Good Job, Brain! - 309: Yellow? Is It Me You're Looking For?

Episode Date: June 3, 2026

We're feeling mellow with all this yellow trivia! What is the color of a tennis ball and why is it tearing friendships apart? Find out what exactly is Minnesota Funeral Bread in "Take a Quick Whiz" - a qhiz dedicated the most beautifully yellow processed food item in human existence. Lock in your yellow predictions in Karen's reverse music quiz. Take a wild ride linking an old Nintendo game to the newspaper wars of the 1890's. And meet Mr. Yuk. 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. You all yelling at yellow jackets, yellow shanks and yellow fins. Welcome to Good Job Brain, your weekly quiz show and Offbeat Trivia podcast. This is episode 309. And of course, I'm your humble host, Karen. And we are your Jack Rabbits, jauntily jogging in jodpers while jawing on Johnagulls and Johnny Cakes. I'm Colin. And I'm Chris.

So I did something very. interesting today this morning. It was what we call career day, but at our school, it's called dream big. The idea is the same. Like, it's parents come in, share about their dream, their job, their passion. I went into a kindergartner class. Nice. And I talked about being a trivia podcast. Yeah. It was very cute. You know, I opened up. my presentation with some like trivia tidbits. I was like, okay, what's going to make me cool in front of the kids? I'd give them some Pokemon facts,

some animal poop facts. They're going to think it's funny. And then at the end, we recorded a little episode of a trivia podcast. Oh, no. I love it. It was a lot harder than recording this actual podcast. Oh, sure. Yeah.

It's a tough audience, first of all. Chris and I generally cooperate for the first part, yeah. Yeah. They're very chatty, a lot of hands up. I put Pokemon's and these pokeballs and sometimes they go on your belt, you know, just kind of like they're going to off straight real quick. The thing I love about young kids that age is that they assume you have all the context

in their head. Yes. You know, they just start in the middle of a conversation thought. One kid was like, can I share a sports fact? And I was like, yeah. Yeah. We always need a sports guy. It's the sports guy. He's going to be a future sports guy. He goes, did you know Cal Raleigh hit the most home runs last season for the Mariners?

Yeah. And then I asked him, I was like, do you know what his nickname is? And he's like, yeah, it's the big dumper because he has a big butt. They love butts. Oh, yeah. Oh, my goodness. But you've got to go in there. You've got to explain what is trivia? Yes. What is a podcast? Yes. Yeah, hopefully my daughter was very proud that her mom got to be a special guest in the classroom for Dream Big Week. Dream Big Week. All right, without further ado, let's jump into our first general trivia segment, Pop Quiz, Hot Shot. Here I have Genus 2, Genus 4. Let's do it in order. I have random Trivial Pursuit cards here. You guys have your barnyard buzzers, listeners, play along, answer along. Here we go. Genus 2. All right. Blue much for geography. What city with New York and Washington, D.C.

defines the airspace known as the Golden Triangle. Huh. New York, D.C. Oh, Colin. Boston? Incorrect. Chris. New York, D.C.

And Philadelphia. Oh, Chicago. Oh, that's a beautiful. Oh. That's a big triangle. Okay. Okay. All right.

It's like an isos. Yeah. All right. Long triangle. Pink wedge for entertainment. How many compartments fewer than a dozen are there in boy George's makeup box? My goodness. This is genus too, right?

Genus two. Yeah. Are there in boy George's makeup box? Makeup box? Makeup box. Makeup box. Make up box. How many?

A box for his makeup. All right, let me... Okay, go ahead. I was going to ask a question, but I don't get questions on the card. Eight. Incorrect, Colin, take a guess. It's not a trick question, right? The answer isn't like 12 or something like that.

It's not like, you know, like a song lyric. It's one. It's one. All right. Oh, ha, ha. It's all in one compartment. I mean, it's on the card. Oh, that's what it says.

Yeah, one. You're right. All right. Okay. It is a trick question. So, wait, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Not to harp on this.

weird question. It's one compartment less than a dozen or it's one compartment? No, it's one compartment. Less than a dozen is a hint. Got it. Got it. It gives you a range. How much compartments? Yeah. Fewer than a dozen. I see. It's 100. Okay. All right.

But would you, I guess you would technically still call it a compartment. Like, are there compartments in a box in a one single space? Right, right. The box is the compartment. The box is the compartment. Okay. Don't like that question, but also very, very, very much of its era.

I mean, exactly. Exactly. Listen, man, it's genus. It's genus too. All right. Yellow for history. Who succeeded to the presidency upon the assassination of William McKinley? Ooh.

Who was next? That's a good one. Go for it. Is it Taft? No. He's got a lot of animals. Teddy Roosevelt? Yes.

What was that? He had a lot of animals. He killed a lot of animals. He killed a lot of animals. He also had a fair amount of animals. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's true. Great lover of and killer of animals at the same time. Gray Silver Wedge for arts and literature.

What kind of writer pens an alonimus book? Can you spell that? Yeah. A-L-L-L-O-N-Y-M-O-U-S. Oh, an alonimus. Alonimus? No, alonimus. Right.

Is this a ghost writer? Yes, it is. Alonimus book. I like that. Good trivia. All right. An al-inem. Green retro signs of nature,

when does a diurnal animal usually sleep? Chris. At night. Yes, yes. Diurnal, yes. Is there awake during the day? Active during the day. We are diurnal animals.

Yes. Most of us. Diurnal animals. Two urinals. Why? How many do you have? Orange Wedge, sports and leisure. Which is the better swimmer according to the Red Cross rankings? Okay.

It advanced beginner or an intermediate. Oh. Who is a advanced? I love that. Better swimmer. Which is a wonderful oxymor. Right? And an intermediate.

I mean, I would have to say, I feel like the Joe Bloggs answer here is an intermediate. Right. The advanced beginner is at the end of beginner and then you would pass to. The advanced beginner is the more fun answer though. Like it's the more like, oh, did you know answer? I feel like the Red Cross wouldn't try to confuse you. Yeah. But then why would it show up on a trivial pursuit card?

I mean, why was. It's a weird card, man. It's a weird card. Okay. All right. I'll go Joe blogs then. I'll throw in with intermediate. Good choice.

Intermediate. Okay. All right. Next card. Genus four. Getting more modern. More modern. Now we're going to have some questions about Gerald Ford.

Blue Edge for people in places, how many of every five songs on French radio stations must be performed by French artists according to the 1996 regulation. Interesting. So how many out of five songs, don't give me a percent. So X amount of five, every five songs on French radio have to be performed by French artists, according to 1996 regulations. Colin, you buzzed in?

Yeah, I mean, like, I know they're very proud about this kind of stuff, but I feel like it also has to be realistic. I'm going to say it's like, uh, two. Chris? I was going to say two also, but I'm now, I'm going to say one. I could see one or two. Yeah. It is two.

It is good. All right. All right. Pink Wedge for Arts and Entertainment. What, 1994 Disney soundtrack? Mm-hmm. became the best-selling children's album of all time. Let me take a guess.

Disney, come on, come on. We have this one. Okay, all right. We all know Chris knows it. I will stipulate that you know the answer to this question. Okay, 1994 Disney soundtrack. Was this the Lion King? Yes.

And I would dare say in my book, the best original soundtrack. Okay. I think it's fantastic. All right. Yellow Edd for history. What was the first Japanese car company to set up a plant in the U.S. in 1982? Oh. Wasn't Michael Keaton in a movie?

No, yes. Not the documentary. Was this Toyota? Incorrect. Maybe the other one. Interesting. Oh, the other one. Honda.

Honda. Honda. Next question, Brownwich for Science and Nature. What does CPR? stand for in medical emergencies. Oh, Chris. Cardio pulmonary resuscitation. Correct.

Ding ding, ding, ding, ding. Greenwich for sports and leisure. What carbonated beverage was once dubbed the holy water of the American South? Oh, Colin. Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola.

Good old Coca-Cola. Last pop quiz question. This is Orange Wildcard. What be, what be-word? will usually be found on the labels of every dry champagne. Chris. Brute. Brute.

You bring. Dry. Yeah. It's wet. It's still wet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. As a kid, I was like, I don't get it. Waiter.

Dry wine. Oh, that's the dry champagne. Good job, Brins. All right. I love the influx of the genus. two cards. It brings a very distinct kind of, you know, vintage. Yeah, yeah, vintage vibe to the, to the whole affair here. We, for the last 14 years, have been saying,

we should memorize all the U.S. presidents in order. They don't change. And we refuse to ever do it. Just steadfastly. It's, it's. They have a poster of all the president on the wall of the history class, but they don't. actually make us memorize them. I mean, I think there are plenty of mnemonics. There's the Animaniac song. Oh, there's ways to do it.

Yeah, yeah. We just to a person have refused to ever do it. We will never memorize. Maybe we should divide it up. Like each person gets, you know, this seems more manageable. Like I feel like we're all pretty good 1950s and on. Yeah. Yeah. And we're all probably pretty good with the first

five in the years. Yeah, yeah. And then there's only a few in between. Yeah. Yeah. It's not that. It's not that many. 2026.

The year. Is this the year? Okay. That will finally memorize the order of presidents, right? Responsibly. All right. Well, good job, brains. Today's episode here on Good Job Brain.

We love regional strange foods. Oh, yes. There was a recent article that came across my desk, uh, my tabs, my Yes. Across the good job brain. Brain desk plopped right in front of me. It is about a real wild regional food that I've never heard of. All right. And it has a specific color. And so I was inspired by that to set today's topic. So this week, yellow. Is it me you're looking for? You remind me, we had an art teacher in middle school who would always answer the phone. and it's sort of in some kind of a funny way. And because there was like a phone in the classroom and the art room.

And sometimes the teachers would have to go and pick up the phone, you know, because they'd call them on a landline in the room. And at one point he went over and picks up the phone. He goes, he's in front of the class. And he's like, primary colors are red, blue and yellow. That's good material. Yeah. Oh, he was great.

He was great. All right. teased earlier about this wild crazy food. It's going to have to wait a little bit because it's going to be the finale of my little segment here that I've named, Time for a Quick Whiz. It is not about P. Oh, dear. Quick quiz about cheese whiz. A cheese quiz. A cheese quiz. A cheese quiz.

quiz. This beautiful product. Yes. Food product comes in a jar. This beautiful golden saffron, deep rich marigold color. Yeah. This is a write down quiz. Quiz.

We're going to write it down by dipping our finger into cheese whiz and smearing it I mean, I don't think I've ever actually had cheese whiz from a jar. What? That's where it comes from. I know. Where are you getting your cheese whiz? I've only had it on like Philly cheese steaks. Oh, well, they got.

I got into, I got into buying the cheese whiz jars because I became a Philly Cheesesteak guy for a while. So you like made it at home? I would make, I would try to make it at home. And I was like, well, you got to get, you got to get Wizz or else it's, it's not right. Yeah. It's not right. Yeah.

You guys ready? Let's do it. No. Let's get cheesy. All right. Question number one. Cheese Whiz was initially in. intended to be a speedy substitute for what European melting cheese dish?

Who? Hmm. Cheese Whiz was initially intended to be a speedy substitute for what European melting cheese dish. I can only think of the one. I'm going to Joe blogs. All right. Answer is up.

Chris put fondue. Colin put fondue. Ha ha. It was a trick. Oh, no. Welsh rarebit. Oh, okay. Or rabbit, spelled sometimes rabbit, rare bit.

Welsh rarebit, which is very similar. Cheese on toast. To a fondue. It's a cheese sauce. That makes a lot more sense, though, because you need the sauce to pour on quickly. You need to. You can make it in the morning for yourself if you just wake up, take the jar out of the fridge, smear it on the bread, pop it in the old toaster.

Yes. So traditionally, the Welsh Rare Barber. is a sauce, a cheese sauce. So Welsh shrimp has spices, melty cheese, sometimes beer or ale or cider mixed in. It takes a really long time to make because you have to consistently melt the cheese,

make sure it doesn't burn, you have to stir it, you have to monitor it. It takes a long time. Kraft tried to develop a quick substitute. And so it's so funny because we think, oh, wow, processed incredible cheese. Such an American thing.

How very American, yeah. But it wasn't. It was for the European market. for the European market. It was a substitute. All right. Million dollar question. Does cheese whiz contain cheese? Oh, dang it. Yes or no? This is kind of

a pumpkin spice latte thing. Does pumpkin spice sure? Yeah. Which at Starbucks, yes. Now. Yeah. Contains. It just means some amount present. Right. I know. Yeah. I mean, I got to go with, I got to go with yes.

I don't want to. Chris says yes. Colin says yes, no, it does not contain cheese. Yes. It contains ingredients that makes cheese, but there's no actual cheese. Right. The dictionary definition of what is cheese. Like what qualify as a real cheese. How do they spell it in the name?

Well, that's my next question. Ah, okay then. All right. Please provide me the proper spelling of cheese whiz as it is found on the label today. Oh, man. Okay. All right. Chris, C-H-E-E-Z-W-H-I-Z, Colin C-H-E-E-Z, W-I-Z, no-H. I don't know. I was going back and forth. I was going back and forth. Proper name, which has not changed since 1952, is C-H-E-E-Z. W. H. Ah,

okay. Cheese whiz. Cheese whiz. Whiz. I bought it enough during that during that time in my life. Yeah, locked in.

The cheese whiz era, the cheese steak era. My cheese whiz era. All right. The inventor of Cheese Whiz, Ed Traysman, also invented another revolutionary food process.

Oh. A special freezing method for what famous Fast food product. Ooh. You have to give me the brand name. Okay. Okay.

Okay. We can credit this guy with Invena Cheese Whiz and this revolutionary food process. Revolutionary Food Process Special Freezing Method. For what famous fast food product? For a specific menu item. A menu item. I have a question. Okay.

do we buy this item in the freezer case of our grocery store or is this a thing that we go to a fast food restaurant to buy and it gets shipped frozen to them? Yes. Okay. You want to share your answers? Colin, what did you put? I put filet a fish. Oh, good answer. Maybe he got a good answer.

Good answer. I put McDonald's fries. It is McDonald's French fries. This freezing method. allowed McDonald's to distribute. Have the exact same French fry. Exactly. Yes.

Consistency. Yeah. Talked about like the French fried texture where it's like double fry, like flash fried double fry. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And then fry partially freeze it and then fry again. And that creates more surface area for the oil to crisp up. And that's why McDonald's fries are absolutely delicious. Yeah. Yeah. So thank you, Ed Traysman for, if you get cheese fries and put cheese whiz on your McDonald's French fries.

You're doubly honoring. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep. All right. Last question. Teased about this weird food item is called Minnesota funeral bread.

Yes. Minnesota funeral bread. It's made out of three ingredients. One of them is cheese whiz. Dang it. I suppose what I was going to say. Can you name the other two ingredients? And keep in mind, this is a cult favorite, which also means it's very.

very polarizing. This dish, which is Minnesota Funeral Bread, has bread. Uh-huh. But you have to be specific about what kind of bread. Oh. This is what people are calling a church basement food. Okay. So at like church gatherings. Mm-hmm.

A specific type of bread. All right. And cheese whiz and some third. Okay. But something. I would say a topping. Let's say. Oh, okay.

Interesting. So it's, I'll describe it. It's. A slice of bread. You spread cheese whiz on it. Sure. And then you put this topping on it. As you guys think about it, here's some more info.

Minnesota Star Tribune recently, very recently published an article. Love, hate, nostalgia about this food item, Minnesota funeral bread. Trying to trace back what the origin is. It goes back so long that like by the 70s in parts of Minnesota, it was part of elementary school lunch. Huh. Everywhere in this region. Church functions,

potlucks. Somebody out there listening to the show has eaten this in the last week. All right. There's probably a lot of people. Yeah. Okay.

I don't know. All right. Colin, read me your ingredients. All right. I went for cheese whiz on rye bread topped with pimentos. I,

very similar. I also picked cheese whiz. I also said rye bread. And then I put, I put pickles. Nice. Guys, not wild enough.

Oh my goodness. Go back to the drawing board. Wilder. All right. Again, church potluck. You got your jello salad on the side. You have your potato salad with raisins. Cheese whiz, rye bread, chocolate jimmies.

Are those sprinkles? Yes. Okay. Colin? I put cheese whiz a Kings Hawaiian roll and olives. The answer is, Oh, God. A slice of cinnamon swirl bread.

Okay. All right. With cheese whiz. Topped with green olives. Get out of here. Dancing around it with the pimentosos. You got the spirit. Yep.

Yeah. Pickles, green olives, something like that. Okay. The sweetness from the cinnamon. Oh, can they have pimentoes in them, the green olives? Yes. They're the ones. Okay.

So it's four things. So Colin was a thing and a thing. Yeah. That's a thing and a thing. The cinnamon swirl bread. Wow. I could see. I mean, have you tried it though?

No, I haven't tried it. But I'm trying it in my mind right now. And it doesn't compute. Yeah. I'm with you two-thirds of the way there. I'm with you through the cinnamon swirl bread with cheese whiz. Me too. I'd be down to try that.

I'm not a big olive fan. I'm not a big green olive with the pimento fan. No. Minnesota funeral bread. Incredible. I love the regional foods. Love it. Love the regional foods.

Yep. All right. All right. I have something to tell you about, but to get there, I am going to go backwards in time. And I'm going to start with something seemingly unconnected and we'll go backwards and backwards until we figure out how this all relates to the theme of this week's show. So here is a trivia question for you. How well do you remember your Nintendo? Entertainment System launch games.

In which Nintendo Entertainment System game released in 1985, does the following sentence appear in the instruction manual? Okay, here you go. Three of the flashing panels are gangsters. Shoot them as quickly as you can. The other panels are of a lady, a professor, and a policeman.

People you must not shoot. Ooh, I have. What was the name of this classic? A lot of people had this in their collection. Use the zapper gun. The zapper gun, right. Right. Oh, he uses the light gun?

Yeah, man, I remember. I only know duck hunt. Hardboard cutouts of criminals would come on and you'd shoot them or it would flip over and you'd have to make a quick decision. Is this a criminal or is this an innocent person? It's what they call a shoot, don't shoot. Yes. the name of this game was Hogan's Alley. Yes.

There we go. Hogan's Alley. I was not going to retrieve that, but we had this game in my house. Who is Hogan, Karen? The name is not explained in either the instruction manual or the game itself. It is not explain who is Hogan, why he wears his alley. Here's your next question. What was this game named after?

Do you know what Hogan's Alley? it is it is not Hulk Hogan in my mind as a kid the only other Hogan I'd ever heard was Hogan's heroes it has nothing to do with that yeah it's not Hogan it's not Hogan's heroes Hogan's alley the Nintendo game in which you um it's a shoot don't shoot game indeed indeed column Riff makes snap decisions whether you're going to shoot the gangster or whether or not it's an innocent person or what it is named after an FBI training facility. Oh.

FBI training facility. So currently, Hogan's Alley is located in Quantico, Virginia. Okay. Near the FBI Academy. Hogan's Alley is a 10-acre replica of a small town, of small-town America. It is a 10-acre fake small town. It has fake banks and fake restaurants and a fake city hall. It has all these different streets and.

buildings, but it's all unpopulated and fake. And the FBI uses it for super realistic, shoot, don't shoot sometimes scenario training. So basically, like, they'll do mock car chases or like a bank, you know, hostage situation for FBI agents. You can see this Hogan's Alley in Silence of Lambs. There's a point in which Clary Starling is like training there. And they said, they actually shot it in the real Hogan's alley.

It's a big place. People sometimes go in there and they think it's a real town. They had to weld all of the mailboxes shut because people would, the U.S. mail was like accidentally delivering mail there because it all looks totally realistic, but it's all empty and it's all contrived. And so this iteration of Hogan's Alley was opened in 1987. Hmm. But wait, Chris, you say, if you're paying attention, 1987, the Nintendo game came out in

1985. Well, in the 1950s, there was a different FBI facility called Hogan's Alley. And this one was far simpler. It was not a realistic fake city. It was a row of like theater flats, like single wall fake buildings. Okay. With windows and doors cut out of the buildings, all arranged in a The Hollywood set. Mm-hmm. Yes. Real, like a theater set almost. Like you wouldn't necessarily mistake this for the real thing. Okay. And mechanically operated cardboard cutouts of criminals and innocent bystanders would, again, unlike mechanical devices, they'd appear in the window and then flip over or whatever to test the FBI agent's ability to quickly assess threat versus not a threat. And so that is what the Nintendo game was based on the old FBI Hogan's Alley, the concept of literally a little. like a big sheet of wood or whatever with like a portrait of a criminal on it.

Would like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great. Okay, everything is all sorted. Wait, why was that called Hogan's Alley? Well, to find that out, we're going to have to travel up north to Port Clinton, Ohio, where we would find Camp Perry. And Camp Perry is a National Guard training facility.

Okay. Slash today, also a conference center and RV park. But it's also still a National Guard training facility. And every summer since 1907, Camp Perry in Port Clinton, Ohio has been the home of something called the National Matches, the National Matches, which is sometimes called the World Series of the Shooting Sports. Oh. The premier competition for Marx men and Marx women in the United States.

So shooting accuracy, fire and guns at targets. And around 1919, apparently originally to be used in the national matches competition, they constructed a wall of fake buildings that was meant to resemble a slum, like a dangerous part of a city, with surprise targets. And given that this is 1919, apparently they were operated by hand. Hopefully the person turning the crank was far away. but this soon came to be also used not only in the competitions but also as a police training facility and this was called Hogan's Alley.

That is where the FBI got the name when it built its first Hogan's Allen in the 1940s. Okay, then who's that Hogan? Why was this called Hogan's All right. Now we've gone all the way back to 1919. So it's just a short little extra jump back in time to the 1890s. when a newspaper cartoonist named Richard Outcult was drawing a very popular comic called Hogan's Alley about a group of kids who lived in a fictitious slum

in New York City that was called Hogan's Alley. So that was the name of the comic. So because the original training facility in Camp Perry was meant to represent like police getting into shootouts and a rundown part of a town, they named it after what would have still been at that time, a well-known popular fictional backguard town, Hogan's Alley. Well, what does that have to do with anything?

Well, Hogan's Alley, the comic itself, did not really start out being that popular. Hogan's Alley in the first place actually became very well-known because of the character that end up becoming its breakout star character, Yellow Kid Yellow Kid He was the first For Americans

He was the first big Breakout Comic Strip mascot So Yellow Kid was a little boy With a shaved bald head wearing a long yellow night shirt Okay He was a sassy character

You know always Crackin Wise the Hogan's Alley. Why was he shaved bald? Is he because he's a baby? No, no. He's like, he looks like, he's like, you know, nine, ten years old.

Apparently this was a common sight to see in turn of the century slums because head lice. Head lice. Can't have lice if you don't have any hair. Yeah. That is a great lice treatment is to just shave your kids head. So you see a little bald shaved kids running around at that time.

We keep the lice out of their hair. Lice can't lay their eggs without a hair. to grab onto, yeah. Right? Why did they have a yellow shirt? He had a yellow shirt because Yellow Kid was one of the first characters to be published in color. In 1893, just a couple of years before Hogan's alley debuted, Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of the New York world, had introduced a Sunday color supplement for the first time.

And the things that lent themselves very well to being showed in color were the comics. And so he introduced the Sunday color comics, which of course, today are still a tradition. You get the Sunday paper, you get the big comic supplement that's in color. That has been going on since 1893. And one of the earlier comics that would appear in these

was Hogan's Alley. And so of course the creators of these comics are looking for bright, vibrant colors for their characters. This kid's night shirt, if he was a real kid, probably would have been like dirty, brown, gray, whatever, you know. But it's like, if you're going to do color, you got to do colors. So they made it yellow. And he

becomes known as Yellow Kid. And he was the first, like, licensed mascot as we know it today. So just borrowing a rundown that was on Wikipedia here is from an archived website that's called Virtue magazine. But it's very helpful. Just listed it all. Billboard's buttons, cigarette packs, cigars, cracker tins, ladies, fans, matchbooks, postcards, chewing gum cards, toys, whiskey, and many other products all had the yellow kid on it. he was like the Garfield of the 1890s or the... Oh, I've seen this character before.

You've seen this character. Yeah. You've seen this character. It's what you think of old-timey comic. Old-timey comic. It was not the first one to use speech bubbles, but it was when speech bubbles were sort of coming into vogue, you know, the idea of how do we represent the words somebody is saying?

Eventually, Richard Outcall moved from Pulitzer's New York World newspaper. to William Randolph Hurst's New York Journal. And these two papers, they were constantly trying to one up each other, Pulitzer and Hurst, with dramatic, sensationalized, sometimes very loosely verified, sometimes maybe just out and out fictional stories that appeared in their tabloid papers. And since both of these papers at one point or another feature, the Yellow Kid because people would get these papers to see what the Yellow Kid was doing also. These comics were a mainstay of these papers.

The over-the-top style of these papers first became pejoratively known as Yellow Kid Journalism and finally just Yellow Journalism. And now you know the rest of the story. It comes from the Yellow Kid. Originally it was Yellow Kid journalism as in the kind of cheap journalism. that you get in the paper that has the yellow kid in it. Wow. I, you know, some part of my brain knew that it was tied to those early days of these papers

fighting, but I had no recollection. It was the color comics. From the kid. From the kid. From the kid from Hogan's Alley, which, you know, many, many, many years down the line ends up being, you know, the name of this Nintendo game. What a freaking ride. What a ride.

100 years of Yeah, what plus, 100 years plus. 102 years. At some point, people would forget where the actual origin is, right? Oh, yeah. You're going through two different facilities, FBI facilities called Hogan's Alley.

Then you have another facility. Yep. Then you have to go all the way back to the, like, the origin of it in the 1900s, and the fact that people in 1919, would have still known because it was only like 20 years old. Right. It's like us making, again, it's like us making a reference to Beavis and Butthead, you know?

But it's just, it is just so funny how what was a very tongue in cheek. Oh, Hogan's Allie. Ha, ha, ha. Yeah, I know that comic. Just slowly, completely lost any, like, understanding of what it was actually referring to, but was still being used. Wow. And today there are more people alive who remember the video game than have any idea.

Any context. Yeah. Oh, oh, by far. I mean, I don't even think most people know what Hogan's Alley, the video game is. I couldn't even remember it. And I had it. I couldn't conjure the name.

Wow. We'll take a quick break and we'll be right back. Hey, this episode of Good Job Brain is brought you by I-Excel Learning, an award-winning online learning platform that fits perfectly into your homeschool routine, even during the summer.

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Re listeners can get an exclusive 20% off IXL membership when they sign up today at Iexel.com slash good job brain. Visit Iexel.com slash good job brain to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price. You're listening to Good Job Brain. Smooth I'm all right. Smart trivia. Good job, brain. All right. It is time for our first music round of this season.

Oh, yeah. I thought you were going to say up the night. I'm like, oh boy. Settle in. Yeah. We hear love music rounds. Kind of name that tune where we play a clip and you try to identify the artist or the song. Usually there is a theme, like a hidden theme in all the song clips and you kind of figure out

what it is. Obviously, today's music round theme is yellow because that is our episode theme. But we're going to change it up a bit. This is what I'm calling a reverse music round. Instead of playing the clip of music and then you identifying it, I'm going to have you work together to lock in your song selections before I even play. because A, we know that this is, this episode is around yellow. And so all the song titles in this music quiz has the word yellow. Okay, all right, all right.

The word yellow in it. So that will help you. I see. I see. I'm going to give you the years of the songs. Okay, okay, okay. All right. I'm writing a few down already here getting started.

Okay. Uh-huh. We're going to lock our answer. in and then afterwards I'm going to play a medley of these a continuous medley right so that you can validate your answers got it okay all right so right on your sheet here are the years in chronological reverse order 2011 2002 2000 1992 then we kind of have an 80s drought and then here's something interesting we have two 1979 songs.

Okay. Okay. And then we have two 1966 songs. And then our oldest song was released in 1960. Okay.

All right. So again, again, here are the years. 2011, 2002, 2000, 2, 1992,

1992. We have two songs in 1973, two songs in 1966, and one song in 1960. Okay. Well, Colin, you've been writing some stuff down. I've been just, I started a few. I mean, I've got, on my list here, I've got yellow submarine, the Beatles song. So that's 1966, right? It's not as late as 73.

No, no, they were broken up. So, yeah. I mean, I've got the cold play song, right? Just yellow. Would that be 2002? Man, I'm really stretching if that that's 2000 or 2002. I want to feel like it's a little bit later. They're very close together. I could go with 2002 for that. Yeah.

Okay. What about, um, Mellow yellow or they call me Mellow yellow? That's, is that Donovan? That's Donovan, yeah.

And I feel like that, 66. I feel like that would also be 66. Yeah, exactly. That would be my guess for the other one. All right. So put the Donovan there maybe for Mellow yellow.

Yep. Okay. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. For the song, 2002. Uh-huh. It was deemed as possibly, some would say, probably the worst cover in the history of music.

Oh. Wow. Okay. So it's a famous enough song to be covered. Wow. Do you think, you think Yellow Rose of Texas is on here somewhere? Oh, for 1960? Think about the 70s.

What's going on in the 70s? Yeah. gotta expand my mind here yellow that's what they were doing that's what they were doing that's right that's right asked donovan about that i figured like follow the yellow brick road would be in here i don't know is that like um oh could be elton john goodbye yellow brick road that could be that was 73 okay yeah but there's no whiz is like oh going something uh heading on down the road or going down the road. I don't know if yellow appears. He's on down the road. Thank you. But I don't think yellow appears in the title of it. Oh, okay. Okay. Unless, of course, Karen, did you say that yellow appears in the

title of all of these? Yes. It does. It does. Properly, too. Because Karen said 2002 is the worst cover ever. So 2000 could be the cold play song yellow then. Colin, was there anything else you jotted down? I was, I was going to say, do you think the Johnny Mitchell classic Big Yellow taxi might be on this here somewhere. There was a famous cover of Big Yellow Taxi in the 1990s. Oh.

And I wonder if maybe that is the 92. The 92 one. 2011. This is going to be the toughest one for me. Man. It's going to be a fun one for you to edit, Karen, because you cut out.

This is pop trivia. Yeah. Okay. 2002 was the bad cover. What is the worst cover ever? Let me source this claim. The Village Voice named this cover the worst song of the 2000s. Wow.

So let's go through what you have locked in. So 2011, nothing. Nothing locked in. 2002, worst cover. Oh, my gosh. No, no guess. 2000. Yellow by Cold Play, apparently.

1992. I'm so mad. I know when you see. say it. Okay. I'm going to, I'm going to say it like, yeah. But we got, I can't think of anything. Two songs for 1973. Goodbye Yellowbrick Road, Elton John. And I guess we're putting big yellow taxi, Joni Mitchell in the 73 slot. Take a flyer. And then two songs for 1966. Yellow submarine, the Beatles. And Mellow Yellow by Donovan. And, oh, I guess 60, we were going to put the yellow rows of Texas if we can't think of anything else.

Yeah, I don't feel great about it, but it's, but it's put it in something blank, yeah. You got an artist for that? Tank William Sr. I mean, oh, sure. Yeah, well, whoever you want to put down. All right, locked in. Are we ready to hear this lovely yellow medley? We're going in order.

All right. Here we go. Let's see if we got the right. We were dancing around. I didn't think it was that bad. It's just mad about me. Tell the people what she wore. Bissy Bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka.

Not the key. That's the only one where I'm like, oh, okay. Okay. We should have thought of that one. All right, okay. They'll go through. 2011, black and yellow by Wiz Khalifa. Yes, she's Wiz Khalifa.

Don't tell him I said that. That's a good when Jeopardy feels cheeky. They do those kind of like funny. The connector ones. Yeah. So 2011 black yellow by Wiz Khalifa. 2002, it is the cover of Johnny Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi, performed by Counting Crows featuring Vanessa Carlton.

2000, you guys got it. Yellow by Coldplay International hit. 1992. Yes, Collins right. Yellow Ledbetter. Kind of found fame again in various millennial TikToks and reels about, you know, it's just so deep when Eddie Vedder says this. It's just like by Pearl Jam.

And then 1973 are two songs, Goodbye Yellow, Big Road. And the other song is tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree by Tony Orlando and Dawn. And then 1966, you guys got both mellow yellow yellow. by Donovan and Yellow Submarine by the Beatlas. And then 1960, It's a Bicy, Teeny, Weaning, Yellow Pocodot bikini by Brian Highland. Brian Highland. That is not in the punch bowl. Not in the punch bowl.

But the song is, and I think when you learn it as a kid, you're like, oh, it's so fun to sing. That was good, Karen. Good, well structured. I was trying to figure out, like, Big Yellow Taxi, like a version of that was on the radio when I was like a teenager. Amy Grant. Amy Grant. Wow.

I looked it up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I had to know. I had to know him because like there is like, oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Which was also in the 90s sampled by Janet Jackson in a song that's not titled Yellow. All right. Good job, Braith. Who. Colin, what's up next? Okay. I have a question for you guys. Individual.

This is not a trick. I want you to answer, honestly. I don't want you to care what anyone else says or thinks, all right? This is a safe, friendly space. With that said, what color is a tennis ball? Green. Green. Okay.

What? Okay. This is great. Let's hold these emotions. Just sit with these emotions for a moment. Just hold these emotions. Okay, dad. One of you said green.

One of you said yellow. We'll come back to this in a moment. Okay. I have a vivid memory when I was a little kid, way, way back in the mists of time before Mr. Eddie Vedder singing Yellow Ledbetter, being out at a tennis court with my parents. My parents' friends were playing tennis, and they were using bright orange tennis balls, like safety orange. Oh. And I hadn't seen those before. I've never seen them.

It stood out to Little Colin there. Hold on. Yeah, Karen. Colin, before you, you move on. I'm like, I'm feeling hot and there's rage. That's okay. I can't put, okay. That's okay.

If Chris is on tennis balls are yellow and I'm on the green camp, Colin, where do you, where do you stand? Before the segment, like before you research the segment. I would say that. Both me and Colin are graphic designers. I'm just saying that we might have like a little. I would describe a tennis ball as a rather. You have to say just yellow or green.

That's it. You can't say it's a. I would say it's a yellowish green. If you're going to push me into a camp, Karen, if you're going to put me into a bucket, I would say green. I would say, I would choose me. I would choose you. But my full answer is I would say it's a very yellow green.

You know. But that's still green. Hey, look, I'm not fighting with you, Karen. I'm not fighting with you. Okay. Yeah, these are strong emotions. I love bringing up the questions here that can tear a family apart. You know, family, I encourage you when you sit down with your loved ones tonight,

just casually, just casually bring up is a, hey, hey, what colors a tennis ball? And then no matter what the person answers, bring up your emoji on your smartphone, look at the emoji, and just look at them and go, hmm, and just leave out that. Just, you know, see what you can fight. All right. So I asked you both, what colors a tennis ball? You both gave perfectly fine, and in my opinion, correct answers. You're both right for my part, as I said.

I would say it's a very yellowish green. If you put me into a corner, I mean, I would say green. However, Karen, as much as it pains me to tell you this, the official name. I'm going to flip this table. official name for the color of a modern tennis ball is optic yellow. It is optic yellow. I'm leaving. I didn't know that this was even a discussion.

I didn't know that you would see it's another color. This is the exact reaction I was hoping. I was really hoping that not only were you guys split, but that you would passionately split. Optic yellow. A lot of people don't. I mean, I'm not passionately split. I just never even considered that this was even a question. Most people when you ask them this question are confident, like not a question.

They're like, oh, it's yellow or oh, it's green, obviously. And then if you tell them the other answer, they're like, no, you're crazy. Or it's a long, drawn out thing. All right. So this is not me. I didn't decide this. But the official stance, the official stance of the world governing bodies is that tennis balls are yellow, specifically optic yellow. Now, it is a color.

very much between what we might call a pure, you know, uncontroversial yellow and a pure, uncontroversial green. It does sit between them. And perception, we've talked on the show before, color perception is highly, highly subjective. And contextual. And contextual. That's right. Depends on the light, depends on the environment. Depends on what designer, you know, pick the shades. Tennis balls, however, have not always been this current optic yellow color. In fact, for a long, long, long time, by and large, tennis balls were white. They were mostly white. They were sometimes black. There was a lot looser regulations, even in official circles in tournaments, about the exact colors. It used to be a lot more loosey-goosey. Most tournaments played with white tennis balls, sometimes black,

you know, other colors depending on the color of the court. The goal was to have visible against the court color, certainly. As you probably know, I'll just say it, tennis courts can be grass. They can be clay. They can be a variety of hard courts and those hard courts can be a variety of colors. So it's not like all tennis is played on, you know, the same color court. With the widespread adoption of color TV in the late 1960s, one of the big drivers of sales of color TVs was the appeal of live sports in color. I mean, it's just like being there. I mean, not really on a tiny, you know, TV. But the The move from black and white TV to color TV was huge. I mean, we kind of take it for granted now, you know, black and white, if we see a show,

it's a novelty or it's a period, you know, effect, or it's an old rerun of a Twilight Zone or something. So in the late 1960s, at the time that the BBC, that's in England, made the transition from black and white broadcasting to color broadcasting. Okay, this was in 1967. the controller for the BBC, sort of the, you know, the program director, the head, the controller, was none other, I learned,

than the legendary Sir David Attenborough. The long-time, long-time TV presenter, broadcast hosts, natural historian, animal lover. I mean, his name is virtually synonymous with nature documentaries, the Planet Earth series, Blue Planet, many, many, many, many other. going back decades. He is 99 years old. Sir David will be 100 next month.

Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Chris, if you were not impressed by all of that, he is also a fellow BAFTA winner. So that might, you know, put a little bit of time. I did not win a BAFTA, but I did get nominated. So, yeah.

Sorry. I learned, I learned a fun fact about him. He is, he is the only person to win a BAFTA award in black and white color, high definition. 3D and 4K resolution. Oh, sure.

Yeah, yeah. He's been on the air for every technology. Yeah. So anyway, a legendary figure in his own stead happened to be, you know, essentially running the BBC operations at the time that they switched over from black and white to color. And as he relayed these events, I found an interview that was transcribed from him from not too many years ago. He says that he and others, the BBC,

been lobbying to get color broadcasting for a long time. So he says, quote, we have been asking the government over and over again and they wouldn't allow us until suddenly they said, yes, okay, you can have it. They had no idea what was involved. I mean, you know, you got to, you need color. Uncharted territory. Color cameras. You need new sets. You need all kinds of new things. And he had the self-imposed pressure of trying to be the first European broadcast of color. So at this point, American TV had color, Japanese TV had color. So then these are his words. And it suddenly dawned on me that the one thing we did have was outside broadcast units.

I thought, blimey, couldn't we deploy them? And I thought of Wimbledon. I mean, it's a wonderful plot. You've got drama. You've got everything. And it's a national event. It's got everything going for it. And he's absolutely right.

And it was a great solution to a problem. Rather than switching over to like half-column. are half broadcast as things rolled out. He's like, let's do Wimbledon. So the 1967 Wimbledon tournament ended up becoming the first color broadcast, not just in the UK, but in all of Europe.

So they did it. They made it. As they began broadcasting tennis in color, a lot of people noticed and complained that it was hard to track the white colored ball on an OG 1960s-era screen. So most of the tournaments, Wimbledon, including,

were using white balls. So in black and white, and again, keep in mind that at Wimbledon, in particular, they were still wearing white uniforms, the sidelines are white. It was just really hard

for TV spectators in particular. Okay, so it wasn't going to the stands. Not live. It is specifically people watching this on their new, fancy color TVs, and for the first time where color matters, they're like,

we can't follow the ball well enough. So Attenborough, and his team, they intuited that adding color to the tennis ball was the obvious answer. And not just any color, but a bright, neon, fluorescent, whatever you want to call it, color was the answer. So taking their suggestion to heart, the ITF, the International Tennis Federation, undertook a study of people watching tennis on TV to find out what the best color is. Right color. Yeah, exactly.

And indeed, as predicted, they found out that a highly visible color, like a very bright yellow green or green yellow, if you prefer, was much easier for the TV viewers to follow. By 1972, the ITF approved the use of the new optic yellow tennis balls for play. The U.S. Open was the first of the Grand Slams. So there's Wimbledon, U.S. Open, French Open, and the Australian Open. US Open was the first one to switch to yellow balls in 1973. French Open followed soon after the Australian Open had switched as well.

in what to me is probably the greatest irony in all of this. Was Wimbledon the last? The Wimbledon was not only the last, Karen. It took Wimbled in a full 14 years for finally dropping their resistance to the optic yellow colored balls and phasing out their very traditional white color balls. Wow. So, all right.

So back to those orange balls that I remembered from a kid. So it turns out that in this period, after there was color broadcast of tennis, but before they had really firmly standardized on the yellow ball is the ball for everybody. There were a lot of different color balls and there were a lot of high visibility balls. And what I think my parents' friends had is what you could buy, you know, back then, which was a different variety of high vis ball. You had like, oh, there's the yellow green flavor and there's the orange flavor.

And they phased those out eventually. Now colored tennis balls signify usually that they're for people. who need or want slower balls or balls that behave differently. So very often for kids, when kids take a tennis class, they'll use either a ball with a big orange dot on it or a ball that's all orange or like the half. It's another level of code. It's another level of code. That's right.

Within the tennis community, any tournament now at any level, you're going to be seeing the optic yellow balls. And the only controversy left is when you ask somebody who has never, really thought about it. What color is a tennis ball? How can you not see you? The official answer is optic yellow, thus qualifying modern tennis balls for today's episode.

So there you guys have it. Let's destroy some friendships, guys. Staple's preferred business membership, built for busy business owners, because you've got bigger things to think about. With Staples preferred, get free delivery, no minimums. Staples Preferred unlocks up to 3% back, plus 10% savings on print and exclusive wireless offers.

One less thing on your plate. Actually, a lot less. Visit staples.ca slash preferred. That was easy. Our last yellow segment. Earlier on the show, I shared that I went to my kids' career day at school in her school class. and I talked about being a trivia podcaster. One kid asked me a question, how do you remember things?

I'm like, when something is really interesting to me or really wild to me, it's going to stick and you don't know why, but it does just because it like sparks something. Okay. So in my current state, I live in the state of Washington. parents in Washington get mailed these, and I'm sure other states have it too, parents get mailed these brochures when it's like your child's milestone. So like six months you'll get like a brochure or a little packet of information at one year you'll get mailed. Maybe there's a checklist time for that's great. Schedule your first kid's dentist appointment, that kind of stuff. It's a great

public health service. And one of these mailings I got, they included this sheet of round stickers featuring a character called Mr. Yuck. They're like this bright green color with a face that's like a disgusted face like his eyebrows are really strong. And you're supposed to, as parents,

put them on things in your household that you don't want your kid to play or eat. Right? Laundry detergent bottles, bleach. Prior to this, I've never seen this in my entire life. Because I'm like, I thought we already have a standard symbol for poison.

That's pretty universal, right? What is this Mr. Yuck? And why are we going against the classic poison label? Do you guys know I'm talking about how would you, how would you describe what a classic universal standard poison label looks like? Skull and crossbones. Sometimes like in a little triangle. I imagine a yellow triangle with a skull and crossbones, right? That's poison.

Okay. In 1971, there's one children's hospital that opened their poison center, and that's headed by Dr. Moriarty. And he and his research team at the poison center noticed an increase in childhood poisoning in the area, which was alarming. And you know what else happened in 1971? The Pittsburgh Pirates won the World Series. They were doing pretty good in the late 1960s and eventually in 1971.

They won World Series in Game 4 in Pittsburgh. So home game, home turf, and it was Pirates Mania. Oh, man. Their team logo famously is a skull and crossbones. And their team colors are black and yellow. Like all Pittsburgh sports team, the Penguins black and yellow for hockey. The Steelers black and yellow. Pirates were black and yellow.

Fun fact, going back to my music round, Wiz Khalifa saw him black and yellow is dedicated to Pittsburgh. He's from Pittsburgh. The Jolly Roger, the Pirates logo, Pirates imagery was everywhere. Right. There are cereal boxes, candy wrappers, lunch boxes. And so this hospital that I'm time about that open, it's poison control, is located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

It is in the Pittsburgh area where this is where there was a rise in childhood poisoning because the effectiveness of the classic universal toxic symbol for skull and crossbones just completely gone. Just got diluted. Yeah. Because there's all this skull and crossbones. It's a fun thing. It's a good thing.

We love our sports. We love this bottle with Pittsburgh Pirates. This tastes like baseball. This little bit was like a hot dog that I had at the game. It was delicious. Yeah. And so it was Dr. Moriarty. It was his mission that we're like, we got to do something about this.

We're going to change the poison logo, at least for our area. But we're going to adopt a new system. They went through market research with kids. They went through a couple of designs. It's the Yuck face that really got the kids attention. They invented Mr. Yuck, YUK. They kick started this program, this Mr. Yuck program. and Washington State was the second state to adopt it.

And so, yes, Mr. Yuck is still alive and kicking here in my state. Sometimes if you go to like street fairs, kids fair, school fairs, maybe the Washington Poison Control Center will have a Mr. Yuck mascot with its face, greeting kids, give out stickers. Wow, I was familiar with Mr. Yuck. I was familiar with his work. But I didn't, I didn't know that it was that old. I thought it was like something that came around like long after I was a kid.

And I the radical 90s. Yeah, it did. It felt very 90s to me. Like, oh, we. Like Kool-Aid and yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Backward baseball hat and, you know, right. Yeah, we need hip-in-up.

That's really, really fascinating. That is so old. And I will never forget that that year the Pirates won the World Series. Wow. Turns out you can actually volunteer for the Washington State Poison Control. And you can, you listeners, can be. Mr. Yuck for a day. You can wear the Mr. Yuck soon and appear at events, fun way to engage with the kids.

And it says here, being Mr. Yuck is easy. He doesn't even talk. If you like interacting with kids and are 5-7 or taller to fit in the costume, we'd love for you to join the fun. That is Mr. Yuck. That's my story in 1971. That is good. That is good.

I love the sports connection. Roberto Clemente won MVP. that year. Look at you picking up stats. Yes. Yes. Well, so me and Cameron, my husband, we play heads up a lot. There's one category called sport legends.

It's wild to see both of us play that category because I'm like, this guy, he plays basketball. He dated Ava Longoria. And he's just like, I don't know. Or I'm like, okay, well, this guy, he like wore this weird outfit for the Met Gala. He's like, I don't know. And whereas he's being like, oh, it's the quarterback for the same. And I'm like, mm, got to give me more. This, I was like, okay, now I know.

Because Roberto Clemente comes up and be like, oh, you play for the pirates. I'm like, yeah, but now I know, now I know. And that's our show. Thank you all for joining me. And thank you listeners for listening in. Hope you learned stuff today about how a Nintendo game is tied to the newspaper battles of the late 1800s about the delicious, yellow substance known as cheese whiz about the yellow, about yellow titled songs and about how

friendships can be torn apart if you ask them what color a tennis ball is. You can find us on all major podcast apps and on our website, good job brain.com. This podcast is part of Airwave Media Podcast Network. Visit airwavemedia.com to listen and subscribe to other shows like Mysteries at Midnight. Reach a space podcast for kids. And what should I read next? see you next week. Bye. Bye. Hello, I'm Debra Goldstein,

hosted the game show The Big Fib, and with me is our sound effects robot, Lisa, whose name stands for live in studio audience. And every week, we bring on two grownups. One is an expert, and the other is a liar. And it's the job of a human child to help us figure out who is who is who, because no one can spot a liar better than a kid. We've had past experts share.

Fascinating facts about volcanoes, sharks, pizza, and more. And we've had some no good liars try and trick us with lies about YouTube, Roblox, and even underwear. Lying about underwear? Listen to the Big Fib on Apple Podcasts or on GZMshows.com and see if you can figure out who's telling the truth and who's telling big fibs. I mean, who lies about underwear?