Good Job, Brain! - 142: Don't Call it a COMEBACK!

Episode Date: February 6, 2015

Except.... it is a comeback. YES! WE ARE BACK. Karen has her voice back and what better way to celebrate her health than to have an episode all themed around stories, facts, and quizzes about famous comebacks. In order to rise, you must fall first, and Karen's got a quiz all about famous (and cringe-worthy) rejection letters. Movie comebacks, music comebacks, and all your favorite old diseases are coming back too. And of course, the man who rode the retirement-comeback rollercoaster, Mr. 23 himself, Michael Jordan.   ALSO: Listener mail! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast. Hello, hooligans, Hootin for Hoopla and Houtanee. Welcome to Good Job, Brain, your weekly quiz show and off-beat trivia podcast. This is episode 142. And, of course, I'm your humble host, Karen. And we are your joyful, jumping, jester's, jabbering, jazz, I did not. Joyfully, Jeezapples. Jupply, Jaspels.

Jupply, Jaspels. I'm Colin. I'm Dana. And I'm Chris. We're back. Yeah. Your voice sounds good. Thank you.

We're back. We went on a sudden emergency hiatus for the last month because I lost my voice for that long. Yeah. Your poor voice. We went to Karen and I went to go see Animaniacs Live. The voice actors from Animaniacs were all there. And the songwriter, which was a big surprise. And so they performed a lot of the songs from Animaniacs, which was so formative for us as young nerds, songs that help you memorize the names of countries and things of that nature.

And Karen got to meet veteran voice actress Tress McNeil, who is every voice in every cartoon. Futurama. Futurama and The Simpsons. She's dot from Animaniacs, and Karen couldn't talk. So I had to do all of her talking for her. But Tressman Neal gave Karen a throat lozenge. Yeah. So you know what?

And she still has it to this day. Karen can sell it on eBay. All right. And also, during the hiatus, I went to check our Good Job Brain mailbox, our P.O. box, and we got some cool surprises, including this one from Kung Fu Jimmy. Kung Fu Jimmy sent us two issues of his magazine called Organ Grindr, and he said, Dear Friends, I was told about GJB about five months ago and have since burnt through the entire catalog.

If you're half as entertained by my magazine as I am by your podcast, I'll be flattered to no end. Oh, we are super entertained by your magazine. We're passing around issues of organ grinder, which is a, uh, each issue, says no kids on the cover. Yeah, there's some dirty jokes in here. There's bad words in there. Yeah, a adult concept sometimes. It's like an adult activity book. It's like games magazine. It's full of puzzles and yeah, exactly. Brain teasers, puzzles. Highlines for adults. Yeah. Quizzes and things like that. It is very cool. Recommended. Yes. There's a, there's something, there's one called one off Broadway in here. I'll read a couple of these questions because it's pretty good. It's each of these famous Broadway musical titles. has lost one letter, figure out the new title based on the synopsis.

So, for example, a large-lobed glandular organ is thrown out of an orphanage for requesting more dinner based on a Dickens novel with the song's food, glycongenous food, and you've got to produce a protein or two.

Liver. Liver. Oliver. Liver. Oliver minus the O. O. Oliver minus the O. Right, exactly.

Exactly. And one that I think hits two of Karen's favorite things. The son of an atomic king attempts to reclaim his throne as leader of the charged particles. The ion king. Lyon king. Yes, very good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So all kinds of stuff. Organ grinder magazine.com is where you can find this. It's really fun. Yeah, it's edgy, playbook. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Another thing I got in the in our mailbox. Well, it is mysterious. Sometimes you get packages, right? And so usually they give you the slip in the peel box, and then I have to go line up and give it to the postal worker, and then they'll go find it, and then they'll bring it to me. And so I see her waddling. It's like

a medium flat rate box, so it's like pretty, you know, sight, you know, it's kind of small. She's waddling. Yeah, she's like... It's like a shoebox size, right? Medium flat, right? Sure. And she lugs it over the little window and was like, this is heavy. And I was like, okay, I maybe check once a month. So I was like, what if it's like? I don't normally accept wet packages. Yeah, exactly. Or it's like Omaha Steaks and checking in time.

Yeah, exactly. It's like, oh my God. And then I lugged it back home and I was like, okay, this is really heavy. I had no idea. No idea. And I put it on my scale. It was like almost 14 pounds. That's making use of that flat rate box.

Oh, yeah. Postal service did not make money on that trend. This is from Noelle Horsefield and then I opened it up and it was filled to the brim. Yeah. Trivial pursuit cards. Oh, that's so awesome.

13 pounds of trivial pursuit card. Noel Horsefield with an amazing name. We will never, ever run out of trivial pursuit card. It's like our trivia godmother. Yes. So with that said, I'm now going to do Pop Quiz Hot Shot

with our Trivial Persuit. two cards. So here we go. Time for our general trivia segment. Pop quiz, hot shot. So here we go. I picked a random card from the 13 pounds of cards. Bulk, bulk trivia. And the thing is, they're all from different versions of trivia. Okay, I was just going to ask you. Yeah. So some of these might be dated. You know, this one, this one is from genus four. Okay. So that's just general trivia. Yeah. Okay. All right. All right. Here we go. So I have this card. You guys have your morning zoo radio buzzers. ready. Here we go. Blue Wedge for Peoples and

Places, People in Places. What U.S. National Holiday is also known as Decoration Day? U.S. National Holiday? Oh. Memorial Day? Correct. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Why? Because it's you're putting up in memory of people.

You're decorating with, you know, the ribbons. Or like soldiers to get at their ribbons. All right. Pink Wedge for Arts and Entertainment. What Anthony Hopkins role did People magazine call the Norman Bates of the 90s. Everybody. Hannibal Lecter. Dr. Hannibal Lecter.

Correct. He can go to evil medical school. For you to call him Mr. All right. Yellow Wedge for history. What Spanish Explorer was beheaded and fed to vultures for treason? Oh. Wait, because the vultures committed treasoning of the court.

Is it Cortez? Incorrect. Spanish Explorer. Was it Vasco da Gama? Incorrect. Is Vasco a title? Or is that a name? It's part of the name.

Pontellian? No. I don't know. It's Balboa. Vasco Nunez de Balboa. Okay. All right. Okay.

Brownwich for Science and Nature, what tiresome syndrome is sometimes dubbed yuppie flu? Collin. Chronic fatigue syndrome. Correct. Getting very catty in these. Yeah. Kind of judgy there.

Green Wedge for Sports and Leisure. Who became the NBA's winningest coach ever on January 6th, 1995? I think that was Don Nelson. No, well, we were all looking at you. Yeah, yeah. The buzz in was pro forma. Okay. 95, I think that was Don Nelson then.

Incorrect. You want another name? In 95. Name an NBA coach. Lenny Wilkins. Correct. All right, there we go. Yeah.

It was like, I was trying to think, like, they all kind of passed each other at various places. Cool story, bro. Not in the pench bowl. All right. Orange Wedge Wildcard. What writer's romance novel did a court attendant mistakenly used to swear in a witness during a murder trial in Syracuse? Uh-huh. Guessing.

Daniel Steele? Correct. Okay. How did they find out? Maybe they were like, why is the Bible pink light with swirling letters? I don't remember so much cleavage in the Bible. Yeah. All right, good job, brains.

So I was gone for a month. I think it's maybe time to catch up a little bit. I got a double whammy. I got tonsillitis. And then I got strep throat. So that was the reason. And then also during the last month, I had, I already logged in a hundred race miles.

I had, I ran eight races already. Wow. And yeah. When you were sick like that. When I was six, I had to. I paid so much money. I gotta do it. I gotta show up.

You're a good soldier, Karen. You got the costumes. You made all the costumes? I made all the costumes for my race. Exactly. Right. Yeah. I got to get my letters worn.

I did bump into one of the races I ran was inaugural Star Wars 10K in Disneyland. And I was in a ridiculous. costume. And then when I finished, there was a dude there who recognized me. I was like, oh, hey, Karen. The thing is, a lot of people know me because I made costumes. He's like, I listened to Good Job Brain. And I was like, wow. I'm not surprised you recognize me, but I'm surprised you recognize me for that reason. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I loved, by the way, and this is a wonderful piece of trivia that you pointed out, the inaugural Star Wars 10K, they made sure the racing path

crossed over New Hope Street? Yeah! I don't know if it was. Oh, this was the next day. This was for the half marathon. Oh, okay. So I did the 10K and the half marathon.

The only thing I stopped for and took a picture was we crossed New Hope Street. And I was like, this is so clever. Nice. So with the sickness and then with running, I just didn't heal. And I want to thank everybody online,

on Twitter, on Facebook, in email. And also in person, because some of you guys actually did witness my condition, and it was bad. And we had a lot of voice teachers or voice experts on Facebook kind of gave me steps to help me heal my voice. So thank you all for your concern. Yeah, it's like crowdsource healing. That's right. And crowdsource healing.

Turns out injecting horse steroids directly into her throat was the way to go. What's the trick? So, of course, in the spirit of all this, this week, We're going to talk about comebacks. Don't call it a comeback. I've been here for dance. I'm rocking my peers. Foot suffers and fear.

Making the tears. Ranged down like a monsoon. Listen to the base. Go boom. Explosion. I think in American life, there are like three main areas where we got comebacks all the time, right? There's sports comebacks, you know, the over-the-hill star comes back. There's the political comeback, you know?

You lose the big election and you come storming back years later. And then there's celebrity comebacks. You're missing terrible fads. Fads? Oh, okay. Not people. You're right. You're right.

I guess I was really thinking about people making a comeback. But you're right. Fads, fashions, those also have a way of rearing their sometimes ugly heads again. I have a quiz for you guys about the entertainment portion of people comebacks. Okay. Specifically a quiz all about acting. These are all about actors and actresses. Showing off your new voice.

Yeah. Don't push it. Don't push it. We've got to get through another year here. And for the purposes of this quiz, I've kind of defined comeback as somebody who had a lot of either critical or financial success, then a period when they didn't, and then return to a period of critical or financial success. Okay. And it could be for a variety of reasons. Interesting. So the diehard fans aren't out there going, what I loved. All right. We'll start you off here with one that I hope won't be too difficult. Yes, please. Get your buzzers ready.

All right. And this actor was nominated for an Academy Award in 1993, and again in 2009. In between, he had a string of high-profile incidents with the law, including time behind bars and in rehab. Dana. Robert Downey Jr.? It is Robert Downey Jr. Yes. And, man, I mean, talk about a comeback.

The guy on top of the world right now in terms of movie acting. Despite winning an Oscar in 1955. this actor had nearly a decade of flops to his name before accepting the title role in the highest grossing film of 1972. Hmm. Read that again? Despite winning an Oscar in 1955,

this actor had nearly a decade of flops to his name before accepting the title role in the highest grossing film of 1972. Title 72. This is an... Oh, Chris. This would be Marlon Brando. Correct.

Oh, right. Yes. Oh, he is the godfather. He is the godfather. Yeah, Don Corleone. I was thinking, like, the name name. Oh, got it. Got it.

Yeah, a role for which he won his second Academy Award. So, indeed, put him back on the map there. Wow, I didn't know it was Flops. Yeah, oh, he was a controversial choice for that role because he was just sort of in Hollywood. He was like, oh, he's just, you know, he's. He's washed up. He's hard to work with, you know? Really?

Yeah, yeah, all of that. If you look up his run of movies in those 60s there, they're just notable failure after notable failure. Yeah, because if you, I mean, if you didn't know that, like, he's always talked about as being one of the greatest actors and no idea. Yeah. Yeah, it shows you, it shows you, man, like one huge success can cover many small failures, yeah. All right, well, we'll stick with the godfather for a minute. In that movie, I hope you guys have all seen the movie or read the book. Yeah, Chris made me watch.

one and two. I did. I like that. Education of a cinema fan. I was supposed to do it for a class assignment and I just did not. I faked it. Yeah, but now I don't remember what I... It's really funny. Whether you like it or not. You should watch it, I think. You would enjoy the experience. It's been built up so much. It's hard to do it now. It insists upon itself. In The Godfather, we see Don Corleone help win a coveted movie role for singer, actor, Johnny Fontaine, who is in desperate need of his own comeback in the story world that we're

watching on what real-life singer-actor is Johnny Fontaine-based? This is a very thinly veiled depiction. Right. Dana. Tony Bennett. Not Tony Bennett. But you're not that far off in terms of style. Yeah, I believe it's Frank Sinatra.

It is. It's Frank Sinatra. Yeah, yeah. Mario Puzzo, who wrote the novel, never came out and admitted this. But he also, I mean, he never denied it either. Most people accept that, yeah, Johnny Fontaine is a stand-in for Frank Sinatra. And his career in real life, Sinatra, really was at a real low point before he got the role in from here to eternity. And he lobbied very hard to get it.

Is that the movie where, like, it's black and wine people make out on the beach? Yes, yes. Yeah. Yeah. And he won an Academy Award for that for a supporting role, yeah. And depending on what stories you believe, he may or may not have had some help from powerful friends getting that. role in the movie but uh but yeah what we have right that's right you use what you have certainly and that got him back on top hopefully horses were not harmed yes no yes no horses were harmed this former

child actress had the title role now don't get caught up again with title role here all right this former child actress had the title role in one of the most popular movies of 1991 then retired from acting for several years today she is best known for her role playing a trusted advisor to a world leader on television. Karen. Anna Klomski. Yeah. My girl and Veepe.

You know, I saw, I watched a few, I didn't, I didn't really get into Hannibal, the TV series, right? But she was on that. Oh, I didn't know that. And I was like, who is that? That's a person. Oh, it's a girl from my girl. Man, that movie was kind of a twist. I walked in not knowing what I'm going to watch.

movie for kids. Yeah. Oh, dear God. I'm crying now. I avoided that one as well. Did you ever read Bridge to Terributh? Yes. So it was like, they were like, it's like that.

And I was like, okay, I'm not watching that. Oh, but I had never seen it. That was a twist too. Oh, okay, I never had anyone say that. Comparison, interesting. Or it's like, oh, they're friends. They're having fun. They're dead.

One of them's dead and the other one has to live with the pain. You know, for kids. for children. They're smiling on the movie poster. I thought it was going to be feel good hit. After numerous hit movies in the 1970s and early 80s, this actor fell into a low period before returning to glory with an Academy Award nominated performance in

1997's Boogie Nights. Karen, briefly ahead of Chris. Bert Reynolds. It is Bert Reynolds. Yeah, he won a slew of nominations for that role as the producer, or the director, sorry, in the porn world of Boogie Nights. Yeah, during that... I don't think we've ever said slew on this podcast before. I'm going to start working it in now as much as I can.

During the low period there, he had an impressive seven RASI nominations. Wow. Yeah. Two wins, though. I don't know if that's good or bad. I don't know if you want to win the Razzi. It's notable. Right.

Yeah. The story of Norma Desmond, faded star from the days of silent film. is told in this hit movie and musical. Karen again. Sunset Boulevard. It is Sunset Boulevard. And you guys, you may be aware, as cinema fans, you know, there's the really cool parallel in Sunset Boulevard

and the life of Gloria Swanson, who played the role in the original movie, in the 1950 movie, that the role of Norma Desmond, you know, sort of an actress who was kind of cast aside as eras changed only to come back late in her life, really was in many ways the story of Gloria Swanson. So it's kind of this cool meta angle to her telling the story that she had kind of an affinity with. All right, last one. Here we go.

Close it out. This actress holds the record for the longest period between Emmy nominations for any performer. And I can give you some more hints here if you need them. Oh, Chris. Betty White. It is Betty White. All right. Now, now, let's get it.

How long do you do you? How long do you think between Emmy nominations for Betty White? 67 years. You went a little bit over. 60 years. Wow. She's been on television since before there was television. Yeah.

I mean, I don't even know if you can call it like comebacks. Like she's been, she's had so many periods of popularity over those 60 years. It's almost. I don't feel like she went away. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to say, like, if you're that popular for that long, maybe it can't be a comeback. She's just been, she's been a badass for a long time.

All right, so speaking of comebacks, you mentioned there's always a slew of failures. And comeback does kind of create this feeling or does connotate the feeling of a failure. Yeah. And then you come back. You had to have a failure. Here I have compiled a list of rejection letters of notable people of literature, music, and other pop culture, you know, facets. And what I'm going to do is do a dramatic reading. And I had to kind of edit these down of the rejection letter.

And hopefully you guys can guess who is the person being rejected. Wow. Okay. I like it. Who obviously went on and became super, super famous. Got it. So, for example, I'm just going to read a quick quote here. The publisher said this was too different from other juveniles on the market to warrant selling. Wow.

And, oh, wow, this is an example. But go ahead. Oh, is there more? No. That's all I get. Jay Rowling. Dr. Seuss. This was a, and to think I saw it on Mulberry Street.

So, I mean, so some of these are harsh. Some of these are kind of massaged well, but there's going to be a lot of clues in these. I think, yeah, Dr. Seuss's whole thing was he wanted to be different from Dick and Jane. So it was too different. Too different. Right, right. This one is mean, and it's so funny. Okay.

Okay. I found your efforts to be both tedious. and offensive. You really are a man's man, aren't you? I wouldn't be surprised to hear that you had penned this entire story locked up at a club, ink in one hand, brandy and the other. Your bombastic dipsomaniac, where-to-now characters had me reaching for my own glass of brandy. A great story is built on foundation of great characters. I had trouble telling yours apart. Remind me, which is the broken-hearted bachelor who travels aimlessly across Europe? Ah yes, they all do.

I've gone out of Bachelor Amish, the man's man. I can keep going. Oh, okay. Chris. Ernest Hemingway. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Man's man. European travels. Just holding a cocktail. Yeah. Which, I mean, it's very accurate. Yeah. All right.

This one is quick. Nobody will want to read a book about a seagull. Chris. I forget what the author of that is. Oh, that's the question. Wasn't that Swift? Uh-uh.

Oh, man. Yeah. Who wrote Jonathan Livingston Segal? Oh, was it Irving? No. Richard Bach. Ah. Remember that, yeah.

When I was like, oh, I know Jonathan Livingston, Livingston, Seagull. I can never remember the author. Richard Bach. What was the rejection again? It was just... Nobody will want to read a book about a Seagull. Fair enough. To the point.

That book went on to sell 44 million. copies. There are some people do. This one is from Jimmy Jenner, real name, president of Millennium Records. The production arrangement and she are very strong.

The direction is a good one, in my opinion. The only thing missing from the project is the material. I like, I want you, get up, and high society, but I did not like Love on the Run at all. I will pass for now, but I will wait

for more. Love on the Run. Oh, who is that? It was, uh... The song names are, I want you, get up, high society, and love on the run. And the funny thing is, you know, this guy, Jimmy Jenner said, the only thing missing from this project is the material. Oh.

So... Madonna. Correct. It is Madonna. Yeah, it's like, we just got to get you better songwriters. We got to get you better songwriters is what they're saying, right? It's not like, she sucks. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, we like the package. We like the package. And last one. Oh, man. Last one, this is from one of the publisher. The girl doesn't, it seems to me. Have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the curiosity level. The girl is the character in the book?

Yes. And also the author. Oh. I was going to say Alice in Wonderland. Little House on the Prairie? Nope. Oh, good guess, though. Nonfiction.

Yeah. The girl is also the author. The girl doesn't seem to me have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the curiosity level I mean this person probably ate his words is a girl interrupted

no this is the diary of Anne Frank oh my god wow all right doesn't seem to just feel doesn't grab me beyond the curiosity factor yeah that's a harsh review to have

to live down to have to have to have your name associated not even review the rejection She didn't come I mean Yeah true Well no it did I mean

It was a rejection letter Yeah Of her diary It's weird I guess her book Did come back Yeah It just goes to show

You don't You know Listen to that first Rejection letter The fifth or sixth rejection letter Oh I have a funny one actually

So try to guess What What company wrote This templated rejection letter Okay This company gets submissions And would All right

Okay They get so many submissions. They have a form letter. All right. Dear contributor, sorry, but we've got bad news. You've been rejected. Don't take this personally, though. All of us feel rejected at one time or another.

At least that's what our group therapist tells us here. He says we shouldn't worry about it. Besides, although you've been rejected, things could have been a lot worse. Your material might have been accepted. Then where would you be? Huh. Mad Magazine. Correct.

That's right. And then it goes, so that should be your attitude. What? Me worry? So it's like kind of cheeky, I'm sure that, yeah,

Mad Magazine gets like so many unsolicited submissions from randos. Yeah. And kids. Right, real kids. Kids, kids. Kids are randos.

Yeah, that's true. All right, let's take a quick break. A word from our sponsor. You can spend less time staying in the know about all things gaming and get more time to actually play.

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Oh, okay. When a musician releases album after album that doesn't chart, does not do nearly as well as their previous success, and then has one album that, you know, whatever the magical formula is, it roars back up onto the charts and, you know, sort of cements their place. in the pantheon of the pantheon.

The actual pantheon, yes. This is drawn from Time Magazine, did a list of the top 10 comeback albums ever, and Guitar World also did a similar list, and so I'm relying on their expertise, not mine. All right. No complaints as chosen by the staffs of Time Guitar World. Here we go, comeback albums, the quiz.

Got your buzzers ready. In 1993, this singer came back with a vengeance, releasing a sequel to his breakout's 1977 solo debut. A sequel to his, in 1993, releasing a sequel to his breakout 1977 solo debut. Wow. Solo debut. It is an album that has a Roman numeral two at the end of it. Oh, okay. I was going to guess Eric Clapton

unplugged So someone who was in a band So it's not Michael Jackson It is named after his first solo album With a two at the end of it And was a big comeback success I don't know It's not Peter Frampton

It's not I give you a hint There's some in my freezer right now Steakums Teathing rings Ice cream It is It is

It is not Ice Cube It is the phenomenal and tasty meatloaf Oh Oh That out of hell That out of hell And he would do anything for love Yes

That was not He certainly would But he won't do that But he won't do that Oh man That song was Stagams was close Sikums

Sikums Was close Yeah Rap and hip hop producer Rick Rubin revitalized the declining career of this country legend when he produced his 1994 album American Recordings. Colin.

That's Johnny Cash. That is Johnny Cash. It was, I believe, his 80th album. Wow. He was slipping down the charts. But American Recordings in which he basically cover songs of more modern bands and produced by Rick Rubin was huge. After the master tapes to an album that would have been called

Cigarettes and Valentine's were stolen, the band decided to create this album instead, which proved a huge comeback in 2004. Huh. Wow. They finished their album, Cigarettes and Valentine's, but the master tapes were stolen. Instead of remaking it, they decided to create a totally new.

album in 2004, and I'm looking for the name of the album. Oh, who was this? Yeah. Because if I tell you the band, it's going to be too easy. Well, I remember, I remember... They're, uh, they're local. They're local? They're local.

Oh, Green Day? It is Green Day. It is Green Day. American Idiot. Wow. Well, they worked out for them. Yeah, exactly, right? Thank God that got stolen. Otherwise, they wouldn't have then the album and then the

Broadway. Yeah, that's right. That's true. It's true. After the tragic deaths of two of this band's members back to back, they found themselves back at the top of the charts with the album Brothers and Sisters. Colin? Isn't that the Allman Brothers?

That is the Alman Brothers. Oh, what happened? They lost two members of their band in back-to-back motorcycle accidents. Yeah. Oh, they didn't, it wasn't one accident and they both died. No, no. No, it was two two incidents. Unrelated

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Well, unrelated, except for, you know. Well, right, yes, yes, yes. Featuring What's Love Got to Do With It, this album represented the beginning of Tina Turner's solo success in the 1980s. Oh, what is the album? Was the name of the album?

No, it wasn't What's Love Got to Do With it? Oh, sorry. Was the name of the album, Private Dancer? It was, yes, private dancer. Yes, yep. This album was. released in 1980 to poor reviews, many of which were withdrawn following the death of one of the artists.

Whoa. 1980. Oh. It won album of the year at the 1981 Grammys. Whoa. All because when to die? When did John Lennon die? Was it?

It was the year 1980? Was it a beetle? What is the album? Oh. Because he had famously quit the Beatles by that point. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, what is the comeback?

Yeah, what is the name of the album? Was it Imagine? It was not imagined, no. It's John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Oh, okay. So it was... There's no one with our naked and the... It is not.

No, this one is a double fantasy. Yes. Double fantasy came out, was given a lot of poor reviews. John Lennon was murdered shortly thereafter, and a lot of the reviews were withdrawn. Yeah. They're like, oh, you're not going to get better. Let's just... This was good.

This was very good. That's right. You know, what... Continue your legacy. Like, feedback won't help us anymore. Here's a Grammy. I don't know any of the songs, but here's a Grammy. This 1997 Bob Dylan album, his first studio album in seven years,

won album of the year at that year's Grammys also. Oh, 97. It was like, big comeback for him. No, it was. It was Bob Dylan. It was like, Sunset, Sun. River or something? I don't know.

He's another guy with 80 albums. It's true. This is a good one to know because of what it represented for him kind of coming back. Time out of mind. Ah, okay. Time out of mind is the name of the...

Isn't there an REM album Out of Time? Yes. Time out of mind. Cindy Lopper's Time After Time. None of which have any... Let's with muddy the waters here as much as much of time. Now I'm not going to remember that the time of mind.

With his album, Cindy Lopper. I got that. This one, guys. We studied this in trivia. As a concept album, it was great. Brian Wilson roared back into the spotlight when he finished this legendary unreleased Beach Boys record and released it as a solo project in 2004. Karen.

Smile. Yes. I only know this because Chris made me listen to it. I'm sensing a theme here today. Chris makes Karen listen to it. A very goal play. But that's over our, like, 10-year relationship. It's only been those two things.

Smile and the Godfather. Has it only been the two things? It seems like a weird coincidence that they put come up. The Godfather took a while. Godfather took like years of like, you've got to see that. No, no, no, it's really good. It's really a watch a movie about criminals and murder. I know there was like a horse.

Oh, yeah. That was really the, that was the hump that had to get over. I didn't care about James Con like getting shown. So, final question, released in 2005, this Mariah Carey album represented her major comeback after the commercial flops, glitter, and charm bracelet. Everybody. Butterfly? No, no, no. Oh, then it's the other one.

Well, wait. 2000. Is it the rainbows one? No, that's before. This is the E equals MC squared. No. I can tell you. What is it?

It is the emancipation of Mimi. Yes. Oh. Yeah. Well, you know, it was comeback technically as voted on by time. I want to talk to them about it. I would like to discuss it. There's some good songs in Chargbury's long, but I feel like we should, you know.

Leave, definitely leave a comment. There's discussion. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Book Club on Monday Gym on Tuesday Date night on Wednesday

Out on the town on Thursday Quiet night in on Friday It's good to have a routine And it's good for your eyes too Because with regular comprehensive eye exams at Specsavers You'll know just how healthy they are Visit Spexavers.cavers.cavers.cai to book your next i-exam Eye exams provided by independent optometrists.

All right. From the high heights of laughing at Mariah Carey and talking about music, I'm going to bring it down. I'm talking about comebacks of diseases. Oh, this stuff you don't want to come back. Things you thought were over, things that ravaged humanity and we cured them and now they're back. Like, that's what I want to talk about. Oh, fun. Good times.

Good times. So it's a quiz. Buzz in with your answer. Buzzin excitedly, cheerfully. So we have to say the name of the disease really like. As enthusiastic as possible. Let's do that. Let's do that.

Okay. All right. First one. People who have died from this disease include Vincent Mango's brother, Winston Churchill's father, and Al Capone. It was nearly eradicated in the U.S., but it's coming back because of due to lack of education. Ciphyllis Cipillic fever So people don't know

It's actually transmitted Well they know it's actually transmitted They don't know that You can catch it orally Got it There you go That's all account syphilis is a terrible Terrible way to die

Yeah He died of syphilis Yeah Drove him crazy from what I've heard Yeah I'm crazy All right. So this illness was really prominent in the 1800s in industrialized cities where children worked in factories and had poor diets and got little sunlight.

And it's coming back because children have poor diets and don't go outside. Colin. Ricketts. Oh, yeah, yeah. That sounds like an old-timey. It does. It does. I didn't know Ricketts was coming back.

Oh, my goodness. I was going to say scurvy. Go outside. Get some vitamin D. Yep. Oh, I see. Okay. So the sunlight wasn't like a judgment call.

It's actually they were not getting something. And that's the one that's symptomatic of the bone deformation, right? Is that? Yeah, and I think the rash. Oy. Oh, go outside. Rickets. Rickets.

It kind of sounds like a fun candy. Yeah, it does. Razzles. Yeah. Ooh, are those strawberry rickets? So a character from Little House on the Prairie had this disease and went blind. The character and little women had it and got ill. It was treatable with penicillin, but now it's coming back.

Scarlet fever. Scarlet fever. Yay! Wait, it's coming back. How? There are cases in China and Macau right now. It's viral. Wow.

The bad kind of viral. The original kind of viral. I had no idea all these diseases were. Yeah, I know. And I would stay inside if I weren't for fear of catching. Ricketts, yeah. Scarlet Fever has a really great social media team, apparently. These three diseases were basically eradicated in the 1960s, but they are in the last

decade or so, they've been really making a comeback, and especially on a, on college campuses. Oh. Yeah. Okay. I'll need one. Okay. Menangitis. No.

Oh. Goneria. No. On college campuses? Yeah. I'd be excited. Oh, yeah. I mean, how excited is you going to get about Conneria?

Wait, okay. How excited is he going to get a get? Oh, uh... So, the reason why these three are grouped together is they were grouped into one vaccine. Oh. I mean, is it measles mom's rebella? It is. It is.

Okay. And so the thing is, in 1998, there was that article that said, oh, vaccines are linked to autism. And it was, like, thoroughly disproved by the medical community. But people who are now in college Were that generation Around right there So this is like the delayed effect Yeah

So it's measles, mumps, and what? Rubella Rehbella Well there's some measles outbreak in Disneyland Yeah, and a lot of kids didn't have vaccine It's with little children But like UC Berkeley

A couple years ago Had a big, I think Mumps Mumps outbreak There was just this year In the National Hockey League There was a Mumps outbreak that started localized in one team and sort of spread to other teams. Because all these, when they were kids, they weren't.

You know, I never even thought about that part of it, but that's got to be right. Because, again, a lot of the guys in the NHL are going to be young, you know. Other countries are less good about vaccinating people, but they're definitely, they were like, oh, that makes sense that people who are 18, 19, 20. Now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good job.

well you know that actually uh that sparked a uh a good segue here for me so uh i was reading uh this was sometime last year about that we're sort of entering the Shaquille boom in naming okay so because you know Shaquille O'Neal the world famous pro basketball player like he was at the height of his appeal you know 18 to 20 years ago so we're starting to see sort of the influx and you'll see it like in you know college athletes you'll see a lot more Shaquille's now and it's it's pretty clear who they're named after Yeah. Oh, so it's a traditional Irish family name.

Michael's easier to like pretend it wasn't for Michael Jordan. Or Jordan. Yeah. Yeah. First name Jordan. There was a spike of Jordan naming, yeah, in the late 90s in the mid to late 90s, for sure, which all of which sets me up to a story I'd like to tell about Michael Jordan. Oh.

So I'll start you guys off with a trivia question here. And this is not a trick. I'm not setting you guys up. This is, we've had this trivia question at Pub Quiz before. We've probably even had it on these very airwaves. This still might be a trick. It's not a trick. Not a trick.

I'm not trying to fool you. How many times did Michael Jordan retire? Three. Yes. He retired. Magic of freeze, man. Don't you remember? Yeah, three is always the answer.

He retired three times, which, of course, means that sandwiched in among those retirements were two comebacks. Because you got to come back for you can retire again, right? Writing the comeback retirement roller coaster there. But let's back up just for a bit in case you're not a sports fan out there. in podcast land. Maybe you've never heard of Michael Jordan is possible.

In case you do not know who Michael Jordan was, he was a professional basketball player. He was pretty good. Many people would consider him the best, the best ever. You know, you may have your favorites if you don't like him or the Bulls, but you could argue he was the greatest ever.

And significantly, for my story, Michael Jordan wore, quite famously, number 23. 23. Okay. You were making eye contacts, and I was like, I know. I knew Karen knew that.

that one. Yeah, number 23. And, like, he is so strongly associated with the number 23 that, again, speaking of, like, wave effects, you know, like the reason that LeBron James wears number 23 is in part an homage to Michael Jordan. Oh, really? There are generations of young kids growing up playing basketball. I thought it was, like, randomly. They would choose number 23 because they want to be like Mike. They're like, oh, Jordan wore 23. I'm going to wear 23. Well, good thing. LeBron James is really good. Yeah, it helps that he can make it his own number. Chicago Bulls of the 1990s pretty good. In fact, they won, uh, the NBA championship in 1991.

They won it again in 1992. They won it again in 1993. Oh, wow. Yeah. And then shockingly, not long before the 93-94 season started, Jordan announced he was retiring from pro basketball. He's like, I'm hanging it up. He was 30 at the top of his career, no doubt about it.

People were shocked. Like, why would you want to do this? And he was going to go play baseball. And you guys may even remember this. That's right. He was like, I'm done basketball for a while. I'm going to play baseball. And they found him coincidentally, it helped.

Like just like taking out. on that next challenge. Yeah, and, you know, luckily for him, the same man who owned the Chicago Bulls owned the Chicago White Sox, so he found a spot for him and the farm team there. He was, you know, minor leagues. He wasn't good enough to play major leagues.

He was good. I mean, he was an all-around good athlete, and he did play baseball growing up, so it wasn't just like, oh, I'm going to give this a try. He actually knew what he was doing. What a funny, interesting stick and a tiny ball. Where's their net? How many points?

I just need to play it over there. There was a little more background to this at the time. And this part is not funny in any sense. You know, one of the reasons he stepped away was before the start of the night season, his father was killed in what was essentially a botched robbery, a botched car theft. And it was terrible, just an awful scene for many reasons. And he was devastated, as anyone would be. And it also got him to thinking about sports and just what it meant to him.

You know, he's like, what else do I have to do in basketball? He's like, I've been the MVP, I've been the scoring championship. Yeah, what else do I have to prove? Too easy now. It was. Yeah, there was some flavor of that. I feel maybe a little bit burned out. And then also, you know, his father had always wanted to see him play baseball.

You know, growing up as, you know, his, so this was kind of like a tribute in a way, just to clear his mind, get away. So he played minor league baseball for about a season and a half. And he was decent, you know, good, not great. Probably wouldn't have had the spot that he had if he hadn't been Michael Jordan. Right. But still better than your average, Joe, by far. I would say he was probably average among his peers. He was not a superstar in baseball.

He was average among his peers. Good marketing. Oh, yeah. But like, he could do it. Like, he could play baseball. Yeah, you can't put me in there, and I'd be like, what do I? Yeah, exactly. They're throwing it really fast.

I don't like you have a lot of flying balls in my face. But, no, David, you got it right. It's great marketing as well. Like, you know, attendance went up everywhere he went. so while he was playing baseball he wore number 45 on his jersey and that number had a lot of significance for him growing up uh he had an older brother and you know michael jordan growing up had wanted to have 45 his brother took it so one of the reasons that he settled for 23 the story goes his story is that well i divided 45 and half and rounded up so 23 yeah it was kind of cute so now that he had

the chance to wear 45 he wore it while he was playing baseball and the bulls in his absence they did did good. They did good, not great. They didn't win the title the next year. They suffered. They suffered. They went pretty far in the playoffs, but losing the greatest player on the planet, you're going to have some drop-off, even, you know, with a lot of other talent. So the second season after he was retired, the Bulls were struggling even a little bit more. They were about, had like a 500 record. They were, they were not doing great. And then dramatically, Michael Jordan decided to come back to basketball.

Say his team. Well, you know, part of the of it was yeah he gets to ride in on the white horse and be the savior he he very famously announced his return with a two word press release that just said i'm back and you know this was again this is like just early enough this wasn't like all over the internet this was like 1994 you know so this was over the wire services and every sports writer just you know the head explodes like oh michael jordan's coming back i bet they all sounded just like that too oh my god little collin was excited yeah um so he came back you know halfway through the season oh not even not even yeah between he came back halfway through rejoined his teammates they of course found room for him on the

roster oh yeah um yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah he got to try it out again yeah right i would love that if he showed up and they're like sorry am i yeah you're coming in like a new one water boy just like carefully arranging the gatorade cups just real good at it i got to prove my son yeah exactly yeah he's like trying to cat hey coach i'm doing a good job right coach they made a pretty good run deep into the playoffs that season he came back and he was wearing as I say number 45 he came back he carried over his 45 into basketball so as I say they went pretty deep into the playoffs but they lost the first game of the conference semifinals okay which is a big deal and for whatever reason he wasn't feeling the mojo some of the players on the other team one

of the other players even made a comment like oh you know number 23 that wouldn't happen that number 45 doesn't look like number 23. Oh, snap. And if you know anything about Michael Jordan, you know this is one competitive dude. And so I think that kind of got under his skin. But he also just separately wanted to switch numbers, kind of rumbling started.

So he said, you know, I think I'm going to go back to number 23. But so here's the problem. When you're playing in a league season, you tell the league office, here are our roster of players, here are the numbers they're going to wear. And that's basically set in stone. It's a big deal.

you can't just change will and really for that season for that season exactly exactly part of it has to do with quite frankly the fact that league sells a lot of merchandise and if you're changing numbers around it it kind of it makes it tough for them that's part of it that's part of it other is just record keeping marketing is it's a big part of it they are they are a business yeah um so game two rolls around of the uh of the series and he takes off his warmups to reveal a number 23 jersey and you know he kind of knew he was supposed to do this but he's like, I don't care. I'm Michael Jordan. He's like, I'm going back to her. What are they going to do? So, the league wasn't happy, and they find the team $25,000. They were very clear. They were like, you know you can't do this. You're messing with our system. And his team,

to the credit, the Bulls supported him. His coach, Phil Jackson at the time, they supported him. All his teammates supported him. He's like, I don't care. $25,000 is nothing. Yeah, nothing. So he's like, I don't care. I'm going to do it again. So the next came around. Oh, for him. He wore 23. He wore number 23 again the next game

And they find him $25,000 again And he said, I don't care, I'm going to keep doing it The next game came around He wore number 23 again They were winning They were, it was a tight series They eventually lost that series Unfortunately, they lost

And but not... This is not the feel good ending Not before racking up $100,000 in fines for the team just for wearing his old number But he wasn't going to back down He was not going to back down So they lost that series.

They did not win a title again that second year that he, you know, had come back. So before the next season started, they went through all the official channels, changed it back. He's official number 23. And they went on to win three more NBA titles. They won 1996, 1997, 1998, and then he retired for the second time. Then he came back. And then he came back. And, you know, we just prefer not to talk about that last one.

Oh, really? It wasn't. You know, he was, he came back in 2001. So his, his second come back, he was, he was old compared to most people on an NBA roster. This is when he was with the Washington Wizards. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he had started as an executive with the team. And it was kind of one of those things like, the team was not doing well.

And it was like, fine. He's like, yeah. He's like, break away suit. He's like, I've done it before. Like, he just writes number 23 on his church. the scenario you're describing is only marginally less comical than what it really was yeah he was he's like yeah this team is underperforming

he's like you know who we need out there on that court we need me we need me out on there on that court so and I felt bad for the coach of the Lodosat sprint gets out there right right he was out of this newspaper under his arm I felt bad for the coach of the team

Imagine because Michael Jordan was the coach's boss As well as being You can't play in Yeah Because he still had to You know I mean it was not

It was not a good scenario Yeah That lasted a couple years He retired again Thankfully for the last time Yeah Yeah I love these basketball stories

It reminds me The other story I think on our cheating episode Where you talk about Jason Kidd Throwing a soda Whoa This is a great It's just so ridiculous

The gamesmanship that goes on. Yeah, exactly. Like on the court. Like, breakaway suit. Oh, man. Wow. That was a... That was a show.

That was a show. That was our comeback show. It came back. Yeah, we did. We did. We did. Yeah. Thank you guys for joining me

and thank you guys listeners for listening in and being patient and, you know, waited until my voice is back. Thank you guys so much. Not like you guys had a choice because it was...

I recorded. 40 hours of my one-man show. I wouldn't hear them. Just calling. It was like, you're doing walking impression. Stream of consciousness, you know, just musings on man's place in the universe. Some of my poetry. Yeah.

I hope you guys learn a lot about different types of viral comebacks and also Michael Jordan. And you can find our show on iTunes, on Stitcher, on SoundCloud, and on our website, good jobbrain.com. And we'll see you guys next week. Bye! thrilling and captivating stories of Magellan, Shackleton, Lewis, and Clark, and so many other famous and not so famous adventures from throughout history. Go to Explorespodcast.com or just look us up on your podcast app. That's the Explorers Podcast.