, Ozempic. Yeah, like, you know, I mean the list is long of just like. Well, that's a song that kind of sounds like a different thing that we're actually trying to promote. That's like, that's always their go to and the Meibo drug company is no different. Let me play this for you. I just. I haven't actually listened to this. I'm hoping it's the commercial that I'm thinking of. Do your dry eyes still feel gritty.

[Andrew Walsh]

Rough or tired with my BO eyes.

[Luke Burbank]

Can feel prescription dry eye drop that forms a protective layer for the number one cause of dry eye. Too much tear evaporation for relief.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's my.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, it doesn't make any sense. They want. They. They wanted to try to, you know, they wanted to capitalize on the. Oh yeah. But it's not. It's not my bo. Yeah, it's my bo. New thought. Oh yeah. Like it is such a stretch to use that song in this commercial.

[Andrew Walsh]

Trying to figure out who that is. That is. Are they yellow? This was. This song was famously used in Ferris Wheeler. Did you say that?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, No, I didn't, but. But and then in like those Twix commercials or something. Oh, Twix commercial already been used in a big commercial campaign.

[Andrew Walsh]

And I think I conically. Although I don't know who might remember this. I think it might be generational, but I. This song was to my eyes famously used in a Volkswagen commercial that might have been one of the earliest commercials where two characters were not specifically but possibly coded as gay because there's two young men driving around. I mean, they could just be roommates, but I remember at the time being like, oh, this could be like open to interpretation. But it's two young men driving around in a car while the song is playing and they're sort of having a day and then they see a couch on the side of the road. Remember this one? And they pick like it's an old couch. Because they're probably like college age or post college age. And so they grab it and they put it in the back of their car like they're going to take it home together. But then they're driving around.

[Luke Burbank]

That wasn't the da da da commercial.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh shit. I get those songs confused, don't I? Da da Da and Chicka Chicka. Oh yeah. Are two different songs. What A week for me.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, come on now.

[Andrew Walsh]

What a week? No, people are going to be talking. The Seattle Times is going to get a quote from Ben Gibbert about what an idiot I am that I confused. Oh, yeah, with da da, da.

[Luke Burbank]

Ben Gibber describes Andrew's memory as one of a kind.

[Andrew Walsh]

And porous. Porous comes to mind.

[Luke Burbank]

Now, I saw a commercial last night that I think is actually really good and unfortunately is for a. I would say a company that's run by a person who I no longer hold in high regard. And I speak of the company, Amazon. I'm sure we have lots of listeners that work for Amazon. And so I don't want to, you know, I don't want to punish the people that are just going to work and having a job. But, you know, Jeff Bezos certainly seems to have taken a turn for the worse. But I believe I now can't find this commercial. I'm wondering, Andrew, if you have seen this or if you can help me locate it here. I think it was for Amazon and what I thought, what it's, it's a pretty, actually a pretty funny concept. It's basically like two kind of, you know, suburban parents are sitting out in their backyard and their kids are putting on a performance and it's some hip hop song. I think it's a pretty iconic hip hop song. And it's just like a vibe. They're just vibing so hard and then you realize it cuts to the. What the kids are actually playing, which is the same song, but they're playing it on like kazoo very badly.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay. I have, I definitely have not seen this. I'm frantically.

[Luke Burbank]

Amazon kazoo commercial. And all I'm finding are kazoos that are for sale on Amazon. So. But I, I thought it was actually. I didn't really see it coming and I thought it was a kind of a funny reveal. I feel like there's so many.

[Andrew Walsh]

It might be instacart. I'm saying something. Maybe it's a song by DMX on kazoo. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Should I play this? I have not. I have not seen this before before.

[Luke Burbank]

So I was also wrong.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. So these kids are all dressed up. They're performing. They're actually dancing really, really well. I guess the kids are dressed up like from different eras. Sort of. One looks sort of like a. Maybe not a pirate, but like some sort of a. A seafaring chap from the 1800s. We have somebody who looks like maybe she's from Middle Earth. I'm not exactly sure. They're dancing around.

[Luke Burbank]

Make me lose up.

[Andrew Walsh]

In here, up in here y'all go.

[Luke Burbank]

Make me go all out up in here, up in here y'all go make me act a fool.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, when you cut to the parents, you finally cut to the parents and you're just like, yeah, this is pretty good. Kids give them the thumbs up. And it just sounds awful, actually, that. I like that. That's charming.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I didn't see that coming. And I was. I feel like there are so many commercials now that play related to NFL content or in and around NFL games that lean on hip hop and lean on vibes and, like, whether it's just like, you know, buy these, you know, team apparel things. And like, I feel like it's. It's used as a way to sort of signify coolness or something or edginess sometimes. And so I thought that's what they were doing for Instacart. And then when they switched to the kazoo track, that surprised me, I'll give you that.

[Andrew Walsh]

Nice, Nice.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, update on my eye.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, what's going on, man?

[Luke Burbank]

I did not get eye surgery yesterday. You were absolutely right, by the way. The doctor, after he took a look at it, said, well, first of all, he said, you have what we call. And then he literally quoted the exact thing I read yesterday from the Internet, which whatever the complicated name was for this little gland in my eyelid that's, you know, not draining or something. And then he said, also known as a sty. So you were absolutely right about that yesterday. And. And he said, so what? You know, what we normally will recommend. Well, actually, I got to give Kaiser Permanente some credit, Andrew.

[Andrew Walsh]

I said, Permanente, not so. So I'm sick of Kaiser forming Kaiser.

[Luke Burbank]

So to say, Kaiser Wilhelm. I'm going to give the Kaiser some real credit. I've got to give Franz Ferdinand some real credit here. It was Wednesday when I thought, okay, this I situation has gone far enough. And then I got on the Internet, I got on the website of Kaiser Permanente and I made an appointment for the next day, which I actually was able to get one in a town near me. And then I went down there yesterday and they were ready to go right at the agreed upon time. The nurse, you know, took my vitals. And then the doctor came in and took a look and very professional and said, let me take a couple pictures of this. And he goes, and then I'm going to send them to our on call eye specialist who's going to look at the photos and then tell me what to do. And so he did that. And the advice was give him some antibiotics and just see if that kind of knocks it down. What he thinks happened is I had this little sty thing develop in my. In my eyelid, and then maybe that has become infected. So you have the like first thing, which was the gland getting kind of plugged up. But then because it's been plugged up for too long and has not remedied itself, there may be an infection which hopefully the antibiotic will handle. But it was all very like, the whole thing took 20 minutes. And like, within 20 minutes, the doctor had seen me. He had had sent photos of my eyeballs to somebody whose whole expertise is eyeballs. And then I got the prescription on my phone while the doctor was. Actually, the doctor had sent the photos and had like gone down the hall for something. Hadn't even come back to tell me I was getting an antibiotic. But my phone goes chirp. And there it is Kaiser saying, your prescription for whatever the hell it's called is, you know, we'll be ready to go at the pharmacy or something. So when he came back in, I go, let me guess, antibiotics? And he goes, yes, I got it right here. Went out, there's the pharmacy. I take a number. They, you know, it takes them, I don't know, two minutes. They give me the prescription and I'm on my way.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like now, when you were on your way, did you start with a limp and then slowly straighten. I'm sorry, we're really stuck. The guys are. So I did. Oh, speaking.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm sorry. I keep bringing up key and peel sketches. But, like, have you seen the Key and Peele sketch where Jordan Peele is like a Kaiser, so say, type of mastermind, except he's really bad at coming up with pretend things. And there's like a Hang in there Kitty poster in the room behind Keegan Michael Key. And. And Jordan Peele's character is like, yeah, my name is Hang Hang Gin. Their kitty. He just keeps.

[Andrew Walsh]

I want to find this.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it's like just imagine a really, really uncreative Kaiser.

[Andrew Walsh]

So saying, okay, you, I am going to play this, but I want you to finish your story and then I'll play this key in Peel sketch.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, that's the end of the story is. I have to say, yesterday, the much maligned American healthcare system really came through for me. It really worked as designed for me, other than I wish that they would have done eye surgery because I just want it to be gone. Well, it would be A better story. And also I wouldn't still have this like lump in my eyelid, which I don't. Which is kind of a little uncomfortable and also a little unsightly. I would, I'd rather have like, like a little, you know, butterfly bandage on there and know that this thing is gone forever. Like, I mean, I'm sure the antibiotic will probably just knock it down, but it's, it's a little less fun.

[Andrew Walsh]

And your warm compress, I saw your hey Dummies video. I know you're putting a warm compress on there, but like there. Isn't there something like. Well, maybe not. I. Because I know that you're a, you're, you're a results oriented blank. I'm just remembering my blue sky profile that I do not remember. But you know, you're a results oriented man. You just want it taken care of. But sometimes when you have something like that and you're like, well, all we have is time and warm compresses and you just get yourself a really warm rag or whatever and you sit down and you put on key and peel and you put that over your eye and you're like, get to it. Warmth of the earth.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I've been. See, the thing is, you saw this in the hey Dummies video. I. Of course, because there isn't any problem that can't be fixed through some sort of consumerism for me. So it's not enough that I just like you know, run some hot water over a rag and then wring it out. I literally bought this bizarro bean bag. It's like, it's like sunglasses, but instead of lenses, they have, they're filled with little, you know, plastic something or others that absorb heat. You microwave it and you put it on your eyes. But I've been doing that on the regular for four weeks with, with no.

[Andrew Walsh]

Noticeable that I assume that that was something that you walked away from the doctor.

[Luke Burbank]

No, I've had that since I got this thing a month plus ago and it has not. You know, it actually feels pretty good, I have to say. But it doesn't really do anything. So them just saying. And it's like literally on the instructions, it's like, keep applying the hot compress and take this antibiotic. I'm also like, I never take antibiotics. I've been pretty fortunate that that's just not something I've had to do a lot. So I'm a little, I'm also a little nervous. Like doesn't that, you know, am I gonna get like A super virus. Now am I gonna become antibiotic resistant?

[Andrew Walsh]

You are.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, well, that sucks.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm a doctor, but okay.

[Luke Burbank]

Do you wanna play the Key and Peel thing?

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah, sure. Yeah. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

The only bad part of my day. And the going to the doctor.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah. You put something on the show sheet that I'm very intrigued by. That actually made me nervous for a second. Then I realized, no, it couldn't have been me. But here, I'm gonna cut into the sketch a little bit just to I.

[Luke Burbank]

Don'T send you back to jail.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I should just mention that we have, like, a cop. We have Key playing sort of a cop. A detective looking guy with the gun strapped over his collared shirt or whatever. And you have Jordan Peele. And he's sitting down. He's clearly the suspect. I guess he's being questioned. But he's dressed kind of nerdily, sort of. He's got like a receiver.

[Luke Burbank]

I think he's supposed to be like a kind of a weird psychotic criminal, but who has, like, strange kind of, you know, affectation.

[Andrew Walsh]

The guy's name is Cat Branchman. I met him downtown at a club called the Clutching Kitten. You may have heard of it. It's down on the corner of Hang and Fir Street.

[Luke Burbank]

Cat Branchman.

[Andrew Walsh]

So what's a guy like you and a guy named Cat, he's just noticing the Just hang in there poster behind his head. Okay, I know what you're doing, Finley. Should I keep going on this? Are there more? I'm not detective. I'm telling the truth.

[Luke Burbank]

We'll see how much truth you tell after a few weeks in solitary confinement.

[Andrew Walsh]

Fine, Detective. You've twisted my arm. That's better. The guy's name wasn't Cat Branchman. It was a Chinese guy named Mr. Meow. He's the real gang boss. Story went he hung guys from trees and took pictures of them. Finley used to run a club downtown. A front, of course. Called it the Paw and Posterior. Ran it with a guy named Hong Indar.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay.

[Andrew Walsh]

Let'S try this one more time. He's trying to look around him at the poster.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, and then the reveal at the end is that Keegan Michael Key is also reading off of a poster behind Jordan Peele. He is also unimaginative. And it's just yelling things eventually at Jordan Peele's character that he's seeing in the room.

[Andrew Walsh]

Beautiful geniuses.

[Luke Burbank]

The only part of my dance with Kaiser Permanente yesterday that didn't go well was actually unrelated to them and related to driving down to town, going from my house, it's kind of this windy road down this hill, and then you get on this other, slightly larger arterial, I guess. Or maybe. Actually, I guess it's a highway, technically. But the thing is, there is a school down there, and they have, like, they are not joking around with the speed limit near this school. It's like 20 miles an hour, and there are often cops posted up. It's like this school where you have this parking lot across the street on the other side of the highway, and that's where all of the parents wait to pick up their kids. And. And, like, again, it's a very. Like, you do not want to be speeding there. And it always makes me so anxious when people are behind me on this road who do not want to observe the. The speed limit around the school, because it's like, on the one hand, I want to just go faster so they're not riding my tail, But I also don't want to get in trouble with the law, man. And in fact, four hit kids.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like, screw them. Like, it's a school zone.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I mean, part of the thing that's weird is I've literally never seen a child. Like, I've actually never seen a child related to this school because it's like, the school is kind of a weird setup. It's up on this hill off of the freeway. There's no, like, playground that I can tell. And every kid is getting into some massive suv. Like, a parent drives their massive SUV across the road up the. Through the pickup area, and then they.

[Andrew Walsh]

Through a chest board.

[Luke Burbank]

Exactly, yeah. Into a massive suv, and then the massive SUV goes down and joins us all on the highway. It's like, it. There's no, like, no kids are actually crossing the road, so it is a little odd that they're that hardcore about it. But, yeah, I don't want to get in trouble. I don't want to hit a kid, But I also don't like getting tailgated. And in fact, from basically where this school is all the way down to, like, where you sort of get on the freeway, let's say it's probably maybe two miles of a country highway where the speed limit varies between 40 and 35 miles an hour, depending. And I tend to follow the speed limit, and nobody else, it seems, on that road wants to follow the speed limit. I always have people tailgating me on that road, and yesterday was no difference. This person was tailgating me through the school zone, which I was like, look, you're just gonna have to deal with it. But then we get out past that, that and there I was like tempted almost just to pull over and let them go by me. But I don't know, I just like, it was really frustrating. I don't understand. Why is it, why does it create so much anxiety for me when somebody is behind me and wants to go around me? Because A, they could go around me or B, they could just deal with it. Why does that create like an almost physical sense of discomfort for me?

[Andrew Walsh]

It is a bad feeling. Now this is where I should not admit this. And you know, I try not to be this person anymore. But like, that's where. If somebody was doing that to me, that's where I would like keep a very close. And I've done this a lot in my life.

[Luke Burbank]

Break check them.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh yeah. Like, I'm really good at that. Like, I'll keep a very close eye on them in my rear view mirror. And then just like at the right moment, just like break. And then, you know, and then make sure like I'm keeping an eye on them so I'll make sure that they're not actually going to hit me. But to put the fear of God in them for a second I sort.

[Luke Burbank]

Of was tempted to do that and then I didn't.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's a dangerous game. You got to be careful. You got to know what you're doing. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And it was like, I'll be honest with you. Also, it has a lot to do probably with the kind of vehicle which makes me so. Also. Also just mad and impotent feeling, which is like if it was some big MAGA truck, I'm probably not going to break check them because I don't want them to try to shoot me.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, right.

[Luke Burbank]

So I hate that that works. But this was like some kind of just sort of, I don't know, standard like let's say, you know, mid size SUV or whatever. But it was just tailgating me so close and I'm like, okay. And I couldn't quite make out the person in the car. So eventually I get to the freeway, I get on the freeway and this person gets on and they just immediately I'm in the right lane. They jump over in the lane next to me. They're still tearing past me and I'm like, all right, let's see this foolio. And I look over Ben Gibbons and it is. It is sir mix a lot. It is, it is a couple, I presume, a man and wife who are conservatively in their late 80s. It was like the guy was so old. He looked like a cartoon character. Like he was so small and so old he could barely see over the steering wheel.

[Andrew Walsh]

I was saying burns.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, it was like Hans. Serious Hans Moleman vibes, but old. And I just was like, I want to know this guy's life. This guy is Benjamin Buttoning. Somehow he has found he has tapped into something that the rest of us, like, I'm the one who's driving. Like I'm 90. And this 90 year old man is just, just late for something and is just hauling.

[Andrew Walsh]

He doesn't have as much time left as you.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, he is absolutely unaffected by what I assume is diminished vision, diminished reflexes. Like, I think the reason that, you know, traditionally the stereotype is that older people drive very slow is because obviously like a lot of your reaction time is going down. You're just, you can't see as well. There's a bunch of stuff that's making the natural response to that that is to become more cautious. This guy has totally managed to avoid that impulse.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. When I saw on your show sheet this morning, you're like, I was tailgated with an inch of my life last night or whatever you wrote. And the person who was doing it was. Surprised me. I can't remember. That's not how you put it. But anyway, I was just like, oh shit, was this me? And I was like, no, I don't even think I got great car yesterday. And secondly, I was driving anywhere where.

[Luke Burbank]

You'Re driving around Seattle baiting you into being a, an asshole driver.

[Andrew Walsh]

But it is one of those things where Seattle's a very small town and you know, for all of the many reasons why I should not. Why I should personally not be an a hole driver. One of the reasons is there's like a 1 in 10 chance that I know the person in the other car. You know what I mean? It's like somebody's sister or cousin or something. It isn't. It like there are so many, There are so many, I feel like intersections in this town of like, you know, oh, you know, so and so. I know so and so or whatever. It's like I, I just don't want to be the person like, oh, when we finally get into a road rage incident and I realize it's somebody I volunteer with.

[Luke Burbank]

I, yeah, I think that I might actually be too slow of a driver because like I said something in passing to Becca. One of those things that you kind of say, like not fishing for a compliment, but fishing for a certain response. And I was telling her about some, something that happened while I was driving. I go, and you know me, I'm like a cautious driver. She goes, yeah, you really are. She sort of said something casually that was like indicating that like okay, it's, it's a little, it can be a little trying to be in the car with me because I'm just so like I really am. I'm a very, very cautious driver and a kind of a slow driver. I don't know what's going to happen when I'm 90, 90 unless I tap into whatever fountain of youth that guy.

[Andrew Walsh]

Maybe you're not driving then or we have more like self driving cars and better transport.

[Luke Burbank]

I did talk about that with the nurse as she was taking my blood pressure. We were commiserating about getting older and she was talking about how she can't drive at night anymore. She's younger than me too. She's like 46. She's like, I hate driving at night. And I was like, I know, I don't love it. And then I was like, but I'm just, I'm banking on self driving cars by the time that I'm you know, not, not up for driving anymore.

[Andrew Walsh]

You know, this might be incongruous with the picture I'm painting of myself of being like sort of this maniac on the roads, which I truly am not. Like I have this issue when somebody like cuts me off or drives in a way that I think is like basically unfair or rude than I do like kind of get triggered like in this little intersection in Green Lake. You know, it's a four way stop just this last Sunday and it was very obvious the one person stopped before me, then it would have been my turn. Then this other guy just pulled up right away and this other guy just did not feel like waiting for me so he just like blasted through. He like basically did a quick rolling stop and blasted through the stop sign. Basically taking my turn. Didn't matter. Like it, it didn't take, it didn't shave any time off of my commute, you know, like literally one second. Did I lay on the horn? Absolutely, I laid on the horn. That guy was in the parlance of the day, a flaming asshole. But I think that's the parlance of the day. Having said so, I am easily triggered in that, having said that on these roads I'm talking about like around Green Lake I am especially as I get older, but I would say probably since my like my late 30s. And here I am in my kind of my late 40s now, like I drive. I don't drive under the limit, but I am so conscientious. I. First of all, I don't really. I hate the highway. Where I live up north, the highway is always congested. Now, it is ridiculous.

[Luke Burbank]

When you say the highway, you mean Interstate 5?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, the 5. Like, I live kind of near the 5, but, like, where I am up here, especially heading south, south, it is literally always a red line on the map. It is congested, even if you have to go just a couple of exits. Like, the map always says to go that way. But I'm like, if this adds one minute to my time, but I can slowly drive down kind of like Roosevelt or 15th or whatever. I like. I like looking at the neighborhood. I like checking out the houses. But, like. And then I'm not like, I'm not like, just like, you know, I'm going the speed limit or maybe five, you know, maybe 30 and a 25 or something. I'm not, like, driving like a maniac, and I'm not driving under the speed limit like Hans Moleman, but, like, the older I get. Burbank or Luke Burbank. But I applaud the fact that you're a cautious driver. I think we should be. I think we should always remember that these things. And this is why in my. In my lesser moments, when I am aggravated and maybe somebody has offended me in some way on the highway, I got to really keep myself in check because these are driving machines, but these are killing machines. You know what I mean? Like, these things are very. They're very dangerous. Click it. Or ticket.

[Luke Burbank]

Like, when are they bringing back the Crash Test Dummies? I don't mean the band. Yes, the dudes.

[Andrew Walsh]

You don't mean. Well, what about both?

[Luke Burbank]

Once there was a guy who didn't buckle his seatbelt.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's hard to turn off. Right? Like, I'm not saying that I had, like, an album or anything by the Crash Test Dummies, but when that song came on, yeah, I let it roll. Absolutely.

[Luke Burbank]

I would still let it roll to this day.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Especially now. I haven't heard it in forever. Thank you for being a.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, let's thank some donors who are voluntarily. I can't stress this enough. They are out of the goodness of their heart and out of their, I guess, love of tbtl, they are voluntarily donating money to this program so that it can happen. And some of these are even folks Andrew we used to work with, along with my actual family members, some of them donating people that we've Worked with who are donating to the show is quite humbling and quite appreciated. I'm talking about Annie Hayward, Seattle, Washington.

[Andrew Walsh]

Now, I am chagrined here I am. Annie is our former colleague at APM and a friend and I have not seen or been in contact with Annie in a while and now here we are thanking her for donating her hard earned cash to this show. So I am going to text.

[Luke Burbank]

This is what Annie has to do to get your attention, Andrew.

[Andrew Walsh]

To cry for her help, honestly, Exactly. If anybody wants to grab lunch, anybody else donate, wants to act out by.

[Luke Burbank]

Donating to tbtl, I love. It's gone from being like generosity to Annie is acting out. Thank you, Annie. We really appreciate it. Claire Walsh is in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I assume this is a long lost relative of yours.

[Andrew Walsh]

Absolutely. Claire and I have been in touch about this. She is my long lost cousin from another Muzzin.

[Luke Burbank]

Sure. As I don't actually know if Eric Miles of Brooklyn, NY is. Is related to any of us even distantly, but he is an absolute mensch for supporting tbtl. Thank you, Eric. And Kelly Welch is in Sherwood, Oregon. Hey, now that's a distant relative. They actually changed the spelling of the last name. Right? At some point. Yeah, that was.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. We have a. Walsh was a little Jewish.

[Luke Burbank]

Right. So they went. They changed it to Welch.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's my understanding of the history. Yes. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. I bought this deck that I'm looking at that's attached to my little house is clad in wood that I purchased in Sherwood, Oregon.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, it sounds like a woody place.

[Luke Burbank]

It is a place where there is a very cheap hardwood. Like there's a warehouse that some guy's got a bunch of hardwood that fell off a truck, it would appear. And that's where I went for it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Sherwood Forest is what I'm thinking of. Right. Is that.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. You know, it does seem like. It does seem like it'd be a very forested area and maybe it was at something point Kelly. Thank you. Thanks to Christopher Morrow who's in Seattle, Washington.

[Andrew Walsh]

Thank you, Christopher.

[Luke Burbank]

Also a very wooded place. At one time, Becca and I, we were on a run and she said something about skid row and she said, I forget.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, by the end. Yeah, nice.

[Luke Burbank]

18 in life. You've got it. 18 in life. You know. Is that the skid.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is that a Skid Row song? I'm not sure there's one Skid Row song. I noticed because it was featured very, very briefly in Peewee's Big Adventure. Remember when Peewee. Isn't that skid Row Peewee is. He's, you know, chasing his bicycle, and he ends up on an. Like, a Hollywood studio lot, and he keeps on, like, running across various people, filming various things. I'm pretty sure Skid Row is filming a. Is filming a music video.

[Luke Burbank]

Anyway, we. Oh, I wanted to say that she had me watch this incredible documentary. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It's called the Skid Row Marathon, and it is about a guy in LA who's actually a judge, who is a. Was. Is a very active runner and basically started leading this running group from a mission in LA called the Midnight Mission, which is, by the way, the same mission that I stayed in one time and did a story from. And he takes these folks out for. They're all training for a marathon. And these are a lot of people who maybe haven't, you know, have had, you know, drug and alcohol issues. They've experienced homelessness. They've had, you know, all kinds of challenges in their life. And to watch these folks really blossom and just, like, embrace this project of running and stuff. It's a beautiful film. It's the Skid Row Marathon. I would highly recommend it. But we were talking about Skid Row, and Becca said something like, I wonder where that term came from. And I was like, well, you've asked the right person. Because that's one of my favorite facts, of course, is that it's from Seattle. And that when Seattle was more forested, they would cut down trees and they would roll them down. I think it was like, yes, ler may. Maybe. And this was during the Hoover administration. And then there would be people down at the base of the hill who were living in, like, Hoovervilles that were trying to get jobs in the lumber industry. And they called that Skid Row.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, interesting. And the skid being the literal skidding.

[Luke Burbank]

The log down the hill from, like, what? I don't know exactly. Like, maybe if it was. Wasn't quite First Hill back then. But anyway, that is the origin of Skid Row. And I love that story. And I was like. I was so happy when Becca asked me that question, because I was like, I have just the answer for you. Anyway.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hey, can I offer another apology? I feel terrible about this. It was not Skid Row. It was. And I swear I do this all the time. It was Twisted Sister.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, sure.

[Andrew Walsh]

This is the video now. Here comes Peewee. Oh, he's spraying oil out the back of his bicycle. It's almost over. I can't end this early. Okay. Peewee is now totally disrupt. Is it Dee? Snider, who's the Twisted? Oh, look, I got something right for once. Yeah, he is not. He's not having it. He's angry at Peewee. As Peewee just totally blows the shadow Shoot. Geez Louise.

[Luke Burbank]

I am wondering if we were to look this up, if whoever it is that distributed that movie was also the same media company that had whatever label Twisted Sister was on. Yeah, and this is an attempt to get Twisted Sister's latest single out into the consciousness. Because that's not a good song. Like, if you're gonna run onto a set and it's Twisted Sister, they need to be playing their hit. Right?

[Andrew Walsh]

That's a good point. Yeah. What was the synergy here? Right?

[Luke Burbank]

Right. There's something. They are trying to subtly incept us with a Twisted Sister song that we don't care about.

[Andrew Walsh]

Now, let's see here. It does say that. So I just typed in, why was Twisted Sister in Pee Wee's Big Adventure? And according to the Ultimate Classic rock website, it says it stemmed from an earlier connection frontman Dee Snider made with Paul Rubins. They ran into each other a party, An MTV party on New Year's Eve. Can you imagine being at an MTV party on New Year's Eve in the late 80s? I wonder if there's any cocaine there. Anyway, so it seems like it might have stemmed from. Well, who knows? Maybe it was organic losses. Maybe it was organic. Who knows?

[Luke Burbank]

God. I am looking at a publicity photo of Twisted Sister. It have to be from the mid-80s. I was looking up their top songs, and I think I Want to Rock is kind of. Oh, yeah, that's the biggie, right? That's the number one. But Burn in Hell, which I think we were just listening to, is comes in at number seven. So it's not, you know, it's not. Not one of their hits. But this photo, like, not even. I mean, Dee Snyder looks ridiculous, but that was Dee Snyder's whole thing. But the other guys in the band. Can this be a show pick today?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

It's like. It's like, first of all, three of them have on effectively the exact same pair of sunglasses. Like, kind of like almost like Joe Biden aviators. And it's like, you know, that when they showed up, they were all like, no, I was going to wear the sunglasses. No, I was going to wear the sunglasses. Fine. We're all wearing the sunglasses. Okay. And like, they're also. I guess this. Actually, this part is probably on purpose. I'm realizing they're all wearing denim vests with no sleeves. It's just the weirdest. It's just the weirdest photo of all time. I'm going to screen cap it and send it to you. Okay, Andrew.

[Andrew Walsh]

But I'm going to go on a this.

[Luke Burbank]

Don't forget Zach Jones.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, Texas, before we do this. Yes. Thank you. Zach Jones in Conroe.

[Luke Burbank]

Zach Jones. Jack, did you do that joke last year?

[Andrew Walsh]

Probably every time I hear the word Jones, I do a really bad Mike Jones.

[Luke Burbank]

Thank you, Zach.

[Andrew Walsh]

Thank you all. Really appreciate it. You are not going to appreciate where I'm going to try to take this conversation because I can never remember celebrities names or the names of TV shows as been demonstrated. I was going to say today, but I guess throughout the course of my tenure here on the show, but you were mentioning Twisted Sister. And what did you say their number one song is? You're gonna rock or whatever.

[Luke Burbank]

I want to rock.

[Andrew Walsh]

I want to rock. And that begins. Do you remember the iconic video and the little intro to it? In the video, it's like a boy.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

And he's like, he's plugging like a principal.

[Luke Burbank]

Right. Isn't he getting yelled at by a teacher?

[Andrew Walsh]

I believe his father. I want to say he's in his own house and the father's like screaming. I think I could be wrong. This is just my memory. You can like kind of fact check me as we go along if you're going to be my man behind the computer. But pretty sure his father's like yelling at him, saying, you're never going to make anything of your life. Well, what do you want to do? And then the kid says, I want to rock. And then the song begins and maybe the kid strums a guitar. Do you remember which artist did a sort of parody or homage to that in his own music video? I'm going to say 15 or 20 years later and featured a young movie star at the time.

[Luke Burbank]

Huh.

[Andrew Walsh]

Does this ring any bells to you? And this might be a blind spot for you. This was around the time that I. That my family finally got mtv, I think. So I was seeing this a lot and it was. Go ahead. Were you gonna take a guess?

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I was gonna play you a little bit of this video.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah, please do. Oh, Tet School. You're right. That sounds like a school.

[Luke Burbank]

This is the, I guess, teacher walking in.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, very.

[Luke Burbank]

He's got a bow tie. He seems to have real, real disregard for these students.

[Andrew Walsh]

The summer is over. I am in command. What was that for?

[Luke Burbank]

That little outburst?

[Andrew Walsh]

Each and every one of you will spend Three hours in detention today, immediately after school in the basement. What do you think you're doing?

[Luke Burbank]

Twisted. Oh, he's. He's written the ts of Twisted Sister on his, like, book.

[Andrew Walsh]

And the teacher recognizes as being Twisted Sister. Slap your fat face. You are destroying your life with that garbage. All right, Mr. Sister, I want you to tell me now. Better yet, stand up and tell the class, what do you wanna do with your life? Bigger. Bigger.

[Luke Burbank]

And then they turn into Twisted Sister. And then the teacher is shot out of his shoes through the ceiling into the gymnasium that's located above this classroom. And then Twisted Sister throws him in the air and they dunk him through the basketball hoop.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, nice.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't know if that's legal, by the way. Also, we're not going to take it. That's got to be.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah, that's got to be.

[Luke Burbank]

That's got to be their biggest problem.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's a. That's actually a good song. Okay, so anyway, so now back to.

[Luke Burbank]

The question of so somebody. So it's basically a similar thing where an authority figure is yelling at someone.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. And it start in the intro to this other video, which is I believe. And we'll play this here and we'll see if I'm right. Because I've been wrong about one or two things in my life. I'm pretty sure this is an homage. And I just want to say most people our age, if they at all think about the Michael Jackson Black or White video, they think of the end where you had. They were using some early version of a technology where people were singing along the song. Singing along with the song. It doesn't matter if you're black or white. And while they're singing, they're sort of shaking their head and morphing into different people. Do you remember that part of the video? Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Is Macaulay Culkin also in that video?

[Andrew Walsh]

That's what I'm getting at here, my friend. The Black or White video begins with a little story. And this is why I misremembered the Twisted Sister taking place in a school. Because this homage takes place in a home. We see at first a globe. It's the earth. We're in space. And then we suddenly zoom in to one single household in a suburban looking neighborhood. And we see through the window of the house that Macaulay Culkin is upstairs in his bedroom and he's, I think, playing air guitar to a song.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay.

[Andrew Walsh]

Now if you remember this at all, do you by any chance remember who plays his dad, who is downstairs and is sick of this racket.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't. I'm trying to think of the last time I even saw this video. So no. Any hints?

[Andrew Walsh]

Here we go. I'm gonna. Well, the hint will maybe be when you hear his voice. Okay, so we're going through the streets of the suburbs. There it. We see the dad downstairs. And now Macaulay Culkin's in his room. He's playing air guitar. One of the worst looks anybody can do, I think. Okay. The dad and mom are both downstairs. The dad's watching a ball game, a baseball game. It's very famous. But the stereo is blasting. Things are rattling. Here comes the dad upstairs. He's stomping up the stairs. I thought I told you to turn that thing off. It is too late and it's too loud. But dad, this is the best part. You are wasting your time with this garbage. Now go. By the way. But dad, this is the best part. In the middle of a meaningless guitar solo is interesting writing. It is too late and it's too loud. But dad, this is the best part. You are wasting your time with this garbage. Now go to bed. Okay. He slams the door. A Michael Jackson okay. Poster falls and crashes. Now Macaulay Culkin is taking out a large guitar. He's rolling out huge speakers, a huge speaker that is twice the size of Macaulay Culkin, into the living room. The parents are somehow not noticing that this. He turns it up past 11 to a setting called Are you nuts? He puts on a pair of sunglasses. He's plugged his guitar into this absolute beast of a stack. He's putting on a leather glove. He strums the guitar like Luke Burbank in a upcoming hey Dummies video.

[Luke Burbank]

Thank you.

[Andrew Walsh]

And the sound is so explosive that it shoots the dad, who is George Wendt, out of the house in his chair. He goes shooting, not unlike the teacher in the D. Snyder video, out of the house. And he's gonna land somewhere in the desert. And then Michael Jackson is gonna start singing Black or white around him out in this, like, kind of. Well, I guess not a desert, but a sort of like, shrubby place in Africa with a bunch of lions. And that is the story of Michael Jackson's Black or White. I feel like that. I feel like this is an homage to Twisted Sister. Maybe I'm. Maybe I'm wrong about that. Maybe I'm connecting dots where there are no dots.

[Luke Burbank]

It's certainly an homage to rocking and rolling, which I feel like was a whole thing for Michael Jackson, weirdly, Enough. Last weekend, Becca and I listened to so much Michael Jackson, which, you know, complicated legacy, obviously, but man, did that guy have a lot of hits. Like so many hits you just forget about. Cause, you know, you can think about the off the Wall era. I mean, you can obviously think about Jackson 5, but then you can think about off the Wall and Thriller and. And then you just forget about things like his story.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, right. That's what had black and white. Black or white on it, I believe.

[Luke Burbank]

And like all these things I think of as like late era Michael Jackson, you know, like the Free Willy song and stuff.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right, right, right.

[Luke Burbank]

They all just like, like, you know, heal the world or whatever that song is. Like, he. I mean, the guy just had so many hits, it's just unbelievable. And we just spent like a whole afternoon just like kind of going, oh, what about this one? And then playing a different, you know, Michael Jackson song. And then I reminded her of my favorite Michael Jackson sort of fact, if you will, adjacent fact, which is Peter Seal, the host of Wait, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, was actually cast in a Michael Jackson video. And it was whatever video that. I think Eddie Murphy is in it. Eddie Murphy's playing sort of like a pharaoh.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was off of his story too, I believe.

[Luke Burbank]

And I believe that was. What is that song again?

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm gonna look it up here.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, so Peter Segal was, you know, when he was. Before his days of. Wait, wait, don't tell me. He was a playwright and I think kind of a. Maybe an actor as well. And so he lived in LA and he was cast to be in that Michael Jackson video that like all Michael Jackson videos pretty much was this like in huge, you know, cinematic undertaking. And it took. Remember the time.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right, Remember the time. Yeah, I was going to tell you that. But you got there. Yep.

[Luke Burbank]

The video, like the, I don't know, like the Eddie Murphy parts and just like the whole thing directed by John Singleton.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm seeing, by the way, like, it.

[Luke Burbank]

Was apparently so over the top, so behind schedule and so over budget that they basically cut out the last, like two days of shooting, which was the Peter Segal part.

[Andrew Walsh]

So what his role was going to be, I. He.

[Luke Burbank]

I actually could text him and ask if I remember right. He was fully in costume and makeup, just waiting around for days, like he would show up, they would get him all set up for whatever his look was and then he would just wait for them to get to his part of the video and then they never got to his part of the video. And eventually, I don't think they even shot it. I think it just was like, yeah, we. We ran out of money.

[Andrew Walsh]

Iman was also in the video. I remember that there was. There was a model in there. And then also Magic Johnson, which I'd forgotten about that. And then somebody named Tommy Tiny Lister, who's for some reason in this Wikipedia.

[Luke Burbank]

Article starting for the Giants now, right.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is listed before Magic Johnson, which seems like. I feel like Magic Johnson. Magic Johnson, top billing, high, at least, if not top higher billing than Tommy Tiny Lister.

[Luke Burbank]

This is kind of interesting. I was trying to look up who's playing the guitar on Black or White, the kind of iconic riff that we just heard Macaulay Culkin air guitar into. And it is often misattributed to Slash, but it actually is this guy named Bill Bottrell who wrote that riff and also apparently wrote the rap song that is in Black or White.

[Andrew Walsh]

Forgot it goes.

[Luke Burbank]

Because it's not about verse. It's not about races or spaces. Places where your blood comes from. Yeah, your space is. I've seen the bright get duller. I'm not going to spend my life being a color.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, my God, I forgot about that. That is. By the way, I was never a big Michael Jackson fan anyway. So, you know, as people sort of have to sometimes make the decision, like, do I want to listen to some. To somebody. Somebody's art when the person, you know, committed horrendous crimes against children? Like, that was never a decision that I needed to make because, like, you know, I was never a huge. I mean, you couldn't grow up in the 80s and 90s and not be exposed to Michael Jackson music. Obviously, he was more than just a hit machine. I mean, he was just a cultural juggernaut, obviously. So I'm not saying that, like, I'm unfamiliar with Michael Jackson anyway, but it's not like, oh, dang, I can't play the song that I usually would play on the jukebox here because I. Because Michael Jackson has, as you say, a complicated legacy, you know. But also having said that, like, this later era, like, I like Michael Jackson. Guitar solos are just terrible. Not him. Well, they're just like, just terrible music to me. Like, it's the epitome of guitar rock, where we don't need guitars, but it's just sort of like, I don't know, Rock and roll, man.

[Luke Burbank]

Right. And that's what. That's what I mean. He was always bringing in like, Slash or Eddie Van Halen or someone to just like, wow, wow, wow. In the middle of his song. And I was like, this is not. We don't need this, Michael.

[Andrew Walsh]

Don't. Michael.

[Luke Burbank]

It was like he sort of. I think he sort of, like, fetishized a certain, like, rock and roll guitar dude.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

You know that he'd always throw that on the track. And it was always like. It was. This was good. This. This was good before you did that.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

This is the corniest part of, like, basically white music. We don't need to throw Sully up an otherwise good Michael Jackson song with it.

[Andrew Walsh]

So let me ask you this. You do a podcast every day. How do you find things to talk about?

[Luke Burbank]

You know, I just. I sit here, Andrew, and about once a week, someone comes in and writes me a check for $38. What is that from?

[Andrew Walsh]

That is from. In fact, I know that you can't see. That was part. That's a little clip of tape that I sometimes play in intro packages on the show when we played it the other day. And in fact, John Sklaroff, uno numero employee uno of tbtl, turned it into a little Instagram video that he shared yesterday that I really liked. And it was just like, kind of you and me before the show, just sort of like listening in our own little studios to the intro package. And I don't think you see me then. Right. You're looking at your. No, but you have a script in front of you.

[Luke Burbank]

I want to clarify a couple of things about that video. One, if it looks like I'm reacting to anything you're doing, that is just coincidence, because I'm looking at. I'm not looking at a camera feed of you. I'm looking at a page that has audio drops on it. That's what I'm doing at the beginning of the show. Now, I also. If you watch the video, when it goes into that little thing that I just misquoted of somebody saying, you know, you work on the radio and a guy says. And someone comes in and writes you a check for whatever. He says. What is that from, by the way?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, so I was going to tell you. So it's. I will follow up on this in a second. The reason I bring all that up, but it is from WKRP in Cincinnati.

[Luke Burbank]

Ah, okay. Well, here's. If you watch the video, you can see a look on my face that says, did we just play this intro package? Fairly recently? But then I also thought, no, because Andrew has a spreadsheet.

[Andrew Walsh]

I literally have a spreadsheet. Yeah, I don't.

[Luke Burbank]

You're so up on it. And so I think, you know what I think it is? It's like, it's such a weird sensation because sometimes I'll like hear something. Oh, man, I feel like we just played this, but like, I know we didn't just play it, but my brain is deceiving me. So if you watch this Instagram video when that part from WKRP in Cincinnati is playing, you see a look on my face of like kind of confusion. And it's, it's not because I'm seeing anything. It's because my brain is trying to go, did we did this intro package? Did we play this fairly recently? But then realizing I know we didn't because you keep very close track of these things.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, also, so you're so. Again, this is. We're talking about an Instagram video that I think you can find still in there in, you know, on our TBTL Instagram under reels. But you will notice. And you did not see this live, but I was during that clip. And this is the clip here.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, Johnny, I just don't know how you do it. Do what? A four hour show every morning just talking to the mic and your voice.

[Andrew Walsh]

Goes out through the wires. And once a week, whether you need it or not, somebody comes in here and gives you a check for $38. That's from WKRP in Cincinnati. And during the video that you can watch on TBTL of Behind the Scenes, you and I each listening to this as I start gesticulating wildly into the camera and saying things.

[Luke Burbank]

What are you saying?

[Andrew Walsh]

I never do that during intro package. I never do that. But I was doing in that moment forgetting that you couldn't see me. And what I was mouthing was Lonnie Anderson. Because hadn't we just been talking about Lon?

[Luke Burbank]

It's been a Lonnie Anderson week around here.

[Andrew Walsh]

We had just talked about Lonnie Anderson like I think earlier that week on the show. And it was a total coincidence that Lonnie Anderson should. And this is her at the beginning.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, Johnny, I just don't know how you do it.

[Andrew Walsh]

And so I was like screaming at you silently, Lonnie Anderson. And that's why I'm. That's why I'm gesticulating wildly.

[Luke Burbank]

And that's the guy. Is it Johnny Fever or something?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, good, good. Yeah, I couldn't.

[Luke Burbank]

That's the guy that was the. Wasn't he then the teacher on Head of the Class or something? He had another sitcom later on.

[Andrew Walsh]

I think you're Right. Not to be confused with Drexel's class. Right. You had head of the class. You had Drexel's class, and you had coach. And all of those sort of live in the same brain space for me, and I can't separate them out.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. I believe his name is Howard Hesse.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay.

[Luke Burbank]

And he was the teacher on head of the class. Wait, did I say that?

[Andrew Walsh]

No, that can't be.

[Luke Burbank]

What did I say?

[Andrew Walsh]

He played a different character on head of the class. Maybe the principal or something. Because I'm seeing a. I'm seeing a promo poster, and the guy who's dead center is not him.

[Luke Burbank]

Really? That's not.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I've been wrong before.

[Luke Burbank]

I really got you.

[Andrew Walsh]

You're right. It's just a weird. It's a. It's an illustration. When I saw it as a thumbnail, it looked like it wasn't him. No, that is definitely him. Yeah. So he did play the teacher and head of the class. But, like, can you separate out. Can you tell me anything?

[Luke Burbank]

And we really shouldn't be artist. You were Howard from the Hessman.

[Andrew Walsh]

Can you separate the Howard from the.

[Luke Burbank]

Artist from the nest.

[Andrew Walsh]

Can you separate.

[Luke Burbank]

Separate the less from the Nessman?

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, I need to write that out, but can you separate out for me the differences between Drexel's class and head of the class? Do you remember anything about those? Without. I see you Googling Without Googling off the top of your head. Like, what do you.

[Luke Burbank]

Do you know the. Google Drexel's class.

[Andrew Walsh]

What do you know or remember about either one of those?

[Luke Burbank]

I had forgotten that something. Well, head of the class, I. I might have watched a couple times when I was a kid because I knew that that guy from WKRP was in it, and I knew that it was like he was a teacher and he had a class full of cutups. I think it was probably like, what was the.

[Andrew Walsh]

What's the Warthogs?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. The Sweat Hogs.

[Andrew Walsh]

Welcome back, Cotter.

[Luke Burbank]

Welcome back, Cotter. I think it was kind of an updated welcome back, Cotter.

[Andrew Walsh]

Maybe.

[Luke Burbank]

Maybe Drexel's class. I couldn't tell you anything about other than when you said it. I was like, that does sound like a thing that happened. Yeah, it wasn't, but you're right, it was Dabney Coleman. Sorry. I did Google it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Dabney. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. There just must have been. There must have really been a need for, like, sitcoms where you had a teacher who was dealing with a variety of sort of annoying students or whatever. Like, that was a real backdrop for a lot of these shows, some reason.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. I wonder if they had like different like sort of tone, like you know, like the, the welcome back Cotter was definitely like sort of like troubled youth. Right.

[Luke Burbank]

Well then you had hanging with Mr. Cooper with Mark Curry. That was sort of the like you might say African American spin on the same principle of like teacher with students that get on his nerves.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. And I don't know if like all of these shows, if the focus is, oh, these, these students need extra help or maybe do some of them, is it the teacher who's going through troubles? Like, I don't know, are they all basically, you know, cut and pastes of the same damn premise or are there, are there varying degrees, like maybe in one of them the teacher's a alcoholic or whatever. I'm totally making that up.

[Luke Burbank]

Pretty serious. Serious topic.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't know why I went ABC.

[Luke Burbank]

Friday night at 8pm I'm in a dark place. I'll tell you what, Andrew, this sounds like a project for you. Watch all of the different education based sitcoms of the 90s and report back on Monday. It seems like something you'd actually genuinely enjoy. You're also allowed to digitize them if you care to.

[Andrew Walsh]

I spent two hours making a GIF for the newsletter that is not even a good gift last night.

[Luke Burbank]

Good gif? Is that what Charlie Brown used to say?

[Andrew Walsh]

Here I go once again with the email every week. I hope that it's from a female. Oh man, it's not from a female.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, wrapping up the week with some emails and V mails. I'm trying to hack into my account here because I had a couple that I had highlighted. But anything, do you have any, anything on your heart that you'd like to share?

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, you know, I do. I do have a voicemail from Listener Max about closet organization that I like to play for you at some point. But I think that can hold until Monday if I can filibuster here a little bit and give you a chance to open up your voicemail because I saw. Or your email rather, because I saw that you had several things noted that I think would be a good sort roundup for the week here. If you have those in front. One is related to commercials. We talked. I'm giving you more time here. Bust in when you're ready. But we were talking a lot about commercials today and maybe this, we can start with this one. You were talking last week or the week before about a memory that you had from in real life. Of seeing Jake from State Farm trying to parallel park a car.

[Luke Burbank]

And then my story was I tried to parallel park a car in Jake from State Farm in Los Felix. That's how vivid it was.

[Andrew Walsh]

And then you realize as you were telling me this story, you're just like, you stopped yourself and said this isn't true. I am telling you something that I saw in a commercial once that I just internalized and thought was something that happened to me.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. And it's, I mean, it's really left me pretty shook because I would have, you know, for the first 15 seconds of that story, I would have sworn on my life that this happened to me. And in fact, it didn't. It was a TV commercial. And then we tried to find it on the fly and we found a different one.

[Andrew Walsh]

Same car company, same campaign, did have jc. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

But listener Elizabeth was nice enough to send the actual one, which, I mean, I don't even have to play it for you because it's, it's just basically the commercial that I thought I was actually living in. But it is, it's basically like one of these self parking cars. And Jake from State Farm. Well, I'll just play a little bit of. I guess this is the day we play commercials on the show. So that's parking attendant comes up and sees that Jake from State Farm's car is parked at a meter that has expired. And the meter person is all excited to give Jake from State Farm a ticket. But then of course, he is sitting at this outdoor cafe and he can move his car remotely and is doing that. Introducing the all new Sonata with remote smart parking assist. And the meter person is mystified and Jake from State Farm is laughing all the way to the bank, AKA not getting a parking ticket. So this, Liz, is exactly the commercial I was thinking of. But again, so now I have the commercial that I was thinking of. It doesn't in any way alleviate my concerns about the fact that I thought this was my life.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, also, you were telling me about this story where you were imprisoned in a sky tower, remember? And there was like a little boy who kept saying, make the bad man fly.

[Luke Burbank]

That did happen though.

[Andrew Walsh]

And you insisted. Did that happen to you in real life? But I was watching some show on HBO recently where I saw a very similar thing. And I'm thinking that maybe you sort of incepted that as well.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, it's possible that it happened to me and also was a TV show.

[Andrew Walsh]

This show might have been about you. Actually, the more I think about it.

[Luke Burbank]

Let'S See, listener Eric decided to kind of break down one of our favorite things from the Simpsons to play on the show. Show in the. In the sort of way that we love to play tape of people breaking down. Why? No, you don't. Oprah is like a perfect joke.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. Now, do you.

[Luke Burbank]

Eric decided to.

[Andrew Walsh]

Can I just play the tape? It's only 13 seconds long. So this is the Simpsons tape that Eric is referring to here.

[Luke Burbank]

You call that a knife?

[Andrew Walsh]

This is a knife. That's not a knife. That's a spoon.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, all right, you in? I see you've played Knifey Spoonie before. Such a good joke. Here's what Eric says. Last night, I was out with some friends, and a question came up. Why is the knifey spoony bit from the Simpsons funny? First of all, I hope that they were asking it, like, let's scientifically break it down. They weren't literally going, why is that funny? Because if so, you need to get new friends.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

We wound up breaking it down into several layers. And it made me think of the famously densely packed 30 Rock Oprah Sling blade joke. The premise of an Oprah sling blade being on a date. Jenna, not. Yes. Ending. That is that. That's Jenna's sling blade impression. And that Jenna thinks that that's Liz's impression of Oprah. That one is rightly celebrated. But I thought I'd send this email to also highlight the subtle density of Knifey Spoonie. Okay, see if you think this is legit. Andrew. Layer number one, referencing Crocodile Dundee. Definitely the lowest layer. But by itself, this would barely be a joke. So that's the first layer of the joke. Layer two, Knifey Spoonie as a name. It's ridiculously ridiculous sounding. It's perfectly Australian. Having been to Australia with you, Andrew, I can. I can confirm that Knifey Spoonie does sound like a city we would have stayed in.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm pretty sure I played Knifey Spoonie with somebody, but I can't remember that big bonfire night we had somewhere that was up.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it was at the. Oh, it was in Laramie Panther Pub.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm pretty sure I played. Played Knifey Spoonie that night.

[Luke Burbank]

Layer three, the absurd gameplay. One person holds out a spoon and calls it a knife. The other person wins by identifying it as a spoon.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, no, that is. That really gets me when you think about it. Like, where does the game go from there?

[Luke Burbank]

Layer 4. Despite how easy it is to win, the Australian guy is surprised and impressed when Bart does So. Like the 30 Rock joke. This is all in under 15 seconds. Anyway, I'm not trying to put these in competition with each other, but I thought y'all might appreciate this breakdown. Thank you for all you put into this show. Power outsigned, Eric. I agree with you, Eric. It's a. It is an incredibly dense and funny joke that, that never stops being funny to me. Were we talking off air, Andrew, about a project maybe for some special program where we were going to try to figure out our favorite like, Simpsons line or something?

[Andrew Walsh]

This was a.

[Luke Burbank]

Was that on air? Was that off air?

[Andrew Walsh]

I've talked to you about it off air. But you know, we're always looking for people to send in good questions for us to answer for the hey Dummies videos which appear in the week newsletter going out later today, by the way. And so somebody, and I don't have their name in front of me, asked us to maybe list our top five Simpsons jokes. And so I've been thinking about that. I think you and I both want to answer that one. And I know what my number one is and I'm just sort of fleshing out the full top five list. Or maybe it's like three, I don't know, Top three top five Simpsons jokes. So, coming to a newsletter video near you. We will do that. I want to jump in here too, because I'm looking at my email. I opened my email when you opened yours to see what we're missing. And do you remember how we opened yesterday's show? I had mentioned to you that there was a in the Seattle subreddit, a thread of people talking about the state of Seattle radio and how they're sort of bemoaning it. And there were a bunch of people who said, boy, TBTL used to be great. And I was like, wow. And then some other people were like, oh, you know, they're still doing a podcast. And I was joking around talking to all the new listeners we were getting because they discovered that TBTL is still a podcast. I got a note. I'm just seeing this now. It came in, it looks like maybe late last night from listener Deb in Redmond, Washington. Hi, the Seattle subreddit. The Seattle subreddit did in fact make me look for your podcast. It's 1:20am on Friday morning and I just finished yesterday's episode. I would like to start with episode number one and listen in order. But my God, I only have so many years. Plus I have not yet watched the Sopranos things for a podcast that's. That doesn't feed the generalized dread. Deb, welcome Aboard, family. This is. I. This is so sweet. I love. You know, Luke, did the. Did the story of the prodigal son bother you as a kid?

[Luke Burbank]

Did the story. Because it seemed unfair in some way?

[Andrew Walsh]

I realized this is a huge left turn that I just threw at you, but I'm going somewhere with.

[Luke Burbank]

But I bet you I can guess. I'll allow it. I can guess that you probably felt bad for the son who was there the whole time, like, just working, doing what he was supposed to do, right? And now it's like, oh, the prodigal son is home. Let's kill the fatted calf.

[Andrew Walsh]

Let's kill the fatted calf. Right? And I mean, that's how you're supposed to feel, I believe, as the reader. And then the lesson is, yes. Actually, I don't even know what the lesson is, but yes, we welcome the sheep that has left the fold. And just because the son who's there and worked hard for his dad the whole time feels underappreciated. But I think the lesson is, just because we're showering praise and gifts on somebody else doesn't really affect your lot in life at all. Actually, the more I think about it, I don't know what the lesson is there, but sometimes I think about new listeners or returning listeners a little bit like the prodigal sons, not just that they're returning to the fold, or maybe as Deb is here, maybe coming for the first time. Like, we are so appreciative, as we were just discussing while we were thanking our donors of everybody who's been here with us all along for this journey. The ugly times, the times where I made fools of myself with the stu bot live on the show, like the good times and the bad and still support us no matter what. I don't want them to feel underappreciated when I get really excited when I see that we have one new listener or people come. But I do get excited because I gotta say, I've heard myself talk before. I am shocked that new people are jumping on board no matter. No matter how difficult I make it for people to listen to this show.

[Luke Burbank]

So I get excited and Deborah gets the vibe.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

Gently roasting us for having too many episodes to listen to.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

Like, that's. Exactly. That's the. That's the. Welcome to the. Welcome to the family, Deborah. You're going to fit right on in.

[Andrew Walsh]

Indeed.

[Luke Burbank]

So that's cool. Go Seattle Subreddit. I love it. All right. I think that's going to do it for today's.

[Andrew Walsh]

Episode of the we did a lot today.

[Luke Burbank]

We sure did. We did a lot this week. Yep, it's an important week of broadcasting. So thanks for hanging out with us, everybody. We are going to be back here on Monday with more imaginary radio for you, so please join us for that. In the meantime, have a great weekend. Hope you make it through the weather in the Pacific Northwest. Okay, if you're having trouble, just look for any member of a Seattle indie rock band. They'll know what to do. Anyway, we'll see you Monday. Please remember, no Mountain Too Tall and.

[Andrew Walsh]

Good luck to all. Power out.