Good Job, Brain! - 302: Bad Guy

Episode Date: November 21, 2025

Duh. This one's for all the villains, rapscallions, and hellions! Meet the amazing bone-eating villainous birds who built history-surviving nests. Blockbuster bad guy quiz, and Chris has a green-skinned trivia ode to an enduring witch. Karen's got a villain etymology word challenge, and grab your spoons as we head into a round of TARK SHANK. For advertising inquiries, please contact [e-mail]! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an airwave media podcast. Good weather, worthy, whirling whirlpools of worthers. Welcome to Good job, Brain, your weekly quiz show and offbeat trivia podcast. This is episode 302. And of course, I'm your humble host, Karen, and we are your baddest baddies with baddunk-a-dunk's badgering Sinbad in the Badlands. I am Colin. And I'm Chris. Nice Sinbad reference there, Karen.

We're just talking about Sinbad the other show. Yeah. So we're all back. Everybody's back. Everybody's back. I guess where I came back from. I attended my first elementary school-wide Halloween back. It was overwhelming, and I think among the, I don't know, 30 roomies and 20 baby sages.

Right, right, right. I was going to ask you on a scale of 90 to 100, what was the percentage of K-pop demon hunter's attire? A lot. A lot. And it's not just the kids. It's the parents, right? It's the kid wants to go as one thing. makes their entire family be another thing.

I saw your idol Saja boys who are all adults. I saw a lot of baby Sajas. It was just a lot. Well, I have to confess that my family indeed is going to be doing a group. I'm not a Saja boy. One of the other dads, we've got a multiple. So we've got, you know, the kids are going to be Huntricks. And then we've got, you know, parents are sort of filling out sort of the rest of the sort of

traveling group. Yeah, my wife is going to be mystery. I'm going to be the guy in the crowd who's wearing the Guima T-shirt, you know, and people are kind of like, where did he, yeah, who is this guy? Where do you get a Guimma T-shirt? Uh, yes, and my daughter is going to be grooming and my wife is going to be one of the, uh, the demon flight attendant. That's a good one. coffee into the plant. That's going to be good. And then I'm going to be Bobby because I wasn't even going to do it. But then I'm like, oh, you know what? This would actually be pretty easy.

Just bought a Huntrix t-shirt. And I can, you know what? And then I can just wear the Huntrix t-shirt until this whole thing is just run completely dead into the ground, which should be about November 1st. Look at us, guys. Well, without further ado, let's jump into. Our first general trivia segment, pop quiz, hot shot. And when I say general, it's not general.

Two cards here, trivial pursuit. We have pop two culture and entertainment singles. All right. So let's do pop, I keep saying pop to call. Sorry, it's pop culture too. Pop culture two. Two pop, two culture. Two pop, two culture.

Here we go. TV, Blue Wedge. What 10 part of war series drew its name from the St. Crispin's Day speech in Shakespeare's Henry Fifth. Chris Band of Brothers Yes Pink Wedge

Fad What manufacturer was building one out of every three cell phones sold around the world by 2006 Whoa Colin Is that Nokia? Nokia

Nokia Yellow Edge for Buzz What comedian born David Atkins Was alarmed to read on Wikipedia that he died of a heart attack in 2007. Oh, David Atkins was a comedian

who goes, so he must go by some pseudonym. Yes. Right, right. Maybe even a mononym. Oh, interesting, interesting. A comedian who goes by a monomonym. Colin? Is it Sinbad? He's Sinbad? Yes.

Slumdog Millionaire, y'all. Wow. That's crazy. Oh, that's crazy. Oh, speaking of crazy. What Narls Barkley hit was the first single to top British charts on the strength of downloads alone. Is it? Chris.

Is it crazy? It's crazy. Oh, okay. I was overthinking it. I'm like, You wouldn't just tip us the answer. I'm like, I'm like, I'm trying to think another hit. I was like, yeah, okay.

Like, Aaron's playing 40 chess over here. Greenwich for Movies. What movie concerns the adoption of the Picardy Shepherd Young Opel discovers in a grocery store? I'm sorry. How am I reading this question? No, sorry. The adoption of the, what, Picardy Shepherd, young Opel discovers in a grocery. in a grocery store, I believe it is because of Win Dixie?

Yes. The syntax of the sentence is... It's very hard. It's very hard to read this. Adoption of the Picardy Shepherd. Young Opel discovers. Yes, yes, yes. All right, sports and games. What nation settled for bronze and basketball at the Athens Olympics

after losses to Puerto Rico, Lithuania, and Argentina? Colin? Is that the United States of America? United States. Like who else, what other nation would settle? Right. And why would it be interesting, right? Right, right, right.

Last card here. This is entertainment singles, Blue Wedger TV. What's saying elsewhere doctor was also the voice of Kit in Night Rider. Oh, Colin, you're so sure. All right. Well, the actor is William Daniels. Is that what they're looking for? Are they looking for the doctor's name?

Yeah, yeah. Okay. Mr. Feeney. Mr. Feeney for Blameet's World. Wasn't he just on like dancing with the stars? He was just on dancing with the stars. Like at age 90 something? Two, I think.

Yeah. Whoa. He did not dance just to be clear. Oh, because Topanga's on. Yes. It was dedication night and Daniel Fischel who played Topanga dedicated her dance to William Daniels who played Mr. Feeney as well as the voice of Kit from Nightmare. Yes. No, you know.

Pink Wed for Music. What Champion Surfer from Hawaii produced and sang the music for the children's film Curious George. My buzzer's not working. Colin. Is it Jack Johnson? Jack Johnson? I did not know he was a champion surfer.

But it makes sense. It really fits. It's very chill. Very chill. All right. Yellowed for movies. What 1964 movies starring Audrey Hepburn was adapted from George Bernard Shaw's play A Million.

Chris? Thanks. My fair. lady as most famously performed by my high school class junior year he played her dad i played her dad take a bunch of white kids from suburban connecticut and have them do cockney accents absolutely importantly no vocal coaching whatsoever just let him rip did you have a cockney accent well yes i did ma'am Oh, I'm getting married in the morning, you know, just incredible. I mean, just transporting you to the streets of London.

Streets of London. Oh, I'm crying. Purple Witch. What are skeet targets also called? Colin. Pigeons. It says birds. Birds.

Oh, really? Yeah, okay. Clay pigeon. I was going to say Clay Pigeon, yeah. It says birds. I've heard birds. Yeah, I've heard birds and pigeons. We all get it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Have you guys ever gone shooting? Have you ever done it? No. Is it hard? It is very hard. Yes, I did it. I did it one time.

I was a teenager. It was when I was at a camp in Colorado. And so they took us out. It was one counselor. He was all very safe, you know, under lock and key and all that. What I remember is, in addition to it being hard, is they gave us no ear protection, no, no high protection, I mean, we were shooting in a safe direction. The counselor had a hand-powered clay pigeon tosser. So you got to kind of like cock it back,

it's spring-loaded, you put the clay pigeon in, and then like just like on the TV movie, you're like, pull. And, you know, he'd like, he'd just wing it up there as high as he could and you try and follow it. Did anybody get one? Out of like the five or six of us, the kids who were there, I think we had maybe two hits, you know, over a good 20, 30 minutes of shooting. It was tough. It was tough. And the thing was scary. I'd never, like, held a shotgun.

Shotgun. Exilerating, and I was terrible at it. Yeah. I don't know if I need to do it again. All right. Next question. Green Wedge, what Robert Cormier novel told the story of high school renegade Jerry Renault and his fight against conformity?

Chris. But chocolate one. Yes, you're so literary. Yes. I'm like stumbling through these names. I was like, I don't know any of the, how do I pronounce all of that stuff? I'm reading multiple books right now as you record this podcast. You're double fisting.

Yeah, yeah, we believe you're literate. It's, it's, yeah. Last question for Pop Quiz Hot Shot, Wildcard. What happened to 24-year-old Sharon Tabern in 1993 after she participated in a live hypnosis? show. Oh. What's the category? Wildcard.

That does not help at all. She participated in a live hypnosis show. Okay. What happened to the 24-year-old Sharon Tabern? Yeah. In 1993, after she participated in a live hypnosis show. All right. It's either something really funny, really embarrassing, or really tragic.

Or right. Like she farted. Yeah. Or she died. I mean, I don't know. Chris. She instantly became able to speak fluent French. Oh, that's not bad.

That's not bad. She died. Oh, okay. Should have just hit that buzzer. I'm early on son. Don't press on others. Okay. Way to end that card.

Okay. Good job, brain. Well, this week, speaking of Guima, Saja Boys, by the time you hear this episode is probably after Halloween, but we're in the Halloween frenzy, lots of spooky stuff. lots of costumes of villains. And I was like, ooh, we should do an episode about bad guys. So this week, it's all about the bad guys. Well, right around the time this episode comes out,

maybe there's going to be a film about a famous villain, like maybe the famous villain is going to be in theaters. Wicked for Good. The second installment in the film series based on the musical, based on the novel, based on the movie, based on the book, all about... Say that again. Say that again. I just want to hear, okay.

Yes, Wicked for Good. The second installment in the film series based on the musical, based on the novel based on the movie based on the book. All about the Wicked Witch of the West. She's called Elphaba in the musical. That's not always her name. But I do have a quiz about this enduring, beguiling, one hundred and twenty-five-year-old villain.

She's got legs. Or is she, the Wicked Witch of the West? I will say the Wicked Witch has come by and inserted one trick question. into this quiz or I consider a trick question I don't know so be on your guard or any trick questions I like to I do like to be warned ahead of time if there's a trick question just just the one we'll see we'll see how you guys handle this buzz in quiz about the wicked witch of the west so here we go all right all right in the year 1975 this actress then a

age 72, appeared on an episode of Mr. Rogers' neighborhood to explain to children that she was a real and very nice lady and not actually the Wicked Witch of the West. What was her name? I know what was your name. All right, say, let's tag team here. What do you got? Margaret. Margaret. Margaret.

Ooh. Not Margaret Williams. Margaret. I don't know if it's in my punchbook. Harrison. It's the last name of a founding father. Hamilton. Hamilton.

Margaret Hamilton. All right. Hamilton is on the $10 bill. She's also, her face is also green. Yeah, okay. Yes, Margaret Hamilton, who played the Wicked Witch

in the 1939 emotion picture of the Wizard of Wow. Yes, yes, yes, yes. In 1976, one year later, Hamilton appeared again, on a children's television program. This time she appeared as the Wicked Witch of the West. And this show was considered to be so scary

that it was immediately pulled from the air and never officially shown again. What was the children's show? Show. Yes. This episode got pulled or the show got pulled. She appeared on a children's show in 1976. The episode of this show was in which she appeared

as the Wicked Witch of the World. West was considered so scary and traumatized so many children that it was pulled from air and never officially shown again. Colin? Sesame Street. It was Sesame Street.

They put her on Sesame Street. It's the wicked witch of the West, interacting with the characters and using witch powers and stuff and kids did not like it. One, it. The episode eventually leaked

to the internet in 2022. So it was really lost for a long time. We're not shown. They had the episode. Right. Somebody kind of got it's not aired as part of S&B Street reruns or anything like that. I'm going to have to chase this one down. I know me too.

All right. Question number three. In L. Frank Baum's 1900 book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Wicked Witch of the West is desperate to get her hands on what magical item? Karen. The silver slipper? A silver shoe. Yeah.

The silver shoe. Now I'm thinking it was that the trick. Yeah. Nope, that was not the trick. Okay. All right. It is tricky. Yes.

The ruby slippers, an invention for the movie. Yeah. In the book, it was the silver shoes that the Wicked Witch was trying to get her hands on. And of course, they were on Dorothy's feet at the time. In the 2000,

five made for TV film the Muppets Wizard of Oz the Covenant Silver Shoes are said to have been made by what Spanish footwear designer Spanish? Huh. Is it like...

Oh, no, no, no, no, that's Italian. No, no, no. That's Italian. Spanish. Or is it like a funny... Oh, like is it like a Muppet-Muppety pun? Real life. Oh, real life. Oh, real life. Okay. Oh, man.

It's, no, it's, it's, it's, it's in there. It's, come on, Karen, you know this. It's like a sex in the city name. Manola Blonick? It is Manolo Blonick. Yes. So, in the, in the Muppets, in the Muppets Wizard of Oz film, the character playing Dorothy does not want the shoes. But the good witch, played by Miss Piggy, who in fact plays all the witches,

tries to get her shoes and fails until she finally says, they're Manolos. And she does take them. So, yes. Nice. All right. I knew we could push to get there together, Karen. You got it. You knew.

Yeah, exactly. That was a classic pub trivia team stuff. Like, you knew who it was. You just didn't know the name, whereas Karen knew the name. All right. In 2024, the actress Catherine Hahn said this about an actress who played Elfaba on Broadway. Quote, I'm always confused and flatteringly so with blank. We always are confused with each other.

Of whom was she speaking? Karen. Dina Manzo. No. You have fallen into the witch's trap. She has gotten you with her trick question. Oh, did someone else? play Elphaba on Broadway? Yes.

Okay. Who, whether or not you think this person looks like Catherine Hunt, this is another well-known person who played Elphaba on Broadway. Wow. It is, it is, I'm going to just tell you. Sarah Borellis? It is not Sarah Borellis. Who is it? It is Anna Gastire. Oh, Oh, I can see that. Yes. I can see that. I did not know that she, oh, good. That was a good one.

All right. Yes, the role of Elphaba was originated on Broadway by Edina Mantell. The third actress to play the role on Broadway was Eden Espinoza, who then went on to play this role in the play Rent on Broadway, this. role had also been originated on Broadway by Edina Minto. Karen. Maureen. Maureen. Sorry, Colin.

No, no, no worries. Rent heads. Yeah. Rent it up. There you go. And when Eden Espinoza left Wicked on Broadway, she was replaced by Onagastire. Ah. Fourth person to play.

I did not know that Anakasthire had so much, um, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, exposure and experience. Yeah. In Sam Ramey's 2013 film, Oz the Great and Powerful. Oof. The Wicked Wish, I hope you remember it. The Wicked Witch of the West, played by Milakunis, had this clever name. However, because it was an inversion of the name of the original books protagonist.

Okay. Original book protagonist. Yes. Is it not Dorothy? Yes. So Dorothy was a protagonist of the original book. In Sam Ramey's 2013 film Oz the Great and Powerful, the Wicked Witch in the West, her name was, it's sort of like a spoonerism, if you will. Uh-huh.

Her name was Theodora. Theodora! Which is Theodora, which is actually, Dorothy is from Dorothea, which means gift of the gods. Then Theodora is literally just those same two words. Oh my God. Flipped. Yes. The Wicked Witch of the West runs a sweatshop underneath Yankee Stadium in this 1978 film.

Karen. The Whiz. It's the Whiz. And her name in The Whiz, Karen, is. Does this start with an E? It does. Oh, it's escaping me. It's Eveline.

Eveline. Eveline. A couple more questions for you. Donning a witch costume in a 1989 episode of her sitcom, Roseanne. Titular character, Roseanne Conner, proclaims herself the Wicked Witch of What? Would it be? Wicked Witch of the What? It can't be like Ohio

Could it be like Wicked Witch of the Midwest? Correct. It is Wicked Witch of the Midwest. There you go. Not the Wicked Witch of Ohio. Wicked Witch of the Midwest. But yeah, yeah, you closed in on it.

Wicked Witch of the Loose Meets. And finally, it's not used for the film and it's not even used for the musical, but what is the subtitle of Gregory McGuire's? 1995 book, Wicked. Come on, Karen.

It's crazy because Chris is the one who let me borrow the copy of the paperback book. I believe in you. I'm trying to picture the book. What is it? It's a classic phrase you'd see on the cover of a biography, if this were her biography. The untold story? No. Oh, that's good.

Could be good. Could be good. No, I'm going to save you all. It is the full title, the book, the title and subtitle is Wicked, the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Wow. Yes, yep.

Well, good job, everybody. Good job with the witch trivia. Ah. Well, I have a somewhat villain of sorts here for you guys. Play along with me here. In pop culture, movies, TV shows, comics. What bird, what type of bird would you associate as the most evil bird is, you know what I mean? Like a villain bird.

A, the crow? Okay. The raven? I was looking for like a vulture. Don't you guys? Yeah, it just has like, even just like the name, the vulture, you know, it just has a real negative connotation. Really not fair to this bird. The bird's just like, hey, man, I'm just doing what I was, you know.

like to eat dead animals. I sometimes like to eat carrion, you know? Because it's like they symbolize death. Yes. Yes. Yeah. The vulture circling. Yeah. Opportunism. Yeah. Waiting for you to die. Yeah. Yeah. The grim reaper of birds. If you will. Well, I came across a news article involving some vultures of a certain type that I found very interesting and needed to share with you guys. villainous. I read a great article from Smithsonian Magazine. It was by correspondent Sarah Kuta. And she, in her article, was summarizing some interesting results from a study published last month in the journal Ecology. And this study was focused on the bearded vulture, which is a pretty cool name. The bearded vulture is the only known vertebrate whose diet consists of 70% to 90% bone.

They actually eat the bones. They literally eat bone. They even will pick big bones up, fly up with them, drop them so that they shatter on the rocks and they can eat them in smaller pieces. It's so cool. Their stomach acid can literally dissolve bones in just a matter of hours. They're really, they're eating the marrow, I guess, which makes a lot of sense. I'm like, are you eating bone? How much nutrition is in bone?

And the answer is not a whole lot compared to what's in the marrow. All right. That is not what this article is about. Okay. Among the cool things about bearded vultures, yes, they eat bones. They also return to the same nesting site over generations. They have nesting sites for bearded vultures that may go back hundreds of years. No.

20, 30 generations. How do they know? I guess they're born into it. How do they know? Great. You're really setting me up here. So because people who study these birds are aware, that they have re-nesting, you can study the nest and basically look back in time a little bit

because some of the materials in the nest will be generations and generations. That's right. It is. It is a little bit. This type of bird, like other birds, also incorporates human artifacts into their nests. Okay. So this study in ecology was about bearded vultures in southern Spain. And they've been largely extinct there, depending on the region, for several generations, more than 100 years in places. But their nests are still there. And because of the environment, they build them like high up and protected spaces. They're nice and good, good moisture, not too moist, not too dry.

The nests can be preserved for hundreds of years. And so they can go and find these nests. They studied 12 nests here over the course of about six years. They found a lot of bones, as you might imagine, but they found more than 70 pieces of leather, like human-made leather, and shoes and pieces of crossbows and leather that had been crafted into things that were clearly human use. Like how long ago? Yeah. As far back as 675 years. Dang.

In particular, found a sandal that is 675. 650 years old, made of like the woven grass to the region. It's clearly a, you know, a human-made sandal. So these nests are not just valuable studying the birds in their history, but they're a very interesting insight into the human populations living around where the bearded vultures live, finding these artifacts from their daily lives that have been preserved because the birds picked him up and took them into their nests. And then subsequent generations are like, well, I don't need to leave. This is a pretty sweet nest up and it's protected. So this just blew my mind. Just like, just what a good job brain intersection of science and history and

human and animal study. 10 out of 10. Beard adventure, you win our good job brain most metal thing of the year. Okay. I have a work quiz. I haven't done a wordy. etymology-ish quiz in a while. So there are a lot of cool, colorful words for villain. A lot of words in the English language to describe a bad guy. So I've rounded up some. And here is the game. So I'm going to give you a bad guy word.

And I'm going to give you two potential origins of the bad guy word. And you have to choose which. Which one do you think is the actual etymology origin of this word? All right. Okay? All right. That's the name of the game. Here we go.

The first word is villain. Our episode's topic, villain. Does the word villain come from villa like an Italian house? Or does it come from venal, V-E-N-A-L, like someone who is bribeable? Hmm. Which one do you think? Does the word villain come from Villa, like an Italian house, or venal, which means bribeable, or there's a price, sellable? Right.

All right. Colin, what do you think? I'm going to say Villa. Yeah, I'll go with Villa. Go with Villa. Ding, ding, ding, ding, right. You're both correct. It is Villa.

Italian House. These days when we say Villa, we're like, ooh, like vacation in the villa. But like Villa, you know, in Italian means country house out in the rural area, farmhouse. And so Villa does used to mean something that's like lower class, like farmer peasant. And that's where the origin of villain came from. A bumpkin or something. And it had that kind of vibe to it. Yeah.

So Villa. All right. Next word. I'm trying to trick you. So hopefully fall into one of my tracks. Oh, yeah. No, I could tell. I could tell. Okay. All right. Next bad guy word. A nemesis. Nemesis. Comic book heroes have their arch nemesis. Does the word nemesis come from name of a Greek god or named after the Nemean lion? To clarify, the Nemean lion was the first task of Hercules. Hercules, Hercules, Hercules, nemesis, is it a name of a Greek god?

Or did it come from the Nemean lion? It's not a Greek god I've ever heard of, so I'm going to go with the lion. I'm going to go on the theory that there's so many gods. There's so many of them, just because they're not, you know, household names. I'm going to go with the Greek god name. Bing, me, be, bing. The answer is, is the name of a Greek goddess, nemesis, that her name is nemesis. And what is she the goddess of?

Yeah. Goddess of Revenge. Oh, that's so good. Yeah, goddess of revenge. Probably the most famous is the story of Narcissus, the guy who fell in love with his own image, his own reflection. Who led him there? It was nemesis. Nemesis was the one who kind of set him up.

All right. Next bad guy word, wrestling fans, rejoice. It is heel. Oh. Heel. Does the word heal as, you know, a bad guy come from the heel of a foot? or does it come from origins of hell? Hell.

Oh, all right. Helion. Helion. Heal of a foot. Right, right, right. Or hell. I'll go heel of a foot. Yeah, I'm going to go heel of the foot as well.

And I mean, I know the phrase heel turn as well and think that, I don't know, maybe that's connected like to a literal heel of a shoe or a foot or something. something. I don't know. Listeners, what do you think? The correct answer is heel of a foot. Heal of a foot. Why? Why? Yeah.

Why is the heel bad? Just because it's low. It's on the ground. It's because it's low. It's because it's like the most bottom of the bottom of your body. The lowest of the low. You're the heel of the foot. Next word. Rapscallion.

Ooh. That's such a thing. fun word. Rapscallion. Does the word come from? Rotten scallions. Oh, yeah. He gave me a bunch of rap scalyons.

Or animals. Ooh. Rapscallion. It's an old-timing word for a weird animal. Right. Or is the old-timey word for rotten scallions? Bad onions. Bad onions.

I like the animal. I like the animal theory. I can't imagine if it's, if it really does. mean bad onions then you flip the table yeah you guys did not fall into my trap it is animal pack of animals

a rabble so rap scalene stems from rabble which is like a mob or a pack of animals pack of people not bad scallions man I was hoping that that is it's one of those where it's silly enough to be

plausible though yeah and then you're just like, oh, maybe rap is an old artian form of rotteny or something. You know, bad apples, you know, rotten apples in the barrel and the, yeah, no. I think of like a cart, you know, like a cart full of spoiled vegetables. Gross onions. Bad apples and rap stallions. Yep. All right.

Next word, we have enemy. Enemy. Where does enemy come from? Does it come from the Latin in a me, which means non-friend? Or does it come from enema? Which means injection. Injecting what? Injecting what?

Fear, hate. Ooh. Does it come from in a me, which is a not friend. So if you're a not friend, you're an enemy enemy or enema? Huh. Got to go with enema. I really want it to be enema, therefore I'm going to go with enema as well. Okay.

Fell into my trap! I was like, wow, it sounds a lot like animal. What if those two things are related? It would be so great. Totally not related. Like I was like, maybe they even share the same origin. Nope, no, two different things. Enema is injection just means injection.

Enemy comes from in a me, in a me, in a me. In a me. Right. I-N-A-M-I. And it just became. name, enemy. Wow. That's good.

I like that. Yeah. Doesn't we also learn way, way back. I think maybe from Dana that infant comes from like cannot speak, like not speak infant, something like that. Oh, all right. Last one. Rival. You're my rival.

We're rivals. Rival. Does the word rival come from river or revolution? Rival A rival River like A revelation Oh that's good

metaphor Yeah I'm trying to like Yeah what's something of the river Well it's a rival Right right right right Yeah I'll go with I'll go with Revolution

I'll I'm gonna mix it up here I'm gonna break I'm gonna go with river Okay Revolt Revolution Chris you revolution Yeah Colin you think it's the river

Yeah it is the river rival like the real definition is someone who is in pursuit of the same goal as you right like you guys are both chasing after the same thing and so it's like your neighbor down by the river you're of the same river

and you guys both you know two houses down the river are looking for the same thing oh that's a good one is that that's so crazy. I was like, oh. Never looked into that one. That's a really good one. Yep, yep, yep, yep. Cool. That was great. I love these kinds of quizzes.

That was really good. No rap scallions here. No rotten onions here. All right, we're going to take a quick break, and we'll be right back. You're listening to Good Job Brain. Smooth puzzles. Smart trivia. Good job, brain. This week we're talking about bad guys.

I have a quiz for you guys as well. This is a quiz about movie villains. It does not include any Wizard of Oz, any wicked, not in this quiz at all, no overlap. Specifically, these are movies from the tops of the box office charts. and I'm going to use a format I've given you guys before where we will start in the present day and we're going to move back in time a bit with each question. This will be a buzz quiz.

The answer to each question is the name of a movie, okay? And it's going to be keyed around the villains, antagonists of many high-grossing movies. Are you going to give us the villain name? I will, in some cases I will tell you the name of the villain, in some cases, I will clue you to it. In some cases, the name of the villain is directly tied to the name of the movie. Got it.

I believe in you guys. Get your buzzers ready. All right. Let's rock this. We'll be going back in five-year increments starting today, this very day, and ending all the way back in 1995. All of these. That doesn't sound that long ago. It doesn't sound that long ago, Karen, but that was, need I remind you, 30 years longer than some of our listeners.

have been alive, I'm sure. Now, as you might expect, going back 30 years, top grossing movies in those, you know, top 10 or 15 or so. Well, let me just say, there's a lot of Star Warses. There's a lot of Avengers's and Harry Potter's zizzes. And, you know, I can't promise that that we won't have one of those in here, but I've tried my best to avoid those. All right.

I'm going to try and clue you in. We're starting in 2025. Hopefully, hopefully you guys can tackle this one. and get off on a good foot. All right, get your buzzers ready. The highest grossing movie so far of 2025. And this is very, very close. I was looking at the charts right before we recorded this episode.

You know, we're toward the end of the year. We've got a couple more months. So this may change even by the time this episode airs. But as of right now, as we are recording, the highest grossing movie of 2025 in the United States pits its heroes against gruff, Poor Sign Villains. What is this film? Poor sign.

They are distinctly pig-like. Highest grossing. They just announced a sequel for this movie. Karen, what do you got? Minecraft. Yes. Oh, oh. Minecraft.

Of course. Yes, with the villains, the piglins in the movie. specifically it is a Minecraft movie we won't we won't nitpick too much here oh okay sorry yes a it's called a mine it's called a Minecraft movie and yeah as of today it is the it is the highest grossing movie of the year however hot hot on its heels is uh lelo and stitch the uh the live action lelo and stitch so yeah we'll see we'll see where that ends up when when all is said and done here at the end of the year okay jumping back to 2020 like a lifetime ago here, pandemic era, guys.

The fifth highest grossing film of 2020 featured the unexpected, some would say improbable return of a major villain who was seemingly killed more than 30 years prior. Oh, Chris, what do you got? Star Wars, the Rise of Skywalker. Yes, you have it. Star Wars, Star Wars episode I-X, oh, or nine. I hope I'm not spoiling this movie for you, the resurrected Emperor Sheave Palpatine. I don't even really remember what happened.

You know, it's, you know, walking out of the movie, he was like, so he was a clone, I guess, or resurrected, you know, somewhere in there. Yes, that's right. You got it. Yep. Chewy got a medal. Finally. Finally, finally, moving to 2015, this entry in a long-running franchise has a one-word title, is also, conveniently, the name of the sinister criminal organization featured in the story. Chris.

Skyfall? You're on the right track. You're on the right track. You want to pick it up? criminal organization, but... Is it, Specter? It is. Spector.

You got it. That's right. Spector. He was the name of his childhood home. That's right. His estate. That's right. Spector.

Moving back another five years, in 2010, nobody could have predicted the lasting success of this film, which featured a villain front and center and spawned multiple, and I mean multiple sequels.

Supervillain, if you will. Oh, oh, oh, supervillain, the main character. The main character. The main character. That's bad. And, and. Okay, let's list out. Oh.

Karen. Joker. Uh, no, no, yeah, a little further back. 2010, but the main character is a super villain, and I would say the main character's assistance also proved to be. be quite popular. Oh. Chris. Chris. Dispicable me. It is. Dispicable me. Yes. Oh, my God. Just, I mean, what a runaway train. No, I don't think anybody knew. Steve Carell could not have known. I don't think anybody knew. Do you know how many? I had to look up how many sequels in the expanded Despicable Me universe are.

Okay. Yeah. I mean. I think it's like there's three movies and then I think there's like the rise of grew also. And then I think there's like two minions. Yeah. All right, 2010, we had Despicable Me, 2013, Dispicable Me 2, Dispicable Me 3, 2017. Dispicable Me 4, 2024. Then we got into the prequel slash parallel minions series. We had Minions 2015, which was at one point, I believe, the highest grossing animated film of all time. I don't know if it still is or not. Then we had Minions, The Rise of Gru, in 2022.

Oh, right. And on the horizon, guys, for next year is Minions 3. So that'll bring us to seven, seven total feature films. And that's not counting, you know, the shorts and all that, exactly, all that stuff. Geez. Big checks for Mr. Steve Carrell. Aliens were the villains, if you will, of this film from 2005, directed by a Hollywood legend and based on a book from more than 100 years prior.

Ooh, I was going to, I was going to say Cognacius. Oh, Chris, what do you got? War of the Worlds? That is, War of the Worlds. Stephen Spielberg's War of the Worlds, of course, based on the H.G. Wells book. Mm-hmm. Older than Wizard of Oz, even. You are in sync with Colin.

Apparently, yeah. All right. I know you can get this one, Karen. Okay. The number one highest grossing movie in the U.S. for the year 2000 was not, Russell Crow's gladiator. It was not Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible 2. It was this holiday movie with a notable villain's name right in the title.

Oh. Karen. The Grinch? Elaborate. The Grinch who stole Christmas? Chris, you want to clean it up here? What do you got? I believe it's how the Grinch stole Christmas.

Yes, it is how the Grinch stole Christmas. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, thanks for being a stickler. You want to get on Jeopardy, Karen. Yeah. That's the Jim Carrey one. Yes, that's right.

I was surprised to see that this was, in fact, the number one highest grossing movie in the U.S. for that year. I would have picked Gladiator. Holiday Kids. It makes sense. Jim Carrey, at the height of his popularity. Right. Okay. Last question.

30 years in the past, we're looking at 1995 in this movie. Dennis Hopper portrayed the lead villain heading a band of post-apocalyptic pirates. Karen, authoritatively. Waterworld. You have it. It is Waterworld. I really like Waterworld. I don't know why everybody hates it.

It was widely considered a flop at the time. Just because it was so expensive to make. It was very expensive to make. And, you know, I mean, speaking of high to their powers, Kevin Costner was, you know, at or near the height of his powers at the time and, you know, could sort of command, you know, getting this movie made. It was considered a flop at the time, even though it was the number 10 highest grossing film of the year. It's like Mad Max on water, you know.

Yeah. It's pretty cool. Yeah. All right. Good job, guys. You know your high profile movie villains. You mean more like, bad job. Bad guys. so sadly i was not able to be on the game show episode uh the previous episode that was game show theme how'd that go karen was it fun oh my gosh yeah i wish you were there i wish you could play the impossible quiz that was really really great and i wish chris you could play wheel of fish i'm sorry i wish i could have been there a tour to force yeah actually i have to say i thought about this a lot after we recorded.

Colin said something on the show that I think is the best compliment I've ever received in my entire life. Because I was like, oh, you know, hey, I spent an hour coding this dumb wheel of fish spinner. Colin said one hour of Karen's time is like eight hours of normal people's time. And I was like, that is the nicest thing.

The best compliment I've ever received in my life. entire life. I'm very proud to hear that. So sorry, we missed you, Chris. Yeah. Sorry I miss it. Sorry I missed it. And I really thought I was going to be, uh, actually on that episode to the point that I actually put together my whole segment, a game show style, uh, word quiz for everybody. So I'm going to inflict it on you now. Now their villain episode is over. So thank, great job on the villain episode. Everybody. Here's their off topic. Off topic word game. It's a little game I call Tarkshank. For this word game, I would like you to imagine, I referenced him earlier in the show

of the Reverend William Archibald Spooner, former Don of the University of Oxford, was an entrepreneur pitching products to would-be investors on the television game show, Shark Tank. Now, Spooner, as you may or may not know, was famous for Spoonerisms, accidentally transposing the initial consonant sounds of words or phrases. So when he was lecturing at the University of Oxford, instead of discussing the conquering kings, he once told his students about the kinkering cons. Many, many such spoonerisms attributed to spooner may have been made up after the fact

by his students at Oxford, such as once when he apparently told a student you have kissed all my mystery lectures. But, you know, that's, that's, he's, he's become very well known for that. Now, Shell Silverstein, uh, the children's writer, poet did a book of spoonerisms titled RUNny Babbitt. Okay. Bunny rabbit. Instead of bunny rabbit.

Yeah. Uh, so on today's, uh, episode of Shark Tank, uh, the Reverend is here to try to drum up some investment in video game. Okay. So as an example, uh, If he were to pitch the sharks a puzzle game for the NES made up of folders of documents owned by Hercules actor Donovan, you would of course say the Files of Tate, which would be a spoonerism of the video game title, Tiles of Fate.

Wow. Now, you might say, Chris, I've never heard of Tiles of Fate. That is why it was the example. Didn't want to burn a good one on the example. The rest of the, exactly. Now, the rest of these must be hard to come by. Well, not if you have a first floor of your house that's full of shells full of video games, and you can go down and just look at every video game title and spoonerize it in your head

and see if something good pops out. Which ones are good. Yes. So, I mean, so again, the whole thing was a puzzle game. Tiles of Fate is a puzzle game, but made up of folders of documents owned by Hercules, actor Donovan folders of documents or files. Tate Donovan played Hercules. So that that's kind of where we're going here. Let's see how this goes. Here you go. Sharks, what I've got for you today. The commitment to the framing devices. Yeah, yeah, that's fine. That weird, awkward

fringe. You've one fist and then a hand over the fed. Shark. What I have for you today is an adventure game starring Kara Loft who steals potatoes out of sections of people's homes um instead of

Colin room tater it's room tater exactly oh my goodness it's not Tomb Raider it's room Tater she's stealing potatoes out of the divided section of people's homes you know what Karen that actually

might be a good idea. This was a buzz in quiz, but if you guys do want to grab a pencil, paper, and jot down some notes, you know what I mean? My extra challenge to you is to not say the actual title of the game, but only say the spoonerized title that I'm describing. It's more difficult that way. Yeah, indeed. All right. Okay. All right. I'll give you the next one. All right, well, if that product is not working for you guys, how about an arcade zombie shooter made by Sega in which you defeat the zombies by pouring water on their skulls? Typing of the Dead.

Zombies. Karen, it's the series that, it's the series that gave birth to Typing of the Dead, which you just whispered, the non-typing version where you use a light gun. It's something of the ed. Uh-huh, yes, yes. Oh. Uh-huh, uh-huh. God, my brain doesn't, is not wired this way.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. D has to be. It must be a duh. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Dowsing of the head? Douse of the head. Douse of the head. House of the dead.

House of the dead. House of the dead is the game. We'll move on. We'll move on. Yes, yes, yes. Okay, I think you're going to love this Nintendo platform action game, and it features moms who live. who live in Latin American neighborhoods.

Colin. Is this Barrio Mothers? It is. It is Mario Mother. It works. I can't wait to play this game. Sounds great. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I would play that game. Now we're on a roll. Now we're on a roll. Barrio Mothers. Wonderful. Moms who live in Latin American neighborhoods, but it's a great game. All right. Well, okay. So for my, okay, you like, you like that game. How about a music game with plastic instruments where you play songs about strong, dark, German beer and South African currency?

That is Bach Rand. That is Bach Rand. Wonderful game. Not a very long song list on that one. All right. Look, maybe some of these pitches aren't working for you. Would you like to invest in my Sega CD full-mo video horror game about an unoriginal brief slumber unoriginal brief okay so it's not

I was thinking seventh guest it's not seventh guest this one was controversial it starred played a dana oh nap

app app new trite uh huh is it Oh, trite nap. Trite nap. Oh, man, not night trap. Night trap.

Wow. With Dana Play-Doh. Again, maybe a little bit, maybe a little bit too obscure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, with Dana Play-Dow. All right, all right. Sharks, haven't you ever said, I want to cook sunny side-up eggs inside my automobile? Well, you can in this open-world shooter published by Ubisoft. Oh, far, uh, car, uh, car, car, car,

Oh, my gosh, our fry. I got that one faster. Okay, great, great, great. Just ten more of these. Sharks! I think I speak for all of us when I say, every one of us in this room, we all love animals. Don't we love animals? Yes.

Well, this shooter game from Nintendo stars a squadron of furry creatures who purchase shares shares of companies from a great distance. furry creatures they're in shares stocks investing far stocks far stocks

wow far stocks not Star Fox Fox very good Karen well listen I know you're going to love this one I know you're going to love this one if that animal game didn't grab you

how about this? This is an ultra-violent martial arts game starring a maternal flying rodent who can sing multiple notes at once. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my gosh. Is this cordal mom bat? That is a cordal mom bat. It's a cordal mom bat. Right, right, right.

Multiple notes with the chords and the mom. And she's a mom bat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Remember, sometimes when you're spoonerizing things, something doesn't seem to make sense. Yes. But then it turns out that it very much does if you look at it in the right way. So just one more of everybody's favorite. I'm going to do this again because this was so funny. I'm going to definitely do another one of these, one of these days. I'm going to threaten you with it. Here is the final product that I want to pitch you guys on. on the studio next door they're doing the Great British Bake Off and one of the judges just made me a Jewish filled pancake

but I can't find it because the rooms in my house change every time I open a door One of the judges on the Great British Bake Off just made me a Jewish filled pancake but I can't find it because the rooms in my house change every time I open a door

Karen Prueblins. It's a prublins. I had my prublins. I can't find it anywhere. Maybe it's in the secret garden. It's where the lever is. Amazing.

Yes. By the way, Colin, this is a game that you'll hate to play because you hate escape rooms. Oh my God. Blueprints, it's a fantastic game. Yep. Well, thank you all. This, this, um... This game was not QA'd in any way, shape, or form.

How do you even QA this? I will never QA a game. I will never learn. I promise you that I will never learn. I will leave you before we close out with one that's so bad I didn't even put it in. Sharks, I'm looking for $10 million to fund one percent. of my crossover fighting game about an Iraqi engineering consultancy and the makers of Fudgy the Whale. All right.

Okay, let's break this down. Okay, I think it's game angle. Fudgy, Fudgy, was that a Carvel creation? Marvel, oh, Marvel. Like, oh, like, Marvel versus Capcom. So, right? So Carvel versus Mapcom. Mapcom.

Parwell versus Mapcom in E, which, of course, everyone knows is the most popular engineering consultancy in all of Iraq. That's the check. That's how you know you got the answer right, Chris. He's like, okay, well, I know what the Iraqi, oh, well, obviously, it's Mapcom. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can see how this could be, this could be a great theme for like a crossword. Oh, yeah.

Oh, sure. Like all the long answers are spoonerisms. Yes, yes, yes. Well, very often you see that spoonerisms is, it's like, you know how in cryptic crosswords there's like, oh, well, there's these seven different types of clues. Then every now and again, there's something a little weirder. Every now and again, you'll get a spoonerism that's thrown in there.

And it's like, you know, reverend spooners, right, blah, blah, blah, whatever. And then you've got to figure out with it. Barrio mothers. Howan got that. You lickety split. my brain is just not wired that like you know it's like people yeah speak like pig latin uh-huh it's so hard for my brain to do that to swap to swap to because i can see letters in my head but i don't see the set like it's sounds right it's like sounds exchanging yeah it's not letters yeah it's not

it's it's it's it's phonings right right yeah right yeah it's initial it's like what's our what's Spoonerism names. Oh, Chris. Chris Golar. Fallen. Fallen, Kelton. And, ooh, Sharon Koo is good. Yeah, that's a good Star Wars name.

It is. It is. Oh, my gosh. And that's our show. Thank you all for joining me. And thank you listeners for listening in. Hope you learned stuff today about Spoonerisms, about movie villains, about etymology, and about Wicked.

Ah. You can find us on all major podcast apps and why does my alpha bus scream sound like The Led Zeppelin. You're thinking of the immigrant song. What does it sound like that? You can find us on all major podcast apps and on our website, gajabrain.com. This podcast is part of Airwave Media Podcast Network. Visit airwavemedia.com to listen and subscribe to other shows like Spycast, the official

Podcasts of the International Spy Museum, Queens Podcasts, and What Should I Read Next? And we'll see you next week. Bye. Bye.