Speaker 1: Hi.
Speaker 2: I'm Vanessa Bayer and this is my brother Jonah.
Speaker 3: We're two siblings who love to talk about our childhood
Speaker 3: in nostalgia and how it shaped us into the people
Speaker 3: we are today.
Speaker 2: Who are very excited for today's guest.
Speaker 3: Indeed, welcome to How Did We Get Weird?
Speaker 4: So, Jonah, Today's episode is all about trying to act
Speaker 4: cool and being cool and stuff like that. And I
Speaker 4: have a question for you. Do you think today, Jonah,
Speaker 4: as an adult, you're cool? Wow?
Speaker 3: That's a really good question.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think as like a kid version of Jonah looking
Speaker 3: at me today, I would think that I was cool
Speaker 3: because I can, you know, stamp as as I want.
Speaker 3: I like, uh, you know, I can play guitar, right,
Speaker 3: I played in bands, you know, I have a lot
Speaker 3: of records. So yeah, I think I think pretty cool. Overall.
Speaker 3: I think I would think for the most part, what
Speaker 3: about you, Vanessa?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I like the way that you thought about that.
Speaker 4: Would child me think that I was cool today? And
Speaker 4: I think the answer is yes, because I'm an actor
Speaker 4: and I think like being an actress, I would be
Speaker 4: So I would as a really little kid, I would
Speaker 4: put on a lot of performances. So getting to keep
Speaker 4: putting on performances and make money for it. I think
Speaker 4: I'd be like, Okay, this absolutely rocks. Also, I have
Speaker 4: a lot of dresses. Not to brag, but I own
Speaker 4: so many dresses from various things I've done throughout the years,
Speaker 4: and so I think I'd be excited about that. And
Speaker 4: I owned several pairs of high heels too, which was
Speaker 4: something that I always wanted as a kid. So yeah,
Speaker 4: I think between the dresses, the high heels, and the acting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I had some chocolate when I came home,
Speaker 3: and I don't have to ask anyone. I just did
Speaker 3: it rocks, you know, honestly thought it was my row money.
Speaker 3: So yeah, so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's okay.
Speaker 4: I want to add something to how I would think
Speaker 4: I'm cool. I have a TV in my room. Now
Speaker 4: this has only been going on for about six months.
Speaker 4: I don't know if I've talked about this on here,
Speaker 4: but we weren't allowed to have TVs in our room
Speaker 4: really growing up, although you sort of broke that role
Speaker 4: by having like a really weird, broken black and white
Speaker 4: TV that you It wasn't broken at first, but then
Speaker 4: it turned into sort of a radio.
Speaker 3: I had the short version is I had. I had
Speaker 3: a black and white one of those like really old
Speaker 3: TVs with the dials and like the curved kind of screen,
Speaker 3: and one day I spilled a bottle of night quill
Speaker 3: in the top of it and it shorted out the
Speaker 3: picture part, but the audio still worked. Yeah, And I
Speaker 3: have these distinct memories. I slept on a food toon
Speaker 3: on the floor for some reason in my bedroom. Sure,
Speaker 3: why say? And I remember being a teenager sleeping on
Speaker 3: the food toon and just listening to NYPD Blue on
Speaker 3: my TV that had no picture, and just like using
Speaker 3: my imagination.
Speaker 2: I hundred percent remember you were listening to NYPD Bluespin. Well,
Speaker 2: I have a TV in.
Speaker 4: My room now, and I man, I'm on season six
Speaker 4: now of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which a couple twenty
Speaker 4: twenty five years late. But I am like love it's
Speaker 4: having a TV in my room watching Buffy. I'm like
Speaker 4: absolutely living my best life. Have you tried just listening
Speaker 4: to the audio with the picture of I.
Speaker 2: Should try that. It's probably better for my eyes.
Speaker 5: It's good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you don't get the blue light. Vanessa, Do you
Speaker 3: want to go ahead and introduce today's guest.
Speaker 4: Let's introduce today's guests and see if he thinks that
Speaker 4: child Hymn would think he's cool today. Our guest today
Speaker 4: is a writer and actor who's worked on some of
Speaker 4: your favorite shows, including Zoe's Extraordinary Playlist, The First Lady,
Speaker 4: and your actual favorite show I Love That for You,
Speaker 4: and who is a writer on the upcoming Netflix show
Speaker 4: No Good Deed. Please welcome my friend Zora Beacon Gaga.
Speaker 5: Hey, Zara nailed the pronunciation.
Speaker 4: Okay, we were talking before we started recording. I was
Speaker 4: trying to make sure I had the correct pronunciation, and
Speaker 4: somehow it led us into making fun of Jonah, and
Speaker 4: by us, I mean me and how he pronounced the
Speaker 4: things pecan, becan, pecan, bcan Gaga And I said, Jonah
Speaker 4: would say that wrong. But actually the word that Jonah
Speaker 4: says wrong is cashu.
Speaker 3: I don't say it wrong. It sounds normal to me
Speaker 3: when I say it. But but yeah, like I said,
Speaker 3: you and you and my wife Ikey tend to just
Speaker 3: point out every time I say, it's fun.
Speaker 2: Because we say cashu like normal people.
Speaker 5: Right. Well, it's a I heard somebody from the East
Speaker 5: Coast recently pronounced the the word raccoon is raccoon, which
Speaker 5: I thought was so funny because it sounded like very
Speaker 5: like Christopher walking.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, like raccoon.
Speaker 5: I don't know if it's you know, because I didn't
Speaker 5: I grew up on the West Coast. But I thought
Speaker 5: it was really funny. But also someone that has, you know,
Speaker 5: parents that have like really thick accents. It's like, I
Speaker 5: try not to shame and anyone for pronouncing right. Yeah,
Speaker 5: I mean it's funny. It's always funny to me, but like, yeah,
Speaker 5: you know, because people just you know, they're gonna pronounce
Speaker 5: words differently.
Speaker 4: I'm imagining this person being from Like did you say
Speaker 4: they're in New York.
Speaker 5: They're from the East Coast.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so were they like we got a lot of raccoons. Wait, no,
Speaker 2: that's kind of Philly.
Speaker 3: But a little Philly.
Speaker 5: Yeah, raccoons in the john.
Speaker 4: H Wait, what's in New York accent? It's like, how
Speaker 4: to New York? I keep thinking Philly?
Speaker 5: Well like coffee, you know, yeah, yes, grab grab my
Speaker 5: coffee and I saw raccoon.
Speaker 2: I grabbed my coffee and I saw raccoon.
Speaker 3: That sounds Jacob de bar mits, my boy, it is.
Speaker 4: You know. Jonah is the inspiration for Jacob the Barmit's boy,
Speaker 4: and I didn't realize it until all of his friends
Speaker 4: were like, you're going on SNL doing an impression of
Speaker 4: Jonah and again adult.
Speaker 5: Friend amazing because one of truly one of my favorite
Speaker 5: of all time.
Speaker 3: Truly, So, Zorah, what about little Zora looking at you today? Yes?
Speaker 3: What what what do you think he's thinking? Cool?
Speaker 5: First of all, I got you guys are cool. I
Speaker 5: would have thought you guys were cool, just you know
Speaker 5: in that Vanessa you're you always have like you're always
Speaker 5: telling me about a thing that I don't know about really,
Speaker 5: which is a marker of a cool person. Like it's
Speaker 5: always like you know some like clothing store or like
Speaker 5: hat that I should get, you know, So that's like
Speaker 5: a distinctive marker of a cool person.
Speaker 2: Wow, thank you so much.
Speaker 5: And Jonah, your mustache is aspirational.
Speaker 3: So thank you, thank you. I appreciate that.
Speaker 5: I would think that that's cool.
Speaker 2: But sir, you have a cool mustache.
Speaker 3: Now that is true. You do have a cool mustache
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 5: It's taken me several decades to achieve this, several uh,
Speaker 5: and I'm here, but thank you, but it took me
Speaker 5: a long time.
Speaker 3: They take ten.
Speaker 5: Yeah, they take time. But I so, to answer your question,
Speaker 5: I think that if I were to see myself now
Speaker 5: as a as a kid, if kid me was looking
Speaker 5: at yeah, I would automatically be like, he's as tall
Speaker 5: as Michael Jordan. He's cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because you yeah that that right.
Speaker 5: I'm six sex yeah yah, so Jordan is six six too.
Speaker 5: Jordan is six six, and also Kobe Bryant, who I
Speaker 5: wanted to be, you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so.
Speaker 5: I would have just been fixated on how tall I
Speaker 5: am and like just wouldn't stop thinking about it.
Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, okay, okay.
Speaker 5: Outside of anything. But I don't know, like there are
Speaker 5: other aspects where I'm like, I don't know if am
Speaker 5: I still trying to sort of achieve this thing that
Speaker 5: I wanted to be, you know, as far as like
Speaker 5: do I look enough like Tupac. I'm going to get
Speaker 5: a nose ring, like you know, probably in a month
Speaker 5: or so, and so that's like the last piece of
Speaker 5: trying to look like Tupak.
Speaker 4: What about do you have like any do you have
Speaker 4: like a cool TV or speakers or anything like that
Speaker 4: that might have made child Zora I think you were
Speaker 4: really cool.
Speaker 5: I have I have a TV that I think child
Speaker 5: Zor would think is cool because it's you know, like
Speaker 5: it's bigger and you could watch sports really well on it.
Speaker 5: Like it's very like sort of like built for sports.
Speaker 5: I think child or would would think that's cool. Which
Speaker 5: Jony were making me laugh so much describing the fact
Speaker 5: that you you listened to and with Beady Blue, because
Speaker 5: it's like that's how people used to like listen to
Speaker 5: like radio dramas. You know, like that's very old timey,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean, Like people would just like
Speaker 5: sit down by a radio and just listen to a program.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you got Jimmy Smith's Dennis Franz and you
Speaker 3: know what's going on?
Speaker 5: Yeah, was Dennis Frowns the short guy?
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, okay, he was always mad And then there
Speaker 3: was like an episode that was really controversial where like
Speaker 3: they showed his butt or something and it was you remember,
Speaker 3: it was like a really huge deal, like people are like,
Speaker 3: you can't show that on network TV, and like, do.
Speaker 5: You think that that was his?
Speaker 3: But though I don't know, I never really researched it,
Speaker 3: but I think it was very controversial at the time
Speaker 3: that show was pushing the mple. I think maybe they swore,
Speaker 3: Like now I feel like you can you can swear
Speaker 3: on like every channel. Note it's like no big deal,
Speaker 3: but back then it was like a huge deal.
Speaker 4: Mmm. Well, and also just Dennis friends like this is
Speaker 4: you know, all loved Dennis.
Speaker 2: Frians were huge fans. He's not like the hot guy
Speaker 2: on the show.
Speaker 4: So I also think it was it was sort of
Speaker 4: shocking to see his butt because and I don't mean
Speaker 4: to linger on this too long, but like it wasn't
Speaker 4: like a sexy move that they were doing to get viewers.
Speaker 3: It was like why are they doing it? I think
Speaker 3: it was I don't remember, I haven't thought about this.
Speaker 3: So I think it was because that show is trying
Speaker 3: to be like really raw and this is like real,
Speaker 3: this is New York, this is like this is you know.
Speaker 4: If you yeah, get in, if you want to watch
Speaker 4: a all rash, We're not going to show you a
Speaker 4: hot person's butt. We're going to show you dunnis Rand's
Speaker 4: butt and if you can you handle it, you see WIMPs.
Speaker 5: So the controversy was like it was more like him like.
Speaker 3: I don't know, I couldn't see it right. So I
Speaker 3: heard about this part later. I guess I.
Speaker 5: Do remember it because I didn't watch it as a kid,
Speaker 5: but I remember seeing like the previews for it, like
Speaker 5: the promos and kind of having that reaction of like
Speaker 5: why is the Like Okay, this guy's the star, Like
Speaker 5: this the guy that you're showing in the promos and
Speaker 5: you know, sort of bragging about like Emmys and stuff like.
Speaker 5: I was always like confused, like why they led with him?
Speaker 5: But maybe that was just me being shallow and he
Speaker 5: was cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: There was also a woman on it who was really beautiful,
Speaker 4: and I remember being fixated, and then she got her
Speaker 4: own spinoff show.
Speaker 2: I'm having a tough time thinking of her name, but she.
Speaker 4: I remember as someone who had curly hair that would
Speaker 4: often straighten it. I remember being like, she's would go
Speaker 4: She would toe that line too, where she would like
Speaker 4: sometimes straighten her curly hair and sometimes wear it curly.
Speaker 4: And I remember being like, first of all, someone has
Speaker 4: to be professionally straightening her hair, which that is now
Speaker 4: I know with TV, like someone does your hair.
Speaker 2: So mystery solved.
Speaker 4: But it just I remember I always like appreciate even
Speaker 4: though I straightened my hair, I always wanted people to
Speaker 4: wear their hair curly because it made me feel like
Speaker 4: I could wear anyway.
Speaker 5: That's cool.
Speaker 2: The point is bored everyone for a minute of.
Speaker 3: These no cercause of Dennis Franz, really really no no.
Speaker 3: But I was just trying to make you feel better
Speaker 3: about your thank you.
Speaker 4: Jonah Olivia just sent us an article called how NYPD
Speaker 4: Blue broke the naked TV rules.
Speaker 3: See yeah, see I remember this. Yeah, okay, and that is.
Speaker 5: A deep cut. It just it seemed so adult to me,
Speaker 5: like my memory of NYPD blew. It was like, yeah,
Speaker 5: it was like that and and for whatever reason, like
Speaker 5: Mad about You just seems like so adult, Like it
Speaker 5: was just like that's as a show that's not funny.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, show. You know what show I've been watching
Speaker 3: from that era that just got all six seasons just
Speaker 3: got at Amazon Prime. Is Northern exposure? God, yes, and
Speaker 3: yeah my wife is out of town.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of moose motifs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the intro there's a moose walking through a town.
Speaker 3: But my wife is out of town, so I can
Speaker 3: watch whatever I want. So I'm like, oh, I got it.
Speaker 3: I got to get in all the northern exposure I
Speaker 3: can And is it good? It's such a weird show.
Speaker 3: And I almost don't want to talk about it too
Speaker 3: much because it could be like a whole other episode,
Speaker 3: because I know this is more of an NYPD blue podcast.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it's like this the protagonists doctor who has
Speaker 3: to go to Alaska and then his contract basically says
Speaker 3: he can't leave, so he's got to like just live
Speaker 3: in this remote town in Alaska. It's this doctor and
Speaker 3: there's it's such a weird show.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I definitely remember the moose, yeah part of it,
Speaker 5: but also like being attracted to the woman who like
Speaker 5: thinking that she was like really pretty and being like
Speaker 5: why am I? Why am I leaving this this episode on?
Speaker 5: Like I don't like this subject, but I keep watching this.
Speaker 3: It's it's it's like an adult It's like kind of
Speaker 3: like makes you feel too. It's like a comedy, but
Speaker 3: it's like clearly made for adults, because like there's always
Speaker 3: references to him being like this Jewish guy from New
Speaker 3: York and there was all these kind of like inside
Speaker 3: jokes about it if you would not but I feel like,
Speaker 3: as a kid, you just watched TV made for adults
Speaker 3: because there wasn't as much stuff for you, wasn't it.
Speaker 4: On it around the same time as meaning like maybe
Speaker 4: in succession with the show that was Jennifer Love Hewitt
Speaker 4: and another kid and they lived in Hawaii with their
Speaker 4: and their dad had red hair. Do you know what
Speaker 4: I'm talking about? How you're gonna say Party of five party,
Speaker 4: but this was pre Party of Five. This was like
Speaker 4: probably one of Jennifer Love Hewitt's first acting roles. Jonah,
Speaker 4: you definitely know this show. I feel like you would
Speaker 4: watch it, Olivia. Can you look up Jennifer Love Hewitt's
Speaker 4: IMDb It's called it was called like way out There
Speaker 4: or something.
Speaker 5: They lived in Hawaii.
Speaker 4: They lived in Hawaii, and I also think they had
Speaker 4: to move there for something with the dad and it
Speaker 4: was like a brother and sister living in.
Speaker 3: Hawaii with Yes, I think you might have made the show.
Speaker 4: It was very northern exposure ish the Birds of Paradise.
Speaker 3: Okay, Okay, I don't remember the show, Olivia.
Speaker 4: Can you find an image of it to show to Jonah?
Speaker 4: Because he does birds is spelled.
Speaker 3: B y R D S.
Speaker 4: I think because that's how their last name was spelled,
Speaker 4: which is actually pretty catchy if you think about it.
Speaker 5: It's a good it's a good title. It's a good time.
Speaker 2: Do you remember that at all? Jonah?
Speaker 3: Is this Seth Green is the other kid.
Speaker 5: Maybe that's surprising because I mean Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Speaker 3: Was I think it is.
Speaker 4: This is definitely yeah, And I said the dad was
Speaker 4: a redhead guy.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Wow wow.
Speaker 4: And you know Seth Green sorry because I'm watching it
Speaker 4: right now, really really important character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Speaker 5: Also in the movie Can't Buy Me Love?
Speaker 2: Is he like a baby in it?
Speaker 5: He's like a very very young young brother. I think
Speaker 5: if I'm mis remembering, you could look it up Olivia.
Speaker 5: But he's in one of those like eighties movies, and
Speaker 5: I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure it's Can't Buy Me Love.
Speaker 3: Wow. I always associate him with those rallies kitching commercials.
Speaker 3: Me too.
Speaker 2: I thought that was his first thing and it wasn't.
Speaker 5: I'm right. Yeah, he's in Can't Buy Me Love. He
Speaker 5: plays Patrick Dempsey's like he's he's like six or something
Speaker 5: and he's at the dinner table. I was watching it
Speaker 5: recently and I was like, Seth Crane is in this? What?
Speaker 4: Wow?
Speaker 3: I never knew that. It's crazy.
Speaker 4: Also, just to say, as like a side note, isn't
Speaker 4: it crazy how Patrick Dempsey went from being like the
Speaker 4: nerd in Can't Buy Me Love to like being McDreamy
Speaker 4: in Grey's Anatomy. He made such a transition.
Speaker 5: And kudos to Grays for like being like, you know,
Speaker 5: you know who we're gonna make hot. Yes, we're gonna
Speaker 5: bring this guy back, and he's gonna be fucking steepy.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, what if they brought in Dennis Brons.
Speaker 5: Oh my god, could you can you imagine? Yeah? You
Speaker 5: know what, you know what, We're gonna bring Dennis Franz
Speaker 5: and you're gonna you're gonna like his butt.
Speaker 3: It's not gonna be like him. It's gonna be like,
Speaker 3: oh him.
Speaker 5: I love that.
Speaker 4: But you know, like they really did that because if
Speaker 4: you think about the other kind of nerd from that
Speaker 4: era was John Cryer, right yeah, and then he went on.
Speaker 2: To do Do You Haven.
Speaker 4: He's still like kind of the unco I mean, I
Speaker 4: haven't watched a ton of episodes of that show, but
Speaker 4: still kind of.
Speaker 2: Like the uncool guy.
Speaker 5: For sure.
Speaker 2: He's still successful, but like.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he's like Charlie Sheen slash Ashton Kutcher's like the
Speaker 5: uncool sort of brother yeah, and then and then now
Speaker 5: he's in a new show called Extended Family where he's
Speaker 5: like still friends in co parenting with his ex extended
Speaker 5: family right right, and and he's playing like the uncool
Speaker 5: ex husband next to Donald Faison, who was very cool,
Speaker 5: Donald Bezon's absolute legends. And John Carr has always been nursing.
Speaker 4: And also don't you feel thrilled because don't you think
Speaker 4: that he and Zach Braffer are making so much money
Speaker 4: on the they're doing.
Speaker 2: What is the commercial they're in for phones or something?
Speaker 3: Yeah, some kind of it's on every T mobile. Yes, yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 3: so I always.
Speaker 5: Am always okay, I'm perplexed by like the rules of
Speaker 5: using television duos and people that are known to be
Speaker 5: like of another property. Right, and then then they're together
Speaker 5: doing their their stick in a commercial, like how are
Speaker 5: you allowed to? Can you do that?
Speaker 2: I think you can.
Speaker 4: I think it's like I think if they were nice,
Speaker 4: they could have reached out to Bill Lawrence and been like, hey,
Speaker 4: we got this offer.
Speaker 2: I hope it's cool with you.
Speaker 4: But I think because they weren't using their names, like
Speaker 4: their character names from Scrubs, and also because it's been
Speaker 4: so long, it's probably fine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, can I tell you crazy story.
Speaker 4: I was at this party, this holiday party, and this
Speaker 4: guy came up to me and he was like, I
Speaker 4: was in a T Mobile commercial with you, like years ago.
Speaker 4: Because I was in a T Mobile commercial once. I
Speaker 4: don't think I made that faison. Yeah, I don't think
Speaker 4: I made that money. It was really Joel McHale was
Speaker 4: like the star of the commercial. And then like I
Speaker 4: was in the commercial too, And this guy came up
Speaker 4: to me at this party this year and he was
Speaker 4: like technically last year and he was like, I did
Speaker 4: this T Mobile commercial with you and you were so
Speaker 4: nice and you were really supportive and I just really
Speaker 4: want to thank you.
Speaker 2: And he's Jake from State Farm. He plays Jake from
Speaker 2: State Farm.
Speaker 3: And I was like what.
Speaker 2: I was like, well, now you're the.
Speaker 4: King of commercials, like you're so you're so good in
Speaker 4: those commercials. And also like he probably is making that
Speaker 4: Donald Faison money. Okay, couple, but Kevin Miles, Kevin Miles
Speaker 4: is his name.
Speaker 2: We should have this podcasts.
Speaker 4: And I was like, and now you're like, probably he's
Speaker 4: doing so great and he's probably again.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean that's that's wild. That's like a that's
Speaker 5: wild because he's truly one of like the TV spokespeople
Speaker 5: of our generation.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: Yeah, really, I mean, and like is in cool, funny
Speaker 4: commercials and is great in them.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, that's wild. Well, yeah, kudos to for for
Speaker 5: you know, being nice to an up and comer. Yeah,
Speaker 5: that ended up becoming honestly a black legend at this point.
Speaker 3: That's what I would say.
Speaker 5: Let's be real.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's be real.
Speaker 4: Okay, Well, we're going to go to a quick commercial
Speaker 4: break and then we'll be right back with Zora Beacon
Speaker 4: Gaga and we're back. So Zora today, we wanted to
Speaker 4: talk about trying to act cool when we were younger,
Speaker 4: and I thought we could kick off with the story
Speaker 4: that you told me. And it's pretty incredible. And you know,
Speaker 4: you were a writer in the I Love That for
Speaker 4: You room, and such a great writer, and that's why
Speaker 4: you know we had you in the room.
Speaker 2: You were so wonderful.
Speaker 4: But no, part of the reason you were such a
Speaker 4: great fit for the show, aside from being a brilliant writer,
Speaker 4: is that the main character, my character and I Love
Speaker 4: that for You, has sort of this lie that she
Speaker 4: keeps telling until it goes too far, and you had
Speaker 4: sort of something like that that you did to kind
Speaker 4: of make an well why don't you tell me?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean yeah, I brought it up in the interview,
Speaker 5: which I was like, oh no, they think I'm a
Speaker 5: liar now, and.
Speaker 4: No, no, no, we were like, this is incredible. He
Speaker 4: has to work on the show.
Speaker 5: Oh thank god. It just like you know, it was
Speaker 5: such a comfortable interview. I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 5: these I was nervous before hangers. I was like, oh
Speaker 5: my god, I'm I'm such fans of all you, but
Speaker 5: then it was it got so comfortable, like I you know,
Speaker 5: like we're friends, and so I remember just sort of
Speaker 5: spilling out the story, not expecting to tell it and
Speaker 5: not expecting to connect it to the show material, and
Speaker 5: then you know, it was such an easy connection. But
Speaker 5: then after I definitely was like, oh no, like they
Speaker 5: think that I'm a sociopath and and I'm a big liar,
Speaker 5: and they're like, oh, we're not going to hire this guy.
Speaker 5: But anyway, I'm glad that I did. But to tell
Speaker 5: you this, you know, just the abbreviated version, I you know,
Speaker 5: went to college. First day of college, thought it'd be
Speaker 5: funny to prank my new roommate by doing a thick
Speaker 5: you got an accent for like a few minutes, you know,
Speaker 5: just on a dare from my high school friends.
Speaker 2: Right, I forgot it was a dare from your high
Speaker 2: school friends.
Speaker 5: It was a dare from my high school friends. It
Speaker 5: was just like this voice that I would put on
Speaker 5: to like make my friends laugh and just prank you know,
Speaker 5: like drive through window people and servers and stuff, just
Speaker 5: just like dumb shit in high school.
Speaker 4: Oh, I used to love to do accents like try
Speaker 4: and do British you know, and stuff like that. But yeah,
Speaker 4: he's probably more convincing, but yes, go ahead.
Speaker 5: Well, and it was like based on my dad, you
Speaker 5: know mostly and also coming to America, I was like
Speaker 5: this cross between like you know, Prince I came and
Speaker 5: my dad, and so it was just like this thing
Speaker 5: of like, oh, you should prank you know, your roommate
Speaker 5: for like a couple of minutes and it'll be hilarious.
Speaker 5: And you know, I met this family and then you know,
Speaker 5: I mean in my ra and I mean you know,
Speaker 5: the people in the hallway and like this accent and
Speaker 5: I'm like, you can't get out of it. And so
Speaker 5: like it ended up lasting you know, for the day
Speaker 5: and then the next day and then for the entire
Speaker 5: first semester. It was like I couldn't get out of
Speaker 5: this accent.
Speaker 4: And all your teachers and everyone thought you were from
Speaker 4: Uganda and that you had a Yeah.
Speaker 5: Everyone thought that I was from Uganda. And again, like
Speaker 5: I didn't. I didn't have this concept of like what
Speaker 5: college life was going to be like, and so I
Speaker 5: just didn't know how quickly you meet people. You know,
Speaker 5: You're just like meeting people so fast, especially that first day.
Speaker 5: It's like you're meeting all your best friends with people
Speaker 5: are going to become like your best friends that that
Speaker 5: first year. And and so I was just this person
Speaker 5: and then you know, I didn't expect to become such
Speaker 5: a like a like a notable person, you know, Like
Speaker 5: I was like, oh, I'm going to like be you know,
Speaker 5: like a first year at the school. But then they're
Speaker 5: like he's from Uganda, Like he's I just was way
Speaker 5: cooler than I thought that I was going to be.
Speaker 5: Like I thought, I just didn't expect any of that
Speaker 5: to happen. And of course I was like very alluring
Speaker 5: and I'm like, oh yeah, I'm getting all this attention,
Speaker 5: and and with my professors, it was like they they
Speaker 5: wanted to like hear my opinions on stuff like in class,
Speaker 5: like in like world like world cultures. You know, they're like, oh,
Speaker 5: like Zora, like what do you think about colonialism? And
Speaker 5: you know, like that kind of shit. So it was
Speaker 5: it was hard to get out of. Yeah, it was
Speaker 5: very very difficult.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, what made you decide to get out of it?
Speaker 4: And I kind of remember this, but I want you
Speaker 4: to tell it, like how did you do it?
Speaker 5: Well, well, so this so I did this prank like
Speaker 5: a year before Facebook dropped, right, So there was like
Speaker 5: no way to sort of like look you up. Yeah,
Speaker 5: research you can't. And if I kept doing this, like
Speaker 5: I could have been grandfathered and as like this person
Speaker 5: like on social media, you know what I mean. Like
Speaker 5: it was like you couldn't look anyone up. And so
Speaker 5: when I, I guess like became this character, you know,
Speaker 5: like this guy. At a certain point at the end
Speaker 5: of the day, I was like, oh my god, I
Speaker 5: this is crazy, like these people think from Africa. And
Speaker 5: then as I was getting to know people, it just
Speaker 5: became you know, like any sort of eighties movie or
Speaker 5: or you know, like I love that for you, Like
Speaker 5: it's you can't break that trust that you've already sort
Speaker 5: of built in these people that you really like and
Speaker 5: that all of you. And so I remember I got
Speaker 5: like really close to my roommate, like really close to
Speaker 5: the like the guys on my floor, and you know,
Speaker 5: I got close to this girl, you know, that I
Speaker 5: didn't expect to meet, you know, And and she was
Speaker 5: it was like that first year like freshman year kind
Speaker 5: of relationship situationship where we weren't like physical together, but
Speaker 5: we just stayed up all night talking about music and
Speaker 5: like the world and shit. It was all like endorphins.
Speaker 5: And and she was certainly like putting me like on
Speaker 5: a pedestal and kind of idealizing me and in this
Speaker 5: certain way because she was like this black woman that
Speaker 5: grew up in Baltimore, and like I'm she's looking at
Speaker 5: me like I'm this like African Prance, and I'm like
Speaker 5: looking at her like, oh my god, you're like you're
Speaker 5: like Ashley from Fresh Prince of bel Air, Like that's.
Speaker 3: What you look like, you know what I mean?
Speaker 5: I had this like this this sort of idealized version
Speaker 5: of her, so we weren't really looking at each other realistically,
Speaker 5: it was it was through rose colored lenses. And so anyway,
Speaker 5: I just after a while, I felt so not only guilty,
Speaker 5: but there's a loneliness and in being surrounded by people
Speaker 5: but no one knowing who you are, you know, especially
Speaker 5: like in this place where there was like no one
Speaker 5: to talk to. Like I remember, I had my friend
Speaker 5: from high school, one of the guys that like dared
Speaker 5: me because he didn't believe me, you know, He's like,
Speaker 5: you're not doing this. I'm like I'm doing this. And
Speaker 5: so he came and stayed with me for the weekend.
Speaker 5: But part of it was like I need to connect
Speaker 5: with somebody that knows you because I'm forgetting who I am.
Speaker 5: I'm like going I feel like I'm going crazy, and
Speaker 5: I need someone to witness this, to know that, like
Speaker 5: I'm not in this dream world and I've become like
Speaker 5: this person. And so he came and he was just
Speaker 5: laughing his ass off the entire time. But then it
Speaker 5: just got like really deeply lonely and guilt ridden. And
Speaker 5: I remember, you know, sort of like like coming out
Speaker 5: to like my my roommate first, because he was my
Speaker 5: closest friend. Yeah, but I was sort of still doing
Speaker 5: it in the prankster way, like where like he I
Speaker 5: walked in. I remember he was like studying and I
Speaker 5: walked into my dorm room and and I was like,
Speaker 5: I was like, yo, man, you know I need my
Speaker 5: honey's call for me, because this was like back when
Speaker 5: you had like dorm phones. Yeah, leave voicemail. And he
Speaker 5: like looked at me crazily, and I was like, how
Speaker 5: is my American accent? Was it? Was it a good accent,
Speaker 5: you know? And He's like, dude, that was crazy.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 5: That was like such a crazy like sounded like you're
Speaker 5: from America. And I and I said, well, you know
Speaker 5: what if I told you that I actually I am
Speaker 5: from America and you know, I'm from Hillsburg and I'm
Speaker 5: not really from Uganda. And he looked at me honestly
Speaker 5: like he didn't like the world had turned upside down,
Speaker 5: Like he just truly looked so confused and lost and
Speaker 5: and and he was like, I gotta get out of here,
Speaker 5: you know. I got to go for a run. And
Speaker 5: he went for a run and he was gone for
Speaker 5: about an hour wow, And he came back and he
Speaker 5: and he was like, it makes so much sense. Of course,
Speaker 5: of course you're not from Uganda, like you would always
Speaker 5: you would always go to the laundering room, you know,
Speaker 5: to to talk on the phone, and you're always speaking
Speaker 5: in the hush tone and like, oh my god. It's like,
Speaker 5: oh my god, look like you have a yearbook like
Speaker 5: under your bed. Like it was. It was all sort
Speaker 5: of like piecing together for him and this away and
Speaker 5: he and he was like okay. First of all, he
Speaker 5: was like fuck you, but second of all, that was hilarious.
Speaker 5: And I'll only forgive you if you do the same
Speaker 5: thing you did to me to like all our friends
Speaker 5: in the hallway, like you need to do that like
Speaker 5: accent thing. So they came in one by one like
Speaker 5: our close friends in the hallway, Oh my god, and
Speaker 5: I would you know, and I was like like, what's
Speaker 5: going on, man, Like what's good? Like I was talking
Speaker 5: to an American accent? And they all reacted in different ways.
Speaker 5: Some of them were like what thell like you know,
Speaker 5: and and some of them were like this. One guy
Speaker 5: just started laughing hysterically, like he couldn't stop laughing, and
Speaker 5: he couldn't even speak. He was just laughing. The entire time,
Speaker 5: and so it became this this thing, like my sort
Speaker 5: of gesture to the guys that I became closest with
Speaker 5: was that they would be in on the prank for
Speaker 5: at least like a week before I would come out
Speaker 5: to the campus, and so they were in on it,
Speaker 5: you know, And and we would be in the dining
Speaker 5: commons and people would come up to me like, oh,
Speaker 5: you know, like they used to call me like the Prince,
Speaker 5: like that was like my nickname, right, and so like, oh,
Speaker 5: the Prince, and I'd be like, hey, am I, you know,
Speaker 5: I would do the accent and they would just be
Speaker 5: fucking laughing. And then I remember like sort of revealing
Speaker 5: like my identity to h To to Angela, the girl
Speaker 5: that I got really close with, and she had a
Speaker 5: very warranted reaction, like she got so mad at me,
Speaker 5: and she was like yeah, she was like you like you.
Speaker 3: She said.
Speaker 5: She was like like you even sound like a white
Speaker 5: boy too, and she like stormed down her room, which
Speaker 5: I don't know, like whatever, Like she was nineteen years old,
Speaker 5: but that was like her dick at me is that
Speaker 5: I sounded like white boy, but it's like not whatever.
Speaker 5: I was like, okay, fine, she's mad. She's saying, what's that.
Speaker 5: Maybe she doesn't mean, but she she just owned me
Speaker 5: and uh and we fell out. And the happy ending
Speaker 5: to that story is that years later, like she reached
Speaker 5: out to me. I'm talking about like this was maybe
Speaker 5: seven years ago, so we're like, you deep into adulthood,
Speaker 5: and she hit me up. She was in LA and
Speaker 5: she and we like met up for coffee and she
Speaker 5: was like, I was really mad at you. I was
Speaker 5: really mad at you for years, you know. And then
Speaker 5: at some point, like I thought about it, and and
Speaker 5: I was like that shit was hilarious, Like that ship
Speaker 5: was funny, you know. And I was like, yeah, it
Speaker 5: was funny, right, And she's like, well, she still lied
Speaker 5: to me, so she would. We still have this dynamic
Speaker 5: where we still hang out and she's like, you know,
Speaker 5: married now and all that, but like she she always
Speaker 5: she still gives me ship for lying to her.
Speaker 4: Wow, oh my god. Yeah, is that is such an
Speaker 4: incredible story.
Speaker 5: And I haven't done anything like that since. And in
Speaker 5: the funny thing is, like, you know, it did feel
Speaker 5: like this eighties movie. But I ended up transferring out
Speaker 5: of that school. I transferred to Seattle Pacific, like after that,
Speaker 5: just because like how do you top that year college?
Speaker 5: It was just it was so intense. It was so
Speaker 5: it was so intense, it's like you can't you can't
Speaker 5: top that. And so I ended up transferring to this
Speaker 5: liberal arts school and in Seattle, and I remember like
Speaker 5: not even think about, like there's no way I'm going
Speaker 5: to do the accent. I'm not gonna do the brank.
Speaker 5: And then I got there and I show up to
Speaker 5: orientation and like there was this thing in my brain
Speaker 5: that was like do the accent, Like do it again.
Speaker 5: And I was honestly like so close to doing it
Speaker 5: again because it was like that was so fun and
Speaker 5: lo and behold. The first people that came up to me,
Speaker 5: the first people that I met at the school were
Speaker 5: these two guys from Uganda. Oh my god, Ken and
Speaker 5: Symby and James and Symby and they're like, hey man,
Speaker 5: you know, like we're from Uganda. And I was like,
Speaker 5: this is the universe being like, hang it up, hang o,
Speaker 5: don't do it, do it, don't do it, bro, And
Speaker 5: so thank you know, thank god that happened. But isn't
Speaker 5: that crazy?
Speaker 3: That is that's wow?
Speaker 2: So crazy?
Speaker 5: Yeah, the brain, the brain, it's funny. It's a funny,
Speaker 5: funny place.
Speaker 4: It's an incredible I see what You're like, there is
Speaker 4: something so fun about like putting on this thing and
Speaker 4: getting away with it. And I'm sure it was like
Speaker 4: everyone was so impressed and so excited about, like.
Speaker 5: You know, similar similar to Joanna, you know, and I
Speaker 5: Love That for you. It's like you you're you're being
Speaker 5: treated completely differently or in this way that you want, Yeah,
Speaker 5: and you deserve you always should have. Yeah, and it's like, no,
Speaker 5: this I should be this cool, like I should I
Speaker 5: should be as popular, you know what I mean? Like
Speaker 5: this is all these are all the things that I've
Speaker 5: all that that I wanted, you know.
Speaker 4: And I was going to say, like I even you know,
Speaker 4: in high school, everyone knew like I was. For anyone
Speaker 4: who hasn't seen it, watch it. The show I Love
Speaker 4: That for You is like sort of inspired by my
Speaker 4: life and is about when I had leukemia as a teenager.
Speaker 4: But I was diagnosed in ninth grade and then you know,
Speaker 4: throughout high school, everybody knew that I either had it
Speaker 4: or was battling it or had survived it, you know,
Speaker 4: and so I was sort of like associated with it.
Speaker 2: And then I went to college and it was like.
Speaker 4: Nobody knew that, and I was like everyone's treating me
Speaker 4: like I'm normal, and this kind of sucks.
Speaker 2: And I remember using it, like I remember.
Speaker 4: A couple classes where there was this one class I
Speaker 4: had to like write and I had to email the
Speaker 4: person and I definitely was like my experience having leukemia
Speaker 4: in high school, like blah blah blah blah blah. And
Speaker 4: then I got into the class and then I was like,
Speaker 4: I don't want to do this. But I remember like
Speaker 4: in two different classes, and I don't think I did
Speaker 4: either of them, because you know, if you have to
Speaker 4: write an email or you know, contact the teacher personally
Speaker 4: to get into the classes, probably kind of a hard class.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I didn't.
Speaker 4: Really have time for that, but got in. No, there
Speaker 4: was another this was pen right, this is pen. This
Speaker 4: is there's another kind of journalism class that I tried
Speaker 4: to get into and then it was like so much
Speaker 4: work and I was like, uh, sorry, but I remember
Speaker 4: kind of dropping it with people. And then of course
Speaker 4: the whole time I was at SNL, everybody knows I was.
Speaker 4: I would but like it's like you want to have
Speaker 4: this special thing to like make you cool and make
Speaker 4: you like, you know, unique, and when people don't know that, yeah,
Speaker 4: when people when you don't have it.
Speaker 2: Even though I would say this about.
Speaker 4: Like you don't need You're such a great, cool, interesting
Speaker 4: person without you know, being you know, American, but like
Speaker 4: it is hard to know, you know, think that about ourselves.
Speaker 5: Well, thank you. That's it's very sweet. It's it's taken
Speaker 5: a long time to you know, embrace that. But like,
Speaker 5: but it is this thing, you know, also like where
Speaker 5: it is an insecurity thing, but then it's like this
Speaker 5: thing of like deeply wanting people to know like who
Speaker 5: you are, right, Yeah. And for me it's like I
Speaker 5: obviously had like a different journey in in high school
Speaker 5: where I just felt like no one really sort of
Speaker 5: like knew who I was, and I didn't really know
Speaker 5: because I had these African parents and I was in
Speaker 5: this town where there's like no black people, you know,
Speaker 5: and I was like sort of ostracizing this weird way
Speaker 5: that I didn't like understand, and I was like there's
Speaker 5: something I don't there's something that's disconnecting between the way
Speaker 5: that I'm treated and the way that I see myself
Speaker 5: and like who I am. Yeah, and so like going
Speaker 5: and being and becoming this like the prince, right, Like
Speaker 5: it was a way to sort of act out how
Speaker 5: I felt like I should be and this way, even
Speaker 5: though I wasn't being who I was, like in a
Speaker 5: way like I was able to like be more of
Speaker 5: who perhaps I really was inside.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that makes it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's really interesting, And I think the technological aspect
Speaker 3: is so interesting too, Like how difficult that would be
Speaker 3: to do now, yeah, because someone would just google you
Speaker 3: and see a million things.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it would be psychotic now, I mean you'd have
Speaker 5: to like create age.
Speaker 3: You don't have to really commit to that story, like
Speaker 3: take some of like you.
Speaker 5: Know, my like cousins pictures from Uganda and sort of
Speaker 5: like the photo shot me in and me being on
Speaker 5: this like dirt road and shit like it would it
Speaker 5: would be way more.
Speaker 1: Psychotic, right right right, A lot more work too, Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure.
Speaker 4: There are there things that you remember doing when you
Speaker 4: were younger, when you were in school to act cool
Speaker 4: and like that's I guess the whole question for sure.
Speaker 5: For sure. Well, so I was like fixated with because
Speaker 5: I grew up in Healdsburg, which is this like small
Speaker 5: wine country town which is super bougie now, but when
Speaker 5: I was a kid, it was like no one, no
Speaker 5: one knew where it is. It's you know, it's there's
Speaker 5: not that many black people there, you know. Like it
Speaker 5: was like me and and this kid Ben Jackson, who
Speaker 5: was adopted, and like it was there wasn't like a
Speaker 5: black family. There's like another black family that was like
Speaker 5: Jehovah Witness but the homeschool, so it was true like
Speaker 5: me and Ben Jackson, and so like I just was
Speaker 5: so fixated on like black people on TV, you know,
Speaker 5: because like I had like my my family who were
Speaker 5: from Africa, and that's like a very specific, but I
Speaker 5: was like I needed I don't know, I just was
Speaker 5: like so desperate to to connect to like that type
Speaker 5: of American culture because I didn't really really know it
Speaker 5: growing up with in this African household. So I was
Speaker 5: obsessed with the Fresh Prince, you know, yeah, pre slap,
Speaker 5: pre slap, Will Smith Prela, and he was everything like
Speaker 5: he was like the like he was funny, he was
Speaker 5: like cool and and and so I just remember like
Speaker 5: emulating everything about him and and like obviously like just
Speaker 5: like any literally any black person that was on TV.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5: Was was was it for me? Like or like me rappers?
Speaker 5: Just yeah, just acting like the opposite of of just
Speaker 5: this African kid who.
Speaker 2: Right right right right? What do you think you did
Speaker 2: to sort of emulate them?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 4: Were there specific like for like I mean, I know
Speaker 4: Jonah was really into Criss Cross and he and his
Speaker 4: friend Chat once went to the mall with their jeans
Speaker 4: on backwards.
Speaker 5: So I I was so I thought, allow cool. J
Speaker 5: was cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I did well.
Speaker 5: I did the backwards pants thing. Yeah, that was more
Speaker 5: you had to do it. I remember being like maybe
Speaker 5: second grade, so it was a little you know, like it,
Speaker 5: but I was wearing them backwards. It was That was
Speaker 5: actually the first concert that I ever went to. I
Speaker 5: saw them at Great America in Santa Clara.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, how was that? Chat?
Speaker 5: It was amazing? I remember every moment of it. It
Speaker 5: was like just it was there were like kids on
Speaker 5: stage like wrapping.
Speaker 3: We're just like, oh my god, like we own this place.
Speaker 3: Who did the too long? Was there other bands on
Speaker 3: the bill? No?
Speaker 5: I can't even remember if it was. I just remember
Speaker 5: them and being like, oh my god, these are the
Speaker 5: list kids I've ever seen on this entire planet. We
Speaker 5: all dressed up. Every kid had the backwards clothes and
Speaker 5: we're just all like, yeah, it was anyway, but that's
Speaker 5: I definitely did that. And then I remember being really
Speaker 5: into like ellow cool Jay, thinking he's cool and rolling
Speaker 5: up one pant leg.
Speaker 3: Yeah right right, that was That was definitely.
Speaker 5: Something that I emulated. And yeah, just like shaving my head,
Speaker 5: Like I shaved my head because I wanted to look
Speaker 5: like Tupac, like just an amalgamation of of just all
Speaker 5: these people who I wanted to be, like Win, like
Speaker 5: a lot of like wind breakers because of the fresh
Speaker 5: prince like you always had like a cool wind breaker on.
Speaker 3: That's right, yeah, you know, just like stuff like that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but also just tragic because I was doing it
Speaker 5: all in a way that was just so forced.
Speaker 2: Well how could you not though?
Speaker 4: I mean, Jonah, I don't mean to throw you under
Speaker 4: the bus, but Jonah got really into He and his
Speaker 4: friends in a really weird way when they were in
Speaker 4: like sixth or seventh grade, got really into wearing designer brands.
Speaker 4: But the brands I'm talking about specifically are Jerbo. Like
Speaker 4: everyone had to have Derbo jeans and guess, like a
Speaker 4: lot of guests.
Speaker 3: Z Caavalricci Ricci.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, and in the most like kind of ridiculous
Speaker 4: way judge each other on like having the coolest.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this veron. I want to be clear too, this
Speaker 3: was like a short lived phase.
Speaker 2: Short lived.
Speaker 4: It made a real impression on me, which is why
Speaker 4: I think I talk about.
Speaker 3: It a lot. Yeah, it was before I got into
Speaker 3: like punk rock and music, and like, yes, this was
Speaker 3: like the farthest thing from my mind soon, but yeah,
Speaker 3: I someone got into it, and then yeah, I felt
Speaker 3: like I didn't have a lot of that kind of stuff,
Speaker 3: Like our parents wouldn't really buy it for me, and
Speaker 3: so I would have like the same outfit at wear
Speaker 3: every day. Did you have like the guest overalls, the
Speaker 3: overall I was going to say the overalls were really big.
Speaker 5: I remember that.
Speaker 3: I don't think I ever had them, you know what
Speaker 3: I do remember? I remember mom had some guest jeans
Speaker 3: and I wore them to school and day I was like,
Speaker 3: this is perfect because like I, for some reason, I
Speaker 3: would like wear my parents clothes a lot.
Speaker 2: You would too, because you and you.
Speaker 3: Could for some reason it was cool to wear everyone
Speaker 3: else's clothes. But my dad had these big like these
Speaker 3: big kind of like plaid shirts. I would wear. My
Speaker 3: dad's a bigger guy than me, especially back then, so
Speaker 3: I'd wear these shirts that were huge on me, and
Speaker 3: I would wear my mom had guest jeans. I was
Speaker 3: like perfect guest jeans. But then someone was like, oh
Speaker 3: the guests the question marks red and like the men's
Speaker 3: it's supposed to be green, and so that was like
Speaker 3: very yeah. I got her called out for remember that, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5: Interesting.
Speaker 3: The overalls wearing one strap down with the overalls or
Speaker 3: both straps down. I mean that was where it was at.
Speaker 3: I never really had overalls. I always wanted them, though,
Speaker 3: did you have any I.
Speaker 5: Had overalls, but I remember like wanting the guests overalls
Speaker 5: desperately but not having access to them because Heildsburg was
Speaker 5: so it was like relatively, you know, like we didn't
Speaker 5: have yeah, like a mall that had guests. So I
Speaker 5: just remember being like, oh, my guess jeans, and I
Speaker 5: am was like, they don't have a guess here, So
Speaker 5: like you're not gonna like you're gonna have.
Speaker 3: These, Yeah, you're not gonna get take these Jordash.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I remember I had overall shorts overalls and I got
Speaker 4: two pairs at Marshal's. One was a plane, one was
Speaker 4: solid colored, and one was striped. You know. It was
Speaker 4: sort of blue with a white pin stripe. And I
Speaker 4: wore them all the time, and of course I didn't
Speaker 4: wear both straps up because I'm not a freaking dork.
Speaker 4: I would wear one strap down. And I remember being like,
Speaker 4: this is so you know, I've made it. Basically, did
Speaker 4: you ever cuff? Did you guys cuff the jeans?
Speaker 3: I was never into coughing. I could never I could
Speaker 3: never get it to stay. And it was like, yeah,
Speaker 3: I just wasn't for me. What about you? Did you
Speaker 3: ever cuff?
Speaker 2: French?
Speaker 3: Cuff?
Speaker 2: Right when you like make a little pleat.
Speaker 5: You sort of I remember like you kind of fold
Speaker 5: the end, yeah, and then you you roll and then
Speaker 5: you roll it up. I don't know if that's it's
Speaker 5: so funny. I don't know if this is a West
Speaker 5: Coast thing. All of this stuff you're referencing, there was
Speaker 5: something you referenced earlier too. Our cousin Mia, our cousins
Speaker 5: who grew up in Yukaya. Our cousin Mia taught me
Speaker 5: about like all of this stuff, and she'd be like,
Speaker 5: you have to French cuff your jean. Yeah, and I'd
Speaker 5: be like and rolling up one pant leg and like
Speaker 5: she did all that stuff in northern California, and I
Speaker 5: remember like trying to do that because I was like,
Speaker 5: Mia does this, so I have to like figure out
Speaker 5: how to do this, Like yeah, but I remember the
Speaker 5: cuffing was really cool. It was cool. My sister was
Speaker 5: born in Yukaya, by the way, really wow, she was
Speaker 5: born in Yukaya. Yeah.
Speaker 3: How old is she?
Speaker 5: She is thirty four.
Speaker 4: She was born in Oh she might know her cousin Lauren.
Speaker 4: It's a really small well. Sidebar about this, Yeah.
Speaker 5: Well we'll sidebar. But yeah, I think, yeah, Yukay is
Speaker 5: a whole live but I guess I guess maybe it
Speaker 5: is a West Coast thing. Your cousin would definitely know
Speaker 5: about Miller's Outpost what is that, which was like a store.
Speaker 5: So so Miller's Outpost was like the store to go
Speaker 5: to in you know, like middle school, right like where
Speaker 5: they had all like the baggy jeans, So like you
Speaker 5: would go there to buy these like anchor they're called
Speaker 5: Anchor Blue that came in extra baggy. You can you
Speaker 5: can buy them as a size baggy or extra baggy. Wow, okay,
Speaker 5: and so you would just go like I remember buying
Speaker 5: like size forty jeans, Yeah, as a fiddle schooler, getting
Speaker 5: one of those middle school in middle school, like seventh grade,
Speaker 5: getting one of those those belts that look like they're
Speaker 5: like sort of flat and like fabric. It's not like
Speaker 5: like a leather belt, but.
Speaker 3: It's yeah, I know what you mean.
Speaker 5: And they slide, yeah, and they sort of like clasp on.
Speaker 5: And so I remember getting those and just pulling it
Speaker 5: as tight as they could be and cuffing the bottom
Speaker 5: and truly looking like a like a crazy person.
Speaker 2: I mean once Jonah did get into punk stuff.
Speaker 4: We've talked about this a thousand times in here, but
Speaker 4: he was so into Jinko and would truly look like
Speaker 4: he was floating down the hallway just just the biggest
Speaker 4: bottoms on his jeans that you could never see his feet.
Speaker 3: It's just them just being all just like covered in
Speaker 3: dirt and just me tripping over them, like just the worst,
Speaker 3: just so gross.
Speaker 5: And then the cuff would would come undone for those
Speaker 5: of us that cuff, and then so you would just
Speaker 5: be dragging them, yeah, because they're too big, So like
Speaker 5: you would have to replace them because they would just
Speaker 5: get all ripped at the bottom. Because you're a seventh
Speaker 5: grader wearing, you know, wearing forty size jeans. They're too big,
Speaker 5: they're too big.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: My only genes thing was to me the coolest jeans
Speaker 4: that my friend Lizzie would go She and her sister
Speaker 4: Shana would go to New York with their dad every
Speaker 4: once in a while and they would go to like
Speaker 4: thrift stores and she would or she, I don't know
Speaker 4: what kind of and they would get used jeans, okay,
Speaker 4: and they were so cool because they had like some
Speaker 4: holes in them and people had worn them before. And
Speaker 4: I remember being like, Lizzy's jeans are the coolest. And
Speaker 4: then one day I went to Lizzie's house and her
Speaker 4: sister Shanna was like, you can these are like old
Speaker 4: used jeans of mine if any of them fit you.
Speaker 2: And I took like three pairs of used jeans.
Speaker 4: And then I'd go to school and be like, everybody
Speaker 4: better fucking bow down these absolutely cool used jeans, and like,
Speaker 4: I just felt so cool in them, and I actually
Speaker 4: they'd probably be so tiny on me now, but I'm
Speaker 4: so sad I don't have them anymore. Because there was
Speaker 4: like one pair in particular that I was like, I'd
Speaker 4: wear them all the time. And actually, you know what
Speaker 4: else is funny about that. I just thought of our
Speaker 4: grandma Jonah. Grandma Evy had some like old Calvin Klein
Speaker 4: jeans she gave me once, and I was like, these
Speaker 4: are not only used, but they're like used by my ancestor,
Speaker 4: and these absolute rock and they were really nice jeans,
Speaker 4: and those I also wish I still had.
Speaker 5: Well, don't you guys think it's crazy? That's it's all
Speaker 5: back now. And and not only that, but like people
Speaker 5: wearing the vintage stuff, it's like the older it is. Yes,
Speaker 5: if you under those old Calvin Klein jeans, like there
Speaker 5: would be gold. Yeah, you know, like it's so. I
Speaker 5: was in I was in Glendale and I was I was.
Speaker 5: I ran into these kids, these like truly like they
Speaker 5: were like I don't know, like ninth graders, and one
Speaker 5: of them was wearing Jinko jeans that looked like they
Speaker 5: were from nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, like.
Speaker 5: No, they were so big and it was it was weird.
Speaker 5: It was almost like looking at like a portal, you know,
Speaker 5: in time, not just because just that age, and I
Speaker 5: wasn't ready. I wasn't ready to see kids. Yeah in
Speaker 5: those parts, like you know, like essentially they look like parachutes. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so crazy. I mean I know.
Speaker 4: That's like also Jonah always has the experience of seeing
Speaker 4: people in like five hundred dollars five hundred dollars band
Speaker 4: t shirts from like you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's so weird when you go to like if
Speaker 3: you go to like Hudson, New York or something, you
Speaker 3: go on some boutique, they're like, this bon Jovi shirt
Speaker 3: is four hundred dollars, and it's like it's so it's
Speaker 3: so biz. Like thrift store kind of esthetic is now
Speaker 3: so expensive, and it's so expensive for rich people who
Speaker 3: like don't want to go to a thrift store and
Speaker 3: look through all this stuff. They can just walk in
Speaker 3: and be like yep, yeah, it's like so curated.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and there's something a bit self righteous about it
Speaker 5: in that. And I don't mean to shoot on this
Speaker 5: because it's good to like sort of not be wasteful,
Speaker 5: but there's this thing of like we're not wasting okay,
Speaker 5: like we're buying fresh because we're not adding to the trash,
Speaker 5: right right, And yeah, you see, and it's like okay,
Speaker 5: but also like who could afford this? You know, like
Speaker 5: this like Polo Ralph Lauren Iinality you know from like
Speaker 5: nineteen ninety eight is four hundred dollars, Like get off
Speaker 5: your fucking high horse and maybe reduce the price a
Speaker 5: little bit and also be great.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah yeah. And so honestly, when we're on the subject,
Speaker 3: is everyone a curator? Now? Like is there any kind
Speaker 3: of I get if you're curating a museum or something
Speaker 3: that's your job, I get it, But it's like, okay,
Speaker 3: if you put together a playlist or hung a T
Speaker 3: shirt on a rack, are you really a curator?
Speaker 5: Are you a curator? Like it's people are just it's
Speaker 5: settled down, Yeah, settle down, settled down.
Speaker 2: Well, we're gonna take a quick commercial break.
Speaker 4: We'll be right back with Zorra Beacon Gaga.
Speaker 2: And we're back. Well, Zora, are you ready to play
Speaker 2: a little game with us?
Speaker 5: Absolutely?
Speaker 2: This is a sort of newer game of ours that
Speaker 2: Jonah has titled.
Speaker 3: It's called Congratulations You Played Yourself Product Edition Congratulations You
Speaker 3: played Yourself. Okay, this is a new segment. I think
Speaker 3: we've only done it once before. We discussed three products
Speaker 3: that were discontinued in twenty twenty three, and we pick
Speaker 3: one of them which we'd like to bring back. In
Speaker 3: other words, which of these corporations completely played themselves. I
Speaker 3: guess what I'm trying to say here is if you
Speaker 3: took away a product that we want to bring back,
Speaker 3: then as a corporation, you have played yourself. Okay, that
Speaker 3: makes sense. Yeah, yeah, it's a little convoluted, but.
Speaker 5: I just want to hear I just want to hear
Speaker 5: it as to say congratulations.
Speaker 2: Because that's very nice. Even let's join his favorite phrase.
Speaker 4: But to one of these companies, we will be saying, congratulations,
Speaker 4: you played yourself, you beligeous.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, and so uh I can kick us off.
Speaker 3: So this is also, by the way, taken from an
Speaker 3: article from CNN Business. So just get CN business some profits.
Speaker 3: So in twenty twenty three, Pepsi got rid of Sierra
Speaker 3: Missed the lemon lime flavored soda and it had been
Speaker 3: around for twenty four years. It was replaced by something
Speaker 3: called Starry. It's a new lemon lime soda that quote
Speaker 3: gives people a choice in an area that's been dominated
Speaker 3: by one brand for years. Starry has more citrus flavor
Speaker 3: and is more true to fruit and aromatic and so yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: yeah than Cerra Miss and cerr Miss. The launched in
Speaker 3: ninety nine but never really made a dent with Sprite.
Speaker 3: Sprite has been doing really well. Cr Miss is in
Speaker 3: so they're relaunching Storry getting ready to see her missed.
Speaker 3: What do you think about this or.
Speaker 5: I, well, it's hard to compete with with the behemoth
Speaker 5: that that is Sprite. Yeah, it's it's such a it's
Speaker 5: such an institution. Okay. I was confused when Story came
Speaker 5: out and I saw the commercials.
Speaker 2: I hadn't even heard about story.
Speaker 5: Well, so they play they play Storry a lot, like
Speaker 5: during basketball games, because I do think that they're they're
Speaker 5: there's specific there's something about like lemon lime soda that
Speaker 5: is targeted like towards like black men. Okay, it's a thing,
Speaker 5: a lot of black men. I can't explain it. Okay,
Speaker 5: it's it's just the thing. And and I don't know
Speaker 5: if you know it's whether it's a chicken or the egg,
Speaker 5: but they're always throwing it at me.
Speaker 3: Okay, got it.
Speaker 5: I feel like my entire life. So I saw the
Speaker 5: commercials a lot for story, and I was like, I
Speaker 5: don't this is weird. This is a weird drink. The
Speaker 5: mascot looks weird. But Keiki Palmer is in the commercial
Speaker 5: and she's sitting courtside, like courtside at a game, and
Speaker 5: a player becomes like an anthropomorphized version of of like
Speaker 5: lemon lime drink, and she kisses the the drink. It's
Speaker 5: a weird commercial. But I like Palmers. I wasn't mad,
Speaker 5: you know, so I'm like, okay, but I ultimately I
Speaker 5: think they're playing themselves because it's it's it's a stupid
Speaker 5: it's a stupid mascot. And and and I was confused.
Speaker 4: Well wait, because you might think that one of these
Speaker 4: other brands is playing themselves more so so wait.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, but I hear you, but I hear you. Sorry, sir, Now,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's confusing. It's confusing. But you know, we
Speaker 1: appreciate any mention of a corporation playing themselves.
Speaker 3: Okay, that's right, that's kind of the whole point.
Speaker 5: So I just really wanted to shit on Stary.
Speaker 3: No, it's fine, it's understandable, Vanessa, you have any thoughts
Speaker 3: on Storry Cierah missed.
Speaker 4: I you know, I hadn't heard of this, and I'm
Speaker 4: I'm also surprised I haven't seen that commercial because I'm
Speaker 4: such a commercial person and I've seen I love watching
Speaker 4: commercials and then either you know, kind of loving them
Speaker 4: or hating them. Anyway, I'm shocked that Cierra Mist hasn't
Speaker 4: made more of a dent in sprites profits because, yeah,
Speaker 4: I feel like it's such a famous drink.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think it's you.
Speaker 4: Know, obviously they're coming in big with an ad campaign
Speaker 4: and hopefully that works for them. But to go from
Speaker 4: Cerr Mist is such a known brand to Starry, I
Speaker 4: just I don't know. I don't know if they played themselves,
Speaker 4: but it looks like they might have.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree with both it. Yeah, Starry sounds like
Speaker 3: like a generic like Walmart brand of lemon line, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. Like it doesn't it's it's too
Speaker 3: I don't think. I think. I think Starry's gonna last
Speaker 3: like two years and then they're going to go back
Speaker 3: to Cerr Mist or something. And maybe this is part
Speaker 3: of yeah, Pepsi Co's you know, bigger plan. You know,
Speaker 3: who knows. I mean, I would not put it past
Speaker 3: their ceo Raymond Legarda. I mean this guy.
Speaker 5: Guys, he's Legarda drop the ball on the logo? Should
Speaker 5: we bring up the logo because it's.
Speaker 3: See I wish you would.
Speaker 2: Can we see it?
Speaker 1: Olivia?
Speaker 2: Will you bring it up? I gotta see this.
Speaker 3: By the way, I google the ceo and the articles
Speaker 3: an interview with them talking about how he doesn't think
Speaker 3: o Zembic is going to cut into his sales for
Speaker 3: potato chips and soda, and it's like, don't get me started.
Speaker 3: This guy again.
Speaker 4: We love to just especially Jonah loves to burn CEOs
Speaker 4: on here and I go, hey, Jonah, how may I.
Speaker 2: Ever going to get hired for a commercial again?
Speaker 3: Okay roast roasted?
Speaker 2: Sorry yeah yeah, lemon? I see it.
Speaker 3: Looks some wait, but there's like a person or there's
Speaker 3: a person in it.
Speaker 5: Or it's not. It's like a it's like a character,
Speaker 5: like a oh they have like a little like a
Speaker 5: little line person or unless I'm misremembering, but I just
Speaker 5: remember being like looking at a thing.
Speaker 3: I wish I could have sat in those like marketing
Speaker 3: meetings where they're like, we need a new lemon lime.
Speaker 3: See your myst isn't working what's the title what Outer
Speaker 3: Space Stars Stars? Yeah, you know, it's.
Speaker 4: Almost like a little Eminem. Yeah, a little Eminem person.
Speaker 4: But instead of that, like the Eminem the little Eminem characters,
Speaker 4: it's a little person that looks like an eminem.
Speaker 3: But then Eminem wearing like a little suit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a little green and yellow jumpsuit.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I'd being like, oh, I'm Lemon on the inside and
Speaker 5: lem I'm on the outside. Well I'm the opposite, yeahid.
Speaker 3: But I'm at the end of the day, it's just
Speaker 3: a bunch of sugar and artificial flavors.
Speaker 4: Okay, Wow, Okay, Well, I'm gonna get into this next
Speaker 4: product that got discontinued in twenty twenty three, which is
Speaker 4: McDonald's McCafe sweets. So the apple fritter, the blueberry muffin,
Speaker 4: and the cinnamon roll are gone. McDonald's discontinued its selection
Speaker 4: of McCafe bake goods consisting of an apple. Okay, I
Speaker 4: just told you they got rid of those in July,
Speaker 4: marking the end of a three year run for the
Speaker 4: sweet treats. Zarah, what do you think about this this discontinue.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, I feel like McDonald's has a strong
Speaker 5: established game of sweets with the mcclury.
Speaker 2: Interesting, you know, but less of a breakfast Well.
Speaker 5: It's in terms of like sweets and stuff. So but
Speaker 5: I don't know. Like I again, I haven't been to
Speaker 5: McDonald's probably since like two thousand and one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so yeah, I don't Well, I think I
Speaker 3: do love this headline I found about this from today
Speaker 3: dot com that says the biggest fast food chain is
Speaker 3: making a big change to its baked goods lineup and
Speaker 3: while customers aren't loving it.
Speaker 4: It sounds like you wrote that, Jonah.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I guess some customers are upset about this.
Speaker 3: I mean, to me, uh, cut up butt but bummer.
Speaker 2: Nice.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I mean, I'm looking at photos of these,
Speaker 3: I don't know, an apple fritter, blueberry muffett. I find
Speaker 3: it hard to find a muffin I like these days,
Speaker 3: and I guarantee you this one from McDonald's probably so
Speaker 3: sweet and okay. I don't know. To me, it's like
Speaker 3: I would never order this stuff. I don't think we
Speaker 3: need it, As the kids today would say, you know,
Speaker 3: I think Apple fritter's just hit different when they're coming
Speaker 3: from McDonald's. Made by like all artificial ingredients. So I'm
Speaker 3: gonna sakay not feeling this one. Vanessa, what about you?
Speaker 4: Yeah, my first instinct is like the kind of elitist
Speaker 4: in me wants to be like, don't get your bake
Speaker 4: goods from McDonald It's like, you can do better, everybody.
Speaker 4: But I also understand that, you know, sometimes you're in
Speaker 4: a rush you want a bake good, you know, and
Speaker 4: also maybe you don't live somewhere where there's you know,
Speaker 4: a place where you can get other things like that.
Speaker 4: So again, I think this is hard because it sounds
Speaker 4: like the three of us didn't know that this ever existed.
Speaker 5: Yeah. And also I don't know why my brain went
Speaker 5: from like baked goods just to like desserts.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah right right, you.
Speaker 5: Know say, because I was like I went straight to
Speaker 5: But now that I'm thinking of like fast food like
Speaker 5: baked goods.
Speaker 3: Like they can't be making this stuff. Like they're not making.
Speaker 5: No, no, there's no way.
Speaker 2: It's like didn't they used to have apple pie or something.
Speaker 5: They used to have those apple pies I remember they had,
Speaker 5: and they came in like a little like skinny box
Speaker 5: yeah yeah, yeah, and they would like heat them I
Speaker 5: remember sort of liking them as a kid, but like
Speaker 5: those are complete, you know, garbage as a kid, but
Speaker 5: I remember those those being good.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it doesn't seem like these are like those little
Speaker 5: skinny bucks apple Yeah.
Speaker 3: Probably No. I think this is trying to compete more
Speaker 3: with like Starbucks and stuff, right.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, yeah, I don't feel super bummed about this
Speaker 4: one going away. But I also you know, according to
Speaker 4: that article, people are not loving it, so that's something
Speaker 4: to con say. Yeah, now, Jonah, do you want to
Speaker 4: read this next one, which there are so many articles about.
Speaker 2: People are so shocked this news just broke that.
Speaker 3: This is just broke. This isn't even in the CNN
Speaker 3: Business article. Okay, fruit stripe gum is being discontinued after
Speaker 3: more than fifty years. Food and Wine magazine reported the
Speaker 3: gums manufacturer for Our Candy sod they'll discontinue it for
Speaker 3: Our Candy did not respond to USA Today's request for comment,
Speaker 3: but in a statement told Food and Wine, we have
Speaker 3: made the difficult decision to sunset fruit stripe gum. The
Speaker 3: company added they did not take the decision lightly and
Speaker 3: considered many factors coming to this decision, including consumer preferences
Speaker 3: and purchasing patterns. I mean, can we just talk about
Speaker 3: the fact that they said, we have made the difficult
Speaker 3: decision to sunset fruit stripe gum.
Speaker 5: Also, how are they getting like, how are they getting
Speaker 5: space in Food and Wine?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: You know what I mean, Like they should be. I
Speaker 5: feel like the article should be in like, you know,
Speaker 5: Convenience Storm magazine monthly or something like Food Wine seems
Speaker 5: a little like.
Speaker 4: Just a sign up at the drug store that said
Speaker 4: fruit stripe gum is no longer.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it seems generous for Food and Wine to be like,
Speaker 5: let me give you guys space to speak on discontinuing this.
Speaker 3: Well yeah, and then the flowery poetic language about Sunset
Speaker 3: it's like you can say you're discontinuing it. It's you know,
Speaker 3: it's like, we get it. It's gum. So what do
Speaker 3: you think about fruit stripe gum be discontinued after fifty years? Uh?
Speaker 5: I don't miss it. I didn't like it. I felt
Speaker 5: like they were appropriating zebras. When I was a kid,
Speaker 5: I was like, yeah, this is you guys were I
Speaker 5: remember them using like a zebra and their their thing.
Speaker 5: I don't miss it. I remember it being a gum
Speaker 5: that was sort of like it would taste good for
Speaker 5: a minute, not even a minute, like ten seconds, so
Speaker 5: I don't miss it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's fair, Vanessa, what about you?
Speaker 4: Well, it's funny because this gum just came up in
Speaker 4: the episode we did with Carrie and Corn when we're
Speaker 4: talking about juicy fruit gum.
Speaker 3: Juicy fruit was Slater Kenna.
Speaker 4: Yes to me, I'll be honest, I didn't know it
Speaker 4: still was out, Like, I didn't know you could still
Speaker 4: get it for sure, but maybe we on the podcast
Speaker 4: someone said you can't still get it.
Speaker 2: But my issue always with fruit stripe gum was it.
Speaker 4: Wasn't I don't remember it being very as a kid,
Speaker 4: I don't remember it being very tasty, like, yeah, it's
Speaker 4: sort of I'll say this, I'll say this, I don't
Speaker 4: really care how my gum looks. I more care how
Speaker 4: it tastes. And I feel like with fruit stripe gum,
Speaker 4: the whole gimmick was that it looks like it's got
Speaker 4: zebra stripes, and I'm going, it's going in my mouth
Speaker 4: no matter what, and I don't really care.
Speaker 2: You know that it has zebra stripes.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's it's condescending. You're going to make this thing
Speaker 5: look cool, but you're not gonna do the work.
Speaker 3: Give me it tastes good.
Speaker 4: Yeah, give me the freshest, fruitiest flavor and make it
Speaker 4: last for a long time, and then I'll buy your
Speaker 4: fucking gum.
Speaker 2: If you're just.
Speaker 4: Gonna put a little zebra stripes on it, guess what
Speaker 4: it's going to be sunseted.
Speaker 5: Guess what it's going to be sunset And to use
Speaker 5: fucking starry language, you're not being true to fruit.
Speaker 3: Wow. That's right. Wow, that's right.
Speaker 2: You're not being true to fruit.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: Jonah, what do you think? Do you think they play themselves?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I mean, unfortunately I do.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: I want to say that they did have a logo Zebra.
Speaker 3: The zebra's name was Yipes, and Yipes was sort of
Speaker 3: the mascot. Yipes would skateboard, play baseball, hand glide, play
Speaker 3: soccer and playing tennis and eating grass.
Speaker 5: So yeah, maybe if that zebra had an African accent,
Speaker 5: because zebra didn't seem like it was a real zebra.
Speaker 5: Yeah to me, yeah, other than being multi colored. Yeah,
Speaker 5: but I didn't buy I didn't buy that.
Speaker 4: Zebra for one second. Also, zebras can't really skateboard.
Speaker 2: Go ahead.
Speaker 3: There's a family of stripes stripe animal zebra, tiger, elephant,
Speaker 3: and a mouse. But then they kind of just consolidated
Speaker 3: it all into Yipes the zebra, Yipe stripes fruit stripe.
Speaker 3: That was a song. Yeah. To me, it's like, oh yeah,
Speaker 3: if someone offered me a piece of fruit striped gum,
Speaker 3: I would be like no, and like why, like why
Speaker 3: do you have that? Like I feel like I'm just
Speaker 3: gonna go straight to the dentist or something.
Speaker 4: Also with the songa like this yipes stripes fruit striped gum?
Speaker 2: Is that how it was?
Speaker 3: That's it? Yeah?
Speaker 5: Did it really go that one?
Speaker 3: Yes? It really did not like that? It really?
Speaker 2: Do you remember it?
Speaker 5: I do?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it really went like that, but also not that
Speaker 4: catchy kind of surprised.
Speaker 2: I remember it. That's wheally played themselves.
Speaker 5: That's where they played themselves.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Just if a kid had fruit stripe and you were
Speaker 5: like get out, like get out of here.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, it'd be like if someone had
Speaker 3: like fruit by the foot, now you want me to
Speaker 3: rip you off like six inches of gum, I'd be
Speaker 3: like nah, I'm good, Like I got to eat this sandwich.
Speaker 5: I get this Bubblicious.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I was just gonna say.
Speaker 4: In this age of there's a lot of brands, we're
Speaker 4: all competing. If you're gonna give me a fun, cool
Speaker 4: kid gum, give me bubblicious, give me bubble um. Don't
Speaker 4: give me fruit stripe gum, because you know what I'm
Speaker 4: gonna say, yikes, it's not interested.
Speaker 5: Not interested. Even give me that. Give me that Charleston
Speaker 5: chew that like weird thing that was well, it was
Speaker 5: like mimicking chewing tobacco.
Speaker 3: Oh uh, big leach, big lead.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I think Charleston chees are like kind of a
Speaker 4: harder caramel candy, which also give me that doesn't sound bad.
Speaker 4: So now we all have to decide which company played
Speaker 4: themselves the most. Is it sera mist McDonald's for getting
Speaker 4: rid of McCafe sweets or is it fruit striped gum?
Speaker 3: And just to clarify, just because this almost seems counterintuitive,
Speaker 3: the thing that you're picking is the thing you want
Speaker 3: to bring back, the thing you want to bring back
Speaker 3: the most, not the company.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because we're the most mad at the company because
Speaker 4: we're getting rid of it.
Speaker 5: Okay, that makes sense. It is I think I'm gonna
Speaker 5: I'm gonna stick with the thing that I jumped on
Speaker 5: a immediately breaking the rules of the game, which was
Speaker 5: cerrmis slash story.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think they played themselves because it's hard to
Speaker 5: compete against Sprite. But I feel like I knew cerr
Speaker 5: Mist is sort of this like scrappy thing, and I
Speaker 5: would be rooting for it to have some sort of comeback.
Speaker 5: If you had maybe like a cool campaign with Kiki Palmer,
Speaker 5: you know, doing her thing, I'd be like, oh, okay, okay,
Speaker 5: Zerra Mist, Like, yeah, you know, I like I would,
Speaker 5: I would tend to maybe root for CRM miss.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, So I think they play themselves. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3: I totally agree one hundred percent with Zora. I think
Speaker 3: like like a metaphor for this would be like, let's
Speaker 3: say I had a car and my neighbor had a
Speaker 3: car and their car ran way better than mine, and
Speaker 3: I was like, I need to improve my car. I
Speaker 3: guess I'll just like painted a different color. Right, Like
Speaker 3: you're not getting to the to the thought and maybe
Speaker 3: I'm like adding like a new like decorative thing on
Speaker 3: my steering wheel. It's like you're just kind of changing
Speaker 3: the name of something, but you're not doing the work
Speaker 3: right and you know that it doesn't really change it.
Speaker 3: So to me, it's like, you get the smartest marketing
Speaker 3: guys in there, they come up with the name, they
Speaker 3: come up with these little lemon lime dudes. But to me,
Speaker 3: it's like they're not doing the work, and it's it's
Speaker 3: I don't think it's gonna last, Vanessa, what about you?
Speaker 2: I agree with both of you.
Speaker 4: Although I will say this, I do think they've worked
Speaker 4: on the flavor a little bit. I do think there's
Speaker 4: a difference, and I'd like to try it before I
Speaker 4: make my before I really tell them they play themselves,
Speaker 4: although I will tell them they play themselves right now.
Speaker 2: But I guess my thing.
Speaker 4: Is like I feel like, exactly they could have done
Speaker 4: Cira miss now with a bold new flavor, you know,
Speaker 4: and then get key ki Plmer in there and get
Speaker 4: just like you said, like I feel like just going
Speaker 4: with a whole new name and a whole new brand.
Speaker 4: It's you know, I think Unfortunately, even without trying it,
Speaker 4: I gotta say I think they play themselves.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, right, because you know what other soda make
Speaker 5: the same thing that rebranded themselves. That was in a
Speaker 5: distant second, the entire time PEPSI. Yeah, you know what
Speaker 5: they did. They're like, hey, Cindy Crawford, Hey, Sindey Crawford,
Speaker 5: get over here and drink this thing and make everyone
Speaker 5: obsess over it. And that's what they did. But they didn't.
Speaker 5: They didn't do that, And so Geeky Palmer could have
Speaker 5: been there.
Speaker 3: Since that's right, that's right, it's true. Where does where
Speaker 3: does seven up fit in this? Because seven Up kind
Speaker 3: of seems.
Speaker 4: Like everyone's acting like seven up doesn't exist. Everyone's being
Speaker 4: like Sprite. They want to compute with Sprite. It's like, also,
Speaker 4: this article is kind of rude. It's like seven Up much.
Speaker 5: I know, I know there's like is there a game
Speaker 5: named after Sprite?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 3: But there is ever heard of it?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I ever heard of it? Like throughout your entire
Speaker 5: school is the funnest game. You guys probably played it
Speaker 5: a lot because you were in Cleveland. You had like
Speaker 5: a lot of sloe.
Speaker 3: I remember playing a lot of seven Up as a kid.
Speaker 5: Because we got it. Maybe there was like a week
Speaker 5: or something where there was like some intense storm in
Speaker 5: northern California and I was like, oh, my god, we
Speaker 5: get to play it heads up, seven up, But I
Speaker 5: just I cann't imagine everybody.
Speaker 2: Puts everybody puts their head down on the desk and
Speaker 2: someone's standing at the front of the room, and what's
Speaker 2: the point of the game.
Speaker 3: Again, they touch your head and then you have to
Speaker 3: guess who did it, who kind of tapped you?
Speaker 5: Okay, Well, the way we would play it is they
Speaker 5: would touch your.
Speaker 3: Thumb, Yeah, your thumb. They would touch our heads. We'd
Speaker 3: have to put our head down and they would touch
Speaker 3: the top of our head. Really yeah.
Speaker 4: I think probably as times changed, they were like, don't
Speaker 4: touch people's oh our producer Olivia the thumb version two
Speaker 4: ours was one hundred and can I be honest, I
Speaker 4: kind of prefer head because you don't want someone people
Speaker 4: kids has a dirty hands.
Speaker 5: Like yeah, I agree, because I remember like the asshole
Speaker 5: kids would like hit your thumb like really hard. So
Speaker 5: it was like this, It was like this sort of
Speaker 5: fear that if you got picked and you had like
Speaker 5: a mean kid, that your thumb would get like sort
Speaker 5: of jammed. I just remember being like it.
Speaker 3: Had this danger of it sounds like the opposite of
Speaker 3: a fun game.
Speaker 5: Olivia did Olivia probably remembers.
Speaker 4: The thing is yeah, she does remember. The thing is
Speaker 4: hitting your head, and no one would hit your head hard.
Speaker 4: I don't think, although maybe people did and I just
Speaker 4: never experience. Now. No, I don't think that, And I
Speaker 4: think with the teacher watching, it'd be a lot harder
Speaker 4: to hit someone's head hard, whereas like someone's thumb, you
Speaker 4: could do it without someone noticing. But god, those are
Speaker 4: probably the same kids in battleball who are just like
Speaker 4: whipping the ball. It's like, can those kids know what
Speaker 4: those kids did? They played themselves.
Speaker 5: They played themselves absolutely.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 2: Zora, this has been so much fun.
Speaker 4: Where can people find you other than in front of story,
Speaker 4: going who's getting this?
Speaker 5: Who's getting this? Because I'm not, Yeah, and we're not.
Speaker 5: I'm on Instagram at Zora p kong Gaga my full name,
Speaker 5: not on Twitter. If you want to hear the whole story,
Speaker 5: like you can about my my prank, it's just google
Speaker 5: Zora this American.
Speaker 3: Life right right the whole.
Speaker 5: If you want like the story and obviously listen to it,
Speaker 5: listen to it here because this is breaking.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much, No, but it is. If people
Speaker 4: want to hear really an in depth version of it.
Speaker 4: I listened to it on This American Life to you
Speaker 4: talking about it, and it's very interesting and fun to
Speaker 4: listen to.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, And if you want to see me do
Speaker 5: freestyle rap improv, come to come to UCP.
Speaker 2: Great, you want to do a little bit right now.
Speaker 5: I would. If you want to throw me a beat,
Speaker 5: no I can't. I can only do it.
Speaker 2: I kind of did that to you on purpose to
Speaker 2: like put you on the spot.
Speaker 5: But we always make fun of musical improv too. It's
Speaker 5: like I remember and I love that for your room,
Speaker 5: just knowing that we both have done sort of a
Speaker 5: version of it but all and know how embarrassing it is.
Speaker 5: But it's also so fun.
Speaker 4: Like teaching a bunch of kids that like the way
Speaker 4: you do musical improv is like it's really good to
Speaker 4: think of the second word you're going to say so
Speaker 4: you can rhyme the first word with the second word.
Speaker 2: And I always was just horrible at it.
Speaker 5: It's a lot of a lot of brain math, and
Speaker 5: I'm sort of again this is back to trying to
Speaker 5: be cool. It's like, this is me still still trying
Speaker 5: to be like Tupac. But what's my version of being
Speaker 5: Tupac is doing freestyle rap improv hell Sora.
Speaker 4: But I guarantee you're a lot better at acting like
Speaker 4: Tupac than I am, because I Uh, when I get
Speaker 4: out there and I'm trying to do any kind of
Speaker 4: musical or rapping improv, I look like an absolute mora ugh.
Speaker 5: I would love I would love to see it.
Speaker 4: It'll happen. Well, that was so much fun. Thanks so
Speaker 4: much DISSAA for joining us and everyone for listening. If
Speaker 4: you enjoyed this, please subscribe to the podcast and keep
Speaker 4: an eye up for next week's episode of How Did
Speaker 4: We Get Weird?
Speaker 2: We will discuss more stories.
Speaker 4: From our childhood and cultural touchdowns like trying to be cool.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much, Soura, Thanks Surah. It also consisted
Speaker 1: A version