Good Job, Brain! - 132: Happy Halloween! #2

Episode Date: October 31, 2014

Sugar up *your* skulls with our Halloween trivia-riffic episode filled with brain candy: vampires vaahhhnt to suck your blaaahhhhhd, but why do they hate garlic? Who's Ben Cooper and why should you thank him for your crappy childhood costume? Take our Halloween TV episode title quiz, and a horror movie challenge, and learn about how Halloween came to be. (Please share your crappy childhood costumes in the comments on our site.) ALSO: 1960's Jeopardy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast. Hello, Druids, dragons, dreadlords, Dramedaries, and dryads. Welcome to Good Job Brain. It's a D&D kind of themed. Good job, Brain, your weekly quiz show and offbeat trivia podcast. This is episode 132, and of course, I'm your humble host, Karen, and we are your Oudel of Mughals, Final Fantasy, who like to Google and eat strudels, noodles, and snickerdoodles. I'm Colin.

I'm Dana. And I'm Chris. Snicker doles twice in a row. That's okay. Cougals? We also had. Yeah. All quite tasty.

Strudel, all good stuff. Fruitles. That's not a word. No, yeah, it's like fruit noodles. What? Yeah, because zoodles are Zucchini noodles. You're just making stuff up now.

Where do you get fruit noodles? Fruitles is a thing. Yeah, you make it out of coconut. Huh. Really? Yeah, it's like low carb, you know, like you can shave like strings of coconut. I believe you. They're fruitles.

Or any, I guess you can use it melon. I don't know. Melon or, I don't know. Fruodles, you know, you know. Quick listener shout out to Ryan Colleen, who are my teammates on Mouse Adventure. their good job brain listeners and earlier this year they invited me to join their team of a special puzzle hunt in Disneyland.

A lot of fun spring. That is so right up your alley. They didn't know who they asked. You know what? They're bigger trivia and puzzle and Disney nerds. I am impressed by their youth in vigor. Yes. So we just had our fall mouse adventure and it's Halloween themed.

It's a candy theme. So quick shout out to Ryan Colleen. Awesome. We are the team. Dull Whippets. All right. Oh, we're a little loopy today. All right.

Without further ado, let's jump into our first general trivia segment. Pop Quiz, Hot Shot. It's another card for the picture. It has a picture. I feel like they have pictures with more frequency recently. Well, because this card has a picture on it, we decided to scrap it. And Chris... We always have a backup plan.

The Trivial Pursuit card fails, and it's called 60s Jeopardy. Yay. We've pulled the trivia ripcord for the emergency shoot. It is a copy of the Jeopardy Home Game from the 1960s found here in a Berkeley flea market, and I have an entire Jeopardy category for you. We really, I'm telling you, we really have to dig through this thing to find usable categories. So what are some of the things you pass by? Oh, well, one of the categories on this sheet I'm looking at is the 50s.

In December 1950, he was made the head of NATO forces. Okay. You know, things everybody would know. Man. At his death in 1958, Ron Callie succeeded him. I don't know. Man. What's the answer?

The answers to those are... Westmoreland? The first one was, what position did Dwight Eisenhower? Oh, gosh. And the second was the death of Pope Pius the 12th. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure. Sure it is.

Here's one I think you're going to be okay with, though. The category is foreign phrases. All right. For a whopping $20. Okay. Because this is double jeopardy. Meaning of the Latin reminder, Tempus Fuget. Oh, what does that mean?

It's on our money and stuff, too. Time is a fugitive. Well, there's a pyramid with an eyeball on the dot. But I have no idea with that That's neither here nor there Tempice Fuget Tempice Time

Time What is Fuget Runs away Times flies Time flies Oh I didn't say that I just didn't buzz in And I didn't say what is

I mean there were so many ways I was wrong That's right All right no points on the board For $40 Enthusiasmatic cheer That is typically Spanish Karen What is Olai

What is Olai That is, yes, yes, indeed. It's like, ay caramba. For $60. How one says in French, I do not know. Karen. What is jeansepa. Jean-Asepa.

Eighty dollars, popular Mexican song whose name means beautiful sky. Oh. Popular Mexican song. Oh, it's, um. His name means beautiful sky. Colin. What is Sielo Lindo? Sialito Lindo.

Sialito Lindo. Yeah, there we go. Little Sky. I was going to say it was like cucaracha. Yeah, that's what I thought it was going to be. And I was like, it doesn't mean beautiful sky. That means beautiful sky. Sialito Lindo.

Finally, for the big all hundred dollar question, German word for the spirit of the time. Dana. Oh, what is zeitgeist. What is zeitgeist? Oh, that's what it means. Spirit of the time. I thought it was a place of beer.

Time goes. It's a beer garden. A beer garden. A beer garden. A beer garden. That is, of course, yes, the name of a beer garden in San Francisco. It's the spirit of the time. Yes, good job on 60s Jeopardy, everybody. Thank you, Chris, for subbing in.

No problem. All right, this week, while we're nearing a very special time of the year. That's right. It's going to be Halloween. Halloween. Get us a there, man. Trick or treat, we're passing out the brain candy Hey, hey, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, you don't mean this, right?

Just kidding, right? Just kidding, just kidding. I know what's a joke? I'm laughing, right? You're losing your head. I mean, I'm losing my head. Oh! They know what they want to do, say what they want to say, live how they want to live, play, play, dance

how they want to play, dance, dick, and they stop afraid. Before we do anything, I think we should talk about the origins of Halloween And where did Halloween come from? And why is it called Halloween? And isn't that a kind of a weird name? And let's just cover us. Let's get it all out of the way. All hollows Eve.

That's why I know. Sure, sure, exactly. It's a religious thing. The Ian is for like evening, right? Yeah. So it all starts with S-A-N, that is S-A-M-H-A-N, pronounced Salat Gaelic

It doesn't look like it It never looks like it It never looks like it sounds Sam Hain Yeah it looks like Sam Hain Sam Hame Great old Irish festival Going back

Just to pre Like before recorded written History The end of the harvest Beginning of Winter Festival Let's eat all the apples It's not eat all the apples A lot of them

Dumb because winter's coming up But one last party Before it gets super cold. Before the depression hits. And this is celebrated, has been celebrated around October 31st, November 1st. Like the evening of October 31st, on into November 1st. So it's not like a lunar thing.

It's like it's those dates. Right, right, right. Right around there. It is old, very old. So in addition to the, hey, let's celebrate while it's not snowing, you have the sort of very old belief, probably very like held over from old religions that around, Right around this time, this is when the fairies or the spirits may be able to cross over from their world into our world. And maybe you're going to see that alternately, maybe the souls of the dead would show up and come back, that sort of thing. Kind of a supernaturally kind of vibe.

Yeah, right, right, right, right. This was interesting. The fairies, they called them the ishi. That's A-O-S-I. Again, never, never sounds like what it's called like. The ishi. And so, of course, then you have the different kinds of she or her. fairies.

Banshee? Yeah, exactly. So you have Banshee, which just means woman spirit. Oh, wow. Also, nerdier than that. Ketchi is the cat spirit, and that's, of course, the name of a character in Final Fantasy. Maybe you know, Banshee better than Ketchi, but yes, yeah. So you might leave food out for those spirits.

Centuries later, you start to see guising, as in disguising, as in dressing up as the fairies. Maybe you're trying to draw the fairies out. Maybe you're trying to disguise yourself as one of the fairies so they go away, you know, that, you know, whatever it was. So something important kind of happened in the 700s, which was the establishment of All Saints Day by the Catholic Church. They're there, as we sometimes hear about the Christian church holidays, sometimes they're established or sometimes they're shifted around to match. To match what people are already celebrating in holidays from older religions. It's like, no, no, no, why don't you celebrate our holidays? Oh, we have one that's very similar to that.

It's rebranding, essentially. Come on over, pagans. So they already had had a day celebrating all of the saints, you know, all of the holy people, you know. But it was in May, and it was in the 700s that it was kind of shifted over to the 1st of November. And that was all saints day. Not shady, but how convenient. It is convenient. That's why.

Your religion is old and busted. It's just good marketing. It's good marketing. Yeah, yeah. Yep. And so, you know, some people still celebrating Sawin. Some people are celebrating All Saints Day, etc., etc. One of the traditions that kind of had also grown up around the idea of All Saints Day was the Soul Cake, S-O-U-L, Soul Cake. Little Round Cakes baked goods. Can't really find the definitive statement on where the idea of the Soul Cakes came from. But by the time of All Saints Day, children and, you know, beggars, you know, but might go door to door. and say, hey, so it's all Saints Day. Has anybody that you know died recently? Well, they might be in purgatory,

and the way you get out of purgatory is to have, like, many people praying for you. So I will pray for your loved ones if you give me some food. Whoa. This was considered to be a good deal. So maybe the soul cakes were left out for the, you know, spirits or left, you know, or the food was left out for the spirits. But either way, they're making these cakes. So the kids go around, and now you kind of have the kids going around.

Maybe they are singing songs about soul cakes, you know, like asking for them. This is actually a very, there's a soul cake song of like Sting covered at some point on his, on his Christmas album. Whoa. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This grows into the idea of, you hear about this a lot. I mean, the kids going around on All Saints Day for Soul Cakes. And then, of course, there's, we wish you Merry Christmas, give us some figgy pudding. Carolers are going from house to house asking for food.

St. Stephen's Day celebrated in Ireland. And the kids used to go out and they kill a bird. They'd kill a wren and then bring it around. Everybody's house, St. Stephen's Day was, I believe, the day after Christmas is the 26th of the December. They'd bring it around to the houses and they'd say, no, they'd be like, we killed this bird. Give us a penny and we'll go bury him. We'll go give them a bearer. A proper bird burial.

Yeah, yeah. Be ashamed of something happened to your bird. Right. They don't actually kill a real bird anymore. But you have these traditions of just going house to house and asking for things. And not like it's either you're begging or you're a child, you know what I mean? Right. And there's some implied bargain there, some exchange of something or other.

Right. And so they're going souling, suing for soul cakes. This kind of gets folded back into Saoan. You know, everything is sort of influencing each other. People are still celebrating Saoan, but now maybe you're dressing up as a ghost and going to people's houses and asking for cakes. You know, in Mexico, they had had a similar thing, Day of the Dead, but that wasn't always October 31st, November 1st, November 2nd, but then that gets kind of shifted over to.

They give them little candy skulls now, right? Calaveritas, little, yep, yep. And that's where a lot of, right, a lot of the macab imagery really came from that tradition, right? Yeah, the skeletons. Right, right, yeah. Right, exactly. That's the idea of the dead coming back to say hi on that day.

Right, you can see how you can get to a more formalized, kind of like giving kids treats as they dress up. It was really after World War II in America, you know, because these traditions had been kind of brought over by certain immigrant communities. It didn't really take hold, but it was like, you know, following World War II in America, sugar rations and, you know, and that's kind of when like the marketing really really really like the marketing really kicks in of, you know, buying candies and stuff like that for, I mean, by the 40s, 50s in America, it was pretty solidified. I didn't want trip or treating until last like 18. Oh, really? Yeah. That's, that's, that's, that's.

I'm charming. That's old. I'm pretty charming, you guys. I can not ask for it. I'm not doubting that you got candy. I'm just saying that's kind of old. The name Halloween comes from All Saints Day. Was also called All Hallows Day.

A hollow being something that is holy, possibly a person or an object or something like that. All Saints Day. Deathly Hallows. Right, exactly. It always comes back to Harry Potter. And interestingly enough, sometimes, including in certain Shakespeare plays, All Saints Day, All Hallows Day. They would call it Hallowness.

Like Christmas. Like Christmas. Yeah. The Mass for the hollows, the hollowed things. Right. Hallomis. And so you have Christmas and Christmas Eve and Hallomis Eve or All Hallows Eve. And then eventually, probably through the Scottish language, it kind of went from Hollow's Eve to Halloween. Yeah.

Or evening. Evening. Exactly. Book Club on Monday. Jim on Tuesday. Date night on Wednesday. Out on the town on Thursday. Quiet night in on Friday.

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Maybe you do both of these at the same time Halloween becomes about horror movies And super scary stuff At least it did for me growing up No, thank you I will read the plot on Wikipedia I like that you do that yeah I want to know what happens

But it keeps you a safe distance Yeah I can't stomach the suspense And the gore and all that stuff So I have a quiz for you guys About sort of the classic 70s 80s era of the revival of slasher movies and horror films. Oh, man.

So we might be a goose egg for this one. I think you guys will do pretty well on this. These are all certified classics in the genre. Okay, all right. So get your buzzers ready. All right. We'll see how much you allowed yourself to be scared as you were growing up. Released on October 25th, 1978, this horror film is widely credited with jump-starting the slasher genre of the 70s and 80s.

Whoa, Chris. Friday the 13th. No. Halloween? It was Halloween. You didn't even bust it. I did. Yes, sort of the release date was a little bit of a clue there.

Yes, that's right, Halloween. And, you know. Starring Jamie Lee Curtis. Yes, a very young Jamie Lee Curtis. Yes, with Michael Myers, the scary killer running around. Yeah, I mean, all of that really was sort of what made Hollywood be like, oh, there's a lot of money to him made in these, you know, kind of scary. gory low budget that's right

Don't need that much lighting equipment No no lighting yes In the movie Halloween The character Michael Myers disguises himself By wearing a latex mask Of what famous actor Known for his role In a legendary sci-fi TV series

Wow Can't be William Shatner It is William Shatner It is William Shatler Yes yes I've seen this movie probably a dozen times and I never knew this until I'm researching. It was not a good mask.

It was not a great mask. Yeah, when they were searching around and this has been verified when they were searching around trying to find like a creepy mask to have him wear when he's running around with sort of the dead eyes. They had a latex mask that was made in the 60s. It was a Captain Kirk mask.

It was a rather poor Captain Kirk mask. And did they have to go through licensing? So it was funny They didn't have to go through licensing They just happened to have it around They got their hands on it for the movie They didn't officially request it or clear it in any way But when it down the road years later

When they needed repros of this They were looking around like what is this And they called the original mask manufacturers And kind of gave them the stock number He's like oh yeah that's That's a Captain Kirk mask It does not look like Captain Kirk Wow

Yeah I will never think of Does William Shatter get like like a credit, you know, or... He doesn't... I think that in later... In later editions of the movies, there may be a note there. But no, he doesn't get any royalty or anything for that

if that's what you're asking. Huh. In the movie, Friday at the 13th. And I would say that's sort of the second in the run of the slasher genre here. In the movie Friday the 13th, what was the name of the killer? Karen.

Jason. Incorrect. Chris. Jason's mom. Correct. Mrs. Jason. Mrs. Voorhees. Wait, what?

Yeah, this is a great pseudo-trick question. That's right. A lot of people forget that in the original Friday the 13th, all the killings that we saw were done by Jason's mother. Right. She had been sort of driven mad by his negligent death at Camp Crystal Lake years earlier. She did all the killings in Friday the 13th. Now, who's wearing the mask?

So let's move on to the next question. After the first movie, Jason did, in fact, become the, primary villain and killer antagonist slasher. In which installment of the Friday the 13th franchise did Jason first don the iconic hockey goalie mask? Dana. The third one. It was the third one.

Lucky number three, when in doubt. Just a guess. Yes, yes, it was not. So his Friday the 13th part two, yes, Jason, no hockey mask. Which is, you know, I mean, it's so closely as, yeah, I mean, it's even transcendent. just that movie like hockey mask now means oh serial killer slasher yeah yeah in addition to bringing us freddie kruger the movie nightmare on elm street marked the feature film debut of this teen heartthrob dana johnny dep it was johnny debb oh yes yes not one of his finest acting performances but i don't

think that's what those movies were necessarily about yeah yes yes he was uh one of the many uh teens. He did die. He did die. Those movies were so scary. And there's, you know, as many people have pointed out, there's sort of this running morality comment in a lot of these. Like, it's always the teens who have sex, who die, or all the rebel teens. You know, they'll throw in some of the good teens occasionally, too. This 1987 horror movie features sadomasochistic antagonists known as the cenobites. Oh, what was that again? This 19, read it again. This 1987 horror movie features sadomasochistic antagonists known as the cenobites. The leader of the cenobites has grid-like cuts and pins on his head.

Karen. Hellraiser. That is Hellraiser. Pinhead. Pinhead. Is he human? They're supposed to be like, they're humanoid. Their race is like, they've moved so far into the realms of pleasure and pain that they've had to modify their body.

bodies and yes. Now they just torture people. It's to show them the extremes of sensation. Yes. Do they kill the people? Do the people die? People die. Well, I guess yeah, I guess they saw the extreme. They can't do anything with that information. That was of course directed by

Clive Barker. I didn't know this. It was based on a novella that he had written actually. All the movies come out of the mythology that he wrote. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah, when you read it, it sounds more like sci-fi than it does horror. Yeah. It's like an advanced race that are here to teach you, I think.

It's really, they're just here to kill you. No. All right. Last one. Director Sam Ramey's original Evil Dead trilogy includes Evil Dead. Yes. Evil Dead 2. And this third movie in the trilogy from 1992.

Chris. Army of Darkness. Yes. Which occasionally in some markets was billed as Evil Dead 3, colon, Army of Darkness, but the official American release was just Army of Darkness. Interesting. Featuring, of course, Ash. Who's Ash?

Bruce Temple. All right, good job, guys. You guys, acquitted yourselves pretty well. So, guys, it's Halloween. I have a quick question here. How do you kill a vampire? Oh, I've heard many ways. Stake through the heart.

Stake through the heart. Exposure to the sun. Oh, yeah. The sun. I've heard there's one, like, where you have to remove their heart from the body, right, to make sure they're really dead. There are a couple, like, decap-off, yeah, decapitation. Okay, put them in running water, like in a... Holy water. Oh, just any water, yeah, or something.

They can't cross running water. Oh, right, right, right. And the silver bullets, that's different. That's werewolves. That's werewolves, okay, right, right. Also, vampires, the garlic. Garlic. Back then, in the olden times, when to ensure, corpse don't become vampire,

they would stick a clove of garlic in the mouth. Silver bullet is for the weirwolf. Right. You can also kill a werewolf by just killing them. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? But they're just super strong. Yeah.

All you got to do is pop them with a silver bow. Yeah. They're not going to raise from the dead, whereas vampires is more of a living corpse. So all of these things that we talk about to kill or to ward off monsters is called, is a type of magic or it's under the realm of apotropaeic. Hmm. Okay. Apotropaeic. Greek.

Meaning to ward off, apo, away, trapean to turn. And this is type of objects, ways, rituals to turn away harm or evil. Ward off. Yeah. They're specific things for monsters, like silver bullet for werewolves and garlic, cross, Holy Water, all that stuff are vampires. I understand Holy Water. That makes sense.

Cross makes sense. Decapitation, stake through the harm. Sure. But garlic is... That'd kill anybody. Yeah. Yeah. Garlic is so weird.

Right, yeah. It's like, do they just not like... Does it just stink so much? I'm not going to say all this research is scientific. Sure. They're theory. You didn't actually find any vampires. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, this is all hypothetical. Kind of finding out the origin of how did garlic come into play. Obviously, there are many kind of proto-vampires or different cultures have some sort of vampiric entity. But in terms of popular culture, what we know as a vampire, thanks to Bram Stoker's Dracula. That book established a lot of the tropes, the kind of archetypal vampire-y stuff. And it is mentioned in the book that garlic was used as something to ward off vampires. However, the reputation of garlic as a vampire repellent dates back in many cultures.

And it's like so weird, what is up with garlic? thing is, garlic has long been associated with health and life. I think a lot of different cultures, like I know from Asian culture, you eat garlic pills. And because of the smell or of the oil, it's used to heal a lot of wound. And this is the greatest theory. Vampirism can be seen as a kind of analogy or symbol of mosquito bites. Because it's drawn your blood, garlic, is a known herbal cure for relieving mosquito bites. So you rub it on your bite, and it doesn't, it's a natural repellent, and it doesn't. I haven't tried that.

And so, well, I mean, you smell like garlic. Right. There are other better. I mean, more than I normally do, sure, yeah. So there are, like, parallelism between mosquito drawing blood, vampire drawing blood. That's also a theory. So, you know, those are some reasons why it's not entirely random that it's garlic. Okay.

And similar to garlic, another Halloween activity is kind of stemmed from people's belief of a certain fruit or a vegetable. And that is apple bobbing. Why is apple bobbing such a big deal? Why do people do it? It's so weird. It's not fun. It's hard. That was one of those things as a kid.

I would see it. I was like, oh, it looks like so much fun. I want to do that. And the first time you do it, you're like, wait, so I'm dipping my head in a bucket of. drool-filled water. Yeah, with my mouth open. I'm trying to take a bite at something that somebody took an unsuccessful bite at before me. It's an apple, when there's tons of candy.

When an apple. Best case scenario. The other 364 days out of the year, my parents just try to get me to eat apples, and I don't. That's the win case. Because I'd rather have candy. It's a weird tradition. It doesn't really, I mean, it doesn't have to do, it doesn't seem like it has anything to do with ghosts or ghouls or the dead. or monsters.

Well, the harvest. So it is related to the harvest. Nowadays, Colin, you see, obviously, it's very unsanitary to do massive apple bobbing. Quite obviously, yes. So they do the string, they tie the apple onto a string, and then you tie your hands in the back, and you try to bite it. You look and like a chicken, basically. Pecking out. Why apple bobbing, like garlic.

The apple symbolizes a lot of. awesome things, fertility, love, and it's like, well, how did that kind of blend into Halloween? It was a Celtic belief that when you cut an apple in a certain way because of the seeds, it kind of looks like a pentagram, right? Okay, all right. Because there's like five seeds. Yeah, sure. And it's thought that, you know, the symbol meant that the apple somehow has magical powers

and can determine love and marriages. From this belief came the game of bobbing for apples. And it's kind of like throwing a bouquet. Like if young unmarried couple tries to bite the apple successful in floating water, then that means they can get married. There are a lot of practices where, like, girls would keep the apples under their pillow. That's worse. There's another one where you take a knife and your peels.

healing the apple from the top in one giant string. That's like a county fair thing, yeah. But that symbolizes like, you know, if you're going to make it or not. It's a superstition. Like a whole connection of love. Interesting. It doesn't break. And so there are a lot of weird apple things.

And this is where bobbing for Apple, the game came to be. And obviously, with the end of harvest and celebrating that, then the children came to bob for apples. And there you go. I wonder if kids would still want to do it if you're like, oh, it's for matchmaking. Because they're like, ew, I don't want it. Gross. Girls are gross. Boys are gross. A gross activity got grosser.

Yeah. So I love Halloween. I love it. I love the costumes and the candies and the decorations. And I really love the Halloween episodes of TV shows. Everybody always has like a punny name. They go way out of their way. Like you see their costumes is fun.

Yeah. Halloween is a big cultural event. And some shows really stepped it up. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, like, if you think about Food Network, they dedicate, like, weeks of Halloween special programming. Food Network Challenge Halloween is so good. Chalked Halloween.

Oh, I didn't even know about that, but it makes so much sense. Cake contests. It's a theme everybody gets behind and, like, goes for. I'll read you the title of the episode, and you tell me what show. And there's a clue in the title. Puns or characters from the show. Okay. All right.

Awesome. Or well-known ones. For instance, if I said the treehouse of horror... The Simpsons. But you're not going to say that. I mean, that's the thorough way. You know, you guys know the answer. That's the probably one of the ones that really cemented the special seasonal.

Yeah. Yeah, that's true. How about the one with the Halloween party? Everybody. Friends. How about Ghost of Clampett Castle? Oh, the Beverly Hillbillies. That's right.

Oh, is that where they lived? Well, the clamped. The clamped away. The curse of the Cramdens. The honeymoon. Keep saying Chris and you keep answering. I thought that was an altogether one. All right.

Only one person buzzed. I thought it's altogether. Chris buzzed. Anyway. How about it's the great pumpkin, Sam Winchester? Karen. Supernatural. That's right.

Yeah, the Winchester brothers. Halloween night, but night is spelled with K-N-I-G-H-T. Chris. I have no idea. Why'd you buzz? I thought I was going to figure it out by the night. Night Rider? Yes.

Oh, my God. Thinking some medieval show. Yeah, me too. Game of Thrones. No, no. Every episode is a Halloween episode. Yeah, yeah. How about this.

Bung-Holio, Lord of the Heart. Lord of the Harvest, a.k.a. Buttoean. Everybody. Beavis and Budha. Yes. How about this? Everybody hates Halloween.

Chris. I'm sorry, Karen. You did it. You can do it. Oh. Chris is fast on the buzzer. Oh, okay. Everybody hates Chris.

Yes. Oh, I thought it was going to be everybody. I was going to say everybody loves Raymond. Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah. I was a teenage Taylor. Oh, was this?

Home Improvement? Yes. Okay. They were the Taylor family. Oh. Okay. T.A. I was like, I can't figure it out if it's T-A-I, but if it's T-A-I, but if it's T-A-Y, I can figure it out.

Nice. Halloween. Hill-O-W-O-Wing. King of the Hill? Yes. The ghost of the General Lee. The Duke's Hazard. Yes.

It's the gay pumpkin, Charlie Brown. It's the gay pumpkin. Karen. Queer as folk? No. Colin. Will and Grace? Yes.

What is Blue afraid of? Oh, it's just Blue's Clues. Blue's Clues. You're my boy, Blue. Steeville, too. This time he's not alone. Steeville? Steeville.

Steeville, too, this time he's not alone. Jackass? No. That's good, yeah. It's like Steve O. It is Family Matters. Steve Erkel. Steve Urkel.

Wow. That's more than me. Hard to narrow it down. Yeah. Bar Wars 5. The Final Judgment. Oh. Chris.

Cheers. Cheers. Introduction to statistics. Chris. Community. Yes. The good guy fluctuation. Colin.

That must be Big Bang Theory. Big Bang Theory, yes. Oh, I see. Tina and the real ghost. Karen. 30 Rock. No. Oh.

Uh, uh, family ties? Nope. Bob's burgers? Bob's burgers? Oh. So many tinas. Yeah. Cliffs mistake.

Clifts. Uh, the Cosby Show? Cosby Show. Oh, Cliff. I was thinking, cheers. I was like, we already had cheers. Yeah, cheers. Peter Geist.

Everyone. Family Guy. Yes. Employee transfer. Karen. The office? The office. Oh.

Good one. Lord Zed's monster heads. Lord Zed. Karen. Dr. Who? No. Lord Zed.

I don't know. A mighty Morphan Bauer Rangers. Oh, my God. I definitely saw that. I watched that episode. Corn's groovy pirate ghost mystery. Corn? That is South Park.

South Park. It's Corn the band. Oh, K-O-O-oh, okay. Sorry. And last one. Fonseleectomy. Chris. Happy days.

Happy days. Fons. Fonsillectomy. Like Fonzie. Having a tonsillectomy. Yeah. Halloween. Oh, I thought of another sectomy, but okay.

Oh, Fonzie's best septimy. That's what I was like. On a very special episode of Happy Days. Hey Like my first job is Was Stephanie Not tonsillectomy So I was like

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And we're back. You're listening to Good Job, Rain, and this week we're time about Halloween. If you guys are like me, you had your share of bad Halloween costumes as a kid. Some years I was lucky enough to have a grown-up help me, you know, and I would have like a really awesome. I was an awesome vampire one year. My mom spent a lot of time. I had this cool cape and we got

the makeup and the teeth. There were other years, though. Like, I remember quite specifically years where it was more like when I had my E.T. costume. This was a store-bought off-the-shelf E.T. Costume. Oh, that you're E.T. You're not Elliott. I was E.T. Like a hospital gown, plastic kind of thing that wrapped around you. 1982, you know. Item E.T. Ranias. And as a way of introducing the rest of the story, I would like to play for you a short clip from The Simpsons,

a Treehouse of Horror episode. Jack it out, Lisa. I'm radioactive man. I don't think the real radioactive man wears a plastic smock with a picture of himself on it. We would on Halloween. Yes. So, wait, the Titi costume is on a shirt. The writers, the writers had a.

exactly the same experience I did. Yes, it was the, the, the mask was decent enough. It was a decent enough mask of E.T. It looked like E.T.'s face. But the rest of the costume was essentially, it was an apron with a picture of E.T. on it. And, you know, even as like a little kid, I felt like I was getting ripped off. I'm like, I'm not, I'm not dressing up as E.T. This is more like, I'm a walking tribute to E.T. I'm an E.T. fan. Yeah. And the Masks, again, if you know what I'm talking about, these were the most uncomfortable. They had the tiniest, tiniest little eye slits. They're made out of plastic that you would ordinarily use in that configuration for a picnic night.

The edges of it would just cut you up. They were sharp, and they had these weird little nose slits as well. So basically everybody, if you're dressed up as He-Man, you look like E.T. If you were dressed up as Barbie, you look like E.T. Because you had these like Voldemort snake nose slit things in the mask. Yet the rubber, the piece of, not even just like a proper like strap, but a piece of rubber band. It was stapled. So stapled for the plastic.

The staples by your face. Yeah, this brittle rubber band that you'd put over and would just pop right off. I remember. It was useless. Oh, yeah. Well, I can't be the only kid where the thing, it wasn't useless. It would just get shorter and shorter and shorter because it would break and he'd staple it back. Would it be a little bit tighter?

that time, you know? And eventually it's just like pulling against your face. Now it's really cutting into your skin. By the end of the night, the mask is off. The smock strings are falling off. And it's not even a long night. It's like two hours later. You're just dragging this, this thing around town. I totally see why your smock had a picture of E.T. Like, I was Smurfette, and so it looked like a dress. It didn't look like, it didn't have a picture of Smurf. But E.T.'s naked. So it would look like a little kid. Like that's just. in a naked costume, which is weird. Right, which is interesting, but it is interesting when you think about it, the idea of the sort of the, the, the sort of connotative versus denotative, like, it is E.T. versus the image, the, it's not so much you want to look like E.T, but you want to profess your love for, you see, I think, but see, I think I did want to look like E.T.

Yeah. And, you know, I don't think that they could have made it look right. Oh, who are you dressed? as little boy, I'm a shrine to E.T. I'm a collection of some impressions. I'm an homage. I am the zeitgeist. I am the feeling of the culture of

1982. Yeah, I'm a pastiche of E.T. related moments. I wish he's that that. If you're like me, if you were a child of the 70s or 80s and even into the early 90s, you know exactly what I'm talking about. This is like the decent too crappy decent mask and then the picture of the character on the smock

all of these costumes were made by one company all of these costumes these masks with the smock type costume were all made by the Ben Cooper costume company and Ben Cooper and the Ben Cooper name was for decades the name in costumes right and this is the story of a man who just saw an awesome

opportunity to become The figure, the leading figure in his... Yeah, he was. Yeah, the company's a lot older than I thought. I mean, they peaked, I think, in the 70s, 80s, for sure, but they went back to the 30s. So, Ben Cooper himself, is from New York, and he had a fairly regular start in professional costuming for, like, showbiz.

He ended up making costumes for chorus girls, and he would outfit places like the Cotton Club, or he had a contract with the Zigfield Follies at one point. Oh, wow, so he really... It's not, he's just a businessman. Yeah. And a grand idea. He actually is in that trade.

That's right. That's right. And this was, you know, starting out in the 1920s. And, you know, as Chris alluded to earlier, like, trick-or-treating as, like, a phenomenon, especially in America, really didn't start in earnest until, like, right around World War II and thereafter. But in the 1930s, Ben Cooper saw this was starting to become really popular. He noticed that there was an opportunity here for costumes for. for kids to go door to door. And specifically, all the stories I read about Ben Cooper,

they all make the point of what made him so savvy was he recognized the opportunity for licensed costumes. Because anyone can make a ghost, anyone can make a vampire or a werewolf. So this is, you know, this is the 30s. If he licensed, that is very early. That's right. Very, very early in terms of licensed merchandise.

1937, he obtained the rights to, would you guys care to guess? It would have been a big costume for 1937. No. No. Disney. Mickey Mouse. He obtained the rights to Walt Disney characters, and his snow white costume. Oh, sure.

Sold like anything that sells a lot. And he kept this on. Anytime there was something that he thought that could be licensed as a character, he was all over it. All over it. Like, well into the 40s, into the 50s. And as trick-or-treating, it was kind of this, like, feedback. Like, a lot of people give him credit for helping. make trick-or-treating a thing because now kids, kids could latch on to their favorite

pop culture character. He sold tons of Superman costumes. He sold tons of Davy Crockett costumes. He sold a whole ecology, right? You have the Halloween aspect, strengthening trick-or-treating, and then strengthening the marketing and loyalty between kids and media. Yes. And then he makes, he's the middleman and makes all this money.

Right, yep. And he's where all the money flows to. Yeah. Yep. And just we pointed out that for all. A lot of the time, he didn't have any real competition. I mean, he was just, there was nobody trying to get into Hornet on his business. As far back as the 50s, the, the Ben Cooper Company had made a generic kind of horrory costume

that they called the Spider-Man costume. Okay. And this was a 50s. Okay. Spider. Yes, a spidery man, right? Exactly. Yes.

So in the early 1960s, he got wind that Marvel Comics had created this new character called, of course, Spider-Man, and it was very popular, and they approached Marvel. So, Ben Cooper was kind of like, you know, partly, partly I want to avoid a lawsuit. And partly, I sense another great marketing idea. His marketing sense was tingling. This was, that's great. This was Marvel Comics' first merchandising deal. Oh, wow.

The first merchandising deal was for Ben Cooper to make costumes of specifically Spider-Man and then also Incredible Hulk and Thor, other characters. Still the same, the mask and the character. The mask and the smock, right, right. This one, the Spider-Man smock actually made an attempt to look like the Spider-Man costume. I will give them credit. It wasn't quite as conceptual as some of the other ones. On into the 70s, he got the license for Star Wars.

And so I remember a lot of these in particular growing up is the smock of like the face within the picture on the smock. Like there's a Yoda. There's a really bad. Yoda costume from the 80s where it's a decent enough Yoda mask, but then the body of the costume is all green with a picture of Yoda's face and then and then the Empire Strikes Back logo. Again, I know Yoda has a weird body, but it strikes me as supremely half a half. Yeah.

But they were selling so many of these costumes. It doesn't matter. My favorite bad one that I found, though, was of the fond. uh when happy days was big i want to show you guys a picture of this one just because to describe it won't do it justice that's the yoda one oh my god that's so scary ding dong i'm yoda with a picture of myself on my shirt we all know why i'm yoda's quite the narcissist the the fons costume was a fonsie mask and then a smock with a picture of the fons saying hey the fons in case you And in case you really, at this point, still didn't know he were looking at, the Fonz is wearing a pin on his jacket that says Happy Days.

He has his thumbs up. It's like the masks themselves were so low detail that, I mean, Yoda, you could probably figure out what Yoda is, but the Fonz mask. I mean, that looks like, could be anybody. Right, yeah. So, I mean, you have to have the smock with the picture of the Fons to clue to let people know that you are the Fons. I feel like you could probably make. the clothing part yourself. Like, just put a white t-shirt on and a leather jacket.

People who were, like, actually, like, making costumes. It's like, what you get to that point? Like, you don't have to go out and buy the 9-85 Ben Cooper costume. It's funny you mention the Richard Nixon mask, Karen. Like, they made, when they started making presidents, presidential masks, those became another huge seller for them. Like, those president, the bank robber, that is a Ben Cooper mask. That classic bank robber, Richard Nixon mask, that was originally a Ben Cooper mask.

Yeah. Sadly, Yeah, what happened to? So sadly, you know, partly what happened was competition. You know, it was only so long, but before other companies started realizing, you know, there's a lot of money to be made here in costumes. And particularly where Ben Cooper started to feel the pressure was on the high end was, there were a lot of companies making these elaborate, molded, you know, latex, really high-quality masks.

In the 90s, they declared bankruptcy, and they got bought by Rubies, which is now sort of the big name in, And they make adult costumes. They make kids costumes. Yeah. So they bought out what I've ordered stuff from Ruby's as well for my Star Wars related costuming. They bought out what was left. But that's not for Halloween.

Yeah. I decided I want to see a naked Yoda. Well, no, I've said too much. I've said too much. Did they ever show Yoda like topless? No, he's always in a real life. No, I'm serious. Okay.

No, I don't think so. I don't think they ever showed him topless. Yeah. I'm going to take this seriously. I forgot he wears a rope, like, in my mind. Yeah, that's all him. He's naked, like, E.T. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Just wrinkly and green. And fuzzy, green and furry. He has hair. He has strands of hair. Yeah, he has, like, white hair. Yeah, I wouldn't describe us furry. Well, have you seen him below the rope? No.

No, no, yeah, exactly. Curtain matches the great. Just match the ears. So if you have fond or not fond memories of these crappy smock costumes like myself and Millhouse. Thank Ben Cooper. Oh, you know what? I have done Trigger Trini, but I just don't remember because I was really, really young.

I was like a toddler. Uh-huh. And I posted this picture before. There's a picture of my sister, who was a lot older and is going to trigger treating. I think my mom just decided by, they had the mask plus smock Pac-Man costume. I don't know if it was knockoff Pac-Man, but it didn't look like Pac-Man. That one's so problematic. Yeah, because it's like, is the face like Pac-Man from the...

side oh okay i think that the face is the ghost and it has like a weird killer clown smile anyways my mom just bought two of them and made me dress and i was a toddler yeah so you were a little pacman i was a little but my mask was upside down they took like because i was a child yeah it was weird it was weird and and the smock was like a game screen from pacman that said patman just in case and we have one last segment chris you got a quizy quiz y'all no just a regular quiz Stop. Just stop it. Just finish the show.

According to the National Retail Federation, the most popular Halloween costumes for 2014 are projected to be Princess. Oh. Elsa. Olaf, right? So basically they lumped them all together. 2.6 million kids each. Each say that they will be either a character from Frozen or,

What other franchise? Guardians of the Galaxy. No. What other franchise? Mentioned earlier on this show. Oh, I was going to go to say, Avengers. Star Wars is certainly big. Spirnually popular.

Smurf. No. Spider-Man. Oh, of course. Spider-Man, of course. Yeah, Spider-Man's always up there. So running down the projected most popular costumes list, you have princess, you have animal. They just lump all animals into one, right?

Just a generic animal. costume and then and then three and four basically tied for third frozen and spider man but yes but your tricker when you're passing out candy this year expect to see like most little girls just dressed up as Elsa just dressed up as Elsa yep we were in Golden Gate Park last week for a picnic and they were having some sort of Halloween themed event there and it literally every little girl that we saw there was was Elsa we think yeah I mean we didn't ask every girl but they were all wearing like the little blue dress and it was like yeah or a smock with a picture of Elsa yeah yeah yes

A Elsa yeah two thumbs up frozen frozen that Karen there is a Disney run costume for you a Ben Cooper Disney costume just a plastic frozen mask and a smock that says else A Elsa I'm sweaty In a leather jacket right right a leather jacket yep I would love to see different Ashos, yeah.

I'm the fawns, Elsa. I'm different Elsa. I'm E.T. Elsa. Yeah. So here's just some more random bits of trivia from the latest Halloween survey. About what percentage of Americans say that they are going to dress up for Halloween this year? Karen. 66.

Wow, you are actually correct. It is about 67%. Oh, my God. I just thought I was fine because, like, 666. Oh. Halloween. No, that was a... There you go.

You know it. Two thirds. Yeah, with Halloween falling on a Friday this year. National Retail Federation expects a record number. In fact, they expect a record amount of money to be spent on Halloween this year. The top three websites that Americans say that they are going to consult for inspiration for their Halloween costumes are Facebook, Twitter, and what? Pinterest. It is Pinterest.

Are we just totally ignoring that? I thought she bumped in, too. You didn't let him finish reading the question. I was trying to wait because I knew it was Pinterest. It is, in fact, Pinterest, which is heading right up the list. It was not, it was 11% of people who said that they're going to be consulting things. Yeah. And they're going to get inspiration from Pinterest.

Well, my running costumes on Pinterest get mad hits. I bet. It's funny. I love looking at the list of, like, Pinterest versus real life. Oh, yeah, yeah. And I think your costumes are pindressed and not real life. Oh, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean?

Nice. Yeah. And we will finish out with this. Pumpkin, hot dog, and devil are expected to be for 2014 the top costumes in what particular category? Karen. Uh, pets. Pets. Yes.

I thought you're going to say sexy. Most people are all said. Sexy a dog. Sexy pumpkin. Devil. I am sure. Okay. I'm sure they're sexy devil.

I don't know. They're sexy hot dog. Okay, there's sexy mustard for sure. Yes. I remember that one from last year. I remember the sexy mustard. But yes, making the list of top pet costumes this year is Star Wars characters. Oh, yeah.

They've been selling it for a while. Yeah, very smart. All right, and that is our Halloween episode. Thank you guys for joining me. And thank you guys listeners for listening. I hope you learn a lot of stuff about Halloween about the really fascinating costume. Hero, a costume grandfather, I guess. Yeah.

Halloween slasher movies, Halloween TV, and different traditions and the origin of Halloween. You can find us on iTunes, on Stitcher on SoundCloud, and also on our website, good job, brain.com. Thanks for our sponsor, Linda, and we'll see you guys next week. Bye. Have you ever wondered how inbred the Habsburgs really were, what women in the past used for birth control, or what Queen Victoria's nine children got up to? On the History Tea Time podcast, I profile remarkable queens and LGBTQ plus royals, explore royal family trees, and delve into women's medical history and other fascinating topics. Join me every Tuesday for History. tea time, wherever fine podcasts are enjoyed.