Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
Speaker 1: so much for tuning in. First things first, let's give
Speaker 1: it up for our one and only super producer Mr
Speaker 1: Max Williams, who you may recognize from earlier appearances as
Speaker 1: a special guest on Ridiculous History. And they call me
Speaker 1: Ben our ride or die. Our brother in arms. Mr
Speaker 1: Noel Brown is away, but we'll be returning soon. Today, Max,
Speaker 1: we are diving into a story worry that has haunted
Speaker 1: me and hopefully many other people for for some time now.
Speaker 1: We're not diving into this story alone. We're going to
Speaker 1: talk about a mystery in the world of fast food.
Speaker 1: And to do this we have to be joined with
Speaker 1: an expert, a very special returning guest Max. Uh, we
Speaker 1: both do them, good friend of the show, dear friend
Speaker 1: of ours, a famous, infamous member of the Ridiculous History pantheon. Folks,
Speaker 1: Let's have a big hand for the one and only
Speaker 1: Jonathan Stricklet a little man called Jonathan. As a little
Speaker 1: man called Jonathan may sounds strange, do you everybody tells
Speaker 1: them what to do? Expert? You say, so, that's as
Speaker 1: audio podcast. That's very well done. So, uh, everyone, we
Speaker 1: had been hanging out off air, just chatting about uh
Speaker 1: this series, this two part episode, and Jonathan, I didn't
Speaker 1: know until just now that you have been saving that
Speaker 1: McDonald's cup for the entirety of our conversation. Just oh
Speaker 1: and the fries. Yeah, I have misoponia, so I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna actually eat on Mike. That makes three of us
Speaker 1: on this recording, So thank you. Yes, yes, we should
Speaker 1: do an episode about misoponia at some point too. So
Speaker 1: here we go. Here's here's how our here's how we're
Speaker 1: starting this. If you're a ridiculous historian of a certain age,
Speaker 1: you might remember time when things were a little bit
Speaker 1: different at this world famous fast food chain McDonald's. Like
Speaker 1: the menu is still pretty much the same burgers, fries, soda,
Speaker 1: but back in the day, kids and adults to life
Speaker 1: associated McDonald's with an entire pantheon of food related characters,
Speaker 1: the most famous crown jewel, Mr Ronald McDonald. And before
Speaker 1: we dive in, Jonathan, just like, off off topic here,
Speaker 1: how are you doing? It's been forever. I'm I'm quite well.
Speaker 1: Thank you for asking. Yeah, I think since the last
Speaker 1: time I chatted with you. I had COVID twice, so
Speaker 1: that's great. Wow, No, whatever, it's far far apart uh,
Speaker 1: February and then June. Actually probably did have a chat
Speaker 1: at some point in between there. But yeah, I managed
Speaker 1: to get it over Valentine's Day and over my birthday,
Speaker 1: so I know how to mark an occasion. Very nice,
Speaker 1: very nice. But apart from that, everything is going very well. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: other than that, Mrs Lincoln, how did you find the play?
Speaker 1: Right soon? So? Uh, now that we are, now that
Speaker 1: we are well met, we have a mystery that we're
Speaker 1: going to dive into here, and where better to start
Speaker 1: than at the actual history the origin and genesis of McDonald's.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, guys, but I was surprised
Speaker 1: by how many strange evolutions and twists and turns this took.
Speaker 1: It was. It's weird because some of the statements you
Speaker 1: read don't agree with each other, and we can say,
Speaker 1: hopefully without throwing too many molotovs, we can safely say
Speaker 1: that McDonald's marketing and pr has a very clear, very
Speaker 1: specific narrative of their own. Would you agree with that?
Speaker 1: I certainly would agree with that. I also think This
Speaker 1: is one of those topics where careful note taking was
Speaker 1: not part of the process. Right, So whenever we're talking
Speaker 1: about something along these lines, you end up with timelines
Speaker 1: and recollections that may not measure up. But you're also
Speaker 1: talking about different perspectives. We're talking about the the dawn
Speaker 1: of the franchise restaurant era, and that's also something that
Speaker 1: we should keep in mind throughout the course of these discussions,
Speaker 1: because when we talk about McDonald's, you have to remember
Speaker 1: in the early days, we were talking about like a
Speaker 1: local restaurant. We're not talking about national chain early on,
Speaker 1: and so a lot of the things that we would
Speaker 1: associate with McDonald's much later that was just not present
Speaker 1: in the early days. Yeah, well said, it was a
Speaker 1: very very different landscape. McDonald's is named after these two guys,
Speaker 1: these brothers, Richard and Maurice McDonald there in San Bernardino, California,
Speaker 1: and their dad, Patrick had open a food stand back
Speaker 1: in ninety thirties seven called the air Dromee. Uh. The
Speaker 1: brothers originally had a car hop. For anybody's unfamiliar with
Speaker 1: that idea, it's I guess the best modern comparison is
Speaker 1: basically sonic. Right, Sonics does still exist? Right, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think so. Yeah, I think so too. So. So here's
Speaker 1: the deal. They these brothers, the brothers McDonald, have this
Speaker 1: restaurant idea, and if you look at the original signs,
Speaker 1: it advertises barbecue, honestly, and they've been working on this
Speaker 1: in the forties and I'm gonna jump in here. McDonald
Speaker 1: still advertises barbecue. They have the greatest barbecue dish of
Speaker 1: all time, called the McRib we're having the mac ribb debate. No,
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking the John Oliver line. It's then the
Speaker 1: second episode of Last Week Tonight where he compares to
Speaker 1: Mick rib to the death penalty. Okay, I'll buy You're
Speaker 1: just gonna leave it there. Okay, you can look up
Speaker 1: the video. If you're listening right now, you can look
Speaker 1: up that video. It's very easy to find. And we're
Speaker 1: gonna find some even more disturbing things as we go,
Speaker 1: just the advertising alone. We've got to play some clips
Speaker 1: in the future. But here we go. So it's October.
Speaker 1: The brothers McDonald have an epiphany. They look at each
Speaker 1: other and they say, hey, that's weird. Most of our
Speaker 1: profits are only coming from one thing. On the menu, hamburgers,
Speaker 1: let's close, we're closing shop. We've got to rethink everything,
Speaker 1: and they do, and they really simplify their menu, which
Speaker 1: you know, folks like uh Anthony Bourdain will tell you
Speaker 1: is the is a good indicator of a good restaurant, right,
Speaker 1: a small, short menu. Uh. Eventually they decide, okay, we're
Speaker 1: only gonna sell a few things hamburgers, cheeseburgers, potato chips, coffee, soda,
Speaker 1: and for some reason, apple pie. Uh I'm not an
Speaker 1: apple pie and uh aficionado. So I guess there's a
Speaker 1: reason for that. Maybe it was just easy to make
Speaker 1: and package, or maybe it's all America. Like apple pie,
Speaker 1: it's quite essential, it's very quite essential. They're bad, all right,
Speaker 1: But you guys are making me sound on American, which
Speaker 1: I mean, are we making you stud on American or
Speaker 1: you're you're the one of your questioning the importance of
Speaker 1: apple pie, which is like the most on American thing ever.
Speaker 1: You can say. Our national pastime is soccer. Now, okay,
Speaker 1: I'll play a reindeer games because max apples are originally
Speaker 1: from Kazakhstan. Boom. So anyhow, that aside, Uh, the brothers
Speaker 1: McDonald say Okay, we need a new building to reflect
Speaker 1: our new strategy. It needs to be more efficient, and
Speaker 1: it needs to have this kind of eye catching appearance.
Speaker 1: Can't just be a squat brick and mortar. And this
Speaker 1: is what eats them eventually to what we recognize as
Speaker 1: the Golden Arches. But Jonathan, you had noted that the
Speaker 1: arches themselves kind of had an evolution, right, Wasn't there
Speaker 1: just like one arch at the beginning or something. Well,
Speaker 1: it's it's that the actual architecture of the building was
Speaker 1: held up by a pair of arches that did not
Speaker 1: connect to one another. There was no connection, So you
Speaker 1: had a pair of arches, but they didn't form the
Speaker 1: letter M. That would actually come much later because Roy croc,
Speaker 1: who's a very important person in the history of McDonald's. Uh.
Speaker 1: The legend goes that he sold a ton of milkshake
Speaker 1: machines to the McDonald brothers and wanted to find out
Speaker 1: what the heck they were doing with so many milkshake machines,
Speaker 1: and that's what got him interested in the whole McDonald's thing. Well,
Speaker 1: he when he started to rethink the logo, he put
Speaker 1: these two arches into an overlap with one another to
Speaker 1: form the golden arches and make kind of an M shape,
Speaker 1: and then later on he would pull them apart a
Speaker 1: little a bit more so that they would just make
Speaker 1: an M as opposed to this kind of overlapped their
Speaker 1: inner the inner legs of the arches were overlapped in
Speaker 1: the original logo, so it kind of looked like an
Speaker 1: M and kind of looked like a mess. But then
Speaker 1: by I think N eight, he had it where it
Speaker 1: was the actual M. But yeah, it all dates back
Speaker 1: to this second location for for McDonald's. Yeah. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: this is something that you know, it is public knowledge,
Speaker 1: but I think for a lot of people listening to date,
Speaker 1: we've always just sort of thought of McDonald's as this
Speaker 1: static thing, right that came into being whole and entire.
Speaker 1: It's very much not the case. As as a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, I was surprised to learn that McDonald's had
Speaker 1: a different mascot before Ronald McDonald. He's a guy named
Speaker 1: Speedy sp e E d E E. Yeah, he also
Speaker 1: had uh so he's like a chef. He's got a
Speaker 1: hamburger head, like a vertical hamburger for a head. You
Speaker 1: can still apparently see him around some older McDonald's. But
Speaker 1: he was never quite a Ronald. So I actually got
Speaker 1: a story about this. Um I did not Uh what
Speaker 1: does that look, Jonathan? Oh No, that look was me
Speaker 1: being excited to hear your story, because all I was
Speaker 1: gonna say is that he has kind of a squinty popeye.
Speaker 1: I it looks like he got poked in the in
Speaker 1: one of his eyes whenever you see the pictures of him.
Speaker 1: But I am, I am eager to hear your story.
Speaker 1: So this is a this is from a very young
Speaker 1: Maxis memory. So like, this is back when I lived
Speaker 1: in Detroit. My family moved here when I was six,
Speaker 1: so this is very young. But there was I don't
Speaker 1: remember what part of Detroit was, but there was McDonald's
Speaker 1: that had this mascot. Still, because I saw this one,
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, yeah, I know that one immediately. I
Speaker 1: remember this one. Remember my mom explaining it to me
Speaker 1: what the mascot was, and she didn't really know, but
Speaker 1: she's like, yeah, I let's sack. I don't know a
Speaker 1: different mascot. Oh man, this this is this is creepy
Speaker 1: to me. Yeah, Speedy is definitely a product of his
Speaker 1: time not being uh you know, we don't mean that
Speaker 1: in a disrespectful way. We're just saying that things change,
Speaker 1: and that's something that factors into Ronald as well. Uh, Speedy,
Speaker 1: look is never in any commercials. You're not going to
Speaker 1: hear about them often unless people are specifically talking about
Speaker 1: the early history of McDonald's. So r I P. Speedy,
Speaker 1: you whizz by us, just like you always promised you
Speaker 1: would man your word, Hamburger head of your word. So
Speaker 1: Speedy met his demise when a new mascot came into
Speaker 1: town in seven, McDonald's officially chose a clown named Ronald
Speaker 1: as their new representative. But again, like everything with early McDonald's,
Speaker 1: this was part of an ongoing evolution. And Jonathan, I
Speaker 1: really like the way you tell the story. Sure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so this was something that I was already familiar with all.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people have heard the story. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I started off by saying, you know, Encyclopedia Britannica
Speaker 1: says that the first emergence of Ronald McDonald was in
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three. And if you can't trust the Encyclopedia Britannica,
Speaker 1: then what kind of crazy world do we live in? Huh? So,
Speaker 1: here's here's how things played out. And this also comes
Speaker 1: back to that that element that we're talking about a
Speaker 1: local restaurant not looking at it as a national chain. Yet.
Speaker 1: There was this franchise children's entertainment called Bozo the Clown
Speaker 1: which started way back in the nineteen forties, and uh,
Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty six, a guy named Larry Harmon said,
Speaker 1: this is a good idea. I would like to have
Speaker 1: Bozo the Clowns in different markets around the United States.
Speaker 1: Let's franchise this children's character. So they did, and you
Speaker 1: had lots of little stations around the United States. They
Speaker 1: had their very own Bozo the Clown show. It was
Speaker 1: all modeled after the original character, but that was played
Speaker 1: by different actors, had slightly different setups in the various regions.
Speaker 1: The big one obviously was Chicago, but over in the
Speaker 1: Baltimore Washington, d c. Area, there was a television station
Speaker 1: that had Bozo the Clown and uh. They had hired
Speaker 1: a guy named Willard Scott. That name might be familiar
Speaker 1: to a lot of you out there to be Bozo
Speaker 1: the Clown on this show. And a sponsor for this
Speaker 1: show was the local McDonald's, so as McDonald's in the
Speaker 1: Baltimore area, but after, you know, a couple of years,
Speaker 1: the television station canceled the Bozo the Clown show. Reportedly,
Speaker 1: what happens next is Willard's sitting there and someone from
Speaker 1: McDonald's comes up to him and says, Hey, we really
Speaker 1: like how you were marketing McDonald's in this clown character.
Speaker 1: Can you come up with something and be a mascot
Speaker 1: for us moving forward so we can continue to use
Speaker 1: you in promotional material And he sits down and he
Speaker 1: starts thinking about this, and he comes up with another
Speaker 1: clown character, original, obviously not not at all inspired by
Speaker 1: the fact that he was Bozo the Clown. No, why
Speaker 1: why would you think that? Yeah? I don't know. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's just like, it's just as a pure coincidence, that's
Speaker 1: another clown character. But he names it Ronald McDonald, the
Speaker 1: Hamburger Happy Clown, introducing world it was Bill and Hamburger
Speaker 1: eating as Wow. Ronald McDonald, Now where is that clown?
Speaker 1: I am good? Hey, you didn't watching TV blood personally
Speaker 1: we got delicious McDonald Hamburger. Ronald McDonald the Hamburger Happy Clown. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So there's there's a side note here that I always
Speaker 1: unaware of. There is apparently a clown code that all,
Speaker 1: like all clowns in the trade agree to where they
Speaker 1: will not rip off each other's stick or their look,
Speaker 1: you know, too closely. So one quick procedural note. Uh,
Speaker 1: we have an additional non consensual guest on the show today.
Speaker 1: It is my neighbor's dog downstairs. Uh. The most diplomatic
Speaker 1: way I can put this is that if you have
Speaker 1: a dog, make sure your dog is okay. Uh. And UH,
Speaker 1: we're just gonna we're gonna roll through this, uh and
Speaker 1: hopefully everything works out down there. So there are other
Speaker 1: versions of this origin story, but I think we can
Speaker 1: agree today. Jonathan Willard Scott's account is considered the most accurate,
Speaker 1: even though it's not officially mentioned in you know, like
Speaker 1: on the McDonald's website or something. Various executives have thanked
Speaker 1: Scott for his creation, and he talks about it in
Speaker 1: his book The Joy of Living, and he makes that
Speaker 1: Bozo connection, uh, he says in part he says there
Speaker 1: was something about the combination of Hamburgers and Bozo that
Speaker 1: was irresistible to kids. That's why when Bozo went off
Speaker 1: the air a few years later, the local McDonald's people
Speaker 1: ask me to come up with a new character to
Speaker 1: take Bozo's place. So I sat down created Ronald McDonald
Speaker 1: and we, for better or worse, my friends have video
Speaker 1: confirmation that this was true. This is where we get
Speaker 1: to some creepy parts. I think it's time we talked
Speaker 1: about those first McDonald's commercials, which is where the world
Speaker 1: learns about Ronald. Yeah, Ronald does not look the way
Speaker 1: Ronald would look later on in his storied career as
Speaker 1: mascot for McDonald's. Willard Scott's Ronald McDonald is a Frankenstein's
Speaker 1: monster of a clown that has suffered a terrible uh
Speaker 1: phasing uh mistake. Like you know when you think about
Speaker 1: the mutants who can phase through walls and then sometimes
Speaker 1: they come to complete solid state in the middle of
Speaker 1: a wall, and how terrible that is. He did that
Speaker 1: with a plate or a table of a fast food
Speaker 1: So he's got like a like a soda cup nose.
Speaker 1: He's got like a a tray for a hat that
Speaker 1: has hamburgers and French fries on it. He's got a
Speaker 1: magic belt that produces hamburgers. Um, it is not it's
Speaker 1: not a clown appearance that I would associate with being
Speaker 1: welcoming and friendly and uh makes me want to go
Speaker 1: and have fast food. It makes me want to run
Speaker 1: the other way. But that's again, maybe it's just because
Speaker 1: it's a product of its time, and I'm a product
Speaker 1: of my time. It's before my time. I'm not that old.
Speaker 1: And I will say that the very first commercial that
Speaker 1: he appears in is my favorite because at the end
Speaker 1: of the commercial there's some music and he's dancing in
Speaker 1: the background in the parking lot of this McDonald's, and
Speaker 1: he's dancing and dancing, and then the commercial comes to
Speaker 1: an end. You can tell the director is said cut,
Speaker 1: but the camera continues to capture footage for about a
Speaker 1: second and a half later, so you just see Lord
Speaker 1: Scott is Ronald McDonald, arms slacked by his side, dead
Speaker 1: eye like it is. It is a walking dead vision
Speaker 1: of his version of Ronald McDonald. It's very much like, hey, dude,
Speaker 1: we get that, we got that. Okay, cool, Oh we're
Speaker 1: still shooting. Were cut that in post right? Okay? We
Speaker 1: are cool? And they didn't. Johnny, I have two things
Speaker 1: I want to say. That one is it's very much
Speaker 1: like he was like bawling out a budget. That's what
Speaker 1: is set up, is like it's just like uh cup, yeah,
Speaker 1: here we go and tray here bam, I got my outfit. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And second, um, this is kind of a teaser for
Speaker 1: a future episode we would have. Buten have you ever
Speaker 1: seen the original Michelin men? Oh yes, yes I have
Speaker 1: not for a treat. Look in the chat here on
Speaker 1: riverside you can see him. Okay, I'm gonna take a look.
Speaker 1: And this is my actual real time reaction once uh oh,
Speaker 1: dear lord, Yeah, the pensnez the yeah, yeah, it looks
Speaker 1: like the say puff marshmallow man got grilled. That's actually
Speaker 1: that is the best description I think Max and I
Speaker 1: have heard about about that unfortunate costume. Yeah, when we
Speaker 1: talked about different times. You know, just think back on
Speaker 1: all the the early turn of the century photos you've
Speaker 1: seen of creepy easter bunnies, odds, Santa Claus is, things
Speaker 1: like that. This early Ronald McDonald very much does look
Speaker 1: like a Frankenstein. His his face is an agglomeration of
Speaker 1: what appears to be food and crime. He's got sort
Speaker 1: of these uh French fried dreadlock looking hairs. His nose
Speaker 1: is replaced by a cup that would probably be for soda.
Speaker 1: And it appears that after he's murdered several people, he
Speaker 1: has smeared their blood across his mouth. Right. Uh, it's
Speaker 1: got a very um like Heath Ledger joker smile kind
Speaker 1: of thing. Go on, but even smeared more intenseness. And listen,
Speaker 1: we we haven't we haven't reached Sunday yet. We aren't.
Speaker 1: We aren't at joker smiles yet. We'll get there, but
Speaker 1: I do I do want to say that. Um. You know, again,
Speaker 1: this was a local commercial, right, this was not a
Speaker 1: national spot that aired across the United States. This is
Speaker 1: still an era where you're talking about broadcast television. Cable
Speaker 1: hasn't really become a thing yet. Uh, so you don't
Speaker 1: have markets that bleed over. Like if your antenna could
Speaker 1: pick up something from the next town over, you might see,
Speaker 1: you know, one of the channels from there. But this
Speaker 1: was not intended to be a national campaign. It was
Speaker 1: literally this one McDonald's restaurant that was using this character
Speaker 1: to advertise to locals. Yeah, it's kind of like a
Speaker 1: a Ford dealership, Like an auto dealership might have their
Speaker 1: own ad campaigns, but they don't overall represent for the company.
Speaker 1: You know, they're like Dave Davidson's, you know, uh, number
Speaker 1: one for dealer in northern Southwest Ohio. I mean to
Speaker 1: jump in here. I mean this is one I think
Speaker 1: all three of us will know is Donna and the Wolfman.
Speaker 1: We all know what that is, right, Yeah. No, I
Speaker 1: grew up right down the street. I grew up right
Speaker 1: down the street from uh, from that, from that furniture dealership.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's cool. Yeah, but there's a bunch of
Speaker 1: people listening right now who are like, what the hell
Speaker 1: is Donald and the Wolfman. It's like, no, no no, no,
Speaker 1: we know what that is because that was a person
Speaker 1: I played for so long in Atlanta or like a
Speaker 1: general Atlanta area wif man here. You've got to see
Speaker 1: the poster avoiding the gallery fronted, Hey wof Man West Donna.
Speaker 1: Now I'm in New York City, but I'll be back soon,
Speaker 1: Nicky gown of Don. I'm dearing like por La ni
Speaker 1: king dollars, the climbers eighty eight dollar headboard, win Fuller
Speaker 1: Queen one dollar board, door Chef thirty nine dollars. That's
Speaker 1: gallery funds at twenty five eleven Road Belt Highway in
Speaker 1: College part in sixte hundred brown Big Rogan games and hey,
Speaker 1: after the wolf Man, you know what, as a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, ridiculous historians go over on Facebook or your
Speaker 1: social media of choice and let us know your favorite
Speaker 1: weird cookie commercials from your neck in the global woods. So,
Speaker 1: despite all of the very detailed descriptions we've given you
Speaker 1: of old Ronald here, he was a hit people. People
Speaker 1: loved this concept right and over the years, uh, he
Speaker 1: became a worldwide phenomenon. I don't think it's hyperbolic to
Speaker 1: say that he was sort of an integral piece of
Speaker 1: American pop culture. Eventually people from other countries started thinking
Speaker 1: of Ronald McDonald not just as a symbol of a
Speaker 1: fast food place, but as a symbol of some concept
Speaker 1: of the United States. Yeah. And you know, this was
Speaker 1: one of those things where by seeing how popular this
Speaker 1: character and this concept was, to promote this one McDonald's,
Speaker 1: it became this this idea to use it as a
Speaker 1: a national uh symbol for the chain. And obviously that's
Speaker 1: a huge, huge um And with that jump, we would
Speaker 1: see a very rapid evolution of the character. It would
Speaker 1: not be long before the Nightmarish Scott version of Ronald
Speaker 1: McDonald was left behind. And not only that, but we
Speaker 1: would see that McDonald's as an organization would codify the
Speaker 1: character and how the character is to be portrayed, and
Speaker 1: how the character is to be referenced to anyone outside
Speaker 1: the organization. Oh yeah, you've hit on something that's just
Speaker 1: fascinating to me. So so behind the scenes, McDonald's always
Speaker 1: had this kind of ethos of absolute conformity, uniformity, right
Speaker 1: even down to little things like the number of sesame
Speaker 1: seeds on a bun reportedly, so it shouldn't surprise us
Speaker 1: that they template tized the appearances of Ronald McDonald, who
Speaker 1: was becoming kind of a secular Santa Clause. Uh, you
Speaker 1: and Max and I found that they're one is actually
Speaker 1: not one, but a couple of official rule books for
Speaker 1: all actors playing Ronald. And I found a wonderful Reader's
Speaker 1: Digest article on this, and I thought maybe we could
Speaker 1: round robin some of the uh, some of the commandments
Speaker 1: for would be Ronald's. I changed the language a little
Speaker 1: because I think it's funny for them to be referred
Speaker 1: to as a Ronald. That part was me, but the
Speaker 1: rest is true. Excellent. Uh. Shall shall I begin? Please?
Speaker 1: Do Commandment number one, never hug the kids. At most,
Speaker 1: Ronald may only pat the children upon the back. Commandment
Speaker 1: number two. A Rinald must also sign numerous waivers saying
Speaker 1: that they'll never reveal what they've learned working for the company.
Speaker 1: Number three. All Ronalds can and should promote the idea
Speaker 1: of fun to their customers. They should not directly promote
Speaker 1: the food itself. Commandment the fourth. If kids ask, a
Speaker 1: Ronald cannot reveal to them the dark trade secret that
Speaker 1: burgers come from cows. Commandment number five. Whenning character, a
Speaker 1: Ronald cannot eat McDonald's food due to makeup concerns. Okay,
Speaker 1: it makes sense, so we've just got a couple war here.
Speaker 1: So here's commandment six. A Ronald has to be fit, or,
Speaker 1: as readers digest put it quote, at least have a
Speaker 1: body that appears to be fit man. I I long
Speaker 1: to have a body that appears to me to be
Speaker 1: fit man. What body is shaming? Here's the last commandment.
Speaker 1: Ronald must follow us script when answering questions asked by customers.
Speaker 1: If they don't have an answer that fits, a Ronald
Speaker 1: is instructed to say, and this is true, ask someone
Speaker 1: wearing normal shoes, which I think is actually something that
Speaker 1: we can take from the ronalds. I feel like that's
Speaker 1: a great way to pass the buck in just any situation.
Speaker 1: Do you think I could get away with telling or
Speaker 1: boss that email chain? Absolutely? And I remember being on
Speaker 1: a previous episode where there was a lot of talk
Speaker 1: about the dangers of wearing long pointy shoes. So normal
Speaker 1: shoes is a very important thing. Yes, absolutely agreed. Uh.
Speaker 1: Now we see that McDonald's at this time under the
Speaker 1: leadership of Kroc. Fully Uh, they know they're onto something.
Speaker 1: In the nineteen seventies or so, they asked a like
Speaker 1: seventies seventy one, They ask a marketing ad agency named
Speaker 1: need Him, Harper and Steers to turn up the gas.
Speaker 1: As a result, the firm comes up with the idea
Speaker 1: of something called McDonald land Ronald. They decided would no
Speaker 1: longer be a solo act. Now, this this thing runs
Speaker 1: from about nineteen seventy one to two thousand and three,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to ask you, guys, do you recall
Speaker 1: ever seen one of these commercials? Oh, my gosh, Ben,
Speaker 1: come on. I so I grew up in the nineteen seventies,
Speaker 1: I lived less than a half mile from a McDonald's
Speaker 1: which we could walk to from my house in Gainesville, Georgia.
Speaker 1: I have distinct memories of various McDonald Land characters and
Speaker 1: commercials and oh my, Drew Geese. You may have forgotten
Speaker 1: things being so scory, all right, and people quick to forget,
Speaker 1: but those visions haunt my nightmares to this day. I
Speaker 1: think that is that is a wonderful clockwork Orange reference there.
Speaker 1: So yeah, McDonald Land is a trip. It's a it's
Speaker 1: a built out, pretty well imagined universe. That's kind of
Speaker 1: a place of wind z and wonder picture the candy
Speaker 1: uh like the the candy warehouse in Gene Wilder's Willy
Speaker 1: Wonka adaptation. That's kind of what it looks like. And
Speaker 1: there are tons of anthropomorphic things inanimate objects are animate,
Speaker 1: and speaking of plants and food are also a capable
Speaker 1: of communication. Apple Pie trees again they there. It's very
Speaker 1: much a pro apple Pie company, milkshake, volcanoes, hamburger patches.
Speaker 1: They even have a theme park all centered around items
Speaker 1: on the McDonald's menu. And this was for some reason
Speaker 1: an important question for me. Yes, there are McDonald's restaurants
Speaker 1: in McDonald's Land. They're not worried about the inception of that. Yeah. No,
Speaker 1: if you if you look carefully, you'll see that the
Speaker 1: little spinny ride in the playground is still turning at
Speaker 1: the very end. So we don't know if we're still
Speaker 1: with in McDonald land, if we have actually escaped to reality.
Speaker 1: That that question is left up to the individual customer.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm, yeah, your imagination mileage may vary. Now. They
Speaker 1: even had a theme song and Max, No, no, you
Speaker 1: do you think we can get away with playing this clip?
Speaker 1: Catch just sound real? Take? Okay, so that's a piece
Speaker 1: of the theme song. You can hear the whole thing
Speaker 1: in its entirety on YouTube pretty easily. You might be
Speaker 1: listening to this and thinking, hey, this sounds like an
Speaker 1: actual TV show. Well, you're right, and that will become
Speaker 1: a problem later. Don't worry, we'll get to it. Uh.
Speaker 1: But we it might sound like we're spending a lot
Speaker 1: of time talking about how weird these early days were.
Speaker 1: But to be clear, uh, McDonald's as an organization in
Speaker 1: the real non McDonald land world was doing some good things.
Speaker 1: They were doing some acts of charity. Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1: So in nineteen seventy four, the company McDonald's established the
Speaker 1: Ronald McDonald House. The original one in Philadelphia Fred Hill,
Speaker 1: who was a football player for the Philadelphia Eagles. I
Speaker 1: believe it was his daughter who had leukemia. And so
Speaker 1: the concept was to build a house where families could
Speaker 1: stay if their children were hospitalized in the nearby hospital,
Speaker 1: So they wouldn't have to travel hours in and out
Speaker 1: of town in order to visit their kids. They could
Speaker 1: stay temporarily in this place, and they wouldn't have to
Speaker 1: spend exorbitant amounts of money like at a hotel. And
Speaker 1: you know, we wanted to bring this up because we
Speaker 1: are going to be kind of, you know, poking a
Speaker 1: lot of fun at Ronald McDonald. I mean, the whole
Speaker 1: purpose of the character is to get kids to want
Speaker 1: to go eat fast food. So there are a lot
Speaker 1: of downsides that we can really talk about there. But
Speaker 1: we also want to acknowledge that this was an organization,
Speaker 1: or this is an organization that also has done some
Speaker 1: some legitimate good work, uh, for various communities. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's an important point. You know, it also might have,
Speaker 1: as will come to see, done some important work for
Speaker 1: Ronald McDonald when things got dicey, right, So, Yeah. So
Speaker 1: we mentioned there's a pantheon. There's now there's a woutang
Speaker 1: of McDonald's. Right, they've got we've got a crew. Uh,
Speaker 1: you mentioned one who's actually first on my list, Jonathan.
Speaker 1: Can you tell us about Sunday. Yeah. So Sunday a
Speaker 1: k A. Pup face killer, Uh, was a anthropomorphic dog originally. Um.
Speaker 1: And here's the creepy thing about this dog character. First
Speaker 1: of all, it has almost like like a tear type
Speaker 1: shape under one eye. Kind of made me think of
Speaker 1: like a David Bowie glam look. It has more like
Speaker 1: a human mouth under its snout, which is truly disturbing
Speaker 1: uh in its original incarnation. And it has the most
Speaker 1: chipper upbeat personality you've ever heard, which is me lying
Speaker 1: because it sounds like someone who is on the verge
Speaker 1: of needing to talk to a counselor Uh, it is
Speaker 1: a person. It's this monotone, depressing voice. You're sitting there
Speaker 1: wondering who hated dogs so much that they needed to
Speaker 1: create this character to exorcize their inner demon. I love dogs,
Speaker 1: I love all animals. I hope that dog downstairs is okay.
Speaker 1: You're right though, Uh, Sunday has what we would call
Speaker 1: big e or vibes. You know, he's a little bit
Speaker 1: of a downer. He doesn't like ticks. He beefs it
Speaker 1: with the Hamburglar. Is particularly one thing called Visitors from
Speaker 1: Outer Space, where he insults the Hamburglar by calling him
Speaker 1: Hammy and bun head. Uh. And then that that's kind
Speaker 1: of just sounds a little racist there, Yeah really, uh yeah,
Speaker 1: we don't. Yeah, we don't far be it for us
Speaker 1: to disparage Sunday without knowing what Sunday's lived experiences are.
Speaker 1: But it's kind of a it's you know, it's not
Speaker 1: the happiest dog. That's just true. That's part of the character. Uh.
Speaker 1: And this gives us a segue. So when I really
Speaker 1: want to talk about just as a quick laundry list, here,
Speaker 1: we'll go through several of these panthonic characters. We might
Speaker 1: spend more time on some than others. I loved the Hamburglar,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. He's like fighting the system
Speaker 1: with my understanding, you know. Uh. He he's like that
Speaker 1: classic trope of so many mascots, you know, from the
Speaker 1: tricks Rabbit to the uh like the Nooid. I think
Speaker 1: he clearly informs the Noid later he's got that beef
Speaker 1: going on. Yeah, well he wants to have that beef
Speaker 1: going on. I want to say that, I want to
Speaker 1: I want to say that. Uh that he was probably
Speaker 1: inspired by the character Whimpy as well from the Popeye series.
Speaker 1: Right I can. I will gladly pay you Tuesday for
Speaker 1: a Hamburger today. Uh, Hamburglar is always trying to have
Speaker 1: that big heist of all those juicy hamburgers, and it's
Speaker 1: just foiled. Usually he's hoisted by his own petard. It's
Speaker 1: normally his fault for for getting caught. But yeah, the
Speaker 1: Hamburglar was one of my favorite characters too of the
Speaker 1: McDonald's panthion when I was growing up. I uh, and
Speaker 1: I was more familiar with his second incarnation because, as
Speaker 1: we all learned, uh, Hamburgler had a phoenix like existence
Speaker 1: and that it existed in in one form first just
Speaker 1: like Ronald did, and then transformed somewhat afterward. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: ham the Hamburgler had a glow up midway through his career.
Speaker 1: He he started off as a he's like a kind
Speaker 1: of a Benjamin Button thing going on here. He started
Speaker 1: off as a villain, and it was more than one
Speaker 1: villain in the McDonald land. Uh. And he was very
Speaker 1: clearly an older character, had long, stringy gray hair. Uh,
Speaker 1: he was bald at the top of his head. Uh.
Speaker 1: And he was a creepy old guy who desperately wanted
Speaker 1: to heist Hamburgers. But then it's strange because originally he
Speaker 1: wasn't called the Hamburger at all, Hamburglar at all. He
Speaker 1: was called the lone Jogger, which is uber creepy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was. That was. It was supposed to be a
Speaker 1: take off the Lone rain Juror because like the Lone Ranger,
Speaker 1: he wore a mask, he had a wide brimmed hat,
Speaker 1: so he was like the Lone Ranger, but he was
Speaker 1: the lone Jogger because he doesn't have a horse, he
Speaker 1: doesn't wander the range. That was the idea behind it.
Speaker 1: In retrospect, we can look back on that and just
Speaker 1: say like, yeah, that uh yeah, maybe we've all watched
Speaker 1: too much Law and Order or something. But loan loan
Speaker 1: Jogger does conjure different images. And also, i'll point out,
Speaker 1: and see this discussed often, I'll point out that if
Speaker 1: you are an anti McDonald's person, you're anti Ronald's message,
Speaker 1: then uh, you could, with some validity say that this
Speaker 1: puts exercising in a bad light anyway. Whatever, whatever their motivation,
Speaker 1: the lone Jogger became the Hamburgler character. And then the
Speaker 1: Hamburglar had his reverse aging moment. Uh, and I think
Speaker 1: it was around nine eight five, mid nineteen eighties. He evolves.
Speaker 1: He's no longer an old, angry uh Hamburger hoarder. He's
Speaker 1: he's like a rebellious, muteness mischievous redhead, kind of Dennis
Speaker 1: the Menace. And he gets a cape and the cape
Speaker 1: is cool. Capes are cool. Uh. There's also Birdie, the
Speaker 1: early bird I like. I was astonished by how many
Speaker 1: of these were new to me. Uh. There were the
Speaker 1: fried kids. I guess we should we gotta talk. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I I remember Bertie because I remember when
Speaker 1: McDonald's introduced its breakfast menu, because again, I lived like
Speaker 1: half a mile away from McDonald's and that was happening
Speaker 1: right around that time, and the character was introduced in
Speaker 1: an effort to promote that. And you know, I like
Speaker 1: the idea of being able to walk half a mile
Speaker 1: and grab a whole bunch of really substandard pancakes. I
Speaker 1: actually really did love those pancakes is the one thing
Speaker 1: that McDonald's actually like to eat and um. And so
Speaker 1: I remember that character very well, and she was extremely
Speaker 1: klutzy and uh chipper, you know, had a had a
Speaker 1: positive personality, but was kind of seen as being a
Speaker 1: clumsy character who was always getting in her own way.
Speaker 1: Because I have a question, I want to post you
Speaker 1: all and just just kind of see what y'all think
Speaker 1: about this. But you know, and a lot of let's
Speaker 1: call it what it is marketing to children. What they'll
Speaker 1: commonly do is they'll portray, you know, the heroes as children,
Speaker 1: and they'll portray you know, the villains as adults. And
Speaker 1: I mean I wonder if like that was like a
Speaker 1: whole marketing like things that we're thinking about because with
Speaker 1: like the hamburglar him being like an old evil guy,
Speaker 1: but then it's like, oh, this guy is not evil,
Speaker 1: he's friends with all of them. He instantly becomes a
Speaker 1: child like a child. Because you know, McDonald's will say
Speaker 1: they'll be like, no, we never ever intentionally marketing the children.
Speaker 1: Oh that's all these companies will. But we all know,
Speaker 1: I mean, marketing words directly children has been I think
Speaker 1: we've done in this country country for a very long time,
Speaker 1: and we've done that episode about ovaltine, which is directly
Speaker 1: marketing the children. And you know, now it's it's basically illegal.
Speaker 1: We can still get around it sometimes. But I'm wondering
Speaker 1: if that was a concerted effort they might take. I
Speaker 1: think that's a good point. Yeah, I know, I would.
Speaker 1: I would bet on that as being part of the strategy.
Speaker 1: That it was literally, how can we uh convince more
Speaker 1: kids to be excited about this product so that they
Speaker 1: bug their parents to go and we can sell things
Speaker 1: to their parents. And I think that's exactly what was
Speaker 1: going on. You also have to look at when these
Speaker 1: commercials were airing, and a lot of them were airing
Speaker 1: during the after school programming that would be on as
Speaker 1: soon as kids would get home. You know, I'm a
Speaker 1: gen X or I'm a latch key kid. I'd come home,
Speaker 1: turn on the TV and there would be commercials for
Speaker 1: McDonald's right next to commercials for things like g I
Speaker 1: Joe and he Man. So this was this was a
Speaker 1: concerted and strategic effort, and it was definitely you know,
Speaker 1: it had purpose behind it. It It wasn't just creating colorful characters. Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I really think you're onto something there, Max. We we
Speaker 1: know that this was successful. If you look at a
Speaker 1: lot of McDonald land commercials from the time, Ronald is
Speaker 1: joined with kids sidekicks, right, and they're sort of you know,
Speaker 1: they're they're keeping this creepy old man from stealing the burgers.
Speaker 1: So there's definitely some psychology at play. There are also,
Speaker 1: you know, functionaries and authorities in this world. Mayor mccheese
Speaker 1: is is one of the most notable examples. He's a
Speaker 1: guy um kind of like maybe in the distant past,
Speaker 1: related to speedy because he also has a hamburger head,
Speaker 1: but he's is horizontal, so like the bun and the
Speaker 1: cheese and the burgers kind of his mouth and uh,
Speaker 1: he is for some reason wearing a Diplomats sash. He's
Speaker 1: very like he is the he's the oligarch of McDonald's, right,
Speaker 1: he is, he's the one percenter and uh he has spectacles,
Speaker 1: et cetera. And he's kind of like lovable and bumbling
Speaker 1: and you know, we getting himself into high jinks. Uh.
Speaker 1: He is based on another character called h. R. Puffing Stuff.
Speaker 1: Have you guys heard of HR puffing Stuff? Yes, the
Speaker 1: creation of of Sid and Marty Croft, who were uh
Speaker 1: who were They were pioneers, you know, of a sorts
Speaker 1: of of children's entertainment mostly looked back on as being uh,
Speaker 1: purveyors of psychedelic material. Like if you watch old Puffin
Speaker 1: Stuff's uh footage, you're thinking, this looks like everyone involved,
Speaker 1: from the actors to the crew, to the editors, to
Speaker 1: two people who are probably just getting a contact hie
Speaker 1: crossing the street, they were all on something and it's
Speaker 1: bleeding through the screen. Uh. That was something that was
Speaker 1: something that you could really take home with Sid and
Speaker 1: Marty Croft. And I mentioned this in our notes way
Speaker 1: at the bottom over in the little tangent side. But
Speaker 1: just since we're talking about it, I want to mention
Speaker 1: really quickly. Here in Atlanta, we for a short while
Speaker 1: had the Sid and Marty Croft World, an amusement park.
Speaker 1: It was in what is now the CNN Center, but
Speaker 1: back then we just called it the Omni. And if
Speaker 1: you had ever been in there, this would be many
Speaker 1: years ago now. But if as a kid you had
Speaker 1: ever visited the Omni, you would have noticed there was
Speaker 1: this enormous freestanding escalator. I mean, it was longer than
Speaker 1: you think an escalator should be allowed to be and
Speaker 1: that was the escalator that would take you up to
Speaker 1: the Sid and Marty Croft world. It isn't there anymore.
Speaker 1: The CNN Center still there and you can see part
Speaker 1: of where the escalator was. But yeah, that was something
Speaker 1: that as a kid, I always wondered about. That closed
Speaker 1: six months after it opened in nineteen seventy six. I
Speaker 1: was born the year before, so if I ever did go,
Speaker 1: I certainly don't remember it. Wow, it just it just
Speaker 1: informed your lifelong terror of escalators. That's true. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know what, it's terrible. I have fallen down an up
Speaker 1: escalator for about three days straight and it was offen. Hey, escalator,
Speaker 1: escalators suck, Jonathan. I'm with you on this, man, Escalators
Speaker 1: for the work. Are you serious? They're the stairs of
Speaker 1: the future. Elevators suck too. Just give me some stairs, man,
Speaker 1: that's all stairs. I'm a fan. Uh yeah, this is okay.
Speaker 1: So the Croft thing is going to be important later.
Speaker 1: But wait, as Billy Mays was wanting to say, there's more,
Speaker 1: McDonald's land is home to tons of characters. Captain Crook,
Speaker 1: Officer Big Mac, the Professor, the McNugget Buddies, the Happy
Speaker 1: Meal Gang, Uncle O, Grimacy, for some reason, Cosmic, a
Speaker 1: cavalcade of others. But Jonathan, there's one guy we haven't
Speaker 1: really mentioned yet. It's a character named Grimace. It's a
Speaker 1: man of mystery. And then we have a question for
Speaker 1: you that I will I will defer to Max four.
Speaker 1: All right, Jonathan, do you ever listen to the MPR
Speaker 1: game show? Wait? Wait, don't tell me. I do. And
Speaker 1: I just want to say that those who know me
Speaker 1: and my alter ego, I feel really uncomfortable that the
Speaker 1: tables they have been turned upon me. All right, well,
Speaker 1: don't worry, don't it's not really question. Actually I guess
Speaker 1: it is question. Yeah, so this is from way we
Speaker 1: don't tell me. A number of months ago I asked
Speaker 1: Ben and Null this and I got a very genuine
Speaker 1: reaction out of the two of them, including having him
Speaker 1: to be Ben for a word. He said, But I'm
Speaker 1: gonna ask you this. Do you know what Grimaces? Uh?
Speaker 1: Do I know what Grimaces? I don't. I the I
Speaker 1: always thought he was just some sort of indeterminate anthropomorphic thing.
Speaker 1: I do know that he used to be a bad guy,
Speaker 1: and he had four arms and stole milkshakes. So he's
Speaker 1: distantly related to Goro from Mortal Kombat, but apart from that,
Speaker 1: I don't know. So this is according to the people
Speaker 1: that wait, wit, don't tell me. They had this as
Speaker 1: a poll question on the show. I have seen many
Speaker 1: people debate this, but I'm just telling you this is
Speaker 1: the answer they gave. He is a taste bud. That's
Speaker 1: absolutely horrifying. I will not sleep tonight. And it's your fault. Max.
Speaker 1: I feel like I've achieved by maximum goal for the
Speaker 1: day now. Mm hmm. So I was surprised into profanity
Speaker 1: when I when I learned this, and it's it's a
Speaker 1: great question to ask, and Jonathan, my my response from
Speaker 1: my assumption, we're very much in line with with yours.
Speaker 1: We canna take a flame one way flav from McDonald
Speaker 1: land back to Texas. One more thing, one more thing.
Speaker 1: He doesn't know what Grimace is. He's a blob, right
Speaker 1: purple blob? Is he catching? Is he a condiment? He's
Speaker 1: a one giant taste bud? Oh? Gross? So fuck up.
Speaker 1: I'm not okay. I'm not I'm not okay with this, Like,
Speaker 1: why is it not a tongue? I talked about that
Speaker 1: last time. If you're gonna make it that big? Why
Speaker 1: is it one giant taste bud? Why why is it
Speaker 1: not just a blob of rancid ice cream goo at
Speaker 1: the bottom of one of the perpetually broken ice cream machines. Oh,
Speaker 1: and there is a conspiracy theory about that, which goes
Speaker 1: to a different show. But I've I've got to send you,
Speaker 1: I've got to send you some articles. So, yes, there's
Speaker 1: there's this whole thing happening. Kids know all about it.
Speaker 1: Uh you know. Of course, the appeal is pretty apparent
Speaker 1: for kind of thrifty caregivers because you can buy a
Speaker 1: happy meal and you're feeding the kid and you're also
Speaker 1: getting them a toy, so you can potentially like skip
Speaker 1: the trip to the toy store. And I don't know
Speaker 1: how often that worked, but it's important. You can tell already,
Speaker 1: ridiculous historians, this world has been fleshed out. This is
Speaker 1: beyond the level of world building that most other fast
Speaker 1: food companies are going to engage in. And McDonald Land
Speaker 1: is a lot like a TV show. Turns out, we're
Speaker 1: not the only ones who thought so. Remember who Jonathan
Speaker 1: you just mentioned a few minutes ago, sit in Marty
Speaker 1: Croft in v. Three. They sued McDonald's and they said, look,
Speaker 1: this whole McDonald land concept is plagiarized from our work.
Speaker 1: The jury, which I have in notes as the justy.
Speaker 1: The jury found in favor of the Crofts. McDonald's was
Speaker 1: first ordered to pay fifty grand, then they were ordered
Speaker 1: to pay one million dollars, and they were also told
Speaker 1: that they have to pull some characters from their campaigns
Speaker 1: or reimagine them into more legally distinct designs. Yet still
Speaker 1: they soldiered on. From two thousand three, Ronald had his
Speaker 1: own video series, not calling it a TV show because
Speaker 1: it was straight to video. It was called The Wacky
Speaker 1: Adventures of Ronald McDonald. Yeah, that's where Sunday the Dog
Speaker 1: first showed up. Oh okay, so it's kind of a darker, edgier.
Speaker 1: I mean, have you seen pictures of Sunday the Dog.
Speaker 1: I think it's accurate. I mean, Ben, this brought the beef.
Speaker 1: I'm loving that we're going through a beef phase. Uh,
Speaker 1: we're going with this beef phase and not telling anywhere.
Speaker 1: We're not going to explain it. Sorry, Jonathan. It's just
Speaker 1: like Looper. So behind the fast food counter, though, trouble
Speaker 1: is a bruin, and we're not talking about that hot
Speaker 1: coffee lawsuit. Internally, McDonald's is conflicted about whether they should
Speaker 1: keep showcasing these characters or moving a new direction. A
Speaker 1: new ad agency is in the mix, Leo Burnett, and
Speaker 1: they say, look, McDonald Land, all its inhabitants, that time
Speaker 1: has passed. Goodbye to the old man and the mischievous
Speaker 1: young Hamburgler. They should be relegated to the sidelines in
Speaker 1: favor of our new slogan, our new campaign. I'm loving it.
Speaker 1: And they won the argument. McDonald land characters didn't go away,
Speaker 1: but they were no longer front and center. This could
Speaker 1: rightfully be called the purge of McDonald Land. Ronald, one
Speaker 1: of the lone survivors, probably felt something in the wind.
Speaker 1: Increasingly it was time to reassess the clown. And this
Speaker 1: is where we're gonna end part one, I think, because
Speaker 1: now we're getting to the turn right. We set up
Speaker 1: the mystery, now we're gonna investigate it. Uh, Jonathan, I
Speaker 1: know that when we originally ask you to do this,
Speaker 1: we did not say it was going to be a
Speaker 1: two parter, but thank you very very much for coming
Speaker 1: on the show. It became abundantly clear, abundantly clear as
Speaker 1: I looked at the notes that there was no way
Speaker 1: this could be a single episode, And just like another
Speaker 1: story about a beloved clown and dairy Maine, We're gonna
Speaker 1: divide it up into two chapters, and y'all, this will
Speaker 1: be it. I'm gonna love how like we're seeing this
Speaker 1: whole thing. John's gonna be back for part two, and
Speaker 1: then we're just not gonna address the fact that Matt
Speaker 1: Frederick's going to be on part two with us instead.
Speaker 1: So yes, Jonathan will be returning for Part two, coming
Speaker 1: later this week in the meantime as always, thanks of
Speaker 1: course to Mr Max Williams, thanks to Casey Pegram, Chris
Speaker 1: rossiotis E's Jeff Coat, thanks to the Man the myth Legend,
Speaker 1: Mr Noel Brown, who will be returning soon. Jonathan. One
Speaker 1: of the reasons that we're so appreciative of you coming
Speaker 1: coming on the show for this two parter is that
Speaker 1: you are one of the busiest of all our colleagues,
Speaker 1: which is saying a lot when you were not hanging
Speaker 1: out classing up ridiculous history. If you're one of the
Speaker 1: world's leading experts in technology, podcast with the long running show,
Speaker 1: tech Stuff. Could you tell us a little bit about
Speaker 1: that and where to find you, as well as more
Speaker 1: of your work. Absolutely. So tech Stuff is my my love,
Speaker 1: it's my pride and joy. It's a show that we
Speaker 1: originally launched back in two thousand and eight. Uh, the
Speaker 1: current incarnation of tech Stuff. It's a single host show.
Speaker 1: We published five times a week, and we kind of
Speaker 1: cover everything about technology. Uh. Some episodes are more technical
Speaker 1: and that I will go into a bit more detail
Speaker 1: about how stuff works. Hey, and then some of the
Speaker 1: episode dhades are more about the impact of technology and
Speaker 1: how it is changing the way we live or things
Speaker 1: that we should be concerned about, whether it's surveillance or
Speaker 1: it's the the fact that data is the new currency.
Speaker 1: It's not crypto, folks, it's your information. That's that's the
Speaker 1: currency of the world today, and that's why everybody wants
Speaker 1: as much of it as they possibly can get. So
Speaker 1: that's kind of what the show is all about. I
Speaker 1: also do some other fun stuff you will be able
Speaker 1: to hear very soon, the return of the large nor
Speaker 1: Drown Collider. It's been a hiatus for a bit, but
Speaker 1: that's my goofy pop culture podcast with my friend Ariel,
Speaker 1: where we cover some of the geek news of the week,
Speaker 1: but we also mesh up unrelated geek properties and find
Speaker 1: out what happens when, say, the Transformers has a run
Speaker 1: in with my little pony um and it's brilliant and uh,
Speaker 1: Michael Bay you can call me anytime you want and
Speaker 1: we can't wait for you to get in touch with us, folks.
Speaker 1: As we are building toward part two of this series, again,
Speaker 1: we want to hear your wacky regional commercials. We've got
Speaker 1: a pretty good horse in the race with Donna and
Speaker 1: the Wolfman the Shane Company. Uh at radio ads always
Speaker 1: you know, they're a thing, They're kind of weird, and
Speaker 1: for that we're going to call it a day. Tune
Speaker 1: in next week. In the immortal words of our pal Knowll,
Speaker 1: We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.