Good Job, Brain! - 84: Happy Halloween!

Episode Date: October 30, 2013

OOoooOOoOoooOoooOooOo~ Salutations spooks and spectres! Munch on these trivia treats: Tim Burton quiz, eye-opening statistics on the most popular costumes throughout the year, what might actually happen in case of a zombie attack, and the origin and history of the quintessential "spooky" sounds.  ALSO: Music Round, Bizarre Headlines, RIP Haribo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an airwave media podcast. Hello, Brainy, bodacious baffo, bright bulbs. Welcome to Good Job Brain, your weekly quiz show and offbeat trivia podcast. This is episode 84, and I am your humble host, Karen, and we are your hydrox-munching, high-seeing, high seed drinking, high fluters, high speeding through that information highway. Wow. Hi. Hi.

I'm Dana. And I'm Chris. We decided to call our fans. It wasn't an official contest, but we were kind of asking people, our community, what should we call our fan club members? And we decided on lobe troders. Lobe troders. Lobe troders. Like brain lobe.

Or earlobe. Right. Podcast. And we will be offering official. Loeb-Trotter fan club membership goodies, packages filled with personalized cool stuff in our merchandise store. Charter membership.

You actually said that, Colin, you called it charter. Charter membership. Yeah, it makes it sound a lot fancier. It does. Yeah. We only have 250 of these available, so don't forget to check them out once the merchandise store is open on November 1st. Loeb-trotter merchandise carries no benefits.

Cannot be exchanged for cashiers. We'll cause dizziness and... Like, yeah, gastric distress. Side effects include coughing, analogue, leakage, and death. Speaking of community, I just want to share a quick trivia tidbit that Alexander Carr wrote in emailed us, and I didn't know this. Do you guys know pixel? The word pixel is a portmanteau word.

I didn't know that. Picture element. Yes. Did you guys know that? I heard that once and forgot it. Oh, okay. No. And a voxel is the 3D version of a pixel.

Volumetric pixel, right? Voxel. I put a portmanteau in your portmanteau. Both very high-scoring scrabble words. Oh, true. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, I just have a quick headline to share with you guys. I can't believe someone published this in the news.

The new scientist reports that finally experts, specifically at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta have established that mammals, big and small, empty their bladders at about the same speed. And this is known as Equilibrium. Equilibrium.

Oh, that's good. You should write them a letter. Yeah, exactly. It's about, so each animal, they measured pee time of rats, dogs, elephants, goats, cows. And I'm assuming humans, and they came up with a law of urination

that each animal takes about 21 seconds. And you might think, well, when bigger animals pee longer, well, actually, like, elephants, they empty their bladders at the same speed as smaller mammals because of gravity pulls their urine through their system. And smaller animals, on the other hand, they have shorter pea canals. Urethra? Less, yeah, and less gravitational pull, but their bladders are smaller. So it all kind of scales out.

That's great. Someone's getting a Ph.D. based on this research. And the article, the article ends with the study's lead author hopes the finding will help diagnose urinary problems in large animals and possibly inspired designs for water towers. Water leaving. Oh, okay. Okay.

Sure, sure, sure. Yep. Yep. Law of urination. 21 seconds. Next time you go pee, see if you're a mammal. This is how you can find out if you're a mammal or not. Please, please do not send us videos.

Yeah, you can just report back to us. Well, we're going to get all these reports about people peeing. I took 45 seconds. I don't know. That'd be an interesting project. We'll just be put in the comments. No, no, no, no, no. Let's not.

All right. Without further ado, let's jump into our first general trivia segment, pop quiz hot shot. Everybody get your buzzers ready. I chose a random trivia pursuit card from the box. And here we go, Blue Wedge for Geography. What Florida community was developed and designed by the Walt Disney Company? Dana. Was it Orlando?

Incorrect. Florida community was developed and designed by the Walt Disney Company. It's not Epcot, is it? That is a community. Okay. What is it? It is celebration. Celebration of the city or town.

And I believe like a couple years ago. had its first murder case. It was like a big deal. Okay. Right, right. That Versailles, like huge, huge mansion. They wanted to make the biggest mansion in the world. I think it was around there.

Oh, okay. Yeah, like the Queen of Versailles, right? That's a great documentary, by them. All right. Pink Wedge for pop culture. Name three of the five supermodels in George Michael's Freedom video. Oh. Well, we can do it together.

Okay, we can do it together. Linda Evangelista. Correct. Christy Turlington. Yes. Claudia Schiffer? No, Cindy Crawford. Yes.

Okay. And there was Helena. There's Naomi Campbell. Okay. And Tatiana Petit. Oh. I cannot even believe that you guys knew that. That was a good video.

Oh, they're all lip-sinking to his songs. Yep. Yep. Yellow Wedge, who traveled to North Korea in 2009 to secure the release of two American journalists? Bam. Bill Clinton. William Jefferson, Clinton. Getting things done.

Yep. All right. Purple Wedge. What is the name of the Wizarding World's Daily Newspaper in the Harry Potter books and films? All right. The Daily Prophet. Correct. I wasn't trying to cut off the question.

I just thought it was just, you know, the Wizarding World's daily newspaper. Green Wedge for Science. What winged insect has been known to migrate up to 1,800 miles? Winged Ince? Specifically. Migrate. Bees? No.

Mosquitoes. No. You all know this, Dana, because it is a character from the Venture Brothers. Oh, a butterfly. Monarch. That's a long way to travel. All right. Last question.

Orange Wedge. What virtual pets, quote, return to its home planet, often upset child Owners. Oh, I believe it's Tomoguchi. Yes. And the cart specifically says, if not properly cared for, the cyber pet virtually died. Yeah, it becomes a little angel. Well, they all die.

You cannot, you cannot, you could not keep the Tamagochi alive forever. It eventually died. It was just how long. How negligent were you? Yeah. How complicit were you in its death? It got very difficult to keep those things alive. They would get to the point where you would,

need to, like, constantly be taking care of them. All right, good job, Brains. Well, I hate to bear some bad news to the team here. I don't know. You guys may have seen this. In the past week, Hans Regal passed away. Oh, Haribo! Haribo, yes.

We talked about one episode. Many episodes ago, yes. I'm surprised that he was still alive. He was at the ripe old age of 90 years old. Yes. And, of course, Karen, I think the question that you asked us many episodes ago was where the name Haribo came from. It was a combination of Hans Regal from Bonn.

So he combined... Yes, that's right. Harribo. Yes, the creator of gummy bears. And other gummy delights. Yeah, I mean, but that's really all. I mean, you can pretty well hang your hat on gummy bears. That's, yeah, a fantastic contribution to the world of candy.

Will he be in a gummy casket? Oh, yeah. That's a little gruesome. Oh, no, I think it'd be so... You could see them through the casket. It's kind of wavy, though. I checked more. So he'll return to the Earth fast.

God. Here's a little bit of a trivia bit I learned in reading news coverage of his death. Apparently, they were initially made of licorice, the gummy bears, before they switched over to the... Before they realized that those were really gross. Good choice. It is sad. It is very sad. The father of gummies.

The father of gummy bears. A lasting legacy. And speaking of gummies and candies, it is almost Halloween time. Well, actually, this week is actually the week of Halloween. And so for this episode, we decide to talk about things that are spooky, scary, and Halloween-related. So spooky. And no, ladies and gentlemen, if that wasn't the pheromimine, that was my own voice. Thank you.

So you guys had a little bit of your own musical intro to my musical intro here. So let me just play a short bit of this audio segment for you here. Yes, it is, of course, the Theraman, as you were directly, not even alluding, as you were directly, like, directly referencing. Right on what you were going to do. Yes, but it's great, because we all, this shows you, listeners, we all think alike. Yes, yes, all of these spoofing. are all made by an instrument known as the theramen. For you TV fans out there, that was the opening theme song from the Dark Shadows TV show.

Of course. Oh, yes. Yes, about spooky vampires and all kinds of spookiness. I had no idea that sound was made by a theremin until you guys... I thought you were joking, and I was like, oh, because I know what a thereman looks like. Yeah, yeah. I just thought it was kind of a weird thing. I didn't think it was using it.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, no, I mean, it's... This is the source of the... That is where it comes from. That's right. That's right. And, you know, it sort of... It did have a bit of a resurgence in the 60s, 70s.

So you will kind of hear it in, you know, TV shows and movies and things like that from that era. So aside from its distinctive, spooky sound, can you guys tell me what sets the theorem apart from other instruments? What makes it unique among modern musical instruments? Well, I mean, it's... It is an entirely... electronical musical instrument it was not like you have the electric guitar which was electrical and you know it's a piece of electronics you're part of the way there there is no there is this thing as an acoustic thereman there's no thing as an unplugged there that's true that's true you're part of the

way there you're part of the way there there there are other electronic does not have to touch anything yes the pheromon is played entirely without contact yeah which makes it unique among musical instruments and so if you guys have never actually seen a theremin before uh it's it's a very odd looking device. You know, it's a little box essentially, it's got a metal loop coming out of one side, and it's got a sort of a more antenna-looking piece of metal coming off the other, and to play

at theremin, you turn it on, and you essentially kind of move your hands around the coil and the antenna, and what this does is it modulates the volume, and it changes the pitch of the whoo, which is why you don't hear a lot of, like, really complex, like, melodies being played. Yeah, you hear like snippets of

noises and notes that are sliding, up and down. Yeah, that's right, because there's no quiet parts for it. That's right. You can control the volume and the pitch. That's right. There's no rests. As they say, there's a quote about the Thurman. You have to play the rests as well as the notes. Yeah, and you do. So it all sort of has that loopy, flowy quality to it. It generates sound based essentially on how close your hands are to the coil and the antenna. It is, in fact, named after its inventor. There was a young Russian physicist. Born Lev Terman, and his name is Anglicized. once as Leon Therriman.

This is one of those things that I love because it's a discovery that came out of another discovery. So I mentioned he was a physicist. He was also an inventor. He worked a lot with electronics. In 1920, he was developing motion detectors. So like proximity sensors. And so he came up with the device. I'm not going to get too into the science of it because, frankly, I don't understand all of it.

But it's a radio oscillator. And it changes feedback based on how close it is to objects that interrupt the field. And it didn't put out sound at first. Like, that was sort of a later addition to the basic device. The basic device just measured movement and proximity. And it was only after he attached an audio output to it. Oh, it made a sound. That he noticed, whoa, this is kind of weird.

He noticed, like, as he moved his hand for it, he could kind of change the pitch and almost play it like an instrument. And he flipped out. He loved it. I couldn't imagine his wife. Uh-huh. I've heard, like, I'm making music. Uh-huh.

Yeah, sure you are, honey. That's music. It was. It totally loved it. He loved it. He was like, it was one of those like, hey, guys, come check this out moment. He showed it off to his colleagues. He showed it off to his wife, I'm sure, to everybody. And he really got focused on developing it as a full-fledged instrument. And that's what he did. And in fact, like, within a year, he had made some modifications to the device and was really focusing on developing the therment as an instrument. He would play it. He wrote music for it. He would perform it. He called the device. the ether phone, which is kind of, you know, playing, yeah, music, sound, ether. Would you guys like to hear a little clip of him performing real, quote, real music on the pheromans? Yeah, not just, sure. Good job, honey.

In him, the music of the electromagnetic field vocal instrument Wow. That actually does sound like real music. It does. So that is Leon Theraman playing his own device. It almost sounds like like a lady crying

and singing and humming it's very Russian you know what you're right you're so right Karen like if you told me a Russian wrote that I'm like yeah I'll buy that yep but if you close your eyes it's like it's like just a little lady like crying it's very mournful you're right

it really is but which I can see where the Uliu sounds like people sounds yeah yeah voices yeah you're right it really does so I mean he was just devoted he went all out to trying to spread you know, like, hey guys, look, look what I made. He was touring Europe throughout the 20s, and it was sort of like part musical performance, part technology demonstration.

I mean, it was like magic. I mean, you know, even now, you watch someone performing on a theremin, and it really is very ethereal and magical. What was the time period again on this? So this was the 1920s. So he invented it in 1920. He came to the U.S. 1928 was a big year.

He performed with the New York Phil Harmonic. Wow. Yeah, I mean, this was, you know, no one had ever seen anything like this before. That was also the year that he patented the device. He basically granted production rights to RCA. And sure enough, RCA introduced the theremin box, which eventually was just shortened to the theremin in 1928. And, you know, it was a niche, it was a niche instrument, let's say. You know, throughout the 30s, 40s, there were some musicians who would write and perform, you know, serious music for it.

But it really did kind of end up as just sort of an avant-garde, experimentalist, kind of niche thing, until it was used in several movies. And this is really kind of the birth of it as sort of the spooky soundtrack device. You know, they point to a couple really prominent uses of it. Alfred Hitchcock used it in Spellbound. It was also, of course, in the Day the Earth Stood Still. There's two, two theremins in the soundtrack. And that was where it sort of started getting cemented as sort of creepy, outer spacey sound. A lot of the movies from the 50s and the 60s would use it

You know, a lot of people think that the opening theme song to Star Trek, the original TV, though That's actually just someone singing. It's not a theremin, but often confused for... Sounds like a crying lady. Yeah, yeah. I was looking on the app store to see if there's any like theremin apps. Because I was thinking it wouldn't be cool if you had two iPhones and you can simulate, you know, playing a there isn't anything like that. Oh. I'm surprised that there isn't.

Yeah, you have to hook up the Bluetooth and figure out the distance. Interesting. So you don't have to have, like, an actual box and the antenna, you just kind of... Yeah, just two iPhones. Yeah, yeah. Technically, the theramine is a heterodining oscillator. You're a hectorodining oscillator. Yeah.

You want to come back and check out my heterodining oscillator? No, no, I don't. I really don't. Get out. Oh, I mean, I mean, it's a theramine. Okay, well, then I really don't know. So Halloween's coming up. And it's a great time to get dressed up in costumes.

Yay! Recently, Spirit, the Halloween Superstore, made an infographic, and they showed for the last 30 years what the most popular pop cultural costumes were. And so I prepared a quiz based on all 30 years of pop cultural. That's great. Oh, that's great. All right. So I'm going to, I'll tell you the year, and I'll give you a kind of a hint about what it

could be about, the pop cultural thing. So this is, like, removing, like, witches and ghosts or... Yeah, it's like, this is a specific character from that year that was the bestseller. Okay. 1983, this movie featuring a famous costume came out in 1983. It's still one of their more popular costumes. It's a sci-fi movie. Oh.

Is it Carrie? No. Oh. So funny. No. 1983. One of the more popular costumes. I think Return of the Jedi was 80.

slave lea yes oh okay that's great yeah that's great you know for kids for kids kids 1984 this character first appeared in a 1984 horror classic this was the same year of this oh uh jason the jason mask is this care michael meyers no is this carry oh freddie kruger Eddie Krueger. Pretty Kruger. Just the process of elimination. Is it Carrie? Carrie?

The reason why I said Carrie was funny is because it's Carrie Fisher's gold bikini. I was like, I was like, not, not, yes. It is a Carrie. Yeah. 1985, W.E. Ressler costume was very powerful. Karen. Hulk Hogan. Yes.

86. The original character was created by American Greetings in 1981. There's a, there's, there's, there's, bearers, right? Strawberry. The care bears. Care bears. Oh, it's a strawberry shortcake. Oh, maybe that's Hallmark?

No, it's still American readings. Yeah. All right. 1987, this best-selling book character became a pop culture icon in 1987. Selling book character, puppies. I guess it's a children's book. It's a book series.

It's a guy, a male character. They're people who still wear this costume. Well, I'm sure. It still pops up. Where's Waldo? Yes. Yes. Wow.

87. That's great. Good call. 88. This character from film and TV was created by Cassandra Peterson and well known for her wickly, vampish appearance. Oh. That's Elvira. Mistress of the Dark.

Yes. 1989. Characters from this movie franchise appear four times on this list. Oh, it must be Star Wars. That's a little bit late for Star Wars. Yes. Yes. We had so many resurgence.

Yeah. Yes. 1990. This children's TV cartoon was turned into a live action movie in 1990. Karen. He-man. No. No, it was earlier than that.

Children's cartoon turned into a... Oh. Teenage movie. Yes. Ninety-one. This character didn't become the most popular costume until he appeared in the sequel. The sequel came out in 91. 91.

No, no. Pass. 91 This is a male costume A male costume It's a futuristic costume In 1991 was when a movie sequel came out Uh huh

It's the Terminator Oh of course Terminator 2 Judgment Day came out in 91 Came very popular Yeah okay 1992 another character from the Batman franchise I'm gonna say

Catwoman Yes Because that's when Batman returns Yeah 93 This children's performer well known for his appearance and very catchy song.

Barney. Yes. Barney the dinosaur. That was the most popular costume. Wow. I bet there must have been a lot of variations. Parents dressing up from kids' parties in the game. Yeah.

94. This costume was for a long-running American entertainment and merchandising franchise built around a live action children's television series. Oh. Well, this is the Power Rangers? Yeah. Oh.

Oh, good technical. Because it's an already existing show before the Power Rangers. Also, like, I'm noticing like the Power Rangers, the Ninja Turtles, the Carebearers. They also benefit from multiple costumes you can choose from. You can personalize it. Five kids can go by different costumes. Boys and Girls. Yeah.

This costume became popular the same year, the decades-long franchise started a new chapter. 1995, the same year the decades-long franchise started a new chapter. Not like James Bond or something. But that's such a boring costume. Could be. It was Star Trek. Oh, Next Generation? No.

It was Star Trek Voyager came out that year. Oh, interesting. But I was like, why was that the most popular costume in 95? I don't know. 96. Another costume from a horror movie franchise. It came out in 96. Oh, I mean, for this one, I'll go, Jason.

No. No. Texas chainsaw. No. You guys are going to kick you. yourself people still wear this well yeah oh it's a scream scream scream scream yeah yeah that's like in you know like in my mind that's the lazy person's costume you know okay 1997 another batman costume and it's but it's a pair this time a pair yeah oh what is it Batman and Robin yep okay

okay okay all right why is it up how can how does that work because no one wants to go is just Robin you know sorry Robin all right 98 this costume must have been pretty straightforward and maybe reusable it was just like a parka and maybe some mittens oh parka and i was going to guess like the unabomber but no i don't know it's not really popular culture a parka and some mittens in 1998 kinney from south park oh oh geez god oh my god we're horrible all right karen seems so obvious in retro spang yeah i know but we're like why i like how the obvious one was unabomber Which no one will sell. Here we go.

We're going to, lightning round. We're going to do this. 99. This character was based on characters from a sci-fi action film that came out this year. Oh, the Matrix? The Matrix. 2000. This costume became popular the same year the second movie in this comedy franchise came out.

Austin Powers? Yes, Austin Powers. 2001. This costume is based on an S&L sketch. Karen Oh no, no, no, the cheerleaders Will Ferrell and Yeah, Cherio's

The Spartans I was shocked by that one I'm stunned by that I still see that costume Like in stores They still sell it I would have never guessed that 2001

Another superhero costume was the top seller Spider-Man Spider-Man Oh god 2003 this was a year That a major Disney star was born Adrian Disney Jack Sparrow

Yes Oh okay 2004 This popular Children's show character became a top-selling costume 2,000 DJ Lance from Yo Gabba

Gaba No Is it Adora the Explorer No Tinky Winky the Talitubby No This character has a sprawling

Merchandising SpongeBob SquarePans Oh All right We're almost there 2005, the resurgence of popularity for this sci-fi costume probably has to do with the release of the third movie in the series. Let's see, they're Star Wars or Star Trek, right? Star Wars.

So, let's see, 2005. Just, I don't know, Jedi or Darth Vader. They just said Star Wars. Oh, Star Wars. 2006, a politician mask became the most popular. 2006. George Bush? No.

What? Hillary Clinton? No. I'm out of guesses, though. It's strange. The most popular thing was in 2007. I mean, the middle of the Bush second term. Chris?

No, no, no. I was going to say Sarah Palin, but that's not. No. Barack Obama. In 2006. Yeah, he was a candidate, but he captured the imagination of the nation, I guess. I don't know. Wow.

2007, this is the second time this costume became most popular. Batman. No. Another superhero. Oh. Spider-Man? Spider-Man. All right, 2008, another character from the Batman series.

Oh, Scott. Is this the Riddler? No. No, Joker. The Joker. He pledger Joker. Yeah, yeah, scary Joker. All right, 2009, we're creeping to present day.

This Halloween classic got a resurgence, thanks to a popular book series. Vampire? Yes. Oh, just vampire? Vampires became really popular. 2010, this is the first time a musician was the most. popular costume. Lady Gaga.

Yes. 2011. These costumes were based on realish people. Realish people? Real ish. Karen. Snooky and J. Wow from Jersey Shore.

Snooky and Polly D. No. Oh, situation. The scenario? I'm like, oh, the scenario? What's his name? The scenario.

I wish that was his name. The situation. You're so old, Colin. The circumstance. The involvement? Oh, what is it? 2012, more superheroes. Avengers.

Yes. 2013, guess. What do you guys think? So far. Projected. What do you think it's going to be? I'm going to say a majority of people who are going to go as Miley Cyrus. That is the costume.

Oh. They sell the costume. They sell the twerkin bear. Oh. Good job. Good job, Karen. You are finger on the pulse of popular culture. Yeah, I am, huh?

The naked, gyrating pulse of popular population. That was good. That was really, that was really. Eye-opening. Yeah. All right, guys, let's take a quick break. A word from our sponsor. This is Jen and Jenny from Ancient History Fan Girl.

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Is the rapture coming as soon as the Euphrates river dries up? Does the Bible condemn abortion? Don't you wish you had a trustworthy academic resource to help make sense of all of this? Well, I'm Dan Beecher, and he's award-winning Bible scholar and TikTok sensation, Dr. Dan McClellan, and we want to invite you to the Data Over Dogma podcast, where our mission is to increase public access to the academic study of the Bible and religion, and also to combat. the spread of misinformation about the same. But, you know, in a fun way. Every week we tackle fascinating topics.

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Smooth puzzles, smart trivia. Good Job Brain. So a while ago, I shared this on the Good Job Brain social media channels, and it's this excellent article on Boing Boing. Halloween's coming up and there's also, you know, the Walking Dead and all the zombie stuff. So Boi and Boying had this article and basically it was a naturalist by the name of David Majuski from the National Wildlife Federation. And I just want to say like this is this is a hypothetical situation, right? This whole article is like, asks you to suspend disbelief and put aside whatever, you know, theories there are and just deal with zombies as reanimated dead.

Right. Living dead. Okay. And this article basically breaks down how Mother Nature will kick zombie butt if zombies were to happen. Rest assured, humans, don't worry about it. Mother Nature will take care of zombies in the most brutal ways. How? So, for example, I mean, zombies as reanimated dead is basically just walking carrying. Right.

So first you have all of your birds, all of your birds. all of your scavenger birds were super strong and super ruthless like condors vultures ravens and crows they will swoop down

and rip parts of the and this is also the belief that in order to get rid of a zombie or to quote kill a zombie you dismember them in two different pieces and then also mauling animals like bears and wolves and hyenas

will basically like a dismembered memberment crew. They just kind of claw you and rip you as a zombie would be ripped into many, many pieces. And the article states that ironically, it would be the venomous rattlesnakes that would be at the most risk from a zombie attack because, quote, when camouflage fails them, their survival tactic is to draw attention to themselves with a loud rattle, hold their ground, and then strike and bite the predator and insert snake venom. Right. Zombies don't have living tissues. So venom does nothing.

Venom does absolutely nothing. There's no blood to circulate. There's no blood. There's no, yeah. So zombies would probably eat snakes. And of course, you know, you have all your hosts of bacteria and microscopic animals that break down and decompose from there, right? So the article is very interesting.

You're like, oh, okay, rest assured, oh, I can go to sleep at night because now I'm not worried about zombie attacks because Mother Nature will take care of it. I'm taking it step further. After reading this article, I was like, well, what happens when the zombie population gets pretty much killed by Mother Nature? Well, of course, all these animals are going to get a boost in population because they're getting food. So my theory is, zombie attack is probably less scary than what happens to the world after the zombie attack. Oh, right. Because then you have overpopulation problems of all of these predators and scavenger animals.

growing and running around everywhere. So what happens when you have a vulture overpopulation? They screw up power lines. They damage cars and homes. Actually, in Florida, there is a vulture overpopulation problem. And they do crazy things. They would rip off windshield wipers from cars. They rip open sun roofs.

And... I'm thinking it's like a giant dead animal. The Florida's Everglades National Park, the officials, they use water guns and laser lights and noisemakers to try to scare them off and their poop destroys some of the environments and they can reduce like fish population and then okay well what about some of the mammals that in the article that talked about you know with mall the zombies they will raid your home and food storage and crops and kill people and kill livestock so when you have an overpopulation that you're you're in trouble too so I just want to say this was a great article but it just

made me think zombie attacks aren't scary. It's animal attacks after zombie attacks will be the actual scary thing. I never thought about it. The birds. Yeah. You don't see that when you watch Walking Dead. You don't see just hordes of buzzards and vultures coming in. Which would totally make sense, right? They would just come and peck them. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we've established in most zombie mythologies. They're pretty slow as well. Yeah. Right. Don't be worried about the zombie attack, but be worried about the animal attack afterwards. Well, that was weird. Sorry.

It was a little dark. Let's have a lighthearted quiz segment. It's sort of pretty good back up. Not thinking about vultures pecking out our entrails. Generally, when we think about scary, not really horror movies, but weird, dark, gothic. Halloween. Halloween. Yes, exactly.

Halloween movies. We think about Tim Burton, film director, often collaborating with people such as Johnny Depp or Helen Ombon, Carter, etc. And so I decided to put together a little Tim Burton quiz for a Halloween episode. Oh, right. All right. We'll start up with an easy one to slumber up. Perhaps the anomaly in his filmography from a tonal perspective, this was Tim Burton's feature film directorial debut. Hmm.

Oh, directorial was... Had a scene that when I was five years old, when this came out in 1985, scared me. Pewee's Big Adventures. Kiwi's big adventure. Yes. I never watched it. Oh, okay. And I heard about the seat.

With the trucker. And the, the, the, the, the claymation eyeballs. I kept rewinding it because I was like, oh, it was so fun. I just can't believe. I mean, we saw it, yeah, we saw it in the theaters. And I looked this up, and it was came out in 1985. I'm like, oh, my God, I can't believe it came out that long ago. I can't believe it was five when I saw it.

Anyway, after graduating from Cal Arts, where he was classmates with Brad Bird and John Lasseter, among other people. Tim Burton got his first job as a Animator At Disney Where he worked on the Fox and the Hound And he also worked on the film that immediately followed it in 1985 Generally considered one of the worst Disney animated movies

The Black Cauldron Yes we're buzzing in with these questions Oh sorry But I'll give it to you anyway What is the Black Caldron? That's right I thought we were just talking I thought we were just free yeah

Just re-association Isay Cat you say dog. Michael Keaton played the title role in three Burton directed films. One point for all three. I don't name them all three. All right, well, Batman, Beetlejuice, and Karen. Karen? The second Batman.

Is it called? Batman Returns? It's Batman and Robin? No, that was George Clooney one. That's four. Batman Returns. It is Batman Returns. Batman Returns.

Batman Returns. Okay. Oh, I forgot about Beetlejuice and Batman Returns. Oh, okay. Oh, I forgot about Beetlejuice. Yeah. That's good. So that Disney job that Tim Burton had, he was actually fired from Disney.

And the reason given was that he had wasted company time and money making a 27-minute short film that was too scary for kids to see. Oh. What was it called? What? Colin? Was it called the nightmare before? It was not. Oh, that was my god.

That was a good. Dana. Was it the corpse bride? It was not the corpse bride. Is? We're close. Frankenwee? It was Frankenwee.

It was Frankenwee. It is disturbing. So he made a half hour black and white film, like live action film about Frankenweeney that we know for Disney. And they were like, no, this is too scary for kids. This was the mid-80s. And they fired him for doing that. Yikes. And then, after he got big directing Beetlejuice and Batman, Disney released the Frankenweeney 27-minute short film.

And then, of course, you know, they patched everything up, and then he did the Frankenweeny 2012 stop motion film with Disney. Yeah. Which one of these three frightening films did Tim Burton direct Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, The Nightmare Before Christmas, or Sleepy Hollow? Oh. Terran. Sleepy Hollow. It is Sleepy Hollow. Tim Burton did not direct the Nightmare of Christmas.

It was something that he had come up with. It was something that he had, in fact, worked on a little bit at Disney when he was there, but never went forward. Disney owned the film rights to it. And so that's why, again, after he got big, he went back to Disney and said, okay, you guys have the film rights to this thing I was working on. Let's do the movie. Got it. But because he was working on Batman Returns, he could not commit the time to actually directed himself.

It's very him. It is very him. Tim Burton's nightmare. It's his thing. He just did not. He was not the director. Tim Burton is credited, generally, is the person responsible for discovering and starting the movie and TV composition career of this musician, now a long time collaborator.

Collin. That must be Danny Alphabet. It is Danny Alpin, yes. He was a member of the basically kind of well-known band Oingo Boingo, but did not do very much scoring of films or TV before Tim Burton tapped him to do. That's cool. I will interject a little bit aside. Trivia Oingo-Boingo is probably, I think,

to say, their biggest hit of all time is Dead Man's Party, which fits the theme of today's episode. Well, there we go. In the late 1990s, Tim Burton was attached to direct a Superman film that would have starred this well-known actor, himself a big comic book fan.

Dana. Nicholas Cage. Yep. Get in the cage. They got as far as, apparently, Warner Brothers spent $30 million on it, and they were constructing sets and picking out locations.

and then the whole thing got killed. They just decided not to do it. Yep. Tim Burton has directed two music videos. They are both by this American rock band. Oh. Yeah, I know, right? Would you say recent or class?

It is recent. Karen. I'm going to guess panic at the disco. It is not panic at the disco. Or the killer. It is the killers. Oh, wow. He directed two music videos by the killers.

Oh, wow. Yeah. Karen, pulled it out. I know. that. And finally, towards the end of the movie Beetlejuice,

the title character, again, played by Michael Keaton, transforms into a massive, grotesque carnival attraction with a merry-go-round

tent on his head. What, like a star on a Christmas tree, is placed at the very top of the merry-go-round tent. Oh, man.

So he has that hat on, it's a pointy. Yeah, it's a pointy hat. And then at the top at the very point of hat. There's a little decoration. What is it? You can see it very clearly up close in the film. Something that would be, if you watched it now, you would recognize it immediately, but that people watching the film in the late 80s would not have known what it was. Basically would not have known what

was. Karen. Is it a pair of scissors? It's not a pair of scissors. Nope. It's something like that. It's got to be an illusion or a reference to something. It is an allusion to something that would come later. It is the head of Helen of Bonner. It is actually the little tiny head of Jack Skellington. Oh, yes, too. Yep. The character from Nightmare. The character from Nightmare before Christmas, which would not come out for another few years.

Oh, that's good. But, yep, but was still something that Tim Burton had, you know, been working on. Nice. On August 1st, may I speak freely? I prefer English. A naked gun is the most fun you can have in theaters. Yeah, let's go. Without getting around.

Is he serious? Is he serious? No. The Naked Gun. Only in theaters. August 1st. I have one last quiz for everybody. We haven't done a music round in a while.

So I am bringing back a round of music. I will be playing short clips of songs. I need you guys to identify the artist, either if it's a group or a singer or a vocalist. And there is a theme. So there is all of these five clips are going to be tied together in some sort of theme. I need you to guess the theme. at the end. But the theme is not Halloween.

The theme is not Halloween. Yeah. All right. You guys have your buzzers ready. Here we go. Here is the first clip. There's nothing where he used to lie. My inspiration has run dry.

That's what's going on. Nothing's right on taught. I'm all out of face. This is how I feel. I'm cold and I am shamed. I make it on the soul Illusion never changed Natalie Imbruglia

Torn Natalie Ambrulio Natalie Mbruglia Song is torn All right Next song Get backstage Well, I can see

You are with me But you are with another man Yeah I know we I ain't got much to say Before I let you get away Yeah Oh

Wow Everybody Are you going to be my girl? Yes All right Third one You guys are all right to work long And I touch by

I touch my soul I don't know anybody else You guys are all singing Oh, these are nice. The divinels. Wow. Is it the divinels or is it divinels? The divinels.

The divinels. Okay. Now, is it when I think about you, parentheses, I touch myself? No, I think it just. I touch myself. Okay. All right. No, it's called composition on a summer's morning.

Number five. Paranthesis, the touch myself song. Next one. A classic. I'm all out of love, I'm all out of love, I'm so lost without you, I know. I know you were right, believing for so long, I'm all out of love, what am I without you? I can't be too late to say that I was so wrong. These are

These are big songs All out of love, right? Right, yeah, true. All out of love. All right. I'm just for the theme. I'm trying to, yeah. Yeah.

Last one. Here we go. Anytime I need to see a face, it is close my eyes and I'm taking to a bit of a crystal mind a magenta feeling. Take up shelter in the face of my spine shit like a cherry cola.

I don't need to try to explain that it's old on tight. And if it happens again, I'm a move so silent. the arms and the lips and the face that you and get a ball that I need to I want you

I don't know if I need you but I don't know if I need you but Dana Savage Garden Savage Garden Correct All right

Do we know the theme Yes I think Dana knows I'm guessing something like National origin I'm gonna guess like I'm gonna guess like they're all from the same country

But that's Sweden I don't know No that doesn't fit Australia Oh, yeah. Yep. They're all Australian.

Oh, wow. There was the Divinels, Savage Garden, Jet, Natalie and Bruglia. Okay. And air supply. Ah, I did not know air supply or divinels were Australian. There you go. Very good. Wow.

Dana knows for music. Actually, Dana knows for Savage Garden, too. Yeah. I kind of know a lot of those sevens garden. Check out my fan site. Check out my Geo Cities page. Which is real, by the way. We're not kidding.

It really did happen. Are men at work actually from Australia? Yes. They just, oh, they are? Yes. Oh, okay. I obviously didn't go for the easy route, like Kylie Minogue. Actually, you're right.

Yeah, Kylie and Noble is really associated with Australia, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, good job, everybody. And that's our show. Thank you guys for joining me. Thank you guys, listeners, for listening in. I hope you learn a lot about Tim Burton, about Halloween. costumes about zombies and animals and also the theramen.

You can find us on iTunes, on Stitcher, on SoundCloud, and also on a website, goodjobbrain.com, and check us out at Twitter and Facebook at Good Job Brain or slash Good Job Brain. And we'll see you guys next week. Bye. Hello, this is Matt from the Explorers podcast. I want to invite you to join me on the voyages and journeys of the most famous explorers in the history of the world. These are the thrilling and captivating stories of Magellan, Shackleton, Lewis, and Clark,

and so many other famous and not so famous adventures from throughout history. Go to Explorespodcast.com or just look us up on your podcast app. That's the Explorers Podcast. Thank you.