WEBVTT - Who are the Secret Inspirations for these Characters? 0:00:02.480 --> 0:00:04.760 I guess what will? What's that mango? So do you 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:07.040 know that Peppi Lapew was based on a real person, 0:00:07.600 --> 0:00:09.840 Peppe Lapew. I haven't heard that name a long time. 0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:13.039 You're talking about the cartoons scum. Yeah, the French skunk 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:15.880 who's such a romantic So I'm not sure if you 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:18.560 remember any of his lines. I looked them off, but 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:21.239 you're a couple of them. Z Cabbage does not run 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:25.239 away from Z corned beef. And you may call me 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:28.160 street car because of my desire for you, which is 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:31.960 such a great, terrible pickup line. Yeah, I should have 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:34.080 used some of those. Those are pretty much the worst 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:36.879 best lines ever. Well, actually, did you know the name 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:38.960 of the kitten that he was always trying to chase? 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:42.000 I was trying to remember this, Yeah, so I was 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:44.920 curious about that. I totally forgotten that it's a Penelope 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:49.159 pussy cat. But according to this book, the Godfather was 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:52.680 a girl. Pepe was based on this cartoonist named Ted Pierce, 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:56.000 who was absolutely certain that all the ladies used to 0:00:56.040 --> 0:01:00.880 dig him, despite very little evidence suggesting that. So he's 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:03.520 the self declared ladies man. He'd go partying all night 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:06.600 and then coming to the office just totally smelly, and 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:08.560 he'd put in a full day's work and then go 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:11.039 straight to hopelessly wooing again. And of course, you know, 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:14.800 his office mates took notice. They decided to memorialize his 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:18.039 efforts by drawing this love Struck cartoons skunk in his honor. 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:20.200 I feel like maybe we worked with that guy at 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:23.679 some Yeah, but that's the first of a ton of 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:26.319 fictional characters we're covering today who are all based on 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:50.520 real people. Let's dive in. Y Hey their podcast listeners, 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:52.920 Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:55.440 always I'm joined by my good friend manes Hot Ticketer 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:58.480 and sitting behind the soundproof glass. He's been working on 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:00.560 this list for a couple of days is now, and 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:02.960 I didn't know exactly what it was. It turns out 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:07.000 it's a long list of comedians. He thinks Seinfeld might 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:09.520 be based on I think, but that's our friends and 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:14.080 producer Tristan McNeil. Tristan, the show is based on Terry Seinfeld. 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:16.440 It's in the name. You don't have to overthink. He 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:19.440 is always overthinking, but that's just I guess it's just 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:22.840 part of his genius. But thinking about this, it is 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:25.640 funny how so many books and characters are based on 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:28.320 real events and people's lives, and I guess that shouldn't 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:31.360 be that surprising. But I know, we were talking recently 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:34.000 about our friend John Green when he wrote his first book, 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:36.560 Looking for Alaska. You know, some of the pranks that 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:38.880 took place in that book were real pranks that he 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:41.720 or his friends had participated in back in high school. 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:44.880 And even the school itself was based very much on 0:02:44.960 --> 0:02:47.679 the school Indian Springs in Alabama, where John went to 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:52.440 high school, and it was definitely informed by his experience there. Yeah, 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:55.280 I mean, you see that in first novels, especially like 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:59.000 where people tend to write very autobiographically. But you know, 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:02.040 I'm always made when writers keep pulling from the things 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:04.760 around them. And you see that in Dickens, like where 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:07.960 people have actually um traced all these characters from Great 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:10.600 Expectations or some of his other famous books to real 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:13.600 people that Dickens used to interact with. And we're going 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:16.080 to see a lot of that in today's show. Yeah, 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:17.560 that's right. I know there are a lot of guesses 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:20.360 as to who Miss Havisham might actually be, or like 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:22.800 which house inspired the setting of the book and you 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:25.560 know things like that. Yeah, and you know, settings that 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:27.560 are a funny thing too, Like I remember when I 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:30.520 was I was really getting into writing, and I first 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:33.320 realized that people did this with entire worlds as well. 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:35.760 Like I went to this talk where this author said 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:38.280 he couldn't figure out how to make a believable South 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:42.000 American city and he didn't have I guess that like 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:45.040 tolkin Ish quality of being able to just invent worlds. 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:47.800 So he took this old map of Bolivia or someplace, 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:49.840 and he crossed out the names of a little town 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:52.560 and put in his own fictional street names and whatever. 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:56.200 And it's kind of clever. I mean, that's pretty ingenious, actually, yeah, 0:03:56.200 --> 0:03:58.920 And so he could actually visualize every time, like you know, 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:01.960 where mountain passes where, or borders between areas would be. 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:04.119 And you know, this is a little different, but there's 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:07.320 actually this great story on this American life where this 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:10.360 kid really falls in love with science fiction and this author, 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:12.960 Pierce Anthony. Have you ever read any Pierce Anthony? Do 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:14.400 you know? I don't. I mean that doesn't say a 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:16.400 whole lot. I don't read a ton of science fiction, 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:19.080 but no, Yeah, so I was only familiar with him 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:21.680 because my dad was really into science fiction, and Pierce 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:24.160 Anthony wrote this fantasy book called A Spell for Chameleon, 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:27.080 which was really popular when I was younger. But um, 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:29.839 Pierce Anthony had all these fantasy stories that were set 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:32.640 in this world called zanth and his books were filled 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:35.000 with puns, pretty easy to read. But you know, this 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:38.279 high school kid figured out that zan was actually using 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:42.000 all these context clues this little town in Florida, and 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:44.679 he came up with this theory that, you know, Pierce Anthony, 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:47.320 his family must live there. So he decided to run 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:50.000 away from home to find them, and he took a 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:52.520 boss I think or he charged his mother's credit card 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:55.520 to get there. It's a long story, but it's ultimately 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:57.719 really sweet because the author and his wife take this 0:04:57.800 --> 0:05:00.400 young fanboy in, they feed him, they let crashed on 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:02.560 the couch, and you know, and then they convince him 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:04.359 to call his mom and step dad to let him know, 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:08.159 you know, he's safe. But um, you know that this 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:11.000 whole idea that you can create a whole secret fantasy 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:14.000 world that's based on these very real landmarks around your 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:17.560 little hometown, that's just kind of an amazing idea to me. 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:20.080 Yeah it is, and it's actually not something i'd really 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:23.160 thought about. But but speaking of that realm of fantasy, 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:25.000 you've kind of put us there. So it makes me 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:27.200 think we should kick this off with one of my 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:31.640 favorite fictional characters, and that Severest Snape. Now, if you're 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:34.839 a fan of Harry Potter, you probably have I don't know, 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:38.520 like me, pretty complicated feelings about the Potions Master, and 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:40.919 because you know, he's both a good person at heart 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:45.039 but also very much a Slytherin, and he obviously takes 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:48.280 pleasure in berating and putting down his students. And one 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:50.040 of the things I didn't realize until we were reading 0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:52.600 up for this week was that J. K. Rolling based 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:55.520 her character on one of her actual teachers. It was 0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:59.640 this chemistry professor named John Nettleship. So I'm definitely curious 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:01.839 about this because I love Harry Potter, and it's almost 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:04.440 funny that she didn't use the name Nettleship, because you know, 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:07.039 it sounds like such a name from Harry Potter. I 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:10.640 know it definitely does, so Rolling quietly wrote this character 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:14.320 into her books. But what's funny is that everyone realized 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:17.920 that the Snape character was based on Nettleship except for him. 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:20.960 So there's all these accounts of this online, but I 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:22.880 kind of like the way Quirk Books puts it, So 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:25.839 let me just read this says when people started asking 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:28.400 him if he was Professor Snape, it was his wife 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:31.360 who had to let him down gently by explaining, of 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:33.400 course you are, but I didn't want to tell you. 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:36.159 Like apparently, he just been enjoying the books like everybody 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:39.159 else until this was pointed out to him. That's so 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:41.320 funny that it was his wife who saw the connection 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:43.960 and then that she hit it from him. Yeah, and 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:46.599 of course, you know, he was horrified by this at first. 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:49.000 He was even quoted as saying, I knew I was 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:51.680 a strict teacher, but I didn't think I was that bad. 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:55.200 And then, you know, he realized the similarities were pretty glaring. 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:58.680 He was this short tempered chemistry teacher, had the long hair, 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:02.120 and this not tory like gloomy lab and it did 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:04.800 take him a little while to adjust to this legacy. 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:07.120 But of course then when he saw Alan Rickman playing 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:09.600 him on screen, he suddenly grew to like the character 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:12.200 much more, which makes a ton of sense. That's pretty 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:15.480 great and what a legacy. So I'm curious. We've covered 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:18.320 Harry Potter, now a little bit of pepular Pew. Where 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:20.440 do you want to go from here? Well, I know 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:23.160 you were looking into some of the comic characters we have, 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:25.480 of course started with pepular Pew, But do you want 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:27.040 to run down a few more? I know you looked 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:30.520 up a bunch of them. Yeah, definitely. So Scrooge mctock 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:32.600 is one. You know, he's a miser. He very much 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:35.360 worked his way up from nothing, and he is built 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:39.760 on the idea of Andrew Carnegie. Um Tony Stark or 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:42.960 iron Man is based on Howard Hughes, who I guess 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:45.280 was inventing things for the Defense Department at the time 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:49.160 that the comic was made. Yeah, Charlie Brown is based 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:53.520 on the creator, Charles Schultz. He was apparently super precocious. 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:56.640 He was actually promoted a half grade twice, so he 0:07:56.720 --> 0:07:59.040 was very young for his class, and he was also 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:01.680 a little depressed. But um, there's a story about him 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:04.360 that his dad would start giving him a haircut because 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:06.760 he was a barber, and then customers would walk into 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:09.200 their store and he just have to walk around for 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:11.880 the rest of the day with half a haircut. His 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:14.720 dad was finally freed up to finish him. You know, 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:18.840 it sounds like a very Charlie Brown thing. Peppermin Patty 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:22.520 was actually his athletic cousin, and Schroeder I found out 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:25.720 was based on his friend's mom, who every time they 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:30.080 went over she was always annoyingly playing Beethoven in their house. 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:34.360 She wrote that you wrote that end of the comic strip. 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:37.079 But you know, Batman's kind of interesting. He was based 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:40.280 on a number of characters. He was based on Zoro Dracula, 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:44.199 a movie about a bat whisper. But you know, the writer, 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:49.439 Bob Kaine's major inspiration was actually Leonardo da Vinci. Da Vinci. 0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:53.400 I wouldn't have guessed that, yeah, me either, because you know, 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:56.920 Batman seems more like a crime fighter than an artistic type. 0:08:56.960 --> 0:09:00.200 But I guess as a teenager, Bob Kine found this 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:03.880 book of Da Vinci inventions, and he was especially enamored 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:06.600 with all the flying inventions, so he'd like trace them 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:09.079 or draw them out, and one of them was this 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:11.160 giant pair of wings that could be attached to a 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:14.920 man's back to fly, and obviously that gets roped into 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:17.600 the whole Batman series. But there's a lot of fun 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:20.400 stuff out there. One I really want to talk about, though, 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:22.880 is Tintin, which I read it as a kid. Did 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:24.800 you ever read this as a kid? I didn't, but 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:28.240 I know you've you know, mentioned them a lot before. Yeah, 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:31.280 and you know I was hooked. My son is now hooked. 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:33.880 And for anyone who doesn't know, Attintan is this wonderful 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:36.920 Belgian comic about a reporter. He travels the world with 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:39.400 his dog Snowy, ends up sucked into all these amazing 0:09:39.400 --> 0:09:42.520 adventures and ends up trying to have to stop crimes. 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:45.120 But it was actually only this week that I learned 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:48.200 that Tintin maybe based on a real person. So apparently 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:52.600 in this Danish newspaper wanted to honor Jewels firm, so 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:55.240 they created a contest where one lucky teen would get 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:59.200 to travel the world for forty six days unaccompanied. And 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:02.120 out of this stack of applications, this fifteen year old 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:05.760 boy named Pal hauled one and the press just fell 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:10.160 in love with him immediately. He got to travel to Canada, Japan, Korea, China, 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:14.160 the Soviet Union. Apparently the Soviet Union wasn't friendly to 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:16.360 tourists and it was a big deal that he went there. Um, 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:19.320 he went to Germany lots of places before returning to 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:22.800 Copenhagen forty four days later. And it was such a 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:25.360 phenomenon that there were crowds kind of there to meet 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:28.040 him at every pit stop. But when he got back 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:31.199 to Copenhagen there were twenty two thousand people waiting for 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:34.160 him to return, and in fact, it was so crowded 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:36.400 that the police crowd served him just to get him 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:41.080 to safety. Unbelievable, twenty two thousand people. So they both 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:43.680 traveled the world, but where where there were there similarities 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:47.679 beyond that, so I mean there were some Tintins. Obviously, 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:51.559 this fresh faced character with unruly hair, Pal was the same. 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:55.520 They also dressed suspiciously alike like Pal, were breeches and 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:58.559 the page boy hat, and I guess a similar overcoat. 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:01.280 But the biggest of it might just be the timing. 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:04.480 Tintin debut a few months after the teenager returned home, 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:08.000 so everyone just assumed Pal was Tintin. And in fact, 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:11.160 when Pale died, his obituaries and these were everywhere from 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:13.440 like the Telegraph to the Observer to the New York Times, 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:16.920 they all noted how his adventure had sparked the comics series, 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:21.720 but her Je, who was Tintin's creator, completely denied the story. 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:24.959 And there's another person that some Tintin fans think might 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:28.199 have inspired the character, and who's that. So it's a 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:31.120 French photojournalist who I've never heard of, named Robert Sex, 0:11:31.679 --> 0:11:34.960 and uh, these people might be right. So Sex also 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:38.160 had unruly hair. He traveled on a motorbike like Tintin, 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:40.520 took his dog with him, which is also true to 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:43.840 the comics. Snowy, who was Tintin's dog, is called Millow 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:47.240 in French, and Sex's best friend in real life was 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:51.240 Rennee Melo. But the biggest evidence is just where this 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:53.960 guy traveled. So his adventures took him to Moscow, out 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:57.839 to the Belgian Congo, to the US, and those ended 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:00.240 up being the settings for the first three Tintin book books. 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:03.320 But you know, the hardest thing for Belgian fans to 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:06.400 swallow about this theory is that, uh, it would actually 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:11.080 make one of Belgium's most famous characters French. And perhaps 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:14.679 that's why I Hear was always denying this theory as well. Huh, Well, 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:16.680 I mean, you know you mentioned Jules Verne in there 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:19.840 and around the world in eighty days. And related to that, 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:22.839 did you realize that Phileas Fogg, the main character from 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:26.720 the book, is also based on a real person. No, 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:28.800 I mean, I do think it's funny that, like, if 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:31.760 you dig deep enough, it feels like every character has 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:34.480 a background somewhere. Like, uh, I read that the lamb 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:36.200 from Mary Had a Little Lamb is based on a 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:39.600 real lamb, which is so insane because that lamb doesn't 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:43.840 have that much personality but it does nothing. But I 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:46.959 cut you off, Well, what's the story with Phileas Fogg? No, 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:48.800 I just want to go back to talk about this lamb. 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:52.800 That's the most boring story ever. No, that's pretty great. Well, 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:56.880 he's apparently based on this rich, eccentric named George Francis 0:12:56.960 --> 0:12:59.600 Train who decided a campaign for I think it was 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:03.280 the eighteen seventy two presidential election, and he did this 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:06.960 by going across the world in eighty days for some reason, 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:10.280 and he had this campaign slogan, get on board. And 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:13.400 obviously this wasn't a great way to campaign though, since 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:17.360 he virtually disappeared for those months. But what's amazing is 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:20.840 that he did actually make it back in eighty days, 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:24.240 and so Jules Verne claimed that the idea was entirely original. 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:27.760 But there are all these similarities in the stories, including 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:30.600 how Train hires a private train along the way and 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:33.920 finds himself in prison, and part of it. Train was 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:36.640 actually insulted that he didn't get any credit and often 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:40.040 yelled about how quote Verne stole his thunder, which is 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:42.840 just kind of funny to imagine him yelling this. But anyway, 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:46.640 Phileas Fogg and Trained stories ended very differently, though, so 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:49.600 while Fogg found love at the end of his journey, 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:52.280 Train was always on the edge of being put in 0:13:52.360 --> 0:13:56.559 an asylum. His next campaign was actually to be dictator 0:13:56.679 --> 0:13:59.400 of the United States, which you can imagine didn't go 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:03.280 over well, and he actually was put in jail briefly 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:06.520 for obscenity and and you know, he spent his final 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:09.760 few years handing out dimes to passers by at Madison 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:13.360 Square Park and it's it's a very weird story. But 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:16.880 he actually had the strict policy of only having conversations 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:21.400 with children and animals, which sounds like a really great 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:25.200 voting demographic, right, children's animals. That's the way to campaign, 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:27.320 So I know, We've got a number four stories to 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:29.080 get to, but before we do, why don't we take 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:45.440 a quick break. Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:47.920 we're talking about the real people some fictional characters were 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:50.280 based on. So well, I know you want to talk 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:53.560 about Olivia Pope because you are such a fan of Scandal, 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:56.800 but I think he said you had another famous female 0:14:56.840 --> 0:14:59.240 you wanted to get to first. That's right. I don't 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:01.360 want to talk about a Levia just yet. I actually 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:03.800 want to talk about Miss Piggy. And you know, I 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:06.400 think we all want to believe that the Diva is 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:10.360 one original, but this is actually a pretty interesting story 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:12.960 because it turns up Miss Piggy was created as this 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:16.160 homage to a jazz singer who was named Peggy Lee, 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:20.080 and in fact, Miss Piggy's original name was actually Miss 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:24.760 Piggy Lee. So I'm curious, like, why don't I know 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:26.960 this story? Because I feel like I know stories about 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:30.360 like animal being based on the Who's drummer Keith Moon. 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:32.800 There's that story about the Swedish chef who's based on 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:35.080 a real Swedish chef who was on Good Morning America 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:37.880 and got so nervous that he was shaking and even 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:41.840 mumbling strange words that he didn't recognize. And you know, though, 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:44.480 the Muppets have never shied away from telling those origin stories, 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:47.119 So why don't I know this one? Well, the muppeteer 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:50.560 who created her was named Bonnie Ericsson, and and Bonnie 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:53.480 loved the singer Peggy Lee growing up in North Dakota, 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:55.600 and her mom was also a huge fan, and so 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:59.080 Bonnie grew up viewing Peggy as kind of this strong 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:02.280 and independent an artist. So in a way, calling the 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:04.880 muppet Piggy Lee was It was really more of a 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:07.880 sweet joke to honor the singer. But then as Miss 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:10.840 Piggy got more and more popular, no one really wanted 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:13.320 to offend the star. And this was partially because she 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:14.960 had gained a little bit of weight later in her 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:18.359 career due to some health problems, but was still performing 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:20.920 in some of those original tight outfits from her youth, 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:24.760 so they decided to back off on the comparison understandably. 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:27.600 But any speaking of Bonnie Erickson, and this is an aside, 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:29.440 but did you know that she didn't just work on 0:16:29.600 --> 0:16:33.320 Muppet character She also designed some famous mascots, including one 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:37.400 of our favorites, the Philly fanatic. I feel like I'm 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:40.720 a Phillies fan. I love the fanatic, but I had 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:43.520 no idea that there was a Muppets connection there. Well, 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:46.440 that might be her most successful one. She also had 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:48.840 some duds along the way, as we all do. So 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:51.760 she designed a Dandy mascot for the Yankees, which is 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:54.560 a little strange. He was kind of this cute looking, 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:58.960 heavily mustachio New Yorker. But he only lasted three seasons 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:01.640 and as part it because he was never allowed out 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:05.520 of the nosebleed section, so he he wasn't allowed to 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:08.480 do appearances because the management was worried that he might 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:13.800 distract players for some reason. That's really funny. And looking 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:15.959 at some of her other designs, she designed these kind 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:19.159 of sweet, weird animals for the Chicago White Sox. Their 0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:24.240 name were Ribby and rue Barb. So I don't understand this, 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:26.760 Like the White Sox feels like you should be designing 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:30.360 like White Sox characters. Like why Ribby and Rubarb, who 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:33.080 I've never heard of? Like were they popular? Now? They 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:35.919 definitely weren't popular. Actually, I was doing some reading on it, so, 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:39.320 as Espionation puts it, quote, the two fuzzballs look like 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:42.760 the product of a bad experience with lsd. Ribby was 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:45.320 a purple and eater, and Rubarb look like the love 0:17:45.400 --> 0:17:49.879 child of the San Diego Chicken and a swiffer. I 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:52.320 feel like I like them even more now and I 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:54.480 almost want like a T shirt with them. But uh, 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:58.240 how long did they last? Well? Unfortunately, not very long. 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:00.439 And that's parson because of when they were a mission. 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:02.000 I mean it was this was at a time where 0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:05.640 there was this unofficial mascot name Andy the Clown, who 0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:08.800 was still working the crowds at that time. And for 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:12.119 some reason, there were seriously strong allegiances to Andy. And 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:15.160 this was despite the factor, maybe because he told these 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:18.159 dirty jokes as he walked around the stadium. And anyway, 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:21.320 kids and adults didn't take kindly to Ribby and Rhubarb, 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:25.040 invading on what they saw as Andy's turf and and 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:27.359 and there are stories of fans of all ages just 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:31.800 verbally abusing Ribby and Rhubarb and it it sounds pretty horrible. 0:18:31.880 --> 0:18:34.800 So finally the Socks management had to, you know, find 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:37.680 a way to humanely put the characters out of their misery. 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:39.960 But I don't know, just just this fact that the 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:43.000 White Sox took a chance on these giant muppet like 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:45.399 beasts for a little while. Is is pretty great and 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:47.800 it kind of makes me respect those that they decided 0:18:47.880 --> 0:18:50.080 to give this a shot. But actually, I'll have to 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:52.800 find some photos for you because they're pretty great. Oh. 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:54.720 I love that. I feel like we should start to 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:58.520 bring back Ribby and Rubart campaign. It is good. So 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:01.880 I feel like we're on a little with women characters. 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:04.200 We've got Miss Piggy. We're gonna get to the Olivia 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:06.720 Pope story. But before we do that, I I didn't 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:09.040 want to talk about two other female characters I think 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:11.960 are interesting. And these examples both come from the book 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:14.280 The Godfather Was a Girl by em and Evans. We 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:16.680 leaned on this book for the episode and it's really terrific. 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:20.199 But the first is The Godfather from the movies and 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:23.280 Mario Puzzo's book. And while there are plenty of gangsters 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:26.080 and mafios in that series that are based on real criminals, 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:28.600 like there's a character based on Bugsy Siegull, there's one 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:32.640 based on Mayer Landski. The voice of Don Corleone is 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:37.879 actually based on Mario Puzzo's mother, and I had never 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:41.119 heard this before, but as the book puts it, quote 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:45.080 Puzzo was partially inspired by an illiterate Neapolitan immigrant who 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:48.600 had raised him and his levin siblings single handedly amid 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:51.639 the squalor of the New York slums. Quote, whenever the 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:55.000 Godfather opened his mouth, Puzzo said, in my own mind, 0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:58.280 I heard the voice of my mother, A wonderful, handsome woman, 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:02.159 but a fairly ruthless This person. I mean, you know, 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:04.920 you think about this, Raising twelve kids in that era 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:07.400 of New York definitely couldn't have been easy. And as 0:20:07.440 --> 0:20:10.399 interesting as the Godfather is, I'm almost more interested in 0:20:10.440 --> 0:20:13.040 her story and and like just how ruthless she could be. 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:17.000 Totally the use of that word ruthless is important. And 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:19.600 so that's one character. The second person who I guess 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:22.040 gets an unfair wrap, according to the book, is actually 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:25.400 Lady Macbeth. And thanks to Shakespeare, you know, her name 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:29.199 is synonymous with ambitious women, but also women who were 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:33.200 like cold hearted and cunning and you know, duplicitus. But 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:36.919 I I didn't realize this. That depiction was basically created 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:39.359 to flatter the royals at the time, and according to 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:43.160 the book, the real wife of Macbeth, was quote universally 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:46.840 acclaimed as a Saint lean popular figure. We know, for instance, 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:49.159 that she donated money and land to monks, and from 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:51.480