Like Whatever

We Tried to Beat It… We Did Not

• Heather Jolley and Nicole Barr

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SPEAKER_03:

Welcome to Like Whatever, a podcast for, by, and about Gen X. I'm Nicole, and this is my BFF Heather. Hello. Um, whew. So another snowstorm here. Yep. We had a nor'easter, which is a pain in the butt enough when it's warm outside. Yep. But instead it brought, well, here um where I live, we got 18 inches. Yeah. 15 hours or so.

SPEAKER_01:

That's about what we got to. I think it was uh 18.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

It was one of those rare storms where we got the worst of it. Yes. Um usually we're kind of tucked up in the in there. We can avoid some of it, but no.

SPEAKER_01:

It was uh it was something. So we're recording remotely, and it took us, oh I don't know, an hour to get our shit together here. That's how we roll. Yeah. So we might have this up on YouTube. We might not.

SPEAKER_03:

It would be nice if we did.

SPEAKER_01:

I'll try. But the YouTube, if I do put it up, will be unedited. So okay. Because I can't edit video. I can't I can't edit video. I'm not that's all right. That's above my page.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, so yeah, so the audio is a little funky again, but um we're we're gonna get mics so that when we have to do this again.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, we every time we have to do this, we say we need to get mics, and then we forget.

SPEAKER_01:

And then we're like, oh, we need to get mics. Then we get walloped with two feet of snow, and we're like, oh fuck. Yeah, like who knew? I know. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Um, but anyway, besides that, um couple sad deaths recently uh in the past few days. Uh Robert Carradine, um, as well as Katherine Short, the daughter of Martin Short, and they were both suicides. Yeah. Um, so yeah, this it was sad. So if you don't remember, Robert Carradine is the brother of David Carradine, and he was the lead role in Revenge of the Nerds, and he was the dad on that Hillary Duff show that my daughters used to watch. Oh, yeah. I can't remember what it's called, but yeah, I know. Anyway, beside the point. Um check in with your friends.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm trying to pull up the um suicide crisis line. I can't find it. I know it's 988, but I don't know. Right. Oh, there it is. So it's 1-800-273-8255 or 988. Uh if you if you need help and wish to reach out. Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_03:

So rest in peace to both of them. Um hopefully they're out of pain now.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah, it's one of those things that always you know how I feel about it every time I hear it, especially with him, because he was 71, and it's just like, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. One day it's probably gonna be me. So no.

SPEAKER_01:

Today was a rough one. Today I could have uh today was a rough today's been a rough day, so yeah, because of work. Yeah, I had no patience today. I had the patience of a gnat today, and it was just like literally I I'm tired uh because I've been trudging through two feet of snow. Um yesterday was we didn't work Monday. Well, I couldn't get we we were supposed to go to work. I had to call out. Uh we had to use annual leave. It's really fucking annoying, but whatever. Um I could not get to work because my windshield wiper flew off the car when I went to drive to work. So could not go to work without a windshield wiper, and um, so we didn't work till yesterday, and yesterday was just like oh god. Yeah. We had to first we had to dig the trucks out. Yeah, because there was still snow from the last snowstorm. Yeah. Yeah. So we had to dig the trucks out, and then I didn't even leave the office until almost noon, which like I am usually halfway done by noon, and it was it was just and so I'm exhausted today, too. My patience is very thin today. Okay. Well, I will try not to piss you off. I'm gonna try to do my very best to be cheer captain.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

So I do have a little rant for us before we get going, but I think it might be a good rant for you right now. Like you can relieve some some stress, but it's it's not serious. Um yeah, so I this came into my head when I was getting ready. By the way, I don't know if my lighting's good or not, but I was very happy with how my makeup turned out. And I worked on it extra hard because I'm compensating for the shit hair that I have. Um her hair is not that bad.

SPEAKER_01:

Her hair is not that bad.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, here's the thing, and I do get compliments on it, and I do appreciate it, although I'm such an asshole about it when I do, because somebody would be like, Oh my gosh, I love your hair, and I'm like, really? Like, I hate it. And their poor little faces drop. They're like, What? The problem is I don't have the hair I want. I've always had long dark hair. Um not thick hair by any means, but um stress and mostly menopause has done this to me. Yeah. And I just want us to talk a little bit about what menopause is like.

SPEAKER_00:

I feel like I need to get get it off my chest.

SPEAKER_01:

So if you are a uterus owner, or you have a uterus owner in her late 40s and 50s.

SPEAKER_03:

That was good. I was gonna make that point. Thank you. Uh you know, women, uh, please send us your stuff and we'll share it on the next show. Men, listen and take it in.

SPEAKER_01:

It it nobody, I mean, I remember when my mom went through menopause. It was like, wow, lady, like, what the hell? Like, one time my sister was in the middle of playing with the Nintendo, and my mom lost her shit about it and was like, you need to clean this up. And my sister was like, Okay, and my mom like grabbed it out of her hands and like threw it into the cabinet and was like, I told you to clean this up. And she's like, I'm actively playing it, mom. And I have now apologized to my mom for being mean when she was in menopause and being like, Lo, crazy lady. Because like you hear about the hot flashes, and yes, they're all yeah, they suck. But they are like the bottom rung of horrendousness. That is like baseline. I would live with hot flashes every day if I could get rid of everything else.

SPEAKER_00:

For real. The anger, you can it's it's a physical. It's physical, like it starts over. It's rage. It's rage. Yeah, it's it's it's physical.

SPEAKER_01:

Like it's it's over just nothing. Like you don't have any control over what you're angry about. None.

SPEAKER_03:

Nope, nope, nope.

SPEAKER_01:

And you just fly off the handle, like, and the whole time it's happening, you're like outside yourself, like you're being ridiculous about like this is really not that big of a deal.

SPEAKER_03:

Like menopause is saying, shut the fuck up.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, shut the fuck down, bitch. We're about to go off. And you're like, I I okay, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, yeah. All right, yeah. I just kind of wanted to share that it's it just sucks. It sucks. And your your ear holes itch.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my god, all the time. Yes, and and you can't scratch them because it's not a thing, yes, it is. Oh my god. Like the inside of now, I don't mean just like you know, take a Q-tip and that no, it's like behind the eardrum. Yeah, like long fingernails don't even get it. Like no, it's it's in there.

SPEAKER_03:

Terrible, it's terrible.

SPEAKER_01:

Hair loss, it's uh the rage, the hot flashes, the uncontrollable crying. Um it's uh it's your ear holes itch, frozen shoulder, or sometimes you just can't even move your shoulder.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh my god. I reached for my to plug in my um phone charger the wrong way the other night, and my arm's not been the same since.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

My shoulder's just fucked up now.

SPEAKER_01:

So if you're a uterus owner or you love a uterus owner, like we're sorry, but we have no control it there's no control. Zero control. Yeah, and it's not personal. No, it is not about the way you are chewing that is a problem. It's just your existing is a problem.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I yeah, I love it. So sorry.

SPEAKER_03:

Spot on no, I do, but yeah, definitely. Um ladies reach out and tell us what bugs you and and guys sorry, reach out and tell us some good coping skills, and we'll start with the guys next week.

SPEAKER_01:

Like just whatever you're doing, it doesn't matter. Like you could stop what you're doing and go and buy like whatever you think your uterus owner wants. Like normally when she had her period, I would buy her, you know, ice cream. Uh it's it doesn't matter. You're going to do the wrong thing. It it doesn't matter. Yep, yep. Yep. So I I would just back off and just let her come to you.

SPEAKER_03:

And tell her she's pretty.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

It'll go a long way. Yeah. All right. Oh, I feel better. Good. Um, yeah. And it and this and this topic reminds me too, I don't remember if I shared last week, but the movie If I had legs, I'd kick you. That's up for Oscar nomination, like for women. It's all focused on the main character, and it's her perspective taking care of a sick child and having a full-time job, and her husband has a job that keeps him away from home for weeks at a time. Yeah, it's it's intense. It's listed as a comedy on Netflix, and they lie because it is the darkest movie I've ever seen, but it's really good. Not the darkest I've ever seen, but it's very dark. So, yeah. Highly recommend that. For you ladies out there, if you need a good cry or you need to feel some rage. You won't talk about bad hair. And she like wants to kill him.

SPEAKER_01:

So you won't talk about bad hair. Look at these roots, girl. Look at these roots. Whatever. You're always fly.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm not. These roots are.

SPEAKER_03:

Alright, before we get into this week's topic, we want to ask you to like share rate review. Yes. Uh, you can find us wherever you listen to podcasts.

SPEAKER_01:

All the places.

SPEAKER_03:

Follow us on all the socials at like whatever pod. Uh we are on YouTube, and this video very met well may be on there. So unedited. Raw. Yeah. You want to see our funny looking selves? Jump on over. And send us an email to likewhateverpod at gmail.com. Oh, yeah, and we have a website. Uh uh, likewhatever.com. Likewhateverpod.com. Yep. Yep, yep, yep. Yep. Okay. So let's fuck around and find out about Michael Jackson's thriller album. So this week, um is the 46th anniversary. No. Not that. No, it was 1986. It went to wait. Yeah. I don't know. My brain can't do math right now. It's fine. I'm very, very tired. I haven't been sleeping well lately. Um, thanks, menopause. Um, thanks, menopause. Um thanks Obama. Anyway, this week is when the album hit number one and stayed there for 37 weeks. Wow. At some point in my script, I will get to the year and we'll clear all this up. But excellent. For now, you're just gonna have to wait. Just flip with it. My sources are Britannica.com, uh, that ericalper.com, PMA magazine.org, mentalfloss.com, and Americansongwriter.com. I did all the research this week. All right.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, wait, can I just say one thing real quick? All right. Camera, I'm sorry. Okay. I want to thank everybody for reaching out and um telling us how much they enjoyed last week's episode. I appreciate it. I worked very hard on that um to make it as exciting as I could. And I really appreciate you reaching out and um telling me. So thank you. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03:

And a special shout out to our friend that um messaged us a few days ago. Just you know who you are.

SPEAKER_01:

Free nights and weekends, go listen.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, that's right. I was thinking of his real name and not wanting to share that. But yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Free free nights and weekends, go check it out. Podcast. Free nights and weekends. He is very funny. Yes, go listen.

SPEAKER_03:

All right. Um, Thriller, the studio album by American singer and songwriter Michael Jackson, was released on November 30th, 1982. All right, Heather, do the math.

SPEAKER_00:

No. Where are we at? Nope. Oh, you want me to use a calculator? I can use a calculator. Here.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I can do that. Yeah, so I guess it was what 46 minus 1982. 44.

SPEAKER_03:

44, right? Yeah. All right. I beat you. I did mental math faster than you. I had to get the app. Well, and in all fairness, I'm usually like really, really quick with mental math.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't do math at all. Period. End of story.

SPEAKER_03:

My shoulders killing me and I can't sleep good.

SPEAKER_01:

I told you why. Girl, you gotta get on the HRT. Are you down with HRT? Yeah, you know me. Come on. Get on it.

SPEAKER_03:

I know I will. I I actually will have a conversation with my doctor about it.

SPEAKER_01:

Fuck that.

SPEAKER_00:

The doctor isn't gonna help your doctor's not gonna you gotta go. Where am I going to? MIDI. You gotta go to MIDI.com. Over the internet stuff? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You got to because your fucking doctor won't help you out at all.

SPEAKER_03:

They'll just tell you, oh well, I do feel like um I'm seeing a lot more of people coming out talking about like why the hell are is not like every menopausal woman on hormones. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So because there's a there was a whole thing about that it caused breast cancer and blah blah blah blah blah. Guess what? Everything is gonna give you fucking cancer.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. If you have breast cancer gene, you have it.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah, moveon.com.

SPEAKER_00:

It's just you know, it's just get on it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's right. Two cents. I've read one sentence so far.

SPEAKER_03:

This is gonna be something else.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, gonna mute me. I'll mute me.

SPEAKER_03:

No, only me out here all by myself. All right. The album had a monumental impact on popular music and became the top-selling album of all time, a title it continues to hold more than 40 years after its release. Produced by Jackson and Quincy Jones, Thriller spawned seven hit singles, including Beat It and Billy Jean, both of which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Music videos for three of the album's songs transformed the media into an art form. After Thriller, Jackson rightfully became known as the King of Pop.

SPEAKER_00:

King of Pop. King of Pop.

SPEAKER_03:

Alright, so just to remind everyone, the track list was uh Wanna Be Start in Something, which always takes me back to the roller rink. Yes. Man, I flew around the rink to that song. Um, Baby Be Mine, The Girl is Mine, Thriller, Beat It, Billy Jean, Human Nature, PYT, which may be my favorite album.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I was singing it last night after you sent me the script, then I read it.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah, it's a good one. Uh, and Lady, The Lady in My Life. That was the final one. Uh, Thriller was Jackson's sixth studio album as a solo artist and his second release on the epic label. It followed the massive success of Off the Wall in 1979, a disco and rhythm and blues album that marked Jackson's first time being produced by music industry veteran Quincy Jones. Off the Wall became the best-selling album ever by a black artist and earned Jackson a Grammy for Best RB Male Vocal Performance for Don't Stop To You Get Enough. Um, another roller rank song. Um it also produced four top ten hits, uh music industry milestone for a solo artist. However, Jackson set his sights even higher. He was determined to create an album composed entirely of songs that would become hit singles. As he put it, an album with no B-sides. In order to accomplish this, one of the priorities was to balance the song's various genres and forms between RB, pop, rock, disco, funk, and ballads. Jackson and Jones spent four months reviewing hundreds of song demos, listening to each one to see if it had the qualities they were looking for, and whether it worked and pre-existing with pre-existing material. Of the nine selected songs, four were written by Jackson: The Funky and Fast-Paced Wannabe Startin' Something, The Catchy The Girl Is Mine, that um he recorded as a duet with uh Oma Cartney. Yep. The Rock and Fuse Beat It, and the Evocated RB Billy Jean.

SPEAKER_00:

I heard uh Billy Jean putting his two side.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my god, he won't stop. I don't know what is happening.

SPEAKER_00:

What your dog?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, the dog is barking. The bird bit the shit out of me earlier. I don't think you can see that, but she drew blood and everything because she likes to pull the keys off the fucking keyboard. And I just

SPEAKER_00:

Whatever. Whatever. So cats are better. I'm gonna show you why. Because here is my cat. Your pets are being bad. Let me find him. I'm not good with direction. Did I get any? Oh yes. Up a little. There you go. I have no sense of direction. That's perfect. Yeah. He's always that like that. Oh, there we go. There we go. See? I don't even know what the fuck he's barking at, to be honest. And he's such a good kitty when he does that, he lets me rub his belly.

SPEAKER_01:

You guys are getting a day in the life of Oh my god. I should have gone to my mom's.

SPEAKER_00:

I feel like it. Is he done? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

Go ahead. We all just have to live with my last time you got to hear him snoring. Yeah, yeah. This time he gets he's gonna bark.

SPEAKER_03:

I mean he needs to be a podcaster. What are we gonna do? He wants to sing after his mom.

SPEAKER_01:

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_03:

All right, back to the script. This is such an unhinged episode. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my god, I know.

SPEAKER_03:

We're only like 10 minutes in.

SPEAKER_01:

We're 23 minutes in. Oh, time flies when you're having fun.

unknown:

All right.

SPEAKER_03:

The album's recording and mixing took place at Westlake Audio and Ocean Way recording studios in Los Angeles between April and November of 1982. A month before Thriller's completion, The Girl Is Mine was released as a single. It reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the RB and Adult Contemporary Charts. First indication of the album's astounding crossover success on November 30th, the full album was released. The week of December 25th, it entered it entered the Billboard 200 charts at number 11. By February 1983, Thriller was set on a course to change music history.

SPEAKER_01:

I have the poster up.

SPEAKER_03:

I think that's why when I was trying to do the mental math earlier, I was like, that can't be right. That just makes me like so eight.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. See, I still can't do the math.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, I was here in 74.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's that's about right.

SPEAKER_03:

Sounds right.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_03:

All right. In late January 1983, Thriller reached number one on the RB hip hop chart. Uh a month later, it topped the Billboard 200 chart. Altogether, it spent 37 non-consecutive weeks at the top of the Billboard 200 setting a record for the most weeks at number one by a music artist.

SPEAKER_00:

It's never been broken. Mm-mm. Did you say it hasn't, or you wonder? I wonder.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh I I'll get into that later, but I don't remember what the answer is. Okay. And honest to God, I thought it would have been Taylor Swift, but she doesn't come up at all, so I guess not. Um, anyway. In November, huh? Uh-huh. In November 2023, it spent its 600th week on the chart, becoming the 10th album to do so in history. Rolling Stones reviewer Christopher Conley noted that compared with Off the Wall, uh, Thriller features darker and edgier themes such as The Tinge of Defensiveness and Suspicion of Billy Jean, a song about a femme fatale who has accused Jackson of fathering her child. Conley praised the album's deeper, if less visceral, emotional urgency, huh? And called it another watershed in the creative development of this talented performer.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I can't I can't read your script. I can't have both things happening. So Yeah, it's okay. No script for you. No one got away from me.

SPEAKER_03:

Um yet Jackson's achievements were more than just notches on his belt. They signified a breakthrough for black artists in an era when radio programming had become racially segregated. In 1983, Billy Jean and Beat It topped both the RB chart and the Billboard Hot 100, the latter of which was dominated by white artists.

SPEAKER_01:

I forgot to say, Billy Jean is one of my favorite songs of all time ever. It's so good. It is it is.

SPEAKER_03:

It has one of the best beats ever.

SPEAKER_01:

Ever.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Um the previous year, only two songs by a black artist, namely Lionel Richie and Stevie Wonder, reached number one on that chart. Jackson's crossover success on the charts extended to radio play. As Times music critic Jay Cox wrote in 1984, Thriller brought black music back to mainstream radio, from which it had been effectively banished after restrictive special format programming was introduced in the mid-70s. Jackson wrote a tidal wave of excitement for the album throughout 1983. In May, he participated in the television special Motown 25, Yesterday, Today, Forever, joining his brothers for a Jackson 5 reunion to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of Motown Records, a Detroit-based label that had launched the Jackson 5's career. The group was one of several classic Motown artists appearing on the show, but it was Jackson's debut of his trademark moonwalk dance move during his solo performance of Billy Jean that became the hands-down highlight of the night and established Jackson as a pop culture phenomenon. I remember that. I do too. I can picture it in my head. An estimated 47 million viewers watched the Motown special. Among them was Silver Screen dance legend Fred Astaire, who called Jackson afterward to congratulate him on his performance, telling him, You're a hell of a mover.

SPEAKER_00:

Indeed. That must have been very flattering. Yes.

SPEAKER_03:

In addition to Paul McCartney, a number of other artists and songwriters made substantial contributions to Thriller. Beat It features a searing guitar solo by Eddie Van Halen. Did you know that?

SPEAKER_01:

I didn't, but I know Slash uh does something on one of the albums. Hmm. I don't remember seeing his name.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, well, you said one of the albums. This is just about thriller. And I have to admit, when I was first reading this the first time, I was like, Eddie Vetter, what? He's not that old. But anyway. So that gave the single the rock element that Jackson and Jones had wanted to include among the album's diversity of genres. Songwriter Rod Temperton penned the horror-themed lyrics for Thriller, while horror movie actor Vincent Price performed the song's ghoulish voiceover, lending the single its foreboding mood. Peaking at number four on the Hot 100 of 1984, Thriller became a Halloween classic, ensuring that it would return to the charts around that holiday in the years to come. Right?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't remember the video. I mean, I remember the video, but not really I don't really remember the video.

SPEAKER_03:

No, it was just the people's faces, and they turned their head and turned back, and it was a different face. It was like early AI. That video freaked me out too, just like AI does now. Anyway, members of the rock band Toto also appeared on several songs, including The Girl Is Mine and Beat It. Uh, the atmospheric single Human Nature was co-written by Steve Porcaro, Toto's uh keyboardist and songwriter. The song also featured, I know I'm messing this guy's name up and people are gonna be mad, but Porcaro's band names, bandmates, David Page on synthesizers, Steve Lucather on guitar, and Jeff Porcaro on drums. Uh, in the 2009 article on the making of thriller, Rolling Stones singled out human nature as the most memorable pure pop track on the album. PYT, For Young Thing, was written by Jones and RB singer James Ingram and features Jackson's sisters Latoya and Janet as backup singers. We did not know that. I did not know that either. Um, the song reached number 10 on the hot 100. And at the bottom of the script, I just like found so many fun facts. I know we're gonna just go through those until we run out of time.

SPEAKER_01:

Fun facts! Speaking of time, do you have your uh do you have your diary ready? Oh shit, no.

SPEAKER_00:

What the f I forgot. All right, we'll skip it. We'll skip it. Yeah, we'll skip it to see.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I agree. Because I look cute up here, but I have on black yoga pants, green socks, and pink slippers. Full on work from home gear going on.

SPEAKER_01:

I have uh skull leggings on. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Shocker. I know.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh Jackson made three videos to accompany the album for Billy Jean, Beat It, and Thriller, each one helping to set a new standard of excellence in the making of music videos. Boy Diddy. Uh as with the singles radio play, the video's popularity helped other black artists get their songs featured on the music video channel MTV, whose programming favored white artists. Uh Jackson's dancing talent took center stage in his videos. The video for Billy Jean has a Noor-ish setting and style, while that for Beat It is reminiscent of the musical West Side story showing rival street gangs getting ready to rumble before joining Jackson in a final dance scene.

SPEAKER_01:

In the iconic red jacket. Oh, that's such a badass scene, man. That's a that's a great video. Uh all the videos, I mean, obviously thriller. I mean, come on. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

That's gotta be. I mean, there's so many I love, but that's gotta be my favorite.

SPEAKER_01:

Billy Jean with the light up sidewalk, man. Fucking beautiful.

SPEAKER_03:

And him tiptoeing and white sequence. Yeah, the socks. Yeah, I think. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, now my I was gonna say, now I hear cats. Smart ass.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, I mean, they are assholes, so it only figures that he has to make a liar out of me. All right. Uh the nearly 14-minute long thriller video, directed by filmmaker John Landis, is widely regarded as the most ambitious music video ever made. Featuring a plot that plays with time, its scenes move from the 1950s to the present. In both eras, Jackson Jackson seems determined to terrify his date for the night, played by model Ola Ray, turning into a werewolf before her eyes in the video's opening scene, and then dancing with a group of zombies as he walks her home.

SPEAKER_01:

When I told my uh roommate that I was doing the thriller album, the first thing she did was it's the law on the land that when you enjoy when you are watching thriller, you have to do the the zombie dance.

SPEAKER_03:

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01:

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03:

Um the video premiered on MTV on December 2nd, 1983, and it quickly became a pop culture sensation. Such was the enthusiastic response that MTV would air the video in scheduled slots up to five times a day and see the channel's ratings increase those times. Its popularity may have been heightened by the disclaimer that Jackson added at the beginning of the video, which states, due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this film is in no way endorsed endorses a belief in the occult. A devout Jehovah's Witness at the time, Jackson became concerned about criticism he had received from his fellow church members that his song promoted demonology.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, I never thought of that until you just I guess I never saw the disclaimer or whatever, but yeah, he's a Jehovah's Witness.

SPEAKER_03:

Yep, yep, yep. Uh the disclaimer not only helped him set the record straight about his faith, but also piqued viewers' curiosity. Its zombie dance has become a staple element of Halloween celebrations. Um, in the music industry, Jackson's videos challenged other adults to step up their game in video making by incorporating plot, storytelling, and choreography.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

All of his videos, though. I mean, really. Right. And like it's crazy reading through all of this. Like we lived through it, and it just was, but it's amazing the amount of change it really did bring to so much. All the I mean, yeah. This probably prompted one of my favorite videos. The one um shoot, who sings it? It always feeds and bugs.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

What was his name? I can't believe it. But he's walking in those dark rooms with like the purple and blue lights and the smoke, and it was so creepy.

SPEAKER_01:

Amadeus, I mean, yeah. All those videos were just like such a production. Yes. Yes. Yep.

SPEAKER_03:

Yep. Anyway, uh, Thriller reaped as much success during the music awards season as it did on the charts. Jackson won eight Grammy Awards in 1984, seven of which were for Thriller. Notably, he won in three different music genres, pop rock, and RB. His eighth Grammy was the category of best recording for children for narrating the audiobook E.T. The Extraterrestrial. You did not know that. I didn't either. Um, it was the first time in history an artist won eight Grammys in one night.

unknown:

Huh. Yep.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh, in global sales, Thriller is the best-selling album of all time, with an estimated 67 million copies sold. In the United States, it held the record for best-selling album until 2018, when the Recording Industry Association of America, which certifies record sales, reported that the Eagles album, their greatest hits, uh 1971 to 1975, uh, with 38 million copies sold, had overtaken Thriller. As of 2021, Thriller had sold 34 million copies domestically.

SPEAKER_04:

Fun facts.

SPEAKER_03:

In 2007, Thriller was inducted into the National Recording Registry, a music preservation program established by the U.S. Library of Congress that selects recordings of cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance. Two years later, the thriller video was added to the National Film Registry, the first music video to be so honored.

unknown:

Huh.

SPEAKER_03:

In 2023, the documentary film Thriller 40 was released in honor of the 40th anniversary of the album's debut. Directed by Nelson George, the film showcases Thriller's enormous impact on the music industry and includes behind-the-scenes footage of the making of the album, as well as interviews with artists such as Usher, Mary J. Blige, and Will I Am, the last of whom calls the album the ultimate blueprint of modern pop music. I mean, it really is. I mean, you can't argue with it. Oh.

SPEAKER_00:

Alright. Before we get to fun facts, I need to say that. Okay. Drink, drink. Oh.

SPEAKER_03:

You knew better than to say that. Yes, I. Yes, I do. Alright, first fun fact. The original Billy Jean standoff. The iconic song Billy Jean was nearly dropped due to its lengthy intro. Quincy Jones wanted it shorter, but Jackson inst inst but Jackson's instinct to keep it one, creating one of the most distinctive beats in pop history. While the meaning behind the famous story of an obsessed woman stalking the King of Pop, calling him out as the father of her son has floated around since the song's release, Jackson continually denied the story before his death in 2009. Instead, he says Billy Jean is more of a character representing the many groupies he and his brothers were plagued with over the years. In his 1988 autobiography, Moonwalk, uh Jackson says there was ne there never was a real Billy Jean. The girl in the song is a composite of people my brothers have been plagued with over the years. I could never understand how these girls could say they were carrying someone's child when it wasn't true. Jackson's biographer told a different story in his 1991 book, The Magic and the Madness. In it, he says, Billy Jean was inspired by real letters the singer received from uh received in 1981 from a woman claiming he was the father of her twins. Despite no reaction from Jackson, the woman continually sent letters before actually escalating to sending a gun and murder threat about a diehard fan.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_03:

And I think I believe that, and I could see why Jackson would want to be like, no, that's it's nobody.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh makes sense too. It does. I mean, I'm sure that when you're at that level of fame. Yeah. It's just nonstop.

SPEAKER_03:

And that was like the um the high point of groupies, I think. Yeah, agree. I mean we had the hairbands and all yeah. The stones, all of that, yeah. Yeah, lots of yeah, lots of STDs going around.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh lots. All of them.

SPEAKER_03:

All right. Next fun fact. Fun fact. Believe it or not, the world famous title track was originally named Starlight.

SPEAKER_00:

That is terrible.

SPEAKER_03:

Awful. Can you imagine? Like none of this would have happened if they would have named that thing Starlight. I agree. Whoa. The switch to Thriller was the addition of Vincent Price's eerie voiceover transformed into the unforgettable track we know today. So thank you, Vincent Price, for not letting it be named Starlight. Um the debut on Billy Jean. Um, in its analyzing what if, Prince was considered for a duet on Billy Jean. He declined, leaving fans to forever wonder about the potential collaboration.

SPEAKER_00:

I think that would have been too much. So had a little laptop issue. Hi, I'm back.

SPEAKER_03:

Technical difficulty. So we're gonna make it work because that's what we do. We are dedicated. Word. We won't let technology get our menopausal acids down.

SPEAKER_01:

No, it's just the way I I don't uh anyway. Go ahead. Are you okay? Yeah, I know you freaked out when that happened. I did. I had a mental breakdown, a total and complete mental breakdown. I know, and that's

SPEAKER_03:

I text you, don't freak out. Too late. All right. Next fun fact. Back to fun fact. Fun fact. Alright. And it's analyzing what if Prince was considered for a duet on Billy Jean. He declined, leaving fans to forever wonder about the potential collaboration. That's crazy, right? It's crazy. And I think that would have been too much. It would have been too much. I don't think they it's too much.

SPEAKER_01:

Too much. I don't think it I don't think it would have worked either. That's too it's too big of ego. It's too it's too much.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, it would be like in a perfect world putting um Michael Jordan and LeBron James on the same team. Like yeah, it's just it's just never gonna work. No. And they were both perfectionists, so one's idea of perfect and the others weren't necessarily gonna match up.

SPEAKER_01:

So But I don't think Prince would have been able to give up control. Did Prince do much collaborating? I mean, I know with Sheena E. I don't think so. Because like I know he when he did to do it with well, he did too with Paul McCartney, but I feel like Paul McCartney was just like, sure, whatever, I'll do it. I feel like Paul McCartney would be more apt to give it give control up to someone else and let them do it.

SPEAKER_03:

Not Prince.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm talking about right. I'm talking about like Prince would not have been able to give up control like Paul McCartney did. Right, right, right, right. To Michael Jackson.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, and also Paul McCartney came from a group, so he was used to it well, exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

And Paul McCartney had uh Prince and Michael Jackson were happening at the same time.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

As opposed to, you know, Paul McCartney. Yeah, he had, you know, a hundred and eighteen-year-long career, but he was kind of moving out of wings and all of that into Yeah, he's just here for the good time. Like let's do it.

SPEAKER_03:

All right, yeah. And Prince is just so sexy. Oh my gosh. Yeah. All right. Next fun fact. The iconic cover photo with Jackson in a white suit was a hurried 10-minute affair by photographer Dick Zimmerman pro proving that sometimes magic happens on a roll.

SPEAKER_00:

10 minutes. 10 minutes. Yeah, 10 minutes.

SPEAKER_03:

All right. The thriller music video had a budget of$500,000, which back then was a fucking lot of money. It really was. For a music video, uh, which was an enormous amount for a music video. Uh when the budget was overextended, MTV and Showtime helped finance it in exchange for the documentary The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller. I remember that, yeah. I do too. I'd forgotten about it, but I do remember watching that. Um and yeah, so 500,000 was the budget, and they went over that. Like that's nuts.

SPEAKER_01:

It's an awful lot of special effects, though. I mean, I imagine that that rap that that starts cramping up.

SPEAKER_03:

And a lot of people in that video you have to pay.

SPEAKER_01:

With all the makeup and all that, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Yeah. So a lot of makeup artists, like, yeah, it's probably a very large crew.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Um, let's see. Jackson was inspired to create an impactful video after watching the musical film West Side Story from 1961. He wanted to create a video with a story that had a dramatic arc, much like a mini movie. He definitely did that.

SPEAKER_01:

He did. Most of I mean most of the videos that he did after that were like mini-movies. I mean, Smooth Criminal, Black or White.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh I love Smooth Criminal.

SPEAKER_00:

Me too. It's such a good song.

SPEAKER_03:

All right, the thriller video significantly influenced the home video market. The documentary making Michael Jackson's thriller was priced affordably for direct purchase, contrasting with the rental model prevailing at the time. This strategy contributed to the rise in VCR sales in the 1980s. See, it's like the Taylor Swift effect. It was the Michael Jackson effect. It was. It just raged out. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm trying to think of a time. I'm trying to think of a time before VHS. I mean, like, I know we didn't get a VCR until like later.

SPEAKER_00:

Hmm. I mean, I remember probably 12. We would have had one. I was 12. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I know we didn't get one. I I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03:

Because we lived out in the country too, so there was no cable. We had the antenna on the roof with the little thing dial that you turned.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I had cable.

SPEAKER_03:

We had three channels. Man, one night I was at the back door watching a uh thunder and lightning storm, and lightning hit that antenna, which was right outside the back door. Scary stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

Did you get thunder snow this weekend?

SPEAKER_03:

I thought I heard thunder. Yeah. I was pretty sure because I also, well, I live up by the Dover Air Force Base, like we talked about last week. Um, so I get planes and helicopters that go over a lot. Yeah. But I was like, I don't think that's a plane. But it it would be like long stretches of thunder and then stop and then just crazy. Yeah, and I saw a video, I want to say it was from um the Jersey Shore. The one of the piers with a um Ferris wheel. They there was like pink and blue lightning. Like the sky was lighting up.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Oh, that was here. That was Ocean City. Oh, was it?

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, the so the Ferris wheel down there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that was really pretty. It was crazy.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

It was a wild night. It was so fucking windy.

SPEAKER_03:

It was so windy, and I have tall trees around me, and I was like, I don't know if I should just be sitting in the house. Maybe I should go in the basement.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it was it was it was a wild ride. It was a wild ride. Yeah, yeah, it was crazy.

SPEAKER_03:

But all in all, it wasn't that bad. It was fun. Um, unlike many artists, Michael Jackson didn't use traditional methods when it came to writing music. Rather uh than put pen to paper, Jackson dictated his lyrics into a sound recorder, composing melodies and harmonies in his head. When it was time to record, he sang straight from memory. This unusual approach added to the spontaneity and energy of his performances. Songs like Billy Jean and Wanna Be Startin' Something were born from this organic process, helping to explain the emotional intensity and intricate layering that became trademarks of Jackson's work. That's so crazy. It's so fascinating. It reminds me, um I wasn't even thinking when I said this, but Taylor said. Did you see in her documentary that she doesn't learn to dance on like account? She associates a move with a like syllable.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_03:

Like it was something crazy. I was like, that's just crazy. Anyway. Um Taylor Swift. Okay, I didn't even mean it. Like sorry, I'm obsessed. I really can't. I listened to um, I have Spotify, real quick side story, and um it has a DJ feature. And my therapist was telling me that she loves it because it brings up all these different songs she hasn't heard in a while. Mine, like it's all Taylor Swift. Once in a while he'll be like, let's go back to 2018. Like you were in the top 4% of Taylor Swift listeners last week. Crazy. Um I'm sure it'll pass. Maybe. Um, we have two more fun facts.

SPEAKER_00:

Fun facts! Fun facts.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh the cov cover of Thriller features an elegant, eloquently dressed Michael Jackson posing with a tiger cub. While the image has become iconic, the story behind it is less well known. The tiger cub was rented specifically for the photo shoot, and Jackson, though an animal lover, was reportedly nervous about working with the creature. I would not be. I would love it. Oh my god, no. You people are crazy. People that want to play with big cats, they're still like my cat, she weighs like five pounds and has the sharpest nails. Like I've been sitting here scratching my inside of my knee this whole time because she sat on my lap and scratched the shit out of me for no reason. I can't imagine a cat that big. A giant murder mittens? Yeah. No. They're so cute, but no. But anyway, uh, photographer David Zimmerman recalled that Jackson was careful to keep the cub at arm's length, afraid it might scratch him. See? That's what I'm talking about. He had a monkey. He did. And they'll rip your face off. They fucking will. Alright, our last fun fact. Jones noticed his wife's lingerie said pretty young things on them and tasks tasks his songwriters to come up with lyrics for the title Pretty Young Thing, Tender Loving Care. Singer songwriter James Ingram came up with the winning version.

SPEAKER_01:

I love that. I love that song.

SPEAKER_03:

I do too, and I love that that's where it came from. I know, right? And I love him and his wife, and I love his daughter, and I can never remember her name. She was on um The Office and she was on Parks and Wreck.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you know who I'm talking about? No. Are you serious? You don't know who his daughter is? No. Okay. Please hold. Please hold.

SPEAKER_03:

We usually pause when we have to do stuff like this, but I can't pause video. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, she didn't know. Do you know who she is? No. Yes, you do. I don't. Her. Oh. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She was in Black Mirror. She's she's been in a ton of stuff. So anyway, yeah. That was uh that's my episode. Oh, lovely.

SPEAKER_03:

I hope that didn't like I feel like I should listen to this one to see how just awful it was, because I feel like it just is crazy.

SPEAKER_01:

We've had look I don't we don't like doing these video, they're like the the all it it it it messes up the flow, bro.

SPEAKER_03:

It does. Yeah, because I have bad eyes and I tried to make it so I could see you and still see the script, but the print was too small.

SPEAKER_01:

So And I got dogs barking, I got birds biting the shit out of me, I got kiddies meowing Kitties Meow. It's just like you know, we can't all be 100.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, like I said, a day in the life. Right, right. It's been a week. Oh, it's it's been a fucking week.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's not been I actually thought about ha uh seeing if you wanted to try and uh do something different this week, uh because of you know the week that we have had, but then when you said when we talked about it today when you yesterday when you were like, can we do it tomorrow? Not feeling it, I thought about well, I wonder if we should maybe do a best of or something.

SPEAKER_00:

But no not for you people, we're here. Hell no. We're not nope, nope, nope. Put on our happy face. Get it done.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, thank you. That was I I enjoyed it. I enjoy the uh the walk down memory lane.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, it was a fun topic to research because we all know Michael Jackson and Thriller, but yeah, there were so many things I didn't know about it.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And the things I did know, reliving them, and then finding out, really digging into the um impact that he had on so many things. Like I know he's a controversial figure, and I don't um separate the art from the artists. Yeah, this so that's why I really want to make this about the thriller album. Yeah. Because it really is just so iconic and had so many so many people involved in it too.

SPEAKER_01:

It's crazy.

SPEAKER_00:

It's uh and you know, you have to the the thing about Michael Jackson You know I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

There's been a lot lately that's come out at least I've been seeing a lot lately that's been coming out about Michael Jackson that maybe things were not from McCaulay Calkin, especially.

SPEAKER_03:

I have a theory on Michael Jackson and And Corey Feldman too has come out and said And Corey Feldman's been through it. Yeah. Um and I think Macaulay Culkin has too.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_03:

Um, but I have a theory my psychological brain and my heart from the memories, you know, and the nostalgia. But he had no childhood. No. And he wasn't able to develop into a normal person.

SPEAKER_00:

No.

SPEAKER_03:

So I mean, I think it's proven that he did have boys in his bed. But I wonder if it was more of like a childlike sleepover. I mean, he had an amusement park, he had a petting zoo, like everything was very childlike. And predators tend to live like regular normal lives, like, no, you know, I'm an upstanding man with a wife and kids and member of my church and all that, so I don't know. I I I just feel for him. But if there are victims, I am so sorry for everything I just said, and I am on your side, but well I don't think we'll ever know.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't think we will either. Not I I don't know. Because you want to say believe you want to believe people. I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. And then like you said, famous people who will come out and say, but just because he didn't do it to them doesn't mean that you're not going to be able to do it. Doesn't mean he didn't do it to anybody.

SPEAKER_01:

So it's just one of those things where you just have to separate the art from the artist.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes. But I did feel like I wanted to do that little disclaimer that if this is a sensitive subject to some people, I was really trying to focus on the album. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

No, a hundred percent. Yep.

SPEAKER_03:

But I hope you enjoyed it. It was I did fun to research and it was fun to think about the songs. Yeah, I'm gonna go. I mean his songs number one make the roller rink pop into my head.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So I was did you roller skate a lot? I did every Friday night. Did you really? Mm-hmm. That surprises me. Can't roller skate for shit. I just would walk the wall. Just the wall the whole time. I can't roller skate, I can't go backwards. What'd you go? Uh I don't know. My friend went. Oh, okay. It was me and my friend.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm a very, very, very good roller skater. Like I could do all the tricks, I could win limbo, I could fast skate, I could backward skate, I could all of it. I I couldn't do any of it.

SPEAKER_01:

I just would run the wall. I would just like this across the wall.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, when you and I went roller skating. I walked the wall. Did you?

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, so this quick story when we went to University of Delaware together, we decided there was a roller rink nearby, and well, we take the bus. Oh no, we have our cars up there.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, we had a car. We we did have our cars. I had mine. Maybe you didn't because you were a freshman. I had mine the second half of the year, but okay. Okay. Anyway, we drove.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm sure we drove. Sure. I'm sure we drove. It was far.

SPEAKER_03:

I never used my car. I think you always drove, because you're the one that hit the girl on the bike.

SPEAKER_01:

So no, you know what? You did have your car. But I would only use it to drive. But you had your car because Halloween. Uh I had to drive your car.

SPEAKER_00:

So you had the car. Do you want to tell that story? So yeah, I know. I was dressed as a grim reaper. We went to a party.

SPEAKER_01:

Um Nicole tends to um not know the word no.

unknown:

Um.

SPEAKER_03:

Tended to.

SPEAKER_01:

Had had uh hmm, how can we do this nicely? Had partaken in several different activities and and twitchy. She she got the name Twitchy. Um and then passed out in the front yard of whoever these people were. Um I have a tendency have a tendency to pass.

SPEAKER_03:

She drove, what was that, a 70-something 1978 icy blue Toyota Celica? It's just this big.

SPEAKER_01:

Um manual. Manual. I don't drive manual. I I know I learned how to drive on stick shift, so I am the only Gen Xer who refuses and refuse to learn how to drive it. Um I'm not coordinated enough. It's very frustrating, and I just can't do it. Okay? I'm sorry. Um so anyway, I, for whatever reason, was the only one not drinking that night.

SPEAKER_03:

You were probably babysitting me because there was always somebody that stayed sober to make sure. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

I didn't want to I must have drawn the straw, the short straw that night. Um not only did she puke on my Doc Martins, I'm sorry, but we had to load her in her car in the back seat of the tiny little Toyota Selica, and then I had to drive it because I was the only one not drinking. And the whole time I'm thinking in my head, this is exactly why your father tried to make you learn. And this was his exact scenario because I kept telling him, I'm never gonna need to know how to drive one, we don't have one, I'm always gonna buy an automatic. Why am I gonna need to learn? And have you already told him he was right? No, fuck no. I am obstinate, and whatever my dad says, I just will not do. And so I anyway, so I'm trying to drive her car and I keep stalling, and somehow I went down the wrong way, down a one-way street. We didn't manage to make it back though. It did get us back, and that's probably why she puked on my shoes, probably because of my uh god awful driving.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, somebody was in the back seat with me.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I was laying down. I don't know who that was. Yeah. Where did we drive to? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

And that's another thing. We went to college at the other end of the state, so the fancy end of Delaware. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like the city part of Delaware. Yeah, exactly. And I had not driven really anywhere like that. Like except in the summer here, but I know where I'm going. All the time, so it's not like traffic is b anyway. But it was in the middle of the night, so there wasn't really anybody out anyway. I got us home safely. That's why she puked on my shoes, probably because my jerky driving. It was my thank you. And I didn't wreck her car. I didn't strip her gears. I didn't know. See?

SPEAKER_03:

You're smart.

SPEAKER_01:

You can figure it out. I mean, I logically I understand it. I understand. I even know like the gear. I understand. It's making my feel with your feet. It's my left foot. I can't. Yeah. The whole left side of my body is useless to me. And being able to do the pedals like that, it's just it's it's it's too hard for me. I can't do it. It's just it's logically, I know how to do it. Like I understand the concept. I know I know when you have to do shift. Like I know how to shift. I know all I know all of it. I just can't make my feet do it.

SPEAKER_00:

I remember learning. I learned in a minivan.

SPEAKER_01:

I and Nicole Astro. My dad has made me, I've been in a forerunner, I've been in a dump truck. I have been and I just ref he puts me in the and then I'm like, I don't want to do it. And then and you know how I am, once I don't want to do something, that's just that. I'm not gonna do it. You're the worst about that. I have had boyfriends try to teach me. I have had it's just I no.

SPEAKER_00:

I just refuse. I refuse to learn. I get it. I I think that's fair.

SPEAKER_03:

There are things I refuse to do for neurological reasons.

SPEAKER_01:

It's so funny too, because every time I'm like, oh, I can't drive that, it's a stick, they're like, How do you not know how I don't want to know? I don't need to know, I don't want to know. You really don't need to know now. No, I can Uber anywhere. Exactly. Um you have to like special order a stick ship now, unless it's a unless it's like a sports car or a Jeep, but Yep.

SPEAKER_03:

My whole adult life, um I would always get sticks because they were so much cheaper, like thousands of dollars cheaper.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Um they're better on gas.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, and then I stopped.

SPEAKER_00:

That's a different story, but yeah. I kind of missed it.

SPEAKER_01:

Ugh, I don't. I don't. I I whatever. Not gonna do it. Anyway, Michael Jackson, thank you, Nicole. You're welcome. Thanks for throwing up on my shoes. You're welcome. That's true friendship too, because we'd only been friends for like a month.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And I was still here.

SPEAKER_03:

I was here. Here we are. Halloween 1992. And we are still here.

SPEAKER_01:

Puke on my shoes, gear stripped, it's you know. I don't think you could have fucked that car up if you tried.

SPEAKER_03:

So she was pretty tough. I ran her into a ditch and got drug out by a big chain and a pickup truck, yeah, snowstorm. I took out a mailbox one night. Oh my god. This was so funny. I was heading home from my dad's back to my mom's, and I was driving the back roads, and I used to drive way too fast. And I also love to shut the headlights off and drive the back roads.

SPEAKER_01:

So so hold on. If you are not from a rural area, do you need to explain? This is the thing that we would do. So back before the days of uh daytime running lamps and all that shit, because you can't do it now. Yeah, your headlights are either on or off. Yeah. You would come up to a stop sign, and instead of having to stop, which I mean, if you think about it, if two of us are coming up to the stop sign at the same time, it's really gonna go badly. Yeah, none of it. But as you're coming up to a stop sign, you punch the lights off so that it goes dark, so you can know if somebody else is coming, and then you just blow the stop sign.

SPEAKER_02:

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01:

So we would do that. But also it's stupid because there's cornfields everywhere. And deer. And deer. But yeah, that's so that is a thing that we all used to do is that you would turn your lights off. Mm-hmm. And if you were just driving to freak your friends out, you'd just turn off all the lights. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

I don't think we still have the story I was telling now. We've we've gone down such a journey. And the people reminded me that the other day when I was coming. Man, where was I going? I don't know. Anyway, I don't know why I thought of this, but back in the summertime, remember when it would rain and it was hot and the frogs would all get on the road? And you couldn't drive without hitting rock frogs.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_03:

And you didn't have air conditioning in your car, so you had your windows down and you could hear yourself squishing frogs all the time.

SPEAKER_00:

It was awful.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah. Ugh. The joy of living in the country.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh yeah. Oh, I remember my story. So anyway, coming back from my dad's. Um, driving way too fast. A bl bug flew in my window and hit me in the arm and scared me, and I swerved and took out somebody's four by four mailbox. Oh shit. And I felt awful. And it was nighttime, and I'm lucky it wasn't a stereo killer's house because I picked up I picked up the four by four in the mailbox, and I walked up this guy's driveway crying my eyes out and knocked on his door, and I was like, I'm so sorry, I ate your mailbox, and I broke it. And he busted out laughing, and he was like, Are you okay? And I said, Yeah. He's like, Is your car okay? I said, Yeah. And he's like, Don't worry about it. I offered him money, and he was just like, just drive safe.

SPEAKER_01:

Man, the shit that we used to do, that like how we're still alive, I don't know. I know. I know. Crazy. It is crazy. It was so much fun, though. And as as small as her car was, her car could fit in the trunk of my car. Yes. It was four or five of my cars to make hers. I had a 1982 Lincoln Continental. And Berg and she Bergen, uh, she was a two-door, so she wasn't the four-door model, but she was she was the epitome and the highest top of the line in 1982 that you could get. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like she had a C B and everything. When I got it, it was a piece of Ford junk. That the grill was hanging off. It had the lights that like popped up, and like one of them would slowly pop up during the day, so it would be like one eye closed and one eye open. And then it also had, and this uh I think one of my cars has it now or had it. It might have been the Volkswagen that I had. Um, so it had an automatic dimming. So when you had your um high beams on and somebody was coming, it would dim the high beams automatically. I know. 1982, shut your mouth. But when you got to a stop sign, the light reflecting off the stop sign, yes, would just blah and it would just like just blink insanely. And then also I was thinking about the other day, not now we've turned this into a car show. Um do you remember when the high beams used to be on the floor? Yes. And you have to hit them on the floor?

SPEAKER_03:

Yep, I can uh as soon as you said that, I heard that sound. Click, click, click, click, click.

SPEAKER_01:

That's crazy. Oh shit. Oh you brag. But yes, uh, and us rednecks would shut the lights off when you rolled up on a stop sign.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, we used to drag race too. I would take my stepdad's old ass Ford pickup, just like in Footloose, and we would go out on the back roads and drag race, and cars would come and we'd have to swerve off the road.

SPEAKER_01:

My mom had a 1985 um IRO Z28 Camaro. Of course she did. Yeah. And so when my car wasn't working, 98% of the time it didn't work, I would have to take her car to school, which was a horrible idea. Like just terrible. Because there's this one road out here, like a lot of our country roads are curvy, and you know she really No shoulders. Yeah, it's it's hella dangerous. Well, there is one out here that is it's probably a good like two miles of just straight with fields on the side. Oh man, on the way to school, I had no business driving that car, none whatsoever. Oh yeah. And I would just that's automatic.

SPEAKER_03:

I would literally put the pedal to the floor and see how fast I could go. It was well over 120.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't remember exactly what I was doing, but just wild, nuts, crazy surprise alive.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Hey, you know what?

SPEAKER_01:

But here we are. Here we are. That's why there's that's why with the smallest generation, we didn't used to be the smallest generation, we've all died in horrible ways. We all did really stupid shit. Yes. We collided at stop signs because nobody had lights on.

SPEAKER_03:

We also grew up in the era of it being really easy to just snatch kids off the street and go missing. Like nobody was paying attention, nobody knew where we were. No, we were walking around everywhere.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Alright. Let's end this nightmare.

SPEAKER_02:

So God, I yeah, I hope you would load this on YouTube. I'm actually gonna watch it on YouTube if you do. Okay. Because this was a clusterfuck, but it was fun.

SPEAKER_03:

And it's just what I needed. It's been a bad week. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

It it was fun. Yeah. All right. Well, thanks for listening, everybody. Thanks for watching. If you're watching on YouTube, thank you so much. Um if you hated this, try us again next week. Um, yeah, we'll try better.

SPEAKER_03:

Or listen to last week's because last week's was amazing. Oh, by the way, I wanted to mention two props of just it like our episode just added to the getting the gold on the very same day of the anniversary. Yeah. Like it all just perfectly aligned, and that game was so good. It was good. It was really good.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't watch a lot of hockey, but I was I I forgot my love of hockey, and I have to try and find it on I don't have cable, so I have to try and find it somehow on the yeah, on the streaming, because I do miss hockey a lot. Anyway, no more hockey. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Uh you can find us on all the socials.

unknown:

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Like whatever pod. We're all there. Uh we have a website. There's some W's, and then there's a dot, and there's a Like Whatever pod, and then there's another dot and a com. Um you can find us where you listen to all the podcasts.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, you can find us on YouTube. Mm-hmm. You can send us an email about how god-awful this episode is compared to last week's episode. Please do. And I swear we're gonna try and get the very best episode and then I can't boom. Yeah, anyway. Yeah. Um yes, at Like Whatever Pod. I know, I know. It's just been a week. Um at Like Whatever Pod at gmail.com or don't like whatever. Whatever.

Contributor

Heather Jolley

Host
Contributor

Nicole Barr

Host