Jake

Important If True 1: A Gleaming Collaborative Future

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22 hours ago, SuperBiasedMan said:

I legitimately thought the cast was just getting confused and that the one who said "Exit stage left, stage right even" was actually the Pink Panther. As the conversation continued and I then googled his picture, I had a very slow descent into realising that the true fool was me.

Listening to the episode, I actually assumed (like most Hanna-Barbera cartoons) that Snagglepuss was a rip off of the Pink Panther. Much to my surprise, Snagglepuss was first.

 

Fun Facts: The little hood worn by a falcon to cover its eyes is very boringly called a hood, but the straps that you use to hold a falcon are called jesses.

 

Thumbs you offhandedly asked what the difference between a robot and an android is. I'll try to just use my words and not fall back on wikipedia but a robot is a machine set up to do tasks automatically/autonomously, and an android is a robot that's made to look like a human or additionally act like a human.

 

Big Dog - not an android.

Petman - probably an android. 

 

 

Comment - you moved from our crazy cyber future straight into fish spatulas without really much of a segue. It seems like the show will flow from topic to topic, but that Endorsements are an actual seg where you make a suggestion to the audience? That might be worth calling out as its own thing, perhaps with a brief description. I found the transition very abrupt and would have been more confused if I hadn't seen the show notes with links to Amazon before hearing it.

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This was a really terrific start that exceeded my expectations as a Thumbs listener. Loved the pace, energy, and how funny it was in spite of the broader scope. I think you guys are onto something.

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I enjoyed this about as much as I do Idle Thumbs (which is my favorite podcast).  A+ fictional and non-fictional robot content.

 

But then, I enjoy listening to you guys talk about unfolding mattresses, domain registrars, chocolate-covered berries, and shaving implements over and over again, so I'm a big weirdo.  Very glad you're gonna keep casting pods rather than just giving up because you're tired of talking about video games all the time.

 

 

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Pretty good first episode, robot talk was entertaining as always. I was completely lost during the Snagglepuss segment though; I didn't know the character or Hanna-Barbera, which Jake referred to (although reading up on them on Wiki, at least The Flintstones ran over here, probably a few others too), so that part went pretty much over my head. Might be a good idea to explain a bit more what you're talking about in future episodes -- with video games there was always some common ground to follow the conversation even if you didn't know the specific game, but with the broader scope some topics might require a bit more of an introduction. Just a thought. Anyway, looking forward to more!

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On 17/02/2017 at 1:30 PM, Chris said:

 

This is a dumb question maybe but what information would you want in an introduction? I'm asking because I don't actually ever know what to say, haha.

 

I was thinking a little bit about the history of idle thumbs, and perhaps a little bit about how you each joined the cast. I posted that about ten minutes before finishing the cast, and you guys did talk a little about the old podcast. Maybe that's enough.

 

Also are the endorsements going to be the IIT recurring end segment? That spatula sounds pretty sweet, I'd use it to spatch my spatchcock.

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Looking forward to the explanation behind the Idle Mind Control Experiments which produced the podcast in our collective dreams.

Screenshot_2017-02-18-16-53-27-1.png

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2 hours ago, Smurfton said:

Looking forward to the explanation behind the Idle Mind Control Experiments which produced the podcast in our collective dreams.

Screenshot_2017-02-18-16-53-27-1.png

Haha, crap, we always forget to update this. Attention @tabacco.

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3 hours ago, Chris said:

Haha, crap, we always forget to update this. Attention @tabacco.

 

Don't forget to also add Idle Thumbs Kickstarter Progresscast: The Compete Series

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I came across this show because it was trending on PocketCasts, and I think it may well end up becoming my favorite podcast. The cockroaches driving Uber was such an obscure reference that it threw me off for a bit, but I quickly got acclimated to the flow of the show. The wild ride from hawks on a plane through grimy Snagglepuss to Terminator maintenance and upkeep was an absolute pleasure to follow. My only complaint is that all of the hosts sound pretty much identical, apart from the one with the thick German accent. Maybe in future episodes you could state your name first every time you start talking.

 

 

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The Snagglepuss voice slayed me. My boyfriend looked up who does the art for the Snagglepuss comic book, and he is as, described by my boyf, a legendary DC comic artist named Howard Porter. He illustrated JLA for Grant Morrison & Mark Waid. I've seen parts of twitter wondering why DC didn't hire a furry artist for this book, but I kind of love the unsettling nature of Porter's art on Snagglepuss.

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Hey thumbs, this was a super start to a new podcast. I enjoy the general "here's a fact, let's riff on the what ifs" format. In fact, it was one of the aspects of Idle Thumbs I enjoyed more than most other gaming podcasts. "Yes, video games, but also weird tangential stuff".

 

17 minutes ago, jennegatron said:

a legendary DC comic artist named Howard Porter

 

Totally read this as Harry Potter.

 

"Howard Porter and The Legendary Hanna Barbaras"

 

I'll log out now.

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The talk of using animals to remote control human devices reminded me of Project Pigeon.  Conceived by B.F. Skinner (creator of the Skinner box), Project Pigeon was a plan to make pigeon guided bombs in WWII.  The front of the bomb would have lenses that projected the image of the target onto a screen located in front of some pigeons housed inside the bomb.  The pigeons would be trained to tap the target on the screen.  The screens would shift position based on the movement of the bomb and the pigeons would perform course corrections by tapping the target.  This would cause the screens to move and be translated to the bomb's control surfaces, steering the bomb onto the target.

 

tumblr_ne4rfoimw71rwjpnyo1_540.jpg

 

The army thought it was an impractical idea, but nevertheless gave Skinner $25,000 (around $321,000 today) for research.  No actual bombs were constructed before the project was cancelled, although the Navy briefly resurrected it as Project Orcon in 1948 and cancelled it in 1953 after electronic guidance systems were introduced.  So in summary there is precedent in using animals to do our dirty work.

 

I should probably send this in an email as well.

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It's worth pointing out that the Spartans did have an underclass whose job it was to oil them up, the serfs called "helots" that lived in Laconia and Messenia in the southern and western Peloponnese. A major factor in Sparta's development of a hyper-specialized warrior class was that Sparta needed all the manpower it could get to keep the large population of often-restive helots docile and producing food to feed the warrior class who kept them oppressed to produce food to feed the warrior class who kept them oppressed... Well, you get the idea. The military ethos of Sparta eventually became an end all its own, rather than merely a means to control more territory than a single city-state normally could, but the helots remained an Achilles' heel of the Spartans until Rome annexed them centuries later. The Spartans were formidable in battle, albeit not unbeatable, but why risk confronting them at all when you could just send a few ships to stir up the helots or even just keep the Spartan army in the field long enough that a helot revolt happened on its own? Spartan coming-of-age traditions that involved sending young men out to hunt helots for sport probably didn't help the situation, either.

 

 

And oiling up wasn't just for looking good! In Mediterreanean cultures, where soap wasn't available or popular, one would bathe by dousing oneself in water, rubbing perfumed oil into one's skin, and then scraping off the dirt that the oil picked up with a strigil or a towel. I hear it works surprisingly well, although I've never tried it and my complexion is probably wrong for it... Anyway! The oil/soap divide in ancient Europe is almost as important as the wine/beer divide in medieval Europe, and both map fairly close to each other.

 

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The thing I always remember most about Snagglepuss wasn't the "exit stage left" line, but how he would use an adjective, then a synonym and say "evennnnn". It's hard to explain, but you can hear it in this video. "The cage door is open. Ajar, evennnn." And a couple others in there. 

 

 

Also, now I know that searching youtube for Snagglepuss isn't the best of ideas.

 

I really enjoyed the whole first episode and I'm looking forward to what's next! 

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Hi, Chris and Jake (and Nick)

 

You guys asked for submissions at the end of the show to catalyze conversation in future episodes. The parameters for submissions seemed unclear, perhaps because the show is still a little nebulous. However, although I'd love to send in something stimulating, I'm paralyzed by the myriad anecdotes, oddities, and dangling questions that plague my waking hours. Is there any sort of guideline, or can we submit anything we find odd and interesting? 

 

By the way, loved episode one. Fun as all heck! Keep it up.

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Two things:

 

1) I always thought that Bobby Moynihan's Snagglepuss was pretty funny. Also, "Heavens to Murgatroyd" is like, the best weird phrase.  

 

2) Over both the moments in the episode when the themes were played, I sang "games, video games, video games, video gaaaaames" once the horns came in, in the same cadence as in the Idle Thumbs theme. It works pretty well. 

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37 minutes ago, RubixsQube said:

2) Over both the moments in the episode when the themes were played, I sang "games, video games, video games, video gaaaaames" once the horns came in, in the same cadence as in the Idle Thumbs theme. It works pretty well. 

 

It should! It's (almost) the same chords.

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regarding this tweet: 

have y'all ever considered putting a bed of music under paid advertisements? does anyone have specific feelings for or against this?

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1 hour ago, SgtWhistlebotom said:

regarding this tweet: 

have y'all ever considered putting a bed of music under paid advertisements? does anyone have specific feelings for or against this?

 

That's not a bad idea. I could mess around with some ideas maybe.

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Just call the endorsements section "Important Correspondence"

 

Keep it on brand.

 

edit: Or whatever Idle Weekend calls its "what are you up to this weekend?" section.

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While listening to the first IIF, I read "none of this matters, unless it does" on the podcast art and wondered if that was a Jurassic Park quote. And then Jake made a joke about it being a Jurassic Park podcast as if answering me. Weird.

 

On 2/16/2017 at 11:39 AM, Salacious Snake said:

I like that this podcast's name is not a reference to human anatomy. "Idle Thumbs" has always grossed me out a little. 

 

I realize that's probably weird and I'm likely the only one. 

Possibly because one old idle thumbs logo was of severed thumbs. I think. I can't find the image, but I swear they even talked about it on cast.

 

And a later one suggestive of severed hands (which I only just noticed): 1__feed.jpg

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On 2/16/2017 at 7:30 PM, Patrick R said:

It was surprising to hear you talk about Snagglepuss without mentioning him as a gay stereotype. My primary connection to Snagglepuss was always as "the gay Hanna Barbera character", even without knowing he was supposed to work in the theater. And it even sounds like the new Snagglepuss has specified that further into a Tennessee Williams figure. Am I the only one who makes that association?

You're definitely not alone.

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