WEBVTT - Listener Mail: A Whistle of Worth 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:05.360 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, production of My 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:11.000 Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind 0:00:11.240 --> 0:00:14.840 listener mail. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:16.960 and it's Monday, the day of the week that we 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:19.840 read back some messages you've sent into the show account, 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:23.400 which is, by the way, contact at stuff to Blow 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:25.239 your Mind dot com. If you ever want to get 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:28.360 in touch to share something interesting, if you have feedback 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:30.560 on a recent episode, or if you just want to 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:33.080 say hi, tell us your thoughts about the show or 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:36.520 anything else, get in touch contact at stuff to Blow 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:40.320 your Mind dot com. We have a bunch of messages 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:43.279 in response to our series about whistling, and I think 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:46.320 we should kick right off with this message from Joe. 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:48.720 Rob Do you mind if I read this one? Go 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:56.920 for it? Okay, this is Joe, just Jo, not like me. 0:00:57.000 --> 0:01:00.560 I've got any on there. So Joe says hello and 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:04.559 good day. I was whistling while listening to Whistling Part 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:07.280 one until you mentioned that you'd cover some of the 0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:11.160 superstitions about whistling. It just so happens that a lot 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:15.600 of Southeast Asians believe that whistling attracts unwanted attention from 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:20.520 supernatural beings, especially since it's currently the seventh Lunar Month 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:25.200 a k a. Ghost Month. Although you've done many spooky episodes, 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:27.959 I don't think I've ever heard the Hungry Ghost month 0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:31.039 mentioned on the podcast. In case you haven't heard about it, 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:34.279 let me give you a short introduction. The seventh Lunar 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:37.120 month is when the gates of hell are opened and 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:40.360 ghosts are allowed to roam the earth for thirty days. 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:44.440 Spirits wander the mortal realm in search of entertainment and sustenance. 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:47.960 This month is considered pretty inauspicious, and people in places 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:52.120 like Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan will often avoid being outside 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:55.680 at night for fear of running a foul of mischievous spirits. 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:58.480 Throughout the month, it's not uncommon to see offerings of 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:01.040 food placed by the side of the road for hungry 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:04.920 ghost ease. It's only polite that pedestrians avoid stepping over 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:07.520 these offerings or getting too close to them, as this 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:11.840 might disrupt any feasting spirits. Malaysia and Singapore also have 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:15.400 a tradition of setting up stages where performers are hired 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:19.400 to sing and act for their invisible floaties. For this reason, 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:21.680 the first few rows of chairs in the audience of 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:24.200 any such stage are to be left empty in case 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:27.320 these supernatural friend does want to take a seat and 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:31.079 enjoy their foray back into the mortal world. Some places 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:34.480 only celebrate the Hungry Ghost Festival, which is the fifteen 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:39.519 of the seventh month. It's the twelfth of August. It's 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:43.480 a day when food, jawsticks, paper money, prayers, and rituals 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:46.959 are offered up to appease the restless roaming spirits. It's 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:49.720 also common to see lights and candles placed on the 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:51.959 side of the roads, as it is believed to help 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:55.880 guide the spirits back into Hell. There are a slew 0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:59.960 of superstitions related to Ghost Month. Loud sounds like whistle 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:03.560 ling are believed to attract spirits. It has always been 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:06.720 discouraged in Southeast Asia, but even more so during this 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:11.000 spooky month. Other superstitions include not looking back over your 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.040 shoulder to see if someone is yelling your name. This 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:17.200 is because daois slash Buddhists believe that there's a tiny 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:21.000 invisible flame on each shoulder and on your head, creating 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:25.120 a triangle of fire. This protects you from spooky encounters. 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:27.239 But if you turn your head and look back over 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:30.360 your shoulder, you will extinguish one of the flames and 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:34.079 this will open you up to hauntings slash ghostly things. 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:38.480 Despite the spookiness of the whole month, Valentine's Day is 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:41.880 celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh month. This day, 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:44.520 known as cheese c, is about the tail of the 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:47.960 cow herd and the weaver girl. They had a forbidden 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:51.160 romance and were cast opposite sides of the Heavenly River. 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:55.680 But every year on Cheese c a bridge of magpies 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:59.160 forms over the river and allows the lovers to reunite 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:02.520 for a brief moment. Mont Anyway, Ghost Month in two 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:07.400 lasts until August. Until then, whistling, especially at night, is 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:10.960 not encouraged. Less to lost ghost follow you home and 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:14.680 take up residence in your abode. Stay spooky and stay safe, 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:19.400 live along and prosper. Joe. Uh wow, what a wonderful email. 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:22.599 Thank you so much, Joe, that that was fantastic. Yeah, 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:26.200 those are some close encounters of the spooky kind for sure. Yeah, 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:28.760 we've I guess we we've spoken a little bit about 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:31.840 hungry ghosts in the past, but yeah, we've never talking 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:35.080 We've never spoken about about this month. So yeah, this 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:37.360 is a wonderful email. This is exactly the kind of 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:40.360 of stuff I love to hear from the listeners. Now, 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:42.440 I guess this episode won't come out until after the 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:44.680 Hungry Ghost Festival, which Joe says is going to be 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:47.279 on the twelfth of August, But you still got the 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:49.440 rest of the month to to to play around on 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:52.440 the spooky side. True, and hey, on August twelve, the 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:55.280 Weird House Cinema is just, by happenstance, going to be 0:04:55.320 --> 0:05:06.360 a really cool Taiwanese magical fantasy adventure film. Yeah, all right, 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:08.680 here's another one. This one comes to us from Phil 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:11.760 Phil right soon and says Hi, Robert and Joe. From 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:14.080 the moment I saw the topic of this week's episodes, 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:16.320 I knew that I would want to write in. Whistling 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:18.240 is something that has been very near and dear to 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:20.920 me for a long time. I first learned to make 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:23.279 a single monotone sound when I was seven. I thought 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:25.520 I was doing it wrong for a little while, and 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:29.160 that's why I was monotone because my grandfather always used 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:32.360 to whistle by pulling his lower jaw in and rounding 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:35.039 his lips almost like he was about to play a flute. 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:37.680 I believe he would also suck air in to make 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:40.359 in the noise rather than expel it, but don't quote 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:43.839 me on that. I was always fascinated by this method 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:46.880 and never managed to replicate it myself. Apart from wishing 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:50.520 to chime in with this bit about my grandfather's irregular technique, 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:53.359 I also wanted to bring up something with regards to 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:56.400 my own whistling. I am physically tongue tied. I have 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:59.160 encountered one other person in my life that is tongue tied, 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:01.559 and they claimed to not be able to whistle because 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:03.359 of it. I, on the other hand, love to whistle. 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:06.680 I do it constantly and can even employ a bit 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:10.919 of vibrato and possibly something that resembles double tonguing for 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:13.880 really fast sections. It is a great way for me 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:17.000 to quote unquote sing songs with female vocals or no 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:20.240 vocals at all. Whistling is something I think I am 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:23.159 quite good at. However, based on this one other person, 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:25.480 I am curious why I can whistle with my tongue 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:27.880 tied down to the bottom of my mouth but she couldn't. 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:31.159 I'm also afraid that should I ever get my tongue 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:34.320 tie cut so that I can actually do things normal 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:37.120 people can the like lick an ice cream cone or 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:40.080 blow bubbles with bubble gum, it will have an adverse 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:43.440 effect on this thing that I love. However, maybe it won't. 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:46.719 Don't know and too afraid to try. Thank you for 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:49.200 all of the episodes. You guys were the first podcast 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:52.040 show that I ever listened to. I obviously haven't stopped 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:55.360 and have no intention to do so anytime soon. All 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:59.320 the best, phil ps. Some of my favorite songs to 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:02.640 whistle Think of Me from Phantom of the Opera sung 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:06.599 by Sarah Brightman, Ship to Wreck by Florence and the Machine. 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:08.880 I love that song. That's that goes on a lot 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:10.720 on my playlists. Oh, I don't know that one, and 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:13.920 I know think of Me. I know Phantom Breathe by 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:18.560 Michelle Branch and Been Not Break by Vitamin String Quartet, 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:24.320 a string quartet cover of a dashboard confessional song. I 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:27.920 am also trying to teach myself the Whistling Caruso by 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:31.560 Andrew Bird from the end of the movie The Muppets. 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:35.560 This is proving to be challenging. Andrew Bird is a 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:39.200 is a mighty whistling musician. Some another listener got in 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:41.960 touch about Andrew Bird songs that have whistling, A number 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:44.880 of them, a lot of them do oh yeah. By 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:47.520 the way, I just in case anybody out there was 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:49.960 as confused as me at first, I I was not 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:53.480 familiar with the idea of uh with the idea of 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:57.640 tongue tie as an actual physical condition in the mouth. 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:01.440 It's I'd always heard tongue tied as like a metaphorical expression, 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:04.480 meaning like not knowing what to say. But tongue tie 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:07.880 is a real physical condition, also known as ankleo glossia 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:11.440 and it. According to the Mayo Clinics page on it, 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:14.720 it's basically a condition that restricts the tongue's range of motion. 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:18.840 Quote with tongue tie and unusually short, thick, or tight 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:22.600 band of tissue, the lingual frenulum tethers the bottom of 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:24.960 the tongue's tip to the floor of the mouth, so 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:28.080 it may interfere with breastfeeding. Someone who has tongue tie 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:31.239 might have difficulty sticking out his or her tongue. Tongue 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:33.920 tie can also affect the way a child eats, speaks, 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:38.120 or swallows and it also says that sometimes this condition 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:41.560 might require surgical procedures for correction, but other times it 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:44.760 doesn't cause enough problems, so it's just left how it is. 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:52.520 All right, Well, thanks for writing in Phil. Okay, here's 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:57.320 a message from Randy reporting from Mexico saying that that 0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:01.120 they just finished our part three of our whistling series 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:04.200 and says, quote, you were mentioning the idea of whistling 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:06.680 is a form of contempt and that it might have 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:09.040 been a practice in olden days. I think we were 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:12.120 talking about those papers saying that like in the English theater, 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:15.680 for example, you would whistle to show like I don't 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:18.160 like what is being said. Oh. In fact, that also 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:20.560 goes back to Roman times, the idea that there would 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:22.760 be shepherd whistles in the audience if they didn't like 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:25.240 what a speaker was saying. And I guess we were 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:28.400 saying that it didn't We hadn't encountered that in American culture. 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:31.040 You know, if an audience whistles, that usually seems to 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:33.800 be a sign of approval rather than disapproval. It's like, yeah, 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:39.160 keep going, but a very thunderous supplies exactly. But Randy says, well, 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:42.120 let me take you once again to Mexico, where you 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:46.880 can still hear disapproving whistles among crowds alongside booing. It 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:50.160 usually mimics the way you would cuss at someone. Picture 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:53.840 the equivalent of an fu in Spanish, and then that 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:58.160 is transposed to whistling. And then Randy shares video of 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:02.040 a cockatoo demon straighting what this sounds like? So it 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:05.400 is the yeah, So it is the straight up Spanish 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:08.680 phrase that is the equivalent of the English FU. But 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:12.079 it's like whistled in the same way that I demonstrated 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:14.280 in one of our whistling episodes that I could sort 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:17.839 of whistle the phrase, um, hello, nice to meet you, 0:10:17.920 --> 0:10:20.160 and people would basically be able to know what I 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:21.680 was saying, or at least a lot of a lot 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:23.800 of people might be able to figure it out just 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:27.040 by the intonation of the whistling Uh. You can do 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:29.960 the same thing with vulgar phrases. So, according to Randy, 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:39.960 this happens in in unhappy Mexican audiences. Alright, This next 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:42.880 one comes to us from Jamie Oh an important bit 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:45.360 of context. The subject line of this one is the 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:50.559 strange death of whistling Scotland all right, well, Jamie writes, 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:52.880 Dear Robert and Joe, thank you as always for the 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:55.920 stimulating podcast. I've been greatly enjoying your series on whistling, 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:58.960 and while hearing about the decline of whistled languages around 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:00.760 the world, I thought, when was the last time I 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:03.840 heard someone whistle a jaunty tune? When I was young, 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:06.640 whistling was, if not ubiquitous, at least common enough to 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:10.679 hear on a daily basis, especially amongst jobs whose practitioners 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:13.720 move around a lot during the day, with periods of 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:18.240 intermittent in forced slackness. Builders, plasterers, joiners, that kind of thing. 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:21.480 Maybe that time is now occupied by playing with one's 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:24.839 phone and whistling is yet another casualty of the smartphone revolution. 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:27.000 Or I may be wrong and there is a whole 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:32.079 genre of whistling TikTok in an aside by this episode, 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:34.400 have you ever thought of doing an episode on the 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:37.959 world's most difficult language? Of course, language difficulty is a 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:41.560 subjective concept and depends upon the native language of the learner. 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:45.040 That said, is someone who has learned French, Japanese and 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:48.240 Arabic and had to go at Russian and Scottish Gaelic. 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:51.360 I would say that the latter was actually the hardest. 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:55.280 I wonder what would be the optimum combination of difficult 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:59.360 features from various languages. The system of tents in aspects 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:03.920 of English, the Hansi ideograms of Chinese, the extensive tones 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:08.320 of Vietnamese, the challenging voiced glottal stop of Arabic or Hebrew, 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:11.560 or the clicks of various Southern African languages might be 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:15.440 fun to play around. Keep up the good work, Jamie, Yeah, 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:17.680 that's a really interesting idea. I mean, I know different 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:22.199 languages have different things that present problems that I don't 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:23.960 know if this is true, but I mean I've heard 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:26.480 it characterized that one of the most difficult things about 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:31.560 learning English, uh is the lack of regularity in in 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:35.520 the way like uh, grammar and word forms, work and stuff. 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:39.960 English is sort of a highly chaotic and irregular language, 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:42.040 whereas I think with other things it would be Yeah, 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:45.160 you'd have to learn, like if you're not already familiar 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:48.720 with tonal languages. I'm sure learning a tonal language from 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:51.679 only a non tonal background has got to be incredibly hard. 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:54.800 But yeah, this is a great idea. Certainly we'd love 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:56.800 to We're all would love to come back and do 0:12:56.960 --> 0:13:00.440 a linguistic episodes, so it might be an area to 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:08.400 consider for the future. Okay, we got one message that 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:12.040 was about story machines from Trey and this one, this 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:16.319 one legitimately made me laugh out loud. So remember how 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:19.160 in the previous that we were talking about when you 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:21.400 feed stuff into the story machine that makes it put 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:24.560 out not really something that's not really a story, like 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:28.720 the ones that instead turned into ads for books or something, 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:32.679 And this was one of those. So Trey says, Hi, Rob, Seth, 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:35.360 and Joe I work at a staffing company and I'm 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:37.200 also a big fan of stuff to blow your mind. 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:40.120 I used the story machine dot net generator to make 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:43.560 a mock ad. The title was part time Jobs, eight 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:46.880 hour shifts. The prompt was we have good paying part 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:50.240 time jobs. Below is what the robot wrote, we have 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:53.280 good paying part time jobs. I get paid thirteen dollars 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:55.760 an hour. My husband gets paid twelve dollars an hour, 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:58.600 but our hours are cut back to eight hours a day. 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:01.400 We are only paid for eight hours. We are only 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:04.120 paid for the hours we work. We are not paid 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:06.600 for the hours we are off. We are only paid 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:09.000 for the hours we are working. We are only paid 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:11.400 for the hours we are at our job. We're only 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:14.079 paid for the hours we are working. We're only paid 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:16.199 for the hours we were at our job. We are 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:18.240 only paid for the hours we were at our job. 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:20.920 We're only paid for the hours we are at our job. 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:23.120 We are only paid for the hours we were at 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:25.560 our job. We are only paid for the hours we 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:27.840 are at our job. We are only paid for the 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:31.000 hours we are at our job. Wow, it kind of 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:36.000 got stuck there, didn't got broken yet you destroyed its mind, 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:38.960 Trey says, I think you could read the last half 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:42.560 where it begins repeating six times the same sentence six 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:45.640 times as a droning chant. This sounds like a creepy 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:48.520 short story about part time workers who hate their jobs 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:54.480 or our zombies. Thanks Trey, that was pretty great. Um. Yeah, 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:56.360 there's so many there's so many fun things to do 0:14:56.480 --> 0:15:00.200 with this um, with this interface. Um, and I not 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:04.560 thought about a mock at but that's that's brilliant. Oh. 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:06.840 This may also have been springboarding off the one in 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:09.560 the previous listener mail that was a story about the 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:22.040 bank that sends its customers to hell. All right, we 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:25.520 have a little bit of weird house cinema mail here 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:28.080 to to look at this first first one here It 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:32.040 comes to us from Dan the subject Plan nine, weird House. 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:36.520 Dear Robin, Joe. I love this episode. Plan nine from 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:39.200 Outer Space, along with Halloween three Season of The Witch 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:41.680 are two movies that I think we're custom made for 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.800 weird house cinema. I loved hearing Joe's personal story about 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:47.320 he and his wife fell in love after watching Plan 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:50.320 nine on a bootleg VHS tape in high school. I 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:52.760 first saw Plan nine from Outer Space in college on 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:55.960 Turner Classic Movies late at night. This was after I 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:58.640 had seen Tim Burton's ed Wood, which is one of 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:01.520 my favorite movies, and I, of course had heard about 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:05.280 how it was consistently ranked as the worst movie ever made, 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:07.120 so I was curious to see what it was like. 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:10.440 Is it really that bad? I remember thinking that while yes, 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:12.960 the acting is terrible, the dialogue doesn't make any sense, 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:15.960 and it's and is overwritten and clumsy. Something over there, 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:19.040 but I'll be over here. Nothing matches. The effects and 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:22.800 set design are so cheap, the airplane cockpit, but I 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:25.880 was still charmed and somewhat entertained by it certainly not 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:28.440 the worst movie I had ever seen, which begs the 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:31.840 question something I thought you might go into a more discussion. 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:34.680 If Plan nine from Outer Space is really the worst 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:36.960 movie ever made? Why do so many people still find 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:41.320 it fascinating, entertaining, fun to talk about, and his referenced 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:43.720 in other forms of media. Shouldn't the worst movie ever? 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:47.720 Maybe something no one ever remembers is boring, is grossly 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:52.360 cynical and a commercial sense fun fact, Plan nine has 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:56.840 never been on IMDBs bottom one d. I also wondered 0:16:56.840 --> 0:17:00.120 if maybe the Criswell predicts scene at the beginning and 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:03.360 whenever he went on the Tonight Show was what Conan 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:07.199 O'Brien was parading on his original late night show with 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:10.000 the recurring segment in the year two thousand where he 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:13.760 and a guest made ridiculous predictions about the future. Finally, 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:16.800 are you familiar with the song Plan nine Channel seven 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:20.280 by the British punk proto goth band The Damned, which, 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:24.679 according to lead singer Dave Vanian, was was written about 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:29.679 Vampira link here and they include the link and then 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:32.119 Dan finishes everything up by saying thank you for the 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:35.719 countless hours of podcasting about the strange and the unusual. Future. 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:38.200 Podcasts such as these will affect you in the future, 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:40.840 my friends, because that is where we will be spending 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:45.760 the rest of our lives. Uh. That song by the 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:48.840 Damned is great Channel nine with shades of Grade too 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:52.040 Close but two worlds Away, Plan nine her Domain, too 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:54.560 close but two worlds away. Yeah. I don't think I 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:56.600 was familiar with this track, but I just I just 0:17:56.640 --> 0:17:59.639 gave it a quick listen, and uh, yeah, like the 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:03.480 vibe here. But regarding the whole like worst movie ever made? Thing, 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:06.920 I have heard people say that about Plan nine. I 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:09.400 I don't know. Well, I hesitate to say this because 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:11.920 it is a podcast and somebody might surface a clip 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:13.760 of me saying the opposite. But I think I think 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:17.240 I usually shy away from things like the worst movie 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:20.040 ever made, unless I'm just trying to be funny, because 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:23.560 I mean, obviously, not only are things like that subjective, 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:25.760 I mean, of course, but that seems like a weird 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:28.400 thing to even try to say from your own personal 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:32.000 point of view, because, uh, the badness of a movie 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:36.840 encompasses so many different ways of thinking about a movie. Yeah, so, like, 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:39.200 what would you really be looking for? Does it mean 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:43.000 like the movie that made you the most unhappy by watching, 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:45.560 or you know, it's it's hard to figure out what 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:49.679 that even really means. Yeah, the worst can cover a 0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:52.920 lot of ground. And I can think of various examples 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:55.560 of films that I'm I might think of as the 0:18:55.600 --> 0:18:58.399 worst in the sense that I do not like them. Yeah, 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:01.240 and and then they're ms that I can't even tell 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:03.600 you that I don't like them because I don't remember them. 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:06.399 And perhaps those are the worst because yeah, as as 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:10.000 Dan alluded to, like the unmemorable films, films they don't 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:13.080 move you one way or another, like, those are probably 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:16.000 the worst. Those are ones where you just have lost 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:19.040 hours of time in your life that you'll never get back, 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:22.400 whereas something like Plan nine from Outer Space. I mean, 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:25.240 it's it's it's a riot, it's it's fun to watch. 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:28.119 It's I find movies like this thought provoking in ways 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:33.120 that that that quote unquote intelligent films sometimes are not. 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:36.600 You know, uh, there's uh. That's one of the things 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:40.000 that keeps coming, it keeps pulling me back to them, 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:43.879 is that almost it's almost like the gaps, the flaws 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:47.760 and these pictures, they they give you room to to 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:50.919 to think creatively about them, to try and stitch together 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:54.080 that which is not well connected and so forth. Yeah, 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:57.560 totally agree with all of that. I would say that 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:00.320 I think Plan not people might be tempted to say 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:03.560 Plan nine is the worst movie ever made in a 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:05.520 way that I think what they mean is like it's 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:10.919 the worst, It's like the most remarkably interestingly bad movie 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:14.440 ever made. They're saying it's like notable for its badness 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:18.080 in the sense, not like execrable because of its badness. Yeah, 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:20.880 I mean, ultimately it's it's lovingly bad, like you can 0:20:20.920 --> 0:20:24.800 embrace the quote unquote badness of Plan nine from outer space. 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:28.560 Uh it's uh yeah, there are there are plenty of 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:30.159 films that if you actually had to come up with 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:32.040 a list of like what are the worst? Like what 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:34.920 are I mean? That would just be an unpleasant experience 0:20:34.960 --> 0:20:37.520 to even try and put together that list of films, 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:41.600 because there's some real dogs out there. Yeah, I do remember. 0:20:41.840 --> 0:20:44.199 So I have long been a person who, you know, 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:46.720 my friends knew I loved bad movies, and they would 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:49.720 sometimes ask me like, well, what's the worst worst, not 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:52.480 the best, worst, but worst worst you've ever seen? I 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:54.560 probably wouldn't still stick by this, but for a long 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:58.720 time I said my answer was a movie called Beaks, 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:04.000 which is a Spanish horror movie by Renee Cardona Jr. 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:07.639 That's a rip off of Hitchcock's The Birds, but I 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:11.440 remember that in a really like unique and profound way 0:21:11.560 --> 0:21:17.119 causing intense physical and psychic pain. Uh. I think because 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:20.400 of a soundtrack issues like the I record It's been 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:23.280 forever since I've seen it, but the remember the soundtrack 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:29.240 was like one excruciating, droning high synthesizer note held down 0:21:29.480 --> 0:21:35.080 for for minutes at a time. Yeah. Yeah, I haven't 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:38.920 seen the film in question, but I can imagine where 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:42.320 there's a negative sonic experience that tied up with it 0:21:42.880 --> 0:21:45.600 that you could certainly a case could be made. I 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:48.119 was watching it with some friends and I remember at 0:21:48.160 --> 0:21:52.320 one point I was like, in such misery I literally 0:21:52.400 --> 0:21:55.639 like rolled out of my chair onto the floor. But 0:21:57.000 --> 0:22:01.480 to consider the IMDb bottom one ranking, like, if you 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:04.240 go to that page and I'm looking at it right now, 0:22:04.440 --> 0:22:07.840 there's some tremendously fun stuff on here. There's there's stuff 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:11.760 like Santa Claus versus the Martians. Uh oh what else 0:22:11.800 --> 0:22:15.720 we have? Troll too is on here, hob Goblins, um, 0:22:16.040 --> 0:22:20.160 lots of stuff. A battle Battlefield Earth Is is pretty 0:22:20.240 --> 0:22:22.960