iTunes hits 1 billion downloads and your CD tower is suddenly obsolete

🎧 iTunes hits one billion downloads
Apple celebrates its billionth song purchase, officially crowning digital downloads king. The lucky buyer scores iPods, an iMac and bragging rights while white earbuds dominate buses everywhere. 

💷 Britain’s biggest heist pulls movie-level chaos
A gang posing as police kidnap a cash depot manager and his family, storm a Securitas depot and roll out with nearly £53 million, smashing UK robbery records. With nicknames like ‘Stopwatch’ and prosthetic disguises straight out of Ocean’s Eleven, it feels cinematic… except families were held hostage and millions are still missing today.

🧬 Funeral homes caught in body parts scandal
A New Jersey company is accused of secretly harvesting bones and tissue from corpses without consent, selling them into medical supply chains worldwide. Thousands of patients unknowingly receive improperly sourced tissue and families discover their loved ones weren’t left to rest intact. One of the decade’s creepiest real-life scandals.

💃 Strip club heartbreak hits radio
T-Pain’s “I’m N Luv (Wit A Stripper)” storms charts, mixing Auto-Tune hooks with surprisingly emotional strip-club romance. It launches T-Pain’s hit-making run and quietly introduces the sound that’ll dominate pop for years.

🐕 Antarctica’s goodest boys steal hearts
Eight Below turns sled dogs into survival heroes as abandoned pups battle Antarctic winter until Paul Walker’s guilt-fuelled rescue mission kicks in. Families cry, dogs become instant heroes and the box office happily cashes in.

🐶 Marley melts hearts (and sparks debate)
Marley & Me climbs bestseller charts, telling the story of the world’s naughtiest Labrador and the family who loves him anyway. Readers laugh, cry and then argue online about whether Marley or his owners were the real problem.

Hang with us on socials to chat more noughties nostalgia - Facebook (@tminus20) or Instagram (tminus20podcast). You can also contact us there if you want to be a part of the show.

Transcript

Transcript is generated automatically. 

The year is 2006. We head to the hills and learn reality is scripted. Your Sony Cyber Shot uploads 462 blurry regrets. A Facebook poke makes everything complicated. And Twitter's like, cool story, you've got 140 characters. Go. T-minus 20. Rewind 20 years with Joe and Mel. Week of 19 February, 2006. T-minus 20. Bringing sexy back. I want to forgive you. T-minus 20. I hate this long-distance relationship. And I want to forget you. You have no style or sense of session. This is a beauty. This is very nice. Yeah, boy. 

Welcome to T-minus 20, the podcast where we rewind exactly 20 years and relive the week in pop culture news, music and movies, just like it's happening right now. Talk about being stuck in the past. Each episode drops you back into the chaos, nostalgia and questionable fashion choices of the mid-2000s. Reminding you what we were watching, downloading, arguing about, and absolutely overplaying on our iPods with your hosts who are probably a little bit overplayed at this age. Joe and Mel. Hello, Mel. 

Hello, if you ever said that doesn't really feel like 20 years ago, then this show is for you. Coming up this week we're looking at the 19th to the 25th of February 2006 and here's what was happening. 

Forget the great train robbery. Forget the Northern Bank in Belfast. Britain's biggest ever robbery took place in the early hours of this morning in Kent. 

Yes, I mean, I'm sorry, it's a crime, but I love heist stories and we've got the biggest heist ever in the United Kingdom. 

$1,200? But I only downloaded 1,212 songs. 

Big milestone for iTunes this week. 

One of the billion downloads. 

And we also asked the question, where is this person now? Because I love. 

It all smile. 

Shanice. 

That's a bit of a selfish one on my behalf because Shanice has been haunting me over the last 10 years or so and I've just been wondering where is she? What's she up to? 

So you're just looking for an excuse to put. 

Her in the show? Look, there is a related thing that is Shanice-esque this week. There's a reason. But it's an opportunity to deep dive. 

I wouldn't want to jeopardise any of our credibility. 

Our integrity. 

As far as, you know, researching and all of that stuff goes with the early 2000s stuff that we go on with. 

Yes, and stuff that will not us going on with probably more the youth of today memes. They've just, you know, we spoke about Peppy the Frog last year and that was kind of the birth of the meme. It took us a while to get on the meme train. 

It takes even longer these days. 

But I just feel life is so much easier now. You don't have to come up with a witty comeback. You don't have to have the words. You just send a picture or an emoji or any type of meme. It's just a thing. And it got me thinking back to life before memes. And really, before that, we didn't have TikTok, we didn't have kids, we didn't have emojis. 

Yes. 

Well, it's basically movie quotes. They were our memes. 

We didn't really have to live by our wits, we just have to recall movie quotes. 

Do you remember that? Do you remember the age of when, you know, a movie would drop? 

Yes. 

And then you'd have... About 5 years of everybody quoting. 

Catch phrases. 

Key lines like, you can do it. 

Yeah, oh, you can do it. There was Rob Schneider in all the Adam Sandler films. 

Yes. I'm Rick James Betch. 

From Chappelle's Show. Chappelle. 

That was a big one. 

Yes. And then what about gosh? We love Napoleon Dynamite. 

I pulled out many goshes over the early 2000s. 

And look, this one kind of annoyed me a bit because I found the movie particularly unfunny, but it was the You Stay Classy, San Diego. 

Anchorman, right? Yeah. I remember too when I first started in radio, Austin Powers was everywhere and everybody that we worked with, whether they were on air or not, was, yeah, baby. 

Yeah, baby. So that was. 

Oh, do you remember? 

That was peak cringe. That actually just sent a shiver down my spot. Yeah. 

And what about great success? 

Oh, the Borat staff. 

Relevant. 

That also was a little bit cringe, I think, as well. 

In hindsight, yeah. 

Just watching other people pretend to be Borat was not funny. And because that followed with the Mankinis as well. Like they actually have accessory and people will wear them. And I have unfortunately seen photos of several people that I know in Mankinis. And I can't unsee that. It's just horrible. 

So maybe it's lucky we do have memes. 

Well, I guess they run the risk of becoming memes when they start distributing content like that. great success indeed. The hatches, matches and dispatches clue for the little segment we do at the end of the show. A birth, a death or a marriage. I don't think there was anything of great significance. And when that happens, we just fall back onto a celebrity birthday, which is good enough. Good enough for us, should be good enough for you. And this person who was having a birthday actually was debuting somewhere around 2006 anyway, starting to get quite famous. In fact, a celebrity who said this? 

Stop telling women to smile. We don't like that. It's not an icebreaker, it's a deal breaker. And what is your game plan anyway? Do you think we're going to go smile and then magically float onto your penis? 

It's vicious. There's a lot of photographers out there just not feeling very good right now. 

In the news, the 22nd of February, 2006. We love these stories. We love a good heist. 

I'm very excited. 

This time 20 years ago, thieves steal 53 million pounds in the UK's biggest ever robbery. And it really felt like something out of a movie. 

Yeah. 

It kicks off with a kidnapping on the evening of the 21st of February and then ends in the early hours of the 22nd when criminals steal the money. 

Now remember we did talk about a heist some One time, I want to say last year, it might have even been the year before, where they staged a kidnapping first, remember? And then they, and that was the foundation. And I feel like there's some similarities here. 

Yes, this one did start with the kidnapping. It's a highly organized gang and they target a securitas cash depot where money was stored for banks and businesses. They've been doing surveillance for a little while, and they placed an insider at the depot, so someone's gone undercover. The gang then abducted the manager and his family. He was pulled over by what he thought were police officers on his drive home, but they were actually the gang. They were posing as police. They had sirens and everything. They pull him over. They then kidnap him, then find out where he lives and take his wife and young child hostage, which is pretty scary stuff. 

Yes, but the disguise thing, I mean, that's a classic heist trope. You know, I mean, it's pretty extreme to be a to dress up as a law enforcement officer. 

And have a siren. Where do you get a believable siren from? 

Maybe it's just like a maintenance person going into the building. You know, you've got a hard hat, a tool belt, a tape measure. If you carry something. 

Pretty much guaranteed to get into anywhere. 

It's like when we used to work in the media and it's like if you put a camera over your shoulder, you'd be amazed at the stuff that you would be able to get into. 

Yes. 

But these guys went all out and actually impersonated police, which is pretty bad. Very alarming for the family as well. I mean, let's be a bit serious for a second here. They're striking fear into the hearts of the people that they're kidnapping. This is not a very pleasant experience. 

Obviously, then the manager is, I'll do whatever you say. So they take him to the depot to get them inside the depot. Once inside, the staff that were there were restrained while the thieves loaded the cash into waiting trucks. They used a forklift and a shopping trolley to move the cash. 

It was a lot of cash. A lot of cash. 53 million pounds in cash, which is about 125 Australian dollars at the time. 

For the police, the key questions remain. Who are they? Where are they? And what will they do next? 

We're gaining valuable forensic evidence. We're developing intelligence on a range of suspects in the moment. The morale on the investigation team remains very high and I remain confident that we'll both catch and convict the people responsible for this. 

And there's even some dramatic music there. Look, did they catch him? Let's find out. 

Well, we need to talk about something a bit more important first. 

Yes. 

They had nicknames. 

Yes. 

Now, I love it when thieves and robbers and heists and all that, I love it when they have nicknames. 

Given to them by the investigators, right? 

No, themselves. Oh, they gave themselves nicknames. There was one called Stopwatch. 

Right. 

Because he was wearing a stopwatch to time the robbery. Apparently. 

It's a sensible nickname. 

Bit of a nod to Ocean's Eleven. I think there was someone that did that in the movie. 

Well, this is like something out of the movie. 

He's decided I'm the stopwatch guy. That's me. I'm going to time us, see how we go. There was a shorty. There was a hoodie. I wonder if it was his birthday. 

Let me guess, the shorty. 

Was having a birthday. 

Oh, I was going to say though, short in statue. 

Oh, yes, probably. 

And hoodie was uncircumcised. 

I was going to say wearing a hoodie, but sure. There was also one called Mister Average. 

That's a bit disappointing. 

I'll leave that one alone. 

I won't go there. 

No. 

Not after my last foray. 

Also a woman, and this isn't a nickname, it's her real name, Michelle Hogg. 

Yes. 

32-year-old hairdresser. She made prosthetic disguises for the gang. 

Really? That could have helped Mr. Average out a little bit. of prosthesis, you know. 

Potentially. 

Yeah. you could go for a Mr. Average, jeez, I've had it anyway. 

Mr. Impressive. 

Just refer back to my initial foray again. I'll stop. 

They were armed with handguns, shotguns, AK-47 assault rifles. That's a bit serious. 

And prosthetic disguises. 

And a scorpion submachine gun, whatever that is. 

It sounds like scary. 

It does. 

Yeah, it sounds like it would hurt. Yes. 

Massive news across the UK, as you'd expect, because it was the biggest robbery ever. 

They broke a record. That's right. Buy A lot. Well, you heard the grab at the start. They're like, forget the great train robbery. It's like, really? How could you forget a train robbery? You haven't seen anything yet until you've seen this. 

It exposed vulnerabilities in what was supposed to be pretty high tech, high security cash facilities. And obviously the violent angle because the families, the families were targeted. 

Yeah. 

Kidnaps wife and kids. 

Yeah, that's a massive occupational hazard. Like, you know, it's a horrible thing to do, to involve. Like to kidnap someone, take them to their house and then basically use that as leverage. I mean, is it, it's a horrible thing to do, but it's probably quite smart from a robber's point of view, I guess. Yes. Strategic, I should say. Maybe not smart, strategic. part of the strategy. 

Even though they had the. 

Along with the prosthesis, the forklift. 

And the shopping trolley. Police later revealed that so much cash was taken, they couldn't carry it all. They actually left millions behind. 

Really. 

Yes. 

Really. Is it because it was notes? Like, you know, and they didn't have like a $2 coin that they could put in another trolley so they could get more shopping trolleys. 

Or a token. 

Yeah. 

One of those special tokens so they could only have one trolley back and forth. Yeah. 

I don't know. That's what they needed. They needed another guy with a nickname of Token. 

Token. 

That could just supply extra trolleys with these abundant array of trolley tokens. 

The people that work at Woolies have special key things. 

Like a skeleton key token? 

Yes, and they can, and if you're nice and you go up to the desk and say, I've forgotten my coin, they actually go and get a trolley for you using their special trolley token key thing. 

I'll give you a tip too. Yeah, it is nice. 

Try that next time you forget your $2 coin. 

You can also find those on eBay, I believe. if you're in the business of wanting to get a bit of extra change. I couldn't even be stuffed anymore. Like, there's a shopping centre out here. It's got a massive car park. And there's not a lot of places to deposit the trolleys back. And I'm just like, I would pay $2.00 not to return it. 

It's always a challenge to try and carry all your grocers without a trolley as well. 

Yeah, it is. 

And you regret that through the car park. But anyway. 

Well, no, I just. leave it. I just put it in the car and go. Like I don't even take it back. There's people that are employed to do that. I wouldn't want to deprive somebody of a job. 

You're the sort of person that would leave millions in cash behind because you're too lazy. Well, that's a trolley bag. 

Unless there was somebody with tokens in the gang. 

Now you asked earlier. 

It's clearly not my nickname. 

Whether they were caught. 

Yes. 

Over the following years, it took a while. 

Right. 

But over the following years, multiple gang members were arrested and jailed. 

They just couldn't keep their mouths shut over time. 

Pounds were recovered. Tens of millions was never found and some money is still missing today. 

Is that right? 

Still floating, rumour has it, still floating around criminal networks. 

Oh, they're just passing it between themselves, like this little microcurrency. Because obviously the bills are marked and if they popped up somewhere, that would be a red flag for the authorities. They'd get Scotland Yard or somebody onto it or Interpol or... one of those people, because that's what happens with heists too. It's like something out of a movie. It's very exciting. 

Well, we all loved it because it was just like Ocean's Eleven and had lots of media coverage. It was very exciting. 

I don't think George Clooney kidnapped anyone. 

Did he? 

I don't think so. 

Did he not? 

No, not in Ocean's Eleven. I don't think there was a kidnapping in Ocean's Eleven. Maybe there was. God, it's been such a long time since, you know, I can't believe it's 20 years ago. Well, I can't remember. 

Let's move on then to something, another crime, but this one is a little bit more full-on on the 25th of February. 

This is a very... 

Well, off you go. 

It's A gruesome, it's a gruesome story. And perhaps we have to stop allowing funeral parlors to mine tissue and bone and only have it done in hospitals. What? Oh, just one more time. And perhaps we have to stop allowing funeral parlors to mine tissue and bone and only have it done in hospitals. He said mine, tissue and bone. In February 2006, one of the creepiest medical scandals of the decade broke in the United States when authorities uncovered a scheme involving harvested human body parts taken from funeral homes and sold for medical use. Yes. What are you doing with that bloke's leg? That's all right. I've got a prescription for medical use. What? The company at the center of it was called Biomedical Tissue Services. Not like Kleenex, not a different type of human tissue based in New Jersey. And the details are like something like this is where like Hannibal Lecter would go to, you know, meal prep. It's full on. So what happened was, is investigators found out or had a lead that said that biomedical tissue services had harvested bones, skin and other tissue from corpses, had taken tissues from body, not tissues, had taken tissue, singular, from bodies without proper family consent. So they're obviously not organ donors. They falsified donor records so that they could do it. Altered ages and medical histories of donors and sold the tissue to companies supplying hospitals and transplant services. 

It gets worse though. 

Yeah. 

Even worse. 

Just when you thought it couldn't. 

They're allegedly taken from elderly donors, people with cancer or infectious diseases. 

Yes. 

And individuals who would never have qualified as tissue donors. So what they were taking, not good quality. 

No. you end up with a lung from somebody that's probably died of lung cancer or something. Exactly. 

Yes. 

And he'd be like, is there a warranty or something for that? And you know, it's like, you know, when you buy an appliance now and it's like, oh, well, if you can pay for an extended warranty. which means that we won't send it off, we'll just exchange it. You'd need to have something like that in place. 

12,000 people received the body part. 

That is shocking. Absolutely shocking. 

I think they should have prison time for somebody to commit such a crime against people and not even to know the long-term effects on other people. And if you're that greedy, you need to serve some prison time and have everything taken away from you that you tried to get. through victimizing so many different people. 

Damn straight. 12,000 and the rest, like, and all the families. Like, it's horrific. 

It's horrific on both sides of it because families believe that their loved ones who'd passed away were being prepared appropriately for burial. Yeah, And there was no consent to do that. And then on the flip side of that, you have people who are going in for orthopedic surgeries, dental grafts, spinal procedures. Sports injury repairs. What do you think is a straightforward sports injury repair, cosmetic and reconstructive surgeries, unknowingly receiving tissue from donors who weren't properly screened and who didn't consent. 

Yes, even went through a proper. 

That's if he received it. 

Even went through a proper medical procedure to harvest the body parts. Like this is being done at the back of a funeral home. 

Oh my gosh. 

It's. Quite alarming, quite alarming. 

Imagine you go in to get your knee reconstructed because you're old, get it all fixed up and they're grafting things in there from someone else who's old. Your knee would still creak. You go to all that effort. 

And what they would do is they would like, from the parts that they would take, they would just kind of disguise them within the body. So they'd stuff it or pack it with whatever, sew it back up. 

And you'd never know. 

I mean, when you get prepared, when you get embalmed or whatever, they remove like a lot of your organs anyway. So it's like, well, we can either throw them in the furnace or we can try and make a quick buck out of them. 

Terrible. Led to criminal charges. 

Yes. 

Massive recalls of tissue products. Can you bring that knee back in? It's being recalled. A little bit, not as straightforward as the airbag recall or anything like that. Imagine that having to go back in and go back under. 

Yeah, exactly. It wouldn't be fun at all. 

Obviously. the lawsuits from affected families. 

Just the trauma, just the actual trauma. 

And then major, major reforms in tissue bank donation and that kind of stuff. 

Yeah, well, it's like, I think I'll take a prosthetic disguise instead. Thank you very much. I still got, I got the heebie jeebies from that story. That's terrible. Let's move over to something that's inorganic. Yeah, technology. 

Tech, yes. It's a bit safer. 

More synthetic, prosthetic, I don't know. 

Big, big milestone for the iTunes store this week, 20 years ago. The 1 billionth song is downloaded on iTunes. 

Legally, legally. 

Legally, very much so. At the time, this felt huge because, this is still early days for digital downloads. 

Yes, and piracy sort of came before the pay war. 

We were trying to teach everyone that, no, you've got to do it legally and you've got to pay for it. So it was kind of a bit of a proof point that digital music had officially beaten CDs, LimeWire era piracy and all the chaos that went with that as well. 

What song was it? 

What would you think? You've already read the answer. 

U2. Would it be, you know how U2? 

Oh, I thought you're saying I'd read the answer. 

No, I meant the band, U2, because you know how Apple used U2 to sneak them onto your... 

Yeah, they did, didn't they? 

Yeah, looked at your phone one day and it's like, I don't recall purchasing that YouTube. They're like, it's a gift. And it's like, don't put that there. 

I don't want that. 

I don't want that there. 

Take that back. I'll re-gift it. Thanks. No, not U2. Similar. Similar kind of thing. 

So that middle of the, I've got to be careful with what I say here because there's people that like you too. 

Something that's not something that's not offensive and not really, I don't know of a child. 

Coldplay. 

Yes, there you go. Beige. Something a bit beige. 

Oh, there we go. 

Speed of sound. 

Speed of sound, right? OK, fair. 

And the lucky downloader. 

Oh, there was one. Oh, so you congratulations, you're our 1 billionth downloader. 

Yes, that was a big fanfare. Alex. Ostrovsky, 16-year-old from Michigan. 

Oh, good on him. 

Who unknowingly triggered the milestone purchase. Did he get a prize? He did. 

Really. 

He did. Isn't that exciting? 

What did he get? 

He got a 20-inch iMac, 10 iPods for friends and family, and a $10,000 iTunes gift card. 

That's amazing. 

Also a scholarship established in his name. 

That's a bit much. 

Basically peaked. Imagine having two iPods. 

Download songs got a scholarship named after him. 

Yeah, the scholarship wasn't for him, it was for someone else, but it was in his name. 

But it was in his name. Congratulations. 

The Alex Scholarship. 

The winner of the person that's been awarded this year's Alex Ostrovsky Scholarship for what? Downloading music. Downloading music. All right, fair enough. 

It did really kind of signal the death of the CD era because people are obviously buying individual songs instead of albums, downloads instead of discs, digital libraries instead of the old CD towers. 

Yeah. Well, I mean, that was, that used to be a symbol of status, didn't it? How many CD towers? Full of CDs you had in your house. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh, we've got to declutter because it's all, you know, online and in the cloud. 

And then you can't reuse those towers. for anything else because they're very, the size of it. 

Brutalist architecture. 

Yes, they're always pointy at the top, but there's not really anything else you can fit in them. 

You can't stick anything on them. You can't slide anything else in those slots. 

Remember we sold ours. 

You can maybe use it to like stick it out in your garden and get some beans or something to climb up it. 

Oh, like a trellis. 

Yeah, you could repurpose it that way. 

Do you remember we sold ours and the guy was so happy because he hadn't been able to find one for a while. We'd only sold it a few years ago. 

Yeah, but no CD towers. 

Hold on. 

No, that's it. Not even a rack. No more of those wallets that you put in your car, the big CD wallets that you put in your cars. 

Oh, that you put on the visor. 

Well, we still, CDs were still in cars at this stage. We hadn't really gone full digital yet with our automobiles. That takes a while. It always takes a while for the automotive industry to catch up. I mean, we only got electric windows like a couple of years ago. 

Yeah, I miss the old winding windows to be honest, but that's all right. 

I'm digressing. I apologise. 

You are. You're taking us off on a tangent. So this is obviously peak 2006. We've all got the white iPod earbuds. 

That's what we're listening to when you're listening in public trans scores. 

Playlists replaced, mixtapes, music libraries became personality statements, and obviously iTunes is the engine behind all of it. And no viruses. You're not going to destroy the house computer with iTunes. It's a lot safer. You're not going to get half a magic stick with some random remix at the end. 

I mean, how progressive and revolutionary. A full magic stick. 

Fabulous. 

I mean, these days though, like nobody downloads music. 

Can you still? 

It's all streaming. We stream. We don't download anything. 

But if you want to, can you still buy a song or two for a buck and then download it, download it and actually own it? Can you still own music these days? 

I mean, well, I've bought it as platforms. Yeah, okay, so I've bought it as physical media, but I can't recall the last time I bought like a digital album and downloaded it. 

But you can do it. 

I don't know. because I can't remember the last time. It would have been easily five, more than five years ago, I would suggest. Maybe. Yeah. It was a long time ago, you know. So, and this is the thing, you know, we do this T-minus 20, 20 years thing and it's like, oh, you know, 2020, it's 2026. I can't believe it's been six years since COVID. let alone 20 years since we had a billion downloads on iTunes. 

But now that our son is into the ripping and the moving across to the Nano, he really wanted Linkin Park. Hybrid theory on the Nano. 

On the CD. 

I thought I had it in the CD cupboard in the shed. We didn't. 

So I went out and we. 

Didn't know what to do, so we had to go and buy a CD the other day. 

That's right. 

And I thought, I didn't even know if they still sold CDs. 

CDs, I mean there. 

Was it hard to, you ended up buying it? 

I found it pretty much straight away. 

So they do still sell. 

I thought it'd be in the metal section because they're going to be confused in this. 

Oh, don't tell me it was in the classic. 

Metal section is just getting smaller and smaller. Don't tell me it was in the classic rock section. No, it was in the alternative section. Wasn't in the classic rock section. It was in the alternative section. Because, I mean, Linkin Park got a new album out now with a new singer. So I was in the alternative section and I went and had a look at it and I looked at, I bought it, $22. So it's like. 

It's cheaper. They used to be 30 bucks. 

Well, and there were some in there that were like 10, but then the new album, the new album was 32 bucks or something, like $32. 

So they are still bringing out new albums on CD. 

Yeah, they're certainly pressing CDs and they cost exactly the same as they always have, which is, I guess, good because if it does take on a revival, like vinyl has, then it'll be, you know, 100 bucks for a CD, which is, I can't understand that. When vinyl wasn't kind of take taking off and I was buying records secondhand and stuff. I was getting them for like 15, 20 bucks here and there. I was like, this is great. I was buying new vinyl for about 40 bucks and then suddenly like record store day and all of that took off and vinyl was like jumped from being that to like, I mean, and admittedly they go very elaborate with stuff, big gate folds, big artwork. different color vinyl, like splatter vinyl where they mix stuff up. Some of them, some of them is even hollow with like blood and stuff in them, really weird stuff like that. Like all kinds of weird stuff. And it's like all of a sudden records are like 100 plus dollars. Listen to the old man ranting about stuff, ranting about music before the music segment came on. Normally, this is where it all goes downhill. 

She's a nice lady in. All right, let's listen to the top five from the US. 

Okay. **** you off more? 

I'm in love with a stripper. She popping, she rolling, she rolling, she climbing that molding. I'm in love with a stripper, she grinning. And I can't be without you, baby. And I'll be waiting up until you get home 'Cause I can't sleep without you, baby Don't smile for me then What you looking at? Come on, let me see your grill Let me see my wife Yeah, you're grill, yeah, yeah, you're grill The rob that you restore until her. 

Make me a grill. 

You're beautiful You're beautiful You're beautiful, it's true What? 

Sensory overload in the charts this week. 

Before we get into the charts, actually, I was at the hairdresser's today. Yes, your hair looks great, by the way. 

I should have caught a missed opportunity there. 

Sorry about. But they have this high-tech sound system at the hairdresser. I don't understand it. It's like the light bulbs that we've got to log into. 

Oh, right. You've got to log into the sound system. 

I don't know. what it is, but then it comes out all through the different speakers and, you know, apparently whoever gets there first in the morning to open up gets to choose the playlist of the day. 

Oh, that's cool. What a great incentive. 

It's excellent. But today there was problems with the Wi-Fi because the multicultural festival was on and everyone is obviously on their phones or something. I ruined the Wi-Fi. 

Yeah, you can't, yeah. 

Couldn't play any music. 

Oh. 

And so then my hairdresser had the choice, had to go old school using their offline playlists. 

Right. 

And had the choice between divorced dad rock or 50 Cent. 

On their offline playlist. That's what they had on their thing. 

On their offline plate. sometimes you can take them offline and download them, but you don't really think about it because you might accidentally press it and it's there. 

It's just abhorrent to even, I can't even fathom a hair salon without blaring music. 

Yeah, well it was 50 cent. 

Yeah. 

For 3, I was there for three hours. Three hours. It was fantastic. 

I mean, when you've got that choice on divorced dad rock, I mean. 

Guess what's on divorced dad rock? What sort of music? 

Be Nickelback. Yeah, for sure. Maybe a bit of Creed. Yeah. 

He showed me it. Lifehouse. 

Lifehouse. 

Bon Jovi. 

Oh, really? 

That's Bon Jovi. Living on a prayer. Living on a prayer. 

Yeah. 

So, yeah. 

That's, see, that's, living on a prayer is a problematic song for divorced dads because, you know, Tommy and Gina are holding on for what they've got. They live for the fight. Divorced dads just weep to that tune. 

Yeah, I know, it's a bit emotional. 

Yeah, I think that's a misfire. 

Glad we went with 50 Cent. I could have brought, I should have brought Hybrid Theory with me. We could have had a backup. up CD. That just shows you you've got to hang on to these things. You've got to hang on to your CDs for when the streaming goes down. I was chatting to Trudy today on the socials and she's kept all her DVDs because you know what happens when all these streaming services go down or you go to find something and it's not on any of the platforms, but oh, you can rent it. 

Yeah. It's like all these people that get those Wi-Fi cloud-based security systems. 

Yes. 

And it's like, yeah, but if the power goes on, or the Wi-Fi goes down, you're f***ed. Yes. Anyway. 

Oh my gosh, this has just turned into one long boom, hasn't it? 

It has really. We are on fire this evening. We're really peak, old fart, wowzering bullsh*t happening, yelling at clouds and... The top five that you've tied an onion to our belt, which was the fashion of the time. Sorry, what? 

An onion. 

Yes. Oh, it's just a quote from The Simpsons, you know. 

Oh, okay. 

Grandpa Simpson was. 

An onion. Yeah. Let's recap. 

See, I was giving you a meme. It was. Let's do the charts. 

Number one, beyonc�, check on it. Number 2, your beautiful James Blunt. Number 3, yeah, your grills, Nelly. Number 4, be without you, Mary J. And new entry this week. 

Oh, brace yourselves. This is going to be a long music sequence. 

I'm in love with a stripper. 

T-Pain. I'm in love with a stripper. No, you're not, mate. All the blood has merely drained out of your head and gone down into your appendage. And it's just, you're not thinking straight. But I'm telling you, you're not. 

So mid-2000s. 

You're not. Go back to your auto-tune T-Pain. 

Well, this is the song that introduced the world to T-Pain and the world of auto-tune. 

Yeah. 

And made strip club romance oddly mainstream. 

That's so weird. 

Story is pretty simple. Guy goes to a strip club, meets a dancer, catches feelings, and keeps coming back to see him. 

Look, I can see how it happens. It happens all the time, in fact. It does. It happens all the time. I don't know that it happens to the... Best of us. 

It makes club culture, relationship feelings and melodic R&B hooks and obviously the old auto-tune. 

Yeah. 

We loved it. peaks at #5 on the US Billboard Hot 100, but it was played in clubs for years and probably still is. Massive, massive on the dance floor that way. 

Like a slow dance. 

Because it's a bit of a bit of grinding to that one. Might get a leg press or two if you're lucky. 

Oh, yuck. Just going out. 

Links Africa wafting up. 

Not like a leg press at the gym either. 

It's like, no. 

Something digging into me there. Yeah, I, it's just, it's like a couples, because it's like I'm in love with a stripper and I just, I feel like that could cause arguments on the dance floor. If people start to really zero in on the lyrical content, it's always the same with these things. 

Or if someone courts you, like if you're dancing on the dance floor and someone comes up to leg press you, does that mean they think you're a stripper? That you look like a stripper. 

Yeah, like what are you saying, buddy? Yeah, exactly. I don't know, but I think with all of these hip hop songs and all of these lyrics, that could be perceived as being a little bit misogynistic. 

Oh, just a little bit. 

A little bit gross where they're ******* and hoes and whatever else they want to call them. all of that stuff. Every time. It's like you say that, what they're singing about here. And the girls are always like, yes, but they're not singing it about me. 

What do you expect? It's from his album called Rapper Turned Sanger. 

Rapper Turned Sanger. 

Rapper Turned Sanger. Rapper Turned in his RAPPATERNT. 

Yeah. Turned sanger. 

Rapper turned sanger, which translates to rapper turned singer. 

Oh, really? I thought it was like, I thought it was like a wrapper, like as in like a paper wrapper turned into a sandwich. It's quite bland and flavorless and a bit chewy. 

I think it's kind of like Earth Force One's rapper turned sanger. 

Right. Okay. Yeah. I don't know. That, all of that not respecting the English language, that really takes off, doesn't it? It's good. 

New number one in the UK and new number one in Australia, but I'm going to save them for next week, but you can play them if you like. 

Okay. 

Do the Australian one first. 

Wow. That song gets a run. That's like, is it commercially like happy summery? I just, you hear it everywhere still to this day. Bob Sinclair, I didn't know it was by a guy called Bob Sinclair. But it is. 

We'll dissect it a bit more next week. 

Alright, sorry, yes, okay. 

And #1 in the UK, Thunder in My Heart Again by Meck Feet Leo Sayer. 

So we get to that. 

We don't have time to talk about that. We've got some important things to do. 

Shanice, you want to do your Shanice thing, don't you? Well, there you go. Mel, you have the floor. 

Shanice releases her album, Every Woman Dreams. 

That's poetic, isn't it? 

It's A Shanice release on the 21st of February 2006. Marking her return after more than a decade away from music, following her early 90s success with a little song called I Love Your Smile. Because I love your smile. Hey, said I love your smile. Do you remember that one? That was the 90s. 

It was very 90s. 

That was her big breakthrough hit. 

Such a sweet 90s song, isn't it? 

I think that was off her very first album. No, her second album, sorry, Inner Child, 1991. 

It's her second release from Shanice. 

Her second album, yes. Shanice's second release. I love your smile. Global hit. But this album, a bit more mature. Lots of R&B themes, love and relationship. no, I don't think it was the third one. 

4th release from Shanice. 

I think it might have been the 4th or the 5th. 

Right. 

I don't know. I didn't write that down. I wasn't paying attention. 

Let's just say yet another release from Shanice. From Shanice. Whoop whoop. It's the sound of the police. 

Did you get anything off the new album? 

Yeah, I think so. 

Play it. 

What was it? was called Every Woman or something? You don't have to. 

Worry about a day. 

There is definitely a few releases from Shanice that have transpired between I Love Your Smile and the whole like listen to the sass. Not a damn thing. 

It sounds a bit Mary J, doesn't it? 

Well, yes, but like smiles aren't enough anymore. It's like Gucci bags and diamond rings and all of that sort of stuff. 

Don't tell me to smile. 

Because *** **** it, you know. Exactly. Smile ain't going to cut it anymore, mate. She's just worked guys out. That's the thing. She was young and naive in the 90s and she thought, you know, oh, guys are great. You know, that one's got a beautiful smile. It's like, nah, man, like you got to work those guys out and take what you can from the ********. 

She's more mature now. I think she's She's also had a family in amongst all of that. Oh, right. So she's grown up, I think early 2000s. She got married. She got married to Flex Alexander, who was an actor. 

She married someone called Flex. 

Flex Alexander. 

No wonder she's like, oh no, that's Flex. Flex was in love with the stripper and she was like, you don't have to worry about a damn thing. You don't have to worry about. 

A damn thing, Flex. She had some children and was doing smaller music projects and then brought this album out. It didn't do that well. I think she was hoping to land a new audience and kind of not cash in, but I guess. 

I didn't like that song. I like that sassy slow jam so much more than I Love Your Smile. 

Really? 

Yeah. I mean, I Love Your Smile. It's a classic song. 

It's a classic. And it's been, she's been haunting me for years because I Love Your Smile. is a mainstay on Coles radio and it seems that every single time I go into Coles, I'm on that rotation and Shanice pops up. It's uncanny. 

Really. 

And I was walking through Coles and I was looking for light bulbs and I love your smile comes on and I'm walking around going, I wonder what happened to Shanice. 

Have you ever considered the fact that you might be in a simulation? I'm just thinking, like, if it happens every time, it's like, she's coming again, quick, cute, away we go. And it's like, you're just like shopping away, you know, walking through the fruit and veg aisle and all the extras around you in the simulation of performing their tasks. And all of a sudden, it's like when you go to the gym too and you see the same freaking people every time. 

I mean, What a tune to be meandering the aisles of Coles too. It's not bad. 

It's not bad. 

It's good. 

It's good. 

Pick up some Devon smiling away. Give a little weight. 

I love Devon because that's all you can afford because groceries are so expensive. Yeah, but you know. 

Get some whitening toothpaste. 

Yeah, right. Nobody can afford that ****. Whitening toothpaste. Oh my God. 

Love your smile. Yeah, it's nice. It's nice, but it's also uncanny. Like, honestly, it's been about 6 times that this has happened to me. Because I don't go to Coles much because it's more expensive. Well, I don't know that it is, but for some reason I feel like it's more expensive and Coles radio, a bit more upmarket than more worse radio. 

You just like to keep the simulation on its toes. I'm like over to Coles, they're like, oh ****. 

She's back. But anyway, so this has happened a few times, right? And then I was telling someone at work. I was like, I can't believe it. And it's different calls. It's not the same calls. It's happened in calls. And why did it happen in calls? Monica. It's the call simulation. It's all the calls. That's all it is. All the calls. So I was telling someone at work. It's uncanny. Shanice always coming over when I'm in calls. And they're like, oh, that's interesting. Then. 

And then all of a sudden they talk into their sleeves. 

She's coming. But then the next day, I was driving to work and a car overtakes me and the number plate. 

Yes. 

Shanice. 

No way. 

Yes way. 

No way. Were you road raging at the time? 

No, they overtook me. They were driving sensibly, but it was an expensive car. So where is she now? 

Where's Shanice now? 

Where is Shanice now besides Coles Radio? Definitely not on Woolworths Radio. I've not heard Shanice on Woolworths Radio. 

No, that's Woolworths has got Boney M. Daddy, not Daddy Cool, Rasputin, doesn't it? Does they do Rasputin? 

Yes, Age of Reason as well is popular, high rotation. 

Yeah, I spend a lot more time. 

Madison, don't you worry. I like that song that was on there. Yeah, Veronicas are big on Woolworths Radio. 

Are they? 

Love the Veronicas. Yeah, lots of Veronicas. Anyway, Shanice, back to Shanice. 

She's not, she probably shops. 

Still performing, still does, but particularly some touring around that nostalgia, the nostalgia R&B tours that happen A lot. 

Yep, There's money in there. 

Not a throwback concerts. Released a song in 2019 called He Won't. 

Oh really? 

Recorded a theme song for an animated kids show. Then, in September last year, starred as former First Lady Michelle Obama in the off-Broadway production of the Obama musical. 

Wow. 

She's in the Obama musical. That's Bet you didn't know that. 

I didn't know any of those things. 

And then she announced at the end of last year that she will be appearing in the BET Christmas movie called A Soulful Christmas. 

A Soulful Christmas. I hope Ludacris is in that as well. 

That would be good. 

Ludacris. I mean, he's been in Christmas movies before. 

He does love a Christmas movie. 

It could be a Luda Christmas with Shanice. Let's get off the screen of the iPod, because that's the other thing now. It's all on a screen. And over to the biggest screen, which would be the cinema, and then sort of the screen that's slightly less big, although in the early 2000s, screens are getting a lot bigger, like, you know, around the 70 inches and stuff like that. No prosthesis needed there. The TV. Anyway, it's the US box office number one, 8 Below. 

Welcome to the bottom of the world, Doc. If you go any further south, you'll fall off the planet. 

In Antarctica, the most isolated region on Earth, survival expert Jerry Shepherd and the crew of the United States Research Base are about to embark on the last mission of the season. Dr. McLaren needs to get to Mount Melbourne. 

There's only one way to make that trip, and that's with the dogs. 

Dogs. 

On lead, we got my best girl, Maya. This is Shorty, Paul Braun, and No Brain. But we love him. That's Max. He's still in training. The granddaddy of the bunch, Old Jack. You and her out, buddy. Translation? Ah, that'd be out. We got the twins, Dewey, Truman. The gray one's Shadow, and the red one's Buck. Where we going, dry valleys? Yeah, like the dogs know where they're going. We going to Melbourne? That's incredible. All right, team, last hike of the season. Doc, don't move. You're outside the safety zone. 

Doc. 

Doc! Easy, Maya. Take it to him. 

Dr. McLaren needs proper medical attention. What are we going to do about the dogs? We can only carry what we can. We can fly right back, bring the dogs out. 

I'll be back. I promise. 

It's bailed on the dogs. Eight Below. That was that movie with Paul Walker in it of Fast and Furious fame. It was a, I think it was a Disney film. With sled dogs. Yeah, and it was great. And it was survival. what I liked about it is it was a throwback to those big Disney adventure movies, plus animals, right? Like animal adventure movies. And hopefully none were harmed in the making of it, because we all heard those horror stories about that movie Milo and Otis, where apparently they went through like quite a few pugs and kittens in order to get the right taste, which is what happens when you dangle them in front of foxes and wolves and stuff like that. Anyway, that didn't happen in this movie. This was a surprise hit, a surprise emotional hit, in fact. And you heard it like they had to get in trouble in the snow. They're in Antarctica, I believe. It was based on a true story, by the way. Yeah, they're in Antarctica and they had to evacuate after a storm. But the sled dogs got left behind because they had to rescue this other dude. And then they had to come back for them. But they had cancelled the rescue mission. So the dogs ended up surviving by themselves through the Antarctic winter. And then, so the humans play a little bit of a role, but then it's all on the dogs. The dogs surviving the freezing conditions and then the determination of Paul Walker's character to come back and, oh, and then the big rescue mission months after the fact, oh, the emotion, the animals. When somebody think of the dogs, $40 million it cost to make and they took 120 for their efforts. 

It did well, because we all love an animal. That's a lot of treats. And you don't know, this is going back to the old Disney, where you're like, Maybe it's not going to end well. 

Yeah, I just like those big like frontier type Disney films. And that's what this kind of had a hint of, which I really enjoyed. In Australia, we weren't enjoying that. We were enjoying this. 

From 2 of the six writers of scary movie comes the question. Who's thirsty? Bump, no. Grantel is just embarrassed because he lost his virginity to the housekeeper. What does it take to make the ultimate date movie? Idiot. Hell no, I won't marry you. Gosh! Gosh! Gosh! A little hitch. 

You're a hitch? Do I look like Will Smith to you? 

Yo, fellas, time to pimp her out. A meeting with the parents. That's jinxes. Taught him how to do that. And a lot of planning. I'm Jello. I'm here to plan your dream wedding. 

Oh, boy. I hate these movies. I hate these kind of... No, so this is these mid-2000s... parody films that we had, like this scary movie, which you could almost get away with because it's kind of parodying horror. But date movie, which is what this one is, like... parodying romantic comedies or comedy within comedy, which just, it just didn't work. So they had like, they parodied like My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Bridget Jones's Diary and Meet the Parents and you heard Napoleon Dynamite in there as well. Yeah, that's a bit rude. Yeah, and it was, season was fine, like, but they basically just took the Napoleon character and tried to put him in another movie and make him funny that way. It wasn't, there was nothing, it was just dumb. It was just dumb. It was the lowest common denominator crap. And it's not to say that I don't like parody. I love like Mel Brooks, like Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Spaceballs. You know, even to a lesser extent, maybe Hot Shots with Charlie Sheen and Samuel L. Jackson with some half-decent written jokes, you know. But this was just *****. 

Follows Julia Jones, unlucky in love woman who meets Grant Funkley. 

Yeah, Grant Fonky, yeah. 

Who meets Grant Fonky and begins a whirlwind romance, but before they can marry, they must survive family hell, ex-girlfriend drama, wedding disasters, and endless parody gags. Alison Hannigan, as you mentioned, fresh off American Pie and obviously Buffy. 

Jennifer Coolidge, Stifler's mum. 

Adam Campbell was Grant, and Eddie Griffin played Frank Jones. Also had a lot, there's a lot that wouldn't fly today. A lot of body shaming jokes. Crews, very humor. 

Because I think Shallow Hal was another movie that they, like they're trying to parody Shallow Hal. Like, what are you doing? 

Oh, man. And they're shock value gags over Clever Sapphire. 

Yes, it wasn't very clever. It was very lowest common denominator. you see all these pre-pubescent and probably early pubescent boys in a cinema on school holidays going to watch this and you'd be like, why don't we just seal the doors shut and fill the theatre up with water? 

Critics hated it. I don't know that it did too well at the box office, but became one of those DVD movies. I think it was really big on DVD. People would hire it for their sleepovers and Yeah, things like that. 

Great. Hire it for their sleepover. 

No, you have sleepover parties and you get like 7 DVDs for $7.00 for seven days. 

The 80s called Mel and they want their culture back. 

People don't have sleepovers. 

Do they have sleepovers in the early 2000s? I don't know. I was trying to do. You and I had sleepovers in the early 2000s, but it wasn't those kind of sleepovers. 

Of course. Yes, they did. Did they? DVDs. You still had Blockbuster and Video Easy. 

Just. Yeah, you're right. 

Surely, surely. It was big on DVD. 

Everybody, I'm renting date movie. Come around for a sleepover. Oh my lord, books we didn't read. Here we go. What's this one this week? 

This is one that we didn't read it, but it became a movie, very popular, famous movie, Marley and Me by John Grogan. 

Oh, no. Really? Okay, so look, I have a confession. I haven't seen the film, nor have I read the book. And I struggle a little bit, even 8 below, at least that, I won't, I don't want to spoil that, but any, dog movies especially, after you've been a dog parent for as many generations of dogs as what I have, don't, I can't do it. I just can't do it. 

It's too nerve-wracking, even if the dog's okay, you're still worried throughout. 

So I'm assuming this is like a feel-good kind of... Oh God, I don't even know if that's gonna work, but anyway. 

That's probably a little bit too excited. 

Royalty and copyright free music, so you get what you pay for. All right, John and Jenny were a young and deeply in love. Oh, they weren't a young and deeply in love. They just simply were, okay? With a perfect little house and not a care in the world. Then they brought home Marley, a wiggly yellow furball of a puppy. Life would never be the same. Marley quickly grew into an uncontrollable 97 pound steamroller of a Labrador retriever. Expelled from obedience school, even the tranquilizers prescribed by the vet couldn't stop. Oh my God. Yet, through the chaos and the hilarity, he won hearts and remained A steadfast model of devotion to his family, even when they were at their wit's end. Unconditional love, they would learn, comes in many forms. Oh, that sounds okay. How about the tranquilizers? But yeah, sure. 

I just remember the movie because it had, who was it? 

Sedatives, maybe tranquilizers just seem really drastic. 

That seems like a lot. Owen Wilson. I just remember everybody loved the movie and thought it was just wonderful. And so I just had in my head that everybody would love the book. 

Yeah. 

There are a lot of one star reviews and I think a lot of them. 

This is a New York Times bestseller. 

And I think a lot of the reviews have come in over time. I think this is one of those situations where It might have been a bit cute novel at the time, but then we actually dig a bit deeper and look at what's going on. And maybe we're not too impressed because... 

Wow. So it hasn't stood the test of time. 

I don't think so. Let's start with Myrty one star. 

Myrty. 

Myrty. This book should have been titled World's Worst Dog Owners. 

Wow. Yeah, look at this. Tanya one star. These dog owners are terrible. Wow. Yeah. 

Bell one star. There is no such thing as a bad dog. Only bad dog owners. 

I agree, Bell. I'm with you. I can see what's happening here. There must be a lot of moments in the book where it's like bad dog, right? Yeah. Metatron, one star. Metatron is like the voice of God. I hate this book, not because the prose is unbearable. It isn't. Simply because I am very irked by the irresponsible, mediocre, and awful owners John and Jenny Grogan are. That didn't really sound like the voice of God at all. I tell you what, in post, in post, I'll put some reverb on that. 

Would be good because it just sounded like you were trying to take a dump. 

The Metatron. Well, if I put reverb on it, it'll probably be even more convincing because of the echo of the bathroom. I'll make sure it's not a plate. Yeah, anyway, keep going. 

Shanu, not Shanu. Shanu. 

Shanu sounds like somebody that's performing at SeaWorlds. 

Incompetent dog owner sits and writes about his dog. 

Oh, wow. Yeah. 

Now, here's where with Dave's review, we find out a little bit more about why everyone is giving these reviews. 

I think that's good. I need to know the why at this stage. There's a lot of irate people out there. So Dave says, this is a mediocre book written by horrible dog owners. decided to get a dog for purely selfish purposes. Parental practice. Oh, so they're like, oh, we want to have a kid, but we'll get a dog 1st and see how we go. That's, yeah, that's not great. Read nothing about the breed before choosing to adopt A lab. Oh, look, some people do this. It does happen. It does happen, especially when you're on your first dog, maybe. There's a lot of first time dog owners that don't really look into it and then they go, oh, what have we done? Whoops. failed to do any research into the breeder. Again, I don't know. I mean, I feel like Marley and me existed at a different time. Now we know better, so we do better. Failed to seek out a trainer to work with Marley's quirks despite obvious behavioural issues. Oh, like, wow, well, but back at Marley and Me time, they probably would have brought in like Caesar Milan. And now Caesar Milan, like, is very divisive. That aversive kind of training, that flooding is very divisive. So, okay. Failed to provide Marley with adequate protection from storms, which completely terrified him. But they just left him outside. Did they? Sounds like. Yeah, these guys are d***. Use the choker with zeal while almost deriving joy from Marley's near self-strangulation. Oh yeah, you can't be doing that. You can't. Choke chains are just, they're a big no-no. Adversive training. Allowed Marley to escape from a moving vehicle, seemingly finding humour in Marley hanging out of a car by his collar. Oh my goodness. Dave goes on to say, The worst part comes at the end. During the last few weeks of his life, Marley becomes very sick. Oh, sorry, spoiler alert. This is why I'm not watching the movie, right? What does the author do? He leaves the dog at the vet's office and packs the family into the van for a Disney vacation. Fortunately, he gets back just in time to have Marley put down. Wow. That's a... That, see, I, see, this is why I don't do dog movies, I don't do dog books, even, even trying to make light of the, yeah, this, I, it's one star for a B2. 

I like Aneri coming on. This comment, so Dave's posted, I think he's posted in about 2007. So he's read it a year after it's been on the bestseller list. So he was dog woke well before the rest of us caught on. He already knew that this was not a good idea. So good on Dave. 

Dave, he was, yes. 

Aneri jumps on Dave's comment. This was three days ago, literally three days ago on the book reads. Aneri was fossicking around and read Dave's review. was a bit miffed at Dave's review and says, even though this is an old review, I feel compelled to write because your anger for the Disney trip tells me you didn't have children when you wrote the review. Disney takes a minimum year to plan. It's a huge trip, especially for a family of five. 

F***ing hell. Stop the music. Oh my God. So why, okay. Oh, where do I even start? You didn't have children when you wrote the review. Where is your head at, woman? Okay, so what are we teaching our kids here? It's like, are the dogs sick and we've got tickets to Disney? Yes. What are we teaching our children here? I know. 

Isn't that, and this is 3 days ago. 

This is why, this is, I mean, the statement, we don't deserve dogs, goes hand in hand with this is why we can't have nice things. We definitely don't deserve dogs, and especially anyone who takes Disney over a dog. She clearly never watched 8 Below. Oh, they left them behind as well. F***ing Disney. Wow. Very outraged in this week's episode, aren't we? We've That's all right. We've lynched about a lot of stuff. 

Neri, Dave was outraged and then Neri was outraged that Dave was outraged. 

To go and change your cranky pants. 

Telling me to calm down. 

Yes, everyone's outraged. 

My blood pressure might be a little bit too high and I just need to take a deep breath. 

This is like something in the air. 

I'm glad we didn't boom this episode because... 

I think we would have imploded. I think we would have, I don't know, maybe caused some kind of natural disaster. It would have measured on some kind of global scale. Anyway. Do the hatches, matches and dispatches clue. I feel like there's a kindred spirit with our hatch, match or dispatch person this week. A celebrity having a birthday that said this. 

Stop telling women to smile. We don't like that. It's not an icebreaker, it's a deal breaker. And what is your game plan? plan anyway. Do you think we're going to go smile and then magically float onto your penis? 

Yeah. You tell them. Preach. If you said Chelsea Handler... Of course you did. She's great. 

Isn't she? 

Yes. Well, it was her birthday. I can't remember the date. I don't know. What was it? Anyway, it was somewhere around here. So it was in this week at some stage. I'm sure she wouldn't want to draw too much attention to it. So she'll appreciate that. But it's her birthday this week. 

It is. She moved to LA in her late teens, worked odd jobs while doing stand-up. She did a lot of comedy club circuits, guest appearances on comedy shows, reality TV and panel appearances. She's also a writer. Obviously your reputation for that brutally blunt humour, a lot of sex and dating jokes, no filter, party girl energy. And I think why she was such a breakthrough, because she did sort of get a big breakthrough around this time 20 years ago, was that she was the polar opposite of these nice, polite, late night talk show hosts. 

Well, and they're all dudes. 

They're all dudes. 

And they're all like these smarmy dudes. And he comes in this woman. 

But they're all trying to be like someone that your nana would like. Yeah. She's just come in and she just says what she thinks. 

She's got this sharp wit and this acid tongue. She was just... She's incredible. She still is great. I think she's wonderful. And I loved her show, the Chelsea Handler Show, which was the first show that came out on E in 2006, only went for a couple of seasons. She did stand-up comedy tours. Her stand-up comedy is really great. It's been on Love Lounge on VH1, HBO, Aspen Comedy Festival, she was in that as well. In 2007, she started that Chelsea Lately show as well. 

That was so good. 

That was the best. That was just, I think YouTube really helped get her over at that time as well. They were very clever with their strategy there because they put a lot of clips up on YouTube and got millions of views over there as well, which drew more people to the actual show. Did really well. 

And she said that the worst the guests are, the more pathetic they are, the funnier the show is. So she didn't also sugarcoat or suck up to the guests either. If she didn't agree with them or something that they said or something that they did, she'd call them out. 

Yeah, And I think she was so important at that time because early 2000s is where it's peak I'd hate to say it, but it is peak toxic masculinity, early 2000s, like young men, Woodstock 99 onwards, like you look at those documentaries, all the Limp Bizkit Boys and all of that sort of stuff, you know, doing it all for the ****** and the objectification of people like Britney and Paris and just. 

The- All the upskirting and in love with the strip bar and you like all the hip-hop culture as well at that stage. 

And she comes walking in the door with like a can of gasoline and a box of matches. and just sets it all on fire. She was great. 

It was very different for comedy. It was very different for late night talk show. People were uncomfortable with a woman. openly telling sex stories and roasting celebrity culture. And just no filter and a female in that late night hosting, interviewing kind of role. 

She held a mirror up to the absurdity of celebrity as well in general, which was great. And she's still kicking. She's still doing great work. She's got Netflix comedy specials happening. She's an author writing lots of bestselling books. She hosts, she guests on a lot of political and social commentary shows. She's a massive advocate for social causes. She tours all the time. And she's, you know, she's become, I think, because of that show and that foundation that she built with that show, she's just a really... credible and respected voice these days. 

And look, let's not forget the fact that she did date our North Star back, I think it was 2011. It wasn't for long. But I just loved that. I loved that coupling. I thought that was amazing. 

I think they did too. 

I think they're still good friends. I do think they still, because she, there was a clip of her. 

Well, I'd like to think that. 

No, there was a clip that resurfaced of her talking fondly about him and he shared it on his social media. And she told the story about how I think she'd had him as a guest on the show. And that's where they first met. 

Right. And then he was quite flirtatious with her. 

He was very flirtatious. And I think he called up her manager and wanted to take her on a date. And I don't think she was, you know, really interested. And then he was touring where she was and said, why don't you come to the concert? She's like, oh, okay, I'll come to the concert. 

She caved. 

And then I think he wanted to take her out for dinner or drinks beforehand. And he who's going to turn up with this big entourage. And she's like, oh, don't be stupid. I'm not going out with your entourage. Like, it's just you and me, or I'm not doing it. Like, how famous do you actually think you are? And then they're walking down the street and got absolutely mobbed. She had no idea just how huge she was. And she told the story really fondly and still speaks really highly of him. And yeah, he does of her too. I love it. 

Well, he's got good taste. But she is a very polarizing character as well. 

But it was such an unlikely coupling too. 

Yeah, and look, I think a lot of those young influencers and commentators could take a bit of a leaf out of Chelsea's book these days as well. She's a very smart lady. So happy birthday for whatever day this week it falls on. Sorry, that's very poorly researched. Anyway, we've come to the end of the show. So that's it for this week. What's happening next week, Mel? 

I think that's a big milestone for Wikipedia. Oh, big milestone for humans. 

Oh, it's a milestone week, isn't it? 

Is a milestone week. Oh, I'll talk about those two songs we didn't talk about this week because we were unpacking Shanice. 

Because when you talk about 2006 and milestones, I feel like, you know, the last few years we've done at the podcast have been pretty full on. There's been some major events, but I'm not... There's not really any milestones ringing out. Let's just go with it. It's a milestone show next week. 

It is. And we've got book news. 

Oh yeah, okay. 

Book news, breaking book news. Yes. 

Right. I don't know. I feel like we're investing too much in books, especially ones we didn't read. But I'll take your word for it and we'll see how we go with that. You can see how we go over on the socials. Look for T-minus 20 podcast, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. I think that's it. Yeah, YouTube, we're on YouTube as well. If YouTube is like your vehicle of choice for listening to podcasts, I don't know why it would be because like you're not watching videos. You can go and find us on there as well and subscribe to the podcast there. 

Well, it's all, if you go to our Instagram, I've set up that thing called Linktree. 

Oh yeah. 

I thought I was so ahead of the time, so that's been around for about 10 years. But if you click on the Linktree, it gives you options. So depending on your format of choice for your podcast, you just select, not collect, select the link that relates to the YouTube or the I thought, I thought that's what all. 

The OnlyFans people did, like it's like my OnlyFans, my store, my blah, blah, blah. 

Oh, your only, we've linked to your OnlyFans as well. 

People are going to click on our link tree and be very disappointed. Anyway, that's it for this week. We'll catch you next week. See you. Bye. 

Thanks for taking the time to rewind. Join us next time for another week that was 20 years ago. In the meantime, come and reminisce on the socials. Search for T-minus 20 podcast on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.