Judge John Hodgman - TEASER: Members Only Mailbag May 2025

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

The new episode of the Members Only Mailbag is in the members-only bonus feed! Are the Hartford Whalers actually an extinct hockey team? Judge Hodgman refers to them that way, but Yael says the judge is WRONG! We hope you enjoy this short clip! For the entire episode, and the back catalog of ALL of our bonus episodes, join Maximum Fun at $5 a month. Just go to maximumfun.org/join! Judge John Hodgman is member-supported! Join at $5 a month at maximumfun.org/join!

It's the Judge John Hodgman podcast. I'm Bailiff Jesse Thorne. With me is Judge John Hodgman. Hey, before we get started, I just have a message to the members of Maximum Fun. First of all, thank you for being a member. Second of all, go check your bonus feed. The new episode of our Members Only Mailbag is now in your bonus content feed. It's a lot of fun.

We answer a lot of questions. We debate a lot of topics. If you're not a member, here's a clip from the episode to give you a feel for it. If you want to hear the whole thing, memberships in Maximum Fun start at just five bucks a month. Join us at MaximumFun.org slash join. Support the production of this show and never miss another one of these monthly treats.

["TWINKLE TWINKLE TUNE"] I have a dispute with Judge Hodgman. never miss another one of these monthly treats. I have a dispute with Judge Hodgman. He should stop saying the Hartford Whalers are extinct. Their records persist and their uniforms remain in use. The Arizona Coyotes are a truly extinct hockey team. They don't exist anymore. The Hartford Whalers are the Carolina

Hurricanes. I moved and changed my name once. Am I not me? I think Judge Hodgman just enjoys telling people he's into an obscure thing, but he's doing it wrong. I think the judge should refer to the Whalers and Nordiques as relocated, save extinct for the California Golden Se seals or the New York Americans. Well, look, John, I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to take my co-host's prerogative and stipulate that Judge John Hodgman enjoys telling people he's into an obscure thing. There's no doubt about that. But that doesn't mean the rest of it is true. Yeah. I don't even think it's that obscure.

I mean, 10 years ago, probably when I started thinking about and talking about the beautiful Hartford-Waylor's logo designed by Peter Good of West Hartford, the Peter Good & Company design company, the most gorgeous logo in all of sports, never mind, Extinctocky, never mind, not Extinctockie, this beautiful logo. And I loved it and I started talking about it. At that point, it might've been obscure. The only time I ever saw any merch for it was at Bradley International Airport

in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. It was like one hat. Now you see the Hartford Weathers logo all over the place, including, including as you point out, Yael of San Francisco, on the uniforms worn by the Carolina Hurricanes. They have throwback nights. Where the team will wear old Hartford-Wailers uniforms, because you're not wrong.

In fact, I dare say you're right. The Hartford-Wailers franchise, the team moved to Carolina, renamed and rebranded themselves the Hurricanes. But I did learn when I was doing my research into, let's call it, defunct hockey teams or defunct hockey brands, that that is, it is still the same team. Right, Jesse? That's true, right?