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Speaker 1: Monster House Presents. This is the ad supported version of

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Monster Talk. We're dependent upon the revenue from these ads

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and for the support of our patrons at Patreon dot

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As a disclaimer, your hosts are unable to control what

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ads you will hear, and while we have done what

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we can to avoid ads that are divisive, the system

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that injects them sometimes ignores our preferences and always seems

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to ignore our efforts to not interrupt the conversational flow.

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While we understand this can be disruptive, we're trying our best.

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Patreon remains the best way to enjoy commercial free listening

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to our content, Plus you generally get extending coverage of

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the subject. We're working on other ways to consume our

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content as well, so please stay tuned. It's actually quite

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unlike anything we've ever seen before.

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Speaker 2: A giant, hairy creature. Part eight Part masts.

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Speaker 3: In Luckness, a twenty four a mile long bottomless lake

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in the Highlands of Scotland, get a creature known as

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the Luckness Monster Monster Talk.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Monster Talk, the science show about monsters. I'm

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Blake Smith.

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Speaker 4: And I'm Karen Stolsner.

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Speaker 1: Well, I can hardly believe it, but here we are

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at the end of season four. Of course, it is

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a little ridiculous given that the first season was more

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than a decade long, but here we are and doing

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our seasons in October just makes good sense to me,

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especially here in America, where increasingly I'm hearing this whole

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month called the spook key season. But before we break

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out our pumpkins and candy, we're gonna end the season

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with some laughs as we welcome Brian Mallow, the science comedian.

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As you'll hear in the interview, Brian's been plugged into

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the science community for a long time and carved out

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a pretty interesting space for himself. There's no two drinking minimum,

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so let's just hop into the Monstertle.

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Speaker 4: Welcome to another episode of Monster Talk, and today we're

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talking with Brian Mallow. So he is a skeptical comedian

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science comedian, and I think, Brian, maybe you can tell

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us a little bit more about yourself.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's funny.

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Speaker 3: I guess the reason this has come up again, You

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said skeptical scientists because back in do you remember what

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year that was?

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Speaker 2: That T shirt that I just posted from the first

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skeptical conference.

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Speaker 3: And your name and my name and Brian Dunning and

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Kecky Scot and Eugenie were and then Eugenie waded in

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and said that was the first kept I didn't really

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remember that, and my point, I posted it to Brian

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because we know each other now, but I don't remember

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meeting him back then at all, and he doesn't remember

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it either.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, there have a few people on there. I still

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don't know who they are, but yeah, that was a

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while ago. And that's why I need you to introduce

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yourself because I kind of framed you with skeptical comedian,

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so you're saying that's not exactly correct, or oh.

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Speaker 3: Science comedian and that's my handle everywhere and sciencecomedian dot com.

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Speaker 2: And you know, the funny thing is, I guess I'll

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tell you.

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Speaker 3: I didn't set out obviously, Who's hardly anyone starts out

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thinking they're going to be a comedian. I was a

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science fan first. I grew up, you know, and I

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might even say science fiction. When I try to back

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engineer my path, I usually credit science fiction, and specifically

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I liked the hard science fiction Isaac Asimov, Arthur C.

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Speaker 2: Clark, Larry Niven and those were the way.

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Speaker 3: And then in particular Clark and Asimov, you start reading

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their science fiction and then you discover, oh they wrote nonfiction,

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They wrote science books. Asimov wrote on every topic, but

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he wrote on every kind of science, and he to

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this day, I think he was the best science explainer.

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Love Carl Sagan too, but I think Asimov just there

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was something incredibly And when we talk about science communication,

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I liked I give science communication talks and I do

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like to mention how wow, how linear his thinking must

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have been, and how he could take you to a

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complex place and not lose you. And he wrote with

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personality and even humor. And when I think back on

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my influences as much as George Carlin and Steve Martin

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and Richard Pryor were comedic influences, and Monty Python and

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the original Sunday Night Live, Isaac Asimov, it was like

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I was a huge consumer of science fiction and his

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science writing. My little science nerd friends, we were mostly

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into physics, and we learned a lot outside of school

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from Asimov and Clark. So I was a big science

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nerd first. But my good friend who was another like

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astrophysics nerd, we wrote songs together, my lyrics to his music,

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and we kind of wanted to be rock stars and scientists,

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and I guess we became neither.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, one of my little jokes I love.

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Speaker 3: Saying, it's like if you say, you got to be

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careful telling people you wanted to be a rock star,

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because they tend to ask, well, what instrument do you play?

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Speaker 2: And then you got to go I didn't say I

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wanted to be a musician. Yeah, yeah, they said I

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wanted to be a rock star.

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Speaker 3: But he was an amazing keyboard player and composer, my

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partner who.

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Speaker 2: Passed away sadly, but we so.

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Speaker 3: I from the beginning, I had an interest in art

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and science and I did well, Like on the SATs

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and everything. I always did well on both. I always

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identified as a science nerd, but I was always a

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good writer as well.

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Speaker 2: And I loved music.

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Speaker 3: And what happened is I under the influence of a

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Jewish mother growing up in Houston, Texas, born in Chicago,

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raised in Texas. I was I went pre med at

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the University of Texas in Austin, but that was not

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my favorite science and by the end of it, and

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especially if your heart's not in It turns out organic

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chemistry is really hard.

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Speaker 2: But after I.

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Speaker 3: Graduated, I didn't want to go to medical school, and

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then I ended up going to graduate school and TV production,

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so I picked up video skills. And while I was

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doing graduate school, also at ut Austin, I saw sign

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for the Funniest Person in Austin contest, and at that

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point I had enjoyed going to comedy clubs and I

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was kind of interested in trying and I had a

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couple joke ideas, and I did the contest and I

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got hooked. I did okay in the contest, like you

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know what, I made it to the I did really

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well in a night of the prelimbs, and then in

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the finals I choked. So I learned an important lesson,

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which is, and it's applicable to science communication or communication

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in general, which is, it was only my third time

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on stage when I kind of slayed and.

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Speaker 2: Made it to the finals.

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Speaker 3: And then I tried to recreate the magic that I

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tried to say the exact same words a couple weeks later,

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and it didn't play funny at all, And so.

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Speaker 2: I was saying the same words and yet I wasn't

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getting the same response.

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Speaker 3: So it wasn't just the words, it was the nonverbal

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stuff was much more important. I was funny that first

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time I was on, and that other time I was

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trying to repeat the magic. I was turned inward and

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maybe thinking about the words too much.

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Speaker 1: Organic comedy is less formulaic than organic chemistry?

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Speaker 4: Or does it depend on the audience that you have too?

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Speaker 1: Will you do?

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Speaker 4: You think you delivering in the same way, but it

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was a different vibe with the audience and it just

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didn't mish.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but you know what, Comics often like to blame

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the audience when they don't do well.

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Speaker 2: And that's a trap.

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Speaker 3: It's like, the thing is, it's true, some audiences aren't

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that great. Sometimes you know that you did your best,

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but for some reason you didn't connect.

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Speaker 2: But I know that I didn't do my best that day.

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I know that I wasn't on.

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Speaker 3: There was that I said the same words, but I

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wasn't being as funny, and so much of the humor.

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It's not just the words, it's it's nonverbal stuff. And

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that when you're communicating to an audience. And I like

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to say that, you know, you got to get away

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from memorization a science speaker that sounds scripted and overly memorized.

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It doesn't play that well, and it's like you're drawing

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from stuff you know, so you know, don't be reading

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your script off your own slides. Don't be turned inward

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trying to remember.

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Speaker 2: And that's the thing. It's really about being present.

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Speaker 3: And when you're trying too hard to remember your script,

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you're not here in the room with the audience. You're

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turned inward trying to remember your script. That's not a

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good way to bond and connect.

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Speaker 4: Well, it sounds like you sorry.

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Speaker 1: Oh, just because I Comedy is a little bit like love.

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Though it works, but if you try to deconstruct it

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too much, maybe not so much.

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Speaker 4: I have think that, Yeah, there's a fans.

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Speaker 3: Line about dissecting a joke or comedy is like dissecting

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a frog that then somebody dies in the.

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Speaker 2: Process at the point.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but sometimes you have to, and especially if you're

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a nerdy comedian, you're destined to be over analyzing your stuff.

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Speaker 2: The science comedy the comedy of science.

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Speaker 3: So but I guess a more succinct answer would be

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that I was a science geek first, and when I

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got into stand up comedy, it was just natural that

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my comedy was geeky, and that it was funny to

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me to make science references in weird ways, like if

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I noticed my mom would lose weight, my dad would

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gain weight, and vice versa. Its like the conservation of

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mass within our family, and you never actually lose weight,

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you just give it to somebody else.

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Speaker 2: Fat can be created or destroyed, stuff like that.

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Speaker 4: So I have thought that myself, that's funny to do.

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Speaker 2: That's what passes is for humor to me.

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Speaker 3: So you know, we discussed some ideas before and before

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you can even ask me about what drew me, we

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were talking about combining science and comedy. You know, the

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thing is, it wasn't calculated at all.

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Speaker 2: It was just.

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Speaker 3: I'm science geeky, so I'm now When I started doing

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stand up comedy, it was pretty natural for it to

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be geeky, and ultimately, you know, some of it is

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just silly. I wouldn't say it's communicating science.

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Speaker 2: It might be.

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Speaker 3: It might have an effect on making you laugh at

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a very science y, nerdy topic, but not every joke

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is necessarily educational.

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Speaker 2: They're just silly some of them.

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Speaker 3: I used to be an astronomer, but I get stuck

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in the day shift, which sucks, although.

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Speaker 2: A joke like that can open that.

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Speaker 3: I often use jokes to lead into a topic or

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a short essay like radio pieces I've done. Because the

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truth is, to some audiences, I might just say that

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as a one liner, but to other audiences, you got

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to you it's best if you come in and say,

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I know, solar astronomers work on the day shift radio astronomers,

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and then the truth is yeah, because you know, because

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with a nerdy audience, they're gonna bust you on something

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like that.

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Speaker 1: Well actually, yeah.

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Speaker 3: Yeah exactly, but you know, I wouldn't say it's inappropriate

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because I'm nerdy that way, and it's like I deserve that.

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You know, if you're gonna be a nerdy comedian, you

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want a nerdy audience, and you're gonna expect them to

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overanalyze and be nerdy with your jokes. And and also anyway,

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just all astronomers pretty much work on the day shift. Now,

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professional astronomers, you can operate a telescope.

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Speaker 2: Anywhere in the world.

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Speaker 3: And then have it do it automatically, and then you

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get up and work on the day shift and corunt

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your data. So anyway, that's an interesting way when like

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how a joke can lead into a serious discussion, which

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is a useful method, like a way to use humor

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to get into things.

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Speaker 1: Well, so, in some sense I'm reminded of I used

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to have a dog until very recently, and we used

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to have to get for pills and they would give

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you these little sweet rapper things you could buy and

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put the pill inside, and of course she would gobble

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them up. And so really that that comedy has been

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used to encapsulate more complicated content forever. So, whether that's

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Richard pryor doing really biting social satire or commentary but

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wrapping it in a funny story, or whether it's talking

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about astronomy, it's all still you get the joke, and

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then later you wait, you know, maybe there's one there.

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So I know absolutely.

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Speaker 2: I thought you were going somewhere else with your dog story.

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I know too, I.

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Speaker 3: Have a cat and it's impossible to get and I

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don't understand why the pills don't already taste good.

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Speaker 2: Isn't it possible to make the cat medicine.

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Speaker 3: Tuna flavored and not make us try to force it

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into you know, micking into something or put it in

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one of those.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I've seen I've seen things like poultry flavored toothpaste

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for cats, and so you'd think, okay, surely you could

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do that as well.

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Speaker 3: But is my cats freshing his teeth every day?

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Speaker 2: We're a little behind on that.

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Speaker 4: It's something I've seen, it's not something I've purchased or no.

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Speaker 1: Anything about.

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Speaker 3: A terrible job of describing who I am succinctly, because uh.

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Speaker 4: You've answered the first five questions.

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Speaker 2: I think I'm a comedian.

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Speaker 3: But when I became you know what, I became a

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comedian first, and it evolved into science commed when I

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came up with the phrase science comedian.

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Speaker 1: Still get psychon in there, right.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good point. But I wasn't setting out

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to do it. It was a wreck.

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Speaker 3: It was like, that describes what I'm already doing, science comedy.

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Speaker 2: And I looked science Comedian dot com was available, and.

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Speaker 1: This is like, oh nice, yeah.

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Speaker 3: Years ago, So I thought two words spelled correctly in

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the dot com like seventeen years ago or something. It's like, wow, okay,

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so science comedian. And then that sort of did crystallize things.

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It's like if I just cut away some of this

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other stuff, but almost anything could fit. I have a

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very broad interpretation of what science comedy is, and so

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it doesn't all have to be educational.

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Speaker 2: It's just a certain nerdy way of you can address

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any topic.

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Speaker 3: And then then ultimately that led to me doing some

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science communication stuff. I made science videos for Time Magazine,

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I did uh, I did pieces for Neil Tyson Star

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talk radio audio bits, and then I started giving science

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communication training and U and along here, so I brought

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up the video I broughts like everything that I did.

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Did you ever see this commencement speech by Steve Jobs.

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It's like a twenty minute YouTube video. It's from Stanford

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and he says like, I'm gonna tell you three stories

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and one of them has to do with and I'm

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not mystical at all and it but.

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Speaker 2: It's funny how this works.

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Speaker 3: He says something about like looking back at your life

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and connecting the dots. You know, I learned science just

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because I loved science, no other reason. I was always

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pursuing what I loved. But then I didn't take a

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pursue a career in that, and then you know, was

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pre mad, didn't want to follow through on that went

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to graduate school, learned video skills, but I got distracted

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by stand up comedy.

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Speaker 2: So I learned each of these things and put them aside,

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and now my career uses all of them.

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Speaker 3: I use my sense of humor, I use my science knowledge,

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I use the video skills. Even before things got so

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virtual because of COVID and kind of funny, there was

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always the bit of the teacher in me, and I

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do some science communication talks and so it's kind of

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funny how you couldn't have planned it this way, But

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here I am. I spend more time in the science

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world at science conferences and skeptics conferences than I do

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in the comedy club world.

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Speaker 2: Even it's like, how did that.

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Speaker 3: I chose not to become a scientist and I ended

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up squarely in the science world with a lot of

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scientist friends.

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Speaker 2: Yeah that's neat, very very niche area.

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Speaker 4: But yeah, it's really lack. Your career has really molded

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itself around you and your interests, and you're very lucky

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to be doing what you love and it's so good

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at Yeah, And.

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Speaker 3: So what I really love is I love performing. I

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love giving science communication talks.

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Speaker 2: But the third piece.

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Speaker 3: Of my career nowadays I love interviewing scientists and then

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hopefully spun or like science cafe. I worked at a

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science museum for a few years in Raleigh, and one

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of the things I did was host a science cafe

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for a few years weekly and it.

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Speaker 2: Was so much fun.

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Speaker 3: And I love that chance to be spontaneous, have an

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interview with an expert in anything, learn about it, and maybe.

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Speaker 2: You know what.

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Speaker 3: When I'm a I realized that when I'm a comedian,

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obviously being funny is the first priority. But when I'm

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interviewing someone, I realize these are my priorities. Clarity, I

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want to make sure I understand and that non scientists understand. Clarity,

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and then enthusiasm. I bring a lot of enthusiasm to

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most science topics. And then third would be humor. Inevitably,

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hopefully I'm gonna be funny, but every conversation doesn't have.

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Speaker 2: To be funny.

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Speaker 3: You could be talking about a health issue that's not

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particularly funny.

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Speaker 2: But clarity, enthusiasm, and then so what is.

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Speaker 1: I know this is one of those deconstructing things we

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talked about, the dangerous conversation. But what does your creative

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process look like when you're doing when you're building up

348
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your material, do you start from a premise or do

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you have a joke and try to fit the science

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into it? So, how does that or is it just random?

351
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How did that work out? Or should it say stochastic? Whatever?

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How does that go?

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Speaker 3: You know, this might not be a very satisfying answer,

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but it's a little of everything. It's anyway, And you know,

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comedians have it's kind of classic that we always used

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to carry around notebooks. Now we all have, you know,

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digital devices for our note taking, whether it's typing or

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audio or voice to text. But I do a little

359
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of all of that. Say I'm reading about some science stuff.

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My mind is always there's always in the background a

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process going on, even if it's not in the forefront,

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there's always a process going on that's looking for. I

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always like the phrase sense of humor in that way

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that like I have a sense for when humorous potential

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is about, you know, and there's something that picks up

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on it, and you know, it's pretty fascinating sometimes because

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I'll be in a group of people and suddenly, you know,

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someone says something and I something pops into my head

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that I know would be hilarious to say, and when

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I say it, everybody laughs in a way that shows

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they were like, to me, this was the most.

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Speaker 2: Obvious next thing to say, and yet.

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Speaker 3: Everybody laughed out of surprise. No one else saw it coming.

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And it's just so weird. In my mind, that was

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the obvious thing to say next, but it took everyone

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else by surprise.

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Speaker 2: It's fascinating.

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Speaker 3: Sometimes you need like a substrate, like you're looking, you're

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watching the news, or you're reading news and maybe science news,

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and you get an idea. Other times, maybe you just

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sit and it's so hard to sit at a blank

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you know, face the blank page, try to put any

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words on it, and you can't just spit out a joke.

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What often I'll do is like get on a top

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and let's say cloning or something, and somehow just try

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to get a stream of consciousness going, just.

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Speaker 2: Get some ideas out.

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Speaker 3: They're not necessarily funny yet, or maybe there's a little

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something that feels a little funny, but just start writing

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on a topic and inevitably you'll hit something funny. And

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sometimes you might write a few pages and you got

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this one little nugget and all the rest gets thrown away.

393
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It's interesting thinking. But it's not a joke. I mean,

394
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depending what you're after, a humorous essay might be a

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little different.

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Speaker 2: But sometimes you have to do and it's like mining

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for gold.

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Speaker 1: You have to do it, isn't it. I mean, yeah,

399
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all these different variations and you have to like only survive, right.

400
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So yeah, but.

401
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Speaker 3: If I talk long enough on us and the thing

402
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is is to get yourself to sort of un self

403
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consciously getting the words to flow on a topic and

404
00:22:13,240 --> 00:22:18,200
be into it, and then inevitably something funny comes out

405
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and it's yeah. And then the other thing is just

406
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spontaneous situation with people. So often it's in response to

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something someone said.

408
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Speaker 2: And I think the stage.

409
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Speaker 3: Is this crucible where everyone's looking at you, and if

410
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you do bring up something that is unprepared, there's pressure.

411
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Everyone's looking at you and there's an expectation, and you

412
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better come up with something funny. Similarly, in a social situation,

413
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you just kind of want to. It's like, hey, you know,

414
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like if the if the chance arises, it's fun to

415
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make other people laugh and to say something clever or

416
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put it takes.

417
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Speaker 1: There's a certain degree of fearlessness with getting on the

418
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stage and doing like my house. I make jokes all

419
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the time, but you.

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Speaker 4: Know, a lot of them at you, not with you.

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Speaker 1: But I mean it's it doesn't matter. It's that volume

422
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of the material and how loud I am. But like

423
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I mean, if you if you do a lot, people

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will tend to remember the funny ones and kind of

425
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forget the bad ones.

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Speaker 2: Right, it tends how bad they are. It does it?

427
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Speaker 1: Does it? Does it? Does it? Does it? Really really

428
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really does well?

429
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Speaker 4: Brian, Let's talk about some of the challenges that you

430
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might have encountered when doing science comedy. Do you often

431
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come across common misconceptions from your audience or within the

432
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science or comedy worlds that can kind of throw you

433
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off track or difficult things to to have to deal

434
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with and contend with with an audience.

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Speaker 3: You know, I do face different kinds of audience situations

436
00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:04,319
like I've I could face a comedy club audience. Ideally

437
00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:07,960
they came to see me, so they came for science humor, so.

438
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Speaker 2: They know what they're getting into.

439
00:24:09,799 --> 00:24:12,519
Speaker 3: When you're at a conference of physicists in a couple

440
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of weeks, I'll be in Santa Cruz for like the

441
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West Coast Division of the American Physical society that's APS

442
00:24:19,759 --> 00:24:21,920
is a big physics organization, but it's just like a.

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Speaker 1: Way not us group.

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Speaker 3: So I actually, you know, that's the funny thing. I

445
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think scientists get a bad rap. I mean, obviously some

446
00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:33,839
stereotypes have a little bit of truth to them, but

447
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scientists are pretty amazing. And I think scientists tend and

448
00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:41,160
I'm not a scientist, so I can say this about them,

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that that you know, they tend to know the liberal

450
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arts and history and politics and things better then liberal

451
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arts people tend to know sciences. If I had to

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make a generalization, which I don't have to, but if

453
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I'm going to, you.

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Speaker 2: Know what I mean like that that they are actually

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a lot of.

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Speaker 3: Scien anchists are more well rounded than the stereotype.

457
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Speaker 1: What happened?

458
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Speaker 2: But and I think physicists are pretty fun. I don't.

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Speaker 3: I've been asked many times if I you know physicists, chemists,

460
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medical researchers.

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Speaker 2: Uh, you know, do do you you know who's who's

462
00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:20,920
the best audience? I don't know that I have much

463
00:25:20,920 --> 00:25:21,759
of an answer to that.

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Speaker 4: Linguists right linguists, And I would enjoy linguists just because

465
00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:31,680
like you, I really enjoy wordplay.

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Speaker 2: And puns, and I've always had a lot in my act.

467
00:25:34,839 --> 00:25:36,960
Speaker 1: I'm not so sure and enjoys puns as much as

468
00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:38,640
she did before two thousand and nine.

469
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Speaker 4: I make a lot myself, but I'm just overshadowed and

470
00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:48,920
somewhat deterred by my father and his punning skills on

471
00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:55,640
the he was he was well. But yeah, I think,

472
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I mean do it sounds to me from what you're

473
00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:02,880
saying that I don't always like the terms hard science

474
00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:05,480
and soft science. But it sounds like you do party

475
00:26:05,559 --> 00:26:10,559
more with the heart of sciences rather than humanities and

476
00:26:10,599 --> 00:26:12,039
social sciences, you know.

477
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Speaker 3: And I would credit that again with When I was

478
00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:17,839
growing up, science fiction was mostly and the science fiction

479
00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:21,039
that I was gravitating towards, like Larry Niven. He wrote

480
00:26:21,039 --> 00:26:25,119
about astrophysics all the time. We learned about black holes

481
00:26:25,119 --> 00:26:30,599
and neutron stars and relativistic effects and stuff like that,

482
00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:33,400
so so much science. Today, I think more science fiction

483
00:26:33,519 --> 00:26:37,680
is biotech and stuff. So I like all the sciences,

484
00:26:38,279 --> 00:26:41,799
but and I like psychology and social sciences too.

485
00:26:42,079 --> 00:26:42,880
Speaker 2: I just think I'm.

486
00:26:42,759 --> 00:26:47,359
Speaker 3: More I'm most knowledgeable in physics and astronomy, so I

487
00:26:47,359 --> 00:26:51,359
have a foundation there. I'm not a scientist but I've

488
00:26:51,359 --> 00:26:56,799
had decades to get a basic understanding of physics and astronomy.

489
00:26:56,960 --> 00:26:57,839
Speaker 4: You must know a loss.

490
00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:02,359
Speaker 1: You can juggle and write to cycle the complete physics package.

491
00:27:03,279 --> 00:27:06,359
Speaker 3: See the funny thing is like at the museum I

492
00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:08,480
worked at at the North in Raleigh, the North Carolina

493
00:27:08,559 --> 00:27:11,559
Museum of Natural Sciences, the head of the biodiversity lab,

494
00:27:11,759 --> 00:27:15,440
Roland Case, Doctor Roland Case. He's a he's a mammalogist

495
00:27:15,440 --> 00:27:16,480
and an ecologist.

496
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:19,240
Speaker 2: And he not only does he ride.

497
00:27:19,079 --> 00:27:23,039
Speaker 3: A unicycle, as do both his sons, of course by now,

498
00:27:23,599 --> 00:27:28,519
he does off road unicycling. He does unicycling on paths

499
00:27:28,559 --> 00:27:31,640
that would be difficult to hike. Like you, how do

500
00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:33,000
you even do that? Like?

501
00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:36,839
Speaker 4: Yeah, scientists.

502
00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:39,440
Speaker 1: Have to go to the.

503
00:27:41,160 --> 00:27:43,279
Speaker 2: Strike. I think that there's video of him.

504
00:27:43,319 --> 00:27:46,279
Speaker 3: It's Roland Cay's in Raleigh at the North Carolina Museum

505
00:27:46,279 --> 00:27:51,039
of Natural and he's a great scientist and he's uh,

506
00:27:51,559 --> 00:27:55,200
he knows more about Kinka Jews than anyone else.

507
00:27:55,680 --> 00:27:58,400
Speaker 2: I think he had a Kinkajew license plate. This is

508
00:27:58,440 --> 00:27:59,640
becoming the Rolan Kay's hour.

509
00:28:00,559 --> 00:28:01,880
Speaker 1: No, I don't know what that is. What is it?

510
00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:02,440
Kink at you?

511
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:05,079
Speaker 2: It's a weird little mammal.

512
00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:07,720
Speaker 1: Okay, so it does sound like a pikachuo, so it

513
00:28:07,759 --> 00:28:10,880
could be some sort of pokemon all right, but no, it's.

514
00:28:10,799 --> 00:28:16,240
Speaker 2: An actual mammal humor. I mean, I don't have.

515
00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:19,000
Speaker 3: A lot of I mean, it seems like I should

516
00:28:19,039 --> 00:28:21,880
have special knowledge in this area. But you know, humor

517
00:28:22,279 --> 00:28:27,359
is useful social lubrication and as you mentioned, like even

518
00:28:27,480 --> 00:28:31,480
just straight comedians like like Richard Pryor and George Carlin

519
00:28:31,519 --> 00:28:34,559
and Bill Hicks, Aaron.

520
00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:39,880
Speaker 1: And uh, what you're reading for? Not but what it

521
00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:42,759
was I reading for? I love that joke so hard.

522
00:28:43,079 --> 00:28:45,119
Speaker 2: Oh, it's so funny.

523
00:28:45,599 --> 00:28:48,559
Speaker 3: People in Tennessee is in most parts of the trouble world,

524
00:28:48,559 --> 00:28:51,920
people are yelling revolution, revolution, and television and Tennessee they're

525
00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:52,759
going evolution.

526
00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:57,039
Speaker 1: If we WoT well you've brought you've sort of walked

527
00:28:57,039 --> 00:28:59,480
into the actual question that I had, which was, what

528
00:28:59,559 --> 00:29:01,799
is the sort of the role that comedy can play

529
00:29:01,799 --> 00:29:08,559
in psychico, in science communication, especially in terms of combating

530
00:29:08,839 --> 00:29:12,720
misinformation or misunderstandings about science. And this is this is

531
00:29:12,839 --> 00:29:15,880
ideal because I know, uh, I live in the South

532
00:29:16,079 --> 00:29:19,119
and Mike County, they they had those stickers in the

533
00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:22,440
book saying evolutions to theory not a fact, and we

534
00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:24,319
had to fight so hard to get those out of there.

535
00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:27,359
So Jenny Scott, right, you know that that was part

536
00:29:27,359 --> 00:29:29,839
of what she was working to help us clean up

537
00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:34,000
around here. And uh, it's it's there's no there's it's

538
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:36,119
a battleground, but there's no victory. You have to just

539
00:29:36,200 --> 00:29:38,680
keep fighting forever and there's more of a chore. But

540
00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:40,880
but what what role do you yeah, what do you

541
00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:42,640
where do you find comedy helpful here?

542
00:29:43,319 --> 00:29:43,839
Speaker 2: You know what?

543
00:29:44,799 --> 00:29:49,079
Speaker 3: It might even be a more interesting topic that humor

544
00:29:49,359 --> 00:29:54,519
has played a role in the spreading of misinformation, because

545
00:29:54,640 --> 00:29:56,839
you think about these last couple of these last few

546
00:29:56,920 --> 00:30:00,599
years and all the comedian podcasters who have been a

547
00:30:00,640 --> 00:30:07,359
source of very bad science misinformation, and their good.

548
00:30:07,279 --> 00:30:13,000
Speaker 2: Naturedness and their senses of humor helped make everyone.

549
00:30:13,079 --> 00:30:17,839
Speaker 3: You know, you can really sell someone on an idea

550
00:30:18,039 --> 00:30:21,319
by making them laugh and they don't and it's like

551
00:30:21,400 --> 00:30:24,799
sort of they can suspend critical thinking because you're just

552
00:30:24,839 --> 00:30:27,759
like it's so funny, you go, yeah, I'm even thinking.

553
00:30:27,799 --> 00:30:28,440
Speaker 2: There's a moment.

554
00:30:29,519 --> 00:30:32,720
Speaker 3: There's this clip I've seen of Joe Rogan talking to

555
00:30:32,759 --> 00:30:38,039
Mel Gibson and they mentioned primate change. Oh yeah, mel

556
00:30:38,119 --> 00:30:42,039
Gibson says something about how you know when ice melts

557
00:30:42,240 --> 00:30:47,279
in a glass, the water level doesn't rise, it stays

558
00:30:47,319 --> 00:30:53,440
the same, And so he says this and they both

559
00:30:54,359 --> 00:30:58,000
get sort of arrogant, like they both are like like,

560
00:30:58,160 --> 00:31:02,240
isn't it pathetic that they it's like a glass of

561
00:31:02,279 --> 00:31:03,640
water when the ice melts.

562
00:31:03,839 --> 00:31:06,160
Speaker 2: They're just like they're like, he's so sensitis.

563
00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:08,880
Speaker 3: It's like, isn't it It's kind of being funny and

564
00:31:08,920 --> 00:31:15,880
it's mocking crazy liberal uh uh a lot. You know

565
00:31:15,920 --> 00:31:19,599
climate alarmists who think that when the ice melts that

566
00:31:19,680 --> 00:31:21,839
the glass and it's like they have they never noticed

567
00:31:21,839 --> 00:31:24,240
that the water level doesn't go up, and so they're like,

568
00:31:24,279 --> 00:31:26,759
in a way, they're mocking and anyone would go yeah,

569
00:31:27,200 --> 00:31:30,640
until someone comes along like John Stewart and others did

570
00:31:30,799 --> 00:31:34,880
and said, it's not the ice in the water that

571
00:31:34,920 --> 00:31:35,839
we're concerned about.

572
00:31:35,880 --> 00:31:37,039
Speaker 2: It's the ice on the.

573
00:31:37,079 --> 00:31:40,440
Speaker 3: Land that melts and adds to the water and that

574
00:31:40,599 --> 00:31:41,720
does raise the level.

575
00:31:41,599 --> 00:31:46,279
Speaker 1: Of your glass. Is a continent, Yeah, yeah, there's a right,

576
00:31:46,400 --> 00:31:47,640
But I just think that like when.

577
00:31:47,519 --> 00:31:50,960
Speaker 3: A comedian or like actor and like they're like it's

578
00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:54,000
like you can mock and use humor to get these

579
00:31:54,039 --> 00:31:57,960
points across and it can kind of short circuit someone's

580
00:31:58,880 --> 00:31:59,920
critical thinking.

581
00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:08,160
Speaker 2: Because because it sells it, you know what I care about.

582
00:32:08,759 --> 00:32:11,960
Speaker 3: It's like, even though they're jokes, I basically I care about.

583
00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:14,440
I don't want to communicate bad science, even in just

584
00:32:14,519 --> 00:32:17,960
straight comedy. And I don't like when there's a false

585
00:32:18,039 --> 00:32:21,279
premise and there's a joke. It's okay if you laugh

586
00:32:21,319 --> 00:32:25,160
at this. Millions of people did. Many comedians wrote it.

587
00:32:25,680 --> 00:32:29,240
When the stealth bombers were designed, many comedians wrote this

588
00:32:29,359 --> 00:32:34,400
joke where they go, the stealth bombers invisible, Why don't

589
00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:38,680
we just say we made a lot of them.

590
00:32:37,559 --> 00:32:39,599
Speaker 2: And it's very funny and everyone laughs.

591
00:32:40,160 --> 00:32:42,759
Speaker 3: I never laughed because it's like, because I'm because the

592
00:32:42,799 --> 00:32:45,599
nerd of me goes, it's not invisible, it's invisible to radar.

593
00:32:46,400 --> 00:32:47,160
Speaker 1: Yes, the bombers.

594
00:32:48,039 --> 00:32:50,240
Speaker 2: There's no yeah that far didn't watch.

595
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:51,599
Speaker 1: It's just a.

596
00:32:51,640 --> 00:32:54,680
Speaker 3: Part where it's like, no, it's like, there's no joke there.

597
00:32:54,839 --> 00:32:58,119
There's because the premise is so far from reality that

598
00:32:58,119 --> 00:33:00,880
that's not funny. But I mean, most people laughed at that,

599
00:33:01,279 --> 00:33:04,559
and maybe they wouldn't even think to the next step

600
00:33:04,640 --> 00:33:10,519
because haha, that's funny and yeah, yeah, yeah, so but okay,

601
00:33:10,519 --> 00:33:15,200
So I do think interestingly humor has helped sell a

602
00:33:15,200 --> 00:33:17,119
lot of misinformation, but.

603
00:33:18,759 --> 00:33:19,359
Speaker 2: So it can be.

604
00:33:19,400 --> 00:33:23,559
Speaker 3: Used for good or evil, And when used for good,

605
00:33:24,200 --> 00:33:26,759
I think the thing is, you know, it tends to

606
00:33:26,799 --> 00:33:30,680
make you. Not all comedians are likable. Some comedians have

607
00:33:30,759 --> 00:33:33,200
that they're funny, but there's an angry vibe.

608
00:33:33,279 --> 00:33:35,839
Speaker 2: You go, I don't think i'd like him off stage?

609
00:33:36,079 --> 00:33:40,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh yeah, but but he's very I mean, Lewis

610
00:33:40,039 --> 00:33:41,359
Black seems so personable.

611
00:33:41,359 --> 00:33:43,240
Speaker 1: I just don't know.

612
00:33:45,759 --> 00:33:48,319
Speaker 3: Now I met him, he does seem very Yeah, I'm

613
00:33:48,319 --> 00:33:51,319
sure you know what I mean, like like.

614
00:33:50,799 --> 00:33:53,160
Speaker 2: Like Bill Hicks or Sam Kinnison or something.

615
00:33:53,880 --> 00:33:56,960
Speaker 3: You know, like there's some comics that they're hilarious but

616
00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:00,000
they kind of see my gasholes, but they're very funny. Yeah,

617
00:34:00,079 --> 00:34:02,200
but you probably yeah, And then there are other people

618
00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:04,839
that you like off stage and then well they're not

619
00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:06,839
as you like them more off stage.

620
00:34:07,160 --> 00:34:11,400
Speaker 1: But anyway, but that also speaks to the whole problem.

621
00:34:11,800 --> 00:34:14,679
You know, we have this cultural thing right now where

622
00:34:15,079 --> 00:34:18,719
everybody wants to find a thing that's bad about a

623
00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:22,440
person and cancel that person. And I get it, I

624
00:34:22,559 --> 00:34:26,280
believe me, I get it. But sometimes people make amazing

625
00:34:26,320 --> 00:34:30,719
stuff or important findings or you know, and that cancelation

626
00:34:30,880 --> 00:34:33,559
wants to cancel the entire spectrum of everything they've done,

627
00:34:33,639 --> 00:34:37,039
everything they've been. We just want to complete erasure, which

628
00:34:37,079 --> 00:34:41,280
is really inappropriate because people don't like complexity. Oh my gosh,

629
00:34:41,320 --> 00:34:43,719
I have to think carefully about this thing. The thing

630
00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:45,639
they say is true, but I don't like the person.

631
00:34:45,719 --> 00:34:48,119
That's so hard. I don't have time for this kind

632
00:34:48,159 --> 00:34:51,480
of bad feeling, you know. So, you know the world

633
00:34:51,519 --> 00:34:53,519
is very complex and a lot of the problems we

634
00:34:53,599 --> 00:34:57,280
have are from this complete aversion to complexity. And it's

635
00:34:57,320 --> 00:35:00,679
like simplifying things can be fun, but it never leaves

636
00:35:00,679 --> 00:35:03,119
to deeper insights ever, you know.

637
00:35:03,239 --> 00:35:04,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, that bothers me a lot of there are there

638
00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:08,440
are issues that there's a lot of nuance, not everything

639
00:35:08,519 --> 00:35:12,559
is so black and white, and that it's like everyone

640
00:35:12,599 --> 00:35:15,119
doesn't have to there aren't just two sides to every

641
00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:15,960
single thing.

642
00:35:16,559 --> 00:35:18,519
Speaker 1: I mean, play some dungeons and dragons.

643
00:35:18,639 --> 00:35:21,639
Speaker 2: Some things have twenty signs, right exactly.

644
00:35:22,440 --> 00:35:25,320
Speaker 4: You certainly I think showing us that there's endless fodder

645
00:35:25,440 --> 00:35:28,199
for comedy in everything that's out there, you know, whether

646
00:35:28,239 --> 00:35:33,360
it's politics or science, just whatever's happening around us.

647
00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:33,840
Speaker 5: In the news.

648
00:35:34,719 --> 00:35:38,480
Speaker 4: But I wanted to ask you, Brian, about some of

649
00:35:38,519 --> 00:35:42,199
your performances. You have done tons of performances, and I

650
00:35:42,239 --> 00:35:45,480
wonder if there's ever been a time where a joke

651
00:35:45,559 --> 00:35:49,280
has led to a surprising reaction, or where science and

652
00:35:49,360 --> 00:35:53,239
humor has really resonated unexpectedly with an audience or someone

653
00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:53,920
in particular.

654
00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:55,519
Speaker 2: I've had a lot of interesting experience.

655
00:35:55,519 --> 00:35:57,719
Speaker 3: One thing that it doesn't quite fit the second half

656
00:35:57,760 --> 00:36:01,840
of that, but I was involved in this Starmas festival

657
00:36:02,400 --> 00:36:05,800
like Star and Music put together, okay, and it's the

658
00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:10,960
brainchild of Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May, Brian May

659
00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:19,079
and his friend an astrophysicist, Garrick Israelian, And it's a

660
00:36:19,159 --> 00:36:24,039
festival of music and science, art and science. And I've

661
00:36:24,039 --> 00:36:27,400
participated a couple times. Once was in it was the

662
00:36:27,400 --> 00:36:32,280
fiftieth Annivert. It was two thousand and nine, the fiftieth

663
00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:39,400
anniversary of the Apollo eleven moon landings, and it was

664
00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:42,639
in Zurich and a bunch of Apollo people were there

665
00:36:43,159 --> 00:36:46,599
and I was on stage and in the front row

666
00:36:46,760 --> 00:36:49,079
right in front of me were Peter Gabriel and Brian

667
00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:52,039
Eno sitting next to each other. Wow, And down the

668
00:36:52,159 --> 00:36:55,760
row was buzz Aldrin and I forget who was in

669
00:36:55,760 --> 00:36:57,960
the front row, but other like Brian may might have

670
00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:00,679
been a couple of rows back and and other people

671
00:37:00,840 --> 00:37:07,480
other Apollo uh characters, astronauts and mission control people and uh,

672
00:37:07,519 --> 00:37:10,400
it was just phenomen and all just all the Nobel

673
00:37:10,719 --> 00:37:11,519
Prize winners.

674
00:37:11,639 --> 00:37:15,159
Speaker 2: But just like that's an interesting position again.

675
00:37:16,039 --> 00:37:18,119
Speaker 3: I was a science nerd, kind of wanted to be

676
00:37:18,159 --> 00:37:23,199
a rock star, chose not to go into science, became

677
00:37:23,239 --> 00:37:29,000
a comedian, and I end up in some weird places sometimes.

678
00:37:29,880 --> 00:37:34,800
One time, you know, uh, you know the SAIFU conference.

679
00:37:35,480 --> 00:37:40,719
That's uh, it's an annual event sponsored by Google and

680
00:37:40,840 --> 00:37:45,920
O'Reilly Media and it's held I'm.

681
00:37:45,800 --> 00:37:46,599
Speaker 1: A computer nerd.

682
00:37:46,679 --> 00:37:50,760
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, yeah, and it's held at the Google Plex.

683
00:37:51,039 --> 00:37:53,760
And one time I was in sort of an unconference

684
00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:57,920
and I did a session where I performed and I

685
00:37:58,079 --> 00:38:00,840
brought up Pluto being demoted with This was about two

686
00:38:00,840 --> 00:38:02,760
thousand and eight and it only happened in the past

687
00:38:02,800 --> 00:38:03,599
couple of years.

688
00:38:03,800 --> 00:38:06,159
Speaker 2: And you know, here's here's a little.

689
00:38:05,920 --> 00:38:10,400
Speaker 3: Funny joke where I go I solicit like like people bombed.

690
00:38:10,440 --> 00:38:12,599
You know, when you go Pluto was demoted, a lot

691
00:38:12,599 --> 00:38:15,360
of people are like oh, And then I'd ask if

692
00:38:15,360 --> 00:38:18,079
anyone was like on board with it, like pro And

693
00:38:18,119 --> 00:38:21,559
then if some people give some enthusiasm towards demoting Pluto,

694
00:38:21,599 --> 00:38:24,880
I would go, oh, what you know, what's your problem

695
00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:27,480
with Pluto? You know what, why do you hate Pluto?

696
00:38:27,679 --> 00:38:30,639
And then I go cold, distant. I don't want to

697
00:38:30,679 --> 00:38:32,079
be in a plutonic relationship.

698
00:38:36,519 --> 00:38:37,039
Speaker 1: I like that.

699
00:38:37,119 --> 00:38:39,840
Speaker 3: But I knew there was an astronomer in the room,

700
00:38:40,119 --> 00:38:43,320
and it was brother Guy Consemanno, who is now the

701
00:38:43,400 --> 00:38:48,480
director of the Vatican Observatory. But for years, from two

702
00:38:48,519 --> 00:38:50,679
thousand and eight, I told this story because when I

703
00:38:50,719 --> 00:38:54,400
met him there, he had a great job title.

704
00:38:54,760 --> 00:38:58,360
Speaker 2: He was curator of the Vatican Meteorite Collection.

705
00:38:59,280 --> 00:39:01,000
Speaker 1: Wow, did you know the.

706
00:39:01,039 --> 00:39:02,719
Speaker 2: Vatican had a meteorite collection?

707
00:39:03,119 --> 00:39:03,480
Speaker 1: He did?

708
00:39:03,840 --> 00:39:05,400
Speaker 2: Would that look on your business card?

709
00:39:05,800 --> 00:39:09,000
Speaker 1: But he eventually was promoted to it's nice for them

710
00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:10,960
to have something concrete coming from heaven.

711
00:39:10,840 --> 00:39:15,559
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think middle postcards.

712
00:39:16,480 --> 00:39:20,400
Speaker 3: He's like a planetary geologist, so he studied media rights

713
00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:24,079
and the early solar system, and and so I knew

714
00:39:24,119 --> 00:39:25,119
there was an astronomer.

715
00:39:25,239 --> 00:39:26,960
Speaker 2: I told this story for years on stage.

716
00:39:26,960 --> 00:39:28,719
Speaker 3: I knew there was an astronomer in there, so I said,

717
00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:32,159
brother guy, how did you feel about Pluto being demoted?

718
00:39:32,320 --> 00:39:35,119
And he said I was on the committee that decided,

719
00:39:35,599 --> 00:39:39,800
and the room laughed really hard and then they hissed

720
00:39:39,840 --> 00:39:44,639
him and it was so beautiful, and well, it's like,

721
00:39:45,760 --> 00:39:50,280
you know, uh, I love this career path because you know,

722
00:39:50,880 --> 00:39:53,519
in a regular comedy club, what are the odds that

723
00:39:53,599 --> 00:39:56,280
one of the people on the committee that decides the.

724
00:39:56,280 --> 00:39:58,719
Speaker 2: Who is in the audience.

725
00:40:00,440 --> 00:40:02,920
Speaker 1: Working right, you know, right exactly, he should have what

726
00:40:02,960 --> 00:40:03,559
are you doing here?

727
00:40:03,679 --> 00:40:08,679
Speaker 2: Get back to your job, sir. So that was kind

728
00:40:08,679 --> 00:40:09,000
of funny.

729
00:40:09,079 --> 00:40:11,159
Speaker 3: The other thing that happens is sometimes you write a

730
00:40:11,239 --> 00:40:14,719
joke and you're just you just try to think of

731
00:40:14,719 --> 00:40:17,159
the most absurd thing. When I was a kid, I

732
00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:18,440
did have sea monkeys.

733
00:40:18,639 --> 00:40:19,159
Speaker 2: So there's this.

734
00:40:19,239 --> 00:40:22,960
Speaker 3: Nugget of gruth, and then I just extrapolated because what

735
00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:26,800
was always funny to me is there's no monkey involved,

736
00:40:26,800 --> 00:40:27,760
but the packaging.

737
00:40:27,880 --> 00:40:31,480
Speaker 2: You know, they're they're Ryan shrimp, right, But the packaging

738
00:40:31,760 --> 00:40:32,559
is amazing.

739
00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:36,000
Speaker 3: It shows it's like cartoonish and it shows herds of

740
00:40:36,039 --> 00:40:40,920
sea monkeys and they're riding seahorses. So purely so the

741
00:40:40,920 --> 00:40:45,519
the comedic mind just goes from there. Now this is

742
00:40:45,559 --> 00:40:49,320
pure fantasy. It's like sea monkeys riding seahorses. So the

743
00:40:49,440 --> 00:40:53,400
joke I wrote is I bought mine a whole I

744
00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:56,440
bought mine. Oh is that what I said? A whole

745
00:40:56,480 --> 00:41:00,760
herd of seahorses and seahorses eat sea monkeys.

746
00:41:00,840 --> 00:41:02,239
Speaker 2: They're like, hey, Brian shrimp.

747
00:41:02,639 --> 00:41:04,480
Speaker 3: So I just wrote that as a joke, because what's

748
00:41:04,519 --> 00:41:06,599
the most Because that's like, like I used to be

749
00:41:06,599 --> 00:41:07,320
an astronomer.

750
00:41:07,960 --> 00:41:10,039
Speaker 2: What's the worst thing? What's a joke?

751
00:41:10,239 --> 00:41:13,039
Speaker 3: Like, what's the most absurd thing that can happen? That's

752
00:41:13,079 --> 00:41:16,199
a story in just one line. I used to be

753
00:41:16,239 --> 00:41:20,559
an astronomer, but I got stuck on the day shift. Eh, joke,

754
00:41:21,000 --> 00:41:24,679
you know what's the worst thing that could happen? So similarly,

755
00:41:25,840 --> 00:41:29,960
hey see, sea monkeys are riding seahorses. Buy them seahorses,

756
00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:32,960
and the seahorses eat them. But you know what, one

757
00:41:32,960 --> 00:41:34,519
time a guy came up to me after the show

758
00:41:34,519 --> 00:41:37,159
and he goes, hey, I used to raise sea horses

759
00:41:37,679 --> 00:41:40,719
and that's what we fed them, Brian shrimp. So I

760
00:41:40,760 --> 00:41:43,800
totally made an absurd joke that turned out to be true.

761
00:41:44,480 --> 00:41:47,159
Oh well, and you know what, let me tell you

762
00:41:47,159 --> 00:41:50,360
another that's not very sciencey, but it's just ridiculous.

763
00:41:50,559 --> 00:41:51,679
Speaker 2: Remember when George W.

764
00:41:51,760 --> 00:41:54,760
Speaker 3: Bush was president, Remember one time he fell off his bicycle.

765
00:41:54,840 --> 00:41:56,719
This made the news that he fell off his bike,

766
00:41:56,800 --> 00:41:59,440
maybe skinned his knee. And my joke was that the

767
00:41:59,519 --> 00:42:01,639
last time that a president fell off of a bicycle,

768
00:42:02,119 --> 00:42:04,480
it was Grover Cleveland and it was one of those

769
00:42:04,519 --> 00:42:08,079
bikes with the jem Yes, okay, but I didn't have

770
00:42:08,119 --> 00:42:10,800
that word. I kind of riffed that, and I and

771
00:42:11,320 --> 00:42:14,239
then later when I read so I riffed that, I

772
00:42:14,280 --> 00:42:16,960
said Grover Cleveland because off the top of my head,

773
00:42:17,119 --> 00:42:20,239
that was the funniest name of a president that I

774
00:42:20,239 --> 00:42:22,360
could think of. So I looked at the list of

775
00:42:22,400 --> 00:42:26,960
presidents and it was like, oh, that is the funniest name.

776
00:42:28,880 --> 00:42:30,519
Speaker 2: Millard Fillmore, I guess is kind.

777
00:42:30,440 --> 00:42:33,519
Speaker 3: Of funny, but Grover Cleveland, I think I'll stand by

778
00:42:33,519 --> 00:42:35,400
this that. When I looked over, it's like, no, that

779
00:42:35,599 --> 00:42:36,519
is the funniest name.

780
00:42:36,559 --> 00:42:38,320
Speaker 2: So that stands. And then I looked up.

781
00:42:38,800 --> 00:42:43,920
Speaker 3: He is the first president who served two non consecutive terms,

782
00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:47,679
and during one of them, the penny farthing bicycle happened

783
00:42:47,679 --> 00:42:50,760
to become popular. That joke turned out I riffed it

784
00:42:50,960 --> 00:42:53,760
and it was the funniest name and the right time period.

785
00:42:54,079 --> 00:42:58,079
Speaker 1: That's really cool, nice, ridiculous.

786
00:42:58,719 --> 00:43:01,320
Speaker 3: But then you know what sends you knew Bill Hicks,

787
00:43:01,559 --> 00:43:04,719
here's this. I took this really to heart. Different comedian.

788
00:43:05,519 --> 00:43:08,000
One time I was in I've worked a couple of

789
00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:09,199
times with Emo Phillips.

790
00:43:09,679 --> 00:43:11,360
Speaker 2: Many people have called him like.

791
00:43:11,440 --> 00:43:15,400
Speaker 3: The best joke writer in God like, he's pretty brilliant

792
00:43:15,400 --> 00:43:18,800
for a long long time. And one time I worked

793
00:43:18,800 --> 00:43:20,679
with him in San Francisco and then I ran I

794
00:43:20,920 --> 00:43:24,159
did a guest set or something at a club in Canada,

795
00:43:24,599 --> 00:43:28,360
in Toronto, and I was like, hey, you know, hey, Emo,

796
00:43:28,400 --> 00:43:28,719
I don't know.

797
00:43:28,679 --> 00:43:31,280
Speaker 2: If you remember me, And that's the joke of mine.

798
00:43:31,320 --> 00:43:33,159
He remembered. He goes, you had that great.

799
00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:37,360
Speaker 3: Joke about Grover Cleveland fallen, and I was like, oh

800
00:43:37,400 --> 00:43:41,639
my god, yeah, just like what a great joke for

801
00:43:41,719 --> 00:43:44,039
him to have remembered, and just that he remembered anything,

802
00:43:44,119 --> 00:43:45,119
and it was that joke.

803
00:43:45,360 --> 00:43:47,480
Speaker 2: It was like, wow, that felt really good.

804
00:43:48,000 --> 00:43:49,800
Speaker 4: Sweet.

805
00:43:54,199 --> 00:43:57,960
Speaker 1: So, since this is monster talk, are there myths or

806
00:43:58,039 --> 00:44:03,679
legends or monstrous topics you find particularly interesting or fun

807
00:44:03,880 --> 00:44:05,480
to deconstruct scientifically?

808
00:44:06,079 --> 00:44:08,119
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, In fact, that's the key.

809
00:44:08,400 --> 00:44:11,280
Speaker 3: That's that's what's But isn't that almost the definition of

810
00:44:11,320 --> 00:44:17,039
being a nerd is to like deconstruct something scientifically, something

811
00:44:17,079 --> 00:44:20,679
that doesn't really need something supernatural that doesn't need to

812
00:44:20,679 --> 00:44:21,519
be constructed.

813
00:44:22,599 --> 00:44:23,679
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know what.

814
00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:28,559
Speaker 3: I I love don't Okay, not a classic monster, but

815
00:44:28,599 --> 00:44:31,159
the Invisible Man.

816
00:44:31,800 --> 00:44:37,239
Speaker 2: And vampires. Let's say vampires. First.

817
00:44:38,920 --> 00:44:41,159
Speaker 1: My wife's vampire racist. She hates vampires.

818
00:44:43,159 --> 00:44:45,280
Speaker 2: Did she did? She have a bad experience with one?

819
00:44:45,320 --> 00:44:48,280
Speaker 1: I know, you know, she she's you know, honestly, this

820
00:44:48,360 --> 00:44:50,159
has really been a really struggle for me because I

821
00:44:50,440 --> 00:44:52,360
love horror movies and she doesn't want to watch any

822
00:44:52,440 --> 00:44:55,679
vampire movies. It kills me, she says, there they're supposed

823
00:44:55,719 --> 00:44:57,679
to be so scary, but there's a thousand ways to

824
00:44:57,760 --> 00:45:01,159
kill them. It's ridiculous, you know. So, I mean, the really,

825
00:45:01,239 --> 00:45:04,559
the really DAGs unless you have sunlight, are salt exactly right?

826
00:45:04,559 --> 00:45:07,159
Speaker 3: Well, that's the sunlight.

827
00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:08,320
Speaker 2: Here's something interesting.

828
00:45:08,400 --> 00:45:10,840
Speaker 3: So the first of all, for the pony side, I

829
00:45:10,840 --> 00:45:14,079
thought a great title for something would be vampires have

830
00:45:14,159 --> 00:45:17,320
no reflections, but have that second meaning.

831
00:45:17,119 --> 00:45:21,800
Speaker 2: Of like no internal uh reflections? Vampires don't.

832
00:45:21,840 --> 00:45:24,400
Speaker 3: Ever, So I had this joke about what it's like

833
00:45:24,480 --> 00:45:27,000
to get a haircut when you wear glasses and they

834
00:45:27,199 --> 00:45:28,639
remove your glasses at the.

835
00:45:28,559 --> 00:45:30,599
Speaker 2: Start of the haircut, and then you don't have access

836
00:45:30,639 --> 00:45:30,960
to them.

837
00:45:31,079 --> 00:45:33,440
Speaker 1: Yes, and I have no idea.

838
00:45:33,719 --> 00:45:36,719
Speaker 3: And now so I would segue from that into the

839
00:45:36,760 --> 00:45:39,920
fact that vampires have no reflections, and I think that's

840
00:45:39,920 --> 00:45:41,960
why they always end up with that same stupid haircut

841
00:45:42,000 --> 00:45:42,840
with a little point.

842
00:45:42,639 --> 00:45:45,480
Speaker 2: Coming down the hair. You know, they can't.

843
00:45:47,639 --> 00:45:50,519
Speaker 3: And uh, and then what I like to think about

844
00:45:50,559 --> 00:45:55,320
and this again, this is like applying science. Uh, are

845
00:45:55,400 --> 00:45:59,440
critical thinking in a place that you normally wouldn't. But like,

846
00:46:01,039 --> 00:46:05,159
vampires are invisible. They have no reflections that you can't

847
00:46:05,199 --> 00:46:08,480
see them in a mirror. Okay, Like, even if I

848
00:46:08,559 --> 00:46:12,039
accept that, how come we can't see their clothes.

849
00:46:11,679 --> 00:46:15,079
Speaker 2: In the mirror? Are they special vampire clothes?

850
00:46:15,239 --> 00:46:18,119
Speaker 3: Do they buy them from special tailors that only stay

851
00:46:18,159 --> 00:46:19,400
open from dust till dawn?

852
00:46:20,000 --> 00:46:25,079
Speaker 2: You know, catering to a catering to a vampire client.

853
00:46:25,159 --> 00:46:28,320
Speaker 3: Tell and then if a vampire, if you wore a

854
00:46:28,400 --> 00:46:31,800
vampire's clothes, would see this is the scientific method.

855
00:46:32,159 --> 00:46:34,480
Speaker 2: If you wore a science of vampire's.

856
00:46:34,000 --> 00:46:36,800
Speaker 3: Clothes, would that render you invisible in a mirror? If

857
00:46:36,800 --> 00:46:38,559
a vampire wore your clothes, would he.

858
00:46:38,639 --> 00:46:41,639
Speaker 2: Just look goofy? So that was a that's an old joke.

859
00:46:41,920 --> 00:46:45,840
Speaker 3: But also, vampires have a problem with sunlight, as your

860
00:46:45,880 --> 00:46:49,119
wife points out, but they have no problem going out

861
00:46:49,239 --> 00:46:52,800
under a full moon and moonlight is just reflected sunlight,

862
00:46:53,440 --> 00:47:00,320
so you would think, yeah, But but here's the thing,

863
00:47:00,440 --> 00:47:02,960
I can also play the other side of that. You know,

864
00:47:03,800 --> 00:47:05,519
I was gonna look this up, but we don't have

865
00:47:05,599 --> 00:47:08,480
to know the spectrum of moonlight is not exactly the

866
00:47:08,480 --> 00:47:14,400
same as sunlight because some wavelengths are going to go

867
00:47:14,480 --> 00:47:17,840
right through the moon, some are absorbed, and it's only

868
00:47:17,880 --> 00:47:22,039
what's reflected. So this could actually help us understand vampires

869
00:47:22,039 --> 00:47:26,719
a little better. Clearly, the sunlight that's reflected by the

870
00:47:26,719 --> 00:47:30,599
moon isn't problematic. So there are some frequencies of light

871
00:47:30,679 --> 00:47:33,360
that are problematic, but it's not the ones reflected by

872
00:47:33,360 --> 00:47:36,599
the moon. So that's kind of fun to be constructed.

873
00:47:36,599 --> 00:47:40,280
And that's not even necessarily funny, but just nerdy. But

874
00:47:40,320 --> 00:47:45,119
the invisible man, the invisible van is great because just

875
00:47:45,159 --> 00:47:48,280
think about the challenges of being invisible. It's hard to

876
00:47:48,280 --> 00:47:51,320
get a taxi or a waiter. People are bumping into

877
00:47:51,360 --> 00:47:54,079
you and stepping on your toes. But here's the big thing,

878
00:47:54,599 --> 00:47:57,360
here's the where the critical thinking comes in. If if

879
00:47:57,400 --> 00:48:01,679
you're invisible, then you would also be blind wind.

880
00:48:02,039 --> 00:48:05,000
Speaker 1: Yes, I've thought about them many times because.

881
00:48:04,880 --> 00:48:07,920
Speaker 3: Your retina, you know, like the way we see light

882
00:48:08,239 --> 00:48:11,159
shines on the retina and it's red. But if the

883
00:48:11,199 --> 00:48:14,199
retina is invisible and transparent, then light would pass right

884
00:48:14,199 --> 00:48:16,599
through it and you would be blind and invisible.

885
00:48:17,199 --> 00:48:18,079
Speaker 4: Never thought of that.

886
00:48:18,119 --> 00:48:21,800
Speaker 2: And you know what. I was talking to Neil dress

887
00:48:21,840 --> 00:48:26,880
Tyson once and he immediately said that HG. Wells. You know,

888
00:48:26,880 --> 00:48:28,639
there have been a lot of invisible.

889
00:48:28,199 --> 00:48:31,880
Speaker 3: Man stories, but the originator more than one hundred years ago, HG.

890
00:48:32,000 --> 00:48:32,360
Speaker 2: Wells.

891
00:48:32,840 --> 00:48:36,280
Speaker 3: He said, he addressed that that actually, if you looked

892
00:48:36,280 --> 00:48:42,039
really closely, his retinas weren't completely invisible, like and that's like, wow,

893
00:48:42,079 --> 00:48:44,280
that's a reparkable idea that he came up with this

894
00:48:44,400 --> 00:48:46,719
idea and he thought it through to that level of

895
00:48:46,840 --> 00:48:49,519
like that's problematic and he had to have some reason

896
00:48:49,559 --> 00:48:53,880
why the way he became invisible, the substances didn't work

897
00:48:53,960 --> 00:48:57,719
very well on the retina, and so pretty cool that HG.

898
00:48:57,800 --> 00:49:02,039
Wells addressed that, I think since then, no makers of

899
00:49:02,159 --> 00:49:08,039
invisible man Films bothered to it to address that, and

900
00:49:08,119 --> 00:49:11,800
also like, uh, I have one a little bit that

901
00:49:11,840 --> 00:49:16,199
I always liked saying that I'm working on a movie script,

902
00:49:16,320 --> 00:49:17,239
kind of a B movie.

903
00:49:17,840 --> 00:49:18,239
Speaker 2: Uh.

904
00:49:18,280 --> 00:49:26,079
Speaker 3: It's called No, No, just a bee movie. It's uh,

905
00:49:26,480 --> 00:49:30,920
it's called The Incredible Shrinking Man meets the Amazing Colossal Man.

906
00:49:31,840 --> 00:49:35,519
Speaker 5: And on the day they meet their regular size, but

907
00:49:35,639 --> 00:49:38,960
then they pass through you know, a radioactive cloud or

908
00:49:38,960 --> 00:49:42,239
something over launch, and one starts shrinking incredibly and the

909
00:49:42,280 --> 00:49:46,360
other starts growing amazingly, and it threatens their ability to

910
00:49:46,400 --> 00:49:47,119
stay friends.

911
00:49:48,039 --> 00:49:49,960
Speaker 2: So then there's a scene towards.

912
00:49:49,639 --> 00:49:54,159
Speaker 3: The end where a very sad, amazing, amazingly sad colossal

913
00:49:54,199 --> 00:49:57,719
man to his mother, and his mom goes, hey, whatever

914
00:49:57,760 --> 00:49:58,840
happened to your little friend?

915
00:49:59,119 --> 00:50:01,039
Speaker 2: And yeah, we grew apart.

916
00:50:01,760 --> 00:50:04,280
Speaker 1: Oh that's pretty good. That's pretty good.

917
00:50:04,719 --> 00:50:06,239
Speaker 2: What not?

918
00:50:06,320 --> 00:50:11,280
Speaker 3: Too long ago I tried to get chat GPT. I

919
00:50:11,360 --> 00:50:15,239
was like, Hey, let me see what chat GPT can

920
00:50:15,280 --> 00:50:17,519
do to flesh this out. I gave it that and

921
00:50:17,599 --> 00:50:20,960
like flesh out a story, and it was a massive failure.

922
00:50:21,440 --> 00:50:25,000
I went many iterations. But the thing that is funny

923
00:50:25,039 --> 00:50:29,960
with with LLM sometimes is that no matter how much

924
00:50:30,000 --> 00:50:32,320
I said it wrapped it up. It always wanted to

925
00:50:32,320 --> 00:50:33,920
be a happy ending, and I'm like, no, there's no

926
00:50:33,960 --> 00:50:37,960
happy ending. He keeps growing and he keeps shrinking. There

927
00:50:38,039 --> 00:50:41,159
is no no, no stop it. And it's like it

928
00:50:41,199 --> 00:50:43,400
takes your like I don't want a happy ending. It

929
00:50:43,400 --> 00:50:46,320
doesn't end, and it just couldn't get around that it had.

930
00:50:46,719 --> 00:50:48,360
Speaker 2: Something like that was a happening.

931
00:50:48,679 --> 00:50:51,760
Speaker 1: And you know, I've never thought of this before just now,

932
00:50:51,760 --> 00:50:53,840
but I guess you know, to the Romans, it wouldn't

933
00:50:53,840 --> 00:50:58,280
be lm, it'd be fifty to fifty one thousand.

934
00:50:58,440 --> 00:50:59,960
Speaker 2: Do you know what that reminds me of? Good?

935
00:51:00,079 --> 00:51:01,920
Speaker 3: I have an old note on the page and it's

936
00:51:02,000 --> 00:51:04,079
like I never used it. But it's like, instead of

937
00:51:04,079 --> 00:51:05,679
saying I've got a million of them, it's like I.

938
00:51:05,639 --> 00:51:09,440
Speaker 2: Got ten to the sixth of them. Not that the science.

939
00:51:09,119 --> 00:51:12,559
Speaker 1: Comedire even better than science, Yes, that's good.

940
00:51:13,360 --> 00:51:17,480
Speaker 3: Also, you know ghosts, you know without doing the whole routine,

941
00:51:17,719 --> 00:51:20,480
you know, I had a routine about ghosts that it's like,

942
00:51:20,480 --> 00:51:22,360
I don't think ghosts are real because if they were real,

943
00:51:22,400 --> 00:51:23,119
they'd be naked.

944
00:51:23,519 --> 00:51:25,280
Speaker 2: Like I don't see how you any way around it.

945
00:51:25,320 --> 00:51:27,360
Speaker 3: At the point that you give up your physical body

946
00:51:27,599 --> 00:51:29,360
transcend the material realm?

947
00:51:29,880 --> 00:51:30,360
Speaker 2: Why are you.

948
00:51:30,360 --> 00:51:32,960
Speaker 3: Still wearing clothes? You know, like, are you little embarrassed,

949
00:51:33,280 --> 00:51:37,800
you know, shy? You know, maybe by your size? But uh,

950
00:51:37,920 --> 00:51:41,320
and also what is it is it? Is it the

951
00:51:41,360 --> 00:51:44,440
clothes that you wore in real life or is it

952
00:51:44,440 --> 00:51:47,239
that gown that you apparently get issued, you know, the

953
00:51:47,280 --> 00:51:49,960
white gown when you check into the afterlife.

954
00:51:50,239 --> 00:51:51,760
Speaker 2: So there was a little more to that, But I

955
00:51:51,800 --> 00:51:53,000
just think I.

956
00:51:52,880 --> 00:51:56,320
Speaker 3: Always thought, like I had a joke about how snooze

957
00:51:56,320 --> 00:51:58,199
alarms tend to be nine minutes and why don't they

958
00:51:58,199 --> 00:51:59,000
just round up to ten?

959
00:51:59,119 --> 00:52:01,800
Speaker 2: I always thought I was much of my humor is

960
00:52:01,960 --> 00:52:04,639
rational early show.

961
00:52:04,679 --> 00:52:07,239
Speaker 3: I used to call my show rational comedy for an

962
00:52:07,280 --> 00:52:08,280
irrational planet.

963
00:52:08,559 --> 00:52:10,559
Speaker 2: But so much of it is this if ghost surreal,

964
00:52:10,599 --> 00:52:13,840
they'd be naked. Duh, you know, like like it's just being.

965
00:52:13,760 --> 00:52:18,199
Speaker 1: Rational, well, combining time and ghosts. This has come up

966
00:52:18,199 --> 00:52:21,519
a lot with Karen and I. There's this thing in

967
00:52:21,519 --> 00:52:25,199
the supernatural world where there's these times that are magical

968
00:52:25,280 --> 00:52:30,519
times midnight, it's magical. Three fix GM is magical, and

969
00:52:30,519 --> 00:52:34,320
it's like, wait a minute, do the ghosts, like are

970
00:52:34,320 --> 00:52:37,880
they aware of time zones and time zone changes? And

971
00:52:38,000 --> 00:52:40,360
like the Eastern Standard, all that stuff, Like it really

972
00:52:40,360 --> 00:52:41,960
doesn't make a lot of sense, you know.

973
00:52:42,840 --> 00:52:45,360
Speaker 2: And on so many levels, it's super scary.

974
00:52:45,119 --> 00:52:48,639
Speaker 1: In a horror movie, and you know, they have it

975
00:52:48,719 --> 00:52:52,039
really does break down, which is good because you a

976
00:52:52,159 --> 00:52:55,039
joke can make you sort of really you know cut,

977
00:52:55,159 --> 00:52:58,960
Oh oh yeah, maybe that's not the terrifying thing that

978
00:52:59,079 --> 00:53:00,679
was keeping me up at now, know, like maybe I

979
00:53:00,719 --> 00:53:02,960
can let that go because it is kind of ridiculous.

980
00:53:03,000 --> 00:53:05,360
Speaker 2: So yeah, you know what you just made me think of.

981
00:53:06,400 --> 00:53:08,519
Speaker 3: What I always thought of as my favorite Isaac Asimov

982
00:53:08,599 --> 00:53:12,039
of science fiction novel is this great book called The

983
00:53:12,079 --> 00:53:17,440
Gods Themselves, and it has to do with communicating with

984
00:53:17,760 --> 00:53:20,760
like another universe. And in this other universe, they're these

985
00:53:20,800 --> 00:53:23,639
creatures that they're less dense than.

986
00:53:23,559 --> 00:53:25,079
Speaker 2: Us, like by about a third.

987
00:53:25,199 --> 00:53:28,159
Speaker 3: Like they're so they're a little ghosty, they're they're they're

988
00:53:28,360 --> 00:53:32,079
much less dense. And their version, I think it's it's

989
00:53:32,480 --> 00:53:35,079
sex and more is that three of them.

990
00:53:35,519 --> 00:53:37,280
Speaker 2: Merge and become one entity.

991
00:53:37,599 --> 00:53:40,519
Speaker 3: And I don't think they remember what that entity does

992
00:53:40,639 --> 00:53:44,440
when they're separated. But then like imagine that's like like

993
00:53:44,480 --> 00:53:46,559
maybe they're each about a third our density, and then

994
00:53:46,599 --> 00:53:52,679
they become for a while a creature that's yeah, but

995
00:53:52,760 --> 00:53:56,679
here was like a weird like his humorous extrapolation, just

996
00:53:56,719 --> 00:53:59,480
the way science fiction does and humor.

997
00:53:59,599 --> 00:54:03,079
Speaker 2: As a is like this extrapolation where.

998
00:54:05,400 --> 00:54:10,719
Speaker 3: Where when they're young, sometimes because they're wispy, if one

999
00:54:10,760 --> 00:54:14,079
of them, like a child, brushes against some furniture or

1000
00:54:14,079 --> 00:54:17,639
a wall, they'll pass through it a little bit and

1001
00:54:17,679 --> 00:54:19,760
it kind of feels good, and the parents will go,

1002
00:54:19,840 --> 00:54:24,320
don't do that, because it's like it's like masturbatory and

1003
00:54:24,480 --> 00:54:26,760
it's like, wow, what it would I just that's like

1004
00:54:27,039 --> 00:54:29,400
I don't remember much about the book. That's one of

1005
00:54:29,400 --> 00:54:32,079
the things that retained because it was like not just

1006
00:54:32,119 --> 00:54:35,519
because it was a dirty joke, but because it's like, wow,

1007
00:54:35,719 --> 00:54:40,760
what a wild extrapolation from if you have a world

1008
00:54:40,760 --> 00:54:43,239
like this, and just like in that.

1009
00:54:43,199 --> 00:54:49,679
Speaker 1: Way, yeah, and what I was like, So somehow that

1010
00:54:49,719 --> 00:54:50,519
related to comedy.

1011
00:54:50,519 --> 00:54:51,840
Speaker 3: I did sort of knock it out of my head

1012
00:54:51,880 --> 00:54:54,440
by calling attention to it. I didn't have it the

1013
00:54:54,440 --> 00:54:57,400
way the brain works, like, especially when you can remember

1014
00:54:57,639 --> 00:55:00,280
something like sometimes you come up with a joker in

1015
00:55:00,320 --> 00:55:02,960
the day and you don't write it down, and later

1016
00:55:03,079 --> 00:55:07,239
you're like, your memory is good enough to remember, Oh

1017
00:55:07,280 --> 00:55:10,480
I thought of something really funni earlier today, but not

1018
00:55:10,559 --> 00:55:13,519
good enough to remember what the actual thing, and then

1019
00:55:13,639 --> 00:55:16,519
maybe later when you're not thinking about it at all,

1020
00:55:17,320 --> 00:55:19,079
all of a sudden, it's like, here's that file.

1021
00:55:19,159 --> 00:55:20,079
Speaker 2: You You can.

1022
00:55:19,920 --> 00:55:22,719
Speaker 3: Go searching for a memory, you can go search for

1023
00:55:22,800 --> 00:55:25,679
a fact and you cannot access it, but you know

1024
00:55:25,800 --> 00:55:28,559
it's in there, and later it is served up to you.

1025
00:55:28,679 --> 00:55:30,320
Here's that file you were asking for.

1026
00:55:31,239 --> 00:55:31,760
Speaker 2: What is good?

1027
00:55:31,800 --> 00:55:32,639
Speaker 4: Tip of the tongue.

1028
00:55:32,840 --> 00:55:34,840
Speaker 2: What a weird play our brain work.

1029
00:55:35,239 --> 00:55:39,199
Speaker 1: I can only hope that the the lag between when

1030
00:55:39,239 --> 00:55:41,119
I need to recall something and when it shows up

1031
00:55:41,239 --> 00:55:44,280
is is because I now have so many more things

1032
00:55:44,280 --> 00:55:50,199
to sort through, not because they're falling apart.

1033
00:55:53,719 --> 00:55:57,239
Speaker 4: Well, Brian, we should really wrap things up. Unfortunately, we're

1034
00:55:57,280 --> 00:55:59,639
having looks of fun with this discussion. But you've already

1035
00:55:59,679 --> 00:56:04,639
mentioned vampires, and you've mentioned invisible men. And our final question,

1036
00:56:04,719 --> 00:56:08,079
ask signature question, if you will, is what's your favorite monster?

1037
00:56:09,559 --> 00:56:09,800
Speaker 2: You know?

1038
00:56:10,639 --> 00:56:16,760
Speaker 3: I think I'm gonna say the Frankenstein of the original

1039
00:56:16,800 --> 00:56:20,480
Frankenstein movie. I grew up on those monster movies and

1040
00:56:20,480 --> 00:56:24,440
I would have to like so it's it's Boris Karloff's Frankenstein.

1041
00:56:24,880 --> 00:56:29,280
And also Bela Lugosi's Dracula. Those are like most and

1042
00:56:29,320 --> 00:56:33,559
the Wolfman love those. But Frankenstein is kind of special because,

1043
00:56:33,559 --> 00:56:35,840
first of all, as a book, it's this great book

1044
00:56:35,880 --> 00:56:40,760
written by this extraordinarily young woman. It's often called the

1045
00:56:40,800 --> 00:56:44,239
first science the first true science fiction novel written by

1046
00:56:44,280 --> 00:56:50,440
this was she like seventeen, Mary Shelley, And interestingly, it

1047
00:56:50,519 --> 00:56:54,559
was sort of ripped out of the contemporary headlines the

1048
00:56:54,639 --> 00:56:59,880
idea of galvanism, and there were public demonstrations of you

1049
00:57:00,119 --> 00:57:05,039
was in electricity to animate dead tissue. And so this

1050
00:57:05,159 --> 00:57:08,760
young girl, Mary Shelley, took this idea that was current

1051
00:57:08,880 --> 00:57:12,960
scientific knowledge and and and in the public sphere, and

1052
00:57:13,000 --> 00:57:16,880
she wrote what many people consider the first true science

1053
00:57:16,880 --> 00:57:17,800
fiction novel because.

1054
00:57:17,639 --> 00:57:19,719
Speaker 2: It's about the science. And then so what a fact.

1055
00:57:19,800 --> 00:57:22,679
Speaker 3: Now, But that creature in the in the book isn't

1056
00:57:22,760 --> 00:57:26,760
very monstrous. It's so different from the movie version. But

1057
00:57:26,880 --> 00:57:29,400
I read the book much later and have so much

1058
00:57:29,440 --> 00:57:30,519
respect for it.

1059
00:57:30,519 --> 00:57:31,400
Speaker 2: It's so much fun.

1060
00:57:33,320 --> 00:57:36,960
Speaker 3: But I think it's the Boris Carlos Frankenstein because that

1061
00:57:37,039 --> 00:57:40,559
also the original movie was great and just what a

1062
00:57:40,880 --> 00:57:41,760
what a great monster.

1063
00:57:41,800 --> 00:57:43,559
Speaker 2: It's kind of typical, and I know he's one of

1064
00:57:43,599 --> 00:57:45,440
the number one monsters.

1065
00:57:45,559 --> 00:57:51,480
Speaker 1: But reason yeah, oh yeah, Now where do you come

1066
00:57:51,519 --> 00:57:57,760
down between the Monster nerd, between Frankenstein and Brida Frankenstein,

1067
00:57:58,280 --> 00:57:59,480
Which one do you like better?

1068
00:58:00,239 --> 00:58:03,760
Speaker 3: I can't say I know the movies well enough, okay

1069
00:58:03,920 --> 00:58:07,159
or for that, but I would say, I guess Frankenstein.

1070
00:58:07,360 --> 00:58:10,320
Why do you do some people prefer the Bride of Frankenstein.

1071
00:58:10,480 --> 00:58:14,559
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, because it's it's got uh the monster

1072
00:58:14,719 --> 00:58:17,679
talks and it's you know, in Young Frankenstin they do

1073
00:58:17,719 --> 00:58:19,920
the scene with the blind men in the cabin and

1074
00:58:19,960 --> 00:58:23,679
that that's riffing on the that scene from the Bride.

1075
00:58:23,840 --> 00:58:26,119
It's they're really good together. They work great. I mean

1076
00:58:26,159 --> 00:58:28,800
they it really does basically pick up right where the

1077
00:58:28,840 --> 00:58:31,239
first one ins and they're not very long, so well

1078
00:58:31,719 --> 00:58:32,320
three people.

1079
00:58:32,599 --> 00:58:35,519
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then there's also Young Frankenstein, which.

1080
00:58:35,280 --> 00:58:36,239
Speaker 1: Is so hilarious.

1081
00:58:36,599 --> 00:58:39,320
Speaker 3: But you know, in the book, people would be surprised

1082
00:58:39,320 --> 00:58:42,880
if they haven't read it the Monster that you know

1083
00:58:42,920 --> 00:58:44,880
what they you know what I finally did. I wish

1084
00:58:44,920 --> 00:58:46,639
I could tell you the number. I could check it

1085
00:58:46,639 --> 00:58:50,360
real quick, but I always wondered. I noticed that she

1086
00:58:50,639 --> 00:58:55,840
uses the word wretch and wretched so frequently that the

1087
00:58:55,880 --> 00:58:58,159
other day, I was like, Hey, I wonder if I

1088
00:58:58,159 --> 00:59:02,760
could just ask Chad gft and and it's like, hey,

1089
00:59:02,800 --> 00:59:05,039
can you tell me how many times she used the

1090
00:59:05,079 --> 00:59:09,760
word wretch and wretched and it totally answered I don't

1091
00:59:09,880 --> 00:59:15,039
know that. I okay, yeah, yeah. According to in the

1092
00:59:15,079 --> 00:59:19,719
Project Gutenberg Edition eighteen eighteen texts, wretch appears in the

1093
00:59:19,719 --> 00:59:23,360
book forty eight times, wretched thirty six times.

1094
00:59:23,360 --> 00:59:26,639
Speaker 2: That's eighty four versions of wretched reach.

1095
00:59:27,360 --> 00:59:28,639
Speaker 1: That's a lot of rech interesting.

1096
00:59:29,280 --> 00:59:33,880
Speaker 3: The monster is brilliant and narrates and is eloquent and smart,

1097
00:59:34,159 --> 00:59:34,840
and he's.

1098
00:59:34,679 --> 00:59:37,880
Speaker 1: One of the most philosophical walking corpses out there. Right, Yeah,

1099
00:59:37,920 --> 00:59:41,159
it really is exactly and one of the firsts.

1100
00:59:41,199 --> 00:59:43,639
Speaker 3: So they've only gone downhill, Like there, you had this

1101
00:59:43,719 --> 00:59:46,440
great model, but nobody else has lived up to it.

1102
00:59:47,000 --> 00:59:49,159
Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm actually pretty excited for some of the new

1103
00:59:49,199 --> 00:59:51,320
I want to see Giroma de Toro and they're doing

1104
00:59:51,360 --> 00:59:53,280
a new version with The Bride with Christian Bale. I

1105
00:59:53,280 --> 00:59:56,079
don't know. I love monsters, and you know, obviously we

1106
00:59:57,079 --> 01:00:00,400
want to blend monsters and science, and you really, wow

1107
01:00:00,639 --> 01:00:03,079
that that book does it right, man, it brings it

1108
01:00:03,239 --> 01:00:07,079
so absolutely. So that's a great answer. Thanks good bank

1109
01:00:07,119 --> 01:00:08,159
talk so much, Brian.

1110
01:00:09,199 --> 01:00:11,519
Speaker 3: I'm glad we we first talked about doing this, Karen

1111
01:00:11,519 --> 01:00:14,639
and I you know, I'm glad we uh got this.

1112
01:00:14,880 --> 01:00:18,239
Speaker 4: Back during COVID, so we were doing live shows on

1113
01:00:18,280 --> 01:00:21,119
YouTube and so we were we mean to get back

1114
01:00:21,119 --> 01:00:22,679
to that at some point too. So I have to

1115
01:00:22,679 --> 01:00:24,039
have you back on again.

1116
01:00:23,840 --> 01:00:25,800
Speaker 2: So we can be happy to it's so much more

1117
01:00:25,840 --> 01:00:30,119
to discuss. Yeah, good stuff, Thank you for having me monster.

1118
01:00:31,559 --> 01:00:35,119
Speaker 1: You've been listening to Monster Talk, the science show about monsters.

1119
01:00:35,480 --> 01:00:38,360
Speaker 2: I'm Blake Smith and I'm Karen Stolsner.

1120
01:00:39,559 --> 01:00:43,400
Speaker 1: You just heard science comedian Brian Mallow talking about comedy, science,

1121
01:00:43,400 --> 01:00:46,079
and the creative process. You can check out his work

1122
01:00:46,119 --> 01:00:49,079
at Sciencecomedian dot com and that's a great place to

1123
01:00:49,119 --> 01:00:51,400
find links to all of his social media and his

1124
01:00:51,480 --> 01:00:55,719
upcoming gigs. Monster Talks theme music it's still by Pete

1125
01:00:55,760 --> 01:01:00,360
Stealing Monkeys. I can't wait for October no matter what happens.

1126
01:01:00,360 --> 01:01:02,599
I planned to seriously catch up on some great horror

1127
01:01:02,599 --> 01:01:05,119
and monster flicks with my family this year, and we

1128
01:01:05,199 --> 01:01:06,199
hope you're excited to

1129
01:01:54,519 --> 01:01:56,960
Speaker 2: This has been a Monster House presentation