Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
Speaker 1: Listener mail. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick,
Speaker 1: and we're uh. I guess this is our first batch
Speaker 1: of from the mail bag since the holiday. Yeah, how
Speaker 1: was your holiday, Joe? Oh? It was good? That was yours?
Speaker 1: It was it was good, laid back, you know. I
Speaker 1: got to got to do a lot more miniature painting
Speaker 1: than usual. I got to do a little uh writing,
Speaker 1: just for fun. So that was nice. What what miniatures
Speaker 1: did you paint? Let's see? I did? Oh? I did
Speaker 1: uh three cpo and R two D two three cpo?
Speaker 1: Is that like? I'm sorry? R two and cpo? What
Speaker 1: is it? What's you go with to Jordan's names? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I love uh yeah, no, I painted those guys up.
Speaker 1: I got those for Christmas as a gift, along with
Speaker 1: their little pot that they land in. Oh that's wonderful.
Speaker 1: Well are you ready to jump right into these messages?
Speaker 1: Let's do it. What do we got? What is the
Speaker 1: mail bot Carney you have for us today? It looks
Speaker 1: like this first one is about our episode on holiday Inventions.
Speaker 1: I think these were mostly inventions related to Christmas trees.
Speaker 1: This comes from Brett. Brett says, Hello, gentlemen, I was
Speaker 1: recently listening to your Holiday Inventions episode when you were
Speaker 1: discussing a particular antique tree ornament. It was one that
Speaker 1: bubbled when it got warm from a light. I think
Speaker 1: it was Joe who mentioned that it was filled with
Speaker 1: methylene chloride. This got my attention. As an organic chemist,
Speaker 1: we use methylene chloride or dichloro methane d c M daily.
Speaker 1: D c M is an ideal solvent for many organic compounds.
Speaker 1: It's volatility and hence low boiling point and ability to
Speaker 1: dissolve many organic compounds make readily make it ideal for
Speaker 1: our line of work. To help convince ourselves that we
Speaker 1: were able to synthesize a desired compound, we used instruments
Speaker 1: such as nuclear magnetic resonance or n MR to help
Speaker 1: determine a structure's identity. D c M easily is removed
Speaker 1: under reduced pressure under vacuum, therefore reducing the probability of
Speaker 1: contaminating and maybe maybe overlapping with the desired peak. D
Speaker 1: c M feels very cool when it touches your glove
Speaker 1: quickly penetrating it and entering through the skin, providing a
Speaker 1: tingling sensation that we try not to let this happen.
Speaker 1: One thing I find amazing of a solvent such as
Speaker 1: d c M is its weight. Having two chlorine atoms
Speaker 1: attached to a carbon center. You can feel the weight
Speaker 1: difference compared to something like isopropanol per volume, and an
Speaker 1: even heavier solvent that is closely related is chloroform basically
Speaker 1: d c M with an extra chlorine, and you can
Speaker 1: really feel the effect of the extra chlorine. Uh, the
Speaker 1: effect of one atom difference. It always fascinates me where
Speaker 1: a conversation will go during your episodes Organic synthesis during
Speaker 1: Holiday Inventions episode why Not. That is the power of
Speaker 1: words and thought. Thank you as always for providing such
Speaker 1: thought provoking content. Happy holidays, Brett, Well, thanks for getting
Speaker 1: in touch Brett. The power of words and thought. I
Speaker 1: have never thought to uh to summarize our ideology that way.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's what it is. We just follow the words
Speaker 1: and the thought. But yeah, I appreciate hearing from Brett. Here.
Speaker 1: This this listener knows their chemistry. This, this was a
Speaker 1: delightful email. All right, here's another one. This one comes
Speaker 1: to us from Kate and it goes as follows. Dear
Speaker 1: Robert and Joe, I just finished listening to your episode
Speaker 1: on heavy water, and I was really excited to hear
Speaker 1: you mention the kinetic isotope effect. I am a research
Speaker 1: scientist and our lab uses D two oh frequently um
Speaker 1: in our study of enzyme mechanics. One of the truly
Speaker 1: amazing aspects of the enzyme chemistry is the coupling of
Speaker 1: the movements of electrons and protons hydrogen adam without their electrons.
Speaker 1: The coupling has the effect of lowering the activation energy
Speaker 1: of key steps, helping reactions occur faster and more efficiently.
Speaker 1: By observing enzyme turnover in H two O and D
Speaker 1: two oh, this kind of coupling can be identified. This
Speaker 1: work is highly relevant both to biochemical research and to
Speaker 1: the design of new catalysts. Right now, chemists are working
Speaker 1: on engineering this kind of step into synthetic catalysts, and
Speaker 1: understanding how enzymes work helps guide their work. Our lab
Speaker 1: also uses aqua regia as we do work with nanoparticles
Speaker 1: as well, and acquareggia is the only thing that will
Speaker 1: clean our glassware. So this episode hit, a hit a
Speaker 1: double when it comes to my lab experience. Thanks for
Speaker 1: all the fun and informative episodes. You guys keep me
Speaker 1: company when I am doing the routine upkeep of laboratory life.
Speaker 1: All the best, kate ps. You guys should think about
Speaker 1: doing an episode on gold nanoparticles. They have really interesting
Speaker 1: modern applications as well as a fascinating historical aspect. The
Speaker 1: red color in some stained class was prepared from a
Speaker 1: mix of gold salts and tannic acid, which it turns
Speaker 1: out is a way to make nano clusters of gold
Speaker 1: that I used in my graduate work. Interesting listeners. Bringing
Speaker 1: the chemistry today, bringing the gold as Yeah, I would.
Speaker 1: I can't remember if we've done it as a designated
Speaker 1: episode on gold before. It seems like we should have.
Speaker 1: Maybe we did and I forgot it, but either way,
Speaker 1: we should do it. I mean, the show has been
Speaker 1: going a long time, but uh yeah, I often wonder
Speaker 1: when I wanted to do a new episode, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: was this done like eight years ago or something that
Speaker 1: would be hard to figure out. It doesn't even matter
Speaker 1: if it was done eight years ago. You know, it's
Speaker 1: like there's gonna be enough new stuff to cover. That's
Speaker 1: always my approach. It's like, if we did it before,
Speaker 1: it's probably worth doing again because either there's new science,
Speaker 1: there are new wrinkles, there's stuff that we didn't find before. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's it's similar to the whole situation.
Speaker 1: Remember early on, when these podcasts were just starting out
Speaker 1: under the house Stuff Works banner, everyone was sort of
Speaker 1: hyper alert to, oh, should we cover this subject because
Speaker 1: stuff you should know just did this subject, or history
Speaker 1: did just did this subject. And it took a while
Speaker 1: for everyone to realize, of course, we're gonna cover subjects
Speaker 1: that other people have covered. Sometimes we're gonna hit the
Speaker 1: lotto and they're gonna publish in the same week without
Speaker 1: anybody knowing about them. But everybody's gonna bring their own
Speaker 1: men to the to the information. You know, they're gonna
Speaker 1: find different areas to focus on and have different um,
Speaker 1: different side thoughts on what they're discussing. Yeah, I know
Speaker 1: that's happened to us before, where we published an episode
Speaker 1: on something the same week that Josh and Chuck did,
Speaker 1: and then people ask us, did you do this on purpose?
Speaker 1: Why would we do that on purpose? Now we just
Speaker 1: we just don't know what the other shows are doing.
Speaker 1: We don't like share calendars or anything, but we should
Speaker 1: win something when we line up like that. Okay, this
Speaker 1: next message is about fingernails. It comes from Brent. Brent says, Hi,
Speaker 1: Robert and Joe. First of all, I love the podcast
Speaker 1: and listen to it instantly while working on art projects,
Speaker 1: doing chores, playing video games, are just driving around. I
Speaker 1: find every topic fascinating and love to learn new things
Speaker 1: from you guys every day. You're both a delight to
Speaker 1: listen to. Thank you brand if I remember correctly. In
Speaker 1: one of the Fingernail episodes, Robert mentioned the idea of
Speaker 1: a superhero who uses their fingernails as a way of
Speaker 1: measuring how much they have used their powers. Well, I
Speaker 1: don't have an example of a hero. I do have
Speaker 1: an example of a villain. And uh, brannan, I want
Speaker 1: to say, correct me if I'm wrong. I think this
Speaker 1: was not in original Fingernail episodes, but it was in.
Speaker 1: It was response to another listener mail that brought up
Speaker 1: a story from Uh. I believe it was from Maori
Speaker 1: legend about a god or a figure who uses their
Speaker 1: fingernails to to keep a fire going. Yes, yeah, and
Speaker 1: I just said, well, that would be a great sort
Speaker 1: of visual um thing to work with in a a
Speaker 1: in a modern superhero tale. Yeah yeah, so BRN goes
Speaker 1: on and says, warning, your nail trauma ahead. But it's
Speaker 1: just like one paragraph. I was recently reading a Japanese
Speaker 1: manga called Chainsaw Man, and in one of the story arcs,
Speaker 1: a villain appears who has made a pact with a
Speaker 1: demon for every time she wants to use the power
Speaker 1: of the demon, she must sacrifice one fingernail. I thought
Speaker 1: it was very interesting to have the limitations of a
Speaker 1: power be the amount of fingernails you have and the
Speaker 1: amount of time it would take for them to grow back.
Speaker 1: This character isn't a very prominent one, but the moment
Speaker 1: I saw her, I thought of your show anyway, thank
Speaker 1: you for all you do, Brent. Interesting. I gotta look
Speaker 1: up Chainsaw Man. I'm hooked by the title alone. I
Speaker 1: like that. I'm assuming it's like Chainsaw Man has like
Speaker 1: some chainsaw attributes. But the vision of it that I
Speaker 1: would I would hope for one that I kind of
Speaker 1: I would idly think about in the past was like,
Speaker 1: what have you had a person or an entity that
Speaker 1: was made entirely out of chainsaws, but not not the
Speaker 1: like engine of the chainsaw, but just like the intangible
Speaker 1: nous of the chainsaw, you know, like there's something to
Speaker 1: it chainsaw that is beyond like any specific part of it.
Speaker 1: It is just like the roaring gears of the thing. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: in like a gnostic sense the same way, how like
Speaker 1: God can have different emanations of qualities that are themselves
Speaker 1: creators of planes of existence, the chainsaw can produce divine emanations.
Speaker 1: So there's like a quality of chainsaw nests that is
Speaker 1: its own deity. And I gotta say, I just looked
Speaker 1: up chainsaw Man, and what I like about chainsaw Man,
Speaker 1: having never seen him before, is he doesn't just have
Speaker 1: chainsaws for hands. He also has a chainsaw for a head.
Speaker 1: That's a good touch. Oh, I'm looking at it now
Speaker 1: as well. And yes, this is solid. I approved this message.
Speaker 1: If it had just been hands, I don't know if
Speaker 1: I would have been with it. But the head, the
Speaker 1: head thing seals the deal. Yeah. All right, here's another
Speaker 1: one for us. This one comes to us from Raphael
Speaker 1: and it has to do with our episodes on Spinning.
Speaker 1: Dear Robert and Joe, thank you for your amazing podcast
Speaker 1: every week. I look for to your unique discussions connecting science, culture,
Speaker 1: and history. As a professional scientists, maintaining my sense of
Speaker 1: wondering curiosity about the world is very important in my career,
Speaker 1: and you help stretch the boundaries of my imagination far
Speaker 1: outside my area of expertise. After listening for several years,
Speaker 1: I am finally taking the plunge on writing in after
Speaker 1: Robert's call for comments on the utility of spinning in
Speaker 1: combat situations. My wife and I have participated in combat
Speaker 1: sports or practice martial arts for most of our lives.
Speaker 1: Though having trained with truly dedicated professional instructors and Olympic medalists,
Speaker 1: we cannot think of ourselves as anything more than enthusiastic amateurs.
Speaker 1: What perspective I cannot offer you in depth I can
Speaker 1: offer you in breadth of experience. I ask your question
Speaker 1: about spinning in combat on our weekly Zoom call with
Speaker 1: two of our close friends who are also experienced martial artists.
Speaker 1: Between the four of us, we have seventy plus years
Speaker 1: of experience across a diverse set of martial arts and
Speaker 1: combat sports. Initial reactions to the idea of spinning strikes
Speaker 1: and combat were mixed too incredulous. After some discussion, our
Speaker 1: general consensus was that spinning does have combat utility, but
Speaker 1: not in the ways presented in many films and video games.
Speaker 1: Before I get much further, I will point out something
Speaker 1: that may seem obvious when evaluating anything in martial arts
Speaker 1: or self defense. The effectiveness of any particular technique is
Speaker 1: always dependent on the specific context in which it is used.
Speaker 1: Particularly in martial arts and sports that includes competitive sparring. UH,
Speaker 1: the rules and restrictions in place for safety and that
Speaker 1: define the scoring system will heavily influence the combat style
Speaker 1: and what is considered to be effective. This is certainly
Speaker 1: the case in competition taekwondo, which seems like one of
Speaker 1: the modern martial arts that employs the most spinning strikes. Thankfully,
Speaker 1: even modern m m A includes rules that prohibit many
Speaker 1: of the most effective and damaging attacks that would in
Speaker 1: reality be the best survival options in a lethal self
Speaker 1: defense situation. Modern combat sports also generally prohibit the best
Speaker 1: self defense techniques of all running away as fast as possible.
Speaker 1: That would be interesting if that was always an option,
Speaker 1: you know, right, if that was like a strategy you
Speaker 1: could deploy in the ring yeah, Oh he's trying to
Speaker 1: He's trying the runaway. I don't know how that works.
Speaker 1: But back to the outcome of our conversation, we all
Speaker 1: agree that that full spinning strikes used at longer fighting
Speaker 1: distances the kind of moves you mentioned on the show
Speaker 1: are a pretty bad idea. In most one on one combat,
Speaker 1: spinning punches and kicks can generate significant power, but require
Speaker 1: you to sacrifice balance, stable footing, and present your back.
Speaker 1: If initiated at standard kicking and punching ranges, they are
Speaker 1: easily anticipated and therefore countered. Spinning kicks in particular, also
Speaker 1: require a high level of skill, athleticism, and flexibility. A
Speaker 1: martial artist can achieve the same level of striking power
Speaker 1: with none of the drawbacks using half turns instead of
Speaker 1: full rotations. Many attacks that appear to be spins are
Speaker 1: actually multiple half turned strikes in sequence. There are situations,
Speaker 1: such as the one represented in the video of Joaquin
Speaker 1: Buckley's competition knockout kick, where a spinning move can help
Speaker 1: you escape a bad situation or attack from an unexpected angle.
Speaker 1: Someone with sufficient skill might use spinning strikes effectively in
Speaker 1: the right circumstances, but such instances seem like exceptions that
Speaker 1: prove the rule, and they go onto to share some
Speaker 1: more details that we don't have time to get into here,
Speaker 1: but basically getting into say spotting techniques that are a
Speaker 1: part of everyday training exercises, just how you how you
Speaker 1: utilize a spin, But they continue quote everyone also agreed
Speaker 1: spins are very useful in multiple attack or situations. When
Speaker 1: facing multiple opponents, it is all about maintaining mobility and
Speaker 1: preventing yourself from being overwhelmed. Spins are a useful way
Speaker 1: to dodge, reorient in a new direction, and quickly spot
Speaker 1: other opponents or escape opportunities. If you want to see
Speaker 1: this in action, just watch a basketball, American football, or
Speaker 1: rugby game. Spins are frequently employed to break past opponents
Speaker 1: or dodge tackles. The utility of spinning to deal with
Speaker 1: multiple attackers applies to armed as well as on armed combat.
Speaker 1: Some of the katana and short staff exercises I know
Speaker 1: include spinning footwork based on the assumption that you have
Speaker 1: to quickly reient to deal with armed attackers from multiple directions.
Speaker 1: The closest thing to a Tasmanian Devil style spin is
Speaker 1: a stationary three sixty degree spin combined with a horizontal
Speaker 1: sword slash performed at the very end of some sword kata.
Speaker 1: My understanding is that this is not meant as any
Speaker 1: sort of directed attack. Rather, you are checking every direction
Speaker 1: for new opponents after you think you have defeated your
Speaker 1: initial attackers. The sword slash is meant to give any
Speaker 1: new attack or a reason to pause and maybe by yourself,
Speaker 1: a potentially life saving moment. In the end, we concluded
Speaker 1: that the obvious athleticism and easily visualized nature of spinning
Speaker 1: punches and kicks is the reason that we see so
Speaker 1: many of them in movies and video games. Just like
Speaker 1: the reverse grip use on long blades and punching armored
Speaker 1: opponents with unprediccted fists, spinning strikes are dramatic and fun
Speaker 1: to watch, but probably best left on the screen anyway.
Speaker 1: I hope this email provides a useful perspective. Our group
Speaker 1: certainly had fun discussing the topic. Thanks for all your
Speaker 1: great episodes, Raphael. Wow that was some depth, Rafael. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was great And like I said, we didn't even
Speaker 1: have time to read all of that one but on
Speaker 1: the show here. But yeah, I greatly appreciate folks chiming
Speaker 1: in with their expertise, in this case dealing with spinning
Speaker 1: in combat. All right, this next message comes to us
Speaker 1: from Pearl, also about spinning. Pearl says, Hi, Robert and Joe,
Speaker 1: in your episodes about spinning, you mentioned spinning in ballet
Speaker 1: and separately, the feeling of being entranced as a spectator
Speaker 1: of spinning persons, especially the Sufi dervishes. I wanted to
Speaker 1: bring up a famous piece of ballet spinning lore that
Speaker 1: will bridge these two ideas, where the trance state induced
Speaker 1: by watching someone spin actually moves the story forward. It's
Speaker 1: also explored in Aronofsky's Black Swan, but since the whole
Speaker 1: film is one long, bad trip, this particular bit of
Speaker 1: psychedelic spinning gets lost in the mix. In the classical
Speaker 1: ballet Swan Lake, a crucial moment in the story comes
Speaker 1: at the end of the second act, when the deceptive
Speaker 1: black Swan o'deal secures the devotion of Prince Siegfried. She
Speaker 1: accomplishes this by executing a series of consecutive whirling movements
Speaker 1: on point over the course of thirty two counts of
Speaker 1: feverish music, known as the Black Swan coda at the
Speaker 1: rate of at least one spin per count. In modern productions,
Speaker 1: this almost always comes in the form of thirty two
Speaker 1: fuette turns French for whip, a type of pirouet in
Speaker 1: which one leg is extended out to the side and
Speaker 1: pulled back into the body, quickly creating the force necessary
Speaker 1: to whip the body around on its axis. This movement
Speaker 1: is done without ever placing the working leg, the one
Speaker 1: doing the whipping motion, back down on the ground, enabling
Speaker 1: the dancer to execute many more turns than would otherwise
Speaker 1: be possible within the same amount of music. The Prince
Speaker 1: and the audience is so entranced by the spinning that
Speaker 1: all doubts about o'deal are dispelled, and he commits his
Speaker 1: heart to her, now actually believing that she and the
Speaker 1: white Swan odette are one and the same. After all,
Speaker 1: how many enchanted mutant swan women could there possibly be
Speaker 1: within one forest. The same idea has been used in
Speaker 1: other ballets, and super quick, super athletic pirouetts are standard
Speaker 1: practice for today's dancers, but watching the Black Swan coda
Speaker 1: is still a mind altering experience, even for seasoned patrons
Speaker 1: of the art form. I tried and failed to keep
Speaker 1: this letter short. Ballet is a world full of weird,
Speaker 1: morbid fairy tales and bizarre physical feats that need a
Speaker 1: lot of explaining. My personal connection is that I've been
Speaker 1: dancing ballet as a hobby since age three, including several
Speaker 1: years on point. That's almost three decades, and I'm still fascinated.
Speaker 1: Love the show Pearl and then Pearl attaches a video
Speaker 1: that we can watch. Very cool. Yeah, in this video,
Speaker 1: the turns got us on and on. It's unbelievable. All right,
Speaker 1: here's another one for us. This is perfect because it
Speaker 1: also deals with Russian storytelling. This one concerns the Leshy.
Speaker 1: Dear Robert and Joe, I hope you're enjoying the holiday season.
Speaker 1: I'm a tremendous fan of your show. The first episode
Speaker 1: I ever listened to was about Jupiter's Moons a few
Speaker 1: years back. I was hooked after that. I so enjoyed
Speaker 1: the episode about the leshy. It inspired my husband and
Speaker 1: I to watch the folk tale season of The Storyteller
Speaker 1: so great I waited until closer to Christmas to check
Speaker 1: out the Russian movie you mentioned. Frosty a k a.
Speaker 1: Jack frost a k a Morozko. This movie is a trip.
Speaker 1: I wasn't sure what to make of it at first,
Speaker 1: but the more it sinks in, the more I realized.
Speaker 1: I love this movie. It is so colorful and imaginative.
Speaker 1: The characters, songs, costumes, and effects are also great. I
Speaker 1: definitely recommend the original Russian movie with English subtitles. Dubbing
Speaker 1: just won't do, as you won't get to hear the
Speaker 1: tiny soft voice of Nastia or um Ivanusca's hey Ulus.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure I'm saying that right. Uluiyu song. The
Speaker 1: Bobby Yaga kills it with her costume and crazy faces
Speaker 1: and laughs. Father Frost costume is out of this world.
Speaker 1: The step Sister and Uh and the Quarter are also hilarious.
Speaker 1: I think some may not understand this movie, but if
Speaker 1: you think of it as a Wizard of Oz or
Speaker 1: Alison Wonderland from another culture, it makes sense. I think
Speaker 1: this is one of my new Winter classics. Also, I
Speaker 1: often think of the the Lesti story about the guy
Speaker 1: who brought the Lessie to a wedding as a guest,
Speaker 1: so ridiculous. I cracked myself up just thinking about it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was a good one. That was It's just I
Speaker 1: love the the weirdness of so many of those tales.
Speaker 1: And and again, uh, if anyone's interested to go back,
Speaker 1: I mentioned the author who has compiled so many of
Speaker 1: these stories, and that book was tremendous. Anyway, continue, Um,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for the wonderful podcast. It has
Speaker 1: ignited so many fun adventures and explorations for me. Also,
Speaker 1: you'll have the best podcast voices just saying happy holidays,
Speaker 1: Leslie in Seattle, illegal flattery. Well, I'm glad you enjoyed
Speaker 1: Jack Frost, because again, it is a beautiful movie. Most,
Speaker 1: I feel like, well maybe not most, but a lot
Speaker 1: of people in the US are probably only familiar with
Speaker 1: it from Mystery Sense Theater three thousand. But it is
Speaker 1: in and of itself just a beautifully made film with
Speaker 1: a lot of wonderful stuff in it. So um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I highly recommend folks check it out during the winter months.
Speaker 1: I agree. Yeah, Um, it is both funny but also uh,
Speaker 1: you know, if if you put yourself in the right
Speaker 1: mindset and experience it as a as a as a
Speaker 1: fresh fallen snow, you know, like it's sort of like
Speaker 1: a new babe in the world. It's it's quite wonderful,
Speaker 1: not a princess, a queen and Leslie thank you, yeah,
Speaker 1: far too kind. I thought maybe we should wrap up
Speaker 1: here with a question that may be relevant, because I
Speaker 1: can't imagine we will stop using this point of comparison
Speaker 1: as we go on. So Taylor, writing in about Weird
Speaker 1: How Cinema, Taylor says, hey, Rob and Joe Taylor from
Speaker 1: Salt Lake here with a simple question, could you define
Speaker 1: pucci for me? This time has come up several times
Speaker 1: in recent episodes, referencing both Sonic the Hedgehog and the
Speaker 1: obnoxious teenage son from Ghost in the Machine. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's a generational gap or a cultural moment
Speaker 1: I missed. I'm twenty five, but I've never heard this word,
Speaker 1: and I now have burning curiosity to be looped in
Speaker 1: since I don't know how it's spelled in this context.
Speaker 1: Urban Dictionary has been less than helpful. So maybe you
Speaker 1: can help a brother out with a little flaming barrel etymology.
Speaker 1: As always, thanks for doing what you do and filling
Speaker 1: the duller moments of my days with weird, thoughtful, edifying
Speaker 1: ear candy. I'm really enjoying Weird How Cinema and the
Speaker 1: recent diversity of content the best tailor. Yeah, I figured
Speaker 1: this is probably worth explaining for other listeners who are
Speaker 1: not as deeply rooted in Simpson's lore as we are,
Speaker 1: because I I think sometimes I just like, you know,
Speaker 1: like Shakespeare could assume that everybody in his audience knew
Speaker 1: the Bible, so they all had the same point of comparison.
Speaker 1: I tend to assume everybody knows the Simpsons, but I
Speaker 1: know that's not true. So this is from the Simpsons. Pucci.
Speaker 1: I think Pucci is kind of one of the patron
Speaker 1: saints of our era and history. Pucci is a soulless
Speaker 1: media corporation's attempt to lure in young viewers with a
Speaker 1: cringe inducing simulacrum of youth rebellion and subculture. Would you
Speaker 1: say that's a fair definition? Yes, yeah, I think that
Speaker 1: that sums it up nicely. So, but well, sorry, what
Speaker 1: I was just gonna say, he's the he's the product
Speaker 1: of pure corporate group think in terms of trying to
Speaker 1: inject strategy and to creative endeavor. Yeah, so he's more
Speaker 1: than one thing at once. I want to give you
Speaker 1: the full spectrum of Pucci. If you've never seen the
Speaker 1: episode So in the Simpsons, the context is that the
Speaker 1: children can always be found watching the Itchy and Scratchy show.
Speaker 1: It is a classic of sadistic cartoon violence between a
Speaker 1: mouse and a cat. So you know, Barton Lisa on
Speaker 1: Saturday morning will watch Itchy throw Scratchy into a volcano
Speaker 1: and they laugh and all is right with the world.
Speaker 1: But in the Pucci episode, the corporation that owns Itchy
Speaker 1: and Scratchy decides that the show needs a new character
Speaker 1: to boost ratings. So over the objections of the show's writers,
Speaker 1: who are they are themselves portrayed as like pompous and
Speaker 1: lazy um, but these meddling executives come in and mandate
Speaker 1: that the show must now incorporate a new dog character
Speaker 1: who is just you know, a sort of a very
Speaker 1: uncool business person's idea of subcultures, but all different subcultures
Speaker 1: thrown into a blender. So he's a leather jacket wearing
Speaker 1: electric guitar, playing grunge hip hops for in sunglasses and
Speaker 1: a backwards cap. Oh. Also, somehow Homer ends up being
Speaker 1: the voice of Pucci within the show. I think that
Speaker 1: they have like a big casting thing and he gets it.
Speaker 1: For some reason. But then when the episode with Pucci
Speaker 1: debuts and the kids watch it, Pucci is rightly despised
Speaker 1: by all UH and is promptly written off the show.
Speaker 1: There's this great scene where they UH like somebody dubs
Speaker 1: in a line that says like I must go, my
Speaker 1: planet needs me, and then they just lift the cell
Speaker 1: out of the animation frame and then we get like
Speaker 1: a subtitle saying that Pucci died on the way back
Speaker 1: to his home planet. I think we had never been
Speaker 1: told before that it was from another planet. Um, let's see,
Speaker 1: that's what Pucci is put Pucci is actually several different
Speaker 1: emblems at once. In one aspect, Pucci is a corporate
Speaker 1: executives horribly confused and inauthentic understanding of what the kids
Speaker 1: are into these days. And so Pucci is in that
Speaker 1: respect a very poor and cringe inducing attempt to pander.
Speaker 1: But I would say Pucci also represents the never ending
Speaker 1: desire of business executives who own creative properties to interfere
Speaker 1: in the creative processes of their employees with the near
Speaker 1: guarantee of disastrous effects. So in that later sense, I
Speaker 1: think to broaden the scope beyond just cartoons and media products.
Speaker 1: I'd say that every time your boss tells you to
Speaker 1: try doing X, and you already know that it's a
Speaker 1: terrible idea because you know what you do day in
Speaker 1: and day out, but your boss doesn't know. But you
Speaker 1: have to do it anyway because your boss said so.
Speaker 1: And then sure enough X proves to be a failure
Speaker 1: and a terrible idea. X is a Pucci. That's a
Speaker 1: Pucci situation. That that that's absolutely yet I think you've
Speaker 1: summarized Pucci um that the episode, if anybody wants to
Speaker 1: see it, it is specifically the fourteenth episode of season eight,
Speaker 1: and it's titled The Itchy and Scratchy and Pucci Show.
Speaker 1: I'd say I think about Pucci at least once a day.
Speaker 1: I mean, Pucci is like Pucci, as much of a
Speaker 1: figure as like an eleventh century Frenchman might think of
Speaker 1: the mother Mary. You know, I maybe don't think about
Speaker 1: him as much, but if I get enough work emails
Speaker 1: covering the right topics in the course of the day,
Speaker 1: I certainly think about Pucci and start thinking back and
Speaker 1: to it, and I can't remember. I think I think
Speaker 1: I watched it with the family. I think I showed
Speaker 1: it to the boy recently um. In Pucci's debut episode,
Speaker 1: he introduces himself with a Pucci rap, and then he
Speaker 1: tells the children to always recycle. Yes, always recycled to
Speaker 1: the extreme busted and he's like playing in a guitar
Speaker 1: and dribbling a basketball. I think all at the same time,
Speaker 1: m hm, should that? Should that wrap it up for today?
Speaker 1: I think so. I mean, if you want to, if
Speaker 1: you want to learn more about Pucci, you have your homework.
Speaker 1: You know which episode is episode to go watch, and
Speaker 1: he's only in that episode. I like that they've stuck
Speaker 1: to their guns. I believe. I'm pretty sure that I'm
Speaker 1: Seth will interrupt us here and let us know if
Speaker 1: we're wrong. But I think they've stuck to their guns
Speaker 1: and never brought Pucci back, which is the way it
Speaker 1: should be. He truly died on the way back to
Speaker 1: his home planet. But also this should be a good
Speaker 1: prompt for listener mail. I mean, in the in the
Speaker 1: broader understanding of Pucci. What's your Pucci? What's the Pucci
Speaker 1: in your life? Yeah, I mean, sometimes it's hard to
Speaker 1: find a pure Pucci like Pucci exists because we need
Speaker 1: like the purity of the idea to take on a
Speaker 1: corporeal form. Uh So it I feel like it's actually
Speaker 1: a little difficult to find wild Pucci's out there. You know,
Speaker 1: you can find just aspects of Pucci and other things generally.
Speaker 1: But I'm I'm open to correction on this if you
Speaker 1: have some examples of of Pucci, pure Pucci or Puccinus
Speaker 1: or just slight Pucciness in the world. Let me know.
Speaker 1: I think when we made the Sonic the Hedgehog comparison,
Speaker 1: it was not in this broader understanding of the way
Speaker 1: Pucci fits into, i know, dynamics of creative projects and
Speaker 1: things that are owned by corporations. In that sense, Sonic
Speaker 1: the Hedgehog is more of a Pucci in that he's
Speaker 1: just like a cartoon animal who's got an attitude, uh
Speaker 1: and was mandated that he should have an attitude by
Speaker 1: some business owner. Right right, Yeah, So even Sonic is
Speaker 1: not a pure example, but even the kid in um
Speaker 1: uh in Ghost in the Machine is not is maybe
Speaker 1: not pure Pucci, but he's as close to pure Pucci
Speaker 1: as I've ever seen. Uh in cinema uncut Pucci deep dupe,
Speaker 1: doude deep but deep dup. But we just got a
Speaker 1: notification from Seth, who is even more of a Simpsons
Speaker 1: nerd than we are, that Pucci has in fact returned
Speaker 1: on multiple occasions in the Simpsons, but always only as
Speaker 1: like a punchline cameo. Okay, well that's not that's good
Speaker 1: to know, yeah, not as like, hey, here's another whole
Speaker 1: Pucci episode. All right. Well, it looks like Carney the
Speaker 1: mail body is shutting down for this episode, but we
Speaker 1: will revive him next week and we will share more
Speaker 1: listener mail with anyone who's willing to listen to them.
Speaker 1: And if you want to uh yeah right into us,
Speaker 1: let let us know, respond to stuff we talked about
Speaker 1: in this episode, respond to current and past episodes of
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind or Weird how Cinema. We
Speaker 1: We would love to hear from you. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: if you want to listen to other episodes in the
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Speaker 1: and subscribe wherever you have the power to do so.
Speaker 1: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer and
Speaker 1: Simpson's expert, Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to
Speaker 1: get in touch with us with feedback on this show
Speaker 1: or any other with the suggestion for a topic for
Speaker 1: the future, or just to say hi. You can email
Speaker 1: us at contact at stuff to blow your Mind dot com.
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