Arthur

[00:00:00] I would not- Autistic and dyslexic. I would- Neither of them. I would not default. And horny!

[00:00:25] Happy New Year. Oh yeah, Happy New Year everyone, how are we doing? We gave it so long before we started recording again that we forgot that we even- there was like Christmas and the year and all that shit. It's been ages, I'm so excited to be back. Yeah, me too. I'm so warm. This is the longest break we've taken since we started. Yeah. It is. I don't think we've ever done one this long before. No. But a lot's happened in that time.

[00:00:53] Yeah, we were reminded that we're the bosses and actually we can have as long off as we can. Yeah, we had a meeting with someone that knows about podcasts much better than we do and he was like, why are you in such a rush? We were like, so true. Yeah, so true. It's our podcast. I don't think you guys are going anywhere, so. Yeah, so here we are. Season five. This is the premiere. You've already said that word weirdly to me today. It's my Moira Rose.

[00:01:23] Premiere. Premiere. So how have our days been? Yeah, relatively alright. You know, hard work. Yeah, sorry, I just forgot everything I had done today when you asked me. I was like, what have I been doing? Isn't it? You must think that every day. No! She's wearing heat pads on her shoulders. Yes. I don't know. I don't know anything else you've done today. She's got herty shoulders. Herty shoulders. And it's working, which is delightful. So if you're one of Laura's students, you're in luck because you're getting some marks soon.

[00:01:54] You're getting a grade. Yes. And her legs hungry. Very hungry. It's dinner time. It's really fucking hungry. It is, it's dinner time. Yeah, we recorded off. I had fucking dinner time. I had like a very late lunch. Yeah, we always record at the time where we should be eating. I don't know why we do. It's the only time we're all around. Well, because if we wait until after dinner, it's too late. If we do it before, Meg's at work.

[00:02:19] Yeah, and if I start recording during my working hours, I do think eventually my boss might have a problem with that. Eventually when he can't zone. Yeah. Where is she? She's not done anything. So the interesting thing about this season is we've actually planned it. Interesting, isn't it? Yeah, we've never, we've never done this. We usually do it guerrilla style. Yeah. Or just run, run, run, run, podcast. Yeah. Decide as we go along what we're doing.

[00:02:47] But we've decided already, which means if you're going to leave us requests on Instagram, we aren't going to listen to you. Not this season. This season's planned. You can make requests for next season. We might listen to you. They're based on previous, some of them, some of the episodes this season are based on previous requests. I'd like to imagine that pretty much everything we've got lined up for next season, someone has requested at some point. Yeah, I think so. I think two haven't been and they're just ones that we wanted to do. Just wild cards.

[00:03:16] Unless people have and we just haven't seen it. True. Yeah. So we're starting this one off with a studio filmed and recorded episode. So you can go over to YouTube. What the fuck are you doing? She's dancing. Which you can see if you go onto YouTube and watch this episode. Subscribe to us, please. We might actually, we might hit the monetization level because on YouTube. Yeah, I will admit I'm not the best at keeping up with uploading our stuff to YouTube.

[00:03:46] But you know, we have opened ourselves up to lots of copyright issues over the years. So I don't know if it's wise. Looking forward to any songs, we will be singing them ourselves. Including the Arthur theme song. Except maybe not. Does anyone want to sing right now this early in the season? How does it fucking go? I've been singing it all day. You have been singing it all day. It goes, every day when you're walking down the street. And everybody that you meet has an original point of view.

[00:04:15] And I say, hey, hey, what a wonderful kind of day. Where we can learn to work and play. And get along with each other. You've got to listen to your heart. Listen to the beat. Listen to the rhythm. The rhythm of the street. Open up your eyes. Open up your ears. Get together and make things better. By working together. It's a simple message. And it comes from the heart. Oh, believe in yourself.

[00:04:45] Well, that's the place to start. And I say, hey. Hey. What a wonderful kind of day. I can't believe how much you guys knew. I don't think about any of it. And then he goes, hey. Hey. And DW sees Arthur in the TV screen. Hey. Hey. It's DW. Hey. DW. He goes, what?

[00:05:15] So now, if we can't use that clip, which we probably cannot. Written and performed by Ziggy Marley, by the way. Oh, yeah. No, I don't know if he wrote and performed it. But he's involved in that song. Yeah. Now we've got our version of it. So if we can't use that, then that's what you're going to get. I mean, I think you should definitely use that one. I haven't watched it as much as you guys. I didn't watch it as a kid. So I do not know it. I don't know how you avoided it. You did grow up in the UK for 11 years.

[00:05:44] And it's an American show. No, but it is a British household staple. Like, we don't usually do a lot of American things on the pod. But this one. It was available on preview. And it also feels not un-American because... Sorry, it doesn't feel super American because they play soccer a lot. There's a bunch of stuff I avoided as a kid. Like, I've never watched Blue Peter. Avoided. Never watched Blue Peter.

[00:06:15] Are you missing out on some good stuff with Blue Peter? Probably some other ones that I never watched either. It's a child's magazine show, really. Yeah, which I never understood magazine shows. I really bought it. We've been away that I don't really... I've forgotten how we do this. Do we talk about what our experiences watching Arthur was? Is that how we do this? Yeah. I'm a little rusty. Well, okay. What we typically do is, yeah, we go, Oh, who watched it? What did you think? And then you... Me, me. I watched it. Me, me, me.

[00:06:45] We run down a typical episode. You give cast and characters information. And then you give production information. Basically, you do everything and we sit here and watch it. Yeah, and then I edit it as well. We just said, you do everything. It's your fucking idea, mate. Yeah, yeah. I know, I know. So, what did we all think of Arthur growing up? Loved it, mate. Did you? I was all over this show. Loved it. I don't know if I loved it or if it was just on all the time. I don't think I had any particular feelings towards it.

[00:07:14] I didn't hate it. No, I really liked it as a kid. I watched it a lot. But then again, maybe it was just because it was on all the time. Yeah. I don't think I ever, you know, I don't think it came on and I was like, oh, good, Arthur. It was just there, you know. I remained peripherally aware of it. And then when we were teenagers, it became really memed. It did. Yes, it did. The fist thing. Yeah, the fist thing. That comes from the episode called Arthur's Big Hit.

[00:07:43] And basically, the lesson he learns is that it's not good to hit people. I told you not to touch it. You built it all wrong. Did you even read the directions? It didn't fly for one second. It's not my fault if you made a plane that can't fly. I told you not to touch it. The reason that that episode doesn't really, like, land.

[00:08:13] Hit. I was trying to avoid. Yeah. It's because the person he's hitting, DW, actually, like, I'm not going to say she deserved it, but, like, it's cathartic to watch again. She does deserve everything she gets. If you can hit anyone, it's your siblings. Right. I had a fight with Arthur in the playground at school. Just what? It wasn't serious, but, like, we were, you know, we were fighting a little bit.

[00:08:44] And there were, like, people around, like, kids around us, like, should we get the teacher? And we looked at them, like, no. It's my brother. No, it's different rules. What are you talking about? Does no one here have a sibling? I can know we're at school, but. Me and Sean had horrendous fights. Like, we once had a fight with knives. I would get frustrated and throw things at him. Like, I threw a glass at his head once. My boyfriend once chased his sister with a knife. I know.

[00:09:14] Yeah, but he's a younger brother. Yeah, consider that he's five years younger. Yeah. Like, I would get really frustrated because Sean's struggling with me, so he could punch me and it would work really well. And I'd be like, meh. It would work really well. And I would get a hairbrush. What, it would kill you? It would hurt a lot more than me going, meh. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good point. So I would throw things at him, including once a glass. And our parents, they'd go like, oh, mummy, Sean just hit me. Hit him back. Class parents.

[00:09:43] That was their parenting. Yeah. Something once happened to me at school. I don't remember what it was, but my grandma said to me, and I don't know if she realizes how much this has stuck with me and how much it shaped me into the person I am. But she said, don't get mad, get even. And it has been said about me that I'm very good at holding a grudge. And I really like revenge. It has been said about her. It has been, like this week.

[00:10:11] My boyfriend literally said, I've never met anyone who can hold a grudge as well as you. Like three days ago. No, he said it a lot. I swear there are things that Meg's not forgiven me for. I can't think of any grudge you've ever held against me. What have I not forgiven you for? I don't know. I just, I'm sure there's something. I don't think any of you have really done anything bad enough to me. But like, and also I do it against myself. Like when we were at college, I like basically flunked out the first year.

[00:10:41] And I remember like literally the same grandma took me to get my results. And I was sat in the car with her and she was like, just don't let it happen again next year. And I was like, you're so right. And I didn't fucking smash it. No, you did super fucking well, you overachieving little weirdo. Yeah, but is it, it's okay to like say that about someone when they overachieve constantly. But I got a U in my first year of college. I really did very badly.

[00:11:09] Like pretty much as badly as you can do. It was quite an achievement to do as badly as I did. We were doing that little screening questionnaire for a psychology experiment for one of my colleagues. And one of the questions was that you don't let failure prevent future successes. I do not. I do not. 100% me. If I want to succeed in something, I fucking will. Well, speaking of your U, can I tell the story about my cousin Faye? Yeah.

[00:11:36] Okay, so someone, she misheard something in the telling of this because it's impossible. It can't happen. But basically, I met up with her after school. She was like a couple of years ahead of me. Met up after school and she was like, oh, I've just got to go to my class to get my grade for this mock test. So I was like, okay. So I waited outside the classroom for her and she came out and she looked kind of shell-shocked. Gray. Like gray. And she was ashen. All the words.

[00:12:06] Ashen. And she was like smiling, but in a kind of disbelief, grimace sort of way. And I was like, are you okay? And she won't mind me telling this because I don't think it happened because this can't happen. She said, I got a G. That's not a grade. It's not a grade. I was like, hey, you all right? And she said, I mean, I know I didn't do well, but a G and her eyes were filling with tears. I was like, I don't think that's possible.

[00:12:36] It's because it's not a grade. A G. No, maybe it was good. Maybe. Oh, good, good, good, good. Maybe the teacher didn't want to say, you, by the way, stands for unmarked. Unmarkable, not unmarked. They've seen it. So maybe the teacher just didn't want to be like, this was unmarkable. So he said, it's a G. A G's worse. Then Mr. Ratburn said I had to get a B on the test next week or else.

[00:13:03] You won't have the pleasure of joining your friends in the fourth grade. What? That's terrible, Buster. How can we possibly go to the fourth grade without you? Well, how am I ever going to get a B? I can barely name the 30 states of America. We should talk about Arthur. Nah. Nah, what if? What a return to form, not talking about the subject at hand. Unfortunately, we're all very hungry.

[00:13:32] We are actually really hungry. Before we arrived at the studio, we were like half an hour early. So we've also had a pint. We were like, what can we do in that half hour? Easily. We could do a pint. We did a half. We could have done a full pint. I could have done a full pint. Next time we should just commit. We'll go over the other half. We'll go over the other half. Yeah. So what did you think watching Arthur in the last few days? I really enjoyed it.

[00:13:59] I think it's just, it's generally, there's nothing offensive to say about it, which is annoying actually, because I love saying when there's bad things to say about a show. Yeah. I don't have any notes for this show. Yeah. There's a lot of characters. It covers quite a wide kind of spectrum. Yeah. Like of people and of events that happen. Like there are some things that the show covers that I was impressed by.

[00:14:28] I was like, oh my God, they covered that. Like, wow. Yeah. It ran for what? 16 seasons? Yes. No, it ran for 15 seasons and then it ran for more seasons. I'm pretty sure it was just the show was taken over or something because on the Wikipedia, this is, it's like, they talk about it in season one to 15 and then 16 plus. Oh, okay. So they separate them. Yeah. The animation changed after the 16th season.

[00:14:55] So it started in 1995 based on- Oh, it's 30 this year. Like my brother. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's not accepted that. You do know though that what that means, it's like having a brother who's turning 30 means that you're approaching 30. There's three of us sat in this room and we could all be described as approaching 30. Yeah. Which I don't like. No.

[00:15:21] You said the other day, oh, we're 15 years from 40 and both me and us wanted to reach through the phone and throttle you. It ruined my day. I messaged back like, what the fuck? Yeah, we both put like four question marks. Like that's rude. In the next 15 years, almost definitely we will have the babies we're going to have. Anyway. If we're going to have them. Anyway. It's very, it's unlikely after.

[00:15:47] Arthur ran from 1995 to 2022. Ah. It is the third longest US animation behind Simpsons and South Park. It's the longest running children's animation. I can tell you how many episodes there were. So 25 seasons, 253 episodes. So the Mark Brown books is what it was based on.

[00:16:16] Mr. Ratburn was based on a real teacher of his. His sister Kim is who DW is based on. That sign can't stop me because I can read. Which is kind of like a compliment and not, I guess. She's everyone's least favourite character. Or she's the funniest character. She is. In the final episode where it's them and the future DW is a parking ticket inspector. Yeah, she's a traffic warden. Traffic warden.

[00:16:45] It was like, hmm. Of course. Wow. She really did turn into scum of society. Yeah, the lowest form of cop. Yeah. I would be livid if my brother had painted me in that picture. Like, what the fuck? She charges people for putting their cars places. It was made by Cookie Jar Entertainment, a Montreal-based children's animation. It was called something else. It was called Sina before it was, when Arthur was first made, it was called Sina.

[00:17:15] The production took place entirely in Canada, except some of the animation was outsourced to Hong Kong and South Korea. Which actually The Simpsons do now. Oh, really? Yeah. Okay. Because they're way faster. Yeah. Yeah. So in its 14th season, it switched from 4x3 to 16x9. That change happened to 1080p. Ew. Ew. Ew, David.

[00:17:43] And it switched to 1080p, which is, I think, another reason why it saved it. Because we were talking about how it looks a bit wronger. The newer ones. Yeah. Well, when it moved back in house on its 16th season, I mean, what was it? Adobe Flash? It went from being hand-drawn everything to using Adobe Flash, which in Adobe Flash, so the thing I was reading says it makes them look more like puppets because in Adobe Flash you can rig characters. Yes. So you can have the computer make them move for you.

[00:18:12] So the movement's become really smooth in a way that sort of looks wrong because you're so used to hand animation and how that looks. Yeah. Unfortunately, it does not look nearly as good, especially in the very later seasons. It's a lot flatter. It is, yeah, the movement's slightly weird and it doesn't have that kind of scratchy charm. Like, something in the early seasons is that the outlines are broken. Yeah.

[00:18:42] Like, consistently. They did keep that. I was watching a season 16 episode. They keep that, like, line, break, line, but it seems way more, like... Deliberate. Deliberate in a way. It's like, I can tell a hand hasn't been involved, if that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Come on, Buster. Just put your stuff over here. Your boots can go under there. Okay. That's my dad and that's Fern, my sister. Hi. Hi, Bo. Hi, Buster. Hi. Thanks for having us.

[00:19:10] We're making pizza for dinner. We're having homemade pizza? Just getting the dough ready here. Buster, what do you like on your pizza? So in season 8, which was 2003, and there was an episode called Postcards from Buster. Now, that was a backdoor pilot. Do you know what a backdoor pilot is? I'll explain what a backdoor pilot is. Supernatural had a horrendous one that everyone hated so much. You're like, well, we won't make that show. We will not be doing this.

[00:19:40] It's when a show has an episode that could potentially be a spin-off, and they're, like, testing the water for it. So Buster has divorced parents and... Lucy. It explains so much about Buster. Okay. Come on. Okay. So... What are you trying to say about... I meant that. What are you trying to say about divorcee children? Yeah, you're very much like Buster. What can I say? I don't know if that's an insult or not who's Buster. Buster is hands down the funniest character. I love Buster.

[00:20:08] I love Buster so much. I feel emotional when I think about Buster. There's an episode where he's collecting vegetables that are in the shape of other things. Yeah. Which is such a new thing to do. It's a sweet potato that's shaped like a little man. Which one's Buster? The rabbit. Laura, come on. You're in the studio now. This is stuff you should know. You should have done the research. The only two names I know is Arthur and DW.

[00:20:39] That is it. Anyway, he has... I wish I'd be flying for the rest of the season, young lady. Don't you think you're getting away with this every episode? There's so many characters. Oh, sorry. Vance Love... Well, you shouldn't have asked to be part of the podcast then, should you? Sorry, yeah. Vance Legstrong. There you go. That's the other character. That's Lance Armstrong, by the way. So he basically... His father, who travels around the world,

[00:21:04] came back and took Buster on a trip around the world. And that was the episode, Postcards from Buster. And what that turned into was a show called... I don't know what the show was called. It might have been called Postcards from Buster. But basically, he goes round the US and speaks to real live-action children about their lives. There were 55 episodes. The little clippy bits.

[00:21:34] Yeah, the little clippy bits. So I don't think... I do not have any memory of this, so I don't think it was broadcast in the UK. But it was 55 episodes showing different families, different cultures, different religions, all that sort of thing. So like little clips. So I think that that's a nice thing. It didn't run for that long, but I think that's good. Only so many states. Only so many states. You can go to actually know how many, 50? Maybe. Yeah. Sounds correct.

[00:22:02] I know it's a film of between 48 and 51. But I love Buster so much that in the wiki for the Arthur characters, in my notes, I only put Buster in there. Because reading it made me feel like... I just love him, and I just want to read the description of Buster. He still had no hair in the future. Arthur gets this, like, dude... No, he has a couple of strands. Yeah, I know.

[00:22:30] You have Arthur who's got a full head of hair, which looks like a wig. And then you've got Buster who's got, like, maybe four hairs. More hair than he had in the original. Right. Buster Baxter is Arthur's best friend. He is a white rabbit who wears a turquoise long-sleeve polo shirt and jeans. He loves eating and keeps expired food in his room and school desk. He has asthma, is obsessed with aliens, loves telling jokes,

[00:22:56] is an amateur detective, practices gardening, and plays the tuba. He is an only child whose parents divorced when he was young. He created and celebrates a no-frills holiday called Baxter Day with his mother. And that's in place of Father's Day, which I think is really sweet. His father travels the world as a pilot. Buster features his travels with his dad on the spin-off series, Postcards from Buster.

[00:23:23] Buster is a procrastinator, often preferring to have fun rather than study. One such instance nearly led to him flunking third grade before cramming at the last minute. Buster's character is based on Mark Brown's best friend when he was young. And the reason that I love Buster so much is because he reminds me of real-life children. He is obsessed with a cartoon character called Bionic Bunny. He loves fiction.

[00:23:53] He loves space. It's so part of his personality. And he's featured so heavily. And he's just such a good friend. And I don't have a lot of feelings looking back at Arthur, or at least until this week. But when I remembered Buster, I would always be like, Aww, he was funny. And I like him. Yeah, I like him. He's definitely the funniest character.

[00:24:17] And the thing about those descriptions of characters is because the show exists to teach a lesson every episode, God, kids gotta be learning all the time. No break from learning. That's what it's like living with you. No break from learning. It's so true. We've said this before, but if you wonder aloud, Laura will give you the answer. It's like, I don't even need to know. I'm just saying, like...

[00:24:46] Oh, do you ever wonder what... And she's like, in there. She's like, the phone's out. Or I already know. I love it when I already know. So it makes... So the reason for this, like with there being a sort of subject matter every episode, means that the descriptions of the characters sort of read like, She is a military child. She's allergic to milk. And it's like, okay, but... Tell me about her personality. Milk. Milk. Is it? Can't have milk.

[00:25:15] I think that the antlers guy... George. George. Fucking weird. Oh no. I mean, I watched the silent episode, the silent treatment episode. His giraffe thing is horrible. So George is the moose in Arthur's class. He... Those are not moose animals. Who is the moose in your classes? And if you don't have one, you will be.

[00:25:42] For one, a lot of people seem to talk really loudly. Hey! How you doing? Nice to meet you. I'm Francine. And even though you speak the same language, you sometimes have a hard time understanding what they mean. Good night for Vanessa.

[00:25:57] He has autism.

[00:26:28] He carries around a giraffe ventriloquist dummy. He's the one that gets left out the most. He is the one with... I think he's the most sympathetic character. He overcomes a lot. He's also the character that they use to talk about dyslexia. He's the one with a man. Oh, they won't give him a break. Oh, they also gave him the It's a Wonderful Life episode that every long-running show needs to have.

[00:26:57] Did you guys ever play hide-and-seek and people just leave off and let you hide forever? I was an only child. Did you not have friends? Yeah, but... You didn't play it at school or... No, not really, to be honest. Play it in the neighbourhood. And I remember this happening to me once where it was like, oh, we'll play hide-and-seek and then everyone else gets found and they're like, oh, who cares about Laura? Let's go play something else. And then you're there for like 15, 20 minutes and you're like... Oh, that's so sad, Laura.

[00:27:28] You're so like George. I'm autistic and dyslexic. I would neither of those. I would not default. And horny! Default to people were not noticing me. I wouldn't default to, you know what, I'm not going to talk to anyone until they talk to me. I wouldn't... That's not the route I would take. Yeah, that's what happens in... Yeah, but they're 10-minute episodes. George is much more like me. This one was a longer one. The Silent Treatment episode is a longer one. It's not...

[00:27:58] Because usually it's what, like two in a... Yes, so it's like a 20-minute show and it's like two stories. Silent Treatment was a full 20 minutes. Wow. They forgot I was even there. I could have stayed behind that tree forever. ...places to live. I come from an oak tree myself and I... ...ever pays attention to me. It's like I don't even exist.

[00:28:26] You exist, George. You're just as real as I am. You're not real, Wally. Oh! That's a... Stop talking and see if anybody even notices. Yeah, they gave their big issues to George, generally. They gave... They did. ...their biggest battles to their strongest soldiers.

[00:28:56] That's what George is. So, I asked my mum what she thought of Arthur and she said what she could remember of it is that it was very worthy. And... That's a good way of describing it, I think. Yeah, and a few years ago, like, we were talking about this and I would have agreed with her. Like, yes, it is. It feels a little bit... I guess when I was a bit younger I thought maybe it is a little bit worthy, a little bit schmaltzy, a bit American in that way. And watching it...

[00:29:25] Yes. Watching it now, I think that it walks the line absolutely perfectly. Yeah, I agree. I think it's funny enough. Like, there are jokes in there just for adults, really. There are clever jokes. There's clever line deliveries. And I think they're so direct about teaching lessons that it almost feels like they know. Like, they know how this will be received.

[00:29:54] This is what we're talking about and here are some jokes as well. And so I think it doesn't feel like it's too... forcing it down your throat. Arthur, you're a really good friend. I know. But you don't always listen. I admit it, sometimes I do get upset that my parents aren't together. Once in a while, I just really want to see my dad, but I can't. I have to call him instead. But I really enjoy the time I do get to spend with him.

[00:30:23] And even though my parents aren't together, we're still a family. It's just different than yours. So you can stop worrying about me. Okay. It fits right in with the scholastic group. That's PBS. Yeah, with Horrid Henry, the other one we've done. Clifford? Maybe Clifford. That's PBS. Yeah, it fits so well into that group

[00:30:51] of slightly pastel, slightly watercolour, slightly sketchy. I mean that in the drawing sense, not in the... But yeah, it's very nice and like gentle at times. Yeah, and I think that what's good about it is it doesn't feel too gentle or nice. It's actually, it's quippy. And it's... Savage jokes between siblings. No, exactly. It's, yeah, it's got an edge to it. There's a bit of an edge to Arthur.

[00:31:20] And I think something that gives it that is it's real world references. Mm. No phones in Versburg, son. Just snail mail. I'm William Carlos Williams. I'm Binky. So I guess you can't rhyme either. Well, sure I can. Slime, sublime, waste of time. I just choose not to. I'm a political prisoner. Free verse! Free verse! Vance Legstra. Vance.

[00:31:50] Vance Legstrong. Yeah, yeah. That doesn't... Vance Legstrong looked like the strangest bunny. It didn't, it didn't age well. Lance Armstrong's in it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, actually... Sometimes Lance Armstrong's in a TV show and you can't get around it. What was it? No, not anymore. What was the thingies called? The... Live Strong bands that everyone had when we were kids. Oh, yeah. You remember the yellow wrist bands? It's like, oh, I buy this for charity. It says Live Strong and it fucking everyone had them. I thought they were horrible and gross. You know, you really ought to enter that race.

[00:32:21] Why? So everyone can see me lose? No. Because you'll have a lot of fun. Yeah. Until everyone sees me lose. There's only one person you should be competing against out there. Who? Yourself. Ignore everyone else and try to do your best. Easy for you to say. You're the best cyclist in the world. How do you think I got to be the best cyclist in the world? Well, someone else that's also appeared in it is an unbelievable...

[00:32:50] I mean, this author is so recently disgraced that he's still in my notes for someone who appeared in Arthur. So we all know who that is, right? Let's move along. Who? A very, very recently disgraced author, Meg. Neil Gaiman. Neil Gaiman's in it? Yeah, he is, yeah. But Neil Gaiman's... What relevance Neil Gaiman had to kids? I mean, this is a little list. Oh, but I could almost understand Lance Armstrong being in it because he was relevant at the time.

[00:33:19] I didn't learn who Neil Gaiman was until I was at least about 15. Too old to be watching Arthur. Coraline, I guess, maybe? No. It's just very random, that. Did he appear as himself? I think he did. Well, this is a non-comprehensive list of celebrities that appeared. Some of these provided their own voice and I think a couple did not. So... Can we put you in it? Do I have to do anything? No. Mr. Rogers. Oh, that's fair. Yeah, that works.

[00:33:49] Art Garfunkel. Aww. Who sung a song called The Ballad of Buster Baxter. Larry King. Aww. Sure. Philip Seymour Hoffman. Aww. Well, that's a break between fucking the moment, like, connected in New York and the next film we did. I'm gonna do Arthur. I want something light. Yo-Yo Ma. Fun. Yep. Cello Episoda. Matt Damon. Yay! He's been in everything. And it got kind of meta because he actually came to Elwood City

[00:34:18] and decided to make a TV show about all the kids and there's a scene right at the end where he's like, right, take one, and it's Arthur's feet walking down the street in the opening. Joan Rivers plays Francine Frensky's Jewish grandmother. Oh, yeah. Bobby, what are you doing? What does it look like I'm doing? I'm having a sandwich. It's very dry, though. Your mother's got something against mayonnaise? What?

[00:34:49] The Torah forbids us to fast if it hurts our health. And, sweetheart, look at Bubba's body. It's a lemon. I wish I had an excuse. Let me guess. You ate some of Arthur's Pizza, right? It's that obvious? Bubba's know these things. Plus, there's a mushroom on your shirt. At the end, like the final title card at the end, it's just her face and she's going,

[00:35:19] he would have loved you, girl. He would be so proud of you, girl. And it's like, there she is, just get as much use out of her as possible. And that's a nice episode, so it's about... Is it kosher? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's about fasting. So Yom Kippur, she's doing her... She didn't even fucking manage it, does she? No. Yeah, no, it's about how it's okay that on your first one, if you eat something, it's all right. Well, it's also because she's doing it really early because you're not supposed to do that to your... Well, you're supposed to, if that or the other, until you're 13. Yeah, they're meant to be eight. Everyone in Arthur's class is eight.

[00:35:48] So she's really trying to get ahead of the game. Yeah, yeah. And the Backstreet Boys. That's the last person I have on my... Yeah, they do a cover of the Arthur theme song. Nice. So the Backstreet Boys were in Arthur. So that's not a... It's saying that they've only managed to have two disgraced people amongst the... I don't, I really don't understand why Neil Gaiman was in this fucking show at all. I mean, that's not even a comprehensive list. Not to be another podcast discussing Neil Gaiman, but... Fuck you, Neil!

[00:36:16] So what Arthur is very good at is real world pop culture illusions and literary illusions and TV references. So this is a little bit of a list that I've got. So people involved in those things sometimes appear in the show or they will just reference them. they did an episode that was just the Odyssey. Who was... main guy. I forgot his name. Quite possibly Arthur. Yeah, probably.

[00:36:46] I don't know. I don't know. Like in the Jekyll and Hyde episode. That's the next one on my list. So yeah, the musical episode. I'm sorry, the Jekyll and Hyde episode lives rent free in my head. It's not even an episode. It's just a song in the musical episode. It's just a musical episode. I was Jekyll Hyde, Jekyll Hyde, Jekyll Hyde, Hyde, Jekyll. Jekyll, Jekyll Hyde, Jekyll Hyde. Why are you actually doing that? Brain reads Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and he's like having a dream about it or something and he like sings this song

[00:37:16] and ever since I watched it as a kid, I remember watching that specific episode on like a Halloween day on CBBC and it's just lived with me ever since. And the other one in that that I remember is having fun isn't hard when you've got a library card. You've heard us do that. Yeah, I haven't. The show was originally conceived to get kids reading more

[00:37:46] and the characters in it are always talking about books. They're always reading. Brings me on to my next one. In the Kocher episode, she was watching Telly and there was too much food so she goes to a bookshelf and every single one is food but then she goes, you know what, I'm a real little Dorit. So us right now, we're all so hungry. One hour twelve so I can get some food. The next one is Scare Your Pants Off, brackets Goosebumps. So they have a series in their world

[00:38:15] called Scare Your Pants Off which is meant to be Goosebumps. Horrendously Horrible Happenings by Persimony Griget. Like Lemony Snicket. Ah, okay. The Sopranos appeared in, I think they're called The Altos or something. And there's like these animal mobsters that are just Ian Arthur. I can't remember, I'm sorry. What's the most mobster, like what's the most gangster animal?

[00:38:44] I want to say like a black bear. Fox. Yeah, I mean like a fox or little wolves. Like in, Because they're in a pack, aren't they? I mean in the Wes Anderson Fantastic Mr. Fox he does feel a bit like, like a petty criminal. He does, yes he does. No he is, sorry. He is a petty criminal. He is a petty criminal. He literally is. He used to make all of his money from theft. Yeah, he definitely used to sell like used car, like he used to be like a,

[00:39:13] like Matilda's dad. They've got a film called Freaky Tuesday. They've got, they've got Woogles which are supposed to be Beanie Babies. They've got Stinker Chew trading cards. They've got a film called The Dogfather. Nice. What? It's so good at this. Like it's so good at like getting things that will actually make grown-ups laugh that kids might even understand as well. Sorry, I just, in my head, I was about to ask you

[00:39:43] what other thing have we covered that had a dog, Godfather reference at the beginning? It was Rugrats. That's right. Yeah, well, it's quite enmeshed in our culture, isn't it? So they've got, You come to me on the day of my daughter's wedding. Every like big quote from The Godfather happens in the first scene. Yeah, that's because no one watches all of it. I watched The Godfather. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. The Godfather 3. Oh, apparently that's the bad one. I quite enjoyed it. I don't think it's the bad one.

[00:40:12] I think it's not the ending that everyone wants. I didn't, to be honest with you, I didn't get to the end of it because it was three hours long and I wanted to go to bed. I've only seen the first one. Brilliant film. I've only seen cartoons do parodies of them. They've got fantastic music. Yeah, I have heard that the music's awesome. And they've got Al Pacino. Yeah, they've got like early, young, kind of hot Al Pacino. Very hot Al Pacino. One of the films that else showed up for our film nights that we were doing during COVID was Dog Day Afternoon.

[00:40:40] You were so excited about it. I love Dog Day Afternoon. Dog Day Afternoon is a very good film. When we used to do movie nights, we used to do on like Wednesday nights during COVID and obviously we can't do that anymore because we have a stupid fucking podcast. so I don't get to watch any films anymore. Only kids film. We watched Elsie Shoda's Festin, which if you haven't seen. It's a Dogma 95 Danish? Danish, Danish, in its fantastic film. And actually,

[00:41:10] when I did my master's, it was referenced a lot and I was the only one in the course who'd seen it. So when we watched it, it wasn't even that easy to get a hold of. No, it wasn't. It was difficult to get a hold of. I happened to have the DVD because I mean, it's an incredible film. And they've adapted it into an opera. What a random thing to adapt into an opera. Well, for context, I'm going to see it. I'm so excited to see it. It would be criminal of me to spoil this film for you,

[00:41:40] but it tackles a subject matter that I consider to be impossible to put into an opera. And we are fascinated to see what they're going to do. A lot of like Scandinavian media absolutely barefaced looks, extremely serious topics in the face and just deals with them. And because it's Dogma 95, it's like shaky cam, no lighting at all, like completely natural lighting. It's the most fly on the wall thing that a fiction can be.

[00:42:10] It's so funny because I've been to the opera once when I was at uni. I went to see an opera called Satya Graha, which is about Gandhi and it's all in Sanskrit. And I only went because one of my university lecturers knew the director and I didn't have to pay to go. And I sat through three hours of this opera and I was like, it was impressive in many ways, but I didn't know what was going on because it was in Sanskrit, which I don't speak. And... What do you mean? I was like,

[00:42:39] I'll never go to the opera again. Like can't be bothered to do that again. And then at Christmas, I was like looking through what's on at the West End because I was thinking it would be like, for some of the family, like West End tickets is quite a good Christmas present. So I was just looking through what was on and I was like, Festin? At the Royal Opera House? What the fuck? I'll go to that. I'll fucking go to that. And we were like, doesn't matter, we're going. We need to see what the hell this is going to be. Yeah.

[00:43:08] If you're ever looking to watch it, it might, Festin means the celebration, so it might be under that name if you're ever trying to find it. Yeah, it's about an anniversary. Is it the anniversary or is it the celebration? Almost certain it's the celebration. Oh no, yeah, it's a birthday, it's a birthday party. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's really good though. It's really good. It's intense. It's really intense. And you're definitely not going to know what's going on until it happens. We got to a certain point. Like Alice, until it happens. She'd seen it. No, I hadn't seen it. You hadn't? Oh no, your parents said to, yeah. They told me to watch it. I was like, we're going to watch it together.

[00:43:38] We got to a certain point in the film Oh, okay. Oh man, it's so good. It's so good. Anyway, yeah, they have a cartoon dog in it called Spooky Poo. They reference other cartoons in it. So in certain episodes they've been animated like the South Park characters and even like Beavis and Butthead, which is very adult, right?

[00:44:08] So, yeah. In the same way as Peppa Pig, I wonder how they decide which animals are attributed to which families? Because like, who decided it was rabbits for that family? Aardvarks for that family? And then also, can they intermarry? Because it doesn't seem like they do. There aren't that many animals in it. A lot of animals are rabbits. A lot of bears. That makes sense. A lot of cats. A lot of dogs. Monkeys. Monkeys. Yeah, Francine and Muffy Crosswire

[00:44:37] are both monkeys. I think Muffy looks a lot more like a monkey than Francine. I knew that Muffy was a monkey. I didn't know that Francine was a monkey until today when I looked at it. I yelled out, oh, what animal is this family supposed to be? She said, I was in the kitchen and Laura said, what are they supposed to be? They were watching the kosher episode and I said, Jewish. Yeah, I got that. People were like, no, animal. I was like, I don't know,

[00:45:07] bear or something. Oh yeah, Binky is a bulldog. I want to talk about Binky actually. So in the first few seasons, Big Head. Big Head. Massive cheeks. Massive cheeks. Big Head. In the first couple of seasons he was the class bully and they decided to make him a lot softer. Learn him a lesson. Yeah, and they actually, he kind of stopped being that because they gave him so much humanity because it's the nice thing to do to show that people can contain multitudes

[00:45:37] and to not judge. Learn and grow. And then by the end, anything's possible when you get a Chinese little sister. Yes, they adopt a Chinese little sister. The family, yeah, and actually they said to me, how do you know she's Chinese? And I was like, look at her though. She is, I mean, it's clear they do say that. In fact, the dad said in the episode where he gets a little sister, the dad says, it's probably going to be a girl because we're going to China. It's like, ooh, another example of Arthur being

[00:46:06] very on the note. Well, because it's like, that was just true when we were kids. It's not true anymore, but that was, that was true. Now they've got a serious problem about a lack of women. Hey, May Lynn, do it again. Isn't it amazing what brothers and sisters learn from each other? I learn a lot from Arthur because he makes...

[00:46:36] And then by the end of the, um, the whole series, Binky is really into poetry. He plays the clarinet and he's like one of the softest characters. It's like when the bullying glee turns out to be gay. Oh, that lovely trope that we all, we all enjoy. I do kind of eat it up though, to be fair. Yeah, but you have enemies to lovers. Who doesn't? Who doesn't? I'm not a huge fan. Well, that wasn't

[00:47:06] what he was hiding. I'll say, for a tough customer, he plays with great sensitivity and passion. What's the matter with you? Don't you know genius when you hear it? Stand up. Well, speaking of issues, um, I've got a non-comprehensive list of the issues tackled in Arthur. Like the social issues. The social issues. Divorce. The sissues. The sissues. Divorce. No, that's here. Here are your sissues. Divorce,

[00:47:36] cancer, PTSD, banned books, natural disasters, bed wetting, hoarding, autism, gay marriage, asthma, autism being an issue, asthma, diabetes, dyslexia, internet information, protesting, bad words, paedophilia, no, lying, the importance of respecting privacy.

[00:48:05] Can we talk about the bad word episode? I haven't seen it. Do tell. Hi, everybody. I'm here on the set of the Altos. You know, that TV show about the family life of a gangster? They've agreed to let me teach you a little something about television. Here is what's known as the bleep. Whenever you hear it means there's something that you're not supposed to hear. Here is the person who is making them. Watch and listen how it's used.

[00:48:40] Ugh! This is terrible, Apple Betty! It's my mother. Now there was a woman who could make an amazing Apple Betty. When she made it, the whole neighborhood stood outside her house. Sank that woman was. If it's okay with you, T, I'd like to give that pastry chef a taste of his own cannoli. Hey, money you

[00:49:07] so much as unless I say so. Capisce? Cut! And there you have it. Okay, so what happens is DW gets in trouble for saying a bad word. Which one? I don't know, I'm getting there, right? The lesson of the episode is don't say words that you don't understand. That's fair. When she says the bad word in front of her parents, it's like censored. DW, are you listening to me?

[00:49:51] Did you just say to me? Which is just really funny to watch. Does she say a bad word or does she just say a word that a child shouldn't say that she doesn't know? What like damn or pissed or Yeah, a swear word, a bad word. Yeah. I will say the thing with my cousins asked us over Christmas, they were like, why are we not allowed to say bad words? Why do adults say them so much? And we were like, I have no answers for you, I'm afraid. I have no, literally the answer is because you'll get in trouble if you say it at school.

[00:50:21] that's almost exactly what we said. It's like the minute you're older, you can say them as much as you want. We don't care. I mean, if you're too young to know who you're offending, you shouldn't be throwing those words out. If you're old enough to know the right situation to say it, then you're probably even right. This was the whole argument in Famous Five episode, if you want to hear our opinion about bad words. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is kind of exactly what we said to them. It's like, when you're older, you'll be able to say it, but at school and stuff in certain situations, you can't say it. And also, they don't really mean anything specifically. We kind of just use them to colour sentences. That's it. Yeah.

[00:50:51] Then aren't they stored in a different part of the brain to language? They're not actually, they're in the emotive part of the brain. Wow. So they're not, because we don't use them to describe. Also, English is one of the only languages where you can do that abso-fucking-lutely. Like, you can put a swear in the middle of another word and break it up and it still makes total sense. Sweet. Do you remember the other day when Laura tried to say that she couldn't crochet to save her life and she said, I can't crow to shave my life. And I can't get over for her.

[00:51:22] Can't crow to shave her life. It's so funny. It wasn't talking about me. I can crow to shave anyone's life. But can you crow to shave your life? Oh my god, we're watching Traitors. Oh my god. Traitors is on in 45 minutes. I need Alexander back on my screen. If you don't watch Traitors. What are you doing? Yeah, you need to get on it. It's so good.

[00:51:50] What was he singing? Noosh, noosh, noosh. Noosh, noosh. Noosh, noosh. Noosh, noosh. And then later it was noosh, noosh, noosh. Noosh, noosh, noosh, noosh. Honestly, in episode one I was like, who is this posh? Yeah. Now, I need him biblically. It was the cards episode when he sat there like... Laura's miming because she keeps forgetting

[00:52:19] that this is a podcast. No, but this is definitely going on Instagram. What can I say? Yeah, I mean, you can see me. You can't. Now she's looking towards the camera when she's saying you. You can't. You need to just develop another part of your brain, Laura, that just remembers that... I have MS, Elsie. It's being eaten. Sure. Nish, nish, nish, nish, nish. Anyway, she was doing a meerkat impression because that's what he was doing behind the cards. it was so funny. It was very endearing. Yeah.

[00:52:51] I should have covered my mouth. I'm so sorry. I'm so rude of me. Have a talk about this. If you could be any of the animals or any of the animals are not depicted in Arthur,

[00:53:21] which one would you be? Which one would your family be? A-A-R-V... No, what is it? Aardvark? Interesting. What do you mean obstructive? Well, I imagine being a rabbit can be a bit annoying. This is so interesting because

[00:53:50] when I posted the... I think it was the Arthur theme song on Instagram the other day, Stuart, hi Stuart, he messaged and he was like, are you going to acknowledge the fact that Arthur's ears are up here but his glasses are here? And what I've got to say to that is where... how are you getting glasses? People who don't have ears can still have glasses that come to their head. It's not the most unbelievable part of the show. He's an aardvark that talks and he's bipedic.

[00:54:20] So... They used to... Some of the old glasses from... I can't remember which century or like 17th before. They literally just sat on your nose. These were Western designs because we have more outy noses. So they were just these two rings that had a thingy over the top of your bridge. That sounds horrible. Yeah, they fell off a lot. That sounds awful. What animals are there? What would I be? You can be ones that aren't because they... I'm quite clingy. What's a clingy animal? Koala. Oh, but I don't want to be koalas because I think they're ugly and they are.

[00:54:50] Chlamydia. Chlamydia. Crucially. No, but I don't... I wouldn't mind having chlamydia if I was really cute but they don't think... Well, you are really cute. Thanks. I don't have chlamydia. I don't think that koalas are cute in any way. I don't get it. I actually think they're scary looking. Yeah, they are. I feel exactly the same. I'm actually stronger about sloths. I think that they're horrible, disgusting animals. In fact, actually, one time I went to the London Zoo and there was a sloth mum there holding a sloth baby and the sloth baby was quite cute.

[00:55:20] It was quite a touching tableau. Family life. In general, if there was a knock on my door one day and I opened and it was a sloth bear, I would kill it. Me and my friends would have killed that sloth with hammers. What would you do? I like bears. I'd like to kind of be... There's a... Do you like salmon? No, I hate... Do you like honey? I love honey. I hate salmon. Do you like fruit? Yeah, I like fruit.

[00:55:50] There's a... The American Black Bear that's about 600 white versions of them and they're so cute. They look like much friendlier polar bears. And they also have an advantage with hunting because they blend in with the clouds. For the salmon. Oh, I see. Just to be clear. From a salmon's point of view. Oh, it's just a cloud. Hello, Fern. Hey. Mind if I join you?

[00:56:22] Timber. Right. But spring is only seven months away. Are you riding a pole? A poem? Perhaps a poem to someone you secretly admire? No. I'm writing a story about someone who wakes up and they're invisible. At first it's great, but then all they want is to be seen. It's very sad. Ah, yes. We all want our true identity revealed, don't we? Buster, is there something you want?

[00:56:52] I'm kind of busy. There was a direct-to video feature length. I guess episode, but film, really. It was like 58 minutes, right? Yeah. Pal goes missing. So Pal is the dog dog of the Aardvark family. He's their family dog. It raises so many existential questions. What do they eat? Regular food. I mean, we know that Mr. Ratburn eats a lot of cake. I thought you might want to see the spring reading list.

[00:57:22] Oh, are you having cake? I just wanted to drop off the spring class list. Oh, are you having cake? Arthur, I thought I'd better bring you the spring reading. Oh, are you having cake? Okay. That's part of his character. So it's vegetarian. Sure. Yeah. Again, same issue with Peppa Pig. What do you guys think? There is probably eggs in that cake. Yeah, so how do you establish the difference between a sentient chicken and a non-sentient chicken?

[00:57:52] Or do you buy eggs off of sentient chicken? Yeah, maybe that's just a marketable thing for the chickens of this world. Do you remember that time that Emily, friend of the pod, tried to convince me that if it was consented, it was vegan? And she was like, I was like, no, that's not the definition of veganism. The definition of veganism is nothing. Nothing that's an animal product. Not if the animal says you can have it, you can have it.

[00:58:20] Like, no. But like, in this world, those are vegan eggs because the chicken said, have them. The chicken can say, yeah, I'm selling them. Please, you know, pay me. I make one of these every 24 hours or however long it is. In ancient Rome, they used to, when they were sacrificing animals in rituals and stuff, they had to get the animals consent. Oh yes, I know this because of horrible histories. Anything could want to fire as a consent. If the boar or like, bull just went,

[00:58:51] like tilted its head to the side or anything like that. They used to flick, they used to flick water at their heads to get them to nod. Yeah. Consent, we can go ahead, kill it. It's fine, it said yes. Terrible. That's awful. You guys are making some weird rules. Yeah, because also historically they definitely like the humans to say yes before they sacrifice them. What's the thing about stoats being fish? Oh no, it wasn't stoats, it was beavers. No, beavers, sorry. Beavers. Basically it was in the Middle Ages

[00:59:21] and medieval times they took Lent and fasting as Christians a lot more seriously than people do today. So during Lent you couldn't eat meat, you could only eat fish and also not every day, you could only eat fish on certain days but the definition of a fish sort of broadened to anything that lived near or in water so it included beavers. Yeah, have a beaver, you could have a buffalo. People just get like really sick of fish. Yeah, like a cod or something.

[00:59:51] They're really sick of it. Duck, yeah, I guess. Goose. Goose. No, geese were very fancy. Yeah, but it's a fish. No, I know, but because they were viewed as quite a fancy poultry item they weren't viewed as fish. That's so weird. It literally lives on water but you're arguing that a beaver is a fish. No, I know, I'm winning. Christians! To lower the tone slightly, when George Floyd was killed

[01:00:20] in 2020 I think, yeah, summer of 2020 they did an episode about racism and protesting and I, well I don't know if it was an episode or if it was just like a special video that was put out but basically you had Arthur and you had Buster and they were on FaceTime to each other. I gotta call Buster. Hey Arthur. Hey Buster. Did you see that video? Yeah, I just watched it. It was awful. I can't believe

[01:00:49] someone would be hurt like that just because they're black. Racism is so unfair. No one should ever judge someone by the color of their skin. But how could it happen here in Elwood City right outside the sugar bowl? Buster. It happens everywhere. I was talking to Mrs. McGrady the other day. She said there's a really long history of black people not being treated fairly in this country. It has to stop. We have to do something. Yeah.

[01:01:19] But what can we do? I mean, I'm vague on my own. I don't know. Maybe Mrs. McGrady can give us some ideas. Hold on. Boys, I'm so glad you reached out to me. Yes, I saw the video too. Because it does keep up with technology does Arthur. Which is weird. They're static in time but like technology's moving around them. I suppose it makes sense if you're teaching kids. You've got to

[01:01:49] keep them up to date. No, we're going to teach them about cassette tapes and nothing new. So they are saying to each other did you see the video? So they're touching on a kind of children on the internet topic as well and they're like yeah, it was horrible. I can't believe that would happen here in Elwood City. And then Buster said something that kind of gave me shivers because this issue is tackled in a lot of kids TV but they don't ever say it

[01:02:18] quite as explicitly. They're like people shouldn't be treated differently because they look different. Buster says he was treated so horribly just because he's black and it's like oh, they said it and that's really, really cool. and I mean Tweenies did it and they were saying just because Milo's purple and Fizz is yellow like it's nice that Arthur did that and Arthur has always

[01:02:48] since it first started bold face going the issue. Yes, very bold. Yeah. It does lead to me to question how do you know if a character in Arthur is black? Are they say so? I mean you wouldn't look at literally any character. I mean how would you know a character in Arthur is an aardvark if they say so? I know that one's a bunny but what are you? I'm a tapir. A-A-R-D-V-A-R-K

[01:03:18] A-A-R-D-V-A-R-K Don't bother me DW I'm studying. Oh, is that what you call it? Oh yeah, Prunella the kid in the year above them that's in some storyline her biggest storyline was that she's a hoarder actually. Can I just say that we were watching it and Prunella's got an older sister that's what I was going to say. Oh, I'm sorry. no, go on. Prunella's got an older sister and Prunella

[01:03:47] like addresses her sister and I was like did? Is her sister's name Rubella? Her sister's name is Rubella. It is. Well, I was just thinking like measles mumps and I was just German Rubella. I was just thinking Prunella's a terrible name because that's so close to Purell which is like a hand sanitizer like why would you name your kid that? But that's worse. Yeah, it's just a disease. Anyway, it was so funny. Yeah, this episode is like about how

[01:04:17] how Prunella is hoarding things and the episode goes they're randomly selecting people from the grades to be part of a project. I don't even remember what the project was but Prunella has been selected from grade four and Arthur gets selected from grade three. Arthur goes around to Prunella's house to do this project and she's like she's basically like you don't need to you don't need to buy anything because everything

[01:04:46] we've got for this project is right here and opens a cupboard that's full of shit and Arthur Arthur looks terrified to have another cupboard built rather than deal with her stuff. No, she doesn't but she thinks about it. Yeah, Arthur goes what the fuck? Yeah, back it out slowly. I think you need help. Gives her a self help book. Gives her a self help book and goes around and with Prunella they start like chucking shit out and I just thought

[01:05:15] it was so presumptuous I'd be so fuming if someone younger than me who I barely interact with comes around to my house and goes could you clean your wardrobe out please? Like, wouldn't you be so mad? If someone came around and went I think you need help I'd be like um I don't think that's for you to say you're a child. Like, like, literally Buster get Arthur goes around to Buster and starts talking smack about Prunella and Buster goes my mum gave me this book to help me tidy my room maybe you want to give it to her and he goes

[01:05:45] around and Prunella's like well offended and you would be, wouldn't you? Yeah. Oh, Rubella just thinks I saved too much stuff. She says I'm a pack rat but I've got some great things we can use for the fair. Here's a box of pine cones I saved from last winter. Oh wait, these are just pencil stubs. Here, all my quizzes from second grade. Oh, don't want to look at those. Oh, but here's a bag of packing peanut. Might be useful as part of a display. Ah, what are these? Shoelaces.

[01:06:15] Whenever one breaks I saved the broken piece. Why? I don't know. I just did. Someone needs to teach Arthur someone basically, I don't want kids to learn from this show that it's okay to go around to people's houses and go, could you clean up please? I don't remember what the episode was called but there's an episode where DW is trying to get all of her friends

[01:06:45] to publicly announce how much they love her. She's so funny. She's one of those girls that only, she only has male friends. Yeah. Pick me. Well she does, she only has male friends to see people. She has an imaginary female friend. She has that blonde friend. Yeah, imaginary she is. No, she's not. With a blonde ponytail. Other people were talking to her. No, imaginary she is. she gives her a doll. It's a real person. Oh right, okay. It's for sure a real person.

[01:07:15] I'm thinking of another person then I guess. And then you guys at home will know. Yeah, they'll know. They always know so much more than we do. And she's in the playground and she's trying to get her friends to declare that they love her in exchange for toys I think. Or like time with her. And these two twins. About a system. Yeah, these two green twins are like, one of them is like, we do love you and the other one's like, I love you so much. it's Timmy and Tommy, isn't it? I love you so much that when you touch the sand I collect it and put it in a jar

[01:07:44] next to my bed. And I was just like, that's what I want. I'm never washing this hand again. Insane. And then like, so they get all of her toys and then she, in that episode they tackle stalkers. She goes around and they're destroying all of her toys so she gets quite upset. And then she's, she's alienated her actual friends who are not stalkers. They don't want to talk to her. And then she's out front of the twins' house

[01:08:14] in the rain like, no one actually loves me. And then her brother comes and gets her toys back off these horrible twins who break his glasses. Oh, go ahead!

[01:09:02] There's some altercation behind a closed door that we don't get to see and he comes out and one of the arms of his glasses is broken. I'm like, Jesus, what the hell happened? The first episode. In that episode they were fight. Well, no, because it's, it's, it's all, fine. It's all good that this was an appropriate way to deal with it. She makes up with her real, I almost said human friend. She makes up with her real friend. Human friend. The first episode is about him getting his glasses and

[01:09:32] I have always, this has been bouncing around my head for many years. His friend's first reaction when he gets glasses is to chant at him, four eyes, four eyes, you need glasses to see. Yeah. That, that liberal. The other day while we were in the car my boyfriend shouted specky cunt at another driver and then he just looks he goes like this he went, I'm sorry to you. Yeah. and

[01:10:02] it's hard to be offended when someone says something you say. Like I've called people specky cunts as well. I look in the mirror all the time and I'm like specky cunts. Interesting you've decided not to wear your glasses today else. Why? We'll just four eyes, four eyes. Really? Because I'm not wearing glasses. I never understood four eyes. Like I'll go in your eyes and pick your contacts out right now and show them to the camera. They know I'm wearing them. I feel it's very clear that I've got two.

[01:10:32] I don't really understand where this four eyes thing comes from. You just need an extra set of eyes so the original eyes work. Yeah but like I would never go yes, four eyes. It's too, what? I never understood it ever. Can we talk about the gay rat wedding? Yeah let's talk about the gay rat wedding. So I woke up Why are the gays rats? I woke up second year of uni and Arthur was trending on Twitter. I thought what's going on? No. Seriously?

[01:11:00] Over an hour into this. When's he going to have his gay rat wedding? And can I come please? I've always thought that if ever Arthur gets married I'm going to send him a card that says love is love. And he is joking. I accept you. Just so you know. So happy gay rat wedding. It's fine. It's all fine. Arthur was trending and I was like really? I've not heard about this for a long you know.

[01:11:30] And I looked and Mr. Rat everyone was gushing over the character of Mr. Ratburn because he was having his gay rat wedding and they were tackling the subject of gay weddings. And it kind of ushered in an era of internet rat memes that weren't there before. I think I'm the only person that actually remembers that rats became a meme animal because of the gay rat wedding. And on my way into class that day I was telling everyone who would listen. Strangers on the street.

[01:11:59] Did you hear? They made Mr. Ratburn gay. They're the character in Arthur who's had a gay wedding. I was so happy and everyone was. I think this program needs to tackle its own segregation. Why did he have to marry a rat? I don't think he did. Makes it sound like there were two rats but fair enough. He had a gay rat summer. Rat summer. Grat summer. Grat summer. Thanks. That's all I've got. Mr. Ratburn is married.

[01:12:29] I still can't believe it. Yep. It's a brand new world. But there's one thing that teachers should never ever do. What? Crazy fact. Obviously all of the child voices were replaced multiple times over its

[01:12:59] decades long run. I think Arthur has maybe eight voice actors or something. Brain, real name Alan, I think, he was at one time voiced by Stephen Crowder. Wasn't his real name Brian and that's why they call him Brain? They call him the Brain because he's clever but I have a feeling I've heard one of the teachers calling him Alan. I don't know. Stephen Crowder played him.

[01:13:29] Who's that? Stephen Crowder is, do you know who Stephen Crowder is? He's like a right wing internet grifter person. He's one of them, right? It's unfortunate. And someone else who played Brain is the internet democratic leader. The internet cartoonist House of Decline. Oh. I love you House of Decline. We love you House of Decline. I like the way you draw willies.

[01:14:00] What an interesting reunion party that would be. She's like an internet progressive. She's the complete opposite of who Stephen Crowder is, right? And the fact that they both played that character is so mind-blowing to me. And I think it's a similar genre of fact to the fact that Ben Shapiro is the first cousin of Mara Wilson. So unfortunate for her.

[01:14:30] For her, yes. It's just so strange. You couldn't imagine two people that are more different. What a strange Christmas dinner. Well, they're both Jewish, famously. What a strange Hanukkah dinner. Should have gone with Thanksgiving. Yeah.

[01:15:04] You need to learn to organize your time. I've heard that some people think I give a lot of homework. We never heard that. But once you've learned good work habits, you'll discover... Jack, where are you? Just a second. The cat rolled my head into the litter box. You're capable of more than you think. I'll teach you how to do that homework and then have more time for things you enjoy. Like how you do all that stuff? Plus puppets? Exactly.

[01:15:34] I've got a little something to read from Aaron Edwards of the Atlantic so he wrote something about Arthur when it was ending. The strength of Arthur was in its holistic approach to reflecting its views. It passed the baton of its episodes to a cast of characters beyond its lead. In many ways, the show was a decades-long ensemble play. Nerds, bullies, punk kids, computer geeks, tomboys, and princesses, they all got screen time.

[01:16:04] And not just that, they got arcs, interiority, and plots that presented elements of their identity at odds with the world around them. That puts into words something that I was trying to and couldn't. I love the ensembleness of it. I love that it feels like such a fully fleshed-out world. Elwood City feels so lived in, and the characters are so different, and yet you believe that they're friends. a character that George

[01:16:34] is seen with a lot is Muffy, who's the rich, rapid kid, and George is the opposite of that. He's the quiet, insular one. Did anyone else always as a kid see George as the gay one? Well, yes. That's why he's with Muffy. Yes! I love it when they tackle Muffy being rich. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We've got to

[01:17:03] tackle Muffy having money. Oh, is that the girl, the little monkey one? She wears a little purple dress. Because there's an episode based around Downton Abbey that she's the main focus of and the bulldog guy. Binky. Binky. Because they both find photos of their ancestors, great-great-grandparents at Downton. I forgot what it's called. It's like Fountain or something.

[01:17:34] She's so excited to find out she's some kind of princess. No, her great-grandma was the maid. And then Binky, his great-grandad was the lord. Nice. But it's a fairly interesting story because it turns out she was a shit maid, but pretty good at business. So she takes over the estate. Not really how it works, but it's for her. It's radically unrealistic. Do you know what else doesn't work? Yeah. I think we can give them this one. I think

[01:18:04] it worked. I think demonstrably it worked. No, but not in real life, which is what I think Elsie was saying. That's not how it works in real life. The maid doesn't just take over the estate because she can do business. But also, my pets don't chat with me. Such a shame. Well, you do chat with me, actually.

[01:18:45] I think the adults in the show are really funny. I think that they speak in a way that feels really natural. Like, when they talk to it's just real. There's a bit where Mr. and Mrs. Reed, Arthur's parents, they're in the car going away from some event and she turns to him and says, it was quite nice actually, I didn't even have to pull my ear. And it's like, oh,

[01:19:15] they've got a code that will go over the heads of kids. But it's nice. It feels natural. It definitely has one up on Horrid Henry where a lot of the plots hinge on the parents being radically fucking stupid. Or the thing about the ensemble cast is some of the other kids in a Charlotte Horrid Henry don't really exist. They're sort of just there. They don't really talk much, whereas all of these guys get their own episode. Yeah, I'd never actually considered this before you said that, but there

[01:19:45] isn't a single villain in all of Arthur. Like, every single Yeah, DW is a bit of a villain. Yeah, she's the only, yes. She's a bar attendant. But like, every lesson is learned with an apology and no one has ever meant to cause any harm. Well, like real life, usually real life. Yeah, it's just so lovely. There's so much warmth in this show. What's the joke you guys have been saying the last few days

[01:20:14] about? This is a meme. There's a Sue Ellen, I think she's a cat, I don't know. Sue Ellen is having an episode about being an only child and there's a race at sports day, whatever, it's for siblings and DW says to, I'll put the clip in. Yeah. But it ends with, lonely is what I'll be when I sell you. Lonely is what you'll be when I sell you to traffickers. Yeah, that's the joke.

[01:20:44] It's a bit dark. Yeah. I can be your partner for the next race. Sorry, Sue Ellen, it's a brother and sister race. Maybe there's a contest for lonely children after this. It's only children, DW. A lonely child is what you're going to be when I sell you. There's a scene, I don't know the context, where the family are in the car and there's like a bad smell in the car and DW, I think the voice actor should have been given better direction. She sticks her head out the

[01:21:14] window of the car and goes, exactly like this. Gas chamber, ah. Gas chamber, ah, is the line. Oh my god. Oh my god. I've got like, I've got like a couple of adult-ish or like generally slightly cleverer jokes that I've picked up from what I've watched. Buster has asthma and he gets, he has an asthma attack

[01:21:43] and because he opens some dusty books and Arthur says, yeah, and Arthur says, he must have got sick after I showed him those dirty books. That's funny. There's a bit where the clown is, there's a clown that's supposed to come into class and he cancels on them and the teacher says, he ran away from the circus to join a family. there's a bit where Francine's dad, who's a lovely character,

[01:22:13] says to his girls, got a surprise for you? And Francine says, are you going to drive us to the outskirts of town and leave us there? And he says, no, we're going for ice cream or something. And Francine says, no, I'll never see the outskirts of town. Arthur is so, so much funnier than I remember it being. Yeah. Like, I didn't think, I just didn't think it was like all that witty, but there's, I have found myself,

[01:22:43] I've fallen in love with it over the last few days. It's warm, it's lovely, it's nice, it does something really good and it's not too sort of holier than thou with it. And I like that. Kids shows can fall into that trap really easily because it's like, oh, we're just trying to entertain the kids. It's like, Arthur was actually interesting to look at, the storylines are amusing or interesting fairly consistently. I didn't watch a single episode where I was going, oh, I'm going to

[01:23:13] put this on two times speed. I didn't do that for a single one. Yeah, I mean, it's fast enough. I like the bit where Muffy says to Francine, no, but it's the poor people who have no problem not spending money. Can you imagine how hard it is for me? The wealthy. She knows what she is. Yeah. Yeah. She's also, there's one point where she's like holding a credit card and a bank note at the same time. She goes, this isn't money. This is money.

[01:23:43] This is plastic. She was so real for that. Yeah, they've been sent an assignment to not spend any money all week and she's like, this is harder for me because I have money. So true, Nick. I spend money. You don't understand my struggle. My struggle. Did you know that Arthur has rabbit slippers and Buster has aardvark slippers? That's a little weird. No, I think that they're just a lovely

[01:24:12] friendship. Imagine if I had Meg slippers and she had Laura slippers. That would be cute. That would be so cute. Are you kidding me? That would be funny. I'll do it with you if you want. Yeah, we'll do it. Fine. You don't have to be involved, Laura. I want to get some Wallace and I want to get some grommet slippers. Right, I'm not being funny, Laura, but there's one thing in this world you don't need is more slippers. You've got at least like three pairs. Yeah. No, four. You've got four. Oh, no, I left some of my grandma's so I have some there. Okay, we still got them though, haven't we? Sure. They're still

[01:24:42] yours. Sure. I think Meg's just hungry now. I was just listening. I am so fucking hungry. You don't understand. Lifted her trouser leg to reveal red and white spotty socks all the way up to her knees. Unfortunately, there is one thing I told you not to do. That's true. I'm so sorry. Which is that she is wearing the jankiest, skettiest looking uggs. She's had them

[01:25:12] for at least ten years. Oh, longer. Show the camera the bottom of them again. I said, do not let the camera see the bottom of these shoes because they're just disgusting to look at. You need to lift your foot up more. There we go. Isn't that disgusting? Horrible. Like, if it was raining out, her feet would be wet through. Oh, yeah, no, that's happened before. I mean, uggs give you very little support anyway. But the soles is gone. I bought these in grade eight, year nine.

[01:25:42] I don't know how old you are then. Fourteen. Fourteen. So they're twelve years old. Get some new ones. Just allow yourself a new pair. I can't. You buy enough extra slippers that you don't need. This is just another pair of slippers. I'm going to go to the shop and try and because they offer a repair service, but I don't know if they repair this thoroughly. So I need to go and be like, hey, it's a replacement. I mean, it'll be a ship of theseus situation. I'll be honest with

[01:26:12] you. I don't see a shop repairing them for you. Yeah, I don't feel like I can buy new ones. vegan. Are they're not vegan uggs? Well, there are other companies' versions of them, sure, but they'll essentially be plastic in that in many ways as well. Worse, yeah. I've had these for 12 years, but I can fix them, that'd be great. Any other comments? I think if you were curious, rewatch it. If you have kids, it would probably be great to rewatch it

[01:26:42] with them. I hope it never stops being rebroadcast. I think it's a really wonderful thing that exists. I love it. I think it's a really great way to introduce your kids to social issues if there's any you wanted to. If you're finding it difficult to introduce your kids to any of them, it's probably a really good way to eke into it and then have a conversation yourselves about it. There's an episode that tackles not knowing when you're old enough to stop doing

[01:27:12] something. Basically, Binky is seen by George holding hands with his mum and he's just terrified for the whole episode that George is going to say something. George saw it happen but didn't even register it. He has no idea what Binky's like. I'm not going to tell what. I don't understand. The end is just like no one cares. You never really old enough to stop doing something. You're never too old to keep doing something. It really does depend.

[01:27:43] I stopped napping between the ages of 8 and 22 which was a mistake. I love napping. That is not true. You definitely naps before the age of 22. You forget that I've known you since you were 19. So I know. Was I napping at uni? Yes. Alright, fine. 7 to 7 to Even if it's not napping, you just tag the nap you'd have on the day to the end of your sleep

[01:28:13] at night and just stay in bed for longer. That's just a long sleep or just a regular but late sleep. But I didn't set aside, okay, I'm going to nap for 45 minutes for my entire adolescence. You always have to set aside your nap time sometimes it's spontaneous. Yeah, I know, but like sometimes it's an accident. Technically, four years of school every single morning I had a nap on the way to school in the school bus. So that's completely wrong. I used to sleep on my way home. Nap forever, always nap.

[01:28:43] I think naps are great. I love a nap. There's an episode about how time passes too quickly and it gets very meta Arthur does. So at the beginning of this episode, like the pre-title card, Arthur's talking to camera, which often happens pre-title card. Like, do you ever think that life is just going by too fast? And I think it's Buster who comes in and says, Arthur, you've got 30 seconds. And he's like, till what? Till the show starts. And then there's like a

[01:29:13] timer in the corner. And he's like, but I'm just talking to him about the passing of life. And there's another episode where it's all about trophies. It's called The Trouble with Trophies. And it's about how it doesn't, it's what it's for that matters. And in the beginning, Arthur is, he says, wouldn't it be amazing to get a trophy every day? And then he gets one for brushing his teeth and one for humming a

[01:29:42] song and he's being like buried in them basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And one of the things that he's given is certificate of existence, the Mark Brown certificate of existence. And that's the name of the author. Tackles different religions. Different religions? Tackles is interesting. I'm phrasing that. Includes addresses. Which I guess is probably nice for British kids who don't know any Jewish people. people. Yeah.

[01:30:12] Yeah, I guess because the religion diaspora across the UK is some very concentrated areas of quite a lot of diversity and then no diversity for huge amounts of the actual UK. So it's a good way to be like, okay, there are other religions. When you leave your hometown, you're probably going to meet people of different religions. It didn't even occur to me that this show was American Canadian whatever until someone commented on Instagram like, oh, you do British shows, they didn't expect you to do this.

[01:30:42] And I was like, because it's such a household show and it was on CBBC and it was free to watch. I'd never even thought I was an American show. Just constantly broadcast every day. I mean, same. I did know, but I don't think of it like that. It's just there. It's out there. I never thought people would be surprised that we'd cover it because it was, I mean, we've talked about doing it for four seasons. I mean, Arthur, my brother, like you'd think it would get annoying,

[01:31:12] but he says every time someone meets him and sings the song at him, he says he doesn't hate it. It's a great song and it makes him happy when they do that. And I think that's a testament to the show, I guess. I can imagine if every time you met someone with a name. Oh, not every time. Any amount of time. That's so weird to me. That's super weird. What? Me and Elsie went to college with a guy who looked an awful lot like, I don't know what you're going to say. Robert Pattinson.

[01:31:41] Oh, yeah. The first time I met him, I said, you look so much like Robert Pattinson. And he went, really? And I was like, I'll never make that mistake again. Let them bring it up. He's a lovely guy. I lived with him for a year and every day, every day I looked at him and I thought, God, he looks like Robert Pattinson. That is really? Honestly, such a nice thing to hear though, surely. I've been sitting and trying to think of any shows or any kids

[01:32:10] stuff that has Elsie or Meg in it. And the only one I can think of is Mog and Meg. Meg and Mog? Meg and Mog. Excuse me. Meg Mog. Meg Mog. But I can't think of either for us. Is that the same as Meg the Witch? Because I'm pretty sure that, I don't know, there's a Meg the Witch as well, but I don't know if it's the same book. Is she a witch? Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, is she a witch? They might have been running out of ideas for issues when they tackled the issue of teachers don't live at school.

[01:32:40] So many kids, including myself, thought. Yeah, this is maybe something that is important to show that they're real humans. So that's maybe a nice thing. So basically, Mr. Ratburn has to leave his house for a bit and he stays at the Reed's house, which and Arthur's like freaking out, like, my teacher's going to be staying with me. That is odd. I mean, it's a little odd, but it's a small community. I don't think in this, it would be weird if it happened to you in real life, but they all know each other in the

[01:33:10] show, that's kind of the point, isn't it? Yeah, and he says to DW, teachers don't actually live at school, DW. I live in a house. And DW walks off saying, everything was so simple before this moment. But basically, he learns that his teacher likes watching cartoons and crucially eating cake because that is his personality. Cake and cartoons. I love Mr. Ratburn. Cake and cartoons sounds like a solid dude. Yeah. He's also a puppeteer. He builds his own puppets and puts on puppet shows.

[01:33:40] Is Mr. Ratburn your sister? He contains multitudes, does Mr. Ratburn. I love him. Is she going to have a gay rat wedding? Just a rat wedding. Actually, she loves drawing mice. Yeah. She's very good at drawing mice as that girl. They're so cute. Yeah. She does very good drawings. Betty is very talented. Very talented lady. Did she make some mice puppets? Little finger puppets. Oh, finger puppets would be great. The string puppets are much harder.

[01:34:12] Yeah. Yeah, Mr. Ratburn's a cool guy. He's got a very friendly voice. He was voiced by the same guy for the whole 20 years. Yeah. Given that he didn't age. I'd just love to be friends with him. Yeah. None of them age. I mean, what I mean is like the children aged so they couldn't voice the children anymore. Oh, sure. Yeah. Whereas obviously Mr. Ratburn's... Mr. What's his name? Mr. Ratburn. He is Mr. Ratburn. Okay. He obviously... The actor aged, but it didn't matter.

[01:34:41] Orange Buster? Is this a word problem? The answer is D. All of the above. George, would you knock it off? You're eating those mashed potatoes so noisily. Can't you see I'm trying to study? Nigel, I think this SWEAT test has given some of your students a nasty case of the jitters. Might I suggest something? Who here gets butterflies in the

[01:35:11] belly right before a big game? For me, it's when I play the keyboard in front of an audience. Anybody else get the willies before performing? Aye. Once me palms were so sweaty, I dropped me clarinet on me big toe, and I've got the scar to prove it. Binky, international talk like a pirate day is over. Okay. The point is we all feel stressed sometimes. Here's one way I like to deal with it.

[01:35:39] They also have a dinner lady, and I can't remember her name. I think she's a mouse, I'm not sure. She looks a bit mousy. And she pops up when there's a slightly more difficult issue to be tackled, so they always go to her for advice, and she can always tell when the kids are upset about something, so it's nice to have her there as a character as well. Our dinner ladies, we had like two that I remember very consistently. They were so lovely, but I never thought to talk to them

[01:36:09] outside of lunch. That's so weird because I feel like the dinner ladies we had at school were either the nicest people on the planet or absolute pure evil. Yeah, they ran that dining hall like the military. Yeah. Like, you're mad on power. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All you do is let me into lunch, and you're mad on power. You're like, no, you can't come in. I'm like, why? It's not actually your time to come into lunch. What? Your dinner ladies were at the front door? What?

[01:36:39] Well, yeah, they managed the queues. Oh, our dinner ladies were behind doing dinner. Well, they switched up their roles for sure. And then we had the teacher assistants were the ones that were like... Oh, really? Yeah, but at my school we had some people who pretty much only worked like they were like lunchtime assistants, basically. Yeah, we had the three women who were the teacher assistants who like did the queues into lunch and also like fielded around the lunch

[01:37:08] tables telling you you could leave or eat your dessert or whatever. We need to move on from the subject of food because I'm actually so hungry my eyes are failing me. We've got 14 minutes before we can get out of here. The only other time I can remember Arthur trending on Twitter was when its last episode dropped, which a lot of people watched because so many people have grown up with it. It's kind of like a constant thing. So it was I think a fairly regular episode but then the last

[01:37:36] scene basically was set in the sugar bowl. So the sugar bowl is where they all hang out. It gets a lot of mentions. It's an ice cream shop. I think Brain works there or his family owns it or something. And Arthur's there and he's probably in his 30s. I think it says 20 years or he'll be 28. 20 years later. And he's asked all his friends to meet him there because he's going to have his first book published. And in this

[01:38:06] scene the person voicing Arthur is the original Arthur actor, which makes me feel really emotional to think about. I think that's so lovely. And Buster's there and we find out all their jobs. So Buster has become a teacher and he's talking about the creative writing of his students and Arthur says, well, if she's into aliens as much as you are then it's going to be great because that was his whole personality.

[01:38:36] Francine, the tomboy, sporty character, she owns a sneaker company. Muffy Crosswire is running for meh. Binky is, you see him on the TV, he's a weather reporter because that's something that he was very interested in in a few episodes. Yeah, the weather. Yeah, yeah. Sure, sure. We love the weather. George is there and I think he's working at the Sugar Bowl, I think. Is there anyone else in that scene? I don't think so. Oh yeah, DW's out on the street giving a ticket.

[01:39:06] And Trevor is on the bike parking illegally. Just her friend, her little friend from, yeah. And they're saying, show us your book, Arthur. And he shows it to them. And he says, it's the story of how I first got my glasses, which is the first episode. And he, it's an absolutely lovely scene. People really, really enjoyed it. And it just does justice to all the characters so well. But he says one

[01:39:35] line that just throws the entire thing into a completely different, like, hang on a second. He says, I guess I just love drawing animals. What the fuck are we supposed to take from that? Okay, we've been watching humans the whole time. Well, I mean, yeah. I mean, yeah. But it's also like, how could you say it? I know. It's so, yeah, it's weird. Well, with you as her teacher, it was probably about aliens.

[01:40:04] Eh, you get an F, Arthur Reed. It's about a baby who can read animals' minds. It's really good. Maybe she'll be a writer. Oh, is that it? Yeah, but I don't know if it's any good. The latest polls have us neck and neck, but I think I can pull ahead. George, can I put one of these up? Sure. My sugar bowl is your sugar bowl, and I'll do anything to get that Mayor Hirsch out of office. I know.

[01:40:34] Why doesn't he just retire already? Hey, are those the latest style? Yeah, but we haven't released them yet. I'm just testing them out. Who ever thought I'd get so much exercise running a company that makes sneakers? Is that it? Let me see. I don't know. It may be nice now, but that cold front is gonna body slam Elwood City by Tuesday. Hey, there's DW. I wonder who the

[01:41:04] unlucky driver is this time. Hey, this is a no-parking zone. Move it. Hey, DW. It's me, but... Let me buy you coffee. But first, I have to give you a ticket. Come on, show us. Can I see two? I'm sure it's great. As your future mayor, I order you to let us see it. You're the only ones who have ever seen it

[01:41:33] except for my publisher. Imagined you'd write a graphic novel. Me neither. I just like drawing animals. Well, what are you waiting for? Read it to us. Chapter one. How I got my very first pair of glasses. I'm wondering if we should start wrapping this up. Yes, sure. What are you going to have for dinner?

[01:42:04] Um, I don't know. There's so much that I want. Whatever's quickest into my mouth. What have you got available? Ooh, well, literally anything. Yeah, I'm going to be real with you. I don't know if... I'm not cooking tonight. I'm probably going to make a little bit of bolognese. I've got potatoes to watch. A little bit of bolognese. No one's ever made a little bit of bolognese. Fine, I'm going to make a lot of bolognese. You're getting home when you're cooking? Yeah. No. We can watch the trailers first. I'll eat late. It's fine. Laura, we're not going to get home

[01:42:33] until about 10 o'clock. So? Okay. Well, because I ate before we left. Okay, well, I'm going to get food on the way home, probably. From where? Oh, we went to... Anywhere. I literally might have to get food from Sainsbury's on the way to the train station. So then... I can get food again afterwards. I'm so hungry. Your words are failing you. She's losing the power of speech. Right, should we

[01:43:03] do the socials? Let's go. Let's sum up Arthur, okay? Good show. Aardvark. Good. Animals. That'll do. Glasses. You'll like it. What a wonderful kind of day. Which of those animals could I eat? Any of them. Some are particularly edible. Not ones that you really like. Maybe rabbits. But oh my god. You know Rabbit by Chaz and Day? Yes, yes, yes, yes. There's a line in that song that goes,

[01:43:33] you've got more rabbit than Sainsbury's. Sainsbury's. Because it was written in a time where you could get rabbit from Sainsbury's. Sainsbury's was a bit posher. No. No. But it was less posh. Isn't rabbit posh? No. Well, yeah, if you eat it now, but it didn't used to be. Yeah, you get it in Sainsbury's. So. My boyfriend's grandmother found out on her wedding day when she asked her mum for a chicken pie recipe that what she'd

[01:44:03] been eating wasn't chicken and it was just the rabbits they kept in their garden. And it didn't. Did it taste like chicken? Yeah, it's not that different. Really? But yeah, she was horrified. Oh, unbelievable. The speed with which I would never leave the room and never talk to those people again. Jesus Christ, you've been feeding me rabbit. I mean, to be fair, what's the difference? We only think that. I do feel like if you eat a chicken and you eat a rabbit, I haven't. What's the difference? I wouldn't eat my

[01:44:32] own personal pet that I've named. Your own personal rabbit. It's a thin line, but like being lied to about what you're eating is a bit. I definitely wouldn't eat it. Hard to chew. So what was I talking about? Oh yeah, which of the animals could you eat? Oh my God, we need to get Meg out of this room and into Sainsbury's. I wouldn't eat an aardvark. I wouldn't eat an

[01:45:02] aardvark. I mean, I wouldn't eat. What else is there? There's monkey. I'd eat a monkey. Sorry, why not aardvark and why yes monkey? Aren't aardvarks protected? No. Monkeys are. Wait, are aardvarks the one that kind of have shells? No, that's a pangolin. No. An aardvark is a mammal. Or is it like a rodent? I'm not sure. I'm thinking of a thing that's like a pangolin. Armadillo? Armadillo, yeah.

[01:45:32] Okay, then I will eat an aardvark. I thought he was supposed to be an armadillo. This whole time I've been going, he doesn't look much like it. He doesn't have a shell. So yeah, fine, I'll eat an aardvark. That thing makes a hunk. I'll eat an aardvark. I'll eat a rabbit. I'll eat them all. What else we got? We got a bear. I'd eat what kind of dogs? Bulldog. I'll eat a bulldog. Already have. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure I have. Fiendas crispy pancakes. I would, oh my God, I wouldn't eat any of them.

[01:46:02] You can find us on Twitter at, oh my God, that's why I work. Oh my God. Leave that in. Just bleep it out. Just bleep it, yeah. That's my workplace. That's her workplace. And I don't even like, I thought I was going to come out with the radio station one because I read that out. I'm like, you can get in contact with us at this is, you know, and just say that I've

[01:46:31] never, ever. God, you're hungry. When you edit this, you need to like put a thing across your mouth. I know. That says dox. Oh, dox. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. At thoughts underscore underscore TV. That's our Twitter handle. My work doesn't even have Twitter. You can find us on Instagram at ****. I mean. You just added like five minutes to our editing time.

[01:47:00] You can find us on Instagram at thoughts TV, the O is zero and on TikTok at thoughts TV pod, but they have let the Americans back on now. So I don't know why you'd go there. You can email us thoughts TV 2002 at gmail.com. We love emails. Email us. And we have a Patreon and a Discord that's linked on all the socials. Thank you for being here. Thank you for waiting while we take a longer break than usual. But actually it is

[01:47:29] up to us, not you. Thank you for your patience. Welcome to season five. It is going to be a good one. Well, it might be. It will be. It will be. It will be. Bye. Bye. Let's go over and eat. Food. Yeah.

[01:48:08] Also, bei einem Podcast kommt's in erster Linie auf die Inhalte an. Papa beim Essen aber auch. Na klar. Und deshalb gibt's von der Rügenwalder Mühle jetzt den veganen Abenteuerspaß für die Kleinen. Boah. Von Nuggets bis zur Mortadella wurden hier Produkte nach den Empfehlungen der WHO für Kinderprodukte entwickelt. Und die schmecken super lecker. Tja, am besten schmeckt's, wenn's allen schmeckt. Regenwalder Mühle.

[01:48:37] This podcast is part of Podomedy, the UK's Podcast Comedy Network. Why not laugh at what else we've got? Visit Podomedy.com.