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TIDBITS EPISODE 6: The Depressing Episoide!
35 Plays26 days ago
Welcome back to the Tidbit Tower, where this week’s “fun” takes a definite turn toward the existentially depressing!!!
Gaz unveils a tried-and-true blueprint for getting kids hooked on drugs, Rob walks us through the tragic musings of an American icon, and Mike explores the surprising overlap between antisemitism and werewolf lore!!! It’s dark. It’s weird. It’s Tidbits!!! Will the fun ever start!?!?
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Transcript
Introduction and Humor
00:00:00
Speaker
Ha ha!
00:00:16
Speaker
Hey! Guess what, guys? Here we are the Tidbits Tower once again brand new hot episode, hot off the press episode, Tidbits.
00:00:29
Speaker
I am Rob, one who steals all your left socks. And with me, as always, is Tidbits Mike. Hey everybody. Everybody, Tidbits Mike, he steals your right socks. And also... Hey, it's me, Mr. Gazbot, the one who returns your socks, even though Rob like has a technical glitch and when we come back he starts the show without telling it. Yeah, yeah he does. Hey, is that Mr. Beanpole over in there Am I Mr. Beanpole? I'm just making up a character. does
00:01:00
Speaker
Oh, it's all I, Mr. Beanpole. That's good. all right All right.
Show Format and Listener Feedback
00:01:05
Speaker
Listen, let's just get to the mailbag. Hold on. Hold on. Pause. I do like that you're ah incorporating all these characters, Rob, like Mr. Beanpole. And last episode, there was someone you sent to like out open the door because I like feeling like I'm on a morning drive show.
00:01:20
Speaker
ah Like here we are at the Z Morning Zoo. Morning Drive Show would remember these characters and bring them back and have them be like running jokes. Whereas we just introduce things and forget them immediately. I think I was picturing something more akin to Pee Wee's Playhouse. That's better. That would be better than Morning Drive. Yeah, well then then I chose an appropriate voice. Should we do tidbits this week or should we like do crank calls? Ooh, I like that. Let's do it. But we can't crank call anyone because everyone can see who's calling. It doesn't matter. it'd be like, I know it's the tidbits, guys. I crank call people all the time who call me. That's the best way to do it. My nephews have taken to doing something I loved doing all my life, which is menacing telemarketers who call into their phone. Yeah, that's great.
00:02:02
Speaker
That's a good one. I think menacing is ah a bit of a strong word, though. It sounds like- Menacing. Menacing. Hey, would you like to buy a insurance for your car? Would you like to buy a insurance for your life? Yeah, menacing is not the right word. It's something more akin to... Giving a hard time. Mildly annoying. Giving them the the old runaround. Squadron, they're ticks and they're tucks. I sure do love giving the old runaround. So listen, i've had we had a couple of pieces of the mail this week. oh Too bad we didn't get one complete one. Then maybe we could read it. oh Well, like I did have a number of people saying that mine was the most interesting, and I really wanted to bring that up. I think the the proof that it's not true is I forget what yours was.
00:02:36
Speaker
Could you remind me? ah It was about Gene Roddenberry, Can't Fly a Plane. Oh, yeah. the The story that I supposedly heard before that. Maybe I did hear it and just forgot because it didn't interest me that No, you heard it. I told it to you. Ugh. forget it oh the big buddies we have a listener down in melbourne florida who would like to know did we steal mailbag from blues clues i've never watched blues clues mike did you steal mailbag from blues clues i think the concept of mailbag is fairly uh broad broad lot to be I like Blue's Clues just fine, though. No problem with Blue's Clues. I'm not anti-Blue's Clues. Better than whatever that Australian dog show is. Now you're just trying to be inflammatory. as Everyone knows Bluey is the voice of our generation. Everyone knows.
00:03:18
Speaker
Don't you got me got me through some tough times. We had a a cheerobic cheerobic cherubic cherubic cherub like we had a cherub like young lad here in Jacksonville who wrote into the show telling us because he thought it was important that all of us know in Fortnite. All you need to do is hold down the E to revive someone. And if we had just done that, if we just that. I didn't know that. think you had to go to like a special like car.
00:03:41
Speaker
if you if if they're If they're still crawling around, then we hit the E button. If they expire, they turn into a little data card. Then we bring them to a truck and can revive them using some ne necromancy and science to create a new body. Lord Sauron just shows up. um The most common piece of feedback we got in the mailbag. It is not that Gaz has been demonstrating the sexiest voice. But the feedback we got from the last episode was that Marisa had a particularly sexy voice. And it was all women who told me this. So that means it's true because women know what's sexy in other women better than we do somehow. And I just thought that was worth mentoring. You've been. you've beenur her yes i don't like that. I think I probably have like kind of a nasally voice. The most nasally voice of things Well, the good thing is they can't see the the weird, primous face you make. So I say I sound whiny to myself, but i do I sound whiny to you guys too? No, no, Rob. You sound, no, not whiny. I think the tone of your voice is not whiny, but the words that were just coming out of your mouth were. Do I sound whiny, guys? That's true. That's true. Hey, I moved my microphone closer because i was ah the last piece of mail was that apparently my microphone was too far. I've told you that many times. Yeah, but people were actually saying my voice was too soft, which is literally the first time in my life I've heard that kind of feedback. And I didn't like it. Yeah. Now I'm right up on the mic. We need to get a producer. Isn't Rob the producer? I'm the producer. does Someone needs to come in. Okay. sure
00:05:04
Speaker
What do you think should, what do you think Rob should be doing as the producer? Well, I'm just saying a lot of our
Production Insights and Anxiety
00:05:09
Speaker
mailbag feedback is about like our technical issues. but Mike, you mail bag you have had at least two that I could think of successful long running pod. That's true. Who is the producer on the, uh, me. sure Okay. So then now you're the producer. No.
00:05:24
Speaker
Rob produces. I don't love editing. I kind of do love editing, though, because you guys are funny. And like, there's things that I catch in the editing process that I don't catch. I don't like that. That implies you're not listening to us while we're recording. I think I do i have like a smidge of anxiety before I do my tidbit. And then once I get my tidbit done, there's like a sense of relief. And then I'm like, so what I'm saying is when you if you go before me, I'm not paying attention. But if you come after me, undivided attention. So yeah, if we go first, you're just doing pushups, getting ready for your tidbit, doing your jumping jacks. good but
00:05:58
Speaker
I'm going to put the dice in the tidbit tower. One is Mike. Two is Gaz. Three is me. Four is Mike. Two is Gaz. Gaz, you go. All
Gazbot's Tidbit: The DARE Program
00:06:05
Speaker
right. did not want to go first. Gaz is the first one to do a tidbit. Woo!
00:06:09
Speaker
That's me. I feel unprepared, even though I should. um I actually put a lot of work into it, but I feel like I didn't do a good job retaining a lot of the specific facts. So what you're going to get is literally what that was about. the food Yeah. No, no, no. no You're going to get the main facts, but there's a lot of supporting details that I might get slightly, you know, like i'm I'm omitting a lot and kind of just going to give you the idea. But do make apart people don't come to us for news. They should.
00:06:32
Speaker
couple of years ago, maybe maybe eight years ago, I'm going for a bike ride. I'm stirring my honey into my tea. So fully- Remember when you said you couldn't pay attention until you did your tidbit? Are you trying to prove your point?
00:06:44
Speaker
It's undivided, guys. It's undivided. Are we allowed to curse on here? No. yeah Fuck. Now you have to edit that. ah So couple years ago, I was going for a bike ride and I stopped- near a Starbucks, they had a table up front and had a guy with a shirt that said DARE. And he had these little signup sheets and he had this thing and he was collecting names for interest in the DARE program. Do you guys remember the DARE program? The drug thing, right? Yeah. Yes. It stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education. I believe i hadn't heard of Darren Weil and he was saying, yeah, it kind of hasn't been around, but they're kind of revamping it and bringing it back. And I just thought it was an odd thing. Step back from that.
00:07:17
Speaker
This was probably around 2009 or shortly thereafter, because in 2009, Darren was like kind of back. They're like, hey, we're back. And they were rebranding themselves. And the curriculum was rebranded to not focus solely on drugs anymore. was about bullying and you know making good choices in your life. and And drugs was part of it, but it wasn't the main focus. And the reason they were rebranding it is because somewhere in like the late 90s, early 2000s, they lost their funding. So they continued with like private funding and things like that, but they lost their government funding because if you go back a little further, in the late 90s, early two thousand s numerous studies had come out, government reports, independent studies, like so many, like 20 of them.
00:07:54
Speaker
And they were all like, D.A.R.E. doesn't work. D.A.R.E. doesn't keep kids off drugs. Sometimes it makes them more likely to do drugs because introducing concepts they maybe wouldn't have thought of. It is as much of a failure as it could possibly be. It was a huge waste of money that got the exact opposite effect that they wanted. And of course, we've all seen the kids ironically wearing D.A.R.E. shirts as they smoke a joint and things like that. And that wasn't just the one kid we knew. That was everybody.
00:08:14
Speaker
This program was a huge failure. Go back a little further. It started 1983 officially. Now, when it started, it was started by a guy named Daryl Glass, and he was the chief of Los Angeles police for about 14 years. So, okay, that it started from a good place. But no, not really, because ah in the 70s is when he was tasked to to take on the question of drugs. And before the D.A.R.E. program, he had a program that was basically like 21 Jump Street, where he was sending undercover cops into schools without telling anybody. It wasn't like, hey, we're here to talk talk about drugs. We pretended to be students and were essentially spies. And they weren't really deterring kids from doing drugs so much as catching thieves and and setting people up and like busting people for like really low level offenses. And it was this bizarre child spy network he built in all these schools. And when eventually people said, that's not moral or legal, stop doing that. He said, I'm going to do dare.
00:09:00
Speaker
And that'll that'll help keep my fingers in all these schools. And we'll say it's anti-drugs, but that's, you know, kind of half the reason. He really just wanted to keep his spy network going. Before he did his program, others had done programs like this. Teachers and intellectuals and scholars had gone to schools to talk to kids about it. And before D.A.R.E. was ever even thought of, it had been proven, again by studies, that it doesn't work. And so their thing was, well, it's only because it wasn't cops. Now that it's cops, it'll work. But they knew almost immediately it wasn't working and just covered it up. Paid people to cover it up. Threatened people. I don't know. Just anything they could do where they just kept burying these stories so kept getting funding it. What was the goal? Well, one goal was money making because there's also a multi-level marketing aspect to it because off-duty police officers, this was like a second and job to them where they can make a few bucks because when you're a DARE officer, you buy like a pack of the shirts and the the materials and you get a sticker for your car and you want to get other officers in the town over and they're kind of in your downline a little bit. So I'm not saying every officer who did this was doing it for that reason, but there was an element of multi-level marketing. too There was also an element of, again, spying. There was an element of, at some point they had the kids, there was like an anonymous Dropbox where it was like a tip line and kids were ratting out their own parents. So they had like, you know, children ratting out their parents for drug use, which sometimes resulted in their parents going to jail. And then the children had no home. And so because their parent was smoking pot, now they're in the juvenile system because now they have like, it's madness. Just madness. There's nothing good about it. You know, like it's it's it's money making. It's corruption. It's power plays. You know, i i don't doubt there are some people involved, especially on the lower levels that are just like, I just want to help the kids. But as a system, it was flawed from its inception. And this police chief that started at Gates, he also he created the SWAT team.
00:10:39
Speaker
Same person created dere created the SWAT team. And you might be like, okay, well, but that was specifically in response to the Watts uprisings in the 60s. And like right after that, is we need SWAT teams to put down these people, these people being civil rights protesters, essentially.
00:10:53
Speaker
He became chief of police after his mentor and friend the previous chief of police was let go because he was well known for being a racist and having these blue line policies so it was like he was kind of pushed out because of his horrible agenda and it was inherited by Daryl who then is like okay we want SWAT teams and spies in schools and eventually he toned it down to be the dare program yeah fuck there Follow-ups. Follow-up, Mike. You said, when did you see the Dare was back? It was maybe 10 years ago. Well, I'm glad that it's back because it is funny when the kids smoke a joint wearing their Dare shirt. Ha ha! So that there's more supply for their shirts. I have a follow-up. I think it was in graduate school that I read about this, but you're 100% right. Like, it was a massive failure, and it probably did more harm than good. There was one thing they cited where these people would go in to talk to kids in, like, the auditorium about drugs, and they'd have, like, this see-through kind of case that they'd open up, and they'd like, this is cocaine. This is what marijuana looks like. And the kids would be like, wait, can I see the marijuana? Wait, can I see the cocaine?
00:11:53
Speaker
What is what does that do for you? Well, it makes you feel really hyped up and you feel good for a little while. And they're like, OK, that's all we need to know. right We're going to ask for cocaine now. And yeah, it's like there was a direct correlation there. And like sometimes those kits got stolen at schools because then they're like these big suitcases full of drugs that just got cases got stolen. I think you said the kids got stolen. like, what? No, that's yeah, that's lesss funny. like Marijuana sounds fun and the kid disappears. That's a good one. I'm going to roll the die. who goes next. And it's me.
Mike's Tidbit: Mark Twain's Letters from the Earth
00:12:23
Speaker
I go next. That means he'll pay attention to yours, Mike. Yeah, I'm going pay attention to yours, Mike. I'm a little worried that mine is a little depressing, but it's an interesting tidbit. I'm going to just go with it. I've been on a Mark Twain kick. I've been kind of like, hey, I've got to read more books and spend less time on screens. And I thought, Mark Twain, he's generally recognized as a proto-humanist writer. He's a funny fuck. And so I've been reading him. So I thought i started thinking, like can I do a tidbit about Mark Twain? And He was born in 1835 when Haley's Comet came him around and then he died in 1910 just as it came back around. That's not much of a tidbit. um He also... That's a sub-tidbit. That's a sub-tidbit. That's like a Mike tidbit. And then he has like... He was just... Like catching strays over here. He's this brilliant man. And he sunk his entire fortune into this typesetter that was going to revolutionize printing, but it didn't. it was a massive failure. He lost all of his life. Like he was, you know, he was a hugely successful writer, even in his day. And he lost all his money. And it's funny because he wrote a book called The Prince and the Pauper. And he lived both lives. In bit number two. what my tidbit is actually about, though, is the the book that I'm reading is called Letters from the Earth.
00:13:28
Speaker
And it was his last book. published in, I'm sorry, he it wasn't published. It was written in 1909. It wasn't published until 1962. His daughter had hid the book because she felt it was too blasphemous. So that should pique your interest, right? It's 116 years old. So I think it's okay to spoil it a little bit, Gaz. Is that okay with you, Gaz?
00:13:48
Speaker
I think you could describe it without spoiling it All right. So here's the setup. Satan is temporarily banished from heaven and sent to Earth. And he's observing humanity in letters that he's sending to Michael and Gabriel, where he's basically describing how ridiculous human behavior, religion and society is with just cynical amazement. It is funny. He was thrown out for mocking God's creation of humanity, how they're flawed, absurd, and hypocritical and imperfect. So it's not like the traditional story of how he's thrown out for hubris for kind of wanting to challenge God. It's more that he is kind of thinking critically and kind of finding fault with God's creation, us. He's a rationalist. and he's questioning what he's seeing. And each letter from Satan is about a different absurdity of human existence, especially about the contradictions between what people say they believe about God and goodness and morality and how they actually behave. He notes how humans are arrogant enough to believe the universe was made for us, foolish enough to think that humans understand their creator and they're self-destructive enough to and engage in war and invent new ways of suffering and greed and lust and pride, all while describing themselves as peaceful, as divine, as the chosen species. And it's really cynical, but it's funny. And to me, here's what makes makes this a tidbit. Like any great work of fiction, the writer creates a character who is essentially a mouthpiece for the writer. And Satan is Mark Twain. So if you think about where tween Twain was, this was his last book. It's very late in his life. and Twain had, he'd grown up deeply religious. He'd had a really pretty good life. He he was a family man. He loved his his family. But the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune had taken their toll on him. While he grew up deeply religious, he found himself in a great deal of grief and questioning the logic of this divine plan. As I said before, he lost all his money. He was humiliated by that. People in the press made fun of it. He was embarrassed, of course. He lost his wife to illness. She got sick and died. He buried three of his four children in quick succession. His one surviving daughter, Clara, the one who eventually publishes this book, she married and moved away. So he was alone. He was old. He was emotionally hollowed out. And he wasn't just mourning people. He was mourning meaning itself.
00:15:59
Speaker
So like Satan, he's having these experiences of feeling cast out because he's talking about the absurdity of loss and And instead of provoking sympathy in others, it provokes discomfort in others, and they start kind of shunning him. And he starts openly criticizing religion because of this, and he starts talking about how religion values obedience over truth.
00:16:19
Speaker
And he's challenging exactly what Satan was challenging of heaven. Twain's wit becomes his own tool for emotional regulation. He can't reconcile the pain of loss with the idea of a benevolent god, so he reframs it as absurdity.
00:16:35
Speaker
And this is kind of what's great about the book. It's it's funny, but it's there's an ache underneath it all. Satan ridicules human vanity, our need to feel chosen. It kind of reflects Satan's feeling of cosmic abandonment. Satan calls heaven joyless and colorless and absent of all the joys of earthly pleasures, and it's twain mourning earthly pleasures, family dinners, laughter, love. When Satan describes humanity's cruelty and hypocrisy and self-deception, he's also describing his own disillusionment with society. A man who had once believed in moral progress and democracy, watching the world slide into cynicism and just war after war after war. um But what's fun to me, the silver lining here, is that it's kind of an act of defiance from Twain. It's not a tragedy that he's writing. He's writing a satire. It's still funny. He's laughing in the face of despair. Satan has a dark sense of humor, and that's coming from Twain's mindset. Twain had once in another book said the secret source of humor is not joy but sorrow. And if that's true, I think that's why this might be one of, it's my favorite of his books. It's certainly not as profound as Huck Finn. But it's fun. And I also think it's great that in that satirical take, there's a poignant undercurrent where it's clear he still cares about humanity. He's finding all these faults, but it's because he believes in the potential of humanity. And that's where the proto-humanism kind of comes in. ah He's angry, but he's angry because he loved humanity. He loves humanity deeply. Even in his anger, he can't look away or ignore humanity instead of he just kind of keeps observing and trying to understand us.
00:18:08
Speaker
And that impulse, I think, is an act of empathy. Satan writes home about humans as a way of kind of saying, i still think this species is worth studying, worth talking about, because maybe there's something to it.
00:18:21
Speaker
And it's compassion disguised as cynicism, or or maybe at least compassion ah buried under cynicism. And I think behind every overtly cynical man hides one who still hopes humanity will surprise him.
00:18:34
Speaker
And that's my tidbit. That's nice. Was the nice or was it really depressing? I thought it might be little That's depressing at all. I did feel like I wanted to read the book, but now I feel like, ah, he summed it up. I don't need to read it. But the whole point of reading a great author is that I'm not going to do him justice. Yeah, i think I think Mark Twain's version is probably better. Maybe. I think that's true. Probably longer. I think understanding where Mark Twain was in his life makes it even more worth reading. Was this after he met Data and Guinan or before? Ha ha ha.
00:19:03
Speaker
ah This was after that. That's a good reference to Star Trek The Next Generation episode titled Times Arrow Parts 1 and 2. It's important that that gets it put in every episode. that For sure. Not an episode goes by without a talking about a show from 30 years ago. true I did not know those things about Mark Twain's personal life. Yeah, it's sad, right? you know It's always interesting to know, to think about like how people who are obviously like, you know, one of the more famous American writers, obviously very important person. It's interesting to know that they had their own troubles and it wasn't all like being fated and, ah you know, celebrated all the time. know, bad things happen too. But that's not interesting. I did not even know that book existed. Same. I did not know. It only came out in 1962. And so it doesn't, it doesn't have like the longstanding part of American lore yeah like like his other works.
00:19:49
Speaker
Anyway, any other feedback? Are guys ready for Mike? I got another follow-up. Remember when we lived together, Rob, and you had a box set of Mark Twain audiobooks on cassette? No, I don't. I totally don't. That's great because because I borrowed it from you and I never gave it back. So it's good that you don't remember. I want it back, though. That sounds great.
00:20:08
Speaker
I don't know where it is. I think the three of us should do audio recordings of Mark Twain's work. Yep. Oh, Gaz should. He's got the good voice. I want to mention my sister has recently gotten into doing some audio book work. She's got a nice voice, and they're asking her to give her money to read books into a microphone and then sell it, which I think is great. You're saying that like that's a job she invented. That's that's the thing people have done long No, I know she hasn't invented it. And I know, Gaz, you've had some voiceover work. Not much. Really? mean, maybe you don't have it, but does Mr. Cauliflower over there in the corner? What is happening? I don't know. I'm trying to get you to do another character to show you can do voiceover work. Actually, I'll give you, okay, here's a voice actor thing. Mike, years ago, worked at a company, I don't remember what it's called, but it was like an educational computer animation company. And I came in and was doing storyboards. And at some point, I got to do some voices for some of the characters. And it was a big deal to me. I had to take very seriously. was in the booth and him and Chris were like, give me direction on these characters. And you know, normal things, a little louder, slow it down, a little more intensity, whatever. And it was just like, okay, now say it real as fast as you can. Okay, now say it, but stop in the middle. Okay, now say it laughing. Now say it crying. it was, okay, try singing it and everything. And I was doing it as best I could every single time. And then we were done. And apparently they were just laughing at me. They were just telling me to do dumb stuff and laughing their heads up. I was earnestly trying my best to fulfill my directors. I don't think that was me doing that. That may have been the other people working there. remember you laughing about it. Maybe you weren't the booth, but you definitely laughed about it. Well, does sound funny.
Mike's Tidbit: The Wolfman and Werewolf Lore
00:21:33
Speaker
Mike, you ready to hit us with your tidbit? Yeah, I feel a little bit unprepared. I started getting at the tidbits. Mark Twain was born when Halley's Comet first flew by. It died when it came by the second time. Thanks for listening, everybody. have a quick thing about werewolves. Yeah, love werewolves.
00:21:52
Speaker
just a quick thing. In 1902, there was a poem called The Wolf written by someone called H. Levy. It tells the story of a shuttle in Ukraine that was ravaged by Ukrainian pogrom, and the only survivor of the pogrom was the rabbi. And he was stricken with grief. He ran into the woods. A new ah Jewish village sprung up, but they would hear cries and howls coming from the woods, and he became a wolf. Came back and forth into the village and so on. End of the poem is he he gets killed. And as as he gets killed, he he turns back into a rabbi wearing his fur hat. um And he's happy to have been freed of the curse. Also in 1902, was born screenwriter and novelist. His name was Kurt Seodmacht.
00:22:35
Speaker
And he was born in 1902 in Germany. And he was, as I said, he was a writer. But in 1937, the Nazis were coming to power and he got out of Germany, i went to elsewhere in Europe for a little bit and eventually headed to Hollywood, where he started writing motion pictures. And he wrote some Invisible Man movie. And then he wrote The Wolfman. And I've never actually seen The Full Wolfman. don't know you guys have ever seen it, but I've seen bits of it here and there. um But there's a couple of things that he brought to that movie that have sort of become part of ah werewolf lore. The concept of a full moon, a full moon turning you to a werewolf that comes from the movie The Wolfman. This is a movie that stars, was it Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, the concept of the pentagram, the sign of the wolf, the pentagram. and also the concept of the silver bullet. and There's a little bit of a connection to Judaism also with the silver bullet, silver meaning something like pure um in Judaism, and the silver also being used to create a lot of Judaica, like, you know, the stuff that you would might buy in a Judaica store, things that you might want. So there's there's a connection of silver there. So I never saw The Wolfman, but I feel a little bit familiar with it because one of my favorite movies of all time is American Werewolf in London, which I know you guys have have seen. Yeah, watched it with you. you i think I want to say in college, you're like, hey, let's watch it. It was great. Yeah, I watched i watched it many, many times. um The reason I watch it so many times, just real quick, this is a tidbit aside. When I was a little kid growing up in England, my grandmother owned one movie on VHS tape, and that was an American werewolf in London. it the television I've seen it millions of times because it was like all we had ever put on it. And that is the most Jewish ah werewolf movie possible. and The characters are Jewish. David Kessler um and his friend Jack, they're from like Long Island. They're like Long Island kids in the 80s. I mean, they were in their early 20s at the time. They're wandering. They're wandering. They have no home. They're strangers in a strange land. They're out of their own community. However, they do fit in because you can't quite tell, um you know, the, the, This is some thematically with the werewolf that you don't actually sort of know who may be a werewolf or not, you know, and it's some so that's thematically connected to Judaism. But that movie, I don't know if you remember it that well, his Judaism comes into it quite specifically. They talk about it in various scenes. They talk about him being circumcised. They discuss kids back home. what Jack's got a crush on Debbie Klein. And more like less subtle is, i don't know if you recall, throughout the movie, he has a lot of ah like nightmares. Nightmarish like dreams of him becoming like a wolf. And one of them includes the only scene that takes place at his family life back in America. He's home with his ah brother and sister. the watching the Muppet show with his parents. And Nazis, wolf Nazis, burst into the house, house murder everybody, burn the house down. And what the subtext of the movie is really about is survivor guilt. Jonathan Landis is a Jewish American born in 1950 in the wake of the Holocaust. Survivor guilt would have been something and it is something that, you know, many Jewish people, Jewish Americans growing up in the late 20th century were dealing with. And in that movie, David's best friend is killed, Jack, um but he basically can't let go of the memory of him. He deals with the guilt of having survived him. And is also like other little things like such as in the beginning, they go to this, ah the slaughtered lamb like pub and they are thrown out by the villagers and the villagers say, we didn't want them. We didn't ask them to come. It's sort of this sort of subtext of like wandering people, these sort of refugees without a home.
00:25:48
Speaker
And the reason I bring this all up is to get to my tidbit, which is, did you ever see 30 Rock? Yeah. There's a quick little joke in 30 Rock called Werewolf Bar Mitzvah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
00:26:03
Speaker
Tracy Morgan. Always becoming men. Men becoming wolves. Exactly. And I just, my tidbit is that that little skit fits into a tradition of Judaism and the werewolf story and lore because there's been a lot of it and it's part of it. So just when next time you watch that episode of 30 Rock, think on that. Gaz. Yes. you have any, uh, any, um, what do we call it again? Feedback? Why can't I remember that word? you're supposed to be paying attention. You're already done. No, I was. I was paying really good attention. I'm going show you. Yeah, I love that movie. i I mean, I knew the characters were Jewish, but i obviously didn't know or or think about the the bigger imagery. So that's very interesting. um And I was more concerned with like, oh, yeah, The Muppet Show was on TV and Frank Oz was in that movie and he's a Muppet. Frank Oz was in that movie twice um because he plays Kermit the Frog, and then he's also one of the investigators when they visit David in hospital. Frank Oz doesn't play Kermit the Frog. He plays Miss Piggy. What?
00:26:59
Speaker
Frank Oz does not play Kermit the Frog. Well, whatever. i'm just You're stepping on the other part that's interesting by like just being pedantic about who plays... You didn't listen to me. I said, he's the Muppets are on and Frank Oz is in the movie as another character. And you go, Frank Oz is the movie as another character. Oh, I guess I wasn't listening, but i was so excited. Yeah, so he's in it twice because one of the Muppets he does do the voice for maybe says something as well. So we're all still right.
00:27:24
Speaker
Yeah. Yes, he does. Well, it is a fantastic movie. It's one of the best. mean, it's a fantastic horror comedy. And yeah, should enjoy it. It's top 10 for me, for sure. When did Werewolf in London come out? 3? Yeah, early So it would have been definitely the early 80s. The Wolfman movie I learned was not the first Wolfman movie. There was actually one called Wolves of London, which I don't really know much of anything about. Wolfman was then, you know, the one that was more popular. Wolves of London wasn't popular. And that was like the I never saw Wolfman.
00:27:49
Speaker
um I did see American Werewolf in London, but now I want to watch it again. It's amazing. I watched it like a year ago. it's I think we should have a viewing. We should we should arrange ah a viewing here in the Tidbits Tower. That should be the next episode. We'll just watch it. I'm in. I'm in. Yeah. Absolutely. and i wait i wanted I have a follow-up. Follow-up. I have a follow-up. My follow-up is to prove to you I was paying attention, I learned a new word.
00:28:13
Speaker
Judaica. Oh. Yeah. That's new thing. that just... Jewish artifacts. That's kind it's like like it's the same stuff as like Christian people go by like crosses and candles and things like your Judaica is like it. You know, your menorahs and don't know. You know, I get it what was the word in the um poem that you said you were like that the village was destroyed or something, but you didn't use a different word for it. Like a shuttle. That was also what I did not know. You said two words I did not know.
00:28:37
Speaker
Uh, yes. Uh, I mean, maybe, maybe used, pronounced it wrong. Shettle, schedule, schedule. I don't know what that is. You know the word pogrom? No. Oh, that was the other word I didn't know. Pogrom. So I've been married to a Jewish person for 25 years, which is about half my life now. So I guess I forget that we don't just all know these things. assumed but I'm not making fun of you. i want it I want you to educate me. No, I'm saying that I like i just don't remember that these things are like you know just like commonly used, like throwing around words. But I do love that i'm in the movie they talk about- Are still not going to tell me what they mean? you keep laughing, but I want you to tell me what they mean. No, we did the voice of Kermit the Frog. ah
00:29:16
Speaker
Shuttle, I think, means village. Pogrom is what, you know, is a word for when like the Russians, in this case, it was a Ukrainian society when like the czarist armies would go into Jewish villages and like kill everybody. Like the Holocaust was not the first time that these things had happened. So pogroms are like an Eastern European. um You know, that's why a lot of ah European Jews came to America and that sort of turned the century period. all the pogroms happening in eastern europe and russia so that's why you got all the you know ellis island coming to america type stuff like the american tale that's what happens in american tale doesn't it there's a pogrom isn't there isn't that uh i don't you that is a cartoon you should have it at your fingertips i it had fievel and then later they did fievel goes west and somewhere out there under the pale moonlight i remember the movie it was a don bluth film it was a good movie but i don't remember in the beginning if they used the term pogrom But I think that's why the carrot that's why the mouse leaves. This has been a very well, like very... ah Well, it is kind of
Tidbit Vote and Conclusion
00:30:07
Speaker
a depressing... like i like that we all had really happy tidbits. You can't get kids off drugs. Mark Twain was alone when he died, and the Jewish people are oppressed forever. yeah's where we're at.
00:30:19
Speaker
Well, let's let's vote because I have an idea for whoever wins. What if it's a tie? That can happen. Mike, what's your vote? What's your vote? I'll with ah but with Rob because I might check out that book. Yeah, it's worth the read. It's fun. Gad. I'm actually torn because I am legit. I like Mark Twain and I am interested in reading that book. But almost everything Mike said I was unfamiliar with despite being like a werewolf fan and knowing that movie. I didn't ever really realize how much was connected with Judaism. Werewolf fan. I am. Werewolf's my favorite monster. That's awesome. That's awesome. I really feel like I could have guessed that, but I don't think I knew that. I like how you were so derisive. Like, oh, you're a fan of werewolves? Yeah, exactly now but why can't I fucking am. I mean, I've known you for decades, and ah i I did not know werewolf. I did a four-page story all about how I used to pray to Satan to make me a werewolf when I was kid.
00:31:09
Speaker
I thought you were tied together very well, all the tidbits. Yes. I'm going to vote for Mike, though. i am Yours was good, Rob, but I am go to vote for me yeah you never vote for me, Gaz. I've noticed this. You never vote for me. That's all right. I'm going to vote for Mike because I like him better. Mike, you made it mean. i don't I don't like him better. I like you better, but I liked his tidbit better. That's funny.
00:31:29
Speaker
I'll take that. I like the tidbit. Gaz, I liked yours, but I knew yours. And kind of like why you went with Mike, I feel like I didn't know Mike's story. And it makes me want to go back and watch An American Werewolf in London. So I think that makes Mike the winner. And Mike, winnerner what that means, you get to choose one of us and you choose what the subject matter of our next next tidbit is going to be. Gaz has to do a tidbit on maps.
00:31:55
Speaker
He was so fast, he knew what he was gonna say. How did you, what, how did, how, oh. I'm so glad you didn't say werewolves because you know he's got a bunch of tidbits about werewolves. It's his favorite monster. It's all he talks about. And maps are his favorite useful tool. white wolfve sp Maps is the inverse of werewolves.
00:32:12
Speaker
He prayed to Satan to not make him move. Yes! All right, guys, that was a good tidbit. Thanks for joining us here in the Tidbits Tower, everybody. All right, that was great, Trey.
00:32:24
Speaker
Okay, it's over. That's a wrap. Oh, spooky scary once we can't
00:32:36
Speaker
spooky scary pun we becomet make men they becominging wolves all right that was that was great trey okay it's over that's a wrap