B (2:12)

I got the encyclopedia right here.

A (2:14)

What does it say?

B (2:14)

Effervescent giving off bubbles or fizzy. And then two is vivacious and enthusiastic.

A (2:21)

Okay.

B (2:22)

So vivacious kind of brings to mind lightness, vibrancy.

A (2:25)

Yeah. All right. You know what? We're both so smart.

B (2:29)

I know that about us. It's off putting.

A (2:34)

How are you, kp?

B (2:36)

I'm good. I am excited for. For today's episode. Getting into some pop culture time machine things.

A (2:44)

Yeah.

B (2:45)

Not to rush us through the small talk, but what do you say we take a ride in the pop culture time machine?

A (2:51)

I say let's do it.

B (2:59)

I'm gonna go first.

A (3:00)

Please do.

B (3:01)

I've decided we're actually going to Munich, Germany.

A (3:04)

Love it.

B (3:04)

And the year is 1988.

A (3:07)

Beautiful.

B (3:08)

We have two guys that live in Munich, Germany. Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus.

A (3:16)

Sweet.

B (3:17)

And they are also known as Milli Vanilli.

A (3:20)

Oh, my goodness. I didn't know they had names. I know.

B (3:23)

It's just Mr. Milli and Mr. Vanilli. So in researching this pop culture time machine of Milli Vanilli, I'd like to say I think they got screwed over. I think a lot of this. They were really. You know, the big thing we're going to talk about is they got busted for lip syncing and it like totally destroyed their reputation and. No, they were just wiped off the face of the charts.

A (3:50)

Yeah.

B (3:51)

And here's why. I think that was a little unfair. Okay. So Fab and Rob were just friends living in Germany. And then this record producer, his name is Frank Varian, he's like, hey, you guys have a cool vibe. Come into my studio. He plays them a song. Girl, you know it's true. And he says, do you guys think you can sing this? They say, yeah, for sure we can sing that. They sign a contract for 10 records with Frank Farian.

A (4:20)

10 records. Off of the thought of singing one

B (4:23)

song record, 10 songs a year, actually, that's what the contract is. My fault.

A (4:28)

That's still a lot.

B (4:28)

Yeah, yeah. They want like a nice big album here. So they sing this song. Now, Frank Varian, he listens to it. He doesn't think it's all that. He gets his own singers to re sing it, basically. So he gets Charles Shaw, John Davis, Brad Howell, and some backup singers, Jody and Linda Rocco. He has them re record it, basically, and he kind of mixes it in a little bit. But it's definitely mostly these new people that are now singing this song. But he keeps the two guys, Rob and Fab. He keeps them as the face of this. He names the group Milli Vanilli. Frank Varian. His girlfriend at the time's name was Millie. And then he threw Vanilli at the end because it sounded really nice. In the 80s, they would just kind of do that.

A (5:17)

It sounds great. Still today. Millie Vanilli.

B (5:20)

Vanilli.

A (5:21)

Yeah.

B (5:22)

So this song goes crazy. Everyone loves it, girl, you know it's true. They just. They think this song is lovely. It reaches Number one on the German singles chart and then it goes to the UK. Then it gets on the US Billboard Hot 100. So it's all the way on number two in the US so it's just very. It's a huge hit. Everybody loves it. And so I think Rob is like, hey, Frank Varian. This doesn't really seem like our voice is this us? And Frank's like, nobody's going to find out. Don't worry about it. Just go along with the plan. So basically it's like they're now being let in. It's like the mics are going to be off. When you sing, you're not singing. So he's. They've got a bunch of other singles. Baby, don't forget my number. Blame it on the rain. Oh, is that true? Blame it on the Rain isn't them, is it? It is. Girl, I'm gonna miss you. Okay. I mean, they're going crazy.

A (6:14)

They're going crazy. Yeah.

B (6:17)

Now here's where we get some issues. July 21, 1989. They go to my home, really near my hometown here. They go to Lake Compounce in Bristol, Connecticut. This is like 30 minutes from me.

A (6:33)

All right.

B (6:33)

I didn't know. It happened right in my backyard.

A (6:36)

Listen, that's a claim to fame right there.

B (6:40)

Lake Compounds is kind of a claim to fame. It's got just a scary carousel where the horse's teeth are just all out. Why do they make them like that? It's for kids. Put the teeth away.

A (6:50)

Teeth away.

B (6:51)

Because sometimes when it's like a chipping paint, Scary horse biting to escape. Yeah, I don't get that.

A (6:56)

And the music is creepy too.

B (6:58)

Music Scrapy two.

A (6:59)

Yeah, carousel's creepy.

B (7:00)

I think I have some notes on carousels. So anyway, they're performing at Lake Compounce, which I also think is crazy because this is like a small theme park and their song had reached number one. So I'm like, why were you even at Lake Compounds? Yeah, you shouldn't have even been there.

A (7:14)

It would be like Beyonce coming to Magic Mountain to do a concert.

B (7:17)

I mean, I saw Jonas Brothers at Six Flags.

A (7:21)

Really?

B (7:21)

Twice, I think.

A (7:22)

Twice.

B (7:22)

So it is like when you're up. Don't ask me how many times I've seen them all together. Don't you ask me that.

A (7:28)

Hey, kp, how many times have you seen the Jonas Brothers altogether?

B (7:32)

Four.

A (7:33)

Four. That's not bad.

B (7:34)

Not huge, but God willing, I get a five.

A (7:37)

There's been some artists I've seen four plus or three. Four times for sure.

B (7:42)

Joe and Nick have both liked videos of mine at one point. So I'm on the radar. I could get an invite soon, I'm hoping.

A (7:47)

Claim to fame. Claim to fame.

B (7:50)

Okay. They're playing at this late Compounce concert. And a malfunctioning hard drive causes the recording to skip repeatedly. So this is that kind of clip you may have seen, if you know about this, where it's like, girl, you know it's girl, you know it's girl, you know it. So it's just truly skipping very clearly, letting everybody know their lip syncing.

A (8:13)

I actually don't. I know I know the legend of Milli Vanilli, but I don't think I've ever actually seen the clip.

B (8:21)

Yeah.

A (8:22)

Or done like a deep dive outside of. Because by the time I started to know the legend of Milli Vanelli, like you said, it was all these boys don't sing. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know?

B (8:34)

Yeah, yeah. So Rob runs off the stage, they try and finish the set. And honest, they do finish it. And it seems like nobody at Lake Compounce really cared. They, you know, cheered at the end of the set. But the video was kind of the beginning of the end here.

A (8:52)

Yeah.

B (8:54)

So the public starts being like, hey, who was singing, if not them? What's going on? And Farian tries to kind of COVID it up a little bit. But ultimately the singer Charles Shaw, that actually sang, he comes forward and is like, well, I'm sick of covering this up. I sang this. It's just not. It's not going well then for Milli Vanilli. The newspaper headline, November 1990 says, Milli Vanilli, don't sing. Rob is beside himself. I mean, from there it's just a real total decline. Here's what they say, though. It's like the duo says it felt like they made a deal with the devil. They did sing. They were capable of singing, they were capable of rapping. They could sing. And it feels like Frank Variant sort of set them up to look foolish when it is like they are talented. Cause it made them seem like total talentless individuals that are just trying to make a check. And that was not really the truth.

A (10:00)

I mean, listen, I will say I agree with that. I think, like, whenever I thought or think of Milli Vanilli, the thought is, oh, these are two dudes who like, tried to get over on us and like, blah, blah, blah. But when you think of it, knowing the industry, for them to get to a record label, there's no, like, everybody had to be Involved.

B (10:25)

Yeah. And it seemed like Frank Varian just wanted the cool. They look cool. They're like cool guys. They're friends, they're German. It. It's like a cool look. And so he was using them, and then they just became nobody. Nobody looks at this and is like, oh, Frank Varian is a total crackpot. They look back and they're like, milli Vanilli lip synced. You know, so it is like they felt like they were the scapegoats for this thing that was a little bit out of their control.

A (10:53)

Yeah, I could see that.

B (10:55)

So they tried to do comeback attempts. They tried to, like, you know, actually sing, but it was.

A (11:01)

Nobody was. Everybody was like, who is that really singing.

B (11:04)

Nobody was interested. I mean, they lost just all the steam that they had from their success.

A (11:09)

Yeah.

B (11:10)

And I don't even think the. I don't think Charles Shaw or the other singers, really. It's not like they got that success either. So it was just kind of a failed, failed, failed experiment, failed venture.

A (11:20)

And now they are. Now they are living in infamy. Yes, everybody knows Milli Vanilli, but not for the reasons they would like to be known for.

B (11:31)

Mm. One of them sadly passed on, but the other one has some singles that he has made and he's doing his own singles. Music narration. And it looks like he was nominated for a Grammy and actually for this most recent Grammys earlier this year.

A (11:47)

Good for him.

B (11:48)

Yes.

A (11:48)

Which one?

B (11:49)

For Grammy award for best audiobook Narration and storytelling recording.

A (11:54)

Okay.

B (11:56)

Yeah.

A (11:56)

See, his voice is sought after to read us books.

B (12:01)

Okay. To be fair, it is for the audiobook. For his memoir, you know, It's True. The Real story of Milli Vanilli. So it's definitely near and dear a memoir to him.

A (12:12)

Hey, listen, Fab, you know, I hope. I hope one day one star takes, like, a liking to the story again and be like, you know what, Fab, you still got a voice. Come on over here and sing a song with Rihanna or something like that, you know, or who's German that's in the industry now? I don't even know.

B (12:34)

I don't know.

A (12:34)

Yeah.

B (12:35)

He did not win the Grammy for best Audiobook Narration and storytelling Recording because the Dalai Lama did. So

A (12:47)

it's.

B (12:47)

That's gotta hurt.

A (12:48)

That's gotta hurt.

B (12:49)

But if it's. If you're gonna lose to anyone.

A (12:50)

Yeah.

B (12:51)

You hope it's the most peaceful man in the world.

A (12:53)

Yes. I would be like, man, ain't you. What you doing on the Internet? Get off the Internet, man.

B (12:57)

Doesn't he have enough?

A (12:58)

Get off. Get out of entertainment, man. Go, go. Be peaceful.

B (13:03)

This was the Dalai Lama's first Grammy.

A (13:05)

Of course it was.

B (13:06)

He's going for an E Guy.

A (13:07)

You know what?

B (13:07)

Everybody watch out.

A (13:08)

I hope he gets it. I can't wait for the Dalai Lama movie.

B (13:12)

Well, this is because they replaced the Dalai Lama. They replaced the Dalai Lama every, you know, generation, right? So this is. I think he's a bit young, this Dalai Lama, if I'm not mistaken.

A (13:20)

All right, Our next Barack Obama.

B (13:22)

All right, I lied. I lied. I looked in the encyclopedia. He is not young. He is 90 years old. So he could still win an ego. But he's got a rush this year.

A (13:32)

He got a year.

B (13:33)

He's gotta turn it on. He's gonna really turn on.

A (13:42)

May I take us a little bit further in the future for my pop culture time machine? But we're still in the past for us. But in the future for Milli Vanilli, I'm gonna take us to the year 2014.

B (14:00)

Oh, okay.

A (14:01)

The day is the second, the month is March, and the event is the 86 Academy Awards, affectionately known as the Oscars. Now, if you remember this Oscars or if you don't remember this Oscars, this one was Hosted by Ellen DeGeneres.

B (14:22)

Okay?

A (14:23)

This was during the time where Ellen DeGeneres was at the height of her popularity. Everybody loved her. There were no things that were out about how mean she was. Was. Right.

B (14:38)

Yeah. She was this just beloved dancing talk show host.

A (14:41)

And she was great at it. She was great at it. I will give her the flowers that she deserves for. For that. But in this. In this Oscars, there was one moment that took over the world basically, and swiftly took over the world. And you may remember it as the famous Oscars selfie. The Oscars selfie.

B (15:08)

It's so bizarre. It went so big, but I do

A (15:10)

remember it was so big. And it's just like. You know, the crazy thing, too is, like, it wasn't like selfies weren't big yet.

B (15:19)

Yeah.

A (15:20)

It wasn't like selfies weren't, like, happening. We were taking selfies. Social media was kind of on and popping, like, already. Like, you know, Twitter was a thing. Instagram was a thing. But it started with Ella DeGeneres going to take a selfie with Meryl Streep. And as she was taking the selfie with Meryl Streep, all the celebrities that were around in that, like, seating area decided to jump in to this selfie, and it really did become a who's Who? Celebrities. And because Meryl Streep is already. You know, I think the cool thing about it, too, from what I remember, is Meryl Streep was not, like, a huge, like, online person, you know, like you. So having her in it already as, like, oh, a selfie with Meryl Streep. That's cool. And Ellen DeGeneres. That's cool. And then here comes the train of celebrities. We have Bradley Cooper, who actually took the picture because his arms were long. We have Jennifer Lawrence, who was also, like, at the height of the Hunger Games at that point, she was popping. We have Hollywood's number one it couple at the time, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

B (16:45)

That is crazy.

A (16:47)

That's crazy.

B (16:47)

That is pretty nuts.

A (16:48)

We have Julia Roberts in this. We have Channing Tatum. We have Jared Leto for some reason.

B (17:00)

Sure. He's always gonna be somewhere in the

A (17:01)

background, and we have always. He's always gonna be in the background singing some songs. What's his band's name? Kings of Leon.

B (17:08)

30 seconds tomorrow.

A (17:09)

30 seconds tomorrow. One of them. Same thing. And we also have Lupita Nuongo and her brother, who's not a celebrity but is in this famous picture. Yes. His name was Peter Nuongo. So we have, like, just. Oh, and we also have. Who at the time was that? You know, we all liked him. Kevin Spacey. Oh, wow. A lot of people forget he was in that picture, but he is in that picture as well.

B (17:41)

This is a real. I mean. Okay, so this was taken in the front of the audience. So that's why we have so many a listers.

A (17:47)

Yes.

B (17:47)

You know, these are all people that were sitting next to near Meryl Streep. So this is a huge.

A (17:52)

This is a huge, huge guest list. This is a huge guest list. Now, the cool thing about this is she took the selfie, and then she did immediately post it onto Twitter, and within 45 minutes, that tweet was retweeted over 1 million times.

B (18:11)

Oh, my God. I really didn't know that.

A (18:13)

Yes. And it caused the Twitter servers to crash for about 20 to 30 minutes.

B (18:19)

No way.

A (18:20)

And it was the most retweeted post of all time. Dethroning Barack Obama's 2012 election victory picture or tweet that he had been reelected.

B (18:32)

So let's break the. Okay, okay. Ellen just wanted Ellen and Meryl. Meryl stream. Yes. Everyone jumps in. Okay. I guess I'm like, man, we really. I guess there was just a more joyful.

A (18:45)

It was.

B (18:45)

It was experience to the selfie back then, too, because Nowadays I go, eh,

A (18:50)

this was kind of the start of a lot of stuff. Because this. This was taken on. It wasn't taken on the iPhone, surprisingly. It was taken on the Samsung Galaxy Note. And, you know, they parlayed that into a billion dollars in advertisements and things like that. Because this was like, hey, even though

B (19:09)

the picture doesn't even look that good,

A (19:11)

it doesn't look great. But, you know, it's like image, Samsung, the camera and the phone of celebrities. Right. But also, this was before celebrity influencer culture as well.

B (19:27)

That's what I was. Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

A (19:29)

So, like, this was kind of the first time we were like, wait, celebrities are just like that? They take selfies at the Oscars? Because just like I would do if I was at the Oscars, blah, blah, blah.

B (19:39)

Yeah, because also all these people didn't have, like, huge social media updating. It's not like. It's like, not every day you would go on and be like, oh, nice. A new picture of Lupita Nyong'.

A (19:51)

Ooh.

B (19:52)

A new picture of Jennifer Lawrence. Like, she maybe had the most of it.

A (19:56)

And Angelina Jolie together.

B (19:58)

I mean, they totally. You had to really work for photos of that. So the casualness was something that, you know, we weren't seeing from them. So to get a casual picture like that, just like us, is absolutely what it was. You're right.

A (20:14)

Absolutely. Now, this was a great moment in pop culture history. Retweeted a lot. But a lot of people have now said, this is a cursed moment. We will end on this. Because when this photo was taken within the next, like, you know, year to three years, every, a lot of people in it started to, like, you know,

B (20:43)

Ellen fall out of favor.

A (20:44)

Ellen DeGeneres out of favor. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt broke up. Kevin Spacey out of favor.

B (20:56)

Certainly out of favor. Peter Nyong'. O. We haven't heard about him.

A (20:59)

I haven't heard anything about Pierre Noongo. He, you know, he just. He just fell off. Julia Roberts still in favor. Channing Tatum. People still love him. Jared Leto, also, this was kind of right around or right before the, like, joker.

B (21:12)

Oh, right. But Channing Tatum also went through a divorce not too long after that. He did.

A (21:17)

He did. He went through a divorce. Meryl Streep always comes out looking like roses.

B (21:22)

My goodness. She keeps her head down and she acts well. That's all we need to do.

A (21:25)

That's all we need to do.

B (21:26)

Here's my. I hear you that this is a cursed photo. Here's what I'll say, you take a picture of any 10 celebrities, and within two years, half of them are gonna be. Yeah.

A (21:37)

Half of them will be canceled. Or I just am like, the nature.

B (21:40)

Yeah, no, this is just exactly. I'm like, the nature of celebr celebrity to me is that some of them are rude, like Ellen, perhaps, and some of them are this and some of them are that. So I see the point. But I go, maybe celebrities are just not so like us.

A (21:57)

Maybe they're not like us at all. Maybe we should all stop taking selfies.

B (22:01)

A charming selfie. Yeah. Yeah, we kind of did. I don't know. Selfies aren't like.

A (22:06)

Selfies aren't popping as much as they were. Yeah. And they're a little too, like. That's another thing I do like about this is celebrities, even though they're all dressed up at the Oscars, it was not like, you know, it was no, like, filters, no nothing. It was just like. Just a picture with us and that. You're gonna get what you get, and you're gonna get me as I am, which is honestly the perfect way to be in life during the day and at nighttime as we wind down to take ourselves to sleep.

B (22:37)

It's interesting how much can change in a decade.

A (22:42)

Yeah, a lot. A lot can change in a decade. If that picture was taken today, nobody would give a crap.

B (22:48)

Truly. Nobody. Nobody would put it anywhere.

A (22:50)

Nobody. Okay, Nice.

B (22:53)

Oh, okay, cool. We have Glambots now. We don't care.

A (22:56)

Taking a picture at the Oscars. How? How, Boomer?

B (23:00)

Why not a 9x16 vertical video asking about everyone's favorite fidget?

A (23:05)

Spin. Yes.

B (23:06)

Should be doing that instead.

A (23:07)

That's what we should be doing. Kp.

B (23:10)

Well, Chuckies.

A (23:11)

Yes.

B (23:12)

We're just about to both say goodnight to each other.

A (23:14)

I can tell. We are. We are. Because, you know, time travel takes a lot out of us.

B (23:19)

It does. I'm ready to fly right into the present. No selfie needed. I'm cozied up and I'm ready to go to bed. I'm gonna turn in.

A (23:29)

Have a good night.

B (23:30)

Good night. Jackie's.

A (23:44)

Sa. To learn more about our phone free light and audio experience, head to Hatch co. You can also follow us at HatchPodcasts.